Notes: I have several variations on this theme that I'd like to write. This is the shortest.
Homecomings
John doesn't mean to kiss Teyla in the Gateroom, with everyone there.
He doesn't.
She gave him her son to bring back to Atlantis - gave the most precious thing in her universe into his keeping, and asked him not to fail her. And he didn't. He broke his own rules to do so, but the memory of Rodney's description of the Pegasus Galaxy under Michael echoed in his memory.
Pegasus needed him to do what was right.
Teyla trusted him to do what was right.
So John brought Tegan Emmagan back to Atlantis, and left Teyla behind.
And when she finds her own way home days later, battered and bruised, but whole and alive and smiling through her weariness, John's hands cling to her as a drowning man clings to a liferaft, and his mouth finds hers for just a moment - just a moment.
It's enough to leave him shaken and shocked; enough to leave him relieved when Ronon sweeps her up and Rodney crowds in. It's enough to gain him an arched brow from Carter, and a raised eyebrow from Lorne. It's enough to have Keller tilt a decidedly mischievous smile at him as she passes Tegan over to his mother and the rest of the city crowds in.
And John stands at her shoulder and swallows the sudden lump in his throat as she lifts smiling eyes to his, and her lips form the words, 'Thank you,' but all he can hear is his own heartbeat, the dizzying rush of blood in his ears.
For that one moment, his lips on hers, John felt her astonishment, knew the frozen stillness beneath his hands - and perhaps the start of a response - before he pulled back, only too aware of what he'd done.
He didn't intend it. He'll never regret it.
Teyla's home.
- fin -