dorthrakidex

[dorthrakidex]

Day 8: Panic

John sat in his room. He had dimmed the lights and was sitting against the wall. His hands were shaking and he was having a hard time regulating his breathing. He brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. He closed his eyes and started counting his breaths. After a couple of minutes, he got up and walked to this bathroom.

The first thing he was going to do was take a shower. He put the water as hot as he could stand it, hoping that the heat would calm is frayed nerves. It wasn't any one event that had caused him to feel this way. It had been feeling off for the last few days. He figured that it could be stress from his job, after all he had never thought that he'd be the commanding officer of a base, much less one that was so far from Earth. But here it was.

He walked into his bathroom. The reason he had the lights dimmed was that he could feel a migraine starting just behind his eyes. He knew that he was supposed to meet Ronon for dinner but he had barely made it through his post mission physical without wanting to puke or pass out...possibly both. He leaned his head against the tiled wall, then foregone standing altogether and just slid down the wall. He didn't hear his door whoosh open over the spray of the water.

Ronon stood in John's room with a tray from the mess in his hands. He was unsure why his boyfriend hadn't shown up but he was going to find out. He heard the water in the bathroom shut off and waited on John's bed.

John stood in front of the mirror and tried to calm his breathing. But the reflection staring back at him had yellow slanted eyes and not his natural hazel ones. He tried splashing water on his face, thinking that he was just tired. But the reflection remained the same. He walked into his bedroom, trying not to shake. Ronon noticed that he was looking down, avoiding any and all eye contact.

“John? What's wrong?” Ronon put his hand under John's chin to try and get him to look up. John was reluctant at first, but Ronon was stronger than him. If there was something wrong with his boyfriend, he wanted to know what that was. He schooled his expression when he saw the yellow reptile like eyes.

John took a deep breath. “Mind checking the rest of me? I want to make sure that this is the only change before I talk to Keller.”

Ronon took off John's towel that he had wrapped around his waist. “As if I would ever miss an opportunity to check you out.” Ronon gave John a grin as John rolled his eyes. Ronon checked over every inch of John's body and so far it was just his eyes, but he knew that they had to see Keller to just to be on the safe side.

John got dressed and they walked to the infirmary together. Keller, ever the professional didn't let it show how much John's eyes bothered her. After doing every test that she could think of, it was clear that nothing else had changed. Even his blood work and DNA were clean. John sat on the hospital cot, swinging one foot idly as she pronounced him clear. He looked at Ronon.

“So, now what?”

Ronon shrugged, as far as he was concerned there was no cause for concern. He wasn't growing blue scales or having abnormal strength, speed or stamina. “We wait.” He held John's hand not really caring who saw. “And if you turn again, I'll take care of you. I mean that.”

John hugged Ronon tightly after getting off the cot. As Ronon turned him so that it was more of a side hug, so they could leave the infirmary, John did wonder how he got so lucky.

[dorthrakidex]

Day 7: Made to Watch

John never thought that he would ever meet anyone like Ronon Dex, much less fall in love with the man. But as they sat in the Genii cell together he couldn't help but reflect on their relationship. It wasn't as if there was much of anything else to do. He knew that the guards came at regular intervals, and so far they had yet to say what they wanted. Although if he knew the Genii, and he really wished that he didn't, it was never anything good.

John was watching Ronon, who was sitting on the floor of their cell, crossed legged just staring straight ahead. They had taken their weapons, and they must have learned a thing or two about Satedan soldiers because they had even managed to take the knives from Ronon's dreads. The ambush had been swift and effective, so effective in fact that John wasn't even sure how they had managed it, just that they had. And he had no doubt that the entire reason for Ronon's calm silence was that he was plotting his revenge. Ronon had already lost so much, and had very little that anyone who dared to touch anything that was his was deemed worthy of death.

It was almost an hour before John was pulled from his reflective thoughts when the shift change happened and one of the Genii opened their cell pointing a gun at Ronon as another one grabbed John. They walked him out of the cell but no further than just outside the doors. John thought that this was odd but than again he had no idea what they were up to.

The Genii soldier that had pulled John out of the cell, had grabbed both of his arms and secured them behind his back. John knew that this wasn't anything good and he took a deep calming breath through his nose, while locking eyes with Ronon. He wanted to try to convey through eye contact that anything that happened to him was not Ronon's fault. He had just enough time to exhale before the beating started.

