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: By the way, in case you're wondering, the places that I write about actually exist. You should

Present Day (February 17, 2009, The Viceroy, Poolside):

"Bombs away!" Evan screams as he does a cannonball, splashing into the pool.

After dinner they all headed for the swimming pool to cool off. Teyla and torrent are sitting on the edge of the pool with their legs dangling on the side, Torren's feet barely skimming the surface. Katie and Patty have begun to race back and forth. Nick and Paul are flirting with some girls they had just met. Hank and Jamie are splashing around in the shallow part with their own children and Radeks. Mike, Radek and Carson are by the lounges talking about Elizabeth's pregnancy. Elizabeth is laying on a floatie on the far side of the pool, away from everyone else to avoid getting thrown in, unlike Rodney who's floatie has been turned over for the second time. Once by John, Evan and Ronon and the other by Laura, of course.

Jennifer is sitting on the steps on the shallow side of the pool. Ronon looks over to her. Wondering why she hasn't moved from the spot for almost half an hour. She went in the water but stayed in the shallow part for a little bit, but never ventured out onto the deeper end. She knows how to swim. He knows that for a fact. He was the one who taught her.

So Ronon makes a decision and starts to swim towards her. But before he can dive in Marie stops him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

He turns around and looks at her. "Why not?"

"I can't say." Marie said. "Not that it's a secret or anything. Just that I know she'd be embarrassed if anyone knew… which then, ok go ahead. My bad. You can go ask her." She tells him, as she changes her mind.

"Wait wait wait. Just tell me so I know what I'm dealing with." Ronon says.

"I can't. Just ask her. It'll give you an excuse to talk to her." Marie says. The look on his face prompts her to say "Yeah, like nobody has noticed what's been going on. Give me a little credit, Ronon. I wasn't born yesterday."

"Tell me."

"Fine. Although I really I shouldn't be telling you this." Marie says, giving up. "It happened when she was in college. She…" Marie begins to say, then for the second time, changes her mind "You know what, no. You ask her. You're the one who's in love with her." She throws in with a smirk as she swims away from him.

Ronon watches Marie glide through the water and then turns back to look at Jennifer who is watching Laura and Rodney horse around with the floatie.

Flashback to Prom Night (May 13, 2000):

It's prom night. Well at least after the post-prom party. They've both left the party to be alone. Ronon is in the pool, the water lapping around his waist, his chest bare and his arms stretched out. "Come on, I won't let go, I promise!"

"I dunno –"

"So you don't trust me." Ronon says, feigning a hurt look.

"I do. Of course I do. It's just that –" Jennifer protests.

"Just what? Just nothing. Come on. Just jump in and I'll catch you." He says to her as he looks up at her. His eyes trailing from her toes to her knees to the top of her thighs, of which are meeting a pair of pink lacy, but not overly revealing, panties. He had lent her a black tank top that had shrunk but was still too big for her so she remedied it by tying a knot at the hem behind her.

She blushes at his intense scrutiny and on instinct crosses her arms over her chest. Ronon just smiles and apologizes.

"Come on, Jennifer! Remember when we went skiing at Big Bear. And you almost rolled down that hill?" Ronon says. "I caught you, didn't I?"

"First of all, I did not roll down the hill because I didn't know how to ski. I do. And –"

"I didn't –" Ronon starts to say.

But Jennifer ignores him and continues "second, you did not catch me, you blocked my fall."

"Same difference. And like what as I was about to say, I didn't say that you didn't know how to ski. I just meant that I wouldn't let anything happen to you." Ronon explains, surprisingly still calm. Not a lot of people had the nerve to talk to him, let alone reprimand and interrupt him. John and Teyle were the only ones who could handle him. And for some strange reason he let Jennifer, a skinny girl with a pretty smile, do just about anything.

"Really?" Jennifer asks with a mixture of apprehension and wistfulness.

"I promise."

"Okay." She finally agrees. She squats down and one by one drops her legs to sit on the edge of the pool. Then she slowly slides her body down the edge and into the water. Ronon quickly swims to her as she grabs onto the ledge.

"You can let go now." Ronon says.

Jennifer just nods her head and then turns to the side so she can wind her arms around his neck. She catapults herself onto him. Her arms around his neck, her head turned away, her one leg wrapped around his hip. He lets out a huge breath on the impact. Now they're breathing heavily. Her from the fear of being in the water. Him from the way he's reacting to her. John, Rodney, Carson, Evan, Radek he says to himself.

When he finally composes himself her leans his head back as far as he can since she has a death-like grip on him. "See, that was easy, huh?"

"Yeah." She says. "Wait. What are you doing." She asks when he starts moving and and kicking his legs.

"We need to go to the deep end."

"Why?" She asks frantically.

"Because that's how I learned and it's the only way I know how to teach you."

"What, did they just throw you over the side of a boat or something?" Jennifer asks teasingly. But the look on his face confirms it. "Oh."

"Trust me, okay?"

"Okay."

Swimming to the deeper end, with Jennifer clinging on to him, he stops right in the middle and forces himself to focus. Jennifer has now wrapped both her legs around his Torso and seems to be trying to climb up his body. His chin resting on her chest as she hugs his head to her chest. He shuts his eyes and once again repeats to himself over and over again: John, Rodney, Carson, Evan, Radek.

