"I am fairly certain that next time, we can visit the Culi without our... men," Teyla grinned as they were waiting at the gate for Sheppard to change into his clothes. "At least we established some sort of trust."

The celebrations of the night before had been awful. John had spent most of the time on the floor, on his knees, waiting for Ziva to give him something to eat. He had felt like a dog, but he was fortunate enough that they hadn't forced Ziva into bringing him to the dog tent and eat the food in there.

He hadn't liked what it had been doing to him, walking around on bare feet, wearing nothing but some shorts, cuffs and a dog collar, being on a damn leash. Sitting at Ziva's feet the entire time, forcing himself to stay quiet and calm and not look around too much. There had been times he had felt as if he was floating, as if it was the best thing that could ever had happened to him, but it was an experience he really liked to forget.

Of course, John loved it when Ziva took control in the bed room, their own private sanctum, he had been tied up before, and he had liked it, but on a mission? He had never felt more vulnerable in his entire life, despite Ziva being an excellent fighter.

He just wanted to go home and take a thorough shower to get rid of all the sand and dirt on his body, and then sleep, for a very long time, then write up his report and sincerely hoped that Carter would stay true to her word; that no one but them would ever read it.

Back on Atlantis, John dumped his stuff in the armory before going to his quarters, nearly hopping underneath the shower fully clothed. Ziva and Teyla went to deal with Carter and Woolsey to provide their reports on the visit, promising him and Ronon that they would be as discrete as possible when it came to the details of what they endured. Future dealings with the people would certainly have to be handled by a woman and a woman alone.

When Ziva finally made it back to her quarters, she very happily stretched over her bed, grateful for the soft mattress. A part of her wished that John was there with her to share in the comfort but she knew he needed the time to himself, to find himself again from the ordeal even if it was just one night that made him feel so off.

He had spent almost an hour underneath the shower, the warmth making him feel almost human again and got dressed into a shirt and his jogging pants. John sat on the edge of his bed for a while, staring into nothingness. It was nowhere near bed time and he was tired, but he didn't want to rob himself from a decent night's sleep and that meant he had to stay awake.

Sighing, John decided to make his way over to Ziva. He just wanted to lay down in bed, feeling her arms around him and sleep. Again.

Ziva heard her door slide open but she couldn't be bothered to move from where she had fallen on the bed. She grunted an acknowledgment that she knew he was there and even managed to pull the blanket back slightly, welcoming him into the bed with her.

She wasn't even looking at him. Almost as if nothing had happened. He hadn't been sure why he had freaked out a little about the experience. He always boasted he was the right man for the job, yeah, think again, Sheppard. "I need you..." He whispered as he crawled into bed with her. He wanted to feel her, to kiss her, in the comforts of their own home to shake off the weird Culi experience.

Ziva smiled softly as she cupped his face in her hands before kissing him softly. "Shh," she shushed him before pulling him down to the bed and pushed his shoulder to lay down on the bed. Climbing up, she straddled him before laying down over the length of his body, her fingers toying at the collar of his shirt to just feel a little of his skin as she wrapped herself around him. "I am here," she whispered, kissing his jaw. "I am here."

He let out a happy sigh as he put his arms around her. "Now, this, this is something I definitely like."

She shifted her kissed from his jaw to his mouth as a way of silencing him. "Now let's get some sleep, huh? Before we nod off during our duties in the morning. We have had a busy two days."

He softly caressed her hair and closed his eyes. This was nice. This was good and familiar. He smiled and slowly drifted off in a nice, comfortable sleep.

When he woke up again, it was dark and he was hungry. Ziva was still on top of him, which amused him to no end. John slowly rolled them over and placed her on the bed after prying her limbs off of him and softly kissed her. "Wakey wakey."

She moaned as she stretched her arms out and blinked her eyes open. "What time is it?" she mumbled, wishing to go back to the comfortable bliss she was previously in.

"Ten pm... I'm hungry, do you want something from the mess hall?"

"No. I'm good. Are you feeling better?" she asked as she sat up to gather her bearings.

"Yeah, I'm good," he smiled and softly kissed her. "I'm sorry about earlier."

Ziva smiled as she closed her eyes. "Don't be. We are off for the weekend now. I forgot to tell you earlier. Gift from Carter, so to speak."

"It won't happen again," he said, looking for his boots. "I'm going to get some food," he kissed her again after getting into his boots, deciding not to tie them up and headed out to the mess hall.

"You're up late." Rodney noted from his table in the empty mess hall when he saw his friend walk into the mess hall. "Had wild monkey sex with Ziva? Because if you have... Zelenka needs to pay up!"

"No, we slept for a couple of hours." John chuckled and was grateful that the cooks had left something. Sure, whatever the food was supposed to be, it was probably cold and tasting funny but John was hungry. He took a mug of coffee and joined Rodney at his table.

"Shouldn't you go back to Ziva? You two are practically joined at the hip!"

"Would you stop that? Please?" He shot at his friend and shook his head. "I'm joining you for a late night snack or extremely late dinner, I didn't even know you were in here. So shut up."

