Disclaimers: I own no part of the Stargate world, and I make no money from this, so on and so forth…

Note: This fic is complete, the last chapters just need a tidy up, so it will likely be either 4 or 5 chapters long. I'm hoping to put up another one today, depending on how things go. This was inspired by the season 5 episode Remnants.

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Mat glanced towards her again, trying to hide his interest by continuing his gaze over her to the buffet table just beyond her table. Maybe he really was interested in some more chicken nuggets, no one would really know. Or maybe one of those chocolate muffins that had been put out since he had sat down.

"Walker?" Major Lorne asked and Mat turned his attention back to his own table.

"Yep?" He asked towards his team leader and good friend Evan Lorne.

Evan narrowed his eyes at him and turned slightly in his seat to look off towards the buffet table himself and then back at Mat.

"If you're thinking about getting one of the muffins, then grab one for me as well. Or are you looking at something a little sweeter?"

Next to Evan, Lt Martins, or Sketch as they called him, sniggered. Mat felt a touch embarrassed that he hadn't been as subtle with his interest as he had planned, but he didn't really care with his team. They were a good team, even Dr Kingman who was the quiet scientist of their team. Mat got on well with the man, especially since they had started up playing table tennis every Thursday night, and damn could the scientist play! Mat glanced at Kingman now to see that even he was smiling with a knowing look.

"A guy can enjoy the view can't he?" Mat responded to them all. "After all, not all of us are happy with just a chocolate muffin," he added to Evan.

Sketch sniggered again as he munched on his second sandwich, twisting around Lorne to look off towards the target table with absolutely no subtlety whatsoever. "Which one?" He asked.

"Shhh," Mat hissed at him.

Sketch grinned as he turned back to his sandwich. "Just asking, cause there's a whole lot of sweetness at that table."

Mat lifted a high Spock eyebrow at him. "Dusty?" Mat guessed.

Sketch pulled an exaggerated wince at that as he filled his mouth with more BLT.

"She'd eat him alive," Evan said.

Sketch glanced at Evan with interest and Mat winced himself at the double-entendre.

"You're disgusting," Evan replied to Sketch. "And I'm not just talking about the sandwich you're sharing with us all."

Sketch chuckled as he closed his grinning mouth. "Alice is happy enough with my eating habits," he replied.

"Alice; who you've been stalking?" Mat asked as he glanced at Alice sat at the other table.

"I haven't been stalking her. We went out last week," Sketch replied rather defensively.

"Does she know that you've got a thing for Dr Keller?" Kingman asked.

Mat glanced round with interest. "Doc Keller? Really?"

"He's been to the infirmary five times this week with his knee," Kingman replied with suspicion.

"It hurts," Sketch defended.

"It hurts because you keep up with the crazy sparring sessions with Ronon and he knows it's weak," Mat replied, having been on the receiving end of the dangerous Satedan's attacks.

"I'll get in a hit one day," Sketch defended. "Oh, look out the sweetness is halving," he added.

Mat would have called him on that, but his head snapped round to see for himself. Sketch was right because now only Dusty and Teyla were left seated at the table, the other three women passing by behind Evan and Sketch as they headed out.

"Ladies," Sketch called to them. "Alice," he added to the redhead as she paused by him, her empty tray in her hand, and she smiled down at Sketch.

"I see your eating habits haven't improved since last Friday," she commented, but Mat could see the sparkle in her eyes.

"I have a very healthy appetite," Sketch told her with a grin and lifted eyebrows.

"And this is something you feel I should know?" Alice asked.

Sketch wiped his mouth with his napkin and tilted his head further round towards her and gave her a full on charming smile. "Just in case you were interested."

She rolled her eyes as she moved to leave, but Sketch turned further in his seat towards her as he asked "We still on for tomorrow night?"

