DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters from 'Stargate: Atlantis'. They're not my property.
He kneeled down, trying to catch his breath. He threw a glance at the doors, knowing it wouldn't be long before they would blast through them. The hazel-eyed young man then opened the small bag that held small containers. Two months had flown by since their passing, making the city even more vulnerable to those monsters. He wiped the sweat above his upper lip and then zipped the black bag again. He tapped his left arm and then started dialing the Stargate. He was determined to change all this even if it meant his death.
A powerful blast suddenly shook the doors. Alexander didn't even have to look at them; he knew the cause of that. A smaller, but no less deadlier blast flew over his head, forcing him to look at the green-skinned mutant that pointed an unusual gun at him. Alexander shot back, considerably injuring his enemy, then pressed the last button and the gate opened. He threw his gun away and leaped through the gate, knowing they couldn't follow him.
Eight uniformed soldiers greeted him with guns on the other side. It worked. He made it. Despite the guns pointed at him, as he expected to happen, he was relieved. Alexander looked around him. Everything appeared so very different from what he had known.
"Who are you?" Colonel Sheppard asked the young man as he came down the stairs.
Alexander watched him until the older man stopped next to one of the soldiers. "Alexander," he replied.
"Got a last name?" John asked.
"I do, but I don't have much time. I need to speak with you and Dr. Weir privately," Alexander told him. He was soon searched by one of the men who confirmed that he carried no weapons. Alexander looked up at Elizabeth's office, knowing she would be standing there, watching. It felt strange seeing them this way, but his face gave away nothing of that to them.
"And how do you know about us… Alex?" John asked.
Alexander turned to look back at the Colonel at the sound of that name. "I…heard about you from a friend," he replied
"And who might that friend be?"
"Colonel Sheppard, I really don't have much time for this! I have to speak to you and Dr. Weir now!" he tried to sound calm.
"Easy there, Alex," John told him.
Alexander knew this wouldn't have been easy as he ran his hand through his black hair. He had four days on disposal but the drug had only two. How could he explain to him the purpose of his visit this way? "It's about the future and survival of Atlantis," he told him.
"We couldn't get a clear reading of the source of –"
"Of course you couldn't. Rodney made sure when he made those configurations that you wouldn't be able to identify where I came from."
John narrowed his eyes at the younger man. "Who are you?"
Alexander glanced up at Elizabeth's office but she was no longer there. Instead, he noticed her leaning against the railing, seemingly curious of this, as he thought she might be. He then shook his head. "I have to talk to you both in private. It's important!" he told John whilst holding Elizabeth's gaze.
"It would b-" John was then interrupted by a voice from the radio. "What?... Are you sure about this?" He quickly spun around and looked up at Elizabeth. The woman nodded. Complying with her request, John ordered for Alexander to be taken to her office.
She wasn't there when he was escorted to the office. When he sat down on the chair, Alexander looked at the objects on the desk. He smiled when he saw the small bronze pot sitting there next to the laptop. It was one of her favorite possessions. He reached over to it but was ordered by the guard not to touch anything. Alexander scowled and placed his interlaced fingers on his belly. What little familiarity remained in this room was enough to liven his memories. He hoped they would listen to him. They usually had….
"Alexander?" that familiar female voice made him look behind him. His eyes took in her almost youthful appearance, while trying to hide so many emotions that were brewing underneath. "Y-yes," he replied and wanted to stand up but the two guards made certain that didn't happen.
"I'm –"
"Dr. Elizabeth Weir, yes, I know," he replied for her.
She looked at him funny before crossing her arms protectively, something she would usually do when she wanted to prepare the person for one of her speeches, although seemed unlikely in this case, now. "How do you know my name?"
He opened his mouth to speak out something completely different when he just as quickly reminded himself that this was not the time or place. "I know quite a lot about this place and those who surv-…live here," he told her.
"You do," she faked a greater amount of calmness on her face.
"Yes."
"And how?"
"I was just about to ask him the same thing," John's voice was heard as he came in the office. "And where he came from," he crossed his arms like she had done and watched the young man suspiciously.
Uh-oh. The last time he remembered them standing like that was when he accidentally broke one of Zelenka's valuable experiments for the city's safety; they looked far from pleased by his actions.
He glanced at the two guards. "You know, there really is no need for these guys to be here. You saw that I'm unarmed," Alexander told the two leaders.
"It's a safety precaution," John told him.
"Unnecessary. I wouldn't hurt you."
John wondered for a moment and then ordered the guards to stand outside. "Wanna be cooperative now?"
"Yes, now I do."
John faked a smile. "Good. So start with telling us who you are."
Alexander looked at them both. "I'm your son," he told them.
John blinked, Elizabeth tilted her head. "Come again?" the colonel asked.
"My full name is Alexander Peter Sheppard."
The two watched the visitor with some doubt and surprise at this. The thick, black hair, the pointy ears, the smile – all this giving a thought to Elizabeth that it was just a coincidence. While the nose and the eyes, despite their different color, were features which reminded John of someone very close to him.
