Title: Fountains with Lights

Author: Doxymom

Date: 9-19-05

Pairing: John and Teyla

Rating: G or K.

Genre: SFR

Warnings: author's faulty memory of Anaheim?

Spoilers: one mild one for Conversion, Season 2.

Archiving: Please ask so I know where my babies are.

Disclaimer: no profit is being made. It's all in fun.

Summary: Response to a challenge in the JT Ficathon on the johnandteyla yahoo list. My challenge was: John decides Teyla really needs to see Earth.

Fountains with Lights

Butterflies flew football plays in John Sheppard's stomach as the cool Anaheim breeze ran salty fingers through his hair. The smell of her, like oranges and nutmeg, wrapped around his head and sent tingles down his spine.

She was here.

Finally.

She leaned her shoulder into his arm, gazing with half-closed eyes at the theme park below them. After all the arguments with Elizabeth, the assertions that Teyla wasn't a threat to Earth and the promise to make her wear a blindfold until she'd passed through the Gate and the SGC, Elizabeth had sighed heavily and admitted defeat.

There was no way Teyla could tell the Wraith how to get to Earth or the logistics of the SGC. No, John had all the bases covered.

"They resemble stars, do they not?" Teyla asked quietly.

He followed her gaze to the lights of Stanton and Huntington Beach and, on the horizon, the sparkles of ships at sea. "Yes."

"It is as if the sky and earth are one here."

He grinned at her assessment. "They don't normally stop the Ferris wheel at the top, you know."

She tilted her head and peered up at him. "They do not?"

He shrugged. "He stopped it just for us. I..." No, he thought, don't tell her you paid the kid fifty bucks to strand her here. He looked up at the sky then smiled at her. "I wanted you to see this. You can see forever. It's beautiful at night."

"It is." She plucked a fluffy strand of pink from her cardboard stick. "What is this delicacy again?"

"Cotton candy. It's one of my favorite things." He shifted, turning slightly. His stomach flipflopped because he wanted to kiss her but having only kissed her once before, he was afraid she wouldn't like it, wouldn't allow it. They'd only danced around the issues of love and commitment, neither admitting anything out loud. He took a deep breath, steeling himself to ask her.

She straightened up, stretching in the slick metal seat. "And we spent this entire day with your favorite things?"

"Let's see, football and franks, Ferris wheels and fountains with lights." He plucked the fuzzy Mickey Mouse ears from her head and set them by their feet. "Yep. Some of my favorite things." He snuggled closer to her, sliding an arm around her shoulders, smoothing his palm across the sleek red 49ers jersey he'd bought her at the game earlier that day.

Just do it, John, he thought and looked deeply into her eyes.

"But those aren't my only favorite things," he whispered.

She blushed and snuggled against him, gaze sweeping the twinkling lights of the amusement park and up into the twinkling stars above them. She sighed heavily, his warmth soaking into her like a relaxing hot bath. "I see the appeal of these activities."

He rested his cheek against her hair and she could feel him smiling.

A few long minutes later, he lifted his head and his body stiffened slightly, as if he were nervous. "There are...um...other things people do on Ferris wheels."

She glanced up at him, the tone of his voice making her wary. "There are?"

He licked his lower lip and didn't meet her eyes, seeming to struggle for words. "Ye-ah, it's well, intimate, and isolated, and..."

She suppressed a grin, figuring out what he meant and wanting to let him squirm a little by pretending she did not feel the attraction in the air. "You mean... they chart the stars?"

He frowned and glanced up at the sky. "No."

"Plot a path on the ground."

He shifted in his seat. "No."

She pressed her lips together to stifle another grin, then licked them and reached up, laying two fingers along his jaw and turning him to face her, his face inches from hers. He blinked in surprise then stared deeply into her eyes. Languidly, she smiled. Desire flared inside her and she knew she had to kiss him. She had wanted to kiss him since the day of his attempted apology, but was afraid. Not now. They were alone. And she could feel the racing of his pulse against arm.

She leaned closer and brushed her lips over his, kissing him tentatively.

He opened his mouth and returned the kiss, his tongue dancing with hers. His hands caressed her back, her arms, her hair. She kissed him tenderly, giving him tacit permission, silently nudging their relationship into a new sphere.

He sighed in contentment.

Message understood.

Below them, the other occupants of the Ferris wheel didn't complain at the long stop for most were busy too.

Above them, the stars twinkled and danced like the lights in the fountains.

The End.