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He was still trying to decide whether or not to call when his phone sprung to life in his hands, first vibrating and then letting out a rather annoying pop-rock polyphonic ring tone�obviously, he decided with a frown, when Sam had been entering phone numbers she had also decided to futz with other things, as he knew for a fact that his ring tone had been a simple ring-ring, default-4 or something like that, the ringing unique enough that he knew it was his but bland enough that no one in the SGC thought twice when they heard it.
With the feeling of at least forty sets of eyes on him, John quickly answered the phone, eager to stop the looping song that he didn�t recognize and would get back at Sam for at a later date.
�Sheppard,� John growled into the phone, his head bowed as he tried to avoid the slightly mocking stares of those around him. He decided then and there that the payback he owed Sam would be intense and unexpected, because he could swear that a couple of the airmen around him, whose eyes were still on him, were mockingly humming their own rendition of the ring tone that Sam had set his phone to.
�Grumpy,� Elizabeth said, her surprise and disapproval with his tone evident in her voice.
Cringing, John closed his eyes tight. �Crap. Sorry, Elizabeth. It�s� been a weird day,� he said earnestly. �What�s up?�
�Well, I was just informed that I�m finished here, so I�ll be back in Colorado Springs around nine tonight. You think you�ll be up for a late dinner in town?� Elizabeth asked hopefully. �You said you�d show me some of your old haunts, and it�s starting to look like we don�t have much time left before we leave again,� she added, a note of joy in her voice bringing a smile to John�s face, however briefly. The Daedalus was back in the Milky Way, would be back in Earth�s orbit for whatever repairs remained to be done in less than a week�apparently Hermiod wanted to give the hyperdrive a rest so they were going to have to make due with sublight engines for the rest of the trip. Once the Daedalus was repaired�which John had been told would take two days, three tops�the crew was to have two days of on-Earth leave time, which, while not enough to actually go anywhere, was enough to breathe non-recycled oxygen and experience actual daylight for forty-eight hours, not to mention enjoy the fact that they had soil under their feet. After that they were heading back to the Pegasus Galaxy.
The flash of happiness John felt when Elizabeth asked him to take her out to dinner disappeared as his surroundings came back to him in a rush. Peterson. C-17 on the tarmac. T-minus-36-minutes to departure. By the time Elizabeth arrived in Colorado Springs at nine he would be either at Nellis itself, in the BOQ (bachelor officer�s quarters) or he would be somewhere within the Groom Lake facility (more commonly called Area 51) where the X-302�s were stored and his training would take place. �You have no idea how good that sounds right now, Elizabeth, but I�m waiting for a hop to Nellis,� John said.
�Nellis? Why are you going to Nevada?� Elizabeth asked. John could hear the frown in her voice, and knew that her forehead would do the adorable little crinkling thing that happened when she was confused; something that happened so rarely that it was usually an event in and of itself.
John smiled at the mental image he had of Elizabeth. He had an excellent imagination, especially when it came to Elizabeth, and he could see her, clear as day, in her hotel room, half packed suitcase on the bed, a cup of room service coffee on the nightstand, probably empty or near empty, most likely her seventh or eighth cup of the day. Dressed in casual clothes, since she didn�t have any meetings and didn�t need to impress anyone. Bare feet�that John knew for a fact, Elizabeth having confided in him several months earlier, that she rarely wore shoes or socks while home, preferring the feeling of her bare feet on the cool floor, which, she had said, was one of the drawbacks to being in Atlantis; the floors were not exactly bare-foot friendly.
�Because my forward thinking CO decided that the Jumpers aren�t enough,� John said. �Which, of course, we�re going to have to talk about, because that is a betrayal of a very intense kind, Elizabeth.�
�Yeah, okay, we�ll talk about the intensity of my betrayal,� Elizabeth said indulgently. John could practically hear her rolling her eyes. �You seriously have to leave today? I�m feeling very out of touch right now and I don�t know how much help Rodney will be with that.