![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
SGA - Four Things Ronon Learned from Lt. Cadman, and One Thing He Taught Her
So, about a week or so ago, this came to mind. I had never seen this pairing before and wanted to give it a shot as a sort of personal challenge. This is where it went...
Title: Four Things Ronon Learned from Lt. Cadman, and One Thing He Taught Her
Genre: Het (I know, I’m scared), Ronon/Cadman
Length: ~3300 words
Rating: R
Synopsis: Pretty much the title.
Disclaimer: Not mine, belongs to people with far more money than I have. I’m just borrowing them to play and making no profit from this.
~~~~~~~~~~
1. Things Go Boom
“This is C4,” the small redhead at the front of the room was saying. “C4 is your friend. Say hello to your friend,” she prompted. There was silence and several people looked at her like she was insane. “No, really, say hello to your new friend as you are about to become even better friends,” she tried.
“Hello,” Ronon grumbled, smirking at the others who reluctantly followed his lead.
“Very good,” the woman, Cadman, purred. She started pacing in front of a small table heavy with various supplies, tossing a block of what was supposedly a highly explosive substance back and forth between her hands like a toy. “And do you know why you’re about to become very good friends with the C4?”
He wasn’t sure if she was asking him directly, but answered anyway. “Because Sheppard told me to,” he shrugged.
There were snickers from the row of men behind him, and he caught a glint of humor in her eyes. “Well, there’s that,” she admitted with a grin. “There’s also the fact that C4 is one of the few things proven consistently effective against Wraith strongholds and even sections of their ships. We’re not positive about it working against the Wraith themselves with their healing abilities because there were a few moral objections to trying it on any of the ones we’ve captured.” She rolled her eyes to let it be known just what she thought of those objections. Mimicking his shrug, she added, “Suffice it to say, I’m betting even they can’t recover from a missing head or torso.”
“No, they can’t,” Ronon agreed, earning him a few looks from the new recruits and an appraising smile from the Lieutenant. “Didn’t have this stuff, but they couldn’t recover from a blade,” he explained.
She nodded and took her place at the table once more. She tossed him the brick she had been playing with, and he caught it in one hand. It was softer than he thought it would be, like the dough he played with as a child. From the smell he doubted it would taste as good though.
She was talking again, so he focused on the words. “Today I’m going to tell you how to use it and, if you’re really good, how to make your own.” The grin was back as she added, “We’re going to make things go boom.”
2. Size Matters, Just Not In the Way You Think
Ronon grunted, pushing his arm as far as he could through the bars that lined the cell. Even with his shoulder wedged in as far as it would go, his fingers were far shy of the controls. He had already tried several knives, all of them bouncing harmlessly off the clunky console. He was beginning to miss the softer organics of the Wraith ships.
“No go?” Martinez asked from his spot on the floor. The Satedan turned to give him a look that warned he was stating the obvious again, but his eyes caught the growing puddle of red beneath the man’s left leg and he decided to give it a pass this time. They needed to get him out of there, and soon.
“Let me try,” Cadman suggested, wiping slick hands on her fatigues after readjusting the other Marine’s bandage.
“If he can’t get it, what makes you think you can?” Williamson asked, still holding a cloth to his own useless arm.
Ronon simply backed away and made a gesture for her to try. He had learned early on not to underestimate the Atlanteans. That went double for the Marines, and double again for the women. Cadman, Laura, had both going for her. He was willing to see what she was capable of.
She stood up, barely coming even with his shoulder, and started unzipping first her tac vest, and then her bulky outer coat that she had still been wearing when tossed in the cell with them. The people of the village were either incredibly confident, or incredibly stupid, leaving the team with most of their own supplies, but no outward weaponry. Ronon was voting for stupid.
“Hey, LT, as much as we enjoy the show, there’s no guard around to distract with it,” Williamson commented. Cadman gave him a look and tossed her vest at him, taking obvious pride in the fact it hit him smack in the face.
Down to her t-shirt and fatigue pants, she approached the bars, turning to the side and threading her arm and head through. After a bit of shimmying, a few muttered complaints of, “I shouldn’t have had that extra donut,” and a dainty turn of her ankle, she was through to the other side. It took her but a moment to figure out what did what and hit the switch to open the door.
