Naming the Stars
Spoilers: Both seasons of Torchwood and at least Season Four and the very beginning of Season Five of Stargate: Atlantis. Mr. Woolsey is in charge and Teyla had her baby.
Pairing: pre-ship Ronon/Keller, Jack/Ianto
Disclaimer: Neither fandom belongs to me. The title and excerpts are taken from the poem Naming the Stars by Joyce Sutphen. Check her out!
Summary: He took his eyes off of her and thumbed the clasp and then opened the box. He froze. Every single muscle in his body just stopped moving.
Chapter 2
This will be another one of those loose changes, the rearrangement of hearts...
Jennifer breathed in deeply, adjusted the strap of the messenger bag, picked up her duffel and then walked through the Stargate. She emerged on the other side and smiled at the sight of Teyla holding a sleepy Torren as they waited for her on the steps. Mr Woolsey stood at the base of the steps and stepped forward.
"Dr. Keller," Mr. Woolsey greeted her. "Welcome back to Atlantis."
"Thank you," she said as she put down her duffel bag and shook his hand. "It's very good to be back."
"I understand from the preliminary reports that you were able to assist the Torchwood team most ably," he said. "I look forward to reading your report."
"I'm halfway finished with it sir," she said.
"Very good," Mr. Woolsey paused and then said. "I also understand that you experienced a slight.. mishap while in their offices."
"Oh, yes," Jennifer said with a slight grimace. "It was nothing. A small bug in their computer system enabled their lockdown. Thankfully it was resolved very quickly and no one was the worse for wear."
"Good to hear," he said with relief. "Well, I'm sure you're exhausted. Have that report on my desk sometime tomorrow."
"Yes sir," she said.
Woolsey nodded at her and at Teyla who was descending the stairs and then left the Gate Room.
"Jennifer," Teyla said warmly. "It is very good to have you home."
"Thank you Teyla," Jennifer said with a smile. She smoothed a finger down Torren's face. "And how is my guy?"
"Actually sleeping longer than three hours at a time," Teyla answered wryly. "Did you have a good trip?"
Jennifer hefted her duffel bag and they headed down the hall to her room.
"Not bad actually," Jennifer said. "I was pretty impressed with Torchwood's facilities and their staff. They seem to be able to roll with the punches almost as well as we do."
"High praise indeed," Teyla grinned.
They reached Jennifer's room and she dropped her bag on her bed, then Jennifer carefully removed the messenger bag and put it on her desk.
"You must be tired," Teyla said. "We'll let you rest. But, please join us for dinner tonight."
"Us?" Jennifer asked as she turned around.
"Oh yes," Teyla said adjusting her hold on Torren. "Shepperd and the rest arrived from their off-world excursion only an hour before you did. I plan to see them at dinner."
"Oh, well. I wouldn't want to intrude," Jennifer said.
"You know very well it would be no intrusion," Teyla admonished. "And I know they would be most happy to hear of your trip."
"Well, okay," Jennifer said at last. "I'd be delight-- Wait."
Jennifer narrowed her eyes and gave Teyla a look. Teyla returned the look with exaggerated innocence. Jen sighed.
"The entire base knows I got trapped in a basement, don't they?" she said.
Teyla looked a little sheepish.
"It may have come up during a briefing," she admitted.
Jennifer groaned and flopped onto her bed.
"Crap," she said. "I knew it."
"Jennifer, come to dinner," Teyla ordered. "I'm sure no one will mention it."
Jennifer raised her head slightly and gave Teyla a look.
"Well, I'm sure they won't mention it in a mean way," Teyla amended. "Please come."
"Okay, okay," Jennifer said sitting up. "But only to see who won the pool."
"Fair enough," Teyla said with a smirk. Torren began to fuss and Teyla moved him to rest against her shoulder. "8 o'clock."
"8 o'clock," Jennifer said. She waved at Torren as they walked out the door and flopped back onto her bed. She stared at the ceiling for a few minutes and then got up to unpack. Once she'd put the last of her clothes in her laundry pile, she took out her travel tablet to hook it up to her main terminal. She walked over to her desk and caught sight of the messenger bag. Jen put her tablet on the desk and stared at the bag. She bit her lip and with hesitant fingers, opened the bag and looked at the metal box inside. Her fingers hovered over the box and then made a decision. She closed the flap of the messenger bag and headed into her bathroom to take a shower before dinner.
***
Jen was a few minutes past eight when she made it to the mess hall. She stopped by the infirmary before heading to dinner and had gotten pulled into assisting the doctor on call and catching up with everything she'd missed.