First it was a punch to his stomach, with enough force that he was doubled over as all of the air evacuated his lungs. Then he was punched in the face, he could feel his lip split. Without the use of his arms, he was on his back struggling to get on his feet. There was a boot on his chest keeping his down, while another soldier (where he had come from John had no idea) wrapped his large hands around his throat and started to squeeze. There was enough force that John couldn't get any air in. He locked his watery eyes with Ronon. Ronon for his part, had locked eyes with John even though he was still sitting on the floor. John could read the silent panic in the brown eyes but other than that Ronon seemed indifferent as to what they were doing to John.

Just as John thought that his ticket had been punched, they let him up. The cell door was opened and John was pushed inside. They hadn't bothered to untie his arms so when they threw him in he fumbled. Ronon was up with a grace that John had forgotten that the bigger man had, as he caught him. The Genii soldiers laughed.

“Just remember the look of his face turning colour if you feel the need to try and escape.” Their laughter echoed through the halls as they walked away.

Ronon made quick work of the crude bindings on John's wrists and cleaned his split lip as best as he could, using the small first aid kit that he had managed to smuggle out of John's tac vest before they took it from him. He let the apology die on his lips, repeating it in his mind instead. He knew that John would say that it wasn't his fault, that he had nothing to do with what had happened. John would insist that he had known about the dangers of the job when he took the job. None of that would make Ronon feel better about their situation. But he also knew that John would take all the blame himself.

“Don't worry Ronon.” John huffed. “When we're late for the check in Elizabeth will send reinforcements. Hopefully you won't be forced to watch them beat me again before that happens.”

Ronon sat next to John, wrapping an arm around his shoulder as John snuggled into the warmth of Dex's chest. He knew that within the hour reinforcements would be sent, and since they hadn't traveled through the gate since they got there, Elizabeth would know exactly where to send the rescue team and who had been at fault. For the time being all they could do was sit and wait.

[dorthrakidex]

Day 6: Secrets Revealed

John Sheppard sat in his office. He had been staring at his blank computer screen for a while. He knew that there was something up with Ronon; he just had no idea what it was. The Satedan had been acting weird around him for a couple of days. He was determined to get to the bottom of whatever was bothering the bigger man. He closed the lid on his laptop, having made up his mind. He decided that he would go find Ronon and he had a pretty good idea as to where he was.

A few minutes later he was standing in the doorway of one of the sparring rooms. He was watching Ronon put a few of the new marines through their paces. Ronon was one of the best fighters he had ever seen. He wasn't like the recruits that John saw come off the Daedalus. He could use any weapon with deadly accuracy but he was also good at hand to hand combat. That was why John put him in charge of training the new marines in the first place. He knew that when push came to shove Ronon could tangle with the best that Earth had to offer, usually multiples at a time. He had yet to meet a marine that could beat him. In fact John had a little competition going on. Any marine that could take Ronon down would get an entire weekend to do as they pleased, that included getting a jumper and leaving the city. In the two years that Ronon had been with them no one had completed the challenge. It looked like today was no different. Within minutes all of the marines were on the floor, huffing and sweating meanwhile Ronon hadn't even broken a sweat/

John had found that he had enjoyed the play of Ronon's muscles. The way they moved, sleek under his skin, the way his biceps bunched when he had picked up one of the marines, only to slam them on the ground minutes later. And the way that his leathers show cased his ass perfectly as he bent to help some of the men up. John shook his head to clear those thoughts. John was straight....but with those thoughts in his head, maybe he wasn't as straight as he had previously thought he had been. He cleared his throat to alert the room of his presence. He mentally sighed when he saw the way that Ronon's shoulders slumped, unless you knew the man you never would have caught it. He probably thought that he was in trouble for beating up the marines, seeing as Keller had warned him to take it easy on them. John had no such reservation, the wraith weren't going to take it easy on them, nor would the Genii or any number of natives so why should Ronon?

“Ronon, can I have a word with you?” John kept his tone light.

