Over an hour later, Elizabeth heard a knock on the wall outside her office. She looked up and saw one of the Sheppards looking at her. "Mind if I come in?"
She pointed to the chair in front of her. "Of course not. What can I help you with?" She didn't want to be insulting by asking him who he was.
"I wanted to let you know that all the paperwork that has accumulated since our return has been filed. It will be ready to send the next time you send data to SGC," he said.
Ah, she thought, this must be the colonel. "Well, I must say, I'm impressed. Usually I have to threaten you and even then I only get half of what I need."
He looked a bit embarrassed. "I guess it never seemed like much of a priority to me before the accident."
"How are you guys doing? I can only imagine the awkwardness," she said.
Frowning slightly, he answered, "I don't really know. I haven't seen either of them since this morning."
Elizabeth was surprised. "Really? I would have thought the three of you would have preferred to stick together."
He leaned forward in the chair, as if to tell her a secret. "You know, I never realized how annoying I can be sometimes. I mean, John is such a smooth talker, it makes me a bit nauseous. It's like he's always trying to make the peace, well, despite the jab in got in last night. And Sheppard, well, let's just say I know why my COs always thought I was a giant pain in the ass."
Elizabeth shook her head in disbelief. "But they are still you, faults and all. And I must say, that there have been times when both John's and Sheppard's attributes have contributed to the welfare of Atlantis. I value all of you."
The colonel shook his head, knowing there was no way he was going to be able to explain himself. "That's not the reason why I'm here though."
Slightly offended that he brushed her off, Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "Then why are you here?"
"After I finished my paperwork, I went through the operations on base. I think I can make Atlantis run a bit more efficiently. I sent my proposal to you in an email," he said.
"You're criticizing the way I run Atlantis?" she asked disbelievingly.
"If you think of them more like suggestions, it doesn't seem so harsh," he said.
She smiled curtly at him. "I will take them into consideration." Before she could ask him to leave, Rodney came bouncing in the room.
"Oh good, you're here, Colonel," he said, taking the seat next to him. The colonel looked at him, a bit confused. McKay pointed to his lip. "It's a dead giveaway."
Elizabeth leaned forward on her desk. "I take it, you have some news."
"Actually, it was something the colonel said when we were talking this morning. It gave me an idea," he said.
Both Elizabeth and the colonel looked at him expectantly. Rodney looked at Elizabeth, a bit confused. "You want me to tell you now? I thought you would want everyone here before I tell you want I found."
"You mean you want to brag," the colonel said.
"Ah, well, now that you mention it, it is nice to receive credit for a discovery," Rodney said arrogantly.
"Fine, we'll meet in the conference room when the other Johns are found. Colonel, please go find John and Sheppard," she instructed.
Though he was disappointed that she didn't get a chance to look at any of his suggestions, he was happy to hear that McKay had some news.
John watched as Teyla wiped her forehead with her small towel. Minutes earlier, she had finished giving her lesson. "And you thought I would be bored."
She looked at him with a slight smile. "You surprised me, John. You were well-behaved. Do you want to practice?"
As much as he wanted to, he shook his head. "I'm still out of practice. There was no one on earth to spar with." He grinned. "You're the only one who has enough patience to train with me. Thirsty?" he asked, holding up a bottle of water they picked up before they came to the gym.
"Thank you," she said softly, as she took the bottle from him. "I have not had a chance to ask you how your time on Earth was."
He shrugged, not really wanting to think about his time there. If he wasn't bored, he was incredibly lonely. Though he had only been there two and a half years, Atlantis felt more like home to him than Earth did. "It was boring. Spent a lot of time behind a desk."
"You did not enjoy it? Often I find myself wishing I could return to my home world, if only for a while," Teyla admitted, taking a seat next to him.
"It was nice to see the familiar things, but they just seemed different. I missed the sounds of Atlantis, the puddle jumpers, you…" He paused, thinking of how much he missed Teyla.
She smiled warmly at him. "I missed you as well, John. It was a welcome sight to see you after so long. I had not fully understood how much our friendship meant to me." She looked out of the window. "I have wanted to ask you a question since you returned."
This could be interesting, he thought. "You know you can ask me whatever you want," he said.
"If we were not permitted to stay on Atlantis, would you still return to Earth?"
"Why?" he blurted out.
She shook her head slightly. "Never mind, Colonel."
"It's John, remember? And to answer your question, I don't know. I think that depends on what the circumstances are," he answered honestly.
Feeling bold, she met his gaze. "What would it require for you to stay?"
"This," he said, leaning forward and kissing her. Unlike their first kiss, she didn't push away. In fact, she seemed to be pulling him closer. Her lips were so soft, he thought in a daze. He brought his hand up and ran it through her hair. She wrapped her arms around him as they continued the kiss.
Countless kisses later, a sound from the door broke them apart. "Ahem," the colonel cleared his throat. They pushed away from each other like teenagers caught necking on the couch. "Rodney has made some wonderful discovery. Do you know where Sheppard is?"
Damn, he knew the colonel was already furious. Once he found out he covered for Sheppard, he would be royally pissed. "Well, um, he's not here."
Did his forehead really crinkle that badly when he was angry? "Where is he?"
"Kesats," John said quietly.
The colonel was about to explode. Not only was John making the moves on Teyla, but then he covered up the insubordinate actions of Sheppard. "Can I have a moment with you?" he asked John.
John looked at Teyla apologetically. How he would rather stay with her than face the wrath of the colonel. He walked outside the door so that the two of them wouldn't be fighting in front of Teyla.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" spat the colonel.
"Having a good time. Did you forget what that was?" shot back John.
"Listen, John, now is not the time to get into any…entanglements," the colonel said.
"Entanglements? Teyla is anything but that and you know it. And you know as well as I do that there is never a 'good time'. I just went with my feelings today and look where it got me; further than you have been in over two years," argued John.
The colonel ran his hand through his hair. How had things gotten so out of control? On one hand he had an AWOL counterpart and on the other, he had a Casanova. How in the world did they expect for everything to get back to normal when Rodney fixed everything?
"You know you can't let your feelings out," the colonel said.
"Why?"
"Because she is part of your team. If you get into a relationship with her the dynamic of the team would be off. You would show favoritism to her," the colonel explained.
John wasn't buying into his argument. "You know as well as I do that is a load of crap. Teyla already has affected the 'dynamic' of the team. You listen to what she has to say first."
"That's because she knows the worlds around here." Even to the colonel, his argument sounded weak.
"You know, for once, it feels good to feel wanted. Maybe you should get your head out of your--"
The door opened with Teyla standing on the other side of it. "Colonel, John, that is enough. We should go tell Dr. Weir where Sheppard is."
John felt deflated. Now Teyla was upset with him. He would have continued feeling that way, but as Teyla walked by, she grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. The colonel shook his head in jealousy and walked away.