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"Are you comfortable with hand to hand combat?" Teyla asked, making her way to one side of the room where all the melee weapons were hanging.

"Honestly? No," Cami answered sheepishly. "I mean, I can hold my own in a fight but that's about it. As a sniper, I really don't get to see a lot of action up close. The closest I get to hand to hand combat is my finger on the trigger."

"What techniques have you studied?"

"Um, well, in boot camp I went through a mandatory martial arts program. It's a mix of all these different types of martial arts like Taekwondo and Brazilian jui-jitsu." Teyla looked over at her, a confused look on her face. Cami always forgot that Teyla and Ronon weren't from Earth. "Never mind...martial arts is a kind of hand to hand combat."

Teyla nodded, offering her a warm smile. "Perhaps you can teach me this Taekwondo and Brazilian jui-jitsu at our next session."

Cami rubbed the back of her neck. "I don't think I would be the best teacher, but yeah, I can go over some moves with you."

Another nod from Teyla as she took two pairs of sticks from the wall and handed a pair to her. "Are you familiar with Bantos fighting?"

"Nope. No idea what that is."

"It is a fighting style used by my people. You use these rods..." Teyla held up the two sticks, "...to subdue your opponent."

"Okay, sounds easy enough," Cami replied, albeit a bit uncertainly. She had a bad feeling that her ass was going to be handed to her.

They spent the next couple of hours going through the basic poses. After Teyla was sure that Cami had gotten the hang of it, they began to spar. Cami was definitely out of her element. She took a defensive position, countering Teyla as she tried to familiarize herself with the Athosian's moves.

Cami's face and arms were slick with sweat. She twisted and turned continuing to block Teyla from every possible angle. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that they had drawn up a crowd, making her even more self conscious. The mainly male gathering didn't help. Low whistles and a few catcalls filled the sparring room. And there, towering above the rest stood Ronon, his green eyes following her every move.

Cami lost focus, and Teyla slammed a rod to the back of her knee forcing her to kneel in pain. Before she even had a chance to react, the other stick made contact with the side of her face sending her tumbling into the mat. A series of "oohs" echoed around the room.

"Fuck," Cami groaned. She ran her tongue along her lower lip as the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth.

"I am sorry," Teyla gasped, throwing the sticks aside and kneeling down next to her. "I assumed you were going to block that last hit."

Cami sat up, wiping the blood from her busted lip. "It's okay. It was my fault." She glanced at Ronon who was making his way out of the room with the rest of the crowd. "I got distracted."

Teyla followed Cami's line of sight and offered her a knowing smile as she helped Cami up. "Perhaps we should continue tomorrow." She moved away gathering the two pairs of Bantos rods to hang back in their place.

Cami nodded, trying hard not to limp as she made her way out of the gym. What she really wanted was to go to her room and take a long, hot shower. Instead, she turned toward the armory.

Her body wasn't the only thing that had taken quite a beating. While Cami wasn't a particularly pretentious person, she did pride herself on her military training and accomplishments. Her ego hadn't been too fond of her lack of hand to hand combat skills.

She needed the comforting feel of a cold, metal gun in her hands. Going to the firing range would help her relax. Nothing like popping off a few rounds to melt the stress away. She turned a corner almost running into Sheppard.

"Great, just the person I...whoa, what the hell happened to you?"

"I got my ass kicked," she said with a wry smile.

Sheppard crossed his arms over his chest. "Let me guess...Bantos fighting with Teyla."

"Did the rod-shaped welt on the side of my face give it away?"

"Something like that," he said, eyeing her face with a slight chuckle. "Jesus, kid, I really hope using your face as a punching bag doesn't become a habit."

"I hope so, too, sir," Cami sighed. She'd had such a string a bad luck since she was assigned to Atlantis. Anderson, getting her eyebrow split open, Anderson, getting owned by Teyla.

"Well, you'll be happy to know that we'll be going off-world tomorrow. New planet McKay just discovered."

"I can't wait, sir," Cami replied enthusiastically. Her spirits lifted at the thought of going on her first mission with the SGA-1 team.

"I was actually looking for you because I'm on my way to the mainland. Do you wanna give the jumper another try?"

And just like that her spirits went back down. She had justified her lack of flying skills to the obvious fact that she wasn't a pilot. Still, Cami had always considered herself a quick learner and was a little disappointed that she was still having some trouble flying the jumper.

"Sure," Cami finally replied, though this time a little less earnestly.

"'Atta girl," Sheppard said, clapping her on the shoulder a little too hard so that she stumbled forward a bit. "Go get cleaned up. I'll see you in the jumper bay in 10."

"Ease up on the gas, kid, we're not having a race here," Sheppard said from the co-pilot's chair.

"Sorry, sir, just got a little excited." Cami pulled back on the control stick, and the jumper slowed down to a cruising speed as they flew over the Lantean mainland. She was still in awe at how the vehicle was piloted by mental interface. Actions were quickly executed with a mere thought. While she was still getting used to flying, the mental interface had certainly made things a lot easier for her.

"That's okay. Go ahead and pull up the HUD. It'll help keep you on a straight path."

The HUD came up, and Cami noticed that she had been flying a little to the right. She let out a frustrated sigh.

"Just relax, take it slow." His hands moved over the controls carefully, almost lovingly. "Think of it as if you're...you know." He gave her a knowing look with a slight wag of his eyebrows.

"Uh...as if I'm what, sir?" Cami gave him a sidelong glance. She kept a curious look on her face, trying hard to keep from smiling. She knew exactly what he had been trying to say but was enjoying his embarrassment.

Sheppard's face grew red. He mumbled something out of the corner of his mouth that sounded like "making love". Behind them, Teyla stifled back a laugh, and Ronon leaned forward in his seat with an amused look on his face.

