She smiled a little. McKay will probably never change, but she didn't complain. It was part of her life here and it wouldn't be the same without him.

"Do you know where Shepard is?" He asked when he didn't get any respond from her.

"Actually I know. He would be sparring with Ronon in a moment."

"Well, I think I will meet him later. I wouldn't like them to persuade me to train. They wouldn't succeed of course." He made wry face. "I tried to fight with Ronon once, but I'm not exactly proud of it."

"I understand, Rodney," she said.

"I am sure you do," he murmured and left without another word. Jennifer watched him until he got around the corner. Yeah, she missed him. She could just hope that she wouldn't go through something similar again. Now it was a very common day on Atlantis, just as it should be.

Chapter 12

The following days were similar to each other. She enjoyed how calm and easy her life can be and doubted that she would ever want to experience any new adventures. Actually, being here on Atlantis was adventurous enough.

She spent most of the days in the infirmary doing routine activities; fortunately they didn't have any emergencies during that time and all missions went surprisingly well. In her free time, she was in the lab. With the majority of help from Rodney, she was able to make progress with the research and the first results started to show up soon. She believed that it would be possible to succeed and finally create the antidote that could help a lot of people in the future.

Actually, the fact that she was so busy helped her not to think about a certain Satedan all the time. She allowed herself to think about him in the late evenings. Only when the work was done and she was usually alone in her room. She imagined thousand times what to tell him and how to tell him but she didn't want to hurry again.

He said they needed to talk. Honestly, she knew that her escape with Lens wouldn't be the main topic anymore and that made her happy, but it scared her at the same time. She decided that she would wait till she has a few days off. The weekend was getting closer however, and she was starting to lose her courage. Friday evening she was frightened again and she cursed herself because she was such a coward. What could happen? Nothing she wouldn't handle she thought, but again, it was totally different with Ronon.

At least she stopped lying herself. A long time ago she admitted herself that she was attracted to him, but that was an understatement. She didn't know when exactly it happened but she fell in love. The man was so different from anyone else she ever met but she trusted him from the first moment and she knew she could always depend on him. Try to deny that fact wouldn't help so she accepted it and tried to get used to it. But she still had no idea what she was going to do about it, if she decides to do anything at all.

It was after midnight and she was still trying to sleep. She sighed, feeling the stupid irony. Now there were no nightmares she should be afraid of but her ability to fall asleep was not improving. She wondered what Lens would think about her. He would probably just laugh and tell her not to waste her time and live. And he would be right.

A slight, silent knocking on the door interrupted her scattered thoughts. She looked at the watch just to assure that it is really as late as she thought. It was weird because if it was an emergency, they wouldn't be so silent. She got up and opened carefully.

"Hi." Ronon was standing behind the door and smiling at her.

"Ronon, hi," she said, feeling awkward in her green pajamas. "What's going on, something happened?" She asked, crossing her arms around her chest. That was really unusual.

"No," he replied, looking amused by her confused reaction. "Everything is ok. I hope I didn't wake you."

"No, I wasn't sleeping," she murmured resentfully. Was he making fun of her? "Why are you here in the middle of the night?"

He chuckled. "You said you hadn't slept."

Jennifer rolled her eyes. He really could drive her crazy. "And?"

There could be dozens of reasons why he was standing there like that, leaning against the wall and looking at her intensely with his deep dark eyes, but right now she couldn't find any of them.

"I'm going to the Theroans tomorrow," he said. "Just to check that everything is still ok with them."

"I thought that doctor Webber is going with the team," she replied.

"He is," he admitted. "But you're off tomorrow so I was thinking that maybe you would want to go with us. To see Kal and the others, you know. What do you think?"

Jennifer hesitated for a moment. She wanted to see Kal again. Of course she did, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to go back to that planet so soon. All that happened there was still fresh and she wasn't able to bury the worst memories completely. Ronon saw her inner fight and decided not to let her continue.

"It'll be ok," he said. "I will be there."

She sighed. "I can take care of myself, Ronon, and you should know that. I don't need any protection. I will go."

Did he really think she is so weak? Now she had no other choice than to prove to him that she wasn't. She glanced at him, while he was still grinning. No, he didn't think she is not strong enough, she realized immediately. He just tried to provoke her and obviously it did work.

"Ok, I give up," she smiled back at him with a little bit reproach in her voice. "But you should know you are playing with fire." And so was she, when she was telling him things like these.

