The Turning of the Leaves
She will always remember him during the Fall season. John loved the fall. He loved the changing leaves, the nip in the air, the sense of the child summer preparing for the adolesence of winter to emerge in the spring a full fledged adult.
She remembers it was fall when the call over the radio came came. The leaves were turning, changing color and falling from their lofty places in the trees above her. It all seemed so peaceful, as if nothing could go wrong. And then, the radio crackled, shattering the tranquility of the afternoon. She knew something was wrong, how could such a perfect day be ruined by Rodney of all people?
They said it was quick, John didn't even see it coming. The Wraith used a new weapon, one the Lanteans had never seen before. Elizabeth said something to the Atlantis personnel at the funeral, but Tey'la doesn't remember the words that are spoken. Only that a great man is gone. She made it home somehow, sat under the golden tipped trees in the forest behind the Athosian village. The falling leaves reminded her of him, once green and alive, now, drained of color and alive no more, fallen too soon to be covered with the snow of winter.
Now the spring is here, and she finds herself alive again with the budding of their love. Tagan John Emmagen-Sheppard was born just six short months after his father's passing, like the tiny leaves that emerge after winter's bleakness to find a spring day too beautiful to pass by, blossoming a once forlorn tree into a majestic standing king of the land. She hopes Tagan John will blossom, but more than anything she hopes he comes to love, as has she, the turning of the leaves.