He saw them exchange a doubtful look to this. "You are my parents. Well, you will be my parents… about six years from now," he added in his sandy voice.
There was short silence to this, smudged with confusion, doubt, and somewhere in there a grain of discomfort.
"And this is why you wanted to talk to us privately?" John asked him, still untrusting of this young man.
"Not really. Uh, I know you can't believe me, though I'm sure Carson can do a DNA test or something to prove it, but anyway, the reason I came here is…" Alexander sighed. "Okay." He licked his lips and then continued. "Twenty-three years from now Atlantis gets attacked by the Drskonyans, a mutated species. One of many attacks, actually. They are nasty s.o.b.'s. They succeeded in weakening the minds, the morale of many who lived in the city greatly, allowing them to slaughter them easily when they came one last time… when I left." He paused, waiting to see if their shield of doubt could crack at least a little.
Elizabeth watched the aftertaste of those painful memories becoming visible in his motions and expression. Alexander rubbed his hands slowly and nervously as he continued explaining how his family and friends and so many others perished and he ended up being the only survivor thanks to the gate.
"I'm sorry…" Elizabeth expressed her condolences softly to him, despite having remaining doubts at the back of her mind.
"Yeah, so am I…" John responded quickly, not quite believing this young man's story. "How about we let Dr. Beckett take a look at you before we continue our discussion?" he then suggested.
Alexander shrugged. "Fine with me."
"Take him to –"
"Uh, I know where it is, Colonel," Alexander interrupted him.
When the visitor left the office, both leaders stood there, unsure of all this. "What do you think?" John asked.
"I'm not sure," Elizabeth replied. "Time travel?" She shook her head. "Although, the emotions he showed when he was talking about those…events seemed pretty genuine." She circled her desk to sit down on the chair.
"So you believe him?" he turned around to face her.
"Not entirely, no. But I must say, I never expected anyone else to have those same elf-like ears," she teased slightly.
John smirked to this.
"You're sure about this?" he asked the doctor.
"The results don't lie, Colonel," Carson replied, pointing to the DNA results.
With his hands on his waist, John sighed. "My…uh, son…erm..."
"I can imagine how difficult it must sound."
"Oh yeah. Although it wouldn't have so much weirdness in it had it not been for Elizabeth's… portion of it." He looked up at Carson. "Does she know?"
"No, she said she would come down to hear the results in person."
John nodded to this and saw Alexander sitting on the bed at the end of the room. His gaze was somewhere to the left, watching one of the nurses attending to a female patient, recently rescued.
Carson leaned closer and whispered, "He asked me not to reveal this to anyone else."
"I'm beginning to understand why," John replied. "Okay, thanks, Carson." John tapped the scientist on the shoulder and then walked passed him.
It was on a bed very similar to this that he held her weakened hand. She made him cry, her pain and agony caused his tears to resurface. "I'm so sorry," he told her.
"No, Alex, there's nothing to be sorry about," she tried to assure him with those big, motherly eyes.
"If I didn't insist on rescuing that ship…"
He felt her hand removing itself from his embrace. She cupped his wet face, her eyes determent as she spoke to him. "Now listen to me, you did nothing wrong, alright? It was not your fault! It was not anyone's fault!" She waited for her words to sink into him. A soft sigh escaped her. "You always had your dad's adventurous spirit." She smiled faintly at him. "But thankfully your mom's reason to hold its reins as well," she added.
He tried to smile to this, but it was difficult to do so, so very difficult, knowing her fate.
"Don't blame yourself for anything, Alex," she whispered to him.
"I can't do that, mom…I…"
"No, you can. They need you here now. You have to be strong for them, for the city…your home…our home."
She was a fighter, his mother, always had been, and her eyes showed that. But this was one fight she hadn't managed to win….
"Which is the best game in both galaxies?" he asked the young man casually, removing him from the daze of those memories.
Alexander looked up at him, slightly surprised. "What?"
"Best game in both galaxies, which is it?" John repeated the question.
Alexander smiled vaguely. "Football."
"Right answer," John said. He then stopped to observe the man's facial features. "No, still weird," he said of this.
"The results came out positive, huh?" Alexander guessed.
"Yeah, they did." He paused. "How did you get here?"
Alexander looked around the wide room. "One of the things I was warned before coming here was not to reveal too much about the future… only whatever was needed for our survival, so, I guess I can say that it's this technology, that you come across from a very interesting race of…beings in the future, which allows you to travel a limited amount of times. Plus side being that you can travel in the future or the past… and the minus side being that once you're in either that future or past…after a few days, you die," he replied. "Which is why I only have four days to live," he added rather nervously. "Not that it's any worse than what awaited me back home. They would've ripped my skull out by now."
"Neither sound very good," John said.