“Nice,” Ronon commented as he grabbed his knives.
Cadman accepted her gear from a sheepish looking Williamson. She grinned while shrugging the coat and vest back into place. “Well, you know what they say: size matters.”
3. Sometimes a Bitch is More than a Bitch
Cadman was with him when they finally found them. Sheppard and McKay were in a tiny dirt and rock cell, covered with minor scratches and bruises, but otherwise whole. “You ready to blow this joint, sir?” she asked as Ronon kicked the last of the door away to follow her in.
The two men were chained to opposite walls, the heavy manacles on their wrists making even the slightest movements look awkward and painful. “How long have we been gone?” Sheppard demanded, pulling back slightly to give them room to work. There were no keys that they had found so far, but they had Ronon’s blaster and Cadman’s precious C4, so he wasn’t that concerned.
“Only about thirty hours, sir,” she replied, shouldering her weapon and examining the chains for weak points. “One of the locals was... encouraged... to let us know where they were holding you.”
Ronon watched as her hands froze and her eyes shot up to meet his, an entire silent conversation passing between her and her CO in a matter of seconds. “None?” she confirmed.
Sheppard shook his head. “Had nothing for about four hours before that, too.”
“Shit!” she swore, dropping what she was doing to dig in her pockets. She produced a small foil-wrapped packet sealed in a plastic bag, ripping open its contents as she crawled over to McKay.
It was then Ronon noticed how pale the scientist was, how he was sweating despite the cold dampness that surrounded them, and how his shadowed eyes weren’t really tracking. “What’s wrong with him?” he asked.
“Hypoglycemia,” Sheppard ground out, voice harsh and dry. He accepted the canteen handed to him by one of the other Marines and took several careful sips.
“Come on, McKay,” Cadman was saying, gently tapping the other man’s face. “Stay with me,” she tried, pushing a small disk of something into his mouth before barely wetting his lips with a canteen.
He sputtered, nearly spitting out whatever it was she gave him, but she simply pushed it back in. He made a face at the taste, but obediently chewed. Little bits of moist powder lined his lips as he asked, “Laura? How’d you get here?”
“Through judicious use of force,” she replied, a concerned look passing over her face as he simply nodded absently. “Here, have another one,” she insisted, thumbing another disk towards his lips.
“Tastes like shit,” he complained, words slurring together as he chewed once again. He lolled against the wall, passively letting her check his pulse and shine a light into his eyes.
“You can have a Power Bar when we get out of here,” she promised, offering the canteen again. His hands shook and he nearly dropped it, the Lieutenant barely catching it and helping him to drink. “Just so you know, Teyla says you’re never allowed to go anywhere without her again,” she added, not bothering to hide the concern in her voice as she made him drink another sip.
“What’s wrong with him?” Ronon repeated, taking over testing Sheppard’s chains before giving up and reaching for his gun.
John backed up as far as he could, turning his head to shield his eyes. “He hasn’t eaten for over a day,” he explained. Before Ronon could point out he himself had gone longer than that in the past, he added, “He’s more sensitive to it, makes him sick.” Ronon nodded and took the shot, heavy metal rattling as it fell to the floor.
“It’s more than that,” Cadman picked up where he left off. “His blood sugar drops to dangerous levels. It gets too low, he can fall into a coma or die.” She pulled Rodney’s wrists forward, holding the excess weight in her own hands. “It’s an unpleasant feeling, to say the least.”
Ronon waited until after the second shot to guess, “You have it too?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Couldn’t do my job if I did. I just happened to have the wonderful happenstance of getting stuck in McKay’s head for a few days. Got a bit of a better understanding about it and realized he was actually serious about it.”
“Always serious, just no one believes me,” Rodney muttered, but there was no heat to his words. That alone was cause for concern in Ronon’s mind.
“What you gave him, does it fix it?” he asked.
