The Next Generation
Season: Future
Summary: For the future to be secured, he must go back in time so they can relive the present.
Future, Alternate Universe, Crossover with SG-1 and Atlantis, Angst, Action/Adventure
Pairings: Too many to mention
A/N: This is undoubtedly a crack!fic gone horribly, horribly awry. The amount of characters involved alone is enough to make one's head spin. Nevertheless, I couldn't get the storyline out of my head, so here it is.
CHAPTER ONE
Jake O'Neill - Earth
In a perfect world, at the start of my summer vacation before my senior year, I would have been on a road trip with my buddies, on my way to sunny California. In a perfect world, the waves would've been waiting for me, calling my name. In a perfect world, my dad wouldn't have still been pissed about my final grades and my mom wouldn't have been so paranoid about me going on a road trip without "adult supervision."
However, our world wasn't perfect. Still isn't, in fact. That's why I was there. Sitting in the SGC briefing room next to the kids I'd grown up with. Preparing for my first off-world trip. Unarmed. Not on a mission. Did I mention I was unarmed?
It was an unplanned trip. Somehow one of us had blown up one experiment too many, or had destroyed one artifact too many, or had flown one Puddlejumper too many. Frankly, the SGC had been ill-equipped to handle us from the beginning, but our parents had always been in denial. I assumed one of us had given them cause for concern this summer, because Mom had us packing for a spontaneous trip to Atlantis that very morning, faster than we could say, "Pegasus Galaxy." I had to admit, it was a little strange. But I definitely wasn't in the position to argue. Dad and I were still on "angry, alpha terms" from our fight the evening before, after all.
In the briefing room, Mom was up front with Aunt Vala and Uncle Teal'c, giving us the lecture that I'd always longed to hear. All my life I'd wanted to go through the Stargate, even if it was only to the Alpha site. Dad always said that I had to be a part of the SGC, at which point Mom would furrow her eyebrows and look away. She was afraid I'd take him up on the offer. She had good reason to believe that.
I knew the danger – heck, I was born from it. But that didn't stop my curiosity. Really, it didn't stop any of us kids from wanting to be a part of the Great Unknown. Our parents never discouraged us, but they certainly never pushed us towards it, either. This, of course, made us suspicious. And when one of them would dodge our questions, it only made us even more curious. As it stood, all of us wanted to be a part of the SGC, and there was nothing and no one who could stop us. We were kinda stubborn like that, I guess. Stubborn and immature.
I looked up in time to catch Mom shooting me a classic death glare. Whoops. Guess that meant I had missed something relatively important. Slowly, I stood up with the rest of the brood and cleared my throat, making sure to send her a dopey smile in return on my way out the door. Apparently we needed to be "kitted up" and at the ramp within the hour.
As the oldest of the bunch (though only by 10 minutes), I felt a certain responsibility for the crew. My twin sister, Grace, inherited our mom's scientific tunnel vision, meaning that she sometimes got wrapped up in the more intricate details of life. Shay'na, the girl I loved like a sister, was only a few months younger than Grace and me. Shay'na, like Uncle Teal'c, was more patient than Grace or I, so she tended to be the one who bore the brunt of a lot of crap. Rachel was born a few weeks after Shay'na (I swear our parents did EVERYTHING in sync), and she had her dad's penchant for finding trouble anywhere and everywhere. To be honest, I loved Rachel… just not like a sister…
Yeah… It was getting harder and harder to ignore that little fact these days.
Now, Grace, Shay'na and Rachel were all very capable of taking care of themselves, and had proven that fact time and time again. Still, it didn't stop me from going into "protective mode" every once in a while. Not by a long shot. Luckily, I had help from Shawn, who was born literally one day after Rachel. It didn't matter that he was the youngest of us. He ended up being the brawniest of us all – much to my dismay. Yeah, Mitchell's always had me in strength, but I've definitely got him in speed. Together, we've gotten out of heaps of trouble, and I wouldn't want any other man watching my back – and I mean that. With Grace, Shay'na and Rachel in my life, Shawn's the only one who truly understands what I'm going through. Women, is all I have say.
