Chapter 6: Happy Birthday Torren.
Two years ago
New Lantia.
John awoke to someone or something jumping on his bed and then he heard a strange screeching sound in his ear, he hadn't gone to bed until 0300 hours that morning because he'd been helping Rodney in his lab testing ancient devices, so the last thing he needed now was to be awake.
Although he was the leader of the expedition, he was still the strongest gene carrier, so there were always times that Rodney wanted his help and although he didn't mind there were times that Rodney called him at the most inconvenient moments – like after his work shift.
One thing he did know was that he wasn't quite awake, he had a headache, and he certainly didn't want to get up now, so he kept his eyes closed and hoped that whoever or whatever it was would just go away.
The bouncing continued, much to his annoyance, so he opened his eyes to find that Torren was jumping on his bed, "it's my birthday, do I get gifts?!" Torren screamed in his ear.
He flinched at the sheer volume of his son's voice, "I know it is buddy, but it's only 0600 hours, so why don't you climb into bed with Mommy and Daddy and go to sleep for a little while and then when we wake up, we can have pancakes. Plus, Daddy has a headache, so he needs you to be quiet for a while."
He wondered what would have happened if he or Dave had jumped on his father in the morning, he knew the man wouldn't have been impressed. But he knew that he wanted to be a better Dad than his own father, so he knew that he would have to put up with it – for now at least.
Looking up he realised that Torren was staring at him, and he wondered whether the child was going to say anything else, "Why Daddy?"
"I am still feeling tired, so I would like to sleep for a while longer and besides Momma's still asleep, you don't want to wake her, do you?
He was relieved when Torren simply nodded his head and replied, "Okay, Daddy."
Torren snuggled up against his side and he was grateful that the little boy fell asleep quickly, he looked down at Teyla and was surprised that Teyla hadn't awoken given the amount of noise that had been going on.
They had moved into an apartment overlooking the south pier three days ago and he couldn't be happier. The apartment bedroom had a balcony on it, and he suspected that he and Teyla would spend many a morning watching the sun rise there. He planned on asking her to marry him one day soon – but not on the day of Torren's third birthday. He figured he'd wait another couple of months since it hadn't quite been a year since Kanaan had passed away and he wasn't sure she was ready for that kind of commitment. He knew that if Kanaan had survived, she would have been bonded to him by now, but he had no idea whether she felt the same way about him as she'd felt about Kanaan. With all of these thoughts rolling around in his head it wasn't long before he fell into a deep sleep.
He awoke sometime later to the sound of the shower running and it didn't take him long to realise that Torren and Teyla were no longer in bed with him. Perhaps he'd better get up because he knew that Torren would be looking for pancakes for breakfast and there was no way that he was going to let Teyla make them.
The plan for the day was that he would go to his office for a few hours to do some paperwork and send through the weekly status report. General O'Neill wanted to have a word with him as well. Then he was supposed to be having lunch with Todd before coming home for Torren's party in the afternoon.
He had no idea why Todd wanted to have lunch with him, and he still didn't trust the big wraith, but Todd seemed to be on their side and he often boasted about how many hive ships he'd destroyed.
As far as he knew there were no gate teams scheduled to go through the gate today, so it should be a relatively quiet day. But he still had to be on alert because as usual anything could go wrong at a minute's notice.
He wandered into the kitchen and lounge area to find that Torren was sitting quietly drawing with some crayons. Torren was a good child, and it was extremely rare to have to punish him.
"Hey Pal, what you up to?"
"Loot Daddy a puddle jumper."
The boy showed him a picture that he'd drawn, and it looked a lot like a puddle jumper. He had no idea where T.J. would get artistic skill – perhaps he'd been hanging around with Lorne too long.
"That's great T.J, why don't you draw something else while I get us some pancakes."
The little boy nodded and began to draw again, while he began to get ingredients out of the pantry.
"I knew there was a reason I loved you," Teyla said as she entered the kitchen and put her arms around him.
He put on his best puppy dog look on when he answered," I thought it was because of my good looks and charm.
"In your dreams Honey," she replied, and he didn't miss the eye roll.