"Not now they don't. But if you believe me, things might turn out better than they are…um, were….um, will be…." Noticing the change in the older man's gaze, Alexander continued. "And I wouldn't have mentioned the 'death' part if I didn't have so little time on my hands."
"Little time about what?" Elizabeth joined the two, the reaction to Beckett's news clearly visible on her face.
"Oh, ah… how he missed sports," John answered for him whilst managing to give Alexander a look which warned for the young man's future fate not to be revealed to Elizabeth. "He was telling me about that," he looked at her as she walked over at the other side of the bed.
"Oh, so you're a sports nut like him then?" she asked Alexander.
"Ah, yeah. Football, basketball, water skiing…."
Elizabeth listened to this and nodded. "This is…"
"Weird?" John added.
"Yes," she confessed. First a time traveler, then a son, and then… well, her and John's offspring… this raised a lot of questions in her mind. "How did you manage to come here?" she asked him.
Alexander glanced at John, agreeing to conceal certain parts of the story as he explained to her. "With all that, you get injected with some P…F56 drug that keeps your body and sanity intact during traveling."
"That's interesting …"
"Why you of all people? Coming here, I mean," John asked.
"Because everyone else that you now know is…"
"Dead?" Elizabeth guessed and saw the young men confirm with a nod.
There was brief silence again. "Well, not that surprising knowing you'll die eventually. It's 'how' and 'when' that's disturbing," John said.
"I agree," Elizabeth replied and looked back at the young man. "And the reason for your visit…"
"Is of purely selfish nature, I guess you can say. Just wanted to see some of you one last time. I'd like to have a look around, maybe stay for a day-or-two before heading back, if that's okay?" Alexander asked.
"Heading back where?"
"My time…though probably not Atlantis or what's left of it anyway."
"But h-"
"Sure!" John exclaimed immediately much to Elizabeth's surprise. When he encountered her look, he added, "I think he deserves it, at least."
Elizabeth's gaze returned to this future offspring as she thought over John's reply. "If that's what you'd like, Alexander," she replied.
Alexander smiled to this. "Thanks," he said and leaped off the bed.
Elizabeth leaned forward with her fists on the bed. "You jumped right in to that suggestion pretty fast," she noted to John.
"Well, not many get that chance to see people again after they pass away. And after what he's been through… if it's true… I think it would be unfair of us to deny him that," John said rather quietly.
She understood. "Should he go about without an escort like that?" she asked as they watched him go.
"He seems to know the city… Unless it's changed a lot in those twenty years," he said.
"Still, I'd like you to keep an eye on him," Elizabeth advised him.
"You don't trust him?"
"A part of me does, which is the problem," she replied.
He sighed. "Okay, I'll keep an eye on him then," he assured her.
She showed a half-smile. "Thank you, John. I better go back to those boring reports now," she said and tapped his arm.
"Hey, Alex! Wait up!" John finally caught up with the younger man.
"Let me guess, she didn't like the idea of me wandering around the city by myself?" Alexander asked.
"Nah, I just thought you'd like a guide."
Alexander smirked at this. He knew his mother better than that.
"So?"
"Well, I'm starving," Alexander said.
John nodded and slapped the boy on the back, with his hand keeping a fatherly grip on his shoulder. "Off to the mess hall we go then."
Alexander narrowed his eyes at the blue desert on his tray. "What's this?" he asked.
"Don't tell me you've never seen blue Jell-o!"
"Actually…" Alexander seemed slightly embarrassed.
John's jaw dropped to his reply. "No blue Jell-o in the future?"
"Or any other kind." Alexander took a spoon of it and held it up to eye level. "So this is the famous blue Jell-o that Rodney kept whining about during meal breaks."
"What did you have instead of it?"
"Something called the Serpent's Tail." Alexander put the spoon down and then returned to his third chicken sandwich. "It's delicious, though for most of the first generation on Atlantis, it was never as good as… Jell-o."
John chuckled. "A future without Jell-o…yikes." He saw the younger man shrug as he took another bite of his sandwich. It felt disturbing looking at those genetic features. John didn't know what felt more unsettling: a visitor from a future Atlantis – one that he wanted to ask of certain events and people; an offspring of his; or a young man who had lost everything including most of his life to live. The last thought especially left John feeling somewhat pitiful and sad towards Alexander. As he ordered his fourth sandwich, John somehow found this amusing. "That hungry, huh?"
Alexander nodded and with his mouth full took a big gulp of his drink. John would've advised him to slow down but he decided to give him a break. "You mentioned a 'first generation'?"
"Oh, yeah… you…the people that are here now."
"Who decided to remain here."
"That's right. Atlantis becomes a home for many of them. And I wasn't the only child born here," Alexander told him.
"Oh. At least you had other kids to play with."
"Mm." Alexander was, by now, in the middle of his fifth sandwich.
"Seriously, where do you put all that?" John asked him as Alexander looked like a well-built but still thin, young man.
