Disclaimer: Still not mine sigh
Kara tapped her foot impatiently as she leaned against a wall outside the mess hall, waiting almost patiently for Alex to arrive. For the past four months they had met for breakfast every Thursday, no matter what freaky alien, mutated virus or general catastrophe was threatening the city and its inhabitants. Today, Alex was ten minutes late, not something that normally happened. If anything, Alex was normally early and it was Kara who showed up out of breath and apologising.
Kara finally gave up and tapped her ear piece. "Hopkins to Owen," she said, expecting to hear Alex's chipper voice reply almost instantly. When it didn't she tried again, "Alex this is Kara, where are you?"
After three further attempts to contact her friend, Kara gave in. Pushing off the wall she made her way to the nearest transporter and made her way to the floor that housed all the female scientists. She tried the bell before finally just using her gene to open the door to her friend's room.
"Alex," she called as she entered the dark room. "Alex, are you still in here?"
A groan came from the general direction of the bed. "Kara?" she heard her friend ask sleepily.
Concentrating for a moment, Kara switched on the lights half way, giving her enough light to see by but no so much as to blind her sleepy friend. "Alex, are you alright?" she asked coming to perch on the side of her friend's bed.
"Hmm?" she asked, rolling over to face Kara and cracking her eyes open a tiny bit. "Oh Kara, Hey is everything okay?"
"We were supposed to meet for breakfast twenty minutes ago." she told her friend.
"Really?" Alex asked. "It can't be seven already, my alarm would have woken me up."
Just then, her alarm started to beep. Alex shut off the noise and looked in disbelief at the clock and groaned. "I'm so sorry Kara; I must have forgotten to change it last night."
"That's okay," Kara told her. "I'm just glad that when I came in it was only you in here and not you and Lorne."
Alex blushed slightly as she remembered her date the night before. Kara saw it and frowned slightly.
"Why are you blushing?" Kara wanted to know. Suddenly something dawned on her. "Is he supposed to be here? Did you two have sex last night?"
Alex smiled and replied, "No, he's not supposed to be here. He walked me home last night and left me with a goodnight kiss at the door."
"So you didn't have sex," Kara wanted her to confirm.
Alex looked everywhere but Kara. "So you didn't have sex right?" Kara said turning her last statement into a question.
Alex seemed to struggle for words. "Well…not here no,"
Kara's mouth dropped open as she tried to comprehend exactly what the hell that comment meant. "You mean you…you and Lorne…you had sex?" she finally managed to choke out.
"Look, it's not as bad as you think," Alex tried to tell her friend, but Kara was having none of it.
She got up from the bed and pointed at her friend. "Just, give me a minute to think this through," she told her friend and then cringed at the idea. "What do you want for breakfast?" she asked suddenly, confusing Alex.
"What?"
"I'm going to the mess hall to get us both some breakfast while you get dressed and sort yourself out. When I get back, we're going to talk this through. Unless you want to go and discuss your sex life in front of thirty or so marines," she suggested.
"Um, some toast would be good and an apple if they have any," Alex said.
"I'll be back in ten minutes," Kara told her, heading out of the door.
"You look happy this morning Major," Sheppard commented as he sat beside Lorne in the mess hall.
"Really sir?" Lorne asked.
"Yes you do," Sheppard told him, pausing to eat a spoonful of cereal from the bowl in front of him. "Does this have anything to do with why you practically ran out of the jumper bay yesterday, leaving me the task of trying to explain to your new team member why she can't visit Keras' people every week for social calls."
"Sorry about that sir," Lorne apologised, knowing just how difficult Kara could be when she decided that something was a good idea, even when all the evidence showed that it was a spectacularly bad one.
"You didn't answer my question Major," Sheppard pointed out.
"Umm, well…I suppose you could link the two together, yes sir."
"Does it also have anything to do with that I overheard Chuck and Doctor Owens talking about you yesterday after you returned from M7G-677?"
"They were talking about me?" Lorne asked before he could stop himself.
"Yes major, they were," Sheppard ate another spoonful of his cereal as he watched his XO's face move from curiosity to happiness and finally returning to its normal slightly amused state. "Do you want to know what they were saying?" Sheppard asked, eating more of his cereal as he waited for Lorne to respond.
"I'm not sure that would be fair Colonel," Lorne eventually said, the internal struggle between wanting to know what Alex had said about him and not wanting the whole of Atlantis to know they were involved just yet barely registering on his face. "I mean, I assume that it was a private conversation that you overheard, so it would really be right to tell me what they had said."
"Seeing as it was a private conversation," Sheppard added.
"Yes sir," Lorne said, paying more and more attention to his plate that to his CO.
"Well, I hope for your sake that you know what you're doing," Sheppard said as he finished his cereal and collected his tray from the table, Lorne a few beats behind him as they both made their way to the kitchens.
"Sir?" Lorne asked, trying to play dumb to the fact that Sheppard probably knew everything that Chuck did, and that was probably almost everything there was to know.
