"Meredith? Meredith where are you?" a voice called through the silence.
A nine-year-old Meredith sniffled, but didn't say anything. She wanted to be alone.
"Meredith? Please answer us!" a female voice called. It was Aunt Teyla, and that was probably Torren with her.
Torren. . .
"There you are." Torren's voice said, "Mother, I found her."
"Good."
Meredith looked up to see Teyla kneeling in front of her, "Go away." she croaked.
Teyla turned to her son, "Leave us Torren."
"Mother-" But Teyla gave him a look and he turned around and left.
"Come here." Teyla gathered Meredith in her arms and let her cry until the tears stopped. "It's okay to cry Meredith, but now you have to be strong."
That was the last time she had cried.
Meredith felt like crying now. She had thought her life had been bad before, but this was just torture. Not only had her calculations been incorrect, but they were all going to die.
Not to mention the fact that her mother was here.
The door to her room opened, Rachel flounced in, "Morning Mer, ready to go get something to eat? Oh my. . ." she saw the bags under Mer's eyes and realized that the older girl hadn't slept last night. "Are you okay Meredith?" Rachel sat down on the bed next to her.
"I will be once we get out of here."
Rachel put an arm around her, "Everything will be fine Meredith, J.J. will come up with a plan, we'll get Atlantis on its way to Pegasus Galaxy and then we'll create another time wormhole to go home. Simple."
"Yeah." Meredith didn't want to admit that it wouldn't be simple to go home anymore.
"So lets go eat." Rachel pulled her up and practically all the way to the mess. "I hear there's pancakes for breakfast."
"Mother," Torren said, circling his mother, bantos sticks in hand, "Are you ever going back to Pegasus?"
Teyla swiftly attacked his left side, but Torren blocked and they continued circling, "Maybe someday, but the IOA isn't ready to let us go yet."
"What about our people?"
There was a period of quick attacks and blocks were neither of them said a word, "The Wraith are gone, so they are safe." Teyla said, backing away. She was proud of her sons abilities with bantos sticks, no doubt she had taught him herself.
"Do you want to go back?"
Telyla lowered her sticks, "Is there some particular reason you are asking all these questions?"
"No, it's just there aren't many opportunities to ask my mother questions like these when I am a baby." He grinned a little.
Teyla wasn't exactly convinced, but she let it go and continued sparring with her son.
John walked into the mess, saw his daughter, then turned around. He wasn't quite ready to face the fact that he would be a father some day. A father of two children. It was a little uncomfortable.
Ronon caught him walking out of the mess, "Already ate?"
"Yeah, I'm just. . . going to finish some reports."
"Okay."
John skirted around him and almost ran off. Ronon peeked into the mess to see what had John scared that much. He spotted John's future daughter sitting with Rodney's future daughter. That must be it. He had to admit that seeing his son that hadn't even been born yet was a little weird. But if his son was in there, he wouldn't avoid him like John was avoiding his daughter. John was probably avoiding her because he didn't know who her mother was. Sam hadn't told Ronon who his mother was, but he had a pretty good guess.
Speaking of which, here she came now, "Are you going to eat of just stand there?"
Ronon grinned and followed her into the mess.
"Hey, Mer." Rachel nudged Meredith, "Look at that."
Meredith looked up and saw Sam's parents sitting down across the room to eat. "It's weird to see them when they're so young."
"Tell me about it. I never realized how much Sam looked like his dad until now." Rachel glanced at the door, realizing that she hadn't seen Sam at all this morning. Usually he was up earlier than her and was already in the mess by now, but there was no hide nor hair of him around. A few people at the other table were staring at her with wide eyes and open mouths. Obviously there hadn't been a memo about them being there. Rachel was about to look away when Sam and J.J. came into the mess.
"What's for breakfast?" J.J. asked, walking up.
"Pancakes."
"I hope there as good as the ones we get at home." J.J. started to walk off, but Sam was frozen in place. He was looking at his parents. "Sam?"
"Yeah, I'm coming." He walked off, averting his eyes. It was so weird to see your parents when they were in the first stages of dating. They loaded up of food and sat back down with the girls.
"So, Torren is the luckiest of us all." Rachel said, "He doesn't have to hide anything from one of his parents, he's already born."
Meredith's eyes suddenly widened, "I forgot to tell him that he can't see himself as a baby, it might cause a tear in the space-time continum." She stood up, "I have to go." and she rushed out of the mess.
The three of them looked at each other, then started laughing hysterically. The look of Meredith's face had been classic.
"Guys." Rachel said, wiping a tear from her eyes, "It's not funny, we shouldn't be laughing."
Slowly their laughter died down and they finished eating. "What now?" Sam asked, when they were finished.
"We need to come up with a plan to get Atlantis back to Pegasus." J.J. said, "Lets go find Torren and Mer and work it out."
So so so sorry this took so long. I have been majorly busy and not to mention all my plot bunnies decided to turn into dust bunnies so I haven't been very inspired lately. But it shall change!
Thanks toooo blueeyes, ladygris and Azurii for reviewing! And a special thanks to Beleme for the messages that got my butt into gear!
Reviews are always appreciated!
