(no subject)
CHRISTMAS FIC!
Title: Stolen Moments
Author: Angel of Fire SG1
Summary: Some moments are given and other's you have to take, but what does it really matter when it comes to Christmas?
Spoilers: General season 2
Pairings: Sheppard/Weir - some Cadman/Beckett
Stolen Moments: Part Two
“Sheppard,” he mumbled, picking up the phone and glancing at the clock.
10AM? That was strange - normally he was woken up by screaming children by 7.
“Well don’t you sound like a bouncing ball of happiness. It is 10AM over there right?”
“Cadman?” he muttered, sitting up properly.
“No it’s your conscience,” she replied sarcastically.
“Aren’t you in Scotland?”
“Yes…”
“Why are you calling me?”
“Oh my God - Carson you deal with the grumpy old man,” she muttered, and he heard the shuffling of a phone being passed along.
Grumpy old man? He resented that.
“Good morning, Colonel.”
“Morning,” John yawned. “So what have I done to be honoured with this phone call?”
“I was talking to Colonel O’Neill about transport back to the…base…and he said the Daedalus leaves 28th of December - and then he told me to contact you and tell you, they’ll fax through the details of your flight. We’re apparently meeting at Heathrow and flying together. Speaking of which…why are you in Europe?”
“Elizabeth’s uncle died,” John replied, all the information going over his head.
“Is she OK?” Carson sounded worried.
“She’s fine…”
“And you’re there why…?”
“Because I felt like getting away from Atlantis.”
The slight pause betrayed Carson’s disbelief in his excuse. “Aye.”
They ended their brief conversation and John sat up, still confused as to why no one had woken him up by running down the stairs or crying. He grabbed his clothes off the chair and quickly got dressed in the bathroom before making his way upstairs.
Elizabeth was sitting in Luke and Isabelle’s bedroom, Pieter was sitting on the edge of the bed, glued to whatever it was on the TV and Elizabeth was playing with Jessica. John stood in the doorway for a moment, observing her.
She was smiling at the child, the joy on her face hard to conceal. He hadn’t seen her looking like that - ever - not even when him and Rodney were fighting. Something clenched at his chest as he watched her happily bouncing the baby on the bed in front of her. Lifting her up, sitting her back down. Jessica was squealing in delight and waving her arms around in the air.
He tried to locate what the emotion overcoming him was. Was that what he wanted? A child, or two…maybe three…? With who? Elizabeth? They were…so much more than friends - but he was getting way ahead of himself.
“She looks happy,” he said finally.
Elizabeth looked up. “Morning sleepy head.”
“Hey - I expected to be woken up hours ago,” he replied, walking over and picking up Pieter to make space on the bed, before sitting on it and placing Pieter on his lap.
Pieter didn’t even seem to notice, glued to The Rugrats - in Dutch.
“Where is everyone anyway?” John asked.
“These people have work, John,” she replied, giving him that ‘you should know better’ look. “And I figured I’d let you sleep in considering how late Luke and I used your sleeping space to watch TV on last night.”
“How’s Luke doing?”
“He’s as good as he can be in the situation…” Elizabeth replied, taking a moment to press Jessica’s nose which seemed to make her happy.
John smiled as the baby smiled, why was her smile so god damn infectious? She was only five months old!
“He’s doing better than I did,” John said after a moment, not really thinking about what he’d just said.
He never talked about his personal life. Ever. He didn’t like to - everything about it was always so awful. He suddenly became aware that he had revealed something to her that he hadn’t revealed to anyone ever - and he knew she knew it because he suddenly felt her eyes searching his face for some sign of reaction.
“How long ago?” she almost whispered.
“Both of them - when I was sixteen,” he replied, staring at the small boy on his lap, not wanting to meet her eyes.
He braced himself for the usual ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘My condolences’ but instead he got “Car crash?”
“Helicopter…” he looked up at Elizabeth now. “It’s why I became a pilot - I thought I could do better, save a few people.”
He didn’t see pity in her eyes, and silently he thanked her for it, instead he saw understanding and…admiration?
“So today we’re babysitters?” he asked.
“Looks like it,” she responded, smiling again and returning her attention to Jessica.
He settled back and let Pieter bounce up and down on his knees at his excitement about whatever was happening on the TV. But he was watching Elizabeth and Jessica again. There was only one way to describe what he was seeing - and that was ‘beautiful’. Their interaction fascinated him. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen someone interacting with a child under the age of three, but it had been a good long while and he’d forgotten exactly how amazing it could be.
And it was Elizabeth sitting next to him on the bed playing with the five-month-old.
~*~
She watched as John chased after Pieter on his hands and knees. Pieter screamed in delight and ran until John tagged him lightly on the arm. Then he turned around and ran back at John, who once he was hit pretty hard on the head decided to play dead.
“Nee!” the little boy said, prodding John happily. “Nee!”
John opened his eyes. “Elizabeth the dead body needs a translation…”
“He said ‘no’,” she replied, amused.
“Thanks,” John replied, and went back to being quiet.
But of course now Pieter knew he wasn’t dead he squealed and jumped on him. John mumbled and ‘ow’ and rolled over, grabbing Pieter and standing up.
“OK kiddo, I think Uncle John’s had quite enough ‘tag’ for one day,” John said, sitting on the sofa and placing Pieter on the floor with his toys.
Apparently toys weren’t as exciting as his new found friend because he turned around, stood up and grabbed John’s leg again before squealing in delight and running off.
“Tag, you’re it,” Elizabeth refrained from smiling as much as she could.
John dragged himself up again and grabbed Pieter, then proceeding to hold him upside down. Pieter squealed with delight. Just at that moment the front door opened, revealing Luke and Isabelle.
