Chapter Text
When was the last time she was this exhausted, Kat thought. Maybe never, she decided. Carson had shooed her away when she had trouble keeping her eyes open while he treated a young ensign with burns over his back and legs. She boosted the patient’s immune system, pushed his healing and endorphins, and sang songs to him as he grimaced in discomfort at the tightness of the regeneration process.
Now, she wanted to crawl into bed and sleep for a week but she was starved as well. She couldn’t remember the last time she ate. When she entered the galley, she saw them. Team Atlantis. They were laughing heartily at something Sheppard said and she paused for a moment, a wave of homesickness washing over her. Then Adrian saw her and waved to join them.
She picked up a bowl of soup, real bread and fruit. Much of the food on the Atlantis was real, she noted. Not the replicator nonsense the Excalibur suffered through. She sat between Adrian and Colin and began to eat, hoping she didn’t collapse into her soup.
“So how is our super girl this evening?” Adrian said, picking up Colin’s nickname for her.
“Tired,” she admitted.
“You were out after Mangell,” Teyla said, bouncing a toddler on her lap. “I can’t imagine how exhausted you must be now.”
The little boy squealed and squirmed to get down. He hugged Bear who dropped on his stomach and allowed the child to climb onto his back. The big dog gave the happy boy a ride around the cafeteria.
Kat smiled at the sight. She had noticed more children playing in the halls here than on the Excalibur and wondered at the number of families who served on board.
“She must have been tired,” Sheppard said. “Women don’t usually pass out in Ronan’s arms.”
She paused and looked at the big man. He gave a charming smile and shrugged.
“He carried you all the way to your cabin and put you to bed,” Sheppard said. “He was quite chivalrous. It scared me a little.”
She smiled in commiseration with the big Satedan and wondered at his fierce friendship with Sheppard. What battles had these two faced to be such good friends?
“I think Ronan is quite chivalrous toward the ladies,” Teyla argued. “If there is any passing out, it’s from pleasure.”
The group shared in the bawdy laughter and Ronan blushed a little. Kat noted he shared the same physiology with humans, just bigger. She happened to glance down and her eyes widened. Much bigger. Her eyes snapped up and she saw the amused look on his face.
“Can they all hear me when I talk to you?” he asked mentally.
“Not if you don’t want them to,” she replied.
“You were amazing. A warrior goddess today. I haven’t seen anything like it since my home world.”
“Your women are warriors?” she asked.
He nodded. “Sometimes. We fought the Klingons and lost. Women fought as fiercely as men for our homes,” he said.
She could sense the sadness and an image. A beautiful woman.
“What was her name?” she asked.
“Malia,” he said.
“She’s beautiful. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry but she is so close to your thoughts.”
He shrugged. “It’s okay. You might be the only person I wouldn’t mind being in my head. Although, it’s not a happy place.”
She took a bite of bread. “No, it usually isn’t when we lose everyone we love,” she said.
She saw the recognition flare in his eyes as he realized she knew something of that loss as well.
Colin snapped his fingers in front of her face.
“Hello. How many?”
“What?” she asked.
“How many Ocri did I take out today?” Colin asked, apparently for the second time.
“Good grief, you count that sort of thing?” she asked.
“Only if it’s more than Sheppard,” Teyla said.
Kat glanced over her memories and said, “You had the pistol and he had the phaser. I think it was about the same.”
They began to argue again and she continued, “But clearly Ronan had more than both of you.”
Their argument died with their looks of horror. She grinned. And Ronan giggled. That amazing man-chuckle that made her tingle to her toes. Well, now, she thought. Apparently it wasn’t just Earth males she was attracted to.
Terren and Elizabeth joined them as Colin began to berate Kat.
“Clearly you experienced some head injury. Between leaving a perfectly good shuttle and marching back into that university like an avenging angel, you must have suffered a concussion,” Colin told her.
The team laughed and teased her at the memory.
“That was pretty amazing,” Ronan told her silently.
She shrugged. “I was so mad, I don’t remember much of it,” she admitted telepathically.
“Warrior goddess,” he said, grinning.
Kat had finished wolfing her food and noticed Bear begged several pieces of meat from Teyla.
She sighed and apologized. “I need sleep. Real sleep, like for days maybe,” she said, ruefully standing to leave the group.
Ronan stood to walk her to her cabin as Colin said, “Such a wimp.”
Teyla asked why he was so hard on Kat. Was it because of the chickens? Or maybe he was still feeling ill from the shuttle.
