A/N: Ah, I see what Nika meant by 'formatting issues' with ffdotnet. Weird. Okay, here's the next chap, I thought it was time Remy and Ronon got some drama in their lives.

Disclaimer: Don't own Atlantis or any of it's occupants. In fact, even Remy is thinking of disowning me in favor of Pegasus.

Day Fourteen

Ronon got up from his chair, where he'd collapsed a few minutes before and had been trying (and mostly failing) to finish a report for his most recent mission, and went to answer the door. It chimed three times before he got across the room.

"What?" He said sharply, and his eyes widened when arms were thrown around his neck and pushed him back inside.

Remy pulled away from him the impromptu hug literally bouncing up and down. She still wore a tac vest and a radio and she was smiling so hard it made his cheeks hurt. And then there was her black eye.

"Ronon! I just got to spend three full hours flying a puddle jumper it was so awesome Ronon you should have been there. I mean, they respond to a thought, it's like they anticipate what you want and they handle gorgeously. I made flight paths in that thing I never would've dreamt of trying with any other craft. I mean, I've been in Eagles that didn't handle as well as they do," she was talking a mile a minute and either ignoring or was oblivious to Ronon's concerned look.

"Remy, your eye."

"And the Colonel was there and he said I did so well that, if I do as well next time, he's gonna forget the other two flights that are otherwise mandatory and let me start flying missions. Missions, Ronon! Can you imagine one of those things in a fight? Oh, oh and they have a cloak. It makes you invisible Ronon, I can't wait to blow some wraith scumbags out of the sky with those things-"

"Remy, you have a black eye," Ronon said more forcefully, grabbing her by her shoulders to pull her into the light. He took her chin and turned her to get a better look at the swollen cheek.

"I'm fine Ronon," Remy said irritably, jerking her head away, "Doc said so. Anyway that's not what we're talking about right now."

"Who did it?" Ronon practically growled.

Remy's shoulders sagged, some of the bounce gone from her step as she turned to put some distance between them, "I'm not going to give you a name just so you can go out and beat up some poor flyboy who doesn't know any better."

"Flyboy? He's a pilot?"

Remy grit her teeth and turned back around, "stop fishing for information, Ronon. I handled it, okay? It's over. I came here because I was excited and I wanted to tell you about the jumpers, not because I need you to fight my fights," she shook her head and started for the door, she paused before exiting and added softly, "please, Ronon. Leave it alone."

---

Ronon had tried to adhere to Remy's terms.

It was over. She had handled it. She didn't need him to fight her fights.

The thing that hung him up was that it wasn't just her fight. The moment her saw her eye, red and swollen, her cheek turning various ugly shades of purple, it became his fight too. And he'd be damned if he let that kind of challenge go unanswered.

Atlantis was a large place with a relatively small compliment and the men's locker room was a veritable fountain of information. It hadn't taken long for him to put a name to the fury burning in his gut.

He cornered Leut. Alves in a lesser used off-shoot of the main hallway outside the Mess. The man had been walking by, having just finished his afternoon meal, and Ronon shot one arm out of the shadows and grabbed his shoulder, pulling him into the darkened space.

"What the hell?"

"I could say the same to you." Ronon said, standing within inches of him, forcing the Leut. to press his back even closer to the wall. He snarled when the pilot smiled smugly.

"I knew she'd come running to you to defend her."

Ronon brought up his arm and pressed it against his neck, the metal buckles on his vambrace pressing against the man's wind pipe. Just enough pressure to make him uncomfortable, but not enough to cut off air. Not yet.

"What did you do to her?"

The Leut. had the intelligence to look slightly less cocky this time as he brought his hands up to his neck.

"Look, man, she attacked me, okay? Half a dozen people saw it."

Ronon glanced down at a bruise on his jaw and his cut and slightly swollen lip. He didn't doubt at least part of that statement.

"Mm-hm," he continued, his voice dangerously low, "and what did you say to make her do that."

"I didn't-" Ronon pressed a little bit harder. He was going off world soon and didn't have time for games, "okay, okay. I...I just said that I wished Teyla was available, you know? That way I could bang a member of SGA1 too and get myself in good with the Col. It was a joke, that's all. She's just too damn sensitive."

