Unexpected by Oparu
Author's Chapter Notes: The team starts to repair the city. John and Elizabeth find ways to distract each other.
Ronon tapped his shoulder as he passed the black pot from the mess kit around to John. "It's good. Eat it."
John took the offering in his free hand and sniffed it. Setting it down to lift the spoon to his mouth, he made his decision, "Tastes like chili."
"It's really not bad." Carson agreed as he dug into his bowl. "Reminds me of something my mom used to make on camping trips."
Teyla settled back, leaning against the wall of the cafeteria where they had set up camp. She wrapped her hands around her cup and took her time with her tea. "My people bring it with on hunting trips, much like your MRE's."
"Tastier though." John held out his bowl and let Ronon fill it. Resting it on his thigh, he brought his spoon carefully up to his mouth.
"Speak for yourself." Rodney piped up from his olive-colored sleeping bag. "I happen to be very fond of our MREs."
"They're all we'll be eating until we get the gate fixed anyway," John struggled with his dinner and finally gave up on his spoon. Lifting his bowl to his mouth, he drank it. "And this-" He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, "But I could get used to this."
"Tava bean stew." Teyla offered easily as she shut off the tiny cook stove. Dumping what was left into John's bowl, she grinned as he continued to eat one handed. "Ronon and I brought as much preserved food as we could."
"And we-" John looked at Carson who nodded appreciatively in agreement, "Are grateful."
"Aye, I could eat this a few more times than a dehydrated pile of spaghetti." Grinning as he demolished the last of his stew, Carson accepted a cup of tea from Teyla and started unpacking his sleeping bag.
With the stove off, the only light left was a lantern. It cast strange shadows on the ceiling of the cafeteria. John watched them dance as he drank the last of his stew. "Is anyone else reminded of a lock-in at school?"
Rodney's sleeping bag rustled as he rolled up onto his elbows. "I never would have picked you as one to stay one second longer than the bell."
John struggled to shift his arm enough to hand his bowl to Teyla. She graciously moved to him and took it. "They locked me in with girls." He looked to Ronon for understanding. "I was young, it seemed like a good way to catch them."
Ronon shrugged and helped Teyla assemble the dishes for morning. "Seems like it could be fun."
Rodney scoffed as he rolled away from them. "Seems like you don't have any problems getting them now."
Carson grinned a little bit as he snuggled into his sleeping bag. "You should have seen them in the jumper."
John stiffened slightly, it was still too soon to joke about what he'd seen Elizabeth go through. When he moved he disturbed the head on his shoulder. She moaned softly before settling down again. Teyla had finished setting the dishes aside and was laying out his sleeping bag.
His left arm was nearly numb from the weight of her Elizabeth's sleeping form, but he couldn't displace her without feeling his guilt come rushing back. She'd sat down next to him and fallen asleep as soon as soon as dinner began. Carson promised she was resting comfortably but John was still uneasy. She wasn't the one who got hurt. She was supposed to be the person who smiled at him when he was bleeding all over the deck of a jumper.
"Do you require assistance?" Teyla wondered politely as she pointed to the sleeping bag for the sleeping Doctor Weir. "Ronon or I could-"
John shook his head. "I think I can manage, if you'll get her off my arm."
Teyla smiled softly and helped remove the weight from his side. "Of course."
Rodney snorted into his sleeping bag. "I suppose you're going to just sweep her off her feet?"
"She's asleep." John tossed back as he shook out his arm. "It's pretty hard to sweep someone who's unconscious." He squatted down to slip his arms around her. "Takes all the fun out of it when they can't play hard to get." Straightening his back and getting his balance, he settled her into his arms. Her surgery had exhausted her to the point where he doubted anything he did would wake her. Even so, he walked as carefully as he could across the dark floor.
Dropping down slowly, he stopped to remove her boot from her good leg before tucking her into her sleeping bag. He didn't notice Teyla and Ronon watching him as he toyed with a curl of Elizabeth's hair. When he was convinced she was comfortable as she could be under the circumstances, John returned to the lantern and snuffed it. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he returned to her side. His own sleeping bag was just a few steps away, but he needed to watch her a moment more. The pain was gone from her face. The corners of her eyes were still puffy from tears, but Carson promised she'd heal.
Protected by the darkness, John let himself kiss her forehead. Climbing into his own sleeping bag, he remembered the kiss. The memory of her arms around his neck as she melted into his lips followed him into his dreams.
John awoke smiling. Teyla and Ronon were already sorting their supplies. He crept out of his sleeping bag and checked his mess kit for his toothbrush. Rodney and Carson were both snoring, and he couldn't help wondering how Elizabeth slept through it.
Ronon gave him a crooked grin as he returned. "They would make terrible hunters." Turning to set his supply of rations on the table with the others, he shot a glance back to the snoring duo. "Scare away all their prey."
Teyla started counting, forming numbers on her lips as she went. John turned to the other two tables stocked with weapons. They had six ARGs, Ronon's personal blaster, ten pistols, one full case and a few extra grenades. They had slightly less than a case of C4, some smoke bombs and a handful of his favorite flashbang grenades. Six mess kits took up a little space at the edge of the table. There'd been little room for niceties, a small bundle of soap and toothpaste was all they had.
John grabbed a bar of soap and a flashlight. "I'm going to go get little bits of dead Replicators out of my hair." Glancing back over between his sleeping bag and Elizabeth's he saw her bloody sock and boot. Maybe he could get them clean enough to wear for her. None of them had any extra clothes.
Teyla paused in her counting and nodded. "Rodney said the desalination tanks were full and they are near the top of the city."
"Great! Water pressure." John grinned cheerfully. "Excellent way to start off the morning. An ice cold shower."
Ronon shrugged and bit into a power bar. "Stay dry. Stay warm."
"Stay filthy." John shook his head and grabbed a power bar for himself. "I'll be back." Sighing to himself when he realized that the only people who would truly understand the true meaning of that phrase were asleep, he whistled himself down the hallway. He walked past the room that used to be his and wondered who had moved it when he'd left. He could just pop in and shower there, but he stopped in front of the door. It just didn't feel right. The room wasn't his anymore.
Further down were the communal showers attached to the barracks, those would be all right. No probably dead Ancients would be upset if he used those. Stripping off his clothes, he pulled out his own socks and boxer shorts. Leaving them on the floor of the shower where the water would reach them, he switched on the water. Standing under the frigid water just long enough to wet his hair, he shut it off again as he soaped himself. Lathering up enough soap on his hands, John rubbed it through his socks. His clothes would clean easily, but Elizabeth's sock was more difficult. Dried blood ran brown down the drain in the center of the room.
