Title: Disaster Button
Summary: There's a part of her – a tiny part – that wants to believe that one of the Athosians is to blame.
Characters: Elizabeth Weir [John Sheppard & Teyla Emmagan]
Pairing: John/Teyla
Rating: K+
Episode: Season 1, Suspicion
There's a part of her – a tiny part – that wanted to believe that one of the Athosians was to blame. At first, she'd told herself it was because she couldn't bring herself to believe that one of her own people would betray the team like that. Then she'd told herself it was the only thing that made sense. And as Sheppard had continued to glare at her whenever they passed one another in the unusually empty corridors, she told herself that she was doing the right thing and tried to silence the niggling thoughts at the back of her mind.
She'd hoped it was one of the Athosians she didn't know. That way, the betrayal didn't seem quite as personal. But as the interviews wore on – and Halling wore a hole in her armour with his speech – she felt the voice grow stronger and stronger. None of these people would betray Atlantis; not out of some sense of loyalty to the expedition but of a loyalty to each other, to themselves and to all that they had lost to the Wraith.
But still she found herself hoping for it to be an Athosian. She trusted the people, was glad of their friendship, of Teyla's people's guidance on missions and their introduction to trade routes so she isn't entirely certain why she clings so strongly to the notion of it being one of them. She just really hoped it was.
As a leader, she knew she shouldn't be having the thoughts she does when she sees Sheppard defend the Athosians as strongly as he does but she does anyway. The woman in her – the one who had left behind the only man who had ever truly loved her – wanted him to be on side with her, fighting by her side rather than on their side; for a people he barely knew.
She sighed and signalled to Bates that she needed a few minutes before calling in the next Athosian. He nodded to her once, glancing back down to the folder and she sighed again as she stood. Bates is a good man, his heart in the right place but she can't help but wonder if he and Sheppard will be able to overcome their differences; with the Sergeant's loyalties lying with Colonel Sumner, Elizabeth didn't think it was something either men would want to resolve.
She sighed again as she passed through the corridors; it was strange to think but she missed the noise of children playing, the scent of the outdoors that the Athosian people seemed to carry with them wherever they went and she missed greeting people who weren't soldiers. She sighed; it was best for her own people that, for both of them, that they root out who was behind this.
As she wandered idly up to the coffee machine in the room just off the mess hall, she hears a laugh she'd familiarised herself with over the past few weeks and she felt the small smile tug at her own lips. The flutter in her stomach had been something she'd missed for quite some time – a feeling that had lain dormant since her teenage years – and now she lamented the loss of it over the years. Pouring herself a cup of the dwindling supply of coffee, she felt herself being drawn to the larger mess hall, following the sound of his voice as it filtered through the air.
At the threshold she faltered slightly and felt herself withdraw a little as the voice sounded in her mind again. She watched as they interacted, a familiarity borne of days spent together in the field. A familiarity borne of two strangers being thrown together in the most chaotic of circumstances. A familiarity borne of not having the lines of command to disrupt any possible friendship because Teyla was more of a leader than John, his equal and perhaps more. She wondered if Teyla would perhaps benefit from her own team, rather than subordinate to Sheppard, where her powers as a leader could be put to better use.
Then Teyla reached out and touched the back of Sheppard's hand, the gesture easy and relaxed and Elizabeth found herself wondering when it was that that familiarity had been borne. She wondered if he would allow that familiarity between them – Elizabeth and John -, like he did with Teyla and John. She looked away as the niggling, incessant voice grew louder in her mind and out of some innate curiosity, she glanced back to them feeling almost voyeuristic as she watched them in the empty mess hall share a quiet moment of friendship.
It wasn't the Athosians he defended with gusto, but an Athosian. A woman who he had taken into his sphere of trust quicker than he had Elizabeth; a woman who was a leader, who was powerful enough to rise above prejudices and set-backs. She had thought she and Teyla so alike but she wondered now if Teyla had the same voice niggling at the back of her mind, if that was where they diverged.
She looked back to the cup in her hand, querying the odd taste of the coffee in her mouth. She cast another glance to them, watched as they rose together, Sheppard lifting Teyla's tray with his own and she looked away as they walked together to the exit, close enough to touch, far enough to be inconspicuous.
The bitter taste of the coffee lingered long after she poured more than half the cup down the drain. As the interviews continued, Elizabeth found herself thinking that if the Athosians were to blame, she hoped it was Teyla.