Age 15

"Hey Torren." Cam smiled and waved, bounding down the steps in the gate room.

Torren smiled slightly, pushing one hand through floppy golden locks before resting it against the back of his neck and shoving the other into his pocket.

"Hey." He responded. Cam moved to stand beside him so they could both look at the inactive gate instead of each other. Cam couldn't remember a day in her life that she hadn't known Torren but something had...shifted lately, and she found that when she looked directly at him she couldn't stand still.

An awkward silence, another new development between them, was mercifully shortened when she remembered she'd wanted to ask him something.

"Oh, you said you would teach me that backhanded double cross move next time we sparred, right?"

"Yeah." Torren stole a glance at her out of the corner of his eye. "You want to, um meet me in the gym? This afternoon maybe?"

"Yeah," Cam answered back a little too quickly. Movement on the other side of the gate room caught her eye and her face fell. "But we can't today. Deadheaders."

Torren glanced at her again and followed Cam's gaze to the new recruits who'd been beamed down to the base from the Deadalus that morning.

"I forgot." Torren nodded, then brightened again. "Theres another place. I go there to practice when the gym is full. I could take know...If you wanted to go."

"Where?"

He shrugged one shoulder, feeling annoyed when he realized the new marines were making their way toward them. "It's some kind of underwater Marine Observation room on Sublevel D3. But its a wide open room and doesn't have restricted access."

"Perfect! What time?"

Torren and Cam ironed out the details of their rendezvous just as the new marines joined them and before long they were all so lost in conversation they were barely interrupted when the gate activated and SGA1 stepped through.

Ronon had kissed his wife hello and was patiently enduring her probing fingers as she scrutinized a small cut near his eyebrow when he heard Cam's laughter dancing through the gate room for the third time in as many minutes. Up until then he'd just been glad that someone had been there to distract her while Jennifer made a quick examination of his bruised and swollen eye.

John, who'd been berating him over bar fights during diplomatic missions, noticed the strange quality of the laughter too and cut himself off at the same moment.

They looked around and what they caught sight of made both men's blood freeze and then boil.

There, just twenty feet away, stood Atlantis' youngest resident, still a child as far as Ronon and John were concerned, though any objective observer would have noticed that by now Cam was turning into a woman. An attractive, highly spirited young woman with wild curls, teasing eyes and an easy smile to go with her room-filling laugh.

A young woman any young man would have to be a fool, and probably half dead, not to notice.

And a fool, young, handsome nearly-a-man Torren apparently was not. And neither were the other three young marines, hours fresh from the Deadalus who stood in a half circle around the charismatic, if not slightly unaware, Camaiya Ann Dex.

They may not have been fools, but they clearly all had a death wish.

Ronon slipped away from his wife with barely a word, John hot on his heels. Realizing what was happening, both were suddenly overrun with restraining hands and shouts of 'calm down' and 'stop it' and 'don't kill anyone, sir, think of the paperwork!'.

But the warnings fell on deaf ears. Fortunately, the young men caught sight of John and Ronon stalking toward them and did not misinterpret the danger in their eyes. The marines scattered immediately with Torren turning to take refuge behind his mother, who took offense at the look on both men's faces and couldn't help but ask in a deceptively sweet tone just what problem the men had with her son.

An argument ensued and the adults were all too distracted to notice the furtive smiles and flirty glances being exchanged by the two teenagers in the room.

Age 16

There had been a handful of times when Cam wasn't waiting when the team stepped through the gate. Usually due to illness or being off world when they made an unscheduled trip.

This was the first time she wasn't there by her own choice.

Ronon's face darkened immediately when he stepped through the puddle and he approached Jennifer, dropping a kiss to her lips before he spoke, as was his habit.

"I'm sorry," Jennifer sighed, "I tried to get her to come."

"She's stubborn." Ronon grumbled.

"Can't imagine where she gets that from," Jennifer quipped, her tone lighter than she felt. The past few weeks had been difficult. Camaiya had been moody, defiant abd unyielding. She and Ronon had fought almost constantly and Jennifer was exhausted from playing referee. Neither was very good at seeing things from the other's perspective.

Ronon sighed watching absently as Teyla and Rodney walked off toward the armory to put away their gear and Sheppard talked quietly to Lorne over a pad a few feet away.

"Maybe I should try to go and talk to her."

Jennifer snorted. "That hasn't been working so well for us so far." She shook her head. "No, I think we should give her some time alone. Besides, I could really use a conversation with no sass for a while."

