Fic: Bun in the Oven
Mar. 18th, 2006 03:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
libra_travellerTitle: Bun in the Oven
Author: libra_traveller
Pairing: John/Rodney
Rating: PG
Summary: An Ancient device gifts John and Rodney with a child. They name her Lailie, and she goes on an adventure, discovering another city on the planet that has Atlantis.
Part One
“What’s taking you so long?” John Sheppard asked Rodney McKay this for the fifth time that afternoon. Rodney had been analyzing a set of ruins the Ancients left on planet MAK-400.
“So sorry, is my doing my job bothering you?” McKay was a little peeved at the continued interruptions. Granted he had been at it for three hours already. He was having trouble translating one of the walls. He was coming up with the most peculiar phrases, such as ‘Instilling males with women features’ and ‘Love matters not what form’.
“How much longer do think it will take?” Teyla gently asked.
“Give me another half-hour and I’ll let another team come back later to finish.” Rodney could never get mad at Teyla. It was only John that got on his nerves. It might have been because he could tell that when he explained science to him John understood, but still made like he was dumb. It just irked him, all that intelligence being hidden by an ‘I’m just a fly-boy’ front.
Ford being the curious young man that he is, accidentally ran his hand against one wall starting a chain reaction that would forever change the lives of two men. Sheppard who was standing in the middle of the room was picked up by a strange yellow light enveloping him. A metal bench rose out of the floor, and John was laid down on it. Rodney ran towards him and was enveloped by the light too.
John felt a painful tingling around his abdomen. Rodney felt a weird sensation as if something had been taken away from him. It was only when the light turned off and he looked at John did he realize that something was terribly wrong. John had a bulge around his stomach that strongly reminded Rodney of pregnant women. This was so wrong. He quickly helped John off the bench that was lowering itself back into the floor.
“Lets take you to Carson he’ll know what to do.” Aiden Ford tried to help John out of the room, Rodney supporting him with a shoulder around his waist.
“I’m going to be sick.” John decided that Ford’s shoes looked like a good place to let his vomit fly.
“So gross, sir.” Aiden himself looked like he would be sick.
“Sorry Ford.”
“Come on John, Beckett will want to see you. Teyla dial the gate.” Rodney helped John to the gate, as it wasn’t that far from the ruins. They went through the gate and Rodney immediately called for medical attention.
“Major? What happened to you?” Elizabeth Weir could only stare at John and his round belly.
“Good lord man, what did you do now?” Beckett came and helped John on to a gurney.
***
(Later in the infirmary.)
“Carson, can you tell me what’s happened to the Major?” Weir asked Beckett.
“Perhaps you should offer him congratulations.” Carson vaguely offered.
“I don’t get your meaning.” Elizabeth was very confused.
“Major Sheppard is pregnant. And it looks like the child is five months old.”
“Pregnant?! Wait, five months, that’s pretty fast for a child to grow.”
“Yes it is. At the rate the child is growing we’ll have to do a c-section by late tonight.” Carson could only grin at the absurdity of it all.
“So what’s the gender of the child, and who’s its father, I mean, other father? I’m so confused.” Elizabeth asked while pacing and occasionally taking glances at the curtained off bed.
“Why don’t you come with me, I’ve yet to tell John, well any of it actually. I think he’s guessed though.” They both walked over to the bed. Carson pulled the curtain open. Sitting next to John was Rodney, holding his hand. “Congratulations you two, you’ve a healthy girl growing inside you.”
“You mean he’s pregnant!” Rodney had been in denial of what had happened. Suddenly the translations made sense.
“Oh and Rodney,” Carson added, “you’re the girl’s father.”
Thump. Rodney passed out from manly, well maybe it was a combination of joy, surprise, and downright terror.
Part Two
"Damn you Rodney, this is all your fault. I've got your child in me and it's trying to come out. I don't have the right equipment for this!" John Sheppard tried to breathe past the pain.
"Just hold on John, Carson's going to put you under soon. Then he'll cut the child out." Rodney McKay holds John's hand, and the pressure is starting to make his fingers tingle. "Besides this isn't my fault, Ford's the one that was pressing things."
"But it's your child you bastard."
"I was trying to save you!"
"Okay both of you quit your whining." Carson Beckett, Pegasus Galaxy Doctor Extraordinaire, quickly put John to sleep.
"Thank you, my hand was starting to cramp." Rodney watched as they rolled John into surgery.
Three hours later
John slowly wakes up, hoping that it had all been a dream. A weird nutty dream because no way would Major Sheppard be having I'm a Loud Mouth McKay's child. Alas, a baby's cry shattered that hope.
"Well here you are, the first Atlantean born child. Your daughter Major.” Carson gently placed the cute baby in John's arms.
"What are we going to name her?” Rodney asked while wearing a huge grin. He's a Dad, amazing. With his genius and John's math ability this girl's going to be brilliant.
"Lailie Sheppard McKay." John smiled as he proclaimed this.
"And here I thought she'd be a McShep, ah well." Carson grinned as he left the new parents alone.
Part Three
"Lailie, come here baby." Rodney picked her up out of her crib, a former storage container. He walked her over to his laptop. He started showing her things, whispering in her ear.
"What are you doing Rodney?" John entered their quarters they were currently sharing.
"I'm teaching her how to read Ancient."
"What? She can't even read English, hell she doesn't even talk yet."
"Don't yell around the baby. Shush Mummy's just grouchy." Rodney rocked Lailie. "Besides she distinctly said 'Gunk' yesterday when Kavanaugh visited.
"Hah. Fine. You teach her Ancient, but as soon as she's old enough she's going to learn to play football." John's face took on a determined air, expecting disagreement.
"If you want to turn her into a grunt, well go ahead and try. She'll be our brilliant grunt."
"Yes, our little girl. Has Beckett figured out what happened yet?"
"He's still looking at the tests he did. And Zelenka and his team are still researching the machine. When the translations were finished something interesting was discovered." Rodney said all this while bouncing Lailie on his knee. She giggled. Since she was born she had kept growing and now, three days later, was about one year old.
"And what was that?" John asked partially distracted by their beautiful girl and her head of brown curls bouncing about.
"It seems the machine wouldn't work unless the couple had great feelings for each other. I guess the Ancients didn't want a child born to a loveless family." Rodney wisely avoided John's eyes as he said all this.
"Feelings?" John coughed. He didn't have feelings for McKay!
Rodney looked up at John's spluttering. "They don't have to be romantic feelings you idiot." He felt a little shocked at John's reaction. So maybe on his side the feelings were romantically inclined. Especially now after the man had his child.
"Sorry, I was just surprised and yeah, I care about you." John felt a little sheepish and a tad alarmed at the grin his words gained from Rodney.
"Well I care about you too," Rodney said with only a smidgen of shyness.
They were both startled when Lailie turned around, looked straight at Rodney's face and said, "Baddy!"
John couldn't help laughing. "She called you Baddy."
"Well she obviously meant Daddy."
The child then turned to John and gleefully said, "Mum."
John cooed at her and picked the child out of Rodney's lap. "Aren't you the smartest baby around, yes you are."
Rodney gasped. "How dare you talk to our child as if she was a lesser being. Treat her like the little adult she is."
"She's a baby. That's how you talk to them."
"Says who?" Rodney raised his eyebrow at John.
"That's how my mom spoke to me and I turned out fine."
"Riiight."
"Come on let's get away from grumpy Baddy." John swung around towards the door.
"Daddy." Rodney watched as they left the room. The man he secretly loved and their daughter. Sigh.
Part Four
Lailie walked around the briefing room. The two parents couldn’t stand to leave her alone so they brought her with them. Unfortunately this meant they had trouble paying attention to anything but their three year old daughter, who is actually only a week old.
There were four days where the whole base suffered the yelling of the word ‘no’ constantly. No she wouldn’t eat, no she wouldn’t take a bath, no she wouldn’t go to bed. Eventually Radek sang her a lullaby of his native country to get her to fall asleep. Now as a three year old she was easier to handle.
“Major. McKay. Please focus. We’re discussing further exploration of the city. Any input?” Elizabeth raised her brow.
“Yeah, if you could find a bigger room for us that’d be great.” Sheppard barely noticed anyone but his baby girl who was jumping up and down by Bates’ side trying to make him laugh.
“Major that isn’t funny. Rodney?” She looked beseechingly at McKay.
“I’m with him, this girl’s growing so fast she’s going to need her own bed soon.” Lailie by now had crawled into Bates’ lap and was playing with his dog tags. McKay rescued him by walking around the table and picking her up. “Come here baby.” She began crying; she liked Bates. “I’m going to take her to the mess to eat. John have fun.”
“Sure I will. I guess I’ll be leading this next exploration. Where are we going again?”
Later when Sheppard had returned from exploring the lower region of the western edge of the city he found an interesting sight in Rodney’s lab. As it turned out, Kavanaugh was trying to convince Rodney to let him work on a project that he felt he was better qualified to handle. Lailie, in Rodney’s arms kept giggling and pointing at Kavanaugh saying ‘Heehee, heehee’ because Rodney was tickling her. Kavanaugh became upset, positive that the girl was calling him a hippie. Rodney did nothing to dissuade him of the notion. John could only laugh as Kavanaugh huffed his way out of the room.
“We need to teach this girl names to call when Kavanaugh’s around.”
McKay grinned. “Like dipwad.”
Lailie pointed in the direction Kavanaugh had gone and shouted ‘Deep wat’.
John cooed, “Now that’s our little darling. Rodney want to eat lunch with me?”
“You mean a date?” Rodney was only joking.
“Well yeah,” John smiled shyly.
In shock Rodney stayed silent but Lailie looked at them both and said, “Mummy and Daddy.” It only seemed right that they be together.
