This is one long section. Don't know what I was thinking when I divided this story up into chapters. Oh well please enjoy and review.
XIX
Ronon was a man on a mission. As stealthily as he could, he slipped into the botanist's lab and greenhouse. He crouched behind some foliage, watching the scientists leave for lunch. Once they were gone, he crept over to a laptop and accessed the botany database. He scrolled through, looking for a harmless pretty flower. Finding something that would suit his needs, he moved off down the neat rows of plants to retrieve it.
X-X-X-X-X-X
Elizabeth was pulled from her dreams a mix of her door chiming and a pounding sound. With a groan she got out of bed and reached for her jacket to cover the near translucent tank top she fell asleep in only two hours before. And also to cover the fact that her nipples were hard points from her erotic dreams. She was sure she could still feel the ghost of kisses along her collarbone and knew the wetness between her thighs was very real.
She activated the door which opened to reveal to very agitated scientists. "I'm sorry Ma'am," said the taller of the two, "But we have a serious problem."
Elizabeth held back a sigh. "What has happened?"
"Well, um…" the other scientist stuttered, wringing his hands together, "A flower is missing from the greenhouse."
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows and the other scientist cut across his colleague to explain. "We were cultivating a small white flower from MX9-412 and when we returned from break, all of our samples had disappeared. We searched all over, thinking they were just moved but they are nowhere to be found."
"Is this plant harmful?"
"No. Its nature is entirely benign. We were merely studying it because of its remarkable ability to survive in extreme conditions."
"Very well," Elizabeth nodded, "If you will give me a moment, we will go down to the botany labs and see if we can't sort this out." She hurried back into her room, casting a longing glance at her bed. She was exhausted and wished for nothing more than to fall back into bed, erotic dreams be damned. Instead she rushed to throw on some clothing and make herself look presentable, all the while cursing scientists who cried over a few missing flowers.
The pair of scientists were still there when she stepped out of her room a few minutes later. "Anything I should know about this flower," she asked as she moved off down the hallway. Taking this as a cue to tell her everything they knew about the plant, they trailed behind her babbling. Elizabeth sighed to herself and tuned them out.
Turning a corner just before the labs, Elizabeth stopped short causing the two behind her to crash into her. Ronon was leaning casually outside the greenhouse doors watching the milling scientists, amused.
"Sorry," she murmured to the botanists, "I must be tired."
"That's all right Dr. Weir. If you could follow me, I'll show you where we were keeping the missing flowers."
She followed them into the greenhouse, thoughts distracted by Ronon's presence. She wondered how he knew of the incident, but looking around at the frantic scientists running about, she realized it was probably the commotion that drew him in. Elizabeth smiled at herself. He must have come to ensure there was no danger to the Atlantis personnel. She felt a surge of affection towards the big man. Glad that Ronon cared in such a way, she turned her attention back to the botanists.
Ronon stared at Elizabeth as she disappeared behind some large ferns, wondering what was going through her mind, right now he could not sense anything from her. He hoped she wasn't annoyed at being dragged down here; he didn't see why the scientists were making such a big deal over such an insignificant flower. Ronon grinned and turned away, he wondered what she would do when she found out the flowers were a gift to her.
X-X-X-X-X-X
Elizabeth finally made it to her office. By the time she had placated all the scientists, she had no time to return to bed. So she stopped in the cafeteria for coffee and worked her way towards the lifepulse of Atlantis, being held up by various personnel, all needing her permission, ideas, or signature. Lifting her mug to her mouth she stopped short halfway between the door and her desk.
"Oh fuck."
There, scattered across her desk were all of the missing flowers.
This had to be some kind of joke. All night she was up because of these flowers and here they had been the whole time, looking blaringly innocent spread across her stuff.
She turned around and stalked back over the catwalk to the control room. "Has anyone been here since 2200?" she addressed the room at large.
A voice called out from a back consol, "I have Ma'am."
"Has anyone been in my office since I left last night?" Her voice had a dangerous edge to it.
The night shift tech guy swallowed nervously and struggled to reply. "I…um…really didn't see anyone. Ma'am," he added quickly.
Elizabeth noticed how nervous the young guy was and softened her glare. "Thank you Mr…"
"Um, Howard Ma'am. Jack Howard."
"Thank you Mr. Howard." Finished with him, she directed her attention to her head tech, "If you could have the two head botanists, Miller and Brown report to my office immediately."
Back in her office Elizabeth crossed her arms and glared at the troublesome flower. If Sheppard hadn't been on the mainland she would have suspected him as the culprit of this prank. Now she was at a loss to explain how the flowers ended up where they did.
