LAST OF THE POPCORN
Knock, knock. (Part 1/1)
She'd had a reason for coming to his quarters. Had, of course, being the operative word. She could not, for life of her recall what that reason was.
The fault was entirely hers. The movements she'd taken were too ingrained, too second nature.
Down the hall, left at the corner, just a bit further then, knock, wave a hand over the panel, enter and greet John, who would be smiling up from his laptop or a book or magazine.
Not this time.
This time she had forgotten a step, a vital step. Had she knocked? Had she waited for a response from within the room? She didn't remember. How could she? She tried to console herself with the thought that the door would have been locked had he not been there or if he'd been… otherwise indisposed.
She had never, in a thousand years, imagined walking into the scene she found herself in now.
John Sheppard, her friend, her team leader was frozen in a doorway on the other side of his room, dripping water with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.
She knew she should have looked away; it would have been the proper thing to do. She should have muttered an apology and backed out of the room. She should have had the will to do those things, but she couldn't. And she didn't.
She felt the coolness of the air, and caught the smell coming from his bathroom; it was entirely him. It left her in a fog. Her eyes closed softly as she sucked in a breath. She never even thought about turning around and coming back later. She just stood there, mimicking John's stance.
Her eyes started to roam across his body, and she knew he was watching her take him in.
His hair was plastered to his head, tamed by the water, she found it strangely endearing. Light glanced off his wet skin as his muscles tensed and relaxed as he made to move, then changed his mind. Her eyes drifted across his hair covered chest, and followed a path laid out in soft brown hair down his body.
She felt a smile playing at her lips, and she tried her hardest to keep it from her face. The shock and excitement and wonder of the sight before her made it next to impossible.
"Uh…" it's the first sound he made since she walked into his room. "Hey." He smiles awkwardly at her.
Reality rushed back to her then. It was as if she was just realizing where she was. She blushed and looked down. She didn't have to fight the urge to smile any more; she was finally feeling the proper emotions the situation warranted. She was terribly embarrassed.
She had stood there eyeing him like he was something to be had.
"Forgive me, I should have knocked." She started stepping back, trying hard to keep her head down because she wanted nothing more than to look at him again; but she knew she would get lost in the sight before her.
She'd stand staring again.
She left the room in such a rush she missed the lopsided grin that spread across John's face.