Underneath the Mistletoe (1/1)
Title:Underneath the Mistletoe (1/1)
Author: hope_tang
Summary: Gift wrapping has never been quite so entertaining...
Rating: PG
Beta: The fantastic bluewillowtree
Disclaimer: Other than being a fan, I have nothing to do with Stargate: Atlantis.
Author’s Note: This is what happens when the Christmas music starts before Thanksgiving and champagne is involved: Hope starts writing romance. Written for Sparky Advent Calender 2012.
*
Carefully picking through the gift-wrapping debris that littered the floor, John Sheppard reflected that this wasn't how he had ever envisioned married life on Atlantis, much less as a participant. Then again, he thought as he found the pair of scissors he was looking for, he hadn't ever imagined that he would be 1) married (again) on Atlantis, of all places, and 2) officially, legally, and acceptably married to Elizabeth. He stared for a moment at the gold band around his finger, marveling at how weightless it had become in the seven months months since their wedding. (Actually, it was seven months, ten days, and... sixteen hours since they had become husband and wife. As a closet geek and romantic at heart, he felt certain he’d never forget their anniversary...or her birthday.)
Elizabeth was sitting a few feet away from him, putting the finishing touches on the packages they had already wrapped, spools of crimson and emerald satin ribbons rolling around her. She hummed softly under her breath to the Christmas songs playing on his iPod, an early gift from his brother. Her hands moved confidently, nimbly tying knots and bows. The warm gold of her engagement and wedding rings reflected the flickering firelight of the living room’s eco-friendly Yule Log broadcast.
Positioning Rodney's gift (a new coffeemaker as an apology for the lab mishap that blew up the old one) in the center of the roll, he calculated how much wrapping paper he had to cut to cover the entire thing. Across from him, she tacked a large, shiny purple bow on a green package.
"Who is that one for?" he asked.
She set it aside with the large pile of gifts they had finished wrapping, an amused smirk dancing on her lips. "Laura. She...owes me."
He arched an eyebrow and responded dryly, "Do I want to know?"
"I'm sure you want to know," she answered, with a saucy smile. He knew she was teasing him when she arched an eyebrow and purred, "but I'm not telling."
He stared at her for a moment, because when she used that sort of voice with him...The last time that had happened, he had “kidnapped” her and locked them both in a nearby storage closet for their lunch break. If she had come out looking a little disheveled and he rather self-satisfied, well... That happened sometimes when a married couple had lunch together. Still, they had to wrap presents for an entire city, this being the expedition's 10th year in the Pegasus galaxy. And Atlantis was still whole and standing. He was not going to be distracted. No. Way.
Except when she was looking at him like that.
He shifted uncomfortably (she was very, very distracting), and his mind scrambled for a change of subject that would let him focus on kissing her--No! On wrapping his hands around her waist--No, no, no, on wrapping Rodney's present. Yes, focus on wrapping presents, that was the point of tonight's agenda, not picking up his wife, slinging her over his shoulder, tumbling together into their bed, and having his wicked way with her for a rare, undisturbed night.
No. He wasn't thinking about that. Because Elizabeth had made it clear they needed to be done with gift-wrapping soon. As in tonight.
Right.
Wrapping.
No tumbling, no unwrapping, just...just...Could she not lick her lips like that?
Please?
"Tape?" he managed to choke out, tearing his eyes away from her face. She seemed highly amused as she handed him the tape dispenser and he went back to work.
"So, you know I have ways to make you talk," he said casually, his voice only wavering a little bit, mainly because he kept his eyes firmly focused on the gift in front of him, and not on Elizabeth.
"Your hands are rather...occupied at the moment," she pointed out in that same tone that always managed to wreck his thought processes. He didn't say anything else, for fear that his tenuous self-control would snap and he would ditch Rodney's present in favor of kissing his wife senseless. For a start.
She didn't say anything when he fell silent. Instead, she picked up a gift and began tying ribbons again. As she did so, he reflected that she’d been quieter than usual lately. Come to think of it, she had also been unusually tired these past few weeks, but then again, she was conducting or supervising three treaty negotiations (one of them personally), cooling tempers between the Chemistry and Engineering departments and curbing the...creativity...of the Marines as the entire city revved up for the celebrations. She had a right to be exhausted. He had been kept busy training new recruits, handling an increase of paperwork and dealing with new support staff. It was still a confusing mess of who had to fill out which form ,for what purpose, in how many copies to how many different departments and so on.
"I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus..." his iPod warbled with the hyper-enthusiasm of a sugar-high child.
Breaking the silence, she giggled and asked, "How did this end up on your iPod?”
