Chapter Five
Nicole sat on the cold floor of the starship's deck, the recently repaired conduit forgotten as she gazed out the window at the streaking stars beyond. Rubbing thoughtlessly at a spot of grease on her cheek, she sighed and placed a hand on the cold glass separating her from the vacuum of space beyond. Feeling the chill traveling up her arm, she shivered, savoring the feeling for a moment before removing her hand and watching the foggy handprint disappear before her.
"Hey curly-sue, how long does it take you fix one broken conduit?" a voice reached her ears, causing her to groan and turn around to face the owner. "Dad wants to see you," the teenaged boy with messy brown hair and a lopsided grin told her.
She nodded, picking up her toolkit and sliding out of the repair tube with a twinge of remorse, knowing she shouldn't have been wasting time when there was work to do. "Any idea what he wants, Corin?" she asked as she feel into step beside her brother.
"Well, I know he wants to talk about dinner."
"Ugh. Just because Teeny and I are girls doesn't mean we enjoy cooking."
Corin shrugged. "He just wants some help, I think. We're all helping out. It's hard without Mom, you know."
"You're not the only one who lost her."
"Neither are you."
Whatever smart comment she had in return was interrupted by the sudden appearance of their father beside them. "There you two are. I've been looking all over the ship for you." They nodded, knowing their conversation was over at this point. "I've invited the Laquinze family to dinner tonight."
Nicole groaned at the news, but Corin looked positively elated at the news. "But Dad, it's bad enough we have to cook for our family, but now we have to cook for them, too?"
He nodded, turning a disapproving look on his daughter. "Nicole, they don't have anyone to celebrate Thanksgiving with. I thought since we are traveling the same route, we may as well spend the holiday together."
"I can't believe we still celebrate this stupid holiday anyway," the redhead muttered under her breath.
"And who's the adult here?" Her family asked in a scolding tone.
"You are," his daughter replied in a whisper.
Corin clapped a hand on his father's shoulder. It was amazing how much the teenager had grown in the past year. He was only three years older than Nicole, but his growth spurt had made him look more like early twenties than the sixteen years he actually was. "I think it's a great idea," he told his father with a genuine look of happiness on his face.
Nicole rolled her eyes as she watched her father and brother head off down the hallway, she herself ducking into her younger sister's room while they weren't looking. Flopping onto the bed, she muttered to herself, "Suck-up."
"Who's a suck-up?" The small eleven-year-old with short blonde hair asked as she poked an earring into her left ear.
Nicole smiled at Athena, the "baby" of the Leah family. "Our big brother," the redhead replied as she tucked her hands behind her head and stared at the ceiling. "He told Dad he's happy to have the Laquinze family for dinner when I know he's just saying it to get into Dad's good graces."
Teeny shook her head, her hair flying about. "No, he's not. He has a crush on Ariana." Ariana was the only daughter the Laquinze couple had. She was seventeen years old with long blonde hair and blue eyes. Nicole couldn't believe she hadn't realized her older brother's crush before; it was so apparent to her now as she thought of the way he had acted around her.
"This is going to be a long night," Nicole told her sister before jumping off the bed and dragging her sister out of the room so that they could help prepare for dinner.
If only Nicole had realized the truth in her statement when she had said it. That night, their ship was attacked by a renegade group, one that attacked vessels in deep space and stripped them of all their technology. Once they had taken what they wanted, this group of marauders killed the adults and left the four children for dead on the drifting ships.
"Nicci, what are we going to do?" A scared Teeny asked her older sister. Nicole shook her head, her green eyes wide and terrified as she looked to her older brother.
He turned away, moving closer to Ariana and wrapping his arms around the girl. "We're going to get through this," he told the three girls softly.
Nicole could feel her heart pounding as she shot up, her breath coming in short gasps. Bringing her hands up to her hair, she threaded her fingers through the thick curls, feeling the perspiration that clung to the strands. She tried to control her breathing, finally being able to bring it under control. Turning to look at the neon green light of the small travel clock, she groaned when she saw the time: 3:32 AM.
Slipping off the sofa, she pulled a bathrobe over her for warmth and crossed into the kitchen to brew herself a cup of coffee, knowing she wouldn't get any more sleep that night. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the terrible images of her father and Ariana's parents being murdered before her. She didn't need to dream about that day in order to remember it.
