Disclaimer: Basically, any characters/elements you recognise don't belong to me. Every character you don't recognise belongs to me.

A/N: I really wanted to write a Lorne story and here it is. I hope there's still plenty of Lorne love around the place! I've posted more info about the story on my profile page. Just quickly, I'm Australian so I use British spelling and punctuation.

The story begins during season two of SGA, which makes it set in 2005. Particularly, this chapter is set during 'Instinct'.

Reviews would be much appreciated!

Clutching a cup of tea to her chest, Dr Olivia Meyers settled herself into the large, plush armchair. She rummaged in the bag she'd brought along and pulled out her new tablet computer. She kicked off her shoes next and drew her feet up so she could sit crossed legged, the data pad positioned across her lap.

She certainly hadn't been expecting to find something this lush and comfortable on Atlantis. Admittedly, she had only been in the city for a week so far, but it had all gone by in a blur of cold steel and consoles and computers.

The idea that there was at least one room in Atlantis completely devoid of technology somehow made her very happy. She'd found the room only a few days after arriving. The trip on the Daedalus had made her feel more than a little restless and as a result, she'd been compelled to spend her first few days doing nothing but exploring. This section of the city had only been cleared a week or so before she arrived so it had been crawling with technicians and scientists at first.

Everyone quickly deemed this room of little use and moved on. Olivia was glad, that meant she'd had the room to herself the last two times she'd visited and tonight was no different. She had started to think of the place as a reading room. Filled with white couches, armchairs, side tables and lamps, she could think of no other use for such a relaxed space.

A familiar thrill ran through her body as she activated her tablet and scrolled through a list of newly downloaded information. She had allowed herself a week to settle in before starting work. Today had been her first day of official work on Atlantis and it had been nothing short of astounding. She had barely scratched the surface of the Ancient database and her computer was already groaning with hours and hours worth of reading material.

Translating as she went would be annoying and time consuming. She'd have to read everything twice to fully understand it. But since her grasp of Ancient was far from perfect, the practice would come in handy. Still, she made a mental note to try to become fast friends with one of the linguists on the expedition.

Olivia set aside her tea and focussed her mind to adjust the lighting in the room. The main lights turned off and she concentrated on the table lamps, turning on the one beside her and the one closest to the door. Might as well only use as much power as she needed to. She briefly contemplated shutting the door but quickly decided against it. She wasn't very experienced with using the ATA gene yet and the last thing she needed was to end up trapped alone in an isolated part of the city.

Letting out a contented sigh, she retrieved her tea and selected a random file. Sliding quickly down the screen, she realised it was some sort of epic poem. For about the thousandth time that week, she thanked her lucky stars that she had been selected to join the Atlantis expedition. Settling back, she began to read slowly, letting the words wash over her and lead her mind away from the small cosy room.

Olivia lost track of time quickly. She'd been in the room for three hours now and had finished going through five files already. It was approaching what passed for midnight on Lantea, and though she wasn't tired, she figured it was about time to return to her quarters. As far as she knew, there was no curfew in the city, but it would be prudent not to push her luck in her first few days on the base.

She selected one final file and was pleased to see this was another poem. The first one had been amazing, similar in content and tone to Homer's Iliad. This poem was shorter and appeared to be lamenting a lost love. The academic in Olivia was surprised to see that poetry written thousands of years ago in a different galaxy could be so similar in theme to works written back on Earth only a relatively short time ago.

The romantic in her, however, wasn't very surprised. In her studies of various civilisations through the ages, she had always found that love and war were the two human experiences written about most often.

She supposed that since love and death were the two most visceral feelings that anyone could hope to experience it was only fitting that they be the most conducive to producing truly beautiful, profound words.

Oliva had only read the first few lines when she was interrupted by the sound of footsteps out in the corridor. Someone was running down the hallway towards her little sanctuary. She froze, hoping whoever it was would just keep on running by. The heavy footsteps gradually slowed as they approached and she realised that wasn't going to happen.

She kept one eye on the door and one on her data pad, determined not to look suspicious or guilty when whoever it was showed up.

"Hello? Is there someone in here?"

As a figure appeared in the shadow of the doorway, she looked up and tried to appear as innocent as possible. "Yes, someone's in here. Sorry. I was just about to leave anyway."