“Uh, let’s go then. I’ll just get Carson to baby-sit Lailie.”
In the mess hall, John and Rodney sat together and talked about how the exploring went, about the various Ancient technologies that had been found, and of course, about Lailie. It’s scary having a daughter together as they’ll be spending the rest of their lives raising her.
“I have to be honest. When you first told me about the translations and how the two people involved have to have feelings for each other, I was in denial. I never liked a guy before I met you.”
“What are you saying John?” Rodney crossed his fingers underneath the table.
“Will you go steady with me?”
“Yes.” They grinned at each other. Having Lailie changed their lives for the better.
Part Five
Lailie is five and now speaks English and can read both English and Ancient. It had only been four weeks. John and Rodney spent the whole time in awe at the miraculous achievements by their daughter. She was unbelievably intelligent and she had brought them together. Their relationship was still in the early stages, but they spent much of their time together taking care of her. When Teyla or Elizabeth would baby-sit Lailie, John and Rodney could have time alone. Their evenings always ended with them making out.
Even though they found themselves in love with one another, together they had more love for their daughter. When away on missions they were afraid to miss any moments of their child growing up, and since she grew so fast it was a legitimate concern. Aiden and Carson were called Unkies by Lailie and Teyla and Elizabeth her Aunts. She called John Dad, after a serious conversation about the difference between a man and a woman. Rodney was Daddy, though on occasion she would say Baddy to see him huff.
Already at six, five weeks old, she had a strong personality but she was a sweetheart. She was nice to those she liked and devious to those she didn’t. Kavanagh had quickly become a project of hers, someone she enjoyed driving crazy by hiding behind corners and whispering derogatory phrases she had heard Daddy say. Since the beginning she had a strong love for Bates, and eventually he cooled down and began enjoying the attention. He would watch over her when the team was on missions, flying her around in his arms. One day she told him she wanted to be a pilot just like Dad. John had made her a wooden airplane, carving it from wood found on the mainland. He told her his Grandpa had taught him how to cut into wood. He promised if they ever returned to Earth he would take her up in a plane.
Rodney loved to teach her, savoring every amazing connection she made. Lailie would ask him questions all the time, and when he answered in complicated sentences he knew she could understand. When she got confused about science, because sometimes he went straight to the point without adding in the details of how scientists came to certain conclusions, she knew just what to have clarified. She shocked him one day when she asked how did he know something, how could he be certain. Once he told her about the branch of philosophy called Epistemology, the theory of knowledge, she ran around shouting the word as an excuse to question everything the scientists did and knew. Some got mad at her, while others took the time to explain what the scientists behind them did to gain the knowledge they used now. She absorbed everything.
When noticing that Lailie had become a tad stuck up and hated not getting her way, Elizabeth taught her diplomacy, a way to compromise and get what she really desired in the calmest way. Unfortunately for John and Rodney this gave Lailie an addition to her arsenal of getting what she wanted, which included pouting, which all children learned early on. The one thing that everyone refused to allow Lailie to learn was how to make explosives. Aiden was slightly sad because that took away the one thing he felt he could teach. Carson would give her physicals constantly and he explained everything he was doing. Unlike her fathers she wasn’t afraid of needles and loved to watch the blood come out of her arm.
At age seven and a half, six weeks old, Lailie ran around the place often, though she knew not to visit unexplored places, and the whole base pretty much watched her. She loved looking around pretending to be an explorer like her family. One day though she got into a transporter by herself, something she was not allowed to do, and vanished off the grid. None of the control room’s life detectors could pick her up. Rodney and John panicked, and the majority of the people on the base began looking for her. Two weeks later she still wasn’t found.
Part Six
“Oh my god! We have to find her. She’s like ten now. Do you have any idea how much trouble a brilliant ten year old can get in? Where could she be?” Rodney was shaking as he paced in one two steps. His hands were in fists. Every time he raised them, John thought he was going to punch something, or someone.
“You have to calm down. We’ll find her.” John placed his hands on Rodney’s shoulders, steering him to the bed in their little apartment.
“How?” Rodney swiped a tear that had trailed down his cheek.
“We have teams systematically pressing every part on the map in the transporter that we tracked her to have disappeared in . It might take sometime but a team will find her.”
“But what if there was a malfunction and she’s dead. Oh god the life-sign detectors aren’t working because she’s dead.” Rodney looked around wildly, not seeing the room.
“Damn you Rodney! Don’t say that. She’s not dead. My baby’s not dead.” John fell to the floor his back against the bed, his knees pulled up and his head on his arms. His soft sobs felt loud to Rodney’s ears.
“John? She can’t be dead right? We’d feel it.” Rodney rubbed the hairs on the back of John’s neck. “We’d feel it,” he said with more certainty.
John looked up, staring at the wall trying to think past the tears. He had always known when she was happy or upset. It was not gene related, but more like parental intuition. “Yeah. We’d know.”
“Good. Well if she’s alive, which she is, then we have to keep searching.” Rodney’s voice held conviction, but he dragged John up onto the bed and they laid down and just held each other.
Part Seven
Lailie was scared. She had never been here before. Daddy should be here with her. He and Dad liked finding new places. She was not an explorer, not like them. She choked back her tears. “Where am I?” she cried. Her voice echoed. There was no answer.
It had been only two hours but she was hungry. Daddy said she had his problem and should eat constantly. Dad though wanted her to stay thin. Uncle Carson told her to do what felt right but to stay away from too much sugar. She rubbed her stomach as she moved away from the transporter.
She kept coming back to this one place to keep herself oriented while hoping that the transporter would come back on line. It was dead. It had shorted out when she first arrived. She had tried to rearrange the crystals like Daddy had showed her, but nothing worked.
So far she had mapped out fifteen rooms and three hallways. They were all empty. Some looked to be living quarters. There was one large room that had appeared to be a lab similar to the ones that the scientists worked in. She was headed back there now.
The worse part of being here, other than there being no people near, was the dark. She was used to lights turning on wherever she went. This was creepy. It was not completely dark, or she would have gone crazy screaming her head off. There were back up lights running the corridors. The whole place reminded her of ghost movies Dad watched with her. Lailie had scoffed at the plotlines and the silly people who scared too easily. Now she knew how they felt.
The lab room had nothing visible on the benches so she went to the cabinet drawers. She had to stand up on a table to reach them. She yanked one door open, it whined, and dust blew off making her sneeze. Looking inside she was disappointed when there was nothing there. She checked the rest of them and found one object, a block of sorts. She tried to think it on but nothing happened. It had obviously been left for a reason.
Frustrated and starving she marched out of the lab. She decided to forget procedure and moved further than she had before. She found a set of stairs and began climbing without looking back. The stairs did not go far until hitting a long corridor. She nervously started walking. It was only half way through that she noticed the glass windows. Looking through them she saw everything was still and black.
A light seemed to blink in the distance. Lailie strained to see. It came closer until it glided across the glass. It had eyes. With a gasp she realized she was underwater.
Part Eight
She had never been underwater before. The closest she had ever come was sticking her head down in a bath tub at home. It was one of the few tubs that had been found in Atlantis. Lailie wondered if she was still in that city. Radek had shown her video footage of parts of the city still under water that the scientists had explored. None of the places looked like this. The water was not as thick in the video as it was here.
Taking her eyes away from the glass she continued moving down the corridor. At the end, she found a door, but it would not open. This time when she rearranged the crystals in the panel it worked and the door opened. Perhaps one day she could be a scientist, or maybe an engineer.
Looking in the room she found a storage area. There were metal boxes lining the wall with writing on top of them. When she found one that said non-perishables, she opened it to find containers of what she hoped was food. A smile graced her face. Now she would not starve.
Opening one she found a weird paste, suddenly she was not so sure it was food. She tasted it anyways. It was delicious, a fruity flavor. The label on the container gave it a name she had no idea how to pronounce. There was also a list of what must have been ingredients. She was so hungry that she started scooping great amounts with her fingers and slipping it into her mouth.
She ate the whole container before she was full. There were several within the one box. Her stomach began to ache. She struggled to her feet and left the storage room trying to ignore the pain. There was a branch in the corridor she had missed before.
Lailie reluctantly continued moving on. The hallway was long and there were many pictures lining the walls. The artistic ones had designs she envied, they were so beautiful. She wished she could draw and paint that well. On the other wall there were portraits of people long dead. Some wore uniforms but others beautiful clothes, dresses and suits. Each person was smiling as if they had no worries clouding their joy.
At the end of the hallway was an opening to a bigger room that was circular and had several doors around the walls. It looked like a lounge where people could meet. She walked its length and opened each of the doors. They were all bedrooms, each with several beds partitioned off, except one door. It led to another hallway and farther on, stairs.
She climbed the stairs for several minutes. When she arrived at the top her breath caught in her throat. The lights running across the floor cast a green glow around the room. It was huge, the ceiling so high she would not have seen the top if not for the blinking fish swimming above the glass.
There were cushions scattered across the floor so people could have laid back and looked up. When this place used to be above the water it must have been an observatory, a place to watch the stars. Except all she could see was dark water. She might not be able to see the night sky, but a nap sounded wonderful.
Her stomach ache had gone away. She told herself it was probably just her body adjusting to ten thousand year old alien food. She laid her head down on one of the cushions and closed her eyes.
A white light appeared near her sleeping form. A tendril caressed the child’s face. It watched over her while she slept.
Part Nine
Lailie woke up cold and hungry. She had been having a pleasant dream about playing a game with her fathers. She stared up at the dark water way above her. Little lights glanced off the glass. The fish seemed to be as interested in her as she them. She sat up and stretched her little arms. Standing up she noticed again the lights running along the floor in the room. Something must be powering them, she thought. She decided that she would head back down the halls until she reached the food, that she hoped would go down better this time.