Cadman shook her head. “Not completely.” She helped pull McKay to his feet, supporting him while he wavered until Teyla and Lorne came to lead him out of the cell. She held up one of the little disks and let him take it. “They’re just glucose tabs, sugar. Helps stop the crash, but he’ll still be out of it for a bit.” Louder now, to the retreating back of the scientist, she called, “Carson’s going to have a field day with you!”
Ronon touched the disk with the tip of his tongue, wincing at the painfully sweet and tart taste. “Where’d you get these?” he asked, already trying to figure out how to carry spares on the next mission.
Cadman smiled, most likely figuring out his plan. “Infirmary’s got some, but I bootlegged some back from my last trip to Earth. Can give you a couple if you’d like,” she offered.
“I’d like,” he confirmed. They gathered their gear and helped Sheppard out of the dark cell. “So he’s not just bitching when he say’s he’s hungry?”
“No, he’s bitching,” Sheppard smiled without humor, stepping into the daylight. “It’s just there’s a reason for it this time.”
They headed out towards the Jumper, noting the villagers cowering out of their way. Something prickled at Ronon’s memory as he helped his teammate up the ramp. “Stuck in his head?”
A wicked look passed over the Lieutenant’s face. “Oh, do I have stories...”
4. The Similarities Between The Marine Way and The Satedan Way
“You coming tonight?” Cadman asked, easily keeping up with his brisk pace even though his stride was much longer than her own.
He slowed slightly, as much to bide his time as to be polite. “’Lantean parties aren’t quite my thing,” he hedged.
He was expecting her to be offended, not to laugh. “That’s because you’ve only been to the ‘official gatherings’ hosted by Doctor Weir in an attempt to get the brawn and Civies to play well with each other. Trust me when I say a Marine-only party will be... different,” she explained. He noted her careful choice of words while they walked through a corridor filled with scientists.
“Different how?” he asked once the crowd had thinned.
“Less pomp, more booze, and you don’t even have to dress up,” she promised.
“No ceremonies?” he asked warily.
“Not unless you count the moment of silence when they tap the keg – which don’t even ask me how they got that here other than to score one for Marine ingenuity,” she swore.
“What’s a keg?”
“Oh, are you in for a surprise,” she smiled.
Several hours later, he really was pleasantly surprised. He was also pleasantly buzzed, if he was to use Cadman’s description of his state of being. The beer they poured from the keg tasted like a cross between the small cans Sheppard sometimes shared with him and the ale the Ilisonians brewed. All in all, not too bad.
The quiet when the keg was tapped was the last bit of silence for pretty much the rest of the night. People were drinking, people were laughing, and people were doing stupid stunts that they probably wouldn’t have thought of while sober. Cadman and Lorne insisted they would have thought of them, but they just wouldn’t have carried them out.
Sheppard had stopped by at the beginning, had a mug or two, and then left, muttering about how he made his required appearance and now they can have the real fun behind his back. Ronon had to admit things got a bit more lively after he left.
“What are they doing over there?” he asked Cadman, who insisted he call her Laura off duty. He tried to remember, but she didn’t seem to mind if he forgot.
She looked over to where several people were huddled, paper and pens out and what looked like currency or goods were exchanging hands. “That would be the betting pool,” she answered with an eye roll before tossing back the last of her current mug of Athosian wine. She had switched to that after the beer, insisting she was getting hooked on the sweeter taste.
Ronon nodded. It made sense. He thought of his own regiment and what they got up to on nights similar to this one. “What are they betting on?” He didn’t see any caged dinae, so he figured it would be pretty tame in comparison.
Laura shrugged and pushed another glass into his hand, helpfully supplied by a passing Captain. “Who will be found face down in the Botany labs, who will make the Walk of Shame in the morning, who will start the first fight, who will finish it...” she ticked off on her fingers, ending with, “You know, the usual.”
He nodded, it sounded similar enough to the lesser bets of his own people, not to mention the ones he overheard at the last Fire Dance on the mainland. Now that was fun.
He studied the last of the foamy yellowish liquid in his glass, thinking about the similarities and the differences between the people he’d joined and the people he had belonged to. His contemplation was interrupted by a scuffle nearby.
“Dare you to say that to her face,” Williamson was scoffing, using a chair to steady himself as he gestured wildly in their direction.