Mat tuned out the rest of the conversation, as he looked back towards the other table that in his opinion hadn't lost any sweetness at all. Dusty was stacking up the last of her meal onto her tray, which meant that maybe Teyla would be by herself in a minute. Maybe. But then women tended to wait for each other…

He was aware that Evan leant forward a little over the table and was looking towards the table as well.

"I heard Olan in Geology asked her out," Evan said quietly as Sketch kept up his flirty banter with Alice.

Mat looked to his friend. "Olan? Really?"

"Come on he's had a massive crush on Teyla since he got here," Evan muttered as he sipped on his apple juice.

"How do you know I'm not interested in Dusty?" Mat asked, more for curiosity's sake than trying to hide his interest.

Evan smiled at him as he set his cup down. "Please, you've been drooling over Teyla since you set foot in Atlantis."

"I haven't been drooling," Mat protested.

Evan gave him a 'come on' expression.

Mat looked away to the other table again as subtly as he could. "She go out with Olan?"

"Don't think so, or maybe it's just rumour. She and Kanaan only split a couple of weeks ago," Evan considered.

"If he hasn't asked her out yet, Olan will," Mat considered.

"The vultures are circling," Kingman muttered from Mat's right.

Mat looked round at him with an amused glance, though the guy had a point, because Mat would bet good money that there were more than a few guys in the city who would have set their sights on Teyla now she was single again. The only issue was how long you should wait for her to get over Kanaan.

Mat was part of the city gym's sparring circle, and had sparred with Teyla only last week, and she hadn't seemed anything but her usual cheerful polite self. Perhaps Kanaan was well in the past. If Mat could just maybe chat to her for a bit, lay some groundwork if nothing else. Dusty was still sat with her, but Dusty was something close to a friend of Mat's, so he thought she would probably give him some space to talk to Teyla alone.

He looked at Evan. "You want me to get you a muffin then?" He asked.

Evan grinned as Mat got up. "Good luck."

Mat headed away down the metal aisle between the tables straight towards the buffet table, all the while keeping his eye subtly on Teyla's table. He grabbed two chocolate muffins from the buffet and headed back towards his table by a route that would take him past Teyla.

He lucked out because both Teyla and Dusty noticed him approaching and as they both glanced up at him, he smiled down at them, but mostly at Teyla.

"Hello, Ladies," he greeted them.

"Major Walker," they both replied with polite and such pretty smiles.

He slowed as he reached their table, as if distracted by their attention, and he stood by the empty chair next to Teyla.

"I was hoping to catch you, Teyla," he began trying to sound like he hadn't rehearsed anything. "We got to schedule another sparring session, if you're up to beating me up again?"

She smiled up at his weak joke and he relaxed a little.

"You do yourself a disservice, Major," she complimented him. "You are a very skilled warrior."

"Thanks, but after sparring with you and Ronon, it's pretty clear that I have a lot to learn," he replied and he could have sworn he could feel Dusty rolling her eyes across the table.

"I have found that it is not very…encouraging for any of us to compare ourselves solely against Ronon's skill," Teyla replied kindly. The humour of her smile felt like an invitation to keep the conversation going.

"Glad to hear I'm not the only one who thinks that," he joked. "The guy sure knows how to wail on someone! Martins is still complaining about his knee."

Teyla glanced past him towards his team's table and back up to him. "It would be best for Lt Martins to rest his knee, Ronon will only focus on it as a weakness," she advised with concern.

Mat pulled a face. "Too late, but Martins is too stubborn to stop sparring with Ronon even for a week."

Teyla shook her head with that lovely polite smile of hers. "Tell him that behaving in such a way is only playing to Ronon."

"I'll try, but I don't think it'll stop Sketch. He'll learn eventually though."

"Sketch?" She asked with a light frown.

Mat hadn't realised he had called his friend and teammate by the nickname, usually just used among the team, but despite Martins' initial protest the nickname had seriously stuck.

"That's what we've been calling him. He and Lorne are into drawing. Martins always has this little sketchpad in his pocket when we're off world. We sit still for more than five seconds and he's sketching something."