She was tired as she walked, her limbs aching from all the moving yesterday. The pictures lining the hall were scarier this day, almost ominous, the faces seeming to question her presence. When she finally reached the storage room with the food she was relieved, not only because the food was there but because the people were no longer gazing at her. She had never felt more alone than today, worse even than that day she got stuck in the bathroom for five hours, at least Dad had been within shouting distance.
The paste’s fruity flavor tasted dull this time, making her slightly nauseous. She ate it anyways. It seemed to stick in her throat and she had no water to wash it down with. In fact she was quite thirsty, so she looked further in the boxes. She found packets of a ugly red liquid. Hoping it was not in fact blood she opened it and took a sip. It was slightly bitter but the fluids made her feel better.
She decided that she would carry with her a box at a time to the observation room, which she would make her headquarters, a place to return to after her explorations. She had realized that she may be in this place by herself for a quite awhile, and she may as well get to know the place. It took her five hours to bring enough food and drinks to the room and her arms ached so bad by the time she finished that she decided to take a nap.
When she woke up she felt lethargic and just sat on the tattered pillow gazing up at the ceiling. She was like this for an undeterminable amount of time before she heard a weird creaking noise. Suddenly the wide room felt too big and she became scared. The noise continued for several minutes before she realized that the power in the place was turning on. Lights came on blasting, making it impossible for her to see. As soon as her eyes adjusted she could see how truly big the room was. It would have been considered the size of a football stadium if ever she had been to one. Her sleeping space was only a few yards into the room.
The room was in fact made for families to gather in one place and children to learn in another. There were computer consoles in one side of the room, meant to teach. Lailie gazed in wonder at them. She cautiously stood up and walked near one of the consoles. It was powered up, she pressed the screen and immediately a menu in ancient script appeared.
For hours she flipped through pages on the screen, carefully translating as much as she could. She learned about the Lantians’ culture, their norms and how they interacted daily. Soon she became tired and went to sleep after eating more paste for dinner.
The next day she went back to reading. She found the history of the people and read about the amazing discoveries they made, and all their accomplishments. It enthralled her and she continued to learn about them for several days. The knowledge she found from this computer, that she could read easily after some time, thanks to her being so young when she learned the language, kept her from wondering why the power came on so unexpectedly. The Ascended Being that Lailie had not been aware of, had turned on the room for the girl in an effort to help.
A week into learning about the science the Lantians had been involved in, Lailie became bored. It was while looking at a different console that she absently discovered a map of where she was. She found out it was actually another city, similar but different from the city of Atlantis she had grown up in. This city had more living quarters, and more places for entertainment as well as work places for various activities. The best that she could figure is that it was a place made for the people to live in, more of an actual city her family had told her about, where as Atlantis was a place for scientists who performed experiments to live and work.
The map showed a control room of sorts several miles away, which she figured would take her five days to walk to. Determined to make the trek she took one of the pillows, and tore it open taking out the stuffing. She put several pouches of drinks and containers of food inside it. She could only fit seven containers in there, which would mean only a little more than one meal a day. Lailie thought about filling up another pillow, but knew that it would be hard enough carrying the one. This did not temper her excitement about traveling. Of course the hard floors to sleep on daunted her so she grabbed one blanket and tied it about her waist. Ready, she checked the map again and made sure she had it all memorized. Then she ventured off.
She began her five day walk, traveling through several corridors in the dark as her room had been the only one with lights on. Many of the halls had paintings along them, which were nice to look at when she was tired and needed to take a break. As the days past she noticed how uncomfortable her clothes felt, stretched too far because she had grown out of them. For the first time she cursed her ability to grow and develop faster than the normal person. In the silence of an empty city she wondered if she would continue to grow until she was an old lady, only a few years old. Doctor Beckett had told her that her cells had yet to stop growing at an increasing rate. So her life would be short, so what, she told herself. She still got to live at all and she should be happy about that. Instead she was sad, realizing that she would not get to see her fathers with gray hair or bald. With her depressing thoughts, her pace lagged.
It in fact took her seven days to reach the control room. By the time she was there she was hungry and the blanket she had around herself could not fight the cold of loneliness. She went to sleep in the control room without exploring it. The Ascended Being had watched over her all this time, not knowing how to help her feel less sad, but afraid to show itself after thousands of years alone in the city. Perhaps this is why it could understand how Lailie was feeling.
The next day shined, as the room was powered. Lailie became excited again, realizing that she had made it to her destination. She bounced to each console searching for she knew not what. After a couple hours she found it. A distress beacon. She activated it in hope that her family would notice it and be able to find her. It thrilled her that she was that much closer to being back home. As the signal traveled through the miles of water, she began her search for another storage room of food.
Part Ten
The prettiest blue could be seen from the balcony in Atlantis. The sky was the most gorgeous sight he had ever seen, but today his heart hurt and he could not enjoy it. His child had disappeared, one moment he was sitting in a briefing, wistfully waiting for it to end so he could see what she was up to, the next moment, he heard that she was lost. After all this time in a terror filled galaxy, where death was a moment away, he had never felt so much panic.
The next hours had been filled with dread as he listened to each report saying she had not been found. Finally the cameras’ feed had indicated her last location, entering a transporter. The next few days were spent searching every inch of the city for his girl, and still she could not be found. Now two and a half weeks later, he had given up. His whole body felt like lead and waking up in the morning was near impossible. Honestly, the only thing that kept him moving was his best friend, his potential lover, the one who shared this loss with him. Their daughter was gone and all that was left was each other.
She had brought them together and had made their lives richer every day she had been with them, which was actually very few. She was a special child that came to them in a very special and unusual way. She has literally grown up too fast, and he wondered that if she had not disappeared, how much longer would she really have been with them. He would have seen her grow into an old woman before she had ever had the chance to have children of her own. Is it wrong to want more time? What’s wrong with this galaxy anyways? All the crazy stuff happened to them. He wanted to be happy that she was born, but with all the pain her loss had caused, he was not sure it was really worth it. He wanted to just lie down and die, hoping that he would see her when he did.
Another man walked out onto the balcony. “Rodney?” He wrapped his arms around Rodney’s shaking body. “How long have you been out here?” He turned him around and kissed his forehead. “You feel cold.”
“John? I can’t pretend anymore.” Rodney looked down at his shoes, tears sliding down his face.
John tried to wipe the tears away, but they kept flowing. “Can’t pretend what?” His chest ached to hear the pain in Rodney’s voice.
“She’s gone John, and she’s not coming back.” Stating this out loud took all his strength and he sank down to the floor.
John kneeled down next to him. “Don’t talk that way Rodney. We’ll find her. We have to.” He tangled his fingers in Rodney’s hair, comforting him like he used to their daughter.
“Why?” Rodney looked up into his eyes.
“Why what?” John barely noticed the tears pooling in his own eyes.
“Why can’t you give up? What makes you so sure that Lailie is still alive?” Rodney turned his head and looked up at the bright sky that Lailie would never see again. He focused on the rare clouds that formed, trying to not hear his own painful breaths.
“Listen to me. We went over this, if she was gone, we’d know. Simple as that. Our goal is to find her, not mourn her. I don’t care that logic says she’s dead, things are not logical in this galaxy, therefore she must be out there somewhere. We just need to keep looking.” John stood up and walked to the railing, looking out over the seemingly endless ocean.
Rodney slumped forward without John there to hold him. “I wish it were so easy for me to keep hoping. I may not know she’s dead, but I do know that right now she is gone, and I miss her more that I have ever missed anybody.”
“Me too.” They stayed where they were for a long time.
***
In the control room, Peter Grodin checked through the sensors as he did everyday, for any sign of John and Rodney’s daughter. He almost did not notice the signal as it was not coming from within the city. It was faint and it took him a half hour to boost it so that it could be heard. Then he called for Elizabeth Weir. She came running from her office and looked over his shoulder.
“Where is that coming from?” The message was in Ancient, and it took her a couple minutes to decipher it. It said ‘I’m here’.
“It’s being sent from somewhere else on the planet, and not near the mainland. If I’m correct, there’s only ocean there. It was very faint. It might have come from underwater.”
“Can you send a message back?” Elizabeth felt wary of finding something new on a planet they thought they knew everything about.
“I can do better, I can get you on the same frequency, you may be able to talk to the person, if there is a person I mean.” At her nod, Peter made the connection.
“Hello. This is Elizabeth Weir of Atlantis, can I ask who I’m speaking to?” Peter repeated the message. There was no response. They continued sending the message.
John and Rodney found their way to the control room. When they heard about the signal John began to hope that it was somehow their daughter. Rodney simply thought it was one more pointless mystery. Still they sat there as the message was sent over and over again for a couple hours. After two and a half hours there was a shocking response.
“This is Lailie Sheppard McKay, come in.”
Rodney fell out of his seat, and John rushed to the control console. “Baby, is that you, it’s Dad, and Daddy’s right here, where are you?”
A little cry of joy was heard. “Dad! I’m here, I’ve been so scared. I’m in another city, it’s underwater, I’m not sure how deep. I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have gotten in the transporter. It took me to this place, and it was so dark. The transporter wouldn’t work, I tried the control panel, but the crystals were all black.”
Rodney moved next to John. “Lailie? Is that really you?” His voice nearly broke, and his heart was beating strongly, feeling like it had been stopped since she went missing.
“Daddy, it’s me. You wouldn’t believe what I’ve found down here. It’s a real city, made just for people to live in. There were children here once, I found a huge room where families would live and teach their children. I’ve learned so much about the Lantian’s culture. There are also pictures and art decorating the hallways. It was wonderful.”
“Lailie, what have you been eating? You’ve been down there for a couple weeks.” Though she sounded excited, Rodney was still worried.
