Date : 17.10.2007

Title : Loves' Secret

Author : ElaineDex

Chapter : 6 of ?

Rating : M

Pairings : Lt. Col. John Sheppard/Lyssa Sheppard

Major Evan Lorne/Dr Ellie Lorne

Warnings : Romance/Angst/Some Strong Language.

Spoilers : This story is part of a series and follows on from Loves' Moment of Truth.

Feedback : Yes

Disclaimer : Dr Ellie Lorne, Major James Reece, Lt Franks and any OC's are mine. Lyssa Hunter-Sheppard belongs to Kazavid. Stargate Atlantis, unfortunately, has nothing to do with me.

Summary : Just when it looks like Ronon has found himself a new love interest something happens which means Ellie could be his for the taking once more and what will Sheppard do when Lyssa and Lorne give him the same unwelcome news that they gave to Ellie?

In the four or five weeks following their 'incident' Lyssa and Lorne had felt like they were in hell. They tried as best they could to carry on as normal but neither of them could bring themselves to make love to their respective spouses.

Lorne grimaced one day as he remembered a comment that Ellie had made the night before. She'd asked him did he think that the drug he'd been given had affected him in someway as normally they were all over each other and he'd had to lie to her and tell her that maybe that was what was wrong with him.

Lyssa was in the same predicament with Sheppard and she knew that he was getting tired of hearing excuses about headaches and nausea. Although she wasn't actually lying about the nausea…..the last few days she had felt sick every morning.

Suddenly Lyssa stood abruptly, her chair making a horrible scraping noise on the mess hall floor making the people around her wince as it grated on their ears.

"What's the matter?", Ellie asked, putting her sandwich down with some concern as she took in the pained expression on Lyssa's face.

"Ah……I just remembered something I have to do…..", Lyssa replied, her eyes flicking to Lorne and he returned her stare through hooded eyes.

"Are you leaving that?", Lt. Franks asked, pointing to her half eaten sandwich pack and Lyssa nodded as she moved out from the table.

"I'll see you guys later", Lyssa mumbled as she left and Ellie watched her go.

"Do you think I should go with her? Did she seem upset to you?", she asked of Lorne who tried to look indifferent.

"How should I know?", he replied and Ellie sighed.

"I'll go find her later, give her chance to do whatever she's got to do".

Lorne glanced at his wife. Why had this had to happen to him? He and Ellie had finally been so happy after everything they'd been through.

He was tempted to ask her if she would leave Atlantis with him and go back to Earth to start afresh but he knew that they had Hope to think about and he also knew that there was no way Ronon would let Ellie take his daughter away from him in such a final way.

He sighed loudly without realising and Ellie smiled at him and leaned over, wrapping an arm around his back.

"Are you okay?", she asked as Franks watched on.

"Yeah…..I'm fine", Lorne replied trying to sound reassuring and Ellie kissed his cheek before standing.

"I should get back to the lab, I have a lot to get through before Rodney gets back from their latest mission", she said and Lorne nodded.

"See you later", she said, waving to Franks as she left the two men alone.

"You sure you're alright Sir?", Franks asked.

"I'm great……okay…..just great", Lorne replied sounding strung out and Franks raised an eyebrow as his C/O stood and scooped up his and Ellie's lunch trays.

"Right……….", he said as Lorne left without another word.

Whatever was bugging the Major he hoped it sorted itself out soon because his C/O looked like his stack was going to blow at any given time and Franks just hoped it didn't happen when he was around.

OOoOO

Lt. Chrissie Lorne sighed as she trudged behind her team leader. Evan had been right when he had said that sometimes working on Atlantis was not always fun.

She had been off-world now for four consecutive weeks helping a few of Dr McKay's science team members dig up a prospective ZPM site.

In her time away from the city she had thought a lot about Ronon Dex, although why she had no idea as he was clearly in a relationship with the small brunette who was Hope's mom.

She still hadn't had a chance to spend any time with her cousin and his wife and that was bugging her too.

She cursed whoever had assigned her team to this task and swore if she ever got her hands on him…….

OOoOO

Lyssa left the infirmary feeling light-headed and her heart felt as though it were made of lead.

She blindly made her way along the corridors of Atlantis, wondering what to do.

Eventually she admitted to herself that she needed to speak to Lorne.

Her feet took her to his office where she found him filling out mission reports of which he appeared to have a back-log of, judging by the size of the pile on his desk.

He looked up as she appeared in his doorway.

"Lyssa?", he said knowing instantly that something was wrong.

"I need to talk to you", she said, her voice barely audible as she closed the door behind her, shutting them off from the bustle of the corridor outside.

She sat down on the chair opposite him with a thud and Lorne got a sickly feeling in his stomach as she looked at him.

"We can't carry on lying to John and Ellie any longer", she said and he paled as she put her face in her hands and sobbed,

"Lorne…..I'm pregnant".

OOoOO

Lorne felt like he was making the worst journey of his life as he and Lyssa walked silently toward the lab where Ellie was working.

They had discussed what they were going to do and it involved telling Ellie and Sheppard everything as soon as possible but seeing as Sheppard was off-world they had to start with Ellie.

Ellie looked up as they entered her lab and she smiled at them until she took in the expressions upon their faces and then she frowned.

Lorne saw the question in her eyes, knew she wanted to know what was going on and his heart constricted when he saw the uncertainty cross her features.