He washed the soap from his hair and his chilled skin, rubbing his fingers against his scalp before they turned numb. Grabbing his towel he rubbed it quickly across himself, goose-bumps started to form in the chill air, but he felt more human. John rang the water out of his boxers and pulled them back on, hoping they'd dry quickly. He hung his socks over the edge of the sink and kept working on Elizabeth's sock. He let it soak for a moment before trying again to get the blood out. When it moved easily in his hand, he wrung it out one last time.
Carrying his boots and the wet socks over his arm, John returned to the cafeteria. Carson was munching on the last of a power bar and Teyla had made more of her tea. John set out the socks over the edge of the table, sitting down with his cold bare feet in the warmth of his sleeping bag.
Rodney gave the three socks an odd glance and dug into his packet of MRE oatmeal. "As I was saying, the pulse I created caused a polarization in the circuits of the city. Everything that was on when it fired was damaged, which explains why it was so easy to fix the forcefield."
"It was off?" Carson ventured as he blew across the top of his tea. "Ye couldn't trip the breaker because it was off."
"Yes, I suppose, if you want to put it that simply." Rodney looked gave his oatmeal the disdainful look meant for Carson, but he continued his explanation. "Now it's possible to remove the polarization by exposing the circuits to a slight magnetic field but we're going to have to do each of them individually. That means every crystal between the power station and the end of each pier is going to have to be recalibrated by hand." He paused to take a few bites of oatmeal before he kept going.
"It's going to take a while to get all the circuits working again, but I think we can do it." He gestured with his spoon, digging it into his bowl for emphasis. "Of course we're going to have to discuss it with Doctor Weir when she's awake, but I think we should start with the gate."
John watched Elizabeth's sleeping back and tried to anticipate her orders. "I want a full sweep of the city, every corridor, every room. If the Asurans left anything behind, I want to know about it. As soon as Rodney gets the gate running we need to find General O'Neill and Mr. Woolsey."
"I'd like to take Carson with me." Rodney gulped down the last of his oatmeal and pulled on his boots. "Some of the crystals I have to work with are very tiny, and surgeon's hands would be useful."
Carson shrugged amiably and finished his tea. "I'd like to be useful I suppose."
"Ronon and Teyla, you've won the city sweep." John collected few dishes from breakfast and started heating water to watch them. "I'll hold down the fort and take Elizabeth to the gate when she wakes up. We'll start there and meet Rodney and Carson somewhere in the middle."
Rodney laughed bitterly. "I hope you know this is weeks of tedious, incredibly detailed work. I don't even know if we'll make it ten meters a day."
"How far is it from the power room to the gate room?" Carson wondered curiously.
Rodney tugged his arm and dragged him off towards the power room. "You don't really want to ask that."
"Oh just tell me Rodney." Their arguing voices echoed down the corridor until they disappeared down the stairs.
Teyla left him doing dishes with a quiet smile. Ronon nudged his shoulder and grinned in obvious amusement. "You have made changes when you were on Earth."
John became very interested in the spoons he was washing. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Ronon's smile broadened knowingly. "Of course not." Still mysterious amused, he disappeared after Teyla, they weren't even around the corner before his laughter rang richly down the corridor.
Setting the clean dishes down on a table out of the way, John shut off the little camp stove and headed to the back room to dump the water. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and tried to figure out what else he could do while he waited. Realizing his socks might be dry, he grabbed them and started to put them on.
Balancing clumsily on one foot as he put on the first, John toppled over entirely when Elizabeth suddenly sat up.
"Simon!" Her voice rang over the thud of John falling and his cursing that followed. Her heart raced in her chest, flooding her body with more adrenaline. Pulling her arms defensively up, she looked around wildly for a moment.
John scrambled over, grabbing her head with his hands. He was probably holding her too tightly, but she calmed as soon as his eyes locked with hers. "Hey, it's okay. You're safe. Just me, no Replicators, no Wraith, no blood-sucking aliens of any kind."
She slid back, panic fading from her face. Elizabeth started to pull up her knees out of the sleeping bag, but she stopped. Wincing when she moved her bad leg, she looked away from his concern.
"You all right?" John grabbed her foot, keeping her from moving her leg any further until he had checked the bandage. Some blood had dried on the gauze, but nothing to cause concern. "It's still pretty dry, Beckett did a good job. Still probably hurt like hell for awhile."
Nodding sharply as she brushed his hands away, Elizabeth tried to get her bearings. "We were having dinner."
"You fell asleep." He retrieved his socks and quietly put them on. "Guess you got used to a full night's worth back on Earth." John grabbed her washed sock as well, taking her foot again and gently rolling it back on. "Bad dreams?"
"Something like that." She ran her hands through her hair, pushing it back out of her face. "The Asurans made it to Earth, they were looking for the Ancients, torturing our people until we told them where they were."
"Sounds pretty nasty." He gestured towards the cook stove. "I can whip you up some breakfast if you want." John glanced over at Teyla's neat rationing of their MREs and smiled optimistically. "It looks you can choose between rehydrated oatmeal and power bars. I'd go with the power bar myself. Less cooking time."
Elizabeth's smile was weak, polite but too exhausted to be comforting. "Where's everyone else?"
"Searching, fixing things, damn Replicators sure made a mess of the place." John handed her a power bar and the last of the breakfast tea. "Rodney thinks we can fix it, it's just going to take awhile."
"A few weeks or the rest of our lives?" Elizabeth managed a tiny smirk over the edge of her cup.
"Probably closer to the latter." John set her shoes near the edge of her sleeping bag. "Sooner if you're up for a little electrical work."
She raised an eyebrow and took a bite of the corner of her power bar. Making a face, she sniffed it and read the wrapper. "What kind is this?"
"Vanilla." John pointed at the writing on the wrapper. "It's one of the more bland kinds, but I'm saving the chocolate peanut butter until we really need something special."
"I don't think I'm hungry." Elizabeth swallowed her bite and then quickly swallowed again as she shook her head. "No," she covered her mouth with her hand and closed her eyes for a moment. "I'm sorry."
Tilting his head, John gave her a sympathetic smile. "Last time Beckett was digging around in my insides I had a little trouble with food too. Should drink your tea though. Start making up for all that blood you lost."
"Ruined the upholstery in your jumper didn't I?" Elizabeth tied her boot on her good foot and tried to force her nausea away. She jolted her injured leg when she tried to put on her other boot. Biting her lip kept her from making a sound, but John had an uncanny way of sensing her pain.
