Insanity in Pegasus
by Bil!

Part 3 of 3

A/N: A huge thanks for all the encouraging reviews! I've had lots of fun writing this story and I'm glad people have enjoyed it.

Chapter Three – Happily, It Ends

Eventually Elizabeth managed to fall asleep, despite the thoughts going fruitlessly round and round in her head, but she woke to dim lights and a stillness that told her it was still deep nighttime. When she rolled onto her side, though, she found John watching her.

She didn't jump because she was still dozy and it seemed perfectly natural that he should be there, gazing at her with warm affection in his eyes and sitting in the chair beside her bed as if in mirror of the nights she'd spent at his bedside after one of his too-frequent injuries. The dim light softened the worshipping look that the statue had given him so that she could almost believe it was really John looking at her like that.

"You're supposed to be sleeping," she told him around a yawn.

"I know." He brushed a tangle of curls from her face, his fingers lingering against her skin. "But when I sleep you're not there." She reach up and took his hand in hers, rubbing her thumb across the back of his fingers in mute comfort. "I was dreaming and I couldn't find you. I was scared."

The John she knew would never have admitted to something like that. The John she knew would never have looked at her with such remembered fear. But even though he wasn't the John she knew, he was still John. And it was two in the morning and she needed to sleep.

Elizabeth shuffled over as far as she could on the bed. "Come here."

He hesitated, then got on to the bed as well, lying on top of the sheets and facing her, watching her with wide, wondering eyes. The bed wasn't really designed for two people, even lying on their sides, and she could smell the faint bracken-musk scent of him, the Pegasus Galaxy's alar leaf-based shampoo in his unruly hair, and feel the warm presence of him.

She smiled at him sleepily. "Now go to sleep, John. I won't go anywhere. I promise."

Shuffling a little closer to her, he slipped his arm over her waist, a gentle, unrestricting weight on her side. "Thank you, Elizabeth," he said softly.

She rested her head more fully against the pillow, letting her forehead touch his. "Just sleep, John."

Carson's startled exclamation half-woke her early in the morning, but John was already getting up, dealing with the noise, and Elizabeth was tired so she went back to sleep, snuggling into the warm spot John had left behind.

When she woke again, it was to find John once again sitting in the chair by her bed, greeting her with a welcoming smile and a cup of coffee.

"Bless you, John," she said, sitting up and accepting the cup. She felt unusually groggy for first thing in the morning and the coffee was a very welcome sight. "I don't usually sleep that heavily."

Memories began to creep back as she drank. Had he—? Had she really... Carson!

Sighing, she took another sip of coffee. There wasn't exactly much she could do about it now. "Did you manage to get some sleep?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yes. Thanks to you."

The look in his eyes was unfortunately still besotted, but she pretended it wasn't and smiled. "Well, I did always think that Sedge only put up with me because I make a great teddy bear."

He smiled back. "The best."

As her thoughts began edging into dangerous territory – like how nice it would be to wake up to that smile every morning – she downed the last of her coffee and hastily turned her mind to more important things. Like getting John back to normal. "Did I hear Carson earlier?"

"Yup."

"Has he got anything new?"

John just shrugged, which she should have expected, since he didn't pay attention to anything unless it had something to do with her.

Carson chose that moment to come back into the room and one look at him told her he had definitely seen John asleep on her bed. "He wasn't getting any sleep," she said defensively.

"I'm not judging you, love," Carson said hastily, holding up his hands in surrender.

She sighed. "Sorry. Have you anything...?"

"Not yet," he admitted. "But I think we're close to something now. Rodney's discovered that—"

Elizabeth held up a hand. "I've only had one cup of coffee, Carson. Please, none of Rodney's explanations until I'm actually awake."

Carson smiled. "Suffice to say, we're making progress. Don't worry, Elizabeth, we'll soon have the Major back to his old self again."

With John's eyes on her she managed to squash the urge to shout "Hooray!" on the grounds it might throw him into a depression. But she thought it. "Let me know—"

"Believe me, Elizabeth, the moment we have anything you'll know about it."

