Did Lyta sense Ivanova's talent?
A non-telepath can learn certain tricks to make it harder to break through, albeit briefly, so the reaction was sufficiently ambiguous and the event sufficiently brief that it wouldn't raise too many concerns. Which is why Sheridan dived in when he did; if she'd continue to block much longer, just instinctively, it would've revealed her latent potential. It was his distracting Ivanova that in a sense helped Lyta break through.
RE: alternate lifestyles...I said when stuff happened, we wouldn't make a big deal out of it, it'd just be there...and I said we'd address it in our own way, in our own time. We've done a bit here, we'll do a bit more down the road. I won't give you or anyone a timetable; I'll do stuff as the integrity of the story permits, not sooner, not later. I will not allow this to become a political football. If you do nothing, folks yell at you for ignoring it; if you do a little, they yell for not doing more; if you do more, they yell for not doing it sooner. Screw it. I do what the story calls for, as the story calls for it.
Susan and Talia had been dancing around one another for months; that night, though, would've been the first time they got physically intimate.
I didn't show a kiss because, in my experience, it's easier on all around if one steps into the shallow end of the pool first, and walks into the deep end rather than diving in and splashing everybody in the process.
Wouldn't Talia have discovered Ivanova's secret if they were intimate?
Well, a telepath can also hold it back and avoid dipping any further into someone's mind, if not permitted or asked not to do so
