swficathon entry is done!
Title: To This Moment
Author: brookeormian
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None really, but definitely not past S2
Category: Romance, bit of Fluff
Summary: "She knew people questioned it and she knew it wasn’t subtle but it was all too easy to ignore the whispers and forget that they shouldn’t be letting it go this far."
Disclaimer: Don't own the characters or the show, just admiring from afar!
Notes: Written for venom69 for the swficathon :) Her request was - "I want to see Sheppard and Weir back on Earth, going on a "conventional" date."
Beta-d by the wonderful elven_sg1, thank you!
Also, it should be said that I haven't read Atlantis fiction for a loooong time. So any similarities to other fics that may crop up without my knowledge are entirely coincidental and I hope I haven't written something that has been done to death!
(I'm nervous about this, please don't bite!)
Elizabeth fidgeted with her napkin, uncharacteristically feeling a twinge of nervousness. She frowned at this, putting the offending item back down on the table. She was Elizabeth Weir, she’d faced both bureaucratic and alien foes and won hands down, but the thought of her first date with John Sheppard somehow beat all of those situations into submission.
She smiled a little at this thought; that was John all over.
The fact that she was rather early was not helping to ease her nerves. Over the years she’d built up arriving early from being a convenience to a necessity. Whoever was first to the negotiating table had the upper hand, and it always put her contenders on edge to arrive and see her waiting - often looking calm and serene; she liked to add some extra factor to make them think twice about her giving them an easy time of it. Also, it gave them no time for extra preparation and Elizabeth did like to be in control.
She found that her hands had turned traitor and were once playing with the corners of her napkin. She wondered if John would end up being late. It was possible, she assumed, that his meeting would overrun. They were back on Earth for the obligatory annual meetings that came with being the two effective heads of Atlantis. While her meeting had ended within good time, she knew that there would be far more interest in the military side of the operation and that would make his unpredictable.
Elizabeth sighed, knowing that if John could see her now he’d get that little self-satisfied smirk that she both hated and loved. That would mean she would have to admit to herself that this was one situation that she would never be in control of - something she was very reluctant to do.
This was not technically their first date, she thought. On Atlantis they’d shared many meals as a twosome, trying to hide the fact that they met accidentally-on-purpose behind a front of some vital meeting that could only take place over lunch. She knew people questioned it and she knew it wasn’t subtle but it was all too easy to ignore the whispers and forget that they shouldn’t be letting it go this far.
--
The first meal they’d shared together had been three years ago, back when they hardly knew each other but the hints of a great friendship were starting to show. She remembered the fear she’d felt after that bug had attacked John and how, long after everyone had turned in for the night, she’d snuck back into the infirmary to check that he was really there, that the images she saw whenever she closed her eyes to sleep were not real. Standing at the end of his bed for a few minutes, she watched him sleep and thanked whoever had been looking down on them that day.
Before she could make a silent exit however, he had woken up and ruined her stealthy visit. His standard infirmary meal sat untouched in front of him and she remembered telling him off for not eating. He replied, in typical John Sheppard-style, that he would eat only if he could split the meal with her as, he had told her with a smirk, “You look like shit yourself”. She should have argued, but it was gone 4am and after the day they’d had it had seemed like a small sacrifice to give the nurses a little gossip fodder.
--
Elizabeth looked at her watch, noting that she hadn’t been there as long as it seemed. She wasn’t at the point where people would start shooting her sympathetic looks and that made her relax somewhat. She thought back again to pass the time, recalling the catalyst for this entire situation that they found themselves in.
--
This time they’d been sharing a meal in her office, the location a necessary evil due to the late hour. They’d been arguing all day over the diplomatic versus military benefits of dealing with the latest in a long line of alien races who had turned out to not be what they seemed. Food was needed but neither was willing to back down enough to go somewhere public and continue their fight. They’d called a truce to fetch something from the commissary, but the heated discussion had continued the minute they entered her office again.