Ronon tossed his dreads over his shoulder. “Of course.” He turned to face the marines. “I expected better from the people who are supposed to be the best. The next time I spar with any of you I want to see improvement.” They all nodded, John almost expected to hear Sir yes Sir. But chances were that since they were new, they had no idea what to call Ronon. Dex walked over to where John was standing.

John uncrossed his arms. “My room.” Ronon cocked an eyebrow but remained silent. John turned and headed toward the transporter. He didn't check to see if Ronon was following him, he just trusted that he would. Once they were in his room, John thought the door locked and gestured toward his desk chair. Ronon took a seat as John sat on his bed.

“I want to know exactly what is going on with you? I feel as though you've been ignoring me. I am a strong believer in the principle of if one member of my team has a problem then we all share that problem. So,” John placed his hands on his knees and leaned forward, “What is it?” He made sure that he never broke eye contact with the younger man.

Ronon licked his suddenly dry lips. He knew that this was a conversation that was going to happen eventually but this was not the way that he had envisioned it happening. After all, he had thought that he was being subtle when it came to his attraction to his new taskmaster. Now as he watched John trace the movement of his tongue with his eyes, he knew that he had been wrong. He had not been as subtle as he thought. He knew that there were two ways that he could go about this, he could verbalize his desires or he could show John. Ronon was used to not talking and he had always been a man of action. So he got up from his chair, knelt in between John's knees, leaned forward and kissed him. It was just a soft brush of lips but he figured it would get his point across. He sat back on his heels as he waited to see what would happen.

For a moment John just sat there, his hazel eyes wide. Then he grabbed a fistful of Ronon's dreads and dragged him forward. Their next kiss was full of teeth and tongues. Normally Ronon would be fighting for dominance over the kiss. But this was his Taskmaster, his Commanding Officer, so he went pliant in John's hands, gave himself over to John completely. When John pulled him to sit on the bed, he went without resistance.

Once Ronon was sitting John straddled his waist. His ass was rubbing right against Ronon's erection. The moan that Ronon let out was so deep that John could feel it vibrate through the other man's chest. As Ronon grabbed John by his hips and tossed him so that he was now on his back, with Ronon looming over him John smiled. He was tired of not getting what he wanted and now with Ronon's secret revealed he was sure he could finally have that.

[dorthrakidex]

Day 5: "That's gonna scar"

Once again, it was the Tuesday that was Sheppard's undoing. Although this time it wasn't because Rodney touched something he wasn't supposed to, it wasn't angry natives or people after John's genes. It was a simple thunder storm that was his undoing. Being that they were in Pegasus, If John learned nothing it was that things were never simple.

John and Ronon were sent to check out the planet. There was very little known in the database about MKT-008 other than it was uninhabited. Elizabeth had sent them on a simple 'check it out' milk run of a mission, that was why there was only John and Ronon. She was no idiot, she knew that those two were kind of seeing each other, at the very least they were testing the waters. So she figured that they could use the time alone with prying eyes.

When the thunder itself had started, John really hadn't thought very much of it. He had been om plenty of planets where there was thunder that never amounted to anything. This wasn't one of those times. He noticed Ronon was eyeing the sky suspiciously. “What is it big guy?”

Ronon spoke without removing his eyes from the sky. “I was on a planet like this once. There's a reason why there are no people and no animals. Listen closely Sheppard. What do you hear?”

John closed his eyes and listened, just to realize that his companion was right. There was absolutely no noise. Only the wind through the trees and the rumble of thunder that sounded as though it was getting closer. “I think we should try to find a cave. Wait out the storm.” John hated waited in caves, they were always damp and somehow always managed to remind him of all the times he has found himself in primitive jail cells. But they really didn't have a choice.

“I thought that saw one back that way.” Ronon hooked his thumb in the direction they had just came from. John huffed, they were going to have to go backwards. Just great. By the time they get to the cave the thunder is so loud they don't even bother trying to talk to each other. The bright bolts of lightening in the sky make Sheppard nervous, he was so busy watching the bolts that he didn't see the tree root that he tripped over. He yelled loud enough that Ronon heard it over the thunder.

Ronon had been leading the way, so when he turned around when Sheppard yelled, it was just in time to see Sheppard slide down the ravine and over the edge of the cliff. Ronon was quick to act, he ran toward Sheppard and was just in time to grab his hand. He pulled him up by the wrist, knowing that the rain would be making their hands slippery. He got Sheppard up, who was bleeding quite badly from a gash in his forehead. Ronon picked him up and carried him the rest of the way, he knew that John would be disorientated and that would slow them down.

