Chap. 3:
John and Lexi, talk all night. The following morning around 0700, McKay, Teyla and Ronon walk out on the balcony to have breakfast, to find them still talking, steaming cups of coffee in their hands and leaning in close to each other.
"McKay, who's that Sheppard is talking to?" Ronon asks.
"Oh, that's Lexi. She's Sam's niece and the new Heightmeyer." he says, as he leads them over to the table and as they reach the table, "morning you two."
Turning to look at them, a little embarrassed, "morning guys. Lexi let me introduce you to Ronon Dex and Teyla Emmagan. They're the other two members of my team."
"Hi, nice to meet you." Lexi says, as the three of them sit down at the table.
"John, were you two up all night?" Teyla asks, with a bit of concern mixed with amusement in her voice.
Looking at Lexi and then down at his watch, "yeah, I guess we were. Actually," and gesturing to Lexi, to get up with him, "we were just about to leave." and seeing the smirk Ronon is throwing him, "what!"
"Nothing, Sheppard. Hey we still on to spar this afternoon?"
"Yeah," John replies, "I have to meet with Colonel Carter and then I have to update the duty rosters for off world, but we can meet up at 1500 in the gym."
"Good, see you then."
And with that John and Lexi leave the mess.
"I wonder what they were talking about for all that time. I don't ever remember seeing John look at someone the way he was looking at her." Teyla says.
McKay looks up from his tablet, which he had been pouring over, while eating and listening to the conversation and realizing that Ronon and Teyla are looking at him with questioning looks, "what? I only know Lexi a little. The most I know is that she is Sam's niece and some sort of genius. She's been working at the SGC as lead psychiatrist for the past four years. But, I think Sheppard must really like her, because last night when I left them, he had his look on."
"She's hot," comes Ronon's voice. Teyla and McKay just look at him and with that they all finish their food and go about their day.
xxxx
After they had left the mess, John walked Lexi to her quarters. Coming to a stop in front of the doors and swiping them open, she doesn't walk inside. Instead, she turns to face him and looks him in the eyes and in that brief moment she can see all the pain that he is keeping to himself, but then the pain is gone and he smiles at her. Standing there looking him over, she sees the dark circles that are starting to form under his eyes, from having been up all night and she really wants to invite him into her room. But figuring that it is to soon for that, she decides to say good night.
"Well good night, John. I really had fun last night." and then the doctor in her comes out, "you are going to get some sleep, before you meet with Sam, right?"
Raising an eyebrow at her, "yeah, I'm gonna head to my quarters right now and hit the sack for a couple hours." and smiling, "hey, you want to grab dinner tonight?"
Returning his smile, "yeah. I'll meet you in the mess at 2000." she says, and quickly glancing around the corridor, she stands on her toes and brushes her lips across his and pulling away, she walks into her quarters, the doors closing behind her.
Watching as the doors close behind her and rubbing his hand on the back of his head, he starts towards his quarters, replaying the whole night in his head. He had talked more to her last night, than he had ever talked to anyone before and that included his ex wife. They didn't really talk about anything in particular, just whatever came to mind.
Reaching his quarters he swipes himself into them, smiling as the thought of seeing her again and maybe kissing her again is runs through his head, causing the doubt comes back at him again, this is Sam's niece and oh jeeze what would McKay and Ronon think. I'll never hear the end of it.
Heading over to his dresser, he takes out a pair of sweats and a t-shirt and changing into them he suddenly realizes how tired he is. Climbing into bed and setting his alarm to get him up at 1000, he lies down and is asleep within five minutes.
xxxx
It is coming up on 1530 and John is running late for his sparring session with Ronon. He had been in his office, going over the off world duty rosters and had lost track of the time. It didn't help that McKay had come in to bother him about something that he really wasn't interested in. So by the time he had realized that he was late, he had to sprint to get to the gym.
Reaching it, he is surprised by the sight that meets his eyes. Ronon, Lexi and Teyla are in the middle of a sparing match and Lexi is holding her own.
He stands in the doorway watching her lunge and thrust as gracefully as Teyla and then she attacks with a force that is so fast and quick that it reminds him of Ronon. Just as he opens his mouth say something, Lexi and Teyla lunge at Ronon and take him down. They straighten up and help him up, the look on his face, one of anger and amusement and as his eyes come to rest on John, "it's about damn time, buddy. I thought you said 1500."