"Haven't eaten in a while," Alexander replied and gulped down the last of the drink. He then pressed his fist against his mouth so as not to let out a loud burp. His parents found it amusing at times, but mostly incredibly annoying. He thought John would react as in the latter.
"I can see that." John only watched him as he, fortunately, had eaten much earlier.
Alexander chuckled. "I'm sorry."
"No, it's fine. Nice to know that my future offspring is a ferocious eater," John replied. "I guess whatever I ask you, you can't tell me details of it?"
"You could still ask."
"Alright. How are relations with Earth?"
No response.
"Um… Any new allies?"
Again, no response.
"Okay, let's see… McKay."
Alexander laughed. "One of two people I loved to torment as a kid."
"The other being Radek."
Alexander was surprised. "How did you know?"
"Wild guess," John responded.
"I was Dennis the Menace to them between the ages of six and fourteen."
John chuckled quietly as he could imagine the two scientists being annoyed beyond tolerance by a little kid's antics. "And your parents?"
Alexander was silent to this for a while as he tried to recall some of the happier memories. "Busy."
"What?"
"My parents were very busy people." Alexander leaned back in his chair. There was neither overwhelming warmth nor chilling coldness in his voice, but rather, a form of neutrality.
"Not the kind of answer I honestly expected to hear," John said of this.
"They were great parents. They tried, both of them. I know my mom mentioned how dad even went on suicide missions less after I was born. There was even a time when she joked to him that he was spoiling me rotten." He said with a small smile. "But…" he pressed his lips and glanced down at his joined hands. "The priorities of the city took much of their time," he added and looked back at John. The older man took this with a hint of disappointment like Alexander hoped he might as he was only telling the truth. "So, to compensate for that, I was all over the city, exploring it. Also, Ronon was a great babysitter," he chuckled briefly. "Very cool guy, taught me a lot of things."
John nodded slowly as he listened to him. The thought of not spending enough time with his child was somewhat deflating to him.
"Which I guess was a good preparation when a kid of his own came into the picture. Though, his turned out to be a girl."
"Ronon had a daughter?"
"Uh-huh. Serena, one of my best friends," his voice showed clear sadness to this. "Great fighter. Just like her parents. Kicked my ass in practice quite a lot of times, actually." He scratched his cheek where a two-day old beard was visible. "Which reminds me, where is Ronon?"
John lifted an eyebrow at this. "So much for not interacting with many people."
"They won't know," Alexander replied.
"Not now anyway." John looked at the almost empty tray. "Not gonna eat that?" he asked about the Jell-o.
"Oh, ah… no."
"You have to!" John said, almost defensively.
Seeing the eagerness in his father's request, Alexander decided to give it a try. After he did, he simply put the spoon down. "It's okay, though not as good as the Serpent's Tail."
John grimaced to this. "Future's looking 'brighter' already."
Alexander walked over to the window that overlooked the quiet ocean. He didn't bother to turn on the lights again. As soon as John had left, Alexander turned them off. He was tired, exhausted, not remembering the last time his body had any proper sleep that had lasted more than two hours. It had been so quiet here in this time even despite the usual noises of a busy city. These were still the innocent times for Atlantis, and he would have been lying to himself if he hadn't entertained the thought of remaining here a while longer. But it was only a brief thought. This was not his time, these were not the people he knew… this was not his Atlantis. With a sigh as heavy as a stone, he came to the bed and sat down. He gathered his hands and touched his lips with his thumb. He could have embraced Elizabeth and then John, told them he was sorry for things they didn't yet know, and tell them how much he had missed them. He wanted to at one point. A roughly swallowed lump in his throat was pushed further down like a spiked stone, feeling jagged to his insides. All of this felt so very confusing for his already messed up mind.
His mother's last defenses against the poison were shattered so easily when she heard of his death. She could have held on for a few more days, but the news made that impossible. Her husband's dose had been higher than hers, but she suffered no less painfully than he did. It had been her heart which was hit more than anything, and she unwillingly gave in.
Alexander opened his palm and stared at it in the barely visible light from the outside. A hand with darker skin rested on his once upon a time. He was not sure then if the reason she had done so had been her desire to search for something more with him and from him. Sure, he was the type of guy who stole many glances from the girls and even a few hearts, but no one understood him like she did. She smiled tamely at Alexander and pulled him gently forward with her to lead him to their secret place – one they knew and went to since they were children; and she always had such a beautiful smile, so radiant.
He was never granted the chance to see the answer… the attack was shortly after.
Closing his palm into a tight fist, he pressed it against his closed eyelids. He wanted to cry, his emotions demanded it, but he couldn't. The tears were there but he had lost the ability to release them. You could never tell the true presence of emotion in his eyes, which had grown cold in those last few months. What little innocence he had known in this galaxy had disappeared. He could manipulate his voice, the way his eyes moved, his lips trembled, his facial expressions – he could do all that to fool others; but when it came to showing his true feelings… they remained behind those safely guarded and closed doors. The last person to see them had been Serena… when the breath of life had still been inside her.
