Scene IV

Over Hill and Dale

"It's broken."

"No…really…you snake-wearing, Medusa-loving cultist? I kind of figured it out, because my leg's not supposed to bend that way at the shin!"

True, thought Ronon. But, he thought it bared repeating and pointing out anyway.

It also left him alone to care for this infant all the way to the Ring. That was a prospect that he had not anticipated when they left Teyla and Sheppard. Leaving this abrasive little runt in the middle of the desert without so much as a drop of water was not either, but it was looking that that was the way of things. They could only carry so much; Teyla's rations were melted; and now McKay sat on his ass at the base of a four foot drop off with a broken shin bone.

"Who's Medusa?" Ronon asked as he studied the leg.

"Radiant, Greek goddess of love and gift giving."

Ronon doubted that very much.

"For the love of…!" McKay screamed as Ronon firmly pulled on the leg. Then, McKay was out like a snuffed light before he could finish the sentence.

Ronon fell back off his haunches and sat on the dry dusty ground. It was growing dark and with no compass, he would wait until early morning before setting out again. Now, he would set the doctor's leg to the best of his ability and hope Beckett could reset it if necessary. Life on the run had taught him many things and bones were just one of them.

When he finished, he grabbed the LSD and placed it in McKay's hand. The doctor, forever paranoid (good man), showed Teyla and he how to use it…just in case. Ronon expanded the scanning area and saw that they were quite alone. He placed the device back into McKay's pocket.

Without seeing it, he knew exactly where the Wraith was waiting, and he would deal with it when the time came. It was where they always waited if not on the hunt for a runner but for prey. Different game, different tactics.

Finding McKay's sleeping bag, he nestled the man in tight for his unwelcome nap. At least tonight, they would not have to worry about a surprise attack. They could dream of sweet scientific things and copious amounts of food. Water, lots and lots of water, could be added to the dreamtime list.

It was no secret this little group of people had become a family. All orphaned in one way or another, they found a need met in the company of one another. Ronon had grown accustomed to their eccentricities. Even the babbling brook of one Dr. Rodney McKay had become like bird song. A loud, screeching bird that did not stop warbling until a rock was thrown at it, but it was still song.

He would wait for McKay to wake up before telling him what would happen. He figured the scientist probably already had it worked out, anyway. It was just that the words to tell his friend that he would be alone in the desert with little or no food and water, and minimal shelter, well, he dreaded saying them. Of course, there was the added danger of the Wraith still being out there even if he was certain where it was located.

He checked little Rewapeh and found her sleeping soundly. Somehow, or maybe by curling himself around her, McKay had protected her when he fell. It was no small feat and Ronon was proud of his friend.

Grabbing an emergency blanket, he settled on the ground next to McKay, placed the child next to him, and closed his eyes. This would be the first time since coming to Atlantis that he would not have someone watching out as the team slept. He could revert back to old habits if necessary. He could sleep with one eye open and one ear tuned. He stopped short of drawing his knife and staking it in the ground as an added precaution.

Ronon woke before dawn. McKay slept fitfully beside him and Rewapeh squirmed and scrunched up her face readying a howl of monumental proportions. Ronon panicked in a way that he never thought possible. An infant of tiny physique was about to intimidate his oversized self.

"Bottle," he whispered and not just a little fearfully.

He was just too slow. The howl erupted and Ronon quickly looked for a bottle nestled in the middle of their stuff. The milk would not last much longer, spoilage was now an issue, and he just could not find it.

From behind him, McKay jerked awake and then let out his own howl, "Fu…!"

"McKay! Baby present." Ronon interrupted quickly.

"Well excu-use me! Sorry to overreact to a broken arm, broken leg and the fact I'm stuck here until you make it the Gate!" McKay rubbed a hand over his face. "I'm scared, alright. And we all know that fear brings out my cranky side!"

Ronon stopped searching the bag and slumped while still listening to the howling of one of the babies. He knew. "You oughta be scared. I think we're all scared," he said over the screeching solo of his bonded daughter.

McKay pushed himself up against the rock ledge in the early rays of dawn. "Here, give her to me while you look."

Even after a day of holding the baby, McKay still looked like he had swallowed something sour. He rocked her gently, yet woodenly trying to calm the screeching that would not abate until a nipple went into the mouth. Ronon sat back and laughed because that sounded damn good, and his mind needed to get away from there quickly before…

…Melina popped in both welcome and unwelcome. He stopped and swallowed his own bile. They had been talking of children before the last days of Sateda. They had wanted a family of their own. His cousins had little ones running around the ancestral home while visiting his grandparents before he deployed back to the city. His mother and father had been looking to him for grandchildren because his brother and sister were too busy with careers and were unattached.

They had loved Melina as their own. He had so loved her that he had wanted to save her from the Wraith and he had failed. He did not even get the chance to join her in the Fields of Mai because the Wraith made him a runner.

Ronon swallowed back on his bile again.

