A/N: So here's chapter 18, which starts concluding the exposition of this story. Really, I can't write short fanfiction anymore! Sorry! Enjoy!

Chapter 18

2034

"I want to be dry again!" Ferretti sighed. "Preferably before my date."

"Oh, by all means, why didn't you tell us you had a date. We could've postponed this mission!" Miller threw Ferretti a venomous look as they trudged downhill towards the Gate again.

Lucas looked down at Grace as they followed their superior officers down the slope that would take them towards the rubble and the city again. "Why was it scheduled for today anyway? New Year's? We don't go on missions on Christmas."

"There's a meeting of the Jaffa High Council with the remaining people of Langara next week, remember?" Miller looked over her shoulder at Lucas with a raised eyebrow.

Obviously Lucas hadn't read the memo… or talked to his dad about this. With a low grunt, Miller looked ahead again and Grace elbowed Lucas in the side. "Why didn't you know?" she whispered, making Lucas shrug.

"I never read these things before we go on missions… well, okay, maybe I skim them, but that's about it."

"Lucas!" she exclaimed in a barely contained whisper, her eyes wide. Out of all the things, she wouldn't have believed it possible. "You're not serious!"

"Look, usually we have a meeting before missions, right? So, I don't need to read this whole thing. Usually."

"Your dad's going to be at that meeting, you know that, right? The survivors of Langara are going to meet and decide on whether or not to resettle this planet with the help of the Jaffa."

Lucas snorted, adjusted his pack and bit his lip as the impact of her words hit him. "Fat chance… it would mean breaking the treaty. Even if the Furlings have been quiet lately."

"Well, that's why this is a big deal. That's why the Jaffa Nation is involved and not us. At least not directly."

"We're scouting this planet, Grace, what the hell do you think this is called if not getting involved?"

With a soft sigh, Grace let herself fall back a bit more. "Fine, we're involved, and we might have to get a bit more involved, but the Langarans - that is your people- are thinking about re-entering the galactic stage. That's a big deal."

"I've never even met one of them," he muttered. "Except my dad."

Grace rolled her eyes. She wasn't even sure if Lucas was angry or sad about this news. He was kind of hard to read sometimes. Or maybe she was just terrible at reading him. Both might be true.

His suitcase was packed, and the soft thumping in his head had been slightly muffled by the two pills of aspirin his mother had given him for breakfast. Not a too terrible start of the day, all in all.

His dad was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee, skimming an article on the holo projector in front of him while his mom was outside with the dog. Caleb rarely got to spend some time alone with his father, mainly because he usually left the room very quickly these days whenever there was event he slightest chance of them being along.

"Dad?"

Evan's eyes darted up immediately, as though he'd been waiting for him to speak. Slowly, he put down his newspaper. The raise of the eyebrows was all the encouragement Caleb needed speak no matter how much more the drumming of his heart made the pressure in his head increase.

"Dad?" he cleared his throat, reached for his tea and took a sip. Damn, that mug was still full. And the tea was piping hot.

"Yes, you said that already."

Clearing his throat, Caleb set the mug down again and wrapped his hands around it, unsure how to proceed. Somehow it didn't seem right. He wasn't ready. Not that his parents had ever appeared all that old-fashioned, but how could he declare something when he wasn't even remotely sure what was going on. He hadn't spoken to Lucas in months.

So what then?

He bit his lip as his mind started racing. He'd started this. "Dad, what's it like going through the Stargate?"

The creamy brown liquid in his mug didn't capture his attention anymore. He slowly raised his eyes and returned his father's gaze.

Intense. Quizzical. And maybe a bit relieved. Pondering for a moment, Evan brushed his index over his top lip and put the holoprojector aside. "Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering."

The statement was met with a moment of silence. "It's a bit weird," he said. "When I first went through, I knew what was going to happen, but I didn't really believe it would until I actually stepped through." He paused, never breaking eye contact and the instant Caleb got the feeling that his father was intent on not speaking rashly, a sense of shame started creeping up his spine. What had he done?

"And what's it like? Stepping through?" Better to keep the conversation going. As though that would help making amends. They'd spent a whole ten days in Germany, pretending like their conversation of a few weeks prior hadn't happened. They'd explored the town in which their parents had met, had sat in restaurants they had liked to visit. And now here they were. Months after. Finally talking again. Talking for real.

A soft smirk. Evan nodded. "You don't feel a thing," he said, "you just have to exhale before stepping through the thing. Makes re-emerging on the other side a bit easier, you know? Like getting out of a pool of water?"

"It's like that?"

Evan shrugged. "A bit. It's perfectly safe, just…weird, you know? At first you're in a concrete bunker, the air is conditioned and at the perfect temperature and next second you can be anywhere. In the middle of a snow storm, or in a forest, or on a space ship."

Nodding, Caleb looked down at his mug again. He couldn't actually believe that either. But his parents had never been pranksters. Really, something like this would have been quite an elaborate and highly unamusing one. "It's weird," he said. "I don't remember a thing... I should though, right?"

"You were three when we left… we only took you off-world a handful of times to visit Teyla's people."

