Separation anxiety
"Unscheduled gate activation!"
Elizabeth comes into the control room with quick strides.
"Do we know from where?"
Chuck checks his monitors as the last Chevron locks. "It's the SGC. They're hailing us."
"Put them through."
The shield stays firmly in place until they have confirmed all is well.
As it turns out, all is not well.
General Landry explains their situation over Skype. The SGC just got intel that Earth is about twelve hours away from an attack of the Ori. Landry requests the assistance of General O'Neill as the most experienced Commander in interstellar battle. A few jumpers loaded to the gills with drones wouldn't go amiss either.
This, of course, is a standard scenario they have planned for and practiced extensively. Jack, and a team of specialists are ready to go within 15 minutes. Lantis and Daniel have come to the gate room to say goodbye.
"Please be careful," Daniel says.
Jack nods. "I will. I'll call you."
He gives his husband a kiss, and then picks up Lantis for a proper hug.
Lantis' eyes are wide and scared. "We don't want you to go." She whispers anxiously.
Jack gives her an apologetic kiss to the cheek. "I know, hon. I'd rather stay with you too. But it's my duty to help. I'll be back as soon as I can."
Lantis swallows, and nods.
Jack gives her another kiss. "My brave girl. I love you both very much. You two be good now, y'hear?"
Lantis smiles at that. "We will. And we love you too."
Jack hands their daughter to his husband, and gets a last goodbye kiss with a whispered "Love you too" from him.
He visibly pulls himself together on his way to his team.
Lantis watches them leave from Daniel's arms. When the gate closes, she hides her face against him, and starts shaking.
Daniel quickly leaves the area for the nearest empty room, and sits down with her in his lap. He hugs her, and rocks her gently.
"We can't feel JackGeneralDad anymore," Lantis whispers brokenly.
Daniel makes a sympathetic sound, and hugs her tighter.
"That must be hard, honey. But you know Jack, he is smart, and will play it safe."
Lantis nods against him.
They sit like this for a long while, soaking up comfort from each other.
After an indeterminate time Lantis sits up, and dashes a hand over her eyes. Daniel brushes the hair away from her eyes gently. "You know what I think?"
"What do you think, DanielDoctorJacksonDad?"
"I think we could do with an afternoon of cuddling on the couch. Make some popcorn, watch some videos."
"Ohh yes! Can we watch more of that documentary about the mummies?"
Daniel chuckles. "I'm always game for good Egyptology."
(Daniel's POV)
Normally when Jack is away on a mission, I bury myself in work. It's much easier to stop worrying when I am knee deep in translations or artifacts.
This was the first time that Jack was away since we had a daughter though. And of course, her wellbeing was my first priority. Not to mention that cuddling and watching documentaries was quite nice for a change.
So we spent the afternoon lazing around in the living room, both trying not to think too closely about the situation on Earth. General Landry had warned us that as a precaution they would only contact us when the crisis was over. If the worst case scenario came true, there was no sense in alerting the Ori to the existence of Atlantis, and more humans in Pegasus.
But of course we both kept glancing at the clock. Four hours since Jack had left… five… six… No word from him.
I made a light dinner of finger food, and we went right back to snuggling on the couch. Lantis paused the episode after a few minutes though.
"DanielDoctorJacksonDad?"
"Yeah, hon?"
"Why can't we take a jumper and fly through the gate bridge to Milky Way to the last gate before Earth?"
I contemplated this. "Well, I haven't thought about this before. Why don't you ask John what he thinks?"
Her solemn face lit up a little. "Oh yes, we will!" She gave me a hug, and then jumped off the sofa, and ran off.
Well, so much for dinner. This was gonna be a long night.
