Last chapter, and then there shall be no more. Thank you so much to my reviewers. And I actually managed to keep this ship free! Yay!

Chapter 12: Peace at last

Elizabeth turned to look at John, and instantly regretted it. She spun back around and coughed slightly.

"What?"

John looked up at her, and grinned at the sight of her back.

"Why the need for modesty now?"

Taking a deep breath, she turned around and glared at John. Or at least, she tried to glare at the shirtless John who was smirking at her. He was making things very difficult for her.

"Because, doing this is going to destroy my last ounce of modesty, so I'm trying to preserve it for as long as possible."

John just grinned and carried on wrestling with his boots. With a sigh, Elizabeth began to pull off her own boots. When she'd done that, she also removed her jacket. When she looked at John this time, he was beginning to loosen off his trousers.

"John?"

"What?"

"Just…no."

"You know this is going to be a lot easier if we are wearing fewer clothes."

"I suppose so, but-"

"No buts. Lose something."

Elizabeth watched his face closely, wondering whether he was joking. There was a slight seriousness in his eyes that made her realise he wasn't. Taking a deep breath, she pulled her t-shirt off, making sure that her vest didn't come off with it. As she added it to her pile, she could see the disappointment in his eyes.

And that he had not taken off his trousers, to her relief.

"Happy?"

"Well-"

"On second thoughts, don't. Let's just get this over with."

Elizabeth began to walk towards John, who was stood smiling at her. When she reached him, she was glad that he actually stepped aside. She carried on walking towards the steps that were just behind John. He followed her down the steps, standing next to her when they reached the bottom.

John reached out and took hold of Elizabeth's arm. Before she could argue, he guided her across to one of the walls that now surrounded them. The wall only reached just above Elizabeth's head, but with John right next to her, she was beginning to feel a little trapped.

"What are you doing?"

"We need to be here."

"Why?"

"This is the point."

She looked around the wall, and then stopped, looking back at him.

"So it is."

She was now stuck between the wall and John. She could think of a few women on Atlantis who would kill to be in her position. She would, however, kill to not be in this position.

"So, now what?"

"Now…"

John took a step forward, invading any personal space she had left. She took a deep breath, and she could smell his aftershave. She tried to take another deep breath, but it felt almost shaky.

John began to reach forward, a hand on either side of her head. She kept her eyes firmly on his, but she could see his hands still moving out of the corner of her eyes. Her heart was beating faster than ever before, and her breath kept catching in her throat. Suddenly, John began to move forwards too.

This was too much for her.

She quickly ducked under his arms and away from him. At the same time, John pulled a circular panel off the wall that had been right behind her head. A large amount of foul smelling gunge fell onto the spot where she'd been stood.

"You knew that was going to happen, didn't you?"

John turned to smile at her.

"I thought it might."

She folded her arms and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Call it payback for when you said I could be Grace."

Elizabeth began to smile softly and relaxed a little.

"I'll get the one at the other end, shall I?"

"That would be helpful Elizabeth."

Elizabeth turned and ran down towards the other end.

The last task the founders had asked them to perform was to clean out the pipes of Atlantis' own, and very well hidden, swimming pool. She wasn't entirely sure this was a good idea anymore, what with John being involved. However, she didn't have much choice.

She had to kneel down, as she was at the shallow end now. She pulled off a similar panel, and a little less gunge fell out. In fact, as she looked into the hole, that seemed to be all of the gunge. She replaced the panel and climbed out. She then hurried back to the other end.

She looked down on John with a smile. He was covered up to his elbows with gunge, and there was a lot down the front of him as well.

"Having fun John?"

He looked up at her, and glowered at her clean state.

"Yeah, loads."

"Nearly done?"

"I think so."

"Well, shout over when you're done, and I'll turn on the pumps."

"Right."

Elizabeth turned away from John and walked across to the far wall. There was a large panel with a few buttons. Taking a piece of paper out of her pocket, she found the button she was supposed to press to turn the pumps back on after 10,000 years. She waited patiently for John's signal.

"Hit it!"

She turned slightly to see John waving across the top of the pool. She pressed the button and watched as the screen lit up. She heard whirring and creaking as the system slowly came back to life. Then there was a much louder noise, followed by a very angry yell by John.

"Elizabeth!"

She hurried over to the edge of the pool to find John glaring at her. He was soaking wet, and still covered in grime. It seemed that the pumps exited into the pool right near the filters. And John had been right in the firing line.

