A/N: I'm sorry this update took longer than I planned, but it's finally done. Again thanks for all the reviews! And thanks to my beta SallyLizzie. So I bring you all more fluff. Thanks again!

EDIT: Ah, how much I hate thee. Sorry for the previous formatting error. Someone pointed out to me how some of the words were smushed together. Yikes. Hopefully that's all fixed now.

Chapter 5

The next morning, Elizabeth pulled the blankets around herself tighter and snuggled closer to the large warm object that was lying next to her. She wasn't sure what it was nor did she care. She was comfortable. She thought that maybe Sedge had climbed up onto her bed, but she was too sleepy and too comfortable to dwell on that thought.

Just as she was falling back to sleep, a soft knock came from her door. Elizabeth wondered who would bother her at this hour. She figured it was probably John and hoped that if she ignored the knock, he would go away. She snuggled closer to the warm body next to her and tried to ignore the knock as it persisted. Suddenly, the comforting warmth next to her moved and was gone.

She was displeased by the sudden lack of warmth, but only wrapped the blankets around herself tighter. Then she heard someone open her door.

"Colonel Sheppard?" a soft female voice said in surprised. "I'm sorry. I thought this was Doctor Weir's room."

Elizabeth's mind snapped awake. Colonel Sheppard? She quickly tried to remember what happened the night before. Was she in John's room?

"Uh…" John uncomfortably brushed his hands through his hair. "No, you've got the right room, Larin." He glanced back to see if the knocking had woken Elizabeth. "She's still sleeping. Did you want to leave a message?" he asked awkwardly.

John had said she was in her room. Then why was he in her room so early in the morning? Was he the warm body she was snuggled so comfortably next to the whole night? With these questions running through her head, Elizabeth's mind was now wide-awake, but her body had yet to catch up.

"I just wanted to let you both know that breakfast will be served soon," Larin said, "and to bring this." She held up a basin of warm water along with a towel.

"Thank you," he said taking the basin from Larin. "I'll let Doctor Weir know about breakfast and give her this." He closed the door softly and walked across the room to set the basin and towel on the table. He went back to the bed and carefully sat down. He glanced over at Elizabeth and noticed that her eyes were partially open.

"Good morning."

Elizabeth sat up on the bed rubbing her eyes. "Did you sleep here last night?"

"Yeah, sorry, kind of dozed off," he said sheepishly.

"Who was at the door?" she asked with squinted eyes

"Room service."

"Room service?"

"Larin came to tell us breakfast would be served soon." John sat on the corner her bed and observed Elizabeth brushing her hands through her messy curls. "Are you mad?"

"Mad about what?" She blinked a couple of times trying to wake herself up.

"About me crashing here last night…"

"No," she shook her head. "It's not like I lost any sleep because of you."

"I know," he said smirked. "I noticed you were sleeping very… comfortably."

Elizabeth felt her face grow hot at the memory of her snuggling up to his warm body earlier and quickly turned her face away from him.

"Uh… Larin also brought a basin of water for you to wash up. Anyway, I guess I'll go back to my room so you can do whatever you ladies do in the morning," he said and departed.

When she heard the click of the door shutting, she buried her head in the pillows. She took a deep breath and found that there was his faint scent lingering on the sheets. She smiled when she identified the scent to be his Aqua Velva aftershave, but her smile quickly faded when she remembered their awkward exchange only moments earlier.

She groaned and finally got out of bed and shuffled towards the water basin. She submersed the hand towel into the water, wrung it out, and cleaned her face with it. The warm water was refreshing, but when she looked down at her outfit, she wished she hadn't fallen asleep in her clothes. Now her red shirt and grey khakis looked wrinkled and even less flattering. However, she didn't have a change of clean clothes, so wrinkled would have to do. She ran her figures through her hair and grabbed her sneakers.

As she slipped on her sneakers, there was a knock on her door. She froze. She hoped to God it wasn't John. She wasn't ready to see him yet, because she knew he would not let her live last night down. This was probably karma catching up on her for teasing him mercilessly for the Tower incident.

She groaned and finally went to open the door. To her relief it was Dolan, but her relief was short lived when John exited his room at that moment.

"Good morning, Doctor Weir, Colonel." Dolan greeted them. "I was on my way to the dining hall and came by to see if you both were ready."

"Good morning, Dolan. I believe we are both ready," she said.