"Lyssa and I need to talk to you……about the day we were captured by the Catheans", he said and Ellie swallowed, her mouth becoming inexplicably dry.

She didn't like the way her husband and her best friend were looking at her one little bit and they were making her nervous.

"What about it?", she asked, her eyes flicking to Lyssa who looked away making Ellie's frown deepen.

At length Lorne explained to Ellie about what happened in the cell and he saw the colour leave her face and she gripped the work bench to steady herself as he told her how he and Lyssa must have had sex but that neither of them remembered it.

As he told her that Lyssa had just discovered that she was pregnant and that it was more than likely going to be his, Lorne had to move forward and prop Ellie up as she looked like she might pass out.

Eventually though she began to push at his chest and tears pooled in Lyssa's eyes as Ellie said, her voice low,

"Get away from me".

"Ellie……", Lorne said but she backed away from him, her hand covering her mouth as she bit back a sob.

Ellie felt numb as she tried to absorb the news that not only had her husband had sex with her best friend and then lied to her for weeks to hide it, but that the same best friend was now pregnant with her husband's baby, a baby that she couldn't seem to conceive since her miscarriage.

She made a strange kind of laugh/strangled sound in her throat and her gaze met Lorne's and she saw tears in his eyes too which were her undoing.

She moved past him, shaking off his hand when he touched her arm and she left the lab, the door banging against the wall as she flung it open and fled.

Lorne and Lyssa glanced at one another.

"You should go after her", Lyssa managed to say and Lorne nodded.

"Are you alright?", he asked and Lyssa gave him a look that told him not to ask stupid questions.

He left to go and find Ellie and she collapsed against one of the lab work benches wondering how Sheppard would react once he had been given the same news.

OOoOO

Ellie ran through the corridors of Atlantis drawing some startled glances from other members of staff.

She ran until she found a deserted stairwell and then she felt as though she was moving in slow motion as her emotions took over and she felt like her heart was going to break in two as she sank down onto the bottom step, resting her head in her hands as sobs wracked her body.

OOoOO

As he moved along one of the empty upper walk-ways after doing a security sweep, Major Reece heard someone crying a little lower down and he leaned over the railing, surprised to see Ellie sobbing heart-renderingly into her hands and he made his way down toward her.

"Hey…..what's going on?", he asked gently as he moved past her and then crouched in front of her, laying his P-90 on the ground so that he could try to pull her hands from her tear-drenched face but she wouldn't budge them.

Ellie saw Major Reece crouch before her through the slight gaps in her fingers and she groaned inwardly.

In hindsight she maybe should have gone to hers and Lorne's quarters to have this breakdown but then he would have easily found her there and she didn't particularly want to see him right now.

"Its…….its nothing", she managed, taking in huge gulps of air as she hiccupped and sobbed simultaneously.

"Pretty big nothing I'd say", Reece said, trying to tug at her hands again but she still held fast.

"Ellie…do you need me to radio the Major", he asked, jerking back as Ellie's hands suddenly flew from her face and gripped his hand as it hovered near his ear-piece.

"No!", she cried and Reece looked at her extremely upset face.

"Okay……", he said slowly and Ellie released his hand as he moved to sit on the stair by her side.

"Do you want to talk about the nothing that's upset you so badly?", he asked and Ellie shook her head as she began to sob again.

Slowly she turned and buried her face against Reece's chest and his arm hovered in mid-air for a moment before he wrapped it around her and hugged her to his side.

OOoOO

Lyssa froze as she heard the announcement that told the city that SGA1's IDC had been cleared and that they were due any second.

Lorne heard it too and having the feeling that Ellie was obviously going to hide from him for now, he made the decision to go back to Lyssa so that he could face Sheppard with her.

She looked at him as he re-entered the lab and she said,

"How is Ellie?".

"I couldn't find her……probably because she doesn't want to be found right now", he replied sounding crushed and Lyssa said.

"You heard the announcement?", and he nodded.

"We should wait for John in our quarters…..he'll have to attend the briefing first", she said and Lorne followed her as she left the lab.

OOoOO

A half hour later, Sheppard stood staring at Lyssa and Lorne as though they had lost their minds.

A tense silence stretched between the three of them and just as Lyssa was about to ask Sheppard to say something he said,

"Does Ellie know?".

"We told her about an hour ago", Lorne replied and Sheppard nodded, appearing outwardly calm but Lyssa was not fooled.

She opened her mouth to try and stop him at the same moment as he launched himself at Lorne, knocking the Major backwards into the wall as he hadn't been expecting the attack.

"John…..stop it!", Lyssa cried as Sheppard pulled his fist back, about to punch Lorne's face but he paused as he turned to look at her.

"What' the matter…..don't want me to hurt your lover huh?", he grated angrily and Lorne shoved at Sheppard, pushing him away.

"That's unfair Colonel…..it wasn't like that and you know it", he said as Lyssa buried her head in her hands.

"Do I?", Sheppard replied, breathing heavily.

"We should talk about this calmly…..we need to work out what we're going to do", Lorne said, trying to be rational but Sheppard laughed, sounding slightly hysterical as he looked from Lorne to Lyssa and back again.

"Calmly! You want to talk calmly? Well I'm sorry but calm is not in my vocabulary at the moment. Jesus….you get my wife pregnant, you've lied to me about what happened that day now for weeks and you want me to be calm! Go to hell Major!", he ranted as he opened the door of their quarters and it was Lyssa's turn to sob as her husband walked out and left.

End of Chapter 6