Sweeter Than Chocolate

John walked down the hallway to his quarters, focused on the possibility of finally getting a full night’s sleep. The chance to sleep for more than two hours at a time didn’t come often, so he always took it when it came along. He’d just turned the corner, only a few minutes away from eight uninterrupted hours of sleep, when he heard a soft sniffling sound. John stopped in his tracks and listened, knowing that it probably wasn’t any of his business then remembering that technically, if it was one of the military personnel crying, it was his business. He was still trying to decide whether to interrupt and probably lose any chance of sleep when a few minutes later a quiet, soggy voice spoke.

“Major Sheppard, what are you doing here?” Teyla asked from where she stood on the balcony, the stars surrounding her silhouette.

“Well, I was going to go sleep, but I thought I heard crying,” John answered and Teyla wiped her face with the back of her sleeve.

“I did not hear anything,” she answered, tears clear in her voice. Teyla turned and looked over the city, “maybe you heard the waves from the ocean and thought you heard someone crying instead.”

John walked over to where she was standing, “no, I’m pretty sure that I heard someone crying.” He leaned on the balcony’s railing and stared down at the ocean as she continued to sniffle loudly. “Are you alright?”

Teyla nodded and almost started crying again, “of course, I am fine. How are you?”

John shrugged, “oh, I’m fine. A little tired…” he trailed off as an idea of something that might cheer her up popped into his head, “and a little hungry.” John grinned and glanced over at her, tearstains shining on her face, “actually, I have a favor to ask of you.”

Teyla offered him a small smile, “anything.”

He smiled back at her and grabbed her hand, “great! Let’s go!”

“Where?” she asked, running after him.

“Don’t ask; it’s a surprise!” John answered. He hoped he would be able to find all the ingredients for his plan’s success.

“Chocolate chip cookies?” Teyla questioned, her eyebrows rising in doubt.

“Yep, chocolate chip cookies,” John answered, pulling a huge bowl out of a cupboard and checking the ingredients he had thrown on the table. “They work perfectly every time.”

“Work perfectly for what?” she asked and watched as he started throwing ingredients into the bowl. He grabbed a long wooden spoon and began stirring the icky mixture together as fast as he could. John grinned, “Fixing things,” he replied cryptically.

“Fixing what?” Teyla inquired as he handed the bowl to her, waving his arm to tell her to continue stirring as he searched madly for some more chocolate chips.

“Stuff…aha!” John grabbed the bag of chocolate chips he’d found and ran back to the bowl. He poured the whole bag in, figuring that this batch could probably use as many chocolate chips as possible. “My mom always said that chocolate chip cookies could fix anything. Whenever I got in trouble or I’d done something stupid and hurt myself, she used to bake a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies with me, sometimes two batches, all depended on the event. It always made me feel better.” He put out his hands for the bowl and she handed it to him.

“My father used to spar with me when I was upset, he said it would improve my fighting techniques and make me feel better. He claimed that the effort of trying to fight against him would clear my mind of any troubles. It always worked.” She smiled at the memory then sniffled again. John started dropping spoonfuls of cookie dough onto a baking pan as he wondered why she was sad. He finished and carefully placed the tray into the oven as Teyla started washing the bowl and spoon.

“Your dad fought?” John asked, unable to resist opening the oven’s door and checking to see if the cookies were done yet. He had no idea how long it would take for the cookies to bake in this oven, of course that could have something to do with the fact that he’d never cooked something in an Ancient oven before.

Teyla nodded, “yes, he was a skilled warrior. My father was the one who taught me how to fight. It was rumored that he had not been beaten in a fight since he was a boy of ten, but he never told me whether that was true or not. He would have been embarrassed to boast in such a manner.”

“He sounds nice,” John commented, leaning back against the warm oven.

“Yes, he was,” Teyla replied, a tear falling down her cheek as she turned her face away from him. A loud beeping noise rang from the oven and they both rushed to pull the cookies out of the oven. John grabbed the baking pan and dropped it quickly, the hot metal burning his fingers.

Teyla frowned and grabbed his hands, inspecting them, “are you alright?” she questioned worriedly.

John stared at her brown eyes and smiled, completely ignoring his hurting hands and the smell of burning chocolate chip cookies, “yeah, I’m great, never better.”

Teyla stared at him with a puzzled expression on her face, “are you certain, Major Sheppard?”

He nodded, “positive. Call me –“

“The cookies!” Teyla gasped and for the first time John noticed the crisp burning smell that covered the kitchen. He stared down at a burning mass of quickly disappearing chocolate chip cookies then grabbed a fire extinguisher as Teyla grabbed a standing dish of soapy water. John hit the extinguisher’s button and aimed it at the fire, the extinguisher doing its job and killing the fire just as Teyla threw the dish of water in the fire’s direction. The water went past the newly extinguished cookies and splashed onto him, covering him with soapy dishwater. John tried to wipe the water from his face, squinting as he tried to keep the water out of his eyes and looking at Teyla in mock indignation. She started to laugh, pointing at his drenched figure and giggling uncontrollably.

“You are – you, the –“she pointed at the burned cookie crumbs and then at him, unable to stop laughing. John stared at her for a minute as he tried to remember if he’d ever seen her laugh like this before or in that case, even seen her laugh at all, then started to laugh with her. They paused for one second, trying to compose themselves and giving up quickly.

“The cookies didn’t work out huh?” he asked through fits of laughter.

She shook her head, “No-“ then nodded as a strange, determined look crept onto her face. Teyla smiled at him and leaned forward, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him.

John smiled at her when the kiss ended, clearing his throat and telling her, “wow. That was unexpected.”

“Thank you,” she answered, blushing slightly. “It was very generous of you to spend time with me when I was upset.”

“Anytime,” John told her and she giggled and grinned, “of course, we should probably make another batch of those chocolate chip cookies to replace the ones that fell victim to that horrible accident.”

He nodded seriously, “of course.”

They laughed then leaned towards each other and kissed, a long sweet kiss that was even sweeter than chocolate.

The End.