The relief was palpable on the botanist's faces when they saw the flowers. Katie Brown hurried to examine them as Miller asked, "This is where they were? How did they get here?"
"I don't know. Somebody must fancy themselves a prankster," Elizabeth said by way of explanation.
"I'd say," Miller said darkly as he moved to join his colleague examining the plant spread across their leader's desk.
"All the missing plants seem to be here and relatively unharmed," Brown reported, pushing her glasses up her nose, "If you could wait a moment more Dr. Weir, so that we can safely removed these back to the lab."
Elizabeth stood back and watched troops of scientists tramp through her office. Finally they were all gone, taking their flowers with them and Elizabeth was grateful to sit behind her desk again. Flicking on her laptop, she pulled up the elusive map symbols and began to study them once more.
X-X-X-X-X-X
"Yes!" Elizabeth exclaimed, excitement running through her.
"Happy to see me back safe and sound?"
Elizabeth looked up at John, a full smile on her face. "Oh no. I just cracked the code on those symbols from the map Ronon and I recovered."
"Really?" Sheppard's interest was piqued and he moved to look over her shoulder. "What does it say?"
"I don't know yet," she confessed, "I still have to translate it."
"Oh," John sounded disappointed, "But that's the easy part right?"
"Well…I should only take me a few days to translate."
John looked down at her. "Without sleep?" he inquired lightly.
"How else will I ever get anything done?" she replied in the same manner.
He scowled at the back of her head, "Well I for one feel much better after my jaunt to the mainland."
Elizabeth twisted her body to look him in the eye, "I am not going on another one of your vacations."
He laughed, "I don't think I want to take you on another vacation. Not if you run off and kick space pirate ass and make my team's adventures look petty." Catching the look on her face he decided to leave before he got his out ass kicked. "I'm glad you cracked the code, but please try and get some sleep while working on this thing. I need to go find Ronon. Bye." And he fled the room.
Grinning to herself at her success and John's antics, she went to return to her work when a voice hailed her on her headset.
"Dr. Weir?"
"Go ahead," she said, tapping it.
"We have a situation down in Dr. McKay's lab."
Rolling her eyes she replied, "I'll be right there."
X-X-X-X-X-X-X
When she arrived, John and Ronon were already there standing with Rodney around the smoking ruins of something.
"I double checked everything. The reverse energy was supposed to flow through the second power conduit but it jumped somehow to the positive end and exploded," Rodney was saying, string at the charred lump on his work table.
"What happened here?" Weir asked as she stepped in the ruined room. All three men turned and looked at her. She narrowed her eyes at them suspiciously.
"Rodney blew something up," John turned to the Canadian, "Rodney, tell the good doctor what you just blew up."
"I wasn't trying to blow up anything," McKay said agitatedly, "I was researching ways to replenish the power supply of a ZPM."
"Don't tell me you blew up our ZPM," Elizabeth said alarmed.
"No! Of course not," Rodney replied, "I blew up the generator that was going to transfer the power to the ZPM. You see…" he began explained his experiment in scientific jargon that was hard to follow.
Elizabeth held up a hand to stop the outflow of information. "I get the idea Rodney. Just don't do it again. We don't have any generators to waste." She once again looked around the trashed lab, "Please be more careful next time." She turned to leave, hearing McKay ordering scientists and soldiers about, determined to get back to his work as soon as possible.
Once she was out of ear shot, Rodney turned to his friends, "Is it me, or has Elizabeth seemed off lately?"
"Besides being exhausted?" John asked.
"Yeah. I noticed that too. But there seems to be something else bothering her."
John stared thoughtfully at the spot where Elizabeth had been standing moments before, "I don't know Rodney, but I noticed it too."
Ronon did know, but he said nothing. The growing effects of the bond were affecting both of them. He had to do something before it became a bigger problem. He dreaded telling her, but she would never forgive him if he let this thing between them run rampant and drive them both mad.
X-X-X-X-X-X
It had been a week and still Ronon hadn't worked up the courage to talk to the Lantian leader. The erotic visions followed them out of their dreams and became daytime fantasies that drove both to distraction. To keep her mind off of them, Elizabeth threw herself into her work even more vigorously than before, denying herself food and sleep. This was wearing on Ronon, who finally took to hanging around the gate room, watching her subtly and when desperate to calm the hunger pains he felt coming from her, would show up in her door with food.
Now he was sitting at a table with the rest of his team, half listening to John explain some earth custom to Teyla with Rodney chiming in. He jerked up suddenly at the burst of excitement that raced through his gut. Elizabeth. The feeling had never been this strong before. Either she was really excited or the bond had strengthened significantly overnight. He bolted from the table, his teammates starring after him, confused.
