Authors Note (Hannah554): Sorry about the evilly long wait for this chapter. I don't even have a good excuse since I finished writing this story before I started posting it. Feel free to hurl objects at me, soft ones only please lol.

Chapter 2

The moaning and groaning had been funny for the first couple of hours but it was starting to wear thin now. John and Teyla had gotten more than their fair share of mocking in and they'd run out of jokes and retorts to throw at him though the scowl he gave them whenever they came up with another one was still mildly amusing. They'd come up to the third class deck so Ronon could get some air and let him walk off his mood, he wasn't good at sitting still at the best of times.

"Never again," he groaned as he finally sat down on one of the benches near the railing. "I'm never drinking again."

"That's what you said the last time you ended up like this and the time before that," John told him, his face thoughtful. "And the time before that... and the..."

"I get it," Ronon snapped and then threw his head back with a groan "But I really do mean it this time."

"You said that last time too," John pointed out. "And the time before that and... do I really have to go through it again?"

Ronon lifted his head long enough to glare at John before dropping it back again. Teyla sat on the bench next to him, a compassionate look on her face now having replaced the amused one she'd had since last night. "Perhaps we should stop picking on him now."

"That would be appreciated," Ronon muttered without lifting his head. It was at that moment that John saw the guy Ronon had been up against in his drinking competition last night. He had his head over the side of the ship; there were no prizes for guessing why his head was over there. Three of his friends were with him, two of them enjoying mocking him as much as John and Teyla had been enjoying mocking Ronon earlier. The other one, a young woman, was rubbing his back soothingly trying to tell the others to shut up.

"Well, at least that guy looks worse off than you," John said and Ronon lifted his head once more glancing over to where John was looking.

"Light weight," Ronon grunted and John resisted the urge to point out that he and Teyla had been forced to drag his butt back to his room last night.

"Well if you feel up to it, I'm starving," John said and Ronon looked at him slightly more nauseous but nodded his head anyway.

Elizabeth sat back in her seat knowing that it was going to earn her a lecture about slouching but deciding it was worth it. She'd been sat at the breakfast table listening to her mother and two of her friends discussing wedding details for the best part of an hour. Talk of pink flowers and diamond studded dresses had all become nothing but a blur to her now. She was sure she was supposed to be excited about her own wedding, she was supposed to be planning visits to dress fitters, florists and caterers, she wasn't supposed to switch off as soon as it was mentioned.

"How about lilacs, I do love lilacs," her mother's friend suggested, Ilene was never one to keep her opinions to herself, if she thought something she generally said it. Sometimes the honesty in it was a nice change from all the lies and secrets people kept, mostly it was just annoying though.

"I don't know, pink roses are much more to my taste," her mother replied.

"I agree with Melinda," the second of her mother's friends stated.

"Perhaps you should ask Elizabeth, it's her wedding after all," Laura cut in and smirked to herself when the three women looked at her stunned for a moment. Melinda finally turned to her daughter, a placating expression on her face, she'd been enjoying planning the wedding, she was a woman who liked to have control of things and this wedding was proving to be one of them.

"Elizabeth, what would you like?" Melinda questioned.

Elizabeth glared at Laura; she hadn't wanted to be involved in the conversation at least not that morning, at that moment she didn't care what flowers were on the tables at the wedding reception. "Pink roses," she said knowing that if she disagreed with her mother she'd spend the next few days listening to her mother's reasons for having pink roses there.

"Good," her mother said as she noticed something across the room behind Elizabeth "And here is the groom to be, perhaps you have an opinion as well."

"An opinion on what?" Simon questioned as he and his friend approached the table. Bernard looked much the same as Simon, they both had dark hair and similar builds, they wore similar expensive suits and walked with the same 'we own the world' demeanour.

"Floral arrangements," Melinda replied with a smile that Simon returned.

"I must admit my vast array of knowledge doesn't extend that far, Mrs Weir," he told her, always the smooth talker when other people were around, especially his future mother in law. "I think I shall leave floral arrangements and any other wedding details in your capable hands, whatever you decide is fine by me and please remember," he continued with a glance at Elizabeth "Money is no object."

"I'll bear that in mind," Melinda said with another smile as she returned to the wedding discussion.

"Elizabeth," Simon greeted her dropping a kiss on her cheek and taking the chair beside her. "So how much of my money is your mother planning to spend on this joyous day?"