Ronon smiled, putting an arm across her shoulders. He turned his face to kiss her hair when she dropped her head against his shoulder.

"No promises."

John watched the two leave, long since having finished his conversation with Lorne. With a thoughtful frown on his face, he turned and made his way toward the transporter, determined to find his youngest charge.

It didn't take him long to locate her and John smiled at the irony. The basis of most of Ronon and Camaiya's tension was that she had recently decided to study medicine, following in her mother's footsteps. And Cam didn't think continuing to spar and learn to use weapons was appropriate for the lifestyle she was trying to live. Ronon, being Ronon, didn't really care what she thought was appropriate. The only thing that mattered to him was that she be able to keep herself safe when he wasn't there to do it, and by any means necessary.

So it was rather ironic that in her anger at her father Cam often ended up in the back corner of the gym going head to head for hours on end with a fighting dummy. John stood and watched for a moment. Cam had her curls pulled back in the same ineffectual ponytail that had always proven unsatisfactory in her youth and was punishing the dummy with repeated head and body blows. She had taken the time to wrap her hands first, John observed, a detail she'd not often remembered in the heat of the moment when she was younger. But after enough dressing downs from her mother and John himself over bleeding knuckles and bruised fingers, she'd learned to prepare appropriately before giving vent to her anger.

It was a lesson John was still struggling to teach Ronon.

"Hey kid, take a break." John called out, after the dummy bounced amiably back from a particularly savage round house kick to the head. He tossed a towel in her direction which Cam caught with one hand and a scowl.

"What do you want?"

"Whoa," John put his palms up in surrender, "what are you mad at me for?"

Cam answered with a steady glare and just the barest hint of a pout, if John wasn't mistaken. And he was pretty sure he wasn't.

"I know you're here for him."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. And I don't have anything to say to him. Or you." She shook her head in disgust and dropped heavily onto a nearby bench. "He doesn't understand." She grumbled at the floor, then turned to John. "He doesn't even try!"

"Cam, you know why he is the way he is."

"I am not a soldier, Uncle John! I'm not a marine!" She exclaimed. "I'm gonna be a doctor and I am not going to waste one more minute learning how to hurt when all I want to do is help people!"

"It's not a waste of time, Camiaya." John said, his irritation growing by the moment. "The people in Pegasus have lived in the shadow of the Wraith for centuries. And your Dad more than most. He fought monsters you'll never know so you could have the safety you take for granted as normal."

"Oh please, like it's been some kind of picnic here. I have to get permission from the entire Gate Room and my parent's just to go off world and hang out with kids my own age! And it's not my fault my dad has some kind of Pegasus PTSD, but I'm always the one being punished for it. He never lets me do anything!"

John's lips drew into a grim line and his face hardened but the teenager was too lost in her rant to notice the shift in his mood. She stood up, pacing in front of him and glaring at the walls and the floor. "He never listens. All he cares about is sparring and fighting and shooting. He doesn't care what I want. He doesn't care about things that I think are imporant. All that matters is what he thinks. Well I'm not a little kid anymore. Someday I'm going to go to Earth for med school and then he'll have to let go. But he'll probably try to "protect" me from that too. He's so..." Cam kicked the side of the bench. "He just...doesn't understand!"

Maybe his fuse was shorter because he was 36 hours of no sleep past exhausted, fresh from a mission that went just this shy of hitting the fan. Maybe he was just as tired of Cam's teenage mood-swings and selfishness as her parents. Maybe deep inside he was worried if he couldn't snap her of her brooding she might let her stubbornness get her into real trouble. Or worse.

But whatever the reason, John Sheppard chose that moment to cross a line he'd never thought he'd come to.

"Have you seen the patient in Isolation Room 3?" He said in a voice that was just above a gravelly whisper.

Cam stopped short in her tirade and blinked, confused by the change in topic. "No. I don't have the clearance level."

John nodded. "Come with me."

During the silent walk to the infirmary wing Cam realized how utterly angry John was by his unusual silence and the way he kept refusing to look in her direction. Unfortunately for Cam, her infamous Dex stubbornness had taken firm hold and she wouldn't allow herself to feel remorse over the words that had clearly upset the man so much.

John input a code on the keypad outside the observation room and swiped his hand over the door controls. The doors opened with a soft swish and they both stepped inside. The room was empty and John waited while Camiaya approached the window that looked down into the treatment room and the patient strapped to the gurney below.