Alexander then fell on the bed, giving in to his body's need for sleep. He truly was exhausted. It would all be over very soon.
"Can I interrupt?" John walked inside her office, carrying two cups of hot coffee.
Looking up, Elizabeth had a relieved smile on her face. "Yes, please." She took the cup and breathed in the sweet aroma. "Mmm…" she took in a sip and smiled pleasantly. "Interrupt anytime," she then said as he sat down on the chair opposite hers.
"I have to say that I don't envy all this paper work of yours," he said and took a sip from his own cup.
She chuckled quietly before rubbing her temple softly. "Sometimes I think it would have been easier if they had someone else in charge to deal with all this and I was only here like a good old politician, standing aside, do the necessary negotiations from time to time…."
"Then again, no one could do this better than you," he told her and received a glare. John chuckled.
"How's our visitor?" she then asked.
"Sleeping by now, I guess," he replied. "Apparently there won't be any blue Jell-o in the future."
Elizabeth placed the cup down and leaned forward. "Well, Rodney won't be too happy about that." She saw him nod. "What did it feel like?" she then asked most quietly. "Spending time with him…"
"Something which still needs more time adjusting to… not that we'll have it."
"How come?"
John licked his lips, feeling somewhat uncomfortable to reveal the right reason. "He said he'd be 'leaving' in about three days."
"Oh, he'll be going back? Or forward…whichever."
"Yeah," he replied and took a sip. "I'm trying to pick which one is weirder…that he's from the future or…" he paused.
"Our son?" she guessed, putting emphasis on the first word.
He looked back at her in longer silence. Whether they felt something more for each other or didn't, neither have admitted anything to the other so far. "Or that."
"What did you talk about?"
"Not much; he didn't want to reveal most of what's ahead."
"Understandable."
He continued telling her of their conversations. Elizabeth's response to most of it was similar to John's from earlier. "Not what I expected to hear, to be honest."
"Same as me."
"I'll have a talk with him tomorrow," she said.
"A good idea," he responded. Very little conversation took place the rest of the evening.
As far as he could tell, Alexander had slept for a very long time. It felt good for his tortured body, but incredibly time-consuming for his mind. He stepped inside the Jumper, curious to see what they had looked like before, but he wasn't alone. "There you are!" he heard his mother's voice.
Turning around he saw a young boy, joined by his mother. "I thought you had enough flying for today," she told him.
Little Alexander shook his head. "Dad promised me he'd take me on the Jumper again!"
"Did he now?" She raised her eyebrows playfully before tapping her radio. "Colonel, this is Weir."
"Yes, Elizabeth?"
"What's this I hear of you taking Alex on a Jumper ride again?"
"Y-eah, I sort of promised him that," John replied on the other side.
"As I remember, he had a chemistry lesson today," she reminded him and heard a chuckle.
"Trust me, I think Dr. Mamonovsks wouldn't mind if he skipped one class," John said.
"I would," Elizabeth said.
"Aw come on, Elizabeth, he's eager to learn this stuff. Besides, didn't I back away last time?"
He was right. "You'll spoil him."
"So you tell me every week."
She smirked. "Okay, Alex, but next time let me know early, alright?"
Alexander nodded. "I will, mom."
"Good," Elizabeth smiled and kissed his cheek.
Those same, but younger eyes emerged from the mist of memories when she stepped inside the Jumper. "I somehow had a feeling I'd find you here," she told him.
Alexander shrugged and turned to the controls. "I wanted to see how these older models flew." He looked over shoulder. "Would you like to join me?"
"I think I would." Elizabeth walked over to the seat and sat down next to her son. "How-"
"The colonel gave me permission."
"The colonel isn't the one in charge here," she reminded him. He looked back at her, his gaze so much like her own. She nodded to the side. "Alright, feel free," she told him.
With only a simple touch, he activated the machine. "Huh, this one takes longer to get it started."
"Quite a few modifications have been made since?" she asked him.
"Yes, at least I recognize most of the controls here," Alexander said before flying the Jumper away from the city.
"What? That was not my fault!" Alexander protested to his mother's words.
"You were in there just before the explosion happened."
"Yes, but I didn't cause it!"
"Alex…" she called firmly to him, her arms crossed. His father stood next to the chair by the wall, almost invisible.
"This caused serious damage."
"I know that, but it was not my fault, how many times do I have to repeat that?"
"Who was it then?" she asked.
"I don't know!"
"Now that doesn't look too good, does it?"
Angry, the young fourteen year-old stormed out of the living room and went inside his own. "Alex!" he heard her call before the door closed by itself. He picked up his basketball and started dribbling. Not long after the door opened again. He saw his father come inside. "Another lecture?" Alexander murmured.
"No, just to talk," John said. The boy avoided his gaze. "Look, your mom has had a lousy day today and then the accident happened. You'll have to forgive her for being a little angrier with you than usual."
