Note: Yes, another story. I had to write this one, I wanted to see what everyones' kids would be like. So far they've preety much written themselves, they already have a personality of their own, LOL! This something new for me, so please let me know what you think. Sorry if anyone disagrees or dislikes anything in the story, but its merely fan fiction and this is mine. Note too, that Carson is dead in this story ... sad, I know, but I had to in order to name Teylas' little boy.
Pairings: Sam/Jack, Rodney/OC, Teyla/Ronan, Sheppard/Weir. Yayness!!!
Disclaimer: I do not own StarGate Atlantis or its character, nor do I own StarGate Sg-1 and it's characters. This is merely fan fiction, written for my own amusement.
Hearts in Atlantis.
Chapter One: The extended family.
Never in his whole life did John Sheppard think that he would ever be able to settle down. Since the day he left high school, he had left his miserable home life and run away to join the air force. For years he lived on base, taking small breaks in between to flat with mates, never staying for long. Then, just when he thought that he might like to actually settle down in his own place off base for a while, he was taken to an important job in Antartica where he was living for several months. After that, his whole life was turned around as he was sent to work in the ancient city of Atlantis, in an entire new galaxy.
It had blown him away, it was huge. He had never had a job so important and it scared him, he wanted to do well, but he never had high hopes for himself, he always seemed to make mistakes. But he thought he owed it to Dr. Elizabeth Weir, the women who wanted him to join the expedition so badly, he didn't want to let her down. No sooner had he got there, the main military leader died and he was suddenly head of security, next in line. It was so much, so fast, for someone who had never had anything and had never believed he would make anything of himself, it was a lot to take in.
But he had loved every minute of it. The adventure, the risk, the challenges and the fact that he finally had a home. They fought long and hard to keep it and after many years of fighting and struggling, it was still theres. As time went on though, John had to admit that he thought Atlantis was it. He had too much of an unhappy family life when he was a child to ever really be able to settle down and have a family of his own. He had seen his parents' failed relationship, seen all the lies and manipulations that they used on each other, could he ever really be with anyone for the rest of his life? Could he ever really trust anyone?
Well, it wasn't long before he realised he could trust someone and perhaps he could be with someone for the rest of his life. Before he knew it, years had pased, he got married, he had a son and he moved on from Atlantis. Living at the SGC on Earth so he could spend time with his family. It was different, it was new, it was something he never thought he could have, but now he had it.
But was it really what he wanted? As he watched his five year old son chase the McKays' cat around their house, he knew that it was. He never thought it was what he wanted, but now that he had it, it was all he needed. Every now and then his mind would think back to the days when he used to live on the edge, never knowing whether he would come back from missions alive or not, but time had changed ... people change. Now, every time he thought about life on the edge, he thought of what it would mean to his wife and his son if he died on a mission. What would happen if they died? He wouldn't be able to live with himself.
No. Working at the SGC, whilst quiet now, and being back on Earth was the best way to ensure that everything he loved, everthing he cared for, everything he lived for, was safe.
"Katie ... Katie ... don't touch that!" Rodney McKay shouted frantically as his two year old daughter reached for a very valuable object that was resting on his desk. The young girl giggled mischeviously as she grasped the tiny object in one plump little hand and ran out of the room. Rodney let out a gasp and chased after her, a paniked expression on his face.
John had to laugh. He had been thinking about the past a lot lately and if anyone had of told him back then that McKay would one day be the proud father of two little girls John would have simply laughed in their face. McKay had never been good with kids, still wasn't for that matter. If it hadn't of been for his fantastic wife, he probably never would have made it past the first one alive.
Rodney's wife, Melissa Shaw, was a once in a life time find for the geeky scientist. She was blonde and beautiful, with long legs and a perfect set of teeth, in fact, she looked like a model. When McKay had arrived back home from Atlantis, his precious cat had passed away, once he felt he was ready he went to buy himself a new one; he did love cats after all. That was when he had met Melissa, she had been working in the pet shop at the time and when McKay told her his sob story she fell for him straight away.
"Gotcha," McKay exclamied triumphantly as he re-entered the living room with Katie in his arms. She let out an excited scream causing Rodney to scrunch up his face in protest. "No, no, no ... stop that ..." the little girl giggled and screamed even louder. "Please stop it!"
Melissa was there in minutes to rescue her husband from his screaming younger daughter. "Thank you," he said gratefully, brushing down his clothes. As soon as Katie was in her mothers arms she stopped screaming at once. Looking at her father crossly she stuck out her tounge at him. "Give me that," McKay mumbled as he wrestled his precious possession out of her tiny arms. Once he finally got it from her he set it on a cabinet high above the kitchen sink where no wondering, little hands could reach it. Melissa simply rolled her eyes at his behaviour and smiled at him fondly.
