Fic: A Matter of Respect (PG)
Title: A Matter of Respect
Author: R. Tom Mato
Rating: PG
Warnings: A little swearing. I think once.
Notes: A MENSA!verse story. This is also unbeta'd, and my first SGA fic. M&MM kind of ate my brain and I've had so many theories running around in my head I figured I'd try my hand at writing it down. Practice makes perfect.
---
It had seemed innocent enough to start, if a little selfish on her part. Being on Atlantis had not stopped the necessity for her people to be ready fighters and it was she they came to for training. One of the Marines had observed a few of the sessions and had challenged her to a sparring match. It was obvious that it had been planned from the crowd that had gathered and she had felt a satisfying thrill at beating him in front of their audience, though she carefully hid it. She had more challenges after that. There was always an audience and she won every time.
Days passed and she heard the whispers amongst the Marines. Those who had already challenged her were goading others into trying their hand, taunting that they couldn't beat the vicious alien woman. They always emphasized the 'woman.' Their taunts angered her; she was not a game for them to pass their time with. She held onto that anger for the entire afternoon, and when John Sheppard entered she only had a moment of hesitation in accepting his request for a spar.
"I will not hold back." she had warned him, adjusting her hold on her sticks so the weight was comfortable.
He had just smirked at her, spinning one of his own sticks like a toy. "I'd hope not," he drawled. "That would take all the fun out of it."
She had him on his knees with her sticks at his throat before she broke a sweat.
He had jumped up the second she released him, a confused expression on his face. The Marines had all looked humiliated and angry, often defensive. John Sheppard looked as though he didn't know why he had lost, and immediately asked for a rematch.
After that it seemed that any time she was alone, he was there. Her days were spent in the training room beating him soundly into the mats and having him wear that confused and, more recently, annoyed expression. She started to hold back, just a little, to draw it out. Sometimes she allowed herself to indulge in a few less than traditional moves. It was worth it to see the look in his face when she smacked him soundly just below his buttocks the once. She wouldn't admit it but their sessions had become something she looked forward to. It had become relaxing to spar, even if she kept her guard up.
---
In the mess hall, as they called the large room where they all gathered at irregular times to eat their meals, she observed him sitting with Dr. McKay. John Sheppard was pushing a small plate of some..gravy covered pile to Dr. McKay's side of the table.
"What? I thought you liked those." Dr. McKay exclaimed.
"I'm out of shape," was his reply, and he waved his fork as he scowled. "I let myself get out of shape since I got here. Which is your fault, by the way."
"The rules of being a civilian don't include sleeping in until noon and eating Jell-O for breakfast, lunch, and dinner."
"If I were still military--"
"Colonel Sumner would have you behind a desk all day doing all the paperwork instead of being down in the labs with me discovering the secrets of Atlantis. Elizabeth and I made the right choice in getting the SGC to let you come as a civilian rather than under Sumner's command."
"I wouldn't have gotten lazy and Teyla wouldn't keep beating me at that stick fighting thing."
"She *is* the best at it. That is really getting to you, isn't it?"
"We've sparred eight times in the last week and every time I'm either on my knees or on my back with those sticks at my throat. This shouldn't be happening. She's *playing* with me."
Teyla got up from her table, calmly leaving the mess hall. She supposed it had been too much to ask to believe that the man that had led the rescue mission to save her people would be different. In reality he was more stubborn, but just as prideful.
---
There was a span of three days where she and John Sheppard did not meet to spar. The first day he had not shown up and she felt foolish for waiting. After that, she had stayed away from the training room, instead sitting in on the Council's meetings. It had been something she had neglected recently and that they had all smiled and pardoned her 'fascination with the Earthlings' as understandable had caused her to sit stiffly and pay fierce attention for the rest of the discussions.
On the fourth day she was training Jinto when John Sheppard came in. He didn't say anything, just waved for them to carry on and leaned against the wall. It was distracting, but she finished Jinto's training quickly and sent him off.
"You," the man exclaimed as soon as the door had closed, and lifted a finger for emphasis. "Have been avoiding me."
She raised an eyebrow, expression schooled into an unreadable mask. "I have not."
"Yes, you have." he shot back immediately.
"No," she drew the word out slowly. "I have not."
"Have to. It's because I got close to beating you that last time, isn't it?"
Her eyes narrowed just slightly. "I assure you, that is not the reason."
A grin spread across his face and he pushed himself off of the wall. "It is! I got close and you don't want to admit it. You've been avoiding me because you don't want me to beat you!"
Before she could reply he was across the room, grabbing the pair of sticks that had slowly become exclusively his over the last week and a half. He came back, stopping a few feet from her and held up his sticks.
"Come on, let's do this."