Kell had left Sateda unprotected, but this team had come to Sateda to protect him. New memories were being made and bonds forged, and he would not let them down. He might finally join her in the Fields trying, but he would fight to keep his team from their own afterlives.

"Found it!" he crooned as he held up the last bottle. Then, he realized it was the last bottle. "McKay, how far do you think the Ring is?"

While balancing Rewapeh on his lap, McKay looked at the LSD. He fiddled with different settings and frowned. He closed his eyes and his lips moved as he sifted through numbers. "Maybe, only less than a day. It's not accurate and I can't give you measurements. It just doesn't always work that way. Unfortunately, we are close enough that a life sign has appeared on the very outer edges of the scanning range."

"Figured that's where he'd be," said Ronon as he took Rewapeh and fed her.

Or tried to, she refused the bottle. He smelled the milk and realized it was spoiled, not chunky but soured. "Well, guess I'd better get there sooner rather than later."

This would be the longest part of the journey. He had a hungry child, increasing dehydration on his part and, surprised by how much it bothered him, he was alone.

McKay slid down and rested his head on the ground. "Well, that's not good. Just leave me one bottle of water and take the rest for you two. This is going to sound gross, but if you have to, grind up a PowerBar in your mouth and feed it to her as watered down as possible. It's not the best, but it's what's available."

"I don't know how old she is. What if it makes her choke?"

"Then stop, I guess, and walk faster." Rodney gave him the most earnest 'well, duh' face Ronon had seen yet from this shrill, abrasive song bird hidden in the branches of an evergreen.

Ronon wanted that rock to throw at that face, but it was bad luck to push a nesting bird out of a tree. McKay had nested right here at the bottom of the small drop off and Ronon knew he would give anything to have that shrill voice with him on the next part of the journey.

As the rays of the sun banded across monumental looking rock formations and vast desert, Ronon prepared to leave. He placed Rewapeh in the homemade sling made from a gym-styled bag he had also rummaged from the dying Jumper. Rodney and he had it down to a science of propping the baby up and feeding her with just one hand. Rodney had the sling yesterday and, today, was his turn.

"McKay…"

"See you soon," Rodney said and would not let him say anything more.

Pursing his lips, Ronon walked away towards a large crag in the mountain directly in front of him. After a few minutes, a single gun shot sounded behind him.

"He wouldn't," Ronon whispered, terrified that McKay would.

He hit his earpiece. "McKay! Answer me, dammit!"

The silence stretched for a few seconds until…

"What? Oh wait…no, no, no! Scorpion looking thing! Overkill, but I wasn't going to let it near me!"

"I thought you said this world is uninhabited."

"Yes, by big things, small things are quite abundant, apparently."

"Just, next time…give me some warning." Ronon signed off and staggered forward into the opening in the face of the mountain.

Rewapeh continued to complain. His shoulder joined in the complaints. And Ronon walked on through the complaints. He began dropping things from his backpack and placing other items in the carry-all that was Rewapeh's sling. The backpack was left to a very large boulder that looked like it really needed it.

Sometime during his walk through the canyon, he lost radio contact with McKay. Yet, voices spurred him on. Sheppard encouraged him to walk and get to the Gate. Teyla whispered that she knew he had strength for all of them. Rodney insulted his hair, once again, and pushed him forward by mispronouncing the baby's name one more time. Melina smiled in his mind and said he was worthy to have children when he was ready.

He fell once and they berated him until he stood up and staggered on.

When he exited the other side of the fissure, it was growing dark. The baby continuously whimpered and he tried McKay's idea with little success. Then, as he looked at the next dune of sand, a bright blue light glowed behind it. It was a guiding beacon in the twilight showing him the way home.

With giddiness coloring his speech, he tried his radio. "Atlantis, this is Ronon. Do you copy?"

Static answered with its lonely hiss. He knew it was too easy, too much like good luck. He also knew the Wraith was some where around the Ring. It was probably employing the tactic of activating the Ring to keep the prey trapped.

Thing was, if Ronon could stay hidden, the Wraith had to come out of hiding and reactivate the Ring. Ronon climbed up the side of the dune and placed Rewapeh next to him. Fatigue, dehydration, and the need for a long, hot shower tried to make him run for the great circle. Seven years of being the Wraith's chew toy made him stay put.

He peeked over the dune and down into the valley where the Stargate rested. The blue surface looked so cool and refreshing like a long, cold drink of water. But as with all water, there was danger. He just had to recognize where.

The area around the Ring was wide open. The dune was the only place to hide unless this one tried the same tactic of hiding in the sand. There really was only one place for the Wraith to hide. Ronon let his cunning guide his actions.

The sun was setting taking the light with it and giving the Wraith the advantage. It should have left and called for reinforcements, but it had not. It wanted the kill. It wanted to finish the hunt and gain retribution for his brothers without interference from others. Or so Ronon surmised.

