A/N: I'm such a dork. I updated forgetting to add a short note. Again thanks for all the nice reviews. I still love them. ;) This is a short chapter, because it just felt right to leave off where I did. But I guarantee you the next chapter will be twice as long because of this. Thanks again!
Chapter 4
John could not sleep. The Feldarians had given them the same rooms that they occupied last week, and even then he could not sleep comfortably.Then again Rodney would always come over and complain about how the mattress was hurting his back, which also prevented him from getting any sleep. At least this time, he wouldn't have to worry about Rodney wanting to play a game of chess; sincehe and everyone else was back at home all nice and warm.
He never really liked staying overnight on an alien planet. Especially after incidents where alien princesses tended to visit his quarters with missions of seduction for his genes. Ever since that incident, he was always a bit paranoid when he had to stay overnight on another planet. At least Elizabeth was in the room across from him, he thought. He could always run for Elizabeth's room if anyone surprised him in the middle of the night.
He played around with his radio and thought about contacting Elizabeth with the radio to see what she was up to. But he changed his mind and lay down on the bed instead. Then he started wondering if he had heard of cases where a man came and seduced a woman. Then he started to wonder if Dolan was the type of person to do that. Then he wondered if Elizabeth would allow herself to be seduced by someone like Dolan. He had to admit, Dolan was a rather handsome man; despite the fact that John thought that he was a pansy. Then again pretty much any man who wasn't military seemed like a pansy to him, but of course, he kept that thought to himself when he was around Rodney. But there was something about Dolan that bothered him. He was too nice. In his experience, when people were too nice, they always had some hidden agenda.
As he lay there, he thought he heard some movement outside his door. When he saw a shadow of someone passing by from the crack under his door, he got out of bed, walked towards the door, and carefully pressed his ear against the door to listen.
He heard several muffled voices and was sure one of them belonged to Elizabeth. He wondered who would be in her room so late in the evening. He pressed his ear against the door again and tried to listen in, but he only heard silence. Either the visitor had left, or… He decided to try to listen in a little bit longer.
A single bright orange flame danced and flickered on the candle in the room. Last week, Elizabeth had her laptop to occupy her nights with Solitaire, but this time she only had a single candle as entertainment. She let out a breath and watched the flame flicker. She watched as a small puddle formed beneath the flame, eventually overflowing and a drop of melted yellow wax streamed down along the side of the candle drying halfway down the shaft.
Every now and then, she would touch a drop of the melted wax with the tip of her finger, and feel the burn of the hot wax on her fingertips as she squeezed her fingers together, imprinting her fingerprints in wax.
Just as she began rolling the piece of wax between her fingers into a ball, she heard a quiet knock on her door. Earlier, Larin came to her door with extra blankets sent by the Governor's wife. Since she wasn't tired, she tossed the blankets on the bed and sat back down to play with the candle. The soft knock came again.
As she started towards the door, she wondered who else would visit her so late in the night. This time the knock was a little stronger.
She put her head next to the door. "Elizabeth?" She heard a muffled whisper on the other side.
There was only one person on Feldara that called her that and that person was supposed to be asleep in the room across from her.
She opened the door. "John?"
"Oh, good, you're awake," he said as he stepped into the room before Elizabeth had opened the door completely. He walked into the dark room and noticed the untouched bed. "Why are you still up?"
"I couldn't sleep," she said closing the door.
"Let me guess, you got use to falling asleep to the sound of the ocean," he smirked. "I brought you some blankets." He showed her the blanket draped over his arm.
Elizabeth smiled and sat down on the bed. "Larin already gave me some." She pointed to the neatly folded pile on her bed. "So why are you still up?"
"Well, I guess I'll keep this then," he pouted. "Anyway I couldn't sleep either." He crossed his arms and leaned against the door. "Never really can when I'm on an alien planet."
"Afraid of uninvited late night guests?" Elizabeth teased.
"Aren't you?"
"No, not really," she shook her head. "Not many women want to seduce me for my Ancient genes."
"That's because you don't have the Ancient gene."
"Precisely."
"What about Dolan? What if he came here in the middle of night saying he couldn't sleep another wink without seeing you?"
"He hasn't done that, and I highly doubt that he will," she rolled her eyes. "He may have a thing for me, and the Governor may want to make me his daughter-in-law, but—" She brought her hand up to cover her mouth as she yawned.