The anger that had come and gone in small waves since she had started sparring with these new people flooded her all at once. She lifted her chin and raised her own sticks, his answering smirk only adding to her determination. He let his eagerness lead him and leapt forward. The only sounds in the room was their sharp breathing and the loud smacking of their sticks. She didn't let him have an advantage this time. Their sparring had made him better, but he was still no match for her. She threw him to the ground, his sticks skittering away across the mats.
"You *have* been holding back!" he accused, eyes wide. "I knew it!"
She stepped back from him, giving him the look she usually reserved for the haughtier children she helped to train. "Is defeating me so vital to reaffirming your masculinity amongst your people?"
He blinked at her. "Huh?"
"All of your people, your 'Marines,'" she fought hard not to spit the word. "Tease each other at my having beaten them in sparring, as though it proved their weakness and not my strength. If you are ashamed for having a woman best you then you should not have engaged one."
John Sheppard sat up, hands falling between his legs to rest on the floor. "You think I keep trying to beat you because you're a girl?"
"What else could be the reason?" she asked him firmly.
"How about that you beat me?"
Her brow creased in confusion. "Is that not--"
He jumped to his feet, arms spread at his sides. "Me! We've sparred eight--no, no, nine times. Nine! It hasn't taken me any more than two tries at anything before I mastered it, and yet you keep beating me! I've run it through my head hundreds of times, considered all the factors, but nothing changed. Then I thought I was actually getting somewhere and it turns out you were just humoring me! I tried and I tried, damn it, why can't I beat you?!"
A calm settled over her as she watched him go through his rant, ending in more of a childish scream than any masculine rage. She had not realized that John Sheppard was so...arrogant that not mastering a complex fighting technique in less than a week would send him into such fits. Still, it was simply that he was not progressing at what he believed was his level of capability and not whom he was losing to that had him striving so desperately for accomplishment. While she did not approve of his ego, she could respect that drive for perfection.
He was staring at her, expecting an answer. She recalled Dr. McKay's words at the mess hall that day. "I am the best."
"Yeah," he agreed, making a small 'hmph'ing sound. "That's what McKay told me."
They stood silent for a long moment, neither knowing what to do with the other and both too stubborn to leave. Finally, Teyla met his gaze and lifted her sticks. "I would be willing to teach you," she cautiously extended the offer, then added. "You possess more potential than the others here I have sparred with."
That seemed to put him back in place. His arms crossed over his chest even as he started to grin again. "Well, of course. I have more determination, too. They all just gave up after you beat them once. I told McKay, I told him I could beat you once I got the hang of this."
She narrowed her eyes again, though she felt nothing more than what she assumed was going to be a constant niggling of annoyance in the back of her mind. "You are nowhere near my level yet."
"Just wait," John Sheppard told her confidently, striding across the room to reclaim his sticks. "Two weeks. Tops."
She had lived with worse.
---
"You know, McKay got permission from Weir to have his own offworld team." John Sheppard told her, a little more than two weeks later as he rolled himself to his feet on the mats once more.
"Even though...Colonel Sumner had previously opposed this." Teyla replied slowly, pulling to the front of her mind that John had talked about almost nonstop for the last week.
"Yeah. No first-contact missions or anything like that, too dangerous, but still. It's a lot better than being stuck here day in and day out."
"You have been chosen to accompany Dr. McKay?" she asked, correctly guessing the eye roll and spin of the stick in his right hand that he did when she had commented on something painfully obvious.
"Of course. He knows I wouldn't let him get to go offworld and leave me stuck here," he lifted his chin and gave her a smug grin. "I'm the first person he asked, no contest."
She did not say anything to that, only continuing her cool-down stretches. When he had something on his mind it was best to let him run it through or he would be useless while they sparred.
"McKay's already working out with Sumner which of the Marines will join us. That was part of the deal, otherwise we'd have a whole group of them following us everywhere. It's better to deal with one bored Marine than eight," he laughed a bit at that. "And he said I could choose our fourth."
The way he paused made her look up. He was swinging his sticks at his sides, that self-assured grin on his face. She straightened as her thoughts put his ramblings together, but she did not offer anything to continue the conversation.
"It'll be great. Visiting new worlds, and okay, maybe not new to you, though some might be since we can access planets with space Gates because of the Puddlejumpers and you couldn't do that before. We'll be finding new technology to defeat the Wraith and save the galaxy. We'll be the best team here. We'll be unstoppable."
She watched him and once she was sure he was finished she gave him a small nod. "I will consider your offer."
He gaped at her as she started toward the door. "Consider like..you'll tell me at dinner?"
"I must converse with the Council." she informed him without looking back.
"But..but that'll take *days*!"
She was confident in the matter. The time would pass quickly for her.
"I can't guarantee the spot will still be open after today!" John Sheppard called after her one last time.