The blond man next to him nodded, swaying wildly as he scuffed his feet across the floor and towards where both Ronon and Cadman were watching with interest. “You’re drunk, Jesse. Go away before you do something stupid,” Laura warned.
“I just need to know something,” he insisted, slurring his words.
“And what’s that?” she asked warily.
He grinned, breathing stale alcohol onto them both. “If you moving on to the locals means you already worked your way through the Marines, because I think you missed a few of us...”
Ronon had to give her credit for her speed. She was on her feet and shaking out her hand before the man even finished his sentence. He knew better than to interfere; it was her honor at stake not his. That, and she seemed to be handling herself quite well.
Several of the Marines behind the man looked almost as if they were going to catch him on the way down, but stood aside at the last moment, moving their beer and themselves out of harm’s way. The man Laura had called Jesse crashed to the floor, spluttering and flailing for a moment before pushing himself up to finish it. Eying him versus Cadman, Ronon’s money was on Laura all the way.
It didn’t come to that though, as Lorne pushed his way in between the two of them, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. “Don’t do anything you’ll regret, either one of you,” he warned.
“She hit me!” Jesse accused, face flushing red even as he wavered in place.
“Didn’t see a thing,” Lorne replied, anything but apologetic. He looked around to the others, who quickly looked away. “Anyone here see Cadman hit him?”
Several people shook their heads. “Heard him make a couple unfortunate remarks, then somehow fall on his ass,” Williamson offered. With as much of an innocent look as any Marine could muster, he added, “It was the damnedest thing...”
Lorne snorted, “I’m sure it was.” Turning back to the fuming, and still stumbling man, he ordered, “Go grab an icepack and your rack. In the morning this will all be a bad dream.” He got a glare, but a nod for his efforts, and the drunk man shuffled out of the room. Another nod from Lorne, and Savorak followed, probably making sure he got there okay.
Ronon was impressed. His taskmaster would have done the same, knowing any escalation would have ended in bloodshed and injury time for members of the squad as they all took sides and joined in. He smiled at Laura as she sulked back to her seat, offering her another mug of wine that mysteriously appeared from one of her team.
“Sorry about that,” she said with a wince.
“No need,” he shrugged. “Reminded me of home.”
That got a laugh out of her. “So the Satedan Way and the Marine Way are pretty damn close?” she asked before taking a deep drought of her wine.
“Something like that,” he grinned.
5. Satedan Way is Better
Ronon woke slowly, savoring the warmth around him. Cadman, Laura, was curled half on her side and half on top of him. She was just beginning to stir, nuzzling her nose in his dreadlocks. He felt it when she woke fully, tightening his arm around her as she tensed suddenly. “Shit,” she murmured into his shoulder.
“You okay?” he asked. Her head shot up, red-blonde hair hanging in tangles over her pale face. Recognition hit as her eyes grew wide and a hint of pink flared across her shoulders and ears.
She pushed herself upwards, small hand across his ribcage. “I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I didn’t...”
He cut her off by trailing a finger down her arm, tracing what she called freckles the night before, and ending by grazing over her slightly swollen knuckles. “It’s okay,” he consoled her.
“But...” she tried. “I shouldn’t... It’s not proper, not that that means much here. And after what Jesse said last night... I just... Shit.” She pushed some of the hair out of her eyes and seemed to lose herself for a moment, watching his lips, his eyes, even his nose, as if locking it into her memory.
“Do you regret it?” he asked.
She shook her head. “No.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
She buried her face in his shoulder, her words muffled as she replied, “The rumors, the gossip, the looks.” She sighed, breath ghosting across his skin. “When we placed bets last night, I never thought I would be the one making the Walk of Shame in the morning.”
He loosened his hold, letting her prop herself up fully and take a look at her surroundings. Her very familiar surroundings as they were lying on her bed in her room. She glanced down at him, a look of confusion on her face. “No shame,” he promised.
“None?” she verified. Seeing how she swung a leg over his and moved to lay across him, he had a feeling she already knew the answer.
“None at all.” He raised himself to meet her and smiled, “It’s not the Satedan Way.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Feedback is always welcomed.