"Was it something I said?" John asked.
"Perhaps some of the food did not agree with him," Teyla offered delicately.
"Tastes fine to me," McKay said around a mouthful.
Ronon sprinted down the halls of the floating city, ignoring the looks Atlantis personnel were giving him. He slowed his steps as he reached the gate room, not wanting to alarm. Still he hurried up the main staircase, craning his neck to see her in her office. It was empty.
Taking a guess, Dex turned to his left, stepping out on the balcony there. Elizabeth was there, forearms braced against the rail, face uplifted to the sun.
Quietly Ronon crept over and leaned back against the rail, starring at her profile.
Feeling a tingling sensation on the back of her neck, Elizabeth opened her eyes and turned her head only to startle backwards upon finding Ronon's face so close to her own.
His arm shot out and grabbed her upper arm to prevent her from falling on her ass. However the movement inadvertently brought them closer together.
Ronon dropped her arm like he had been burned and stepped back, blinded by the impulse to kiss her.
Elizabeth leaned against the rail, trying to calm her pounding heart. Keeping her eyes on the still ocean before her, she said, "I translated the map."
Ronon felt the excitement return, hers mixing with his own. "Oh," he said, bracing his back against the rail and crossing his arms.
"Don't you want to know what it says?" she looked at him, but he kept his gaze trained on the tower rising above them.
"Okay," he shrugged, wondering how he was supposed to talk to her.
"Apparently the map is a section of terrain on a planet. The symbols bordering the map are star coordinates. I've plugged the coordinates into the computer and located the planet." Elizabeth's voice rose with excitement. "The only problem is, I have no idea where on the planet the map corresponds to. I'm calling a meeting with your team tomorrow at 0700 to discuss this break through." She pushed off the rail and moved towards the door back to the control room.
"Wait."
She stopped and turned back to face him.
"I…uh…" Ronon stood there unable to begin.
The on Elizabeth's changed from confusion to concern and she took a few steps back towards him. "is everything alright?" she asked.
Ronon stared at her, wondering how the hell he was to convey all that he was feeling to her. instead of trying to speak again he grabbed her shoulders and pressed his lips to hers.
He tried to put everything he was trying to say into that kiss. He felt Elizabeth's resistance fade quickly as she responded with growing intensity. He slid his tongue over her bottom lip and she opened her mouth to grant him access. As he pushed his tongue into her mouth, she pressed herself into his large, strong body, her breasts soft against the hard plane of his chest.
Finally breathing became an issue and Ronon pulled away, both of them gasping from the shared intensity. He looked down at her, wanting to kiss her again but she stiffened and moved away as he tried to pull her close again, realizing where they were and what they were doing.
"I'm sorry. That was inappropriate of me. I…"Elizabeth stammered, flustered.
Any other time it would have amused Dex to see her in this state, but this was serious. "Dr. Weir," he said, placing his hands on her shoulders and staring down into her eyes, "Elizabeth. We need to talk, there are… some things I must explain."
Elizabeth looked up at him, torn between the impulse to run away or move closer. Ronon noticed the trapped look in face and moved, dropping his hands to his sides passively.
Elizabeth blew out a deep breath and tried to think rationally. "Alright. Meet me on the seventh level balcony in the south tower at 2200." A private spot, but not far from the constant bustle of activity.
Ronon nodded in agreement.
She offered him a small smile and quickly made her escape.
Ronon wandered down the halls lost in thought, slowly making him way back to the cafeteria where he had abruptly left his friends. They were still there when he got there, talking to one another in hushed tones which stopped when he sat down next to Rodney.
"Wanna tell us what that was about?" Sheppard asked him.
"Dr. Weir translated the map," he grunted to his cold, half eaten plate of food.
Rodney jumped to his feet, "What?! Why didn't she call me immediately? She could be missing something important!" Now it was Rodney's turn to rush off.
"What does it say?" John asked, excited.
Ronon looked up at John and Teyla, "Coordinates to the planet where the ZPM is located. She said the computer found the planet."
"And…" Sheppard prompted.
"That's it," Ronon shrugged.
"That's cool. But why did you rush off?"
Telya gave him a knowing look, but did not speak.
"Uhhh. Bathroom."
"And you met Dr. Weir in the bathroom?"
Ronon gave him a look and stood. "This questioning is ridiculous. Dr. Weir wants to meet with us at 0700 tomorrow morning." He walked off.
John stood as well. "Well come on," he said to Teyla, "Let's go see what everyone is rushing around for."
I'm sleepy and have to get up early tomorrow to run. Thanks for reading.