A/N: OH MY GOSH! You reviewers are amazing! Thanks so much! Also, those of you who put me on either story alert or author alert totally made me smile! :D Hope you enjoy!

The next morning John awoke feeling like he had gotten in a bar fight and lost…badly. His side was killing him, and he hated how sluggish he felt. However, as soon as he glanced at the clock, and realized he was almost late for meeting with Elizabeth, he forced his sore and bruised body into overtime.

John and Elizabeth tried to meet together every morning to discuss what was happening both on Atlantis and off world. Usually, John enjoyed the meetings as they gave him and Elizabeth a chance to not only catch up on everything that was happening without reading tons of reports, but it also allowed them an opportunity to share the burden of running the massive city they called home.

Yet, this time the idea of being stuck in a room with Elizabeth were he was sure they would again go over what had happened yesterday made his stomach twist. He remembered how awkward it had been after he had chosen to go against her orders when the city had been quarantined because of the nanite virus in their first year on Atlantis. However, this time he knew it would be ten times worse. Elizabeth didn't believe him. She had barely even given him a chance to explain himself. She had simply jumped down his throat over it, which sadly was an experience he had had all too frequently from other people throughout his life, though he had never thought she would do it.

Growing up, his dad would often do that. He'd jump to conclusions about what John had been doing, until John got to the point he wouldn't even try to explain what had truly happened, instead he'd just accept whatever reprimand his father dished out on him.

Some of his previous commanding officers would do the same thing. He remembered the first one he had had. The man had thought John wanted special treatment because of who his father was. He didn't like that idea and gave John a harder time than any of the other men under his command instead, never believing anything John said. John had gotten used to both his behavior and the behavior of others just like him.

Except this was Elizabeth! They had worked closely together for so long he had thought she would believe him when it came down to the line, but instead she hadn't. She had immediately assumed John disobeyed her direct orders, was irresponsible with the jumpers and was an incompetent pilot!

Frustrated again as he thought about the injustice of it all, John wished he could spar in the gym. Instead, he was stuck going to meet with Elizabeth. Though as he left his room and headed to the mess hall to grab something to eat, he grumpily admitted to himself that his body was probably not up for a sparring session no matter how much he wished it was. The bruises on his body felt like they had bruises and he had to force himself not to walk stiffly down the hall.

He grabbed a muffin and a cup of coffee quickly in the mess hall trying to ignore the glances that kept being sent his way. Atlantis was such a small city it was next to impossible to keep things a secret and his contention with Elizabeth had been far from under the radar. He was leaving the room quickly when he saw a grumpy and bleary-eye head of science.

"Rodney did you find out why the controls were out of whack?" John asked knowing from simply glancing at him that he had stayed up all night working on it.

"No." said the clearly displeased Rodney. "I stayed up all night and only discovered what I already knew, the Jumper will be out of commission for weeks and only a great deal of hours put into it by me will ever get it working again. Furthermore, I didn't discover a single flaw with the controls so far, which by the way, I had to tell Elizabeth this morning."

"Yeah, well there was something wrong with them, Rodney," John insisted even as his stomach sunk lower at the lack of support from the physical evidence, forcing him to say, "Please keep looking, Rodney. They just stopped working all of a sudden sort of like they did when we crashed on the planet with all the kids."

Rodney gave a long suffering sigh, but, though out of sorts by everything, couldn't deny the pleading in his friend's voice. "I'll keep looking."

"Thanks Rodney, but wait until AFTER you get some sleep. You look like you were hit by a truck," John commented as he examined shadows under Rodney's bloodshot eyes and his overall rumpled appearance.

"I'll have you know the only person who was in any sort of crash was you! But…yeah…maybe I will get some sleep in an hour or two. There are just a few more things I want to check first. Good luck with Elizabeth by the way."

Sighing deeply at the reminder of Elizabeth and his contention, John left Rodney with his large cup of coffee and made his way to her office. He wanted to force Rodney to get some sleep immediately, but he knew it would be an uphill battle presently and he didn't feel up to the fight. Rodney was always almost impossible to get to sleep when he was working on something and his admittance of thinking about getting sleep an in hour or two was the best John was going to get right now. Plus, John had no intention of giving Elizabeth another reason to be upset with him, and he was already risking being late to the meeting as it was.

Slightly out of breath he managed to make it to her office not a moment too soon and sat carefully in the chair before her desk. He sat as straight and rigid as he could with his aching torso, trying to look professional and aloof, and waited for Elizabeth to begin. Taking a deep breath she did.

"John, I'm sorry for the way I reacted yesterday about the crash. I should not have dealt with it in that way and in front of everyone else; however, that being said, I need you to tell me the truth. Rodney informed me this morning that he found no evidence of the controls malfunctioning. He is still looking, but John; it is looking less and less likely that something will be found,"

John nodded at all this knowing from Elizabeth's tone she was about to jump to her main point and braced for impact. "Do you stand by your story that it was the controls mal-functioning not you deciding to race Lorne in landing that were responsible for the crash?"

