Chapter Seven
After a good night's sleep, which hadn't been interrupted by thoughts of either John Sheppard, Elizabeth was able to enjoy a very productive day translating in the lab. For most of the day, John had actually come and sat with her, listening to her explanations about Ancient and the purpose of the texts she was translating without looking too bored. When Elizabeth had ventured into how he was feeling about the trip, they got no further than his annoyance at Rodney and complete and utter boredom which she had already inferred without him needing to tell her. If she could have sent him home, she would have done, for the sake of his sanity, but Rodney was already dragging his feet and saying it could take up to two weeks now. It was certainly dubious that it was going to take so long after he had created the device himself, but when she pointed this out he had began explaining using technical terms, and she soon made her excuses.
They'd had a brief meeting in the morning to check over their progress and findings and it all seemed like good news for Atlantis – she actually felt quite guilty that they were able to offer so little in return. Both Zelenka and Rodney were very keen on pushing forward with the wind power project, and Carson was hopeful that his joint research with the other Doctor Beckett could prevent the next generation of Wraith from needing to feed on humans, which was always a bonus.
After the meeting had ended though, she hadn't seen any of them again that day, and it was just her and John who sat down to eat the evening meal. At least people had got over the fact that there were two versions of them on Atlantis and weren't staring at them during every meal now.
'Just the woman I need.' Jonathan said, sitting down at their table and staring at her.
'What can I do for you?' She asked, coldly.
'I was hoping to put your second PhD to use. I've got a trade mission tomorrow and I could do with somebody to charm the food out of their fields.'
'And you thought of me?' Elizabeth asked, doubtfully.
'Yep. So, you going to come?' Jonathan asked.
'Wait a minute here,' John interrupted, 'Exactly how dangerous is this mission going to be?'
'They're farmers – the only thing they're interested in killing is livestock.' Jonathan replied.
'Trust me, you can't always judge these farming communities on appearance – we did that and both of us nearly got killed.' John said.
'John, I'm sure I'll be fine.' Elizabeth reassured.
Tearing his glare away from Jonathan, he looked at Elizabeth with concern for several seconds clearly worried about allowing her to go on a mission with a bunch of strangers.
'I'm coming with you.' He said.
'Wow, you're even more protective of her than I am of Lizzie.' Jonathan said, sounding amused.
Although, John looked as though he hadn't heard this or, more likely, was trying to ignore it, Elizabeth saw his jaw tighten as he gritted his teeth. Pretending she hadn't seen this, she turned to look back at Jonathan who was lazily swinging on his chair.
'I'll come on this mission and do your dirty work, on the condition that Colonel Sheppard is my personal bodyguard.' Elizabeth said boldly.
'Seriously, you aren't going to need him and don't you think it's going to strike them as a little weird that there'll be two of us?' Jonathan asked, sounding irritated.
'That's my offer.' Elizabeth said, sitting back.
Jonathan looked mildly irritated at her then said, 'Fine. We leave brief at 08:00 tomorrow.'
With a nod at each of them, Jonathan left and Elizabeth smiled to herself, enjoying her small victory.
'He does have a point though about us looking alike.' John said, absent-mindedly.
'I've already thought of that. You can be his twin brother; Kirk.'