“Well, I was hungry for a day, but then I found a closet and it had packets of paste, it was flavored food, not that great, but the box said it was nutritious. There was this red drink too. Also I found this room with pillows, and a blanket. I was fine. Just lonely.”
Tears softly ran down John’s face. “Don’t worry baby, we’ll get you out of there, you’ll be home in no time.” He looked at Rodney hopefully, expecting him to come up with a solution.
“Listen Lailie, have you found any rooms with extra crystals?” Rodney finally believed they were going to get their daughter back and wanted to do all in his power to make it so.
“No.” They could almost hear her young brain thinking. “But there were many storage rooms, and one near what I think was a lab. I could look there. But they’re three days away. And the transporter is six days away if I move fast.”
Rodney and John look at each other, realizing that they would not be able to keep in contact with her. “Okay, I’m going to tell you what crystals you need to find and how to put them in the control panel of the transporter, you have to memorize it baby, can you do that?”
“Yes Daddy, I’ll remember.”
John patted Rodney on the back and said, “She’s strong, she’ll get home to us, we just have to wait.” Rodney smiled back at him and began explaining the procedure to Lailie.
Part Eleven
Lailie said good bye to her fathers and Elizabeth, and hurried to the room she had found a few corridors away where there were food and drinks. She took her bag made of a pillow with her, and filled it up. The sooner she found the crystals the sooner she could get home. New energy thrummed through her after talking to her family. She could not wait to tell them all that she had learned. She wanted to run through the halls and up the stairs as quick as she could, but for all she knew, behind one of those doors were the crystals, and if she missed it she would never get home. Instead she recalled the map she had memorized and quickly figured out the best places to check out on the way. She began her journey through the city, wary of taking any new paths as she might not know the way from there.
The hallways were dark and she tried to not let it ruin her mood, she was going home soon! Even if she never found the crystals, she would be able to find her way back to the control room and talk to her fathers. They would probably find another way. Maybe she would even find another transporter and could borrow those crystals. Why had she not thought of that before? She never even looked at the map in search of other transporters, in a city this big there would have to be others. Except she had not seen any. Besides they probably would not have the same crystals, as the transporter she used was made to transport much farther. What if it was the energy that was needed to transport to the other side of the planet that made it short out, and what if she could not get enough energy to make the transport back? It had sounded so much easier when Daddy had explained it.
She shrugged off the thoughts and kept moving, every once in awhile opening up doors and checking out the rooms in search of crystals. The doors were one of the things that puzzled her. They opened so easily for her, though they must use power, and there was only so much power running through the city. All the rooms only had the lights running across the floor like the hallways, making it take extra time to search them for anything important. At the rate she was taking it was going to be longer than she suspected before she got back to the transporter. Still she continued moving and searching the rooms. She searched until she was tired and then she laid down to try and sleep Even though she said she knew how many days it would take her, she had really just guessed, as time in this place she could only measure by how her own body regulated itself. Finding out from Dad how long she had been gone gave her a better idea, but still she could not be sure. She just hoped that they would not worry for her when it took longer than she said to find the crystals, get back to the transporter, fix it, and return home. Eventually she fell asleep.
For several days she searched as she moved, eventually giving in to curiosity and going off her path several times. She found some interesting rooms that furthered her conclusion that the city was meant for families and others just living day to day lives, rooms full of what she though were children toys, others with musical instruments and places to play, as well as a kitchen, and classrooms or what she thought classrooms looked like. Unfortunately none of those rooms or the storage rooms had any crystals. She moved back onto the path each time, wondering if the waste of the days were worth the knowledge she gained.
It took seven days to get to the labs she thought might have the crystals, and by then she would have been starving, but her trip that led her to the kitchens helped her to stock up on better tasting food packages. She traveled through the labs, getting up on benches to open cabinets. Each room held only trinkets. She began to despair when finally she entered a room that lit up like the observation room and the control room had. In surprise she cried out. Why do these rooms keep lighting up? Lailie suspiciously turned around trying to find something that would explain this. Seeing nothing she finally noticed what was in the room. It had a white container with a handle on it. She cautiously opened it and gasped when she saw it was completely full of crystals of all sizes and shapes.
She happily picked out the crystals that matched the ones from the transporter that broke. Some she remembered from seeing them blackened, others she recognized from the descriptions Daddy gave her. She took some extra ones that she was not sure were used for the transporter, because she did not want to have to return in case she needed them. Her searches through the rooms on the way had been helpful because she had found another couple sturdy pillows that she could fit the crystals in. She carried the crystals in her arms on top of her food cases. It was so heavy that she wondered how she was going to make it back to the transporter, but she put one foot in front of the other and headed out of the room.
The stairs made it hard for her to breathe and she found herself stopping along the way. In a hall she slept happy, knowing she had the crystals. Each time before she laid down to sleep she went over the directions she was given. When she woke up she ate and then picked everything up and started moving, ignoring her still tired limbs. It took her four days to make it to the transporter as she walked slower carrying the crystals. She had slept for one night in the observation room, and had almost wanted to stay because it had light, but she kept moving as soon as she woke up. When she reached the transporter she put down everything and wondered how she would put the crystals in when there was no light. The transporter mysteriously lit up. By now Lailie was getting used to the magically appearing light and simply sighed, satisfied. She fell asleep next to the transporter wanting to begin work refreshed.
When she woke up she ate and then took the crystals out of the pillow. She entered the transporter and opened up the panel. She looked at the crystals, now seeing with the light that they were not all black, just certain key ones. She found the unblemished crystals she brought with her and matched them to the blackened ones. Each one she replaced and soon they were all replaced. Before testing it, she went down a couple hallways until she was at the one with the glass and she said good bye to the fishes blinking back at her. Then she moved to the transporter. She pressed the point on the map off to the side like she had done in the transporter in Atlantis. A white glow engulfed her and she was gone.
***
For twelve days Rodney and John had the transporter watched. After six days, one of them stayed by it and waited as long as they could, hoping she would miraculously appear. On the eighth day they began to despair that she could not actually fix it. They became haggard in their appearance and no one, not even Carson, could get them to move away from it.
On the twelfth day both John and Rodney were sleeping on cots that had been situated in the hallway near the transporter. A grinding noise woke them up. Rodney rose and saw the transporter powering up. “John! It’s her, it has to be.”
John rushed in front and clasped Rodney’s arm. “She’s a genius, of course she got it fixed!” They stood there and waited.
A rush of light filled the transporter and then it opened. Inside was a twelve year old looking girl with long wavy brown hair, and deep bluish green eyes. She was a little thin but had visible muscles in her arms and legs, and her purple skirt was too tight on her and her red shirt showed off her stomach.
John and Rodney stared in shock for a second at their grown up little girl then they pulled her out of the transporter and hugged her, kissing the top of her head and running their hands through her long hair. Lailie cried, happy to see Daddy and Dad. Tears ran free down Rodney’s face and John smiled wide.
“Elizabeth, she’s back!” Rodney called on his com.
Before long, Elizabeth, Carson, Aiden, and Teyla, as well as Radek, Bates, and even Kavanagh were hovering around Lailie, giving her hugs and cheering that she was back.
Later in the briefing room, Lailie, dressed in pants and shirts that fit her, as well as bigger shoes, sat and told her story. She told them about how scared she was when she found herself alone. She talked about the dark hallways, her first sight of the fish with glowing eyes, of the portraits of Lantians and the paintings, of her discovery of the weird fruity paste and red liquid. She excitedly described the observation room, the pillows, the consoles where she learned about their culture, which she promised to write down later for everyone. She even explained the weird powering up of the lights in the room and later the control room that she reached a week later. The finding of the crystals was her happiest moment, and fixing the control panel to her was the easiest part of her voyage.
Everyone stared at her, amazed at her versatility and ability to survive. They were all proud of her but there were still things they wondered about, such as the lights. As they pondered what would have caused this, a white light appeared in the briefing room. It coalesced into a middle aged woman with long dark-red hair. Her voice was musical as she said, “I am Gertrude, and I have been watching over your precious child. She is remarkable in every way.”
John and Rodney stared up at her in surprise. Then Rodney stood up, walked over to the woman and hugged her hard. “Thank you!” The woman looked surprised, as did Elizabeth. John just smiled and nodded his head in thanks. Rodney released her, slightly embarrassed.
Elizabeth stood up. “I am Elizabeth Weir from Earth, leader of an expedition to Atlantis. We all are grateful that you have looked over and helped one of our newest citizen of Atlantis.”
“You are all welcome. I have been watching over the city called Isolde since it was abandoned. I was surprised to find this young child wandering it’s hallways. When she was in need of help I diverted some of the power to the room she was in. She was very polite, and was careful with everything she found. I am very intrigued with a people that could produce one as well refined as her, and am willing to teach you about my people’s past, though there is a limit to what I may offer.”
“Whatever you may wish to teach us, we would be glad,” Elizabeth said. Gertrude nodded.
Lailie felt slightly freaked that all this time she has been watched, but at the same time it warmed her that she was never truly alone. She smiled shyly at the woman.
Rodney who would normally be all over the Ancient for information, simply said thanks again, picked his daughter up out of her seat and left the briefing room. John followed him. They had their daughter back and were determined to spend time with her.
“Daddy I can walk you know,” Lailie said with dignity. Rodney laughed and put her down.
“We love you so much.” John said. “I knew you would come back, knew you were still alive.”
“So I was wrong.” Rodney smiled at John.
Lailie ran laughing through the hallways, back and forth around them, making sure she stayed in their sight. Keeping one eye on her they both stopped and kissed, something they had not done since she disappeared. Any furthering of their relationship had been put on hold while they grieved for her loss, now they could be happy again. Lailie saw them kissing and made a face, then pushed between them hugging them. They broke apart and laughed at their daughter. They were a family again. Life could not get any better.