It would be, she knew. She did not smile as she headed to the residential area set aside for her people, but she could not deny the sense of anticipation rising within her.
end
Author: R. Tom Mato
Rating: PG
Warnings: A little swearing. I think once.
Notes: A MENSA!verse story. This is also unbeta'd, and my first SGA fic. M&MM kind of ate my brain and I've had so many theories running around in my head I figured I'd try my hand at writing it down. Practice makes perfect.
---
It had seemed innocent enough to start, if a little selfish on her part. Being on Atlantis had not stopped the necessity for her people to be ready fighters and it was she they came to for training. One of the Marines had observed a few of the sessions and had challenged her to a sparring match. It was obvious that it had been planned from the crowd that had gathered and she had felt a satisfying thrill at beating him in front of their audience, though she carefully hid it. She had more challenges after that. There was always an audience and she won every time.
Days passed and she heard the whispers amongst the Marines. Those who had already challenged her were goading others into trying their hand, taunting that they couldn't beat the vicious alien woman. They always emphasized the 'woman.' Their taunts angered her; she was not a game for them to pass their time with. She held onto that anger for the entire afternoon, and when John Sheppard entered she only had a moment of hesitation in accepting his request for a spar.
"I will not hold back." she had warned him, adjusting her hold on her sticks so the weight was comfortable.
He had just smirked at her, spinning one of his own sticks like a toy. "I'd hope not," he drawled. "That would take all the fun out of it."
She had him on his knees with her sticks at his throat before she broke a sweat.
He had jumped up the second she released him, a confused expression on his face. The Marines had all looked humiliated and angry, often defensive. John Sheppard looked as though he didn't know why he had lost, and immediately asked for a rematch.
After that it seemed that any time she was alone, he was there. Her days were spent in the training room beating him soundly into the mats and having him wear that confused and, more recently, annoyed expression. She started to hold back, just a little, to draw it out. Sometimes she allowed herself to indulge in a few less than traditional moves. It was worth it to see the look in his face when she smacked him soundly just below his buttocks the once. She wouldn't admit it but their sessions had become something she looked forward to. It had become relaxing to spar, even if she kept her guard up.
---
In the mess hall, as they called the large room where they all gathered at irregular times to eat their meals, she observed him sitting with Dr. McKay. John Sheppard was pushing a small plate of some..gravy covered pile to Dr. McKay's side of the table.
"What? I thought you liked those." Dr. McKay exclaimed.
"I'm out of shape," was his reply, and he waved his fork as he scowled. "I let myself get out of shape since I got here. Which is your fault, by the way."
"The rules of being a civilian don't include sleeping in until noon and eating Jell-O for breakfast, lunch, and dinner."
"If I were still military--"
"Colonel Sumner would have you behind a desk all day doing all the paperwork instead of being down in the labs with me discovering the secrets of Atlantis. Elizabeth and I made the right choice in getting the SGC to let you come as a civilian rather than under Sumner's command."
"I wouldn't have gotten lazy and Teyla wouldn't keep beating me at that stick fighting thing."
"She *is* the best at it. That is really getting to you, isn't it?"
"We've sparred eight times in the last week and every time I'm either on my knees or on my back with those sticks at my throat. This shouldn't be happening. She's *playing* with me."
Teyla got up from her table, calmly leaving the mess hall. She supposed it had been too much to ask to believe that the man that had led the rescue mission to save her people would be different. In reality he was more stubborn, but just as prideful.
---
There was a span of three days where she and John Sheppard did not meet to spar. The first day he had not shown up and she felt foolish for waiting. After that, she had stayed away from the training room, instead sitting in on the Council's meetings. It had been something she had neglected recently and that they had all smiled and pardoned her 'fascination with the Earthlings' as understandable had caused her to sit stiffly and pay fierce attention for the rest of the discussions.
On the fourth day she was training Jinto when John Sheppard came in. He didn't say anything, just waved for them to carry on and leaned against the wall. It was distracting, but she finished Jinto's training quickly and sent him off.
"You," the man exclaimed as soon as the door had closed, and lifted a finger for emphasis. "Have been avoiding me."
She raised an eyebrow, expression schooled into an unreadable mask. "I have not."
"Yes, you have." he shot back immediately.
"No," she drew the word out slowly. "I have not."
"Have to. It's because I got close to beating you that last time, isn't it?"
Her eyes narrowed just slightly. "I assure you, that is not the reason."
A grin spread across his face and he pushed himself off of the wall. "It is! I got close and you don't want to admit it. You've been avoiding me because you don't want me to beat you!"
Before she could reply he was across the room, grabbing the pair of sticks that had slowly become exclusively his over the last week and a half. He came back, stopping a few feet from her and held up his sticks.
"Come on, let's do this."
