It had been way too long since Don had last had the chance to kick back like this and really relax. His dad had been deep in conversation for the past hour with Bloom and Evan's boss, and Charlie and Amita were being a revoltingly lovey-dovey married couple, so he could let it all go - stretch out in his chair, loosen his tie, and not try to out-drink Edgerton, because that way lay disaster.

He'd already checked his dad was cool to drive himself home – Larry would be staying at the hotel with Megan - so Don could take up Ian's invitation of crashing in his hotel room. Not that they'd get much sleep, he suspected. More than likely they'd talk till dawn. There wasn't really anyone else who got stuff the way Ian did; nobody else around whom Don could relax in quite the same way.

"You ever think about settling down somewhere?" he asked, the bourbon he'd been drinking loosening his tongue a little too much.

"We're all getting older," Ian said, which was both an answer and not.


Evan and Colby were finally doing the mingling thing, though Colby would have been happier if they were doing it together given the way that Ronon had just promised to rain unspeakable things down on his head if he ever hurt Lorne. The knowledge that his sister might well be making the same threat to Evan didn't bring much comfort given the whole body mass disparity between Ronon and Sue.

"Ronon is merely concerned for our friend Evan," Teyla said to him afterwards. "I am sure that his happiness is also your first concern." And crap, she was scarier than Ronon.

"Uh, yeah, of course," he stuttered, and made himself sound like a creepy serial killer with perverted plans for Evan.

Then Teyla smiled. "I am sure you will be very happy together," she said, and from her it sounded like a benediction, not a cliché.

"Thank you," he said, and he meant it, even if he retreated from their table a whole lot faster than from any of the others. And that was the sort of tactical decision which could have gotten him killed out on the streets because the next table had Nikki, Liz, and Laura Cadman at it. He didn't appreciate the danger until it was too late.

"Laura, hey, it's good to meet you. Thanks again for bringing Mrs Clark."

"Colby, nice to meet you at last. I have heard so much about you."

He smiled and sketched a wave at Liz and Nikki. "Thanks for coming, guys," he said.

"So, Colby," Laura said, and he turned obediently to look at her. "I understand you collect army dolls."


The volume from the table in the corner had been getting gradually higher as Liz, Nikki and Laura had systematically worked their way through the hotel's cocktail menu and appeared to find common ground on a whole number of things, a concept Don found vaguely terrifying.

And then Colby had wandered up to their table like the proverbial lamb delivering himself meekly for slaughter, and the cackling that suddenly broke out had Don wanting to dive for cover.

"Substitute C4 and a Beretta for eye of toad and toe of frog, and you've got it," Ian murmured next to him, capturing his thoughts scarily well.

"Someone should rescue him," Don said.

"You're kidding, right?" David checked.

"You volunteering?" John asked Don.

"Hell, no. You?"

John shrugged. "Suicide missions aren't really my kinda thing."

Don took a swig from his glass and tried not to feel guilty about abandoning Colby to his fate. And then he grinned as he watched developments across the room. "Oh look, it mustbe love – Evan's stepping up to save his man."

Ian snorted, John smirked, and David covered his eyes. Don raised his glass to salute the sheer foolhardy courage of Evan Lorne before tossing back the last of its contents.

"Anyone else for another?" he asked.


Colby and Evan looked at one another and reached an unspoken agreement. It was time to leave. It was probably more than time to leave, given the way things had been going steadily downhill for the past half hour.

It had all started, Colby thought, with Laura's impromptu tap dance to Toxic. That in itself would have been fine; it was the way that she was teaching Alan and Bloom the steps as she went and their subsequent attempts to put them into practice that made it a scarring experience. Then all of Colonel Sheppard's and Amita's best efforts hadn't been enough to prevent Charlie and Dr McKay coming face to face, which, after some highly-charged snarkiness from them both, had ended up in some sort of ultimate math death-match in the hotel's business centre, which they appeared to have broken into in order to utilise the whiteboards. Currently six whiteboards and counting had been sacrificed to long lines of equations as they each tried to disprove the other's theory, and Amita and Larry attempted to referee.