“Making new friends?” Luke asked as he took his jacket off.
John put Pieter back down and he ran squealing to his Dad who picked him up. “Apparently.” He flopped back down next to Elizabeth, completely exhausted. “You know these kids make Rodney seem easy.”
“Try having them all day every day, John,” Isabelle said.
“We’ll see what the future holds,” John replied.
And he didn’t miss the look Isabelle shot Elizabeth at John’s comment and he was suddenly very aware of how close they were sitting. In fact their arms were touching - and what struck him as even stranger was how normal that seemed to him. He didn’t have any qualms at all about sitting that close to her.
Actually it felt stranger when they weren’t that close together…
Maybe he should just give up denying it? He really cared about her. Maybe…just maybe he was even slightly in love with her.
Or a lot.
~*~
Elizabeth felt like her jaw was going to hit the ground. She wondered why her cousin had never been discovered as a genius composer before, because that’s what he was. She leant on the balcony railing in front of her watching the choir and orchestra as they performed their last piece.
They finished and John was instantly on his feet applauding, Elizabeth was only a milli-second behind him. Luke was sitting to the side of the stage looking modest and rather embarrassed at the wild applause that his concert was receiving.
“You come from a talented family, Elizabeth,” John said over the applause.
“You could say that again,” Elizabeth replied, not even thinking about the statement, she was in awe.
It took about half an hour for Luke to make his way out of the hall, his expression showed everything perfectly. He was having the best night of his life.
“Time for drinks,” Luke said cheerfully, and before anyone could say otherwise he’d practically bounced over to his car. “Come on we gotta get to the bottle shop before it closes.”
“So I take it we’re drinking at home?” John asked.
“Well there are children to think of,” Luke said. “So I figured that’s the easiest way to go about it.”
“Makes sense,” John replied.
“I’m going to walk,” Elizabeth said, suddenly. “I need to stretch my legs.”
“Me too,” John added instantly.
Just as she had expected. She paused and frowned - was she only walking because she knew John would walk with her? Well that would seem suspicious wouldn’t it?
“If you want,” Luke replied, getting in the car. “You know where the spare key is right, Liz?”
“Sure do,” she replied, for a moment taken back by the nickname.
No one ever called her Liz. She wasn’t sure why, but they never had - she’d always been Elizabeth. As the car drove off she turned and started walking down the road towards Luke’s place.
“You know this is the first time in five years I’ve spent Christmas in…civilisation,” John stated after a few moments.
She turned to him and raised an eyebrow questioningly. “One year in Atlantis, one year in Antarctica…”
“The rest in war zones,” he replied, staring straight ahead.
“Oh.”
They both fell silent, walking in the night down the street. Elizabeth shoved her hands in her pockets, feeling the cold all of a sudden. Why was he being so quiet? In fact why was she being so quiet?
Possibly because there was too much to tell him. For the first time she damned the fact that they had spent all day babysitting two small children, because it had made her realise two things. One - what she was missing out on and two - what a great father John would be.
And the second one of those was entirely inappropriate.
“Jessica’s cute,” John said. “Kinda reminds me of you.”
“Does she now?” Elizabeth asked, narrowing her eyes at John.
“She does. Always observing everything and seems to enjoy people arguing playfully a lot more than she should,” John avoided looking at her but he was grinning.
“Not to mention her ability to put up with people who are far more immature than her.”
John turned to her and glared evilly. “That’s not fair.”
“I think it’s completely fair,” Elizabeth replied, then she stopped outside a candy store decorated with Christmas lights all over the front and inside. “We have to go in there.”
“Oh now who’s mental age is closer to Jessica’s,” he responded.
She hit him playfully on the arm and walked into the store.
~*~
Elizabeth didn’t seem to notice the mistletoe hanging from the top of the doorway, but he sure did. Could he make use of it? No that wasn’t entirely fair was it? It was like cheating…he could kiss her and pretend there was nothing more to it than his usual cheekiness.
And somehow he didn’t want that.
Shaking the mistletoe from his mind he followed Elizabeth around the store as she picked a few candies off the shelf and put them in a paper bag. He’d never in his life seen any of these things.
She bought the bag of sugar and came back over to him. “Stop picking things up.”
“Sorry Mom,” he replied, putting back down the strange stick of sugar he’d just picked up.
As they were heading out Elizabeth’s jacket caught on the doorhandle. John’s mind ran through a hundred things at once. Point out the mistletoe, don’t point out the mistletoe and just kiss her, was fate trying to tell him something? Maybe he shouldn’t say anything. Maybe he should. Maybe he should just help her get free of the door…
“Did you notice the mistletoe?” he ended up with as he helped pull her jacket free of the doorhandle.
Yeah nice and subtle John.
“Yes, actually,” she replied.
“We’re standing under it.”
“I noticed.”
“There’s rules about this sort of thing…”
“There’s rules about lots of things. Some of them are more important than others.”
OK he didn’t need an explanation on that one. He could feel her nervousness and confusion. Suddenly she turned and walked out of the doorway. Chance gone.
He followed her out into the cold again. She was walking faster now, seemingly determined to get back to Luke’s as fast as she possible could. He easily kept up with her.
He’d missed his chance. She had been standing there under mistletoe and he could’ve kissed her and she might not have even thought anything of it. He wanted to kiss her.
He really wanted to kiss her…
What on Earth had just overcome him?
He stopped and grabbed her arm.
“John what are you doing?” she asked.
“Fixing my mistake,” he replied, turning around and starting to walk back to the store.
“What?”
He didn’t respond, instead her pulled her back into the doorway of the store and kissed her before she could think of leaving. It only took him a few moments to realise what he was actually doing.