"Yes, Elizabeth, I do stand by that," John said in a firm voice that showed how calm and separated he was choosing to remain. After all the practice he had had in this area, he had it down to an art, though he had to say, except for his father, it had never hurt this much before.

Firmly, John chose not to think about it and pushed the thought away even as the cynical part of his mind rejoiced as it was proven right that when it came down to it, no one, not even Elizabeth, who he had thought trusted him, would believe his side. He thought things were different on Atlantis, but except for with his team, John realized that just wasn't the case.

Elizabeth remained silent after John's answer, and John wondered what she was thinking behind the negotiator's mask she had clad herself with. In fact, the mask itself seemed to taunt him with the fact she didn't look at him as a friend currently. How quickly everything seemed to change. One second, he had felt on top of the world with everything he could ask for in a job; the next he was reminded of how easy it was for people to turn on someone. John just couldn't get past the fact she didn't believe him. He understood that it looked really suspicious, but still…

Finally, Elizabeth began to speak again.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Elizabeth, who had gotten little sleep the night before, because of worrying over the crash and the fallout from it, had watched with concern as John entered her office breathing heavily and moving gingerly as if his torso was bothering him. She had immediately felt concern for him, and wondered if he had been more hurt than she had thought in the crash. Yet, a glance at his face showed her clearly he would not be receptive to any questions about his health and she still was miffed about the fact she was pretty sure he wasn't telling her the truth. So, she had pushed her concern away and plunged into the topic weighing heavily on her mind hoping that discussing it would help to clear the air.

The safety of Atlantis and the people on it were her responsibility and John's stunt with Lorne not only risked his own life, but also set a bad example for the others on Atlantis. If the second in command of the Atlantis expedition showed a cavalier attitude towards the Ancient artifacts they had found on Atlantis and ignored the dangers of them, then many others, not just military, would follow his example, which would increase the risk a tenfold of both damage to irreplaceable devices and injuries of valuable personnel.

Not to mention the fact, Elizabeth couldn't believe that John was risking their friendship and the command relationship they had established over this. She had spoken with him at least a dozen times before the 'demonstration' to make sure he knew how important it was to her that he and any other pilots did not show off. He had agreed with her and told her he fully supported her in this. Yet, then he had gone off and raced Lorne and lied to her about it! The betrayal of that was what made Elizabeth push away the unease she felt at how John looked and press forward, stopping just short of outright calling him a liar.

However, when John had said that he stood by his story that the controls had malfunctioned in a tone that was detached from himself, Elizabeth suddenly had realized how this must be from John's side of the table. Here he was on Atlantis facing up to his 'boss' in the same way she was sure he had had to face many commanding officers in the past. As Elizabeth had gotten to know John, she had always thought that those commanding officers had misjudged him, and not fully listened to John's side of the story. Even though John never talked about his previous troubles with COs, there were times in certain situations when he'd get a certain look in his eyes and she knew he was relieving some of the pain and frustration from those experiences.

Elizabeth realized with sudden clarity and a sinking feeling in her gut that she was doing what she had looked down at others for doing; getting locked up in her own way of thinking and refusing to accept what anyone else said or believed. As a negotiator it was something that drove her insane at times, yet she had been doing that to John, refusing to listen to his explanation despite the trust that had built between the two of them during their time on Atlantis.

Yeah, it did look fishy, and Rodney still did not think he would find anything, but John though under her command was also her friend, and he had never lied to her before. The few times he had made a mistake in the past he had always owned up to it, and it didn't make sense that he wouldn't do the same now.

Sighing Elizabeth realized that from the beginning her thinking had been flawed. She had been so upset that John had almost died again that she had allowed anger to come to the surface to cover the fear that had still caused her heart to pound. Also, she had used the event as a reason to release suppressed irritation at John for not considering his own safety. She had been like a kettle of boiling water, and the crash had been like the lid being lifted from her allowing all her inward steam to escape and burn anyone in its path. She had viewed the crash as a perfect way to get him to see reason, and to take more precautions when it came to his own health and safety, but she now recognized that hadn't been the right or smartest move she could have made. Though it looked like John was lying, she had to give him the benefit of the doubt and trust him. After all, she had often asked him to do the same for her, and after the nanite incident he had done so, even at times when she could tell he disagreed with her assessment of the situation. The least she could do was give him the same respect and consideration. She just hoped he'd forgive her for refusing to do that from the beginning.

Taking a deep breath she said "John…"—and then the alarms went off.

...

To be continued

A/N: Please review and let me know what you like, dislike, think I could improve on, or just that you read it...PLEASE! After all, the more reviews I get the guiltier I feel for not updating sooner... ;)