A/N: Due to the many, many, many requests that I had for a third session. I gavein to peer pressure and wrote aSORTA third session.
Thanks for all the reviews for the last couple chapters everyone!
Chapter 3
It was late into the warm night. Elizabeth had been lying awake in her bed for the last hour. She stared at the ceiling of her room, hoping boredom would bring sleep along with it, but frustration came first. She closed her eyes again begging sleep to come, but that was also fruitless. She even counted sheep, but that just kept her mind from resting and made her even more awake. Elizabeth sighed and turned onto her side and tried to sleep again, but it wasn't working either. The warm humid climate of her room only contributed to her discomfort.
Finally Elizabeth got up and sat on the side of her bed. She felt the cool floor beneath her bare feet. She decided to go the mess and get some water to drink. A drink of water might help her sleep. Maybe the walk to the mess would take the sleeplessness out of her. At least she hoped it would.
She pushed herself up to a standing position, straightened the tank top she wore and staggered towards the door in the dark. Elizabeth yawned as she pushed the button to open her door. Before Elizabeth's eyes had a chance to refocus to the lights in the hallway, she had a heart attack. If she weren't wake already, she was completely awake now.
"John, what are you doing here?" she asked, her hand over her fast beating heart.
Apparently John was standing right outside her door. He was in the middle of drinking water from a bottle when Elizabeth opened her door. Surprised, he quickly swallowed the gulp of water in his mouth.
"I was…uh…I wanted to ask you something…" he said, obviously still trying to think of a plausible excuse. "Nice pajamas," he added.
Elizabeth blinked from the bright lights in the hallway. "Thank you," she said puzzled at his comment about her pajamas. "You wanted to ask me something at one in the morning? What's so important that it couldn't wait until a decent hour?"
"Well, before you opened your door, I was still deciding if it was important enough to wake you; but you already made that decision for me," he said recapping the bottle in his hands. "Since you're up, let's go," he said grabbing Elizabeth's hand and started to lead her down the hall towards a transporter.
"Where are we going in the middle of the night?" she asked as John basically dragged her into the transporter. "And why are you still up?"
"I'm always up late," John said. "Why are you up?" .
"I couldn't sleep. I was going to head to the mess to get some water to drink," she said leaning against the transporter wall as John pressed a dot on the glowing panel.
"You're thirsty?" He held out the bottle of water he drank from earlier to her. Elizabeth just stood there looking at the bottle he held out. It was still half full. "Take it. I'm not sick or anything."
Elizabeth looked at him one last time and took the bottle from his hand as the transporter door opened.
"So where are you whisking me off to, Major?" she asked after taking a sip of water.
"I'm whisking you off the east pier."
"What is at the east pier?"
"A pier, a nice view, you know stuff like that," he said with a shrug.
Elizabeth stopped walking. "John, I'm walking around the city in the middle of the night in my pajamas, barefoot. Despite the fact that I look and feel like an idiot right now, can you please inform me of why we are going to the east pier?" she asked annoyed.
John furrowed his eyebrows and scratched the back of his head. "I don't think you look like an idiot. As for going to the east pier…it's a surprise."
"Oh it's a surprise, why didn't you just say so?" Elizabeth said sarcastically crossing her arms across her chest.
"You're cranky," John said. Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. "Did I just say that out loud?" Elizabeth continued glaring at John. "I guess so…look," John started to walk back toward Elizabeth. "Let's just say it's our third constellation session."
Elizabeth moved her hands to her hips. "Third constellation session?"
"Don't tell me you've forgotten about them already. It's only been a couple months since the last one."
"No, I haven't forgotten about it, but it's one in the morning."
"The stars are still out," he said.
"It's one in the morning."
"We aren't that far from the east pier."
"It's one in the morning," she repeated again.
"It's just around the corner," he tried again.
"It's one in the morning."
"Okay, it's not a constellation session," he admitted, "but I still think you would want to see this." Elizabeth narrowed her eyes unconvinced.
John sighed and looked at Elizabeth then at his watch. Just when Elizabeth thought John had given up and was going to let her return to her room. He grabbed her hand and started to run towards the east pier.