He unlaced her boot slightly, easing her foot in slowly. "You really did. Worse than the twelve pack of coke that exploded in my chopper back in Antarctica." John finished knotting her bootlaces and stood up. "It gets better."
Stubbornly finding her way to her feet on her own, Elizabeth tested her leg as John looked for the tool kit. It hurt whenever she rested her weight on it, but the dull pulling ache was a definite improvement from the day before. "When did you get so optimistic?"
John swung the tool kit over his back and grinned innocently. He gestured around the cafeteria, "We're home."
"We've fried the city-" Elizabeth started.
"We get to camp." John shot back as he slipped his arm around her back to steady her.
"We have just have MREs and power bars for food," she continued, starting to smile a little.
John took his time as she took the steps slowly. "McKay likes MREs and power bars grow on you."
Staring down at her ruined pants, Elizabeth looked up smiling. "No spare clothes."
Shrugging, John let her lean against the wall as he opened the door manually. "No laundry."
She finally giggled slightly, wondring if not having do laundry was really something special for him. "No rescue and the entire Replicator armada undoubtedly bearing down on us."
"I don't even think I'm going to dignify that with a response." John hit the crystals when they wouldn't open. "When do we not have an alien armada bearing down on us?" He hit the door again and it creaked open. "And," he paused and forced the door far enough open for both of them. "The last we fought them we kicked some ass and got a couple ZPMs out of the deal. So far, things are looking up."
This time she waited for John's arm, enjoying the contact. "Optimist."
He turned, just centimeters from her face. "Nay-sayer."
Her heart pounded in her chest. Stubble was starting to darken his face. Running her thumb across his chin, Elizabeth smiled gently. "At least we're home."
Her lips were wet, perfect in the light of his flashlight and the soft blue from the water-covered windows. Making out in the corridor would be much more fun than digging around in the floor of the Gate Room. John seriously contemplated her lips, remembering the warmth of her against his body. He started to turn away and felt her sigh. Disappointment seeped through her back. Turning back, he kissed her, surprising himself as he forced her back against the wall. Instead of the soft kiss she'd led last night, this was a fact-finding mission.
Elizabeth closed her eyes and relaxed into his arms. No one had kissed her as if they would die if they stopped in more years than she cared to remember. For a moment she even worried if she was kissing him back correctly. Her head floated, flushed and rushing away without her permission. John's body pressed her back and her breasts protested. They were sore and overly sensitive. Even through the thick fabric of her black shirt, her breasts made her acutely aware of every movement of his chest against hers.
John managed to speak first. "We should fix the gate."
"The gate." Elizabeth repeated softly. Eventually she nodded, trying not to think about how much time they'd have before anyone came looking for them.
"Yeah." He stood there longer than he had too, feeling the warmth of her against him. "We should."
She couldn't move with him there, but mentioning it would have made him move. Elizabeth tried to look away, turning her attention back to the gate. His hand was on her hip, burning through so it was all she could think about. She coughed, "We have a job to do."
"Yeah." John finally moved, letting her keep her grip on his shoulder for balance. "We have a lot to get done."
"Okay." It took thought to breathe. Elizabeth had to concentrate just on herself and try and forget that he was there at her side.
"We really should, maybe, talk-" John nearly choked, "about this?"
Without the kiss distracting her, Elizabeth's head hurt. Her stomach was off. Her single bite of power bar had left an odd taste in her mouth that even kissing him hadn't gotten rid of. Why was she dreaming about Simon? Why did she feel like everything was falling apart when she was finally back home? Everything was backwards. John, the one who couldn't put together his feelings, suddenly wanted to talk and that conversation was one of the handful in her life that truly terrified her.
"What do we have to do to fix the gate? Did Rodney explain it to you?" Her words sounded hollow as she ignored his attempt to be mature. John's face turned stoic, and she wondered belatedly if she'd hurt him.
"Well," he set her down at the foot of the gate and started taking out his tools. "We just have to reverse the polarity in every circuit from here to the power room."
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow incredulously, hoping he was joking.
John grinned ironically. "When Rodney breaks something, he breaks it good." With a grunt he removed a chunk of the floor tile and slid it aside. Beneath it long, thin crystals lay dark and waiting for them. "Do you want to be the shock or the magnet?" He held up two tools and made room for her next to the hole.
Sliding over and rolling down to her stomach, she gave him a grateful smile for letting her change the subject. She picked the one in his left hand and waited for him to show her what they were doing.
After a few hours her hands hurt. John started stretching his fingers every half an hour or so, but it didn't seem to be helping him much. The floor was hard and cold and the muscles of Elizabeth's shoulders started to cramp from her position. After she dropped the magnet twice in a row as they tried to reach a crystal, John sighed heavily. "Break?"
He rolled over, stretching out his arms lazily and staring up at the ceiling. They lay there, still silent. John's fingers were twitchy. He knew better. He knew a hundred reasons why he shouldn't ask, but none of them were more insistent than his stubborn, jealous desire to know.
"Who's Simon?" John let the question hang in the air and wondered if he'd even asked it. Elizabeth sat up, her back notably in his direction. He'd asked. He was pathetic. He was really, truly and utterly pathetic. He listened to his fingers drumming on the floor and sat up.
"I shouldn't've," John started to back down, ready to let the question go. He'd even go back to work.
"We were together almost five years." Elizabeth rested her head in her hands. "Ever since I moved to Washington."
From behind she looked fragile. Her shoulders hunched forward and her hair curled unruly down her neck. It drove John nuts that he couldn't watch her eyes. He'd gotten so used to telling her moods in her eyes.
"Simon is a doctor who-" Elizabeth prayed her voice would hold. "Was doing a shift in the vaccination clinic. I was about to be sent to Pakistan to work on the non-proliferation treaty. I needed full set of shots to travel. He got so distracted talking to me that he nearly gave me the shot for yellow fever twice."
Her shoulders shook slightly, and her hands wrapped nervously over her chest. John decided she was laughing instead of crying, but he really couldn't tell. "I didn't mean," he began quickly, nearly cutting her off. "Really, it's none of my business."
"He asked me to dinner twice, once before I left and again when I came back from Pakistan." She shook her head slowly, and her curls tried to cling to her shirt. "He was funny. Sweet. Intelligent. He didn't make me feel like I had to dumb myself down to have a conversation with him." Elizabeth's hand escaped to her cheek. "There isn't much else."