As they handed over their plates, a flash of red caught Lorne's eye and he turned to see Kara walking towards the door of the mess hall, tray in hand. He frowned, weren't Kara and Alex supposed to have breakfast on Thursdays?
"Kara," he called, walking fast towards the door to catch up with her.
They were in the hall before Lorne got close enough to grab her arm to get her attention. Kara spun, face looking like thunder. Lorne instantly let go of her arm and back up a few steps, not realising that Sheppard had followed them out of the mess and was watching them with interest.
"Are you okay?" Lorne asked her, concerned as to why she was so angry at him.
Kara's face showed a number of emotions, anger and frustration being the most common before she pointed at him and said, "I'm going to deal with you later," and tried to spin away, but Lorne caught hold of her arm before she could move far.
"Why, what's going on?" Lorne asked.
"I…" Kara hesitated before taking a deep breath and continuing. "I'm going to deal with you later," she told him again and stalked off towards the transporter.
"Doesn't she normally have breakfast with Doctor Owens on a Thursday?" Sheppard asked.
Lorne hadn't realised that his CO knew so much about the meeting schedules of the people on the base. "Normally," Lorne told him. "She also normally likes me."
"Do anything recently to upset her?" Sheppard asked.
Lorne didn't think he'd said or done anything specific and then his mind started to add things up. If Alex hadn't show for their meeting that morning, Kara would have gone looking for her, and that meant that she'd started asking questions about last night and…
"Fuck," Lorne muttered.
"I'll take that as a maybe," Sheppard said, patting his XO on the back before walking past him into the transporter. "I'll see you at training this afternoon," he called as he stepped into the transporter.
Lorne waited until Sheppard had gone before tapping his radio, "Lorne to Owens."
"Hey," came back the sleepy but chirpy reply.
"Are you okay Alex?" he asked, wanting to be sure that she was fine before he did anything else.
"I'm fine, why do you ask?"
"I just ran into Kara in the mess hall and she looks furious. I thought maybe…" he trailed off.
"Maybe I was changing my mind about last night?" she asked.
"Yeah," he told her, heading into the transporter and selecting the site closest to his office.
"I'm fine Evan. I have no regrets about what happened last night," she told him.
"Good, me neither," he reassured her.
"I better go, Kara looked pretty pissed when she left to get us breakfast, she probably doesn't need to know that we're talking now,"
"I'll see you later," he told her.
"I hope so," she replied before cutting the transmission.
Once they'd finished the food Kara had brought for them, Alex looked at her watch and stood up. "I need to get moving if I'm going to get to the gateroom in time for my shift."
"Sit," Kara told her.
"Kara, I need to get going," Alex told her, not wanting to be late.
"Is there anything pressing that needs to be done?" Kara asked her.
"No, but I should be there in case something does come up."
"Hopkins to Carter," Kara said, activating her ear piece.
"Carter here," was the reply.
"Hey Colonel, Dr Owens isn't going to be able to make it up to the control room today, is it okay if she stays and does her work in her quarters instead?" Kara asked.
"Sure," Carter replied. "I'll call her if anything urgent comes up," Carter told her before ending the transmission.
"See, now you won't be late," Kara told her. "Now sit and spill missy," she commanded.
Alex sat with a sigh. "What do you want to know?"
"Did you have sex last night?"
"Yes."
"Why?" Kara asked.
"Because we wanted to," Alex told her friend, not quite sure if she was totally okay with this conversation.
"That's not a reason to have sex," Kara almost yelled.
"Funny, I thought it was the main reason people have sex," Alex replied.
"Yes, but you told me you'd take it slow with Lorne," Kara said.
"And that was the plan," Alex reminded her. "I just…I mean we…It just felt right," she settled on.
"I know you Alex. You don't jump into bed with just anyone."
"I know I don't, but this felt right," she told her friend. "More right than with anyone else,"
"Even Doug?" Kara asked, mentioning the man that Alex had left to come to Atlantis.
"Even Doug," she reaffirmed. "I don't know why it feels so right, but it does. He makes me feel so different to all the other guys I've been with. It's like he wants me. All of me, not just the sex or the talking or the friendship, all of it."
"But why couldn't you take it slow?" Kara whimpered.
"Why did you sleep with Paul even though he was your CO?" Alex asked.
"Because…I don't know, but that's completely different," Kara dismissed.
"No, it's not," Alex said. "Sometime we do things that don't make any sense. Things we know we shouldn't do but we do them anyway because we have to."
"But you should be taking it slow," Kara insisted. They'd talked a lot over the months they'd known each other and Kara knew that Alex's experience with men was limited. Between work, studying and the US military, Alex had managed to find a few men that thought that they could deal with her life, but eventually they'd all fallen away in the face of unreasonable requests and unanswered questions.
"I know I should, but I can't," Alex tried to explain.