He was kissing Elizabeth.
Not that it fel bad or wrong or anything - in fact it felt quite the opposite - but he knew she would entirely not approve of the situation, even if it involved mistletoe. He pulled away suddenly and walked back onto the street.
Shit.
She followed him in silence. They walked the entire way back to Luke’s place in silence, but there was none of the drawn out tension that he’d felt earlier. Elizabeth took the spare key from its hiding place and opened the door, paid the babysitter before she left and then sat down in front of the TV.
She didn’t turn it on.
John stood awkwardly in the doorway of the room - he spent far too much time in doorways - wondering if he should sit down next to her or pretend he had other things to do. Just at that moment Luke and Isabelle came in, three bottles of champagne accompanying them.
~*~
He was just sitting there, pretending like nothing had happened. How could he just sit there and act so casually? If he’d just kissed her lightly underneath the mistletoe it would be much easier to deal with, but he’d grabbed her arm and pulled her back to the store.
And he hadn’t just kissed her lightly on the lips. No he’d actually kissed her, softly and caringly, leaving her wanting more. Damn him.
Isabelle had gone to bed an hour ago and Luke and John were in some in depth discussion about planes, giving her mind plenty of time to mill over things. What scared her most was how much she wanted it to happen again.
But that was a definite no. No more kissing. Ever.
Well maybe…
No. She closed her eyes and seemed to breath in too sharply because Luke glanced at her.
“You OK?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” she replied. “Just tired.”
At this Luke yawned. “Well I’m heading to bed. Good night.”
“Night,” the both replied.
John flicked on the TV and turned to Elizabeth. “You mind? There’s a game I’d like to see…”
“Go ahead,” she replied, smiling slightly.
How were things not entirely awkward between them? She should have got up when Luke did and gone to bed, but she wanted to stay with him. She froze as he lay down on the sofa leaning his head on her shoulder.
Now what?
She didn’t say anything, instead she took a rather large sip from her glass of champagne. It didn’t take John long to fall asleep, and she found herself watching NFL, not her favourite form of sport. She looked down to John who’s head had ended up in her lap.
She smiled slightly to herself, running her hand through his hair - something she knew he’d never let her do if he was awake and she would never do if she were sober. She glanced at the clock. It was two in the morning, which made it Christmas Eve.
She was starting her Christmas Eve alone with John Sheppard asleep on her lap only a few hours after he’d kissed her in the doorway of a candy store. She suddenly found her smile disappearing, she had the urge to cry. Why would she cry? This was perfect…why would she want to ruin it by crying?
She knew why. It was a stolen moment, one that she would have to forget about when they returned to Atlantis.
Slowly lifting up John’s head she stood up before placing it back on the sofa. She stared at him for a few moments, half expecting him to wake, but he didn’t. Grabbing his sleeping bag from the floor she unzipped it and put it over him to keep him warm.
She stood over him for what seemed like forever. She didn’t want to leave, but not only would it look incredibly strange if she woke up next to him - it was pretty much impossible to do so on the tiny sofa. So instead she leaned over and kissed him on the forehead.
“Goodnight John,” she whispered.
~*~
He didn’t remember falling asleep. In fact last thing he remembered was leaning over onto Elizabeth’s shoulder trying to make himself comfortable watching football.
Oh crap he’d leaned on her shoulder.
Not to mention kissed her.
He sat up really fast, making himself dizzy in the process. Damn alcohol. But wait, he’d kissed her before he drunk anything.
He rolled up his sleeping bag, trying to figure out if the headache came from the alcohol or from trying to figure out all the stupid things he’d done the night before. He walked into the kitchen to get himself a coffee to find Luke sitting in there.
“Morning,” John yawned.
“Morning,” Luke replied.
John could feel his eyes following him as he made his coffee. What on Earth could be so interesting about his back? Unless somehow he knew…
“So what happened last night between you two?”
…well that answered his question.
“Sorry?” John played innocent, turning around and leaning against the kitchen bench.
“You think I didn’t notice the awkwardness when we got home? Not to mention how quiet Elizabeth was the entire night…she’s never quiet, especially not after that much champagne.”
OK so this cousin knew her better than he thought. What was he supposed to say to that? ‘I kissed her even though she’s my boss and once we go back to the lost city of Atlantis - by the way its in the Pegasus Galaxy - we’re not allowed to have any kind of relationship so really I’ve just screwed with her head’.
For some reason he didn’t think that would go down well…
“And silence answers me well,” Luke said, jumping up as the doorbell rang.
Saved by the bell.
Or not.
David Weir walked in. That was just what he needed, the father.
“Good morning, John,” he said.
“Morning, sir.”
“No ‘sir’ please we’re not in the Air Force here,” David sat down.
“Sorry, habit.”
Elizabeth and Isabelle entered the room at that moment, Elizabeth carrying Jessica and Isabelle wiping Pieter’s mouth and talking to him in Dutch. Suddenly John felt like he’d walked into someone else’s family uninvited.
Well…he had.
Then he caught Elizabeth’s eye. There was something there he hadn’t seen before, a sparkle that seemed to appear only when she looked at him. And there was something else there…something he hadn’t seen for a very long time.
Love.
~*~
‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ played in the background somewhere as they walked to the park to let Pieter run around for a bit.
“So are you two together yet?”
Elizabeth bit her lip and turned to her father. “No.”
“You sure?”
“Yes Dad, I’m sure,” Elizabeth snapped at him.
“Look, I’m sorry…” he paused for a moment before adding, “…for everything.”
“It’s a bit late,” but she knew she wasn’t angry at him anymore.
