Author's Note: I wanted to cover what I perceive to be a taboo subject tastefully, knowing how much time these two would be spending together. In bouncing the whole thing back and forth with ladygris, the finishing touches for the chapter came forth. Hope you enjoy this glance into real life that isn't covered anywhere else in the series.

;-)

John woke with his alarm eager to get his day started. Wanting to surprise Larrin at her door, he rushed through getting ready for the day and changing clothes. Why did I have to cry in front of her? The question had plagued him so much that it invaded his sleep during the night. Granted, it's not like I sobbed, got red eyed, or turned into a geyser. It was only a couple drops, one out of each eye, but still. . . . I don't cry. Ever. Once he was ready, he quickly made his way to her stateroom. His plan was foiled when he rounded the corner to enter her hall and nearly ran over her. "Oh, sorry!" He reached out to steady her as she'd been startled.

Watching her as she laughed, Larrin replied, "Going somewhere?"

"Yeah. I was gonna try and surprise you." His tone still reflected his apology.

Her eyes lit up, softly looking into his, "Well, it would seem that you succeeded." Her playful smile reached up as if to grab his heart.

Sheppard allowed himself to relax and go with it. "Yes, I did." Placing a triumphant smile his face, he leaned in to get his morning kiss. After a couple of seconds, he pulled back. "Good morning."

"Uh-huh." She was toying with him again. "So you ready to go to work yet?"

"Can I have breakfast with my lady first?" John pretended to pout.

"I guess, but only if you make it quick. You have a lot of work to do today." While she appeared to be joking, there was a serious undertone in her voice.

Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, John led the way to the Mess Hall. "So what is this that you are pushing so hard for me to go to work, anyway?"

"There's just a lot to get done..."

John cut her off. "Larrin, my dear, do we really have to make a rule five: no lying to one another.?" He made sure the face matched his playful tone.

"No." A sheepish grin formed on her face.

"So what is it?"

Sheppard watched as she started to squirm. "Well, you see. I want to be extra careful that we don't get out of control today."

"Okay, not that we would, but why?" Now John was genuinely curious.

"Because, well, as you know, having been married before, there are times, on a monthly rotation, that women are normally not the most fun to be around."

"Whoa, whoa! That's far enough." John interjected. He knew all to well about a woman's cycle. "That doesn't mean you have to push me off like that."

"Well. . . .yes it does." Larrin looked up into his eyes. "Remember that we have had, up until about two years ago, very strict population controls in place?"

John nodded. "Right?"

"One of the ways to circumvent that altogether was. . . ." She deliberately left the rest unsaid, and she looked a bit uncomfortable with it.

Feeling a bit uncomfortable himself, Sheppard stated the obvious out load so that they were both on the same page. "So, if what you have been telling me in all our conversations is true, every now and then, this would be the time that you'd find a potential suitor to, um, quiet the urges." She nodded. "And you're feeling them now."

She nodded again to tell him he'd guessed right. As he continued to watch her, he noticed that she seemed to be struggling with herself. It was then that he realized that his arm around her shoulders couldn't be helping matters. When he removed it, with a sheepish grin on his own face, she looked back up in to his eyes and mouthed, "Thank you." Not sure how to proceed, John led the rest of the way in silence.

;-)

Understanding that he needed to help her avoid an unwanted flash of events, at least at this moment, he took her original advice and got to work as soon as possible. When everyone gathered in bay three, Mila, under Larrin's supervision, started handing out assignments to the crews. Most were to coordinate with her as they laid the pieces to the hyperdrive in order on the floor of the bay. When they came across a missing part, Mila would call it out, and Katana would make note of it.

Sheppard, wanting to be close but also knowing what his continued presence must be doing to Larrin, looked at her and started. "It's been nearly a week since I fired it up, and I thought I'd better do a thorough pre-flight on the Jumper before we start running it back and forth." He did his best to be easily read by her.

She must have caught it because she gave him a coy smile. "Go ahead. One of the men from the crew will join you when the first list has been compiled." Larrin also gave him a nod that told him she appreciated his sensitivity.

