Author's Notes: This was my entry to the swficathon entry over at LiveJournal. I figured I should share this little fic here as well. It started out with a really cheesy plot bunny, but some how it actually warpped into an actualfic.
Spoilers: Up to "Conversion"
Lights Out
Her long slender fingers wrapped around the metallic mug as she brought it to her lips and carefully sipped the hot coffee. The gloomy stormy weather made Elizabeth feel sluggish. In fact, everyone in the control room seemed rather lethargic.
She stood at the top of the gateroom stairs and looked through the colorful stained glass window out into the balcony. If it were not raining, she would be standing out there right now.
"No balcony today?" John said as he came up from behind her.
Without turning to face him, "It's raining," Elizabeth replied simply and took another sip of her coffee.
"I knew that," John said peering through the stained glass windows. "So no balcony today?" he asked again sheepishly.
"No," Elizabeth chuckled and shook her head.
"Why not?"
"Why not?" Elizabeth arched an eyebrow as she turned toward him.
"Yes, why not?" he repeated. "Have you ever stood out in the rain? It's fun."
"As a matter of fact, I have," Elizabeth said, "but standing out in the middle of a hurricane and having my life threatened wasn't…fun."
"Right," he said remembering the incident she spoke of. "This is hardly a hurricane, and I'm not threatening your life."
"Yet," she added and looked at him from the corner of her eyes.
"Don't make me drag you out there," he threatened with a lopsided grin.
"I don't like where this is headed," Elizabeth said, scrutinizing the devious smirk on his face.
"Come on, you know you want to go out there."
"No, I don't," she said firmly. "Besides, I haven't even finished my coffee yet." She held her steaming mug up for him to see.
Before Elizabeth could take another sip, John had plucked her warm mug out of her hands and gulped down the last of her coffee.
"There you're done," he said.
"Did you just finish my coffee?" Elizabeth asked still trying to comprehend what had just happened.
"Yes, not bad, but I prefer my coffee darker," he said looking at the empty mug in his hand. "Now that you're done with your coffee, let's have some fun," he said with a devious smile.
"I was afraid you were going to say that." Before the words were out of Elizabeth's mouth, John had put the mug down, took her hand, and started to drag her towards the balcony doors, which slid open as they approached.
"John," Elizabeth planted her feet at the door, "It's still raining."
"It's only sprinkling. A little water wouldn't kill you," he urged and tugged at her arm a bit.
"Not going into the rain wouldn't kill you either," she pointed out, trying to pull her arm free from his grasp.
John stuck his hand out into the rain and flicked some water that gather on his fingertips at Elizabeth.
"John!" Elizabeth exclaimed as she shielded herself from his attack.
John took this opportunity and pulled her out the door into the balcony.
Still shielding her face from John's juvenile attack, Elizabeth suddenly realized that she was being attacked from all sides. She looked up and realized that John had pulled her outside into the center of the balcony.
"John," she said sternly crossing her arms over her chest.
"What? You're not melting," he said.
Elizabeth shook her head disapprovingly and turned to go back into the control room, but John grabbed her arm and pulled her further out onto the balcony.
"John," she protested. "I don't feel like standing in the rain today or anytime soon."
"Who said anything about standing?" he said cheekily. "I'm feeling like…" He squinted and smiled as an idea came to him. To Elizabeth's horror he started to sing. "Singin' in the rain…just singin' in the rain…"
After her initial shock, Elizabeth couldn't help but smile at his improvised performance. "All right, Gene Kelley. That's enough," she said while wiping the water from her face.
"What a glorious feelin'…I'm happy again…" John only continued to sing and dance around her. "I'm laughing at clouds…So dark up above…The sun's in my heart…And I'm ready for love," he said with a wink.
When he didn't know the words to a verse, he just hummed along and kept smiling boyishly at Elizabeth. Elizabeth only stood there shaking her head, convinced that John had truly lost it this time.
"Come on! With the rain! I've a smile on my face…" He stopped in front of Elizabeth, encircled an arm around her waist, and took her other hand into his. "I walk down the lane…With a happy refrain…" he continued singing. Before Elizabeth realized it, John was leading her in a waltz around the balcony.
