Elizabeth felt thoroughly miserable when she woke up. Her head throbbed, her stomach rolled queasily and her tongue was covered with foul-tasting fuzz.
A hangover.
Elizabeth groaned unhappily. After a couple minutes, she tried to open her eyes.
Damn, the lights.
It took another few minutes to get her eyes open and working enough to find out what time it was. Elizabeth groaned again as she realised that she was supposed to be in the control room in a few minutes. A morning of scientists, missions and disputes sounded like absolute hell.
"Why did I drink so much?" Elizabeth muttered, wincing.
Carefully, Elizabeth rolled over and sat up. The headache seemed to make her eyes throb, but her stomach stayed where it was, which Elizabeth decided to count as a minor victory.
Her first step was to call up to the control room and tell Grodin that she would be late for her shift. He sounded concerned and she had to do some fast-talking to stop him calling Dr. Beckett down to check on her. Carson could be discrete, but it would hardly do moral any good when word spread that she'd needed a house call.
Then she ran to her bathroom and threw up everything in her stomach, deciding afterwards that this was the last time she would see the toilet from this angle for a very long time.
When Elizabeth felt a little less wretched, she drowned two aspirin with a litre of water and had a shower so hot it nearly scalded her skin. The urge to throw up was passing as she towelled dry and pulled on her uniform, but the headache refused to shift as easily. Elizabeth dug into her precious stores of instant coffee and made a large mug. It wasn't as good as the real stuff, but that was becoming more precious than gold on the base.
She managed to reach her balcony with her coffee without meeting anyone and Elizabeth almost called the control room to find out whether there was a problem, but decided that they would have called her if she were needed. The mid-morning sunlight was almost painful and Elizabeth squinted, wishing that she'd remembered to bring sunglasses. She huddled in a chair with the mug cradled between her hands and her eyes closed for a long time. Atlantis had a unique, salty smell in its clear fresh air. It reminded her of beach holidays as a child.
Elizabeth somehow wasn't surprised when she heard the balcony door open and close. She opened one eye to check that it was Teyla and smiled faintly.
"How did you find me?" she asked.
There was a slight creak as Teyla sat in the other chair. "You were not in your quarters."
"Ah."
"Peter told me that you are unwell."
Elizabeth took a sip of her cooling coffee. "I didn't think I was that drunk."
"The punch contained more alcohol than you knew," Teyla said. "Corporal Markov and Sergeant Antonovich had several bottles of a drink from their homeland - vodka? They added more alcohol after Aiden mixed the punch. John has confiscated the remainder and promises that they will have very unpleasant duties for a month."
"How bad are the hangovers?" Elizabeth asked.
"Carson and Rodney seem very unhappy," Teyla said. "I only had two cups of the punch, yet I woke with a headache."
"And John?"
"He did not drink last night. We leave for the mainland in an hour."
Elizabeth drained the last of her coffee and finally opened her eyes. Teyla was squinting slightly in the sunlight, but she looked much better than Elizabeth felt. They sat in companionable silence for a while.
"Thank you," Elizabeth said eventually.
"What have I done?" Teyla asked.
"Saved me from falling over and embarrassing myself last night," Elizabeth said lightly.
Teyla smiled. "You are welcome."
"I really don't normally drink like that."
"I know."
A breeze caught a strand of Teyla's hair and blew it across her face. She absently pushed it away and Elizabeth was reminded of their first encounter on this balcony.
"Why did you cut your hair?" Elizabeth asked, suddenly curious.
"It seemed more practical," Teyla said. "Do you not like it?"
Elizabeth studied her for a moment and wondered when she had begun noticing how beautiful Teyla was. Maybe she had always noticed.
"It suits you," Elizabeth said softly.
Teyla's smiled was strangely shy, as though Elizabeth's opinion mattered and she had been nervous. Something fluttered in Elizabeth's stomach. It could have been the hangover.
"I have to meet John in the jumper bay," Teyla said suddenly.
She stood, her normally graceful movements suddenly awkward and jerky. Elizabeth stood with her and caught Teyla's arm as the other woman began to turn away.
"Wait, what's wrong?" Elizabeth asked.
She felt out of her depth. The rules had changed between one instant and the next, but she didn't know how or why.
"Elizabeth, I . . ."
Teyla's voice trailed away and Elizabeth met her eyes. There was an expression there that Elizabeth almost recognised and it made her shake. She closed her eyes when Teyla touched her cheek with gentle fingers and the soft lips that brushed hers seemed like a dream.
The balcony doors were closing as Elizabeth opened her eyes. She could almost convince herself that she'd imagined it, except that her cheek felt warm from Teyla's touch for hours afterwards.
*fin*