"And what happens if you get hurt because things went to fast?"
"Do you really think that Evan would hurt me?" Alex asked her friend.
Kara sighed. "No, he wouldn't."
"I'm sorry," Alex said. "I know this isn't want you wanted-"
"But it's what you want," Kara cut it.
Alex grabbed hold of her friend's hands and squeezed them, trying to convey the fact that everything was okay, at least for the moment. "If it all goes wrong, I'll let you say I told you so," she said smiling.
"I don't really have a choice do I," Kara realised.
"Not really," Alex replied.
Kara sighed again and moved to hug her friends. "Fine, you can make it up to me by telling me all about last night."
"All about it," Alex giggled.
"You can leave out the sex," Kara told her. "I don't need to know about that,"
"Fine, He took me to somewhere over on the east side of the city…"
At 1600, Kara entered the training room they used for practising hand to hand combat. She wondered over to Sheppard who was leaning casually against the far wall, surveying the room.
"I just came from Lorne's office," she told him. "He's got piles of paperwork to do so he asked me to tell you that he won't be able to make it today."
Sheppard raised one eyebrow slightly before asking, "Think you can handle his marines today Captain?"
"I'll do my best, sir," she replied.
"Good, it can be a test run, see if you're any good at giving orders and getting people to follow them."
Kara bit her tongue trying not to reply to Sheppard's comment. In her head, it had just sounded dirty and she wanted to tell him that she was very good at getting people to follow orders, but stopped herself when she realised that things she may say to Lorne probably weren't suitable to say to Sheppard while in a room full of marines.
"Something to add, Captain?" Sheppard asked as he saw her struggle with something internally.
"No sir," she said, moving to the marines that Lorne normally worked with.
Sheppard watched her go with interest. He'd been watching her closely since he'd allowed her to transfer from the Apollo. As much as he hated to admit it, Lorne had been right. So far she'd been an asset to Lorne's team, and had kept all her comments inappropriate rather than insubordinate. Having said that, she was still puzzling him.
She'd been quite happy to forgo any sense of proprietary with Lorne earlier when he'd watched them talk outside the mess hall and three days ago in storage area B, but with him she still held back. He knew exactly what his comment would have sounded like to her, but she'd restrained herself from saying something she knew might get herself into trouble. He wondered how far he could push her before she would snap as he heard her call to her marines, "Alright boys, party time over."
Lorne was just finishing the last of his paperwork when the door to his office chimed. Groaning slightly, and wondering what the hell was wrong this time, he told the city to open the doors. He'd expected Zelenka or McKay telling him that they needed him to test some new device they'd found, or maybe one of the other civilians complaining about something or other that he would have to try his best to fix, or even Kara still looking pissed off, coming for the talk that he knew was inevitable.
What he did see was Alex leaning against the door frame, smiling at him.
"Hey," he said, smiling before he could catch himself.
"Hey," she replied, stepping in to his office and letting the doors close behind her. "So this is where you've been hiding."
"I've not been hiding," he told her. "I've been buried in paperwork all day."
"Nearly finished?" she asked him, walking over to his desk.
"Last form," he told her, holding up the folder he'd just finished with.
"Good," she said, running her fingers along the edge of his desk as she walked around to where he was sat.
"Not good," he told her. "I have training with Sheppard and the marines," he said trying to get up.
She pushed him back down. "No you don't. Kara's covering for you," she told him as she hopped up onto the desk so she was facing him.
"She is?" he asked, slightly stunned.
"Uh huh."
"So, she approves of this?" he asked, sliding closer to his desk and placing his hands on her thighs, his thumb rubbing small circles over the jeans that she was wearing.
"More understands than approves," Alex said, leaning down to capture his lips.
"Aren't you supposed to be somewhere?" he asked.
"I got the day off," she said. "And I was starting to get lonely in my room all by myself."
Evan moaned as her finger moved lightly over the skin of his neck, finally coming to rest on his shoulder, pulling him closer. "God," he said breathlessly. "I want this, but I'm not sure this is the right place to be doing it."
Alex groaned. "You're right," she agreed. "Why is it every time I get within five feet of you, all I want to do is have sex?"
"Could it be that I happen to be very good at having sex?" Evan asked, hands still on her thighs.
"That is a very cocky attitude Major," Alex admonished.
"I think I can give you proof to back it up," Evan whispered.
"I'm sure you can," Alex said. "But that wasn't why I came."
"Then why are you here?" Evan asked.
"I wanted to talk," she told him. "You know, get to know each other better."
"Isn't that what dating is for?"
"Yes, but I get the feeling that dating in the normal sense of the word is probably not really possible on Atlantis," Alex replied.
"I suppose you're right," Evan said. "So, what do you want to know?"
"I'm not sure. Anything you want to tell me."
"How about we talk about our families," Evan suggested, pulling Alex off his desk and onto his lap, holding her close to him.
"I think I could deal with that," Alex said.