It turned out, the reason why we couldn't use the gate bridge was the same we could not use the gate to dial directly to Earth. The Ori might notice, and follow us back to Pegasus. I had not been aware of the extend of worst case scenarios John, Jack, Teyla, and the military commanders from our allies went through on a regular basis. Evacuation from Earth to Atlantis, evacuation from Pegasus via Atlantis to Earth, evacuation via splitting up and settling on different planets, what if the Ori wipe out most of humankind, what if the Wraith and Replicators team up and attack our city, it went on and on and on. Every scenario had a plan, and supplies in place should they be needed. I hope we never have to use any of them, but it's wise to be prepared.
Lantis came back looking very sad, and lost. I held her close for a long time, trying not to let my own worry get the best of me.
It's much easier when you're part of the action, when the adrenaline takes over and you just focus on surviving.
But Jack and I also had a contingency plan in place. One of us stays with Lantis in a crisis, just in case. I firmly refused from thinking about the possibility that Jack might not come back. I concentrated on making our daughter as comfortable as possible instead.
"How about a nice bubble bath, hm?"
Lantis shook her head mutely.
"Want me to tell you a bedtime story?"
"We are not sleeping until we hear from JackGeneralDad."
"Fair enough."
Lantis looked up at me in surprise, and I smiled, and ruffled her hair. "If Jack was here I know he'd make you go to bed. But that's his job. I don't think I can sleep either. But we could get into pajamas and cuddle some more in our big bed?"
Lantis smiled shyly at that. "We'd like that."
In the end we both ended up falling asleep anyway, somewhere in the small hours of the morning. There still had been no word from Jack.
I woke up when I felt a light kiss, and opened up my eyes to see my husband, safe and sound.
Okay, he looked like death warmed over, but at least he was back in one piece.
I gripped him tight, and pulled him down onto the bed with me.
"Oh thank god you're back."
Jack chuckled. "As long as that god is no Ori, I'm all for that. Hey sweetie," he added to Lantis who had woken up too.
Our daughter launched herself at him with a mixture of laughing and crying. I could relate very well. We ended up staying in bed for another hour or so. Jack told us how they defeated the Ori, and we fussed about him quite a bit.
He had been gone for about 20 hours, and was coming off that adrenaline high pretty fast.
When he fell asleep, Lantis stayed right next to him, refusing to let go.
As we could all do with some more shut eye, we just stayed in bed.
I hoped the fallout from this would be mild. For the first separation of Lantis and Jack since she came to live with us, this was pretty harsh.
At least Jack was back safely, and Earth was fine too, nothing to worry about.
(Lantis POV)
Slowly, silently, Lantis sneaks inside. Perhaps she can slip back into bed with JackGeneralDad none the wis-
"Eep!" Lantis jumps when JackGeneralDad switches on the light in the living room. He is sitting on the sofa, arms crossed, and not amused.
"And what time do you call that, young lady?"
"We call it 11,427 seconds after we woke up tonight, what time do you call it?"
JackGeneralDad growls. "I'll call it 'Time for a spanking' in a minute if you don't stop the sass."
Lantis scowls. "That's not fair! You asked!"
JackGeneralDad is giving her a searching look, and Lantis averts her eyes under his scrutiny. His voice is considerably gentler when he calls her. "C'mere, hon."
Lantis reluctantly walks the few steps to the sofa, and is drawn into JackGeneralDad's lap. She leans back against him, but crosses her arms. JackGeneralDad may not be amused, but she is not all that happy with him either.
JackGeneralDad rubs her back, and doesn't talk for a long time.
Lantis gradually relaxes against him.
Of course she knows how he feels, and what he thinks. She knew sneaking out of bed in the middle of the night would not go over well. But it seemed like a good idea at the time.
"All right, hon," JackGeneralDad says after a long time of just hugging her. "Can you tell me what made you take off tonight?"
Lantis shrugs, and fiddles with the hem of her shirt.
JackGeneralDad sighs, and presses a kiss to her hair. "Lantis, what's the rule about bedtime?"
Lantis crosses her arms again. "It's a stupid rule!"