His grin just got bigger. "Good. We leave at eight."

She nodded, unable to stop smiling back. "Well, I think I should go back," she pointed at her bed.

"Yeah, fine. And I... I should go." He definitely looked nervous and distracted for a moment, she noticed. Then he found the lost control, gave her the last smile and left letting the door close behind him. Jennifer went back to bed wondering if she would be able to fall asleep this night at all. Surprisingly, sleep overcame her soon and in the morning she was once again grateful for a dreamless night.

---

She didn't feel very confident when they landed on the planet surface, but all her worries disappeared quickly. She really looked forward to see Kal again and the little boy looked as enthusiastic as always. He ran to her and wanted to tell her absolutely everything that happened to him since the last time he talked to her. She was glad that his family was fine and Kal's mother seemed truly content.

Jennifer had no duties this time and she could just enjoy the company of her small friend and, in a bit different way, the company of Ronon. The Satedan was discussing thousands of things with Kal and the boy was totally fascinated. Jennifer was sure there weren't many adults in the village that would be able to talk to him about all he was interested in and taking him seriously. She was surprised again that someone as silent as Ronon, who sometimes didn't need to talk at all, was able to spent hours chatting with a child. She was sure that he would be a wonderful father. And she wouldn't protest if someone like him becomes a father of her children. Maybe one day…

She was watching him, while he was telling Kal about some of his adventures on Sateda, when these crazy and dangerous thoughts appeared in her head. But it wasn't so easy to get them out of it. She caught herself smiling foolishly, so she stopped immediately and frowned a bit, getting angry of herself. Ronon glanced at her with a questioning expression.

"You ok?"

"Of course" she said immediately, but she could feel the red color spreading on her cheeks. He could be too attentive sometimes. She was very glad he couldn't see into her head. He would surely think that she was crazy and run away as quickly as possible.

"What are you thinking about?" Another question, even worse than the one before.

"It's time for lunch already," she replied. It was the first thing that came across her mind. Maybe it wasn't the smartest answer but he didn't seem that he would like to analyze that.

"I have an idea," he said. "We could take some food and get out of here. Kal can go with us." He looked at the boy, who was watching some birds and didn't pay attention.

Jennifer couldn't help and laughed. "Are you sure that is a good idea? You know what happened when we left the last time."

Ronon smirked. "I guess you don't want to experience that again."

"Definitely not everything," she said. "The little trip was nice but I think I wouldn't like to repeat the rest."

"Really?" he asked, raising his eyebrow a little. "Would you erase all that happen after that if you could?"

Jennifer was sure this time that she knows what he was talking about and blushed. "Would you?" She asked silently after a moment instead of answering.

"Not everything," he said. "But I could live without the attack."

"Me too," she said and his look told her that he understood too. Maybe it wasn't so hopeless for her, she thought. Their eyes met and she didn't look away. Suddenly he looked serious and that made her stop smiling.

"This time is different," he said. "Everything is different."

"I know," she whispered. She knew what he wanted to say but she couldn't decide if he meant that this time is better or worse. He probably didn't regret what happened in the cave but what if he changed his mind after her escape? She was going find out soon.

The nervous silence was interrupted by Kal. "I have to go home now," he said, looking really sad.

"Don't worry, man," Ronon smiled. "Go now and we can have fun later. You need to obey your mother."

The boy nodded, although he still seemed disappointed and ran away.

"So," Ronon said, looking at her. "Could we go or..."

"Yeah, why not," she replied, trying to sound cheerful but she heard the tension in her voice. Ronon didn't seem to notice that though. He just got up and left her for a minute, than he came back with some food and blanket. Jennifer thought that it was strange how natural she felt, although the situation was almost ridiculous. A picnic with Ronon, she smiled. If someone told her a few weeks ago, she would have never believed it.

"Did you plan that?" She asked playfully.

"No," he said, but the sparkles in his eyes betrayed him.

"You did. You planned that." She was sure of that now.

"What if I did?" he queried back.

Jennifer giggled. "I sometimes think I don't know you. "

"Back at you, Jennifer."

TBC

--

Hi everyone! I am sorry again for the waiting. Both me and my beta are too busy in RL now. Thanks for all the support and please, leave me a little review. There is gonna be one more chapter, I just need to rewrite some parts so I hope it will be here much faster next time.