She smiled with a light touch of laughter. "And you do not enjoy such activities?" She asked.

He set down the muffins on the table, since holding them so long was making them feel a touch warm and soft in his hand. Also, it was a starting point at perhaps staying here to talk with her.

"No, I'm not into drawing or painting, though I come from an arty family," he added. Her attention seemed to sharpen on him and he gathered that arty things interested her. Good, finally his parents' artistic influence might pay out for him. "Actually my thing was sculpture," he confessed to her.

"Really?" Teyla asked with clear surprise, but with what looked like honest interest. "What kind of sculpture?" She asked.

"Mostly clay," he told her.

"I used to sculpt with my mother when I was young, but among my people wood is the main medium that is used," she told him.

Mat took that as enough of an invitation to stay longer. He nudged the chair in front of him enough to give him a tiny space to sit down. "Well, if you want, I would be happy to show you the basics of working with clay again, in exchange for your beating me up sessions?" He offered.

She grinned at his joke. "I am happy to spar with anyone, but I would certainly enjoy learning to sculpt again," she replied.

She had been eating a slice of apple and she looked away to pick up another from her tray, and as she did Mat glanced at Dusty across the table. The woman had a knowing amused look already focused on him. He glared at her for a split second before angling his head enough to ask her to leave. Teyla looked up and Mat returned his full attention to her.

"Have you ever tried ice sculpture?" He asked.

"No," she replied. "Though I have seen such examples on a world that my people visit frequently."

"How do they work the ice there?" He asked interested as he had found ice sculpture one of the hardest forms to work.

"They chip away the ice fraction by fraction with small cutting tools," she informed him showing him with her fingers how small the picks were. "Creating mainly animal forms or sometimes a portrait, if the sculptor is skilled enough."

Dusty loudly lifted her tray as she began to rise from the table, and Mat could have hugged her. "If you guys are going to talk ice and clay, I'm off," she announced as she shoved her chair back under the table. "See you at Poker tomorrow night, Teyla?"

"Yes, I shall see you then, Dusty," she replied up to the other woman and Mat felt a flush of relief, because it meant that Teyla was going to stay talking with him for a bit.

As Dusty left, Mat made a note to thank her later before he turned all his attention back on Teyla.

"Back on Earth we often start off work on ice with a chainsaw," he told her.

She frowned elegantly. "Are they not devices used to fell trees?" She asked surprising him that she even knew what a chainsaw was.

"They are indeed, and I almost lost my hand to one once," he told her.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I was younger and being a little stupid," he admitted as he broke off part of his chocolate muffin.

Mat recounted his story, which he had told a few times over the years, but he made sure to give as much detail this time in particular. She laughed at his joking comments and looked honestly relieved for him that he had avoided such serious injury. He confessed that he had been angrier at losing the ice sculpting competition than the near accident. She laughed sympathetically again and he enjoyed her lovely smile and humour. As he launched into another story, this time of his eccentric artistic family, he felt a strange sense of being watched. As he talked, he glanced back to his team's table, but they were all deep in conversation so he turned back to Teyla.

"You into painting or drawing then?" He asked and as she replied, he felt the hunted feeling again.

He found himself looking over his other shoulder, the strange sense of being closely watched too strong to ignore. It was an instinct that had saved him more than once in his job. However, he wasn't used to feeling it here in the city. The number of people sat around the Mess Hall had actually lessened though, and no one was looking his way, at least not now. There were two tables of scientists, who were busy talking among themselves, a table with a chess game underway, and the rest of Teyla's team who had arrived at some point and were sat across the room. Frowning to himself, Mat turned back to Teyla's description of Athosian carving.

He nodded through her description, asking questions as he went.

"So, you make the bantos rods yourself?" He asked.

"Yes, though the original wood that we used grew only on Old Athos, but there are many varieties on other worlds that are just as good," she replied.