"And may I ask what you're doing all the way out here in the first place?"

It was a man. That was the most she could gather from the voice and silhouette so far. His tone of voice was hard to place, too. Authoritative but with a hint of curiosity? He was breathing heavily, as if he'd been running for a while.

"I was just doing a little reading," she explained, waving the glowing tablet in the air. "Sorry again if I broke a rule by being here so late. Am I in some sort of trouble?"

The man stepped across the threshold of the room and into the light. He regarded her slowly, as if he doubted her sincerity. She took the opportunity to look him over as well. He was a little taller than her, wearing a pair of grey sweat pants and a black t-shirt pulled tight across a broad chest and shoulders. A dark triangle of sweat that had soaked through below his collar confirmed that he had indeed been running for a while.

He didn't seem angry at finding her there, but his face wasn't exactly friendly either. And it was a handsome face she noticed immediately. Strong features were schooled into an expression of mild irritation. The fact that his face was covered in a fine sheen of sweat did nothing to detract from his looks. His short brown hair was sticking up in sweaty spikes as if he'd been running his hands through it recently.

Thoroughly intrigued, Olivia put her computer aside and leant forward to rest her elbows on her knees. "Am I in trouble?" she repeated.

He took another step into the room, narrowing his eyes questioningly. "Should you be?"

"Of course not. Unless it's a crime here to lose track of time while reading."

"Were you reading for work or pleasure?"

Olivia frowned at the sudden change of tone. "A little of both," she admitted. "Look, if you need to report me to your superior officer or something…"

"Who said I was military?" the man asked, raising an amused eyebrow.

She let out a soft laugh at his attempt to throw her off. "Well, that much is pretty obvious. I've known a fair few academics and scientists in my time and none of them go on midnight runs. Most of them are asleep at their desks by then."

"That sounds like an unfair stereotype."

"Maybe so, but it's an apt one all the same. I'm right though, aren't I?"

"Yeah," he conceded eventually. He eyed her thoughtfully and folded his arms across his chest, which only served to accentuate his military build. "Since you're so smart, which branch of the military do I serve in?"

Olivia tapped her index finger to her chin and looked him up and down slowly. "Marines?"

"Ah, not so smart after all." He dropped his arms and moved to lean over the back of the couch across from her. "US Air Force."

She waited for him to introduce himself, but he seemed content to just stand there and stare at her. Unperturbed by the scrutiny, she smiled cheerfully and decided to go first. "Okay then, strong and silent type. I can work with that. I'm Dr Olivia Meyers and I arrived last week on the Daedalus."

"Nice to meet you, Dr Meyers."

More silence and more staring. "And here would be where you tell me your name," she prompted slowly.

A smile spread across her visitor's face and Olivia found herself letting out an involuntarily loud breath. The man had a lethal set of dimples. He moved around from behind the couch and extended his hand towards her. "I'm Evan."

"Nice to meet you," she replied, shaking the offered hand briskly. "No rank or last name?"

"It's just Evan when I'm not on duty." He stepped back and perched himself on the arm of the couch. "So are you the medical kind of doctor or…"

"The useless kind?" she supplied helpfully.

"Well, I was just gonna say the other kind, but okay."

Olivia shrugged, not bothered because she herself found her chosen profession often lacked a little significance when compared to a medical doctor. "I'm the latter, I'm afraid. Never saved anyone's life, but I do have a PhD in anthropology that comes in handy from time to time."

"Anthropologist, huh? Thought we already had a few of those around."

"There's two others," she confirmed. "But my speciality is different to theirs. I use this thing called ethnohistory to study cultures."

"History? That doesn't sound like it fits in with the other scientists around here."

"Tell me about it," she replied darkly. "But I doubt you want to hear about the internal politics of the research departments on Atlantis."

"Maybe some other time," he agreed, shooting her another killer smile. "So I know you're reading but why so late and why all the way out here?"

"The longer day is throwing me a bit, plus I'm still too excited to sleep," she admitted sheepishly. "And this place is more comfortable than my quarters. I think my mattress might be stuffed with rocks."

"Yeah, mine too." Evan nodded sympathetically and looked around the room. "I guess I buy that. Certainly a nice place you've got yourself here."

