Challenge: discovery

A/N: Okay, it's here... the end of this story... Hope you enjoy it as much as you have previous chapters!

Close to the Heart

It's only the thousandth time something like this has happened. He's gone missing, again. Just disappeared, no word. Everyone else is back, but he's still missing. It's not the first time, or even close: he always seems to be doing this. But, for some reason, she has this feeling that he's not going to make some miraculous return this time.

So, in his absence, the secret comes out. She doesn't know how or why, but she just starts crying and the secret just spills from her lips as she heartbrokenly fingers her ring. Who first heard it, she doesn't remember. But whoever did spreads it to the whole city.

Almost no one in Atlantis is surprised at the news.

At that, she is greatly astonished. Were their efforts to keep it hidden so transparent?

It seems that to almost all of Atlantis, they were. But when news leaks out further, to Colonel Caldwell and then the crew of the Daedelus, there are amused whispers that she sometimes manages to silence with her stare. On the inside, she's torn and yet freed knowing that her secret isn't so secret anymore.

And she hopes it doesn't make it all the way back to Stargate Command.

And then all of a sudden, out of absolutely nowhere, he's back.

Her premonitions are wrong, and he has returned miraculously yet again.

Needless to say he's surprised as she flies into his arms and kisses him eagerly in front of everyone. He attempts to make excuses to all who are watching, until she tells him it's useless; they already know.

He's not happy about that.

Less than a week later after long debates and lectures, they're through with the messy aftermath of the leak, and they've escaped just barely complete. Luckily, they're considered so crucial to the Atlantis mission that they're allowed to keep their jobs.

They both get an earful, but, to their utter relief, they're allowed to stay as they are.

Except that their marriage is no longer secret.

The secret's out; it's been discovered.

------

"You know," he says, "this is a good thing."

She nods slowly. "It is. We knew it wouldn't stay hidden forever." She pulls the golden band off of her right hand's ring finger and gently slides it onto her left where it should be. "We don't have to hide anymore." She inspects the ring's new position and smiles as she decides it looks much, much better there.

He agrees with her words with a nod of his head, then takes the hand she's examining and lightly touches it to his lips.

She sighs contentedly before she realizes he's not taking his ring from its hidden place.

"Aren't you going to put your ring on your finger, John?" she asks.

He shakes his head, and takes her hand—that he's still holding—and places it on his chest. Through his shirt, she can feel the ring's round shape where it sits on his military tags. But she can also feel the steady beat of his heart on her fingertips.

He's reminding her once again that the way it is, the ring's closer to his heart this way.

"You know," he says, "I don't think I will. I like it just where it is."

THE END