TITLE: No Time Like Tomorrow

AUTHOR: DramaLexy

SUMMARY: A gate accident changes everything. Sparky-fic, starts off season 3-ish.

DISCLAIMER: Not mine. Don't sue.

Elizabeth Weir slowly opened her eyes, awakened by a noticeable loss of heat around her. "What time is it?" she whispered, rubbing her eyes.

"0400," John Sheppard's voice replied from somewhere within the darkness of her quarters. She could hear him getting dressed, and sat up in bed, pulling her knees up under her chin.

"Why so early?" she asked.

"Because I almost got caught yesterday. Luckily I was far enough down your hallway that I don't think the lieutenant on guard realized where I'd come from, but we don't need the night guard wondering why their insomniac CO seems to be wandering the same corridor every night."

"We need a vacation," Elizabeth commented, and received a smile.

"Mmm, yeah, I wouldn't mind being able to spend the entire night with you, just once." Fully clothed, he returned to Elizabeth's side and kissed her. "See you at morning briefing," he said before heading for the door and quietly slipping out into the hallway.

Elizabeth lay back down with a sigh. They'd been doing…whatever it is you would call what they'd been doing, for the past six months. Sometimes her room, sometimes his. More often than not, he'd bring lunch up to her office for them to share, under the pretense that she never had time to properly take care of herself. A few weeks earlier, he'd taken her along on a jumper ride to check in with the Athosians on the mainland, and made a slight detour to high orbit so she could see the whole planet. She'd been in space before, of course, with trips on the Daedalus, but there usually wasn't much time for sight-seeing when the enormous ship was on approach for the city. That afternoon had taught her exactly why John was so in love with flying.

Half the city had been gossiping about them ever since they arrived in Atlantis three years earlier, but they hadn't felt the need to confirm anyone's assumptions, even though those assumptions were now true. The fear was always there that someone back on Earth would have an aneurism if they found out and recall one or both of them. Most days, both of them thought a little sneaking around was worth it in order to be able to stay in Atlantis.

Most days. As Elizabeth tried to get another hour or so of sleep, she inwardly agreed with John's sentiment that being able to have him stay the night for once would be a welcome change.

As John walked down the hall on his way to the briefing later that morning, he heard a decisive thud against one of the doors as he passed. A moment later, the sound repeated. He was about to go investigate, until he heard voices through the wall as well. Voices he recognized. John turned and quickly continued on his way. That was more information than he needed to know.

Elizabeth was already waiting in the conference room, nursing a cup of coffee. She teasingly checked her watch as he came in the door. "This must have stopped working," she said, "Because there's no way you're early."

"I had a little incentive not to go wandering in the halls. You'd think that married people wouldn't need to still be ducking into hall closets."

Elizabeth smiled. "Hopefully they made sure it actually was a closet, not a transporter."

"Mmm."

Within the next few minutes, the rest of the senior staff arrived. Teyla and Ronon were noticeably late, slipping in as Rodney began some long-winded explanation of his latest project. John saw her sheepishly trying to smooth her hair, and Ronon couldn't wipe a smirk off his face for the entire meeting. They'd been 'bonded' on the mainland months earlier and still acted like a couple of teenagers. Usually John found it amusing. Today…

"Colonel Sheppard?" he heard Elizabeth say, pulling him from his thoughts. She smiled, knowing full well that he'd spaced out. "Any opinion?"

"Whatever McKay thinks will work best." He could see Rodney perk up, and briefly wondered exactly what he'd just agreed to.

"All right, I think that's everything," Elizabeth brought the meeting to a close. "Good luck this afternoon." AG-1 had a mission to some planet John couldn't remember the designation for to work on trade relations.

Rodney, Teyla, Ronon, and Beckett exited the room, leaving the city's leaders alone. "What did I just say 'yes' to?" John asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Elizabeth teased. "That'll teach you to pay attention in staff meetings. What were you thinking about, anyway?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," John impishly shot back. She raised an eyebrow at him, giving him a look that said she could very easily make his life very difficult. And he knew it wasn't a bluff. "You," he replied.

"What?"

"I was thinking about you. And me. And all the other couples in this city."

Elizabeth smirked. "I assume that Teyla and Ronon were the ones you heard earlier?"

"Yeah, let's not focus on that. Too much information, remember?"

Elizabeth smiled. "You ever wonder what would happen if that was us? If everyone just knew? I mean…are we really going to keep sneaking around forever? Is that a future?"

"I don't know. If we both want to stay here…maybe."

"We've already proven we can compartmentalize. Dr. Weir and Colonel Sheppard run this city. John and Elizabeth have picnics with the last of the ice cream and sneak in and out of each other's rooms. They can't say that being together affects our jobs."

"Sure they can. Nobody ever wanted me at the top of the totem pole around here anyway. That was your influence."

Elizabeth frowned. "I thought it was what you wanted, what was best for the whole city."

"I'm just saying that if the brass back on Earth knew about us, they'd have the reason they always wanted to get rid of me."

"Then we'll fight. I've spent my life talking people into doing the right things. Are we supposed to spend the rest of our lives like this because of their expectations?"

"I just think…we have to take things one day at a time. That's all any of us do anyway, isn't it? We're all just hoping we live to see tomorrow."

"The days have to add up to something, John. Otherwise it's not actually living."

"I thought any time we spent together WAS adding up to something," he shot. "My mistake."

"John – " she started, but he was already halfway out the door, and didn't turn back. Elizabeth sighed, sitting in one of the chairs.

She had understood the fact that life was short long before she came to Atlantis. It was why she took chances – with her work, her stint at the SGC, Antarctica, and now this. She could see herself spending the rest of her life in the city, and saw her military leader as part of that. She just wanted to know if he saw the same. Somehow everything had just come out wrong. Considering how many negotiations she'd been a part of, it was amazing how much trouble she had when the subject was her own life.

"Dr. Weir?" she heard a voice ask, and looked up to see Zelenka in the doorway. "Should I come back later?" the scientist asked.

"No, now's fine," she said, getting up and leading the way back to her office. "What can I do for you?"

"I have the reports that you wanted…"