In fact she’d gotten over it a long time ago, she just hadn’t wanted him to win - hence she hadn’t called him. To tell the truth she couldn’t even remember what had started it all, just that it had started around the time of her mother’s death.
She stopped in her tracks and turned to face him. “You’re forgiven.”
“Friends?” he asked.
“Family,” she replied, smiling.
“Now that that’s sorted…something changed between you two so what is it?”
A week ago she would’ve blown up at him for saying it, but just one simple apology could set a lot of things straight. “He kissed me last night,” she replied not even sure why she would tell him that.
“I thought he might have,” her Dad was smiling, watching John lifting Pieter up onto the playground.
“What made you think that?”
“He was giving off the ‘I made a move but I’m waiting for you to make the decision about what happens next’ vibes all day.”
“Interesting,” Elizabeth sat down on the park bench.
“So how long have you known each other?” he asked, sitting down next to him.
“Just under two years,” she replied.
“Elizabeth can I give you some advice?”
She turned to him and raised her eyebrow in question.
“Take the chance while it’s here, because you never know what’s going to happen.”
She knew instantly he was talking about her mother. They’d had an argument the night she died, that was why she’d gone out in the car in the first place…he’d blamed himself, making him one of the most unpleasant people to be around she’d ever known. But he’d changed now, gone back to his old self - she’d noticed it instantly - although that hadn’t made it any easier for her to forgive him.
“It’s not always that easy,” she replied.
“Then you have to do it the hard way.”
He had a point - more than he knew - about never knowing when something was going to happen. So many times she’d thought John was dead, gone forever, and so many times she’d been lucky enough that he’d come back.
But home many more times could that happen?
It was the same reason she shouldn’t have feelings for him…yet it was the reason she knew she had to do something about it.
“Thanks, Dad,” she said after a few minutes.
“Don’t thank me yet,” he replied.
~*~
Now this was what he’d always wanted for Christmas, John decided staring around the dinner table at the laughing, not-quite-sober, people. Since they’d gone to the park he’d noticed Elizabeth staying incredibly close to him and wondered if there was anything more to that…
Even her Dad had been smiling at him, which he found odd.
He glanced at the clock. It was 11 PM. Isabelle was yawning already and David was looking just about ready to fall asleep in his chair. Only Luke seemed to be able to manage late nights.
“OK, you, to bed,” Luke said, scooping up Isabelle in his arms and wincing as he did so. “Wow…this looks easier on TV.”
She laughed and hit him playfully as he put her back down. David stood up as well.
“Well I’m off,” he said, grabbing his jacket.
John stood up and walked over to him. “Nice to meet you, David.”
“You too John, pity I couldn’t get to know you better - but something tells me we’ll be seeing each other again in the future,” he winked at Elizabeth.
John frowned and looked at her, but she just smiled at him smugly. They had a secret they weren’t sharing with him.
“Take care of my daughter, I’m sure I can trust you’ll do that,” David said.
“Always,” John replied. “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas,” David shook his hand and then turned to say goodbye to Elizabeth.
They hugged, which half-surprised John as last time he’d looked they were angry at each other. He guessed they must have had some kind of conversation at some point that day that made things better between them.
Luke and Isabelle walked David to the door where they exchanged goodbyes.
“So you made up?” John asked as they watched her father at the door.
“I guess so,” Elizabeth responded.
“The Daedalus leaves in four days,” John said randomly.
“Oh?”
“Didn’t I mention that? Our flight leaves the 26th from Heathrow, Carson called and told me,” John said.
“You neglected to mention that.”
“I had other things on my mind,” he responded. “When they faxed through the details Daniel added that apparently there’s a huge New Year’s party planned on the Daedalus.”
“Caldwell’s going to love that,” Elizabeth replied sarcastically.
“Oh yeah. Lucky he’s on Atlantis, won’t even know about it,” John grinned.
“Do I get another kiss for New Years?”
Sorry what? He blinked and looked at her again. Had she just actually asked that? Whatever her father had said to her certainly seemed to work…
“And don’t pretend you didn’t hear me, because I know you did,” she continued.
“I…ah…”
“Well we’re off to bed, good night,” Luke said from the hallway. “Merry Christmas, and we’ll see you in the morning.”
“Merry Christmas!” Isabelle added.
“Merry Christmas,” both John and Elizabeth responded.
Elizabeth suddenly seemed to notice exactly what kind of conversation they’d been having before Luke interrupted. She walked out of the hallway and back into the living room and John followed her. The lights were off, the room illuminated only by the lights from the Christmas tree.
“Yes,” John said quietly.
“What?”
“But you don’t have to wait till New Year.”
She turned to face him. In the light of the tree he could see her smiling, but it was her mischievous smile.
“Who says I don’t want to wait till New Year?”
“Well, before you decide, I have a present for you,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small package. “Merry Christmas.”
~*~
She took the small gift and opened it, revealing a jewellery box. Well that she could’ve guessed from the size. She opened that to reveal a small bracelet, on the top was inscribed ‘Merry Christmas Elizabeth’ and when she flipped it over she found ‘Love John’.
“Thank you,” she barely managed before she practically threw her arms around him and hugged him as close to her as possible.
He placed his arms around her and hugged her back. “Thank you for letting me come, for letting me spend this time with you and not with Kavanagh and Caldwell.
She pulled away, leaving her arms around his neck and looked him in the eyes. “Thank you for coming.”
She watched as his eyes searched hers for a few moments and then he leaned down and kissed her. After a few moments he pulled away.
“Merry Christmas,” he said.
“Merry Christmas,” she said, kissing him again.
And a part of her dreaded returning to Atlantis…but she guessed they would find a way.