"No more than you can afford, I assure," Elizabeth told him though that wasn't saying much, this was a man who could buy America if it was for sale and still have enough money left over to do it a few more times, even then there'd be plenty more.

"Like I said, money is no object," he repeated and she forced a smile, nodding her head and taking a sip of wine to avoid turning around and glaring at Laura who was sending her the usual knowing look. She was tired of this, they'd only been on the ship for a day and already she was feeling suffocated, there was no where to go, no space.

She knew it was probably a bad idea but it was the only one she had and if she didn't do it she was gonna go crazy. Simon and her mother were looking for her, she'd made an excuse to miss lunch, told them she was still feeling a little ill but she was pretty sure they hadn't believed her. Anywhere she went in first class she was bound to either be found by them or spotted by someone who would tell them. This was the best way to guarantee they didn't find her until she was ready to be found, it would just be a few minutes then she'd come back.

Elizabeth cast a glance around and then headed down the stairs to the third class deck. There weren't that many people around, they were probably having their own meal or hiding from the cold. She'd be fine down here for a little while and at the very least she wouldn't have to worry about her mother or Simon finding her. Looking at the green dress she was wearing with all its expensive trimmings she knew she stood out here, she'd just have to make this a short walk.

She passed a couple who were standing by the railings looking out at the water. They were probably about the same age as she was, their clothes were simple and looking at them you'd know they didn't have much but that didn't seem to bother them. They were laughing as the man pretended he was going to chuck the woman over board. She glanced back after she'd passed them just to be sure that he hadn't actually thrown her over. There was a group of kids playing a little further down the deck, two mothers watching them and occasionally shouting something or other. She kept walking keeping her head low as she passed them too and once she'd put some distance between her and them she looked up at the deck she should have been on. Anyone up there would be able to see her if they came close to the edge so she moved further along until she came to a quiet area hidden from view of the upper deck and she stopped by the railing to look out at the ocean.

"A little lost aren't you?" a male voice questioned from behind her and Elizabeth tensed hesitating before turning around and meeting the eyes of the man standing a few feet from her. He was probably about her age, dark hair sticking out in random directions and clothes that told her he was third class. If she was going to be caught down here by someone she was glad it wasn't another first class passenger, Simon and her mother would kill her.

"Why would you say that?" she questioned glad her voice was still working despite the fright he'd given her, she hadn't even heard him approach. He looked at the dress she was wearing, at her hair tied back from her face and the necklace that hung from her neck.

"Well somehow I doubt you're steerage and first class passengers tend to stay up there," he said gesturing to the upper deck and she stood up straighter trying to stare him down, it didn't seem to work.

"What business is it of yours what I'm doing here?" she asked him in annoyance and he shrugged.

"Guess it's not," he replied but didn't make any move to leave.

"Is there something else I can do for you?" she questioned and he shook his head. "Then why are you still here?"

"This happens to be my deck, I have every right to be here and I'm still curious as to why a first class passenger would choose to come down here, unless you really are just lost," he replied and after several uncomfortable seconds of silence she gave herself a mental shake.

"Listen Mr... whoever you are, what I'm doing here is none of your business and you have no right asking me these questions so why don't you go back to whatever it is you were doing and leave me alone," she told him and then walked away heading for the nearby stairs to the upper deck. She could feel his eyes on her the entire way but didn't look back as she disappeared from his view. It really had been a bad idea to go down there; she'd known that when she'd done it and she'd been a fool to do it anyway. She headed back to her room, Simon and her mother would find her there easily but she'd had the only respite she was going to get on this journey and she regretted taking it now.

She should not have gone down there.

"What was she even doing down here?" Ronon questioned. "Those people don't have enough room up there they gotta come down here now too, and there was me thinking we were beneath them," Ronon stated rather touchily. He'd not had many run ins with the rich and fortunate of society but those he had been unlucky enough to have had not been pleasant experiences.

"Technically we are," Teyla replied humorously glancing up at the ceiling which was actually the floor to the people on the next deck up.

"Funny," Ronon said after a moment of staring at her in annoyance and Teyla shrugged.

"Well, like she so eloquently put, it's none of my business, or yours," John told them, he'd only mentioned his run in with the first class passenger in the middle of a conversation and it had ended up with a life of it's own.

