Chapter 15

It was only a few weeks until Christmas now and their magical ethics projects were due the day before they left. The library was full of second year students who had clearly left their project until the last minute if the conversations John was overhearing were any indication. John's group project was almost complete, they'd done all the research, they just needed to put together the last couple of presentation boards and finish the script. After that it would just be a case of rehearsing the presentation a few times so everyone knew exactly what they were doing.

"We're so getting an A," Jack said as he glued something to a board.

"Don't jinx it," Teyla replied, glancing across the table at where the boys were completing a board. She and Elizabeth had their heads together, writing more of the script.

"I'm beat," John said leaning back in his chair. "Why don't we call it a day? We can finish all of this off tomorrow and then rehearse it at the weekend."

"Sounds like a plan," Jack said. "And this board is done now anyway."

"Alright," the girls agreed and the group packed up their things. They' barely made it out of the library when they noticed a commotion around the girl's dormitory. Since Elizabeth and Teyla were heading there anyway, John and Jack decided to follow them and see what was going on.

They reached the gathering crowd but there didn't seem to be anything to see, just a couple of the school's guards standing outside the door.

"What's going on?" Teyla asked someone.

"A girl is dead," they were told.

"What?" Teyla asked in surprise, "How do you know, what happened?"

Another girl joined the conversation, "Apparently her roommate found her. I don't know what happened but she ran down the corridor screaming for help and shouting 'she's dead'."

The crowd seemed to fall silent then as the doors opened a stretcher was carried out by two of the medical staff. The form that laid on it was covered entirely by a black sheet. John unconsciously looked to Elizabeth, her face pale and sad, as were many other peoples, including his own he imagined. He wanted to go to her, put an arm around her but there were too many people around, Carlie or one of her friends could be among the crowd.

They watched as the stretcher was carried away towards the infirmary, a few people following after them. The crowd began to disperse, curfew was fast approaching, a fact the guards reminded them all of as he told them they could enter the dorms now.

"You two going to be alright?" Jack questioned, looking at the building. "We have no idea what happened to that girl."

"We'll be fine, if there was any danger they would have said so," Teyla said but she didn't sound entirely sure.

"Don't worry," Elizabeth said looking at John as though she could sense his concern. "We'll go hang out in Janet's and Laura's room for a while."

"See you tomorrow then," John said, still reluctant to leave. The girls went into the building and John had no choice but to follow Jack back to the tower.

"If there was any danger to the girls the school would have put more guards in the building," Jack reasoned and John nodded his agreement. The last thing the school needed was something happening to its pupils, he told himself, the girls would be fine.

The girl's death seemed to be all anyone was talking about, at least Teyla knew her name now, Missy Lenard. Rumours were spreading like a wildfire and Teyla had heard twenty different explanations for what had happened ranging from a sickness to dark magic rituals. She and Elizabeth had gone to Laura's and Janet's room last night finding that Kate was already in there. They'd all been in the building when the body had been found and hadn't known much more than Teyla.

Kate's room was near Missy's, she'd heard the roommate screaming and running down the corridor. She'd stuck her head out of her door to see what was happening and whether she could help but a couple of minutes later the screaming girl had returned, quiet now but with tears streaming down her face. She'd had a guard in tow and she'd led him to her room. There had been no sound for a little while after that and then a doctor and a couple of nurses had come running down the corridor and disappeared into Missy's room.

Over the next few minutes a couple more guards arrived, one of them standing guard outside the room, the other telling everyone to return to their rooms and stay there until they were told otherwise. Kate had waited in her room, door open, until Missy's body had been removed. A guard had stayed outside the room but they'd been told they could leave now if they wanted, she' gone straight to Laura's room.

"Alright students, settle down," Professor Colbrun called over the noise as he walked into the class. He waited for silence as he leaned against the front of his desk. "I know a lot of rumours have been flying around about what happened to Missy Lenard last night. The medical staff isn't completely sure what happened to her but they have said it does not appear she was attacked or that she was sick, they don't believe there is any danger to the rest of us here. They believe she may have died of a heart attack, perhaps brought on by stress and a weak heart."

Hands were raised and questions were shouted but Colbrun only shook his head. "That is all I know for the moment, your fellow students are being told the same in their classes. If any of you feel the need to talk about this you can speak to one of the school councillors or to any member of the faculty if you would prefer. This has been a terrible tragedy and our thoughts should be with Missy's family and friends. Now, let us begin today's lesson. I'll start by reminding you all that your magical ethics projects are due in a few weeks time, I hope you're all close to completing them. Open your text books to page 25, we're going to be learning about the law on the hunting of magical creatures today."