When she was sure her eyes were still dry, she turned around, staring John down as if he was ready to contradict her. "I came to Atlantis on such short notice all I got to send him was a video tape. I-"
Her eyes stung. Elizabeth couldn't let him see, but she couldn't stop. For some reason she kept talking, almost against her will. "I should have made the time to tell him but I couldn't. I couldn't say anything more than goodbye last year. When the Wraith were coming, I felt like I had to let him go."
John watched as she rocked with her knees. He should be saying something profound. Something that would make her eyes stop looking so liquid.
"But he didn't need my permission." Her words grew sharp as the bitterness welled in her stomach. "He-" She covered her mouth with her hand, trying to hold back the last of her composure. John didn't need to see her like this. "God. I shouldn't still be thinking about him, it was more than a year ago." Elizabeth lost one tear. It escaped slowly down her cheek and hung on her chin for a moment before disappearing down to the floor.
John reached towards the wet spot on the tile. Studying the droplet as if it held the answers. "He found someone in the same galaxy."
Elizabeth nodded, feeling her stomach twist into a knot. "I told him it was all right. I didn't expect him to wait for me." Her stomach jumped, tugging the knot up through her insides towards her heart.
"But you waited." John finished for her. "You spent a year of your life waiting for him and when you came home he already had someone else."
She opened her mouth, but shut it before she could give herself away.
John shrugged apologetically, "Guys know how we think. We'll never admit it, but we're all pretty much the same." He reached for her and stopped, pulling his hand back. "I was just-"
"It's all right." Elizabeth caught his hand on its way back to his lap and held it. "I just can't control myself right now."
He reached his free hand down into his pocket and came up with nothing. "Head hurt?" He slid over, letting her keep his hand as he moved to her side.
"My stomach actually." Elizabeth dropped his hand to force her hair back behind her ears. "I keep feeling like I'm going to be sick."
"Can I recommend the waste slot in the corridor that way?" John pointed over his shoulder easily. "Normally I'd say the floor would be fine, but we have to lie on it for awhile yet."
She dropped her head to her knees and tried to quiet her stomach. "Is it because of my leg?"
"I think we'd better be saving that question for Beckett." John resisted the urge to wrap his arm around her shoulders. She probably didn't want to be manhandled by her military commander.
Elizabeth turned her head enough to look at him. "Humor me." Swallowing was just denying the inevitable. "You've had more injuries than-"
"Rodney's ahead of me." John injected firmly as he toyed with one of the screwdrivers from the toolkit.
"Than most people." Elizabeth corrected with as much of a smile as she could muster. "Is it just because I lost some blood?"
John shrugged again and grinned sheepishly. "I'm just a fly boy."
"But?" Her fingers found his hand and wrapped cold around it.
"Bleeding like that messes up the whole system." He gestured down his body with his free hand and dropped the screwdriver he was playing with. "It'll-"
"Get better." Elizabeth closed her eyes and tried to think about anything but her stomach. "Have I mentioned I can't stand being sick to my stomach?"
John chuckled softly and slid a little closer. "No."
"I can't. It just drives me crazy. Everything you do makes it worse, and even if you don't do anything-" Elizabeth dropped her head to her knees again.
"If you don't do anything you're still sick." John finished for her and watched her knucles whiten as she held his hand. "Why didn't he come to Atlantis?" He couldn't believe himself. He should know better than to ask difficult questions. All he was trying to do was keep her talking and he had to keep bringing up the man who'd dumped her.
"Who?" Elizabeth's head came up for a moment, but her grip got tighter on his hand.
"Simon." John studied his boots intently, too nervous to look at her face. His voice in his head reminded him he was an idiot. "If he was a doctor he could have applied, come with us to the city on the Daedelus with all those other scientists."
"He did. I mean he applied." She covered her mouth with her hand again, squeezing his fingers even harder. Elizabeth let go suddenly and wrapped her hand over her stomach. "Carson would have picked him, he just wouldn't sign-" shaking her head slowly she stopped speaking and swallowed again.
"The non-disclosure?" John guessed lightly, trying to keep her in the conversation. Elizabeth shook her head and closed her eyes. "The commitment to a year?" He guessed again, and this time earned the slightest of nods.
"Just couldn't commit." The back of her throat stung from stomach acid. "Not to a mission like this. He called me the explorer."
John finally gave up and put his arm awkwardly around her shoulder. "You are."
"No." Elizabeth turned her head too quickly and felt her stomach flip. "I'm not."
"You're the leader of the first human settlement in another galaxy." John waved his hand around the gate room. "And I'm told it's a very impressive settlement. Especially when we have lights."
"But I'm not extraordinary." Elizabeth insisted as she momentarily forgot to be nauseous. "I'm the one the IOA picked because Kinsey wanted Hammond out. I'm not a genius like Rodney. I can't sense the Wraith coming. I can use my computer to read reports and play solitaire, not save the day."
"You're not even a freak who has a ten thousand year old gene that lets him fly antiquated spacecraft." John's exaggeration made her smile slightly.
She tried to shake off her dark mood. "You fly them pretty well."
"You understand people pretty well." John offered firmly. "You've managed to talk to the Genii without wanting to kill them." He looked so serious that Elizabeth managed to smile. "You sat across from a Wraith queen and didn't even blink." He paused, saving his favorite part for last. "Oh and something you said to the bureaucrats must have been damn convincing to make someone like me to Colonel."
Elizabeth shook her head and relaxed enough to rest her head on his shoulder. "It's been a few days since you mentioned that, Colonel."
"I like to spread it out a bit. So it's a surprise when I say it." He wasn't sure what to do. She didn't want to discuss them kissing, but she was perfectly content to rest against his shoulder. He enjoyed the weight and the smell of her hair. Even unshowered, exhausted and tired, she was beautiful. Staying here, with her eyes half-closed and the hint of a smile on her face, was better than anything he could currently remember. "Well, when you feel up to it, we should get back to work."
Elizabeth nodded and paused a moment before she tried to stand up. "I'm a little better."
John pulled her to her feet and his traitorous mind contemplated kissing her again. She was so close that he could have counted her eyelashes. "Might as well get our work done while we can."
"That's the spirit." John settled down to the floor and ripped up a second tile. Waiting to speak until she finished tying back her hair in a knot, he met her gaze with one of his gentler smiles. Something in his brilliant green eyes had gone soft. "You should know," he paused slightly. "Anyone who wouldn't travel across galaxies for you doesn't deserve you."
