Authors Note: Thanks to Sparky She-Demon, Steph 7085 and the two guests who reviewed the last chapter, hope you enjoy this one.

Chapter 13

The library was always quiet at that time, curfew had already come and gone and they'd have to get a curfew pass before they left so they wouldn't get in trouble with the guards. Jack packed his books into his bag and waited for Sam to do the same. She'd stayed up late with him to help him out with the potions homework he'd been struggling with all week and he finally had a piece of work to hand in tomorrow.

Sam yawned as she picked up her bag, "Next time you should just tell me you need help rather than leaving it until the last minute."

Jack smiled, "I would have thought of something."

"I'm sure you would," Sam returned the smile. "I was meaning to ask you something, is something going on with Elizabeth, you're closer to her than I am but she just..."

"Doesn't seem like herself," Jack finished when Sam trailed off. "Yeah, you're not the only one that's noticed. I don't know what's going on with her though, Teyla tried to talk to her but Elizabeth just dismissed it, said she was fine, just dealing with some Carlie drama."

"I guess that could be it but I don't know, seems like more than that," Sam shrugged. "Maybe she's talked to John about it."

"I don't think so, I've seen him giving her worried looks, like he's trying to figure out what's going on with her too," Jack said. Any further discussion of Elizabeth was cut off as they heard a scream coming from the second floor. The two of them ran for the winding metal staircase, reaching the second floor in time to hear another scream. They followed the sound to where a girl was cowering in the corner.

"Get away," she screamed, throwing her hands up as if to protect herself but there was nothing there.

Sam took a cautious step towards her as Jack heard footsteps running up behind him, the librarian.

"Hey," Sam said softly as she slowly approached the girl.

"No, you have to run," the girl cried out, "it'll get you."

"What will get me?" Sam questioned, taking another careful step forward. The girl looked up at her and then looked around, her face full of terror.

"It was right there," she said shakily. "Where did it go?"

Sam reached the girl and kneeled down beside her. "There's nothing here, whatever it was it's gone now."

The girl looked at Sam and then burst into tears, Sam wrapped an arm around her shoulder and allowed the girl to collapse against her. The librarian told them to stay where they were and then disappeared among the stacks of shelves. Jack stayed back, he didn't want to risk scaring the girl anymore than she clearly already was and Sam seemed to have the situation under control. The librarian returned a few minutes later, a healer arrived not long after that and took the girl, who was much calmer now, from Sam.

Jack and Sam gave their names to the librarian and were told someone might want to talk to them tomorrow.

"Well that's one way to end a day," Sam said as they walked out of the library.

"I wonder what was wrong with her," Jack said looking back at the library, "I mean she was clearly terrified of something."

"We'll probably never find out," Sam replied and Jack sighed.

"Probably not," he said and then leaned down to kiss her on the cheek and say goodnight before they headed to their separate dorms.

Elizabeth gave John a smile as he sat beside her, it was weak at best and she knew it. She knew he'd noticed as well, as he'd noticed a hundred other things over the last few days. She was struggling to figure out what to do about her father's letter. She didn't want to lose him, but if she disobeyed her father then she wouldn't just lose what she had with him but she'd lose him altogether along with everything else she had at Pegasus.

He started talking to Marcus about something but she wasn't paying enough attention to know what. The cafeteria had been emptying over the last hour as most student finished their meals and left to enjoy their Friday nights.

"I've gotta go, you guys sure you don't want to join us for dinner?" Marcus questioned. Elizabeth had been asked the question several times since she'd told them she didn't want to join the rest of the group for dinner in town. John had initially said he would go but, on hearing Elizabeth wasn't going, he'd changed his mind.

She saw him glance at her out of the corner of his eye before he replied. "No, we're good, you guys have fun."

Marcus nodded, gave Elizabeth a look that suggested John wasn't the only one to have noticed something was wrong. She needed to pick herself up and do a better job of pretending everything was fine, she used to be better at it. She offered him a smile, hoping this one looked more genuine and watched him leave.

"I think I'm going to head to the library and get some work done," Elizabeth said once she and John were alone. She moved to stand but John put a hand on her arm to hold her in place.

"Just wait," he said and she looked at him warily, she'd known she couldn't get away with it forever but she'd hoped that she could avoid this until she knew what she was going to do.

"I've got a lot of work to do," she tried to excuse herself but he just gave her a disbelieving, annoyed look and she sighed. "Can we do this later?"

"No," he replied, "I've been letting it slide for days, what's going on?"

"I don't know what you mean," she said.

"You've been acting... distant and... standoff-ish for days," he continued more annoyed now. "You've clearly been avoiding me when we're not in class and refused to be alone with me so that we couldn't have a private conversation. What's wrong?"