Then there had been Colonel Sheppard and Mrs Clark dancing together - and judging from how she was holding onto him, she seemed to have forgiven him for the hair - and the way Liz and Ronon seemed to be hitting it off rather well, both on and off the dance floor. Mr Woolsey and Sue were in the midst of some discussion involving hens' reproductive systems, and Nikki and Megan appeared to be bonding over tales of Colby's greatest hits, which Colby have been happier about if it hadn't involved so much laughter from the two of them.

But what made him realise it really was getting urgent they left was the sight of Don Eppes tearing up the dance floor to Depeche Mode. Try as he would – and he really, really would – Colby didn't think he'd ever be able to banish the image from his brain.

The doorman's brief appearance, letting them know their car was waiting for them at the front of the hotel, was extremely welcome. But instead of allowing them to leave quietly, having already made one final round together to say goodbye, it seemed everyone wanted to accompany them and see them off on their honeymoon, including even the math geeks, although in their case they might just have been forcibly dragged from their algorithms.

And it was, unexpectedly, kind of nice walking out into their new life surrounded by friends and family, even if three little boys were making engine noises and Don was absently humming Enjoy the silence to himself as they did so.

Colby had turned back to answer David's answer about where they were going on their honeymoon, meaning Evan was first through the hotel entrance. And when he followed without looking, he found himself cannoning into Evan's rigid back. Evan was standing stock-still in the doorway.

"What?" Colby asked. He'd asked them not to do the tin can and shaving cream thing on the car, but he probably should have known better. Then Evan turned in the doorway, and Colonel Sheppard lounged forward.

"It's yours for the week," he said. "Just try to bring this one back in one piece."

And then Colby could see what was parked in front of the hotel entrance. A black Ferrari Spider.

"John," Evan was saying, sounding choked-up.

Sheppard shrugged. "I know a guy."

Colby watched Evan make his way to the car, looking stunned and awestruck, just as a series of giggles announced the arrival of trouble behind Colby.

"Hey, cool, a Ferrari Scuderia Spider 16M!" He thought that was Nikki, but the three of them were as giggly and scary as one another right now. And so maybe he didn't know allabout cars, but he was still the one Evan had married.

"Is he stroking it? Oh my God, I think he's stroking it!"

"Sorry, Granger," Edgerton said. "Looks like you just got replaced on the honeymoon."

"It figures," Colby sighed. "Flyboys are so fickle." And found himself the recipient of a death glare from Dr McKay.

"Colby, stop gabbing and get your ass over here."

"Nice to see that marriage hasn't killed the romance," Megan said.

"You sure?" Colby said as he joined Evan at the car, and yes, he really was caressing the bodywork. "Doesn't look like you need me coming between you two."

"That's just where you're wrong," Evan said, wrapping his hand in Colby's shirt – the tie had disappeared some hours before - and pulling him in close for a kiss, before whispering in his ear, "I can't wait to get you spread out on that hood and fuck you."

And Colby did not whimper and obediently climb into the car because that would have started their marriage off on totally the wrong note. He might, however, have told Evan to put his damn foot down already.


He wasn't sure exactly how it had happened but Colby found himself pushed up against the wall in the bedroom of the house they were renting for the honeymoon before he'd had time to do more than take in the fact their things, including his surfboard and Evan's art stuff, were here already, which meant Colonel Sheppard and Nicola must have colluded.

That was as far as his thought processes went, because Evan, who seemed to have managed somehow to undress him while kissing him thoroughly enough to distract him from that small detail, was sinking down on his knees in front of Colby, and he was using his hands and his tongue, teasing and promising and doing everything except the one thing Colby really needed right now. Finally he showed some mercy and slid his mouth down on Colby's cock. It felt so good that it was all Colby could do not to wrap his fingers in Evan's hair and hold him there, pushing into his mouth. But he knew Evan preferred it like this, knew that ultimately it would be even better for letting Evan set the pace, teasing bastard that he was. His cheeks were hollowed as he pulled almost all the way off, and then took Colby in again. As Colby watched his wet cock sliding between Evan's lips, with Evan still in those fucking dress blues, Colby didn't think he'd ever seen anything hotter in his life.