Once in the cave, Ronon started a small fire, thankful for the opening of the cave and the over hang that protected them from the worst of the wind and rain. After the fire was started, he went through John's vest and found the small first aid kit. He cleaned up John's face. He ended having to use the surgical glue and butterfly bandage to ensure that the bleeding had stopped. After he gave John two of the Ibuprofen, he sat back and eyed him wearily.

“I don't know how you did it but I cleaned as best as I could. I still think it's gonna scar.”

John uttered a humourless laugh. “It can join all the others.” He leaned back against the cave wall, enjoying the heat from the fire. He knew that he couldn't fall asleep, they had no idea if he had a concussion. They both stared at the fire as they waited out the rain. And once again, John swore that the next mission that had to happen on a Tuesday was Lorne's.

[dorthrakidex]

Day 4: Knife to the Throat

Ever since John had first met Ronon, the Satedan had decided that it was his job to protect the smaller man. When John had first invited him to stay on Atlantis, Ronon knew that he was being watched and tested. That was obvious when John had brought him to the firing range and he had proved that he could work any weapon that he placed in his hands that John was testing him. But he had been determined to prove himself and up until today he had thought that he had done just that.

They were trapped, and at first Ronon figured that he could just shoot his way out. But he soon realized that they were grossly out numbered. He was afraid that if he started doing that, then something would happen to John and there was no way that he was going to have that on his conscience. So for the time being he would just have to sit tight. He didn't like the way that the natives (as John had taken to calling him were looking at him). When one of the leaders came up and spat something in a language that Ronon didn't speak he dawned on him that before he had had the tracker removed he had been there. He had incidentally brought the wraith to the village and the village had been pretty much destroyed. That had been pretty early in his time as a runner before he realized exactly what they had done to him. There was no way that this was going to end well.

He realized just a little too late how bad the situation really was. The leader that had been talking to him was one of the unfortunate people who had lost their entire family, he had not been home at the time of the culling. He had only heard about it and a description of the man responsible long after it had happened.

The leader had seen the way that Ronon had looked at John while they were in the cage. He smiled at Ronon, and Dex had to ignore the way that his stomach dropped. He would not shoe any weakness no matter what happened and if he had to lay down his life to save John's that was what he would do. John wouldn't even be in this predicament, if Ronon had paid more attention to the gate address.

The leader stood as close to Ronon as he dared, while one of his men held a gun on him while opening the cage and pulling John out by a fist full of his hair, making sure that John had to scramble to keep up or risk falling on the ground. Even with that once John was out of the cage, the man had thrown him on the ground by the leaders feet. Never one to get the message, John had attempted to get up only to be pushed back down again. A heavy hand on his shoulder while the cage was re closed kept him on his knees.

Ronon was seething. In his minds eye he could imagine just choking the older man until his eyes bulged out of his sockets. John for the main part looked calm and collected. The leader's smile grew even wider. “The last time you were here Runner, you took almost everything from my village. Not only that but you took my most prized possession away from me...my daughter. So now I will take what is most prized of yours.” He nodded to the man who had been keeping John on the ground.

The man pulled John up and the leader stood behind John with a knife to his throat. John had been quietly assessing the situation. He knew that without his P-90 there was no way that he would be able to take on the man with the gun. And when the leader walked over and handed the man a very savage looking knife John knew that things were bad. The man held the evil looking knife to John's throat, pressing just enough that there was a thin line of blood beading along the blade.

Ronon grabbed the crude bars of the cage and sneered at the leader. “First he has nothing to do with this. Second, you are such a coward, you can't even do your own dirty work. I should have figured that you wouldn't. If this one Sadeta I would make sure that you suffered, once I get out of this cage, and I will.”

The man with the blade pressed a little harder, John breathed deep;y through his nose. He was trying not to space out, he knew that the pain of the knife would help to keep him in present and help ground him. Just as Sheppard was about to tell Ronon that at this point he would like to keep most of his blood in his body and perhaps Ronon should shut it, there was the sound a P-90 fire.

