Pairing: Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

Spoilers: This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

Disclaimer: I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

Summary: Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

Author's note: Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm glad you're still reading and enjoying the story. Here's the next chapter!

Chapter 12- Stuck

"What are you doing for the rest of the afternoon?"

Elizabeth turned away from the balcony railing to see John standing near the door.

"I didn't realize you were out here." It was rare for John to sneak up on her, usually she was more aware of her surroundings. Of course she had been thinking about John and this bet of theirs, so that's when he would show up. The man had unbelievable timing.

"Yeah, you were pretty zoned out." He replied, joining her at the edge of the balcony. "You didn't answer my question."

"Oh, the usual. Paperwork. No meetings, though. Why?"

"I have an idea for the bet. The end is approaching you know." John grinned.

After their adventure in Atlantis, which had ended with both of them in the infirmary, they had decided there should be a something to lead up to the end of the bet. Until now neither she nor John had an idea of what to do.

"Okay."

John seemed slightly surprised. "I thought it would take longer to convince you than that."

"Yeah, well I heard from the Daedalus this morning. They're going to be back a little sooner than we thought, in five days."

"Oh." His eyes widened a little. "But that means that-"

"Yeah," She replied with a nod.

It meant that the Daedalus would be back a couple days before the final day of their bet. While she and John weren't violating any rules, and Caldwell seemed to have backed off recently, they had decided it would still be better to have the last day of the bet when the Daedalus was gone and fewer personnel were around. Unfortunately, that was no longer an option.

"So what's the plan? And why is it going to take all afternoon?"

"Oh, not all afternoon, just a few hours." John said with a wave of one hand. Elizabeth could tell he was purposely not answering her question.

"Should I bring anything in particular?" She asked.

"No. Maybe something to snack on." He replied with a maddeningly innocent expression. Now he was clearly enjoying holding back information.

"You're not going to tell me what we're doing, are you?" She narrowed her eyes and attempted to pin him with a particularly stern look.

"Nope. It'll be more fun this way" John responded with a satisfied smirk. "I'll come and get you in an hour. Bring your data pad to keep up appearances." With that he turned to leave.

"Appearances of what." She asked to his retreating back.

"You'll see."

So, a little over an hour after their not very enlightening conversation Elizabeth found herself accompanying John to the jumper bay to supposedly 'look at something.' John still wouldn't tell her what was going on, wanting it to be a surprise for some reason. She was interrupted from her thoughts of ways to get the information out of John, some of which were decidedly unprofessional, by a sudden halt.

"Close your eyes."

"We're in a hallway. Why do I have to close my eyes?" If he wasn't going to tell her anything, she was going to be difficult.

"Please close your eyes." John pouted.

Elizabeth, once again regretting that John had found out his pathetic pleading looks actually worked on her, sighed and proceeded to close her eyes. "Okay, but if you leave me here I will assign you to be Rodney's guinea pig for ancient technology for a month."

"Someone is grouchy today," was the only response she got.

For a minute or two all she could hear were metallic sounds and a few scrapes. When instructed to she opened her eyes and was greeted by the sight of John grinning at her.

"You're enjoying this way too much."

"Maybe. You know, it's a long walk to the jumper bay from here. We probably should take a transporter." He took her elbow and steered her to the transporter a little ways down the hallway.

"After you darling," he said with a small bow, gesturing for her to enter the transporter.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and stepped in. Thank god no one was around to see this.

After the doors closed, Sheppard pressed the necessary buttons to get them to the same level as the jumper bay. The transporter glided smoothly down for 2 floors before lurching to a stop.

She glanced over at John, "Please tell me that was supposed to happen?"

"Yep. It seems we're stuck in a transporter. Alone." He said with a particularly devilish smirk.

"Us. Alone. Why, we could get into all sorts of trouble." She flirted back.

John laughed. "So what do you think of Operation Otis?"

"I'm impressed. How long are we going to be in here?"

"Should be a couple of hours. I messed with a couple of power conduits that go to this transporter. The same thing happened to Beckett a couple of months ago by accident and it took McKay about that long to fix it."

"Nice. I probably should radio the control room to let them know we're in trouble." She said with exaggerated concern.

"By all means, we wouldn't want them to worry." John added in the same mock serious tone.

"Okay, here we go." Elizabeth tapped her headset. "Weir to control room."