There was groaning as people began to flick through their textbooks for what they expected to be a very boring topic. Teyla knew a lot of people found this class dull unless they were actually debating something, things tended to get much livelier during those lessons. She liked it though and she knew it was Elizabeth's favourite class. She didn't expect this to be one of their more interesting lessons though.

"Man," Jack sighed. "I already know the law on hunting magical creatures, don't do it."

"It's not that simple," Elizabeth replied. "Some creatures can be hunted under certain circumstances or in certain places. Besides it's not just about learning the law, it's about learning why we have the laws and debating whether they're right or wrong."

"Well check you out, you're liking a walking brochure," Jack laughed and then jolted with a yelp as Elizabeth kicked him under the table.

"Is there a problem Mr O'Neill?" Professor Colbrun asked.

"No sir," Jack said and then turned a glare on Elizabeth. "That wasn't very ethical."

"I'd be willing to debate that," she smirked and then turned her attention to the text book, pen in hand, ready to make notes.

"Oh, you got me there," Jack said with a grin.

Christmas shopping was a nightmare, even in a smaller town, or maybe it was actually worse because it was a smaller town. The streets and shops were crowded, Sam hadn't gone more than a few minutes without bumping into someone. She'd never been a big fan of shopping, Christmas shopping even less so but it was a necessary evil. Next year she was doing her shopping early, then she'd be sitting in her room nice and cosy while everyone else was out here trying not to get trampled and fighting for stuff.

"I think I'm nearly done," Laura said, looking down at her bags, her face one of concentration as she worked out who she still needed to buy presents for. "Jack, my mom, Marcus and... oh there was someone else, who was it?"

"Me," Vala said.

"No, I got yours while you weren't looking, I'm stealthy like that," Laura smiled. "Oh, it was my aunt."

"I'm happy for you," Kate said as she looked around them confused. "I'm nowhere near done, and where did we lose Elizabeth and Teyla?"

They looked around them and realised they had indeed lost two of their friends to the crowded streets. Their day of fun girl's shopping was actually turning into hard work, they'd only been out here for a few hours and they were already exhausted.

"It's alright," Sam said. "They know where we're going for lunch, we'll meet them there."

It took them another half an hour to make it to the place they were having lunch. They made a few more stops along the way and Sam was weighed down with bags by the time they made it to the cafe. It was full of people but Laura spotted a family getting ready to leave as they entered and she practically pounced on the table.

They all sat down, relieved to be off their feet and able to put their bags down for a while. Teyla and Elizabeth arrived a few minutes later with their own mass of bags. "Sorry, Teyla spotted a pair of shoes she just had to have," Elizabeth explained. "She stopped to look at them for two seconds and the next thing we knew, we'd lost you all."

Teyla held up a bag with a grin. "You'll all be glad to know they are so worth it."

"That's great," Laura replied. "Now let's order food, it's probably going to take ages to get it as it is."

They decided quickly what they were going to eat and as Laura predicted it took a while before the food actually made it to their tables. They planned which shops they still wanted to visit, who they still needed to buy gifts for. Their day was far from over and after lunch they launched themselves back onto the crowded streets. Vala almost got into a fight over a sparkly dress with another young woman, she came out of it the victor though. It had been a long day and Sam was fairly certain she'd gained at least a dozen new bruises by the time they were heading back through the woods to school.

"I can't believe we only have two weeks left until Christmas," Teyla said as she shifted several of the bags in her hands around, distributing the weight more evenly. "This year is flying by."

"Well, they say the years go by faster as you get older," Kate said with an attempt at a shrug, the weight of her bags preventing her from really lifting her shoulders much.

"Don't say that," Laura replied in dismay. "That's depressing."

"That's just life," Kate said. "Alright, seriously guys, stop. I need a break."

She put her bags down at the side of path and dropped down next to them. Everyone else followed suit and Teyla dug some chocolates out of one of her bags and handed them around.

"I wonder what the boys have been doing all day," Sam said, she could imagine them all sat around a table in the cafeteria playing thumb wars, she doubted she was far wrong.

"Cameron said they were going to get a game of football going," Vala told them. Sam sighed, she would much rather have played football with the boys than do her Christmas shopping but it had needed doing and despite the crowds and weight lifting she'd been doing with her bags, it had been a fun day. Sometimes it was nice to just hang out with the girls.

"We should do this more often," she stated, "Not this," she added, gesturing to the bags, "but hanging out, just us girls."

"Yeah, we really should," Kate agreed.

"We should have a girls night out, no boys allowed," Vala said. "We'll arrange it for after Christmas."