"Good." She pushed back the covers and swung her legs over the side of the bed, running her hands through her hair and ruefully reflecting that she must look a complete mess. Looking down at her hospital scrubs, she said, "Carson, could we get ready for the day in our own rooms?"

"I'd really prefer to keep him under observation."

"Half an hour, Carson. You know how John hates being stuck in here."

Carson chuckled. "Elizabeth, love, right now I don't think he cares where he is so long as you're here."

She glanced at John, who was leaning his elbow on the bed and watching her with a smile, and blushed despite herself at the truth of that statement. Pulling a face, she said, "Fine, Carson. I need to get out of here before I go crazy. Happy now?" She tried her best puppy-dog-John impression. "Please?"

He shot her a look half rueful, half amused. "All right, then, go. Before you start imitating more than just his expressions. I don't want half my Infirmary destroyed."

Elizabeth gave him a grateful look and snatched up yesterday's uniform. "Thank you."

They went to John's quarters first and Elizabeth snooped around his room while he showered and dressed. Not that she hadn't already seen everything in his quarters, but she'd never been in here alone before. Unfortunately there wasn't anything there that explained why some crazy statue had made him fixate on her, just the same belongings there had always been, his few treasures brought from Earth and a few more items picked up on missions.

Then he waited in her room while she performed her own morning ablutions. She went back into the bedroom brushing out her damp hair and John pushed himself off the wall he'd been lounging against and beamed at her. "I like your picture," he said.

Elizabeth glanced over at the picture beside her bed though she didn't need to look at it to know what it was. "Radek gave it to me a few weeks ago," she said.

It was a photo, in which Rodney, Teyla, and Aidan were very seriously contemplating their hands in a game of Go Fish (of all crazy things to play). Rodney was on one side of the table by himself because he couldn't be trusted not to accidentally cheat if things went against him, and Aidan and Teyla sat opposite. At the head of the table, opposite the photographer, John and Elizabeth stood, watching on with great amusement, John leaning on her shoulder as he whispered a comment to her that had her laughing. She loved the photo as a reminder of the wonderful family she'd found out here in the wilds of Pegasus, she just hadn't realised until this moment how... together she and John looked in it.

Resolutely pushing away the thought she tossed her hairbrush onto her bed and held out her hand to John, saying, "Come on, Carson's waiting for us."

John took her hand, his fingers closing around hers, and cheerfully let her lead him away. Okay, yes, she would miss this obedience when everything was over. Still, she hoped Carson was right and everything would be back to normal soon. Even take-the-law-into-his-own-hands John would be a relief after the disturbing effect this besotted version of John had had on her emotions.

"Sheppard or Weir?" he asked suddenly as they turned the corridor corner.

"What?" She had been concentrating on trying to eliminate certain thoughts and wasn't sure she'd heard him correctly.

"If we were married would you be Elizabeth Sheppard or Elizabeth Weir?"

She really hoped that Amanda had given them a funny look as she passed because they were holding hands and not because she'd overheard the question. "John..."

"I'm just curious," he said innocently, with the puppy-dog look that was probably outlawed on half the planets in the galaxy.

She sighed, pulled a face at him, and considered the question. It was still quite normal for a woman to take her husband's name when she married, and Elizabeth had always vaguely assumed she would if it ever happened, but... She'd been Elizabeth Weir her entire life. Did she want to change that? And was it stupid to feel pleased that John hadn't made any assumptions, that even in his gooey-eyed state he was willing to ask for her opinion?

"I think," she said finally as they approached the infirmary, "Weir for professional use and Sheppard – I mean my husband's name – for private life."

Had his grin always been knee-melting or was gooey-eyedness contagious?

Carson's 'we're close' apparently could be translated 'we need to do a lot more tests'. John protested but a simple appeal from Elizabeth managed to quieten him every time. Yes, there were definitely some things she would miss when he was himself again.

But come late afternoon she was standing beside John in Rodney's lab while Rodney and Radek spoke over each other in an attempt to explain their triumph and Carson just smiled. In the end, though, Elizabeth didn't need to understand. She just needed it to work.