After a few minutes he calms himself down and speaks. "Jennifer, as much as I love the fact that you're hanging on to me this tightly, I have to warn you that while I may look like I have a lot of self-control right now, I don't normally do, I don't know how long I can contain myself. At least not with you. So I suggest you loosen up a bit." Jennifer gasps but slowly untangles herself from him, but still managing to hang on to him.

When she slides down his body, he makes a strangled noise. She looks sheepishly at him.

Back to the Present:

Ronon swims towards her. When he resurfaces he's surprised to find her staring at him. He wades in the water and sits on the step where her feet are planted.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing much." Jennifer answers.

"You know that's not what I meant." Ronon says to her.

"I can't do it." Jennifer says, not knowing why she's telling him this. To him. Of all people.

"Why not? I was the one who taught you how to swim. We kept going in the water after that. You were even able to stand on the surf board for a few minutes that one weekend." Ronon reminds her.

"I know but –"

"Something happened?" He guesses Jennifer nods her head yes.

"Tell me."

Jennifer hesitates, but when she looks at him she sees his concern in his eyes. "I um, My first year in university I went with a group of my dorm mates to a river. We had rented a house boat and anchored a mile from the shore." She sighed heavily before continuing. "One of the other girls didn't like me much."

"Why not?" Ronon asks, wondering as to how anyone could not like her.

"Apparently the guy that she was into didn't return her feelings. He liked me. But he didn't. We were just really good friends. That's it." Jennifer explains.

Ronon smiles and then says "Did it ever cross your mind that maybe you just didn't know. I honestly have to tell you that you can be a little bit oblivious to what's happening around you." Jennifer makes a face and Ronon just bumps his shoulder against her legs teasingly. "I know this from experience."

"Anyway," Jennifer continues, ignoring his last comment. "I was standing at the landing which didn't have any railings and suddenly I'm in the water. Nobody sees this because the others were on the jet skis or up on deck sun bathing. I fell so hard in the water. It kinda surprised me so I didn't have time to react. I sank probably a few feet below when one of my legs got caught in between some rocks. I was wearing sneakers at that time. I struggled for god knows how long." Jennifer shrugs. Aside from her father and Marie, she's never told anyone about this incident. She had gotten over it. The only thing bothering her is that she's scared of the water again. Living in San Diego, near the beach, frustrates her. She sits by the shore and watch beach goers frolic in the water almost everyday.

"Finally Martin, my friend. The guy who supposedly liked me appeared and helped me get my foot free."

"You couldn't take your shoe off yourself?" Ronon asks her curtly. Angry at himself for being jealous over a boy from eight years ago. He should be happy that he saved her and that she was still alive. But he can't help feeling that it should have been him doing the rescuing. Nothing would have happened to her if they had stayed together all those years.

Jennifer frowned at this. "My leg was in between rocks I couldn't get to it." She retorts.

"I'm sorry. How'd he know that you were down there?" He quickly says, trying to change the subject.

"The girl that pushed me in didn't mean for me to drown. We were, in fact, rommates. So she was just angry that he - whatever. But when I didn't resurface she started yelling my name. So others came running and when they figured out what was going on, Martin jumped in. When she and I were finally alone she apologized." Jennifer tells him.

"And you forgave her?"

"Of course. It's not like she meant it." Jennifer says, defending the girl.

"That's just so like you." Ronon comments.

They both fell silent for about ten minutes before Ronon breaks the tension.

Ronon says, letting out a breath of air. "You wanna try again? To swim I mean." Jennifer looks unsure so he adds. "I promise I won't ever let go. You trust me, right?"

Jennifer slowly nods and then stands up on the steps and then slowly immerses her lower body in the water. Ronon takes her hand and they wade through the water to the deeper end. He looks at her and asks "You ready?"

"No."

Ronon smiles a wicked smile then pulls her towards him as he swims backwards. Jennifer grabs on to him with a vice like grip. Her breasts crushed against his chest as she wraps her legs around his waist like she did once before, his arms holding her against him. From behind her Ronon sees John and Evan giving him the thumbs up sign. Ronon lifts his arm away from the embrace to give them the dirty finger. And they just laugh at him, wiggling their eyebrows.

Jennifer hauls his hand back to her. "I promised you that I'd never let go." His words meaning more than its literal form. She nods her head yes. "Okay, so just relax."

She pulls her arms from around his neck, resting her hands on his shoulders. She pulls back a bit but doesn't unwrap her legs from around him. The sensation of her bare thighs and legs against the sides of his torso and his back is maddening him so he asks her "Do you remember what I said the last time we were tangled up like this?"

Jennifer's face scrunches up and then it dawns on her. "Oh." She says. Blushing furiously.

"Yeah."

X

Behind them, Evan and John watch the duo wrapped around each other. "How much do you wanna bet on how long it will take before they come to their senses and finally do the deed?" John asks Evan without taking his eyes off of the pair.

"A month. Maybe two, knowing Jennifer. She's a bit unsure of herself." Evan says. "But then again, with the meddling pair over there…" He says flipping his thumb towards Marie and Laura who are giggling as they watch Jennifer and Ronon. "It could be just a month."

"I give them less than a week." John says.

"A week?" Evan repeats, unconvinced.

"Less. Less than a week." John says confidently. "I guarantee you, it'll happen this week. Before your wedding"

"Fine. You're on."

TBC.