The morning sunlight playing through the banister made soft shadows on the wall as Teyla walked down the stairs. This house was unknown and unfamiliar to her and there was a hesitance in her movements that only those close to her would notice. Rodney would notice if he saw. But then, Rodney was the reason she was here.

Teyla had been surprised when he invited her along on the visit to his sister, though she knows she shouldn't have been. The rest of the senior staff had stayed on Atlantis this time around; Rodney and Teyla knew many of the others visiting Earth but most of them were more acquaintances than friends. Rodney had said that she needed to see more of the planet than Colorado Springs when he asked her along and proceeded to tell her of the myriad ways he could prove Canada's superiority to the U.S. if she went with him, but the relief in his eyes when she agreed to accompany him gave her the simple truth: he didn't want to travel alone.

She could understand that. From what she saw of Rodney's interactions with his sister, he still wasn't completely comfortable around his older sibling. Teyla was glad to meet the woman and glad for the opportunity to comfort her teammate.

He was in the kitchen when she walked in, notebook before him and coffee in hand. He looked up as she entered the room. She smiled and placed a hand on his in greeting before walking out the door and into the back yard. He rose and followed.

They stretched wordlessly. Usually stretches were the time when they chatted, when he told her of his latest projects and she told him of the latest trade problems and news from the mainland. There was rarely time to simply sit and talk when they were off-world, and when there was, that was Team Time. Morning exercises were a time for a different connection, a time when they weren't teammates, but friends.

On Atlantis they talked to catch up but they had been in each other's near constant company for three days now; there was nothing to catch up on. On Atlantis they did this together two or three times a week as a way of making time for each other. Here they did it every morning to ground them, to remind them of where they came from and to where they would return. It helped them to deal with the daily madness that was a vacation on Earth.

When they had finished stretching, Teyla handed Rodney a pair of sparring sticks. They circled each other slowly, then Teyla struck. Rodney lifted his left staff in a perfectly timed block, as he was supposed to. This wasn't sparring, this was a carefully choreographed dance; this was a way to meet the day. When she first came to Atlantis, Teyla had done a different version of this to remind herself of Athos, and she had done it alone. This movement belonged to her and Rodney, this was theirs, this was shared.

They sped up, striking and blocking faster and faster, until Rodney struck out in an unchoreographed movement. Teyla dodged, surprised. Usually she was the one to break the dance. She turned towards him and made a strike towards his chest quickly followed by a sweeping motion towards his legs, a movement that would have dropped him instantly a year ago. He managed to block both blows but the movement caused him to lose his balance. He fell and, catching one of her sticks between his, brought Teyla with him. She rolled over him and tried to get up to her knees, but her right arm was trapped under Rodney, forcing her to land sprawled next to him in the grass.

Rodney chuckled. It started small, but then Teyla joined in and soon both of them were laughing in earnest.

"Well, that was fun," Rodney said, standing and extending a hand to help his friend up.

"Quite," Teyla agreed. They walked back into the house to see Jean in the kitchen, pulling eggs out of the freezer.

"Morning," Rodney said, uncharacteristically cheerful for this time of day. He was always more centered after mornings spent with Teyla.

"Morning, Rodney. Teyla." Jean McKay smiled at each of them, but there was something calculating in her gaze. Teyla had seen the same expression on Rodney many times; the woman was trying to figure something out. "You two seemed to be having a good time."

"Hm. Teyla, you want to grab the first shower? I need to check my e-mail." He turned to Jean. "Unless you want my help with breakfast?"

The older McKay snorted. "Please, like I want you in my kitchen. I would prefer breakfast to be edible and for my pans to come out of this visit intact. Go." She made a shooing motion with one hand. "Omelets okay?"

"Yeah, fine," Rodney answered, already in the next room.

Jean turned towards Teyla. "Omelet okay with you?"

"That would be lovely," she answered. She felt the other woman's eyes on her as she left the room. It was going to be a long day.

