Author's Note 4/15/06: Okay, this chapter was driving me insane. It just didn't seem to fit with the rest of the fic—it didn't flow and I had two parts of myself at war. One part wanted John and Elizabeth together. The other part rebelled against their love scene being OOC, and if you knew me, you'd know that I intensely dislike OOC stories. I caved in to my latter feelings and I've rewritten this chapter. Maybe latter I can write John and Elizabeth in a full brown affair, but this fic being fluffy and humorous didn't really call for a semi-heavy sex scene. If any reader wants the smut filled version of this chapter, let me know and I'll email it to you.

Thanks again to Tria for her beta help on both versions of this chapter. Chapter 6 is written and should be posted tonight when I get it back from Tria. Other good news is that there was not way I could wrap this up in one chapter so more of this story on the way. Going to start on chap 7 right now.

-Ally

-------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 5: Heart's Desire

John tracked her all the way to her room, trying his best to catch up without looking too desperate. As it was, several people tried to stop him and ask him if there was an emergency. There was, but not the kind of emergency they were thinking. As he arrived at Elizabeth's quarters, he saw her disappear through the door and it swished closed. He knocked. Waited. Rubbed his burning cheek. She packed a good wallop when she wanted to.

He leaned a hand on the door. He wasn't going to let it go like this; they'd be avoiding each other for weeks.

"Elizabeth! I want to talk to you."

"There is nothing to talk about," came Elizabeth's muffled response.

"You call what we just did nothing?" John ran a hand through his hair. Okay, maybe to her the kiss was nothing. Maybe he was losing his touch, it's not like he'd had a lot of practice lately, although, he'd never had any complaints, just the opposite. John knocked again. "That tells me that you slapped me over nothing and I'm owed an explanation."

He pressed his ear to the door. Silence.

"Look, I'm sorry, Elizabeth… Dr. Weir." He said through the door. One of Rodney's team members walked by and cast him an odd look, pausing for a moment.

"Is there a problem, Colonel Sheppard?" the man asked.

John gritted his teeth. "There's no problem."

The man lingered. Worried. His eyes darting to Dr. Weir's closed door.

"Don't you have somewhere important to be?" Sheppard snapped.

"It's just that you and Dr. Weir are—"

"Having a minor disagreement," Sheppard interrupted, took a deep breath and reined in his frustration. Punching one of Rodney's subordinates wasn't going to win friends and influence others.

"If you're certain." Although he didn't sound certain.

"Perfectly."

The man nodded and hurried away. John turned back to the door. "Elizabeth. Say something."

"Something," she replied.

"That's not funny!" he shouted.

"I'm tired, John. It's late. If you want me to clear you for the mission tomorrow, then you're cleared. Other than these delusions you're having, you appear fine."

"Delusions?" he said to himself. He leaned his forehead on the door. "I appreciate your vote of confidence but…." The leash on his temper broke. "Elizabeth! Dammit!" He pounded on the door. "I'm not going to leave until you open this door and talk to me!"

The door suddenly swished open revealing a very red-faced and angry Dr. Weir. "Do you realize you're shouting in a public hallway?" She looked each way down the corridor. "There will be problems if it gets around this city that its two leaders are having a public squabble."

"We're not squabbling, we're disagreeing, and I wouldn't be out here shouting if you'd let me in to talk." He held his arms out to the side in an expressive shrug. "I am sorry if what I did was offensive."

"You've already said that. Apology accepted. Go away," she ground out and turned to go back into her room. John grabbed her hand. She tried to pull away but he held her firmly, careful not to be too aggressive. He tugged her closer and gave her his best disarming, lopsided, shameless grin.

"Elizabeth, I want you to know that I wasn't trying to degrade you or demean your position here by visualizing you in a… er… Playboy bunny suit. I respect you. I have the greatest admiration for you, but you have to believe me, that what I saw was not a bad thing, you look great in pink."

Her face went slack in shock. "Pink? PINK! That's respect!" she shouted in his face and yanked her hand out of his.

"Maybe next time you can tell me what your favorite damn color is so I'll see you in that!" he shouted back.

"BLUE!" Elizabeth turned and retreated back into her room. John jumped forward and wedged himself in the door as it closed.

"Ooof!"

Elizabeth turned to look at him and John was certain the corner of her mouth twitched like she wanted to laugh. He figured he must look pretty ridiculous wedged in the door.

"Help?" he managed.

Elizabeth moved forward and the door swung open. John took advantage of this and hopped inside before it swished closed behind him. Then he wondered if he'd just got himself trapped in the cage with the tiger, judging from the expression on Elizabeth's normally unflustered face. She walked up to him, and John took a step back. Sure he was bigger than she was, and had more training than she did, he knew how to fight a lot better; but that look on her face seemed to dissolve all those advantages.

She poked him hard in the chest with a finger. "How." Poke. "Can." Poke. "You." Poke. "APOLOGIZE! For a man with the experience you are purported to have, you should know better!"

"You looked angry! What am I supposed to do?"

"For such an intelligent military leader, you can be a clueless… OAF!" Elizabeth grabbed John by the front of his shirt, then released him.

He was surprised at her vehemence. "Oaf?"

"You forgot clueless!"

There was a knock at the door. "Is everything okay in there?" a familiar voice asked. It sounded like Zelenka.

"YES!" they shouted in unison.

"Fine, fine," the voice answered, retreating and mumbling in Czech.

That took the fire out of Sheppard; his shoulders sagged and he ran his hands through his hair. He turned away from her. What a mess. Too bad there wasn't an Ancient device that had a rewind button. "Elizabeth… I don't know how to make this right."

Sheppard felt her move up behind him; her hand touched his shoulder, bringing him around. Her eyes moved over his face. "Are you really sorry?" she asked unexpectedly, her voice soft, the anger gone.

"Honestly?" he replied, looking everywhere but at her. "No."

"Then why apologize?"

Sheppard sat down on her bed. since it was the only place in the room to sit, and she joined him, lacing her fingers in her lap.

"The slap was a good motivator." He touched the red mark on his face and smiled wryly.

"I think I owe you an apology for that," Elizabeth said after a few seconds of silence had ticked off between them.

"How about we just call a truce for now?"

Elizabeth nodded, to John's relief. "Truce. I'll make certain Carson knows that I've cleared you for the mission tomorrow."

"Thanks." John stood up; he was relieved at least that things between them were back to semi-normal, although this wasn't exactly how he wanted this to end. She walked him to the door and it swished open.

"Oh, and Colonel," she said, a mischievous quirk to her eyebrow. "Next time you kiss a woman, don't apologize." She stepped back, smiled enigmatically, and the door closed.

"What the hell…?" Sheppard was left with the sudden feeling that a hive of Wraith were easier to deal with and understand.