A/N: Post- Letter's to Pegasus.

Elizabeth escaped into the darkened quarters and staggered towards the bed. She paused long enough to change into a soft shirt she pulled from a nearby chair and crawled into bed, shifting restlessly between the cool sheets. She wondered what John was doing now. With the impending threat to the city, it was selfish, but all she wanted was for him to draw her closer and closer until she was blissfully unaware the galaxy existed outside his arms. The reality of the world they shared was growing darker each day.

Her eyes pressed shut and she swallowed hard. Today of all days, she'd needed for John's mission to go as scheduled. Several hours beyond fear he finally returned, averting his eyes and repeatedly turning away. The culling he'd witnessed had been one of the most destructive since the Wraith awakened. She knew how agonizing it had been to stand by and watch, but she couldn't pretend it hadn't stung when he abruptly brushed her aside and fled the conference room. He'd known she couldn't follow.

The door swished open and shut, her heart surged hearing the footsteps approach. She scrunched around softly still trying to find a comfortable spot. "Your bed seemed bigger last night."

She cringed, realizing she'd instantly resorted to the teasing banter that had pained her earlier. While she didn't want anyone to know, it had been difficult to be near John that day. They pretended nothing had changed, but in his eyes she saw nothing would ever be the same.

He sat at the edge of the bed tackling the laces on his boots. "Sleep didn't seem to be a priority last night, but if you're complaining…" John's humor was forced, his voice flat.

"Not complaining." She shifted a bit higher in the bed to glimpse his face. The walls of the room were thick, but she couldn't seem to raise her voice above a whisper. "You were off world a long time."

"I didn't exactly have a lot of options. There was an active incoming wormhole." John's hands gripped his knees and his head fell heavily towards the floor.

"And how close did you come to not returning at all?" She already knew how close the Wraith Dart had come to sweeping John away.

John didn't answer. Instead he turned his attention back to toeing the boots from his feet. It dawned upon her weary mind that his silence conveyed more. Though she'd left her office intending to head for her own quarters, her feet had instinctively led her here. She shouldn't have assumed he'd want her to stay. She sat up allowing her feet to hang over the opposite side of the bed. Their backs pressed together and she was excruciatingly aware that his arms remained carefully held off to his sides.

"Elizabeth, Atlantis can't fall into their hands. We may have to-"

"I have considered that." Just the thought of using the self-destruct spurred an aching sense of loss of guilt within her. She already had enough of that to bear.

Elizabeth thought of the personal message she'd recorded. It had been unavoidably overdue. She'd let Simon go, promising her heart would look after his always. As she breathed through John's silence, trying to quell the rising pain it stirred, she recognized that had been a promise she would not be able to keep.

John's hand slid gently across her own, lacing through her fingers. Her body jolted with a selfish relief that faded as quickly as it flashed. The muscles at the base of her neck began to knot again almost instantly and a different kind of tension quickly filled the void. She glanced over her shoulder and John's head tilted towards her, his narrowed eyes piercing her own. Heat flooded her body while his eyes remained locked possessively upon hers and Elizabeth understood with sobering certainty that her heart was no longer hers to give.

She could sense the tension still coiling within him when she shifted towards him. Her fingers trailed down his side before drifting beneath his shirt to trace the hardened muscles of his abdomen. "We have enough to fight. Don't fight this, John."

In the following stillness, her heart pulsed loudly within her ears, falling into unerring rhythm along with each shallow breath. Her nerves prickled as she inhaled the scent of his skin and warmed from the heat radiating off his body. Undeterred by his silence, she crept to her knees and peeled away his shirt with a slow surprising restraint. John's eyes clamped together and she felt suddenly helpless to alleviate the darkness within him. She eased onto her side atop the bed, surprised at how readily his body drifted along with her own.

His arms folded around her and his mouth found her ear, the scruff on his face scraping against her cheek. "Elizabeth. I don't know if I can do this."

Her heart stopped cold wondering what he was referring to. She took a deep breath and tried to settle her racing heart. Elizabeth didn't think she could escape if she tried, John's arms were fiercely locked around her. Deciding he'd been implying the, incoming Wraith armada, she pushed her insecurities aside.

"You're not alone in uncertainty, but we have each other. We can face that threat together."

A deep breath gushed against her ear and then John rolled her onto her back while he braced himself above her. The heat between them finally began to cut through her chill and she breathed in deeply waiting for the familiar smell of his skin to lull her away from that solitary place within her mind.

She pressed upward, her lips stalling just short of grazing his own. The room spiraled and her breathing faltered when his lips lightly brushed her own. It was unexpected and maddening how he slowly worked across her mouth, covering her lips with feather light kisses. He pressed deeper, still with a tortuously unhurried pace before tucking his head to dust the same tender kisses along her collarbone. Her nails scraped against his back, not understanding how the man who'd consumed her the night had become so reluctant now.

"Look at me." John's voice was dark and muffled, as through escaping through gritted teeth.

She didn't want to see the barriers in his eyes, the barriers she imagined him forcing between them even as he touched her. She turned away, surprised to find his hand tightly fisted in the sheet beside her.

John's body shifted lower against her own, his breathing escaped in ragged gasps against her ear. She could feel his heart pounding within his chest when his mouth resumed its torturous path. She watched his hands clench the sheets more viciously while soft kisses trailed along her neck.

"Elizabeth, look at me."

The urgency missing in his casual pace thundered deep within his voice and she found herself compelled to comply. When their eyes fused, she finally recognized the darkness sweltering in his eyes. Defiance. Atlantis didn't have all the time in the world and there might not be a damn thing either one of them could do about it. But this night belonged to them and they could draw out each second, linger in each moment and make memories that could sustain them for a lifetime in the hours to come. Memories that would help them remember what they were fighting for in their darkest hour. Thiswas something they could do.

She reached out, stretching her fingers to cover his hands. Taking a deep breath she squeezed, reinforcing their tenuous grasp on this moment.

A/N: Thanks to all who took the time to read and leave reviews.