Disclaimer: SGA doesn't belong to me.
A/N: Thanks to Triple7Lies for the beta, any remaining mistakes etc are all mine.
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It was on the third night, tired of pacing her quarters, that Teyla ventured out to explore.
She knew better than to wander beyond the secure perimeter, but she could linger on the fringes with little risk. She was armed, and help was no more than a radio call away should she need it.
She was ready to go back, feeling as though she could sleep now, when she heard the sound. It was almost a murmur, yet it seemed so loud in the otherwise dead silence of the hallways around her. Following her instincts, Teyla crept down the corridor. Her hand drifted to the combat knife at her waist, fingers fastening in readiness around the hilt.
There it was again.
Padding towards the open door ahead, Teyla paused at the threshold. Beyond was a wide, split-level room; set in the north-facing wall was a huge window that overlooked the ocean and an expanse of starlit sky. As she moved inside, the sound came again; it was a pitiful sort of noise, sounding almost…broken, in a way.
Teyla crouched low, almost crawling towards one of the dual staircases that reached to the second floor, and rested a hand on one of the steps. There was a figure, sitting half way up, but that was all she could make out. This room had no purpose, no function they could determine, and in the early hours of the morning no one had any business here.
She drew the knife, crept out from beneath the steps, and vaulted easily over the hand rail to land facing the stranger.
"Dr McKay?"
Rodney was stretched out over three or four steps, leaning back on his elbows. His lab coat hung sloppily off his shoulders.
"Teyla? What are you doing up?"
"I could not sleep," she said, aware that her knife was still drawn. She sheathed the blade and rested her hands at her sides. "I wished to explore, thinking it might settle me."
McKay waggled a finger at her. "You shouldn't. It's dangerous out here…full of …dangerous things. You just never know what you're going to find." He lifted a bottle and took a swig of the clear contents. She watched him wince as he swallowed.
"This is true," she admitted. For the Athosians, that was a lesson well taught. For the people from Earth, it was one they were still in the process of learning, especially people like Dr McKay. She knew little of his life before he came here, but she did not think it had been so fraught with risk and loss. It was clear he still felt responsibility for the deaths of his scientists, from the frightening sickness a couple of weeks before; they were under his command, so it was natural he would take the blame onto himself, however unjustified it was. "But then why are you out here?"
He seemed to think that was a very silly question, given the way he rolled his eyes, but he answered anyway. "I'm waiting."
"For?"
He held up the bottle but she shook her head. He shrugged and put it to his lips again. Teyla stepped up and pried his resisting fingers lose from the neck, ignoring his muttered "Oh, now you do want some!" as she set it down out of his reach.
"You were about to explain what you were waiting for."
"Fine," he said, almost petulantly. He pointed at the window. "Squint and you'll see the faintest pin prick of light; you almost have to imagine it's there."
Teyla stood up and descended to the glass. Dr McKay's eyesight must be superior to her own, because while she could see many stars in the sky, of varying brightness, none were in the region he had indicated. "I do not see it: is it important?"
She turned at his silence, and found he had picked the bottle up again and was working steadily towards the bottom.
"That's where he's gone. Taking her home."
Taking her-? "Chaya?"
Rodney's face turned sour. "Yep. Miss Ancient 'Got my ass kicked out' Priestess."
Teyla was sure her confusion showed because Rodney glared at her. "Never mind."
She sat back down, watching him fiddle with the radio unit over his ear. Chaya's arrival at Atlantis had certainly driven a wedge between Major Sheppard and Dr McKay. Teyla felt that the major had been imprudent in his easy trust of her. It was a rare thing for her to agree completely with Rodney, but they knew nothing of the woman. No one would ever know it, but while the major had been out on the balcony with Chaya, Teyla had been nearby, close enough to act if necessary, but not so close they would be aware of her presence - just in case. Of course, the revelation that she was an Ancestor had changed her view somewhat: but the fact that Chaya had deceived them for so long made her uneasy.
However, there was something almost personal in Dr McKay's reaction to this. His eyes were focused on that invisible star as though sheer force of will might bring it closer, or speed the major's return.
Suddenly, she knew. "Dr McKay."
Rodney turned a pathetic face to her and gave the tiniest of shrugs before ducking his head. Teyla moved up a step so she was next to him. She was surprised not to have seen it before; with hindsight, the signs were obvious. His mistrust and dislike of Chaya should have only strengthened her suspicions.
"I know, I know," he said, pressing at his eyes with his hands. He shuddered slightly then shoved the empty bottle away, sending it rolling down the steps. Teyla snagged it with her foot before it could smash on the floor. "What am I doing?"
She leaned in a little closer, and was gratified when he sagged against her. "Have you considered speaking to him of this?"
Rodney's mouth dropped open, his face aghast. "Tell him how I feel? Because of course, he would reciprocate. American air force majors fall for arrogant male physicists, oh, all the time. It's almost a cliché."
"You fear the possibility of rejection."
The smile on Dr McKay's face was a lie of its own, and Teyla felt something inside her lurch almost painfully. "The certainty," he said with a firm nod. "Things work differently on Earth, Teyla."
If he had said this to her a few weeks before, she would have answered but you are not on Earth. Time and experience had brought her knowledge, however: she had observed their new friends and learned, and some of the things she had become aware of were not pleasant, but she could not give back that awareness.
"Surely not all things," she replied. She had heard Rodney snap once at another scientist that it was a different galaxy, but the same universe. She had not understood what they were fighting about, but she thought she understood that.
"No, not all," he said and rolled his shoulders before looking back at the sky.
They sat there until another light appeared in the distance, growing closer and brighter, as the jumper and its pilot made their way home.