Taken completely of guard, Elizabeth ended up following John. She tried to pull her hand free from his grasp, but he held her hand firmly. After a while Elizabeth gave up and just followed him. Aside from the fact that she was a tad bit annoyed, this experience of running around the empty city in the middle of night, made her feel a bit giddy and silly. Elizabeth mostly felt silly for walking around barefoot in her pajamas. At least it was late and no one else would be around to witness this absurd sight.
"See we're here," John announced when the reached the east pier.
A cool breeze blew by when they walked outside. Elizabeth took in a deep breath of the crisp air. The climate outside was definitely much better than in her room.
"We're here. Now what?" she asked taking another sip of water from the bottle still in her hand.
"We wait," John said as he sat down on a step that led down to the pier and took the bottle from Elizabeth.
"What no blanket today? What happened to being prepared?" she teased sitting down next to him.
"I wasn't sure if you were awake, so I wasn't prepared this time around. I left it all up to spontaneity," he said finishing the last of the water and placing the empty bottle on the ground beside him.
"Spontaneity? This spontaneity of yours better be worth it, because you're keeping me up way past my bedtime," Elizabeth said. "Tomorrow I'll really be cranky."
John chuckled. "I'm sure it will be worth it. Just keep your eyes on the sky."
"Fine, I'll keep my eyes on the sky, but I'm not making any constellations up. I maybe awake but my brain sure isn't." Elizabeth stood up and started to walk towards the end of the pier and leaned her elbows on the railing.
"If I gave you a cup of coffee right now, would that help?" John asked.
"Probably not," Elizabeth replied turning around to lean her back against the railings to look at John. "Unlike some people, I require some sleep."
John smiled and returned his gaze onto the sky.. "Did you see that?" John said pointing to the sky.
Elizabeth quickly turned her attention back to the sky. Then she saw it. Streaks of light that shot quickly through the velvet black sky and disappeared as quickly as they came.
"Shooting stars," she gasped.
John was pleased to see the smile that formed on Elizabeth's face. "You know they are really fiery balls of rocks that are plummeting down onto the planet."
"Are you trying to spoil my fun?" she said echoing his words from their last session..
John smirked. "Yes, you gave me a hard time for dragging you out here."
Elizabeth shook her head and returned to sit beside John on the step. "I'm sorry, but 'it's a surprise' is a pretty weak argument."
"It's still an argument," he said.
"A very, very, very weak one. Now shut up I'm trying to look at the falling fiery balls of rock."
"The scientific terms is meteors," John corrected.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes and continued watching the natural display of streaming lights.
"How did you know about this?" she suddenly asked.
"Zelenka told me. He said something about the planet's orbit passing through some trail of a comet's orbit causing a display of meteor showers once every couple years."
"Fascinating."
"I thought you'd think so," he said pleased.
"I remember the first time I saw a falling star," Elizabeth said. "As a little girl, I sometime sat outside with my father during hot summer nights. One day we saw a falling star. I remember being awed by the sight, and I remembered my father telling me to make a wish."
"Did you?"
"Yes," Elizabeth smiled at the memory.
"What did you wish for?"
"Honestly, I don't remember. It was a long time ago. I didn't even remember that day until now," she admitted.
"Why don't you make a wish now?" he suggested "I think we've seen enough falling stars tonight for you to make a whole lot of wishes."
Elizabeth smiled and closed her eyes to make her wish. John watched Elizabeth's face as she made a wish. She looked beautiful and at peace. John smiled to himself and closed his eyes as well to make his own wish.
"I made my wish. Did you?" she said opening her eyes as soon as she finished.
"Yeah, I made my wish," John smiled sheepishly. "What did you wish about?"
"If I told you my wish, then it wouldn't come true," she said matter-of-factly.
"Who made up that stupid rule?"
"I don't know, the wishmaker," Elizabeth replied.
"See, I never understood that. How can your wishes come true, if you don't tell someone who could help make that wish come true? It's like when Aladdin found the lamp, he had to tell the Genie what his wishes were so the genie could grant them."
