Summary: S/W, This is a new low

Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I ain't got no money, and nobody'd be daft enough to pay me for this. As it is said so let it be thought; you make the toys, I play with them.

AN: it was anuna81! really! she said 'BARE FEET' to me!

Elizabeth was standing next to the gate talking to the newly-arrived Major Lorne when the gate started dialing again.

"Unscheduled offworld activation!"

She moved away from the ramp, letting the major stand in front of her as they waited for the rest of the technician's information.

"It's Colonel Sheppard, Ma'am, coming in hot!"

"Drop the shield!" she stepped aside as she spoke to see the gate more clearly as the soldiers all cocked their weapons.

It only took a few seconds before John's team flew through the gate, landing rolling down the ramp.

"Shield up!!" John was yelling as he rolled, finally coming to a stop in front of Elizabeth's legs.

Elizabeth looked down in concern, "Are you alright, colonel?"

"Yeahhhh," John grumbled, staying on his back at her feet as he caught his breath, "We are never going back there again! Why do I even do this for a living again?"

Elizabeth's instinctive inspection for injuries on his body stopped in fascination as her eyes fell on his bare feet. "Err, John? Did you change the footwear regulation without telling me?"

He turned his eyes from his self-pitying look at the ceiling to glare at her rebelliously, lips stubbornly closed.

Elizabeth tore her eyes back to his with a blink at his silence, hearing Teyla start to speak before she could question him. "Before they turned upon us, we were trying to negotiate with the the natives and they..." she stopped to control the laugh that had started shaking her voice, "The natives believe men should remain barefoot and in the..." the gateroom gaped as the usually self-contained Athosian started laughing out loud, unable to complete her report.

Elizabeth looked at the other members' of John's team, getting around to noticing the complete lack of male footwear. Ronon was smirking with his usual twisted sense of humour and perfectly comfortable on bare feet, giving her a wink before going to help Teyla straighten from her bent-over holding-her-stomach guffaws. McKay, on the other hand, looked downright mutinous as he picked himself up and gingerly stepped away, glaring at everyone.

When she dropped her eyes back on her military 'commander', somehow her eyes skipped down from his slowly rising upper body.. right back to those bare feet.

"Elizabeth?" his familiar, slightly hesitant drawl forced her attention up. Meeting laughing eyes that rose above her as he finally got himself up, since she wasn't paying him any attention anyway.

Before he could say a word, she snapped herself out of the very strange daze and stepped back sharply. "You need to see the doctor, colonel, those scrapes look unpleasant. I'll expect your mission debrief in 2 hours." She nodded to him and spun away, trying to fill her mind with the treaty she was supposed to be writing. To push out the completely strange images flooding it.

Since when did pale, muddy, scratched size 10 feet with muddier pant hems draped on them make her forget she was in the middle of the gateroom? And why did a completely inappropriate urge to change the footwear regulations herself scamper through her thoughts??

She groaned as she reached the safety of her office. His feet, Elizabeth?? This is a new low.