She awoke from the loud birdsong the next morning and the world was once more the blue-gray of predawn. Ronon was still shivering and was now writhing slightly, sweating moisture that he couldn’t afford to lose. She shook his shoulders several times and called his name in an attempt to wake him but to no avail. In the dim light she could see that his chest wound was beginning to seep. She felt his pulse in his neck - it was still strong but his heart rate was elevated. She leaned back on her haunches, knowing with a growing desperation and despair that there was nothing more she could do for him.

I have to get help...

She glanced around their small camp then back to Ronon’s restless form. She reached out to smooth a hand over his sweaty brow before leaning in to lightly kiss his temple, whispering “I will be back as soon as I am able, Ronon. Hold on.” She squeezed his hand before rising, taking a few steps backward, hating to leave him so alone and vulnerable but not seeing any other option aside from watching him die from injuries he sustained for her. Tearing her eyes away from his form proved more difficult than she had expected as worries of never seeing him again after this moment chorused in her head like the swarming of bees. After one last gaze she hastily turned her back on him and sped downhill, running recklessly, ignoring the bleeding pain in her feet as she slipped and slided down the slope.

She ignored her fatigue as much as she could, moving without stopping until she reached the river that that the band had swung over on a rope, one by one. When they had crossed they had temporarily cut her bonds so that she could hold onto the rope to swing across. She had been half tempted to let go of the twine and fall into the rushing river, praying she would survive the current. But she had held on and she now searched for the rope, finding it where Ronon had tucked it into the branches.

She readied herself for the swing across, making sure her grip would not falter, then paused. In spite of the roar of the white water before her, she could have sworn she could hear the chirp of a radio. She held still, calming her breathing as she listened. A few heartbeats later she heard it again.

“John!?” she shouted but there was no answer. She took a deep breath and bellowed again, struggling to raise her voice above the rush of the river. “John! Hello! Rodney!” She paused. “Anyone!?”

She listened intently but heard only the river. Her shoulders slumped and she began to question ever hearing the sound as she exhaled, once more ready to swing on the rope yet freezing when she heard a faint “...Teyla?” coming from up on the mountainside on the opposite shore.

Her face broke into a full grin as she recognized Sheppard’s voice, relief surging in her chest. “John! John, I am by the river!”

She could make out a faint, “Hang on!” and her eyes constantly roved the parallel line of trees until she eventually saw the green and black of an Atlantis uniform. She could recognize Sheppard’s hair as he slipped down the hillside towards the riverbank and she broke into another huge grin as she waved, flooding with adrenaline. “John!”

He waved back, also smiling before bellowing, “Are you okay?” as McKay, Dr. Beckett, Lorne and a few Marines slipped down the hillside after him.

“Yes, but Ronon is gravely injured – he needs help immediately!”

Sheppard turned to say something to his teammates before turning back to her and shouting, “Send over the rope – take Beckett and Lorne to Ronon. I’m gonna fly Ferguson’s Jumper and try to get low enough over the river to get you guys onboard!”

She nodded then shoved the rope. It swung across the water and Sheppard and Lorne lunged forward to catch it. Lorne swung over first, followed by Beckett. The major radioed Sheppard across the river, telling him that they were clear. After assuring Beckett that her injuries were only superficial she began to hastily lead the two men back up the trail, explaining the nature of Ronon’s injuries and what happened to both her and Ronon along the way.

The group reached Teyla’s camp from the previous night as the sun was beginning to sink towards the horizon. She fell to her knees at Ronon’s side, checking his pulse, startled by his stillness. Beckett mimicked her, pulling out his stethoscope and listening to his chest. “It’s unsteady but he has a strong beat.” He felt his skin. “Jaysus, he’s practically on fire.”

Teyla had shifted Ronon’s head to her lap and was absently brushing the baby hairs off his face, looking to Carson with knitted brows. “Can you help him?”

Carson nodded, glancing to her. “Aye. He has a serious infection but from what you’ve told me, let’s hope it hasn’t yet had the opportunity to turn into something worse.”

Lorne finished scouting the area and stood beside them. “What can I do to help, Doc?”

Beckett glanced around as he measured out a large dose of Penicillin. “Make a travois of some sort. We’ve got to get him back to the river as soon as possible.”

Teyla nodded curtly, gently sliding her knees out from under Ronon’s head before accompanying Lorne to fell a few saplings. She looked at the other man as they stripped the young pine of its branches. “How did you know where to find me?”

Lorne glanced at her, his brow wet with sweat. “We didn’t. Ronon left a few markers for us to follow but that guy was in such a hurry it was hard to say.”

She nodded, tucking some hair back before returning to work again, using the large knife Ronon had given her to hack at the thin branches. “I do not believe he stopped.”

“Yeah, that guy’s like a freight train.” He shook his head a little as he worked. “I sure hope he makes it.”

She glanced at him with a thin line between her brows then back down to her cutting since they were nearly finished. “He will.”

Lorne pulled back as she hacked off the last branch, wiping his brow. “You know, it’s funny – you had perfect timing.”

Teyla motioned for him to help her drag the thin trunk a few feet away. “What do you mean?” She crossed over to the second felled tree and started work, as did Lorne.

“I hunt with my dad sometimes. I have since I was a kid. So I was helping lead Sheppard and the boys on the trail. The lifesigns detector was no good since there are so many animals around so we had to do things the old fashioned way. We were making good time when I heard you, but that trail I was following would have led us in the complete opposite direction of where you were.”

She glanced over again, her hands getting cut from yanking off the poky pine branches. “Then perhaps it was meant to be.”

Lorne smirked, glancing at her as well. “Maybe.”

They finished the makeshift stretcher within an hour and though it didn’t look like it would be very comfortable, it would get the job done well enough. Beckett had replaced Ronon’s temporary bandages with sanitized medical gauze. With Teyla in the lead they reached the river just as the light was failing.

Lorne radioed Sheppard who had asked his fellow pilot, Ferguson, to take off from the village and to fly up the large river. Ferguson was able to hover over a beach nearby but didn’t think that the riverway was wide enough for the rest of the journey. After meeting him at the beach, Sheppard took over and upon receiving Lorne’s call, he powered up the shields and flew as close to the crossing as possible, snapping branches along the way.

Beckett and his group only had to wait a few minutes before the jumper arrived, lowering its ramp so that a corner touched the dirt embankment. Carson and Lorne hurried in with Ronon. Teyla glanced over her shoulder for a final look at the forest as it shifted into darkness before climbing on board as well.

Now Is Light

Now Is Light Homepage
I. Prologue: Teasing Out Dreams
II. Serpentine Tune
III. Tailing Not Far Behind
IV. For A Few Fleeting Moments
V. Dangerous Creatures
VI. The Hunter
VII. No Fear
VIII. Emboldened
IX. Looming Into Heartstrings
XI. Epilogue: An Intimate Whisper