What had followed had been entirely unexpected and monumentally stupid, but Elizabeth looked back on it with a fondness that ignored the importance of the moment. She’d started talking first, bringing up again that they really didn’t need another enemy with good technological abilities and could they try and work this out without violence? John had caught her arm before she could walk around her desk, pulling her to face him and told her in a low and firm voice that just sometimes violence was the answer.
She’d forgotten much of how it happened, but in an instant he was pulling her closer towards him, pressing his lips to hers and kissing her hungrily. The heat of their argument flowing from both of them made the kiss almost overpowering. Sanity returned far too quickly though, Elizabeth’s hands coming up to his chest to push him away, before she walked away from him quickly, hand to her lips disbelievingly. She had checked quickly that no one had seen, but if they had they’d moved on quickly, the control room abuzz with activity. She turned to see John sitting on the couch, his head resting in a hand.
She’d walked quietly across her office, sitting down next to him and resting a hand on his shoulder.
“John…” She’d begun softly.
He looked up sharply, eyes full of regret. “I’m sorry Elizabeth; I took advantage of the situation.”
“Don’t apologise, it takes two to tango after all.” She smiled and his face softened a little too. “We just got caught up, it was an expression of our frustration with the whole situation, nothing more.”
John’s eyes had some of their twinkle back when he replied, “Nothing more? I think we might be kidding ourselves there ‘Lizabeth.”
--
She smiled to herself at the memory, as that had been when he proposed that the next time they were on Earth they should go on a ‘proper’ date. A shadow was cast over the table and she looked up with a grin to see John looking very dapper despite his perpetually messy hair. But, she thought as she stood to kiss his cheek, he wouldn’t be John without it.
“Nice place, how did you hear about it?” He asked, once they were sitting down with their menus. He took a moment to look around the elegantly furnished dining room, and took in the fact that it was neither too fussy nor too sparse. It was comfortable without too much pretension and he truly liked her choice.
“Oh, it’s actually a place a friend of mine recommended when I said I was coming to the city. She told me it would be a travesty to come and not find some time to have dinner here.” Elizabeth replied, giving the menu a cursory glance so as not to give him reason to suspect she’d been here long enough to decide on her meal already.
“How did your meeting go?” She asked after the waiter had taken their order.
“I thought we agreed no shop talk?” He grinned cheekily. “It took enough persuading to get you here and I don’t want you changing your mind on me.”
Elizabeth smiled, abashed. “Well this isn’t the smartest thing either of us have done John, especially right in the middle of Washington...”
“Ah ah, stop it! Let’s just enjoy the evening, shall we?” He interrupted her when he noticed her obvious fretting. “We can worry about the consequences when we’re back on Atlantis away from prying eyes. Deal?” He added in a lower voice, holding up his wine glass.
Elizabeth thought for a moment, pushing down the little voice inside of her that was screaming what a terrible idea this was. The part of her that was telling her to loosen up and have a little fun for once was yelling louder, however, and eventually won out.
“Deal.” She answered, clinking her glass to his.
**
It was a nice night in the city so a joint decision was made to walk back to the hotel they were being put up in. Elizabeth used the comfortable silence of the walk to think back over the meal, the smile that had been in place throughout still present despite the slight unpleasant chill in the air. It had gone better than she could have imagined, they managed to talk about everything under the sun and more, never thrown into the uncomfortable arena of having nothing to say to your date. If she were honest with herself, she wouldn’t have bet on it going so well. Their main group of friends interacted well on Atlantis, but she thought the scrutiny of one-on-one time might throw them for a loop.
She was pleasantly satisfied to be wrong.
John noticed her shiver slightly and reached for her hand, pulling her closer and linking their arms. She smiled at him, thankful for the extra warmth without feeling he did it because of any weakness he saw in her. His smile in return made a warmth spread through her that was far different to her reaction to any other men she’d dated. She didn’t want to experience the cliché that was thinking John was ‘special’ but it was becoming less easy to explain away their instant spark.