Feeling her blush spread scarlet across her face, Elizabeth stared down at the conduit and forgot how to use her hands. It was some time until she remembered anything at all.
John took the offering in his free hand and sniffed it. Setting it down to lift the spoon to his mouth, he made his decision, "Tastes like chili."
"It's really not bad." Carson agreed as he dug into his bowl. "Reminds me of something my mom used to make on camping trips."
Teyla settled back, leaning against the wall of the cafeteria where they had set up camp. She wrapped her hands around her cup and took her time with her tea. "My people bring it with on hunting trips, much like your MRE's."
"Tastier though." John held out his bowl and let Ronon fill it. Resting it on his thigh, he brought his spoon carefully up to his mouth.
"Speak for yourself." Rodney piped up from his olive-colored sleeping bag. "I happen to be very fond of our MREs."
"They're all we'll be eating until we get the gate fixed anyway," John struggled with his dinner and finally gave up on his spoon. Lifting his bowl to his mouth, he drank it. "And this-" He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, "But I could get used to this."
"Tava bean stew." Teyla offered easily as she shut off the tiny cook stove. Dumping what was left into John's bowl, she grinned as he continued to eat one handed. "Ronon and I brought as much preserved food as we could."
"And we-" John looked at Carson who nodded appreciatively in agreement, "Are grateful."
"Aye, I could eat this a few more times than a dehydrated pile of spaghetti." Grinning as he demolished the last of his stew, Carson accepted a cup of tea from Teyla and started unpacking his sleeping bag.
With the stove off, the only light left was a lantern. It cast strange shadows on the ceiling of the cafeteria. John watched them dance as he drank the last of his stew. "Is anyone else reminded of a lock-in at school?"
Rodney's sleeping bag rustled as he rolled up onto his elbows. "I never would have picked you as one to stay one second longer than the bell."
John struggled to shift his arm enough to hand his bowl to Teyla. She graciously moved to him and took it. "They locked me in with girls." He looked to Ronon for understanding. "I was young, it seemed like a good way to catch them."
Ronon shrugged and helped Teyla assemble the dishes for morning. "Seems like it could be fun."
Rodney scoffed as he rolled away from them. "Seems like you don't have any problems getting them now."
Carson grinned a little bit as he snuggled into his sleeping bag. "You should have seen them in the jumper."
John stiffened slightly, it was still too soon to joke about what he'd seen Elizabeth go through. When he moved he disturbed the head on his shoulder. She moaned softly before settling down again. Teyla had finished setting the dishes aside and was laying out his sleeping bag.
His left arm was nearly numb from the weight of her Elizabeth's sleeping form, but he couldn't displace her without feeling his guilt come rushing back. She'd sat down next to him and fallen asleep as soon as soon as dinner began. Carson promised she was resting comfortably but John was still uneasy. She wasn't the one who got hurt. She was supposed to be the person who smiled at him when he was bleeding all over the deck of a jumper.
"Do you require assistance?" Teyla wondered politely as she pointed to the sleeping bag for the sleeping Doctor Weir. "Ronon or I could-"
John shook his head. "I think I can manage, if you'll get her off my arm."
Teyla smiled softly and helped remove the weight from his side. "Of course."
Rodney snorted into his sleeping bag. "I suppose you're going to just sweep her off her feet?"
"She's asleep." John tossed back as he shook out his arm. "It's pretty hard to sweep someone who's unconscious." He squatted down to slip his arms around her. "Takes all the fun out of it when they can't play hard to get." Straightening his back and getting his balance, he settled her into his arms. Her surgery had exhausted her to the point where he doubted anything he did would wake her. Even so, he walked as carefully as he could across the dark floor.
Dropping down slowly, he stopped to remove her boot from her good leg before tucking her into her sleeping bag. He didn't notice Teyla and Ronon watching him as he toyed with a curl of Elizabeth's hair. When he was convinced she was comfortable as she could be under the circumstances, John returned to the lantern and snuffed it. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he returned to her side. His own sleeping bag was just a few steps away, but he needed to watch her a moment more. The pain was gone from her face. The corners of her eyes were still puffy from tears, but Carson promised she'd heal.
Protected by the darkness, John let himself kiss her forehead. Climbing into his own sleeping bag, he remembered the kiss. The memory of her arms around his neck as she melted into his lips followed him into his dreams.
John awoke smiling. Teyla and Ronon were already sorting their supplies. He crept out of his sleeping bag and checked his mess kit for his toothbrush. Rodney and Carson were both snoring, and he couldn't help wondering how Elizabeth slept through it.
Ronon gave him a crooked grin as he returned. "They would make terrible hunters." Turning to set his supply of rations on the table with the others, he shot a glance back to the snoring duo. "Scare away all their prey."
Teyla started counting, forming numbers on her lips as she went. John turned to the other two tables stocked with weapons. They had six ARGs, Ronon's personal blaster, ten pistols, one full case and a few extra grenades. They had slightly less than a case of C4, some smoke bombs and a handful of his favorite flashbang grenades. Six mess kits took up a little space at the edge of the table. There'd been little room for niceties, a small bundle of soap and toothpaste was all they had.
John grabbed a bar of soap and a flashlight. "I'm going to go get little bits of dead Replicators out of my hair." Glancing back over between his sleeping bag and Elizabeth's he saw her bloody sock and boot. Maybe he could get them clean enough to wear for her. None of them had any extra clothes.
Teyla paused in her counting and nodded. "Rodney said the desalination tanks were full and they are near the top of the city."
"Great! Water pressure." John grinned cheerfully. "Excellent way to start off the morning. An ice cold shower."
Ronon shrugged and bit into a power bar. "Stay dry. Stay warm."
"Stay filthy." John shook his head and grabbed a power bar for himself. "I'll be back." Sighing to himself when he realized that the only people who would truly understand the true meaning of that phrase were asleep, he whistled himself down the hallway. He walked past the room that used to be his and wondered who had moved it when he'd left. He could just pop in and shower there, but he stopped in front of the door. It just didn't feel right. The room wasn't his anymore.
Further down were the communal showers attached to the barracks, those would be all right. No probably dead Ancients would be upset if he used those. Stripping off his clothes, he pulled out his own socks and boxer shorts. Leaving them on the floor of the shower where the water would reach them, he switched on the water. Standing under the frigid water just long enough to wet his hair, he shut it off again as he soaped himself. Lathering up enough soap on his hands, John rubbed it through his socks. His clothes would clean easily, but Elizabeth's sock was more difficult. Dried blood ran brown down the drain in the center of the room.
