"He watches you." Ronon observed blandly before throwing food carelessly into his mouth. Teyla casually half smiled, trying to keep her features neutral. The Satedan looked up from his plate momentarily, giving her a look that said they both knew better. "You watch him too."
There was no keeping the surprise off her face after that statement. She noticed John Sheppard more than she should but she thought she had kept her watching a secret. It didn't feel comfortable being wrong.
"Ronon, it is nothing I assure you." She said, returning his bland tone.
"Right. Keep telling yourself that. Might be true one day." He commented bored with her blatant refusal to acknowledge the truth of his own words.
Teyla merely sighed, knowing how much the truth wasn't going to change no matter how many times she brushed it off. She risked a glance behind Ronon, at John and Elizabeth. John looked bored which probably meant Elizabeth was going over the next mission or previous briefings. She wanted to smile at the thought that maybe the diligent negotiator was censuring him about some recent controversy between them. They always seem to be butting heads and the Athosian had heard many comments about the sexual tension between the other pair. It had filled her chest with a unfamiliar tightness and left her extremely unsettled every time she saw them together, which was often since they both worked together side by side for Atlantis. Her brain automatically assumed they were side by side in other things. She caught that boyish smile she had first seen on Athos, it was smile that told her she could trust him with anything. Everything might include her heart one day if only he would ask. It was an easy smile for him, she realized but could still hold deeper meanings.
She wondered what the other female had said to cause it.
Teyla may have an uncanny ability to appear unaffected by many things but it didn't mean she was. Sometimes she thought John knew exactly how she felt about things without having to tell him and one thing she didn't do often was doubt. Her father had taught her it could be fatal and she couldn't afford much as a leader to her people.
"You mean you can not afford to let them show."
She had told Elizabeth that once and there was a moment of clear understanding of one leader to another. Dr. Weir returned in kind with subtle reassurance that she had made the right decision but at times she doubted that too. She saw too much into people sometimes and when she saw the gentle, determined woman in Elizabeth it only pained her. It was the kind of person she saw John making a life with, not some rough outsider.
She managed to look away, bringing her attention back to her table mate.
"Would you like to spar this evening?" She asked, surprisingly even.
"No. You're distracted, takes the fun out of it." He remarked dryly, putting his unused silverware back on his tray and standing up. Before he left he gave her one last rather sympathetic look and strode off.
She sighed again, throwing her dark eyes back to John. Brown eyes met green and John's mouth curved into a warm eager smile. She swore she saw a look of acceptance in his eyes as he watched her pick up her tray. She averted her gaze somewhere else, unwilling to hope it meant more than it should but wanting it to anyway.