Title: Four Things Ronon Learned from Lt. Cadman, and One Thing He Taught Her
Genre: Het (I know, I’m scared), Ronon/Cadman
Length: ~3300 words
Rating: R
Synopsis: Pretty much the title.
Disclaimer: Not mine, belongs to people with far more money than I have. I’m just borrowing them to play and making no profit from this.
~~~~~~~~~~
1. Things Go Boom
“This is C4,” the small redhead at the front of the room was saying. “C4 is your friend. Say hello to your friend,” she prompted. There was silence and several people looked at her like she was insane. “No, really, say hello to your new friend as you are about to become even better friends,” she tried.
“Hello,” Ronon grumbled, smirking at the others who reluctantly followed his lead.
“Very good,” the woman, Cadman, purred. She started pacing in front of a small table heavy with various supplies, tossing a block of what was supposedly a highly explosive substance back and forth between her hands like a toy. “And do you know why you’re about to become very good friends with the C4?”
He wasn’t sure if she was asking him directly, but answered anyway. “Because Sheppard told me to,” he shrugged.
There were snickers from the row of men behind him, and he caught a glint of humor in her eyes. “Well, there’s that,” she admitted with a grin. “There’s also the fact that C4 is one of the few things proven consistently effective against Wraith strongholds and even sections of their ships. We’re not positive about it working against the Wraith themselves with their healing abilities because there were a few moral objections to trying it on any of the ones we’ve captured.” She rolled her eyes to let it be known just what she thought of those objections. Mimicking his shrug, she added, “Suffice it to say, I’m betting even they can’t recover from a missing head or torso.”
“No, they can’t,” Ronon agreed, earning him a few looks from the new recruits and an appraising smile from the Lieutenant. “Didn’t have this stuff, but they couldn’t recover from a blade,” he explained.
She nodded and took her place at the table once more. She tossed him the brick she had been playing with, and he caught it in one hand. It was softer than he thought it would be, like the dough he played with as a child. From the smell he doubted it would taste as good though.
She was talking again, so he focused on the words. “Today I’m going to tell you how to use it and, if you’re really good, how to make your own.” The grin was back as she added, “We’re going to make things go boom.”
2. Size Matters, Just Not In the Way You Think
Ronon grunted, pushing his arm as far as he could through the bars that lined the cell. Even with his shoulder wedged in as far as it would go, his fingers were far shy of the controls. He had already tried several knives, all of them bouncing harmlessly off the clunky console. He was beginning to miss the softer organics of the Wraith ships.
“No go?” Martinez asked from his spot on the floor. The Satedan turned to give him a look that warned he was stating the obvious again, but his eyes caught the growing puddle of red beneath the man’s left leg and he decided to give it a pass this time. They needed to get him out of there, and soon.
“Let me try,” Cadman suggested, wiping slick hands on her fatigues after readjusting the other Marine’s bandage.
“If he can’t get it, what makes you think you can?” Williamson asked, still holding a cloth to his own useless arm.
Ronon simply backed away and made a gesture for her to try. He had learned early on not to underestimate the Atlanteans. That went double for the Marines, and double again for the women. Cadman, Laura, had both going for her. He was willing to see what she was capable of.
She stood up, barely coming even with his shoulder, and started unzipping first her tac vest, and then her bulky outer coat that she had still been wearing when tossed in the cell with them. The people of the village were either incredibly confident, or incredibly stupid, leaving the team with most of their own supplies, but no outward weaponry. Ronon was voting for stupid.
“Hey, LT, as much as we enjoy the show, there’s no guard around to distract with it,” Williamson commented. Cadman gave him a look and tossed her vest at him, taking obvious pride in the fact it hit him smack in the face.
Down to her t-shirt and fatigue pants, she approached the bars, turning to the side and threading her arm and head through. After a bit of shimmying, a few muttered complaints of, “I shouldn’t have had that extra donut,” and a dainty turn of her ankle, she was through to the other side. It took her but a moment to figure out what did what and hit the switch to open the door.
“Nice,” Ronon commented as he grabbed his knives.