Rachel's brother, Matt, and Shawn's sister, Delia, were next. At the lovely age of 16, Matt had managed to take after his mom. He's a bit of a klepto. But, like Aunt Vala, he always committed crime in style – and sometimes at the expense of our sanity. We all joked that every gray hair on Uncle Daniel's head was because of Matt. Delia, on the other hand, had no criminal record, but was the ultimate daredevil of the group, and vowed to be a pilot like her dad.
The thing is, Delia and Shawn's mom, Carolyn, died in a car accident when Delia was a baby. A year after that, Uncle Cameron took a position off-world. He was on Earth two weeks out of the month, but it typically left Shawn and Delia on Earth with either us or the Jacksons. While Delia has adjusted rather well, I don't think Shawn's ever truly gotten over it.
Finally, came the three I fondly referred to as, "The Rugrats." Jennifer Jackson, an interesting combination of linguistic genius and athletic prowess, was first. She's one of the best to be with in a tight spot, I have to admit. Hannah, the youngest O'Neill AND Ancient technology specialist, was born a week after Jennie. And Niko, or Nik, was born a few months after that. Once again, our parents proved to be on the same page when it came to just about everything – including, creepily enough, child bearing. However, complications arose during Nik's birth that almost killed him, and ended with Aunt Ishta spending her last few days in a coma.
Uncle Teal'c was never the same after that.
We always thought that that was how he and Uncle Cameron bonded so well. By then, Uncle Cam had been grieving for nearly two years. The two had a common pain, and each reacted similarly to that grief. Uncle Teal'c was off-world quite a bit as well, leaving Shay and Nik mostly with us. They went to school with us, lived with us. It's pretty much why I'm as close to Shay'na as I am to Grace. I mean, the three of us shared a room until we were six! After that, we were all pretty inseparable.
Uncle Teal'c visited every weekend and worked through the politics of the new Jaffa Nation, which later led to a democratic nation. He didn't see the true fruits of his labor until we were in middle school, which was about the time when Mom told him that he'd better make a choice: His kids or his politics. Uncle Teal'c thankfully chose Shay and Nik, but Mom and Dad always knew he would. According to Dad, Aunt Vala had the same talk with Uncle Cameron. While he made the same decision, he refuses to tell us what she said.
"Jacob!"
Snapping back to the present, I turned to the voice who was shouting my name. Unsurprisingly, it was hard to tell. Standing in front of me were Grace, Rachel, Shay'na and Delia – each with varying forms of annoyance plastered on her face. It looked like they'd been trying to get my attention for a while.
I grinned at the picture standing before me and shoved my hands in my pockets. "Sorry. What's up, guys?"
I watched as Rachel, Shay'na and Delia all turned to Grace for the answer on this one. Grace looked anything but pleased.
"We have approximately 45 minutes to eat, finish packing, and get down to the Gateroom before Mom skins us alive," Grace responded, as she characteristically placed a hand on her hip. "Seeing as how you haven't even started packing, I thought it might be a good idea if you get to it."
"Me? Oh, I have time," I said, waving the women of my life off with a shrug. "I've got plenty of time."
"What about lunch?" Rachel asked. "You're not gonna eat before you go through the Stargate?"
"Which, might I add, is a bad idea," Grace chimed in. Her knowing look reminded me of the story of Mom's first time through the Gate. Not cool.
"Though we can always bring something to your room," Shay suggested. "We're all packed anyway."
"Hmmm, that's true," Rachel agreed with a nod.
"Now how is he going to learn if we do that?" Grace asked the others. I rolled my eyes. I should have been used to this kind of coddling, but I really wasn't. I'd been blessed me with two biological sisters and four adopted ones.
"He won't learn a thing," Delia muttered with a grin as she walked past me and patted me on the back. "I'll see you guys in 40!"
I chuckled and turned back to the matter at hand. It turned out, the matter – or matters – were currently walking away, gabbing about… something. "Hey!" I called as I chased after them. "What's going on?"
"We decided that you're a big boy and can get your own meals," Grace called back with a cheeky grin. "See you in 42 minutes and counting!"
I stopped in my tracks and frowned.
Hmmph. The nerve.