Twas the morning after Halloween, and all through Atlantis no one was stirring not even a mouse.
The staff members were nestled all snug in their beds, visions of alcohol laced fruit punch spinning through their heads.
When in Elizabeth's quarters, there arose such a clatter; she prayed none would come to see what was the matter.
"John this isn't funny anymore, where's the damn key!" Elizabeth forehead protested the heights to which her arched eye was reaching. But arching her eyebrow was the only dignified response her body could provide now. She was tangled in the bed sheets which now tethered her legs to the bed while the top half of her body twisted painfully against the floor. She'd stopped laughing the moment he'd dropped to his knees to search the floor forgetting she'd be dragged along with him.
"Sorry, are you okay?" John reached out with his free hand to pull her back to a seated position in the bed.
"Why would I be okay? You've got to get out of here, it's almost dawn. Sometime after that, we have a staff meeting. For which I need to get dressed and right now not a single one of those things is possible John!"
John had the grace to look apologetic. He reached his hands up to run his fingers through his hair, resulting in her limp arm smacking him in the face. She bit down on her lip, but even in her frustration, she couldn't prevent the pearls of laughter from escaping her lips at his shocked expression.
"Seriously John, you had to be a cop for Halloween." She wagged her finger him using the hand that was not currently handcuffed to his own.
"In my defense, it was Rodney's idea. Starsky and Hutch?" She could see him work to plant his most charming smile upon his face.
"That's a terrible defense John. Rodney's idea? You should have known it would end badly." Elizabeth was shaking her head.
She allowed him to untangle the sheets and help her from the bed as they began to search the floor for the missing key.
"Well next year I'll go as a lemon and I'll be even with him." He raised his eyebrow waiting for her response.
Elizabeth snorted as she pictured Rodney's face with a giant lemon approaching him. She did love Halloween. But maybe not the morning after.
"Besides you were the one dressed up as an outlaw. I had to use the handcuffs." John pretended to be indignant.
"Annie Oakley was not an outlaw John." Elizabeth was shaking her head sadly looking at their cuffed hands wondering how on earth they would escape this one. Without a key, they would have to enlist the help of someone. Their secret relationship was about to be revealed unless they could think of some other way.
Hours later John and Elizabeth sat side by side on the bed. A wild array of earrings, bobby pins, safety pins, straight pins, thread, scissors, tape and sewing needles lay on the bedside table. While none of them managed to open the lock, they had been quite useful in dressing. Thankfully, John had stashed one spare uniform in her room in case he ever overslept and couldn't slip away. Unfortunately, neither of them could pull a shirt up their arms while handcuffed.
Elizabeth's mouth pressed together. There were a lot of things they couldn't do. Shouldn't do rather, she was still mortified by their rather comical antics as they tried to create some sort of privacy in the bathroom that morning. She could defiantly say they would be much much closer after this whole experience.
They had ended up cutting the hem out of their sleeves and trying to sew them back together. Elizabeth's arm itched uncomfortably because of all the tape they ended up using to close up the seams. They had found it rather hard to sew clothes that were on a person and were poking each other with the needle a little too often. They'd finally realized the blood stains would give them away and hence, the tape.
Elizabeth was shaking her heard. "Are we really going to do this? I can still postpone the meeting."
"We can't just hide in here all day; though there are multiple reasons why I'd love to do so. We need to get out there, someone probably picked it up at the party or it could even still be there in the floor somewhere. If we can find it, no one will find out." John said earnestly.
Elizabeth looked down to their joined wrists and rolled her eyes. There was no way they would get away with this. Elizabeth had draped a long shawl around her shoulders; it hung far enough to cover her arms if she folded it. She planned to tell everyone she might be sick, she'd been feeling a bit chilled. Hopefully, that might even back people up as they tried to avoid her germs.
John had plotted out the shortest route to her office. He insisted if she put her arm just behind her while hidden under the shawl and he walked just a step behind her no one would notice. Their only hope was the early hour of the day. It was still early; the hallways would hopefully still be deserted. But she wasn't sure how he thought they could perform a search for a missing key and no one notice.
"My diary!" Elizabeth jumped up, but John's hand swiveled to grasp her wrist and pull her back. "Sorry. We can ask them to look for the key for us. Just tell them I lost the key to my diary last night. We stay safe in my office and the staff can look."
John scrunched his face as he considered it. "It could work, the key was pretty small."
Elizabeth felt a glimmer of hope; they might pull this off after all.
With his free hand, John pulled her chin gently towards his face. "I am sorry Elizabeth."
She couldn't resist his puppy dog eyes. She closed the gap between them pressing her lips against his and gently gnawing on his lower lip before she pulled away. "Well, it was fun. Until we couldn't find the key anyway." She smirked.
A/N: Definitely not the end, they are not getting out of this without some serious Atlantis funnies!