Cadman accepted her gear from a sheepish looking Williamson. She grinned while shrugging the coat and vest back into place. “Well, you know what they say: size matters.”
3. Sometimes a Bitch is More than a Bitch
Cadman was with him when they finally found them. Sheppard and McKay were in a tiny dirt and rock cell, covered with minor scratches and bruises, but otherwise whole. “You ready to blow this joint, sir?” she asked as Ronon kicked the last of the door away to follow her in.
The two men were chained to opposite walls, the heavy manacles on their wrists making even the slightest movements look awkward and painful. “How long have we been gone?” Sheppard demanded, pulling back slightly to give them room to work. There were no keys that they had found so far, but they had Ronon’s blaster and Cadman’s precious C4, so he wasn’t that concerned.
“Only about thirty hours, sir,” she replied, shouldering her weapon and examining the chains for weak points. “One of the locals was... encouraged... to let us know where they were holding you.”
Ronon watched as her hands froze and her eyes shot up to meet his, an entire silent conversation passing between her and her CO in a matter of seconds. “None?” she confirmed.
Sheppard shook his head. “Had nothing for about four hours before that, too.”
“Shit!” she swore, dropping what she was doing to dig in her pockets. She produced a small foil-wrapped packet sealed in a plastic bag, ripping open its contents as she crawled over to McKay.
It was then Ronon noticed how pale the scientist was, how he was sweating despite the cold dampness that surrounded them, and how his shadowed eyes weren’t really tracking. “What’s wrong with him?” he asked.
“Hypoglycemia,” Sheppard ground out, voice harsh and dry. He accepted the canteen handed to him by one of the other Marines and took several careful sips.
“Come on, McKay,” Cadman was saying, gently tapping the other man’s face. “Stay with me,” she tried, pushing a small disk of something into his mouth before barely wetting his lips with a canteen.
He sputtered, nearly spitting out whatever it was she gave him, but she simply pushed it back in. He made a face at the taste, but obediently chewed. Little bits of moist powder lined his lips as he asked, “Laura? How’d you get here?”
“Through judicious use of force,” she replied, a concerned look passing over her face as he simply nodded absently. “Here, have another one,” she insisted, thumbing another disk towards his lips.
“Tastes like shit,” he complained, words slurring together as he chewed once again. He lolled against the wall, passively letting her check his pulse and shine a light into his eyes.
“You can have a Power Bar when we get out of here,” she promised, offering the canteen again. His hands shook and he nearly dropped it, the Lieutenant barely catching it and helping him to drink. “Just so you know, Teyla says you’re never allowed to go anywhere without her again,” she added, not bothering to hide the concern in her voice as she made him drink another sip.
“What’s wrong with him?” Ronon repeated, taking over testing Sheppard’s chains before giving up and reaching for his gun.
John backed up as far as he could, turning his head to shield his eyes. “He hasn’t eaten for over a day,” he explained. Before Ronon could point out he himself had gone longer than that in the past, he added, “He’s more sensitive to it, makes him sick.” Ronon nodded and took the shot, heavy metal rattling as it fell to the floor.
“It’s more than that,” Cadman picked up where he left off. “His blood sugar drops to dangerous levels. It gets too low, he can fall into a coma or die.” She pulled Rodney’s wrists forward, holding the excess weight in her own hands. “It’s an unpleasant feeling, to say the least.”
Ronon waited until after the second shot to guess, “You have it too?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Couldn’t do my job if I did. I just happened to have the wonderful happenstance of getting stuck in McKay’s head for a few days. Got a bit of a better understanding about it and realized he was actually serious about it.”
“Always serious, just no one believes me,” Rodney muttered, but there was no heat to his words. That alone was cause for concern in Ronon’s mind.
“What you gave him, does it fix it?” he asked.
Cadman shook her head. “Not completely.” She helped pull McKay to his feet, supporting him while he wavered until Teyla and Lorne came to lead him out of the cell. She held up one of the little disks and let him take it. “They’re just glucose tabs, sugar. Helps stop the crash, but he’ll still be out of it for a bit.” Louder now, to the retreating back of the scientist, she called, “Carson’s going to have a field day with you!”