Keeping a straight face, he inwardly cursed his brother for putting the song on his iPod and himself for not taking it off before his wife heard it. On the other hand, at least Rodney wasn't in the room, or else he would never hear the end of it.
"Oh, it hitched a ride on a databurst," he said casually, sticking on the last bit of tape needed to hold the wrapping together. He sat back to survey his handiwork, satisfied that he only need to add a few pieces of double-sided tape to make Rodney’s Christmas morning…highly entertaining.
Elizabeth leaned against his back, wrapping her arms loosely around his neck. John inhaled the faint scent of her shampoo and, turning his head to the side, managed to steal a kiss. With a sudden move, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in front of him to rest in his lap. She squealed with surprise, a sound quickly cut off as he began to kiss her fervently. In between their kisses, he muttered, “At least…we don’t have to…worry about that.”
“Worry? About what?” she asked, pulling back from him.
He looked at her and tilted his head toward his iPod, “Our kid, running to tell me that you’re kissing Santa Claus.”
He slid his hands underneath the edges of her blouse, tugging the silky material out of her pants. Deciding that she was still far too coherent, he leaned forward and started a trail of kisses down the side of her neck. She groaned when he hit that spot on her neck that turned her into a puddle of goo. What he didn’t expect was that she’d managed to say, “Soon we will.”
She was still speaking in coherent sentences, his mind helpfully pointed out. He quieted her by kissing her again. She responded enthusiastically, sliding her hands underneath his t-shirt. He moved on to undo the buttons of her clothing.
His fingers fumbled with the third button when his mind (what was left of it after that move with her tongue) stuttered, rewound and replayed the last few minutes. He abruptly pulled away in mid-kiss and stared at her. "Wait."
Confused by the sudden pause, she tilted her head. "Yes?"
“Soon we-like, are you?” he asked, sounding a bit like an idiot, he knew, but seriously, she wasn’t saying...? "You and me... Baby?"
She gave him a nervous look before she nodded, blushing. Her green eyes watched him almost shyly. Elizabeth Weir did not do shy, ever. She could play coy, but she never backed down. He blinked as he said numbly, "Did you just say we're...?"
She nodded again, swallowing and licking her lips. "Yes."
Stunned, all he could think of to do was to just stare at her. His mind was... not available, but other than the shock rolling through him, he thought he was taking the news pretty well. He wasn’t screaming in terror and bolting or anything like that. The word "baby" was bouncing around his cranium, but that was...
"Baby. We're-we’re having a baby?" He had to ask, just to be sure that he wasn't dreaming or misinterpreting her words.
"Yes," she said again, looking uncharacteristically nervous as she wrung her hands. "Carson did the test this morning."
He reached out and carefully touched her still flat stomach. With something like awed detachment, he noted that his hands were trembling as he caressed her, and their unborn baby. In less than a year, there’d be another person in the city, except this time, this person would be completely dependent on them to keep her (or him) safe. A touch of terror encroached on his wave of growing euphoria, but he firmly pushed it aside to say, with a smile, "We're going to be parents."
She was staring at him with a hint of uncertainty. He swallowed, wetting his tongue, "We're going to be parents!"
With a whoop of joy, he kissed her, hard. He felt the huge grin on his face. "I'm going to be a Dad! You’re going to be a Mom!"
She laughed--with joy and a little bit of relief, he could tell, and rested her head on his shoulder. He kissed her hair before he just held her. "How long?"
"Two months," she murmured.
“Wow,” he breathed. Then a thought suddenly hit him and he said firmly, "Rodney's never going to be allowed to babysit alone."
She laughed. “All right, but you’re the one who tells him that.”
They sat on the ground, her on his lap, both absorbed in semi-serious thoughts. (Elizabeth might have been pondering how she was going to juggle parenthood while handling a city full of genius kindergarteners; he, on the other hand, was still mainly stuck in the dazed, "I'm going to be a Dad!" area of thinking.) After a few minutes of silence, she looked up at him, a mischievous grin in her eye. "I also think that we might want to take advantage of all the alone time we can get right now."
She shifted against him just right, and John swore she knew precisely the effect that would have on him.
He gave her a serious look, "It's okay?"
"It's okay," she nodded, and then whispered in his ear, "I’m supposed to get cravings."
"Oh?" he managed to say before she kissed him, teasing him. "Well then. I guess I have to satisfy them."
He carefully untangled himself from her, standing up before pulling her to her feet as well. He knew they were on precisely the same wavelength, but they were much too...mature to do it on the floor. He smirked at her, "Do you have one tonight?"
"Oh, I might, Colonel Sheppard," she said airily, letting him led her onwards, toward their bedroom. She giggled when he swept her off her feet. "I just might."
