fic: Precisely My Cup Of Tea - PG-13 [girl!John/Teyla]

[tielan]

Advent fic: 2nd December, 2007

TITLE: Precisely My Cup Of Tea
SUMMARY: Over time, you learn all kinds of things about yourself.
CATEGORY: AU, genderbender, femmeslash, girl!John/Teyla
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: The characters are borrowed, not mine, and no money is being made from them.
NOTES: For the sga_genderfuck FEMSLASHED! challenge. With extreme thanks to triciabyrne1978 for the sleepy beta on a Saturday night!

Precisely My Cup Of Tea

In her time with the Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel Johanna Michelle Sheppard had learned a number of rules about hand-to-hand fighting.

The first was that a male opponent could generally be counted upon to underestimate you. The second was that what you couldn't do by brute force, you could do with the cunning use of leverage. The third was to go for the nose, the solarplexus, the shins, and the foot rather than the groin - the first four merely injured the body, the last smacked them in the ego.

Ego was a very crucial component when working with men whose career ladders weren't lightly greased with gender prejudice.

So Jo knew how to fight men when she had to.

She knew how to fight women, too.

Unfortunately, within a few weeks of arriving in Atlantis, Jo Sheppard had discovered that she knew how to fight Earth women, not Pegasus ones.

Teyla kicked her ass. First at staves, then, when Jo complained of Teyla's experience with staves, in hand-to-hand.

It was humiliating for Jo to discover she didn't have an advantage on smaller women with lower centres of gravity and instincts that were freaky in their accuaracy. After the umpteenth land on the mats, Jo looked up at their newest ally and asked, "Think you could teach me some of those moves?"

The smile was gracious and smug. "I believe I can."

--

She envied Teyla her poise, the way she envied Ford his assurance of competence.

In the Air Force, colour counted less than gender. Jo had seen enough trouble as a white woman in the military; being a black woman in the military probably sucked brass monkey balls.

Lucky for the Athosian, she'd never had to rise up through the ranks of the Air Force. Although there were times when Jo thought Teyla would have done pretty well on Earth. Competence was appreciated in all forms.

Which was why Jo put up with McKay. The man gabbled and preened in a way that was frustrating and aggravating and made her hand itch to smack him, but he was good at his job.

And occasionally gallant.

"Do we have to drive so fast? My arm hurts."

"It's not driving, McKay," said Jo with patient exasperation. "It's flying. And we're not going fast at all. Comparatively."

"But my arm hurts." McKay muttered something about Genii bullets and storms and the lack of appreciation for old-fashioned gallantry.

"Oh, for God's sake, just suck it up, McKay," said Ford from the back seat, exasperated. "Be a man."

"I do not believe that 'sucking it up' is only reserved for men, Aiden."

"Equality," said Rodney with sullen aggravation, "should mean that if women can 'suck it up', men can whinge. I'm reserving my right to whinge."

"And I'm reserving my right not to suck anything at all, McKay," said Jo. Behind her, she heard Ford stifle a choke, but Teyla's laugh rang golden in the enclosed space of the jumper cabin.

Jo grinned to herself as she took them in to land.

--

Ronon Dex came to Atlantis, gruff and terse and angry at the universe for taking his people from him.

Jo knew a little of how that felt given that the universe had taken more than a few of her people from her during the siege - of which Ford was the latest and most stinging casualty - but sympathy wasn't the reason she was interested in the Satedan.

"You should see him fight," she told Elizabeth as they went to see how Rodney was coping with Laura Cadman in his head. "You should see him on the firing range. The man is amazing. I want him on my team."

"On your team?" Elizabeth leaned on the last word, making an innuendo out of the question.

Jo shrugged, trying to seem casual. "If we're looking at it that way, he seems more interested in Teyla." It made her uncomfortable, although Teyla seemed to have no problem with it.

"I'll have to interview him."

"Cool. So I can have him? On my team, that is." Jo cursed her wayward tongue.

Elizabeth gave her a hard look. "Once I've interviewed him."

The interview was done, Elizabeth approved him, Ronon joined Jo's team and attached himself to Teyla.

"Hm. The power signal is spiking...whoops, now it's gone. So have they...you know...done it, yet?"

Jo frowned at Rodney, a function of both the cramps she had forgotten to take her medication for as well as a sudden change in topic. "What?"

"Teyla and Ronon." At Jo's flat glare, the astrophysicist began displaying characteristic signs of nervousness. "It was just a question! Okay, that shouldn't be happening." He began fiddling with the device in his hand. "Oh, this is bad."