Love always found a way.
Part One
Title: Stolen Moments
Author: Angel of Fire SG1
Summary: Some moments are given and other's you have to take, but what does it really matter when it comes to Christmas?
Spoilers: General season 2
Pairings: Sheppard/Weir - some Cadman/Beckett
Stolen Moments: Part Two
“Sheppard,” he mumbled, picking up the phone and glancing at the clock.
10AM? That was strange - normally he was woken up by screaming children by 7.
“Well don’t you sound like a bouncing ball of happiness. It is 10AM over there right?”
“Cadman?” he muttered, sitting up properly.
“No it’s your conscience,” she replied sarcastically.
“Aren’t you in Scotland?”
“Yes…”
“Why are you calling me?”
“Oh my God - Carson you deal with the grumpy old man,” she muttered, and he heard the shuffling of a phone being passed along.
Grumpy old man? He resented that.
“Good morning, Colonel.”
“Morning,” John yawned. “So what have I done to be honoured with this phone call?”
“I was talking to Colonel O’Neill about transport back to the…base…and he said the Daedalus leaves 28th of December - and then he told me to contact you and tell you, they’ll fax through the details of your flight. We’re apparently meeting at Heathrow and flying together. Speaking of which…why are you in Europe?”
“Elizabeth’s uncle died,” John replied, all the information going over his head.
“Is she OK?” Carson sounded worried.
“She’s fine…”
“And you’re there why…?”
“Because I felt like getting away from Atlantis.”
The slight pause betrayed Carson’s disbelief in his excuse. “Aye.”
They ended their brief conversation and John sat up, still confused as to why no one had woken him up by running down the stairs or crying. He grabbed his clothes off the chair and quickly got dressed in the bathroom before making his way upstairs.
Elizabeth was sitting in Luke and Isabelle’s bedroom, Pieter was sitting on the edge of the bed, glued to whatever it was on the TV and Elizabeth was playing with Jessica. John stood in the doorway for a moment, observing her.
She was smiling at the child, the joy on her face hard to conceal. He hadn’t seen her looking like that - ever - not even when him and Rodney were fighting. Something clenched at his chest as he watched her happily bouncing the baby on the bed in front of her. Lifting her up, sitting her back down. Jessica was squealing in delight and waving her arms around in the air.
He tried to locate what the emotion overcoming him was. Was that what he wanted? A child, or two…maybe three…? With who? Elizabeth? They were…so much more than friends - but he was getting way ahead of himself.
“She looks happy,” he said finally.
Elizabeth looked up. “Morning sleepy head.”
“Hey - I expected to be woken up hours ago,” he replied, walking over and picking up Pieter to make space on the bed, before sitting on it and placing Pieter on his lap.
Pieter didn’t even seem to notice, glued to The Rugrats - in Dutch.
“Where is everyone anyway?” John asked.
“These people have work, John,” she replied, giving him that ‘you should know better’ look. “And I figured I’d let you sleep in considering how late Luke and I used your sleeping space to watch TV on last night.”
“How’s Luke doing?”
“He’s as good as he can be in the situation…” Elizabeth replied, taking a moment to press Jessica’s nose which seemed to make her happy.
John smiled as the baby smiled, why was her smile so god damn infectious? She was only five months old!
“He’s doing better than I did,” John said after a moment, not really thinking about what he’d just said.
He never talked about his personal life. Ever. He didn’t like to - everything about it was always so awful. He suddenly became aware that he had revealed something to her that he hadn’t revealed to anyone ever - and he knew she knew it because he suddenly felt her eyes searching his face for some sign of reaction.
“How long ago?” she almost whispered.
“Both of them - when I was sixteen,” he replied, staring at the small boy on his lap, not wanting to meet her eyes.
He braced himself for the usual ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘My condolences’ but instead he got “Car crash?”
“Helicopter…” he looked up at Elizabeth now. “It’s why I became a pilot - I thought I could do better, save a few people.”
He didn’t see pity in her eyes, and silently he thanked her for it, instead he saw understanding and…admiration?
“So today we’re babysitters?” he asked.
“Looks like it,” she responded, smiling again and returning her attention to Jessica.
He settled back and let Pieter bounce up and down on his knees at his excitement about whatever was happening on the TV. But he was watching Elizabeth and Jessica again. There was only one way to describe what he was seeing - and that was ‘beautiful’. Their interaction fascinated him. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen someone interacting with a child under the age of three, but it had been a good long while and he’d forgotten exactly how amazing it could be.
And it was Elizabeth sitting next to him on the bed playing with the five-month-old.
~*~
She watched as John chased after Pieter on his hands and knees. Pieter screamed in delight and ran until John tagged him lightly on the arm. Then he turned around and ran back at John, who once he was hit pretty hard on the head decided to play dead.
“Nee!” the little boy said, prodding John happily. “Nee!”
John opened his eyes. “Elizabeth the dead body needs a translation…”
“He said ‘no’,” she replied, amused.
“Thanks,” John replied, and went back to being quiet.
But of course now Pieter knew he wasn’t dead he squealed and jumped on him. John mumbled and ‘ow’ and rolled over, grabbing Pieter and standing up.
“OK kiddo, I think Uncle John’s had quite enough ‘tag’ for one day,” John said, sitting on the sofa and placing Pieter on the floor with his toys.
Apparently toys weren’t as exciting as his new found friend because he turned around, stood up and grabbed John’s leg again before squealing in delight and running off.
“Tag, you’re it,” Elizabeth refrained from smiling as much as she could.
John dragged himself up again and grabbed Pieter, then proceeding to hold him upside down. Pieter squealed with delight. Just at that moment the front door opened, revealing Luke and Isabelle.
