Title: Rumours
Author: ShepsGirl
Genre: Romance, Fluff
Rating: T
Pairing: John/Elizabeth
Spoilers: Um… Yeah, for "Trinity"
Summary: Elizabeth hears a rumour… But who started it? Not a good summary I know, but hey. Sparky
Disclaimers: If I owned them would I be working at the local video shop?
Author's Note: This is my first fic ever. I hope you like it. I'm just forewarning, it's Sparky… because they are just so cute. Oh, and this hasn't been beta'd. All my mistakes are my own.
John had been watching Elizabeth all day, although he wouldn't admit that to anyone, not even Elizabeth.
She hadn't had a chance to leave her office to reheat her stone coffee from that morning that had barely been drunk just from the load of work she had had to deal with.And in the last hour it was starting to look more and more like she would chew up and spit out the next person who even made eye contact with her.
Major Lorne walked up the steps from the 'gateroom and made his way through the control room past Sheppard, towards Weir's office.
"I wouldn't if I were you," came a voice from behind him, and Lorne jumped before realising who'd spoken.
"That bad, huh?" he asked.
"Oh yeah," replied Sheppard. "I've been watching and waiting for the best opportunity to go in there and tell here I broke Rodney's new toy. I haven't seen that frown leave her face the whole time… It's just… gotten deeper!"
Lorne chuckled, he didn't know however if he was laughing at Sheppard breaking Rodney's toy or at Sheppard's fear of telling a woman half a head shorter than him. Either way it was funny. John just scowled.
"In that case," he managed to say between chuckles. "I'll come back tomorrow. It's not that important."
"Ok… Sure you don't want to go first and gently break the ice before I smash it?" John asked pleadingly.
"Uh-uh! You're on your own Colonel." Lorne called back over his shoulder as he went back the way he'd come. "Good luck!"
"Yeah. Right. Thanks a lot!" John muttered to himself as he watched Lorne disappear.
He was going to get his head bitten-off, he just knew it. Maybe he could distract her for a bit first, after all she hadn't had a breath of fresh air today, nor a decent cup of coffee, and he'd only seen her once before when she hadn't had a decent cup. Needless to say, it wasn't pretty!
He started down the gangway slowly and softly and plastered on his best please-don't-bite-me-I'm-a-nice-guy grin on his face as he tentatively stepped over the threshold of her office.
"What do you want Colonel?" Elizabeth asked without even looking up from her laptop.
"Hi to you too!" John said as he made his way to the corner of Elizabeth's desk.
"What do you want?" She replied, still reading through an incident report on the screen.
"Can't a guy come and say a friendly 'hello' to his boss, whilst bringing Caffeine goodness?"
"When it comes to you John," Elizabeth retorted, looking up from her screen to lock eye's with her second in command. "No. There is always something more."
Elizabeth quickly lent over her desk and grabbed the cup of coffee John had placed next to him, and allowed the warmth of the mug warm her ice-cold hands.
"Ok, there might be, but you have to promise not to get angry, you already look stressed out enough…"
"Oh god! When someone says 'You have to promise not to get angry'…" She muttered to herself. "What did you do?"
"Well, you know that piece of alien technology Rodney found the other week on S7K-217? Well… um… I might have accidentally… blown it up?..."
"What!"
"And McKay doesn't know about it yet…"
"Are you kidding me!"
"And… um… it might have… uh… taken half the lab with it." He finished up weakly.
"JOHN! Please tell me you're pulling my leg?"
"Hey now, you promised you wouldn't get mad."
"I made no such promise! God! Of all days, it had to be this one!"
"C'mon 'Lizbeth, let's go get you a breath of fresh air while we let that caffeine kick in. Then you can be mad."
"No John, We have to get this sorted out now… You get a build team together and I'll call Rodn…"
Elizabeth didn't have a chance to say anything more on the subject as Sheppard rounded her desk and proceeded to throw her over his shoulder.
"No Colonel! Put me down. Now, Colonel!" Elizabeth yelled as she started hitting his back. John however remained silent as he exited Elizabeth's office and made his way through the control centre to their balcony.
Elizabeth also fell silent as she realised she was being carried over the shoulder by her second in command and best friend through the control room. And just to make it that much worst, the control room staff also didn't make a peep. Instead they sat there slack-jawed as they watched the parade.
As soon as the doors to the balcony shut the room became louder than ever as bets were paid, rumours were started and people were laughing.
"This is not calming my anger Colonel!" Elizabeth yelled as the balcony doors shut behind them, and let out a yelp as John put her back on solid ground.
"Why'd you go and do that! Do you know how many rumours are going to fly after that little stunt?"
