A/N: Sorry for the delays. I had some RL issues last week. Thanks for the continued interest and support of this story. No beta so mistakes are all mine.

"Attention, all non-essential personnel please remain in your quarters," Chuck's voice came over the PA to awaken Victoria from a distracting dream. "I repeat all non-essential personnel please remain in your quarters."

During her six months on Atlantis she'd become used to drills all the time. Mister Woolsey loves to keep everyone on their toes. She reluctantly pushed her comforter off and walked to her desk. "Cold showers don't work. I should have known it," she grumbled to herself as she sat down, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Once her laptop powered up she saw a bunch of emails from Doctor Sidorov and some meeting requests with Woolsey, Zelenka, McKay and Sheppard. That must be about the M7G677 trip.

She scrolled through her Inbox and stopped when Dwayne's email address popped up. Victoria couldn't control her racing heart and with a big grin, she opened the email with a subject line of This evening?

Victoria,

Baring the usual crap Pegasus throws our way, do you want to meet for dinner?

Dwayne

Victoria was beaming and shouted Absolutely, before typing a quick reply and mentioning the drill in her text. She was surprised when her email got held up from being sent. Dismissing it as Doctor McKay running one of his performance-enhancing programs, which always make Elisa and Heather's life a mess, she headed for the shower. A warm one this time.

Several hours later after a few more announcements about remaining in your designated areas, the email system started working again. Victoria was glad she had food in her quarters and plenty of things to read without the network, but she was still going stir crazy. Her first message was off to Doctor Sidorov to find out what had happened.

After several minutes of waiting, he replied to say there was something going on in the solar system that required the city to cloak. With the Daedalus at the planet with the drones for protection of that operation, Atlantis needed to be extra cautious. He'd tell her more if he was made aware of it.

No one was allowed out of his or her quarters for another three hours in which time Victoria felt sick to her stomach. She knew somewhere in the city Dwayne and her friends were on alert guarding the most important parts of Atlantis: chair room, weapons storage, generators and main tower. A feeling of something horrible hanging over the city went through her as she tried to focus on information about excavations on M7G677.

When everyone was finally allowed to leave their quarters, there was a silence pervading the city. Victoria was greeted with tight smiles and nods from all the soldiers she saw in the corridors-and there were a lot of them. None of her friends were among them and by the time she got to the mess hall she thought everyone had been avoiding her. She almost called Dwayne on her earwig, but knew that would be ridiculous. He's busy and you have a job to do too.

Looking around the nearly vacant mess hall, she heard her name being called in back of the serving line. She turned and saw Master Sergeant Dixon motioning to her.

"Master Sergeant," she started.

"They all shipped out a while ago. I had to do a big emergency pack of food for a couple of days. No clue where they went, but I heard from Sergeant Campbell they went to the jumper bay," he said in a conspiratorial tone.

"Should you be telling me this?" Her eyes widened and she looked around. A part of her was relieved to know where Dwayne was but another shocked that a veteran soldier would reveal this to her.

"No one told me this was top secret. The way I see it, I tell you and you tell your boyfriend I helped you feel better, so he'll go lax on all his damned training," he said with a gruff laugh. "If you want anything special to eat, you let me know." Master Sergeant Dixon winked and smiled before heading back into the kitchen.

Victoria made her way to the balcony in stunned silence. She was absolutely certain that the Air Force Master Sergeant wasn't supposed to let her know what he did. Knowing that her boyfriend would be pissed instead of thankful, she tucked the information and who gave it to her away. As she raised her forkful of salad to her lips she stopped. Boyfriend? Could Dwayne be my boyfriend after one date?

Glancing up, she saw people look quickly away before she caught their eyes. Oh no. Her worst fear was being realized. She was no longer an unknown member of the archaeology department on Atlantis; she was most likely the most gossiped about woman on the base. Closing her eyes and shaking her head, she got up and went to see the Master Sergeant about getting her food to go.

The next morning she was awoken once again by Chuck. This time he was calling for all off-duty medical personnel and anyone with first responder training as well as all jumper pilots to report to the jumper bay. Fear stabbed through her heart as she sat up in bed. Never before had such a call come in while she was on Atlantis, but she'd heard stories from Heather and the others about them in the past.

Finding her earwig, she attempted to call Heather only to find that the system was down except for emergency communications. Her friends were nowhere to be found the day before, not that she looked too hard. They had to be furious she didn't confide in them about her date with Dwayne. Victoria really didn't know what to do about it. She decided to avoid them until she could talk to Dwayne and find out exactly what they were before talking about her relationship with anyone else.

She made her way to the mess hall to find barely anyone present, even the Master Sergeant wasn't present. Victoria grabbed her food and headed to the balcony where she saw several jumpers leave the tower and fly out toward the ocean. She realized that they were heading away from the mainland and wondered if something else had been found on the ocean floor. But why the medical call out? Jumpers can fly underwater so it couldn't be a jumper accident.

Realizing that she was too upset to eat anything she started getting out of her seat when she got a call from Radek. "Go ahead, Doctor Zelenka."

"Where are you?" he asked in a clipped tone unlike anything she heard before.

"In the mess hall. Why?" she asked. "Is something..."

"I'm on my way."

Radek found an anxious woman in the mess hall so he quickly led her to the infirmary. There had been an accident, which he couldn't give her all the details of, and the injured, including Master Gunny Richards, were being treated in the infirmary. Too stunned to do anything more than follow him, she tried to empty her mind and put one foot in front of the other.

Once in the infirmary, he led her to an area in the back. On the way she passed Dusty with her leg in a cast, Carter in the next bed with his arm in a cast and Raven who didn't seem to have any broken limbs. They were all asleep with Warrington sitting on a chair outside the last curtained area as a silent sentinel over his injured teammates. He got up once a male doctor stepped out.