"It's weird, really," Rodney said thoughtfully as John reached out at her prompting to touch the statue. "You'd think with all the documentation they had with this thing they'd include some information on how to turn it off."

"Maybe it is so obvious to them they had no need to say," Radek offered with a shrug. "It is quite simple once it is understood."

"Simple is good," Elizabeth said hopefully.

"Simple?" Carson scoffed. "Changing a man's brain chemistry in verra specific ways and then changing it back to exactly how it was prior to the interference? That's not simple."

Catching Elizabeth's worried expression, Radek said hastily, "To us, no, but the Ancients knew what they were doing. It is only a matter of reversing the initial process."

"You're sure this won't harm him?"

"He won't feel a thing," Rodney said confidently and hit a switch.

John blinked. Then he slowly pulled his hand away from the statue and looked around at the people watching him curiously.

"Well?" Rodney asked impatiently.

"How are you feeling, Major?" Carson asked.

"Fine. Why?" His eyes came to Elizabeth. They widened. "Oh. I know why."

"You said there wasn't anyone!" Rodney said quickly, eager to absolve himself of all blame.

"There... wasn't," he said uncertainly, still staring at Elizabeth. But now without besottedness, just confusion. She looked away. "So I guess that thing really was a matchmaking device, then?"

"It certainly looks that way," Rodney agreed, cheerful now that no one seemed about to heap blame on him.

"Why would they make something that would do that?" John asked, his voice very carefully normal.

"How should I know! Maybe the last person to use it was getting really annoyed that their boss wouldn't act on his feelings for his best friend and wanted to give him a kick in the pants."

"So help me, McKay," John turned on him, "if I find out you set this up..."

"Me?" Rodney protested in outraged innocence. "I didn't do anything!"

Elizabeth decided it was time to intervene. "John." And had he always dismissed the rest of the world to focus all his attention on her and she'd just never noticed before? She smiled faintly at him. "Come on, John, I think we need to talk."

Rodney attempted to exchange sympathetic grimaces with him but John didn't grimace back, he just nodded a farewell to the other three and smiled at Elizabeth. "Okay."

Automatically she reached for his hand as they left the room, before his amused look made her realise what she'd done. "Oh, I'm sorry!" She tried to drop his hand but he didn't let go. "John!"

"Hey, you started it," he reminded her.

"You started it," she shot back. "I was acting in self defence!"

He did let go then, and she fought down the urge to grab his hand back. "Was it really so bad?" he asked quietly.

She looked away. "No."

For a moment neither of them spoke. "It must be dinner time," John said finally. "Let's grab something to eat."

"Okay," she said, snatching at the excuse to put off talking for all that it had been her idea. That one little statue had put up unexpected barriers, made awkwardness where once there had been only easy friendship.

They said nothing as they walked to the messhall or as they each collected a plate of food. Elizabeth headed for a table, but John steered her towards one of the balconies that the messhall opened onto. "I think we might want a little privacy for this," he said softly as she looked at him in surprise.

She looked down at her plate, completely unsure.

"It was weird, you know?" he said thoughtfully as they sat down side by side, the red light of a Lantean sunset washing over them. "I was in control the whole time but I knew that it wasn't how I normally acted. I just couldn't quite make the connection to caring that it wasn't how I normally acted. Let alone change what I was doing." He paused. Elizabeth didn't look at him. "I really appreciate what you did for me," he added. "It can't have been easy."

She reached across the distance between them to put her hand on his. "I wouldn't have done it for anyone else, but..." She met his eyes. "John, I couldn't turn away from you. Ever." He smiled, real gratitude in his eyes, and it made every single annoyance and exasperation of the last couple of days completely worth it.

"I still can't get over how..."

"Obsessed?"

He pulled a face at her. "Thanks. How focussed I was. I mean, I understood intellectually that's what that thing was supposed to do, but actually experiencing it was something else entirely. If the Wraith had attacked the city I wouldn't have cared. Hell, I probably wouldn't even have noticed. But if you'd said 'John, I need your help', I'd've swum laps around Atlantis just to earn the right to help."