Ronon could deal with an arrogant Wraith such as that, and then he remembered the baby as it started to whimper. He had to make sure the child was safe first. He crawled back down the dune and stopped at the base to look around. Rocks, his favorite thing on this planet, sat nestled at the base of the dune. He could place Rewapeh in there until the Wraith was dealt with.

It would know he was nearby because of the baby, but the sound might be multidirectional in the vast wasteland. As he crested the top, the Ring ceased and for a split second he saw the Wraith's hiding spot. Clever old dog, it was behind the Ring hidden by the water itself. It was as he had thought; water hid the danger so well.

Ronon did not waste anytime and took a shot. It missed and he heard the cackling of sonorous vocal cords.

"Ah, human…are we two the last?" As the last light waned, the Wraith moved behind the structure of the Great Ring of the Ancestors. "My brother no longer answers and you are definitely alone. I smell no other with you, but I do smell the death remnants!"

Ronon stopped short on that because it hit too close to his heart.

"Your people interrupted our fun. We could not allow that to go without punishment."

Scavengers, Ronon thought. Not unheard of, but not widely known either. "So, you are belly crawlers, those that pick up the droppings of greater hives. Queenless, I assume?"

"None of your concern, human, or should I say, meal?"

"I'm not good on the digestion; your brother found that out as I removed his scalp from his head!"

Ronon slid on his belly down the side of the dune out of sight of the Ring. He had become increasingly intrigued by the snipers on Atlantis. They were the sneakiest bunch of people he had ever met. He accompanied Sheppard on an exercise on the mainland a few months ago. Even Ronon had a hard time tracking these men and women once they donned their ghillie suits. Using whatever was available; they melted into the landscape and carried out their missions. They took the kill to a personal level that Ronon understood only too well.

He had nothing available, but the sand, so he burrowed like McKay's giant scorpion and the Wraith that had attacked Teyla and Sheppard.

"Human! You cannot get by me! I see only too well in the dark!"

Ronon waited.

"Maybe I was wrong about others. Do I smell an offspring?" The thing purred. "I do…and I hear it."

Ronon could hear Rewapeh as well. He stayed covered in the sand.

"I will kill you, and then find the offspring and the others who might still have life in them before returning through the portal!"

The Wraith was now searching him out. He was trying to locate him without much success. Footsteps drew closer and Ronon remained still.

"I smell you human. I hear you breathing."

Absolutely still, Ronon saw feet walk right next to his head on the way to the dune. The earth flew and Ronon tackled the belly crawling coward, a killer of women and children. He would not let this dreg of Pegasus add his team to the menu. He withdrew beloved and pulled the trigger.

She failed him for the first time since he had obtained her on a world culled to extinction. The sand must have messed up the mirrors and the firing mechanisms. The Wraith threw him off easier than Ronon would have liked.

Ronon had a last recourse available to him. He removed his largest knife from its sheath. As the Wraith flung itself at him, he thrusted the knife home, entering through the throat and exiting it through the back of the neck. It collapsed choking on and grabbing at the piece of protruding metal. Another knife appeared in Ronon's hand and he looked the Wraith in his one good eye. Now he knew why the idiot was trying to call him out. His eye was injured, probably from the crash. Apparently, this one had skipped a meal, a pilot who had not had a chance to eat.

Ronon took his other knife and thrust it through the good eye socket. The Wraith stilled with spasmodic intervals until his entire body went limp. Ronon removed the knife from the throat and wiped it in the sand and then on his pants. He took a step and nearly fell down. The damn Wraith had obviously broken one of his ribs.

He stood up again. In the dark, he moved across the dune to Rewapeh's hiding spot. Retrieving her, he set back over the dune and fell, protecting her to the best of his abilities as he tumbled down the incline. Once he stopped at the bottom, he lay in the sand for a few moments to catch his breath.

He was almost there. He had to get up, dial the Gate, and walk through after his code was sent. He made a quick check for his GDO and found it. Rising to his feet, he staggered to the DHD and dialed up the Promised Land.

"This is Ronon; we need a little help. I'm coming through now."

He went from the darkness of the planet to mid-day on Atlantis. Ronon squinted and looked around at all of the familiar faces. Dr. Weir trotted down the steps towards him.

"Ronon? Where are the others? And what is this?" Dr. Weir asked pointing to the crying gym bag.

Ronon did not answer just handed her the present with the purple blanket peeking out. Everyone was quiet besides Rewapeh, so he heard the slurping sound behind him and he saw the weapons rising in the hands of the soldiers. These little details told him that maybe the Wraith was not as dead as he initially believed.

Ronon whirled around and laughed at the infuriated creature bleeding on the Gate Room floor, "How sweet you pearly-haired monster, you followed me home."

With a loud snarl and blindness to all of the weapons pointed at it, the Wraith pulled the knife out of its eye and readied a throw based only on Ronon's voice. But, Ronon was home and among friends.

He passed out as shots rang out around him.

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A/N: Thanks again for reading. Only one more part to go.