They reached the hotel in good time, the blast of warmth that hit them as they entered the lobby very welcome. They headed to the elevator after retrieving their keys, their distance more conservative now - this was a hotel frequented by military personnel and they didn’t want to invite trouble after such an enjoyable evening.
It was horridly convenient that they had been put on the same floor, though a few rooms apart, so John walked with Elizabeth to her room before he would head to his own. She turned to face him with her back up against the door, which she should have seen to be a silly idea in the first place. She watched him, perplexed as he looked up and down the corridor surreptitiously and would later blame the alcohol for not realising that he was wearing his mischief expression.
He closed the gap between them, pressing her gently into the door as a hand came up to cup her cheek. Her eyes fluttered closed as he leant in, pressing his lips softly to hers. Her hands came up to tangle in his hair as he deepened the kiss, one hand on her waist and one supporting the back of her head against the door. She’d never thought it possible before, but Elizabeth actually felt her knees weaken a little as the passion and pleasure heightened. She jumped at the sound of a door closing further down the hall, suddenly very aware of where they were. She reluctantly pulled away from him, resting her forehead on his.
“That…” She paused to catch her breath, “Was a very bad idea John Sheppard.”
“I know.” He chuckled. “A brilliant bad idea though.”
Elizabeth sighed, hand moving to the handle of her door. “I think you better go, before we do something we’ll both regret.”
John nodded against her, pulling back to place a kiss to her forehead. “Goodnight ‘Lizabeth.”
She smiled at what she considered to be her nickname; she loved the way John dropped the first vowel; it seemed far more intimate than Lizzie. “Goodnight John, sleep well.”
She watched him walk down the hall, smiling brightly when he turned to look back at her once on his way, and once before he entered his room. With her hand still gripping the door handle, she fought the voice from earlier that had told her to have some fun and slotted the key card into the door. She might have beaten her inner voice into submission tonight, but something told her on Atlantis it might be a different matter.
She’d never admit it to anyone, but she was counting on it.
Author: brookeormian
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None really, but definitely not past S2
Category: Romance, bit of Fluff
Summary: "She knew people questioned it and she knew it wasn’t subtle but it was all too easy to ignore the whispers and forget that they shouldn’t be letting it go this far."
Disclaimer: Don't own the characters or the show, just admiring from afar!
Notes: Written for venom69 for the swficathon :) Her request was - "I want to see Sheppard and Weir back on Earth, going on a "conventional" date."
Beta-d by the wonderful elven_sg1, thank you!
Also, it should be said that I haven't read Atlantis fiction for a loooong time. So any similarities to other fics that may crop up without my knowledge are entirely coincidental and I hope I haven't written something that has been done to death!
(I'm nervous about this, please don't bite!)
Elizabeth fidgeted with her napkin, uncharacteristically feeling a twinge of nervousness. She frowned at this, putting the offending item back down on the table. She was Elizabeth Weir, she’d faced both bureaucratic and alien foes and won hands down, but the thought of her first date with John Sheppard somehow beat all of those situations into submission.
She smiled a little at this thought; that was John all over.
The fact that she was rather early was not helping to ease her nerves. Over the years she’d built up arriving early from being a convenience to a necessity. Whoever was first to the negotiating table had the upper hand, and it always put her contenders on edge to arrive and see her waiting - often looking calm and serene; she liked to add some extra factor to make them think twice about her giving them an easy time of it. Also, it gave them no time for extra preparation and Elizabeth did like to be in control.
She found that her hands had turned traitor and were once playing with the corners of her napkin. She wondered if John would end up being late. It was possible, she assumed, that his meeting would overrun. They were back on Earth for the obligatory annual meetings that came with being the two effective heads of Atlantis. While her meeting had ended within good time, she knew that there would be far more interest in the military side of the operation and that would make his unpredictable.
Elizabeth sighed, knowing that if John could see her now he’d get that little self-satisfied smirk that she both hated and loved. That would mean she would have to admit to herself that this was one situation that she would never be in control of - something she was very reluctant to do.