"Yes, Dr. Weir."

"Hi Derek. I seem to be trapped in a transporter off of hallway 13D. Can you get it moving again." She motioned at John to stop silently laughing or she wasn't going to be able to make it through the call.

"We can try ma'am. It'll take just a minute to run a quick check. Are you by yourself?"

"No, Colonel Sheppard is here. We were on our way to the jumper bay."

"Okay. Well, I see you both on the life signs detector. It'll be just a minute on the scan."

"Understood." She cut off the radio connection and turned to John. "You laughing is so not helpful right now."

"I know, I know, I'm sorry." He took a deep breath and seemed to compose himself.

"Dr. Weir, Colonel Sheppard." Derek had tapped into both of their radios. "I can't do anything about it from here, but I'm sending a team to check it out. They should be about 15 minutes."

"We'll be here." John said and then their radios cut out.

Elizabeth looked up at John. For some reason when her eyes met his she got an inescapable case of the giggles. That was all it took for John to start again, until both of them were doubled over with laughter.

"Why is this so funny?" Elizabeth asked, trying to calm down.

"I have no idea."

"Ow, it hurts. I need to sit." She added, brushing tears out of her eyes.

"Just try to breathe." John said helpfully, sitting down next to her on the transporter floor.

Elizabeth peered up at the ceiling, "There's not a surveillance camera in here is there?"

"Oh ye of little faith. I picked a transporter in a fairly deserted hallway with no camera. The most they have is a life signs detector."

"Why the jumper bay?" John seemed to have an answer for everything now and she was curious.

"Its four levels down. And I like the jumpers." John paused and ran a hand nervously through his hair. "And there may be a bet about us in the jumpers that I forgot to tell you about," he added cautiously.

"Huh." She really shouldn't be surprised anymore by the stuff that the expedition members came up with. John did love those puddlejumpers, so she could see the logic behind it.

"So what are we going to do in here for two hours?" Elizabeth asked, steering the conversation away from their invented love life.

"Well, we have your data pad and these." John held up a deck of cards and grinned. "I was thinking strip poker."

"I'm sure you were. Are you really that anxious to lose your clothes?"

"Who says you would win."

"I have an excellent poker face and can read you like book."

"Hmmm, I think someone needs to put their clothes where their mouth is." John challenged with a dangerous look in his eyes.

"Dr. Weir, Colonel Sheppard." Zelenka's voice came through their radios.

"Hi Radek. That was fast." Elizabeth responded, breaking from John's gaze.

"Yes, I was with a team in the next section over. I have good news and bad news."

"Okaaay, let's go for good news first," John said and then shrugged in response to her questioning look.

"The good news is the problem that caused the transporter to stop is fairly common. We think it is due to normal use. So, we won't have trouble fixing it to get you out."

"And the bad news," Elizabeth asked.

"It's going to take a while."

"How long is a while?"

"My best guess is twelve hours or so."

"What?" She said, wincing when she heard her voice screech slightly.

John closed his mouth, which had opened in surprise at Zelenka's announcement and mouthed "Ooops."

"Usually it would only take a couple of hours, but before we can start anything we have to reroute the power. Unfortunately we had a problem this morning in the next section and to fix it we had to alter the power configuration. We really can't reroute the power here until we're done there." Radek explained in a rush.

John silently said, "Sorry." He had a very apologetic look on his face.

"That's okay." She mouthed back.

"Elizabeth. Are you guys okay in there?"

"Yeah Radek," John responded. "Just a little surprised about spending the rest of the day and half of the night in here." It was going to be 3 or 4 in the morning before they were out.

"I suppose we could try to cut into the transporter from above." He offered. "Although that might permanently damage it."

"That's not necessary Radek. We'll be fine." Elizabeth replied in a firm voice. "Just let us know when you can start working on our little problem."

"I'm so sorry," John started once they had gotten off the radio. "I had no idea that-"

"Its fine," Elizabeth interrupted him. She really wasn't angry and passing the next 12 hours wouldn't be very enjoyable if John was apologizing to her every 10 minutes. "I didn't even know they were working in this section, so don't worry about it. Now, I think we both need to make some calls so that everything is in order while we're stuck in here."

After they had called the control room, Beckett, Lorne, Teyla, and failed to reach Rodney, she and John sat down to play cards. John let her pick the first of many games out of guilt.