The noise startled John's captor momentarily but that was exactly the out he needed. He swept the man's feet from under him and grabbed the knife. He had no choice but to grab it by the blade slicing his hand but barely feeling the pain. As the man was going down John grabbed Ronon's blaster from where the downed man had stashed it in his belt. He tossed it to Ronon has he grabbed the man's other gun.

That was when the fire fight started. John had caught sight of Lorne's team, which was where the shots had originally started. He lost track of everything that had been going on. Before he knew it, the leader and his front man were subdued, the irony is that Ronon had locked them in their own cage. John knew that after they left that the remaining villagers would undoubtedly let them out. But that would give them enough time to get back to the gate.

As they made their way to the gate, Ronon gave him a side hug. John just smirked at him. “Dex, when we get back home we really need to work on your hostage negotiation tactics.” John could hear Ronon laughing all the way through the gate.

[dorthrakidex]

Day 3: Muzzled

If there was one thing John Sheppard hated it was Tuesdays, nothing good ever happened to him on a Tuesday. So when he was kidnapped once again for his gene, he knew that this Tuesday wasn't going to be any different.

It started out pretty normal. They were on yet another planet trying to negotiate a trade, when John had walked by something, (because that was the way that it always happened) and it lit up like a Christmas tree. The people got overly excited and enthused that John could do what he did. They had demanded that the rest of his team leave, and that they were keeping him. John had sent his team back through the gate to get reinforcements.

As soon as his team was gone, he had tried to reason with the elder of the village. All that earned him was the equivalent of getting tasered. That was how he woke up, chained to a wall with something covering his mouth. So at present he couldn't move or speak. His mouth felt like it was full of cotton but he knew that there was very little he could do about that.

Teyla had said that these people were mostly friendly. They could be slightly hostile but that was just like anywhere. They were just trying to survive the wraith attacks and he knew that they probably thought that he could help with their weaponry that had stopped working. He also knew that they probably distrusted outsiders. He was really hoping that he could just chalk this up to a simple misunderstanding and get back to Atlantis.

He wasn't sure if he had changed his mind about these people when a burly man (easily the size of Ronon) came in with what looked like a cattle prod. He walked over to John with a menacing looking grin on his face. John was certain he wasn't going to like what was going to happen. He touched the weapon to John's arm. John squeezed his eyes shut and bit down on the inside of the muzzle to keep all of his noises to himself.

The elder appeared behind the man. “If you do not co-operate with us, then the next shock you get will be on a more sensitive part of your body. Understand?”

John nodded. He really didn't want to find out where they were going to shock him next. He was unchained from the wall and his cuffs were refastened behind his back. He was really hoping that either his team would show up or they would take the muzzle off him. They walked him (it felt more like a death march) to the center of the village. They made him stand on a platform as the elder addressed the crowd that had gathered there.

“Citizens of Ultua, we now have our greatest weapon.” He pointed at John. John had to use all the skill he possessed to remain stoic and not roll his eyes. He decided right then and there that the next time Elizabeth wanted a team to investigate a planet on a Tuesday he was going to insist that Lorne's team go. He was getting really sick of Tuesdays. He gingerly eyed the crowd, noting how they were all staring at him as though he had hung the moon. He knew from experience that that look, especially from villagers was never a good sign. He hated feeling like he was on display, especially with the way that they were gawking at him.

That was when he heard the gate activate, and was never so grateful as to hear the event horizon. The man with the cattle prod had stepped in front of John, like he was trying to protect him, at that point John had rolled his eyes. He had expected Lorne to be leading the team but was surprised when a very pissed off Ronon came into view. He had his blaster aimed at the man with the cattle prod. “You have something that belongs to us...to me. I'm not leaving without him. If you step away from him now then I won't feel the need to kill you slowly.” The entire time that Ronon was talking, it was through clenched teeth. He was just barely containing his anger.

In John's opinion the man in front of him did a really stupid thing. He actually tried to lunge at Ronon with the prod. Ronon grinned and shot the man with his blaster. He noted that it was on stun, so for once Ronon had actually listened to the no killing rule. He pointed his blaster at the elder next. “You are going to release him,” Ronon side glanced at the man he had stunned, as he kicked the prod away with his boot. “Or you're going to end up like him.”

