******

John Sheppard could not stop grinning as he made his way towards the briefing room.

He strongly suspected he wasn’t been that inconspicuous about it either since several people had already asked him why the hell he was so cheery, one of whom was a distinctly under caffeinated Rodney McKay.

If anything, he should have been able to figure it out as it was his news the night before that had led to his mood.

Sam Carter would be arriving with the new science team when the Daedalus docked later that morning and she couldn’t have arrived at a better time. Quite frankly he wasn’t sure how he hadn’t been made aware of this before now.

Despite the way they’d left things back on earth and the welcome distractions of the Pegasus galaxy, he hadn’t been able to forget about her.

Whistling, he strolled into the control room, receiving a round of strange looks from his already assembled team.

“You’re unusually happy this morning John.” Elizabeth smiled at him and bit back a smirk which caused his eyes to narrow. What did she know?

“Well, fresh blood arriving always makes things interesting.” He thought he was doing a fairly good job at restraining himself but guessing from the knowing look which passed between Elizabeth and Teyla, probably not.

“I’ll bet.”

Before he could respond she had swiftly started the briefing and he made a mental note to make her pay later.

By the time the meeting was over, sitting still was becoming an issue and he knew there was a distinct possibility he was bouncing. Mentally he smacked himself round the back of the head. Bouncing really wasn’t something that military leaders should be prone to.

***
He’d progressed from bouncing to tapping on the consol, causing the various on duty tecs to glare at him. McKay seemed to be glaring too but John was betting that was for an entirely different reason, someone had filled him in on John’s history with Sam.

“You’re looking pleased with yourself.”

“Well, people like me.” He leaned back in his chair and shot Rodney a grin, ruining the effect slightly by almost tipping over backwards when Caldwell’s voice filled the air.

“This is the Daedelous are we clear for landing.”
“He was up like a shot and heading for the nearest transporter with Rodney on his heels even as he replied in the affirmative.

***
“And this is the puddle jumper bay.”

Sam’s eyes lit up (something that had happened a lot in the last couple of hours) and launched into a rather impressive speech about the jumpers. He’d almost forgotten that they’d already come into contact with one and he was more than happy to let her ramble…it was kinda cute.

He waited for her to tale off before quipping “Exactly.” And leading her, along with the other accompanying scientists towards the nearest one, gesturing for them to take a look around.

“So which is yours?” Sam whispered to him under her breath and he grinned at her before leaning closer, making sure to make it look innocent.

“I’ll show you when we’re alone.”

“Good idea.” She patted his arm briefly before rejoining the other scientists, answering questions as she went.

***
Three hours of meetings, plus the way-too-crowed-tour-for-his-liking, passed before they were able to get away under the pretence of John showing Sam to her assigned quarters and it took all of three seconds to pass for him to have her pressed up against the wall.

“What no tour of this room?”

“Later.”

“I take it you missed me then?” Sam smiled at him and let the bags she was still holding drop to the floor so that she could wrap her arms around his neck.

“Something like that.” He really didn’t feel like talking, especially considering how long it had been since he’d last seen her.

“McKay says you were bouncing.”

He was going to shoot him. “I wasn’t bouncing!”

Sam chuckled, “Personally, I think it’s sweet.”

His arms tightened around her as he rolled his eyes. “Don’t think I’m a sweet kind of person.”

“I’ll come up with something else to call you later.” She kissed him then and all thoughts of payback were put to the back of his mind.

“I can live with that.” He pushed away from the wall and walked backwards till the back of his legs hit something solid. “Now this is the bed…”
***