"Thank you. I've arbitrarily decided it's a reading room. So, we've established what I'm doing here. What's your excuse for being out so late?"

"Just came off security detail. I like to take a run whenever I finish. Helps to burn off any extra adrenalin so I can get to sleep quicker. I decided to come all the way out here because I haven't had a chance to check out this section since it was cleared."

She watched as he wiped his face on his sleeve and suddenly remembered that she had brought along a bottle of water. She fished it out of her bag and tossed it across to him.

"Thanks, Doc. Left mine back in my quarters."

"No problem," she said as he downed the whole thing in a few gulps. He tossed the empty bottle back and she stashed it in her bag.

"So, what's so interesting that you lost track of time anyway?" Evan asked, nodding towards her forgotten tablet.

"Just some Ancient poetry at the moment."

"The Ancients wrote poetry?"

"Yeah, they did a lot of things," she said, trying not to sound exasperated. "That's part of why I'm here. I specialise in ancient cultures. I'm here to compile a comprehensive history of their civilisation so everyone remembers they did things other than just build Gates and ships."

"Okay, then let me hear some of this poetry."

Olivia's eyes narrowed sceptically. "You like poetry, Evan?"

"Couldn't tell you one way or the other." He shrugged half-heartedly. "I haven't really paid much attention to it before."

Smiling to herself, she gathered up her tablet and scrolled back to the start of the poem. "Do you read Ancient at all?"

Evan chuckled. "Believe it or not, learning Ancient wasn't really a priority at the Academy."

She shook her head in mock outrage. "Well, that's disappointing. I think I'm going to have to send a letter to the Pentagon about that."

"So can you read it out to me?"

"Sure, but I'm not that adept at Ancient myself yet so it's probably going to lose a little something in translation. Ancient has so many more nuances than English."

"So I've heard," he drawled.

Olivia grinned and began to read, trying her best to do justice to the words on her screen. Every few seconds she would look up from beneath her lashes to gauge his reaction. For the duration of the poem he just stared out the window over her shoulder, his face twisted into an endearing sort of frown.

She finished with a flourish, letting the final word hang in the silence of the room for a moment before she spoke again. "Well? What do you think?"

"I liked it," he concluded after considerable thought. "I'm no expert though. Would you say it's a good poem?"

"I'd say it's a glorious poem," she said softly.

A long silence stretched between them and Olivia became hyper-aware of the situation. She'd just read a love poem out loud to a complete stranger. A hot stranger, sure, but a stranger nonetheless. The semi-darkness only heightened the intimacy and the quietness stretched so far around them that for all intents and purposes they might have been the only two people in the city.

Evan broke the silence first. "I had better get back to my quarters."

"Yeah, good idea. I'm starting to feel a little tired."

"Do you need me to help you get back?"

For a moment, Olivia contemplated saying yes just so she could spend some more time with him. "No thanks. I have a map somewhere on my data pad if I get lost."

Evan stood up and gave her one last contemplative look. "Well, goodnight, Dr Meyers. I guess I'll see you around the place."

The idea of bumping into this man regularly was definitely something to look forward to. "Goodnight," she replied warmly.

He turned and made for the door, pausing at the threshold to peer back over his shoulder at her. "Welcome to Atlantis, Doc."

Olivia stared into the dark corridor, not feeling the least bit tired anymore.

The following morning, Olivia decided to take some time to set up her new lab to her liking. She worked hard, moving methodically from one task to the next in an effort to keep her mind occupied. But inevitably, her thoughts always returned to the man she met last night. So far, she had only barely resisted the urge to run a quick search through the personnel database.

The bottom line was, she hadn't come to Atlantis for the men. There were plenty of them on Earth and they'd still be there when she got back. There was important work to be done in the Pegasus Galaxy and distractions weren't going to help the situation. Even when said distraction was all kinds of gorgeous.

And just like that, she was gone again, her mind filling up with images of dimples and biceps and sweat drenched shirts.

"Knock, knock!"

Olivia dropped her stack of books in surprise. A tell-tale blush crept over her face even though no one could possibly know what she had been thinking. She had been so preoccupied that she'd completely forgotten that the two microbiologists who shared the lab next door had offered to take her to lunch.

