I bet your all totally convinced of the fabulous life I lead! Ah god I need a life...
Ahh I love you all with a fury! Thank you all so so so much for your support and love of this story! It means so much!
Chapter Four
The moment the words escaped her lips, she wished in earnest that she hadn't said them. The hurt on Johns face was enough to make her want to throw herself from the balcony.
"I thought there was." He said softly before turning on his heel and walking away.
She started after him, but by the time she made it to the doorway to the control room he was nowhere in sight. She sighed heavily and walked back over to the rail.
"There is John." She said quietly to herself. "We just can't give into it."
She had been trying so hard ever since that first mission to the wraith home world to hide her feelings for John. She knew that they flirted and that others were beginning to notice but they couldn't give in just because his daughter from the future showed up.
She had wanted so badly to kiss him in that corner. To just melt into him and to hell with protocol and what was expected of her. But she was Elizabeth Weir, the dependable, stable expedition leader and she couldn't give into a man on a whim.
But was that all it was? A whim. Because it sure as hell felt like a lot more. Elizabeth sighed heavily, resting her head against the cool metal of the railing.
"Dr Weir?"
A questioning voice caused Elizabeth to lift her head and look at the doorway.
"Hello Morgan." She smiled, straightening. "What can I do for you?"
"I just wanted to make sure you were alright." Morgan said, moving to the rail and leaning on it. "I saw Dad leave and he looked pretty upset."
"We had a ... disagreement." Elizabeth said carefully, distracted by the way Morgan stood against the rail.
"You mean you don't think you're my mother." Morgan corrected her.
"You're very blunt, Morgan." Elizabeth smiled wryly looking into the girls sharp, brown eyes.
"I got it from my mother." Morgan responded, looking pointedly at Elizabeth.
"So... so I am your mom?" Elizabeth kicked herself mentally as Morgan nodded. "Freakin fabulous." She rested her head on the rail again.
There was a moment of silence before Elizabeth felt Morgans hand on her back. "Don't worry about it. If you apologize he'll come around."
"I can't believe I said that too him." Elizabeth mumbled. "He looked so hurt. I've never seen him look hurt before."
"Just try and make it up to him. He'll come around. He loves you too much not too." Morgan comforted her.
Elizabeth stood and looked at the young woman in front of her. Up until now she had only recognized John in the young woman but now she was beginning to recognize herself as well. Her body language was decidedly strong willed, her eyes had the same intensity and the same brown color, and her voice had the same fierce lilt when she was trying to convince someone of something.
"I have a daughter." Elizabeth said softy, reaching out and touching Morgans face. "Oh my god.. I'm a mom."
Morgan grinned. "Hi."
"Hi." Elizabeth grinned back before pulling Morgan into a hug.
Morgan clutched tightly to Elizabeth and soon Elizabeth felt a wet patch against her skin where Morgan's face was buried. "I've wanted to talk to you so badly."
"Oh honey, I'm here now." Elizabeth comforted her, stroking her head.
They stood there for a while, Elizabeth just holding Morgan and letting her cry as she tried to understand the emotions whirling inside of her. After a little while Morgan pulled away and looked at Elizabeth.
"I've missed you both so much." She said sadly.
"Aw babe." Elizabeth wiped a tear from Morgans cheek. "I'm afraid I just blew it with your Dad."
Morgan shook her head. "He loves you too much to let a little fight get in between you. You just have to make it up to him."
"How do I do that?" Elizabeth asked, completely clueless.
Morgan simply smiled at her. "Just make it special Mom." Then she kissed Elizabeth on the cheek and left her to figure it out.
Well how the fuck am I supposed to do that? Elizabeth wondered to herself as Morgan walked away.
--
Meanwhile in the lab, Rodney was bonding with his newfound son and it was...interesting to say the least.
"Wow. This tech is way out of date!" Christopher said, poking one of the laptops almost distastefully.
"Well yeah. You're from, what 22 years in the future." Rodney said, un-offended. "What did you bring with you then?"
Christopher grinned and dumped his pack onto a table. Out spilled a few tablets and small handheld devices as well as a numerous spare parts.