"Are they an Athosian tradition or do other worlds in Pegasus fight with them?"

"It was said that the skills were originally developed on another world that was severely culled by the Wraith, but those truly skilled in the fighting arts had survived, escaping to live on other worlds, and one such world was Athos. My people adopted the training methods, but there are several other worlds who have also further developed the practice. My Father told me that in the time of his father that every handful of years there used to be a championship competition between those who were the highest skilled in bantos training. People would gather from many worlds to compete and enjoy the spectacle."

"That doesn't happen any more?"

"No, apparently the Wraith somehow learnt of the location of the last competition and culled almost everyone there, and the practice was never re-established. I must confess that I have considered attempting to restart the competitions, for it is wrong that the Wraith took away something so empowering for so many people."

Mat considered that and nodded. "Maybe Atlantis could even help out."

"I had thought as much, but I am unsure as to whether the IOA would see guarding such a competition as all that worth while," she replied with what seemed a slightly sad smile.

Mat learnt a little further towards her, drawn in by the story. "I'd think after all you've done for us over the years that they would certainly listen to you, and it might gather some good will with other worlds for Atlantis to help out," he considered.

She smiled at him. "Perhaps I could even persuade some such as yourself to compete?"

Mat glanced away and smiled. "I don't think I'd be quite up to that."

"Do not sell yourself short, Major Walker," she replied.

"Most people call me Mat off duty," he offered her.

A shadow abruptly fell over the table and Mat became aware of someone stood to his immediate right. He turned and looked up into the eyes of his commanding officer.

"Colonel," Mat greeted him, the surprise in his voice getting the best of him.

"Major," Colonel Sheppard replied, his smile formal and didn't reach his eyes.

"Hello, Colonel," Teyla greeted him as well with a smile in her voice, not that Mat saw it because he was still looking up at the Colonel. He saw the Colonel's gaze move to Teyla and his smile became more natural, and Mat had a moment of concern. He got on really well with Colonel Sheppard, considered him someone to trust, but there was something rather frosty about the smile he had gotten.

"Everything okay?" Mat found himself asking, glancing to the rest of the room to where his own team remained relaxed enough.

"Sure," the Colonel replied with another one of those rather fake smiles. "What time are you guys shipping out to the Kids' planet today?"

"1600," Mat replied. "Dr Zelenka's got to complete the water system repairs in the south west pier first."

"Ah, yeah," the Colonel replied nodding.

Mat frowned up at the city's military commander, and then it occurred to him that maybe, as her teammate, Colonel Sheppard had noticed Mat's interest and had moved in to 'rescue' Teyla. Teams looked out for each other like that. Mat glanced to Teyla beside him. She hadn't seemed uncomfortable talking with him – she had been smiling and even had laughed at his weak jokes – so maybe Colonel Sheppard was just checking out that she was okay.

"Is Rodney not assisting Radek?" Teyla asked Colonel Sheppard over Mat's head.

"You really think he'll be climbing around the water pipes to find the problem?" The Colonel asked with proper humour in his voice at last.

"No, of course not," she replied with humour of her own, and Mat saw her look off towards the rest of her team with a warm smile. The smile looked as honest as the smiles he had been getting, so he couldn't quite understand what the Colonel's problem might be. Surely he would soon see that things were relaxed enough here.

"Poor Dr Zelenka gets the best jobs doesn't he?" Mat joked to Teyla and she turned her amused smile to him. Yes, it felt like a very real smile.

"Well, Rodney's a busy man," Colonel Sheppard added and Mat looked back up at him again. Mat felt once again that he had done something wrong and he sought to repair it somehow.

"After this trip today, Dr Kingman should be trained up on the kids' shield device for next time," Mat said.

"Good, that'll save you guys hanging around waiting next time," was the reply. Mat frowned at the implication that he and his team were sitting around on their hands with nothing better to do. He decided not to point out to his commanding officer that it was their shift break and that the Colonel himself was off duty in the Mess Hall.

