A/N: Hey everyone! Here's another chapter of the story. Sorry that I can't post more frequently, but I can only get online on the weekends at the moment. I hope that'll change soon. Enjoy!

"You have a meeting with Karen Mercer at 10 am and Mr. Henderson would like to see you around noon. Julie Stevens called, because she apparently couldn't reach you at home. She's going to call you back at 3 pm and there was a call from a certain Dr. McKay. He wanted to know if you're free for dinner tonight. He has some news about his new book I think. I wasn't able to understand him properly. He was talking so fast. Sorry" Elizabeth's assistant, Maureen, said apologetically. They were in Elizabeth's office, going through her appointments for the day.

"It's ok. What did you say? Am I going to have dinner with him tonight?" Elizabeth asked and rubbed her temples. It was barely 9 am and she already had a headache.

"No, I told him you'll be busy with a meeting"

"I don't have a meeting tonight, right?" Elizabeth asked worried, but Maureen shook her head.

"No, you only have another telephone appointment with Mr. Roberts from Atlantis Corporation at 5pm" Maureen said and looked through her papers. "Do you want me to call Dr. McKay back?" she then asked and Elizabeth shook her head.

"No, there's still a lot of work to do. I can have dinner with him another time" she sighed. "Thank you, Maureen" she then said and her assistant left the office. She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. She hadn't gotten the chance to talk to Julie in over a week and she hadn't seen her the last three months. Elizabeth was drowning in her work and she wished she had some time to go to Washington and stay a few days with her best friend. Unfortunately her work kept her from taking a few days off.

There came a light breeze through the open window of her office. She hadn't been in Washington since her last encounter with Evan on the air field. That day had also been the last day she had seen Julie. The day before that day had been the last time she had seen John. It had taken her about a month to stop thinking about him constantly and another month to think about him at all. She had tried her best to live her life without him and although it had been hard she had managed it somehow.

"You wanted to see me?" she asked a few hours later when she stepped into Michael Henderson's office. He looked up from his papers and smiled at her.

"Hey, yes. Have a seat" he said and gestured to a chair in front of his desk. Elizabeth sat down and looked at him expectantly. It didn't happen often that she was called into his office. Most of the time he stopped by her office when he wanted something. He leaned back in his chair. "I wanted to ask a favor of you"

"Ok" she said slowly. Now that didn't happen often either. He had never asked her for a favor before.

"Melissa is in the hospital. She stumbled over one of Emily's toys and broke her ankle" he said and scratched the back of his head. Melissa was Michael's wife. Elizabeth had met her a few times and she really liked her. Emily was Michael's 3-year-old daughter.

"Ouch. I hope she's ok"

"Yeah, she's fine, she'll be released tomorrow, but she'll have to walk on crutches for a few weeks"

"Do you want me to babysit Emily?" Elizabeth asked and he laughed.

"No, that's not what I wanted to ask you. Melissa and I were both invited to a barbecue party of an old friend in Washington. It's not a simple barbecue though. There are lots of important people, that's why I want to go and I wanted to ask you if you would like to accompany me there since Melissa can't walk and it's already this weekend" he said and she stared at him.

"You want me to accompany you to a barbecue party?"

"Only if you want to"

"I...ok" she said. That would give her a reason to go to Washington and see Julie.

"I promise that you can enjoy that party. There's no work for you, only for me. I would have gone alone but then I thought you haven't been in Washington for some time now and that I could ask you"

"Well, that's very nice of you" she smiled.

"Anytime. I'll let you know the flight dates"

"Ok"

"I can't believe it! I had to make an appointment to talk to you" Julie ranted on the telephone. Elizabeth sat on the corner of her desk and was going through a report while Julie vented her anger. "An appointment, Elizabeth! I thought I was the one person for whom you would drop everything immediately. That's not fair. I'm not used to make appointments with your assistant. You work too much. It's bad enough that we don't see each other, but now I have to make appointments in order to talk to you? No, that's really not fair"

"Calm down, Julie. I've just been busy the past few days and no one forced you to make an appointment" Elizabeth said in an amused tone.

"That's not funny, Elizabeth" Julie grumbled.

"Ok, I'm sorry. Now, is there anything you wanted? I'm all yours for the next 2 hours" she said and closed the report.

"I just wanted to talk to you and ask you when you finally find the time to visit me again. I kind of miss you"

"Yeah, I miss you too and you're lucky, because I'll come home this weekend"

"Very funny" Julie stated dryly.

"I'm accompanying Michael to a barbecue party and that party happens to be located in Washington"

"You're going out with your boss? When did that happen?"

"I'm not going out with him. His wife can't accompany him and he asked me, because he thought I would like to get back to you for a few days, but I can cancel it again if you don't want to see me" Elizabeth sighed with feigned disappointment.

"Of course I want to see you. You're really coming this weekend? God, I love your boss. Tell him that, ok?"

"Yeah, I can do that"