Teyla could sense Jean's curiosity throughout the day, but neither woman said anything about it. The Athosian didn't feel as if she was being judged, just scrutinized.

She was in bed writing down some stories for the SGC anthropologists when Rodney peeked in the door.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?" he asked, entering the room.

"I will be shortly," she answered, setting her notebook aside. "What about you? Should you not be sleeping as well?"

"I'm off to bed right now, just wanted to check on you, make sure you didn't need anything."

Teyla smiled at him, the understanding smile. "We are not on a mission, Rodney. You do not need to take watch."

"No, I didn't mean, I'm not –." He stopped. "That obvious?"

"Yes. That obvious."

He sighed and sat next to her on the bed. "I shouldn't be this jumpy. I mean, this is Earth, home, we're safe here. Well, relatively, anyway. There are no Wraith breathing down our necks."

"The fight has become a part of you; you are not the same man you were five years ago."

"Yeah, I know that, but can I have the relaxed part of me back? The part of me that used to sit on the couch and not worry about the next big disaster? I miss that; it was fun."

"It will come." Teyla meant to say something else, but her next statement was cut off by a huge yawn.

Rodney smiled. "And that's my cue to leave." He touched her hand briefly before standing to leave. "Good night."

"Good night, Rodney."

It was not yet morning when Teyla woke. She was not surprised, she often needed to walk about for a while before returning to sleep. She exited the guest room quietly, closing the door behind her, and headed downstairs for a glass of water. As she went down the stairs she saw a light on in the kitchen. A quick glance across the hall into the open den showed her that Rodney was not on the couch he had been sleeping on for the past few days. Good, he was probably in the kitchen, then. Teyla did not feel up to small talk and uncomfortable questions from Jean at this hour. A few steps further down she stopped. She heard a soft female voice, and then Rodney's a bit louder.

"Jeannie, just stop. You've got it all wrong and I can't tell you anymore than I have already, so just stop."

Teyla could not hear the woman's response. She went down a few more steps without thinking about it.

" – other month, you tell me you can't call or e-mail, I haven't seen you in a year and a half, and then you call saying you can only stay a few days and do I mind if you bring a friend? Then you come waltzing in here with this beautiful woman and you can't tell me what country she's from, only that it's close to where you're stationed, and you can't tell me that, either!"

"Jean. Do you understand the meaning of the word 'classified'?"

"This is different. This is my geeky baby brother coming home with scars and a shiny new girlfriend he fights with as a form of foreplay. This isn't –."

"What the hell are you talking about? Teyla isn't my girlfriend; please, I should be so lucky. We're friends."

There was a pause, and though Teyla couldn't see her, she thought the other woman was smiling when she spoke again. "Friends, huh? Mighty close for friends."

"Don't be so juvenile."

"Rodney. You're spending your entire leave with her. I've heard you finish each other's sentences and most of the time you communicate more in looks than in talks. She listens to you rant about work; you let her hit you with sticks, and don't think I didn't see you coming out of her room tonight. Looks like more than friends to me. You're an adult Rodney; you can admit you're in a relationship."

Teyla didn't hear Rodney speak for a moment, but she knew that he was pinching the bridge of his nose in what she had always called the 'Ancestors-grant-me-patience' move. "There is nothing to admit. Jeannie, I spent a year on that base not knowing if I'd ever be able to come back here again. I have had to work until I nearly collapsed. I have come close to dying multiple times, and Teyla has saved my life more than once. I've saved her life a couple of times; we have a nice little system. She's my teammate and one of the closest friends I have. What you see of me and Teyla; that's what friends are for us, and I'd greatly appreciate it if you could not mention this conversation to her. We're only here for two more days, no need to make it unduly uncomfortable. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to bed." Teyla heard him moving and quickly went back up the stairs and into the guest room. As she slid under the covers she thought about what Rodney had said. She also was closer to her Atlantean teammates than she had been to people in the past, but that was a function of where they were and what they were doing. Life on Atlantis was as much about redefinition as it was about anything else, she supposed. Thinking of her friends, she fell asleep.