Exiting his bedroom wearing nothing but pajama bottoms Skyler had to smile at the sight of Aria, wearing nothing but one of his shirts, sitting on the counter of the small kitchen like area of his quarters drinking her morning cup of coffee and reading one of those women's magazines that had been smuggled through the gate by various women on the expedition – judging by the tattered cover it had been making the rounds.
Moving in her direction he gave her a quick kiss as he reached for the coffee pot – it had taken half his chocolate stash, but he'd managed to bribe the kitchen staff out of one of their extra coffee makers.
He sighed when he found the coffee pot empty, "Could've left me a few drops, you know."
"Sorry." Aria looked at the empty coffee pot then offered Skyler her cup.
"So what article ya reading?" He took a drink from the cup.
"Dear Abby."
"The advice column?" Skyler raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, it can be interesting. For example this woman's been seeing this guy – purely physical – for a few months and is now wondering if they could take a step back and try to have a go at a real friendship before things progress any further. Sound familiar?"
"You trying to tell me something? Cause its way too early in the morning to be doing subtle."
"I don't know what I'm trying to say, but think about it how much do we really know about each other?" Aria closed the magazine, setting it aside.
"I know you like your coffee black." He lifted the cup of coffee.
"That's a gimme, I'm usually still around in the morning."
"I know you like to sleep on the left side of the bed on your stomach. And that you have a little heart shaped birth mark on your lower back."
"I'm sensing a pattern here." She slid off the counter, kissing his cheek as she headed for the bedroom to get dressed.
"I know all the important stuff." He grasped her hand pulling her back so he could wrap his arms around her waist.
"Really? Where'd I grow up?"
"Earth." Skyler smirked stealing a kiss.
"Smart ass." Aria pulled back, disappearing into the bedroom.
Following after her Skyler leaned in the doorway watching as she started to get dressed. "What's this all about anyway? Why bring this all up now?"
"What if I told you I wanted more?"
"Define more."
"I think we should take a step back and trying being friends. I mean really be friends and see where that takes us."
"I thought we skipped all that stuff and went straight to the good stuff for a reason." He paused at seeing the look on Aria's face. "What?"
"What's the good stuff?" Dressed, she moved past Skyler kissing him as she headed for the door. "I'll see you later, I have a meeting to get to."
"Yeah I should get going to, I'm supposed to be meeting Elizabeth." Shaking his head in confusion as Aria left Skyler went to get dressed him self.
--
Ten minutes later Skyler entered the gym where Elizabeth was already waiting for him. Deciding that she'd spent too long working at a desk Elizabeth had decided to start exercising and get into shape. She'd also 'volunteered' Skyler to be her personal trainer.
"You're late." Elizabeth looked up at her nephew from where she was stretching.
"Yeah sorry, I got distracted." Skyler dropped down next to her and started his own stretching.
"Distracted, right…" She raised a knowing eyebrow.
Skyler knew what she was thinking, "No, no it wasn't what you're thinking…" He paused, "Well okay yeah there was some of that, but…wait why am I talking about my love life with you?" Shaking his head he got up, giving Elizabeth a hand up as well.
Half an hour later Skyler was helping Elizabeth limp into the infirmary. He'd tried to tell her she wasn't ready for a five mile run yet, but being the stubborn woman she was Elizabeth hadn't listened. Elizabeth wasn't a kid any more, she couldn't push herself like she'd use to, especially after she'd hurt her knee her senior year of college.
"You know for being a former track star you have weak knees." Skyler joked as he helped her over toone of the beds.
"Shut up." Elizabeth glared at her nephew as Carson finished up the conversation he'd been having with Rodney to come see what the problem was. Rodney followed behind him.
"What seems to be the problem?" Carson stepped next to Skyler.
"She tried to take a trip down memory lane and over did it on her knee." Skyler smirked as he perched on the empty bed next to his aunt's. Elizabeth responded by throwing a pillow at him, which just caused him to laugh.
--
After a long day of baby sitting scientists Skyler was looking forward to a nice relaxing night with Aria doing absolutely nothing. It was Friday night, which meant movie night and he'd managed to get his hands on one of the Monty Python movies floating around after waiting forever.
"Hey Aria, you home?" He knocked on the door when he found it locked.
When she opened the door Skyler stood stunned for a moment. Aria was wearing a pair of jeans that hugged in all the right places and a long sleeve baby blue v-neck shirt that also hugged in all the right places. Her hair was also done up and she looked like she was in the process of putting on make-up.