Before Dolan could get another word out, John clasped his hands together and said, "Well, I'm starving. What's for breakfast?"

John stirred the bland porridge in the bowl in front of him and grimaced slightly as he watched the Feldarians around him happily eating the morning sustenance he referred to as goop. He glanced through the corner of his eye to look at how Elizabeth was handling the situation. As he expected, Elizabeth handled the goop better than him. She even managed to take a few bites of the bland porridge without make a face.

"I hope the accommodations we have were comfortable for you," the Governor said.

"And I hope the extra blankets I sent you warm were enough," the Governor's wife added.

"The room and blankets were very comfortable and warm, thank you," Elizabeth assured the pair.

"How about you, Colonel?" the older woman asked at John.

"The accommodations were warm and snuggly," John said cryptically and snuck a glance at Elizabeth from the corner of his eye.

"Snuggly?" Dolan asked puzzled.

"He also means they were very comfortable," Elizabeth quickly explained and shot John a look. He feigned ignorance and ate a mouth full of porridge.

"I hate to be the barer of bad news, but the blizzard has not passed and is still raging on the surface," the Governor reported. "I know it is hard to believe when we feel so safe in our underground havens."

"Yes," Elizabeth agreed. "This place is quite impressive."

"Indeed," Dolan said. "Historical documents state that these underground havens were built by our ancestors."

"But why build an outpost on an ice planet?" John asked.

"Feldara was not always like this," the Governor said. "There have been records found that our ancestors lived in lush lands that yielded plentiful harvests. But something happened that changed the weather conditions of the planet. And the knowledge of what that catastrophe was has been lost to us."

"Global freezing as opposed to global warming?" John said glancing over at Elizabeth.

"Either way, these underground havens built by your ancestors to protect your people's future and safety from the elements are truly remarkable, Governor" she said.

"Yes, despite the cruel weather, we still love our home. I'm sure you love your home no matter what Her failings are," the Governor said.

"Yes, we do," Elizabeth nodded.

"Do you miss your home?" Dolan asked.

"I would be lying if I said I didn't," Elizabeth replied.

"What do you miss about it?" the older woman asked.

"There are many things one thinks of when you are far away from home," Elizabeth replied.

"Loved ones?" the Governor's wife continued inquiring.

"Yes, I do miss my family, but knowing that they are well, puts my mind at ease."

"I see," the old woman said. "I'm sure it also helps that you are very busy as a leader. There is always something or someone keeping you busy. I'm sure."

Elizabeth was starting to feel uncomfortable by the interrogation.

"Of course, as Governor of Feldara, you guys know how busy things can get," John joined in the conversation to give Elizabeth a hand." It's pretty hard to get any downtime let alone worrying about family at home all day."

"You are quite correct, Colonel. As much as we would like to entertain you all day, we must ask for your pardon," the Governor said rising from his seat, "for we must go about our daily tasks. Please feel free to roam around. I believe you've already been shown our various facilities in our first meeting."

John and Elizabeth nodded as the Governor and Dolan prepared to leave the room.

"Please take your time in breaking your fast. I will see you later," Dolan said to Elizabeth and followed his father out.

"Doctor Weir, if you get bored, you can always find me. I'd love to instruct you on making some Feldarian dishes," the Governor's wife said before leaving the room.

"Thank you, ma'am, I will keep that in mind."

"If you two need anything, just ask," the older woman said.

"Thank you, ma'am," John said and let out a breath when she finally exited.

After the Governor's wife had left, John and Elizabeth realized they were the only ones in the dining room.

"So…" John pushed his half eaten bowl of porridge away and twiddled his thumbs on the table. "Do you want to go roam around? Even though this underground city disturbingly reminds me of the Genii underground bunker."

"I can't really say. I was blindfolded the first time I was in the Genii bunker," she said bitterly remembering that negotiation experience. "Besides we've already determined that the Feldarians are not making nuclear bombs."

"Yeah, who needs nuclear bombs when you get the blizzards from hell twice a week?" he asked rhetorically.

As they wandered around, they found the halls relatively empty.

"I wonder where they all disappeared to," John said peeking through one of the open doors.

"Probably off to the farms," Elizabeth answered.

"Farms?" he looked at her confused. "What do they harvest? Icicles?"

"You'd be surprise what the Feldarians have here."

"I thought they weren't a developed culture"

"They're not. Not in the sense of developed like what we are used to," she explained. "But their ancestors were very advanced and somehow they've kept up with everything."