She quickly scrambled to retrieve her books, willing her cheeks to stop glowing. Sophie, a delicate little Frenchwoman, knelt down to help her. "Sorry, we didn't mean to startle you."

"It's okay, you just caught me daydreaming," she said, forcing a little laugh.

"Don't worry, love, soon you won't have five spare minutes to yourself to do any daydreaming," Emma replied in her thick British accent.

Olivia dumped her books on the table and sighed gratefully. Sophie and Emma would help take her mind off things. Where Sophie was demure and soft spoken, Emma was excitable and brash. They were an odd pair and Olivia had been looking forward to spending time with them.

The trio eventually made their way to the mess hall and settled at an empty table with their trays. Olivia's eyes roamed all over the room. It was a sea of Atlantis uniforms and BDUs and the constant chatter provided a steady background hum. Morale was clearly up at the moment.

"You've arrived at a great time," Sophie confirmed. "Things haven't been this relaxed in a while."

"Yeah, I haven't been evacuated or confined to my quarters in ages," Emma added with a cackle.

"So the Wraith still think the city was destroyed?"

Sophie shrugged. "I suppose so. You'd have to ask Dr Weir or Colonel Sheppard."

"We're not exactly in the loop around here," Emma explained, a tinge of bitterness in her voice. "Most of our information is taken straight from the dodgy Atlantis grapevine."

Olivia nodded sympathetically and poked half-heartedly at her food. She could see why Dr Weir would choose to hold back some information, but she also knew how it felt to be kept in the dark. Still, she had decided back on Earth that she would keep her head down and avoid all the political wrangling on Atlantis.

A bottle of water suddenly appeared on the table in front of her, breaking Olivia from her reverie. Surprised, she looked up into a pair of blue eyes. It was a few seconds before she realised who she was looking at.

"Figure I owed you one, Doc," Evan said.

"Thanks," Olivia said once she had recovered enough to form sensible words. She hadn't noticed his eyes in the dark last night. Now he stood before her in the black accented Atlantis uniform worn by all military personnel. He looked different but still just as good.

He turned and walked away without another word. She watched him leave and gradually became aware that Sophie and Emma were both now staring at her.

"What?"

"Seriously?" Emma hissed. "You're already on speaking terms with Major Lorne?"

"I didn't realise I was," Olivia said slowly. "Major Lorne?"

"Yes, he's kind of a big deal around here," Sophie said, her voice lowered conspiratorially.

"Militarily speaking, anyway."

Olivia's eyes widened as it dawned on her. She knew she had heard the name before, also read it in the information pack she'd received back on Earth. She even recalled hearing his name mentioned around the SGC. "He's Colonel Sheppard's second in command, right?"

Emma nodded. "Only been here a few months so far. He doesn't really pay much attention to us civilians from what I've heard."

"Clearly he's paid attention to one of us."

"Clearly," Emma agreed, speaking to Sophie as if Olivia wasn't sitting right there. "I'd like to know what they were doing that required a bottle of water."

"Hmm, something quite strenuous, no?"

"Sounds like it."

"All right," Olivia interrupted. "If you must know we met last night when he was taking a run through the city."

"And?"

"And nothing. We spoke for all of five minutes," she said, waving her hand dismissively.

"That's still five minutes more than me," Emma said.

"Now that I know who he is, I'm sure I'll never speak to him again. Does that make you feel any better?"

"You've got to be kidding!" Emma reached across the table and seized her hand. "You had better try to talk to him again. You've got him to acknowledge you, don't stop there."

Olivia pulled her hand away abruptly. She really didn't need any encouragement right now. They were supposed to be taking her mind off him. "This isn't a singles' cruise, ladies. I'm here to work."

Sophie rolled her eyes. "Everyone says that when they first arrive. Trust me, you'll succumb after only a few months of self-imposed celibacy."

"It won't be like that for me," Olivia said stubbornly. "I had some bad relationships back on Earth and now I'm actually looking forward to being alone for a while."

Sophie and Emma gave her sceptical looks, but dropped the issue. The conversation moved on to work and Olivia tuned out briefly. She wasn't the type to lock herself away in her lab and ignore everyone and everything. That would have made things easier.

Truthfully, she wasn't entirely sure her resolve would hold out, not if Evan Lorne was going to keep showing up in her life.