Rodney picked up a tablet and pressed a few buttons. In seconds there was a greedy smile on his face that greatly resembled a child on Christmas morning. Christopher returned the look and the two got immediately to work.
--
Two weeks later John still wasn't talking to Elizabeth. Everyone on Atlantis had noticed by this point and they were all more than confused. He only spoke to her when he absolutely had to and he was civil at absolute best. Elizabeth was getting intensely frustrated. She had been trying and trying to figure out what to do to get him to not be mad but she just couldn't think of a single thing. Morgan was getting annoyed that her mother had suddenly become so dense.
Morgan and Christopher had integrated fairly well into Atlantis life for the moment, and Morgan had even gone on a few missions. She was beginning to not want to leave and she knew that was a bad thing. After all, she didn't want to create a paradox.
One day, John and his team (plus Morgan) returned from a mission under heavy fire. Morgan was injured with a wraith hand attached to her upper arm. The wraith's arm had been severed at the elbow bye Morgans dagger but the hand was still attached. As soon as the shield was up the medical team rushed in and hoisted Morgan onto a Gurney with John flitting around. Elizabeth came hurtling down the stairs, making no attempt to mask the absolute worry on her face. The medical team wheeled Morgan off to the operating room quickly to remove the arm and John, Elizabeth, Teyla and Ronon followed. While Morgan was in surgery Rodney and Christopher joined the crowd waiting outside the infirmary's OR as Teyla explained what happened.
"We were searching for the local village, there was no sign of any life whatsoever so we began to head back to the stargate. As we neared the gate wraith attacked from every direction. Morgan seemed to become a different person as she ran towards the wraith instead of defending herself and simply killing as many as she could, with seemingly no regard for her own life. One wraith caught her by the arm just as she made a gap for us to go through. She sliced the arm and then ran for the gate with us behind. She collapsed mid-dial and we carried her through." Teyla explained to a frantic Elizabeth.
John was stony-faced as he stared at the OR door. "We shouldn't have let her go. It was too dangerous."
"Colonel Sheppard if she had not been there one of us would most likely be even more seriously injured." Teyla reminded him.
"I don't care." John said. "She's just a kid. Its way too dangerous for her out there."
"She's not a kid." Christopher said. "She stopped being a kid the moment she was captured."
They all turned to face Christopher.
"Captured?" Rodney asked. "By who?"
Christopher shook his head. "Its her place to tell you. Not mine. My point is she stopped being a kid a long time ago."
"Its just too dangerous." John repeated, and Elizabeth could have sworn she heard tears in his voice.
"John..." She reached out to touch his shoulder, but John stepped out of reach.
Elizabeth let her hand drop and instead hugged herself as she looked at her feet, tears burning her eyes.
The rest of the group exchanged confused looks at this interaction, but before Rodney could say anything the OR door opened and Carson stepped out.
Elizabeth was the first to say anything. "Carson! Is she okay?"
"She's going to be fine." Carson smiled. "Just another scar. We got the hand off of her and stitched up the wound. There isn't any indication that the serum got into her bloodstream but we wont know for sure for a couple of hours."
"Can we see her?" John asked.
"Of course." Carson turned and led the group through the OR to the recovery room where Morgan was propped up on a bed. "She should be well enough for you to talk to."
"Thank you Carson." Elizabeth smiled at the doctor and quickly moved to Morgan and hugged her tightly. "Oh I'm so glad you're okay!"
"Just what in hell were you thinking young lady?" John shouted frantically as Elizabeth released Morgan.
"Uhm... 'I hate wraiths they should die'." Morgan said, confused.
"Don't get smart with me young lady!" John warned.
"I think perhaps we should go." Teyla said. "I am glad you are alright Morgan."
"Thanks Teyla." Morgan smiled as Teyla, Ronon, Rodney and Christopher left, Christopher indicating that he would talk to her later.
"John, the important thing is that she's alright." Elizabeth said, trying to calm him down.
"I want to know what the hell she was thinking charging the wraith!" John said loudly, glaring at Elizabeth.
