From across the mess hall, John saw Elizabeth, mug in hand, head tilted to one side, watching Lieutenant Cadman and Doctor Beckett. As he walked across the hall, he turned his own head in their direction, intrigued by what had caught her attention. Witnessing Laura intimately lean into Carson, and whisper into his ear, pulling away only for Carson to stare deeply into her eyes, John nodded to himself and smiled. When he reached Elizabeth's table, he chose not to continue out of the hall with his lunch as he had intended to, but sat down next to Elizabeth with his own eyes on Carson and Laura.

'How long before the first date?' John asked, biting into his sandwich.

'If this isn't an informal first date, four days.' Elizabeth observed.

'Four days?'

'After today, Carson will fret about asking her for about a day, before somebody, a friendly Colonel perhaps, persuades him to go for it, just in time to arrange a date for Friday night. Four days.' Elizabeth said, triumphantly.

'This is all dependent on your ability to read Carson's character, right?'

'Right.' Elizabeth confirmed.

John turned to observe the look of amusement in Elizabeth's eyes, as she continued to watch Carson and Laura. He wasn't entirely sure what had amused her so much, but he couldn't deny that the hint of a smirk playing around her lips was a surreptiously pleasurable experience. It also gave him the incentive to challenge her certainty, prolonging the moment until he had to return to those mission reports which were amassing on his desk.

'Okay then, what about those two?' John said, nodding in Rodney and Katie's direction.

'What about them?'

'Read their characters.' John challenged, raising an eyebrow at her.

For the first time, Elizabeth looked at John and studied his eyes, before taking a sip from her mug and focussing her attentions on Katie and Rodney, who was doing most of the talking.

'Rodney's talking about work.'

'Rodney always talks about work.' John pointed out.

'Specifically, he's talking about his latest project.'

'How can you tell?'

'Arm movements. They always become more frenetic when he's talking about something he's passionate about.'

'He could be talking about Katie.'

'No, Katie's expression tells me she'd like for Rodney to be talking about her, or anything other than work, but he isn't.'

'Next date?' John challenged, confident that she wouldn't be able to read this one.

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at the couple and tilted her head from side to side slightly, and then stopped, another smile coming to her face.

'Monday. Afternoon precisely. Katie will take lunch to Rodney in his lab.'

'You can't seriously...'

'Rodney's off-world working on his project until Saturday evening, when he gets back he'll be straight back in the lab working on his findings, much too distracted to meet up with Doctor Brown. So on Monday, after waiting for him to appear in the mess – which he won't because by Monday he should still be much too engrossed in his findings, she'll eventually give up and take lunch to him in his lab.'

In amazement, John shook his head slightly, continuing to eat his dinner. While the knowledge that Elizabeth had such an acute ability to read people did both amuse and intrigue him, he also realised that this very probably meant she could read him. His mind flitted back to the look of both frustration and amusement in his eyes on those rather frequent occasions when he found an excuse for his mission reports being late. The reality was that, when he got back to his quarters at a late hour, the last thing he wanted to do was put pen to paper, or rather fingers to keyboard, and he'd promise himself that he'd do them when he woke up the next day. Inevitably, he didn't, and she very probably realised why.

However, in the midst of their musings over the couples of Atlantis, John liked to think he knew a little bit about reading Elizabeth too, so he decided to risk it.

'Say you were sat watching us, what would your body language observations be?' John queried, playing with the edge of his plate.

Elizabeth didn't even flicker, 'We, Colonel Sheppard, are playing the flirtation tango.'

Continuing to play with edge of his plate, John questioned, 'The flirtation Tango?'

'Yes. We sit beside one another, nonchalant mannerisms, the ultimate professionals discussing the welfare of their colleagues, but look a little closer and it's all part of the facade covering the fact that we are dancing...tangoing around the unresolved sexual tension.'

Daringly, but still playing with the edge of his plate, John ventured, 'And how long before the first date?'

'Friday.'

'Friday?'

'Yes. After Carson comes to you with his last minute nerves, you'll be reminded of this conversation and, soon enough, you'll be in my office asking if I'd like to join you for dinner.'

'Friday it is then.'