"Is the blindfold really necessary John?" Even muffled he can detect the irritated note in Elizabeth's tone.

His hands tighten over her shoulders, guiding her around another corner "Well we can't have you peeking and ruining the surprise, can we?"

She groans, "I hate surprises."

He grins, "I know. You're a control freak."

Her attempt to swat him fails as she can't actually see where her hand's directed; she can however hear his chuckle and grits her teeth. This gets worse every month.

"Ok, here!" He says a couple of turns later, "here we are!" With a dramatic whip and flourish he pulls off the blindfold to reveal...

His quarters.

Elizabeth's eyebrows pull up in a perplexed look, "John?" She asks without turning from the smooth, metallic door, "is there something you'd like to tell me?"

His smirk doesn't waver for a moment, "okay, be like that," he shrugs, waving his hand in front of the chimes, "I just want to see you so smug in a second..."

The doors slide open as a shiny black nose sniffs its way from under John's bed, Elizabeth forehead furrows, head on one side as she stares at it, "John is that...?"

Triggered by her voice the nose snaps upwards, slithering out to reveal a pair of big brown eyes, floppy ears, golden coat (covered in fluff – does that man ever clean the room?) and crazily, wagging tail, Elizabeth freezes.

"Sedge?" She whispers, "you..." Suddenly she seems to be struggling for words, "...can't be here."

However her pet feels reassuringly real as she slams against her legs, knocking her to the ground and enthusiastically licking every portion of her exposed face.

"Sedge!" She's got her voice back now and the movement of her body; shoving the furry mass away, "get off!" She eventually fends her off and sits up, blowing the fluff out of her eyes, gaze locking with John's, ignoring his twitching lips.

"Ok you've got me," she admits, "How did you manage this one?"

He shrugs modestly, "easy when you know the right people have the right connections..." He pauses, "of course not all of the Powers that Be are quite aware that we just shipped a truckload full of animals across the galaxy." He explains before Elizabeth even has the chance to raise one brow.

"Oh don't think you're the only one, turns out almost half of Atlantis has some beloved thing they wanted to bring over here; this place is going to be teeming in a couple of hours. The rest are being unloaded now."

She just nods, sinking down on his bed in a daze, "I still don't understand how you managed to do this John," she strokes the blissful Sedge absentmindedly, "I mean this is a military base, a research facility, its a working environment– not to mention an ancient city of alien technology that could be the most valuable discovery earth ever makes! How did Caldwell even let the animals onto the ship?"

John sits down beside her, close enough that she can feel the heat radiating off his body. "Caldwell knows that Atlantis is more than just a job to the teams here Elizabeth," his voice is uncharacteristically serious.

"It's like what we talked about last month; this has become home for so many people. Even Woolsey knew that, he let this happen." She can't quite keep the incredulous look off her face at that, "and General O'Neill has been around long enough to know how these things work." His face unable to stay serious for long, breaks into another grin, "don't worry I've got all the bases covered." He stands up and holds out his hand, "c'mon, let's take this one for a walk."

Sedge gives an excited bark at the familiar word and scampers over to scratch at the door, Elizabeth laughs, "why not?" They left together, Sedge padding at their heels.

Yes, she had to concede; John Sheppard had finally made her relax.