"You have a point there," Elizabeth said, "but like you said. Aladdin was telling his wishes to a genie, and you are obviously not a genie."
John frowned, "Come on, what did you wish for?" He nudged Elizabeth with his elbow.
"No."
"I'm making a new rule, since we aren't on Earth anymore and the wishmaker doesn't exist here or anywhere. Everyone who makes a wish here has to tell me," John announced.
"Do you really want to know what everyone wishes are?" Elizabeth asked resting her chin in her hand propped on her knees.
"Maybe not everyone. Right now I just want to know what your wishes are," he said after thinking for a moment. "Besides I could always change the rule after you tell me."
"Remind me to never let you rule a country," Elizabeth muttered.
"Come on, what did you wish for?" John nagged again.
"I wished that you would stop nagging me about what I wished for."
"For some reason I can believe that was one of your wishes," John said, "but I know you have a better one. Come on, tell me."
Elizabeth heaved a sigh. "Fine, I wished that one day my knight in shining armor will come and whisk me away to a castle in the clouds."
"Very funny. It took you that long to come up with that answer?" he teased.
"It's one in the morning."
"Is that your answer for everything tonight?"
"At one in the morning. Yes."
"You know it was one in the morning twenty minutes ago." He showed his watch to Elizabeth.
"It's one in the morning," Elizabeth said in between a yawn.
"Come on tell me."
"I told you already. The knight in shining armor and castle in the clouds one," Elizabeth said.
"That wasn't a wish. You were just stating a fact."
"A fact? How so?" Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows.
"Knight in shining armor whisking you away? Hello, yours truly here is the knight that whisked you away," John smiled proudly, "and the castle in the clouds. It's obviously Atlantis, since Atlantis is a ginormous space ship."
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "You know that's what almost every little girl wishes for."
"For me to whisk them away and take them to Atlantis?" he asked pretending to be confused.
"For the record, I asked you to join me in this expedition," she reminded.
"So you whisked me away to the castle in the clouds," John said.
"Yes, you and two hundred other people."
"Then you made all our wishes come true. So…what did you wish for?" he asked again.
Elizabeth peeled her sight from the spectacle in the sky and looked at John. "You are so persistent," she said. John only smirked. He knew Elizabeth was close to giving in.
She yawned again and wrapping her arms around herself and looked at the rippling waves. "I wished for us to be safe," she finally said. "I wished that what ever we encountered and what ever we go through we would survive to return home one day."
"I knew you weren't selfish enough to make a wish for yourself," John said.
Elizabeth blushed slightly from his comment. "What about you? What did you wish for?"
"I can't tell you. Then my wish won't come true."
"You suck," she said using her shoulder to nudge him.
"I know," he winked.
"Fine, don't tell me what you wished for, I don't care," Elizabeth said with another yawn. The cool night air and the sound of the waves were calming and were causing Elizabeth to grow sleepy. She didn't know what time it was, but she knew that she was no longer wide awake. She was starting to get very sleepy.
Her eyes drifted back up to the sky and she still saw several more meteors still skating through the sky every now and then.
"Are you cold?" John asked.
Elizabeth drowsily shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself tighter. John figured the tank top that Elizabeth wore was fitting for her warm bedroom, but not for a cooling night. John ignored Elizabeth's drowsy response and placed an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to him. Elizabeth was too tired to notice, and instead she moved to rest her head on his shoulder. All she knew at the moment was that she felt warmth and she was comfortable. She let out a soft sigh and drifted off into sleep.
"I'll tell you what I wished for," John began. He looked down to see that Elizabeth was asleep on his shoulder. He had a feeling she would fall asleep on him, but he didn't expect her to literally fall asleep on him. He didn't blame her. He did drag her out here in the middle of the night with out any prior notice.
"I guess you weren't kidding when you said you didn't care what I wished for," he sighed to himself.
With Elizabeth's head still propped on his shoulder, he carefully stood up and carried Elizabeth in his arms. Since he had dragged her out here in the first place, it was his responsibility to carry her back to her room.
He looked at the sky once more and made one more wish as another star fell before heading back.