A/N: Well hello there. This is my first SGA fic, so go easy on me! I've been a huge fan of the show since it first started and have enjoyed reading what other people have written on here. So… I give you this.

Summary: My name is Isabella. When my Mom was murdered in our home, I went to live with my father I've never met. I've been journaling about the experience since my Mom died so I could tell you all about it. So… this is my story.

Disclaimer: If I owned Atlantis… the show would probably still be on.

Chapter 1

I didn't know what was going to happen to me the day my mother died. Here I am, a fourteen year-old girl with no other known family, no parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins…. nothing.

I was under police protection for the first little while because my mother had been murdered in our home. The police think that whoever killed her would have killed me, too, given that I would have been in our condo. I kind of wish they didn't tell me that, because now I'm paranoid and can't sleep at night. Fantastic.

I snuck out the night she was murdered, intent on having some fun. A few of my friends and I were going to see a midnight premier of the latest movie but we had to sneak out because all of our parents said "no." It's not even like it was a school night for heaven's sake. Now that doesn't even seem like that big of a deal…

I was sitting on a couch in the police station when Detective Lawrence came up to me. "We found your father." he said.

Now, I had no idea who my father was at the time. My mother had always told me that I looked just like him, but she never elaborated. It makes me wonder if she resented me for (apparently) looking so much like him. She never wanted to talk about her past with him, about him, or anything that reminded her of him. The only thing I knew is that he was (or maybe still is) in the Air Force.

"Where is he?" I asked, standing to follow him as he motioned me to come.

"Well, that we don't know. But we're meeting him in Colorado at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex."

"Colorado?" I said, confused.

"That's where he's currently stationed. Well, that's where we think he's stationed. I just got off the phone with his superior and that's where we are to meet him." Detective Lawrence said.

I nodded as I kept following him. The rest of what happened before I finally met my father was a blur. I remember that I spent the rest of the day packing whatever stuff I wanted to keep because I was apparently moving to live with him. We then boarded a private airplane with all my stuff and flew to Colorado.

Once we got to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Detective Lawrence wished me well and sent me on my way. They were kind enough to give me a personal escort that helped me figure out where I was going, so it wasn't difficult. I had to fill out several papers and go through many security clearances before I could see the guy they say is my Dad. I thought it was kind of strange because they just told me I was going on to a military base. Don't they usually just check your ID, you go through a metal detector, and that's it? It's like they were hiding some big secret and needed to make sure that I wasn't a crazy person or something…

Turns out they actually were keeping a big secret.

After filling out piles of paperwork and going through security clearance, I was led through heavy sliding metal doors and into this massive, open room that had a huge metal-looking ring… thing, at the top of a ramp.

At the time I didn't know what it was, but that is a device called a Stargate. I remember walking up the ramp and admiring the giant thing, when I heard the enormous metal doors that I had just come through a few moments ago slide open.

Startled, I turned around and saw an older man with gray hair and some killer eyebrows in military uniform walk in the room. I walked down the ramp to meet him, slightly embarrassed as if I had just been caught with my hand in the cookie jar.

"Miss Genova. Welcome to Stargate Command. I'm sorry for your loss. I'm General Landry." The killer eyebrows man said to me, extending his hand.

A few yards behind him stood a man in his mid-thirties wearing normal clothes. The thing I noticed first was his spiky hair. It didn't look like he gelled it, but that it was that way naturally. I found it very fascinating.

"Well, I'll leave you to it, then." General Landry said, smiling slightly before leaving the room.

"So…" the normal-looking one said. "I'm John Sheppard. I'm your…. father." he said awkwardly, before offering his hand for me to shake.

I shook it with some hesitance before introducing myself. "Isabella Genova. But you can just call me Izzy. Do you live here?" I remember asking, curiosity getting the best of me. I have trouble holding my tongue sometimes.

"No. Uh… have you gotten a security clearance? Well… I mean I'm assuming so otherwise they wouldn't have brought you in here." John said. Poor guy, he seemed really nervous; probably just as or more nervous than I was.

"Yeah." I said, pulling out the guest badge with special security clearance they had just given me. "What is that thing anyways?" I asked.

"That is the Stargate. It's a device used to travel between different planets… in fact, you'll be coming to live with me in Atlantis; from my understanding of the situation." John stated, as if it was no big deal.

