Chapter Text
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"Hey, doc." he grinned at her when he entered the infirmary.
"Another sparring wound I need to stitch?" she grinned back at him.
"No... um..." he mumbled and gave her one of his breathtaking smiles. "Actually I just wanted to ask you something."
"Well, then" Jennifer smiled and turned at him to give this dream of a man her full attention, "ask away!"
"Sheppard's having another movie night." he informed her. "This evening, you know. He said it's a very famous love movie. Um... ‘Love totally' or something."
"'Love actually'." Jennifer corrected and giggled softly. "Yeah, I know the movie. I'm sure you'll like it. Oh, well, maybe you won't ‘cause you're more the action film kinda guy."
"I don't know what that means." he mumbled and then cleared his throat before he explained: "The reason I told you about the movie night is that I... well... wondered if you might wanna join us."
"Oh." was all she could answer obviously taken by surprise. After having thought it over for a few seconds she blushed and replied: "I don't think I should. You know, I... don't really belong... there."
"You'll belong with me." Ronon smiled. "I mean, since I invited you and stuff... Please?"
"That's really sweet, you know, but... I have a lot of work to do." of course, that was a lie but Jennifer hoped that Ronon wouldn't realize that. Hopefully, she was a better liar than she'd be company tonight.
"Sweet?" he frowned. "You know, you told me that you... well, missed out on a lot, especially parties and stuff. And if Sheppard hadn't force me to join his parties I have missed out on a lot as well... certainly. So I thought I could... I know, it's probably not the same but... I just want to show you that you really do belong here."
"Thank you" she smiled, visibly touched by his words, "but..."
"Please, doc... Jennifer." he insisted. "It's just a movie and it's usually a lot of fun. Especially Rodney's reaction when we're all pelting him with popcorn. You shouldn't miss that."
"Really, Ronon" she looked down so that he couldn't see her blush in response to his use of her first name, "I'm tired and..."
"Please, I promise it's just the one movie and I'd be glad if you'd come with me." he smiled.
Jennifer sighed. Who could have resisted such a smile. "Okay." she finally said. "I'll join you."
Ronon's face lit up and he answered: "Great, I'll pick you up at seven."
"Great." she nodded and watched him swagger out of the infirmary. God, he was so... so... hot! Jennifer wasn't able to think of another word to describe him.
And he had just invited her for a movie night. That was almost like a date. She felt the blood sink to her feet at the thought of that. It wasn't a date, right? It was just two friends going to a movie night... together. No, it certainly wasn't a date.
Okay, now she was definitely nervous! She shouldn't have agreed to go. Not if she wasn't even sure whether it was a date.
She kept worrying about it for the rest of the day - especially during the one and a half hours she spent in her room trying to figure out what to wear. If it was just a movie night between friends she could wear the uniform. Or maybe just jeans and a shirt. But if it was a date she should certainly dress up a little. She didn't want to make a fool of herself by being dressed inappropriately.
On the other hand she would make an even greater fool of herself if she did dress up and it wasn't a date. Plus everyone else would notice it and probably laugh at her. God, she almost felt like in high school.
Sighing Jennifer sank on her bed and stared at the ceiling. That was exactly why she didn't like the whole dating stuff. It was simply too complicated. Why couldn't people simply say what they felt for each other - and if the feelings weren't mutual just forget about it and go on like nothing had ever happened.
Unfortunately, the latter was far from possible. She couldn't tell Ronon that her stomach was full of butterflies whenever she saw him or that she was sure she was going to faint every time he gave her one of his gorgeous smiles. God, why wasn't it simply forbidden to be so hot!
When her doorbell chimed she considered pretending not being at home or being asleep already. But Ronon had invited her and she'd accepted so it wasn't fair to dump him now. She could at least spend some time with him, be near him and enjoy his presence even if they'd never be more than friends.
She could at least have that. So she took a deep breath and opened. Just to feel the butterflies again when she saw him standing there smiling at her. She was surely going to faint any second.
"Are you ready, doc?" he smiled and held his arm out for her.
She swallowed hard, nodded and linked arms with him.
The silence between them started to feel a little awkward, so Ronon decided to try and bring up a conversation. "So you... watched this movie before?" he asked.
"Not really." Jennifer shrugged.
Ronon raised an eyebrow at her: "How can you ‘not really' watch a movie?"
"Well" she sighed, "I wanted to watch it but... I didn't find the time to do so." No need to tell him that she simply hadn't found someone who wanted to go with her!
"Well, good." he smiled again and her knees started to tremble. "'Cause it means for the first time Teyla and I won't be the only people who haven't watched the movie yet."
"You're lucky ‘cause I hardly ever watched any movie." she grinned and could have kicked herself the next second. That sounded as if she wanted to be invited to every movie night from now on. She'd just invited herself, very considerate!
But Ronon grinned back at her and replied: "Great, ‘cause it means next time I invite you, you can't decline because you already watched the movie."
She just smiled shyly in response not sure what to make out of his words and was relieved that they'd arrived at Sheppard's movie hall as he called the room he used for his screenings.
Everyone had arrived already. Rodney had made himself at home at a small couch to the right of the huge screen. Teyla was sitting on the larger couch, a huge bowl of popcorn in her lap, and smiled at the two arrivers.
"Hey, doc, Ronon!" Sheppard greeted and grinned at them. "You're lucky, we've reserved a seat for you." he pointed his hand at the other smaller couch to the left of the screen and opposite McKay's couch.
