Three

Ah, home. After about five hours and two stopovers they have finally landed in San Francisco and now the only thing… "Uncle Evan!" Okay, that problem – trying to find his sister who agreed to pick them up at the airport, that is – obviously just solved itself by Felix and Toby, his nephews, come running through the groups of people waiting at the exit.

Without thinking he drops his bag to catch them and envelop them in a hug. For a few moments, he's the center of chattering and hugging and just by chance he catches Laura looking at him… wearing a strange look on her face. Somehow… like he must have looked when he saw her with Torren for the first time all those months ago when he'd eavesdropped on her and Teyla.

It makes him smile at her and she looks a little embarrassed at having been caught by him. Sensing he isn't really paying them the attention they deserve, the boys start chattering away about the time that they had spent at the beach house this summer again but they are cut short by another voice, "Boys, give your uncle space to breathe. And don't forget he brought someone with him."

Reluctantly, they let go off him and turn to Laura who… looks a little uncomfortable at suddenly being the center of attention. And here he'd thought he'd just imagined that she grew more nervous the closer they got to the City. The boys eye her a little suspiciously – Anna did show him their video, right? Or at least… the PG parts of it, that is – and he feels compelled to act his part. "Felix and Toby, this is Laura. Laura, this is Felix and Toby, my nephews." A cough, just a little impatient. "And Anna, my sister."

Giving her best to let go of her nervousness, Laura manages one of her irresistible smiles and extends her hand to Anna. "Pleased to meet you."

Anna takes it and she smiles back and… only now he realizes he'd held his breath until this moment. After they had realized which ones of the videos they had sent their families they had both dreaded mail from home and thankfully both his sister and his parents had been tactful enough not to dwell on their video… only to practically tease him to death about it when they could do it to him in person, he's positive about that. At least Anna genuinely seems to like Laura.

Laura, though, has now turned to the boys. "Oh, and I'm pleased to meet you, of course."

There's another moment of suspicious eyeing by the boys and then Felix, the older one, gets nudged by Toby and he bravely and a little warily says, "Are you really a Marine?" Anna wants to interject; probably to tell them that it's not very polite to ask someone you just met such a question but Laura doesn't take offense.

In fact – and he never assumed she'd react differently – she displays some of her considerable Corps pride and replies, "Yes. Every inch a jarhead." And she damn well is.

However, Felix and Toby don't seem really convinced because now Toby dares to speak up as well. "You don't look like one."

She smirks. "That's just because you've never seen me in action. Isn't it, Evan?"

Her look promises him all kinds of torture if he chooses this moment for some inter-service rivalry and so decides to play it safe today. He can still give her a stab of that later. "Uh, yeah, that's right." Then he turns to the kids and adds in a mock whisper, "She's good with explosions. If I were you… I wouldn't mess with her."

That finally gets her the boys' full attention – and admiration – and immediately they take her by her hands to drag her away, most probably to the parking garage. Anna wants to interject again but Laura just turns around and mouths to her that it's okay and so he has the pleasure of seeing Laura animatedly talking to the boys and practically overwhelming them with a mixture of her charm and professional expertise with everything that can go BOOM.

Anna seems to have seen it, too because she says to him in a voice low enough Laura and the boys won't hear her, "They like her."

He turns to her, not really able to hide his pride at how well Laura could handle the boys despite her nervousness about making the right impression. "Well, that's good." And then… it slips from his lips, just like that. "Cause she'll be their aunt soon."

That makes Anna do a double-take and actually raise her voice. "She'll be what?"

Dammit. Dammitdammitdammit. Anna wasn't supposed to hear about it like that and so fast. But then again… his sister always had the most unique talent of making him spill things he'd desperately wanted to keep to himself, even better than their mother. He sighs. "Their aunt." Obviously, some explaining seems to be in order now. "We… decided to get married. We'll have to wait for the paperwork to go through, but… that should be solved in a few months tops."

His sister, though, doesn't look like she finds this sufficient. "You said you were bringing your girlfriend, not your fiancé!"

He wished she'd keep her voice down. It's a wonder Laura and the boys still look like nothing could interrupt their expert conversation about explosions and why the USMC is ten times better than the USAF – he'll definitely have to have a word with her about corrupting his nephews with that – because other people are giving them funny looks. Or did he only imagine that guy over there being a little too interested in them? Anyway… "Well, it… sort of… just happened, you know."

She gives him one of those sister looks and says, "Nothing ever 'sort of just happens' with you."

While usually this is true… it wasn't the case with his proposal. In fact… it wasn't the case with Laura, ever. Laura… Laura really sort of just happened to him and in the end there had been nothing he could have done about it… or would have wanted to do about it. A little apologetically, he shrugs. "This thing did."

She sighs. "Charlie will have a fit about it. You're lucky he's still up in D.C. and won't see you until tomorrow evening." Yeah, that was to be expected. Mom and dad probably won't make much ado about it – although he did have the feeling that his mother was just a little bit reserved when she mentioned Laura in her last letter – but Charlie… won't be happy, to say the least. And the worst thing is: From his point of view, he's completely right. Just one of those times when he wishes his brother-in-law's security clearance was just a little bit higher so he could fully explained.

But as is it… he can't do anything about it anyway and so he just settles for a shrug. "We can still get to that when he's here."

Anna doesn't look very amused. "Yeah, right." She looks like she wants to add something but they have arrived at Anna's car and there's a lively debate going on about who will sit beside Laura. His sister, never one to let her boys get the better of her, decrees by virtue of being their mother that Laura is going to sit wherever she wants.

To Laura's credit, she reassures Anna that it's not a problem sitting in the back seat with the two boys and after a few more minutes of hustle and bustle, everyone is inside and he's the last one to get in… when he suddenly catches someone looking at them, only for a moment. Isn't that… the same guy he saw back in the terminal? Nah, he's seeing ghosts. Must be all those months in Atlantis.

Determined not to let his professional paranoia ruin his leave, he turns away and gets into the car. While they slowly drive away from the airport, moving with the traffic, Anna tells them that dad asked them to drop by the shop because he'll get down to the beach a day later, together with Charlie and since Laura knows that their father owns a little used book store she agrees wholeheartedly… before remembering that she had obviously been resolved not to appear her usual blundering self.

However, he doesn't miss Anna's appreciative little smile as Laura outs herself as a bookworm and for some reason that tells him more than anything else that at least those two will get along well. And when Anna likes someone… Charlie has to follow suit whether he wants it or not.


A/N: Well, I should probably be managing my relocation (have I ever told you how much I hate moving? No? I hate it with all my soul) but I could put three checks on my to-do list up to now and I think I can safely reward myself with posting a new chapter, can't I? Anyway, after careful consideration with mac, I decided to separate this story into two parts so it won't become the monster I was afraid it would become (in fact... it was her suggestion and thankfully she put some work into convincing me... just shows I'd be nothing without my beta ;)). Yay for mac!