There was some excited agreement as they finished their chocolate and then gathered their bags up for the rest of the walk home. It was a relief when they made it back to school until Sam realised she had a bunch of stairs to walk up. Sam could only glare as Vala, much more use to excessive shopping, practically skipped her way up them.

She dumped her bags on her bed, not bothering to put anything away. She got a quick shower and changed her clothes since, despite the cold weather, she'd managed to work up a good sweat that day. She headed off to the cafeteria, Laura and Janet were already there with the boys, neither of them had changed but they both looked too tired to care.

"Had a good day?" Jack grinned as she sat next to her.

"We did actually," Sam replied, "Long and tiring, but really fun. How was your day?"

"It was okay," Jack responded, putting an arm around her and Sam almost laughed when she saw Marcus and Cameron further down the table engaging in a thumb war.

"Alright, we'll be in Laura and Janet's room if you need us," Teyla said as she and Jack headed towards the door. The two of them were going to hang out with their friends for a couple of hours to give John and Elizabeth some privacy. Jack had accompanied John so that if Carlie or her spies were around it wouldn't look suspicious, as far as they'd be able to tell, the four of them were hanging out together. Then Teyla was planning to sneak over to Ronon's room to spend the night there, since Ronon's room-mate had left for Christmas a little early.

"Thanks guys," Elizabeth replied, grateful for their help. It wasn't fair that she couldn't spend time with John openly but this was better than nothing and in the short term, it was all they could do. Jack and Teyla left and Elizabeth locked the door behind them. She'd barely managed to turn around before she was in John's arms, his lips on hers.

"I've missed you," John mumbled against her lips.

"I can tell," Elizabeth grinned into their kiss.

John pulled back after a moment and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, "I hate not being able to do this every day," he told her and she felt a little tug of guilt at his words. It was because of her that they had to hide and she knew how much he hated it, how hard he found it to be careful not to stand too close to her, not to sit next to her in the cafeteria, not to touch her, kiss her, hold her hand as they walked between classes. She missed those things too and she hoped like hell they could find a way around Carlie and her father soon.

"Let's eat, you've already made me starve myself all afternoon," Elizabeth forced a smile. John had prepared a picnic for them to eat on her bedroom floor, he always made the most of these moments.

They sat together and ate sandwiches and cakes until they were both too full to eat any more. Elizabeth sat between John's legs and leaned back against him, both with wine in their hands as they just enjoyed spending this time together. In two days they'd both be heading home for Christmas and it would be a few weeks before they saw each other again.

"Maybe we should just stay here for Christmas," John told her. "I'll tell my parents I'm behind on work and can't come home. Carlie and all her spies will be gone, it'll be just me and you."

"That sounds perfect," Elizabeth said a little sadly. "But you deserve to spend Christmas with your family."

"You might not say that if you'd met my family," John mumbled. Elizabeth put down her glass of wine and turned around so she was kneeling between his legs, facing him.

"I would love nothing more than to spend Christmas with you but we both need to go home. I stayed here last year only because my father saw no reason to send the coachman all the way here to get me just to bring my back again in a few weeks. It's different this year though because Carlie's here and that's all the reason he needs to send the coach. He won't accept me not going back with her, and besides, I had to promise to start being a good girl or he'll pull me out of school, remember."

"They don't deserve you," John told her looking her in the eyes, "I don't think I do either."

Elizabeth shook her head and smiled, "Yes you do."

She leaned forward and kissed him, felt him shift to put his wine down and wrap his arms around her. He pulled her close, kissed her more deeply and she moved her legs to straddle him. John broke the kiss, looked her in the eyes again and she could see his feelings for her in them, see their depth and she knew neither of them were ready for those words. Instead she let her own feeling show, just for a moment before she kissed him again.

John lifted her as he stood up, her legs locked around his waist as he lowered them down on the bed. "So," John said between kisses. "What do you want to do for the rest of the night?"

Elizabeth smiled, "I think we should play monopoly."

John kissed her harder, "Try again."

"Potions homework," she suggested.

He slid his hands beneath her top, running them up over her sides, "Nope."

She was having trouble concentrating now, "We could exchange Christmas presents," she tried, thinking of the wrapped gifts on the desk.

"I got you a book," John told her as he unclipped her bra and dropped a kiss on her neck.

She laughed, "Well that ruined the surprise, don't you want to know what I got you?"

"Not right at this moment," he replied, as his hands continued to roam, his fingers brushing over the sides of her breasts. She gave in then, pulled his face back to hers and kissed him as deeply as she could.

TBC