An hour or so later after John had gotten back to his room and had taken a shower, he then made his way into the lunch room, moving quickly towards the buffet, feeling and hearing his stomach growl in response. After he put some sandwiches on his plate and poured himself a cup of hot coffee, he turned and looked around for an empty table. He moved toward the more isolated part of the lunch room, noticing an empty table, away from everyone. Well, at least I won't have to talk to anyone… He thought to himself, smiling a little.

"Hey John! Over here!" A voice from behind him called.

"Oh God…" John mumbled softly under his breath, turning around to look at an over excited Rodney, waving his hand around like a mad man. He looked around the lunch room, grumpily, trying to think of a way to get out of this. He really didn't want to listen to Rodney right now. His headache was bad enough as it was. Sighing heavily, he slowly made his way to where Rodney, Ronon, and Teyla were seated.

"Good morning." He mumbled softly, putting his tray down on the table as he sat down.

"Good morning Colonel Sheppard. How did you sleep?" Teyla asked an unreadable smile on her face.

"I've…had better nights…"

"That bad, huh?" Ronon asked, his voice highly amused.

"Well, I'd know more if I could remember what the hell happened last night." John replied, starting to get frustrated as he tried to read his friend's expressions. Why the hell were they all smiling at him like that?

"Well, from what we saw…you could say you had a pretty good night. Of course that was mostly Elizabeth's doing." Rodney replied, trying his best to look innocent. He was so bad at lying it wasn't even funny.

John narrowed his eyes at him suspiciously but said nothing and went back to eating. After a few minutes of silence, he looked up, pushing away his food, he looked at his friends, crossing his arms over his chest.

"How come I don't remember anything from last night?"

"Well you obviously got pretty wasted…"

"I thought we didn't have any alcohol on Atlantis." John interrupted.

"My people brought some from the mainland." Teyla replied, shyly. "A party isn't a party unless there is alcohol, Colonel."

"Well it would have been a good idea to let the rest of us know that. I probably wouldn't have gotten so wasted, if I knew whatever I was drinking had alcohol in it." John replied, grumpily, causing Teyla to look down embarrassed.

"Well, Elizabeth knew…" Rodney replied under his breath.

That caught John's attention. "What did you say?"

Rodney looked up startled. "Oh, I said that out loud didn't I?"

"Yes, you did genius." Ronon growled, smacking the back of his head then shook his head exasperated. He knew from the beginning it'd be a bad idea to let Rodney in on their plan.

"Have you talked to Elizabeth this morning?" Teyla asked, tentatively, watching John closely.

"Well…not really. We kinda woke up in a very uncomfortable situation." The Colonel replied, staring down at the table, his expression closed off, making it hard for anyone, even Teyla to get a good read on him.

"What kind of uncomfortable situation are we talking about here?" Rodney couldn't help but ask, leaning over the table a little, looking genuinely curious.

"That's certainly none of your business!" John exclaimed, unable to keep a blush from appearing on his cheeks. He could still see Elizabeth in only her bra and underwear standing in front of him, looking more beautiful and desirable than ever. He groaned softly, closing his eyes. Don't go there Sheppard. It can only end badly.

"Fine. Don't tell me. We'll find out soon enough anyways. Rumours travel fast around here, ya know." Rodney replied, oblivious to John's inner battle with his feelings.

John's head snapped up, glaring at Rodney. "Just let it go McKay. Nothing happened. Try to focus your energy on something more productive, will you?"

Rodney was taken aback by John's snappy reply. He looked at Ronon and Teyla then looked down at his plate, and then nodded. "Yeah, I better go anyways. There's a lot of work to be done." He grabbed his plate and stood up, walking away from the table.

John sighed, rubbing his eyes. "I'll have to go apologize for that later. I didn't mean sound so…. I just don't know how the heck to react to all this. I can't remember a thing and it's driving me insane."

Ronon and Teyla glanced at each other worried. Maybe their plan wasn't such a smart one after all. They could see they were talking on some dangerous ground here. They got themselves into something they didn't really know how to fix now and it was partially their fault. Okay, it was their entire fault.

Teyla sighed, opening her mouth, wanting to tell John the truth, before things got even more complicated.

"I think you should just talk to her." Ronon jumped in, cutting Teyla off. He would explain it to her after.

"Yeah, Chewie. You're right." John sighed, sitting up, nodding a little to himself as he took his empty tray of food and walked away from them.

Teyla watched John walk away from then, then after she made sure he was out of earshot, she turned and looked at Ronon. "We should have told him the truth Ronon."

"No, that would have made our whole plan a whole waste of time." Ronon replied, shaking his head.

"You cannot possibly care about our plan still, Ronon."