"I didn't know you knew how to waltz," Elizabeth said impressed and slightly embarrassed. She hoped no one in the control room was looking in their direction. But she was sure they were. The two leaders of Atlantis just stepped out onto a balcony while it was pouring rain outside, and now they were waltzing in the rain.
John only smiled and replied to Elizabeth's comment with "Just singin'…and dancin' …in the rain..." and twirled her once around as their little waltz ended.
Elizabeth let go of John's hand and shielded her eyes as the rain around them started to fall harder. "Are you satisfied now that you've gotten us both soaking wet?" She asked trying to keep a stern expression.
"Very," John smiled sheepishly.
Elizabeth let out a breath, ran her hands through her wet brown curls, and placed her hand on her hips as she gave John a look.
"Now how about some coffee?" John quickly suggested.
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at him and then looked up at the sky. She noticed that it had gotten darker and the drops of rain were falling harder every minute they stood out there.
"How about some dry clothes first?" she said.
"Dry clothes are good," John agreed as a flash of light lit up the sky and a few moments later a deep thunderous rumble growled throughout the sky.
"I don't know about you, but I don't feel like getting struck by lightning today," Elizabeth said, ready to return inside.
Before John could agree with Elizabeth, another bolt of lightning danced across the sky and struck one of the lightning rods that were place around the city.
"I think your right," he said.
Before entering Elizabeth took a deep breath to regain her composure. She hoped that if she acted like everything was as right as rain, the staff stationed in the control room wouldn't notice her damp state…as much.
She quickly walked through the balcony doors and headed down the stairs. She wanted to get out of her wet clothes as soon as possible. Elizabeth didn't have to turn around to know that John was tagging along behind her. She was sure if Colonel Caldwell were still on Atlantis he would surely make note of their improper display of unprofessionalism in the workplace.
As she was nearing the last few bottom steps, suddenly the power went off completely, and John bumped into her from behind from her sudden halt.
"Sorry," he said as he grabbed her shoulder to keep her from losing her balance on the stairs.
"What happened?" she asked obviously as another flash of lightning shone through the window and sound of pounding rain echoed room.
"Looks like the power went out," John said more to himself than to Elizabeth. "Wait here." He quickly ran back up to the control room and grabbed a spare flashlight that was lying around and came back to Elizabeth on the stairs. "Come on. Let's go ask the self acclaimed genius what's going."
Rodney tapped his fingers on his table impatiently as he sat in his dark lab with the only source of light in the room emanating from his laptop. The lights within the whole city just went out because of some electrical surge from the sudden fluctuation of lightning activity from the storm. He wasn't exactly sure what happened yet, but he was waiting for John to come and ask him some ridiculously obvious questions anytime now.
It wasn't long until he heard a set of footsteps coming down the corridor towards his lab. Nor did he have to wait long to see a bright light appear at his door, blinding him.
"Colonel, do you have always have to blind me without warning?" Rodney asked blinking and trying to get his eyes to refocus in the darkness.
"Sorry, we came to ask you where the fuse box was," John said shining the flash light in Rodney's face again.
Rodney held his arms up by his face to shield his eyes. "Oh, that is very mature, Sheppard." When his eyes finally refocused, he noticed the drenched state of both John and Elizabeth. "What happened to the two of you? Did you two take a shower together or something?"
Elizabeth was mortified at Rodney's suggestion. She knew there were rumors about her and Sheppard having an affair, but she was usually able to ignore them. One advantage for the power outage was that it was great for hiding her present embarrassment. If the lights were on, everyone would have seen her face turn as red as her shirt. "Rodney, what happened?" she asked instead to bring them back on topic.
"I'm sure you've both figured out that our present predicament is a result from this storm," Rodney said waving and pointing his figure in the general upward direction.
"I thought the Ancients had simple problem like power outages under control because of all those lightning rods all over the city," John said.
"And I thought the grounding stations directed the electric currents underground to keep the city safe power surges." Elizabeth added.
"Yes, yes, the lightning rods and grounding stations are doing their jobs. I think something else happened. It could be one of our naqahdah generators or something," Rodney said rapidly.
"Then why don't we just replace the generators," John suggested obviously.
"Like I said OR something." Rodney emphasized.
"Can you fix it?" John asked.
Rodney rolled his eyes. "Of course I can fix it. I can fix—"
"How long?" Elizabeth interrupted Rodney.