He stopped and thought for a moment, surprised. He looked at Rodney. “I thought you said you didn’t fix the inertial dampeners on the shuttles.”
Rodney scowled, back to his usual terrified and brilliant self. “I still don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Colin looked confused and then it dawned on him. He looked at Kat and saw the smile on her face.
“Oh hell no,” he said. “I am not hauling you around for the rest of my days in Starfleet just to avoid being seasick,” he said.
She sensed his affection as he realized how she had protected him, even when they were in the early days of their war.
Teyla reached behind her to a cleaning bag from a nearby cart and handed it to him.
The group laughed as she asked, “Would that be so bad?”
“Terrible!” Colin said without much heat.
“There is a kind of merry war betwixt them,” Terran said, trying to explain what he still did not understand.
Sheppard grinned. “Nice literal reference.”
“Vulcan children have a very well-rounded education, including the complete works of the great Vulcan playwright, Shakespeare.”
Sheppard arched an eyebrow before turning back to Kat. “A war?”
“He’s quite horrible,” she said, sounding young and vulnerable.
Colin grimaced. “Nah. It’s all good,” he said, not very convincing.
Kat snorted. “Colin thinks I’m more trouble than I’m worth.”
“He does keep trying to perfect a method for capturing or detaining her,” Terran said.
Colin frowned at the Vulcan’s lack of filter.
“Normally, I’d say it shouldn’t be that hard to do,” Sheppard said, looking at the small human they were discussing.
“You have no idea,” Colin said in an aggrieved tone.
Ronan pulled his weapon and fired up the crystal, pointing the charged gun at Kat.
“Ronan, No!” Teyla shouted.
Sheppard tried to step in front of Kat to protect her but Bear got in the way and tripped him.
Elizabeth yelped in alarm.
Kat merely tilted her head and considered the enormous man. Then, a slow smile crept over her face and she sauntered, all feminine man killer, toward Ronan, taking her time as she approached.
Colin grinned in anticipation and noted Ronan’s widening eyes as she approached.
“Are you compelling him to stand still?” Colin asked her telepathically.
“No, but I will you if you don’t shush,” she whispered back.
She reached the big Satedan and, using one finger, pushed the weapon away. Then she stood nearly on pointe and he bent his head to hear what she whispered into his ear.
“This should be good,” Colin said, grinning broadly.
When she finished, Kat stepped away and Ronan threw his head back and roared in laughter.
Kat turned to Elizabeth. “I think I’ll turn in now. Good night.” She sounded as though people pointed guns at her everyday.
“Good night,” Elizabeth said, echoed by the rest of the group.
“That’s it?” Colin shouted. “No knocking him on his ass; no barking like a poodle or embarrassing hypnosis?”
The team glanced at him and wondered what he was going on about.
Kat turned to Colin. “Of course not. He had no intention of shooting me, as opposed to some people I know.” She patted Ronan’s chest and told him to stay with his friends.
Sheppard nudged Adrian and pointed toward Bear. The big wolf’s eyebrows knit as he watched the spectacle. He had been grinning at the sight of the big man when he pulled the gun. Now he looked as bewildered as a furry dog could possibly look.
As Kat left, Sheppard asked Ronan what she said.
“She said she always appreciates a man with a big gun,” he said grinning.
Bear began to grumble in a series of wookie noises. Sheppard had to think Bear would have preferred Ronan landed on his ass as well. The dog trotted off, still mumbling while the team wound down from one of their most interesting days, ever. Eventually all turned in but the captain and her first mate.
Sheppard and Elizabeth sat for a moment, quietly thinking about how things could have gone very differently today.
“I wonder how much she’s changed,” John finally said. He glanced at Elizabeth. “Since her father put her in the stasis pod. I wonder how much she’s changed.”
Elizabeth wondered where this was coming from. “It’s only been a few weeks, in her conscious mind, so probably not much.”
“I bet it’s a lot,” he said. “She’s lost her folks and is making her way on her own for the first time in her life. I bet she’s changed a lot. You know, like over-protected kids when they hit that first year of college. We’re her freshmen class,” he said.
Elizabeth considered, then gave him a disconcerted look. “God help us.”
He grinned. “Maybe Colin had the right idea.”
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. “I forbid it John. The last thing we need is a scandal from treating John Harrison’s daughter badly.”
“Huh,” he said distractedly as he walked away.
Elizabeth called after him. “I’m serious John.”
He waved a hand in acknowledgement as he headed for some much needed sleep. You would think Elizabeth would have learned better by now.