Chapter Five

At five o'clock in the morning, Elizabeth finally gave in and took a shower and redressed herself. Since crawling into bed, she had been unable to stop thinking about John and what had passed between them. If anything had passed between them. John had certainly been eager to get away from her. She couldn't blame him; she'd almost kissed him. And he knew it. It was just that...well...she thought it was what he wanted too. The way he had looked at her...and yet he was the one that ended the moment.

And now she had the rest of the day to look forward to on her own. There was no way that she was going to spend the day with John again – it would be much too uncomfortable, especially if he thought she was throwing herself at him last night. Yesterday had been bad enough with the knowledge that they were shacked up in a parallel universe.

Fed up of the same four walls, she headed towards the mess hall to grab a coffee. It was something to do at least; she hadn't even thought of packing a book or anything. Maybe if she bumped into Lizzie again she could borrow something off her. In the dimmed lighting, she could make out the back of a figure. That hair. Hearing her enter he turned round to look at her and smiled.

'I thought you'd still be in bed.' She said, dumbly.

'Turns out pregnant Lizzie likes her room in bed.' He shrugged.

'Jonathan.' She said with realisation.

'You thought I was him.' He grinned.

She went over to get herself a coffee, and with little choice – unless she wanted to demonstrate unbelievable rudeness – she sat down across from Jonathan, who was studying her face with interest.

'You have more wrinkles than Lizzie.' He said.

She raised her eyebrows at him, 'In our world, John Sheppard is renowned for his charm with the ladies, it seems you aren't completely identical.'

'So how come he hasn't charmed you?' Jonathan asked, undeterred.

'Why don't you ask him?' Elizabeth challenged him.

'I know him; he wouldn't tell me if I did. And I didn't mean to be rude by the way. I was just pointing out that you aren't completely identical.' He smirked.

Elizabeth was struck by the raw sexuality of that smirk and chose to divert her eyes to the contents of her coffee mug.

'I make you uncomfortable, don't I?' He asked.

'No.' She replied, squarely.

'So how come you weren't talking to each other yesterday?' He asked.

'How should I put this? When two adults know each other well, and are comfortable with each other, they don't have to talk to each other all of the time.' She said condescendingly.

'Do you fancy him?' John said, ignoring her comment.

'No. And, if I did, I don't see what business it is of yours.' She said, without a flicker.

'Just looking out for myself.' He said, with another smirk.

In many ways, it was just like having a conversation with her own John – the sarcasm in place of talking about real emotions, the focus of the conversation on her rather than him, but beneath the apparent similarities Elizabeth detected a difference. This John was selfish. He enjoyed playing games with people and watching them squirm. But he wasn't going to succeed with her.

'I'm surprised you don't want to know more about mine and Lizzie's relationship.' He commented.

'Why would I? It's your relationship.'

'But we're the same people.'

'Actually, I think you'll find my John is a rank above you. In more than one sense.' She said.

The more she tried to deter him from questioning her, the more he seemed to relish it, and hearing her last comment brought a look of satisfaction to his face that she suspected would lead him into more questioning.

'And you have an extra PhD than my Lizzie; does that mean you're a rank above?'

'I'm a civilian. I leave the ranking to the military.' She said cooly.

They sat staring at each other, battling to see who would break eye contact first. She never imagined that she could take so obstinately against any version of John Sheppard, but this one took being obnoxious to a new level. The moment was broken as Jonathan's radio cracked, and he pulled his eyes away from hers as he reached to reply. He stood up and left without saying a word to her and when his footsteps could no longer be heard, Elizabeth let out a sigh of relief that she hadn't even realised she'd been holding in.