"I thought we looked at all the facts before jumping to conclusions," Alexander said.
"She did, and so far they point at you."
"That's bullshit," Alexander said.
"Hey, watch the swearing," John warned him.
Alexander shook his head and concentrated at the ball in his hands. "It wasn't me."
"Weren't Harry and Steve playing with you?"
"Yeah."
"You think it might have been one of them?"
Alexander shrugged, seemingly uninterested.
"Alex, you're not helping."
"Neither are you and mom."
"You know, you should tone this complaining of yours down a bit. You're very lucky no one was hurt in that explosion, especially you."
"What would you care, it's not like you're around enough," the boy spat at him.
His words didn't sit well with his father. "Okay, until this mess is cleared, you're grounded."
Alexander wasn't happy with this. "Grounded?"
"Yes," his father sounded decisive.
"Fine, punish me for something I didn't do!" He said and hit the ball against the floor so hard that its bounce almost reached the ceiling.
It was later revealed that it had been Harry's recklessness which had caused the explosion.
"Hey, how's our patient doing?" John asked when Carson came to the patient's bed, where a young woman with light green complexion and red lips lay on.
"She's recovering quite well," the doctor replied.
"Good. We got her out of that wreckage just in time." Putting his hands in his pockets, he then asked, "How is Alexander's health?"
"It was excellent when I examined him," Carson replied. "Concerned?"
"Yeah, somewhat," John said. It was actually his state of mind that was more worrying than Alexander's physical health.
Being in orbit where the Jumper was still, Alexander took in the view of this healthy planet. Elizabeth observed this, but she could not tell what he might have felt during this time. He showed so little emotion since his arrival, and it was somewhat worrisome.
"When was the last time you flew one?" she asked him.
"Eight months ago during a battle. Saved dad's Jumper twice then," he said and chuckled.
There was some pride in the way he said that. "John told me what you two talked about yesterday."
Alexander didn't say anything, looking absently at the planet's surface instead.
"And among other things that… maybe we… they weren't the kind of parents you…"
"You had a city to run, policies to keep, people you were responsible for; I understood that. Sometimes it wasn't that good but you tried to be good parents…" he turned to her. "And you were. Or, you will be, at least," his gaze returned to the darker space. Their deaths caused his former, warmer personality to crumble and make room for something colder, more distant.
"I'm sorry, Alex," she said to him.
He gave a brief half-smile to this. His mother told him there was nothing to apologize for on her death bed. Even his father tried to tell him the same. Truth be told, there wasn't anything to apologize for; he realized that from the moment they slit Carson's throat in front of his eyes. "There's nothing to be sorry about, Elizabeth," he told her. "But… some events and actions could be changed years from now."
"Maybe they could," she responded.
"The first time I was in one of those things was when I was six months old," he chose a slightly lighter subject. "I don't remember anything, but from what he told me, I seemed excited."
"I can imagine. Did you get the chance to visit Earth?"
"No."
Elizabeth was staggered of this. "Never?"
"No."
"W-why?"
Alexander only shook his head. Relations between Earth and Atlantis had become horrible from what he could remember. His parents were disappointed and sad that they could never show their former home to their son.
"Alex, I realize that –"
"As I said before," he looked back at her, "some things could change." After the silence he added, "There will be an attack by a renegade group of the Genii in winter on a Monday morning, and when that occurs, don't go near the gate room, no matter what you see or hear."
"Why?"
"Just…don't, please," he asked her more softly. He could not give her details of the events which unfolded that morning; he could not tell her how she was pregnant with her second child, how she was later wounded and suffered a miscarriage. It hadn't been so much the loss of a sibling which caused Alex to ask this of the present Elizabeth, but more the emotional side-effects it had on his mother – ones that only his father and he got to see behind closed doors, and ones that were agonizing to witness.
He waited for her to take his request seriously… and she did, shortly before they returned to the city once again.
"Had a good flight?" John asked her in the hallway before going to meet Alexander.
She confirmed wordlessly with only a nod. When he came to whispering distance, she added, "It worries me, John."
"What does?"
She tapped her index finger gently against her lower lip as she looked away. "Who he is, what he's been through…" Elizabeth let out a deep sigh. "It was a strange feeling… Still is, actually," she admitted. "I wish he could reveal more."
"Yeah…"
"I don't think he should be by himself as long as he's here," she said and looked back at him.
He understood her concern. "Don't worry," John assured her and rubbed her arm gently but discreetly.
When Elizabeth was left alone in the hallway, she crossed her arms and stood there for awhile. Alexander told her a few more things after she agreed to his earlier request. Between them he also mentioned how they should be more careful in the future about who they allow to remain in Atlantis. "Not everyone is as innocent as they seem," he told her.
As he and John later made their way down the hall to the gym, Alexander suddenly slowed down. A little boy with light hair ran down that corridor to an older man. "Dad! Dad!" the little boy shouted to his father who picked him up in his arms. The older man looked very much like John but in a grayer age. "There you are," he chuckled at his son's youthful enthusiasm.