Apparently while it appeared that she herself couldn't stay out of trouble, luckily her infirmary could. Other than a few routine colds and everyday injuries, no major catastrophes had occurred. However, she was told that when a certain Satedan had entered the infirmary with a gash on the back of his hand and was informed that Dr. Keller hadn't returned, he'd just growled and walked out without treatment.
After hearing this, Jennifer berated her stomach and informed it that it was completely petty and unprofessional to suddenly fill with happy butterflies.
She'd also stopped by her desk just to see how many messages and appointments she was going to have to deal with in the morning when she reported for her shift. Jen looked up when she heard one of the nurses exclaim over a wound on a Marine. The nurse was carefully debriding the wound and Jen remembered the last time she'd seen Ronon before leaving for Earth...
"Hey Doc," came Ronon's deep voice from behind her. Jen turned around from the computer terminal and smiled at the Satedan standing in the middle of the infirmary liked he owned the place.
"Ronon," Jen greeted him and hopped off her stool to walk over to him. "And what have we done to ourselves today?"
"Not me," he said with a grin and jerked his head over his shoulder to indicate Major Lorne being seen to by the other doctor. Evan was sporting a nice slice right above his right eyebrow.
"Oh no," Jen said with a chuckle. "A lucky shot?"
"Luck had nothing to do with it," Ronon said still grinning.
Jen laughed and walked over to the Major. Ronon followed and stood so close behind her she could feel the warmth of his body.
"Major," Jen said in mock serious tone. "Just the other day you were telling me how much you hate the smell of antiseptic and yet, here you are."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I ducked when I should have dipped," Lorne groused. "Just stitch me up."
"Dr. Taylor, have you got this under control?" Jen asked the other doctor with a smirk in Evan's direction.
"Oh sure Dr. Keller," the older woman said with a grin. "Easy as pie."
"Make sure you use the thin suture stuff," Lorne told Dr. Taylor. "Unlike some people, I'm not a fan of scars."
"Oh, but chicks dig scars, Major," Jen said with a smile. She patted Dr. Taylor on the back. "Have fun."
Ronon stepped back and let Jen turn around and walked with her back to her worktable. Jen perched on the stool with a small sigh.
"You on for much longer?" he asked.
"Oh! Umm," Jen checked her watch and then looked at her computer screen. "Well. Yes, actually. I'm on shift for another five hours and I swore that I'd get through this batch of research before I stopped for the day."
"Who?" Ronon asked.
"Who what?" Jen said confused.
"Who did you swear to?" he clarified.
"Ah myself, actually," she admitted wryly. She shook her head at the screen. "It's taking much longer than I thought."
"Are you going to finish it all in the next five hours?" he pressed as he leaned against the table and stared at her intently. Jennifer snorted.
"I don't think I'm going to finish this in the next five weeks," she said glaring at the screen.
"Then you can eat dinner with me tonight," Ronon said. Jen's eyes flew up to his face.
"I, I can?" she got out.
"Yep," he said. He reached out a finger and slid her bangs out of her eyes. "You can. In five hours. At 1800 sharp."
"Okay," she said faintly. Ronon just grinned and sauntered back over to where Lorne was still being stitched up. Jennifer just watched his form move away from her and then quickly faced her screen and bit her lip trying not to grin like a mad woman.
Of course, she had been contacted an hour later with the request to get packed and ready to depart for Earth and only had the time to send Ronon a quick message that she wasn't going to be able to meet him. Jennifer had felt terrible that she hadn't been able to tell him in person and spent most of the trip, when not wrestling a large cat or being locked in, worried that he may have been offended.
So when she stood in line and looked around the hall, she fought valiantly with the urge to just grab something and go back to her room. But, Jen waved back when she caught sight of Teyla waving at her. She felt her face flush when she realized that Ronon was seated opposite Teyla and Col. Shepperd and Ronon had turned in his seat to look at her. Jen smiled weakly and he just quirked his lips and nodded at her. She just stared until the Marine behind her cleared his throat and she realized that the line had moved. She cringed a little and with an apology moved forward.
Jennifer quickly filled her plate with the kitchen's version of soup and salad, grabbed a water and headed over to the table.
"Hi," she greeted the table. She gingerly sat in the empty chair next to Ronon and smiled at them.
"So glad you could join us Jennifer," Teyla said warmly.
"Welcome back Doc," Shepperd said with a smile. "How was Cardiff?"
"Wet," Jen answered with a quick look at Ronon's profile. "Very wet."