It still amazed John how McKay could keep such a beautiful women. He really wasn't the most pleasent man to be around, he was a geek and he rarely ever showed any affection. But she loved him, and he loved her, but it just seemed that he never quite got over how lucky he had been with Melissa, like it was as though he still woried that one day she'd wake up and realise who she was really married to and leave him.
"Havin' a little trouble with the two year old McKay?" John teased as Rodney took his seat next to him and opened up another beer.
"Oh shut up! You only have one, you have no idea what it's like." John rolled his eyes, McKay always pulled that one on him. His girls were six and two. Mikala, the eldest, had short, curly brown hair. She was a smart girl, as far as six year olds went, and had never, since the day she was born, been any trouble. Katie, was completly different. She had long, curly, blonde hair and the cheekiest smile John had ever seen on a kid. It seemed she was put on the earth just to distrupt McKays perfect life and be a problem.
"Alrighty then," John said, thinking hard. "Lets have a kid swap then. I'll take the girls and you can have Riley."
"Ha! I think I'll stick with my own thank you very much," Rodney snapped back quickly.
"That's because you know you couldn't handle him. Therefore, I'm the better parent," John said smugly, taking another swig of his beer.
"Actually, I think, that technically, I'm the better parent." John spun around in his seat to face his wife. She was standing there, looking down at him, arms crossed, with a cocky smile on her face, similar to the one he was sure he used sometimes, they had definitely picked up each others habits over the years.
He put his beer back on the table and smilied sheepishly at her. Some things never changed, after all these years of being married to her and she could still take charge and put him in his place. It was like he was always fighting the urge to say "yes ma'am".
If everyone had been surprised at who Rodney ended up marrying, it was nothing to the shock of finding out who the women John Sheppard decided to spend the rest of his life with. Elizabeth Weir had been the head of Atlantis and therefore John's boss. Everyone could always tell the two were close, but he was her head of security and so it was nothing unusual, they had to be somewhat close in order to have a good working relationship between the two powers. But when the two fell in love and people slowly began to find out, the shock on most peoples' faces was extrodinary. Even though Elizabeth was a civilian, John was still threatened with being court-martialed. It had been a long, agonizing struggle for John to finally be able to have Elizabeth, but in the end it was so very worth it.
Now they had different jobs, she worked for the president, he worked at the SGC, an odd combination, but that was the Sheppard family.
Elizabeth sat down next to John and took a sip of his beer whilst he simply watched on in admiration.
"Speaking of Riley," McKay said suddenly realising that the Sheppard boy wasn't in the living room. "Where is he?"
"Oh don't worry McKay, he's probably just down stairs, playing in your lab," John sai cheekily. Rodney let out a strange noise and took off out of the room as fast as he could.
Elizabeth gave John a playful slap on the arm as she scowled at his comment.
"What? I just like watching him do that." John waited for her to cave. It was one of his favourite habits of hers, she would pretent to be angry, because she thought she still had to be to put him in his place, then she would realise that it didn't work anymore and she would fall smitten to him like she always did. On que, her frown turned into a smile and she kissed him delicately before getting up and moving to help Melissa who was busy in the kitchen.
There was a knock on the door to the McKays' house.
"I'll get it," John said, getting up from his seat excitedly as he knew who it was. He opened the door and smiled at his old friend Ronan Dex standing in the doorway.
"Step aside John, I need a beer," the larger man said as he entered the house. Minutes later John was nearely tackled to the ground by two young children.
"Uncle John!" the two kids shouted happily as they hugged him around the middle. Allisa was nine and the eldest child in the Dex family, she had long brown hair and a temper that made sure she always got exactally what she wanted. Patrick was four and was one of the biggest four year olds John had ever seen, he was almost like a clone of his father sporting dreadlocks that fell just above his shoulders.
"Now now children, I'm sure John wants to be able to walk again in the near future," Teyla Emmagan said to her kids as she entered through the door. She had the youngest of the Dex children, one year old Carson on her hip. Carson was a chubby little boy with a head full of very curly brown hair. Teyla and Ronan had decided to name their third child after Dr. Carson Beckett who had died on Atlantis. It was a kind gesture, one that any of them would have been glad to do, but as the Dexs' had the most children, they thought they would be the first to take the name.
Teyla greeted John with the usual kiss on the cheak, a gesture he could never really get used to. She put the bouncing Carson on the floor to play with Katie as she joined her husband in greeting the rest of the party.
