Disclaimer: Yada yada yada, I don't own Stargate: Atlantis, MGM does, blah blah blah.

A/N: Just want to thank everyone for the reviews, and my Beta Astrochick for going through my nonsensical errors. The final chapter should be up as soon as my Beta has time to go over my grammar issues. ;) Thanks again.

Chapter 3

Elizabeth awoke with her right side sore from sleeping on it all night. She lifted her head a bit and saw that John was still asleep. He was right. He could sleep anywhere. She wondered if that was part of his military training to be able to sleep anywhere.

She thought about trying to get up, but then she figured what was the point, it was not like she could go anywhere. She looked at her watch it was 06:30. Her first meeting wasn't until 08:00. She couldn't wait to tell John they had another briefing to attend to today. She had thought about canceling it, since she had a feeling that she wasn't going to be able to concentrate on this meeting either, with John still attached to her. Maybe she should just cancel all her meetings for the rest of the day and find a solution to this mess by the end of the day. Elizabeth decided that would be the best, but she thought teasing John with an early briefing was tempting.

"You're awake." She heard John say.

Elizabeth sat up on the bed and turned to face him. "How do you feel?"

"Like I slept in the most uncomfortable chair the whole night," John said, trying to massage the back of his neck with his one hand.

"I told you. If we crashed at the infirmary, you wouldn't have that problem."

"If we stayed in the infirmary, both of us would have a neck ache. So you should be thanking me instead of giving me the 'I told you so' speech." John tilted his head back and forth to stretch his neck muscles. "In fact, I think you owe me a massage."

"Why is that?"

"Because I was a gentleman and let you have the bed."

"I see. That's not a good enough argument, and you have no proof that you let me have the bed."

"This pain in my neck is proof enough. Beckett can prove that I have bad pain in my neck."

"Still, you have no witnesses. For all anyone knows you might have made me sleep on the floor," she said.

"For all anyone knows, we've might have slept in the same bed," John shot back with smirk.

Elizabeth was about to reply, but instead started yawning.

"Tired?" John asked.

"Yes, despite the fact I was on the bed, I am still tired."

"I bet," John said with an impish smile.

Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows when she saw his devious smile. She narrowed her eyes and decided it was time she interrogated him.

"What is that suppose to mean?"

John's smile widened into a grin. He found out something interesting about Doctor Elizabeth Weir last night, and he was sure no one else in Atlantis knew about her little quirk. He decided he had to take advantage of that fact.

"Major, I think you need to explain yourself," Elizabeth asked with a commanding tone.

As he observed Elizabeth's expression, he couldn't resist any more and decided to have fun at Elizabeth's expense. After all, she did get the bed.

"You, my dear Doctor Weir, talk in your sleep."

Elizabeth was speechless. She knew she had talked in her sleep a couple times before, but it wasn't a common occurrence. She remembered Simon told her she did before, but usually during a nightmare or uneasy sleep. She remembered Simon telling her that the things she said were a bunch of nonsense or just didn't make sense to the conscious person in the first place. But the look on John's face worried her. She quickly tired to remember what she might have been dreaming about during the night, but nothing came to mind.

"What did I say?" she finally asked.

"You said…" he purposely spoke slowly. "John…I want you," He said. His smirk evolved into a huge grin.

"I did not say that," Elizabeth retorted immediately. "You are making that up."

"I'm only repeating what I heard."

"In your dreams," Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"No, Doctor it's apparently in your dreams," he winked.

Elizabeth slapped him on the knee. "You're lying. What did I really say?"

"I already told you."

"I did not say that," she repeated, but she was starting to doubt herself. She couldn't quite recall her dream at the moment, but she did vaguely remember that John had been part it.

"Well, you don't know for sure now, do you, Doctor? And you'll never know."

"Either way, I don't believe you, and I usually remember my dreams."

"Okay, then tell me what was your dream about and prove me wrong." John knew by the look of Elizabeth's face that she couldn't remember the dream if her life depended on it, at least not right now.

"It's seven in the morning and I haven't had my caffeine yet. I can't quite remember anything let alone a dream I had last night."

"All right we'll go and get some coffee, or what's left of the coffee, so you can start functioning."

"No, we need to go to my room first," Elizabeth said getting out of the bed and attempting to make it at the same time.

"What for? It's not like you can change."

"For starters, I can at least comb my hair, wash my face, and brush my teeth before my 08:00 meeting." John groaned. Elizabeth wonder if he heard her mention the meeting.

