Title: Crazy
Summary: They may be crazy, but she wouldn't have them any other way.
Characters: Teyla, Jack O'Neill and cameos by other SGA/SG1 folks.
Pairing: I am TPTB; you are to decide.
Rating: K

She felt him approach long before he'd spoken any words to her. Together, they watched the group down below on the pier wrestling one another to the ground as they chased after an oblong shaped 'ball'. She had seen the game they called football on the video that Colonel Sheppard had brought with him to Atlantis but she had not realised just how physically taxing it was. Many of the men had removed their shirts – much to the female spectators delight - and were glistening in the overhead light.

Through it all, he had been silent, leaning on the railing beside her, his silver hair glinting in the afternoon sun. On the numerous occasions she had met General Jack O'Neill of Earth, she had yet to see him out of his 'dress blues' yet he was standing at her side in loose beige trousers and a light blue shirt, his hair longer than she had seen it.

Retirement, she'd been told by those who knew him from Earth, suited him well.

"This football of yours," she said to him at length, turning her head to his slightly as he turned to her. "It is a strange sport."

He smiled and nodded, looking back down to those below. His eyes watched his old friend, Daniel Jackson, as he was tackled roughly to the ground by a young pilot who seemed only too delighted in taking down his opponent. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him wince even as he let out an airy laugh.

"Me, I prefer hockey," he said glibly and Teyla turned to him with a frown. "You know," he said as he motioned with his hands. "You hit a puck with a stick – kind of like golf, but way cooler."

Teyla looked away and frowned. She'd had experience with golf and as such, she could not imagine anything resembling it to be better than the football game that was being played beneath her; it did not take much imagination for her believe that this 'hockey' was better than golf.

"I have played golf before," she stated simply, brushing a strand of hair from her eyes as the wind blew across the pier. "It was difficult to take the same pleasure from it that Colonel Sheppard does."

General O'Neill laughed, tossing his head back slightly and she turned to him, her own smile light and free. Tanned, Jack O'Neill was a handsome man, the lines around his face betraying the age that she was sure he did not feel. In his younger years, Teyla could imagine he was much coveted by women of many planets. Even now, as she wandered the halls and spoke with other women, word of General O'Neill's continued attractiveness surfaced.

"I didn't have Sheppard pegged as a golf man," he said to her but then he frowned. "Though I suppose, staying in the Antarctic would drive any man to madness."

Silence descended between them once again and Teyla reflected on the manner in which the men of Earth devoted so much time to such a meaningless activity such as sport. The men on Atlantis – and those who visited – who participated in the sports had no need for physical activity; their bodies 

were in good shape and they did not need to practice the sport for their work. It seemed strange to her, even after years of watching men fight for a place on the seats in the recreation room when the SuperBowl DVD came through, or the Champions League final (the'other version' of football) was broadcast, that men were so... into it.

"There are so many sports on your world; it is any wonder you can keep up with them all," she noted suddenly and O'Neill turned to her, squinting as the light hit his eyes.

"We don't keep up with them all." He looked down to the group when a loud cheer went up and Cameron Mitchell partook in a 'victory dance' with Teal'c, and O'Neill hollered a jeer down to them. "Just the ones that interest us."

Teyla turned back to the group, frowning.

"On Atlantis, it seems you are all interested in all of the sports."

"That's cause we're a crazy people." She frowned at him. "We'd need to be to do what we do."

She nodded in acquiesce, smiling slightly as she looked away. The crowd on the sidelines began to get rowdy and Teyla tried to understand what was happening, rolling her eyes when she saw Sheppard drag Rodney out onto the make shift playing field.

"Rodney does not enjoy football."

O'Neill made a noise in the back of his throat and a smile lifted the corner of his lips.

"He's Canadian." She turned to him again, smiling in return. "He can't help it."

"Why do you not play?"

O'Neill laughed and shook his head, the look of longing she had seen on his face fleeing quickly.

"The old knees aren't what they used to be," he said mirthfully as he bent them a few times to show her. She smiled. "Why don't you play?" He asked as he flicked his wrist down to the group. "I'm sure you're more than capable."

Teyla smiled.

"I would not like to embarrass them by beating them at their own game."

O'Neill laughed loudly at that for a few moments and Teyla joined in his mirthful mood. He patted her shoulder a few times and she looked to his hand, to his amused face and she smiled slightly.

"No wonder Sheppard likes you," he said lightly and patted her shoulder again as he made to move past her. "I better get inside, anyway." He looked to the watch on his wrist. "Carter'll kill me if I don't get that blue jello to her before McKay eats it all."

Teyla smiled to his retreating back and shook her head slightly.

"I fear that you may be too late," she called after him.

He turned to her as he kept moving, lifting his hands to his face.

"Then she'll never forgive me."

Teyla smiled again.

"I do not understand your people's love for jello either."

He simply shrugged and kept moving.

"Like I said; we're crazy!"

She waited until he disappeared through the door before turning back to the crowd below to see Sheppard being hoisted up onto Ronon's shoulders.

They may be crazy, but she wouldn't have them any other way.