Teyla closed her eyes for a heartbeat, breathing out an exhausted sigh in the midday heat, her pricked fingers stinging from sweat. Ronon waved a stinging insect away as he continued to work, harvesting the fruit from the thorny plants before them. She opened her eyes and began picking again. She was tempted to eat one of the red fruits for the water she knew it held but earlier in the week she had seen a child beaten by a driver for doing just that. She didn’t dare risk it.

Ronon stole a glance at the mounted taskmaster as he trotted past. When he was out of earshot he bent over to pick a fruit, whispering to Teyla. “It’s been a week.”

She sighed, glancing furtively at the other slaves. There were snitches among them who would happily point out any gossiping slaves for the drivers to punish. “I know. But we must be patient.”

Ronon’s whisper was more of a growl as he accidentally pricked his finger yet again. “I’ve been just about as patient as I can be.”

“We have no choice.”

“Of course we do.” They paused as they shuffled further down the row and another slave passed them.

She avoided eye contact, disguising their conversation. “What are you suggesting?”

“We fight.”

One of the slaves across the field broke into song and within a few words most of the others had joined in. Ronon and Teyla looked around at them then used the others’ singing as further cover for their conversation. She glanced to him. “And how do you suggest we do that? We have no weapons and these people are not warriors, Ronon. They are frightened.”

He dumped a handful of fruit into his carrying sack. “All the more reason to fight. Start an uprising.”

Teyla eyed him in a sideways glance then looked away. “I also want to help these people, but the best course of action is to remain cooperative and unnoticed until Colonel Sheppard-”

“What if Sheppard isn’t coming?” his voice was a low hiss, earning another look from her. “It’s next to impossible for him to find us. We don’t even know where we are.”

“Getting ourselves killed in a battle that we cannot win will not help, either,” she hissed back.

“Well, we have to do something.” He glanced over at a young woman being shoved about teasingly by a driver who was laughing. The way the man’s hands landed on the girl made Ronon sneer. “I can’t take much more of this and there’s no telling what they’ll do to you in time.”

Teyla furrowed her brow and followed his gaze, her face softening with gravity as she realized what he was insinuating. She glanced to him again, resting her hand on his lower back for a heartbeat. “Thank you for your concern, but I can defend myself.”

He arched a brow, remembering what happened when she was under the influence of the Wraith queen on the drilling platform. “Yeah, I know. But still...” he trailed off, memories of his torture at the hands of the Wraith flitting through his mind. “No one should have to have anything forced upon them.” He intentionally broke off a branch of the crop and flung it into the dirt.

She glanced at the branch then back to her own work. “I am well aware of our situation, Ronon.”

“Well if we can’t fight then maybe I can escape and come back with help.”

She shook her head. “It is too big of a risk. It has only been a week. We should continue to wait for rescue.”

Ronon sighed and fell silent. Assured that she had sated his urge for action for the time being, she shifted her focus to the lyrics of the song.

“When I was just a little baby

Sittin’ on my daddy’s knee,

I looked at a songbird flying free

And said, “Daddy that bird’s just like me...”

Watching her waste away a little more each day as time passed and feeling his own spirit giving in to the monotony of their servitude was enough to make any course of action, no matter how desperate, seem critical to survival. To make matters worse, he had caught more than one of the drivers eyeing Teyla in the same manner that they eyed the other women they forced into their beds. His arm unconsciously tightened around her as she slept, gently teasing her awake.

She shifted a little and could tell by the sound of his breathing that he wasn’t asleep. She tilted her head to look up at him though she could only see the knotted locks of his hair and his bare arm haloed in the dim light leaking in from outside. She sighed and could feel his muscles beneath her fingers tense as he realized that she had awoken. She kept her voice a whisper. “Why are you not asleep?”