This was not technically their first date, she thought. On Atlantis they’d shared many meals as a twosome, trying to hide the fact that they met accidentally-on-purpose behind a front of some vital meeting that could only take place over lunch. She knew people questioned it and she knew it wasn’t subtle but it was all too easy to ignore the whispers and forget that they shouldn’t be letting it go this far.
--
The first meal they’d shared together had been three years ago, back when they hardly knew each other but the hints of a great friendship were starting to show. She remembered the fear she’d felt after that bug had attacked John and how, long after everyone had turned in for the night, she’d snuck back into the infirmary to check that he was really there, that the images she saw whenever she closed her eyes to sleep were not real. Standing at the end of his bed for a few minutes, she watched him sleep and thanked whoever had been looking down on them that day.
Before she could make a silent exit however, he had woken up and ruined her stealthy visit. His standard infirmary meal sat untouched in front of him and she remembered telling him off for not eating. He replied, in typical John Sheppard-style, that he would eat only if he could split the meal with her as, he had told her with a smirk, “You look like shit yourself”. She should have argued, but it was gone 4am and after the day they’d had it had seemed like a small sacrifice to give the nurses a little gossip fodder.
--
Elizabeth looked at her watch, noting that she hadn’t been there as long as it seemed. She wasn’t at the point where people would start shooting her sympathetic looks and that made her relax somewhat. She thought back again to pass the time, recalling the catalyst for this entire situation that they found themselves in.
--
This time they’d been sharing a meal in her office, the location a necessary evil due to the late hour. They’d been arguing all day over the diplomatic versus military benefits of dealing with the latest in a long line of alien races who had turned out to not be what they seemed. Food was needed but neither was willing to back down enough to go somewhere public and continue their fight. They’d called a truce to fetch something from the commissary, but the heated discussion had continued the minute they entered her office again.
What had followed had been entirely unexpected and monumentally stupid, but Elizabeth looked back on it with a fondness that ignored the importance of the moment. She’d started talking first, bringing up again that they really didn’t need another enemy with good technological abilities and could they try and work this out without violence? John had caught her arm before she could walk around her desk, pulling her to face him and told her in a low and firm voice that just sometimes violence was the answer.
She’d forgotten much of how it happened, but in an instant he was pulling her closer towards him, pressing his lips to hers and kissing her hungrily. The heat of their argument flowing from both of them made the kiss almost overpowering. Sanity returned far too quickly though, Elizabeth’s hands coming up to his chest to push him away, before she walked away from him quickly, hand to her lips disbelievingly. She had checked quickly that no one had seen, but if they had they’d moved on quickly, the control room abuzz with activity. She turned to see John sitting on the couch, his head resting in a hand.
She’d walked quietly across her office, sitting down next to him and resting a hand on his shoulder.
“John…” She’d begun softly.
He looked up sharply, eyes full of regret. “I’m sorry Elizabeth; I took advantage of the situation.”
“Don’t apologise, it takes two to tango after all.” She smiled and his face softened a little too. “We just got caught up, it was an expression of our frustration with the whole situation, nothing more.”
John’s eyes had some of their twinkle back when he replied, “Nothing more? I think we might be kidding ourselves there ‘Lizabeth.”
--
She smiled to herself at the memory, as that had been when he proposed that the next time they were on Earth they should go on a ‘proper’ date. A shadow was cast over the table and she looked up with a grin to see John looking very dapper despite his perpetually messy hair. But, she thought as she stood to kiss his cheek, he wouldn’t be John without it.
“Nice place, how did you hear about it?” He asked, once they were sitting down with their menus. He took a moment to look around the elegantly furnished dining room, and took in the fact that it was neither too fussy nor too sparse. It was comfortable without too much pretension and he truly liked her choice.