"It's none of your business, McKay. What shouldn't be happening?"

"We shouldn't be losing the si-- Oh, wait. There it is." Rodney tapped on the screen of the all-purpose AHD -Ancient Handheld Device. "I just figured that you'd know, being the BFF and all."

BFF? Where the hell did McKay get these phrases? "We're friends," Jo said, feeling her heart pound in her chest and hoping it wasn't showing on her face. "We don't share everything."

--

Jo found Teyla meditating in the gym after Michael.

"Does it help?"

"It calms me." The dark eyes opened, smiled up at her with little trace of the distress expected in an abductee. But then, Teyla's reactions were rarely expected. "It might help calm you if you would participate."

She'd never been one for the airy-fairy, touchy-feely stuff, either emotionally or physically. But Teyla went for it and still managed to be one of the most practical, grounded women Jo had ever known.

"It's not exactly my cup of tea." Jo paused. "Do I have to hum or anything like that?"

"Do you feel the need to hum or anything like that?"

At the wry return of the question, Jo dropped to the floor, cross-legged, facing Teyla, and was surprised when the other woman held out her hands, palms up. Carefully, she laid her hands on Teyla's, trying not to think how cool and smooth her friend's hands were in her own - how cool and smooth those hands would be against her skin.

"Close your eyes," Teyla said in a calm, musical voice. "Block out all thoughts of Atlantis and your responsibilities, and just breathe."

I can feel you breathe... Damn pop country songs in her head! Jo tried to block it out and concentrated on her breathing - on Teyla's breathing.

Slowly, she let herself relax, the other woman's voice acting as an anchor to her thoughts, the steady grip of hands in hands a tactile point of reference. And Jo's thoughts wandered out of the rigid structure in which she kept them in order to be Colonel Jo Sheppard, USAF, and into places they rarely went.

Until Teyla, she'd never had a 'BFF' - friends, yes, but casual ones. This kind of close intimacy? Not on your life. She'd had female friends before - the 'right' kind of women, of course. The less emotional and girly they were, the more likely they were to connect. And she and Teyla had just...connected.

In the moments after they discovered Teyla missing, in the minutes hunting through the forest of the unknown planet to which Michael had taken Teyla, Jo had felt a grim terror grip her. She'd come a long way to find people she cared for, and the thought of losing Teyla had made her panicky...

Her eyes flew open to look at the planes and curves of her team-mate's face in the late afternoon glow. No. I mean, I like guys. Surely...no.

After the divorce with Alex, she'd had enough people questioning her sexuality and had just found it easier to concentrate on being a good soldier. Sex was something she could do without - it generally came with a man attached, and men could be...difficult.

Jo had never considered herself willing to swing the other way as well. She'd never thought of bisexuality as her cup of tea.

It looked like she didn't need to think about being bisexual to actually be bisexual. Not when she was getting wet just thinking about the skin under Teyla's outfit. Thinking about how it would taste under her lips, smell under her nose, feel under her hands...

Teyla's lashes lifted to reveal a dark, steady gaze, questioning her lack of concentration in meditation. "Colonel?"

"I thought I asked you to call me Jo," she said. The formality had been getting tiresome - especially since no-one else in the city seemed to have trouble calling her by name - but right now, it stung particularly hard.

One corner of the wide mouth pulled upwards in a smiling apology that kick-started Jo's heart into arrhythmia. "You did. I forget sometimes."

Her heart was racing, pounding, thumping in her chest. Her mind was screaming inhibition at her, but all Jo could see was Michael's hand reared back like a cobra, preparing for the strike, and all she could hear was the formality of her title on Teyla's lips.

"Will this help you remember?" Jo leaned forward, determinedly reckless. Her lips brushed Teyla's, a light, smooth kiss, sleek like water across her skin and tingling like chilli on the tongue, with a gentle nip as her balance and her bravura faltered and she began to draw back.

Teyla pulled her hand from Jo's and Jo half flinched as she saw it in the corner of her eye. But a moment later, fingertips caressed her jaw, encouraging her back.

Her breath caught in her throat as Teyla's mouth opened beneath hers, a homecoming, a welcome.

This second kiss was earnest and soft and sweet and smooth and slow...

I kissed a girl, her lips were sweet, she was just like kissing me...

This time when Teyla eased back, Jo planted her hands at either side of her body and followed.

Meditation might not be her cup of tea, but Teyla Emmagan certainly was.

- fin -