A/N: This is the last chapter. Thank you to everyone who read this story, special thank you to those that took the time to review - my favorite thing to find in my email.

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Stargate Atlantis or it's wonderful characters.

5 – Purposefully

A few hours later Laura opened Jennifer's door, despite the doctor's protests that it was in fact her room and therefore her door to answer.

"Good Evening, Major Lorne," Cadman greeted, her eyes alight with mischief.

"Cadman," Evan responded tentatively, a little unsettled at Laura's exuberant greeting.

"Don't you look nice tonight," the Lieutenant teased as she took in the sexy man dressed in worn jeans and a dark blue t-shirt. "Did you just get back," she asked, taking in his still damp looking hair.

"Little while ago… yeah," he acknowledged, still standing in the hall, wondering if he should come back some other time.

His thoughts must've shown because the red head in front of him stepped back and waved him in the room. "So are you here to pick Jenn up for a date?"

"Laura!" Jennifer growled at the girl, embarrassed by her words.

"Just teasing, calm down. The Major's fresh from a shower and looking nice. Just reminds me of a guy all ready for a date." Laura gave Evan a wink, letting him know she was just trying to get a rise out of her friend.

"I wasn't joking the other day," Jennifer warned her teasing friend. "I think I even have the wording picked out. SWF seeks new BFF. Non-military a must. No control freaks need apply. Must like the movie The Notebook." Jennifer finished her rant giving Cadman a small smile and a slight nod toward the door.

"Alright, alright," Cadman huffed as she made her way to the door, with Jennifer following to make sure she left. "All you had to say is that you wanted to be alone. I'd have taken the hint," Laura finished, swiping the door open before turning and sticking her tongue out at Jennifer's appalled face. Cadman gave a parting wink to Evan who stood behind Jenn with a slightly amused look upon his face.

Jennifer couldn't help herself, she stuck her own tongue out at Cadman, glad the Major couldn't see her childish behavior before she swiped the door shut on Cadman's goofy grin.

Jenn stood with her back to Evan for another minute attempting to gather her thoughts as well as her nerve to turn around. Finally, with an exhale of her breath, she turned around and faced her guest. "She's a bit of a handful," Jenn commented lamely, crossing her arms in front of her to keep from fidgeting.

"Yeah, she is," he said with a grin that slowly turned into a laugh, "but a good friend, always fun and very loyal."

"What you really mean is always getting into mischief and sticking her nose in where it doesn't belong," Jennifer griped.

Lorne smiled back at Jenn's assessment, it was quite entertaining to watch the two of them interact… but he wasn't going to tell her that now. Lorne shuffled from one foot to the other a couple of times looking for the right words to start the conversation he'd come here to have.

He'd been gone for only thirty-six hours and yet it'd felt much longer. Evan had been dreading his return and this very conversation, yet he'd also felt the restlessness and eagerness to see her again. He needed to salvage what they had and put everything right. Then he needed to get the hell out of her room before he did anything else stupid which could potentially make things even worse.

"So… um," Lorne began, making an effort to look Jennifer in the eye. "I was completely out of line the other night."

"Its fine, Ev," she interrupted, finding the apology awkward to receive and a bit depressing at the same time. Jenn had thought she just wanted to get this over with and get back to the way things were, but now she was pretty sure that wasn't true either.

"No, it's not alright, Doc," Lorne shook his head. "I had no right to do that to you. I'm not even sure why I did." Evan knew that wasn't completely true. He'd kissed her because he'd wanted to. She'd been making light of his kiss and suddenly he'd wanted her to take notice of him. To not be able to forget him so easily, or to put him… them, back into the nice and neat friendship role they'd had previously.

"Okay then," Jennifer agreed, "thank you for the apology." Her emotions were beginning to overwhelm her. "I'm none the worse for wear, Evan. Really, we're good." She was holding it together for the moment, but Jennifer was worried she wouldn't be able to do so much longer if he kept trying to say he was sorry. She'd told Laura she'd be okay with everything going back to the way it'd been but now she realized it was going to be much harder than she thought.

Lorne wasn't sure what to say anymore. He'd said his piece and Jenn seemed to have accepted it. It's what he'd been hoping for, so it was probably time to go. No sense in giving himself time to screw it up again. "Well then, we'll see you in the morning," he said taking a couple steps toward her and the door.