"Breakfast is almost ready Sweetie; do you mind setting the table."
For the next few minutes, while Teyla set the table and got Torren ready, he finished cooking breakfast.
When he finally sat down at the table ready to enjoy his breakfast, he found that Torren was looking at him with the same puppy dog eyes he'd used on Teyla a few minutes earlier – it was clear that Torren was spending way too much time with him.
"Are you going to eat your breakfast T.J.?" He asked with a sigh.
"When can I get gifts Daddy?"
"After breakfast T.J., then Daddy has to go to work for a while. Momma has the day off, so you won't have to go to daycare this morning."
Torren nodded his head and started eating his pancakes.
"So, John, what have you got on the agenda today?"
"O'Neill wants to talk to me once I've sent the weekly status report through and then Todd wants to meet me for lunch. I have no idea why, but he said that just wants to share a meal with me."
"I think that you should be careful John, I still do not trust that Wraith. I know that it seems as if he is fighting on the same side as us, but the only reason Todd does anything is if he can get something out of it."
"I know Sweetie, I'll be careful. Now if everyone has had enough pancakes, I will get Torren his gifts.
"Yay Daddy!" Torren exclaimed.
"How about you go and sit in the lounge, and I'll get your gifts"
Five minutes later they were both sitting and watching as Torren opened his gifts and the joy on his son's face as he unwrapped them, was the most incredible feeling. Torren looked at each gift before setting it aside and opening the next one. There were colouring books and pencils, jigsaw puzzles and even some Athosian carved figures that Halling had made for him. John gave him a tiny uniform the same as his, on one sleeve was an Atlantis patch and on the other sleeve was a patch that was half Athosian and half American. Teyla took it and studied it before turning to look at him.
"This is amazing John. Where did you get it?"
"Dr Bryant from the botany lab loves to sew in her free time, so when I asked her to make it, she jumped at the chance. I offered to pay her for it as well, but for some reason she refused."
"Me put it on, Daddy?" Torren asked with excitement in his voice.
"Sure Pal, but don't you want to open your final gift?" John asked pointing to a rectangular box sitting on the coffee table.
"I have lots of gifts," Torren replied, staring at the box on the coffee table.
Torren wasn't a greedy child and was always happy with what he had and that was something he was grateful for – not like the rich snobby kids he knew growing up, who wanted everything handed to them on a silver platter. Although his family had a lot of money, John was glad that his father had insisted on his boys learning the value of money. That's why he spent a lot of his childhood mucking out stables and pulling weeds in the garden – if he didn't there was no allowance.
John looked at his son and smiled, "It's okay T.J., Daddy wants you to have this one, I chose it, especially for you."
He was relieved when Teyla nodded her head and backed him up, "It is okay Torren you may open it."
Torren finally sat down and started to rip the paper off the box and when he had finished his eyes were open wide as he looked up at him, "Daddy a sateboard."
It was a replica of John's only it was made for a small child.
"Tank you, Daddy!" Torren squealed, jumping up to hug him.
"Under no circumstances are you to ride it alone, do you understand?" John stated firmly.
"We wide sateboard now?"
"Not now darling Daddy has to go to work, but maybe later after your party he'll take you for a ride."
"Otay," Torren agreed and sat down to play with one of the Athosian figures that Halling had given him.
Although Torren was supposed to have a party with the Athosians, Halling had wanted T.J. to get his gift on the day of his birthday – at least that's what Teyla had told him.
He stood up and kissed Teyla on the lips, "I'm sorry about the dishes Sweetie, but I must get to work. I'll be back at about 1600 hours to help get ready for T. J's party."
Rushing out the door he looked at his watched and realised that it was almost 0900 hours, and he had a video call with general O'Neill at 0900. Hopefully, O'Neill would be running later than he was this morning.
"Good morning, Colonel, we've just sent the weekly stats though and General O'Neill should be contacting us any minute," Amelia announced as he crossed the control room floor.
"Thanks, Amelia," he said rushing past her and into his office.
It took him a few minutes to turn his computer on and when he did, he was relieved to see that the call from O'Neill hadn't come through as yet.
