Making his way home

Summary: I suck at summaries

Spoilers: Probably nothing much, but anything from season 2 is fair game

Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate Atlantis. If I did, there would be an episode where this happened:

Chapter 1

Lt. Colonel John Sheppard strolled into Elizabeth's office. As usual, he thought, she was too busy working to even notice.

"Elizabeth? You in there?" She looked up from her work, a small smile brightening her face.

"John. Shouldn't you be going off-world?"

"Yeah, but not for like 5 minutes." He let out a deep breath as he sat down. "I actually needed to talk to you."

"Is there something wrong?" she asked, concerned.

"No, not really…" he trailed off. Elizabeth continued to stare at him, and he shifted uncomfortably.

"John?"

"Ok, umm, do you want to have dinner with me?" He regretted saying the words as soon as they left his mouth. They often ate together, but he had never asked so formally. Hell, on occasion he had had to literally drag her out of the office to get some food, but he had never actually asked her to dinner. She leaned forward in her chair, tilting her head slightly, with an amused expression on her face.

"Colonel Sheppard, are you asking me on a date?"

"Well, that kinda depends." She raised an eyebrow and grinned slightly

"Depends on what?"

"Well, you could call it dinner between two friends, or it could be a date." He cringed, waiting for a rejection.

"Sure." He looked up.

"What?" She smiled at him.

"I said sure, I'd love to have dinner with you. Now, I have a lot of work to do, and you have to go off-world."

"So…. It's a date?" She sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Yes, it's a date. Unless there was anything else?" When he still made no move to leave, "I'll see you later John." He finally got the hint and stood, unable to control the smile on his face. As he started to leave the room, she called out after him.

"Hey John." He turned back. "Where are you taking me?" He smiled and shrugged.

"Mum's the word."

He continued through the control room, and walked down the stairs to the gate room, fighting the urge to jump down them (Carson was already annoyed with him for sneaking out of the infirmary after the retrovirus incident, he probably wouldn't be gentle with a sprained ankle.) His team was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Unsurprisingly, Rodney had to make a comment.

"Colonel. How nice of you to join us."

"Mckay. Everyone ready?" Teyla nodded

"We are Colonel. Is everything alright?"

"What do you mean?" Teyla smiled slightly.

"Normally you do not speak to Dr Weir immediately before a mission."

"Yeah, well, I just needed to clear something up. Alright, let's go."

As the team moved towards the dialling gate, Rodney moved next to Teyla, and started to mutter to her.

"You don't think that those two have finally…….?"

"I don't know. If they have, it is a private matter, and not one for open discussion." She paused, then leaned a bit closer. "Although obviously if that did happen it would be a great relief to anyone making bets on the matter, don't you agree Rodney?"

He spluttered quietly.

"How did you find out?"

She just smiled enigmatically.

As the team walked towards the gate, John glanced over to her office. She was sitting in her chair, eyes fixed on his. He smiled, and blew her a kiss as he walked through the gate. He wasn't there to see her hand rise to stroke her cheek, before she snapped out of it and returned to life as leader of Atlantis.

John and his team stepped out of the gate into a small clearing in a large forest.

"Alright Mckay, you're the science geek. Go find us a ZPM."

"I resent that. And if you'd been listening in the briefing rather than staring at Elizabeth then you would know that-"

"I was not staring! Ronon, back me up on this."

"Uh, I didn't really notice." Mckay broke back in

"Of course not you were probably distracted by the chocolate bar in your hand. Look my point is that the energy pattern is not that of a ZPM, but it is still worth investigating. We just need to lock it down."

John sighed deeply, and shook his head.

"Alright, let's lock it down. The UAV showed no intelligent life anywhere near here, and there weren't any signs of big animals, so we'll split up. Teyla and Ronon, you two go together, and I'll take Dr Freud here." Both Teyla and Ronon looked perplexed. "Dr Freud. He was a psychologist… you know what? Forget it. Let's just get this over with. Stay in radio contact." With that, he turned and headed off. Mckay soon caught up.

"Eager to get back to Atlantis?" John kept walking

"As a matter of fact, yes. And yes, before you ask, Elizabeth and I are having dinner together."

"Oh. That's nice. I myself have a date with Katie." Sheppard smiled at him (only slightly sarcastically)

"That's nice too. Now could we find the damn energy source so we can go home?"

Two hours later, John reflected on how overly optimistic he had been.

"Alright, I'm just about ready to call this one. Teyla and Ronon, have you had any luck?"

"I'm afraid not Colonel. We have been unable to isolate the energy. It's as if it's coming from everywhere at once."

"Yeah, Mckay's having the same problem." He was interrupted by a fit of swearing. "He's dealing with it pretty well though. We'll see you back at the gate."

Some time later, Teyla and Ronon emerged into the clearing.

"That's weird." Teyla looked over to Ronon.

"What is it Ronon?"

"We must've covered more ground than Mckay and Sheppard. So why aren't they here already?"

Teyla frowned, and tapped her radio.

"Colonel Sheppard, where are you? Colonel Sheppard? Doctor Mckay, please respond." She looked anxiously at Ronon, who shrugged.

"If they were attacked we should've heard it, but maybe not. We won't be able to search for them on our own." Teyla nodded, her face grim.

"Then we must dial Atlantis, and ask Dr Weir to send more people." But first, she reflected silently, she would have to tell the Doctor that Colonel Sheppard was once again in trouble.

"Unscheduled offworld activation!" Elizabeth was up and out of her chair almost before the watch officer had finished speaking.

"Receiving a radio signal. It's Telya."

"Teyla, this is Doctor Weir. What's your status?"

"We have lost contact with Dr Mckay and Colonel Sheppard. This is a large forest, and we need reinforcements to search it properly." Elizabeth's heart clenched, but she managed to keep her voice under control.

"Ok, I'll have Major Lorne assemble a team."

"A puddle jumper would also help, it's sensors should be able to penetrate the vegetation."

"They're on their way. Do you think that…" She could hear Teyla sigh over the radio

"I do not know. Neither Ronon nor I heard anything, the last contact was around an hour ago, when the Colonel told us he would see him at the gate. A search may be premature, but" she was cut off

"No, Teyla, you did the right thing. The others will be with you as soon as possible."

"Thank you Doctor Weir. We will find them." As the gate disconnected Elizabeth tapped her radio.

"Major Lorne? We've lost contact with Dr Mckay and Colonel Sheppard. I need you to assemble a search team. Take as many men as you need, and a puddle jumper"

"Copy that. We'll be ready in 5." Elizabeth turned to the watch officer.

"Send them out as soon as they're ready." He nodded in response. She turned, and walked slowly out onto their balcony, shivering slightly as the cold air hit her. She leaned on the railings.

"Damnit John. You'd better be home for dinner."

To be continued…..