"It sounds like she was just rude anyway," Ronon said pulling a chocolate bar out of his pocket and stuffing the contents in his mouth.

"To be honest I think I scared her, I don't think she planned to get caught," John replied thinking back to the encounter. She'd acted just like many of the snobs he'd come across in his life, she'd talked down to him in the same way they all had but she'd seemed pretty jittery as well. The more he thought about it the more the whole thing didn't make sense, why the hell would a first class passenger come down to their part of the deck when theirs was so much better, cleaner too? He'd probably never know, in fact he'd probably never see that woman again so he shook the questions out of his head.

"Still, she could have be nicer about it," Ronon said as he screwed up the wrapper from his chocolate and tossed it at a rat that was sniffing around nearby. The paper missed it by millimetres but it succeeded in scaring the rat away. Teyla hit Ronon's arm, a look of scolding on her face as she turned to him.

"Litter bugs like you are part of the reason we have rats in the first place, go pick it up," she chastised him, Ronon glared at her for a moment but much to John's surprise the big guy actually went and did as he was told. He stalked down the corridor, picking the wrapper up from the floor and stuffing it into his pocket.

"Happy now?" he questioned as he rejoined them.

"Very," Teyla replied cocking her head to the side and smiling sweetly, Ronon it seemed couldn't hold back the glare he was directing her way and huffed as he turned to walk away. Teyla followed after him and John smiled to himself in amusement before running after them. "Are you coming again tonight?" Teyla asked them.

"You know, I love that about this ship, every night is a party," John said.

"It's not a party, we just get together and make the most of our accommodations," Teyla corrected him and John raised an eyebrow at her.

"I call that a party," he told her "But yes, we're coming, providing Ronon can control his alcohol intake."

"Had to bring that up, didn't you?" Ronon questioned with a glare, the headache he'd woken up with that morning hadn't gone completely. John didn't feel a huge amount of sympathy for him; it was completely self inflicted after all.

Laura walked along the deck her arm linked with Carson as she tried her best to ignore Rodney's rambling. She loved the man, he had been a good friend to her since she'd met Carson but there were moments when she just wanted to strangle him, a lot of moments. He was currently going on about some of his latest work, working for the government meant that he was almost always working on something interesting – at least to him – but it also meant he couldn't talk about it. That meant that whenever he could share the details of his genius with them he took every chance he got.

Sometimes she would just let him ramble on, humming or nodding in what seemed like the right places so he'd think she was soaking up every detail. It made up for the times where she told him to shut up or she was going to stick a lemon down his throat. It was probably unfair to use lemons against him so much, after all his fear came from his severe allergy to them but it was the one thing that was guaranteed to shut him up.

In front of her Elizabeth was walking with Simon, her arm was linked with his much like Laura and Carson but it wasn't out of affection. Melinda Weir was walking on the other side of Simon, dressed in another one of her amazingly elegant dresses; the woman was never seen not looking like she was worth a few million dollars. Laura had known Elizabeth since childhood; they'd basically been raised together and even as a five year old Laura hadn't liked Melinda. The woman had always been all about image, whenever Laura had been at Elizabeth's with her parents she was constantly being told to sit up straight or chastised for not speaking properly. Her own parents had been a little more lax, Laura had gotten away with a lot of stuff that Elizabeth would have been punished for.

Elizabeth's father, Nicolas Weir had been another story though, he'd been a genuinely nice man and Laura put it down to him that Elizabeth had turned out the way she had. Nicolas had always had more influence over Elizabeth than Melinda and as such Elizabeth wasn't all about money and image, she was a good person.

Tagging along behind the group was Kavanaugh; he was one of Simon's employees though Laura wasn't exactly sure what his job was supposed to be. All she knew was that Simon used him as a spy; the man was constantly following people about to keep an eye on them. One of those people was Elizabeth, they'd caught the pathetic little man following her a few times, reporting back to Simon everything Elizabeth had done, anything he might not approve of. They'd gone shopping together about three weeks ago and a man they'd run into had taken a liking to Elizabeth. She'd shown no return of the interest but that hadn't stopped the man from flirting with her while he'd had the chance. Simon had known about it before the two of them had returned to the hotel and Elizabeth had gotten an earful about it.