"John, I..." she had no idea what to say.

"Is this because of the other day, because we..." he trailed off and it only took a couple of seconds for her mind to pick up on his train of thought.

"No, oh God no," she was quick to reassure him, realising he thought the way she'd been acting had something to do with them sleeping together. "It's not that, it's got nothing to do with that, that was... that was great, it's... it's not that."

She was sure her face was a little red, she hadn't even considered that he would think that. It was understandable, now that she thought about it, she'd started acting distant with him just a couple of days after they'd slept together and with no other explanation, of course his mind would link the two.

John nodded. "Then what's wrong?"

"It's just..." she began but still had no excuse lined up. "It's family stuff."

"Something to do with Carlie?" he questioned and she opened and closed her mouth. He deserved an explanation, he deserved the truth but how could she tell him, how could she explain the letter her father had sent. He knew a little about her family, he'd met her father and Carlie but none of her friends knew the whole truth. They didn't know the extent of the mess the relationship between her and her father was in. She'd hoped it would remain that way, if she told John the truth now then a large part of that would be revealed.

"It's..." she took a deep breath, sighed, looked around the cafeteria and knew this wasn't a conversation to have here. "Come on."

He narrowed his eyes, probably trying to judge if this was some kind of diversion but he stood and they walked silently to his room. The tension grew between them, she was nervous about telling him and she could only imagine what kinds of thoughts might have been running through his head as he tried to figure out what was going on.

She waited until he'd closed the door behind them before she spoke. "Carlie knows I'm seeing you, she told our father and I got a letter from him a few days ago."

"Well, I'm guessing this isn't going to be good," John replied as he stood in front of her and waited for her to continue.

"He told me that our family and yours don't get along and it's disrespectful of me to be seeing you when I know he wouldn't approve," she began. "He told me I have to break it off with you."

John's eyebrows lifted in disbelief, she watched as he absorbed her words. "And is that what you want?" he asked her.

"Of course it's not," she told him, a little annoyed by the question.

"Then he can forget it," John said angrily.

"It's not that simple," she said with a deep breath. "He thinks I'm... I don't know but he found out about the whole Allinyas thing and the rumours that I took it willingly and accused Cal to cover my tracks. He says I'm damaging our family's reputation; I had an argument with Carlie which she obviously told him about and probably exaggerated. I refused to listen to him when he told me that I had made poor choices in my friends. He thinks I'm getting out of his control and if I don't start behaving in an appropriate manner then he's going to pull me out of the school and make me return home where he can keep me under control."

She'd never seen John look so angry before and he cursed as he turned away from her and walked over to the window. He leaned on the window ledge, his muscles tight and his back still to her. She gave him a few moments to take in what she'd said, to process it and to calm down. He finally let out a deep breath and then turned around to face her again.

There was still anger in his eyes, but behind that there was something that looked a lot like desperation. "So basically, you either break up with me or you get pulled from the school."

She nodded, "And then I don't get to see you or any of the others again and I can say goodbye to any chance of making it onto the Alteran council, as a governor or otherwise."

John cursed again under his breath. "I don't know what to say to that."

They stood there in silence for a while, neither of them knowing where to go from there. John finally looked her in the eye.

"You've got plans for your life Elizabeth, big plans and as much as it kills me, I can't, I won't be the reason that you don't get to be and do all the things you want. I won't be the reason you lose everything that you've gained here either," he told her and she looked at him, just stared at him, unable to speak for a moment.

She could hear in his voice how much saying that had cost him, could tell that he meant every word. No matter how much it would hurt him to do it, he'd let her go because he thought that was what she needed, because what she wanted was more important to him that what he wanted. She could honestly say that her father had never done, and probably never would do, the same thing for her. In fact she didn't think anyone had put what she wanted and needed ahead of themselves since her mother had died.

"No," she said and he looked at her confused for a moment. She shook her head, could feel herself fill with resolve. "He's not taking this from me. We'll just... we'll be less open about being together. If Carlie thinks we're just back to being friends then that's what she'll tell our father. What he doesn't know won't hurt him."

"Elizabeth, you'd be taking a big chance, think of everything you'd be risking," John said as he stepped towards her.

"I have, I am," she replied. "Unless it's not what you want."

"I want to be with you, if that means keeping it quiet then that's fine with me but it's not me that's risking my future to do it," he told her and she nodded her head.

"No, it's me, which make it's my choice, my decision," she told him. "And I've made it."

"Are you sure?" he questioned, hopeful. She smiled and nodded, leaning up she kissed him, wrapping her arms around him and holding him tight, she wasn't losing him, her father wasn't taking him from her.

TBC