Of course, she also knew how the story ended. A man showed up on the ship in a blinding flash of light, telling the children his name was Q, and he could help them. He had been passing by, noticed their predicament, and took pity on them. He "adopted" them that very minute, making them "Qs" like him. But as much as she liked the ending of the story, the beginning was far too painful to think about.
As she poured her coffee and reached for cream and sugar, her mind traveled to the events that were scheduled for the day – the day of Thanksgiving. She had asked Sam last week if they could host the festivities here. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, since it was usually held at Daniel's apartment, and Nicole had no interest in seeing the inside of it anytime soon. She didn't think about just opting out of the day all together. Considering her excuse, she would probably get away with it. But no one knew her story, not even Daniel.
And no one suspected a thing, not even Sam or Jack, as the three of them spent the day cooking and having small food fights in the kitchen. Cassie was still asleep upstairs, but after she had arrived late last night and crashed into her bed, no one was going to try to wake the college student to help with the preparations.
The guests were told to show up anywhere between 3 and 4 pm, at which time everything was cooking and the cooks were taking a small break before completing their job. Sam and Jack sat on the couch sipping their beers and watching the football game. Cassie had found her way downstairs about an hour before, but was now upstairs showering and putting on clothes for the day before the guest arrived. Nicole took the chance to escape onto the back porch.
No sooner had she settled onto one of the benches did a bright light appear before her, leaving in its wake a tall beautiful women with long blonde hair and green eyes. "Hi, Teeny," Nicole greeted her younger sister.
"Hey, mopey," Teeny replied and perched herself onto the railing of the deck. "What's with the long face?"
"It's Thanksgiving."
"Ah. So tell me something: if you hate Thanksgiving so much, why are you celebrating it?"
Nicole shrugged. "It's a long story that I'd rather not get into right now."
"Uh-huh. So do your friends know you hate it?"
"No, and I'm not going to tell them."
Teeny rolled her eyes and replied, "I don't get it. Why not?"
"Because I don't want to ruin it for them. Just because I can't appreciate it doesn't mean they can't."
"Still don't get it."
Nicole sighed and replied harshly, "Of course you can't. It's doing something nice for someone else and that's something you'll never understand."
Teeny's eyes widened, her expression betraying the pain her sister's comment had inflicted. "That's not true! I do nice things for you all the time."
"Yeah, just for me. Do you realize I'm the only person in the entire universe that you ever help? There are a lot of needy people out there, Teens. Why do you only use your power to help me?"
"We're not supposed to use our powers to help people, Nicci. That's your thing, not mine."
"I don't care how we're supposed to use our powers. It's nice to do things for others."
At that moment, Cameron opened the door, a look of surprise coming over him as he spotted the two women. It was obvious he was only expecting to see one. At the sight of a man, Teeny hopped off the balcony and smoothed her short skirt over her legs, a look of interest falling over her. "Who's this, Nicci?" she asked, practically drooling over the Air Force colonel.
Feeling suddenly possessive, Nicole jumped up quickly and moved to stand next to Cameron, replying shortly, "Don't even think about it, Teeny."
Confused, Cameron looked from one woman to the other curiously. "Um, Sam said you'd be out here and um, she wanted me to tell you she needs you in the house . . . am I interrupting something?"
"No," Teeny replied at the same time as Nicole said, "Yes."
Nicole smiled sweetly at the man and told him, "Cameron, this is my sister, Teeny. Why don't you go back inside and tell Sam I'll be right there?" He nodded and darted back into the house, obviously wanting to get away from the sibling rivalry as quickly as he could.
"Why didn't you want me to meet him, Nicci?"
"Because I know you. I know how you are with men, and you are not going to do that to him."
Teeny folded her arms across her chest and took a defensive stance. "What do you mean?"
"You really want me to say it?"
"Yes."
"Okay, you're a slut." Nicole watched as her sister's face turned many shades of red, her green eyes wide and horrified, staring across into equally green defiant ones. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back in there." The redhead turned and walked back inside, thinking she had left her sister fuming quietly.
Unfortunately, she was wrong about that assumption. "You can't just say something like that and walk away from me!" Teeny had stormed into the house after Nicole, fuming not as quietly as the older sister would have hoped.
Her entrance had not been unnoticed by the other occupants of the house, either, especially not one in particular. The owner of the house took a few steps, stopping when she was standing in front of the younger sister of her tenant. "I thought I told you never to step foot inside this house again," Sam spat angrily at the woman, the Air Force colonel's formidable presence stopping the woman in her tracks.