"Well, we'll have to satisfy it, won't we, Mrs. Sheppard?"
Author: hope_tang
Summary: Gift wrapping has never been quite so entertaining...
Rating: PG
Beta: The fantastic bluewillowtree
Disclaimer: Other than being a fan, I have nothing to do with Stargate: Atlantis.
Author’s Note: This is what happens when the Christmas music starts before Thanksgiving and champagne is involved: Hope starts writing romance. Written for Sparky Advent Calender 2012.
*
Carefully picking through the gift-wrapping debris that littered the floor, John Sheppard reflected that this wasn't how he had ever envisioned married life on Atlantis, much less as a participant. Then again, he thought as he found the pair of scissors he was looking for, he hadn't ever imagined that he would be 1) married (again) on Atlantis, of all places, and 2) officially, legally, and acceptably married to Elizabeth. He stared for a moment at the gold band around his finger, marveling at how weightless it had become in the seven months months since their wedding. (Actually, it was seven months, ten days, and... sixteen hours since they had become husband and wife. As a closet geek and romantic at heart, he felt certain he’d never forget their anniversary...or her birthday.)
Elizabeth was sitting a few feet away from him, putting the finishing touches on the packages they had already wrapped, spools of crimson and emerald satin ribbons rolling around her. She hummed softly under her breath to the Christmas songs playing on his iPod, an early gift from his brother. Her hands moved confidently, nimbly tying knots and bows. The warm gold of her engagement and wedding rings reflected the flickering firelight of the living room’s eco-friendly Yule Log broadcast.
Positioning Rodney's gift (a new coffeemaker as an apology for the lab mishap that blew up the old one) in the center of the roll, he calculated how much wrapping paper he had to cut to cover the entire thing. Across from him, she tacked a large, shiny purple bow on a green package.
"Who is that one for?" he asked.
She set it aside with the large pile of gifts they had finished wrapping, an amused smirk dancing on her lips. "Laura. She...owes me."
He arched an eyebrow and responded dryly, "Do I want to know?"
"I'm sure you want to know," she answered, with a saucy smile. He knew she was teasing him when she arched an eyebrow and purred, "but I'm not telling."
He stared at her for a moment, because when she used that sort of voice with him...The last time that had happened, he had “kidnapped” her and locked them both in a nearby storage closet for their lunch break. If she had come out looking a little disheveled and he rather self-satisfied, well... That happened sometimes when a married couple had lunch together. Still, they had to wrap presents for an entire city, this being the expedition's 10th year in the Pegasus galaxy. And Atlantis was still whole and standing. He was not going to be distracted. No. Way.
Except when she was looking at him like that.
He shifted uncomfortably (she was very, very distracting), and his mind scrambled for a change of subject that would let him focus on kissing her--No! On wrapping his hands around her waist--No, no, no, on wrapping Rodney's present. Yes, focus on wrapping presents, that was the point of tonight's agenda, not picking up his wife, slinging her over his shoulder, tumbling together into their bed, and having his wicked way with her for a rare, undisturbed night.
No. He wasn't thinking about that. Because Elizabeth had made it clear they needed to be done with gift-wrapping soon. As in tonight.
Right.
Wrapping.
No tumbling, no unwrapping, just...just...Could she not lick her lips like that?
Please?
"Tape?" he managed to choke out, tearing his eyes away from her face. She seemed highly amused as she handed him the tape dispenser and he went back to work.
"So, you know I have ways to make you talk," he said casually, his voice only wavering a little bit, mainly because he kept his eyes firmly focused on the gift in front of him, and not on Elizabeth.
"Your hands are rather...occupied at the moment," she pointed out in that same tone that always managed to wreck his thought processes. He didn't say anything else, for fear that his tenuous self-control would snap and he would ditch Rodney's present in favor of kissing his wife senseless. For a start.
She didn't say anything when he fell silent. Instead, she picked up a gift and began tying ribbons again. As she did so, he reflected that she’d been quieter than usual lately. Come to think of it, she had also been unusually tired these past few weeks, but then again, she was conducting or supervising three treaty negotiations (one of them personally), cooling tempers between the Chemistry and Engineering departments and curbing the...creativity...of the Marines as the entire city revved up for the celebrations. She had a right to be exhausted. He had been kept busy training new recruits, handling an increase of paperwork and dealing with new support staff. It was still a confusing mess of who had to fill out which form ,for what purpose, in how many copies to how many different departments and so on.
"I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus..." his iPod warbled with the hyper-enthusiasm of a sugar-high child.
Breaking the silence, she giggled and asked, "How did this end up on your iPod?”
Keeping a straight face, he inwardly cursed his brother for putting the song on his iPod and himself for not taking it off before his wife heard it. On the other hand, at least Rodney wasn't in the room, or else he would never hear the end of it.