Ronan, now with a beer in hand, took Rodney's still empty seat by John's side. "You look like you could use that," John said with a smirk as Ronan downed over half his beer.
"Oh yeah. I'm telling you now Sheppard, stick with the one kid," Ronan advised, slapping him hard on the shoulder, causing John to snort into his beer. "Speaking of kids, where's Riley?"
As if on que Rodney re-entered the room, dragging Riley by the arm of his jumper. It was a funny site, Rodney was too busy looking smug that he had caught the five year old that he didn't notice the dark haired boy slip out from under his jumper. The clothing went slack in McKays' hand and he turned to see what had happened. Riley ran ahead into the room towards his father as McKay stood there looking at the jumper in suprise.
"Umph," John let out as his son jumped up into his lap. "Careful buddy ... did you see who was here?"
The young Sheppard looked over at Ronan and before John could stop him he leapt from his lap, straight into Ronan's. Noticing what the boy was about to do Ronan caught him and lifted him into the air. "Hey, trouble maker," he said fondly as Riley kicked his legs out, searching for the floor that was meters below him.
"I'm telling you Sheppard, you gotta do something about that kid of yours, he's out of control," Rodney said, draging another seat over to his home made bar and pulling out another beer for himself and another for John.
"Rodney, that's not nice," Melissa said as she walked past, making her way over to Katie who was now jumping all over Rodneys' favourite chair.
John didn't say anything back, he simply watched his son run up to his mother and hug her tightly around the waist. In a way, Rodney was right, his boy was a handful, but he had always been like that. They started him at school at four so that Elizabeth could go back to work and ever since he started they had received complaints. Riley was disruptive in class, he couldn't seem to concentrate, he was grumpy and would sometimes refuse to play with the other kids. At home, he was the same, some days he would be the best kid in the would, others he would cry for no reason, kick and scream, yell and throw things. But John didn't like to make it seem like a big deal, he didn't like having other people tell him how to be a better parent, so he and Elizabeth dealt with it the best they could and hoped that it was just a phase he would grow out of.
"So when's lunch Mckay? I'm starving," Ronan asked.
"Yes, hello, nice to see you too," McKay grumbled.
"Lunch will be ready in five minutes," Melissa answered cheerfully as she went back into the kitchen where Elizabeth and Teyla were busy catching up.
Ever since they had left Atlantis and began working at their different jobs, they had made Saturday lunches a regular gathering, alternating between each of the three families houses. They had rarely missed one Saturday in the seven years that they had been back. The McKay Saturday lunches were always the best though. Teyla still cooked food no one really fancied that much, Athosian delicacies, and Elizabeth had never been much of a cook. But Melissa loved it and her food was always the best.
"So McKay, I hear your thinking about working from home soon," Ronan said with a smirk. "That will be SO hard for you."
Rodney scowled. "If you must know, I'm doing it so I can help out more with the kids."
John laughed as he thought about McKay being a more hands on dad. "Sure ya are McKay."
"What? You don't think I can? I'll have you know that I'm a very -" but before he could finish they were interrupted by the sound of glass shatering in the room next door.
McKay stopped and looked up in shock. "Where's Riley?" was the first thing he asked, looking around the room. Riley was the only kid missing. John got up from his chair as soon as he noticed his son wasn't in the room, McKay and Ronan quickly followed, barking orders to their kids to stay where they were. If there was broken glass, it was best to keep them away.
John was the first to enter the other room and what he saw may have shocked him if it had been the first time he had seen it happen. One of Melissa's vases was smashed into tiny peices all over the floor, Riley was standing in between the pieces looking a little shocked by what happened.
"Oh what have you done now?" McKay said, quickly pushing past John and stepping into the room. John followed straight away, reaching his son and hastily picking him up before he stepped on any of the glass with his bare feet.
"You alright buddy?" he asked once he had his son safe in his arms. But the boy squirmed in his fathers grip and whined until John had no choice but to put him on the floor, unable to keep a good grip on him any longer. As soon as Rileys feet touched the ground he pushed past Ronan who was still at the door and ran off.
"I got him," Ronan said, as he turned around and chased after the boy. As Ronan left, Elizabeth and Melissa arrived at the bedroom door. John caught Elizabeths' eye and she hung her head in disappointment. He didn't need to tell her what had happened, she just knew, this wasn't the first time it had happened.
"I'm so sorry Melissa," Elizabeth said, turning to the woman beside her. Melissa shook her head and raised a hand to stop Elizabeth.
"Think nothing of it, we never used it anyway, it was just an old vase."