"Heard you ran into some trouble," Ronon rumbled while he attacked his food.
Jen sighed and shook her head.
"I swear," she said to her chicken soup. "Rodney could run this place on the power generated by the gossip mill alone."
Shepperd snorted and Teyla smiled. Ronon just frowned and abandoned his food to lean closer to her.
"Well?" he prompted. "What happened?"
Jen took a bite of her soup to give herself a moment before answering. She chewed carefully and then took a sip of her water and chanced a glance at him. Ronon just raised that impressive eyebrow showing that he totally saw through her procrastination ploy. She rolled her eyes.
"It was really nothing," Jen said at last. "A glitch in their system caused a temporary lockdown. I was unfortunately in their Archives when it happened, so I was a little trapped."
"For how long?" Shepperd asked around a sandwich.
"Not long," Jen shrugged while she speared a piece of lettuce.
"How long?" Ronon asked.
"Ah, four hours," she said and then quickly dove into her salad.
"Alone?" Ronon asked, not letting it drop.
"Oh! No, with one of the Torchwood employees, Ianto Jones," Jennifer said looking up.
"Was he pleasant company?" Teyla asked innocently and then looked askance at Shepperd who'd started to choke on a bite. He grabbed his water and waved away Teyla's concerned look.
"He was very good company," Jen said with a glare in John's direction. "A perfect gentleman."
"A gentleman," Ronon muttered and then turned back to his food with a kind of aggression that startled Jennifer.
"Sorry Doc," John said once he'd caught his breath. "I didn't mean to imply anything."
"Un huh," Jen said wryly. "I bet."
"So, it was just a simple lockdown," Shepperd commented. "No bad guys or medical outbreak or you know, kidnapping attempts?"
Jennifer cocked her head and pinned the Colonel with a look.
"No. No outbreaks or bad guys," she said suspiciously.
"And no kidnapping?" he asked earnestly. "You're sure?"
"I think that by now, I know when I'm being kidnapped," Jen said flatly. "And there was no kidnapping."
"Fine, fine, alright," John said holding his hands up. "If you're sure."
"Yes, I am. I'm... Oh, wait," Jennifer broke off as realization dawned. She crossed her arms over her chest and asked, "Just how much did you lose?"
Ronon stopped eating and looked from Jen to Shepperd and narrowed his eyes at the Colonel.
"Fifty bucks," Shepperd mumbled.
"John!" Teyla admonished while Ronon rumbled a little. "You bet on Jennifer's well-being?"
"Hey! No! I mean," John held up his hands. "I heard she was going back to Earth and Lorne approached me about the pool. It seemed like a sure thing."
Teyla smacked his arm and Ronon dropped his fork and growled.
"That did not come out right," Shepperd said rubbing his arm. He looked at Jennifer who looked down and bit her lip. "Doc, I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it."
Jen just nodded and then shook her head a little.
"Jennifer, are you okay?" Teyla worriedly asked.
Ronon transferred his glare from Shepperd and looked at Jen with deep concern in his eyes. Then to his utter amazement, he heard her snort.
Jen raised her head and it was suddenly apparent that she was trying very hard not to laugh. Ronon blinked and Teyla smiled at the doctor. Shepperd breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's okay," Jennifer reassured them while a big grin. "I'm just sorry I can't bet on myself."
"Hey, talk to Lorne," Shepperd said expansively. "I'm sure you two can work something out."
Jen laughed and looked over at Ronon. The man couldn't help himself, he grinned at her.
"So," Jennifer asked after a few minutes of eating. "Who did win?"
"Známá!" a voice called from the entrance of the mess hall. The table looked over and watched Radek Zelenka stride over and take Jennifer's hand to shake it heartily. "I am so very glad to see you here and completely unscathed!"
"It's, ah, very good to see you too, Radek," Jennifer said bewildered.
"I understand you had a very eventful trip," Zelenka said continued to shake her hand. "But one with absolutely no bloodshed or tears or violence of any kind!"
"Um, yes," she said. "That's right."
"In fact, the only calamity was you being stuck in an enclosed space for a short period of time, correct?" Zelenka went on.
"Yes, that is all that happened," Jen said with an understanding smile. She looked over at Shepperd. "I take it this is the winner?"
"Yeah," John said with a grim look directed at Zelenka.
She smiled at Zelenka and pointedly looked at her hand still in his grasp. He beamed back oblivious.
"Zelenka," Ronon said giving the man a hard look. "I think the Doc would like her hand back."