"I was thinking that we needed an escape route and since I've already been fed on a couple times, one more couldn't hurt!" Morgan exclaimed, not wanting to two to fight.
"You've been fed on?" John's voice was hushed now and his expression went from pissed to concerned in three seconds flat.
"Twice." Morgan nodded.
"Oh my... is that what Christopher meant by you were captured?" Elizabeth asked, understanding why she had the scars on her chest now.
"Yeah. I was taken by the Wraith on my very first off world mission just before my sixteenth birthday and they fed on me, but at the last minute Dad broke in to save me and I managed to stab the wraith off me and run. Then during the battle a wraith tried to feed on me but I filled its face with bullets before it could do much damage." Morgan explained, very little remorse in her voice.
"You don't sound...affected by it at all." Elizabeth wondered.
"I've had time to get over it." Morgan shrugged. "And bigger things have happened since then."
"Yeah.. I guess they have." John nodded.
There was a semi-awkward silence for a moment before John seemed to realize that he and Elizabeth were very close at the end of the bed. He stood quickly and stammered an excuse before rushing out of the room.
Elizabeth let out an exasperated sigh and flopped onto her back on the bed.
"Still haven't made it up to him?" Morgan asked, an amused smile on her face.
"No." Elizabeth groaned. "I have no idea how to."
"I know."
Elizabeth sat up immediately. "Will you tell me?"
"Of course!"
"But what about the time stream and all that."
"Honestly, I'd rather you guys got together sooner and lived happily ever after, than not mess with it and go back to being miserable and alone."
Elizabeth nodded solemnly. "So what should I do?"
"I remember Dad used to tell me that before you got together he'd give you a present for your birthday every year as your little secret."
"Yes. The day you came here actually he did that."
"Well why don't you find out when his is and return the favor?"
Elizabeth's eyes went wide. "Of course! Why didn't I think of that!" She quickly pecked Morgan on the forehead and rushed off to look up Johns birthday in the records.
Morgan looked after her smiling. She had no idea what would happen to her and everyone from her time, but she was willing to risk that they might all be a little happier... plus she had always wanted siblings. She smiled again, closing her eyes and just imagining what it could be like if John and pulled Elizabeth out of the way instead of covering her body with his, if a few more people had managed to survive. If they'd had the ZPM on Atlantis instead of at SGC waiting for an attack that would never come.
"You know you're not alone."
Morgan opened her eyes slowly and smiled and Christopher sat on the bottom of her bed.
"I was." she responded.
"You weren't. You had me and Carson."
"Oh please. Carson locked himself away and refused to eat or practice or anything. And you locked yourself in a lab and didn't come out till you created your time machine. It was just me. Noone was there to help me mourn."
Christopher looked at his hands. "Yeah... I suppose you're right. I'm sorry Morg.. I just... I lost Dad and Sean... my best friend was just... gone. I had no idea how to cope with that! He always came out okay and then one day 'poof'. And Dad. He didn't fight. He wasn't supposed to. So I just figured he'd come out okay too. And I thought... I thought that if you started to think about it I'd loose you too and I couldn't deal with that. You are way to important to loose."
"Toph... I knew you were just a softy!" Morgan smiled, and leaned forward to grab his hand. "You wouldn't have lost me."
" I would have. You lost so much more. Your parents and your fiance. You would have just given into the grief if you had someone to lean on and you know it."
"I suppose you're right."
"I always am." Christopher smiled.
Morgan smiled back, chuckling lightly. "Anyway, what makes me more important than Sean or your dad?"
Christopher just stared at Morgan for a moment before simply smiling and squeezing her hand. "Nothing really I suppose. I just didn't want anyone else to die." With that and another smile, this one almost sad, Christopher got up and walked away.
Morgan looked after him, confused. He meant something a lot more than that and she knew it. She could tell in the way he had said he couldn't deal with losing her. But why wouldn't he tell her?
yay! Fourth chapters done! Sorry it took a little longer. I had a bit of writers block in the middle there. Awesome. So yeah Review!