Not delaying, John went into the Jumper, activated its systems, and tried to get his mind off the problem at hand. "So, how do we make a go of this after we get back to our lives?" John whispered the question from last night that caused the land slide of emotions from the past. All in all, he'd been grateful to have that particular conversation out of the way. But how were they going to handle their separation from each other? Then again, how could they minimize it? His mind, on the verge of an idea, shut down that train of thought as he heard one of the crewmen step on board. "Which ship first?"

"Commander Katana's." The crewmen sat down in the co-pilot's seat as John closed the rear hatch and started the Jumper in that direction. Once Sheppard had landed it in the bay of Katana's vessel, both men exited, and the crewmen started going through and identifying the parts on his list. As he waited, John took the time to survey all the parts in the bay. Judging by what he saw, Larrin had taken him seriously when he said plan for a very large hyperdrive. Just this bay alone had to contain enough parts to rebuild half of the Tria's original drive if they had been Lantean. He would confirm it later, but if Larrin's bay contained this much. . . .

The crewmen started pointing out the parts to go with them on this trip to him, and the men that had joined them to help load. John, with his sleeves already rolled up, began carrying them to his Jumper. The whole process took about fifteen minutes, and they were ready to take the first load over. Both men made their way back with the loaded Jumper and landed. The parts were then pulled off of it one at a time in the order that Mila called for them. This process ensured that John had a lot of time to think inside his little ship as the whole thing repeated a couple of times, going back and forth from both Traveler vessels.

On the last trip of the day, as Sheppard backed the his Jumper out, an idea struck him. Once he got clear of Katana's ship, he stopped, brought his mind into total focus, and started adjust his flight controls so that his little ship started rotating in a circle while keeping the horizontal plane of the Jumper level. He took it up and back, then down and back, then down and forward, and finally up and forward.

"Colonel Sheppard, what are you doing?" asked the crewman.

"Shh, I'm trying to concentrate." John brushed him off before he lost his train of thought. When he'd done the whole thing a couple more times, he smiled. "Oh, yeah!" With that, he resumed his course back to the Tria, and landed in bay three. As the crewmen unloaded the parts, Sheppard used the time to think about his next date night with Larrin when all this monthly stuff was behind them. With any luck, he would be able to temporarily convert the Jumper into a Ferris wheel.

Once all the parts were off, he powered down the Jumper and stepped out. John's eyes first went to Larrin. She seemed to be eying him with a smirk he was quite sure he didn't want to pursue, though there was a part of him that did. You have to be strong, strong for both of you.

Deliberately looking away from her, he took in the rest of the bay. Hyperdrive parts covered nearly the entire floor. And while anyone not part of this repair team would have had a hard time sorting out and maneuvering around and through them, the crews seemed to be at home the in the middle of this mess.

A few minutes later, Larrin called out, "Alright, that's it for the today." Beat from both an intellectually and physically challenging day, the crews gladly accepted the order. When everyone else was gone, Sheppard noticed she waited for him. Tapping down the two pulling forces within him, he slowly made his way to her. "You know, you didn't have to stay away all day." She was complaining.

John trying to be lighthearted about the whole thing. "According to what I got from you, yeah, I did." When she gave him a look that told him she wasn't amused, he continued. "I find that its only natural to want to be with someone you're attracted to. So, in our case, I, we, have taken some preventative steps to keep us from becoming just another notch on the other's belt. Knowing that at this time those natural desires are particularly difficult for you to deal with, I have to do more on my part. Believe me, its taking a toll on me as well." Sheppard tried to close the matter as he led the way back to the Mess Hall.

Larrin fell into step with him. "So what, are we going to hide from each other?" Clearly agitated, she frowned at him.

Taking a moment to get perspective, John realized that her snappiness didn't have any real emotion behind it. Her body's hormones were playing some serious havoc with her mind. He decided that the best answer here would be straight and too the point. Trying to make sure that it didn't sound callous, he started. "No, but until this thing passes, we probably should be more careful, just like you were suggesting earlier." His answer must have sufficed as she remained quiet for the rest of the evening. Upon seeing Larrin to her stateroom after the evening meal, John started going over in his mind how he might turn the Jumper into a carnival ride. Didn't Carson play with the inertia damper adjustments during that storm the first year we were here?