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All right, time to head back," McKay says, "Don't want to miss dinner."
They all turn to give John expectant looks.
They're in a little valley on the mainland, just the four of them, for a combination of exploration and leisurely stroll. It's the first time in weeks that they are together as a team, with nobody in the infirmary and no edge of disaster situation looming over them. Just McKay and Teyla and Ronon and John. Elizabeth had sent them to check on the more distant settlement on the mainland, more as an excuse for some downtime than that the villagers really needed checking on, and they'd left the jumper at the shore. They'd done some exploring after the midday meal with the villagers, just randomly following trails and enjoying the calm day.
It had taken John the entire morning to stop twitching, part of him convinced that all this calm meant that somewhere something was going horribly wrong. Judging by the set of Ronon's shoulders and the way Teyla kept looking around in the village as if she was waiting for something, he wasn't the only one.
"Okay Sheppard, where to?" Ronon grins at him.
John closes his eyes and seeks, letting himself sink into his senses. Leaves are rustling gently all around them, though the hollow of the valley has a sort of sheltered stillness on this windy day. The grass is soft and springy under his boots, and everything smells of late summer, of ripe grasses and - as Rodney has said every time he sneezed today - 'plants having shameless exhibitionist sex'.
Ronon is standing close by - and when did he get a sixth sense for where his team is? But John can feel his presence, solid and calm and wryly amused at McKay's bitching. McKay himself is sneezing again, muttering under his breath about plant sex. John turns a little, eyes still closed, and there is Teyla, and there is something light about her when she's this relaxed, something he hasn't felt from her in a long time - calm and just slightly tingly.
Off to her right he feels the glow in the distance, and it's like turning his face to a distant sun, warm and bright and alive and home. He casts out his thoughts in that direction and the city reaches back for him, strums along his senses. For a moment he feels like he's soaring over the sea on great wings, drawn in by invisible ties. Then he becomes aware of his team talking softly.
"--love watching his face when he does this," Teyla says.
"What, when I'm playing homing pigeon?" John opens his eyes to give her a Look. She smiles warm and unrepentant.
"Right." He tries to ward off the self-consciousness when he realises the others are also giving him fond looks. "Let's get going."
And he leads the way toward the city that sings to him.