"Pretty dressed up for a night in." Skyler stated as Aria moved to let him in.
A knock on the door cut off her reply, "Oh that's him, stall him for me will you?" She disappeared into the bathroom.
"Stall? Stall who?" Confused he opened the door to find Dr. Robert Campbell standing there. "Bob?"
"Major." Bob nodded in greeting.
"You lost?"
"No, I'm looking for…" He trailed when Aria came out of the bathroom. "Wow, you look great."
"Thank you." Aria smiled.
"Wait you're going on a date with Bob?" Skyler actually felt surprised at how the thought of Aria going on a date with someone else made him feel. "What about movie night?"
"Sorry guess you'll just have to find someone else to watch," She looked at the movie in Skyler's hand. "Monty Python with."
Confused Skyler watched as Aria took Bob's arm and allowed him to lead her out of the room.
--
Now more confused than ever Skyler shuffled into the mess hall looking to get some dinner. Spotting Elizabeth and Kate sitting at a table along with John he got an idea.
"Hey you two are women, both have a good insight into the woman psyche maybe you can help me out." He slid into the seat next to Sheppard across from Kate. "What's it mean when a woman says she wants to take a step back and be friends?"
"I assume you're talking about Aria." Kate questioned.
"No I'm talking about the Easter Bunny…of course I'm talking about Aria."
"Isn't this your guys' movie night?" Elizabeth spoke up amused by the desperate confusion on Skyler's face.
"Supposed to be, but she's out on a date with Bob." He dragged out the name.
"Bob…?" John looked up from his food.
"Number six." Skyler scowled in annoyance.
"Number six?" Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.
"Dr. Campbell. Have you noticed how many Bobs there are on this expedition?" Sheppard shrugged.
"Back to the point…" Skyler turned the conversation back to his current problem. "I can't figure it at. This morning out of the blue Aria starts talking about wanting to take a step back and be friends, which by the way I thought we already were. Then the next thing I know she's going on a date with Bob. I don't even know how that one happened."
"Well she is a good looking woman…" John started then caught Elizabeth's gaze. "…Person."
"Yeah but Bob? C'mon what does that say about me?"
"He is a good looking guy…" Elizabeth caught Sheppard's gaze. "…Person."
"Really?" Both Skyler and John asked.
"It's true." Kate agreed.
"But he's so…so…so…"
"Bob." John supplied.
"Yes, thank you."
"Why are you getting so worked up over this any way? It's not like the two of you are exclusive."
"That's not the point. The point is that Aria and Bob have nothing in common."
"Besides the obvious what do you and Aria have in common?" Kate challenged.
"You people are no help at all." Skyler dropped his head to the table.
--
The next morning after thinking about what Aria had said Skyler caught up with her outside the infirmary. He pulled her aside before she could enter. "You made your point."
"And what point would that be?" She let Skyler pull her aside.
"The one where you're afraid that we have nothing in common and want to find out if we do."
"Don't you want to find out? I mean what if one day we wake up and we don't recognize each other because we didn't take that one step back?"
"And I understand that…" He glanced at his watch. "Look I have a briefing I'm running late for can we talk about this tonight over dinner?"
"Can't I have plans with Bob." She didn't miss the scowl on Skyler's face. "What can I say he makes me laugh?"
"You don't have to go out with him to laugh. In fact he's funnier from a distance."
Aria watched as Skyler moved off towards the transporter. Things were getting confusing between her and Skyler they weren't dating exclusively, neither one of them had wanted that when they'd first started whatever it was that was going on between them, but lately Aria had started feeling like she wanted a deeper relationship with Skyler but wasn't sure what he wanted.
Yesterdaymorning it had sound like he was content with the way things were but then she'd gone on her date with Bob and now Skyler was wanting to talk about the relationship between her and himself. Not knowing what to make of things Aria entered the infirmary to start her shift.
--
He knew that it was late but there was no way Skyler was going to be able to get any sleep until things were sorted out between him and Aria. Finding the door unlocked he slipped into her quarters to find her sitting up in bed.
"Hey."
"Hey."
"Peace offering." Skyler held out the bar of chocolate he'd brought with him. She took the proffered chocolate, moving over to let Skyler lay on the bed with her. "So how do we do this?"
"From the beginnings always good."
"Right," he held his hand out. "Skyler Cain."
She took his hand, "Aria Chen."
"So where'd you grow up?" Skyler settled in for a night of conversation content with doing what he had to do to keep Aria in his life. He'd never felt about a girl the way he felt about Aria and he wanted to see where things went between them.