"So, what? Their civilization is 'frozen' in time? You'd think that without the Wraith in their hair they'd be more advanced."

"True, but their planet became a ball of ice because of technological catastrophes in the past. That is why this underground city exists in the first place. I'm guessing they are a bit timid of new technology. And it's not really necessary when they already have everything they need in this city."

"I guess it's comforting to know some cultures actually learn from their past mistakes," he shrugged.

They continued wandering the halls until they walked passed an opened door that led into an empty spacious room. On the walls were tapestries that depicted sporting events the Feldarians participated in a yearly competition during their harvest season. Along one of the walls was a rack of sticks of different lengths.

"I think this is their gym," Elizabeth said as she walked towards the rack and pulled a pair of short sticks from it.

"They have a gym? Where was I when they gave us the grand tour?"

"You were here physically, but mentally, I can't say."

John narrowed his eyes and looked at Elizabeth as she twirled the sticks in her hand, testing the weight of the sticks in her grip.

He vaguely remembered them passing by this room before, but he might have spent most of that tour watching Dolan flirting with Elizabeth. It was odd watching someone flirt with Elizabeth and even odder when she flirted back. He wasn't jealous or anything. At least that's what he kept telling himself. He assumed her minor flirting was all a part of diplomacy.

The sound of whooshing sticks brought him back, and his eyes trailed over to the sticks in Elizabeth's hands. He observed the way her slender fingers gripped the sticks. It was obvious that she had had some training. But he wondered with whom and when? It seemed to him that she was always in her office. He still couldn't figure out when she got any sleep, let alone time to train in stick fighting.

Elizabeth recognized the perplexed look on John's face and smiled deviously.

"Do you want to spar?" she asked.

"What?" He wasn't sure if he just heard Elizabeth's sparring invitation correctly.

"I've been practicing with Ronon," she said matter-of-factly.

"Ronon?" His eyes furrowed in bewilderment.

"I wanted to get to know him better since he is a member of my flag team, and he spends most of his time in the gym training-"

"So you let him kick your ass? You know there are easier ways to get to know someone better."

"We didn't spar," she chuckled. "He gave me some pointers on self-defense, especially since we are in such high risk jobs. I figured it couldn't hurt, and it's a good workout." She tossed a stick to John.

"But with Ronon?" he repeated. "If you wanted some self-defense pointers, I would be happy to help you out."

"I'm sure you would," she shrugged and tossed him the second stick. "Come on, we have nothing better to do, and we still have half a day to waste."

"But Ronon?" Elizabeth ignored his repetition and pulled out another set of short sticks. "I thought you would have trained with Teyla instead."

"Sometimes," she replied, "but recently I've been training with Ronon." She stepped back with her sticks in hand ready to begin.

Heonly stood holding the sticks in his hands looking at her vacuously.

She raised an eyebrow at him and twirled the stick in her right hand a couple more times. "John, humor me. Please?"

"Are you sure?" he asked when he realized she was serious. She nodded. He finally shrugged and held both sticks in his right hand and took a defensive stance and placed his free hand behind his back. "All right," he smiled cockily, "I'll go easy on you."

"You'll regret it," she said with a raised eyebrow and charged toward him.

She swung at him, and he raised his arm to block her attack easily. She swung several more times, but John still blocked and parried each of her blows.

He could see her face start to fluster from their short workout.

"I thought you said I was going to regret going easy on you," he taunted.

He took a swing at her, and Elizabeth quickly blocked his overhead attack. Then she suddenly pivoted back, spun her free arm around, and hit John unmercifully on his rear.

"Ow!" he yelped, rubbing his bottom "Did you learn that from Teyla!"

"I told you that you'd regret it," she smiled triumphantly.

"Okay, that's it." He finally took a stick in each hand and glared at Elizabeth. He could see she was ready to attack him again.

This was another side of Elizabeth he had never seen before. She was physically aggressive and every swing she gave him was backed with strength that matched Teyla's, which was most likely due to training with Ronon. But there was a grace that Elizabeth had in her movements that differed from Teyla.

When he was ready, Elizabeth swung at him again. He quickly blocked her overhead attack and then blocked her lower attack with his other hand.

They each took a step back and began to encircle each other looking into each other's eyes trying to anticipate the other's movement.

Finally, Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and leapt forward to attack him. He parried her attack and swung at her, in which she successfully parried.

