Author: RowenaR

Rating: T

Category: Romance

Disclaimer: Stargate belongs to Gekko and… all those other people making money with it. Anyway, I don't. Honestly. So – I don't own, you don't sue. Deal?

Summary: Laura Cadman is in for a special round of sparring... with her favorite Major, Evan Lorne.

A/N: As promised, a piece that's... erm... as close to the gutter as I can get (don't be afraid, I'm actually a pretty well-behaved girl ;)) and a one-shot sequel to "Raising the stakes". At the moment I'm working on another one that's more character-focused than action-focused (in case anyone was wondering: Yes, I haven't forgotten about the non-frat issue) and yesterday I was more or less hit by the right inspiration for another longer action piece. Oh, and for those who were asking me for a prequel about how they might have built up their friendship: I'm trying to come up with something catchy, but at the moment there are only general ideas floating round in my head. But I'm working on that.

Anyway, as always: Not a native speaker, so please excuse any weird grammatical constructions, run-ons and typos. Feedback will earn you a cookie, flames will roast my marshmellows.

Protect and Survive III: No sleep tonight

"Boy you won't be sleeping
no sleep tonight
do I have to spell it out in black and white."

The Faders, "No sleep tonight"

Whoof! And he has her on the mattress of the hand-to-hand combat room again. It's the third time today and it's slowly starting to aggravate her a little. She suspects that this is what he wants, so she won't give him the satisfaction of letting go of her inhibitions. Not yet, anyway.

Although she's really very close. Now he's straddling her, pinning her arms on the ground by putting his weight on her wrist left and right of her head and grinning devilishly, his chest heaving a little. "You have to do better than this, Lieutenant, if you ever want to make it to Captain."

She smirks. "What? Better than sleeping with my CO?"

"I'll give you sleeping with your CO, Buttercup.", he growls as he bents down and starts kissing her, letting go of her wrists in the process. As delightful as being kissed – and being called "Buttercup" – by Evan Lorne is, there are more pressing issues right now. So she gives herself a moment to savor his unabashed passion, before she uses her now free right hand to push back his knee, free her own right leg and flip him over, effectively trapping him with now her straddling him.

Bewildered he looks at her and actually needs a moment to register what she just did. She allows a smug grin on her face at the sight of his face when it finally dawns on him how she used his… well… slightly otherwise occupied mind. "Playing dirty will get you nowhere, Lieutenant."

She brings her face close enough to his that a few strands of red-golden hair that have escaped her braid are lightly touching it and whispers: "Believe me, this was nothing. You'll notice when I really play dirty, Major."

"Can't wait for it to happen.", he replies and lifts his head to kiss her again. But oh no, she will not be fooled by this. Swiftly, she gets off his body and brings some distance between them with a fluid Aikido move, crouching on the floor, ready to strike out again.

"Then come and get it.", she challenges him and he doesn't think twice about taking it up. With a rather predatory grin he turns on the side and flings his legs towards her, actually managing to knock her to the ground. She swears as her shoulder hits the mattress rather hard, but doesn't waste any time with unnecessary whining. Instead, she moves her body away from his again and propels herself to stand up again.

He follows suit, obviously determined to get her on the ground again. If she's honest, she doesn't have any objections to being on the ground with him, but this would have to way until she's finally shown him just how advanced her unarmed combat skills are. After all, she really wants to make Captain this year.

"I would, but you're kind of elusive. If you'd come just a little closer…" She make a disapproving sound.

"No way. That would be rather defying the object of this whole exercise, wouldn't it?" He's gotten into combat stance again and they're circling each other, waiting for the other to give them an opening, show a weakness, anything to base an attack on.

"True. How's that shoulder of yours, by the way?" Still a little tender, even one week after she got her discharge from the infirmary after some babysitting mission gone wrong and resulting in the dislocation of one of her shoulders, but she'd rather rot in hell than tell him. They might be madly in love with each other, but that doesn't mean she's going to share each and every of her little secrets with him.

"Great. Now, you wanna stand around and talk or fight?" He just raises his eyebrows and grins at her. God, how she loves his feral grin. Makes her all kinds of woozy inside. But she knows that he knows it, and she also knows that he usually uses every advantage he can get in a fight. So better not let her mind slide too far into the gutter now.

"I want do to several things right now." Whoa. She's so totally not going to let him sleep one second tonight. But… first things first. "However, I have a priority list I need to follow." And with that he aims a hit with the back of his hand at her, but she manages to block it. They exchange a fast series of hits and blocks. All the time, he's grinning at her, and when her back suddenly hits the wall, she knows why. "Objective number one: Check."

She wants to ask what this special objective was, but it proves futile as she had figured it out already anyway. Yep, there he goes again. Targeting her mouth all the way. Jesus. When she'd set herself the objective of cracking up his reserve, she never thought she'd actually get more than she bargained for.

She knows they really shouldn't do this in such a public place as this, but she can't help wrapping one of her legs around his as he continues kissing her. His hands have moved to her hips and he's started kissing the crook of her neck. Ah hell… really, why wait until tonight, when she can have him right here, right now?

No.

Wait.

