Language: UK English

This was written as a Secret Santa gift for Sparky. It is part of the Bedtime Stories universe with 3 year old Alex O'Neil.

Summary: The family is still separated and Alex misses her mommy very much.


Meeting Captain Sophie Carrier

Alex woke with a start; she had had a scary dream. She was calling for mommy and mommy wouldn't come, neither would daddy, she was all-alone. She was shaking as she sat up and looked around her darkened bedroom. She felt the tears pricking at her eyes and she started to cry.

Thor stood in her basket and padded over to the edge of the bed. Alex patted the duvet in front of her and Thor jumped onto the bed and sat beside her, her brown eyes concerned and wide.

"Want mommy." Alex wrapped her arms around her faithful friend. Thor sat resolutely by her side, her brown eyes seeming sad and her ears drooped. "Thor miss mommy too." Alex decided, burying her face in the soft fur.

Alex loved Thor as much as she loved mommy, daddy and Loki. Thor played with her everyday and slept in a bed on the floor in her bedroom. Every night she sneaked onto her bed, and they cuddled all night. Daddy doesn't know, but mommy does. Every time she goes away, she hugs Thor and tells her to look after her baby.

She wanted her mommy to come home, daddy said she would be home two weeks ago and then he said she wasn't coming home for twelve weeks, however long that is, it's a very, very long time. The tears started to roll down her cheeks, making them cold and damp. She wanted her mommy so badly. She sniffed and brushed her wrist against her nose, tears reached her lips, salty and hot on her tongue.

Thor dropped her head onto her shoulder. She was warm and soft, and just there. She was comforting and quiet company. "Love you Thor." The black Labrador put her paw on her mistress's leg and licked her cheek and ears, excitedly following the trails of her tears.

Alex fell back against the bed covers as she giggled, Thor's tongue was wet and slimy and her whiskers tickled. She giggled as her dog swapped to the other cheek and continued licking her face all over. She threw her hands up to protect her face but Thor continued to lick her. Alex gave Thor a big kiss on the head and played with her ears for a moment.

She pulled the duvet up and patted the bed beside her. Thor jumped into the space and curled up with her head on the pillow. Alex pulled the duvet down over them and tucked Thor in.

"Night night Thor."

She buried her head into the pillow and wrapped her arms around Thor.

"Alex, you okay baby?"

Thor's ear's perked up and Alex pulled the duvet further over them.

Her bedroom door opened and she peered at her father's form over her duvet.

"Had bad dream."

Daddy crossed the room and perched on the side of her bed. He gave her a cuddle and rubbed her back.

"It's okay, it was just a dream, Daddy's here now."

He stroked her hair, kissed her forehead and laid her back in her bed. He looked down beside her and stroked Thor's head too.

"Alex, what have mommy and I said about having Thor in your bed?"

"She keep me warm."

"All your teddies can keep you warm."

"Thor better."

"Don't tell your mom I let you keep her in there."

"I no tell mommy."

"Good, good night princess."

He started to get up, the bed springing up as he removed his weight.

"Daddy? Story?"

"Another one? Now? It's, it's stupid o'clock! The birds aren't even awake yet." He joked.

"Pease!"

"Okay."

He sat back on the bed and picked up Princess Sophie, and sat her beside Alex, putting the duvet over her legs. He reached out a hand to scratch behind Thor's ears and smiled to himself.

"Did you know that Princess Sophie is in the Air Force?"

Alex shook her head, her eyes wide.

He smiled at her and tucked her in tightly.

"Well, a long time before you were born, Princess Sophie, was Captain Sophie Carrier of the Terra States Air Force. Sophie had a doctorate in Astrophysics. You know what that means?"

"She clever."

"Yep, way smarter than me."

"Smarter mommy?"

"No, maybe as smart as mommy."

"No one smarter mommy."

Alex told him.

"No, no one's smarter than your mommy."

He smiled again and gently brushed her hair away from her face.

"Now, one day a nice old lady named Caroline, asked Sophie to look at a shiny ring she had found buried with all these Ancient pots and rocks. It had lots of funny writing on it and no one could work out what it said.

"Caroline asked a clever man who spoke hundreds and thousands of languages, Dr David Smithson, to look at it too. David worked out that the ring was a magic ring that could send anyone who touched it to another world. Problem was, he couldn't make it work.

"Sophie looked at it and she played with her toys and computers for days and days, and finally, she made it work. When it turned on it made a great big circle of water, it shone bright blue and rippled, like a great big puddle on its side."

Alex was hanging on his every word, the puddle sounded fun.

"Sophie really wanted to go and explore the new world but the General in charge said no. Sophie was too special to go, because they didn't know if they could get back. So instead, they sent Colonel Jake O'Connor, Dr David and Jake's team.