"Hmm? Oh! Of course!" Zelenka let her hand go. Jennifer surreptitiously flexed her fingers and smiled at the scientist.
"Well! I'm off to make sure McKay hasn't made any of the scientists cry or quit in the last hour," Zelenka said. "Dr. Keller, it is very good to have you back!"
"Thank you Dr. Zelenka," Jennifer said still highly amused. She shook her head as he left the mess hall and turned back to the table. "Wow. Do I want to know how much he won?"
"No, you really don't," Shepperd grumbled.
They spent the next half hour updating Jennifer on their off-world trips and the new batch of Marines that had arrived in her absence.
"They're soft," Ronon grumbled.
"Compared to you, big guy, everyone's soft," John said. Ronon just shrugged and shifted in his seat. The move got him just that much closer to Jennifer and she could feel the familiar warmth his body always radiated.
"What's the Torchwood team like?" John asked Jennifer.
"Well, they're..." Jen thought for a moment, then smiled a little. "They're good. They seem like a pretty tightly-knit group and from what I understand, they've been through a lot and have still managed to function pretty well. Some of their tech is pretty amazing and considering they have to spend the majority of their time hiding what they do from the general public... Yeah, they're okay."
"I hear that their Captain is quite something," Teyla said with a little smile. Jen chuckled.
"Oh, he's something alright," she said with a smirk, then she realized that everyone was looking at her to elaborate. "Oh, and devoted to his team. A good leader. Takes a real... hands on approach, you could say."
John looked like he was going to say something, but Teyla reached up to tap her earpiece and said, "Oh, thank you. I'll be right there."
She smiled apologetically at the group.
"Apparently Torren has decided that he too must have something eat," she stood up from the table. Everyone followed her and they all began to walk out of the hall.
"Yeah, well, I've got to go check on the schedule for tomorrow," Shepperd said. "Make sure nothing's happened in the last couple of hours that requires me to kick someone's butt."
"I should probably get to bed," Jen admitted. "I have a shift first thing in the morning."
"Well then, good night to all of you," Teyla said. She placed a hand on Jennifer's arm. "I'm very glad you're back."
"Me too," Jen said smiling.
"Good night," Shepperd said and with a quick nod to Ronon, he and Teyla headed off in their separate directions.
Jen looked up at Ronon and blushed to see that he was studying her.
"Um, hi," she said.
"Hey," he said with a smirk. "I'll walk you to your room."
It wasn't a request, so Jen just nodded. They walked to the transporter in silence, got in and stood in silence. Ronon leaned against the side wall, arms crossed over his chest and she felt his eyes on her. She bit her lip and watched the numbers change on the display. But, finally Jennifer couldn't take it anymore.
"I'm really sorry," Jen blurted out as she turned to face him. "About leaving. You know, so quickly. Did... did you get my message?"
"I got it," Ronon said.
"Oh, good," she said. "Umm. I'm sorry that I couldn't tell you in person, but Woolsey had me out of here so fast..."
"Jen," he stopped her. "It's fine. He explained."
"Oh," she said again. "Well... Okay."
Jen turned to face the front of the transporter, but stopped when Ronon's hand reached out and in a familiar move, he pushed her bangs away from her eyes with a finger. Jennifer reminded herself to breathe.
"We'll just have to have dinner tomorrow," he said with a small smile.
"Okay," she said softly.
The transporter doors opened and it took Ronon finally just smirking at her to get her legs to cooperate and walk towards her room. They walked down her hallway and Jen tried to fight off a yawn, but it escaped. Ronon chuckled as they came to stand in front of her door.
"Umm, well," Jen said unsure of how to end the evening.
Ronon just smiled.
"Get some rest Doc," he said, his eyes were warm. "You had a long trip."
"Good night Ronon," Jennifer said with a smile. He just grinned and headed off down the hallway.
She watched him walk away and smiled to herself and went inside her room. Jen started to take her jacket off but stopped when she caught sight of the black messenger bag still on her desk. Her face fell as she considered the contents.
"Do I do it now?" she said to herself. "Or wait until morning? God, do I do this at all?"
She shook her head. Of course she did it. Not doing it wasn't an option. She cringed a little at the thought of keeping this a secret.
"The question remains, Keller," she said out loud. "Now or tomorrow?"
Her answer came when the yawn that escaped her was so wide, her jaw popped.
"Sleep Jen," she mumbled. "You'll need your strength tomorrow."
Jennifer changed into her pyjamas and was asleep the second her head hit the pillow.