Ronon touched the disk with the tip of his tongue, wincing at the painfully sweet and tart taste. “Where’d you get these?” he asked, already trying to figure out how to carry spares on the next mission.
Cadman smiled, most likely figuring out his plan. “Infirmary’s got some, but I bootlegged some back from my last trip to Earth. Can give you a couple if you’d like,” she offered.
“I’d like,” he confirmed. They gathered their gear and helped Sheppard out of the dark cell. “So he’s not just bitching when he say’s he’s hungry?”
“No, he’s bitching,” Sheppard smiled without humor, stepping into the daylight. “It’s just there’s a reason for it this time.”
They headed out towards the Jumper, noting the villagers cowering out of their way. Something prickled at Ronon’s memory as he helped his teammate up the ramp. “Stuck in his head?”
A wicked look passed over the Lieutenant’s face. “Oh, do I have stories...”
4. The Similarities Between The Marine Way and The Satedan Way
“You coming tonight?” Cadman asked, easily keeping up with his brisk pace even though his stride was much longer than her own.
He slowed slightly, as much to bide his time as to be polite. “’Lantean parties aren’t quite my thing,” he hedged.
He was expecting her to be offended, not to laugh. “That’s because you’ve only been to the ‘official gatherings’ hosted by Doctor Weir in an attempt to get the brawn and Civies to play well with each other. Trust me when I say a Marine-only party will be... different,” she explained. He noted her careful choice of words while they walked through a corridor filled with scientists.
“Different how?” he asked once the crowd had thinned.
“Less pomp, more booze, and you don’t even have to dress up,” she promised.
“No ceremonies?” he asked warily.
“Not unless you count the moment of silence when they tap the keg – which don’t even ask me how they got that here other than to score one for Marine ingenuity,” she swore.
“What’s a keg?”
“Oh, are you in for a surprise,” she smiled.
Several hours later, he really was pleasantly surprised. He was also pleasantly buzzed, if he was to use Cadman’s description of his state of being. The beer they poured from the keg tasted like a cross between the small cans Sheppard sometimes shared with him and the ale the Ilisonians brewed. All in all, not too bad.
The quiet when the keg was tapped was the last bit of silence for pretty much the rest of the night. People were drinking, people were laughing, and people were doing stupid stunts that they probably wouldn’t have thought of while sober. Cadman and Lorne insisted they would have thought of them, but they just wouldn’t have carried them out.
Sheppard had stopped by at the beginning, had a mug or two, and then left, muttering about how he made his required appearance and now they can have the real fun behind his back. Ronon had to admit things got a bit more lively after he left.
“What are they doing over there?” he asked Cadman, who insisted he call her Laura off duty. He tried to remember, but she didn’t seem to mind if he forgot.
She looked over to where several people were huddled, paper and pens out and what looked like currency or goods were exchanging hands. “That would be the betting pool,” she answered with an eye roll before tossing back the last of her current mug of Athosian wine. She had switched to that after the beer, insisting she was getting hooked on the sweeter taste.
Ronon nodded. It made sense. He thought of his own regiment and what they got up to on nights similar to this one. “What are they betting on?” He didn’t see any caged dinae, so he figured it would be pretty tame in comparison.
Laura shrugged and pushed another glass into his hand, helpfully supplied by a passing Captain. “Who will be found face down in the Botany labs, who will make the Walk of Shame in the morning, who will start the first fight, who will finish it...” she ticked off on her fingers, ending with, “You know, the usual.”
He nodded, it sounded similar enough to the lesser bets of his own people, not to mention the ones he overheard at the last Fire Dance on the mainland. Now that was fun.
He studied the last of the foamy yellowish liquid in his glass, thinking about the similarities and the differences between the people he’d joined and the people he had belonged to. His contemplation was interrupted by a scuffle nearby.
“Dare you to say that to her face,” Williamson was scoffing, using a chair to steady himself as he gestured wildly in their direction.
The blond man next to him nodded, swaying wildly as he scuffed his feet across the floor and towards where both Ronon and Cadman were watching with interest. “You’re drunk, Jesse. Go away before you do something stupid,” Laura warned.