"You'll never guess what Ronon showed me today!"
"As long as it's not him teaching you how to throw knives again," he said smilingly but threw a glare to the taller man who joined them.
"Noooo! He-he took me to see…" little Alexander took a deep breath, ".. the wild horses on Cavalria!"
John looked back at his friend. "In winter?"
"Hey, he kept nagging on me," Ronon responded. "And I would gladly spend another night in that cold with them instead of listening to one of his famous tantrums again, so I took him to Cavalria."
"Guess that's a good excuse. With his mother's permission, right?" After getting his friend's confirmation, John looked back at his son. "Had a good time?"
"Yeahhhh! The best!" the little boy laughed.
Alexander smiled at that memory. It truly had been a great day. Even his mother had taken a needed break that day to spend a good evening with her family.
"Alex?" John called him.
Alexander looked back at the man. "Yeah, I… some things come back," he replied.
Understanding this, John simply pointed to the opened doors of the gym. The introduction was brief, when Ronon asked who this young man was, John responded only with 'a friend'.
"Okay. Why are you here?"
"I've heard about you being a good fighter, so I wanted to ask for a sparring session."
He eyed the boy. "You're sure?"
"Yup."
Ronon shrugged. He threw two fighting sticks over to him. "Want me to take it easy on you?"
"That's not necessary."
Ronon looked back at John who simply shrugged to this. "Suit yourself." He allowed Alexander to attack and he did. Ronon didn't expect to be the one to find himself lying on the floor with a knife – one that Alexander managed to snatch from him - next to his throat in the end, however. "Wow, you're good."
Alexander smiled proudly. "I had a great teacher," he replied.
"I'll say," John commented, equally astonished.
Alexander offered his help to Ronon but he refused it. "Where's Teyla?" he asked him. The sticks were already on the floor, so he returned the knife to him.
"She's on the mainland… you wanna spar with her, too?" Ronon asked doubtfully and even slightly defensively.
Alexander smiled slightly to this. "No. It was good…meeting you," he said to him and then walked out of the gym.
Ronon looked back at John. "A friend?"
"Yeah, ah…long story," John said and hurried out. Ronon crossed his arms, puzzled of this young man. Who taught him that?
He asked to see the rest of the city by himself, but was not allowed to do so. Alexander wasn't accompanied by guards, but by either Elizabeth or John at his side instead. It was funny to him in a way – the amount of time he was spending with them now was so much more than what he experienced growing up. Passing by the lab, he asked about Rodney and Zelenka but was informed by the colonel that they were, unfortunately, off-world.
Close to the lab, that little boy ran out and almost collided with his father. The boy was six and very energetic. Chasing after him was Rodney, looking very displeased. "Thank you for finally showing up!" he said to John.
Worried, John picked up his son. He had returned from a mission only an hour earlier. "Sounded urgent, what happened?" he asked the scientist.
"That little destructive product of Nature happened," Rodney pointed at the boy.
Confused, John asked, "What did he do now?" He saw Rodney stepping aside which revealed four of the scientists being covered in some gooey red mass. It appeared hilarious, in fact. John tried very hard not to laugh at this.
"Even though this is all too funny to you, Colonel, it pushed our research back to four days," Rodney reminded him.
"They seem okay," John said.
"Just keep Dennis away from the lab," he warned Alexander's father.
"Give him a break, Rodney, he's six!"
Rodney tensed up to this. "And I fear to think what chaos he'll be capable of once puberty hits!" he said and rushed back to the lab.
John sighed and looked back at his son. His mother had been off-world to negotiate a peace treaty between two warring factions on another planet and Ronon had only recently returned with John's team. His son didn't get along very well with the psychiatrists or anyone else 'formally' assigned to keep an eye on him and the other children. So much for proper adult supervision. "Okay, you tormented McKay enough for today," John said to Alexander who was silent for this. When John turned to leave, he smiled and then whispered to the little boy, "great job with the red gooey thing."
Alexander giggled.
As they turned a corner, they met the young Athosian who was returning from her visit to the mainland. Alexander was speechless as he laid eyes on her. When she smiled at the colonel and then at him, greeted him and he still couldn't speak out a proper sentence. Those eyes, that smile, the grace of hers so ordinary but yet, beautiful in which she moved. It was only now that he truly saw how much of her mother Serena had inside her.
"Are you alright?" she asked him.
"Yeah, I'm sorry… you just, uh, reminded me of someone," he gave a quick excuse.
She smiled tamely to this. "I hope it was a good memory for you." She studied the two curiously. "I see… some resemblance here," she said of this. "Are the two of you related in some way?"
John smiled. "Ah, you could say that."
"Recent visitor?"
"Yes, but I won't be here long," Alexander's tone sounded light.
