Ronon lay in the center of the bed. Teyla's head was cushioned on his chest and John's head on Ronon's shoulder. Ronon had been listening to John and Teyla discuss Lantian weapons training for the Athosians for a while, but they had stopped talking a few minutes ago, were lazily petting at each other across his chest.
"I'm going with Lorne's team to Klik, to see the Satedan colony." He repeated himself, because John and Teyla didn't listen to his words in bed. Teyla said they listened to his heart more than his words, but Ronon thought John just liked the vibrations.
"Are you coming back?" said Teyla.
John said nothing, but he stretched and his head was on the pillow when he finished.
"Yes," said Ronon.
They didn't have sex that night.
In the morning, Ronon woke up with his ass falling off the bed. Teyla was rigid beside him, teeth clenched and face damp. There was a lump halfway down the bed he assumed was John. "Morning," he said and stroked a finger along Teyla's cheek. She turned her face and he pulled his hand back, quickly. Teyla was inclined to bite, hard, and if she drew blood she would just suck it and keep bearing down.
She jerked abruptly, panting and grunting. Her eyes rolled up in the back of her head. He leaned over and kissed her forehead, and she smiled.
He sat up, about to get clean, get dressed, when he felt hands on his thighs and a tonge on his balls. He spread his legs and let himself relax, let John love on him. It was fast, maybe five minutes, and when he had finished, he reached down and pulled John up, onto his chest, and kissed him thoroughly. John took it a long time, ten or fifteen seconds before tensing up, and Ronon let go. There were half a dozen things Ronon could think of to say—I have to see for myself, I have to find my people, You are my family, I'm not leaving you, I love you, Don't worry—but John would have looked at him blankly if he'd said anything like that, so he said, "You want me to…?" He was not surprised when John said no, but he was glad that John relaxed on top of him, stayed stretched out until the alarm went off.
John looked at the memo on his screen, the order that might mean the end of everything, and shot off a note to Elizabeth via personal e-mail. An autoresponder directed him to come to her office. John grimaced, chagrined that he was that predictable, but he went because he had to know.
When he walked in her door, she said, "This is not a bad thing, John."
Teyla heard someone enter the room during her stickfighting class, but she couldn't look to see who it was. Chuck Campbell was the best student in this class. He was not expert, but he was quick enough and watchful enough to do her harm if she was careless. Instead, she sped up her attack and disarmed him faster than she had first planned. Chuck stepped back and nodded. She nodded in return, and he grabbed his sticks and returned to the line of students.
No few of them were smirking at her, and when she saw that her visitor was Ronon, she knew why. She decided to disappoint them. "Ronon."
He smiled and said, "Teyla," and she heard the things he did not say in front of the Lantians.
"I want to show the class unarmed defense against stick weapons. Would you help us?"
He raised an eyebrow, but he nodded. His mouth twitched when she pointed at two smirking marines and told them to attack. The others stopped smirking and groaned in sympathy when Ronon grabbed first Suarez's and then Adin's sticks and knocked them both to the ground.
"You see that because you use your weapon in close contact to your opponent, he can take it from you and use it against you. You should also have noticed that the way someone disarms you with their hands is different than how one disarms with sticks." She could see a few of them looking thoughtful at that, but Suarez was rubbing her hands. She was pretty sure that one wouldn't remember for the next class. "I'll see you in two days, everyone, thank you."
She and Ronon stood still, on opposite sides of the practice mat, until everyone had left for the showers. Then Ronon opened his arms and she walked into them, pressed her forehead to his, and breathed in his scent. "I am glad you are here," she said.
"I missed being home," he said. "There was nothing for me on Klik."
She pressed closer to him, grabbed him a little tighter, but she couldn't stop herself from saying, "I thought you wanted to be with Satedans, if you could."
"They're not Satedans. They're refugees." He stood up and let her go, but then he grabbed her hand. "Let's get something to eat."
John looked at the most powerful men on Earth and considered pulling his gun and shooting them. Instead he smiled, told them he was thankful for the honor, overwhelmed by the unexpected vote of confidence, and really in no position to give them an answer at this time.
When the meeting broke up, he stood and shook hands with the President of the United States, the chair of the international committee, the Chief of the Air Force, and the representatives from Russia and China. Immediately afterward, he went to the mess hall and the gym. Later, when he was scheduled for counseling, he spoke to the astral emigration officer.
Ronon woke up when the door to Teyla's room opened. He'd been sleeping, so his gun was in his hand before he realized it was John. He put the gun back under the pillow, moved Teyla a little closer to the edge of the bed and sat up.
John didn't say anything. He pulled off his uniform, starting with his boots and working his way slowly upwards until he was naked. Then he came to the bed and sat behind Ronon, on Ronon's pillow. Ronon slid down the bed to fit comfortably under John's chin.
Ronon slid his hands up and down John's thighs. I thought you would be here when I got back, he didn't say. I missed you, he didn't say. Instead he picked up John's right hand and kissed it, brought it to his chest, over his heart. Ronon leaned back as he felt John's left hand crawl around his hip, down to his lap. "No, we'll wake her," he said.
