Epilogue Two: Christmas
By Technician Fan
Disclaimer: Look at previous epilogue.
A/N: Here it is, the final installment for Omelets Lead To Purple Wormholes L. Anyway, another little IMPORTANT thing for you to know: This is ten years after the last epilogue. A lot of things are different, so I will be describing the characters new looks a little, tiny bit. Only if they're different. Thanks to all my readers for reading, especially Eplen91 and Nile's Daughter who have been with me all if not almost all of the time! So, without any further ado whatsoever…. The last chapter….
"Wake up everyone! It's Christmas! Time to go open the presents!" Joe Sheppard shouted at the top of his lungs. That little three year old had quite a big set of lungs.
John Sheppard, his father, let out a muffled groan against the pillow. Teyla, getting up from beside him, said, "He's inherits this from you, you know." Sheppard sat up and threw a pillow at her. She laughed and put on her robe and slippers before walking around the bed to where he slept and shaking his arm. "You heard him, get up." He gave another groan and sat up, rubbing his eyes.
"Fine," he said, standing up. He yawned and stretched his arms. Looking back down at Teyla, he said, "Merry Christmas," before giving her a kiss.
A chorus of, "Ew!" came from the doorway. He broke the kiss and turned around to see their two youngest kids, Joe and Eileen, standing in the doorway. They all had disgusted looks on their faces. Teyla and Sheppard laughed before walking over to them.
"Let's go, kids. Time to open up your presents," Sheppard said, rubbing his bearded chin a bit and herding them into the space where the tree had been set up. Atlantis now had more family rooms in it, seeing as almost everyone had a big family these days.
"Presents!" The two yelled, sitting down by the Christmas tree. They knew better than to grab one of their presents. Torren, nearly a teenager now (yikes!), Elizabeth, now ten, and her eight year old brother, Aidan, were already sitting down.
Sheppard and Teyla sat down next to them. Eileen climbed over and sat down on Teyla's lap. Teyla gave a smile and let her sit on her knee. Joe sat on Sheppard's lap, which was a mistake. As soon as he was settled in, Sheppard started tickling him. He giggled and after a few more seconds, Sheppard stopped tickling him. Joe gave a final laugh and lay up against his father's stomach.
"Are you two done?" Elizabeth asked. "I'd like to start opening presents now."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, youngest to oldest, one present at a time," Sheppard said. Joe grabbed a present and sat down. He gave the present to his father so that he could read it. "It says to Joe from Mom." Joe ripped off the paper to reveal a box.
"All I get is a box?" Joe said, his lower lip pouting out and his eyes starting to glisten with fresh tears.
"Honey, you have to open up the box to get the present," Teyla said.
Joe opened up his box and pulled out what was inside. It was a race car. Also there was a headband attached to it. "What is it?"
"You put the headband on and whatever you think, the car will do it. If you want it to go in circles, it'll go in circles. If you want it to chase something, it'll chase something. If you--"
"Mom, we get it," Torren said.
"Can I try?" Joe asked. Teyla nodded and he put the headband on. His face started to turn red as he thought really, really hard, scrunching up his face. He finally stopped to take a breath and look up. "It's not working! I keep telling it to pop out a sandwich, but it won't do it!"
Teyla and Sheppard laughed. Sheppard said, "You tell it a direction and it goes that direction. You can't make food or anything else like that. You just tell the car to go to a certain place in a certain direction, and it does that."
Joe thought again and the car spun around and went flying into Elizabeth. "Hey!" she shouted.
"Joe, be nice to your sister," Teyla said. "Eileen, you're next." Eileen, six years old, went over and found a present with her name on it.
"It's from Mr. Woolsey," Eileen read. She ripped off the wrapping paper to reveal a small case. She took the top off to reveal a shiny necklace and a note. She picked up the note and read, "Dear Eileen: This is a … neck… lace made of … shells from the mainland. I hope you… en… enjoy. Sin… sin… Mommy, what's that word?"
"Sincerely," Teyla said. "It says Sincerely, Mr. Woolsey. Want me to put on your new necklace?" Eileen nodded and Teyla clipped on her necklace. "There, you look very pretty. Be sure to thank Mr. Woolsey." Eileen nodded.
"I'm next!" Aidan said, looking through the presents to find something for him. He grabbed a strange shaped one and looked at it. "There's no name as to who it's from," he said. He shrugged and ripped off the paper. It was a football signed by Moss from the Patriots and a baseball signed by Matt Damon from the Yankees. "Whoa!" Aidan shouted. "These are so rare! You can't find anything signed by either of these two anymore!"