Author: libra_traveller
Pairing: John/Rodney
Rating: PG
Summary: An Ancient device gifts John and Rodney with a child. They name her Lailie, and she goes on an adventure, discovering another city on the planet that has Atlantis.
Part One
“What’s taking you so long?” John Sheppard asked Rodney McKay this for the fifth time that afternoon. Rodney had been analyzing a set of ruins the Ancients left on planet MAK-400.
“So sorry, is my doing my job bothering you?” McKay was a little peeved at the continued interruptions. Granted he had been at it for three hours already. He was having trouble translating one of the walls. He was coming up with the most peculiar phrases, such as ‘Instilling males with women features’ and ‘Love matters not what form’.
“How much longer do think it will take?” Teyla gently asked.
“Give me another half-hour and I’ll let another team come back later to finish.” Rodney could never get mad at Teyla. It was only John that got on his nerves. It might have been because he could tell that when he explained science to him John understood, but still made like he was dumb. It just irked him, all that intelligence being hidden by an ‘I’m just a fly-boy’ front.
Ford being the curious young man that he is, accidentally ran his hand against one wall starting a chain reaction that would forever change the lives of two men. Sheppard who was standing in the middle of the room was picked up by a strange yellow light enveloping him. A metal bench rose out of the floor, and John was laid down on it. Rodney ran towards him and was enveloped by the light too.
John felt a painful tingling around his abdomen. Rodney felt a weird sensation as if something had been taken away from him. It was only when the light turned off and he looked at John did he realize that something was terribly wrong. John had a bulge around his stomach that strongly reminded Rodney of pregnant women. This was so wrong. He quickly helped John off the bench that was lowering itself back into the floor.
“Lets take you to Carson he’ll know what to do.” Aiden Ford tried to help John out of the room, Rodney supporting him with a shoulder around his waist.
“I’m going to be sick.” John decided that Ford’s shoes looked like a good place to let his vomit fly.
“So gross, sir.” Aiden himself looked like he would be sick.
“Sorry Ford.”
“Come on John, Beckett will want to see you. Teyla dial the gate.” Rodney helped John to the gate, as it wasn’t that far from the ruins. They went through the gate and Rodney immediately called for medical attention.
“Major? What happened to you?” Elizabeth Weir could only stare at John and his round belly.
“Good lord man, what did you do now?” Beckett came and helped John on to a gurney.
***
(Later in the infirmary.)
“Carson, can you tell me what’s happened to the Major?” Weir asked Beckett.
“Perhaps you should offer him congratulations.” Carson vaguely offered.
“I don’t get your meaning.” Elizabeth was very confused.
“Major Sheppard is pregnant. And it looks like the child is five months old.”
“Pregnant?! Wait, five months, that’s pretty fast for a child to grow.”
“Yes it is. At the rate the child is growing we’ll have to do a c-section by late tonight.” Carson could only grin at the absurdity of it all.
“So what’s the gender of the child, and who’s its father, I mean, other father? I’m so confused.” Elizabeth asked while pacing and occasionally taking glances at the curtained off bed.
“Why don’t you come with me, I’ve yet to tell John, well any of it actually. I think he’s guessed though.” They both walked over to the bed. Carson pulled the curtain open. Sitting next to John was Rodney, holding his hand. “Congratulations you two, you’ve a healthy girl growing inside you.”
“You mean he’s pregnant!” Rodney had been in denial of what had happened. Suddenly the translations made sense.
“Oh and Rodney,” Carson added, “you’re the girl’s father.”
Thump. Rodney passed out from manly, well maybe it was a combination of joy, surprise, and downright terror.
Part Two
"Damn you Rodney, this is all your fault. I've got your child in me and it's trying to come out. I don't have the right equipment for this!" John Sheppard tried to breathe past the pain.
"Just hold on John, Carson's going to put you under soon. Then he'll cut the child out." Rodney McKay holds John's hand, and the pressure is starting to make his fingers tingle. "Besides this isn't my fault, Ford's the one that was pressing things."
"But it's your child you bastard."
"I was trying to save you!"
"Okay both of you quit your whining." Carson Beckett, Pegasus Galaxy Doctor Extraordinaire, quickly put John to sleep.
"Thank you, my hand was starting to cramp." Rodney watched as they rolled John into surgery.
Three hours later
John slowly wakes up, hoping that it had all been a dream. A weird nutty dream because no way would Major Sheppard be having I'm a Loud Mouth McKay's child. Alas, a baby's cry shattered that hope.
"Well here you are, the first Atlantean born child. Your daughter Major.” Carson gently placed the cute baby in John's arms.
"What are we going to name her?” Rodney asked while wearing a huge grin. He's a Dad, amazing. With his genius and John's math ability this girl's going to be brilliant.
"Lailie Sheppard McKay." John smiled as he proclaimed this.
"And here I thought she'd be a McShep, ah well." Carson grinned as he left the new parents alone.
Part Three
"Lailie, come here baby." Rodney picked her up out of her crib, a former storage container. He walked her over to his laptop. He started showing her things, whispering in her ear.
"What are you doing Rodney?" John entered their quarters they were currently sharing.
"I'm teaching her how to read Ancient."
"What? She can't even read English, hell she doesn't even talk yet."
"Don't yell around the baby. Shush Mummy's just grouchy." Rodney rocked Lailie. "Besides she distinctly said 'Gunk' yesterday when Kavanaugh visited.
"Hah. Fine. You teach her Ancient, but as soon as she's old enough she's going to learn to play football." John's face took on a determined air, expecting disagreement.
"If you want to turn her into a grunt, well go ahead and try. She'll be our brilliant grunt."
"Yes, our little girl. Has Beckett figured out what happened yet?"
"He's still looking at the tests he did. And Zelenka and his team are still researching the machine. When the translations were finished something interesting was discovered." Rodney said all this while bouncing Lailie on his knee. She giggled. Since she was born she had kept growing and now, three days later, was about one year old.
"And what was that?" John asked partially distracted by their beautiful girl and her head of brown curls bouncing about.
"It seems the machine wouldn't work unless the couple had great feelings for each other. I guess the Ancients didn't want a child born to a loveless family." Rodney wisely avoided John's eyes as he said all this.
"Feelings?" John coughed. He didn't have feelings for McKay!
Rodney looked up at John's spluttering. "They don't have to be romantic feelings you idiot." He felt a little shocked at John's reaction. So maybe on his side the feelings were romantically inclined. Especially now after the man had his child.
"Sorry, I was just surprised and yeah, I care about you." John felt a little sheepish and a tad alarmed at the grin his words gained from Rodney.
"Well I care about you too," Rodney said with only a smidgen of shyness.
They were both startled when Lailie turned around, looked straight at Rodney's face and said, "Baddy!"
John couldn't help laughing. "She called you Baddy."
"Well she obviously meant Daddy."
The child then turned to John and gleefully said, "Mum."
John cooed at her and picked the child out of Rodney's lap. "Aren't you the smartest baby around, yes you are."
Rodney gasped. "How dare you talk to our child as if she was a lesser being. Treat her like the little adult she is."
"She's a baby. That's how you talk to them."
"Says who?" Rodney raised his eyebrow at John.
"That's how my mom spoke to me and I turned out fine."
"Riiight."
"Come on let's get away from grumpy Baddy." John swung around towards the door.
"Daddy." Rodney watched as they left the room. The man he secretly loved and their daughter. Sigh.
Part Four
Lailie walked around the briefing room. The two parents couldn’t stand to leave her alone so they brought her with them. Unfortunately this meant they had trouble paying attention to anything but their three year old daughter, who is actually only a week old.
There were four days where the whole base suffered the yelling of the word ‘no’ constantly. No she wouldn’t eat, no she wouldn’t take a bath, no she wouldn’t go to bed. Eventually Radek sang her a lullaby of his native country to get her to fall asleep. Now as a three year old she was easier to handle.
“Major. McKay. Please focus. We’re discussing further exploration of the city. Any input?” Elizabeth raised her brow.
“Yeah, if you could find a bigger room for us that’d be great.” Sheppard barely noticed anyone but his baby girl who was jumping up and down by Bates’ side trying to make him laugh.
“Major that isn’t funny. Rodney?” She looked beseechingly at McKay.
“I’m with him, this girl’s growing so fast she’s going to need her own bed soon.” Lailie by now had crawled into Bates’ lap and was playing with his dog tags. McKay rescued him by walking around the table and picking her up. “Come here baby.” She began crying; she liked Bates. “I’m going to take her to the mess to eat. John have fun.”
“Sure I will. I guess I’ll be leading this next exploration. Where are we going again?”
Later when Sheppard had returned from exploring the lower region of the western edge of the city he found an interesting sight in Rodney’s lab. As it turned out, Kavanaugh was trying to convince Rodney to let him work on a project that he felt he was better qualified to handle. Lailie, in Rodney’s arms kept giggling and pointing at Kavanaugh saying ‘Heehee, heehee’ because Rodney was tickling her. Kavanaugh became upset, positive that the girl was calling him a hippie. Rodney did nothing to dissuade him of the notion. John could only laugh as Kavanaugh huffed his way out of the room.
“We need to teach this girl names to call when Kavanaugh’s around.”
McKay grinned. “Like dipwad.”
Lailie pointed in the direction Kavanaugh had gone and shouted ‘Deep wat’.
John cooed, “Now that’s our little darling. Rodney want to eat lunch with me?”
“You mean a date?” Rodney was only joking.
“Well yeah,” John smiled shyly.
In shock Rodney stayed silent but Lailie looked at them both and said, “Mummy and Daddy.” It only seemed right that they be together.
“Uh, let’s go then. I’ll just get Carson to baby-sit Lailie.”
