Falling Hard on Impact
John sighed. He'd never been so relieved or so happy to see another human being. The weights that had been upon him had lifted on seeing Elizabeth safe and unharmed, and it was all he could do to restrain himself and not race over to hug her.
He didn't know how she would react if he hugged her as fiercely as he wanted to. He wasn't sure he wanted to know why he felt that way himself, because surely such a hug would raise the question, was he falling for her? Did he have a thing for the leader of Atlantis?
Yes.
The answer was simple. It popped into his mind the moment his questions arose. And yet, he still felt uncertain. How could he be sure that he wasn't just letting his feelings get away from him after a nasty mission?
He shook his head and wrung his hands at his front, glancing down the hall as he did so. He could hear footsteps coming in his direction. It sounded like Elizabeth. Despite everything, he smiled.
And then he realised he smiled a lot around Elizabeth. She made him happy. She was fun to be around.
Oh, hell. He was falling for her.
She rounded the corner and moved into the part of the hall where his eyes were focused. When she saw him, she smiled too. "Hello, John."
"Elizabeth," he nodded.
"I was just looking for you," she told him. "I have some questions about those changes you made with the-"
"Elizabeth, do you want to have dinner with me?"
"-the, uh… what?"
"Dinner. You. Me." John pointed at each of them in turn.
"You mean, as a date?" There was a cautious smile on her face and her eyebrows were slightly more crooked than usual.
"I.. uh. Well. Yeah. As a date," he said. "I was thinking and it occurred to me that you like food and I like food. It snowballed from there."
She laughed. "Is that so?"
He shrugged and grinned nervously.
Growing serious again, Elizabeth took a moment to think. He marvelled at how beautiful she looked when she was serious. The corners of her eyes crinkled slightly and her eyebrows quirked up a little more.
There was no time for him to get worried about her response, because she had a small smile on her face and surely she wouldn't smile if she was going to turn him down. His assumption was proved correct a few seconds later.
"Yes," she said.
"Yes?"
"Eight o'clock, and you can pick me up from my office," she suggested.
"Done." He grinned. "I'll see you at eight."
fin