"Whoa, whoa, back up. Daughter-in-law?" John looked bewildered.
"You said so yourself that Dolan has a crush on me."
"Yeah, but I didn't realize he'd want to marry you." Elizabeth immediately narrowed her eyes at him. He suddenly realized what he had just said. "Not that anyone wouldn't want to marry you…" he quickly added. "I mean you're smart, attractive…Look, my point is, I didn't realize Junior was thinking marriage already."
"I don't think it was Dolan that instigated this. It was more on the part of the Dear Ol' Dad and maybe even Mommy Dearest."
"What, can't wait to have grandkids?" he said with a sour face and started pacing back and forth.
Elizabeth sat on the bed and watched John's shadow pacing the room on the wall, but his pacing back and forth was starting to make her head spin. "John?" she said calmly. "Can you please stop pacing back and forth and sit down? You're giving me a headache."
"Sorry," he apologized and sat down on the bed next to her. He brushed his hand through his hair and looked at her. He watched as she moved herself further onto the bed allowing her to prop her feet on the bed.
"This really bothers you, doesn't it?" she asked with amusement and hugged her knees.
"Doesn't it bother you?"
"You're bothered enough for the both of us," she said.
"I am only doing my duty to protect you."
"John, there are times when I need protecting, but when it comes to things like Dolan, I'm sure I can handle myself," she assured him. "But I appreciate the concern."
She rested her chin on her knees as she watched him sitting on the edge of her bed. He looked back at her and she only shrugged her shoulders as if to ask "what?"
"What would you do if a semi handsome man came knocking on your bedroom door in the middle of the night?" he finally asked.
"It would depend on what he wanted," she said playing along.
"Aside from emergencies," he rolled his eyes.
"Well, I let you in," Elizabeth pointed out.
"That's different. I couldn't sleep, and I'm your bodyguard. So what would you do?" he asked, returning to the subject at hand.
"If I knew him, I guess I'd hear him out before shooing him off to bed."
"What? No sweeping you off your feet and having a night of passion?" he asked sheepishly and waited for Elizabeth's reaction to his absurd question.
Elizabeth blinked a couple times and gave him a blank look. "I never knew my ranking military officer read romance novels."
"I don't read romance novels," he protested. "That is basically what is written in all the blurbs on the back of the books." Elizabeth gave John a skeptical look. "Anyway that isn't the point."
"Then what is your point, John?"
He thought for a moment."No point, really," he said with a nonchalant shrug. "I was just curious how you would react if some guy came in the middle of the night to seduce you."
"Really? Well, I've never been in that situation before, so I wouldn't know."
"Hypothetically," he said rolling his eyes.
"I see, hypothetically," she said suspiciously and crawled towards the pillows at the head of the bed to lie down. "If this 'guy' said that, I would be flattered and kiss him," she said facetiously.
"Really?" John furrowed his eyebrows and turned to see Elizabeth playing with the shadows of her hands on the walls.
"That is if I liked the guy, of course." She stopped playing with her fingers and rested them on her stomach.
"What if you didn't like the guy?"
"I'd say thank you, I'm flattered, and good night," she said in between a yawn.
"That's it?" He asked lying down on the bed next to her to observe her expressions.
"Maybe if he was really hot, I'd kiss him too," she smiled.
"You're not going to give me a straight answer, are you?"
"Not tonight."
He turned his head to look at Elizabeth and saw that her eyes were closed but a smile was on her lips.
"You look very relaxed," he commented.
"Hm…" she replied drowsily. "It's not often that I'm stuck off-world in a pleasant situation."
"Pleasant? We're stuck in a blizzard. But I have to admit, from past experiences, this is a lot better."
"Hm…" she replied again and shifted to lying on her side.
"Usually, when I'm stuck staying overnight somewhere, the next day I have to go hunt some local monsters or something. It's like we've become the Pegasus Wraith Busters.'Who you're gonna call? Wraith Busters!'"
When he did not hear any response from Elizabeth, he was sure that she had fallen asleep. He brushed aside a brown curl that fell across her face, and used the extra blankets he brought to cover her, and he lay back down and watched her sleep. He had never seen her asleep before, and she looked comfortingly serene and beautiful. John did not know how long he watched her sleep, but before he realized it, he had fall asleep as well.