Title:Tea for Two: Resolution
Author/Artist:
sjhw_toleranceTheme:Stages of Sexual Response: Resolution
Rating:Older Teen
Author's Notes: I apologize for each part getting shorter than the first, but that seemed to be the way of things this time.
Tea for Two: Resolution
When John leaves in the early hours of the morning, she doesn’t protest or cling to him. She isn’t one to make scenes and she achieved her goal. That her victory has a bittersweet taste is not his fault or anyone else’s, though the stubborn voice lurking inside her argues that the Ancestors would surely be more benevolent….
He dresses quietly, the faint moonlight through her window illuminates his lean form and she fights the urge to reach out and touch him. She won’t cling, but she also won’t pretend he’s not leaving.
When he sits on the edge of the bed to lace up his boots, she rises up on one elbow and light runs her hand down his arm. He turns and looks at her, his eyes shadowed. “Teyla-”
Teyla does not think she can bear to hear him apologize-or worse-and she swiftly sits up, the sheet falling forgotten down around her waist. “John,” she says, placing a finger on his lips. “I am not sorry.”
“I just wish….”
She knows what he wishes, because she wishes the same thing…for more time, to stay on Atlantis, to explore all the possibilities of life and love open to them in the Pegasus Galaxy that will disappear when he steps through the Ring of the Ancestors. But she does not say all that, she merely wraps her arms around him and rests her head on his shoulder. They sit quietly and she sighs softly when he finally moves-but she doesn’t cling.
The door slides open and he stops, silhouetted in the muted light from the hall. “You’ll be there when…?”
“I will be there.”
He smiles-the roguish one she has come to love. “Than I won’t say goodbye just yet.”
The door closes behind him and instead of lying back down, she gets up and pads over to the narrow window. The sky is just starting to change, the first hint of dawn peeking at the horizon and the water reflects the changing hues as night fades away. She had never thought of herself as a water person before living at Atlantis and now she fears she will not adjust to living back on the land…just as she fears she will not adjust to living without John.
THE END