No one could have understood the full extent of the truth.

-E-

"You sure you don't have time to golf today?" Ronon grunted as Sheppard seemingly appeared out of nowhere, golf club swinging in his hands in smooth, practiced motions. He eyes the object suspiciously. Sheppard had explained the basic premise of the sport to him in the past, but the appeal still failed to entice him.

"Were you waiting for me?" He stepped around Sheppard and continued heading down the hall towards the mess.

Sheppard shrugged, holstering the club over his shoulder as he fell in step with Ronon. "Couldn't find ya' in the gym so I figured you were probably running around or doing whatever is you do when you're not hitting things."

"So you were waiting for me."

Sheppard half-grinned. "Carson said he'll join. Probably."

"I'm hungry."

"You can bring a sandwich."

Unsure what else to say to get out of actually having to play golf with Sheppard, he said, "I have a thing."

"Oh really, a thing?"

He tried to come up with a list of potential 'things' but drew up nothing. No reports to write. Not like he filled them out anyway, nor would Sheppard believe him if that was his excuse. Teyla was outside the city, so he couldn't claim a something with her. He wasn't sure what Eva was doing since he hadn't seen her since mid-morning and it was officially late afternoon.

And he wasn't good at coming up with excuses.

"Ronon!"

He and Sheppard stopped in the hall, looking around for whoever had called his name. A few seconds later, Eva's head popped out from a doorway behind them. Even doing that, she managed to appear more like a predator hanging from a wall than a person casually leaning against it.

"Hey, Eva, have you ever played golf?" Sheppard asked. He swung the club again as if to emphasize the allure of the sport.

Eva's mouth clicked shut as she examined the club in Sheppard's hands critically, whatever she'd been about to say dying on her lips. Her eyebrows pinched together in confusion, whether from trying to decipher what Sheppard was actually doing with the instrument in his hands or because she knew that Sheppard knew she had never heard of such a sport and so didn't understand why he'd asked in the first place, he couldn't tell.

"I prefer not to hit things with excessively long, blunt instruments."

Ronon couldn't help the chuckle that escaped his lips, especially as Sheppard's mouth dropped open in mock offense.

"It's not just hitting," he explained, "It's precision strikes against a ball to send it exactly where you want it to go."

"Why not just throw it, then?"

"Because throwing it requires less skill."

Eva eyed the club dubiously as Sheppard attempted to demonstrate with an invisible ball. Ronon stood back a few feet while Sheppard lined up an imaginary shot and swung. The image was only moderately spoiled by the fake applause Sheppeard made by cupping his hands around his mouth while bowing dramatically.

"You didn't actually hit a ball."

By the expression on Eva's face, he was mildly sure she'd just cracked a joke at Sheppard's expense.

"You're killing me. Ronon, help?"

He raised his hands up. "Don't look at me, I've never played golf."

Sheppard threw up his hands, barely missing striking the wall with the head of the club. Though he was more concerned about the lighting fixture above his head that'd come within half a foot of becoming rubble. A shower composed of glass was not on his list of enjoyable activities. Unless he'd caused the shower with his gun while taking down a wraith or five.

Sheppard appeared to give up on explaining golf to Eva at least, because he asked, "So what's this thing?"

"It's important."

Eva's attention had been grabbed by whoever was in the room with her, so he couldn't try to get out of golfing that way. She was in a fervent conversation with what sounded like Dr. Mckay, most likely working on whatever project he'd roped her into last week. Ever since Rodney learned she could read Lantean fluently, he'd been dogging her heels, wanting to assess the extent of her knowledge, and familiarize her with the grid. He'd been pretty unhappy when she didn't have the gene that would let her use Lantean devices. More so than she had. Which wasn't much at all.

"Oh really?"

He shifted on his feet, slight enough that most wouldn't have noticed it. "Yes."

"So what is it, then?"

Sheppard's eyes held his and he knew he wouldn't be getting out of it this time.

"Ronon, are you busy now?"

"What, you too?"

A way out presented itself and he grabbed it. Nodding his head at Eva, he said, "Her first."

Fortunately Sheppard missed the confused head tilt Eva supplied as she looked at him.

"If it's just Eva, why were you so cagey about it?"

"I didn't want to hurt your feelings."

Sheppard laughed. "Fine, you two kids have fun. Don't run yourselves to death or beat the crap out of each other too much."

After Sheppard departed, Eva slipped out of the doorway and stood next to him.

"So, what'd you actually want?" he asked her once he was sure Sheppard wouldn't be able to hear him.

She shrugged. "Rodney was driving me crazy in the lab. Saw you two walking by and thought it looked like the perfect opportunity to get away."

He shared an amused grin with her.

"Besides," she continued, "Looks like you needed rescuing, too."

"If we keep standing here, Mckay will get suspicious. You hungry?"

"Yes," she replied and started walking towards the mess. He fell in next to her, amused at the implication that Mckay had kept her there for hours, probably eating sandwiches he'd stowed away or even forgetting his own hunger in his exuberance to see what Eva knew.

-E-

AN: Oh hey, I'm alive! And it's been a long time since I last posted an update and I really do feel bad, so thanks to everyone who stuck around and reviewed asking me to come back and continue this story! Life has been super hectic (but the good kind) and I lost my muse for this story for a bit, but now I'm back! I hope to get some regular updating in here now that I'm back on track with this story and where it's going, but I don't want to make promises I can't keep. I can and will tell you that it will definitely not be anywhere near as long as this update was. I'm hoping for weekly.

So again, thank you all of you for being super patient and I hope you still enjoy the story! :)