He washed the soap from his hair and his chilled skin, rubbing his fingers against his scalp before they turned numb. Grabbing his towel he rubbed it quickly across himself, goose-bumps started to form in the chill air, but he felt more human. John rang the water out of his boxers and pulled them back on, hoping they'd dry quickly. He hung his socks over the edge of the sink and kept working on Elizabeth's sock. He let it soak for a moment before trying again to get the blood out. When it moved easily in his hand, he wrung it out one last time.
Carrying his boots and the wet socks over his arm, John returned to the cafeteria. Carson was munching on the last of a power bar and Teyla had made more of her tea. John set out the socks over the edge of the table, sitting down with his cold bare feet in the warmth of his sleeping bag.
Rodney gave the three socks an odd glance and dug into his packet of MRE oatmeal. "As I was saying, the pulse I created caused a polarization in the circuits of the city. Everything that was on when it fired was damaged, which explains why it was so easy to fix the forcefield."
"It was off?" Carson ventured as he blew across the top of his tea. "Ye couldn't trip the breaker because it was off."
"Yes, I suppose, if you want to put it that simply." Rodney looked gave his oatmeal the disdainful look meant for Carson, but he continued his explanation. "Now it's possible to remove the polarization by exposing the circuits to a slight magnetic field but we're going to have to do each of them individually. That means every crystal between the power station and the end of each pier is going to have to be recalibrated by hand." He paused to take a few bites of oatmeal before he kept going.
"It's going to take a while to get all the circuits working again, but I think we can do it." He gestured with his spoon, digging it into his bowl for emphasis. "Of course we're going to have to discuss it with Doctor Weir when she's awake, but I think we should start with the gate."
John watched Elizabeth's sleeping back and tried to anticipate her orders. "I want a full sweep of the city, every corridor, every room. If the Asurans left anything behind, I want to know about it. As soon as Rodney gets the gate running we need to find General O'Neill and Mr. Woolsey."
"I'd like to take Carson with me." Rodney gulped down the last of his oatmeal and pulled on his boots. "Some of the crystals I have to work with are very tiny, and surgeon's hands would be useful."
Carson shrugged amiably and finished his tea. "I'd like to be useful I suppose."
"Ronon and Teyla, you've won the city sweep." John collected few dishes from breakfast and started heating water to watch them. "I'll hold down the fort and take Elizabeth to the gate when she wakes up. We'll start there and meet Rodney and Carson somewhere in the middle."
Rodney laughed bitterly. "I hope you know this is weeks of tedious, incredibly detailed work. I don't even know if we'll make it ten meters a day."
"How far is it from the power room to the gate room?" Carson wondered curiously.
Rodney tugged his arm and dragged him off towards the power room. "You don't really want to ask that."
"Oh just tell me Rodney." Their arguing voices echoed down the corridor until they disappeared down the stairs.
Teyla left him doing dishes with a quiet smile. Ronon nudged his shoulder and grinned in obvious amusement. "You have made changes when you were on Earth."
John became very interested in the spoons he was washing. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Ronon's smile broadened knowingly. "Of course not." Still mysterious amused, he disappeared after Teyla, they weren't even around the corner before his laughter rang richly down the corridor.
Setting the clean dishes down on a table out of the way, John shut off the little camp stove and headed to the back room to dump the water. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and tried to figure out what else he could do while he waited. Realizing his socks might be dry, he grabbed them and started to put them on.
Balancing clumsily on one foot as he put on the first, John toppled over entirely when Elizabeth suddenly sat up.
"Simon!" Her voice rang over the thud of John falling and his cursing that followed. Her heart raced in her chest, flooding her body with more adrenaline. Pulling her arms defensively up, she looked around wildly for a moment.
John scrambled over, grabbing her head with his hands. He was probably holding her too tightly, but she calmed as soon as his eyes locked with hers. "Hey, it's okay. You're safe. Just me, no Replicators, no Wraith, no blood-sucking aliens of any kind."
She slid back, panic fading from her face. Elizabeth started to pull up her knees out of the sleeping bag, but she stopped. Wincing when she moved her bad leg, she looked away from his concern.
"You all right?" John grabbed her foot, keeping her from moving her leg any further until he had checked the bandage. Some blood had dried on the gauze, but nothing to cause concern. "It's still pretty dry, Beckett did a good job. Still probably hurt like hell for awhile."
Nodding sharply as she brushed his hands away, Elizabeth tried to get her bearings. "We were having dinner."
"You fell asleep." He retrieved his socks and quietly put them on. "Guess you got used to a full night's worth back on Earth." John grabbed her washed sock as well, taking her foot again and gently rolling it back on. "Bad dreams?"
"Something like that." She ran her hands through her hair, pushing it back out of her face. "The Asurans made it to Earth, they were looking for the Ancients, torturing our people until we told them where they were."
"Sounds pretty nasty." He gestured towards the cook stove. "I can whip you up some breakfast if you want." John glanced over at Teyla's neat rationing of their MREs and smiled optimistically. "It looks you can choose between rehydrated oatmeal and power bars. I'd go with the power bar myself. Less cooking time."
Elizabeth's smile was weak, polite but too exhausted to be comforting. "Where's everyone else?"
"Searching, fixing things, damn Replicators sure made a mess of the place." John handed her a power bar and the last of the breakfast tea. "Rodney thinks we can fix it, it's just going to take awhile."
"A few weeks or the rest of our lives?" Elizabeth managed a tiny smirk over the edge of her cup.
"Probably closer to the latter." John set her shoes near the edge of her sleeping bag. "Sooner if you're up for a little electrical work."
She raised an eyebrow and took a bite of the corner of her power bar. Making a face, she sniffed it and read the wrapper. "What kind is this?"
"Vanilla." John pointed at the writing on the wrapper. "It's one of the more bland kinds, but I'm saving the chocolate peanut butter until we really need something special."
"I don't think I'm hungry." Elizabeth swallowed her bite and then quickly swallowed again as she shook her head. "No," she covered her mouth with her hand and closed her eyes for a moment. "I'm sorry."
Tilting his head, John gave her a sympathetic smile. "Last time Beckett was digging around in my insides I had a little trouble with food too. Should drink your tea though. Start making up for all that blood you lost."
"Ruined the upholstery in your jumper didn't I?" Elizabeth tied her boot on her good foot and tried to force her nausea away. She jolted her injured leg when she tried to put on her other boot. Biting her lip kept her from making a sound, but John had an uncanny way of sensing her pain.