“I just need to know something,” he insisted, slurring his words.
“And what’s that?” she asked warily.
He grinned, breathing stale alcohol onto them both. “If you moving on to the locals means you already worked your way through the Marines, because I think you missed a few of us...”
Ronon had to give her credit for her speed. She was on her feet and shaking out her hand before the man even finished his sentence. He knew better than to interfere; it was her honor at stake not his. That, and she seemed to be handling herself quite well.
Several of the Marines behind the man looked almost as if they were going to catch him on the way down, but stood aside at the last moment, moving their beer and themselves out of harm’s way. The man Laura had called Jesse crashed to the floor, spluttering and flailing for a moment before pushing himself up to finish it. Eying him versus Cadman, Ronon’s money was on Laura all the way.
It didn’t come to that though, as Lorne pushed his way in between the two of them, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. “Don’t do anything you’ll regret, either one of you,” he warned.
“She hit me!” Jesse accused, face flushing red even as he wavered in place.
“Didn’t see a thing,” Lorne replied, anything but apologetic. He looked around to the others, who quickly looked away. “Anyone here see Cadman hit him?”
Several people shook their heads. “Heard him make a couple unfortunate remarks, then somehow fall on his ass,” Williamson offered. With as much of an innocent look as any Marine could muster, he added, “It was the damnedest thing...”
Lorne snorted, “I’m sure it was.” Turning back to the fuming, and still stumbling man, he ordered, “Go grab an icepack and your rack. In the morning this will all be a bad dream.” He got a glare, but a nod for his efforts, and the drunk man shuffled out of the room. Another nod from Lorne, and Savorak followed, probably making sure he got there okay.
Ronon was impressed. His taskmaster would have done the same, knowing any escalation would have ended in bloodshed and injury time for members of the squad as they all took sides and joined in. He smiled at Laura as she sulked back to her seat, offering her another mug of wine that mysteriously appeared from one of her team.
“Sorry about that,” she said with a wince.
“No need,” he shrugged. “Reminded me of home.”
That got a laugh out of her. “So the Satedan Way and the Marine Way are pretty damn close?” she asked before taking a deep drought of her wine.
“Something like that,” he grinned.
5. Satedan Way is Better
Ronon woke slowly, savoring the warmth around him. Cadman, Laura, was curled half on her side and half on top of him. She was just beginning to stir, nuzzling her nose in his dreadlocks. He felt it when she woke fully, tightening his arm around her as she tensed suddenly. “Shit,” she murmured into his shoulder.
“You okay?” he asked. Her head shot up, red-blonde hair hanging in tangles over her pale face. Recognition hit as her eyes grew wide and a hint of pink flared across her shoulders and ears.
She pushed herself upwards, small hand across his ribcage. “I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I didn’t...”
He cut her off by trailing a finger down her arm, tracing what she called freckles the night before, and ending by grazing over her slightly swollen knuckles. “It’s okay,” he consoled her.
“But...” she tried. “I shouldn’t... It’s not proper, not that that means much here. And after what Jesse said last night... I just... Shit.” She pushed some of the hair out of her eyes and seemed to lose herself for a moment, watching his lips, his eyes, even his nose, as if locking it into her memory.
“Do you regret it?” he asked.
She shook her head. “No.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
She buried her face in his shoulder, her words muffled as she replied, “The rumors, the gossip, the looks.” She sighed, breath ghosting across his skin. “When we placed bets last night, I never thought I would be the one making the Walk of Shame in the morning.”
He loosened his hold, letting her prop herself up fully and take a look at her surroundings. Her very familiar surroundings as they were lying on her bed in her room. She glanced down at him, a look of confusion on her face. “No shame,” he promised.
“None?” she verified. Seeing how she swung a leg over his and moved to lay across him, he had a feeling she already knew the answer.
“None at all.” He raised himself to meet her and smiled, “It’s not the Satedan Way.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Feedback is always welcomed.
no subject
no subject
no subject
Great story.
Loved the Marine Party. :)
no subject
no subject
Dee
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
nicely done...
please, may we have some more? ;)
bb
no subject
awesum!
-me
Re: awesum!