Then Evan was pulling a sachet from the pocket of his uniform and ripping the top off with his teeth, before squeezing the contents onto his fingers and Colby flat-out moaned with anticipation. He did a hell of a lot more moaning once Evan's fingers were up inside him while he worked his mouth on Colby's cock, and the fact he was doing all this still in full dress uniform made it somehow dirty, and maybe he said something of that out loud because Evan pulled off him and looked up with a smirk.

"Didn't realise you had a uniform kink."

"I don't," Colby said, and then gasped, because Evan's fingers were still inside him, working him open, and fuck, that was good.

"Coulda fooled me."

With an effort Colby wrenched his mind back to whatever the hell Evan was talking about. Oh yeah, uniforms. "I might have a kink for youin uniform." And as he looked at Evan, on his knees in front of Colby, his dress blues immaculate, his lips swollen and wet, and his eyes dark with want, he realised it was true, but not the whole truth. "Think maybe I just have a kink for you," he confessed.

"Like that's news," Evan said, and added another finger, making Colby jolt and swear and practically beg for Evan's cock.

And Evan was more than happy to oblige. He regained his feet and kissed Colby long and deep before he pulled him away from the wall and pushed him down onto the bed, where he landed with a bit of a bounce. Just occasionally, Colby liked it when Evan took charge like this. Evan seemed to like it too, getting all intense and putting Colby exactly where he wanted him.

"Don't move," he said, so Colby didn't, no matter the temptation as Evan stripped off his uniform. And while Colby wouldn't mind at all if Evan chose to put his blues back on later – in fact, he might just have to insist on it – right now he wanted them to be skin against skin, nothing between them.

Evan lowered himself on top of Colby, till their lips were on one another's and their bodies and their cocks were pressed together, and for a long, sweet moment, it was everything Colby had ever wanted. Evan raised his head and looked down at Colby, and Colby had the feeling that the slightly sappy grin on Evan's face was matched by the one he was wearing.

"How's it feel to be fucking a married man?" Evan asked.

"Wouldn't know," Colby said. "Seems like he's all talk and no action."

Oh, and it was on. Evan's tongue was in his mouth, and his fingers up inside Colby again, and Colby did what he always did when Evan was like this, he let his thighs fall open and let Evan take control. He groaned because he loved this, he really, really did, but he loved even more the knowledge that Evan's cock was going to be pushing into him any time soon. And sure enough, Evan was over him, pushing in, one long steady thrust that held Colby suspended somewhere between exquisite pleasure and pain, because Evan was big and he'd shown no mercy. And then Evan moved, just a little, and again, and after that they were slowly rocking together, and then Evan started moving with intent. And it wasn't very long at all before his hand closed round Colby's cock, and Colby came, shuddering and crying out Evan's name. Evan was just an instant behind him, and then they lay there for the longest time, just touching and breathing and being.

After a while, practicalities meant they extricated themselves, cleaned up and got under the cotton sheet. As they lay together, Colby's hands idly mapped the familiar contours of Evan's body, the long sweep of his back, the curve of his ass, and the strength of the thigh he'd thrown over Colby's leg. Evan's hands were moving over him too, and every so often he felt the unexpected hardness of the gold band that was now on Evan's finger.

They lay tangled beneath the sheet, trading kisses and touches. Tomorrow would bring what it would. They had tonight, and they had each other.


Evan woke to find sunlight filling the room. They'd been a little too preoccupied the previous night to even think about drawing the curtains, so the early morning light reflecting off the ocean outside sent shifting patterns of light and shade onto the far wall. He was used to waking to the ocean on Atlantis, but this was different. The light was different, the sound of the ocean was subtly different, and it was different waking to the body that was wrapped around him, holding him even in sleep.

He stretched very slightly, not enough to wake Colby who snuffled sleepily against his shoulder, and luxuriated in the knowledge that right here, right now, he had everything he could ever want.