***
However, she found herself wide awake at 5:00 am and completely unable to sleep any longer. She tossed and turned for another thirty minutes and then gave up and threw her covers back. She got up, showered and dressed. Jennifer stood in the middle of her room and stared at the messenger bag. She checked the clock. 6:12 am.
Jen was due in the infirmary at 7:00 am, so she decided to take her chances and just go for it
A few minutes later she found herself in front of a door and having second thoughts again. She made a move to just turn around and go back to her room, but before she could completely lose her nerve she waved her palm over the sensor to alert the rooms owner of her presence.
A minute passed and Jen sighed with relief. Not home. She turned to head back to the transporter and ran into a large Satedan shaped wall.
"Doc?" Ronon asked sounding amused as he grabbed her shoulders to keep her from falling. "Everything okay?"
"Wow. Um, yes, hi," she said. She pulled away a little and looked up at him, now really unsure of how to do this. He must have been out running, because he was slightly sweaty and his dreads were pulled back.
Ronon just looked at her. She looked nervous and was clasping a metal box so tightly in her hands, he could see her knuckles were white. He immediately got concerned.
"Jen? Are you okay? What's wrong?" he asked furrowing his brow.
"No!" she croaked. She cleared her throat. "No, I'm fine. Everything's fine. I just... Um... I have something that I needed to show you. Or well, give you."
Ronon looked puzzled but reached out to palm open the door and indicated that she should go inside. Jennifer swallowed and walked in. She stopped a few feet inside his room and breathed in the scent of leather and something very similar to sandalwood. Ronon walked around her and stood in front of her. He still looked puzzled.
"Do... Uh, do you want to sit down?" he asked.
"Oh, no," Jen said. She took a deep breath to school her thoughts and then started talking. "When I got locked in the Torchwood Archives, I got a chance to look through some of the stuff they've accumulated over the years. Stuff that came through the rift in Cardiff. Have you heard anything about the Rift? I mean, you know what it is?
She looked up to see if Ronon was following her.
"McKay was going on about it one day at lunch while you were gone," Ronon said, his brow still furrowed. "Basically, it's this unstable power source that somehow pulls stuff from all over into it."
"Yeah, that's it more or less. It actually has a heck of a reach. It can pull things in from all over the universe it seems," Jen said. She looked down at the box and then up at Ronon. She thrust the box at him. "This belongs to you."
Ronon studied her and then took the box from her hands. She pulled her arms back to wrap around her waist and chewed her lower lip. He took his eyes off of her and thumbed the clasp and then opened the box. He froze. Every single muscle in his body just stopped moving. Then he exhaled and stumbled backwards to land heavily on his bed. He just stared at the contents of the box.
"According to the retrieval form," Jen explained softly as she watched him. "Those were found inside of a small, early model of a rocket. The rocket itself was badly damaged by the atmosphere, but the container that held everything remained fairly intact. It looks to be a time capsule of sorts. They didn't know where it came from. It just appeared in downtown Cardiff one day. I happened to open the box and, well... I remember some of the Satedan alphabet from an Ancient tablet I read once."
Jennifer stopped when Ronon seemed to flinch a little. But she had to make sure.
"It... I mean... They are, aren't they? From Sateda?" she asked tremulously.
"Yes," he rasped. He face fell a little and he reached a hand into the box, but didn't actually touch anything. He let his hand just hover over the objects. He set his jaw.
Jen felt extremely uncomfortable and decided that she should probably leave. She half turned towards the door.
"I, um. I'll just - go now," she said hesitantly. Ronon made no movement, no indication that he even could hear her. "And let you, you know."
She turned around and palmed the door and had one foot in the hallway when she heard a soft voice behind her call, "Jennifer."
She whirled around, but he still had his head bent over the box and wasn't actually looking at her.
"Thank you," he got out. Jennifer smiled a little.
"Your welcome," she whispered. Then she turned and left.
to be continued...
A/N: Thank you very much to the people who have left me such kind reviews! This story basically sprung Athena-like from my head and I'm having so much fun with it.
Hopefully, the reveal of who the box truly belongs to was worth it. All of my research into Sateda revealed that it was supposedly as technologically advanced as the United States circa 1930. That being said, in 1935, Robert H. Goddard successfully launched a liquid-fueled rocket which is the foundation for modern rockets. Therefore, the idea that Sateda would also have been trying to create rockets is not that far-fetched. Just what is in the box will be in the next chapter.
Známá - is Czech for female friend.
However, please let me know what you think! Reviews are always loved and revered.