Pairing: Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

Spoilers: This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

Disclaimer: I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

Summary: Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

Author's note: Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad you guys are enjoying this so far. Here's the next installment...

Chapter 3- Elizabeth's thoughts

To say the Elizabeth was surprised by the thoroughness and ingenuity of her employees was an understatement. When she considered the situation at dinner she had honestly thought it was just a few bets between individuals, not the Pegasus Galaxy version of Las Vegas. John is right, she thought, this is what comes from a group of very intelligent people.

Elizabeth sighed and sank down onto her bed. After leaving the balcony she had practically run back to her room. If anyone from the betting pool had seen me, they probably would have thought something had just happened. This thought led her to the realization that virtually everything she did could be construed to support a bet. Well maybe not anything, just the out-of-ordinary events that were rather frequent in Atlantis. And this is what John meant by paranoid, she concluded.

Even though she wanted to put the entire situation out of her mind, as she got ready for bed, her thoughts kept returning to her discussion with John. He honestly seemed to believe that there was nothing malicious going on and she trusted his judgment. But how was she not supposed to take this rather extensive interest in her personal life as anything other than disrespect. If the expedition members could speculate wildly about her, how could any of them take her seriously?

Then she remembered her time in graduate school. Stuck with virtually the same group of people for 5 or so years had led to a lot of gossip, rumors, and even the occasional bet between the grad students. Most of their speculations involved the other studemts and faculty members. One of her roommates had been a chemistry doctoral candidate and claimed that it was even worse in their department because everyone was at work doing experiments, rather than more independent research in the library. That, and they had a darkroom to catch couples in. In any case, despite the rampant speculation, Elizabeth and her peers did respect their professors. Gossiping had just been a way to distract themselves from the pressures of school. Not to mention that the long days tended to make them all a little loopy.

Feeling a slightly better, the only other thing she had to wonder about was why they had connected her with five different men. That seemed a bit excessive. She decided to put off thinking about the men in question. It probably wouldn't lead to anything good and would only make things more uncomfortable the next time she saw any of them.

Elizabeth glanced at her clock and realized that the whole situation had her so distracted she had gone to bed really early. It was only 10:30 and she wasn't that tired. Resolving to put the entire situation out of her mind, she picked up a mystery novel off the bed side table and started to read.

Around midnight, Elizabeth gave up on her book. She had read only 60 pages, and somehow had entirely missed the second murder, which she only realized had happened when the autopsy was being performed. Sighing, she decided that getting a cup of hot chocolate might calm her down. After pulling a sweater on over her tank top and slipping on some shoes, she headed for the mess hall.

The city was pretty deserted at this time of night, so Elizabeth only passed a few people on her way. She nodded at those she passed, but couldn't help but wonder if they were in on the gambling ring. She was just going to have to get used to the whole thing. Somehow she doubted that breaking up the gambling ring would do any good. They most likely would just start another one and keep it better hidden, which was probably why John hadn't shut the thing down in the first place when he found out.

With these final thoughts, Elizabeth turned the last corner to the mess hall and ran into a wall, a Ronin-shaped wall that conveniently grabbed her shoulders to prevent her from falling.

"Sorry Dr. Weir, you came around the corner and I wasn't paying attention," Ronin apologized with a degree of amusment in his tone as he removed his hands after steadying her.

Elizabeth felt herself start to blush as she faced Bachelor #3. "Actually, I wasn't really watching where I was going either." Ronin was looking at her strangely (or was that her imagination), so she said the first thing that came to mind, "Did Colonel Sheppard talk to you and Teyla about the gateroom today?"

"Yeah, it wasn't a big deal. We didn't mean to wander into the gateroom. Teyla and I got into an argument and I was proving a point." Ronin said, smirking slightly as if remembering the argument.

"Well, okay then. Good night, Ronin."

"Night." And with that Ronon left her in the doorway of the mess hall.

Well, that could have gone better. Its too bad I just can't hide in my room for a day or so, she thought wistfully.