Title: Rest
Rating: K
Pairing: Sheppard/Weir
Disclaimer: I don't own them, because if I did John and Liz would've been kissing in corners since the pilot and Rodney would have gotten to bring Jane (his cat) to Atlantis. Ohh, and I would've kept Steve around so that they could feed Kavanaugh to him.
WARNING there are some spoilers for season two! Although they are very, very minor that you could get from looking at the Promo Pictures I thought that I'd put in a warning.
Her back creaked as she stood up and stretched. The ever mounting stack of paperwork that she had been trying to make a dent in had seemed to have grown in the past three hours. It was nearly midnight on Atlantis and only the night crew could be seen.
Elizabeth Weir ignored the paperwork and the twinge in her knee as she grabbed her uniform jacket from the back of her chair and made her way out of the office. The men in the command center nodded as she passed before returning to their work, or three year old crossword puzzle.
She was exhausted. Real sleep was few and far between for the commander of an expedition this large living in an alien city. After four years here one would have thought that they would be settled in, but the little accidents still happened. Just yesterday Kavanaugh had been trying to get one of the marines to activate a device, which ended up blowing a hole the size of a Buick through the wall. Thankfully neither man was injured, but that shouldn't be happening anymore. Every thing that could possibly go wrong was going wrong and they were all turning to her, even for the small things that they could handle themselves. That and the nightmares added up to her currently running on almost 56 hours without sleep.
Elizabeth stumbled a little as her knee decided to give a sharp twinge. It was an old injury from a college soccer game, but it acted up when she overworked herself, it was like an ever present Carson Beckett. All she wanted to do was crash in her bed and get a good two hours of sleep before something else went wrong.
She was almost to the transporter when noise registered in her brain. It was coming from the rec. room, meaning that there had to be someone else up. Making up her mind, Elizabeth altered her direction to head toward the lighted room.
The sight that greeted her was almost too much for her sleep deprived mind to comprehend. Lt. Col. John Sheppard was slumped down on one end of the couch with his feet propped up on the coffee table and being a perfect example of a relaxed man. Sitting next to him was Rodney McKay, the head of the science department; he was hunched over a bowl of popcorn with his eyes glued to the TV. Teyla was sitting on the other end of the couch bent over talking softly with Ronon, who was sitting on the floor. She glanced up at the TV to see what had inspired the late night movie fest.
Weir almost burst out laughing when she saw the 'lost' copy of Shaun of the Dead. The last shipment that had come from Earth, almost three years ago, had contained a box full of DVDs marked by General O'Neill, the head of Homeworld security. She had been there when John and a few of the Marines had opened it and observed as the pilot had immediately stolen and hidden the Night of the Living Dead rip-off. He had told her later that it was a disgrace to horror movies everywhere and should never see the light of day.
Apparently Rodney had found it and insisted on watching it, from the look on John's face. And as near as Elizabeth could tell the movie wasn't very far in; there weren't even any zombies yet.
John must've been really bored, because she could feel his eyes on her after only a few minutes in the room. Her tired green eyes locked with his semi-glazed hazel ones and he smiled at her. She smiled back at him slowly and surveyed her people again. John cleared his voice and smacked the oblivious Rodney in the back of the head. It was a testament to how much the physicist had been sucked into the movie that he obligingly moved over. Teyla, in turn, happily shifted off the couch and down next to Ronon. John flicked his head a little and she gave into his silent request.
Her tired body settled comfortably into the seat next to her military commander, immediately relaxing to the point where she didn't know if she could get up again. She curled one of her long legs under her and tilted her body slightly towards John as he nudged her.
"You okay? You look tired," the concern in his eyes was almost tangible and she wondered, not for the first time, if she thought of this man as more then a friend.
"I'm not tired, I'm exhausted. I can't even remember the last time I had an uninterrupted hour of sleep," a frown creased his face at her truthful, but sarcastic remark, "I'm fine John. I'll get an hour in before tomorrow and I'll be good to go."
"That's not good for you, you know? You run around keeping the city afloat all day long then you don't sleep at night. You're going to burn out."
"I know, but the nightmares don't seem to want me to sleep," their voices were as low as the lights and none of the room's other occupants seemed to notice.
John watched her for a long moment as the characters on the screen went into a pub. He shifted his body so that he was leaning against the armrest and he pulled her against him. Elizabeth held her body erect, unwilling to lean into his comforting and soothing touch.
"Come on, you can catch a few hours sleep here. This thing will go on for another two hours and then Rodney wanted to watch Meet the Parents, which will be another two hours. And the beauty of it all is that no one will think to look for you here," John's voice was insistent and he put a little more pressure on her shoulder until she finally folded against him.
"I won't sleep very long, I always wake up after an hour," her voice was already heavy with sleep.
"I'll fight them off," John's deep voice was soft and ruffled her hair as she lay down.
Her body fit comfortably into his side, molded almost perfectly to his muscular body. Her eyes almost immediately wanted to close and she barely felt him place his uniform jacket over her before she fell into oblivion.
Just something I wrote while I was bored. Oh, and for those of you who want more of my other two stories (Family and Hauntings) I'll be updating soon now that school is out. R&R please.