“Oh, it’s actually a place a friend of mine recommended when I said I was coming to the city. She told me it would be a travesty to come and not find some time to have dinner here.” Elizabeth replied, giving the menu a cursory glance so as not to give him reason to suspect she’d been here long enough to decide on her meal already.
“How did your meeting go?” She asked after the waiter had taken their order.
“I thought we agreed no shop talk?” He grinned cheekily. “It took enough persuading to get you here and I don’t want you changing your mind on me.”
Elizabeth smiled, abashed. “Well this isn’t the smartest thing either of us have done John, especially right in the middle of Washington...”
“Ah ah, stop it! Let’s just enjoy the evening, shall we?” He interrupted her when he noticed her obvious fretting. “We can worry about the consequences when we’re back on Atlantis away from prying eyes. Deal?” He added in a lower voice, holding up his wine glass.
Elizabeth thought for a moment, pushing down the little voice inside of her that was screaming what a terrible idea this was. The part of her that was telling her to loosen up and have a little fun for once was yelling louder, however, and eventually won out.
“Deal.” She answered, clinking her glass to his.
**
It was a nice night in the city so a joint decision was made to walk back to the hotel they were being put up in. Elizabeth used the comfortable silence of the walk to think back over the meal, the smile that had been in place throughout still present despite the slight unpleasant chill in the air. It had gone better than she could have imagined, they managed to talk about everything under the sun and more, never thrown into the uncomfortable arena of having nothing to say to your date. If she were honest with herself, she wouldn’t have bet on it going so well. Their main group of friends interacted well on Atlantis, but she thought the scrutiny of one-on-one time might throw them for a loop.
She was pleasantly satisfied to be wrong.
John noticed her shiver slightly and reached for her hand, pulling her closer and linking their arms. She smiled at him, thankful for the extra warmth without feeling he did it because of any weakness he saw in her. His smile in return made a warmth spread through her that was far different to her reaction to any other men she’d dated. She didn’t want to experience the cliché that was thinking John was ‘special’ but it was becoming less easy to explain away their instant spark.
They reached the hotel in good time, the blast of warmth that hit them as they entered the lobby very welcome. They headed to the elevator after retrieving their keys, their distance more conservative now - this was a hotel frequented by military personnel and they didn’t want to invite trouble after such an enjoyable evening.
It was horridly convenient that they had been put on the same floor, though a few rooms apart, so John walked with Elizabeth to her room before he would head to his own. She turned to face him with her back up against the door, which she should have seen to be a silly idea in the first place. She watched him, perplexed as he looked up and down the corridor surreptitiously and would later blame the alcohol for not realising that he was wearing his mischief expression.
He closed the gap between them, pressing her gently into the door as a hand came up to cup her cheek. Her eyes fluttered closed as he leant in, pressing his lips softly to hers. Her hands came up to tangle in his hair as he deepened the kiss, one hand on her waist and one supporting the back of her head against the door. She’d never thought it possible before, but Elizabeth actually felt her knees weaken a little as the passion and pleasure heightened. She jumped at the sound of a door closing further down the hall, suddenly very aware of where they were. She reluctantly pulled away from him, resting her forehead on his.
“That…” She paused to catch her breath, “Was a very bad idea John Sheppard.”
“I know.” He chuckled. “A brilliant bad idea though.”
Elizabeth sighed, hand moving to the handle of her door. “I think you better go, before we do something we’ll both regret.”
John nodded against her, pulling back to place a kiss to her forehead. “Goodnight ‘Lizabeth.”
She smiled at what she considered to be her nickname; she loved the way John dropped the first vowel; it seemed far more intimate than Lizzie. “Goodnight John, sleep well.”
She watched him walk down the hall, smiling brightly when he turned to look back at her once on his way, and once before he entered his room. With her hand still gripping the door handle, she fought the voice from earlier that had told her to have some fun and slotted the key card into the door. She might have beaten her inner voice into submission tonight, but something told her on Atlantis it might be a different matter.
She’d never admit it to anyone, but she was counting on it.