"Sergeant, he needs to get some sleep," the doctor with a brogue said to Victoria's friend.

She and Radek stopped slightly behind Warrington. When the man saw them, he smiled, his blue eyes twinkling, and stepped over. "Doctor Parker, I'm Doctor Carson Beckett. It's very nice to meet you, love." He put out a hand and Victoria shook it, her eyebrows rising.

"N-nice to meet you too," she replied. The archaeologist heard stories about the Scottish doctor's clone but had yet to meet him.

"I know you want to see him and maybe you'll get him to stay in bed." The Scotsman smiled. "He's got a nasty bump on his forehead, a couple of cracked ribs and a laceration on his leg, which he should stay off of for a couple of days."

Victoria had no idea why Doctor Beckett was speaking to her like she was supposed to make him stay off his feet, but she nodded. "Of course."

"I'll give you about ten minutes, but then he needs to sleep."

"O-okay," Victoria said with a slight smile. Her eyes flashed between Robert Warrington and the doctor, Radek had made his exit once he delivered her.

"He'll be fine," Warrington said. "He a tough old Marine. This won't get him down."

"I'm glad you're okay." She assessed her friend and saw only slight swelling around his right eye.

"Thanks to Master Gunny." He nodded to the curtain. "I know he'll be happy to see you."

"Go on, love," Carson said, motioning for her to enter.

Victoria took a shaky step into the recovery area with curtains surrounding three sides and the head of the bed pushed back against the wall. Her eyes were drawn immediately to the bandage taped to Dwayne's head above his left eye. His eyes were closed and he appeared to be asleep. For the first time in two days she was finally able to acknowledge the emotions that were buried beneath the surface. Unable to stop her feet from carrying her to the side of the bed, she let a few tears of fear escape her eyes.

"Don't cry. I've been in far worst shape than this," the deep voice that came to mean security and peace for her rumbled from his chest. His lips turned up slightly and grey eyes assessed her.

Incapable of keeping her tears in check after finding out the danger he'd been in recently, she let out a sob as she moved closer and took his hand in her own. His hand was so much larger than hers and warm to the touch. The contact made her never want to let it go.

Without any thought she pulled his left hand to her face. His fingers moved to cup her cheek and he shifted so he could reach up with his right hand. A slight narrowing of his eyes was the only outward sign that something hurt when he moved.

"No!" she shouted. "Your ribs."

"Victoria…" he started only to be cut off by Victoria leaning forward and pressing her lips to his.

She couldn't stand him being concerned about her. He's the one who was injured, yet he's putting himself in pain to comfort me. His sense of honor and gentlemanly nature drove her to take the initiative for the first time in her life. When her innate uncertainty with men took over it was too late. It was her intention to give him a quick kiss and pull away. As she tried to pull back from the contact, she was met with an immovable force.

The arms and hands of Dwayne Richards weren't going to let her go. His right arm slid around her waist, tugging her into a sitting position on the edge of the bed. His left hand slid into her hair and gently tilted her head so he could take control of the kiss.

His lips moved with deliberate gentleness and barely controlled passion at the same time. Victoria's hands slid over well-formed muscles on his arms and wrapped themselves around his neck. As the kiss intensified he took advantage of a whimper, which parted her lips, to invade her mouth. All sense of time vanished as she gave herself willingly to the man who'd staked a claim on her guarded heart.

Victoria didn't back down and felt a thrill go through her when she heard Dwayne moan at her tongue's first foray into his mouth. Realizing she could affect a hardened warrior with such a little action, she grew emboldened and leaned against him further to maintain the heated contact.

If someone would have told her a month ago that she would be locked in a passionate embrace with one of the most feared men on the base, the meek woman would have laughed. Yet, here she was making out with him in the infirmary with only a curtain between them and his Marines. Not that any of those thoughts penetrated her mind. All Victoria was aware of was that she felt alive and treasured. Years of being in the background were over because this man put her front and center on a pedestal and it felt liberating.

Victoria wanted nothing more than to continue to feel that way, so she shifted and pulled her knees up on the bed. She felt herself being tugged across Dwayne's lap as the hand in her hair continued to tilt her head.

If she could think, the idea that Victoria Parker would be sitting on a man's lap and kissing him for all she was worth would have embarrassed her to death. It wasn't until her hands began to move over his chest, pressing and squeezing the muscles she felt that her bliss was interrupted. No amount of strength could keep her from being pushed back by the man she desperately wanted to keep kissing. "No. Don't stop," she growled as she leaned forward to press a kiss to his chin.

A deep rumble could be felt through her chest so her eyes snapped open. Dwayne was smiling and his eyes were darker than a storm on the plains where he grew up. "Victoria, we're in the infirmary. Doctor Keller would never let Doctor Beckett back in her infirmary if he let this go on under his watch." The merry look about his face seemed to pull her back to reality.

Her eyes widened as she realized she was sitting across his lap with one hand clutching a well-muscled shoulder and the other hand twisted in the fabric of his hospital gown. "I…" Her cheeks reddened as she looked into his eyes.

"I'm sorry I got carried away, but I haven't had a beautiful woman kiss me in longer than I can remember," he confessed, his arms encircling her waist so she couldn't move off him or the bed.

"N-no," she said, horrified at her actions. "I should-I shouldn't have… I mean I…"

"Victoria, I think we both wanted that," he said with a smile.

"Well, that's one way to keep him in bed. Not the one I had in mind, but it seems to be working," Carson's amused brogue stated from behind her.

TBC

A/N: You wanted it so I gave it to you. I was not going to have this happen for weeks from now, but I need to repay you for not killing me after the last chapter. This chapter works around the episode Infection if you are wondering where Gunny and his boys went.

Ellathiacroft, Hope you enjoy the final line ;-)