I was freaking out on the inside. I hear all these "jokes" about there being life on Mars and all this crap, and (apparently) there is life on other planets. It usually takes a lot to make me completely speechless, but I certainly was after John told me that.

"Look, we have a lot that we need to talk about. But for now, we have to think about getting your things on the Daedalus. That's the uh… spaceship… that we'll be going to Atlantis in." John said, stumbling over his words slightly as if he wasn't exactly sure how to tell me what was going on.

I nodded numbly as John motioned to a bald guy that was watching us from a big window on the back wall in that room.

The next thing I knew, I saw a bright light and then I didn't feel anything, and then I was in a spaceship of some kind. I pressed my face against a big window and looked out in space to what I identified as Earth.

I was so terrified, because so many things just changed all of a sudden. I finally meet my father, there are other habitable planets in the galaxy, there's this thing called a Stargate, and now I'm in a spaceship. Well that's not something you get to experience every day…

"Follow me." John said a few moments later, leading me away from the big windows. He led me through some maze-like halls to a small room with a single bed in it.

"This is where you'll be staying." John said, stepping inside and shoving his hands in his pockets.

I was about to shriek something to the effect of "what the hell is going on?", but before I could say anything, John blurted, "I didn't know."

I looked at him, confused, but he clarified a few seconds later. "I didn't know about you. Otherwise I wouldn't have left Darcy and I would have been there and raised you… but, I didn't know." he said guiltily. I studied his face and I knew he was telling the truth.

It seemed as if John didn't get emotional very often, because he turned his back to me just as I caught a glimpse of a tear threatening to spill over as if he was embarrassed to show any sort of emotion. He stood with his back to me for several seconds and eventually turned around and ran his hand through his hair before speaking.

"Obviously we're going to have to have a very long conversation. But, I want to give you the opportunity to settle in and rest so that you'll be able to understand everything that I have to tell you. The bathroom is just down the hall, but I want you to be either there or here for the next few hours. After that, I'll answer any question you have." he said. This was obviously very difficult for him, too. "Deal?"

John didn't know it, but he was already going into father-mode.

I honestly didn't know what to say because I was still in shock from the things I discovered in the past couple of hours. So, I just nodded and he gave me a sort of small smile and left, closing the door behind him.

Quite honestly, I was kind of pissed off, but not necessarily at him…

You see, my mom and I didn't exactly have the best relationship. She was a big time lawyer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For as long as I can remember, I felt like she only had time for her job and never for me. Needless to say, I was a lot closer to my nanny than I was to my mom.

And it wasn't that she was a bad mom; when she was there anyways. The problem is that she never was there… or hardly ever.

I had always asked questions about my dad but she never wanted to tell me anything, so I began to wonder if he even knew I existed. Turns out, he didn't. I guess I can't really blame him for not being there when he didn't even know about me.

But, dang it, I really wanted to be pissed at him. There have been many times in my life when I wanted my dad… and the best I got was whatever boyfriend my mom had at the time.

Sure, they were all okay, but they weren't my dad, and they never could be.

Now, in the most unfortunate and gosh-awful way possible, my dad was finally here... did I mention that we're on a spaceship headed to another planet in another galaxy. WHAT THE HELL!?

Two hours ago I didn't even believe there were any other habitable planets other than Earth… but apparently there's a whole butt-ton of them and the government even possesses this thing called a Stargate that transports you from planet to planet.

I laid down on the uncomfortable cot in my temporary bedroom and tried to put the pieces together in my brain.

The thing that baffled me the most is how the government kept that big of a secret from everyone. It makes me wonder if there are any other secrets that I don't know about. I mean… how could they possibly hide stuff like that? And if we could travel from planet to planet and go to a whole 'nother galaxy within a matter of days, then why were trips to the moon so important and made into such a big deal? Is it because the government was trying to cover up this huge secret that they made the now seemingly small things into a big deal just to distract us and make us think that there was nothing else? Or do not very many people within the government even know about the Stargate?

The thing about today is that; it should have been a huge deal because I met my dad. But, after I found out about all these other planets and galaxies and spaceships… the fact that I met my dad seemed like a small, insignificant occasion.

I ended up wearing myself out with all these big questions in my mind. My guess is that John could answer them when we talked a little later… guess his suggestion of taking a nap wasn't a bad idea after all.

A/N: What do you think? Should I continue? REVIEW!