Elizabeth sat down on the edge of the pool and dangled her feet over the steadily increasing water.

"I didn't know it would do that."

John raised an eyebrow and folded his arms across his chest.

"I didn't! And you look a little like me doing that."

She watched as he relaxed a little and his face broke into a smile. He dropped his arms and moved forwards a little.

"I'd better get out, hadn't I?"

The water was rising quite quickly; it was already around his knees.

"I'd advise that."

Elizabeth watched as John attempted to run through the water towards the shallow end. She would have laughed, but she wanted John to believe he still had some dignity left. A few minutes later, he was sat next to her watching the pool.

"This thing knows when to turn off, doesn't it?"

John looked at her as he spoke. The idea of flooding at Atlantis was not something he liked.

"Yes."

"How do you know?"

"I can read Ancient John. It tells you on the screen."

"Really?"

John jumped up and went to look at the screen. Elizabeth glanced back at him, but he was thoroughly engrossed in the screen. Suddenly, she felt something touching her feet. Looking down, she smiled as she saw that the water had risen even further. It wouldn't be long till the pool was full.

"The water's stopped at the shallow end."

Elizabeth jumped at the sound of John's voice so close to her. She turned her head slightly to find him bent down next to her.

"That's good."

He smiled at her in a way she didn't entirely like.

"John?"

"It's payback."

Biting her lip, Elizabeth tried to move back, but John had a hand on one side of her.

"I told you I didn't-"

She got no further as John suddenly pushed her forwards.

Elizabeth began to regret sitting at the edge of the pool

The water wasn't freezing cold, but it wasn't particularly warm either.

"John!"

She treaded water and glared angrily at him. He was stood on the side laughing hard. Swimming forward a little, Elizabeth began to splash water up at him. John stopped laughing and faced her. She continued to splash him, but she could see he was angry.

John took a few steps back until he was out of Elizabeth range. She reluctantly stopped splashing water. He smirked at her, and Elizabeth knew she was doomed.

Before she could move, John ran forward and bombed into the pool. Elizabeth was soaked once again, as was John. When he came up to the surface, Elizabeth began to splash him again. Soon they were splashing each other, and war soon followed. They were swimming around, still splashing each other by whatever means necessary. They tried to evade each other, but often with little success.

Their war was ended swiftly when John swam up to Elizabeth and pushed her under the water.

"That's not very nice."

John let go of her at the sound of another voice in the room. Elizabeth came up the surface, and hit John across the back of the head.

"John, I do not appreciate you trying to drown me. John. John are you even listening to me?"

She turned to see what he was looking at.

"Serai?"

"Hello, again. I swear this is the last time. Really."

Elizabeth and John swam towards the edge of the pool and hauled themselves out. They quickly stood up and faced Serai.

"Did we do something wrong?"

"No John. It's okay. I just wanted to say goodbye."

"You're going?"

Serai turned to face Elizabeth to answer her question.

"Yes. It's time for me to ascend permanently. I have a family to visit. Or more annoy."

"You haven't been able to see them."

"No, I've sort of been in limbo while I waited for the next Guardian to come along."

"You've been waiting 10,000 years?"

John stared at her in disbelief as he spoke.

"Yes John. It's been a while, but, I get to see them now."

John and Elizabeth could see she was beginning to fade a little.

"Well, goodbye you two. And may I just say this; you two are clearly perfect for each other. You flirt with each other all the time. You argue like children. I really can't see why you aren't attracted to each other?"

John smiled a little, but shook his head.

"Because being around him seems to mean you get hurt."

"You're still alive, aren't you?"

"Yes, but I still got shot twice thanks to you."

"No, thanks to her!"

John turned to point the finger at Serai, but she was gone. Elizabeth sighed a little. However much trouble she'd caused, Serai was a genuinely nice person and they'd both begun to get used to having her around.

"Guess that means all this is over?"

"I guess so."

"So, can I go offworld again?"

"Of course. Anything to stop you from pestering me."

"Great."

John began to walk back down towards his pile of clothes. Elizabeth followed him, but stopped partway down.

"How are we going to explain to everyone why we are both soaking wet?"

"Well, we could tell them a number of things. How about we start with, 'We were in the shower together after mind blowing sex'?"

Elizabeth shook her head. She would be glad when he was offworld once again. It would be one less annoyance to deal with.

Or if all else failed, she could strand him offworld with Kavaunagh.

Fin