Work Text:
When John stopped by Elizabeth’s office, she was hard at work typing away on her laptop, while looking at an opened book that was lying on her desk.
“What are you typing?” John asked as his eyes roved over the contents of her desk, trying to figure out what book she was reading.
“Just something for fun. You know, I needed to unwind after Kolya and the Genii tried to take over the city,” Elizabeth said, dryly.
“Yeah, I get that, but it seems like you’re working. What are you working on?” John came around the side of her desk and stood a few feet away with his hands crossed in front of his chest.
“I’ll let you see, if you promise you won’t make fun of me or tell anyone,” Elizabeth said, raising an eyebrow.
“Hey, I won’t tell anyone, but now you’ve really piqued my interest. What kind of secret project are you working on for fun?” John leaned in and started to read what Elizabeth had written.
“Is this written…in Klingon?” John was now staring at Elizabeth with surprise and trying not to grin.
“Yes, I’m trying to translate Pride and Prejudice into Klingon for my own amusement,” Elizabeth said, somewhat defensively.
“Ok, then. How do you know Klingon, Elizabeth?” John asked.
“Shh, keep your voice down. John, I’m a Star Trek fan, obviously. This is just one of my hobbies,” Elizabeth said.
“Elizabeth, I’m really impressed that you know Klingon amongst all the languages you speak. I'm also a Star Trek fan. I’ve never met someone as smart as you are,” John blurted.
“Oh, uh, thanks,” Elizabeth said, blushing.
“Will you let me read it when you’re done?” John asked.
“Okay, but you need to keep this top secret. No showing it to anyone else!” Elizabeth said with an intense stare at John.
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A few months later, Elizabeth hit the chime for John's quarters.
John opened the door. Elizabeth noticed that he was still dressed in a t-shirt and boxers.
“Elizabeth,” he said nervously, “it's zero eight hundred hours. What do you need? I worked the night shift yesterday until zero four hundred hours.” John didn't want Elizabeth to think he was a slacker.
“Sorry, to wake you, John,” Elizabeth said, apologetically.
He realized that she was holding a stack of papers out to him, and he automatically took it. When he looked to read it, he saw that it was her Klingon translation of Pride and Prejudice.
“You had said you wanted to read it when I finished. I forgot you had the night shift last night. I can come back…”
“No, Elizabeth, I'm up. Go ahead and sit down in that chair. Uh, why don’t you read it to me?”
John's green eyes were tired but welcoming. He handed the manuscript back to her, and she took it.
Elizabeth sat down in the chair at his desk. As she opened the manuscript, she said,
“There's a dedication and a prologue in English first.”
“And you did this for fun? Classic Dr. Weir,” John teased.
“Yes, well, the dedication says, “To John Sheppard, thanks for supporting me in my endeavor to translate this classic Jane Austen work into Klingon.”
“It does not!” John grabbed the manuscript from Elizabeth’s hands playfully. He glanced at the dedication page and silently read what it said. “My bad, Elizabeth, it does! Why did you dedicate it to me?”
“Besides the fact that you’re the only person I told about it. And you kept asking how my project was coming along. You also said that if anyone can do it, I can when we had dinner the other night,” Elizabeth blushed and brushed a brown curl behind her ear.
“Yeah, well, keep going,” John said after handing the manuscript back to her.
John tried to listen intently to Elizabeth’s prologue, but his tired mind somehow went to other places at the sound of Elizabeth’s clear beautiful voice, which reminded him of the peace he felt as he listened to the ocean at night in Atlantis.
Elizabeth noticed that John’s mind was drifting away.
“How about I skip to the first chapter,” Elizabeth said, reading John’s mind.
John was entranced as he heard Elizabeth read the beginning of Pride and Prejudice in Klingon. He didn’t think he could become even more attracted to Elizabeth, until he heard her reading fluently in Klingon. His eyes drifted to her lips. She was wearing the same lipstick she always did, but he couldn’t help thinking about what it would be like to kiss her.
Elizabeth stopped reading when she realized that he was staring at her again. She felt bad that she had woken him up. She stood up from the chair and walked to John’s bed to tell him goodbye and to get some rest.
To Elizabeth’s surprise, John got up from his bed and stood next to her.
“Thanks for reading your Klingon translation of Pride and Prejudice to me,” John said, softly.
Elizabeth suddenly realized how close she was standing next to him.
“Uh, sure. Anytime. You look like you could use some rest though, John. Why don’t I read some more to you later-” Elizabeth was about to leave when he put a hand on her forearm.
“Don’t leave just yet, Elizabeth,” John said. Then he gently cupped her face and leaned down. He waited for Elizabeth to shove him, slap him, or maybe punch him in the face.
Instead, she tugged his head down and passionately kissed him. She looped her arms around his neck, and wrapped his arms around her back. Time seemed to freeze entirely. Eventually, they had to break apart for air.
Trying to disentangle herself from John, Elizabeth ended up pushing John against the side of his bed and falling on top of him.
Elizabeth noticed that John’s eyelids were getting droopy.
“Why don’t we take a raincheck?” she asked him.
“Elizabeth, can you just lay here until I fall asleep?” John asked.
“Okay,” Elizabeth said, as she snuggled against him.
In John’s dreams, he and Elizabeth were sitting in a clearing on the mainland, as she read him her Klingon translation of Pride and Prejudice.