In the mess hall, John and Rodney sat together and talked about how the exploring went, about the various Ancient technologies that had been found, and of course, about Lailie. It’s scary having a daughter together as they’ll be spending the rest of their lives raising her.
“I have to be honest. When you first told me about the translations and how the two people involved have to have feelings for each other, I was in denial. I never liked a guy before I met you.”
“What are you saying John?” Rodney crossed his fingers underneath the table.
“Will you go steady with me?”
“Yes.” They grinned at each other. Having Lailie changed their lives for the better.
Part Five
Lailie is five and now speaks English and can read both English and Ancient. It had only been four weeks. John and Rodney spent the whole time in awe at the miraculous achievements by their daughter. She was unbelievably intelligent and she had brought them together. Their relationship was still in the early stages, but they spent much of their time together taking care of her. When Teyla or Elizabeth would baby-sit Lailie, John and Rodney could have time alone. Their evenings always ended with them making out.
Even though they found themselves in love with one another, together they had more love for their daughter. When away on missions they were afraid to miss any moments of their child growing up, and since she grew so fast it was a legitimate concern. Aiden and Carson were called Unkies by Lailie and Teyla and Elizabeth her Aunts. She called John Dad, after a serious conversation about the difference between a man and a woman. Rodney was Daddy, though on occasion she would say Baddy to see him huff.
Already at six, five weeks old, she had a strong personality but she was a sweetheart. She was nice to those she liked and devious to those she didn’t. Kavanagh had quickly become a project of hers, someone she enjoyed driving crazy by hiding behind corners and whispering derogatory phrases she had heard Daddy say. Since the beginning she had a strong love for Bates, and eventually he cooled down and began enjoying the attention. He would watch over her when the team was on missions, flying her around in his arms. One day she told him she wanted to be a pilot just like Dad. John had made her a wooden airplane, carving it from wood found on the mainland. He told her his Grandpa had taught him how to cut into wood. He promised if they ever returned to Earth he would take her up in a plane.
Rodney loved to teach her, savoring every amazing connection she made. Lailie would ask him questions all the time, and when he answered in complicated sentences he knew she could understand. When she got confused about science, because sometimes he went straight to the point without adding in the details of how scientists came to certain conclusions, she knew just what to have clarified. She shocked him one day when she asked how did he know something, how could he be certain. Once he told her about the branch of philosophy called Epistemology, the theory of knowledge, she ran around shouting the word as an excuse to question everything the scientists did and knew. Some got mad at her, while others took the time to explain what the scientists behind them did to gain the knowledge they used now. She absorbed everything.
When noticing that Lailie had become a tad stuck up and hated not getting her way, Elizabeth taught her diplomacy, a way to compromise and get what she really desired in the calmest way. Unfortunately for John and Rodney this gave Lailie an addition to her arsenal of getting what she wanted, which included pouting, which all children learned early on. The one thing that everyone refused to allow Lailie to learn was how to make explosives. Aiden was slightly sad because that took away the one thing he felt he could teach. Carson would give her physicals constantly and he explained everything he was doing. Unlike her fathers she wasn’t afraid of needles and loved to watch the blood come out of her arm.
At age seven and a half, six weeks old, Lailie ran around the place often, though she knew not to visit unexplored places, and the whole base pretty much watched her. She loved looking around pretending to be an explorer like her family. One day though she got into a transporter by herself, something she was not allowed to do, and vanished off the grid. None of the control room’s life detectors could pick her up. Rodney and John panicked, and the majority of the people on the base began looking for her. Two weeks later she still wasn’t found.
Part Six
“Oh my god! We have to find her. She’s like ten now. Do you have any idea how much trouble a brilliant ten year old can get in? Where could she be?” Rodney was shaking as he paced in one two steps. His hands were in fists. Every time he raised them, John thought he was going to punch something, or someone.
“You have to calm down. We’ll find her.” John placed his hands on Rodney’s shoulders, steering him to the bed in their little apartment.
“How?” Rodney swiped a tear that had trailed down his cheek.
“We have teams systematically pressing every part on the map in the transporter that we tracked her to have disappeared in . It might take sometime but a team will find her.”
“But what if there was a malfunction and she’s dead. Oh god the life-sign detectors aren’t working because she’s dead.” Rodney looked around wildly, not seeing the room.
“Damn you Rodney! Don’t say that. She’s not dead. My baby’s not dead.” John fell to the floor his back against the bed, his knees pulled up and his head on his arms. His soft sobs felt loud to Rodney’s ears.
“John? She can’t be dead right? We’d feel it.” Rodney rubbed the hairs on the back of John’s neck. “We’d feel it,” he said with more certainty.
John looked up, staring at the wall trying to think past the tears. He had always known when she was happy or upset. It was not gene related, but more like parental intuition. “Yeah. We’d know.”
“Good. Well if she’s alive, which she is, then we have to keep searching.” Rodney’s voice held conviction, but he dragged John up onto the bed and they laid down and just held each other.
Part Seven
Lailie was scared. She had never been here before. Daddy should be here with her. He and Dad liked finding new places. She was not an explorer, not like them. She choked back her tears. “Where am I?” she cried. Her voice echoed. There was no answer.
It had been only two hours but she was hungry. Daddy said she had his problem and should eat constantly. Dad though wanted her to stay thin. Uncle Carson told her to do what felt right but to stay away from too much sugar. She rubbed her stomach as she moved away from the transporter.
She kept coming back to this one place to keep herself oriented while hoping that the transporter would come back on line. It was dead. It had shorted out when she first arrived. She had tried to rearrange the crystals like Daddy had showed her, but nothing worked.
So far she had mapped out fifteen rooms and three hallways. They were all empty. Some looked to be living quarters. There was one large room that had appeared to be a lab similar to the ones that the scientists worked in. She was headed back there now.
The worse part of being here, other than there being no people near, was the dark. She was used to lights turning on wherever she went. This was creepy. It was not completely dark, or she would have gone crazy screaming her head off. There were back up lights running the corridors. The whole place reminded her of ghost movies Dad watched with her. Lailie had scoffed at the plotlines and the silly people who scared too easily. Now she knew how they felt.
The lab room had nothing visible on the benches so she went to the cabinet drawers. She had to stand up on a table to reach them. She yanked one door open, it whined, and dust blew off making her sneeze. Looking inside she was disappointed when there was nothing there. She checked the rest of them and found one object, a block of sorts. She tried to think it on but nothing happened. It had obviously been left for a reason.
Frustrated and starving she marched out of the lab. She decided to forget procedure and moved further than she had before. She found a set of stairs and began climbing without looking back. The stairs did not go far until hitting a long corridor. She nervously started walking. It was only half way through that she noticed the glass windows. Looking through them she saw everything was still and black.
A light seemed to blink in the distance. Lailie strained to see. It came closer until it glided across the glass. It had eyes. With a gasp she realized she was underwater.
Part Eight
She had never been underwater before. The closest she had ever come was sticking her head down in a bath tub at home. It was one of the few tubs that had been found in Atlantis. Lailie wondered if she was still in that city. Radek had shown her video footage of parts of the city still under water that the scientists had explored. None of the places looked like this. The water was not as thick in the video as it was here.
Taking her eyes away from the glass she continued moving down the corridor. At the end, she found a door, but it would not open. This time when she rearranged the crystals in the panel it worked and the door opened. Perhaps one day she could be a scientist, or maybe an engineer.
Looking in the room she found a storage area. There were metal boxes lining the wall with writing on top of them. When she found one that said non-perishables, she opened it to find containers of what she hoped was food. A smile graced her face. Now she would not starve.
Opening one she found a weird paste, suddenly she was not so sure it was food. She tasted it anyways. It was delicious, a fruity flavor. The label on the container gave it a name she had no idea how to pronounce. There was also a list of what must have been ingredients. She was so hungry that she started scooping great amounts with her fingers and slipping it into her mouth.
She ate the whole container before she was full. There were several within the one box. Her stomach began to ache. She struggled to her feet and left the storage room trying to ignore the pain. There was a branch in the corridor she had missed before.
Lailie reluctantly continued moving on. The hallway was long and there were many pictures lining the walls. The artistic ones had designs she envied, they were so beautiful. She wished she could draw and paint that well. On the other wall there were portraits of people long dead. Some wore uniforms but others beautiful clothes, dresses and suits. Each person was smiling as if they had no worries clouding their joy.
At the end of the hallway was an opening to a bigger room that was circular and had several doors around the walls. It looked like a lounge where people could meet. She walked its length and opened each of the doors. They were all bedrooms, each with several beds partitioned off, except one door. It led to another hallway and farther on, stairs.
She climbed the stairs for several minutes. When she arrived at the top her breath caught in her throat. The lights running across the floor cast a green glow around the room. It was huge, the ceiling so high she would not have seen the top if not for the blinking fish swimming above the glass.
There were cushions scattered across the floor so people could have laid back and looked up. When this place used to be above the water it must have been an observatory, a place to watch the stars. Except all she could see was dark water. She might not be able to see the night sky, but a nap sounded wonderful.
Her stomach ache had gone away. She told herself it was probably just her body adjusting to ten thousand year old alien food. She laid her head down on one of the cushions and closed her eyes.
A white light appeared near her sleeping form. A tendril caressed the child’s face. It watched over her while she slept.
Part Nine
Lailie woke up cold and hungry. She had been having a pleasant dream about playing a game with her fathers. She stared up at the dark water way above her. Little lights glanced off the glass. The fish seemed to be as interested in her as she them. She sat up and stretched her little arms. Standing up she noticed again the lights running along the floor in the room. Something must be powering them, she thought. She decided that she would head back down the halls until she reached the food, that she hoped would go down better this time.