"Sorry big guy got way laid by McKay."
Teyla and Lexi head to the bench to grab some water and their towels.
Heading for the exit of the gym, "hey Ronon, Teyla, thanks for the sparring match, but I've got to go." and with a look at John, "John, I'll see you tonight."
Teyla and Ronon look at each other as Lexi exits and back at John who seems very interested in the ceiling at the moment.
"Dinner?" Teyla asks.
Looking at her and dropping his towel on the bench, "yeah, we're gonna finish our chat from last night." and grabbing his sticks, coming out onto the mat where Ronon and Teyla are standing, "so we gonna spar or not?"
Smiling at the two men and heading for the exit as well, "well, I've got to go. I have plans with Jennifer. Have fun boys."
"See you Teyla," Ronon says, and getting his own sticks and starting to circle the mat, "so Sheppard, you like Lexi?" he asks, as he lunges at John with the sticks.
"Yeah, I guess, she's okay" John says, knocking away Ronon's stick with his own and getting hit in the back.
"You tired," Ronon asks, with a laugh and he attacks again.
"No!" John grits out, as he gets hit again, this time on the left shoulder. "hey, would you take it easy? You wanna beat me up today?"
Ronon laughs and simply lunges again and as he does so, "you know it's okay if you like her. She's a good fighter and she's hot."
"You know, what..." John says, as he ducks out of the way of another blow, "looks aren't everything."
"Yeah, but they don't hurt either," Ronon says, and finally he catches John off balance and manages to whack him on the head. John hits the floor hard and just lies there for a couple of seconds, breathing hard.
"You know what," he says, as he props himself up on his elbows and reaching up to his forehead, he winces as he touches the sore spot. Pulling his hand away, seeing blood on his fingers, "I think I need to stop sparing with you when I've only had a couple of hours of sleep. Now help me up."
Ronon reaches down and heaves him up to his feet and nodding towards the door, "to Keller's?"
Walking over to grab his towel and putting it on the cut, "I think she's gonna have both our asses this time."
On their way to the infirmary, Ronon keeps prying him for more information about what he had talked about with Lexi and as they walk in the door to the infirmary, he inwardly sighs as he's never been so happy about being there and calling out for Keller, "hey doc?"
"Ah my two most stubborn patients." Keller says from in her office and as she walks out and looks at them, "so what is it this time?" she asks pulling on gloves.
"Ronon decided to use my head as a piƱata again." John says, sitting down on a gurney and pulling the towel away from his head.
"Hey, don't blame me. This one's all on you." and turning to Keller, "he'll be okay, right?"
Looking at the wound and grabbing some gauze and hydrogen peroxide to clean it, "yeah, Ronon, it doesn't look like he'll need stitches," and cleaning it off, "but, don't be surprised if you have one hell of a bruise and headache."
At Keller's reassurance, Ronon smiles at them and bolts out of the infirmary and watching his quickly retreating back, "honestly, you'd think that I'm a monster or something." Keller says with a laugh, as she starts cleaning up the materials she had used to clean John's wound.
"Yeah." John says softly, still sitting on the gurney. All of a sudden the room starts to shift slightly and he realizes that he's actually starting to feel really dizzy and nauseous and can't figure out if it's from the bump on his head or the fact that he's operating on three hours sleep.
Finished cleaning up, Keller goes over to the medicine locker to get the Tylenol out and as she turns around to walk back to the gurney to hand it to him, she notices that he's starting to sway a little. She's by his side just in time to catch him from falling forward off of it.
"Whoa, Colonel," she says, helping him lie back onto the gurney, "you okay?"
Having a hard time keeping his eyes open, "really woozy" he manages to get out, before he drifts off into unconsciousness.
She gently shakes him and getting no response, she takes out her penlight again and checks his pupils, happy that they are normal. She grabs the oxygen mask that is hanging behind the gurney and easily positions it over his nose and mouth. She checks his pulse, which is also normal and then his blood pressure which is a little low, but satisfied that he's in no immediate danger, she pulls a privacy screen around his bed and covers him with a blanket.
Heading out around the curtain for her office, "Colonel Carter, come in please, this is Dr. Keller."
"Go ahead Doctor."
"Colonel, I just wanted to let you know that I have Colonel Sheppard here. He's unconscious, but stable. He was sparring with Ronon and took a blow the head."