Ronon started to say something when his com sounded in his ear.

"Sheppard to Ronon, come in."

Ronon growled and reached up to his ear with his free hand. "Go ahead," he said, never taking his eyes off the Leut's.  

"We're ready, meet us in the Jumper Bay in five."

 

"Understood, Dex out." He tapped his com again and stared at the man for a few seconds before saying, "next time you have a joke, tell it to me. I could always use a good laugh." He stepped back a little and finally let his arm fall to his side, "you stand a better chance of surviving that way too." 

"And by a better chance you mean…"

Ronon wasn't sure if the man was being obnoxious or dense so he decided to leave no room for doubt either way.

"I mean no chance."

---

"You rat bastard." Remy stormed into the off-duty/rec room still wearing BDUs and a black tank top from the mission she'd just returned from, red hot anger on her face and hurt in her tone. She ignored a dozen pairs of eyes belonging to both SGA1 and 2 as well as a few scientist that honed in on her the moment the words left her mouth. She looked only at Ronon, who was sitting at a table with his teammates, a set of playing cards spread out between them.

"Remy," he started.

She took a step forward, not allowing him to continue, "I told you I had it handled. I asked you to stay out of it. How could you?" She took another step forward, her hands balled into fists. Ronon didn't answer right away and John, after glancing between them a few times, spoke up.

"Look, Remy, I'm sure Ronon didn't mean…"

"All due respect Colonel, this doesn't concern you," she snapped, taking her eyes briefly off Ronon to lay them on John. A few of the people in the room tensed and glanced at each other.

John straightened, "if it has to do with what I think it has to do with, it does concern me, Lieutenant. This is not the time, and if it is the time, it certainly not the place."

Remy took a deep breath and turned on her heel, leaving the room as quickly as she'd come, her brown hair falling messily from her pony-tail.

John turned to look at Ronon, who was staring at the door, his brow furrowed.

 "I don't want to know what this is really all about, and don't let it become something I need to take care of. Got it?" He said.

Ronon nodded his head once, set aside his cards and went after Remy.

Rodney subtly reached across the table and lifted the Satedan's abandoned hand, "I knew it! I knew he was bluffing."

Sheppard rolled his eyes, "McKay."

"What?"

---

"Remy, Remy wait."

She stopped so quickly he had to jump aside to keep from running into her. She turned to face him and poked a finger at his wide chest.

"You had no right."

Ronon grabbed her arm and pulled her into an empty lab. He swiped his hand over the controls and the door closed behind them.

"What, are you going to fight me to?" Remy asked. She shifted all her weight to her right foot and crossed her arms defiantly over her chest.

"Remy I-"

She shook her head, still neither willing nor able to hear his side, "do you have any idea how hard it is to be taken seriously as a pilot when everyone thinks you're sleeping your way to the top?"

"But we haven't…"

"It doesn't matter! They think I have. I've dealt with chauvinistic pigs since the day I stepped off the bus for BMT but I've never, ever slept with a superior. Everything I have, I earned, and I aim to keep." 

"Remy, I don't know exactly what Alves said to you," he said, stepping forward to take her flailing arms, "but no one's trying to take anything away from you."

"Aren't they?" she looked up at him and brushed furiously at a few stray tears, "what do you think is going to happen when everyone gets word of what you did? This thing between us," she motioned vaguely in the air that separated them, "it was a bad idea from the start and now…I'll be lucky if I'm not on the next flight out of here."

Ronon's mood darkened, "you won't be."

"Maybe, maybe not. But the damage is done, Ronon."

He locked his jaw shut for a few minutes processing all she said and trying to figure out how to tell her why he'd done it.

"On Sateda hitting a woman was never acceptable. No matter what."

"We're not on Sateda," she told him evenly.

"We're not," he nodded and squeezed her arms in an attempt to keep her listening, "old habits die hard. I'm sorry."

He added the last two words quietly and they drew the remaining anger from her. She sighed and sagged against him, laying her head on his chest.

"I'm sorry you have to be sorry. Ordinarily I wouldn't really mind a guy jumping to my defense, it's just…"

"I know," He wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on top of her head, "I'll talk to Sheppard. You're not going back to Earth until you say so, okay?"

Remy sighed again and nodded, "okay."

TBC