"I do. You saw how they were looking at each other the whole night, Teyla. Come on. They need to have fun and relax once in a while and you know it."

"This could end badly…"

"If it does then I'll take all the blame. It was my idea after all. But I have faith in John. He won't screw it up."

"If you say so…" Teyla sighed, not sounding convinced.

"Just trust me on this. Now let's stop all this talk about feelings and love because I'm starting to feel sick."

Teyla rolled her eyes, smiling. "Up for training?" she asked.

Ronon nodded, smiling widely as he stood up. "Always."

John walked nervously towards Elizabeth's office, bumping into people from time to time as he distractedly thought of how to talk about or bring up the issue at hand. He knew she'd make a big deal out of this and she had every right to. They had woken up together in the same room, the same bed and naked. Anyone could draw the conclusion that something had happened between the two of them but what if it hadn't? As he got closer to her office, he noticed that it was empty. He let out a relieved sigh, and then stopped, frowning. Where was she? She was usually in her office all day long. He looked around the control room watching everything and everyone. Everything seemed to be under control. So what should he do now? Should he wait for her into her office or should he get the hell out of here and just hope everything will be forgotten. He decided on the latter. He really wasn't good at talking about such things. It would be best to just ignore it and hope for the best.

Just as he was turning around and away from her office, he could hear and see her walking side by side with Doctor Beckett. He frowned. Was she sick? Probably not, she would have told him if that was the case. Knowing he had no other means of escape, he simply stood there, watching her come towards him, talking animatedly and smiling at the doctor. Once she caught sight of him, she seemed to tense a little. Taking in a deep breath, he started walking towards them, meeting them halfway. He smiled at the doctor then he glued his eyes on Elizabeth who was doing her best to look anywhere but at him.

"Carson, Elizabeth. Good morning." He said his voice softly.

"Colonel Sheppard. Good to see ye. Had any fun at the party last night?" Carson asked, smiling widely, obvious to the tension between Elizabeth and John.

"Can't really say, Carson. I don't remember most of it." John replied, staring t Elizabeth as he spoke.

Elizabeth cleared her throat, unable to keep her cheeks from turning a bright red. She bit nervously on her lower lip then she took a deep breath and turned to Carson. "I need to speak with Colonel Sheppard, Carson. Just let me know the results, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am. As soon as I find out." He nodded once to John then he turned around and walked away, leaving the two of them alone.

Elizabeth took a deep breath then risked a glance at John and quickly regretted it. He was looking at her with an expression she dared not identify. "Let's…talk in my office." She spoke softly, walking past him towards her office.

"Alright." He sighed, following her into her office, closing the door behind him, then leaning against it. Elizabeth walked around her desk, sitting down, putting at much space between her and John as possible at the moment. She looked down at her hands, wondering how to start.

"You're making this more difficult than it needs to be." John spoke finally, sighing heavily, rubbing his eyes, feeling his headache come back.

"I am?" Elizabeth asked, chuckling nervously.

"Well yeah…I mean, we don't know if anything DID happen last night." He replied, walking slowly towards one of the chairs situated in front of her desk and sank down into it.

"John, I was naked…" Elizabeth replied, rubbing her temples.

"Oh believe me, I haven't forgotten that…" John replied.

"Excuse me?" Elizabeth asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

John cleared his throat, looking away. "Look, no matter how wasted I was, I don't think I would be stupid enough to do anything that might endanger your position on Atlantis or even mine. Which is why I don't think it's possible for anything to have happened…"

"I don't think rational thought has any say when you're that drunk." She replied, reluctant to accept John's view on the situation.

"Okay…" John started, getting uncomfortable. "So you believe something did happen then…"

"Now you're making it sound like I want to believe it happened." Elizabeth looked up at him.

"Well, that's the picture I'm getting here, Liz." John replied, smirking.

Elizabeth's eyes widened a little at John's use of her nickname but said nothing of it.

"This won't affect our working relationship, will it? I mean, even if something did happen…" John started again after a few moments of uncomfortable silence between them.

"Of course not. It was a mistake, nothing more. And if word did get out that we slept together we can simply say that we were under an alien influence."

A mistake…

John nodded, looking away from Elizabeth as he sat up. That sounds good. So…we got it all figured out?"

Elizabeth nodded, seeing the sudden change in John's body language. She forced a smile. "Yeah. It's all good." She sighed. "We're good."

"Okay. Then I'll let you to your work and I'll go do…stuff." He turned around, opening the door then he walked out, closing the door behind him.

As soon as the door closed, Elizabeth let out an audible sigh. She turned on her computer and tried to focus on her work, trying hard to keep John and this morning's events out of her head.