“Making new friends?” Luke asked as he took his jacket off.
John put Pieter back down and he ran squealing to his Dad who picked him up. “Apparently.” He flopped back down next to Elizabeth, completely exhausted. “You know these kids make Rodney seem easy.”
“Try having them all day every day, John,” Isabelle said.
“We’ll see what the future holds,” John replied.
And he didn’t miss the look Isabelle shot Elizabeth at John’s comment and he was suddenly very aware of how close they were sitting. In fact their arms were touching - and what struck him as even stranger was how normal that seemed to him. He didn’t have any qualms at all about sitting that close to her.
Actually it felt stranger when they weren’t that close together…
Maybe he should just give up denying it? He really cared about her. Maybe…just maybe he was even slightly in love with her.
Or a lot.
~*~
Elizabeth felt like her jaw was going to hit the ground. She wondered why her cousin had never been discovered as a genius composer before, because that’s what he was. She leant on the balcony railing in front of her watching the choir and orchestra as they performed their last piece.
They finished and John was instantly on his feet applauding, Elizabeth was only a milli-second behind him. Luke was sitting to the side of the stage looking modest and rather embarrassed at the wild applause that his concert was receiving.
“You come from a talented family, Elizabeth,” John said over the applause.
“You could say that again,” Elizabeth replied, not even thinking about the statement, she was in awe.
It took about half an hour for Luke to make his way out of the hall, his expression showed everything perfectly. He was having the best night of his life.
“Time for drinks,” Luke said cheerfully, and before anyone could say otherwise he’d practically bounced over to his car. “Come on we gotta get to the bottle shop before it closes.”
“So I take it we’re drinking at home?” John asked.
“Well there are children to think of,” Luke said. “So I figured that’s the easiest way to go about it.”
“Makes sense,” John replied.
“I’m going to walk,” Elizabeth said, suddenly. “I need to stretch my legs.”
“Me too,” John added instantly.
Just as she had expected. She paused and frowned - was she only walking because she knew John would walk with her? Well that would seem suspicious wouldn’t it?
“If you want,” Luke replied, getting in the car. “You know where the spare key is right, Liz?”
“Sure do,” she replied, for a moment taken back by the nickname.
No one ever called her Liz. She wasn’t sure why, but they never had - she’d always been Elizabeth. As the car drove off she turned and started walking down the road towards Luke’s place.
“You know this is the first time in five years I’ve spent Christmas in…civilisation,” John stated after a few moments.
She turned to him and raised an eyebrow questioningly. “One year in Atlantis, one year in Antarctica…”
“The rest in war zones,” he replied, staring straight ahead.
“Oh.”
They both fell silent, walking in the night down the street. Elizabeth shoved her hands in her pockets, feeling the cold all of a sudden. Why was he being so quiet? In fact why was she being so quiet?
Possibly because there was too much to tell him. For the first time she damned the fact that they had spent all day babysitting two small children, because it had made her realise two things. One - what she was missing out on and two - what a great father John would be.
And the second one of those was entirely inappropriate.
“Jessica’s cute,” John said. “Kinda reminds me of you.”
“Does she now?” Elizabeth asked, narrowing her eyes at John.
“She does. Always observing everything and seems to enjoy people arguing playfully a lot more than she should,” John avoided looking at her but he was grinning.
“Not to mention her ability to put up with people who are far more immature than her.”
John turned to her and glared evilly. “That’s not fair.”
“I think it’s completely fair,” Elizabeth replied, then she stopped outside a candy store decorated with Christmas lights all over the front and inside. “We have to go in there.”
“Oh now who’s mental age is closer to Jessica’s,” he responded.
She hit him playfully on the arm and walked into the store.
~*~
Elizabeth didn’t seem to notice the mistletoe hanging from the top of the doorway, but he sure did. Could he make use of it? No that wasn’t entirely fair was it? It was like cheating…he could kiss her and pretend there was nothing more to it than his usual cheekiness.
And somehow he didn’t want that.
Shaking the mistletoe from his mind he followed Elizabeth around the store as she picked a few candies off the shelf and put them in a paper bag. He’d never in his life seen any of these things.
She bought the bag of sugar and came back over to him. “Stop picking things up.”
“Sorry Mom,” he replied, putting back down the strange stick of sugar he’d just picked up.
As they were heading out Elizabeth’s jacket caught on the doorhandle. John’s mind ran through a hundred things at once. Point out the mistletoe, don’t point out the mistletoe and just kiss her, was fate trying to tell him something? Maybe he shouldn’t say anything. Maybe he should. Maybe he should just help her get free of the door…
“Did you notice the mistletoe?” he ended up with as he helped pull her jacket free of the doorhandle.
Yeah nice and subtle John.
“Yes, actually,” she replied.
“We’re standing under it.”
“I noticed.”
“There’s rules about this sort of thing…”
“There’s rules about lots of things. Some of them are more important than others.”
OK he didn’t need an explanation on that one. He could feel her nervousness and confusion. Suddenly she turned and walked out of the doorway. Chance gone.
He followed her out into the cold again. She was walking faster now, seemingly determined to get back to Luke’s as fast as she possible could. He easily kept up with her.
He’d missed his chance. She had been standing there under mistletoe and he could’ve kissed her and she might not have even thought anything of it. He wanted to kiss her.
He really wanted to kiss her…
What on Earth had just overcome him?
He stopped and grabbed her arm.
“John what are you doing?” she asked.
“Fixing my mistake,” he replied, turning around and starting to walk back to the store.
“What?”
He didn’t respond, instead her pulled her back into the doorway of the store and kissed her before she could think of leaving. It only took him a few moments to realise what he was actually doing.