"Do you think that he could have a concussion?"
"No, it doesn't look like he has one. But I'll change my mind, if he doesn't wake up in the next half hour. I'll keep you updated. Keller, out."
xxxx
Making her rounds, she leaves John for last and as she walks around the privacy curtain, she's met with the sight of him pulling the oxygen mask off his face and throwing the blanket off at the same time.
"Ah, Colonel, you're awake. How do you feel?"
Sitting up and swinging his feet down off the gurney, "well other than a screaming headache, I'm fine."
Coming over to his side and reaching for his wrist, "do you remember what happened?"
Glaring at her, annoyed, "yeah. Ronon whacked me in the head, I came here, you patched me up and then the lights went out."
"Good, that you remember." letting go of his wrist, smiling and taking the Tylenol out of her pocket and handing it to him with some water, "here, take this for the headache. I'm gonna to let you out of here, but if you start to feel dizzy again, please come back and see me."
Taking the pills, handing her the cup and heading out of the infirmary for his quarters, "thanks, Doc. I will."
Reaching his quarters and swiping his way in, he inwardly moans as he sees the time on the bedside clock, telling him that he has just over forty five minutes to get ready for his meeting with Lorne and Carter. Heading into the bathroom, he looks at his forehead in the mirror and frowns as he sees that there's already a welt over his right eye where Ronon hit him with the stick.
Turning towards the shower, "well John, that's what you get for staying up all night." he says out loud to the room. Out of no where, a wave of nausea washes over him and he makes it to the toilet just in time to retch up what little food he has in his stomach. As the nausea finally passes and he gets the retching and his breathing under control, he straightens up weakly, flushing the toilet and walks over to the sink. Turning it on, he cups some water into his hands and splashes it over his face. He swirls some in his mouth and then clumsily undresses and gets into the shower.
He lets the hot water run over his sore and aching body, and can't for the life of him figure out why he is feeling so awful all of a sudden. But not wanting to miss dinner with Lexi, for a return trip to see Keller, he takes a deep breath to calm his stomach and gets out of the shower. He towels himself off and throws on a pair of BDU pants, a black t-shirt and realizing that he's cold, he grabs a black pull over fleece from his dresser and pulls it on, as well. Checking his watch, which reads 1840, he heads out of his quarters for Carter's office. On his way there he runs into Lorne and they walk the rest of the way together.
Eyeing the bandage, "Ronon got you good this time, sir"
"Yeah, what else is new?" John asks, with a weak smile, as they reach Carter's office and walk in.
Carter looks up, as they walk in the door and waves them to take a seat across from her.
Also seeing the bandage and frowning at how bad he looks, "John, how's the head? Dr. Keller, radioed when you left the infirmary."
"It's fine, Colonel." he says in an exasperated tone and with a smile, as if to say sorry, "shall we get down to business?"
Hearing John's response, Lorne tries not to laugh, knowing that he hates it when people fuss over him, but he also hadn't missed how bad John looked as they were walking to Carter's office. But as Carter starts the meeting, he pushes the thought to the back of his mind.
The three of them discuss everything and as John and Lorne get up to leave, "John, hang on a sec."
Watching Lorne head out the door, with an apologetic look his way and looking at his watch, seeing that it's already 1950, he sighs, "what's up Sam?"
Standing up, she comes around to the front of the desk, leaning on it, "are you feeling okay?
Staring at her, "yeah, I'm good. Was that all?"
Realizing that he isn't going to admit to feeling sick, she changes the subject, "no. I wanted to talk to you about Lexi..."
Going on the defensive, "I'm not going to do anything with her in that way. We just talked and that's it. Nothing happened."
Looking at him with a smile, "oh, no, I wasn't going to tell you not to see her. That's not my place, at all. She's old enough to make those decisions for herself, it's just..."
"Then what?"
Stepping closer to him, "look, I know that you like to keep things close to the vest and in our business that's a good thing, it lets us do our jobs. But with Lexi, well, I just want to warn you. She's really good at her job and sooner rather than later, I have a feeling that she's going to get you to talk to her about things, you'd rather not talk about."
"Ah, okay. Thanks. Hey, I've got to go, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yeah, have a good night. Oh and get some sleep, that's an order." she says with a smile.
Walking out of the office and talking over his shoulder, "I will, 'Night."