"Hey. If you have a problem with the rules you are welcome to discuss them any time you're not in trouble, you know that."
"We don't want to discuss them, they are dumb."
"Uh-huh."
"And they suck."
"Mhm."
"And they're not fair!"
"Why?"
Lantis feels her eyes go prickly, and scowls at the floor. She's not going to cry, she's not. Stupid JackGeneralDad with his stupid rules can go right back to Earth if he wants to, Lantis does not need him.
"Lantis... I was worried tonight. I know you were in the city, but there are still lots of opportunities to get hurt, and I worry."
Anger bubbles hot inside Lantis' chest. "Yes, well, then now you know how we felt!"
Realization dawns, and JackGeneralDad's eyes turn very soft. "Oh, honey. I'm so sorry."
He gathers her into a close hug, and Lantis can't stop the tears anymore.
"You were gone, and we couldn't feel you, and you didn't call, and we couldn't reach Earth, and w-we thought y-you were h-hurt!" she sobs.
"I know, hon, I know. I'm so sorry. I hated that I had to leave you and Danny, but I was glad you were safe."
"B-but we want you safe too!"
JackGeneralDad squeezes her tighter. "Thank you, sweetie, I appreciate it. I'll do my best to stay safe, okay?"
"You are safest here, JackGeneralDad! We can protect you here."
JackGeneralDad chuckles. "I believe you, hon. And thank you. But sometimes I'll have to help out on Earth. I want to keep the people there safe too."
Lantis sniffs, and sits up a bit. She can't really say anything against that. She wants the Earth people safe as well. "We want to talk to LandryGeneral."
"Sure, sweetie. In the morning."
JackGeneralDad stands her up with a pat to the butt, and Lantis looks up in alarm.
"Are you going to…"
JackGeneralDad ruffles her hair, and smiles. "I hadn't planned on warming your butt, no. I just want you to shower real quick and get into bed."
"'kay."
Lantis is showered and dried in under 10 minutes - it helps that she knows how to use the fan system embedded in the walls.
The first time she showered in her android body, JackGeneralDad had given her a towel to dry with. She had grinned and showed him that it is much easier to dry with the warm air coming out of the fans from all sides.
"Wow. Do all showers have those?"
"Of course! We thought the Descendants just like towels. You put your mess hall into the meditation chambers after all, your customs are obviously different from ours."
JackGeneralDad had laughed. "True. But often we just don't know something."
While she was in the shower, JackGeneralDad brought her a fresh pair of pajamas, looking like a suit of the X-Men. Lantis really loves them. She was very happy when she got to know Professor Xavier and his school for gifted children, because she would have fit in there very well. Professor X can hear people's thoughts too.
JackGeneralDad has turned down her bed for her, and is tucking her in with a kiss to the forehead.
"I want you to stay in bed until I wake you up, okay? Except if you have to use the bathroom."
"Okay, JackGeneralDad. Can you…" Lantis breaks off and bites her lip.
JackGeneralDad sits down on the side of her bed. "Can I?"
"Can you stay until we fall asleep?" Lantis asks shyly.
JackGeneralDad smiles, and leans forward to give her another kiss to the forehead. "With pleasure. Scoot over, kid, your old man is tired too."
Lantis giggles, and makes room for him in her bed. JackGeneralDad lays down beside her, and Lantis curls up against him. It's good to have him back. Tomorrow she will talk to LandryGeneral and propose repairing and updating the defense system for Earth. It's ridiculous they haven't done so before.
With JackGeneralDad rubbing her back Lantis soon falls asleep.
Thank you very much for reading!
I was inspired to write this story after seeing an episode of Stranger Things. No spoilers, but the adult in that situation behaved not very well in a fight, and I kept thinking what I would have liked to have seen instead. I hope you enjoyed! I certainly had a good time writing this, even if I got emotional a few times. LOL
I love to hear from you!
Until next time,
Auri