Title: Team means more than any military structure
Rating: for everyone
Word: 848 words
Notes: Originally posted today 08-02-21, for ladycat in e-mail between workassignments
John really wishes he hadn’t tried so hard today that he forgot he’s actually past forty and not yet thirty, and that Ronon is really heavy when he falls atop of you. Trying to get up again is a lot less graceful and a lot more of cursing and stumbling to not fall flat on his face. Just trying to lean his weight on his arms makes things inside blast through his ribcage, like a rope of lightning wrapped around his insides. He has to curl up and choke on air a little, before he manages to get up. Ronon looks worried, his smug smile turning into a frown and a stretched out hand. “You ok?”
“Fine.” Except John’s really not fine. He can still feel the contours of Ronon’s elbow as it hit his chest first, bracing as the rest of Ronon’s weight landed with a grunt. Like this, Ronon’s never felt bigger. Not even when he smacks him with sticks and makes him dance one legged in a mock up of what John’s still not sure is a real Satedan custom. But Ronon ignores him and gently helps him stand up by bracing one hip and holding onto John’s upper shoulder. Gentle and sure, like a mountain to lean on and John finds himself not protesting the help one bit. In some occasions the testosterone fight between Ronon and him is so old it’s easy to put aside, like comfortable clothes worn in and well used. They know where the true respect lies between them and he doesn’t have to worry about keeping up and being better, not like this. He’s still Ronon’s leader, his task-master, and that isn’t something that lies on shaky ground. They’ve found their footing with each other and team means more than any military structure. More than family because team is what they’ve chosen, a family where they’ve picked each other and know each other inside out. Not something where just blood ties you together, where you’re born into an already made structure. Team’s the one place where the phrase blood is thicker than water no longer applies, because when you shed blood for each other it’s senseless to see it any other way. It has ties further than any one can understand unless you’ve seen it and felt it yourself.
John’s still breathing loudly, trying to grasp air without forcing his ribs to bend and stretch, that he only hears the end murmur of Ronon’s sentence. But he got the gist of it - Keller will meet them in the infirmary. It takes longer than John wants to acknowledge to walk from the gym to the transporter to the infirmary, he’s still winded and hasn’t quite gotten his breathing regular again. It’s like his lungs demands more breath than he can give and instead ends up occasionally coughing, which of course makes him stop and just shake till everything settles again. Keller’s hands are warm and delicate as they make ready to cut open his shirt. John’s stubborn enough to try to lift his arms but she just smiles gently as she watches him curl up on himself and his arms fall back into his lap. Arms above his head is not a good idea right now.
She wraps him up after she gives him a shot of painkillers he’s glad to get. The fuzz is sweet and he imagines it like snakes of light that wind around his brain and zaps out the pain. Mm, relaxation is wonderful and he lets himself slump a bit more on the bed.
John expects Ronon to come back and help him to his quarters, if nothing else to finally get to flash his smug smile, but it’s Rodney that comes by with Teyla in tow. Rodney stomps in with his usual grace when he’s bits of angry and worried. If John didn’t already know what to look for he’d never seen the short lived flash of soft relief in Rodney’s eyes as he scans over John’s body, it turns too fast into a grimace of anger at John for being careless. He doesn’t have to hear what Rodney says to know it, and it’s true to a point. John shouldn’t really tussle like that with Ronon, not to force the issue and take their sparring to these lengths. Ronon’s so much younger and he isn’t happy to know he really hurt John, even if winning the sparring (ass kicking) is still worth a satisfied smile or two. How Teyla really puts up with the three of them… It’s good she meditates, John thinks as he listens to Rodney with one ear while the rest of him is floating with the drugs.
Teyla and Rodney help John up and he gives Ronon a slow (very gentle) nod, and a smile that says they’re ok as he lets them help him to his room. Ronon stays with Keller after worriedly eye checking with Teyla, and it’s her smile that relieves him more than Johns. Everything really is okay.
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