The anger that had come and gone in small waves since she had started sparring with these new people flooded her all at once. She lifted her chin and raised her own sticks, his answering smirk only adding to her determination. He let his eagerness lead him and leapt forward. The only sounds in the room was their sharp breathing and the loud smacking of their sticks. She didn't let him have an advantage this time. Their sparring had made him better, but he was still no match for her. She threw him to the ground, his sticks skittering away across the mats.
"You *have* been holding back!" he accused, eyes wide. "I knew it!"
She stepped back from him, giving him the look she usually reserved for the haughtier children she helped to train. "Is defeating me so vital to reaffirming your masculinity amongst your people?"
He blinked at her. "Huh?"
"All of your people, your 'Marines,'" she fought hard not to spit the word. "Tease each other at my having beaten them in sparring, as though it proved their weakness and not my strength. If you are ashamed for having a woman best you then you should not have engaged one."
John Sheppard sat up, hands falling between his legs to rest on the floor. "You think I keep trying to beat you because you're a girl?"
"What else could be the reason?" she asked him firmly.
"How about that you beat me?"
Her brow creased in confusion. "Is that not--"
He jumped to his feet, arms spread at his sides. "Me! We've sparred eight--no, no, nine times. Nine! It hasn't taken me any more than two tries at anything before I mastered it, and yet you keep beating me! I've run it through my head hundreds of times, considered all the factors, but nothing changed. Then I thought I was actually getting somewhere and it turns out you were just humoring me! I tried and I tried, damn it, why can't I beat you?!"
A calm settled over her as she watched him go through his rant, ending in more of a childish scream than any masculine rage. She had not realized that John Sheppard was so...arrogant that not mastering a complex fighting technique in less than a week would send him into such fits. Still, it was simply that he was not progressing at what he believed was his level of capability and not whom he was losing to that had him striving so desperately for accomplishment. While she did not approve of his ego, she could respect that drive for perfection.
He was staring at her, expecting an answer. She recalled Dr. McKay's words at the mess hall that day. "I am the best."
"Yeah," he agreed, making a small 'hmph'ing sound. "That's what McKay told me."
They stood silent for a long moment, neither knowing what to do with the other and both too stubborn to leave. Finally, Teyla met his gaze and lifted her sticks. "I would be willing to teach you," she cautiously extended the offer, then added. "You possess more potential than the others here I have sparred with."
That seemed to put him back in place. His arms crossed over his chest even as he started to grin again. "Well, of course. I have more determination, too. They all just gave up after you beat them once. I told McKay, I told him I could beat you once I got the hang of this."
She narrowed her eyes again, though she felt nothing more than what she assumed was going to be a constant niggling of annoyance in the back of her mind. "You are nowhere near my level yet."
"Just wait," John Sheppard told her confidently, striding across the room to reclaim his sticks. "Two weeks. Tops."
She had lived with worse.
---
"You know, McKay got permission from Weir to have his own offworld team." John Sheppard told her, a little more than two weeks later as he rolled himself to his feet on the mats once more.
"Even though...Colonel Sumner had previously opposed this." Teyla replied slowly, pulling to the front of her mind that John had talked about almost nonstop for the last week.
"Yeah. No first-contact missions or anything like that, too dangerous, but still. It's a lot better than being stuck here day in and day out."
"You have been chosen to accompany Dr. McKay?" she asked, correctly guessing the eye roll and spin of the stick in his right hand that he did when she had commented on something painfully obvious.
"Of course. He knows I wouldn't let him get to go offworld and leave me stuck here," he lifted his chin and gave her a smug grin. "I'm the first person he asked, no contest."
She did not say anything to that, only continuing her cool-down stretches. When he had something on his mind it was best to let him run it through or he would be useless while they sparred.
"McKay's already working out with Sumner which of the Marines will join us. That was part of the deal, otherwise we'd have a whole group of them following us everywhere. It's better to deal with one bored Marine than eight," he laughed a bit at that. "And he said I could choose our fourth."
The way he paused made her look up. He was swinging his sticks at his sides, that self-assured grin on his face. She straightened as her thoughts put his ramblings together, but she did not offer anything to continue the conversation.
"It'll be great. Visiting new worlds, and okay, maybe not new to you, though some might be since we can access planets with space Gates because of the Puddlejumpers and you couldn't do that before. We'll be finding new technology to defeat the Wraith and save the galaxy. We'll be the best team here. We'll be unstoppable."
She watched him and once she was sure he was finished she gave him a small nod. "I will consider your offer."
He gaped at her as she started toward the door. "Consider like..you'll tell me at dinner?"
"I must converse with the Council." she informed him without looking back.
"But..but that'll take *days*!"
She was confident in the matter. The time would pass quickly for her.
"I can't guarantee the spot will still be open after today!" John Sheppard called after her one last time.
It would be, she knew. She did not smile as she headed to the residential area set aside for her people, but she could not deny the sense of anticipation rising within her.
end