He'd barely had the time to catch his breath when O'Neill's face came up on the screen, "Sheppard, it's good to see that you're on time."
"Thank you, sir, I try my best."
He felt O'Neill's eyes boring into him, and he wondered why the man wanted to speak to him. O'Neill didn't bother to talk to him very often since things were reasonably quiet in the Pegasus galaxy these days.
"Can I help you with anything, sir?"
"When's the last time you had a vacation, Sheppard?"
He could barely remember going off-world since Kanaan had died. Maybe he'd visited the Athosians once or twice.
"I'm not sure sir."
"Well, it's about time you had a vacation Sheppard because you look like hell."
"Umm… I have too much to do, so I don't have time right now."
"Lorne can handle things for a week or two."
"But sir, I don't want to overwork Lorne since he has plenty of his own work to do. He's only just got back from vacation you know."
"Lorne can get Teldy to help him and if there are any problems, he can contact me or Landry."
He had no idea what to say and he suspected that this was going to be a fight he was going to lose.
"Umm…" he said trying to think of some way to get out of it since he hated taking time off from work.
"Do I have to make it an order Sheppard?"
"No sir, can Teyla take a few days off to accompany me?"
"Take whoever you want, just let me know what's going on. Oh… and if you haven't told me what's happening within a week, I'll personally come to Atlantis and shove you through the gate."
"Yes sir."
"I'll look forward to hearing from you then, O'Neill out."
He sat staring at the screen for a few minutes after it had gone blank wondering where he might take Teyla and Torren for a holiday. Perhaps they could go camping on the mainland for a few days. It was about time that he introduced Torren to the concept of camping and fishing with a little swimming thrown in. Although the Torren had lived with the Athosians for six months so it would be nothing new to him. The kid would probably love it anyway, so maybe he would discuss it with Teyla this evening. For now, he had another mountain of paperwork to read, so he may as well put it out of his mind until later.
For the next three hours, he worked steadily, and he was happy that by the end of that time his paperwork had gone down significantly. It was getting towards lunchtime, and he wondered whether Todd was going to contact him or not.
He was just about to get up and head to the mess hall, when Amelia, stuck her head through the door, "Todd wants to know if he can beam down and meet you in your office, sir."
"Send him in when he gets here then."
"Oh… and he also requests that you share pizza and beer for lunch."
He had no idea what the wraith was up to, but he decided that he still didn't trust him. Perhaps they needed company."
"Okay Banks give me ten minutes, Ohh…and can you order us some lunch, please? Make sure you order plenty of it because I know that Todd has a huge appetite."
"Right away sir."
Knowing that there was only one person that he wanted to share lunch with him and the wraith, he tapped his earpiece, "Sheppard to Ronon, come in please?"
"Go ahead, Sheppard."
"Have you had lunch yet?"
"No, I was just on my way there now."
"Can you meet me in my office right away? Apparently, Todd wants to meet me for lunch." When Ronon didn't answer he continued, "Todd wants pizza and beer are you in?"
"Give me five minutes and I'll join you, Ronon out."
Sighing he considered O'Neill's suggestion and right now a vacation was probably a great idea. He'd had enough of the monotony and boredom of his job for now and he longed to be off-world where the action was. When he'd accepted the role as leader of Atlantis, he'd had no idea what he would be in for, and he certainly didn't imagine how much time would be spent in his tiny office. Perhaps if he'd taken more notice of what Elizabeth, Sam and Woolsey did, he wouldn't have accepted the job.
A loud booming voice interrupted his thoughts, "hey Sheppard do you have any idea why Todd wants to meet with you?"
"Not sure Chewie."
Another voice filled the air, and it made him shudder – as always, "John Sheppard where is my Pizza and beer?"
He looked at the big wraith, the twisted smile on his face was almost sadistic and he wondered whether Todd had come to torture him – perhaps not since Todd always smiled like that.
"It will be here in a minute Todd! "Ronon growled defensively.
The Wraith nodded his head towards Ronon, "I see we have company for lunch."
Before Ronon had a chance for a comeback a few of the kitchen staff came in with trays of Pizza and a couple of six-packs of beer.
The kitchen staff looked at Todd warily and carefully backed out of the room.
