Okay, update for you all. And just to clarify, it ISN'T shippy...may seem like it, but it's not!

Drakcir: John's not having the best of days is he? And please, don't kill me for this chapter...I think you'll see what I mean.
Belisse: I am writing the ideal shipper story. Oh well, this chapter is for you.
Interstella: Well, here's the update for you!
Sarah: It's all twisty and turny is this story. I things things are gonna get more interesting yet.

Chapter 7:Where there's a will, there's a compromise

Elizabeth entered the quiet quarters and shut the door. John and Elizabeth had managed to come to an agreement about the sleeping arrangement. Or more that Elizabeth had ordered John to sleep on one of the sofas. Pulling rank was becoming more fun the more often she did it. She knew John enjoyed doing it, so she always just saw it as payback for all the times he'd used it, especially on poor Ford. She wondered if John could pull rank on her now. He'd say she was his wife and had to obey him. Elizabeth hoped that John would understand that if he tried that, she would kill him. Verbally, of course.

She opened the door to the bathroom and made sure it slid shut. She then locked it, just to be on the safe side. Walking across, Elizabeth shed her jacket and left it on the floor. Normally, she tidied up as she went along, but she didn't really care at the moment. Sitting on the edge of the bath, she laid her hand on a blue button. After a few seconds, water began to run out from a series of holes set into the sides of the bath. She didn't know quite how it worked, but it seemed to read her mind to get the temperature and the depth of the bath. It also seemed to know how many bubbles you wanted. It was a much more efficient way of running a bath.

While it filled up, she set about pulling off her boots and socks. Her feet ached from wearing the heavy boots all day, so it was a relief to take them off and feel her feet again. She stood up and stretched, before going across to a cupboard on one of the walls. From inside she pulled out two large fluffy white towels and a small dressing gown she'd brought. She had no idea why she'd brought it; it didn't keep her warm or anything like that. She hoped it would come in useful one day or it just seemed like a waste of space.

She placed them near the bath, but then moved a little further away. She pulled off her top and trousers and made a neat little pile. On top of these she placed her watch, necklace and headset. She had a problem if any of those got wet. She made sure the bath was run, which it was perfectly, before removing her underwear. These she placed near her towels and dressing gown. Finally she slid into the hot waters and completely submerged herself.

When she surfaced again, she lay for a while just thinking for a while. It took a few minutes before she remembered that she'd forgotten the alcohol, but she had no intention of dragging herself out to find any. Besides, John would probably want some and she didn't really want him walking in on her to find it. She tried to pull her mind away from it and think about the question in hand. It just seemed too ridiculous though. Not thinking about it seemed to make much more sense. Instead she began to hum to herself. She wasn't entirely sure what she was actually humming, but it was fairly likely that it was a combination of around half the songs on her MP3 player playlist.

"Damn," she muttered.

She was beginning to wish she had it with her again. Ignoring the urge to get out of the luxurious bath, she sank under the water again.

While she was under the water, she didn't hear the door to the bathroom slide open.

John looked around the bathroom feeling a little sheepish. He wasn't sure what he was doing, and this was made even less sure at the sight of Elizabeth's clothes strewn around the room. He wondered if he should leave and talk to her later, but at that moment he saw her appear from under the surface of the water. She was sitting sideways in the bath, but John was glad he could only see her head and neck.

"How the hell did you do that?"

Elizabeth was glaring at him, pushing herself down a little further in the water.

"Do what?"

"Get in. I locked the door."

"I don't know, maybe it's the blood tie thing."

"Please don't remind me of that."

"We have to do something Elizabeth."

"We could come to a compromise about you going off world. You could go off world every so often, but I'd have to come with you."

"What you mean is, I could only go off world to places that were predetermined safe."

Elizabeth looked away.

"Exactly. Elizabeth, I'm an adventurer. I didn't come to Atlantis so I could stay in the city with you."

"I know."

They were both silent and unable to meet each other's eyes. Elizabeth looked up at John. She could see he was sad, and maybe even angry.

"We both know what the other option means."

"Yep."

"There's one way to tell whether it would work or not."

"There is?"

"Sure, turn around."

John looked at her, his eyebrows raised in question.

"You are not going to watch me get dressed."

"Oh."

John turned around quickly and faced the door. Behind him, he could hear Elizabeth getting out of the bath. He began to whistle quietly to try to block out the sounds. The sounds would make him picture all sorts of things that would not be considered good. He was barely halfway through the song when he felt a tap on his arm.

Turning, he found Elizabeth looking up at him. He took in her appearance quickly. Dressing gown that stopped about halfway down her thighs and wet straggly hair.

"Erm…hey."

"Don't panic, I do have some clothes on under this."

"Really?"

"Depends what you count underwear as."

John gulped loudly. This was becoming very uncomfortable.

"Sorry. Well, shall we try this?"

"Better than nothing."

Taking a deep breath, they each leaned in until there lips met in a soft kiss. Neither seemed to want to deepen it at all, so they pulled back quickly.

"Anything?" asked John after a minute.

"Nope. You?"

"Nope. Guess we'll just have to compromise about going off world."

"Fine by me, I think we have a very different relationship."

"Any type of relationship you were thinking of?"

"Yeah, I think we're more like Will and Grace."

"Yeah, I…hey, are you implying I'm gay?"

"Not at all."

Elizabeth smiled innocently at him and then walked behind him to the door.

"You can be Grace."

She raised her eyebrows to him before running out of the door and away from John. There was no telling what he would do, and she didn't want him to do it while she was only wearing her underwear.

John sighed and walked out of the room after her.

"I can't believe this," he shouted into the bedroom. "I was stood kissing a half naked, soaking wet, attractive woman and I felt nothing!"

"What a shame John. Now, you aren't going to tell anyone about that, are you? Because if you do, I can make life very difficult for you."

John was going to retaliate, but he knew she was right. He also knew that things were going to be very interesting for the next few weeks.