Of Orange Juice and Dinner Invitations

A/N: Ok, so, um, hey! I just posted the previous chapters without any comments. I hope you enjoy the story so far. I set the rating for T for now, but it'll change to M in later chapters. Enjoy this chapter and thank you all for your reviews!

John had told her that she would get distraction. She knew that he had meant their flight, but Elizabeth had been rather distracted by him. Still was, actually. He had taken her to the airfield 2 ½ weeks ago, 17 long days and she was still distracted. Something was definitely wrong with her. He popped into her mind and stayed there at least for a few hours before she could get rid of him again. But what disturbed her the most was the fact that she actually felt disappointed about the fact that she hadn't seen him once in those very long 17 days. It was as if he'd vanished into thin air.

"Elizabeth?"

"Hmm?" she mumbled confused and looked up to see Julie standing in the doorway.

"The juice?" she asked and pointed to the kitchen counter. Elizabeth looked down and jumped slightly when she saw the mess. She put the now almost empty bottle of orange juice aside and looked for a cloth. She had wanted to pour herself a glass of the liquid only to get caught up in a daydream and had spilled it all over the counter.

She carefully took a sip from the full glass and put it aside to wipe away the puddle of orange juice. It just had happened the day before that she had poured most of the hot coffee onto Julie's lap. It happened rather recently that she got caught up in these daydreams and she wished she could kick John Sheppard out of them.

"Are you feeling ok?" Julie asked and sat down at the kitchen table. Elizabeth wiped her glass dry and joined her.

"Yes, why wouldn't I be?"

"You seem pretty distraught lately" she said and smiled at her. Elizabeth didn't like this smile. It always meant that Julie knew something she didn't.

"I'm fine" she said and sipped at the orange juice. Distracted, but fine.

"Oh, I didn't say that you're not fine. Actually you seem extremely fine the past couple of weeks"

"That's because there have been no reasons not to feel fine" Elizabeth shrugged.

"And is there a chance that one of those good reasons happens to be John Sheppard?" Julia asked and grinned. Elizabeth groaned inwardly.

"No" she said a bit too fast. Julie didn't miss it and grinned at her knowingly.

"That didn't sound very convincing. Is it possible that you have fallen for him?" she asked sweetly. Elizabeth almost knocked her glass off the table at her friend's comment.

"No, I haven't. That's ridiculous, Julie. I don't even know him. Ridiculous" she denied.

"Really? Hmm, I thought so. Well then it should be no big deal for you that he's waiting at the door for you" Elizabeth jumped off her chair and finally knocked over her glass. The orange juice spilled over the table and dropped down onto Julie's lap again.

"He is?" Elizabeth asked, but Julie just started laughing. She was mocking her. "I can't believe it, you're mocking me. Serves you right" she said and pointed at the wet stains on Julie's pants.

"John? Would you mind coming into the kitchen?" Julie called out and Elizabeth froze when his form appeared in the doorway moments later. He was looking curiously at the juice covered table. He then looked at Julie.

"What did you two do? You said you're going to get her. That was about ten minutes ago"

"What are you doing here?" Elizabeth asked, unable to keep the shock out of her voice. His gaze wandered to her and he smiled.

"Taking you out to dinner"

"What?" she asked confused. She hadn't known that he would come. She hadn't expected him to come. She hadn't even seen him the past few weeks. What the hell was he doing in her kitchen -- again? He couldn't just appear in her apartment like that, not after vanishing for 17 days.

"Well, eating food at a place called restaurant. Ok, I guess it doesn't really count as a restaurant in this case, but you can eat there nevertheless"

"What are you talking about?"

"He wants you to get your jacket, Elizabeth" Julie said and stood up to take the cloth from the kitchen counter. "Now would you please go before you start spilling other liquids on me? Thank you" Julie continued and shuffled Elizabeth out of the kitchen.

"Julie, I don't think...?"

"Elizabeth, you ruined my favourite t-shirt and jeans yesterday and my new pants a few minutes ago. Please don't think. Just go and have fun and leave my clothes alone" she said and threw a jacket at Elizabeth. She then turned to John. "I want her home at one o'clock. Not a minute later"

"Yes ma'am" he said and grinned. Julie held the front door open for them and closed it right behind their backs.

"What was that?" Elizabeth asked confused and stared at the closed door. Her best friend had just kicked her out of the apartment. Elizabeth turned her head to look at the man currently standing next to her, watching her with an amused expression.

"What did you do to her t-shirt and jeans?" John asked curiously instead of answering her question. Elizabeth frowned at him.

"Spilled coffee on them. Now, what the hell are you doing here?"

"It's Friday evening" he shrugged as if that would complain everything.

"Exactly, it's Friday evening. Shouldn't you be at a party or something?" she asked, still confused.

"This is my last weekend and a party is nothing compared to what we're going to do tonight" he said and Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at him.

"Your last...what? Where are we going?"

"Can't tell you. It's one of those things where you would probably start yelling at me. I don't want to risk that. You have to trust me with this one"

Trust him. It was the second time he wanted her to trust him. The first time had been right before they had taken off with the airplane. She didn't know why, but she had already trusted him before he had even asked. It was the same now.

"Alright, I trust you" she finally said and he opened the door on the passenger's side of his car.

"You won't regret it. I promise" he said and climbed into the car on the other side.