"I don't want to go to the girl's room again," he complained. "You know what we need to find? Living quarters with private bathrooms."

Either he didn't hear her mention the meeting, or he dreaded the ladies room more then the meetings. Elizabeth decided now was not the time to question John's new fears. "We need to do a lot of things, but first I need to go freshen up, and so could you."

"What's wrong with how I look?" John asked rubbing his hand over his face.

Elizabeth had dragged the half-asleep Major to her room to collect her toiletries then they headed to the restroom.

Since it was early the restroom was empty, but before Elizabeth could freshen herself up. John announced that he needed to use the toilet. After several trips to the bathroom together over the last twenty-four hours, they both were beyond the embarrassment and it was becoming routine. The thought of this becoming routine gave her a shiver. Elizabeth did not want to be stuck to John any longer then was necessary.

When Elizabeth finally could stand in front of the mirror and freshen up, she saw that her hair was in need of a brush. After she brushed her teeth, she dug through her cosmetic bag for a brush but realized she head left it in her room. Instead she picked up her small facial towel and immersed it into cold water.

"Missing something," John asked, rubbing his hand over his face and chin again still deciding if he needed to shave or not this morning.

"I forgot my brush," she said trying to wring the water out of her towel with one hand.

John saw Elizabeth's sad attempt to wring her towel and took hold of one side of the towel and held it while she wrung the excess water out.

"Thank you," she said and placed the cool towel on her face.

John started looking through his pockets and found the comb he discovered yesterday.

"I have a comb," he offered. "It's clean. I've never used it."

Elizabeth had to force herself to hold back a laugh. She thanked him and took the comb and tried to use the small comb to brush through her tangles.

"Have you ever combed your hair?" she asked.

"Sometimes," he said combing his fingers through his hair, which only made it stick out more.

"I mean with a comb or brush?"

John thought for a bit, "Once upon a time. Besides isn't the 'I just got out of bed look' the new sexy look?"

"I don't know. I haven't been getting my subscriptions of InStyle."

"Do you think it's sexy?"

"I think you have a bad case of intergalactic bed head."

"Why, thank you, Doctor."

Elizabeth gave her appearance a last look into the mirror and decided her hair wasn't going to look any better. It looked like John's bad case of intergalactic bed head was rubbing off on her.

"I'm ready. How about you?"

John decided he didn't need to shave today. It wasn't like he was going off world and might meet a beautiful alien princess, and Elizabeth was already used to his scruffy appearance. "I'm good. Lead me to the green pastures."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, picked up her cosmetic bag, and headed out the door.

John and Elizabeth wandered into the lab to find Rodney and Carson asleep at the table. With their laptops still open.

"Rodney?" Elizabeth called out.

Rodney stirred and blinked at them blankly. "Oh sorry, I must have dozed off for a bit there." Carson yawned as Rodney elbowed him to wake up.

"Did you two get any sleep?" Elizabeth asked.

"Some…I think," Carson said between yawns.

"I'm touched that you guys actually stayed up all night to try and separate us," John said.

"On the contrary, Major," Rodney began and lifted up his left hand and pointed to the obvious.

John choked back a laugh when he saw the two doctor's hands stuck together by the tip of their two fingers.

"What happened?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well we couldn't figure out how to break the bond and Carson had the brilliant idea to just try and test the blob in a small amount," Rodney explained.

"So you guys are stuck together too?"

"Not quite," Rodney said and looked down at his hand and decided to correct his answer. "Actually, for now, yes, but there is a slight difference from our results from yours."

"What do you mean?" John asked.

"Remember that unknown thing we found earlier? It is some sort of nanocyte. Instead giving people hallucinations and then killing you, this one "reads", if you will, people's DNA. It seems that the strength of the bond varies according to the compatibility of the two types of DNA. Some how your bond is a lot stronger then ours, the only reason I can think of right now is gender."

"Wait, you're saying that someone made this stuff?" John asked.

"Yes."

"Why the hell would anyone make this?"

"Beats me, but I think we have to go to the mainland, and look around the area for any possible past civilization or something. This might, I emphasize might have been some ritual device or some—,"

"…funky handcuffs," John added. "If these are nanocytes can't we just zap them with an electromagnetic pulse from the EMP generator like last time?"

"We tried that already."

"Wait, you said the nanocyte reads DNA?" Elizabeth asked.

