A/N: Just something I was wanting to write… it's not a full-blown story, I've got a couple of those in the works but just something to get started on here. It's more of a rambling and it's exactly very fleshed out and yeah...
Summary: As Jeannie watched her brother, she realized he had finally found a place to call home and people to call family. And it hurt to realize she was not one of them.
Warnings: I am ignoring the episode "Sunday" because Carson is amazing and I don't like Keller so you could say this is kind of an AU…
Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing!
Oo FAMILY oO
When they were children, her big brother always played the piano. Jeannie always thought it was pretty as she played with the pedals at his feet. He would laugh at her and tell her to stop until he finally got irritated and actually pulled her out from under the piano. Then he would return to practicing until their father yelled at him to stop so he could get some peace and quiet.
He was only eight when his teacher told him to give it up. Jeannie cried as her big brother pulled the top down over the keys and walked away from it. He never played the piano again, but sometimes she would catch him looking through music books and running his fingers over the keys.
Their parents were happy.
Oo oO
Jeannie watched as Meredith Rodney McKay talked animatedly with his friends. When she had first arrived on Atlantis, she had been agitated; Meredith was exactly like he had been nearly five years ago, insufferably egotistical. However, as she watched him interact with the people surrounding him, she realized something.
Rodney was not the same man he was five years before.
At first glance it seemed that way, but then she looked closer. He was smiling in a way she hadn't seen in years. His teammates teased him and laughed with him, not at him. Even his fellow scientists respected him. And there at the table she couldn't help but think it seemed as if Rodney belonged there, in the lost city of Atlantis on an alien planet in another galaxy, surrounded by people from different places, with different backgrounds and languages and training and beliefs.
It was amazing that all these people accepted him, believed in him, trusted him… loved him just the way he was.
Oo oO
Their parents had always loved Jeannie more. It was years before Jeannie realized this, of course, and Rodney never blamed her for it because he loved her too. But Jeannie always got her way, and Rodney never got his. Sometimes Jeannie took advantage of this.
Jeannie was brilliant. She always had the highest grades in her classes, and she was reading on nearly a high school level by the time she was a third grader. Her parents showered her with love, praise, and adoration for this.
Rodney was even more brilliant. He always had the highest grade in his entire class, and by the time he was in middle school, he was on a college level. Instead of the love and praise his sister got, though, his parents only held disdain for him and his achievements.
He was quick to correct his teachers and fellow classmates. This earned him all of their ire as well, and from the very beginning he had no friends. Jeannie was one of the most popular girls in school. She always fit in. She always belonged.
It wasn't until years later she realized Rodney was trying to find a place to belong.
Oo oO
It was Christmas time. The first Christmas since she and Rodney made up.
He had finally come, laden with gifts for her, her husband, and her daughter. Jeannie hadn't realized just how well he was being paid until he walked in with all of those gifts.
Each of them had a gift from Rodney's friends as well, of course, but most of the bulk were gifts from Rodney.
"Making up for lost time," he had said simply as he set the presents under the tree.
A few days before Christmas, they had received a delivery from the SGC. More gifts, some for Rodney even from all of his close friends.
And on Christmas morning, she watched as Rodney, although confused but happy, opened his presents from Teyla, Ronon, John, Elizabeth, Radek, Carson, and a few names she didn't recognize. Beside her, her husband was taking pictures of the happy family event, and Madison was happily tearing into her gifts down on the floor, but Jeannie's hands had stilled on the gift from Teyla, only half unwrapped. She watched her brother carefully set each of his friends' gifts together to the side before turning back to finally receive Jeannie and Caleb's gift.
She noted with a bit of sadness that even Ronon's gift of primitive hunting knives meant more to him than the brand new latest-model laptop.
Oo oO
He built a bomb to try and get their attention. It worked.
Jeannie sat in her room, hands clamped over her ears as they screamed at him. The CIA had interrogated him, and eventually he was cleared. Their parents were angry though. Their brilliant son, the son they never even wanted, had built an actual atomic bomb and attracted the attention of the government.
They felt ashamed. They were isolated from their neighbors. People would cast them suspicious glances. No one would trust them anymore. Their son was infamous among the entire province, and that made them infamous.
Rodney's door slammed shut after a while, but the yelling didn't stop. She curled up to sleep. Later that night her mother sat by her bed and ran her fingers through Jeannie's hair.
"You're a good girl, Jean. Not like that brother of yours… you're a good girl. We love you very much, Jean. You're normal. You belong. He isn't. He doesn't."
Oo oO
It was their mother's funeral that next got him out to her house. He didn't want to come, but she had pleaded with him. He eventually agreed. His friends followed him, to offer the support Jeannie knew she couldn't give him.
After all, she didn't know their mother like he knew her.
Once the funeral was over, they all went to their mother's house for an after-service. All of their mother's still-living friends were there, and they all recognized Jeannie and Rodney. Of course they flocked to Jeannie and her husband and daughter while casting suspicious glances at Rodney, but for the first time ever, Rodney paid them no mind.
Everyone noticed how he was surrounded by strange people, how his smile was more natural and friendly and just a little more carefree than they had ever seen him. None of them were surprised by his lack of sadness.
He stood with Radek on his left, Carson on his right, John lazing against a wall nearby, Ronon standing tall not far behind, and Teyla next to Carson. Elizabeth would have come, too, Jeannie knew, but the leader was needed on Atlantis.
It wasn't until she was seeing the last family friend off that she heard the piano being played. She hurried to the doorway into the family room, where the piano had laid untouched for years, and she stopped. Madison was sitting against the wall, just watching, and Caleb stood not far behind Jeannie.
In the room, Rodney was sitting at the piano, where he hadn't sat in nearly thirty years, his fingers tentatively pressing keys. Radek was sitting on the bench next to him, and Teyla leaned against the piano, watching his fingers move with interest. John had taken a seat on the nearest couch, listening with a small smirk, and Ronon stood next to the bench with Carson.
After a moment, Rodney seemed to gain a bit of confidence and began really playing. It was a melody Jeannie recognized from when they were very young, only now there was something in it that she hadn't realized it lacked until that moment.
Then it broke away from the remembered melody and took up a life of its own. It was a fast tempo, made up of quick, complex high notes with "slower," simpler darker tones. It was exciting, awing, frightening, hopeful, and sad all at the same time. She didn't even notice when the tears started.
She watched the group of Lanteans- because yes, that was what they were, Lanteans, not Earthlings and Athosian and Satedan, they were Lantean- as they listened to Rodney's music and silently cheered him on. She couldn't help but feel like she was intruding.
Rodney was her brother. She knew this. She also knew he loved her as much as she loved him. But blood doesn't make a family a true family. That was something Rodney had never had.
"I have to go, Jeannie. Mum and dad love you though, so don't worry. They'll take good care of you. They'll give you what they couldn't give me. I need to go find my own way."
As Jeannie watched her brother, she realized he had finally found a place to call home and people to call family.
"You'll come back to visit, right?"
"I don't know, Jeannie. You know I'm not welcome in this house."
And it hurt to realize she was not one of them.
"I love you, Mer."
"I love you too, Jeannie."