�Got it. Something light, but not cotton-candy fluff,� John affirmed. He sighed heavily. �I�m gonna look like an idiot when I pick up our movies.�
That brought a smile back to Elizabeth�s face. They had ordered movies from several different suppliers, and most had been willing to ship them up to the Mountain for free, but one store had refused to budge on their shipping policies and it just so happened that all the movies that they had ordered from that supplier were starring George Clooney�for Teyla, and over half the other females on Atlantis. �Hey, it�s your Air Force. If they�d just been willing to pay the, what was it? Ten dollar shipping charge on a two thousand dollar order? If they�d just paid that you wouldn�t have to look like some obsessed fan-boy,� Elizabeth smiled.
�Yeah, well my Air Force wouldn�t have to watch every cent they spend if it weren�t for you and your anti-military-spending activism,� John replied, his voice light and teasing. They had playfully bantered about their respective views on the military hundreds of times since they met; there was no animosity there for either of them.
�Well, I should let you go. You�ve got a lot of shopping to do, and I�ve got to get a dress, shoes, do something with my hair, and endure a torture session before Jack picks me up tonight,� Elizabeth said.
John coughed. �You�ve got a date to this last minute party thing?�
�Yep. And you know him, too. Tall, grey hair, quick wit, likes hockey and fishing, dogs are his favourite people,� Elizabeth said. John remained silent. �I�m going with General O�Neill, John, and it�s not a date.� She smiled softly. �Why does it matter to you either way?�
�It doesn�t,� John said quickly.
�If you say so,� Elizabeth said, trying to deny how pleased she was by the fact that, for whatever reason, John was bothered by the thought that she had a date for a DC snore-fest of a party.
John had to admit that he had been mildly surprised with the house that Sam lived in. When he and Sam had lived together their place had been, for lack of a better term, a hole. Shag carpeting, sticky windows, bad plumbing, and a questionable landlord, not to mention no A/C and heating that was intermittent at best. Still, despite its faults, it had been home, and they had tried to make it less gross and creepy, but their limited budgets had made that difficult.
Sam�s house, however, was nothing like the apartment that had been John�s first truly happy home. The floors were hardwood with decorative area rugs in abstract patterns that accented the furniture. The style of the d�cor was modern, though the house had some classic touches to it in the architecture that produced an intriguing dichotomy that shouldn�t have worked but did none the less.
If it weren�t for all the boxes that contained most of her belongings the house would have definitely felt like a true home.
It felt weird, being in Sam�s house without Sam there with him, especially since it was his first visit to the house, and having Rodney with him, subtly poking around, made the whole experience even weirder. Still, John had promised Sam that he would check on her house for her, and that he would water her plants while he was there. John didn�t know if it was because Sam actually wanted him to check on her house and water her plants of if she just wanted to make sure that he left the Mountain for more than sleep in the hotel room he had moved into as soon as he had been allowed to leave the base. Either way, though, John did as he had been asked, checking her house�nothing seemed out of place, though it was hard to tell since every room was in various stages of being packed up�and making sure her newspapers and her mail were brought inside so that people wouldn�t know that the house had been empty for several days, and he watered her plants�there were explicit instructions beside the watering can on her kitchen counter, including several topics of conversation she had determined her plants enjoyed (how she came to those conclusions John didn�t want to know) and he followed the instructions as far as plant food and water levels were concerned, but he decided to skip the talking thing, if only because he had always thought that people who talked to their plants were a little bit crazy.