They continued to attack and parry each others attacks until Elizabeth took another overhead swing at John, leaving her side open and vulnerable to an attack. John took this opportunity and jabbed a stick at her side.

Realizing her error, Elizabeth quickly used her other stick to block his side attack and spun herself away from him.

When she was a safe distance from him, she jerked her head back to try and flip back her brown curls that were sticking to the side of her face with her sweat. Over the past couple of months her hair had grown longer, and right now she wished she had something to push back her curls as she sparred. Instead, she wiped her forehead with her sleeves and looked over at John who was smiling sheepishly.

"Do you want me to go easy on you now?" he smirked. He was enjoying this aggressive dance that had emerged from their sparring.

"Not a chance," she replied in confidence. "It's a good thing I move fast."

"We'll see about that," he challenged and sprung at her unexpectedly.

Instinctively, she brought a stick up to block his attack. She was about to swing at John with her other hand, but John was quicker and hit her on her calf causing her to fall to her knees.

Elizabeth squeezed her eyes shut and kept her head down and waited for the throbbing pain in her calf to dissipate. She opened her eyes again to see John take a step towards her then suddenly take a step back in her peripheral view.

"I'm not falling for that again," he said and swung the sticks in his hand a couple times.

She finally raised her head and glared at him.

"Are you okay?" he asked with concern as she stood up.

"Yes, thank you," she replied, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Hey, I would have come and helped you up. If I was guaranteed I wouldn't have a stick in my face like last time," he said.

"Last time it was just harmless snow, and I wouldn't hit you in the face with this." She held up the stick. "Wouldn't want to damage that pretty face of yours."

"But you don't have a problem with freezing it. So are you ready to stop now?"

"Are you kidding?" she said raising an eyebrow. "I'm just getting warmed up."

"All right, bring it on," he said imitating the infamous beckoning gesture from The Matrix.

Elizabeth took John's invitation and rushed towards him.

He was able to parry her first several attacks, but as he deflected another attack, Elizabeth's swift moments disarmed his right hand as she backed him up against a wall. She took another hard swing down at him, but he was able to grab onto the stick and gripped onto it firmly.

"Are you holding a grudge?" he asked as Elizabeth tried to pull her stick from his grasp.

"Why do you say that?" she asked breathlessly.

"Because you're swinging pretty hard this time around," he said and jerked the stick he held out of her grip.

Surprised, Elizabeth lifted the other stick in defense. But John grabbed her other stick, pushed her backwards, and rapidly turned her around. Suddenly she was no longer facing John, but facing the room. She looked down to see that John had managed to turn her body and wrap her arms across her own chest, while he locked his arms over hers to keep them in place. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the stick John had just taken from her being held right below her chin.

"See, I told you. I didn't hold a grudge," she breathed heavily and leaned back against him.

"I guess not," he replied his arms still around her.

The exertion of the fight was welcomed from being inactive for the last few days, but now they were both exhausted and sweaty. Neither of them made a move and remained in the same position listening to each other's heavy breathing.

"That was a good workout," John finally said.

"Yes," she agreed, "one of the best I've had in a while."

"Good to know I'm the best so far," he grinned.

"Don't get cocky now, John. Ronon could still break you with his pinky if he wanted to."

"Look whose arms you're in. I have every right to be cocky right now."

Elizabeth's face grew hot at his comment. She knew he was talking about beating her in the match, but she still couldn't stop the blood rushing to her cheeks.

Before she could tell John to free her, Dolan stepped into the room. John immediately let go of her and stepped away, forgetting that she was still leaning against him. She staggered backwards a little, but managed to regain her footing before falling.

She was about to chide John when she followed his line of sight and saw Dolan at the entrance of the room.

"Dolan," she said slightly embarrassed. She brushed her hand through her unkempt hair and quickly stepped back into her role of Doctor Elizabeth Weir.

"I see you have found use for our recreation room," Dolan said.

"Yes, it is quite nice. We have one similar back at our home," she said.

"I did not know that you were a warrior, Doctor Weir." His tone hinted of his amusement.

"I'm not a warrior at all. We were only…" Her thoughts returned to John having his arms around her, and she felt her cheeks fluster again.

"I was giving Doctor Weir some pointers on self-defense," John inserted.

"From what I can tell, Colonel Sheppard seems to be a good instructor," Dolan said.

