The next few hours crawled along in a haze of questions for Jennifer.
What did he mean by 'see you later'? 'Later' as in that day or 'later' as in some undetermined time in the future? And why did he ask if she liked being a doctor? And what did Sheppard have to do with anything? Sheppard didn't like her, did he?
The steady stream of questions, which seemed to grow more ridiculous as time passed - was Ronon trying to kill her? - was starting to give Jennifer a headache. Ronon Dex seemed to have a talent for putting her completely off-balance and then disappearing before she could right herself.
When 6 o'clock finally rolled around, Jennifer felt like her whole body was dancing on pins and needles. He did ask her what time her shift ended and then told her he'd see her later - that had to mean something, didn't it? Maybe he'd stop by the infirmary? So she waited, going over lab reports and patient files but he didn't appear. When 7 o'clock came and went, Marie ordered her out of the infirmary, "you can't live here," she'd said, and Jennifer found herself listening to the nurse and gathering her things with a heavy heart.
It was embarrassing. She'd dragged out her day, waited for him to appear, hoped he thought of her the same way she thought about him. She could have kicked herself for all the castles she built for the two of them - him showing an interest in her work did not mean he had feelings for her. He was being friendly, probably thought she was awkward and alone, and Sheppard probably nudged him into talking to her. She was an idiot - a man like Ronon Dex would never take an interest in her.
She headed to the mess hall out of habit, her body telling her it was time to eat while her mind ran unchecked over how immature she'd been acting. She grabbed food - something that appeared to be pasta along with a water and a cookie - before finally allowing herself to really see what was in front of her.
The mess hall was crowded, filled with people who had just gotten off work or who were about start their shifts, and there were barely any seats free. She saw an empty table in the back corner and headed over. She threw a smile at Evan as she passed him regaling a table of Marines with a story about the Wraith and she attempted to ignore Ronon - why hadn't she noticed him immediately? - as he sat with his team.
She ducked her head down further at the sight of him and hurried forward with her tray, arriving at the table just as it was occupied by two arguing technicians. 'Perfect,' she thought as she turned away, the men barely noticing her as they continued to debate the significance of some alien technology. She scanned the crowded room, her eyes skipping past Ronon's table, before landing on the empty chairs at, unsurprisingly, Dr Edwards' table. She sighed softly before steeling herself for a meal filled with endless chatter about his cat on Earth and hay fever.
It was a large and familiar body which stopped Jennifer from joining the doctor. She looked up at Ronon, felt her traitorous skip a beat when their eyes met, and waited. He grabbed her tray without a word and motioned with his head toward his table before walking away, forcing Jennifer to follow along behind him.
"Um, Ronon?" asked Jennifer as they wove between tables. He just grunted in reply, his acknowledging grunt she assumed, and looked back at her briefly. "What are you doing?"
"You're eating with me," he said before placing her tray on the table and pulling out a chair. He sat himself in the next chair and started back in on his food as Jennifer stood awkwardly beside him. "Sit."
"Quite the manners you've got their big guy," laughed Sheppard, his eyes flicking rapidly between Ronon and a very shocked Jennifer as she sunk into the chair.
"Hello Jennifer, we're glad you could join us," said Teyla with a warm smile. Rodney just waved at her briefly, his eyes and mind clearly focused on the tablet before him and the jello in his hand. Jennifer just nodded at them as she watched Ronon eat out of the corner of her eye. What on earth was going on? "John was just telling us a story-"
"An inane, offensively boring story," interrupted McKay before he returned once more to his work.
"John was telling us a story about one of the latest missions - it seems they were attacked by some sort of…housecat."
"At least that's how McConnell described them…"
Jennifer listened with only half an ear to Sheppard's story about the housecat. She instead focused her attention on the team's interactions - Teyla's encouraging smiles, Ronon's grunts, McKay's eye rolls and Sheppard's easy manners. It was warm and friendly and comfortable - it was nice and Jennifer wished, once again, that she could be a part of something like that.
She was startled out of her thoughts by a gentle nudge to her arm. She turned her head, past Sheppard and Teyla's smiles, to find Ronon's face less than a foot away, a questioning expression in place. His whole upper body was turned to her, his arm stretched across the table and his hand fingering the edge of her tray.
"What?" she asked, blushing as she cast her eyes down to focus on Ronon's arm along the table. Sheppard snorted softly, earning him a sharp elbow to the ribs from Teyla, and Jennifer felt her face flame even more. Ronon didn't seem to notice and she watched his eyes as they traveled slowly across her face before focusing on his hand.
"You going to eat this?" he said, holding up the cookie from her tray.
"Um, I guess not," Jennifer answered, mildly relieved that it was nothing more.
"Don't give it to him, Doc."
"John," scolded Teyla, her smile telling everyone that she only half meant it.
"What? Give Ronon food once and he'll be scavenging from you for the rest of your life. Why don't you just take more food to begin with? Then you wouldn't have to steal from other people."
"Cooks gave me a limit on how much food I could take per meal," Ronon shrugged before inhaling the cookie in two bites.
"Well, I guess the good doctor will have to remember more food for next time."
Next time? Jennifer didn't think she could survive a next time, the way she was blushing and how fast her heart was racing at just being near Ronon.
"Good idea. Maybe at dinner tomorrow you could get two cookies?"