Melinda had to side step a lifeboat, sighing in irritation at it and Laura rolled her eyes. There was more than enough room on the deck; it was her own fault that she had chosen to walk right next to the boats. "These things really do clutter up the deck," she said in exasperation.

"They're a necessary evil though," Laura pointed out with a hint of sarcasm that as always was ignored.

"Hardly," Simon half scoffed. "This ship is designed not to sink; it's a waste of space."

It amazed Laura that people could be so complacent, these things were aboard to save lives. "No ship is unsinkable. If you ask me it's irresponsible that they don't have enough aboard for all the passengers."

"So they can clutter the deck even more?" Simon questioned with his own sarcasm and Laura glared at his back as they continued along the deck. She'd never liked Simon either, in fact she liked him less than she liked Melinda. She didn't know how Elizabeth put up with him, he wasn't the great man, the Gentleman he liked to pretend he was and Laura had no problem seeing though the face he put on for everyone. She'd known the day she met him, months ago when Melinda had been setting Elizabeth up for a marriage that would secure their futures that he was not a good man. "This ship is unsinkable, the lifeboats are useless."

Laura saw the officer she'd been speaking to yesterday, it had been him she'd asked about the lifeboats when she noticed there didn't seem to be as many of them as she would have thought. She'd been bickering with Rodney about it when he'd walked passed and she's dragged him into it, now she was going to do it to him again.

"Officer Lorne," she called out and he turned to her, recognising her from before and walking over to the small group.

"Good afternoon, Ladies, Gentleman," he greeted. "What can I do for you?"

"The same thing you did yesterday, please tell this... person," she said gesturing to Simon and almost failing to find a word that wouldn't insult him. "That no ship is unsinkable, if part of the ship were to... I don't know... explode; we'd still sink despite the very clever design that went into it."

"That's true," he said but she could tell from the diplomatic voice he was using that more was coming. "However I can assure you that the 'very clever design' will keep the ship afloat through most incidents and it's very unlikely that part of the ship will spontaneously explode."

"I'm sure that's the case but if there were to be an incident that the ship couldn't handle and we already know there aren't enough lifeboats for everyone on board, what would happen to the people not fortunate enough to get onto one of the boats?" she questioned knowing this would win the argument for her.

"They'd go down with the ship," Lorne stated and she smiled cockily at Simon.

"So, lifeboats are a necessary evil even if they do clutter your deck," she finished and then thanked Lorne before moving along with Carson and Rodney. She was sure she saw Elizabeth smile but Simon looked at her and she quickly hid it again. She really didn't like that man.

Elizabeth sat down at her dresser tracing the tips of her fingers over the ornate carvings of the wood. She looked at her reflection in the mirror; it was like she didn't even know the woman staring back at her, the image felt foreign to her. She reached up and started pulling the pins out of her hair letting the brown curls fall wherever they wanted to. She was very tired, her reflection showed that much at least, and even though it was still fairly early she just wanted to curl up in her bed and sleep. Nobody suspected that she had been to the third class deck, she'd felt so stupid when she'd come back to her own part of the ship, it had been ridiculous to go down there.

With all the pins safely in the crystal dish she picked up her hairbrush, running it through her hair time and time again, way more than she needed to. It wasn't until she heard a knock at the door that she stopped, placing the brush back on the dresser and closing her eyes to push back the torrent of emotions she had allowed to leak out while she was alone. She knew it wasn't her mother outside the door, she hardly knocked and never waited, just walked in, that left very few people.

The door opened slightly, a head peaking through as if to make sure it was proper for them to come in, Simon was always proper, at least he acted as though he was. He saw her sitting by her dresser and brought the rest of himself into the room, closing the door behind him and walking over to her.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her and it took her a moment to remember that she'd used feeling unwell as an excuse to miss dinner again, that wasn't going to keep saving her.

"Better now, I think I just need a good night's sleep," she told him hoping he'd take it upon himself to leave and let her get that sleep but since she was sure he didn't believe her anyway, he didn't leave.

"That's good to hear," he replied and Elizabeth stopped looking at him through the mirror and turned around, standing up so she could look at him properly. "Your mother is still making plans for the wedding; I've been debating whether or not to point out that the wedding isn't for another month."

"Best to just leave her to it," Elizabeth told him and Simon half smiled and nodded.

