Disclaimer: Blah Blah I don't won Stargate: Atlantis never have and never will. MGM owns it all. Blah blah blah...
A/N: This fic idea came to me while I was opening Christmas gifts…anyways it's a long story, but here is the end product. I hope you guys enjoy it. It is Sheppard/Weir and possible spoilers from "Hot Zone". Enjoy!
Chapter 1
Elizabeth stepped out onto the balcony, right outside of the chaos of the control room. Today was a rather tamed and uneventful day, for which she was thankful, and since John Sheppard's team didn't have to go off world today, she wouldn't have to worry about the trouble he could get himself into today at least. Their mission today was to fly out to the main land and check up on the Athosians, their crops and such. She was sure, or at least she hoped, John would be able to keep out of trouble there.
She leaned forward on the balcony railing and took in a deep breath of fresh air. The sound of the ocean around her was calming and refreshing. She was glad to finally get out of the briefing room. She was in there all morning listening to a bunch of scientists over-excitedly explaining the significance of a new gadget they found in another of the Ancient labs within the city. All Elizabeth could remember was that the gadget was something equivalent to a solar powered night light. Just thinking about the meeting earlier was giving her a headache. Then when she remembered she had another meeting with another group of scientists in the next hour her headache seemed to get worse.
She decided for her own sake, she would forget about the meetings for now and relax until some else comes nagging her for something. For some reason she felt her moment of peace would be disturbed by a certain Major who really knew how to push her buttons. In the meantime, she stood on the balcony feeling the cool breeze blow by clearing her thoughts.
As John sat back in the puddle jumper pilot seat waiting for the jumper to ease down into the jumper bay, he was glad his little mission to the mainland was over. He was ready to get some lunch. Not that Athosian food was bad or anything, he just wanted to eat some earth food while he still could, at least before McKay, hoarded it all. There would be plenty of time later for his stomach to adapt to Tava beans.
Just as the soon as the jumper came to a stop, John got up picked up his backpack and things. "All right kids it's chow time," he said, and headed out past Teyla, Lieutenant Ford, and McKay.
"Chow time?" Teyla gave a questioning look to Ford, who looked to McKay for help in explaining earth slang for the nth time of the day.
"Chow time is a slang to say it's time to eat," Rodney explained. Teyla's expression remained inquisitive. "It means he's hungry," he simply answered and quickly walked down the ramp and nearly bumping into the Major, who was standing on the right side of the jumper staring at a bright green blob stuck on the side of the jumper.
"What the hell is that?" Rodney asked when he finally noticed the blob that occupied the Major's attention.
"You're asking me? Who do I ask?" Teyla and Ford were coming up behind them. "Teyla have you ever seen this before?"
"No, Major, I have not. It might have come from the mainland, and there are things on the mainland that I'm as not familiar with as much as you, Major."
"I guess not." John started poking the small ping pong ball sized blob with the tip of his P-90. "It looks like some sort of sticky thingy."
"Did you just say 'sticky thingy'?"
"What would you call that blob?"
"I'd call it an alien adhesive."
"That's much better." John rolled his eyes and continued poking in the blob with his gun.
"I dare you to touch it," McKay said with a boyish grin.
"What? How old are you, Rodney?"
"What? Look at it. It's a bright green blob on the side of a space ship. It's obviously not a living organism."
"Obviously."
"And you obviously don't want that thing stuck on your ship, so I dare you to take it off yourself." Rodney dared again.
"Fine then, I will," John let go of his gun and with his right hand carefully poked at the blob to make sure it wasn't alive and going to eat him alive. The blob had a smooth sticky texture like rubbery glue. After a couple more test pokes, John got brave enough to pull the green blob off the side of his ship. He held the sticky glob between his fingers and started to roll it into a ball. "It's like silly putty only stickier."
"Now that we've determined that the strange green blob won't be eating us alive, can we go and eat now? I don't want to have a hypoglycemic reaction because the Major here wants to play wit h space play-doh," Rodney said with his usual impatience.
