Disclaimer: I'm only going to say this once: I don't own any of the characters and I'm not making money off of doing this. This is simply for fun.
Note: So now with Evan, Marie and John. John and Evan went to work for the F.B.I. together, and eventually became partners. The three of them live in Northern California along with Ronon. That's why they still have poker night.
Present Day (December 4th 2008,):
"Who were you just talking to, hun?" Evan Lorne asks his fiancée, Marie Ko, as he takes a swig of his beer.
"Jennifer. She's at the game right now." she says nodding at the TV screen.
"Hmph!" John Sheppard snorts.
"You know what, John," Marie begins to say "It's been eight and a half years! Get over it. And besides, it didn't happen to you."
"Yeah, but it happened to my best friend."
"Okay, guys, no fighting!" Evan steps in. "It's all in the past." Turning to John he says "Look man, you're going to have to deal with the fact that she's going to be at the wedding. She is Marie's best friend. Let's try to be civil, okay?"
"Okay, fine." John says.
"Fine." Marie says as she leaves the living room.
Evan turns around to see if she's out of earshot, then turning back to John, nudges him with his beer bottle and asks "What really happened to those two anyway?"
"She shot him down." John simply said. "She just up and left without a word. Ronon tried finding her. Even went to see her dad if he could tell him where she was."
"And he never told him?" Evan asks.
"Nope. I was with him that day."
Flashback to the day after Graduation (June 7th 2000):
John and Ronon stand on the front porch of Jennifer Keller's home, ringing the doorbell. Jonathan Keller answers the door, a sad look on his face. "Ronon." He says.
"Hey Mr. Keller. Uh…" Then turning to John "This is my best friend John Sheppard, John, Mr. Jonathan Keller, Jennifer's dad."
"Ah yes, I know your father, John. He's a good man." He smiles warmly and John nods once for acknowledgement. Turning back to Ronon, he says "She's not here, son."
"Uh, what time do you think she'll be back?"
"I mean she left, Ronon, she's not coming back. I mean she is, but not for a long time. She wanted to get an early start. You know how she is. She's wants to be able to get her PhD as soon as possible."
"I didn't even know that she got an acceptance letter. " Ronon says with a confused frown.
"She did. She got all five of them in the mail months ago, she made her decision right before graduation as to where she wants to go." Mr. Keller informs him.
"Did she leave a note? An address? Coz she hasn't been answering my calls." Ronon says. "Is she okay?" Concern etched on his face.
"She's fine. I mean healthy." And then as if giving up, Mr. Keller, lays a hand on his shoulder "Ronon, son, She left in a hurry. I don't know what happened between you two, but she asked me not to tell you where she went." He tells him sympathetically.
Taking this as cue, John says "I think I'll just wait in the car." Turning to Jonathan he says "Mr. Keller, it was nice meeting you." Then he walks towards his car to wait for Ronon.
Jonathan looks back at Ronon and then says "Would you like to come in Ronon?"
Ignoring the question, he asks "So did she leave this morning?" Shocked at what he had just found out.
"No, actually, she left after the graduation ceremony yesterday. She didn't even want to go. But I convinced her to do it for me at least." Then raking his hand through his grey hair, he adds "I'm really sorry, Ronon. I'd like to help, but she seemed determined not to let you know. I only wish I knew what was wrong."
"Me, too sir." Ronon says quietly when he turns around to leave.
"Ronon." Jonathan calls out. Ronon turns once more to look at him. "If you need to talk, son, my door is always open for you." Ronon smiles a sad but appreciative smile then gets in Sheppard's car.
Back to the Present:
"He never spoke of her again." John said. "You should've seen his face, man. Anyway, about two years ago, Elizabeth came to visit. The three of us were having dinner and drinking too much, and reminiscing as usual, and she mentioned Jennifer's name." And then pausing to backhand Lorne on the shoulder "Don't tell anyone, I mean anyone, not even Marie…" looking over his shoulder again to make sure she's not around.
"Okay! Okay!" Evan quickly agrees.
"Well Elizabeth mentioned her name, coz we were talking about the Stargate Program, and dude, I guess Ronon was really liquored up… shit-faced… and he started… bawling."
Lorne's jaw drops and then quickly recovers to ask "You're fuckin' kidding, right?"
Holding his hands up, John protests "Nope. I swear that he was sobbing. It wasn't funny at all. We all knew how he felt about her."
Nodding at this, Evan says "You know, I asked Marie once - If Jennifer ever said anything about her and Ronon. Coz, dude," Evan says in Jennifer's defense "In my opinion, Jennifer's a great girl. She's one of the sweetest girls I know, she's like a little sister to me. She hardly ever dates, always working. But anyway," He continues "Marie said that Jennifer never mentioned anything. And Marie really wouldn't have known back in high school coz Marie and I were a batch lower than you guys. She wasn't even friends with Jennifer back then."
"Right. Marie and Jennifer met at the hospital in L.A." John says. "Marie was an Intern and Jennifer was already practicing by then. I guess she breezed through medical school like she did with high school."
"Yeah and they hit it off, and have been friends ever since. But one time, though, when she was helping Jennifer move to San Diego, this was about three years ago, she was packing up a box of Jennifer's stuff from her home office. Jennifer was stuffing some books in a box and accidentally bumped her desk causing her journal to fall open to the floor. She didn't notice this because they were listening to really loud music." Evan shifts on his chair to lean his forearms on his knees and says in a low voice "So Marie bent down to pick it up and noticed that the last entry, which was the day before, was bookmarked with a photo."
Intrigued, John leans forward.
"Remember senior skip day?" Evan asks with a smile.
"Yeah. You were a junior, but managed to cut class to come with us to the beach." John says with a laugh.
"Yeah those were good times." Evan says, smiling and nodding. "We had tons of pictures then. And the one that Jennifer used as a bookmark was one of her and Ronon. I think from how Marie described it, it was a close-up of Ronon giving Jennifer a piggy-back ride. She said that the photograph looked worn out.
"Why the hell would she keep a photo of the both of them? She left him." John wondered.
"See that's what I'm saying." Evan says to John. "There must be some bigger reason that made her leave him." Thinking hard, Evan says "Her father maybe?"
"Nah! Jennifer's father was genuinely sorry that he couldn't tell him. Ronon respected him for that." John says confidently.
"Hey look, both Jennifer and Ronon are going to be there." Lorne begins to say after a few minutes of silence. "Maybe they can work it all out or maybe not. But I think we should just stay out of it. The wedding, I think, may or may not bring closure to everyone." He says suggestively.
"What?" John says in a high-pitched voice.
"You know exactly what I mean."
"If you must know, Ronon already told me this morning before the game started, that he and Teyla are going to the wedding together." He says matter-of-factly.
Evan nods at this and says "Marie said that Teyla called to confirm this afternoon." Then carefully, he asks "John, what happened between you two? I thought you guys were okay all throughout college. I would think that after Kanaan…" He falters as he sees John stiffen at the mention of Kanaan.
Recovering, John just shrugs and says "She pulled away. I assumed that… I dunno, guilt, I guess."
TBC.