Rodney shrugged and dug into his blob of food. "Shame you didn't find out whether or not the Culi have the resources to create a ZPM."

"They're a very different culture... I'm sure that in time, we will find out."

"I can't wait to read the reports." Rodney snorted. "All female civilisation? You must have had a blast."

John shrugged and this time it was his turn to stab into the blob on his tray. "So, what have you been doing in the last two days?"

"Trying to upgrade a Jumper... don't worry I didn't use yours or Lorne's as a test subject, but it backfired so now we have to repair the Jumper."

"Of course," he chuckled. "What else have you been doing?"

"I just told you that I've tried to upgrade a Jumper and that I'm now fixing it, what? You think I pull miracles out my sleeve?" Rodney took a sip of his coffee and eyed his friend carefully. "You're trying to keep me from asking you questions about the Culi!"

John shrugged and shoved a mouthful of blob in his mouth and instantly regretted it. It was cold, tasted funny and the texture was awful too.

"I know that Carter and Woolsey promised you that no one would read the reports, what happened?"

He shrugged again. "Different culture."

"Can't be that bad, how bad was it for them to seal the reports?"

John took a deep breath and sighed. "The Culi are a culture made out of women who keep men as dogs and status symbols and slaves."

"Seriously?" Rodney blinked at John. "Wow. I wish I would have been there to see it!"

"No, you don't. And you're not going to ever see it."

"Come on, Sheppard."

"No, Rodney," John took a sip of his coffee and sighed. "I seriously don't understand how people can live that way or how much the experience unnerved me."

"I'm not you."

"You just want to get laid," he said with a grin on his face. "Admit it, Rodney."

"Maybe. It would be interesting from a scientific point of view."

"Crawling around in the dirt, almost naked, sand getting everywhere…"

"Never mind."

"Okay," John chuckled as he got up, ready to throw his food away and opt for a power bar. "Don't break the jumper even further. Good night, Rodney."

"Night."

John had finished his coffee by the time he made it back to Ziva's quarters and had made a stop to get a power bar along the way. He was surprised to find Ziva awake and drying herself off in the bathroom from taking a shower after she had been so sleepy in bed before he left. "The blob was awful," John noted. "Be glad you didn't come."

"Ugh," she moaned at the thought. "I think I have chocolate somewhere to tide us over til breakfast if you want. Maybe some crackers and oreos. I don't remember which. You can look in the box labeled knives in my closet and see."

"Ohh!" John grinned and peeked in her closet. Taking the box, he opened it and emptied it on her bed. "There's a lot of goodies here." He flopped down on the bed and opened a chocolate bar wrapper as he watched Ziva get into her nightgown.

"That means that McKay hadn't found it yet," she grinned as she made her way back over to him and picked up a package of Nutter-Butter cookies. "When do you get your next leave?"

"What? You have plans?" John smiled as he looked at her. "I'm sure something can be arranged, considering I don't usually take leave."

She shrugged. "I was thinking of taking a vacation back to Earth. Maybe visit the team, our families..."

"You miss them, don't you?" John knew that the short birthday visit of Gibbs and Tony hadn't been enough for her, and he already hated the day she'd tell him that she would really like to go back to Earth permanently. "I'm sure that if I ask, I can get leave."

Ziva frowned as she played with the wrapper from the cookies. "I do, but really I want my father to meet you and you to meet him. You know that my relationship with him has been - difficult, but we have been conversing through e-mail a lot more in the last year that I think that something might be there still."

He looked at her as he munched on his Mars bar. "Sure, if that would make you happy, I'll be happy to meet your father," he responded. "I'll talk to Carter and Woolsey first thing after waking up in the morning."

"It doesn't have to be right away. Just thought I'd throw the idea out there," Ziva replied as she shifted to move onto his lap. "I'm more than happy right here, right now."

"Yeah, I know... but this isn't really your world, is it?" He chuckled as he kissed softly on her neck.

"It's not like I'm being wasted. It is different from NCIS but not unpleasantly so," she answered. "There is more we can do here than we can do there."

"Well, over there you can kick some bad guys ass, make Earth a bit more safe from the bad people on Earth... and I'm sure that I could continue my work too, just from a different place, and be home more often." He grinned. Not that he was already willing to give up on Atlantis and the work they did, but their recent mission - and the one before that where he felt himself being super careful for some reason, had made him think about his life, his future.

And maybe that wasn't Atlantis, maybe it was Ziva who was his future now, especially now that she wanted him to meet her father, despite her rocky relationship with the head of Mossad. That somehow made him realize that she wasn't going to abandon him, that she loved him like he loved her. And maybe, just maybe, it was time for a change of scenery.

There were plenty of jobs for him waiting at the SGC if he explained his reasons, there were enough gene carriers on Atlantis now, and even if they did need him, he was only a gate trip away. He'd make his final decision if they would go back to Earth and meet her father, and meet up with her friends. If he wasn't alienated too much, he might make the right decision.