"Turned out the General was worrying too much, Colonel Jake got back fine. Dr David stayed behind because he met a beautiful woman and decided to marry her.

Sophie was real upset because the ring was put into storage and she had to go back to work in the Octagon. The fancy pants political building where all the big wigs worked, there weren't nearly enough doohickeys for Sophie there.

One day, the ring opened in the storage room, the puddle shone blue and then, a group of mean nasty snake warriors stepped through with a snake demon called Abotis. They hurt the Terra Airmen that were guarding it and took a female airman through the puddle.

Colonel Jake was called to go after her, and this time Sophie wasn't going to get left behind. Now, there's something about Colonel Jake, you gotta understand, he doesn't like scientists."

"He no like Sophie?"

"Nope, he thought she was just a scientist and didn't know what to do in the field. Sophie didn't like that. She told Colonel Jake she was as good as any man and challenged him to an arm wrestle."

Alex giggled. "She win?"

"No, Colonel Jake said no, he thought she was funny so he took her with him. When they got to the puddle Sophie was fascinated by it, she kept touching it and staring. Colonel Jake started going grey right then, right then grey hairs started growing. Sophie stared for so long that Colonel Jake pushed her though."

"When Sophie got to the other side she found it was real hot and sandy. There was sand everywhere, on the floor, up the walls, it got in your clothes, it got in your boots, it got in your hair, it even got up your nose."

"Ewwww! Daddy!"

"When she got home she even found some in her panties."

Alex frowned at him. "Why?"

"From when she went for a pee."

"Oh. Why?"

"I don't know."

"Why?"

"It just got there, okay." Jack tickled her sides and she rolled around giggling and squealing.

"Daddy! Stop!" Alex laughed.

Thor sat up and started to try and join in and play.

Jack pushed her away and stopped tickling Alex.

"So, she's got sand in her panties. The world was called Obbydisc, Dr David and his wife Sharon came to meet them; they had a great feast and lots of fun. Then David took Sophie and Jake to see an old building he had found. There was writing on all the walls, right up to the ceiling, and it was so tall you couldn't even see the ceiling!

"Sophie helped David work out what it was, a great big map of all the worlds the ring could take them too and the address for them all. They went back to tell Colonel Jake's team, but when they got back everyone was upset. More snake warriors had come through and taken Sharon and her brother Simon away. The Demon Snake King wanted her to be his wife."

Alex's mouth dropped open, the demon snake king couldn't take David's wife! She loved David!

"One of Jake's men was hurt but he had seen the address the Demon King had traveled to. David, Sophie and Jake took him back to Terra and got more soldiers together to go and find Sharon.

"When they got to the new world, there were rocks, and dirt, and lots of trees. It looked just like home. They found the Demon Snake King and his warriors in an old castle and sneaked inside. They joined a feast and then, the Snake King arrived, with his new wife, Sharon. The King had turned her into a Snake demon too. David was upset and tried to save her.

"The Demon King had them all locked in the dungeons with Simon and lots of other people. The leader of the Snake warriors came to talk to them. David told him they were from Terra. He acted funny and put his helmet back on.

"The Demon King and his wife came to the dungeons and picked a few humans to become snake demons like them. They took Simon. Then the Demon King ordered the warriors to kill everyone left.

"Jake asked the leader warrior to help them, he turned on the other warriors and together, Jake and the leader killed them all with the warriors fire sticks. Then they made a hole in the wall and Sophie and David helped everyone out.

"The warrior leader told Jake his name is Tommy, Jake said he could come back to Terra with them. They started running to the ring, but other snake warriors were looking for them.

"The Demon King, his wife and Simon were already at the ring. Jake got there in time to see them all go through the ring. He was too late. Simon was a demon too.

"The other snake warriors were catching up with them. David and Sophie ran to the ring to get the puddle open, David couldn't find the special address; he had too many bits of paper to check. The warriors were getting closer and closer."

Alex was spellbound. She was staring so hard at her daddy, desperate to know what happened next. She clutched Sophie tightly in her arms.

"Jake and his team started shooting the snake warriors with Tommy. David finally found the right piece of paper and started to dial. Sophie dialed a special code on her doohickey that told the people on Terra they were coming. They helped all the people go through the puddle, Jake told Sophie to go through and help.

"The Snake Warriors were still getting closer, and David hadn't got all the people through. Jake and Tommy shot the snake warriors and David got everyone through. Jake, Tommy and the team all ran through, then the puddle closed behind them.

"Jake introduced Tommy to General Drummond, and he was allowed to stay.