"Yeah…" he took a bigger gulp of tea, nearly cooking his throat. But at least this one would take him a bit longer to get down. Maybe he should go and get some toast? Just to have something to do other than sit here and talk things over with his father. "Well… sometimes- last night I had this weird dream. I have it sometimes…Mom and me, we're running from something and there's a lot of glass and lights everywhere and- I was thinking. It's not a memory, but still…"

"Your mom and you were on the other side of the city when the Furlings launched their attack." Evan cradled his own mug and he looked down on the table now. "They appeared out of nowhere, disabled the shield with a virus and started the attack. It was worse than the siege when the Wraith attacked." He swallowed hard. "There were too many ships, too advanced too and the crew of the Daedalus barely got anyone out before the beaming systems were jammed. The Gate wasn't blocked at first, so some people managed to get out through there, Ronon, an old friend, amongst them."

"Daedalus?" Caleb prompted and Evan shrugged with a smile.

"Still one of our most valiant Battle Cruisers. We used to spend about 10 days on it ferrying from Earth to Atlantis and back again."

"Huh…" He knew there was something more than just those few reports he'd read. More information he still didn't have. "So…. A space ship?"

"A space ship," Evan nodded. "A great one." The smile still wasn't gone.

"So, what happened then?"

"You and your mom were trapped, but I was in our apartment when it happened. Grace was sick and I was taking care of her when the attack began." He took another deep breath. One sound that was enough to make Caleb want to get up and sit next to him. "I got the evacuation order, grabbed Grace and was on my way to the underwater bay when-"

"The what now?"

Evan pulled a face. He looked up and smiled softly. "How far did you get reading those reports?"

That same uncomfortable feeling that had started creeping up his spine a few minutes ago, was starting to make his ears grow hot. "About a quarter of your report of that time when you and mom got stuck on that planet?"

"Ah." Clearing his throat, Evan looked up smiling. "Well, Atlantis had, or has, I don't know, several ships that can fit through the Gate. We still have three functioning ones here on Earth. We call them Puddle Jumpers and one-"

"Why Puddle Jumpers? If they're ships that go through the Stargate, why didn't you call them Gateships?

Raising his hand, Evan shook his head. "Don't go there," he chuckled, "it was a whole thing, believe me. Sheppard decided on Puddle Jumpers, and Sheppard was the King of Naming-Things."

"Huh… John Sheppard, right? I mean, I got that, but Sheppard in the military? Come on."

"Yeah. He had a real knack for it. He and Doctor Weir did an incredible job getting us all together. Being on Atlantis was more than being here at the SGC. Like a colony? Almost like home even. More scientists than military personnel? It was fun most times." His face grew dark. "And then it was over and we lost a couple of hundred people in the final fight."

Caleb felt the chill in his father's voice and folded his arms over his chest. "What happened next, then?"

"Your mom was stuck… you… you'd slipped away from her into a transporter, which took you to the North Pier and when the attack began she'd just found you. Like I said, the transporters went down and the only way for you to get away was from one of the loading ramps… I got to the Jumper Bay, but there wasn't anyone else in that area of the city, so I was the only one who could get to the ships. By then the Furlings had already conquered the Gate Room. You two barely made it onboard." He pressed his lips together and shrugged. "I cloaked the ship and we made it to the Daedalus. The self destruct didn't go off… so…"

"So, it really isn't destroyed? Why- why didn't you go back there?" As soon as the words were out, he felt the weight of them still hanging on his lips. The urgency behind them made him feel slightly sick. That other sense made his heart heavy. Had they- meaning his father and mother- gone back there, he and Grace most likely would have grown up without them. Because, despite what he'd said to Grace before, he knew his parents would never have taken the two of them into danger like this. Not willingly.

"Well," Evan said, "for one, the war with the Furlings was just starting. Things got crazy. And the International Oversight Advisory wasn't too keen on fighting that war in another galaxy, when we could barely hold our ground here. I'm not even sure Alex and I would have gone this time. Besides, the IOA thought the risk was too high anyway, so the mission was scrapped about a year after we got back. That's when Sheppard resigned." He pulled a face. "Can't really blame him… I thought about it myself."

"Why didn't you?"

Evan raised his eyebrows at Caleb and smiled softly. "I couldn't. Probably just like you and your mom could never stop caring about ancient cultures. I'm good at what I'm doing. Even now. I hope… more or less."

Caleb rubbed his neck and was quiet for a moment. "Why would you want me in the program anyway? I- I don't know-"

"You'd be good at it." The answer came so promptly, he got the sense that his dad had it prepared long before Caleb had even formulated the thought. "Don't get me wrong, I don't want you to go out there to get shot, that's the last thing in the world I want. But… I think you're missing out on something, just sitting in that office in Chicago, or digging through sites in Italy. You-"

"I don't want to end my career."

Evan nodded, his eyes never leaving Caleb's for a moment. "Fair point. Can't argue with that."

Caleb slowly got to his feet and picked up his mug. "I'm going for a walk…so… thanks, Dad. And I'm-" now it was his turn to take a deep breath. Get over yourself already. "I'm sorry."

Another nod. "Have you talked to Josh about this, yet?"

A/N: Special thanks to dany2the_ela for encouraging me these past few weeks and for hinting at a very specific detail of dialogue! You're amazing! This chapter is for you!