"An hour or two or more…I actually don't know," he shrugged. "I might even have to wait until the storm stops badgering us with its deadly lightning strikes."
"So you are saying that today just got even gloomier," John supplied.
"Yes, unless you like rainy weather, then this isn't so gloomy," Rodney said. "I never understood how anyone could like rainy weather. Rain just makes everything wet and grey, and the humidity that comes with it. That is just dreadful. And the smell of wet pavement that's…"
"Rodney," Elizabeth said.
"Right," Rodney got Elizabeth hint and continued. "We are all stuck sitting in the dark today. But primary Stargate operations appear to be working fine. So which ever teams are off world won't have any problems gating back."
"That's some good news," Elizabeth said. "Thank you, Rodney."
"You're welcome," Rodney said unsure of why Elizabeth was thanking him.
"Hopefully you will have some more good news for us sooner or later," Elizabeth said.
"Preferably, sooner," John added.
"Why sooner? Are you afraid of the dark, Colonel?" Rodney teased.
"No," John said rolling his eyes. "It's because I can't read my book, and reading by flashlight isn't as fun."
"You read?" McKay asked surprised.
John narrowed his eyes at Rodney and brought his flashlight back up and shined it in Rodney's face one last time before leaving the lab.
"Oh that is so mature, Colonel," Rodney said blinking profusely again to get his eyes to readjust.
Her damp clothes stuck to her body with every step she took. Elizabeth plucked at the collar of her shirt to relieve her skin from contact of the damp material for a second. The walk back to her room seemed like forever, especially when she was feeling so uncomfortable. The corridors of Atlantis looked identical when lit, but in the dark, she felt like she was walking down an endless corridor. The flashlight that John had was their only source of light, and that only shone a few feet before them.
"Thanks for walking me back to my room," she said when they finally reached her room. "I should be fine now. You should change out of your wet clothes too."
"If you say so," John shrugged.
"I think Ronon is rubbing off on you," Elizabeth said slightly amused.
"Maybe," he shrugged again and started to walk off.
Elizabeth watched as John's silhouette faded into the dark and waved her hand over the door sensors. Nothing happened. She waved her hand again. Again nothing.
"Don't tell me this is a side effect of the power outage," she groaned to herself.
She clicked on her earpiece. "Rodney, this is Weir. Is it possible that the power outage might affect some of the doors?"
"Quite possibly, but it shouldn't. Why?" Rodney voice answered on the radio.
"Because I can't seem to get my room door open," Elizabeth said.
"Well, I guess it is affecting some of the doors then. Have you tried prying the door open?" he suggested.
"Not yet, I was hoping there was a less aggressive way to open my room door. But I'll give it a try. Thanks."
"Sorry, Zelenka and I are still trying to fix the problem, but it's kind of hard to do calculations in the dark."
"All right," Elizabeth sighed, "just keep me posted."
Elizabeth let out another tired sigh and stared at her door. If it were not for the small lights on the walls, she would have been in complete darkness. She waved her hand over the door sensor again hoping the device would feel pity for her and open, but it didn't. She stepped closer to the door and grazed her hands down along the crack where the doors met. She put her fingertips between the small crack and tried to pry the door open, but prying a sealed tight door with wet fingertips had one outcome: a closed door.
She wasn't sure how long she attempted to pry her door open, but eventually she gave up when her fingers started to hurt. She sighed in defeated and rested her forehead against the door.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a beam of light coming down the hall.
"Elizabeth?" John looked at Elizabeth as perplexity grazed over his face. "I was going to ask if you want to get some coffee, but looks like you have other plans."
"I can't get in my room," she said feeling a sudden chill come across her and rubbed her hands over her arms herself to warm herself.. "The power outage somehow affected some of the doors."
"Do you want me to get Ronon to break them down for you?" John asked.
"No, thank you. I actually would like to stay in this room; Unlike some people who like to change their rooms every six months."
"What can I say? I'm a nomad," John said. "Besides I only picked this new room because it has windows and now I have curtains," he added.
Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows as she looked enviously at John. He was already nice and dry. Here she was standing in front of him in the complete opposite state. What annoyed her most was that her clothes were only a few feet from her grasp, right behind the doors that refused to open.
"So what are you going to do now?" John asked sensing Elizabeth's frustration.