"He has his moments," Elizabeth smiled. "So are your daily tasks completed?" She desperately wanted to change the subject.

"Yes, and the day is near ending."

"I don't think I will ever get use to the shorter days here," she said. "The days on Atlantis are much longer."

Dolan smiled, "I came in search for you and the Colonel to see if everything was all right and to tell you supper will be served in a couple hours."

"Everything is well. Thank you for your concern."

"Before supper, I believe you both will be in need of a bath," Dolan said observing their flushed state. "I will have Larin draw a bath for each of you and bring a change of clothes to your rooms."

"Thank you, Dolan," Elizabeth said. "That would be great."

"Nice, room service," John whispered into her ear.

She only rolled her eyes and nudged him to be quiet as they exited the gym after Dolan. A nice warm bath was definitely something she looked forward to at the moment.

"Doctor Weir?"

"Yes?" Elizabeth replaced the light blue dress laid out on the bed for her and looked in the direction of Larin standing next to the steaming wooden bath tub.

"I shall return later to remove the tub," the woman said.

"Thank you, Larin," Elizabeth said

After Larin exited, Elizabeth dipped her hand in the water to test its warmth. When she found the warmth of the water satisfactory, she started to remove her clothes and tossed them onto the chair next to the tub.

She submersed her body in the warm soothing water and leaned back against the side. She absentmindedly took the cloth and soap provided for her and started to cleanse herself.

It had been a very long time since Elizabeth had taken a bath and this one was much welcomed, especially after the strenuous sparring match she had earlier. She figured her body would probably ache tomorrow, but right now she was in heaven.

She sunk her body lower into the water and leaned her head back, closing her eyes.

There was a light knock on the door.

"Come in," she said, assuming Larin had forgotten something.

She heard the door open and close as her visitor entered. She opened her eyes to see what Larin needed. But to her horror, it was John who had entered the room.

"Oh, my God!" she exclaimed and wrapped her arms over her chest and sunk deeper into the water.

"I- I - I'm sorry," John stuttered and quickly turned around to avert his eyes. "I heard you say 'come in'."

"I- I- I did, but I thought you were Larin," she stammered, feeling her face turn scarlet.

"No, she's in my room preparing the bath. You'd think that their ancestors would have passed on knowledge of plumbing to these people. But I came to see if yours was ready, and obviously it is. And I think mine is ready too… Sorry," he quickly said and exited.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Elizabeth groaned and submerged her head underwater.

It had been a while since Elizabeth had worn a dress. She wore her Atlantis uniform so often that she had forgotten how simply wearing a dress instantly reminded her of her femininity.

She smoothed the front of her empire waist dress and looked at herself in the mirror. She felt like she had just stepped out of a Regency Period film.

She was combing through her curls as a knock came from her door.

"Come in," she said while struggling with a tangle.

"Are you sure?" John's voice muffled through the door.

Elizabeth chortled to herself and went to open the door for him. "Come in." She opened the door a few inches for him and went back to the mirror to observe the tangle in the back in her hair.

"Wow" was all John said when he entered and saw Elizabeth wearing the Feldarian dress.

She finally turned to face him and had to suppress a giggle. On the contrary, he looked out of place wearing the Feldarian clothing.

"Why do you get to look like Elizabeth Bennet, and I get to look like Farmer John?" he complained.

"You don't look so bad," she assured him.

"I don't look so good either. But you look…"

"I look like a woman who can't untangle her curls," she said facing the mirror again and continued fighting the frustrating tangle.

"No, I was thinking more along the lines of 'Wow'," he said noticing her struggle with the tangle. "Here, let me help." He stepped up behind her and took the brush from her hand.

He took her soft brown hair into his hands and carefully worked through the mildly damp tangles. Her hair gave off a light flowery scent that was pleasing to his senses as he untangled her hair.

Elizabeth stood before the mirror watching him delicately brushing through her hair and smiled.

"Why are you smiling?" His eyes made contact with hers through the mirror's reflection.

Her smile widened. "I never thought an Air Force Colonel would be brushing my hair for me."

"And I never dreamed that I'd become Farmer John." He stroked the brush through her hair one last time before laying it down on the table.

"This is only temporary, John." She turned around to face him. "As soon as the storm ends we can go home."

"And when might this 'soon' be?"

"I don't know. Why don't we go to dinner and catch the latest weather report?"

"Yes, ma'am," he smiled and held his arm for her; and she graciously accepted his invitation.