Rodney was still mumbling to himself in the middle of the room as he tried to pick up the biggest pieces of the vase. John went to help him, hoping that the other man didn't say anything else to him, he was no longer in the mood to hear about what Rodney would do if it was his son that broke other peoples' things.
"Leave it boys, lunch is ready, we'll just lock this door and clean it up after," Melissa said kindly. Rodney complained about doing it now but John knew he wouldn't delay a meal just to do something he could do later.
"You do realise this makes one more thing of yours I'm technically allowed to break," Rodney said as he and John exited the room. John had to admit, Rodney was a good friend for letting it go, he knew when it wasn't the right moment to put his foot in.
"I know, I know," John replied, rolling his eyes. As McKay walked on ahead to set the table for Melissa, Elizabeth fell behind to speak to John.
"Where'd he run off to?" she asked, sounding a little fed up.
"Uh, I dunno, Ronan went to look for him, I'll go," he offered, feeling as though it was probably his turn to talk to his son. Elizabeth looked as though she was going to argue, but he quickly assured her it was okay and went off looking for Ronan.
Ronan exited Mikala's bedroom, shutting the door behind him. He noticed John and spoke to him. "He's in there, looks like he's a little tired, he just went in there and lay on the bed."
John nodded his head in thanks and Ronan walked away, giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. John entered the room and saw Riley curled up on Mikala's bed.
"Sorry daddy," the boy said when he turned to see who came into the room. John knelt at the side of the bed, facing his sons back.
"Why'd you break Melissa's stuff?" John asked, it was a little blunt, but he tried to be as gentle as possible. He saw the boy shrug his shoulders and sighed, he was never very good at the whole discipline thing when it came to his own son. The truth was, he and Elizabeth had tried everything and nothing seemed to work.
"Well, we're having lunch now, so come on and have something to eat, then we can talk about this a little later," John coaxed.
"I'm not hungry," Riley muttered, shaking his head. John felt like turning his son around, forcing him to talk to him, not to the wall, but he left it for now, truth was, he felt a little fed up himself. No matter what he said to his son it never seemed to sink in.
"Alright then, suit yourself." It was a little harsh, but the boy knew where to find them if he was hungry.
Lunch passed without too much more fuss, Carson shoved a carrot up his nose and clapped his hands happily when everyone laughed at him. Katie spilt custard all down McKays top when it was time for desert, Mikala laughed at her sister and a cranky McKay muttered something about his whole family being against him and got up to clean himself up. Riley never came out to join them, even though Teyla went into the room he was in, trying to get him to come out, but she came back and told them all he was asleep.
After lunch, it was usual for them all to sit and watch a movie, it was usually some disney film for the kids, but tonight they were going to watch Batman Begins, and Rodney was probably more excited than the children. But John didn't get to stay, Elizabeth and he both decided it would be best to take Riley home, he had had a big day.
"Sorry, we're eating and running," Elizabeth said to Melissa as John arrived at the door, ready to leave, a sleepy Riley in his arms.
"Don't worry, it happens to all of us," she said sympathetically. "And don't worry a thing about the vase," she added as John had offered to pay her back for it earlier.
"Thanks," John added as he made for the door, Rileys hands were wrapped around his neck, his head resting on his shoulder. As he made for the door he heard Riley mumble over his shoulder, "Sorry Aunty Mel."
Melissa kissed the boy goodbye assuring him it was okay and John made his way to the car with Elizabeth following close behind.
"Is it normal for a five year old to sleep so much?" Elizabeth said once they had arrived back at their own place and were getting ready for bed. Riley, after tossing and turning the whole trip home had fallen asleep as soon as they had put him to bed.
"I don't know, is it normal for a five year old to smash other peoples' things?" John rubbed his eyes tiredly as he jumped into bed. "I'm running out of things to say to him."
Elizabeth put her hands on her hips and shook her head in frustration. "Ronan and Teyla have three kids, I don't think they ever had this much trouble with any of theirs."
Not wanting to think too much more into it the two simply assured each other it wasn't there faults and they would try harder to talk to their son in the morning.
"Night," Elizabeth said as she kissed him on the check tiredly.
"Night," John replied. With a sigh, he made sure Elizabeth was settled under the blankets, then he turned off the light, put his head on the pillow and drifted off to sleep.
end
AN: Okay, well chapter 2 is already written, but I wanted to see what everyone thought before I put up chapter 2, once again. Sorry for any spelling mistakes. And please review to tell me how you liked it. I only need to REALLY know for chapter 1 so I can see what people think, after that its just for fun and to know people are still reading and that it's worth my time. How do you like the kids? Cute? he he.