Cam frowned, thoughtful as she watched an old man thrash against his bindings with more strength than his sinewy muscles should have allowed. He bucked and jerked, straining against the binds, his white hair plastered to his forehead and cheeks, mouth open in cries that didnt quite pierce the sound barrier of the room.

"Who...?" Cam asked finally, watching the patient with an almost clinical detachment.

"Do you remember Sergeant Tadashi?"

Cam nodded and then, a few moments later the resemblance sunk in and her eyes flew to John's.

"But that...that's impossible. He's only a few years older than me. How...?"

"You know how." John prompted, his eyes still on her. "The Wraith."

"No...I don't..."

John touched a button beside him and Cam jumped when the room was suddenly filled with the anguished cries, the angry swearing and pleas for death emanating from the man below. Seconds later he cut them off again and Cam was barely holding back her tears as she gasped for breath. No longer detached, no longer clinical, she was unable to tear her eyes off the formerly young pilot below.

"What happened?" She squeaked.

John came to stand beside her and stared down at the Sergeant.

"He was separated from his team. A Wraith got the drop on him and was in the middle of feeding when Collins killed it. Tadashi's system was flooded with the Wraith enzyme." He swallowed, blinking away too many dark memories. "The wraith took so many years off of him it's unlikely he'll survive the detox process."

Biting her lip, Cam turned, fleeing the room.

"Are you upset?" John's voice, stopped her dead in her tracks.

She whirled around to face him looking stricken and she blinked hard, angry when the tears fell anyway.

"What are you saying? Of course I'm upset. You just told me that he...he..."

"He is someone you barely knew. Imagine watching a friend go through that. Someone you love. Can you?" John asked his dark eyes drilling into a girl hev loved as if she were his own. Wanting to make her see. "Because we all have. Your father has. And I watched him go through a withdrawal that makes this one look like a walk in the park."

Cam drew back as if she'd been physically struck and it occurred to John that she might not have known about Ronon's experience after being betrayed by Tyre the second time.

"Now you tell me," he continued, "is there anything, anything, you wouldn't do to protect your family from that fate?" He thrust his hand toward the isolation room below. "Because there is nothing he wouldn't do. There is nothing in this universe that Ronon wouldn't do if it meant keeping you safe. Even if he has to push you until you never speak to him again, he would rather suffer your silence for the rest of his life than watch you be hurt when he knew there was something he could do to prevent it." John paused, feeling guilty for the sorrow and grief that spilled across Cam's face. He took a deep breath and forced himself to speak lower, calmer.

"It isn't him who doesn't understand, Cam. It's you."

Cam swallowed and averted her eyes. Pressing the back of her hand to her mouth, she turned and left the room. A moment later John followed her. She hadnt gotten very far.

Just outside facing her in the hallway, she'd nearly collided with Ronon.

"Cam?" Ronon asked. Then, seeing the tears in her eyes and on her cheeks, his eyes flickered over her shoulder to John and then back to her again. "What's wrong, little one?"

Cam gasped and threw her arms around Ronon's neck, pressing her face into his shirt.

"I love you daddy." She sobbed into his chest, drawing infinite comfort from the way Ronon's strong arms immediately encircled her, familiar and steady. "I'm sorry for the way I've been acting. I love you so much."

Ronon's gaze was dark as he gazed at John, wondering just what his friend had done to his daughter to exact such a change of heart. The Colonel jammed his hands into his pockets and turned, making his way down the hallway in the opposite direction.

There would be questions. More than likely, Ronon and Jennifer would be upset with him for what he'd done. But John just couldn't find it in himself to regret scaring the sense back into the girl.

Because there was nothing in the universe he wouldn't do to keep her safe.

Age 17

The first time Ronon returned through the gate to a daughter he barely recognized, she was seventeen.

At first he'd ben confused. She was missing from her usual place beside her mother. Jennifer saw his questioning glance and turned her eyes meaningfully toward the control room.

Ronon followed her gaze and saw his daughter, looking nervous and excited all at once. Her cheeks were tinged pink as she met his gaze, and she bit her lip. Beside her was Torren. Now nearly nineteen, he stood a head taller than Cam, lean and muscular in a way Ronon wasn't anymore, vibrant with youth and strength.

And close. So close to his daughter that their upper arms touched from shoulder to elbow.

She beamed at him and when Torren leaned over to whisper something in her ear she tipped her head back and laughed loud enough to fill the busy gate room. Torren gazed at her with a look Ronon recognized. A look he still gave Jennifer if he caught her unaware of his stare.

In that moment, Ronon realized his daughter was not a little girl anymore.

