Proposition
Alli Snow
“I’m
sorry, but I cannot accept this.”
John
stared across the table and frowned. “Is
this some kind of Athosian custom thing?” he asked
uneasily. “It’s just a gift, Teyla. I’m not
asking you to marry me.”
She ducked
her head and flushed, and after thinking about it for a moment, so did John.
“You’ve
had a rough couple of days,” he said, trying to sound nonchalant and ruining
the effect by glancing nervously at nearby tables. Something that five minutes ago had seemed
like an innocuous gesture of friendship now, because of Teyla’s
refusal, felt like an indecent proposal.
“And you’re minus one necklace, which is kind of my fault, so I
thought…” He shrugged. At the moment, he wasn’t completely sure what
he had been thinking. Or that he had
been, period.
Teyla
sighed and gave him a vaguely pained look.
“How was any of that your fault?”
He
shrugged. “You didn’t know that the
thing was a Wraith transmitter. And I
was the one that turned it on to begin with.”
“You did
not know what it was either, and I was grateful to you for finding it.”
John
opened his mouth, paused, then closed it.
“Weren’t we arguing about something else a second ago?”
She
pressed her lips together and looked down at the necklace, still sitting on the
table between them where he’d first placed it.
It was simple, really. Nothing
elaborate, just five rectangular stones laid out like the rungs on a ladder,
austere but with a definite patina of beauty.
It reminded him of her, so he’d traded for it off-world from a funny
little craftsman who’d been entranced by John’s sunglasses. It seemed like more than a fair trade considering
what some people on Atlantis – namely
Bates and his handful of cronies – had accused her people of, had accused her
of personally. Like spying for the Wraith, for
instance. And the other Athosians had been so offended that they had removed
themselves to the mainland. John
couldn’t blame them for not feeling welcome.
It had
been Teyla’s decision to stay in Atlantis, but she
had still been abandoned by the people with whom she’d spent her entire
life. If he personally hadn’t put her in
that position, then the expedition in general had. The least he could do was offer some… token
of appreciation.
Only his
motives were apparently not coming across the way he wanted them to,
Which made
him wonder if he was just a big fat self-lying-to liar.
“If it
makes you feel uncomfortable to be singled out,” he said too quickly, “I can go
give jewelry to Ford and McKay too.”
She
finally looked up at him and smiled despite herself, but still seemed
uncharacteristically self-conscious. “It
is beautiful,” she said with feeling, brushing her fingers across the
stones. “But…”
“But
what?”
“I have
some sense of propriety, Major,” she said softly. “And I know that you… I don’t wish that
anyone in Atlantis should misunderstand why I chose to stay here,” her eyes
flickering across the mess, “or to give Dr. Weir any suspicion that I am not
fit to be a part of this endeavor.”
John felt
himself slump in his chair, out of relief rather than dejection. She wasn’t pushing him away because she
thought he was a slime-ball, but because she was worried that other people
would talk. Well, it was true in a way;
Atlantis was a closed-system, and judging by the events of the past few months
gossip could move through the city faster than an energy-hungry angry black
cloud creature. In a way it was kind of
endearing that she felt others would think less of her because they thought she
was—
His brain
kind of stalled out there.
“Look,” he
said firmly. “Just because I’m in charge
when we’re on duty doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. I don’t know what you’ve heard about the
military from McKay or anybody else, but we’re not a bunch of robots.
Brain
stall again.
She was
looking at him speculatively.
“Friends,”
he finished lamely.
Teyla
smiled again, more slyly this time.
“Friends,” she repeated.
John
cleared his throat, pushed back his chair and picked up his lunch tray. “I’m going to go down to the gym, work off
some of this… whatever it is that I just ate.
If you don’t want it,” he nodded at the necklace, “you don’t have to
take it. I’m sure there’s a nerd
watching us right now who’ll be more than happy to take it and put it in his
scrapbook. Either way, it’s up to
you. I’ll see you later,” he said
affably, to show that of course there were no hard feelings, and then he left.
When she
joined him in the gym some time later, the mischievous glint back in her eyes,
she gave him a more thorough ass-kicking than usual. It was all the answer he needed.