He was kissing Elizabeth.
Not that it fel bad or wrong or anything - in fact it felt quite the opposite - but he knew she would entirely not approve of the situation, even if it involved mistletoe. He pulled away suddenly and walked back onto the street.
Shit.
She followed him in silence. They walked the entire way back to Luke’s place in silence, but there was none of the drawn out tension that he’d felt earlier. Elizabeth took the spare key from its hiding place and opened the door, paid the babysitter before she left and then sat down in front of the TV.
She didn’t turn it on.
John stood awkwardly in the doorway of the room - he spent far too much time in doorways - wondering if he should sit down next to her or pretend he had other things to do. Just at that moment Luke and Isabelle came in, three bottles of champagne accompanying them.
~*~
He was just sitting there, pretending like nothing had happened. How could he just sit there and act so casually? If he’d just kissed her lightly underneath the mistletoe it would be much easier to deal with, but he’d grabbed her arm and pulled her back to the store.
And he hadn’t just kissed her lightly on the lips. No he’d actually kissed her, softly and caringly, leaving her wanting more. Damn him.
Isabelle had gone to bed an hour ago and Luke and John were in some in depth discussion about planes, giving her mind plenty of time to mill over things. What scared her most was how much she wanted it to happen again.
But that was a definite no. No more kissing. Ever.
Well maybe…
No. She closed her eyes and seemed to breath in too sharply because Luke glanced at her.
“You OK?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” she replied. “Just tired.”
At this Luke yawned. “Well I’m heading to bed. Good night.”
“Night,” the both replied.
John flicked on the TV and turned to Elizabeth. “You mind? There’s a game I’d like to see…”
“Go ahead,” she replied, smiling slightly.
How were things not entirely awkward between them? She should have got up when Luke did and gone to bed, but she wanted to stay with him. She froze as he lay down on the sofa leaning his head on her shoulder.
Now what?
She didn’t say anything, instead she took a rather large sip from her glass of champagne. It didn’t take John long to fall asleep, and she found herself watching NFL, not her favourite form of sport. She looked down to John who’s head had ended up in her lap.
She smiled slightly to herself, running her hand through his hair - something she knew he’d never let her do if he was awake and she would never do if she were sober. She glanced at the clock. It was two in the morning, which made it Christmas Eve.
She was starting her Christmas Eve alone with John Sheppard asleep on her lap only a few hours after he’d kissed her in the doorway of a candy store. She suddenly found her smile disappearing, she had the urge to cry. Why would she cry? This was perfect…why would she want to ruin it by crying?
She knew why. It was a stolen moment, one that she would have to forget about when they returned to Atlantis.
Slowly lifting up John’s head she stood up before placing it back on the sofa. She stared at him for a few moments, half expecting him to wake, but he didn’t. Grabbing his sleeping bag from the floor she unzipped it and put it over him to keep him warm.
She stood over him for what seemed like forever. She didn’t want to leave, but not only would it look incredibly strange if she woke up next to him - it was pretty much impossible to do so on the tiny sofa. So instead she leaned over and kissed him on the forehead.
“Goodnight John,” she whispered.
~*~
He didn’t remember falling asleep. In fact last thing he remembered was leaning over onto Elizabeth’s shoulder trying to make himself comfortable watching football.
Oh crap he’d leaned on her shoulder.
Not to mention kissed her.
He sat up really fast, making himself dizzy in the process. Damn alcohol. But wait, he’d kissed her before he drunk anything.
He rolled up his sleeping bag, trying to figure out if the headache came from the alcohol or from trying to figure out all the stupid things he’d done the night before. He walked into the kitchen to get himself a coffee to find Luke sitting in there.
“Morning,” John yawned.
“Morning,” Luke replied.
John could feel his eyes following him as he made his coffee. What on Earth could be so interesting about his back? Unless somehow he knew…
“So what happened last night between you two?”
…well that answered his question.
“Sorry?” John played innocent, turning around and leaning against the kitchen bench.
“You think I didn’t notice the awkwardness when we got home? Not to mention how quiet Elizabeth was the entire night…she’s never quiet, especially not after that much champagne.”
OK so this cousin knew her better than he thought. What was he supposed to say to that? ‘I kissed her even though she’s my boss and once we go back to the lost city of Atlantis - by the way its in the Pegasus Galaxy - we’re not allowed to have any kind of relationship so really I’ve just screwed with her head’.
For some reason he didn’t think that would go down well…
“And silence answers me well,” Luke said, jumping up as the doorbell rang.
Saved by the bell.
Or not.
David Weir walked in. That was just what he needed, the father.
“Good morning, John,” he said.
“Morning, sir.”
“No ‘sir’ please we’re not in the Air Force here,” David sat down.
“Sorry, habit.”
Elizabeth and Isabelle entered the room at that moment, Elizabeth carrying Jessica and Isabelle wiping Pieter’s mouth and talking to him in Dutch. Suddenly John felt like he’d walked into someone else’s family uninvited.
Well…he had.
Then he caught Elizabeth’s eye. There was something there he hadn’t seen before, a sparkle that seemed to appear only when she looked at him. And there was something else there…something he hadn’t seen for a very long time.
Love.
~*~
‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ played in the background somewhere as they walked to the park to let Pieter run around for a bit.
“So are you two together yet?”
Elizabeth bit her lip and turned to her father. “No.”
“You sure?”
“Yes Dad, I’m sure,” Elizabeth snapped at him.
“Look, I’m sorry…” he paused for a moment before adding, “…for everything.”
“It’s a bit late,” but she knew she wasn’t angry at him anymore.
