Rating: T

Disclaimer: I own none of the Atlantis Characters but I do own Alex. If you want to use her just ask.

Author's Notes: I know it's been a while but Real Life has got it in for me.

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It is breakfast time and the mood in the mess hall is subdued as there are many black eyes and bruised knuckles on show this morning, obviously my warnings were not taken seriously. I see Lorne slink in looking dead on his feet, he must have had a busy night, closely followed by Major Tony Grantly

"Have a bad night" I ask him with a wink.

"No thanks I've just had one, boy those Marines can't take a joke can they" he replies

"I did warn you," I say

"I know, I've had to do a lot of deals with your Major Lorne to keep my guys out of the Brig, I can't do the job with half my lads in the nick can I?" he replies as he slopes off with his breakfast.

"Well" I say as Major Lorne grabs his breakfast

"I will never ignore one of your warnings again, it was chaos in here last night, on the plus side that friend of yours, Major Grantly, made a lot of offers I couldn't refuse to keep his men out of the Brig" he says with a grin

"I know, but you have to see his point, with half his guys in the Brig it'll take twice as long to get the work done" I reply

"I guess but at least we'll have enough beer and whisky to keep us going till Christmas," he says. I gasp then laugh

"Will you come on the next trading mission, you can blag your way out of anything," I say as I leave, leaving him to his coffee and paper work. I spy Elizabeth Weir coming through the door with a face like thunder, boy she is well and truly pissed off over something, I decide not to bother with pleasantries and hand her two pain au chocolat, it takes a woman to know how to handle black moods. I'm so busy wondering if last nights fracas is responsible for Dr Weir's bad mood that I nearly miss John Sheppard slip into the line at the counter and he's sporting a black eye, well, well, well so that's why Elizabeth's so pissed.

"Good morning Colonel Sheppard" I say in that annoyingly chirpy sing-song way, he glares at me and mutters something that sounds like 'drop dead' and shuffles off. Some British guys further down the line start whistling 'Two lovely black eyes' and I burst into a fit of giggles, which earns me another combustible look from Sheppard, I look around for Tony and Lorne to see if they can spread any light on the subject but they've gone.

"Morning Alex" says a voice I haven't heard in a while

"Radek, long time no see," I say

"It has been mad since we found explosives" he replies

"I'll bet, I don't suppose you know what happened to Colonel Sheppard do you?" I ask. He shakes his head

"Why what happened" he says, I nod towards where he's sitting

"He's got one hell of a shiner and Dr Weir looks like she's ready to kill someone" I say, Radek shrugs

"I have not heard anything" he replies

"Hey Radek stop holding up the line, people could die here" said the whinging voice of Rodney McKay. Radek smiles apologetically and moves off and I swear in English, French and Satedan at Rodney, I've been chatting to Ronon a bit more these days, I like his temperament.

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I hear another explosion out to the east of the city and pick up my cup, I grab hold of the table and wait, Christine braces herself against the fridge door and the city begins to roll as the wave hits, this is the fourth time this morning. The rolling subsides and poor Christine is looking a little green

"Alex..." she starts,

"Again?" I ask as she runs off grabbing a bowl on the way. I sigh, after the first wave hit and the city rocked and rolled for a couple of minutes I knew lunch was going to be quiet so I decided to put a lot of 'light' food out as there's going to be a lot of 'Hasten Jason Fetch the Basin' this morning. I throw the rest of my tea away and grab a bottle of water as I'm beginning to feel a bit queasy now and get back to preparing lunch, Christine staggers back into the kitchen looking a little bit better,

"I don't know if I can take much more of this," she says. I see Radek poking his head around the door

"Hi Radek what can I do for you?" I ask, he's looking a little pale as well

"I need some lemons and some ginger" he says, I smile and Christine looks suspiciously at him.

"You're not going to kill Dr McKay are you?" she asks and Radek grins

"No it is a old country cure for sickness, my grandmother used to give it to us when we were children, I'm hoping it will help get some work done in labs, too many people are seasick" he says. I sort him out some lemons and a large piece of ginger

"There are two willing guinea pigs here," I say to him, he smiles

"I do not wish to get in your way" he replies, I look at Christine who shakes her head

"I'm not bothered, we're not busy and besides I'm intrigued," I say. Radek busies himself by squeezing lemons and peeling and slicing the ginger, he then puts the whole lot in a pan with some water and starts to heat it up.

"I have heard something about what happened to Colonel Sheppard last night" he says suddenly, Christine and I gather round him

"Go on" I say

"It seems that last night Elizabeth was having coffee out on the balcony with an officer from the British Sappers, he is Irish really, a Captain Connor O'Hara". I roll my eyes, I've heard all about Con from Tony, he has a silver tongue and can charm the knickers off a nun, Tony reckons he didn't kissed the Blarney Stone, he swallowed it whole. "It seems that Sheppard wasn't too keen on O'Hara chatting up Elizabeth, that is what you say isn't it" Christine and I nod "so Sheppard confronted O'Hara later on in the evening, punches were thrown and Sheppard came off worse". Our mouths drop open

"So that kicked off the trouble last night?" Christine asks, Radek shrugs

"One of many I should think" he replies

"Wow, no wonder Elizabeth looked pissed off this morning", I say. Radek pours some of his brew into two mugs and hands them to us

"Drink" he says, we do as we're told, it's a nice drink and my stomach starts to feel better, Christine is beginning to look a little healthier too. We hear another explosion out to sea and grab onto the table, this will be the test, the wave hits, the city rolls and my stomach stays where it is,

"Wow that stuff really works" says Christine. Radek asks for a flask so he can take his brew back to the lab, we go into my office to find one, I breathe in deeply, ok it's now or never

"Listen, as it's quiet at the moment I was going to watch Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy tonight do you fancy joining me?" I say

"I would like that" he replies, I smile

"Ok, my place at eight" I say

"I will see you then" he says as he leaves. I can't believe it was that easy.

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AN: Okay a quick explanation of the Blarney Stone. It's set into the parapet of Blarney Castle in Ireland and it is said if you kiss it, it will 'Give you the gift of eloquence', in layman's terms, it gives you the gift of the gab. Nowadays the term 'Blarney' means "the ability to influence and coax with fair words and soft speech without giving offence".

Hasten Jason fetch the Basin was a phrase used by Ray Moore, a Radio 2 DJ that I used to listen to when I was on the early shift man years ago, to describe rough sea crossings in the Channel or the Irish Sea

What will happen on 'The Date'?

Will they actually get to have the Date?

Will Elizabeth black John's other eye?

Will Capt O'Hara get his wicked way with Elizabeth?

What will John do if he does?

All this and more in the next episode.