He smiled up at him instead, but yet again didn't get the normal Sheppard humour in response. He wondered if the guy was just having a bad day. Colonel Sheppard's gaze held his for a moment, then slid away to Teyla and back again, and abruptly Mat understood. Suddenly the Colonel's rather frosty attitude made obvious sense, and Mat felt relieved. Then the disappointment hit, as well as the surprise. He glanced from the Colonel to Teyla. He hadn't heard anything about this, but then it wasn't like it would be the first time the grapevine had missed something – No one had predicted Doc Keller and Dr McKay as a couple until they had been seen out on an obvious date together.

Mat turned his attention down to his mostly dissected muffin as he squelched his disappointment further. He gathered up the muffin pieces, remembering that he still had Evan's muffin. He looked back to Teyla with a smile.

"I should really get this to Lorne, he gets ratty without his sugar fix," he joked and she smiled. Mat didn't look round to the Colonel, as he suspected that making Teyla laugh might not be all that well received right now. "I'll see you both around."

"We must organise our sparring session," Teyla replied to him as he got up.

"Sure, I'll email you," Mat replied, glad at least that those sessions could continue.

"And I look forward to your sculpting lesson," she added and Mat paused and smiled.

"Me too," he replied as he turned away, avoiding the Colonel's eyes except for one brief moment. "Colonel," he said as he moved away.

"Major."

Mat headed straight towards his team's table and resisted the urge to swear. He dropped down into his seat with his team and set Evan's muffin on his tray.

"So?" Evan asked reaching for the offering.

"No joy," Mat replied as he rested his arms on the table.

"Really?" Evan asked as he started on the muffin. "You two looked deep in conversation."

Mat looked off back towards Teyla's table to see that, rather than her having left to join her team's table, Colonel Sheppard had sat down at her table. From here, they looked just like two colleagues talking, but Mat hadn't missed the silent message the Colonel had sent his way.

"I was too slow off the mark," Mat reflected.

The rest of the table all turned and looked off to where the Colonel and Teyla sat.

"What? The Colonel?" Sketch asked with surprise in his voice.

"The Colonel," Evan replied as he returned his attention to his muffin. Mat noticed that Evan didn't look all that surprised, though gave him a sympathetic glance.

"But they're in the same team," Sketch added with more confusion in his voice.

"So?" Evan asked. "She's not military."

"But, surely…?" Sketch dwindled off. "Are you sure?" He asked Mat.

"He didn't say anything directly, but I got the Colonel's message pretty clearly."

"Sure as hell looked like Teyla was enjoying your company before he turned up. Can't say I would see Teyla playing you like that," Sketch muttered with far more insight than he usually gave to such things.

"I think you just got knocked off the table," Dr Kingman muttered from Mat's right. "He's swooped in and taken your point."

Mat smiled at the table tennis symbolism and looked back to where the two were talking. They weren't sitting next to each other like a couple, or even how a couple having a disagreement might sit.

"Even if that's it, then I'm hardly going to compete with my superior officer am I?"

"Why not? She's available, and the vultures are circling as Kingy put it," Sketch said.

"Don't call me that," Kingman protested half-heartedly.

"It's up to her who she chooses to date," Sketch continued. "I say, you keep trying, you ever know if you can get back on the table. He could be just another circling vulture."

"She did say she was looking forward to our sparring and me teaching her some sculpture."

"Sculpture?" Evan asked with surprise. "I thought you hated sculpture?"

"I've been thinking of trying it again," Mat protested.

"Vulture," Evan muttered.

"Hey, I was damn good at it I'll have you know," Mat protested.

"Sure, sure…"

Mat looked away from their amused, yet kindly supportive faces, and wished he could see the Colonel's face, but his back that was turned to Mat.

He wished he knew what they were talking about. Him? Work? Or were they planning a date?

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TBC