Chapter Three: Allies

"I don't know if I can agree to this."

Still damp from her shower, Teyla sat in Elizabeth's office with her hands folded before her. She wanted to pace, to move, but she schooled herself into stillness with discipline born of a thousand trade-negotiating meetings. She kept her voice calm only with effort; like the rest of her, it wanted to spring forth from her roiling emotions.

"Dr. Weir, I know it is risky," she said. "I would not suggest it if I did not think it was necessary. You have surely seen yourself that we, as a team, cannot function properly in our current fashion."

"I hardly think that risking your lives is the way to fix it."

Teyla shook her head. "But if I am correct, there would be no risk, Doctor ... well, perhaps a little risk, but very little. That is the point."

Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. "And if you're not correct?"

"Then there is no point," Teyla said quietly. "And you may as well disband this team, and assign us to work with other people, because I do not think we can work with each other for very much longer."

"Teyla, are you blackmailing me?" Elizabeth inquired quietly.

"No," Teyla said, surprised. "I am merely stating the truth. I'm sure you can see it. I suppose the question, Dr. Weir..." She leaned forward in her chair. "The question is, do you trust us?"

She realized that this might not have been quite the thing to say when she saw the shutters slam down in Elizabeth's eyes. "I have trusted," the other woman said softly. "I have trusted, just recently, very deeply indeed. And now here we are. You will pardon me, Teyla, if I am finding it difficult to trust the same people again."

Teyla smiled. She was finding herself on surer ground now. "Dr. Weir, you are their leader. You must trust them. I am also a leader of my own people, and I know that no human being will give trust back to their leaders if it is not first given to them."

"And if they have betrayed that trust?" Elizabeth inquired. Her face was still.

Teyla felt a clutch at her heart and hoped that her face did not show it. She still found it difficult, sometimes, to look Ronon in the eyes without remembering the face of the man he had killed. But she was mending, she hoped. The knife wound in her soul was slowly closing. "Dr. Weir, I say again: you are their leader. Please pardon me for speaking plainly. Yes, you will sometimes be betrayed, but you do not have the luxury to sit about resenting it. You must only decide: do I trust this person again? Or do I not trust this person? And if you do not trust them, then you must send them back to Earth, because if you have people working under you that you do not trust, then they are a liability to you, and you to them." Teyla drew a deep breath and went on, seeing some undefined emotion (anger? understanding?) flicker in Elizabeth's eyes. "But if your choice is to trust them again, then you must give them your trust without reserve, as if it had never been tested. And if you truly do trust them, then your decision on this matter must be clear."

Elizabeth stared at her for a moment longer. Then she lowered her eyes, and laughed. There was a little bit of anger in that laugh, and a little awe. "Teyla," she said, "I hope I never have to sit opposite you at a negotiating table." Then she raised her eyes again, and there was a slight smile on her lips. "You have my permission. But I want you to do everything in your power to minimize the risk, and if there is even the slightest chance that things are not going the way you hope, I want all of you to pull out and come home immediately, do you understand?"

Teyla nodded, hope breaking in her heart like a summer sun cresting the mountains. "I understand, and I agree."

"You will need to talk to Ronon about this. If he doesn't agree, you cannot go forward. The last thing your team needs now is more mistrust and recriminations."

"I fully agree." Teyla hesitated, wondering if she was breaking a confidence, then said, "I have already spoken to one other person about this. I hope you do not feel that I was acting in poor faith, but I needed to have a well-formed plan before I spoke to you, and I could not make all the plans alone. If you had said no, we would not have done it."

"And just who exactly is the other half of this 'we'?" Elizabeth inquired, a smile quirking her mouth.

"Dr. Zelenka."

Elizabeth laughed; she couldn't help herself. "I might have known! It's always the quiet ones..." she mused. "Well, I suppose we should choose a planet for this."

"Actually," Teyla said, "Dr. Zelenka and I have found one that will do quite well for our needs."

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tbc