He unlaced her boot slightly, easing her foot in slowly. "You really did. Worse than the twelve pack of coke that exploded in my chopper back in Antarctica." John finished knotting her bootlaces and stood up. "It gets better."
Stubbornly finding her way to her feet on her own, Elizabeth tested her leg as John looked for the tool kit. It hurt whenever she rested her weight on it, but the dull pulling ache was a definite improvement from the day before. "When did you get so optimistic?"
John swung the tool kit over his back and grinned innocently. He gestured around the cafeteria, "We're home."
"We've fried the city-" Elizabeth started.
"We get to camp." John shot back as he slipped his arm around her back to steady her.
"We have just have MREs and power bars for food," she continued, starting to smile a little.
John took his time as she took the steps slowly. "McKay likes MREs and power bars grow on you."
Staring down at her ruined pants, Elizabeth looked up smiling. "No spare clothes."
Shrugging, John let her lean against the wall as he opened the door manually. "No laundry."
She finally giggled slightly, wondring if not having do laundry was really something special for him. "No rescue and the entire Replicator armada undoubtedly bearing down on us."
"I don't even think I'm going to dignify that with a response." John hit the crystals when they wouldn't open. "When do we not have an alien armada bearing down on us?" He hit the door again and it creaked open. "And," he paused and forced the door far enough open for both of them. "The last we fought them we kicked some ass and got a couple ZPMs out of the deal. So far, things are looking up."
This time she waited for John's arm, enjoying the contact. "Optimist."
He turned, just centimeters from her face. "Nay-sayer."
Her heart pounded in her chest. Stubble was starting to darken his face. Running her thumb across his chin, Elizabeth smiled gently. "At least we're home."
Her lips were wet, perfect in the light of his flashlight and the soft blue from the water-covered windows. Making out in the corridor would be much more fun than digging around in the floor of the Gate Room. John seriously contemplated her lips, remembering the warmth of her against his body. He started to turn away and felt her sigh. Disappointment seeped through her back. Turning back, he kissed her, surprising himself as he forced her back against the wall. Instead of the soft kiss she'd led last night, this was a fact-finding mission.
Elizabeth closed her eyes and relaxed into his arms. No one had kissed her as if they would die if they stopped in more years than she cared to remember. For a moment she even worried if she was kissing him back correctly. Her head floated, flushed and rushing away without her permission. John's body pressed her back and her breasts protested. They were sore and overly sensitive. Even through the thick fabric of her black shirt, her breasts made her acutely aware of every movement of his chest against hers.
John managed to speak first. "We should fix the gate."
"The gate." Elizabeth repeated softly. Eventually she nodded, trying not to think about how much time they'd have before anyone came looking for them.
"Yeah." He stood there longer than he had too, feeling the warmth of her against him. "We should."
She couldn't move with him there, but mentioning it would have made him move. Elizabeth tried to look away, turning her attention back to the gate. His hand was on her hip, burning through so it was all she could think about. She coughed, "We have a job to do."
"Yeah." John finally moved, letting her keep her grip on his shoulder for balance. "We have a lot to get done."
"Okay." It took thought to breathe. Elizabeth had to concentrate just on herself and try and forget that he was there at her side.
"We really should, maybe, talk-" John nearly choked, "about this?"
Without the kiss distracting her, Elizabeth's head hurt. Her stomach was off. Her single bite of power bar had left an odd taste in her mouth that even kissing him hadn't gotten rid of. Why was she dreaming about Simon? Why did she feel like everything was falling apart when she was finally back home? Everything was backwards. John, the one who couldn't put together his feelings, suddenly wanted to talk and that conversation was one of the handful in her life that truly terrified her.
"What do we have to do to fix the gate? Did Rodney explain it to you?" Her words sounded hollow as she ignored his attempt to be mature. John's face turned stoic, and she wondered belatedly if she'd hurt him.
"Well," he set her down at the foot of the gate and started taking out his tools. "We just have to reverse the polarity in every circuit from here to the power room."
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow incredulously, hoping he was joking.
John grinned ironically. "When Rodney breaks something, he breaks it good." With a grunt he removed a chunk of the floor tile and slid it aside. Beneath it long, thin crystals lay dark and waiting for them. "Do you want to be the shock or the magnet?" He held up two tools and made room for her next to the hole.
Sliding over and rolling down to her stomach, she gave him a grateful smile for letting her change the subject. She picked the one in his left hand and waited for him to show her what they were doing.
After a few hours her hands hurt. John started stretching his fingers every half an hour or so, but it didn't seem to be helping him much. The floor was hard and cold and the muscles of Elizabeth's shoulders started to cramp from her position. After she dropped the magnet twice in a row as they tried to reach a crystal, John sighed heavily. "Break?"
He rolled over, stretching out his arms lazily and staring up at the ceiling. They lay there, still silent. John's fingers were twitchy. He knew better. He knew a hundred reasons why he shouldn't ask, but none of them were more insistent than his stubborn, jealous desire to know.
"Who's Simon?" John let the question hang in the air and wondered if he'd even asked it. Elizabeth sat up, her back notably in his direction. He'd asked. He was pathetic. He was really, truly and utterly pathetic. He listened to his fingers drumming on the floor and sat up.
"I shouldn't've," John started to back down, ready to let the question go. He'd even go back to work.
"We were together almost five years." Elizabeth rested her head in her hands. "Ever since I moved to Washington."
From behind she looked fragile. Her shoulders hunched forward and her hair curled unruly down her neck. It drove John nuts that he couldn't watch her eyes. He'd gotten so used to telling her moods in her eyes.
"Simon is a doctor who-" Elizabeth prayed her voice would hold. "Was doing a shift in the vaccination clinic. I was about to be sent to Pakistan to work on the non-proliferation treaty. I needed full set of shots to travel. He got so distracted talking to me that he nearly gave me the shot for yellow fever twice."
Her shoulders shook slightly, and her hands wrapped nervously over her chest. John decided she was laughing instead of crying, but he really couldn't tell. "I didn't mean," he began quickly, nearly cutting her off. "Really, it's none of my business."
"He asked me to dinner twice, once before I left and again when I came back from Pakistan." She shook her head slowly, and her curls tried to cling to her shirt. "He was funny. Sweet. Intelligent. He didn't make me feel like I had to dumb myself down to have a conversation with him." Elizabeth's hand escaped to her cheek. "There isn't much else."
