Room 313- Saturday morning

[solo_sword]

If it wasn't for the fact that Jaina was still keeping an eye on Adrian for Rose and Dimitri, she probably would have just headed out of town this weekend. She was twitchy and worried and the fact that Valentine's Day was tomorrow meant she wasn't doing as well at repressing her fears about why she hadn't heard from John in thirty-three days. It just made his absence harder to ignore. Worse, she kept formulating theories on what could have happened, like maybe he'd been hurt, or maybe things went really badly, or maybe he was so happy with his new team family he didn't want to come back. That last thought only lasted about a second, but the part of her that had gotten completely jealous of the way Ronon talked about it definitely went there. You'd think that being able to attack things with logic, or having experienced this kind of worry before, and recently, with her parents might have made things better, but here she was.

Once she was sure she was done with vampire duty till tonight, she went to take just a tiny bit more time training than she usually did, and came back to her room for a long shower feeling marginally better. And then she found a seat on her bed, checking tonight's TV listings on her phone to decide if she wanted to venture into a common room for entertainment rather than going to the dance, or sit in her room and pretend she wasn't worrying/sulking rather than going to the dance.


[For one, but the door's open if you really want to show up before.]

Comments

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

It had taken some doing, and boring stuff aside, John had arrived in Fandom after a frustratingly long Portalocity layover where he really wished he still had a working cell phone.

Now John leaned comfortably against the door frame with a smirky smile plastered on his face. "So, I saw there were some posters in the hall for a dance tonight. Hope I'm not messing up any plans."

[solo_sword]

It'd been a long, stressy week, so please forgive Jaina the second it took for her to figure out what was going on as she looked up in total surprise to see him leaning in the doorway like she hadn't seen him do since he'd left Fandom.

And then when it kicked in that she hadn't had some mental break in all the repressed panic and he was actually here, she cried, "John!" and got off the bed faster than she knew she could in order to go throw herself at him.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

It was such a hardship having cute girls throw themselves at him. John lifted her up in a tight hug. "I'm gonna take that as a no, then."

[solo_sword]

"I have completely blanked on what the question was," she half-laughed, hugging him back just as hard. She got the feeling she'd been doing pretty good at the repression thing, because it felt like a surprise to her that she was this relieved.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"That was some fast forgetting," he teased, glad to find she hadn't given up on him in a month.

[solo_sword]

"The surprise took over. Since that was longer than two years." So she couldn't hit him while she was hanging on to him. She was sure she could always get to that later.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Do I look that much older?" John wondered, maybe a little insulted because he thought he looked damn good given how many times he'd very nearly died or stayed dead in the last few months.

[solo_sword]

"...No," she said, looking at him like he may be crazy when she could be hitting him right now. "Priorities, honey."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"What? It's only been six months," he told her. "Sorry to kill your dreams of dating a 30-something."

[solo_sword]

"I'll get there," she pointed out absently. "What do you mean it's only been six months?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Well, first there's one month," John started. "And then you add five more and you get to six months." Someone was feeling good about being back in town.

[solo_sword]

All right, now she was swatting at him. "Today's day thirty-three!" Not that she'd been counting or anything. "Don't take that as an invitation to start doing division or something."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

Okay, with the hitting he could tell she'd been doing her repression thing about what could've been going on for him in all those many potential months. John understood that and scaled the sarcasm back a bit. "Look, I'm not gonna apologize for not being gone thirty-three months, but I am sorry you were worried." See? He could still be good. "Even if worry is a good look on you."

[solo_sword]

"Flirt," she accused. Like she minded. It didn't erase all the worrying she'd done, or take away any of the questions she had, but it was a very good way to actually keep the fact that he was here in perspective. "Time slowed down."

And now she was a little torn between gleeing over that, and knowing that she knew him being here was only temporary.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

Normally it was John's job to state the obvious. "Gotta keep life interesting, right? So, are you going to invite me in or just keep hugging me in your doorway?"

[solo_sword]

She backed up a few steps so that she'd be able to close the door without hitting him, but don't think he wasn't going to get more hugs the second he got in the room. "Yes," she replied.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Somehow, I knew you'd say that," he said, smiling down at her as he moved out of the way.

[solo_sword]

Wrapping her arms around him again once she'd closed the door, she asked, "How long are you here?" First things first.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"That depends on how long you keep me here," he answered, rubbing a hand over her back. "And what the time conversion ends up being now." Since these things loved to mess with him.

[solo_sword]

"You probably don't want to hear how long I'd keep you here," Jaina said. Because she'd want him to stay if she didn't know he had a year and a half till he had to get Ronon free.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Not if the answer is ten minutes. The portal layover was too much of a killer for that to be worthwhile."

[solo_sword]

"It's longer than ten minutes," she assured him with a little smile. "That probably wouldn't even be enough time to quiz you."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"There's a quiz now?" John asked, pulling back to give her a look.

[solo_sword]

"Potentially an essay quiz, too," she nodded. "It starts with me asking how things went."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Ah, so it's gonna end with me saying that I'm alive." Jaina would get enough of her answers when she spied some of the scars he'd obtained while on Atlantis. Assuming she looked for them.