The elder seemed disappointed but he also was smart enough to know when he was bested. He made quick work of the cuffs that were binding John's hands behind his back. Then he removed the muzzle that had been over John's mouth. John instantly licked his dry lips as he made his way off the podium and towards Ronon.

John turned to face the elder. “I would have helped you if you had asked.” He let Ronon steer him away from the villagers. He knew that after his post mission physical, Ronon would want to have his own look. That was fine with John, usually that meant a hot shower, a naked Ronon and hot sex. Somehow John figured he could make it through that.

[dorthrakidex]

Day 2: Flinching

It was no secret that John hadn't had the best of childhoods. It wasn't like Ronon to pry either. He knew that if John wanted him to know something that he would tell him in his own time. He also knew that John had nightmares but John was the Commanding Officer of the military, and he knew that even before John had come to Pegasus that he had been through some truly terrible things.

So Ronon wasn't surprised when he was woken in the middle of the night by his boyfriend moaning in his sleep. It wasn't the good kind of moaning either. When Ronon had been woken up, John was moaning as if in pain and curled in on himself.

Ronon sighed, it was going to be a long night. He gently touched John's arm. “Sheppard.” John flinched away from him while curling in on himself, barely suppressing a whimper. Not for the first time, Ronon wanted to hunt down everyone who had ever hurt John and cause them a slow and painful death. He knew that when John was like this, it was important to wake him up before the screaming started.

Ronon grabbed his hands, holding them in his larger ones so that John couldn't hit him. He wasn't so worried about John trying to kick him because of the way that his lover was curled in on himself. He tried again, this time adding more force into his voice. “Sheppard. You need to wake up NOW.”

John flinched again, before either the words or the voice had time to register, then he was sitting up. He was blinking rapidly trying to clear the sleep from his brain. “Chewie, you can let me go now.”

Ronon kissed both of the hands that he was holding before releasing them. “Did you want to talk about it?”

John ran a hand through his sleep mussed hair and down his face. He knew that eventually they were going to have to discuss his nightmares but that wasn't going to be today. He wasn't really in the sharing type of mood. “No. Can...can you just hold me?”

Ronon thought that the blush that John had from just that simple request was adorable. “As if you had to ask. Come 'mere.”He held his arms open in a clear invitation. John settled his head on Ronon's chest as Ronon wrapped his strong arms around him. Ronon stayed awake for quite a while after John's breathing had evened out. He knew that he couldn't protect John from everything but he'd be damned if he didn't try.

[dorthrakidex]

Day 1: Touch Starved

Stargate Atlantis Ronon Dex/John Sheppard

John didn't particularly consider himself 'touch starved' so to speak. It wasn't his fault that his family had never been a warm one. John's father had stopped hugging him altogether by the time he was ten. In Patrick Sheppard's eyes, too much physical affection tended to make boys weak and the last thing that Patrick Sheppard was ever going to raise was weak men. Then when John joined the military that basically guaranteed that he would never be touched, that suited him just fine. He wasn't completely sure what to do with physical affection anyway.

He figures that was one of the ways that he had Nancy had gone wrong. Their marriage hadn't always been a sham. There was a time that he was pretty sure that she loved him, but he couldn't allow himself to be touched. He knew that once he started he probably wouldn't stop and so he had taken mission after mission. Until one day the divorce papers came. And once again that suited him just fine.

Now as he lay in bed next to his boyfriend, he couldn't imagine not being wrapped in Ronon's strong arms. The Satedan had come barreling into his life with all the grace of a bull in a china shop, tearing down his carefully placed walls and worming his way into what had been his guarded heart. Ronon had lost so much, that when after a tense mission they had been sitting side by side in the gym, not saying anything and Ronon had wrapped an arm around John's shoulders; John hadn't even thought of shrugging the other man off.

Then things escalated from there. Whether it was just a brush of fingers against the back of his hand, an arm around his shoulders or a hand on the back of his neck or at the small of his back John found that for once he didn't want to shy away from it. The first time they kissed, it was just a brush of lips. All that John could remember about that encounter was that for days afterwards whenever he was lost in thought he would find himself either running his tongue over his lips or brushing his fingers against them. Almost like he could still feel Dex's warm mouth on his.

Maybe once John had been okay with not being touched but now he couldn't imagine a world without the warm touch of Ronon Dex.