John brought his right arm up to Ronon's mouth.
"I don't bite."
"Bathroom?" said John.
Ronon stood, reached out his hand to pull John up. Then Teyla whispered, "Hello?"
John lay back down and kissed her, whispered something Ronon couldn't hear. Teyla smiled, shook her head, and said, "Stay here. I want you here."
Ronon crawled onto the bed between them, and grabbed them both in his arms. "I missed you," he said.
"There are other ways than this, John." Elizabeth steepled her fingers together. "Canada and Europe, either would be willing to—."
"Any change of nationality would require me to be on Earth, or at least in the Milky Way. And once I leave this galaxy, do you really think they'll let me come back?"
Teyla tried to remember if she had anything to do this afternoon. She turned her head to look at John, look at the scratches she had left on him during their lovemaking. "I am glad you're back."
"I guessed." He smirked without opening his eyes, chest still heaving. "I'm glad I have the day off."
"Yes," she said. "Again?"
He rolled onto his side to face her. "I need a minute."
"Well, I can start and you can—."
He reached out and pulled her hand up above her head. "No, I need," he licked his lips and closed his eyes, "I need to talk to you."
They dressed and went out on the balcony, where he looked out over the sea and she looked at him. "Did something happen on Earth?"
"They want to bring me back."
She knew she had to ask the question, but she didn't want to, so she turned to look over the sea instead.
"I thought—."
"Do you want to go back? Do you want to take Ronon with you?"
"What?"
She turned her head. He had turned to face her and he was frowning. She turned back to the sea. "It is not possible. For me. My people are still here. But Ronon…." She nodded and turned to face him again.
"I don't want to go back. I don't want to, to be…." He shrugged, wiped his nose. "I hate sea air."
She nodded. "So you're staying?"
"If I stay in the Air Force, they can order me back. If I quit the Air Force, I have to go back." He glanced at her, glanced away. "But if I marry an alien, they let me retire and stay on her home planet."
Teyla turned from him and bowed her head. "You are not asking me to marry you." She closed her eyes. "I could not if you did."
She felt John's hand on her back, running from her shoulder to the small of it. "I am asking you to marry me. I &mdash you — the two of you…. I don't want to leave." His arm snaked around her belly, and she felt herself pulled backwards. "If you won't marry me, but you would still like me to stay, I may be able to work something with a different Earth government. But that's a bad plan."
She shook her head. "Ask Ronon."
"The closest thing Ronon has to a planet is Klik. This is your planet. I could stay here, with you and him, if I marry you."
"I can not," she said.
"Why?"
"My children must be Athosian. So few of us made it to safety, from the culling that—." She stopped because his arms tightened on her, then he let go.
"Can't have kids."
She turned to look at him, though she could think of nothing to say.
"I had an operation, before we came here. We didn't know what we'd find, and I didn't—no kids." He looked at a point over her shoulder, his face flat and guarded.
She had not seen that expression on his face when they were two for many months, and so she touched to his cheek and said, "As you said, Ronon's people are gone. His children will be of their mother's people." She laughed. "And it doesn't matter so much, if I am not our leader."
"Something change?" John raised his eyebrows, face alive again.
She shrugged, shook her head. "I have not been leader in fact for a long time. And at the turning of the year, Halling will become leader in name. I will be the People's Face, which is what I have been doing since I met you."
"The People's Face?"
"An ambassador, like Elizabeth was on your planet. Or," she frowned, trying to recall a discussion with Elizabeth about the bewildering profusion of Earth governments, "like the Queen Elizabeth? Not the director of the English, but the embodiment?"
He kissed her, and laughed, and said, "Does that make me prince of Athos?"
And she smiled at him slowly and nodded. "Yes, I think we will make you and Ronon both the People's Hands. And then his children will be yours, too. That will do nicely."
There were four ceremonies, one after the other, and John could not pay attention to any of them. He and Ronon were adopted into Athos by drinking some vile tea and reciting some lines, then ceremoniously feeding bread to the smallest babies available. His cried but Ronon's was peaceful. His wedding to Teyla was a traditional Athosian ceremony, with singing and brightly colored dresses for all of the participants, plus 'I do' and rings. Teyla's wedding to Ronon was likewise modified, with Satedan tattoos for Teyla and Ronon instead of the Athosian hairbraiding.
Ronon was the last to bed that night. He walked out of the bathroom and saw John bent over Teyla's back, mouth pressed to her neck, and Teyla giggling up a storm. He stopped to admire them, John struck rigid, solidly planted by his need to guard Teyla, and Teyla, pressing and pushing, kept where John wanted her by her need to leave him whole.
Then he knelt beside them on the bed and pulled John off, back against his own body, and kissed him, hard and quick. John surprised him, by turning and sprawling over Ronon, kissing him for a long time. Ronon pressed them both forward onto the bed, until John was stretched out beneath him, loose and hard and willing.
Then he felt Teyla swarm up his back and whisper in his ear, "Give me my husband. I miss him."
He said, "Which one do you want?" He repeated himself, as Teyla didn't answer right away, and John's eyes were unfocused, his smile hungry and vacant.
"I have you both," she said.