"You're probably right," he said and then fell silent for a moment, studying her, judging her. "I know things have been hard for you recently. Your father died less than a year ago and I know you've never truly gotten over that," Simon began and Elizabeth stiffened. This was stepping into far too personal territory; it felt like he had no right to say these things. He had never even met her father, she hadn't known him back then, it had been a month later that she'd met him. "But I want you to know that both you and your mother will be taken care of, I think I've proven that much. I am the man in your life now."

Elizabeth kept her instinctive response to that to herself; instead she just nodded her head looking down at the carpet.

"The wedding is a month away Elizabeth, it's time you started showing some interest in it," he added and then stood up to leave. He dropped a kiss on her cheek and walked out of the room, Elizabeth just stood there as he left; her eyes fixed on the floor until she heard the door shut. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before reaching for her night dress.

She loved the early morning on this ship, almost everyone barring some of the crew and a few other early birds were asleep in their rooms. It was calm and quiet, she liked that, there were moments in the day where she craved that but knew she would have to wait until the next morning to get it. Elizabeth stood on the deck, her arms resting on the railing in front of her and her eyes fixed on the sunrise over the ocean. The sky was a mixture of pink and orange with blue starting to creep in and all of it reflecting off the water.

Simon had made a good point last night; he'd taken care of her and her mother since the start of the engagement. He was vaguely aware of the financial situation her father's death had left them in though she was pretty sure he didn't know the extent of it. She knew most of the way he acted around other people, even her, was just a facade, she'd seen more of the real side of him than she cared for but he had given her and her mother everything they'd needed, hell everything they'd wanted. Maybe she was being selfish, she'd shown no interest in the wedding, in her relationship with Simon, nothing above the necessary and maybe that wasn't fair. Her mother had taken great care to ensure that even with her father now gone and debts piling up that their futures would be safe. She wasn't a woman who could live any other type of life; she'd spent too long surrounded by expensive furnishings and maid servants.

Movement on the lower deck caught her eye and she looked down. She saw the man from yesterday, the one who had found her hiding from life. Thinking back to then she had probably been rude to him, he'd found her somewhere she wasn't supposed to be, somewhere she had hoped desperately not to be found and it had scared her. She shouldn't have acted the way she did and for that reason she did something stupid for the second time in as many days and headed to the nearby stairs.

After a quick glance around she went down to the lower deck again, at this time of morning there would be hardly anyone around, almost no chance of being caught by someone. She walked around to where she had seen him, he was doing exactly as she had been doing a minute ago, staring out at the sunset. She took a deep breath and moved over to him, standing beside him at the railing. He must have heard her coming because he turned to look at her, a look of curiosity and surprise on his face.

"Lost again?" he questioned humorously and smiled slightly.

"No, I came to apologise to you," she told him and he raised an eyebrow, more surprise filtering into his expression. He didn't say anything though, just waited for her to continue. "I'm sorry for the way I spoke to you yesterday, it was unfair and rude."

"Apology accepted," John replied with a nod and Elizabeth was taken aback by how easy it had been, she wasn't sure what she'd been expecting but she'd thought it would be harder than that. "Out of curiosity though, what were you doing down here?"

"I..." Elizabeth began, her mind racing to come up with an excuse, any reason why she was down here yesterday. "Was just taking a walk around the ship, exploring, I ended up down here," she told him, he didn't believe her, she could tell but thankfully he didn't say anything.

"It's a nice ship, best third class accommodations I've seen in a while," he said instead, humour in his tone and Elizabeth nodded her head and smiled again. He held his hand out to her "John."

She stared at his hand for a moment before meeting his eyes and taking his hand "Elizabeth Weir," she introduced herself.

"It was nice to meet you, the second time anyway," he joked and she found herself genuinely smiling at it.

"I should go," she told him gesturing back toward the upper deck ignoring the urge to stay down here a while longer. "It really was a pleasure to meet you Mr..." she began realising that he hadn't given her his last name. "John. Thank you for not making this difficult."

He smiled and for a moment she looked at him wondering about him before she left. She returned to the upper deck feeling a lot better than when she had left it. Breakfast would be served soon and she would be expected to arrive with her mother and Simon, they'd no doubt be outside her room in the next fifteen minutes ensuring she was ready to go the dining room. She made her way back through the ship to her room; a few people were starting to emerge now, all of them dressed in either suits or elegant dresses, all of them looking as perfect as money could make them look.

TBC