Age 18

The second time Ronon he was facing toward the active gate, not emerging from it.

He stood at the top of the stairs, looking out over the carefully orchestrated chaos in front of the puddle. Jennifer, the conductor, gave directions to the marines and doctors buzzing around theb room. Standing still amidst the activity stood Cam, wearing a backpack full of supplies, ready to go through with the final group of doctors to help tend to the victims of the plague when she'd been given the go ahead.

Her jaw was set, eyes narrowed and chin lifted as she bounced on the balls of her feet with barely contained energy. On her right hip a leather holster was strapped with a smaller version of Ronon's blaster that she'd promised to always wear when she went off world. He knew she would always try not to, but took comfort in the knowing that she had the training and sense to use it if she had to.

Receiving the signal to move ahead, she gripped the straps of her backpack and tossed her hair as she stepped forward. She looked up and caught his gaze, smiling at him quickly before she disappeared, ready to go and battle death in a way he never had.

It was then that Ronon realized he'd raised a warrior after all.

Age 19

Ronon knew, as he stared at the rippling blue puddle, everything was about to change.

His fingers convulsively tightened and relaxed around the object in his hand. Teyla came to stand beside him and, instead of stepping through ahead of him, she grasped his wrist and turned him toward her.

Automatically, he bowed low and touched his forehead to hers.

"Come," she said, upon leaning back with a smile, "We should not keep them waiting."

Ronon nodded. Teyla didn't let go of his wrist and pulled him through the event horizon with her.

Moments later he stood in the gate room in Atlantis. The entire expedition, it seemed, lined the walls and stairs around them, watching with glee and anticipation as the Athosian ritual began.

In the middle of them all, stood Torren, as tall as Ronon himself and several inches taller than John who stood beside him. He faced Cam, who wore a deliriously happy smile on her face and a crown of white flowers atop her tumbling curls. Her burgundy leather top was cropped just above her naval and a low slung skirt clung to her hips. It cascaded down with layers of thin, flowing fabric that brushed the tops of her bare feet and the floor.

Cam glanced at Ronon and grinned, a dazzling smile that staggered him just as much now as it had the first time she'd flashed it at him from the crook of his arm.

He approached and took his place next to Teyla, opposite John and Jennifer.

He listened silently as Torren said his vows and watched Teyla pull a leather cord with a blue jewel on the end of it out of her pocket and slip it over Cam's head, cheeks flushed with emotion. A moment later Cam uttered the same words and her eyes turned glassy when Jen stepped forward, slipping a similar necklace, but this one with a deep red jewel, over Torren's head. Jen cupped his cheek gently and smiled before stepping back again.

Then it was Ronon's turn. With a steadying breath, he took one of each of their hands. Slowly, he pulled Cam's hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to the back of it before placing it in Torren's upturned palm. He held their joined hands between his own.

"Take care of her." He said to Torren, but kept his eyes on Cam.

"Or we'll kill you." John added, causing the women, and some of the men, in the room to laugh through their happy tears.

"You are united," Teyla smiled, "you may kiss the bride."

Torren immediately gathered Cam to his chest and she tilted her head up to meet his lips in a passionate kiss that drew applause from the crowd of marines and scientists around them.

Ronon felt Jennifer come to stand beside him and wrapped an arm across her shoulders, hugging her close to his side. Nearby Cadman slipped under John's arm, locking both of hers around him and dropping her head to his shoulder.

The other members of the expedition who'd been observing the ceremony flooded the floor to congratulate the young couple and escort them to the underwater marine observation room that had been prepared for the reception.

Ronon knew now, everything had changed.

Camiaya would still always be there waiting on the other side of the gate when the team returned, but it wouldn't be him she was waiting for anymore.

Ronon watched her thread her fingers with Torren's, her face was bright with joy and the promise of the future as they were ushered into the transporter. Torren stared at her, even as she spoke to other well-wishers, as if his entire universe had collapsed to a single person. He squeezed his wife's shoulders with a sigh.

He supposed in some ways it had.

Cam pulled Torren into the transporter, wrapping her arms around his neck in a passionate kiss just as the doors closed, allowing them a few moments of privacy before the party.

Through the crowd Ronon met John's eyes and saw in the man's face that his heart was not the only one aching. A quick glance down at Jennifer under his arm and at Teyla beside him reflected the same joy and love and sadness that he and his friend were feeling.

In some ways, every trip through the gate until then had been leading them to this moment.

He knew it was never going to be the same. But that was okay.

She was ready.

They all were.

END