Bad idea. Bad, bad, bad idea. She can barely think straight with all the attention she's receiving from him right now, and she has the fleeting suspicion that this is exactly what he wants to achieve. But she's got some tricks up her sleeve as well. "You know… as much as I enjoy this… Oh… and this, of course…"

"I think… we should postpone the rest of this little sparring match…" Oh yes. Yes, they definitely should. It would really be a waste of time. Time they could use for… other activities, what with their barely matching schedules and sparse down time and everything. God, who would have thought what Evan Lorne having the hots for someone could make him do? She really, really wants to lose herself in all of this. But they'd agreed on a sparring match. The other match really would have to wait for tonight.

"In fact, we should. Because… you know… Colonel Sheppard is standing right behind you." The words have about the same effect a cold shower would have had. Immediately he lets go of her and brings about two feet of distance between them. He turns around, deep red in the face, awaiting his immediate demotion.

Seeing no one standing in the doorway, though, he turns around again. "You little vixen!"

"What? Ten minutes ago, it was "Buttercup"… farm boy.", she replies half laughing. He actually fell for this age-old trick, and now he wants his revenge. But she's faster and manages to throw her shoulder against his and knock away his legs from behind with hers. Again, she has him trapped under her on the floor. "That's what you get for trying to divert my attention like this. Now I'll have to keep you from sleeping the whole night." He smirks.

"Really? What did I do to deserve such a cruel punishment?" She crosses her arms and leans down on his chest, her face just a few inches away from his.

"Playing dirty, obviously."

"That wasn't dirty. That's dirty!" And with that he grabs her hips, flips her around and actually starts to tickle her. She wants to say something, but the only thing coming out of her mouth is breathless laughter. "That's for calling me "farm boy", you know."

Before she can answer, a voice drawls "May I ask what you're doing here, Major?" between both their bouts of giggling and they both freeze in their movements at once. It was bound to happen that someone further up the chain of command would discover that they are a little more than soldier and CO. They really should have been better at hiding this.

Evan is the first to find his voice again. Trying to look as casual as possible under the circumstances, he gets up and says: "I was just… teaching the Lieutenant how to react in… unusual hand-to-hand combat situations."

Sheppard regards both of them with a rather skeptic look. "Unusual hand-to-hand combat situations, huh?" She just offers a nod. Another skeptic look, probably because he's just spotted the mess her hair has become. "Well… I think we should discuss this training idea some time, Major. Sounds interesting."

"Yes, sir. And if you'd… excuse me now? I have a few mission reports to read and… a shower to take." That nearly makes her laugh out loud. He surely looks a little out of sorts, with his hair all messy and everything. It nearly rivals Sheppard's famously gravity-defying hair. The only reason she doesn't instantly jump her Major is that their CO is still standing in the room. Such a shame, really.

"Oh, I could… help you with the reports." Evan looks at her with a raised eyebrow and she just gives him an encouraging and slightly suggestive smile. Let's see if he got her message.

"Right. Errr… just… drop by my office" – read: quarters – "around 2000." Oh yes, he did get her message. Yep, no sleep tonight for this boy. Neither for her, but she's okay with that, because she will certainly not lose this sleep over mission reports.

"Will do." He nods, gives Sheppard a nod and a "Sir." and leaves the room already jogging. Poor boy, she thinks. But that's what you get when you try to rattle her defense with… unusual methods.

Now… having a shower herself maybe would be a good idea as well… "Major Lorne didn't just wear a t-shirt with the words "Property of the USMC" printed on its back, right, Lieutenant?"

Uh-oh. She can't believe Sheppard is that perceptive. And why the hell did Evan have to wear that shirt, anyway? Wasn't enough that he kept it after she'd lend it to him, no, he had to go and wear it. In public. Sure, it looks way better on him than it does on her – being a guy t-shirt anyway and everything – but… really. And now, of course, it's up to her to save his hide. Again. "He was wiping the floor with me, sir. I really didn't have that much leisure to look what kind of t-shirt he was wearing." She can even keep a totally straight face while saying it. But Sheppard still wears his ever skeptic face, as if he doesn't really trust her words.

"Of course. I suggest you ask Ronon or Teyla for a few lessons in high level hand-to-hand combat. Maybe it'll give you enough of an advantage over the Major that you can have a look into this next time you spar." Did she just detect a certain innuendo tone in this? She didn't, right? Because that would mean all kinds of trouble for Evan and her, and they just don't want to deal with them right now.

Right now, all they want is enjoy this newfound closeness and attraction to each other. Who knows how serious this will get, anyway? They can deal with that when the need arises, but why bother with it now? Because it's not to be taken likely when a CO sleeps with one of his soldiers, Evan would say if he wasn't as hyped up on feelings as she is, but hey – they will figure something out. Just not right now.

"Sure, sir. Just don't tell the Major. We don't want him to be warned in advance, do we?" He smirks. Yes, once in a while, Sheppard enjoys torturing his usually quiet, dutiful 2IC a little.

"You've got a point there, Lieutenant. And don't tell him about the t-shirt. Feels like viable blackmail material." Hopefully, Sheppard doesn't know how viable it is, she thinks.

"If you say so, sir. Now… I think I better head for a shower myself. The Major really didn't cut me any slack."

"I can see that… be nice to him tonight." Oh God, she thinks. He knows. He knows. But, obviously, for some reasons he decided to keep quiet about it for the time being. Hopefully not to nuke them later for it.

"I'm always nice to him." She grins, and finally tells him goodbye and heads for her own quarters. Oh yes, she will be very nice to Evan tonight.