He shifted his weight a little as he exhaled and she stiffened as his hand rested on the back of her head, unaccustomed to his touch anywhere but on her middle. The movement of his thumb stroking her hair sent a warm shiver down her spine and, hidden in the dark, she closed her eyes, letting the pleasant tickling sensation wash over her.

Her affection for him had grown in leaps and bounds since they came to this place. He was her charge as much as she was his. He was her fellow slave and her reminder of home, but more importantly, he was another set of eyes and ears that watched out for them both. A warm touch. A beating heart. An ever-growing light in his eyes when he looked at her. He was there – a warm body in the night, a guiding touch in the day, a tickling breath on her shoulder, reminding her that she was so fiercely alive.

“I’m worried,” he hoarsely whispered back.

“About what?”

“You.”

His answer made her open her eyes again and she pulled her hand away from his side, her shifting stilling his hand in her hair. “Ronon...”

“I want to kill the drivers. I can’t stand the way they look at you.”

She hesitated, unable to deny the anxiety that gripped her whenever she noticed one such look. “I do not enjoy it, either.”

He took a deep breath and let it out shakily. It fanned across her chest. “We have to get out of this place.” Her eyes tried to find his in the dim hoar light. “I’m not waiting around until something happens to you. We should leave in the night.”

She furrowed her brow. “And risk recapture? They would kill us.”

“We wouldn’t get caught. I was a Runner, I know how to avoid-”

“What if they interrogate others as to our whereabouts? What if they torture these people to learn how we escaped?”

The Satedan was silent, knowing the slave drivers were fully capable of such an act.

She clenched her jaw, tears of frustration stinging her eyes. “I hate this as much as you do, but I feel it is safest to continue to wait for rescue.”

The tear-filled quiver in her voice made his retort of “if it ever comes” seem cruel so he bit his tongue and pulled her to him in a hug, running his fingers through her hair.

She sniffled quietly, ashamed at first of showing such weakness in front of him. Yet his gentle response eased the embarrassment from her shoulders and she hugged him back. Her forehead rested against his throat once more and she could feel the vibrations of his voice as he whispered “We’ll get through this together” as he gave her a reassuring squeeze. She nodded, knowing that without his constant presence and silent guardian growl she would have spent many nights crying herself to sleep as she endured the inhumanity alone.

She tilted her head upwards, planting a small kiss of thanks on his neck, pausing when she felt his quickening pulse beneath her lips. She pulled away as he stiffened from the contact. Her lips tingled with teasing pleasure and when she felt him shift to try to look at her she leaned in once more, pressing her lips against the coarse stubble of his cheek, closing her eyes as the scent and the feel of his skin made her heart beat faster with a pleasant flush. He closed his eyes and leaned against her lips, tilting his chin towards hers when they next kissed the corner of his mouth, then finally his lips.

She started to panic when, for a heartbeat, he didn’t kiss her back, but her anxiety evaporated as his lips awoke against hers and his hand slid from her hair to rest on her hip. He leaned in with a small gasp of air as his tongue slid into her mouth and she leaned forward, cupping his cheek with a muffled, happy whimper, her heated blood pulsing pleasantly in her lips.

Her mind began to sluggishly catch up with her as they hesitatingly untangled to breathe and she reminded herself with a jolt of surprise who she was kissing. His thoughts seemed to echo hers for her brushed the hair off her face, caressing her cheekbone with his scabbed thumb as he kissed her lightly again before pulling back, letting her know that it was okay, that their former selves in Atlantis felt like people from another life, another time. Here, where they had nothing else, there were no walls to hide behind, no judgmental Earthlings. Just lips and pulses, sore muscles and the warmth of another’s embrace... a need for each other that couldn’t ever have existed before now.

She leaned towards him as he pulled away, resting her head once more beneath the warmth of his neck, panting to catch her breath and trailing her fingers down his back, feeling his racing pulse against her forehead as he pulled her against his warmth once more, wrapping his arms protectively around her and draping a leg over hers as the two attempted to still their hearts enough to sleep.

Branded Heart

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