Shyly Jennifer sat down, her eyes already fixed on the screen, and swallowed when she felt the seat beside her being pushed in. The couch was almost too tiny for two people and she felt Ronon's leg brushing against hers in a way that made her shiver. Fortunately, Sheppard started the movie before she had the chance to think about all that.
Pelting McKay with popcorn was fun. Nonetheless, today there was something that caught almost Sheppard's entire attention - namely the new assumed couple on Atlantis. Unfortunately, they didn't look like a couple at all stiffly sitting next to each other. John sighed. It wasn't going to work this way.
Jennifer Keller was extremely shy and apparently nervous in Ronon's presence. She wasn't going to make ANY move, ever. Alas, Ronon was too much of a gentleman to make a move either if he didn't get any clear signals from Jennifer - who, as already determined, was far from giving any signal at all.
John cleared his throat to get the tall Satedan's attention. When the latter turned to look at him, John yawned theatrically and used this movement to put an arm around the beautiful Athosian to his left. He gave Ronon an asking look and pointed his head towards Jennifer.
Teyla noticed John's movement and turned her head a little to raise an eyebrow at him.
He shrugged nonchalantly and pointed his head towards the couple on the other couch without even considering taking his arm away from where it was resting on the backrest behind her.
Teyla darted a small smile at the Satedan who looked a little lost and the young doctor who was so focused on the movie that she didn't notice one bit of the wordless conversation. When Teyla looked back to John, she gave him one of her ‘I see' nods and turned back to the movie. But the corner of her mouth went up a tiny bit.
Ronon tried to give John an ‘I won't do that' look. When it didn't work he tried the ‘I can't do that' look. When this didn't work either he sighed and carefully put his arm on the backrest just as John had showed him. Unfortunately, to do so he had to shift a little on the tiny couch so that now his leg was pressing against hers.
Jennifer felt his movement and saw his hand coming to rest at the backrest just next to her face and his leg pressed against hers. She swallowed again as she felt her stomach flip-flop from nervousness. Her biggest problem was that now her position was far from comfortable and due to the fact that the couch was so tiny there was only one way she could shift to get into a more comfortable position.
She gulped. Oh, well, she could still just get up and look like a complete idiot. Even worse than the other option. So she shifted in an attempt to get a little farther away from him. But the couch was very soft and when she sat back she sank into the pillow below her until her back came to rest... directly against his chest.
Her first impulse was to jump up from the couch, away from the touch. But Ronon was faster. He shifted a little so that she was fully settled against him in a much too comfortable way and wrapped his strong arms around her. God, she was either going to faint or to throw up out of mere nervousness - and neither of the options was very luring.
Ronon felt his heartbeat speed up considerably as he shifted to place his arm on the backrest. What if she didn't want it? How was she going to react? He was most definitely going to kill Sheppard if she didn't want that and jumped up or started to yell at him.
However, he was relieved when she shifted and sank back against him. He shifted to get into a more comfortable position for both of them and wrapped her in his arms a huge smile on his face. This evening went a lot better than he'd ever dreamed of.
John tapped Teyla's shoulder with the hand that still rested behind her back and pointed his head at the cuddling scene to their left.
She smiled up at him and formed a voiceless ‘works well'.
Nodding John put his arm around her shoulder and turned his attention back to the movie. Everything really worked well - not only for Ronon.
The only one who missed the most important parts was Rodney - as usual.
It didn't take Jennifer long to feel completely comfortable in his arms and she relaxed. Smiling she snuggled up a little closer against him and her eyes fluttered shut. She was so tired and she felt so comfortable and warm that she simply couldn't manage to keep them open much longer.
"Now, why exactly is this movie said to be one of the best love movies?" Rodney complained while the credits were running. "I mean, it didn't even have a happy ending - at least not for all of them. And all those different stories. That was much too confusing. If you ask me..."
"Shhh!" John scolded him.
McKay darted a quizzical yet deprecating glance at him. But when John grinned widely and pointed towards the other couch he couldn't help but smirk.
Ronon had leaned back against the couch and Jennifer was leaning against his chest. His arms were wrapped tightly around her middle as if he wanted to protect her from the rest of the universe. But what really made this scene cute was the fact that they were both fast asleep.
"Shall we wake them up?" Teyla whispered.
"Nah, let them rest." John chuckled.
"They're going to ruin their backs if they stay in that position much longer." Rodney argued.
The grin on Sheppard's face grew wider. "That's a small price to pay, don't you think?"
"We shouldn't leave them here in public." Teyla disagreed. "The people from Earth tend to talk too much and I don't think they'll be very happy if anyone from Atlantis found them that way in the morning."
John sighed again. God, he would kill to see their faces when they woke up in each other's arms the next morning. He took a deep breath and then tapped Ronon's shoulder.
The first thing Ronon noticed was the tap on his shoulder and then the wonderfully sweet scent of Jennifer's hair. The corners of his mouth went upwards a bit but when he opened his eyes to meet a wide grin on Sheppard's face he just frowned.
John just nodded his head in the direction of the sleeping women in Ronon's arms and then pretty much dragged Rodney and Teyla out of the room.
"Why didn't you wake up Doctor Keller as well?" Teyla wanted to know.
"Oh, come on." John rolled his eyes. "Grant me at least a little fun!"
Teyla raised another questioning eyebrow at him.
John grinned at her: "I would have died to see her face after she woke up in his arms."
Teyla just sighed and shook her head as she followed him down the corridor. Sometimes John Sheppard, one of the bravest soldiers she ever came across, reminded her a lot of a little boy.