"You dared me to touch it and I did. What do I get?" John asked holding out the green blob in front of Rodney's face.
"Well, it doesn't count. We didn't agree on a bet before your grubby little hands grabbed the thing of the side of the ship." Rodney crossed his arms over his chest.
"Hey, whose hands are you calling little?"
"All right, let's make another bet. I bet that as persuasive as you can be, you can't get Elizabeth to touch that," Rodney challenged.
"What do I get if I do get Elizabeth to touch the blob?"
"I'll give you one hundred dollars."
"It's a bet." John turned to Teyla and gave her a sweet smile that seemed instead only to frighten her. "Teyla, would you like to touch this harmless little blob?"
Teyla looked a John oddly and made a face as she looked at the blob on his hand. "Harmless it maybe, but I do not wish to touch that…thing. Good luck getting Doctor Weir to touch it, especially when you smile like that."
"Come on, don't be a wuss. Ford?"
"Is it an order, sir?" Ford asked slightly concerned of the answer.
John thought for a bit. "No, but I could do that."
"No, thank you. Sir," Ford quickly answered and followed Teyla and McKay out of the jumper bay.
Elizabeth was now leaning on the side of one of the beams on the balcony like she always did. She heard the side door to the balcony slide open. Without looking she knew it was Major John Sheppard. Only the major would dare come out to the balcony and disturb her solitary peace. Not that she minded. He always seemed to have a way of getting her to smile even when he wasn't trying.
She could hear him walking up behind her and dropping his back pack next to her. She turned her head towards the sound where he dropped his backpack. "What can I do for you, Major?" She opened her eyes to see nothing to her right. She was slightly confused. She knew she heard him come out to the balcony and drop something next to her. She looked down and saw the black backpack that definitely belonged to the Major.
"How did you know it was me?" The Major's voice came from her left side.
She turned to see that John was standing next to her on the other side of the balcony beam. His right hand was faced up with some sort of bright green blob on it.
"Major, only you would dare come out to the balcony when I'm out here alone. Even Rodney stays away from me when I'm out here."
"Really? I always thought you were just admiring the view," he said innocently.
"Well, I am."
"So I'm not disturbing you, right?"
"Not usually."
"Well…if I'm disturbing you know now, I could come back later," he said, about to turn back towards the control room.
Elizabeth placed her hand on his arm, "It's all right John, and you're not bothering me right now. What can I help you with?" She assured.
John cleared his throat. "Well…," John quickly tried to formulate a way to tell Elizabeth about the childish bet he made with Rodney without it sounding childish. "You know how me, Rodney and my team were on the mainland, and the Athosians and their crops are doing great." John was rambling and he could see Elizabeth raise her eyebrows as if to tell him to get to the point. "Anyways, when we got back, I found this," he brought up his right palm and showed Elizabeth the unidentifiable green substance. "It was stuck on the side of the jumper's hull. McKay said that it was obviously a non-living organism, but some sort of alien adhesive."
"Adhesive?" Elizabeth gave him an inquisitive look.
"Yeah, adhesive, and he dared me to touch it and I did."
"Okay…should I reward you with a gold star for being a brave little Major?" Elizabeth teased.
"Now here's the kicker."
"Kicker?"
"McKay bet me hundred dollars saying that you wouldn't touch it," John finished with a smirk.
"Canadian or American?"
"What?" John was confused by Elizabeth's unexpected question.
"Did he bet you Canadian or American dollars?"
"Damn, I didn't ask. That sneaky bastard is probably going to rip me off and give me Canadian," he muttered to himself.
"No."
"Come on, Elizabeth, It's harmless. Look." He poked the sticky blob with his finger. Elizabeth made a disgusted face. "Come on, Elizabeth, don't you want to do something risky at one point in your life?"
"I'm in Atlantis in the Pegasus galaxy, which is another galaxy from home. I'd say that's taking some risk there."
"Then touching a sticky green blob would be nothing in comparison."
"No," Elizabeth said flatly. John gave her a defeated look. "Major, you are usually able to persuade me to do many things; this is not going to be one of them."