She was tired as she walked, her limbs aching from all the moving yesterday. The pictures lining the hall were scarier this day, almost ominous, the faces seeming to question her presence. When she finally reached the storage room with the food she was relieved, not only because the food was there but because the people were no longer gazing at her. She had never felt more alone than today, worse even than that day she got stuck in the bathroom for five hours, at least Dad had been within shouting distance.
The paste’s fruity flavor tasted dull this time, making her slightly nauseous. She ate it anyways. It seemed to stick in her throat and she had no water to wash it down with. In fact she was quite thirsty, so she looked further in the boxes. She found packets of a ugly red liquid. Hoping it was not in fact blood she opened it and took a sip. It was slightly bitter but the fluids made her feel better.
She decided that she would carry with her a box at a time to the observation room, which she would make her headquarters, a place to return to after her explorations. She had realized that she may be in this place by herself for a quite awhile, and she may as well get to know the place. It took her five hours to bring enough food and drinks to the room and her arms ached so bad by the time she finished that she decided to take a nap.
When she woke up she felt lethargic and just sat on the tattered pillow gazing up at the ceiling. She was like this for an undeterminable amount of time before she heard a weird creaking noise. Suddenly the wide room felt too big and she became scared. The noise continued for several minutes before she realized that the power in the place was turning on. Lights came on blasting, making it impossible for her to see. As soon as her eyes adjusted she could see how truly big the room was. It would have been considered the size of a football stadium if ever she had been to one. Her sleeping space was only a few yards into the room.
The room was in fact made for families to gather in one place and children to learn in another. There were computer consoles in one side of the room, meant to teach. Lailie gazed in wonder at them. She cautiously stood up and walked near one of the consoles. It was powered up, she pressed the screen and immediately a menu in ancient script appeared.
For hours she flipped through pages on the screen, carefully translating as much as she could. She learned about the Lantians’ culture, their norms and how they interacted daily. Soon she became tired and went to sleep after eating more paste for dinner.
The next day she went back to reading. She found the history of the people and read about the amazing discoveries they made, and all their accomplishments. It enthralled her and she continued to learn about them for several days. The knowledge she found from this computer, that she could read easily after some time, thanks to her being so young when she learned the language, kept her from wondering why the power came on so unexpectedly. The Ascended Being that Lailie had not been aware of, had turned on the room for the girl in an effort to help.
A week into learning about the science the Lantians had been involved in, Lailie became bored. It was while looking at a different console that she absently discovered a map of where she was. She found out it was actually another city, similar but different from the city of Atlantis she had grown up in. This city had more living quarters, and more places for entertainment as well as work places for various activities. The best that she could figure is that it was a place made for the people to live in, more of an actual city her family had told her about, where as Atlantis was a place for scientists who performed experiments to live and work.
The map showed a control room of sorts several miles away, which she figured would take her five days to walk to. Determined to make the trek she took one of the pillows, and tore it open taking out the stuffing. She put several pouches of drinks and containers of food inside it. She could only fit seven containers in there, which would mean only a little more than one meal a day. Lailie thought about filling up another pillow, but knew that it would be hard enough carrying the one. This did not temper her excitement about traveling. Of course the hard floors to sleep on daunted her so she grabbed one blanket and tied it about her waist. Ready, she checked the map again and made sure she had it all memorized. Then she ventured off.
She began her five day walk, traveling through several corridors in the dark as her room had been the only one with lights on. Many of the halls had paintings along them, which were nice to look at when she was tired and needed to take a break. As the days past she noticed how uncomfortable her clothes felt, stretched too far because she had grown out of them. For the first time she cursed her ability to grow and develop faster than the normal person. In the silence of an empty city she wondered if she would continue to grow until she was an old lady, only a few years old. Doctor Beckett had told her that her cells had yet to stop growing at an increasing rate. So her life would be short, so what, she told herself. She still got to live at all and she should be happy about that. Instead she was sad, realizing that she would not get to see her fathers with gray hair or bald. With her depressing thoughts, her pace lagged.
It in fact took her seven days to reach the control room. By the time she was there she was hungry and the blanket she had around herself could not fight the cold of loneliness. She went to sleep in the control room without exploring it. The Ascended Being had watched over her all this time, not knowing how to help her feel less sad, but afraid to show itself after thousands of years alone in the city. Perhaps this is why it could understand how Lailie was feeling.
The next day shined, as the room was powered. Lailie became excited again, realizing that she had made it to her destination. She bounced to each console searching for she knew not what. After a couple hours she found it. A distress beacon. She activated it in hope that her family would notice it and be able to find her. It thrilled her that she was that much closer to being back home. As the signal traveled through the miles of water, she began her search for another storage room of food.
Part Ten
The prettiest blue could be seen from the balcony in Atlantis. The sky was the most gorgeous sight he had ever seen, but today his heart hurt and he could not enjoy it. His child had disappeared, one moment he was sitting in a briefing, wistfully waiting for it to end so he could see what she was up to, the next moment, he heard that she was lost. After all this time in a terror filled galaxy, where death was a moment away, he had never felt so much panic.
The next hours had been filled with dread as he listened to each report saying she had not been found. Finally the cameras’ feed had indicated her last location, entering a transporter. The next few days were spent searching every inch of the city for his girl, and still she could not be found. Now two and a half weeks later, he had given up. His whole body felt like lead and waking up in the morning was near impossible. Honestly, the only thing that kept him moving was his best friend, his potential lover, the one who shared this loss with him. Their daughter was gone and all that was left was each other.
She had brought them together and had made their lives richer every day she had been with them, which was actually very few. She was a special child that came to them in a very special and unusual way. She has literally grown up too fast, and he wondered that if she had not disappeared, how much longer would she really have been with them. He would have seen her grow into an old woman before she had ever had the chance to have children of her own. Is it wrong to want more time? What’s wrong with this galaxy anyways? All the crazy stuff happened to them. He wanted to be happy that she was born, but with all the pain her loss had caused, he was not sure it was really worth it. He wanted to just lie down and die, hoping that he would see her when he did.
Another man walked out onto the balcony. “Rodney?” He wrapped his arms around Rodney’s shaking body. “How long have you been out here?” He turned him around and kissed his forehead. “You feel cold.”
“John? I can’t pretend anymore.” Rodney looked down at his shoes, tears sliding down his face.
John tried to wipe the tears away, but they kept flowing. “Can’t pretend what?” His chest ached to hear the pain in Rodney’s voice.
“She’s gone John, and she’s not coming back.” Stating this out loud took all his strength and he sank down to the floor.
John kneeled down next to him. “Don’t talk that way Rodney. We’ll find her. We have to.” He tangled his fingers in Rodney’s hair, comforting him like he used to their daughter.
“Why?” Rodney looked up into his eyes.
“Why what?” John barely noticed the tears pooling in his own eyes.
“Why can’t you give up? What makes you so sure that Lailie is still alive?” Rodney turned his head and looked up at the bright sky that Lailie would never see again. He focused on the rare clouds that formed, trying to not hear his own painful breaths.
“Listen to me. We went over this, if she was gone, we’d know. Simple as that. Our goal is to find her, not mourn her. I don’t care that logic says she’s dead, things are not logical in this galaxy, therefore she must be out there somewhere. We just need to keep looking.” John stood up and walked to the railing, looking out over the seemingly endless ocean.
Rodney slumped forward without John there to hold him. “I wish it were so easy for me to keep hoping. I may not know she’s dead, but I do know that right now she is gone, and I miss her more that I have ever missed anybody.”
“Me too.” They stayed where they were for a long time.
***
In the control room, Peter Grodin checked through the sensors as he did everyday, for any sign of John and Rodney’s daughter. He almost did not notice the signal as it was not coming from within the city. It was faint and it took him a half hour to boost it so that it could be heard. Then he called for Elizabeth Weir. She came running from her office and looked over his shoulder.
“Where is that coming from?” The message was in Ancient, and it took her a couple minutes to decipher it. It said ‘I’m here’.
“It’s being sent from somewhere else on the planet, and not near the mainland. If I’m correct, there’s only ocean there. It was very faint. It might have come from underwater.”
“Can you send a message back?” Elizabeth felt wary of finding something new on a planet they thought they knew everything about.
“I can do better, I can get you on the same frequency, you may be able to talk to the person, if there is a person I mean.” At her nod, Peter made the connection.
“Hello. This is Elizabeth Weir of Atlantis, can I ask who I’m speaking to?” Peter repeated the message. There was no response. They continued sending the message.
John and Rodney found their way to the control room. When they heard about the signal John began to hope that it was somehow their daughter. Rodney simply thought it was one more pointless mystery. Still they sat there as the message was sent over and over again for a couple hours. After two and a half hours there was a shocking response.
“This is Lailie Sheppard McKay, come in.”
Rodney fell out of his seat, and John rushed to the control console. “Baby, is that you, it’s Dad, and Daddy’s right here, where are you?”
A little cry of joy was heard. “Dad! I’m here, I’ve been so scared. I’m in another city, it’s underwater, I’m not sure how deep. I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have gotten in the transporter. It took me to this place, and it was so dark. The transporter wouldn’t work, I tried the control panel, but the crystals were all black.”
Rodney moved next to John. “Lailie? Is that really you?” His voice nearly broke, and his heart was beating strongly, feeling like it had been stopped since she went missing.
“Daddy, it’s me. You wouldn’t believe what I’ve found down here. It’s a real city, made just for people to live in. There were children here once, I found a huge room where families would live and teach their children. I’ve learned so much about the Lantian’s culture. There are also pictures and art decorating the hallways. It was wonderful.”
“Lailie, what have you been eating? You’ve been down there for a couple weeks.” Though she sounded excited, Rodney was still worried.