John just grinned stupidly then made his way over to the edge and looked down at the ocean. After a moment he turned back around and looked at Elizabeth.
"There are hundreds of rumours circulating about us, what does it matter?"
Because I wish some of them were true… Thought Elizabeth. Outwardly though, she said nothing.
"And I brought you out here so all our moves won't be watched and you can calm down."
Elizabeth closed her eyes and took a deep breathe.
"What happened today, besides the normal stuff? You're angrier than usual."
She sighed, "It's been a long and very trying day."
"No. That's not it. Even with what I did. You're more short-fused, I mean I haven't seen you this annoyed since Rodney blew up that solar system."
"Yes, well, maybe."
"Has this something to do with the rumour mill?"
Elizabeth only just managed to stop a shocked look from crossing her face. How had he figured that out so quickly? "What makes you say that?" she asked.
John grinned inwardly. No one says that if it's not true. "The way you reacted when we got out here. The first thing that worried you was the rumour mill."
"Ok then, yes. I heard a rumour." Elizabeth stopped refusing to explain any further.
After a minute John realised that she was going to require prompting, "And…"
"And… It was about us." She stated firmly.
Oh this is going to be good… John thought. He loved hearing the latest rumours, especially when they were about them…
"Well? You can't leave it there! What was it about?"
"I don't want to John. Leave it be!"
Elizabeth then turned to the water and leaned against the rail. John walked up behind her.
poke…
poke poke…
He continued to poke her in the arm until she spun around and swatted his hand away.
"Fine! I'll tell you, although I'm surprised you haven't heard it already… It's saying that I'm pregnant with your child… I know it's nothing out of the ordinary, I know but I want to have children one day and it just reintegrated the fact that I probably never will… So it was basically the straw that broke the camels back"
John was starting to sport a look of worry. "And…"
"And… It also got me thinking…"
She was about to continue, her nerves building every moment, making her want to run away and curl up in a very dark corner very far away. She hadn't expected to tell John Sheppard how she felt about him like this. Her feelings had moved beyond friendship a while ago but she'd kept them to herself the whole time. Sure they might have increased their office flirting a little more, but that was bound to happen given the fact that they worked in such close proximity and had become good friends. She'd wanted to wait a while until she was more certain of how John felt on the matter, and on any other day than the shocker she'd had today.
She was about to continue when she caught the look on John's face.
"Colonel?" Elizabeth asked, concern creeping into her voice, "What else did you do?"
John averted his eyes.
"Nothing," came the squeak of a reply.
"John!"
"I… uh… well… you… um…" John stuttered while he collected his thoughts together, all the while not making eye contact with Elizabeth. "I… ahem… I might have been the one to start that rumour" he finished, hazarding a glance at Elizabeth to be meet with daggers.
"You have got some serious explaining to do Lt. Colonel!"
"Well we've been good friend for over 2 years now, right? And, um… I didn't want to ruin, as I seem to have anyway, our friendship by trying to move it to the next level, if you were repulsed by the idea, so I started a rumour to try and suss out your opinion before making a move… I, um, I understand if you want to send me to a "very lonely planet". I'm… I'm going to leave now"
Through his whole confession, John had kept his eyes trained on the paved floor in front of him and had missed the softening of Elizabeth's death-stare. Hearing no reply he turned to leave and was surprised when he felt a slender hand wrap around his wrist and pull him back. What shocked him all the more was another soft hand moving up to touch his cheek, while it's thumb outlined his lips, before both hands were pulling him down into a gentle sweet kiss. Shocked at first it took John few seconds to realise what was going on before he deepened the kiss.
Both realising air was necessary for normal human function, they pulled apart. Elizabeth opened her eyes to look into John's.
"You know, John, all you had to do was ask"
"Yeah, well, I know that now" John replied smirking from ear to ear.
"We have to talk about this you know."
"Oh, Can't we do that later?..." Before he got a devious sparkle in his eyes "… I had something else in mind"
"No Colonel," Elizabeth said as she swatted his arm. Then she grinned, "Wait until dark"
They leaned in towards each other ready to share another kiss when Elizabeth's headset crackled to life. "Elizabeth! I'm going to kill him! It's completely destroyed!" Came the screaming voice of McKay. John gave her an annoyed look that said "who the hell is calling right now, couldn't they have waited like 5 minutes!"
"I understand, and don't worry, he will be punished" Elizabeth replied before clicking off the connection, and gazing up at John, grinning cheekily from ear to ear. It took a few moments to sink in what was happening, and his eyes widened as his own radio crackled to life in his ear…
"JOHN SHEPPARD! I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!"
… Oh, Crap…
Fin.