"I thought you wouldn't be afraid to touch a harmless blob."
"Why would you think that?"
John thought for bit and came up with a quick explanation. "You're one of those cool bosses who wouldn't send one of her men to a huge block of ice, because he defied orders to save his comrades, and you always forgive and forget," he finished with his sweetest smile.
"I may have forgiven you for that nano-virus incident, but I have definitely not forgotten. And we never did finish that conversation…" Elizabeth trailed off when she noticed the guilty look that crossed John's face, which only brought a smile to her face.
"Oh," was all John could say before he quickly returned to his mission at hand. "You don't have to touch it touch it, just poke at it or something."
"And Rodney would believe you that I "touched" the blob?"
"Probably not, he'd probably make you touch it again in front of him."
"Then there is no point of me touching it now."
"Come on, Elizabeth," John attempted again.
"Sorry, John, I'm leaving now." Just as she took a step back, she stepped onto John's backpack and lost her balance. Elizabeth instinctively shot her hand out and grabbed John's closest hand to her to prevent her from hitting the ground. She would have hated to have to add a visit to the infirmary as part of her schedule.
At the same time, John, seeing Elizabeth about to topple from his misplaced backpack, shot out his hand other free hand to catch Elizabeth around her waist to keep her from falling.
Elizabeth's eyes were closed as she waited to impact the cold balcony floor, but it never came. Instead she realized there was a strong arm around her waist. The arm had rescued her from her fall. She opened her eyes to see that she was face to face with John's green eyes looking back at her with concern.
"Are you all right?" he asked concerned.
"I think so. Are you trying to kill me?"
"No, that was another bet I made with Rodney that I didn't tell you about," he teased as he helped her stand up straight, but his arm was still around her waist and her hand was still in his.
"And what was this other bet?"
"It was to see if I could get you to dance with me?" he replied with another smirk.
"I wouldn't call this dancing."
"If someone walked out here now, they would think we were dancing."
"Good try. But we are not dancing, so could you please let go of me, Major?" He let go of her waist and took a step back away from her.
"You can let go of my hand too." She nodded to her left hand that was still connected to the Major's right.
"I did let go, you let go."
"No, I did let go, you let go already?" Both of them had let go of each other's hand, but their palms were still stuck together.
"Uh-oh," John said with a concerned look.
"Uh-oh? I don't like the sound of that."
"That's the hand that had the sticky blob on it."
Elizabeth made a face, "Are you saying I'm touching that thing that I didn't want to touch?"
"I think so."
Both of them turned their heads and tried to see if it was the green glob that was sticking their palms together. Instead of seeing anything, they ended up bumping into each other's head.
"Ow, sorry," both said in unison.
"Ladies first." John gestured for Elizabeth to look first. Elizabeth let out a sigh when she saw a bright green colored substance oozed between their palms. "That bad, huh?"
"Let's try pulling our hands apart, then," Elizabeth suggested.
They both used all their strength to pull their hands apart, but nothing happened. The only thing that happened was that their faces were turning blue and their hands were still stuck together.
"This is some adhesive," Elizabeth commented when she got her breath back.
"Tell me about it."
"Maybe we can try cutting through it with your dagger."
"My dagger? Are you sure?"
"Yes," Elizabeth firmly but with a hint of uncertainty.
John took out his dagger and slowly positioned their hands so he could use his left hand to wedge the dagger between their palms. He started picking on the green blob with the tip of the dagger. It seemed to be working. He was able to cut the blob a centimeter in before he heard Elizabeth yelp in pain, and he saw a spot of bright red blood ooze from between their palms.
"I'm so sorry," he apologized and tried to wipe her bold with his fingers, but it only made the blood smear on their palms. "I'm sorry. Are you okay?"
"No, you just cut me."
"I'm sorry it was an accident."
Elizabeth looked at her hand and saw that it was still bleeding, looked like that trip to the infirmary was still going to be added to her schedule. "Let's go to the infirmary. Maybe Carson can figure something out."
