So How Did I Meet Your Mom Again?22
Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: Atlantis or any of its characters or story lines. No infringement is intended upon anyone or any subsidiary connected to Stargate: Atlantis or its parent series, Stargate: SG-1 or Stargate The Movie. I'm poor, you'll get nothing out of me!
Summary: When the team discovers McKay's future daughter living with their trading partners, the search is on for the mother because his daughter will have to be conceived in 16 months or cease to exist. No pressure, right?
Rating: PG for language.
Warnings: Possibly some adult situations or at least ideas.
Category: Friendship/Romance/Humor
Author note: See note at bottom!
On the last chapter of Stargate: Atlantis…
"It's going to take some time to get used to the idea of having a kid, since I wasn't planning on it for a few years if ever, but I'll get there, eventually. Most of all though, I want us to be okay again. And I think I can manage that on one condition."
Rodney smiled, relieved. "Anything."
"Good," she smiled back, "Cause I'd like to meet my daughter."
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"Errrr…that may not be possible." Rodney stuttered.
"Why not?" Alex frowned.
"Well, she kind of forbid my team to come back or to reveal the results of the test. She said she'd rather not know." He said sheepishly.
"So you and I will go with another team as part of the regular check in.We don't tell her a thing.Hasn't Dr. Weir been sending Major Lorne's team to keep in touch?"
Rodney nodded.
"Good. Get me on that team the next time they go back to P4892 and I'll let you off the hook."
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIt was exactly a week later when Rodney stood nervously next to Alex, the picture of calm, waiting to go through the Stargate to P4982 and his daughter. He'd had Alex's assurance that she wouldn't say anything or act weird towards Isabel, so as to keep in line with her wishes. He himself, had not wanted to go, but at a look from both Alex and Weir he'd agreed to go through and wait at the gate with a Srgt. until Alex had returned from the town, and her unofficial meeting with Isabel.
"Would you stop fidgeting?" Alex hissed as the gate address was dialed. "You're not even going to see her!"
"But I'll know she's there! Plus, I'm worried about what you might do when you finally meet her." He hissed back.
"I promised you that I wouldn't do anything obvious, what more do you want from me?"
Rodney wisely chose not to answer and instead walked through the gate before her.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIsabel had been sitting on the steps of the Stargate as she'd been prone to doing ever since Rodney McKay had come to her world all those months ago. She'd left her siblings to play at home, needing some time away from them. As she sat on the steps, drawing in the dirt, the Stargate came to life and she hurried away from it, raising her weapon and crouching behind the DHD.
She relaxed once she saw Major Lorne step through the gate accompanied by the rest of his team…and McKay. She frowned, hadn't she told him not to return? Her thoughts stilled as one more person stepped through the gate. She froze. After 19 years, it was improbable that she would remember the faces of her parents. Rodney's had only been slightly familiar. But the face of the woman who'd stepped out to stand next to Rodney, could only be one person. Mom.
She'd be lying to herself if she had ever thought she didn't want to see her mother ever again. Somehow, when she'd first seen Rodney, it had been different. She had only vague memories of him. But with her mother, the memories started to flood back. Being held after scraping her knee, a gentle voice singing in the dark, a joyful smile, the feeling of being loved above all else.
She stood hesitantly and said something she hadn't said in many years. "Mom?"
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAlex stepped through the gate, unsure of what she'd find on the other side. She stepped next to Rodney and smiled, grateful she was finally going to be able to see her daughter. Movement by the DHD caught her attention.
A pretty, small girl of about 20 or so was rising from a crouch. She had a look of such hope on her face it almost broke Alex's heart. Wonder who she was expecting? Alex's first impression was that the girl was very petite and probably not very tough, but stopped her thoughts there as she reminded herself that that was what others had thought of her when she'd first enlisted, and she'd proven them all wrong. Besides, it was often the small ones that had the most to prove and so had the most determination. She was so caught up with her thoughts that she was stunned to hear the one word come out of the girl's mouth. "Mom?"