"I don't know. I just want to get out of these wet clothes," she said. "They are extremely uncomfortable."
"I can lend you some of my clothes," he offered.
"That's all right, John. I think I'll go check the Supplies Room. I'm sure they have some extra uniforms lying around."
"What if those doors won't open too?"
"Then I'll borrow someone else's clothes."
"Like Teyla's?"
Elizabeth arched an eyebrow as she looked at John. She was sure that he knew she wasn't the type of woman to walk around in revealing clothing, especially in an environment that she was commanding; also, taking into consideration, that the Athosian woman was half a head shorter than her and fairly petite in size.
"No, I was thinking maybe Doctor Heightmeyer or someone else. There are plenty of other women on this base I can ask," she said.
"Oh so you'd rather walk around in stinky wet clothes asking someone else for dry clothes, instead of taking my offer? That hurts." He placed a hand chest to enact a broken heart.
"You know I didn't mean that," Elizabeth said.
"So what's your excuse?"
"First off, you're a guy."
"Don't tell me you still think we have cooties or something."
"No, you're a guy and your body built is larger than mine," she explained.
"What does it matter? It's dry clothes, and because they are big you know they'll fit."
Elizabeth sighed. John was right. At the moment, she wanted nothing more than to change out of her wet clothes. Also since the lights were out around the city, it was possible that no one would notice that she was wearing John's clothing.
"Okay," she finally conceded. "I'll take your offer,"
"Good," John smiled. He pointed the flashlight in the direction he came. "Ladies first."
"See it fits perfectly," John said handing Elizabeth a spare flashlight.
Elizabeth looked down at the black version of the red long sleeve turtleneck she wore earlier. She had opted to wear John's spare uniform, hoping that in the darkness people wouldn't notice how awkward the shirt and pants fit on her slender body.
"It's still a bit loose."
"That means it fits," he said. "I don't like my clothes all clingy and tight like Rodney. I don't need to show off my…assets."
"Assets?" She mused at his choice of words.
"You know what I mean."
She pulled the belt around her waist tighter. Her own pants hardly fit her and were already unflattering, but wearing John's pants only seemed to accentuate how the cargo pants made her hips look a bit odd. She sat down on his bed and started to fold the bottom of the pants legs up. Then she grabbed the towel John gave her and tried to dry her damp hair out a bit more.
After drying her hair, she tried with some difficulty to comb through her tangled curls with her fingers. Noticing her ordeal with her curls, John handed Elizabeth a comb.
She looked up at him, thanked him, and started to comb through her with his comb. While she was combing her hair she noticed the picture a little boy and an older man on the nightstand.
"Is that you?"
John glanced over at the picture. "Yeah."
"You were a cute kid."
"Please don't say 'what happened?'" he groaned.
"I was going to say, even then, you had the same hairdo."
"Well even then I was lazy," he said and walked over to the window and pulled back the curtains a bit to let the faint afternoon light shine through. The rain was still falling hard and sporadic lightning and thunder still rumbled across the sky.
The sunlight that John introduced to his room made the atmosphere in his room less gloomy. He leaned against the wall by the window and watched Elizabeth sitting on his bed, wearing his clothes, grooming herself.
There was something very feminine that John had never noticed before about Elizabeth. He had always seen her as the well groomed leader of Atlantis. It wasn't often that he had seen her when she was off the clock. Then again for their situation on Atlantis, no one was really off the clock. Everyone was pretty much On Call, and Elizabeth having the position of being the leader, she was basically On Call all the time.
He watched her brush a wisp of hair from her face and adjusted the collar of her shirt again. John wasn't sure how long he was watching Elizabeth, but suddenly she looked up and looked right into his eyes.
"Enjoying the view?" she suddenly asked.
John quickly looked away embarrassed. It was as if he was caught peeking at Elizabeth when she was having a private moment.
"Excuse me?" John managed to stammered out.
"The view. From the window. Is the view better here than in your last room?" she asked again.
John nodded and smiled slyly, "Yes, much better."
From the smile on John's face, Elizabeth knew there was some sort of subtext from his reply, but she decided it was best not to inquire. She stood up and walked over to the window where John stood and looked out the window.
"I don't think there is a bad view anywhere in this city," she said.