When the staff had left John turned to Todd, "so tell me, why are you here?"
Todd smiled at him with his twisted smile, "if we are to be allies John Sheppard, we need to learn to be in the same room together and since I can eat food now, what better way to spend time together than sharing a meal."
He had nothing to say to that, so all he could do was watch as Todd consumed eight twelve-inch Pizzas, Ronon ate four, so basically, there was nothing left for him – not that he minded because he'd fill up at T. J's party tonight and he was fairly sure that they were having pizza.
"Did you enjoy the Pizza?" He asked looking directly at Todd.
"Yes, Pizza has become one of my favourite meals – although I don't get to eat it very often. Perhaps I can ask your kitchen staff for the recipe?"
This had to be the strangest thing he'd ever experienced, and, in his time, he'd seen some bizarre things.
"Uhh…I guess I could ask," John suggested as Todd downed a six-pack of beers to wash the pizza down.
"Would you like another beer or two?"
Before Todd had a chance to reply, Ronon butted in, "I'll have another one thanks?"
"I don't think so Chewie, you've already drunk three and you're supposed to be training the troops this afternoon. How about you wait till the party this afternoon and I'll give you some more."
He was relieved when Ronon nodded, but a little afraid that Todd would ask about the party.
"I have one more request to ask of you before I go John Sheppard?"
"And what might that be?" He asked suspiciously.
"I would like to come and watch a movie with you sometime. I know that humans do it for relaxation and I would like to try relaxing at some point."
The conversation was getting weirder and weirder, so he was beginning to feel uncomfortable, "So no spare time on a Hive?"
"No all the wraith have done for centuries is find better ways to feed on humans and create stronger faster clones."
He shuddered at the thought and if Ronon hadn't said something right then he was sure he would have.
"Well, Todd, this was great let's do it again sometime," Ronon said standing up.
John stood up as well and he certainly hoped that the Wraith would get the message and leave.
"Thank you for sharing a meal with me, now I must get back to my hive since I have a meeting with another queen in an hour."
Right now, he was too stunned to leave his office, so he looked at Ronon and smiled, "Ronon will see you out."
Relief swept over him when Ronon nodded his head and saw the big wraith out. When Ronon returned five minutes later, he was still standing in the same spot and staring into space.
"Are you alright Sheppard?" Ronon asked in a surprisingly gentle tone.
"Yeah," he said finally sitting down, "that was weird, don't you think?"
"You're telling me," Ronon replied, "do you think all he's after is friendship and an ally?"
"I don't know big guy, but he has destroyed a lot of hives, so it would appear that he is on our side."
"Anyway, I gotta go Sheppard, but after Torren's party there's something that I want to talk to you about."
"Catch you later Chewie."
Once the tall Satedan had gone, he sat behind his desk and looked at the pile of paperwork on his desk – he could swear that it had grown over lunch.
Perhaps General O'Neil was right, and he needed a vacation. Taking a file from the top of a large stack, he decided that he was going to discuss it with Teyla before they went to bed tonight.
oOo
John watched as Torren raced around the room, his party had just begun, and he was excited to see the gifts that his friends had brought for him. Although John suspected it was more to do with the fact that a whole heap of people were in his apartment celebrating his birthday.
Rodney and Jennifer were there looking cosier than ever. Ronon and Amelia were there as well and he'd even given Lorne the night off to attend the party. Teldy had agreed to keep an eye on things so that his 2IC could attend.
At the moment Lorne was trying to teach Torren how to draw a skateboard, but the kid didn't seem interested – all he wanted to do was bounce around the room from one person to another – he'd probably had too much sugar already and it wasn't even dinner time.
The kitchen staff had sent plenty of Pizza and there was a cake in the shape of a puddle jumper, which Torren could not wait to eat.
In the end, he decided to get up and make a speech before they ate – hopefully, that would settle Torren down for a few minutes.
"I want to thank you all for coming today to celebrate Torren's third birthday. Perhaps we should all have something to eat and after the pizza, Torren can blow out his candles and we can eat the cake."
