Chapter Text
Teyla watched from a distance as Major Sheppard chatted with some Marines in the corridor. He was out of uniform- off duty- but still aware of what was going on in the city. She was right to trust him back on Athos, he still looked at her as if she was a person worth listening to, even though she now knows that in his society, authority figures were mostly male.
On their recent mission though, she had to rely on her new allies when they thought that they had returned to their home world- Earth. She had been confused by many of the things she had seen there. Most of all she could not imagine a world untainted by the Wraith.
Sheppard continued on his journey ahead of her, a book and a sandwich in one hand and a bottle of water swinging between the fingers of the other hand. He seemed relaxed, but she wondered. He was very good at putting on a grinning, charming face when really there were intense emotions and feelings hidden behind the smile. He pretended to not know things when plainly he had many skills- McKay and his maths for example- the Major was good with numbers. She knew how good a pilot he was from their many excursions, and from things she had overheard in the mess hall she gathered that there was still some lively debate about some mark on his military record. She had also seen him patch up wounds and injuries very efficiently like he done it many times before- Ford was not as experienced. Sheppard was able to intuit many things from interacting with the Puddle- jumpers and with Atlantis.
Their last mission to “earth” proved false and the Major had been the only one to notice that it was all a figment of their imagination. She remembered the perfect dwelling he seemed to have and the nice friends that visited- until he said they were dead, that he’d seen them die, that there’d been barely enough for a proper funeral. That was when she saw another side to John- the restrained fury and hurt as he confronted his ‘dead’ friends and the entity that trapped them.
She let him be, not wishing to disturb his time off. Since their return from M5S-224 she wondered why he had thought of the apartment in the false reality and not of his family home or members of his family. In fact, now she thought about it he had never mentioned them, in all the time she had known him. And she knew he would not like it if she asked. Just when she thought she understood him, something else raised another question.
A few hours later she was paged by Dr Beckett.
“D’ya know where the Major is, love?”
“I saw in him several hours ago- he was fine. Is something the matter?”
“Aye, the tablets we were given for the Flavian malaria bites seem to be having a reaction with some of the ATA gene therapy soldiers that were on that rescue mission.”
“John was with them and you think…”
“Yes if they’re feeling poorly now, I’m worried about the Major’s natural gene. He’s not answering his radio.”
“What about the LSD, have you asked Rodney?”
“Rodney says he’s not showing up but we know no Puddle-jumpers have left the city.”
She suggested that they search the piers or his favourite balcony. By the time she had negative reports from those locations the Doctor had joined her.
“This is the Jumper bay- but none of them are out.” Beckett protested, slightly winded from lugging his medical bag.
“I know, but you know how much he likes to fly and he does come here to sit in his favourite ship.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that,” Beckett said as the bay door opened and they looked in at nothing.
“I happened to be passing his quarters when Dr Zelenka gave him a book he’d found there when they were doing maintenance. Sheppard did not make much of it, in fact he side stepped it by asking the Doctor if he could fit in with the maintenance rota.”
“You think he’s….OW!” Beckett collided with the outside of an invisible Jumper. He banged on the hull.
“Major Sheppard? Major! Stop hiding and come out lad. I just need to check you’re okay.”
Just when they were ready to bang on the ship again, it re-materialised and the ramp slowly lowered open to reveal a sleep rumpled, slightly sweaty, unsteady Major Sheppard.
“Hey guys,” he croaked as Beckett grabbed one arm and led him back to a seat in the Jumper and began taking vitals and radioing for a med team to take him to the infirmary.
Some minutes later Teyla followed the gurney with a feverish Major Sheppard, she put his book on the side locker where he could see it.
She still wasn’t sure if he just liked the Jumpers and his ability to control them, or if he was hiding from someone in particular, people in general or just looking for a bit of peace and quiet away from the incessant calls on the radio.
For all his commanding presence in battle and on missions, he could go very quiet and fade into the background when he felt like it.