“Well, I was hungry for a day, but then I found a closet and it had packets of paste, it was flavored food, not that great, but the box said it was nutritious. There was this red drink too. Also I found this room with pillows, and a blanket. I was fine. Just lonely.”
Tears softly ran down John’s face. “Don’t worry baby, we’ll get you out of there, you’ll be home in no time.” He looked at Rodney hopefully, expecting him to come up with a solution.
“Listen Lailie, have you found any rooms with extra crystals?” Rodney finally believed they were going to get their daughter back and wanted to do all in his power to make it so.
“No.” They could almost hear her young brain thinking. “But there were many storage rooms, and one near what I think was a lab. I could look there. But they’re three days away. And the transporter is six days away if I move fast.”
Rodney and John look at each other, realizing that they would not be able to keep in contact with her. “Okay, I’m going to tell you what crystals you need to find and how to put them in the control panel of the transporter, you have to memorize it baby, can you do that?”
“Yes Daddy, I’ll remember.”
John patted Rodney on the back and said, “She’s strong, she’ll get home to us, we just have to wait.” Rodney smiled back at him and began explaining the procedure to Lailie.
Part Eleven
Lailie said good bye to her fathers and Elizabeth, and hurried to the room she had found a few corridors away where there were food and drinks. She took her bag made of a pillow with her, and filled it up. The sooner she found the crystals the sooner she could get home. New energy thrummed through her after talking to her family. She could not wait to tell them all that she had learned. She wanted to run through the halls and up the stairs as quick as she could, but for all she knew, behind one of those doors were the crystals, and if she missed it she would never get home. Instead she recalled the map she had memorized and quickly figured out the best places to check out on the way. She began her journey through the city, wary of taking any new paths as she might not know the way from there.
The hallways were dark and she tried to not let it ruin her mood, she was going home soon! Even if she never found the crystals, she would be able to find her way back to the control room and talk to her fathers. They would probably find another way. Maybe she would even find another transporter and could borrow those crystals. Why had she not thought of that before? She never even looked at the map in search of other transporters, in a city this big there would have to be others. Except she had not seen any. Besides they probably would not have the same crystals, as the transporter she used was made to transport much farther. What if it was the energy that was needed to transport to the other side of the planet that made it short out, and what if she could not get enough energy to make the transport back? It had sounded so much easier when Daddy had explained it.
She shrugged off the thoughts and kept moving, every once in awhile opening up doors and checking out the rooms in search of crystals. The doors were one of the things that puzzled her. They opened so easily for her, though they must use power, and there was only so much power running through the city. All the rooms only had the lights running across the floor like the hallways, making it take extra time to search them for anything important. At the rate she was taking it was going to be longer than she suspected before she got back to the transporter. Still she continued moving and searching the rooms. She searched until she was tired and then she laid down to try and sleep Even though she said she knew how many days it would take her, she had really just guessed, as time in this place she could only measure by how her own body regulated itself. Finding out from Dad how long she had been gone gave her a better idea, but still she could not be sure. She just hoped that they would not worry for her when it took longer than she said to find the crystals, get back to the transporter, fix it, and return home. Eventually she fell asleep.
For several days she searched as she moved, eventually giving in to curiosity and going off her path several times. She found some interesting rooms that furthered her conclusion that the city was meant for families and others just living day to day lives, rooms full of what she though were children toys, others with musical instruments and places to play, as well as a kitchen, and classrooms or what she thought classrooms looked like. Unfortunately none of those rooms or the storage rooms had any crystals. She moved back onto the path each time, wondering if the waste of the days were worth the knowledge she gained.
It took seven days to get to the labs she thought might have the crystals, and by then she would have been starving, but her trip that led her to the kitchens helped her to stock up on better tasting food packages. She traveled through the labs, getting up on benches to open cabinets. Each room held only trinkets. She began to despair when finally she entered a room that lit up like the observation room and the control room had. In surprise she cried out. Why do these rooms keep lighting up? Lailie suspiciously turned around trying to find something that would explain this. Seeing nothing she finally noticed what was in the room. It had a white container with a handle on it. She cautiously opened it and gasped when she saw it was completely full of crystals of all sizes and shapes.
She happily picked out the crystals that matched the ones from the transporter that broke. Some she remembered from seeing them blackened, others she recognized from the descriptions Daddy gave her. She took some extra ones that she was not sure were used for the transporter, because she did not want to have to return in case she needed them. Her searches through the rooms on the way had been helpful because she had found another couple sturdy pillows that she could fit the crystals in. She carried the crystals in her arms on top of her food cases. It was so heavy that she wondered how she was going to make it back to the transporter, but she put one foot in front of the other and headed out of the room.
The stairs made it hard for her to breathe and she found herself stopping along the way. In a hall she slept happy, knowing she had the crystals. Each time before she laid down to sleep she went over the directions she was given. When she woke up she ate and then picked everything up and started moving, ignoring her still tired limbs. It took her four days to make it to the transporter as she walked slower carrying the crystals. She had slept for one night in the observation room, and had almost wanted to stay because it had light, but she kept moving as soon as she woke up. When she reached the transporter she put down everything and wondered how she would put the crystals in when there was no light. The transporter mysteriously lit up. By now Lailie was getting used to the magically appearing light and simply sighed, satisfied. She fell asleep next to the transporter wanting to begin work refreshed.
When she woke up she ate and then took the crystals out of the pillow. She entered the transporter and opened up the panel. She looked at the crystals, now seeing with the light that they were not all black, just certain key ones. She found the unblemished crystals she brought with her and matched them to the blackened ones. Each one she replaced and soon they were all replaced. Before testing it, she went down a couple hallways until she was at the one with the glass and she said good bye to the fishes blinking back at her. Then she moved to the transporter. She pressed the point on the map off to the side like she had done in the transporter in Atlantis. A white glow engulfed her and she was gone.
***
For twelve days Rodney and John had the transporter watched. After six days, one of them stayed by it and waited as long as they could, hoping she would miraculously appear. On the eighth day they began to despair that she could not actually fix it. They became haggard in their appearance and no one, not even Carson, could get them to move away from it.
On the twelfth day both John and Rodney were sleeping on cots that had been situated in the hallway near the transporter. A grinding noise woke them up. Rodney rose and saw the transporter powering up. “John! It’s her, it has to be.”
John rushed in front and clasped Rodney’s arm. “She’s a genius, of course she got it fixed!” They stood there and waited.
A rush of light filled the transporter and then it opened. Inside was a twelve year old looking girl with long wavy brown hair, and deep bluish green eyes. She was a little thin but had visible muscles in her arms and legs, and her purple skirt was too tight on her and her red shirt showed off her stomach.
John and Rodney stared in shock for a second at their grown up little girl then they pulled her out of the transporter and hugged her, kissing the top of her head and running their hands through her long hair. Lailie cried, happy to see Daddy and Dad. Tears ran free down Rodney’s face and John smiled wide.
“Elizabeth, she’s back!” Rodney called on his com.
Before long, Elizabeth, Carson, Aiden, and Teyla, as well as Radek, Bates, and even Kavanagh were hovering around Lailie, giving her hugs and cheering that she was back.
Later in the briefing room, Lailie, dressed in pants and shirts that fit her, as well as bigger shoes, sat and told her story. She told them about how scared she was when she found herself alone. She talked about the dark hallways, her first sight of the fish with glowing eyes, of the portraits of Lantians and the paintings, of her discovery of the weird fruity paste and red liquid. She excitedly described the observation room, the pillows, the consoles where she learned about their culture, which she promised to write down later for everyone. She even explained the weird powering up of the lights in the room and later the control room that she reached a week later. The finding of the crystals was her happiest moment, and fixing the control panel to her was the easiest part of her voyage.
Everyone stared at her, amazed at her versatility and ability to survive. They were all proud of her but there were still things they wondered about, such as the lights. As they pondered what would have caused this, a white light appeared in the briefing room. It coalesced into a middle aged woman with long dark-red hair. Her voice was musical as she said, “I am Gertrude, and I have been watching over your precious child. She is remarkable in every way.”
John and Rodney stared up at her in surprise. Then Rodney stood up, walked over to the woman and hugged her hard. “Thank you!” The woman looked surprised, as did Elizabeth. John just smiled and nodded his head in thanks. Rodney released her, slightly embarrassed.
Elizabeth stood up. “I am Elizabeth Weir from Earth, leader of an expedition to Atlantis. We all are grateful that you have looked over and helped one of our newest citizen of Atlantis.”
“You are all welcome. I have been watching over the city called Isolde since it was abandoned. I was surprised to find this young child wandering it’s hallways. When she was in need of help I diverted some of the power to the room she was in. She was very polite, and was careful with everything she found. I am very intrigued with a people that could produce one as well refined as her, and am willing to teach you about my people’s past, though there is a limit to what I may offer.”
“Whatever you may wish to teach us, we would be glad,” Elizabeth said. Gertrude nodded.
Lailie felt slightly freaked that all this time she has been watched, but at the same time it warmed her that she was never truly alone. She smiled shyly at the woman.
Rodney who would normally be all over the Ancient for information, simply said thanks again, picked his daughter up out of her seat and left the briefing room. John followed him. They had their daughter back and were determined to spend time with her.
“Daddy I can walk you know,” Lailie said with dignity. Rodney laughed and put her down.
“We love you so much.” John said. “I knew you would come back, knew you were still alive.”
“So I was wrong.” Rodney smiled at John.
Lailie ran laughing through the hallways, back and forth around them, making sure she stayed in their sight. Keeping one eye on her they both stopped and kissed, something they had not done since she disappeared. Any furthering of their relationship had been put on hold while they grieved for her loss, now they could be happy again. Lailie saw them kissing and made a face, then pushed between them hugging them. They broke apart and laughed at their daughter. They were a family again. Life could not get any better.