Chapter Seven

Ronon stands in the space in between his bed and Rodney’s. He looks around at the walls. There’s no more lightning, but sparks are still dripping from random scorch marks and slightly still burning bits of wall and ceiling all over the place, casting random flashes of golden light and fading glows from dying orange embers. He looks over at Rodney. McKay’s still breathing laboriously and still sleeping as contentedly looking as Ronon figures he can possibly look considering his condition. So that was good, Rodney suffered no more damage than what he already had. Ronon looks over at his own bed… or at least what’s left of it. The Earth-made medical bed constructed of soft cushions and a steel pipe frame has a giant hole through the center of it with blackened burned sheets around it. The middle of the frame crushed down in on itself as though a huge boulder had crashed down through it. Smoke’s still coming from the hole’s center in tall, stretching whispy plumes. Jennifer, Sheppard, Teyla, and Kenmore run in just as soon as the door’s open enough to let them through. Jennifer immediately bolts to Rodney’s side and begins checking him. Ronon feels a little twinge of hurt in the face of her complete ignorance of him as Sheppard, Teyla, and Kenmore slow to a stop at the sight of Ronon’s destroyed bed.

“Well nice to see you out of bed,” Sheppard comments with a single nod to his friend.

Yeah, Ronon knew that.

“What happened,” the Satedan asks.

“Anubis threw a temper tantrum,” Kenmore answers.

“And tried to overload the forcefields we had him trapped behind,” Sheppard adds.

Ronon nods, “Who’s idea was that?”

Kenmore raises her hand, “Sorry. My mistake, I didn’t anticipate him blowing a fuse.”

Ronon stares at her. Her words striking an ironic cord with him as the words he should have spoken to her. His mind flashing to the times he had the opportunity to speak to her. As soon as the others had come to their rescue in the computer room on Anubis’s ship. In the medical ward while he laid in bed fully awake and she laid in the bed right next to his recovering from her shoulder wound. Or when she sat on the edge of her medical bed a few feet away from him with Keller giving her a final checkup before releasing her back to easy but active duty. And there were multiple much shorter times in between those. He could have spoken up. Should have. Ronon keeps silent and just nods at her. She shrugs it off, oblivious.

“And Rodney,” Teyla asks urgently.

Jennifer relaxes slightly as she straightens back up and looks over at her. “He’s fine,” she tries to breathe calmly, but she had been panicked, so scared for him, and she was having trouble bringing her breathing and heart rate back under some mimic of control, “but he’s no longer safe here,” she informs them.

One of the burning, dripping scorch marks up near the ceiling of the wall behind her suddenly burps with more sparks and a quick intense flash of golden light. The others jump back from it as Jennifer throws her body over Rodney and covers him. When the aftershock round of Anubis-grade fireworks flickers out, the dying ember glow resumes over the shadowy room. After a moment, just to make sure the coast was clear, Jennifer slowly straightens back up as the others come out of their defensive crouches also. Sheppard glares at the offending scorch mark.

“I’d say that was right, but where do we put him. Even the Command Center took its fair share of hits,” he says.

Ronon stares at Sheppard. Sheppard catches the look in his friend’s eyes and shakes his head at him.

“Just some of the computers,” Sheppard pacifies. Ronon nods.

“Exactly, we take him to the Command Center.”

They all stare at Jennifer.

“You cannot be serious, Jennifer,” Teyla breaths at her, “The Command Center will be Anubis’s focus from now on. He now knows we can control his movements from there. He will try to stop us again.”

“It’s a good call,” Kenmore speaks up from behind Teyla and Sheppard.

They turn around to look at her. Ronon too. Again Kenmore looks back at the rest of the team she’s a part of like nothing’s wrong with Keller’s suggestion and why the hell were they complicating things more than they had to be. She genuinely looks like she believes what she just said: Doc Keller’s made a good call.

“She isn’t spread so thin there and the gateroom area is the most protected in the city especially during a lockdown. Anubis only blew up a couple of computers, he didn’t take a whack at the entire area like he did here.”

Well, Sheppard’d be damned, she had a point; perhaps that was Jennifer’s point too. He looks back at Jennifer.

“The Command Center is the best option,” the doctor repeats even more firmly than she’d said it in the first place.

“Don’t I get a say in this,” Rodney asks weakly.

Everyone looks over at him. He turns his head very gingerly and very slightly and looks back at them.