As she stood by the window with her arms hugging herself, John noticed that Elizabeth was bouncing slightly as if the bouncing would warm her up. He looked down and noticed that her well pedicure feet were bare and she was stepping on her own feet in an attempt to keep her feet warm from the cold floor.
"Do you want socks or something?"
"No, I'm good," she said shaking her head. "But could I borrow your jacket?"
"Sure." He took his grey jacket that was hanging on the back of his desk chair and handed it to Elizabeth.
"Thank you," she said taking his jacket and slipping it on.
Like his other clothes, his jacket was also a bit big for her, but it didn't matter she was a lot more comfortable now that she was wearing dry clothes.
She glanced around the room and her gaze fell upon the guitar that was propped against a wall. She walked over to it and grazed her fingers over a couple strings.
"So do you really play or do you keep this around to impress the ladies?" she asked.
"Of course, I play. Do you play?" he asked in return.
"I asked you first."
"If you want me to play, just ask and I'll play. You don't need to use your wily woman charms to trick me into playing something."
"All right, fine. Would you please play me something?" she asked and smiled prettily.
"Since you asked so nicely, I will."
"Thank—"
"Scheduled off world activation," Interrupted a voice over their radios.
"I guess you were saved by the Stargate," Elizabeth said slipping her feet in to her sneakers. "You still owe me a song."
"Yes, ma'am."
When Major Lorne stepped through the Stargate into the gate room, he knew something was different. Until the gate completely shut down, he realized that the power was out. Instinctively he raised his gun into defensive position and turned on his flashlight.
He looked around the gateroom. Everything seemed fine. Then he saw two figures holding flashlights coming up the stairs.
"Major Lorne."
Lorne lowered his gun and signaled his team to do the same when he realized who the two figures approaching him were.
"Doctor, Colonel," he said with a nod.
"I take this mission went well," Elizabeth said.
"Any mission where we don't get shot at is a good mission, Ma'am" Lorne said.
"That's what I'm saying," John agreed.
"So what happened here?" Lorne asked.
"Power outage due to the storm; and some thing about lightning striking something important…You should ask McKay if you want to know," John said.
"That explanation is suffice, Sir. I'm not a glutton for punishment."
"I didn't think so."
"I'm assuming the briefing will be delayed until further noticed," Lorne asked Elizabeth.
"We should try that. Briefings in the dark. Now that would be interesting," John said enthusiastically.
Ignoring John's ludicrous suggestion, Elizabeth nodded. "Yes, everything that isn't an emergency has been delayed until Doctor McKay can figure out what's wrong with the power."
As he saluted to Elizabeth and John to take his leave, Lorne noticed something different about Elizabeth, but he couldn't really pin point what it was. But he did notice that her clothes didn't seem fit her as well as they usually did and they were a different color. But he knew better than to question why her clothes were suddenly too baggy for her. Maybe it was one of those days she wanted to wear loose fitting clothing. Lorne never really understood women and he didn't plan to start figuring them out now either.
When Major Lorne and his team dispersed and went about their own business, Elizabeth looked over at John.
"What?" John asked feeling uneasy at the way Elizabeth was looking at him.
"I think Major Lorne suspects something."
"What would he suspect?"
"I don't know. The fact that I'm wearing your clothes," she said in a whisper.
"I'm sure he didn't notice. Guys don't notice things like that. You have point out obvious things like that to us."
"Obvious things like a whole outfit?" she asked furrowing her eyebrows.
"You also have to take into account that it's dark."
"If word of this gets out…"
"Yeah, I am a bit worried about that too," John said slightly concerned.
"Really?"
"Everyone is going to want to borrower my clothes now."
"If only," Elizabeth muttered to herself. "I'm going to go to the one place I can go."
"And where is that?"
"My office."
"And what are you going to do in your office?" He asked following her up the stairs.
"Wait until Rodney finally fixes this problem," she said walking through the control room and into her office.
"Mind if I kept you company?"
"Would you leave if I told you to?" Elizabeth asked as she pulled her chair out and sat down.
"Probably not," he said opening the top of the jar he gave her for her birthday and shined his flashlight into it.
"Then be my guest," she gestured for him pick a seat anywhere in her office. But she was sure John would sit on the same spot on the sofa he always seemed to end up sitting when meetings were held in her office.