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIsabel needed no other confirmation once the female soldier's eyes had locked onto hers. She raced from the DHD to her mother's arms, crying the whole way. She had so desperately missed her mother. She hadn't even realized it until that very moment when she realized her mother was alive and standing in front of her. She hurled herself into her mother's arms and hugged her tightly, afraid her mother would disappear if she didn't.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAlex acted on instinct when the girl had flung herself at her. Not a soldier's instinct, but a mother's. She wrapped her arms tightly around the girl, caressing her hair as she murmured comforting words to her. She could see Rodney's face over the girl's shoulder. It was a mixture of hurt and pride, the two emotions battling for dominance. She caught his eye and pride dominated as he sucked in a deep breath and let it out with a smile that seemed to say my family. She smiled at him before resuming her comforting words to Isabel.
"Honey, shhh, it's okay. I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere."
Isabel finally calmed enough that she pulled away to better see her mother's face.
"Isabel." Was the only thing Alex needed to say to start off her daughter again as she was now laughing and crying at the same time.
"I missed you so much Mom." She said as she once again hugged Alex for all she was worth, though without the crying of before.
"So, yeah. So I guess I don't need to make introductions. Uh huh. Yep." Rodney trailed off, feeling left out.
Alex smiled at him and Isabel unwrapped an arm from her to open a spot for Rodney as she also smiled at him. "Come here Dad. I've got enough to go around."
Rodney thought his heart might burst at the words. That's my family.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIThey had been on the planet for two days, catching up as much as possible with Isabel without her revealing too much information about the future. Rodney was, for the most part, happy. He was back on good terms with Alex again and now his daughter too. She had even apologized for her attitude of more than half a year ago. He was still uncomfortable in her presence though, as if uncertain of how to act towards her. Especially when he made the offer for her to come back with them.
Her face fell, absolutely miserable. "I can't."
"Why not?" Rodney frowned.
"A lot of reasons. If I go with you, I might end up revealing something about the future, or changing it just by being there. Then there's the fact that I'll cease to exist at my current age once you repel the future Wraith attack. Would you really want to see me vanish into thin air?" she asked, raising an eyebrow in a way very reminiscent of Alex when she was proving a point. "Plus, I really do have a life here. I was born on Atlantis, but I grew up here. I don't really want to leave my family." She said, praying they'd understand.
Alex looked very sad at her response and Rodney looked thoughtful, as if working through her reasoning for anything that didn't add up. Alex nodded at her. "You're a grown up now. We can't force you to do anything you don't want to do. I really wish you'd change your mind though. I never got to see you grow up…"
"No," said Isabel, smiling, "But you will. It would just be too weird going back to Atlantis when my home is here now." She paused, thinking hard, "Uhhh, what's the date?"
"March 22, 2006, why?" Asked Alex.
"You two just got engaged, right?" asked Isabel, gesturing towards her mother's new ring.
"Yes…"Alex drawled.
"Well, uh, see the thing is, that, well, you see," Alex grinned at her daughter's perfect McKayism. "I was born in late January of 2007." She blurted out.
"We know." Said Rodney simply.
"you do?" she asked, confused.
"Canec or whatever told us on our first trip."
"My father told you?" she asked incredulously as Rodney flinched the tiniest bit.
"Yeah."
"So you know that in about two months….?"
Rodney flushed the reddest Alex had ever seen him as she laughed. "Yeah, we know. I just refused to let him touch me until I had met you first." She teased them both as Isabel flushed and Rodney looked like he had sucked on a lemon.
"Mom!" "Lexi" they both whined in the same tone of voice. Alex just laughed.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIt was a teary-eyed Isabel and Alex that said goodbye at the gate, early the next morning. Rodney was standing a few feet away, still unsure how to act towards Isabel.
"If you have any problems, any at all, you know where to find us." Alex told her in a wavering voice. Who knew I'd become so attached in so little time?
"I know, Mom." She said embracing her mother. Stepping back, she turned to her father with her arms wide open and grinned. "Dad? I don't bite you know."
At an encouraging look from Alex, he stepped into the embrace, hugging her tightly. He stepped back awkwardly after a few moments.
Rodney turned towards the active wormhole, taking Alex's arm in his hand. With a final glance back at his daughter, he led his fiancé back to Atlantis.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAuthor's Note: Sorry I got so lazy recently. I'm hoping to post like a demon over the next 24 hours so I can finish this story. From here on out, I'm just going to kind of skip ahead. I'll do the prelude to conception, maybe an ultrasound moment for the sappy-goodness, the birth and maybe a few short scenes after that. The thing is, I'm not sure how to end this. If anyone has any good spots they think this should end, please share!