After he had made a speech he went and settled in his favourite chair – that way he wouldn't have to interact with the others unless they came to him. The day had been extremely boring, other than Todd's visit, but for some strange reason, he felt exhausted. Torren came and handed him some pizza and then took off running of around the room again.
The rest of the party went by quickly, with lots of food, lots of conversation – for others – and lots of cake. He knew that it would take a while to settle Torren down tonight, but he also knew that Ronon wanted to talk to him about something important. In the end, Teyla agreed to bathe Torren and put him to bed so he could have some time to speak with Ronon.
Once everyone had left Torren sat down and looked at the pile of unopened gifts on the coffee table, "do you want to open them now T.J?"
The boy nodded and carefully started to open the first one. When the wrapping finally came away Torren's eyes lit up with excitement, "it's just like Unca Wodney."
John looked down at the remote-controlled car in Torren's hand and it seemed to be a smaller version of the one that Rodney had. He was jealous, why didn't Rodney give Torren a car that looked like his? But then why would Rodney do that? It would go against the scientist's rather large ego and although that was one of Rodney's worst traits it was quite endearing at times.
"You must not use that unless Uncle Rodney or Daddy is with you. Do you understand?" Teyla instructed.
"Yes, Momma."
Torren went on to open his other gifts, which turned out to be some items of clothing, some colouring books, and crayons. The thing that Torrens seemed to like the most out of all his gifts was the skateboard he had given him this morning. He'd even managed some time to take Torren for a ride on it before the party.
When the door chime activated a few minutes later, he immediately knew who it was, so he thought open and Ronon walked through the door.
"Have you got time for that chat now Sheppard?"
"I will take Torren for his bath and tidy up later," Teyla announced before picking up the little boy and leaving the room.
When he was sure that Teyla had left the room, he sat down in his recliner and turned to Ronon, "so, what's up Chewie?"
"I want you to come off-world with me?"
Sure, O'Neill had suggested he take a vacation, but going on one with Ronon was not exactly what he had in mind," why?"
"When Lorne's team visited LM – 113 the other day, he made contact with a group of Satedans that were interested in trade."
"Yeah, I already know that. Lorne and his men are heading back there next week."
"Well, I would like to go and meet these Satedans, and I want you to come with me. It doesn't have to be an official mission or anything. Just think of it as a vacation."
"What about Banks, don't you want to take her with you?"
"Not really, she's happy for me to go with you. I think that secretly she's happy to get rid of me for a few days," Ronon chuckled.
"I guess I could come with you, but I would have to ask Teyla first."
"You do not need to ask me, you can go," Teyla said coming into the room.
He looked around expecting to see Torren following his mother, "where's Torren?"
"He is asleep on his bedroom floor at the moment."
"Are you sure you don't mind Sweetie?"
"I am not your mother nor your keeper. You do not need to ask my permission to go."
"Well in that case I accept your offer Chewie."
"That's great Sheppard, I was thinking that we could leave in two days."
He nodded at his friend thinking that would give him enough time to inform the SGC and catch up on his paperwork.
"Well, I should help Teyla put Torren to bed now, but we can discuss the details in the morning." He suggested while thinking the door open for his friend.
"Catch you later Sheppard," Ronon said as he walked through the open door.
Once he was gone, he turned to Teyla and she had a big grin on her face," What?"
"You have been working too hard over the last year, so it is about time you took some time off."
"Really paperwork and official meetings, believe me when I say it's been fairly boring."
Teyla looked indignant at that comment, and he wished he could take it back, "you do not believe that diplomatic work is important?" She asked and her tone was cold and harsh.
He needed to think of something to placate her and quickly, "I'm sorry Teyla, what I meant to say was being a diplomat is hard work and I don't think I'm suited to it."
"In that case, I forgive you honey, but please go and have a short break with Ronon – and enjoy yourself."
"Yeah, but I wanted to go on a vacation with you and Torren."
"Do not worry John, there will be plenty of time for that in the future. For now, let us put our son to bed and then we can spend some quality time together."
He liked the sound of that, so he had no problem following her to Torren's room.
That night while he lay in bed a sudden thought came to his mind – I wonder how much trouble that Chewie and I can get into when we're off-world together.
TBC…