She smiled to herself when she saw John head towards the sofa and sat down.
"Elizabeth!"
Elizabeth looked through the windows of her office and saw Rodney crossing the control room bridge into her office. In his hands was a Tablet computer and in his other a flashlight.
"Rodney, we were just thinking about you," John said leaning back into the sofa and making himself comfortable.
"Really?" Even in the darkness, Elizabeth could see the disconcerted look that crossed Rodney's face. "That's…kind of you…I think. Anyway, I think I figured out our problem."
"That's good news," Elizabeth said and leaned forward on her desk. "Can you fix it?"
"No, not until the storm stops," Rodney said.
"Then you haven't figured it out yet," John said.
"Figuring something out and doing something about it are two different things, Colonel." Rodney glared irritatingly at John.
"So we are without power for the duration of the storm?" Elizabeth asked. "From what Zelenka said, this might last all night."
"Well, I guess all the kiddies will have an early lights out, since there is no reason to stay up late," Rodney said.
"Well, all the kiddies but me," Elizabeth sighed.
"That's right; you couldn't get into your room." Rodney remembered. "Wait a minute." He shined his flashlight in Elizabeth's direction then at John. "First you two take a shower together, now you're wearing the same clothes, what's next? Sharing the same room?"
"You have one hell of an imagination, McKay," John said narrowing his eyes in Rodney's direction.
"Really? I'm usually told I lack imagination."
"Today your imagination seems exceptionally irritating."
"Why thank you, Colonel, I'm touched," Rodney said sarcastically.
As much as John and Rodney's bantering amused her, right now, they were giving her a headache. In addition, the thought that she would have to camp out in her office tonight made her head ache more.
"Guys!" Both men turned to see Elizabeth with her eyes closed and her fingers massaging her temples.
"Sorry, I'm going to go back to my lab and do some more figuring," he said resisting an urge to give John a raspberry before exiting.
The sudden silence in the room was a relief. Her eyes were still closed and she concentrated on listening to the rainfall hitting the exterior of the control tower.
She thought back to when they were standing out in the rain earlier in the day. When she felt the first drops of rain fall on her, it felt refreshing and the cool droplets on her skin were soothing.
"Hey."
She had forgotten John was still sitting in her office. "Hm?" She opened her eyes half way.
"You know if you want, you can stay in my room for the night," John said.
"Where would you sleep?"
"My mother always said it's good manners to share," he smirked.
"I'll think about it."
"What is there to think about? McKay said it. We were in a shower together, we're wearing the same clothing, and the next step is to share a room," he reasoned.
"We did not take a shower together," she corrected.
"I was talking about us being in a rain shower together. What are you think of, Doctor? And don't even start with 'protocol'."
"Well," she began. "I was thinking. I'll stay here for the night."
"All right, I'll stay and keep you company then." He leaned back crossing his arms over his chest. "You know, this couch is really comfortable," he added.
"If you're going to sleep on my couch, where am I going to sleep?"
"Like I said mother said it's always good manners to share."
Elizabeth tilted her head looked at John. She was sure he wasn't going to leave her alone anytime soon, and from the increasing darkness in the room, night was approaching quickly.
"Why do you insist in my acceptance of your offer?" She shined her flashlight in his direction but was careful to not shine it directly in his face.
"Because I'm a gentleman helping a damsel in distress."
"I see."
Even though right now John was starting to irritate her with his persistence, she had to admit that having him around while they were stuck sitting in the dark was comforting. Just having him around always seemed to make things better. She was sure it didn't mater if they spent the night together in her office or his room. The rumor mill was something no one could hide from, and she might as well be comfortable.
"Fine, I'm only agreeing because you still owe me a song," she said.
"Ask and you shall receive."
"All right, I guess there is no point in us sitting here in the dark. How about a John Sheppard Concert?" She said with a smile.
"I have to warn you. I'm no Johnny Cash."
"Of course not, you're just John Sheppard," Elizabeth smiled proudly.
Even with the lights out, whenever Elizabeth smiled like that, John was also impressed how she seemed to radiated a room. He returned her smile and nodded. "Yeah, I am," and held his hand towards the door. "Ladies first."
With her flashlight in hand, Elizabeth led the way with John following closely behind her.
---Finis---