A few hours later, Elizabeth decided she didn't want to wait any more to see him. She made her way down to the infirmary and met Carson who was viewing John's charts at the foot of his bed.
"Hey." She greeted him.
"How's he doing?" she asked anxiously.
"He seems to be recovering surprisingly quickly. I s'pose it's cause he's got a good motivation." He said looking at Elizabeth and then looked to the floor embarrassed when he caught her glare.
"Was that a subtle indication that you've caught on to the perhaps 'not so professional' relationship that the Colonel and I share, Carson?"
"I guess I wasn't so subtle about it."
"It's alright Carson; just keep it to yourself for the moment, please."
"Ay, no worries Elizabeth." He said with a smile before leaving them alone.
She pulled up a chair next to his bed, and with no hesitation took his hand in hers. He looked so peaceful when he was sleeping, so happy. She had a feeling he knew she was there with him. She could feel his grip on her hand tighten only slightly.
Carson had told her he was on the way to recovery, but he clearly wasn't there yet. Although he looked reasonable happy, his face was still quite pale, not like his usual slight tanned colour she loved.
She gently traced patterns on his hand with her thumb.
She started to reflect on the past three years and thought how she couldn't have done or succeeded in any of the things she had without him.
She felt the tears rising again and attempted to wipe the fallen ones away with her free hand, but they just kept coming.
"Please John, wake up. You told me you were gonna be ok but look at you you're…" she could finish her sentence. Her greatest fear was coming true and she knew there was no way she could possibly hold back the tears any longer.
She began to cry, and though there was nobody around, she propped her elbow up the bed and covered her eyes.
John awoke to the sound of his girlfriend sobbing. Not what he wanted to hear when he was so weak and tired that he couldn't hold her.
"Hey." He whispered.
"John?" She said disbelievingly, uncovering her eyes to see his face had rapidly changed colour and his usual charming, loving grin had returned to his face.
"I told you I'd be alright didn't I?"
She smiled and rose from her seat to kiss him.
The kiss was reasonably short due to their awkward position, and she sat back down, intertwining her fingers in between his.
"So, what have you done about the earth situation?" John asked desperate to catch up on the fate of their loved ones.
"Umm… we're working on it."
"Liz! Do you not understand the seriousness of what I told you?" he said sternly.
"Yes, John, I do. We've sent a signal to the Daedalus to warn them but that's really as much as we can do…"
"ELIZABETH! Am I NOT getting through to you here or what?" he cut her off.
"…At the moment." She replied in more calm, negotiable tone then the man lying in front of her. He sighed.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell." He said softly.
"It's ok, I can excuse you for being a bit cranky, you're kinda lacking sleep."
"A bit! I just yelled at you Liz, you know how I hate yelling at you."
"Hey, I said your forgiven, stop trying to explain yourself."
He nodded.
"You need to get some rest sweetie." She said leaning forward to kiss his forehead, gently stroking is hair back.
He tugged on her hand when she tried to remove it from his.
"Can't you… stay here for a little while?" He put on his irresistible puppy-dog pout face in attempt to win her over.
"I'm not sure John, you really do need to sleep." She said indecisively.
"Oh c'mon stay with me!" He whined. "And besides, I don't wanna sleep I wanna talk to you." He said, reaching out to brush the hair from her face.
"Yeah but, if you get some sleep now… then you'll be up for the plans I have for you later." She said seductively.
He raised an eyebrow.
"Ahh… well in that case…" he didn't finish his sentence. He faked falling straight asleep and mocked snoring loudly. Elizabeth laughed out loud as John smiled and pulled her onto the bed, moving his arm around her waist. He cocked his head to one side.
She sighed.
"Alright! I stay, for crying out loud!"
John frowned questioningly.
"You're starting to sound like that General O'Neill. Is there something you're not telling me?"
"No John, you're the only one!" she said like it was the five thousandth time, it seemed like it. He nodded agreeingly.
"And what else?"
She rolled her eyes.
"You're the King of Atlantis." She said. He again nodded like a school boy.
"Only cause you're the Queen." He said lovingly pulling her closer to him.
"Oh I get to be the Queen now!" she said edging closer to him.
He nodded his head and raised his eyebrows up and down slightly and snuck a glance at her lips in that cute way he does before he's about to kiss her.
He captured her lips in his in a passionate kiss. She moved both hands to hold the side of his face, the taste of his kiss was beckoning for is to be deepened. And she did just that as she felt John's hands travelling up her thighs and reaching the small of her back to draw her closer to him.
He broke the kiss only to speak.
"Besides…" he planted another short sweet kiss on her lips.
"I'll sleep better if you're here." He had a daring smile on his face, though they both knew they'd have to spend the night the infirmary rather than in his bed like they'd prefer.
They engaged in another short kiss before the finally broke apart.
She sat back down on the stool as close as she could to him and rested her head on his shoulder, place arm across his stomach, careful to steer clear if his wound.
She felt him relax underneath her.
"Night Sweetheart." He whispered, kissing the top of her head.
"Night Honey." She replied as she felt an overwhelming need for sleep engulf her. She let herself fall into the blissful abyss, knowing that she'd wake up to the face of her lover, her best friend, and her soul mate.
It was thoughts like that that made her realise she wanted to spend the rest of her life sharing and experiencing all of them with John. And she could tell when he kissed her that he was feeling the exact same way, and always would do.