"Do all men seriously treat their women like they do their vehicles...sir?" Cami asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Only if they really love 'em," Sheppard answered, getting over his embarrassment and throwing her a smile.

Cami rolled her eyes, shaking her head in amusement.

"You might also want to cut down on the 'sirs', kid. It's getting a little annoying."

"Yes, si - um...Sheppard," Cami replied.

The 'sir' was more of a habit than anything. She had actually gotten to know her commanding officer pretty well in the past few days while they had been doing jumper training. Spending hours together inside of a vehicle would do that to you. His nickname for her had started off as a joke seeing as she was the youngest member of the SGA-1 team. But, Cami also saw a kindred spirit in Sheppard.

Cami could relate to his quirky remarks and easygoing personality. She felt she could tease and joke around with him as she would her brothers. Yet, she also carried a respect for him that had more to do with him as a person than his rank.

"Okay, now take this baby down, nice and easy, right over there." He pointed to a flat clearing about half a mile up ahead.

"What?" She almost screamed out her response. She had never landed the jumper before.

The vehicle seemed to sense her trepidation. It swayed a little as her muscles tensed up.

"Making love," Sheppard reminded her, and Cami resisted the urge to reach out and punch his arm.

The jumper hovered over the landing area as Cami tried to ease it down. If she took it down too fast or too steep, she knew she would crash. After about fifteen minutes, she finally managed to execute the landing with only a slight bump.

"Congratulations," Sheppard said, patting her on the shoulder. "I'm 100 years old."

The cargo bay door lowered slowly, and Sheppard and Teyla walked out to go visit the Athosian settlement. Cami remained behind, hoping to better familiarize herself with the jumper controls. She had to admit to feeling a sense of empowerment whenever a console sprang to life at her touch. It was almost like magic.

She traced her fingers over the odd symbols on the DHD console. Cami wondered what exactly the symbols stood for. They looked more like doodles than actual letters or whatever they were. She was vaguely reminded of a mystery novel she had read in which the antagonists had used symbols as their form of communication. She had half a mind to write the symbols down so that she could try to decipher them later in her room.

"So, you're just going to sit here all day?"

Cami silently thanked her years of military training for not jumping a foot in the air at the sound of Ronon's voice. She had been so engrossed in the Ancient symbols that she hadn't noticed he had stayed behind. He stood near the entrance of the jumper, hips cocked to the side as he brought up his arms to stretch. His shirt moved up, and Cami got a quick glance of a well toned lower stomach before she looked away to focus on the DHD again.

"Don't you have anywhere else to be?" she asked, a little annoyed that he had caught her staring in amazement at the jumper dashboard.

"Not really," he answered simply.

"Why'd you come then?"

Ronon shrugged. "I was bored."

"Yes, I can see how watching me fly the jumper for hours on end is incredibly entertaining." She drummed her fingers on the dashboard sensing his eyes on her even though he was looking outside. "Can you please stop that?"

"Stop what?"

"That staring thing that you do. It's a little annoying."

"I'm not staring at you."

"Well maybe not directly, but I can feel it. I'm a sniper. I can sense when someone's staring at me." She rubbed at her arms as if to ward off a chill.

"I was standing in the cargo hold for about five minutes, and you didn't even know I was there."

Huh...so he had noticed that his voice had surprised her. She blamed her lack of attention on still getting accustomed to living in a new galaxy. Everything was still so foreign and new to her.

"Whatever," she answered, standing and moving through the jumper to stand outside. She wondered briefly if he really had been staring at her the whole time he was there or if he was just making a point. "I'm just sayin', it's creepy."

Truthfully, Cami was actually very curious at Ronon's incredible observation skills. She knew he was the kind to walk into a room and locate the exits, number of people, and execute an escape plan within the span of a few seconds. But, she also knew he wasn't the kind to willingly talk about himself or his past so she kept her questions to herself.

She made a mental note to ask Carson about Ronon later. Cami had met with the doctor for lunch a couple of times, and she was starting to consider him a really good friend. He had given her a run-down of Atlantis and had been patient and answered the million questions that she had.

She leaned back against the jumper, looking over at the Athosian village. Sheppard and Teyla were walking side by side, huge smiles on their faces. They seemed to be in the middle of an entertaining conversation as they slowly made their way back to the jumper.

"Hey, are Sheppard and Teyla - "

"No." Ronon cut her off before she could finish the sentence.

Cami fixed him with a frown. "You don't even know what I was about to say."

"I do, and they're not."

She turned her gaze back to her two teammates studying their unguarded expressions. Sheppard was gesturing animatedly, probably relaying some sort of amusing, personal story. Teyla's laugh carried from the edge of the village all the way to the jumper. Cami smiled at the candid way they reacted to one another when they thought no one was looking.

"I mean, it's really obvious that they - "

"Yep."

"But they don't realize that - "

"Nope."

Cami ignored the way Ronon kept interrupting her. She was still reveling in Sheppard's and Teyla's clear attraction to one another. Whether they chose to ignore it or just didn't see it was a mystery to her. And Cami loved mysteries.

"We're heading back to Atlantis," Sheppard said once they reached the jumper. "I'll take over the controls when we reach the jumper bay. I'm gonna die of old age if I let Buchanan park the jumper."

"Sure," Cami said, taking her seat in the pilot's chair again. She closed the cargo door and started up the jumper.

"What?" Sheppard asked, looking at the stupid grin that was still plastered on her face.

"Nothing," Cami replied, feigning a look of innocence as she brought up the HUD to make their way back to Atlantis. She was going to have fun with this Sheppard/Teyla thing, whatever it was. "Nothing at all."