As they walked out of the doors of the balcony back into the control room, Elizabeth tried to hide the fact that she was stuck holding hands with John, while John was too concerned with Elizabeth's cut still bleeding.
The sight of the Major following Doctor Weir was not a strange sight to anyone in the control room. Someone was always following Doctor Weir and that someone usually ended up being either Major Sheppard or Doctor McKay. This time it was Major Sheppard, but this time Peter Grodin noticed an uneasiness in Doctor Weir's expression and guilt written all over the Major's face. Then as the pair zipped past him, Grodin thought he saw Doctor Weir holding the Major's hand. He always sensed something between the two of them, but this unexpected hand holding caught him off guard. Before he could process anything in his head, the Doctor and the Major were gone.
Elizabeth entered the infirmary with the major in tow. She was relieved to find only Carson in there stooping over a microscope. Everyone else must have left for lunch break already.
Carson drew his attention away from the microscope and smiled at his visitors.
"Doctor Weir, Major, how can I help you today?" he asked in his Scottish accent.
"Carson," Elizabeth returned his smile as she moved forward and hid the problem behind her as John stood next to her. "The Major and I have gotten ourselves into a sticky situation."
"'Sticky situation' doesn't sound too good," Carson commented.
"No not good at all," John muttered to himself. Elizabeth nudged him with her elbow to be quiet. He feigned hurt, but remained quiet.
"I don't know how to say this but—" Elizabeth was interrupted by Rodney's entrance into the infirmary behind them.
"Is that your hand on Elizabeth's ass?" Rodney asked rather loudly. Elizabeth's face turned red as blood rushed to her cheeks, and John's eyes widened in surprise and his eyebrows arched in question. Carson just looked at the three in complete confusion.
John decided it was time he did the explaining since Elizabeth looked like she had forgotten how to breathe at the moment.
"Rodney," John said slowly as he turned to face him. "No, my hand is not on Elizabeth's ass," John brought up their conjoined hands to show Carson. "This is our sticky situation. Our hands are stuck together by some alien adhesive, and we've tried to pull our hands apart, and we even tried to cut our hands apart with a dagger. We decided to stop before I cut the top layer of Elizabeth's hand off."
Carson noticed the drying blood on their palms. "Are you hurt badly?" he asked Elizabeth.
Elizabeth shook her head. "It's only a small cut, but I thought I'd let you take a look at it." Carson immediately put some rubbing alcohol on her cut to clean the wound.
As the two doctors occupied their time discussing the situation, John turned towards McKay, "you owe me a hundred American dollars."
"Who said anything about American dollars," McKay asked grinning at the Major's sticky situation.
"I should have had shot you in the head that last time you were testing that personal shield."
"Even if you shot me in the head, I was still invulnerable then."
"You're not invulnerable now," John reminded Rodney.
"Anyways, I see you're busy with Doctor Weir. I'll see the both of you later." John could hear Rodney laugh at his expense as he disappeared from the infirmary entrance. He returned his attention to Doctor Beckett and saw that he had already cleaned and bandaged the cut on Elizabeth's palm, and was now trying to scrape off samples of the green blob into a test tube.
"Take as many samples as you want," John said bitterly.
"I take this isn't silly putty," Carson said as he scraped another piece into the glass test tube.
"You know what silly putty is? I thought that was an American thing," John asked.
"How long will it take before the tests come back," Elizabeth asked to keep the two men on task.
"It will take me a couple hours to run a full test of the chemical make up of this foreign substance. I'll have to let Rodney take a look at it as well. I'll definitely call you as soon as I get the some results back."
"All right, take your time, Carson,"
"Don't take too much time, though," John chimed in.
"I need to go to a briefing in half an hour anyway," Elizabeth continued before John's interruption.
"Briefing? I'm supposed to have the rest of the day off." John was not happy about this unexpected turn of events.
"Welcome to my life, Major."
"Can we at least get some food? I'm starving." Elizabeth only gave him a look and led him out of the infirmary.