Jennifer felt anxiety start to creep over her as she realized he was leaving. She took a step to the side to clear the path to the door for Evan. "I'm back to my normal day shifts for a while so… yes, I'll be at breakfast."

Evan now stood next to Jennifer and just inside her door, but he couldn't help his hesitation to leave. He didn't feel their conversation had cleared anything up. He was startled from his thoughts by her hand on his arm. He contemplated her delicate fingers before looking up to her worried eyes.

"Just one thing… before you leave," Jenn started. Her anxiety had grown the closer Evan had gotten to her door. "I just…," Jennifer took a deep breath, "before you go, I, uh…," before any rational thoughts could invade her mind, Jennifer leaned in and placed her lips against Evans.

Lorne paused for a second as his heart jumped. The pressure on his arm had increased as she used it for balance. Lorne kept his body completely still, surrendering to whatever was happening, while his lips moved slowly with hers. It wasn't an urgent or passionate kiss - in fact it felt almost like a question. Evan felt her begin to pull back, her hand leaving his arm. He countered her movements, leaning into her, not yet ready for the moment to end or fade.

The Major desperately wanted to deepen the kiss, but held himself in check, slowly easing away as the kiss ended. There were a few things that needed to be clarified before he'd feel right expressing himself quiet so freely.

Evan cleared his throat, noticing that Jennifer's eyes were glued to the ground. "Jenn?" he whispered.

"Sorry, Ev," Jennifer replied, her voice a bit unsteady, "I was just kind of… checking."

"Checking what?" He asked quietly, lifting her chin with his hand. He didn't want to miss any of her words.

"I don't know. It's just… a week ago I didn't know what… I mean how…" Jennifer trailed off with a light growl of frustration.

Evan felt his chest tightening as he watched the emotions racing across Jennifer's face. When he noticed the pink tinge begin to flush her face in embarrassment, he allowed a slow smile to take hold of his own expression.

"What're you smiling about?" she asked cautiously, watching his face transform as his smile grew broader. She pulled her face away from his hand, forcing him to drop his arm to his side. He had the cutest dimples when he grinned and she almost found it frustrating to see them make an appearance.

"What do you want?" Lorne asked, his eyes watching hers. There was no reason to second guess or play twenty questions. Looking down at her, standing this close to her… he just needed to know what she wanted. He watched her shyly smile while her eyes took on a look of determination.

"I want you to quit apologizing for kissing me," Jenn declared calmly. When his smile didn't falter she continued, "It's hard on a girl's ego."

"Like telling a man his kiss is forgettable - isn't?" Evan asked, feeling his heart lighten as he saw a smirk starting to form on her face.

"I was told it wasn't a kiss," she reminded him with raised eyebrows, "just because you were obsessing about it…"

Evan took a step toward Jenn, cutting off her retort and backing her up a step. "I was late and needed to get a move on for my mission," he said by way of excuse. "It may have consumed my thoughts Doc, but not to the point of avoidance."

"There you go, obsessing some more, I was working, not avoiding a non-kiss accident," Jennifer couldn't help the smile on her face, but she didn't really see the need to hide it either.

"That second kiss was definitely not an accident," he reminded her as he took another step toward her.

Jennifer took another step back and found her back hitting the wall near her door. She watched the laughter dance in his eyes at her halted movement and she felt like sticking her tongue out at him like she had Laura earlier. "And yet you ran away just when it was getting good," she pointed out with a bigger grin at the look of offense upon his face.

Evan took another step forward putting him mere inches from her and wanted to gloat at her audible intake of breath. "There'll be no running away this time, no avoiding this issue and no matter what the answer… no apologies." Lorne held her gaze and lowered his voice, "What do you want?"

Jennifer felt the shiver run all the way down her spine and by the grin on his face, she knew he'd seen it too. She tried to take a deep breath, but just couldn't manage it with him so close. "I want you to shut up and kiss me," she declared.

Evan leaned in swiftly and left a quick peck upon her lips before straightening.

Jennifer growled, "That is not a kiss," she said in frustration.

Evan placed his hands on the wall behind her, one on each side, effectively blocking her in as he leaned in and whispered near her ear, "Exactly." He pulled back just far enough to find her lips and with both arms he pulled her close as he kissed her passionately, making sure that she wouldn't be forgetting his kisses ever.