"Correct," Carson said. "In fact, both of your DNA was found within the data we were able to extract."

"That's unsettling," Elizabeth paused to think. "Okay, I guess we are going to have a field trip to the mainland."

"So, who's driving?" Just as John asked this, Carson and Rodney's fingers were released from the bond. "Now why didn't that happen for Elizabeth and me?"

"Like I said it has something to do with gender. I'm guessing like some sort of bonding ritual," Rodney explained.

"How do you know that?"

"I don't. That is why I said we had to go to the mainland." He looked over at Elizabeth. "Did I not just say that?"

"Boys, can we not stand here and argue. Let's go. I'm going to cancel whatever meetings I have today. Then we will go to the mainland." Elizabeth said, "Now go and get what ever you need, and we'll meet in the jumper bay in half an hour.

Thirty minutes later everyone was geared up and ready to go. Rodney was the designated driver and Lieutenant Ford his co-pilot. Carson was left behind; since he insisted that he had other work to do, but John suspected Carson passed since Rodney was flying the ship.

John and Elizabeth sat in the seats behind the two pilots with their two hands hanging in the middle. John was telling Elizabeth to observe how Rodney couldn't fly the jumper in a straight line, even with the advanced Ancient technology assisting him. Elizabeth let out a chuckle.

"What are you two whispering about in the back, I can't quite hear?" Rodney asked. John and Elizabeth just continued whispering to themselves. "I feel like I'm driving two giddy teenagers on a date or something," Rodney said to Lieutenant Ford.

"Must I remind you that one of the 'giddy teenagers' you are referring to is your boss," John responded..

"Point taken, so that means you guys are talking about me. I'll let the two of you return to your discussion of my vast and superior knowledge with out further interruption."

After what felt like an eternity, they could see the shore of the mainland through the window of the jumper.

"Major, do you remember where we parked last time?"

"Yeah, right were that blinking thing is pointing at," John answered, pointing as the transparent screen popped up before them. "And easy on the landing. I bet that's how that thing got stuck on the hull of the ship when you scraped by that tree the other day."

"Hey, don't try to place the blame on me. I dared you and you accepted. Besides I got stuck to Carson trying to figure out a way to separate you two too. Don't I get any credit for that?"

"No, you guys were only stuck together for a couple of hours," John pointed out. "I've been stuck to Doctor Weir for a day, and this 'alien adhesive' of yours isn't unadhesiving anytime soon."

"That is why we are here." Rodney landed the jumper with a slight jolt. "We're here!" Rodney announced clapping his hands together.

"Didn't I say easy?" John said.

"I'm not the resident pilot here, and you're not the best teacher either," Rodney retorted.

Elizabeth was ready to slap both John and Rodney on the side of their heads. Did they always bicker like this? How the hell they every got through a mission without Teyla or Aidan beating the snot out of them was beyond her.

Not wanting to listen to any more banter for now and by the boyish shrug Aidan gave her as she raised her eyebrows, she was starting to sympathize with John's other team members. She stood up and started walking out the back of the jumper.

John was still thinking of something to say to Rodney when he realized his arm was being pulled behind him. Not wanting to lose an arm this early in the morning, he got up and grabbed his backpack on the way out and caught up with his other half. She looked a tad bit annoyed.

"What?"

"Do you two always bicker like that?"

"Yeah, it's fun," John said with a proud smile. "It's always great to see Rodney's face when he's appalled or annoyed. His eyebrows furrow, his face scrunches up, his mouth hangs open, and he almost seems to turn red," John said with boyish enthusiasm.

"My face does not scrunch up," Rodney objected.

"See there it is," John pointed out to Elizabeth.

"I get the point." Elizabeth raised her hand to stop them both. "Let's get started. Where should we start?"

John recognized the change in Elizabeth's tone and took command.

"We'll split into groups of two. Ford you're with McKay. I'm with Doctor Weir for obvious reasons. We will take the left you. You guys take the right. Keep in radio contact. Okay, let's move out."

Each group headed out to their assigned designations. John held out his backpack for Elizabeth to fish out the radio.

"I brought an extra radio for you," he said after he saw the confused look Elizabeth gave him.

"Afraid I might get lost?"

"No, it's practical, so you don't have to keep getting the radio from my vest so you can talk."

"Okay," she found the radio and closed the backpack. "I just realized you've been wearing that vest all this time. Isn't it uncomfortable?"

"Not really. I'm use to it, besides all the pockets in my vest keep me occupied in all your meetings."