In fact she’d gotten over it a long time ago, she just hadn’t wanted him to win - hence she hadn’t called him. To tell the truth she couldn’t even remember what had started it all, just that it had started around the time of her mother’s death.
She stopped in her tracks and turned to face him. “You’re forgiven.”
“Friends?” he asked.
“Family,” she replied, smiling.
“Now that that’s sorted…something changed between you two so what is it?”
A week ago she would’ve blown up at him for saying it, but just one simple apology could set a lot of things straight. “He kissed me last night,” she replied not even sure why she would tell him that.
“I thought he might have,” her Dad was smiling, watching John lifting Pieter up onto the playground.
“What made you think that?”
“He was giving off the ‘I made a move but I’m waiting for you to make the decision about what happens next’ vibes all day.”
“Interesting,” Elizabeth sat down on the park bench.
“So how long have you known each other?” he asked, sitting down next to him.
“Just under two years,” she replied.
“Elizabeth can I give you some advice?”
She turned to him and raised her eyebrow in question.
“Take the chance while it’s here, because you never know what’s going to happen.”
She knew instantly he was talking about her mother. They’d had an argument the night she died, that was why she’d gone out in the car in the first place…he’d blamed himself, making him one of the most unpleasant people to be around she’d ever known. But he’d changed now, gone back to his old self - she’d noticed it instantly - although that hadn’t made it any easier for her to forgive him.
“It’s not always that easy,” she replied.
“Then you have to do it the hard way.”
He had a point - more than he knew - about never knowing when something was going to happen. So many times she’d thought John was dead, gone forever, and so many times she’d been lucky enough that he’d come back.
But home many more times could that happen?
It was the same reason she shouldn’t have feelings for him…yet it was the reason she knew she had to do something about it.
“Thanks, Dad,” she said after a few minutes.
“Don’t thank me yet,” he replied.
~*~
Now this was what he’d always wanted for Christmas, John decided staring around the dinner table at the laughing, not-quite-sober, people. Since they’d gone to the park he’d noticed Elizabeth staying incredibly close to him and wondered if there was anything more to that…
Even her Dad had been smiling at him, which he found odd.
He glanced at the clock. It was 11 PM. Isabelle was yawning already and David was looking just about ready to fall asleep in his chair. Only Luke seemed to be able to manage late nights.
“OK, you, to bed,” Luke said, scooping up Isabelle in his arms and wincing as he did so. “Wow…this looks easier on TV.”
She laughed and hit him playfully as he put her back down. David stood up as well.
“Well I’m off,” he said, grabbing his jacket.
John stood up and walked over to him. “Nice to meet you, David.”
“You too John, pity I couldn’t get to know you better - but something tells me we’ll be seeing each other again in the future,” he winked at Elizabeth.
John frowned and looked at her, but she just smiled at him smugly. They had a secret they weren’t sharing with him.
“Take care of my daughter, I’m sure I can trust you’ll do that,” David said.
“Always,” John replied. “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas,” David shook his hand and then turned to say goodbye to Elizabeth.
They hugged, which half-surprised John as last time he’d looked they were angry at each other. He guessed they must have had some kind of conversation at some point that day that made things better between them.
Luke and Isabelle walked David to the door where they exchanged goodbyes.
“So you made up?” John asked as they watched her father at the door.
“I guess so,” Elizabeth responded.
“The Daedalus leaves in four days,” John said randomly.
“Oh?”
“Didn’t I mention that? Our flight leaves the 26th from Heathrow, Carson called and told me,” John said.
“You neglected to mention that.”
“I had other things on my mind,” he responded. “When they faxed through the details Daniel added that apparently there’s a huge New Year’s party planned on the Daedalus.”
“Caldwell’s going to love that,” Elizabeth replied sarcastically.
“Oh yeah. Lucky he’s on Atlantis, won’t even know about it,” John grinned.
“Do I get another kiss for New Years?”
Sorry what? He blinked and looked at her again. Had she just actually asked that? Whatever her father had said to her certainly seemed to work…
“And don’t pretend you didn’t hear me, because I know you did,” she continued.
“I…ah…”
“Well we’re off to bed, good night,” Luke said from the hallway. “Merry Christmas, and we’ll see you in the morning.”
“Merry Christmas!” Isabelle added.
“Merry Christmas,” both John and Elizabeth responded.
Elizabeth suddenly seemed to notice exactly what kind of conversation they’d been having before Luke interrupted. She walked out of the hallway and back into the living room and John followed her. The lights were off, the room illuminated only by the lights from the Christmas tree.
“Yes,” John said quietly.
“What?”
“But you don’t have to wait till New Year.”
She turned to face him. In the light of the tree he could see her smiling, but it was her mischievous smile.
“Who says I don’t want to wait till New Year?”
“Well, before you decide, I have a present for you,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small package. “Merry Christmas.”
~*~
She took the small gift and opened it, revealing a jewellery box. Well that she could’ve guessed from the size. She opened that to reveal a small bracelet, on the top was inscribed ‘Merry Christmas Elizabeth’ and when she flipped it over she found ‘Love John’.
“Thank you,” she barely managed before she practically threw her arms around him and hugged him as close to her as possible.
He placed his arms around her and hugged her back. “Thank you for letting me come, for letting me spend this time with you and not with Kavanagh and Caldwell.
She pulled away, leaving her arms around his neck and looked him in the eyes. “Thank you for coming.”
She watched as his eyes searched hers for a few moments and then he leaned down and kissed her. After a few moments he pulled away.
“Merry Christmas,” he said.
“Merry Christmas,” she said, kissing him again.
And a part of her dreaded returning to Atlantis…but she guessed they would find a way.
Love always found a way.
Part One