"Hey, Braniac, there was a note with it," Elizabeth said, picking up a piece of paper. "It reads: Dear Aidan, I hope you like the baseball and football. I've had them for a while now. Just a reminder that you'll want to be playing these, not that stupid game called golf that your father says is a sport. Sincerely, Ronon. Well, at least we know who gave it to you."
"'Stupid game called golf that your father says is a sport?' I'm gonna kill him!" Sheppard said. When Teyla glared at him, he said. "Figuratively, of course."
"Finally, my turn," Elizabeth said. She grabbed a box and opened up the card that came with it. "Dear Elizabeth, I know how much you wanted these, so I got them. I hope they're in your size. Love Amelia." Elizabeth lifted the top off the box and screamed. "OMG!" She pulled out a pair of shoes. "I love them!"
"Right, now that your crazy moment is done, can I open up my present now?" Torren asked. Teyla nodded and he grabbed one. "It's from Lorne, Cadman, and all those kids." He opened it up and pulled out three records. "Oh yeah, now I have more for my collection!"
"Which records are they?" Sheppard asked.
"Uh, the greatest hits for the Beach Boys, Herman's Hermits, and the Beatles." Torren read off. He grabbed a present and handed it to Teyla. "Here, Mom."
She looked at it and then at Sheppard. "It's from you," she said, raising an eyebrow like she did in the good ol' days. She opened up the box. "It's a book."
"Not just any book," he said, opening up to the first page. "It's a book of our lives together, starting from the day we met. It goes all the way up to last year. I didn't have time to put this year in, so sorry about that, but it's still good enough--" Sheppard was cut off when Teyla leaned over (as best she could with Eileen on her lap) and hugged him.
"It's wonderful, John," she said, her voice cracking up a bit.
"Are you crying?" Sheppard asked her. She shook her head as she pulled away and gave his head a playful slap.
"Shut up and open a present," she said. He gave a chortle and Joe jumped up and seized a gift for him.
Sheppard said, "It's from McKay. I hope it's not anything dangerous." He unwrapped it, with the help of Joe, and looked at the label on the box. "Well, isn't that nice of him? He got me a hat for golf that says 'World's Best Dad' on it. It's too… un-McKay-like… Keller must've gotten it."
"John, be nice to him," Teyla said. "He is your friend and has been for the past fifteen years. Be grateful."
The Sheppard family finished opening up presents before heading to the mess for breakfast with the other families. When they arrived, four year old Meghan Lorne ran up to them.
"Look what Mommy got me for Christmas!" she said, spinning around in her new, sparkly, light green dress, her dark hair bouncing twirling with her. Her blue eyes looked up at Sheppard and Teyla.
"You look like a princess, Meghan," Teyla said, smiling at her. "Where are your parents?" Meghan pointed over to a large table where the Lorne family, the McKay family, and the O'Neill family sat. They were laughing and enjoying their breakfast, which was omelets.
The Sheppard family plus Meghan walked over and took their seats. Chuck and Amelia walked over to them with omelets in their hands.
"We're having a war as to whose omelets are better," Chuck said. "Just rate it on a scale of one to ten, ten being the best; it'll make things easier." He placed his omelets in front of Sheppard, Aidan, and Eileen, while Amelia gave hers to Teyla, Elizabeth, and Joe. Torren got half of each. Amelia and Chuck walked away after.
"Open up," Cadman was saying to the latest edition of her family, Rose, who was born a few months ago. Rose opened her mouth and Cadman put in the spoon with the baby food. "Morning," she said, looking over at the newcomers. "Have a good Christmas so far?"
"Yeah, it's been great. I made Teyla cry," Sheppard said. Teyla punched him hard in the arm.
Sam, morbidly obese since she was eight months pregnant, looked up at him. "John, that's mean."
"Not in that way. She cried over one of the presents that I gave her. She won't admit it, though."
Stacy McKay snorted. Keller gave her a glare, a mother glare, which is the worst glare of all. Stacy shut up and continued eating.
Sheppard suddenly felt someone poking his side. He looked down to see Charlie O'Neill the second, named after the first Charlie O'Neill that died. "Can you tell us a story?" he asked.
Sheppard picked him up and sat him down on his lap. "Sure. What kind of story do you want to hear?"
"A story from before I was born. A good story! One that's got Daddy's sense of humor in it and Mommy's brains," he said. Sheppard smiled.
"I have just the one," Sheppard said. Chuck and Amelia came over with Ronon in tow. They sat down just in time to hear his story. "It was just an average day. Amelia was telling Chuck that she made an omelet that was good."
"I lied, sir," Amelia said, her face growing red. "I made an omelet, but it tasted like crap. My first real good one was at McKay and Keller's wedding."
"Okay, so Amelia was lying. She then told a story about how she blew up the dishwasher. All of a sudden, the stargate started up and swooshed open, but instead of being blue, it was purple…"
THE END.