After they managed to secure the backpack onto John's back, they start to walk and search.

"So what else did you find in there other then the comb?" Elizabeth asked.

"You know, you've got your basic essential stuff, tourniquet, power bar, Swiss army knife, comb, mirror, matches, pain killers, etc."

"Mirror?"

"You know, so I can look my best when fighting the wraith."

"I have a feeling it's more like to make sure you look handsome for the next beautiful alien you encounter on your missions," Elizabeth teased.

"Hey that was a one time thing."

"That's what they all say."

"What has been McKay been telling you?"

"Mum's the word."

"You know, I could nag you all day, because I know exactly where you are going to be," he threatened.

"More reason to find this dead culture sooner then later."

They explored their designated area for about half and hour before Elizabeth spoke up.

"So how do we know when we've found something strange?"

John shrugged, "You see something strange and have Rodney check it out. Then he'll tell you that it's something strange."

"I don't see anything strange, but this is nice."

"Nice?" John turned his head to ask Elizabeth, and instead of watching where he was going, walked right into a low hanging branch. Elizabeth laughed.

"Yes, I love a walk in nature and being attacked by foliage." He ran has hand through his hair to make sure no alien objects were stuck in it. He definitely did not need any help to keep his hair sticking up.

"You never struck me as the walk in the park type," he continued. "I see you more like the hanging out on the balcony type."

"I like the balcony, but it's nice to get out of the city and take a walk out in nature," she explained. "I like nature. I just never have a chance to get out of the City. Back on earth, I would sit outside in my yard and have a nice up of hot coffee and just take in the view. Take in nature."

"Hey, if you ever want to take a trip here for a break, I'd be happy to fly you," John offered.

"Thank you John. That is very kind of you."

"Anything for the boss," he said with a smile.

They continued walking and found a small stream. They started to walk along side it.

"Does this stream, go towards the Athosian village?" Elizabeth asked.

"I don't think this stream does. Have you been to the village?"

"Once, when the Athosians first moved on to the mainland, there was that party."

"Oh yeah, I remember that."

"Other then that, I haven't been on the mainland again. I wonder if the Ancients actually stayed on the mainland at one point."

"Looks like someone was here at some point in time," John said, when he found an odd shape stone half buried in the ground and covered with foliage. He brushed away the plants. The stone looked like a tablet or marker of some sort and was covered with worn writing.

"What is it?" said Elizabeth.

"I don't know, but I know it's definitely something strange."

John moved forward, leading Elizabeth onwards. As they walked they found more and more rocks strewn around the ground half buried by time and neglect.

"These look like ruins of some type." He said.

"They look almost like ancient Greek ruins. Maybe what ever was here before was destroyed when the wraith attacked the Ancients ten thousand years ago?" Elizabeth suggested.

"It's possible." John made a few clicks on his radio. "Rodney did you guys find anything?"

Rodney's voice crackled through. "We've found some stuff, but nothing that I think would help separate the two of you."

"I have a feeling you should come over here instead. We found what appear to be some ruins."

"What kind of ruins?"

"The ruined kind," John replied.

Elizabeth decided if they were going to get anywhere she would have to intervene. She lifted her radio to her mouth. "Rodney, they look like Ancient Greek ruins, it's hard to tell since everything is eroded and worn. We are going to continue exploring the vicinity, while you and Ford make your way here."

"All right," came Rodney's reply.

After Elizabeth was done talking, John took the radio from her hand, and replaced it with his side arm.

"What's this?"

"Just in case," he simply said and continued to lead the way around the ruins.

As they kept exploring, there were more and more large pieces of ruins. They could make out some outline of what seemed like building foundations, but there were no standing structures. There were crumbled walls and columns strewn all over the place, but there was also an abundant of plant life growing over the ruins as well. It was a sight where both death of the past and life of the present coincided.

"Everything looks pretty demolished."

Elizabeth nodded in agreement, her eyes scanned the area in search of something that would give a hint about who these people were, but she had a feeling that the wraith and time had done a good job of destroying any helpful evidence. Just as she was starting to loose hope, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something peculiar. It looked like a cave, but it was hard to tell since there was so much vegetation blocking what seemed to be the entrance.

"John, over there," she pointed to the cave. John looked over then back at Elizabeth and knew she was thinking the same thing as him. He brought up his P-90 in a defensive position as best as he could with his left hand and led them towards the mysterious opening.