Elizabeth blinked. And then had to blink again at the sudden tears that arose at his sincerity. "You had it bad," she managed to tease.

"Have," he corrected gently. So gently that it took a moment for his meaning to sink in. "I might be able to concentrate on more than just you now, but..." The worshipful look was gone from his eyes now, but it had been replaced by a tender warmth that was far, far deeper. And far scarier. She held her breath. "Look, Elizabeth, everything I did, everything I said – it was me. It might've been a spaced-out, completely-off-my-head version of me, but it was still me. I just never realised it till I touched that thing." She stared at him and he shrugged, slightly shame-faced but not retracting his words. "I just thought you should know."

Elizabeth knew she had to match this confession with one of her own, but since John had touched that statue all her words seemed to be lost to her. "I learnt something today, John," she said finally.

"That bad taste really is bad for you?"

She smiled. "No. I—John, if I'd been the one to touch that statue the only thing that would have changed would have been that I'd be the one undergoing the tests. I wouldn't have let you out of my sight for an instant." Her smile widened. "And if we'd both touched it..."

"We'd've been gazing soulfully into each other's eyes?" he teased.

"Not," she said deliberately, "for very long."

He reached out with a hand that shook slightly and ran his finger gently along the curve of her cheek. She leant into the touch, staring into his eyes. This was John, her John. And he was still...

Laughter from inside the messhall made them jump apart.

"So..." John said uncomfortably.

"So," she agreed. What did you do after you'd just confessed mutual... something with your second in command? Embarrassed silence lingered for a moment, then she shot a sideways look at John just as he shot one at her. Their eyes met, held. And they both smiled softly, content. Whatever crazy situation they'd gotten themselves into now it was fine, they'd sort it out; they always did.

The silence continued, but now it was a comfortable silence. They watched the sun sinking down into the sea and ate their dinner.

"I'm glad I touched that thing," John said suddenly.

She gave him a sidelong smile. "Me too."

"Good." He grinned at her for a moment, just looking at her. Elizabeth tried not to blush, which was something she'd had far too much practice at lately. "Hey, do you know why I was the one to have to do it? Rodney said he couldn't, something about a Sam Carter? Which personally I think was just an excuse, because the idea of Rodney focussing on one person...? Nah. But Radek wouldn't either and he wouldn't say why."

She turned to look at him. "You think he has a crush on someone."

"Yup. Wanna help me figure out who it is?" he asked gleefully.

"Why, so you can tease him mercilessly?"

"Of course!"

She laughed. "I don't know, John..."

"Oh, go on. You know you want to."

Shaking her head, she stood up and brushed the crumbs from her pants. "We'll see, John."

He followed her into the messhall. "I seem to remember you promising that about something else, too."

She paused, turning back to him. "Oh?" Was he really going to ask her on a date? Even though the effects of the statue had worn off? Twenty four hours ago she wouldn't have believed it and now it seemed natural. She met his eyes, smiling. One little statue, two days of craziness... and everything had changed.

He grinned back. "Yeah. So, Elizabeth, I had a question for you."

She was distantly aware that there were tables full of people around them who could hear every word they were saying, but didn't really care. "Yes?"

"Elizabeth Weir, will you marry me?"

She laughed. "Yes, John, but you've still got it backwards."

"Really?" he asked, his eyes laughing, as he took her plate from her hands and put it down with his on a nearby table without regard for the occupants. He took a step toward her. "You mean that dinner we just had didn't count as a date?"

"I don't think it's a date if no one's called it one." He took another step toward her. "Besides which," she pointed out, trying not to laugh, "it usually takes several dates before the question of marriage comes up."

"You sure?" He took another step and now they were toe to toe.

"Yes. But what I actually meant was that you would usually have kissed me at least once."

John grinned. "Well, that we can fix."

In retrospect, Elizabeth decided that she liked that her life was insane.

Fin