Vegas: Conquest
"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,"
1 year 3 months after invasion.
Colonel John Sheppard, formerly Detective John Sheppard was furious. Anger was a dangerous glare in his green eyes. It created hard lines on his handsome face. It ran through every tense muscle of his weary body, reverberating down to his boots as he stomped through Facility 6. People quickly made way for him, averting their gazes, their greetings turning to mere mumbles as John ignored them all.
Nothing was going to deter him from his objective. Nothing.
Until the sound of a baby crying caught him up short.
Without slowing his stride he swerved and made his way down the stairs, following the loud wailing of what could only be coming from his son. John liked to think that he could identify his son's voice from any other child's, but Moira always pointed out that since John junior was the only baby at the facility it really wasn't a test of John's perspicacity.
John had ignored her sarcasm and insisted he could pick his son out of a nursery full of crying infants if the chance ever arose.
He quickly descended another flight of stairs as the crying became louder and more insistent. Clearly John junior was upset about something and letting his little lungs tell the entire facility all about it. He entered one of the biology labs and paused.
John Sheppard Junior was seated in his stroller, wailing like a banshee. Little arms flailing in the air. Pudgy face turning red. Big blue eyes full of tears that were streaming down his cheeks. His dark hair was as wild as his father's. Seeing his father the baby paused in his distressful ranting. Hiccuped. Smiled. "Gaga gaga gaga," he identified. Then, as if remembering he had been unhappy he began to cry again, reaching out for his father.
John smiled. "Hey, buddy, what's wrong?" John lifted the infant to his arms, gently bouncing him and kissing the rosy, wet face. "Ssh, ssh, daddy's here now. Where's mommy? Mommy wouldn't leave you for long, would she? Easy, buddy, it's all right. Moira!" he called, turning to view the empty threshold. The empty lab.
The baby clung to his father, quieting at last now that comfort and love and security had been restored to him. He hiccupped and John patted the infant's back, fingers caressing the pale blue fabric of the baby's sleeper. In absolute wonder the baby touched his father's face, cooing softly as the rough hair of John's beard was new and strange to his little fingers.
John smiled. "Yeah, buddy, I need a shave but first let's find your mother."
Moira Sheppard stared in shock, her hand over her mouth to prevent either a scream or a flurry of invectives from escaping her lips. She backed up and hit the wall behind her. The solidity was reassuring. She stared at the deformed, mutilated body even as it weakly twitched, one hand clawing the floor towards her feet. "How…how…it's impossible!"
Carson Beckett shook his head, expression grim, guilty. "The electrical currents must have triggered the regenerative powers to astonishing levels…plus the, the feeding. It shouldn't be alive by any count, but it is."
"How long? How long have you kept this horrible secret? My God! Ever since, ever since I was, I was cured?" she answered her own question, brown eyes widening in shock. "You kept that, that thing in the same facility as my child? You…John. John knew, didn't he? Didn't he?" she demanded, voice rising in anger.
"Yes, love. We needed everything we could get from it, and since it is still alive we have been able to access parts of its brain having to do with communications and with an interface we have established a baseline for their language and their—"
"Don't care! I don't care if you taught it to tap dance! You kept that thing in the same facility as my child! The same thing that nearly killed him! How could you?" She sidestepped round the creature, keeping her back to the safety of the wall.
"It was necessary for research, Moira, I swear! And it wasn't supposed to be for this long! But it won't die!"
"It will die, Carson! You just want to keep…" She paused. Silence filled her ears. "Johnny. Johnny!" She ran out of the room and down the hallway, skidding to a halt as she almost ran into John. "Johnny!" The baby gurgled happily, reaching out for her. "Give me my baby!" she ordered, glaring at her husband. Her surprise and elation at his safe return was quickly replaced by ire over what he had condoned. Over what he had never told her.
Over the still living remains of Todd the Wraith.
John raised a brow at her tone, but handed over the baby. Moira cuddled him close, kissing him. The baby cooed, delighted at the attention, but his little brow furrowed and he started to fuss, staring past her down the hallway as if he could see what lay on the floor. "Moira?"
"You fucking bastard!" she flared, feeling tears. She stormed past him, baby in her arms.
John turned to watch her. "Moira? What the hell is that about? Moira! Moira!" he shouted, but she ignored him, disappearing into the lab. The baby was crying again. John sighed, but whirled hearing a cough. "Carson, what the…oh shit," he realized, seeing the doctor's expression.
"Afraid so, John. I couldn't lie to her when she stumbled upon me moving it. It's still alive, John."
"What? How?" John asked, in genuine surprise.
"Hell if I know. It seems to be affecting the baby too…or rather the baby is sensitive to it in some unfathomable way. I'll go secure it. See to Moira and your son." Carson headed for the room where the Wraith was sprawled, but he glanced over his shoulder at the other man. "Oh, and welcome back, John."
Moira was furious, shocked. She was trying to dampen it all down as she sat on the bed, gently rocking her son as he greedily fed from a bottle but her angry gaze devoured the sparse furnishings in the nursery with fiery indignation. Her stomach twisted, recalling the thing on the floor that had once been Todd the Wraith. Now it was an amalgamation of parts that somehow were still alive, still viable. Still a threat to her son.
She heard John's distinctive steps as his boots thudded on the floor. She watched him enter the nursery, pausing on the threshold, hands raised in surrender as he took in her ire. "Well?" she snapped. She eyed the baby as he gurgled, little hands grasping the bottle. His big blue eyes were serene as he stared up at his mother. At least all was right in his world now.
John watched his wife and son a moment, feeling a wash of emotion that smothered his earlier anger. Only smothered it, not erasing it. But the anger had nothing to do with her. He licked his lips, lounged in the doorway. "Sorry."
"That's it? Sorry? That's all you have to fucking say to me?" she asked, brown eyes full of fury as she met his gaze.
John felt his cock stir at her anger. He felt a sexual anticipation at the argument to come. It wasn't the only thing coming and he briefly smirked as his body reacted to her. "I—"
"Don't even think of sex right now, John, because believe me, you're not getting any!" Moira had seen his lewd interest. "Well?" she repeated.
"Sorry," he rejoined. Scowled. "I didn't think it would still be alive after all of the—"
"No! You never told me! You kept that damn thing here with us, with your son and never bothered to tell me! That thing almost killed your son, John! It almost killed me! How could you? How could you?" she flared, but calmed as the baby started to fuss. She took the bottle from him and lifted him to her shoulder to burp him.
"If I thought either of you were in any danger, believe me, I would have gotten rid of it STAT."
"Would you have?"
"Moira! Of course! Don't be stupid!"
"Stupid? Oh, I'm stupid now? You're the one who kept that thing in the same building as your son!" she argued, pacing now as she burped the infant.
John watched her circle, circle. "You know what I mean, Moy! I never—"
"Never thought for a moment how it would affect me or your son?"
"Yes! No! Yes, and that's why I didn't tell you! Surely you can see the scientific value of having that thing with us! To experiment with so Carson can develop an effective virus or bioweapon to kill them! To find a way to infiltrate their communications! To find a way to exploit any weakness they have! To develop a toxic—"
"Oh can it, John! You don't get it, do you?" She stopped, glaring at him as the baby clutched at her shoulder, burping. "He can sense that thing! Your son can sense the Wraith!"