As much as he loved driving with the top down on his car, Ian was forced to pull over to the side of the road and put it up not too long after they'd hit the freeway. That was the problem with the mountains, he decided grumpily as he pressed the button that brought the roof up and over them. They were too fucking cold in the winter time – even when it was great in town it still seemed to be freezing in the highest elevations.
"Least I won't have to worry about you stopping to pick me up off the freeway," Andrew said, conversation easier now that there were no winds blowing their words back in their faces.
Ian smiled, shaking his head. The guy had a good sense of humor.
"That's a relief. I'm not sure what your mother would have said if I'd lost you and hadn't noticed."
Andrew's answering grin was amused. It was nice to have someone to BS with like this. Like he used to with Shawn before he went off to the academy – although the two of them hadn't actually gone to the same school before that or anything. But now he didn't even see Adams on the weekends, because Shawn couldn't always get away. Only when they were doing joint lessons - and that wasn't a good time for small talk.
Since they could converse, now, without shouting, Andrew decided it was definitely time to learn about Ian. He was taking him up to the lodge, after all.
"So… Shawn told me you're from New York…?"
It was as good a way to start as any, right?
Ian shook his head, glancing over at him for a moment. He knew Andrew was making the first move to get to know him, and he appreciated it, because he wasn't good at this kind of thing at all.
"I'm from New Jersey. But everyone calls it New York, and it's not worth the effort of correcting them."
"What's it like?"
Normally Ian would have said something negative… it's dirty or noisy, something like that, because he knew that would have ended the conversation fairly quickly. Since the whole idea was for him to actually talk to Andrew, he answered with a little more description.
"It's not bad. Green and beautiful in the spring, hot in the summer and pretty nice in the fall when the leaves change colors." He hesitated, and then, in an action that would have had everyone who knew him fall over with shock, he asked his own question, continuing a small talk conversation. "Are you from here, originally?"
Andrew nodded, taking a drink of his Pepsi.
"Born and bred. My grandparents moved out here from the east coast when they got married, and built the lodge. My dad grew up there, but when he got out of the military, he moved to town and met my mom and now, of course, we live in town…"
"Your dad's military?"
Ian hadn't met Andrew's father – he hadn't been home that morning (golfing) otherwise he probably would have noticed for himself.
Andrew nodded.
"He's a Captain in the National Guard, now, but he was in the Marines after college." The teenager hesitated, and then sighed. "I think I disappoint him sometimes, because I'm not all that big – and probably not going to get anywhere near as big as he is."
To Andrew's surprise, Ian snorted.
"You're not big, now, maybe," Ian said, shrugging. "But you never know… you're only, what? Sixteen?"
Andrew nodded.
"My birthday was in January."
"See? You have a lot of growing time, left. Besides, who cares if you don't get so big? Your dad probably doesn't. You should see my old man. He's about 4 inches taller than me and built like a tank. And he doesn't care that I'm thin and shorter."
Andrew looked over at Ian, surprised by the vehemence in his tone – as if this was definitely something he could relate to. Before he could say anything, though, Ian continued.
"You never really know what parents are thinking – especially dads," Ian told him, although it almost seemed like he was talking to himself. "I've always thought my dad pretty much didn't even know or care I was around, until this last year…" he shrugged, staring at the road in front of him, although his expression was a little distracted. "Then I found out he does know, and he definitely cares…"
Andrew was quiet for a moment.
"He's retired Military, too, right?"
"Air Force," Ian confirmed. "And good friends with Jack – although I didn't know it until…"
"Kinsey had you kidnapped with Shawn," Andrew finished.
Ian looked over at him, surprised, and Andrew flushed, wondering if he'd stepped over an invisible line he hadn't known abut.
"Thor told me about it," he explained. "I'm sorry if I brought up something that you don't want to discuss. I-"
Ian shook his head.
"Nah, I don't mind talking about it. I was just surprised you knew about it, that's all."
Although as he thought about it, it shouldn't have surprised him at all. Thor was probably some kind of serious gossip – although Ian hadn't spent any time with the Asgard to find out for himself.
"What's Thor like?" Ian asked, curiously. "I've only met him that one night."
Andrew shrugged.
"He's a lot smarter than anyone I know. Except maybe Sam. She might be smarter than him, because she's doing so many things without having the technology at her control that Thor has. He's teaching me a lot, though."
"Shawn told me that Thor has a reason for teaching you guys what he's teaching you. Have you figured it out?"
Andrew shook his head.
"Shawn and I were talking about it a while ago, and we've decided it has to be something genetic… at least we think so. Everything the Asgard have taught us has to do with biological sciences – as opposed to engines and drives and that kind of technology. We're learning math – but only to keep us up with the science, I think." He looked at Ian apologetically. "Doesn't tell you much, does it?"
It was Ian's turn to shrug. It actually told him a lot more than Andrew thought, because Ian knew something that no one else did. Not Shawn, or Andrew – and definitely not Jack – although he knew that Sam might have an inkling about what was going on. Or she might think she did, anyways. But Sam was busy with a million other things that were more important to her than the Asgard (and rightfully so) so she didn't have time to think things through – or she might have figured it out.
The Asgard had fucked up way back when, and had assumed – arrogantly – that by the time it became a serious problem they'd already have a solution. Only they didn't. And they had become so narrow minded as thinkers and scientist over the millennias that they weren't really capable of solving their genetic problems anymore. Which was why they were using younger minds that had no idea of what was possible and what wasn't, and were teaching them and raising them up to be the thinkers they couldn't be.
Of course, Ian knew that the solution was under Thor's nose the entire time. The Ancients had come up with a possible solution long before the Asgard had started considering things, and Shawn was the result of that. But he didn't say anything, because there was every possibility that if the Asgard knew there was every possibility that the Asgard might actually try to abduct young Adams, to keep him from being injured, or to use him without his consent to solve their problem.
Not Thor, probably – who was a pretty good guy from what Ian had heard from Jack and Shawn both – but there were assholes in every species. The humans didn't have a lock on that. Ian wasn't about to tell Thor – or anyone else – about Shawn, because he wasn't going to risk him, but he was definitely interested in finding out more about the Asgard from a different point of view than the little he remembered so far from the Ancient download.
"So they're teaching you to be geneticists…" he said, to lure Andrew into furthering the conversation.
Andrew shrugged.
"I think so. More importantly, Shawn thinks so, too."
"Tell me what they're teaching you," Ian asked.
"It's complicated…"
Ian smiled.
"Try me."
Pretty much desperate for someone to talk to about things, Andrew was more than willing to do just that – even if Ian didn't understand it, Andrew did, and well enough that he could explain it to him. It wasn't like they didn't have all day, after all.
"Well… the first thing he started us on…"
And the conversation continued, the convertible threading its way deeper into the mountains, and the conversation inside nothing that 99 percent of the population on Earth would have understood. Certainly not the typical Saturday morning drive fare, at least.