"Oh, it hitched a ride on a databurst," he said casually, sticking on the last bit of tape needed to hold the wrapping together. He sat back to survey his handiwork, satisfied that he only need to add a few pieces of double-sided tape to make Rodney’s Christmas morning…highly entertaining.
Elizabeth leaned against his back, wrapping her arms loosely around his neck. John inhaled the faint scent of her shampoo and, turning his head to the side, managed to steal a kiss. With a sudden move, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in front of him to rest in his lap. She squealed with surprise, a sound quickly cut off as he began to kiss her fervently. In between their kisses, he muttered, “At least…we don’t have to…worry about that.”
“Worry? About what?” she asked, pulling back from him.
He looked at her and tilted his head toward his iPod, “Our kid, running to tell me that you’re kissing Santa Claus.”
He slid his hands underneath the edges of her blouse, tugging the silky material out of her pants. Deciding that she was still far too coherent, he leaned forward and started a trail of kisses down the side of her neck. She groaned when he hit that spot on her neck that turned her into a puddle of goo. What he didn’t expect was that she’d managed to say, “Soon we will.”
She was still speaking in coherent sentences, his mind helpfully pointed out. He quieted her by kissing her again. She responded enthusiastically, sliding her hands underneath his t-shirt. He moved on to undo the buttons of her clothing.
His fingers fumbled with the third button when his mind (what was left of it after that move with her tongue) stuttered, rewound and replayed the last few minutes. He abruptly pulled away in mid-kiss and stared at her. "Wait."
Confused by the sudden pause, she tilted her head. "Yes?"
“Soon we-like, are you?” he asked, sounding a bit like an idiot, he knew, but seriously, she wasn’t saying...? "You and me... Baby?"
She gave him a nervous look before she nodded, blushing. Her green eyes watched him almost shyly. Elizabeth Weir did not do shy, ever. She could play coy, but she never backed down. He blinked as he said numbly, "Did you just say we're...?"
She nodded again, swallowing and licking her lips. "Yes."
Stunned, all he could think of to do was to just stare at her. His mind was... not available, but other than the shock rolling through him, he thought he was taking the news pretty well. He wasn’t screaming in terror and bolting or anything like that. The word "baby" was bouncing around his cranium, but that was...
"Baby. We're-we’re having a baby?" He had to ask, just to be sure that he wasn't dreaming or misinterpreting her words.
"Yes," she said again, looking uncharacteristically nervous as she wrung her hands. "Carson did the test this morning."
He reached out and carefully touched her still flat stomach. With something like awed detachment, he noted that his hands were trembling as he caressed her, and their unborn baby. In less than a year, there’d be another person in the city, except this time, this person would be completely dependent on them to keep her (or him) safe. A touch of terror encroached on his wave of growing euphoria, but he firmly pushed it aside to say, with a smile, "We're going to be parents."
She was staring at him with a hint of uncertainty. He swallowed, wetting his tongue, "We're going to be parents!"
With a whoop of joy, he kissed her, hard. He felt the huge grin on his face. "I'm going to be a Dad! You’re going to be a Mom!"
She laughed--with joy and a little bit of relief, he could tell, and rested her head on his shoulder. He kissed her hair before he just held her. "How long?"
"Two months," she murmured.
“Wow,” he breathed. Then a thought suddenly hit him and he said firmly, "Rodney's never going to be allowed to babysit alone."
She laughed. “All right, but you’re the one who tells him that.”
They sat on the ground, her on his lap, both absorbed in semi-serious thoughts. (Elizabeth might have been pondering how she was going to juggle parenthood while handling a city full of genius kindergarteners; he, on the other hand, was still mainly stuck in the dazed, "I'm going to be a Dad!" area of thinking.) After a few minutes of silence, she looked up at him, a mischievous grin in her eye. "I also think that we might want to take advantage of all the alone time we can get right now."
She shifted against him just right, and John swore she knew precisely the effect that would have on him.
He gave her a serious look, "It's okay?"
"It's okay," she nodded, and then whispered in his ear, "I’m supposed to get cravings."
"Oh?" he managed to say before she kissed him, teasing him. "Well then. I guess I have to satisfy them."
He carefully untangled himself from her, standing up before pulling her to her feet as well. He knew they were on precisely the same wavelength, but they were much too...mature to do it on the floor. He smirked at her, "Do you have one tonight?"
"Oh, I might, Colonel Sheppard," she said airily, letting him led her onwards, toward their bedroom. She giggled when he swept her off her feet. "I just might."
"Well, we'll have to satisfy it, won't we, Mrs. Sheppard?"