AN: Just a reminder that this is a continuation of the "Reunion" episode. Special thanks to quantumparadigm for helping me out with the dialogue! Also, I apologize for the delay and the short chapter. I promise, the next one will more than make up for it! ;)

Cami ripped open the door to her locker, muttering under her breath as she reached in for her equipment. You're so stupid, Buchanan! You should've said something, anything!And then...what? Ronon was going to magically announce his own feelings for her? She shook her head. It was fairly obvious those feelings were non-existent. His insistence on leaving Atlantis showed her as much.

You were supposed to forget about him, she thought angrily as she grabbed her tank top, the thin material almost tearing as she forcefully pulled it over her head. But no matter how many times she tried to forget, she just...couldn't. No, not couldn't. Wouldn't.

She let out a frustrated sigh, throwing the poetry book he had given her into her locker before changing into her cargo pants. While her mind was intent on leaving her feelings for Ronon behind, her heart was another story. Why was it so hell bent on loving Ronon when she clearly didn't want to? She slammed the locker close with such force that the door hit the latch and bounced back open.

"Whoa there, kid. What'd the locker ever do to you?" Sheppard asked, walking in and moving to his own locker.

Cami raked back the wisps of hair that had escaped her ponytail. "Sorry, it's just...I talked to Ronon."

"Oh?" Sheppard asked as he changed shirts. "Don't tell me...he's still stubbornly insisting on leaving."

"Yep," she replied. "I just...I really thought..." She paused, drawing out a long breath before she said too much.

"You thought he had a legitimate reason to stay?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, I understand why he wants to leave. Those are his people." She sat down on the bench in front of her locker to pull on her boots. "But we're his people, too. How could he just leave so easily?"

Sheppard crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against his locker. "Did you ask him to stay?"

"Did you?" she countered.

He huffed out a laugh. "I think your word means more to him than mine."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Geez, kid, do I have to spell it out for you? Look, I'm just sayin', if you'd asked him to stay, he would've."

Cami shook her head, tying the laces on her boots a little too tightly. "Ronon's too busy living in the past to look towards the future. Or the present, for that matter."

"Been there, done that," he said, letting out an exaggerated sigh, then moving to sit next to her. "It took me a long time to notice that what I wanted, what I needed was right in front of me all along."

"Yeah, but it was so obvious to everyone that you and Teyla had feelings for each other."

"Obvious to everyone but me, apparently. Sometimes it's easy to see things in others that we can't see in ourselves."

"What? Now that you're with Teyla that makes you an expert on romance?" she asked sardonically.

"I'm only calling it how I see it, kid." He shifted on the bench to turn towards her. "You have to tell him how you feel before it's too late."

A soft smile touched Cami's lips as she remembered telling Sheppard those exact same words just a few months ago. Then her smile faltered when she remembered the day the conversation had taken place...the day Carson had died.

Life was too short. She'd experienced that first hand. And now Ronon was leaving. Forever.

"I can't," she said softly.

"Snipers really do make the worst romancers," Sheppard said dramatically. "They never make the first move."

She frowned at him. "It's not that easy."

His shoulder bumped hers. "It really is."

"No," she said, getting up and pacing in front of him. "It's not. What's easy is just not saying anything. Ronon's leaving and never coming back. He can go off and live his life and not have to worry about the stupid girl back on Atlantis who's madly in love with him."

"Holy shit, you love him?"

Fuck. "I...I didn't..."

"I mean, I knew you had feelings for him, but this is bigger than I thought," Sheppard continued.

"I don't even know how it happened!" she said, throwing up her hands. She slumped back onto the bench finally succumbing to the truth. "It just snuck up on me."

"Oh, the irony." Sheppard turned his laugh into a cough when he saw the confused look on her face. "You know, 'cause you're a sniper...and you're the one usually sneaking up...never mind."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah, well, as a sniper, I'm used to spotting things 500 meters away, not right in front of me."

"You have to tell him."

"I can't," she repeated, resting her elbows on her lap and hanging her head. "He wantsto leave. And I'm not selfish enough to hold him back."

"So you're just gonna let him go?"

Cami looked down at the floor. "Yep."

"And then?"

"And then I eat gallons of chocolate ice cream, get over it, and move on." She shrugged like it was no big deal.

Sheppard scoffed. "Wow."

"What?" Her head snapped up to look at him.

"Nothing, I just..." He shook his head. "I really thought you were braver than that."

"Excuse me?"

"You can take down a group of Kinji warriors in a heartbeat, but you can't face Ronon and tell him how you really feel?"

"When I'm on the field, it's just me, my gun, and the target. No feelings involved. When I'm with Ronon..." She trailed off.

"Hey, if true love was easy, we'd all have it."

Cami raised an eyebrow at him. "You seriously have to stop spewing out these platitudes."

He gave her a crooked grin. "You still have time to talk to Ronon, you know. He's probably in the armory right now getting ready for the op."

"I can't do it," she said, shaking her head.

"And why the hell not?"

"Because!"

"Because what?"

"Because he doesn't love me," she whispered. She pushed off the bench, grabbed her jacket and stormed out.

Ronon leaned into the balcony, forearms resting on the railing as he thumbed through the book Camila had given him. Ulysses. The story about a man who returned home after a long journey, only to realize that it wasn't where he wanted to be.

She'd deliberately chosen that poem for him. She'd known.

His gaze moved out to the ocean. The sun lay low in the sky and, for once, he appreciated the beauty in the scenery. Countless planets he had visited and he had never once taken the time to enjoy the view. He let out a satisfied sigh finally feeling at rest - finally truly home.

"It is beautiful, is it not?" Teyla asked softly from behind him.

He nodded as she joined him. "Can't believe it took me this long to notice it."

"Some things take time before you learn to appreciate them," Teyla said knowingly. "How are you faring?"

He shrugged. "I was angry...disappointed in my friends. But mostly disappointed in myself." He let out a harsh laugh. "I should've known it was too good to be true. I got caught up in the thought of feeling like I was finally home."

"Yes," Teyla replied. "It must have been a difficult decision to make - to leave Atlantis. To remain with those you feel you truly belong with."

"It's funny," he said, straightening up but not moving away from the railing. His eyes still observing the setting sun. "The way things turn out. All these years of looking for lost friends, of wanting to go back home...only to realize that I was home all along."

Teyla nodded in understanding. "I know the feeling."

"Was it hard for you?" he asked, turning to her. "Was it hard to leave your people behind?"

"It was...difficult," Teyla admitted. "Until I realized that I did not leave them behind. They remain with me. In my heart, in my very being." She patted his hand reassuringly. "I do not regret my decision to remain on Atlantis. It is now my home and, with it, I have found a new family."

"Like Sheppard?" he asked with a wry smile.

"Like Sheppard," Teyla agreed with a slight blush. "I must thank you for that beautiful poem you had him recite."

He grinned mischievously. "How did you - "

"John is not the poetic type," Teyla interrupted with a laugh. "Though am I wrong in assuming that poem was not meant for me?"

"I..." He let out another sigh as he looked back out at the ocean. "I had someone else in mind as I was reciting it."

"I see." She stared at him for a few seconds before her gaze, too, moved away. "Have you told her how you really feel?"

Ronon shifted uncomfortably. "It's...difficult."

Teyla gave him a warm smile, then reached over and gave his arm a sympathetic squeeze. "All things worth keeping are."