When she was sure her eyes were still dry, she turned around, staring John down as if he was ready to contradict her. "I came to Atlantis on such short notice all I got to send him was a video tape. I-"
Her eyes stung. Elizabeth couldn't let him see, but she couldn't stop. For some reason she kept talking, almost against her will. "I should have made the time to tell him but I couldn't. I couldn't say anything more than goodbye last year. When the Wraith were coming, I felt like I had to let him go."
John watched as she rocked with her knees. He should be saying something profound. Something that would make her eyes stop looking so liquid.
"But he didn't need my permission." Her words grew sharp as the bitterness welled in her stomach. "He-" She covered her mouth with her hand, trying to hold back the last of her composure. John didn't need to see her like this. "God. I shouldn't still be thinking about him, it was more than a year ago." Elizabeth lost one tear. It escaped slowly down her cheek and hung on her chin for a moment before disappearing down to the floor.
John reached towards the wet spot on the tile. Studying the droplet as if it held the answers. "He found someone in the same galaxy."
Elizabeth nodded, feeling her stomach twist into a knot. "I told him it was all right. I didn't expect him to wait for me." Her stomach jumped, tugging the knot up through her insides towards her heart.
"But you waited." John finished for her. "You spent a year of your life waiting for him and when you came home he already had someone else."
She opened her mouth, but shut it before she could give herself away.
John shrugged apologetically, "Guys know how we think. We'll never admit it, but we're all pretty much the same." He reached for her and stopped, pulling his hand back. "I was just-"
"It's all right." Elizabeth caught his hand on its way back to his lap and held it. "I just can't control myself right now."
He reached his free hand down into his pocket and came up with nothing. "Head hurt?" He slid over, letting her keep his hand as he moved to her side.
"My stomach actually." Elizabeth dropped his hand to force her hair back behind her ears. "I keep feeling like I'm going to be sick."
"Can I recommend the waste slot in the corridor that way?" John pointed over his shoulder easily. "Normally I'd say the floor would be fine, but we have to lie on it for awhile yet."
She dropped her head to her knees and tried to quiet her stomach. "Is it because of my leg?"
"I think we'd better be saving that question for Beckett." John resisted the urge to wrap his arm around her shoulders. She probably didn't want to be manhandled by her military commander.
Elizabeth turned her head enough to look at him. "Humor me." Swallowing was just denying the inevitable. "You've had more injuries than-"
"Rodney's ahead of me." John injected firmly as he toyed with one of the screwdrivers from the toolkit.
"Than most people." Elizabeth corrected with as much of a smile as she could muster. "Is it just because I lost some blood?"
John shrugged again and grinned sheepishly. "I'm just a fly boy."
"But?" Her fingers found his hand and wrapped cold around it.
"Bleeding like that messes up the whole system." He gestured down his body with his free hand and dropped the screwdriver he was playing with. "It'll-"
"Get better." Elizabeth closed her eyes and tried to think about anything but her stomach. "Have I mentioned I can't stand being sick to my stomach?"
John chuckled softly and slid a little closer. "No."
"I can't. It just drives me crazy. Everything you do makes it worse, and even if you don't do anything-" Elizabeth dropped her head to her knees again.
"If you don't do anything you're still sick." John finished for her and watched her knucles whiten as she held his hand. "Why didn't he come to Atlantis?" He couldn't believe himself. He should know better than to ask difficult questions. All he was trying to do was keep her talking and he had to keep bringing up the man who'd dumped her.
"Who?" Elizabeth's head came up for a moment, but her grip got tighter on his hand.
"Simon." John studied his boots intently, too nervous to look at her face. His voice in his head reminded him he was an idiot. "If he was a doctor he could have applied, come with us to the city on the Daedelus with all those other scientists."
"He did. I mean he applied." She covered her mouth with her hand again, squeezing his fingers even harder. Elizabeth let go suddenly and wrapped her hand over her stomach. "Carson would have picked him, he just wouldn't sign-" shaking her head slowly she stopped speaking and swallowed again.
"The non-disclosure?" John guessed lightly, trying to keep her in the conversation. Elizabeth shook her head and closed her eyes. "The commitment to a year?" He guessed again, and this time earned the slightest of nods.
"Just couldn't commit." The back of her throat stung from stomach acid. "Not to a mission like this. He called me the explorer."
John finally gave up and put his arm awkwardly around her shoulder. "You are."
"No." Elizabeth turned her head too quickly and felt her stomach flip. "I'm not."
"You're the leader of the first human settlement in another galaxy." John waved his hand around the gate room. "And I'm told it's a very impressive settlement. Especially when we have lights."
"But I'm not extraordinary." Elizabeth insisted as she momentarily forgot to be nauseous. "I'm the one the IOA picked because Kinsey wanted Hammond out. I'm not a genius like Rodney. I can't sense the Wraith coming. I can use my computer to read reports and play solitaire, not save the day."
"You're not even a freak who has a ten thousand year old gene that lets him fly antiquated spacecraft." John's exaggeration made her smile slightly.
She tried to shake off her dark mood. "You fly them pretty well."
"You understand people pretty well." John offered firmly. "You've managed to talk to the Genii without wanting to kill them." He looked so serious that Elizabeth managed to smile. "You sat across from a Wraith queen and didn't even blink." He paused, saving his favorite part for last. "Oh and something you said to the bureaucrats must have been damn convincing to make someone like me to Colonel."
Elizabeth shook her head and relaxed enough to rest her head on his shoulder. "It's been a few days since you mentioned that, Colonel."
"I like to spread it out a bit. So it's a surprise when I say it." He wasn't sure what to do. She didn't want to discuss them kissing, but she was perfectly content to rest against his shoulder. He enjoyed the weight and the smell of her hair. Even unshowered, exhausted and tired, she was beautiful. Staying here, with her eyes half-closed and the hint of a smile on her face, was better than anything he could currently remember. "Well, when you feel up to it, we should get back to work."
Elizabeth nodded and paused a moment before she tried to stand up. "I'm a little better."
John pulled her to her feet and his traitorous mind contemplated kissing her again. She was so close that he could have counted her eyelashes. "Might as well get our work done while we can."
"That's the spirit." John settled down to the floor and ripped up a second tile. Waiting to speak until she finished tying back her hair in a knot, he met her gaze with one of his gentler smiles. Something in his brilliant green eyes had gone soft. "You should know," he paused slightly. "Anyone who wouldn't travel across galaxies for you doesn't deserve you."
Feeling her blush spread scarlet across her face, Elizabeth stared down at the conduit and forgot how to use her hands. It was some time until she remembered anything at all.