A cold smile formed on Teeny's face as she stepped closer, raising herself on tiptoe to face the taller woman eye-to-eye. "Listen here, mortal, you do not tell me what to do, capisce?"
Just as it looked as if Sam would punch the smaller woman, Nicole grabbed her sister's arm and dragged her back outside, throwing her harshly into the sunlight. "I'm sorry that you don't like who you are, but you can't go around taking it out on me or my friends."
"As if I understood a word of that."
Nicole sighed and ran her hands over face. "I'm sorry I had to be the one to tell you what you are, and I know you're angry. But you respect me, right?"
"Well, yeah."
"Then please respect the woman who has taken me in, put a roof over my head, food on my plate, not to mention given me a job that I enjoy. She does not deserve to be talked to that way. I should have told you that three years ago."
Another roll of the eyes and then: "Fine" before the bright light took over again and she was gone. Breathing out in relief, Nicole collapsed on the bench and pulled her knees up to her chest, needing a few minutes to recover before she went back inside.
The expression on Sam's face changed instantly when she heard what Nicole said about her. It softened immensely, and she even accepted the arms of her boyfriend when before she had pushed him away in her anger. Daniel, Teal'c, and Cameron all exchanged glances.
Finally the newest member of SG1 broke the silence. "So . . . I'm assuming this isn't the first time something like this has happened?"
Daniel nodded and answered softly, "There's always drama when Nicole's family is concerned."
"This is the first time I'm meeting her sister. Is this usually how they interact?"
"No, it is not," Teal'c replied, appearing puzzled by the behavior he had just witnessed. "Nicole and Athena are usually quite civil with each other."
"Huh," Cameron answered, "Nicole's the oldest, right?"
"Well, older than Teeny," Daniel replied. "They have an older brother, but they haven't heard from him in over a century."
"They don't know where he is?"
Daniel shook his head no. "No, he got married, and they haven't heard from him since. He and his wife are most likely using their abilities to remain hidden."
"So it's just Nicole and Teeny?"
"And their stepfather."
"Stepfather?"
"Yeah, you don't want to meet him." Daniel picked up the remote and turned the TV back on. The football game had been forgotten in all the excitement, but now Jack and Sam were coming back over to watch, apparently deciding to wait for Nicole to come in on her own.
Cameron took this as his signal to stop asking questions about Daniel's ex-girlfriend's family. He stood up and without saying a word made his way outside.
He sat down softly beside the red haired woman and draped an arm around her shoulders. "Hey, how are you doing?"
She shrugged and leaned into him. "Sorry you had to see that," she whispered, her tone revealing the pain she was trying to repress. "We're not usually like that."
"So I hear," he replied gently.
"She's just so . . . frustrating sometimes. I try to be a good example for her, but she's so set in her ways, nothing I do now can change her."
"You feel responsible for how she is?"
Nicole nodded into his chest, a tear running down her cheek. "I used to think I could have anything I wanted, too, no matter who I hurt in the process. Just because we have these powers doesn't mean we can hurt people – took me a long time to figure that out."
"Well, what you said about Sam certainly had a good effect on her."
"Really?"
"Yeah – so why doesn't Sam like Teeny?"
Nicole laughed a little and wiped a tear away. "Something Teeny said when they first met. Sam's never forgiven her. Not that I blame her."
"What did she say?" The question hung in the air, but there was no response. Cameron's gaze moved from the backyard down the woman next to him only to find her eyes fixed on his face. "Nicole?"
Without a word, she moved closer and kissed him gently. He returned the pressure and pulled her closer to him. She turned in his arms as her arms twisted around his neck.
After a few minutes, Cameron pulled away softly and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. "Are you okay?" he asked quietly.
She nodded and replied, "Yeah, I'm feeling much better now. We should get back inside."
"Why?"
The corners of her lips tugged upward. "Well, I hear there's lots of pie."
"That's General O'Neill talking." This comment was rewarded with a full wattage smile. "Come on, Nicole, you know what I'm asking."
She stood up and pulled him with her, still holding onto his hand tenderly. "You can kiss me again later, Cameron," she said affectionately, her fingers interlacing with his.
His face lit up. "Promise?"
Giggling, she nodded and replied, "Promise."