"Sophie, Jake, Tommy and David were friends from then on, and together they make up, Magic Puddle 1, the first team of the Magic Puddle Command, their mission, to visit other worlds and learn about new people and their rocks and doohickeys."

"Where next?"

Alex was bouncing on the bed with excitement. She needed to know where they went next; she looked up at her daddy and blinked rapidly. She fought back a yawn and rubbed her eyes.

"I'll tell you another adventure tomorrow, buy you gotta go to sleep."

He guided her down into the warm comfy bed; she snuggled against the pillow and closed her eyes.

"Still miss mommy." She said quietly.

"I know baby, I know."

She felt daddy give her a kiss on the cheek and pull her duvet up over her shoulder.

She dreamed of Princess Sophie, Jake, Tommy and David walking through the shiny puddle.

One week later.

Jack knew how much Alex was missing her mom; he missed Sam desperately too, and had pulled every string available to him to make today happen. He reached into his closet and pulled out a small shoebox. He opened it and lifted out the small shiny red shoes, he smiled and placed them back in the box.

"Daddy! Daddy!"

The hysterical shouting made his blood run cold.

"Daddy help!"

He ran from the room, crossed the hall and entered the bathroom. He stopped suddenly and felt his body instantly relax. His facial muscles tightened as he pushed his lips together. A hissing sound escaped from his nose as he tried not to laugh. Then he realised the distress his little girl was in.

Alex was sitting in the toilet, her legs sticking up over the seat and her head and arms partially poking out. Her blue panties and pants in a pile on the floor.

"Daddy!" She wailed. Her little face was red and blotchy, tears running down her little cheeks. She kicked her legs and was using her spindly arms to try and push herself out of the toilet bowl.

He ran forwards, gripped her under the arms and gently lifted her up. She clung tightly to him and shook in his arms for a few moments.

"Hey sweetie, it's okay, daddy's here."

"Big potty eat me."

"What were you doing sweetie?"

"I use big potty like mommy."

"Aww baby, I think you still need to use your special seat until you're a bit bigger. Yeah?"

Alex nodded, her head turning back towards the toilet.

She pointed to her wet t-shirt and legs.

"Me need bath."

"You just want to play with your boats and bubbles don't you?"

Alex grinned widely and nodded, her beaming smile lighting up the room just as her mother's could.

Jack pulled Alex's knitted jumper over her head and guided her into the lounge.

"I've got something special for you princess."

Alex bounced up and down, clapping her hands together.

"What it is daddy?"

He opened the box and pulled out the shiny red shoes.

Alex's eyes widened. She reached out with small hands and touched the shoes gently.

"Shiny."

"Yeah, and they're all yours."

Alex looked up at him, her small mouth open wide and her blue eyes as big as saucers.

"Mine?"

"Yup."

He helped her slip her feet inside and remained on bended knee before her.

"These shoes are special shoes Alex. They're magic shoes. If you say the magic words with me, they'll take you to the person you miss most."

"Mommy?"

He grinned, "Yeah, mommy."

"Now you gotta close your eyes tight." He picked up his bag and radio. "And you gotta say the magic words three times. There's no one like mommy."

"There no one like mommy. There no one like mommy."

As she said the phrase for the second time, Jack repeated the same words into his radio. A bright white light surrounded them and they were transported across the planet.

Jack looked around them as Alex repeated the phrase for the third time.

"There no on like mommy."

"You can open your eyes now."

Alex opened her eyes and jumped up and down manically. She pointed across the shining silver room at a smiling figure with her blonde hair pulled into a loose plait.

"Mommy!"

Sam bent down and held out her hands. Jack let go of Alex hand and watched as she ran as fast as she could across the room. She dived into Sam's embrace and wrapped her arms and legs around her.

He followed slowly; watching as Sam nuzzled their small daughter, kissed her hair and face and stroked the soft blonde waves.

He looked around and nodded at the various personnel watching the exchange, including Woolsey, Sheppard, McKay, Ronan, Dr Keller and Teyla. Having Atlantis Earthside until the hyperdrives were fixed, and Sam's temporary assignment to assist Dr McKay, had made the visit pretty easy. When Sam's assignment was up and she re-took command of the Hammond, a visit like this would be impossible.

He kept his distance slightly as Alex began to tell Sam about Sophie, Thor, Loki, her new shoes and how the big potty tried to eat her. He made a mental note to properly explain the potty incident to Sam, but for now, there was nothing in the world that could make him happier than seeing his wife and daughter happy and together.

His eyes met Sam's and he saw the watery glaze, the unshed tears at being able to hold her daughter. The Hammond was only in orbit for another six hours before Mitchell took her out. They both knew how difficult saying goodbye was going to be, but right now, they were going to make the best of these few precious hours together.