Okay. I'm breaking my own rules of my game here and writing a second part to my "Common Ground" tag. These are all supposed to be one piece shorts, so this is actually chapter four 'a', or something - hope you don't mind.

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Immersed in thought, John walked down the corridors toward Elizabeth's quarters.

A group of technicians passed him, and while he returned their smiles outwardly, his mind was somewhere else entirely. So much so that when he reached the intersection that led either to his rooms or Elizabeth's, depending on which turning he took, he stopped, frowning at the floor long enough to draw a few confused looks from passers-by.

A familiar yet annoyed voice broke through his reverie. "So are you just going to stand there, or are you going to answer me?"

Sheppard looked up, startled. "Rodney?"

"No, I just look like him. What's wrong with you? I asked you a question."

"You did not."

"I did! You're just not paying any attention!"

"All right, all right, calm down. Just tell me what you want."

Rodney opened his mouth and raised an index finger, then stopped abruptly. "Are you feeling all right? You look funny."

John exhaled, silently counting prime numbers in his mind as he automatically did when dealing with the man who was one of his closest and most frustrating friends. "I'm fine. I just - have a meeting."

"With this particular hallway, or Atlantis in general? Because if you need to see the whole city -"

"Rodney –"

"Fine. Listen. Just save some time for tomorrow afternoon. We need to go over those devices we found in sector five, and since you're the great tripper of ancient technology -"

"Okay, okay. I'll –" But Rodney had turned to stride away in a huff, an fruitless but frequent exercise which always made John laugh in spite of himself. "I'll see you in the morning, Rodney."

John collected his thoughts, remembered where he was heading – and stopped. Something about what Rodney said made him think. Atlantis. The whole city. With a nod, he turned toward his own quarters, absently unlocked the door with a thought, and stepped inside for no more than a minute. When he left, he was tucking a small notebook in his pocket, heading with some speed toward Elizabeth's rooms.

oooOOOooo

Elizabeth finished putting away her laundry, turned to survey the domain of her room, and sat on the bed with a sigh. After arriving at her quarters and realizing that the page she was going to discard had evidently fallen, she had totally run out of things to distract her from feeling like an idiot, and was dangerously close to crying again. For the umpteenth time she hoped that the breeze had carried it over the edge of the balcony. As she flopped hopelessly back on the bed, the lights in her room abruptly went dark.

She frowned, waited a moment, and had reached for her radio when they abruptly went on again, then off, then on. Tilting her head curiously, she stood and opened her door –

-and looked into the hazel eyes of John Sheppard.

"John?"

"Hey."

"Ah… did the power just go out? My lights –"

"Yeah. No. That was me."

She frowned at him as her eyes widened, her arms crossing automatically across her chest as she tilted her head. "You?"

"Yeah. I wanted to talk to you, but I didn't want to, well… I don't know. Make you nervous or anything."

Elizabeth's eyes sparkled in amusement, a smile quirking her lips. "And you didn't think you could accomplish this by just, oh, knocking?"

"Oh, sure, if I wanted to be boring…"

He smiled and looked down as she laughed, satisfied that he really had broken the tension between them. "Can I come in for a minute?"

She nodded, stepping aside so he could walk into her rooms. Sometimes it annoyed her that he could throw her off so quickly… but today, she was happy for it.

He leaned against her desk and looked around, speaking casually. "So… you took off kind of fast."

It was her turn to look down. "Colonel –"

"No. It was 'John', remember?"

She looked into his eyes and frowned. "Well, that's the problem, isn't it."

"No."

The feigned humor left her face. "No?"

He took a deep breath before stepping closer to her, his hands on her shoulders. "Elizabeth. You're my friend. Apart from any professional obligations either one of us has, you're my friend. And … I value that." She looked down again, unsteadily. "I mean it. However awkward it is, if we didn't worry about each other, I think it would just be… weird."

She exhaled a laugh in spite of herself. "Weird, John?"

"Yeah. And seeing you upset about being upset about me, well…"

Elizabeth looked into his eyes, so sincere, so concerned. "John… I…"

"Don't say anything. Just… don't." He gently enfolded her in his arms, holding her tight. "Just be my friend."

For several minutes they stood there, as Elizabeth sniffed into his shoulder and he stroked her hair.

Finally she pulled back slightly, to look up into his eyes. "John?"

He returned her gaze. "Yes?"

"I'm glad you're all right."

"Me too."

She laughed quietly. "So… we're okay?"

"We're more than okay." He leaned forward and kissed her forehead softly. "We're comfortable."

She nodded and stepped back, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "Well, I'm glad to hear that."

"Yeah." He rubbed a hand over her arm and turned to go, stopping at the door. For a moment he hesitated, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a notebook. "By the way. You're not the only one who Kate has writing things…"

"Oh? Oh, good Lord…" Elizabeth colored slightly as she realized where her poem must have fallen.

"Yeah. But I'm not very good at it, so I don't take this out of my room. Except for now." Opening the book, he tore off a page and conspicuously dropped it to the floor. "Fair's fair. See you tomorrow morning." He walked out without another word.

Elizabeth's brow furrowed as her eyes dropped from the closed door to the paper lying on the floor. She picked it up and read it slowly.

E.

I've never had a lot of respect for authority
work the moment, not the orders
know the responsibility to my team, the goal
nothing else

but here I am
responsible for so much more
this group that spans a city
and me, sworn to protect and defend
every last cook, technician, soldier, scientist

trying to hold their lives, fragile as glass, here inside my vest

sometimes it's too much for this rebel to bear
sometimes I want to run
not that I ever could
but still

a whole city is far too much to carry
here inside my vest
too much to actually believe in
so every mission
as I leave my too-big city behind
I look up into a face I can believe in


and even while the confidence and trust I see there
blows my mind
at least I know that there is one
one that I feel capable of protecting
one that has my respect
one who is the heart and soul of my city

kept here, under my vest

close to my heart

Elizabeth blinked, swallowed, read it again. With a surprised smile curving her lips, she folded the paper carefully and looked around her room, finally tucking it under a framed picture on her nightstand. A picture that a gateroom technician captured of Colonel John Sheppard and his team as they returned from a mission, joined by the civilian leader of Atlantis, Doctor Elizabeth Weir. The picture had been taken just as they looked at each other, and there was something in their eyes…

With a shivery feeling of relief, Elizabeth sat down at her laptop, and after a few minutes, began to write.

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