"Oh, then, I wish you a safe journey home… Alexander. Now, I must go and rest. I feel quite tired." She nodded at them before walking past Alexander. He remained there, staring briefly at the empty space. "Hey," John called him.
Alexander only glanced at him and continued walking. She was the first person to find out about the spy's motives, and sadly, died during an off-world mission in an ambush. No one really knew the reason for that ambush until Alexander heard the truth from that traitor's mouth. Not even Ronon received the chance to avenge Teyla's death when the invasion came. He met his own death too soon.
He decided to spend the remaining few hours that he had on this balcony where he spent the last happy memory with his parents; when they told him how proud they were of him; when he saw them smile and laugh for the last time. His hands gripped the railing as he closed his eyes. He tried to listen to the tame wind and the distant ocean waves, and the way they were painted with images and sounds of those two pairs of kind, caring eyes and the laughter. His father embraced him and joked how Alexander had gotten the better genes from his side. Alexander pushed himself off the railing and from those memories, and then glanced at his watch. It was time.
Arriving in the Infirmary, he saw Carson attending to a female patient, the one rescued by Sheppard's team the week before, the one he saw yesterday. "Who is she?" Alexander asked when he stopped next to the bed. She was asleep but recovering well.
"Well," Carson walked over to the table to get the needed medication, "she was –" and was violently startled by a gunshot noise behind him before he could give his answer. When he spun around, he saw Alexander with a fired gun in his hand pointed at the woman's forehead, his face cold; he probably didn't even flinch. The young man only looked back at the doctor and then took off.
Security was immediately called as he expected to happen. But he had an advantage with his knowledge of the city, helping him choose pathways and routes with which he evaded them successfully. The chase lasted for a few hours, and he tried to avoid hurting anyone. Then, he finally reached the south-eastern pier. This should be the correct place, if Rodney had been right. However, he hadn't expected to hear his father's displeased voice behind him.
"Care to tell us what that was about?"
When he looked back and saw only these two, he was even more surprised, but as usual, he didn't show it. Perhaps they had figured that he would put up less of a fight this way. "Something that could change the future for the better," he responded.
"By murdering her?" Elizabeth was more horrified by this.
"Yes. I should have gone with the drug Carson suggested but, stupid me lost it back home. So, I did the next best thing."
"Putting a bullet through her head," John said, his hand close to his weapon.
"I won't lie that there wasn't a hint of satisfaction to it. She didn't have the chance to fight back, just like they didn't," he spoke of his parents. He sounded disturbingly pleased by this.
"Why did you do this?" Elizabeth's voice became louder because of the waves. She never pictured her offspring a murder.
"That bitch brought nothing but lies and death." He pointed toward the towers whilst looking at the two people. "Her name was Kylenna. She was a spy sent by Drskonyans, who knew that she would be rescued and would then recover. They counted on what they called 'our weakness' – compassion. Looking back at it, they were right. It was a weakness."
"How c-" John tried to speak but he was sharply interrupted.
"She lived among us for those twenty years, feeding the Drskonyans with valuable information about us, Atlantis, everything! The war began with her poisoning my parents. Two months I watched them suffer horribly, every single day. We couldn't even grieve or give them a proper funeral because the invasion followed right after they died. They had the advantage of not only weapons but information because of what Kylenna gave them!" He saw his words struck these two people sharply and by now, he didn't give a damn. "She even fooled me, the whore! I had to witness people I cared for being tortured and then murdered viciously, suffering until their last breath!"
Both John and Elizabeth stood there, stunned by his words.
"At least my parents weren't alive to witness the slaughter."
"How do you know what you did will change all that?" John asked more cautiously.
"Because they counted on her recovery, but now, they might think differently. And you have the knowledge about them that you didn't before. You will find it on your desk," he said to Elizabeth. "Besides, it can't be any worse than it was before."
Before they could speak again, a rip appeared behind the young man where a small wormhole was visible. "I finished what I came here to do. Take care of yourselves… mom, dad," Alexander said before he jumped through the rip which closed right after. When it disappeared, it was only the calming waves which remained in their view.
Twenty-three years later
This time the ocean was just as peaceful; the sky had only those gentle white clouds and the shy sun. Alexander felt happy, he felt calm. He heard his father laugh. "They just won't leave the poor guy alone, will they?" he asked his wife about the Connor twins who kept bugging one of the scientists.
"Of which Rodney is very happy about," she replied.
When Alexander turned toward his parents, their gray hair and wrinkles visible, he smiled.
"So, where were you in this mess?" John asked his son.
"Me? Ah, well, watching with glee on the side, like a good Sheppard."
Elizabeth chuckled. "Really, Alex?"
"Okay, I might have made a snowball or two but-" Just then one big snowball hit him at the back of his neck. When they turned around, they saw a little boy with hazel eyes and light brown, curly hair laughing hysterically.
"Why you! Come here you little twerp!" Alexander rushed towards the door.
"Hey!" Elizabeth called to him. Alexander stopped to this. "Easy on your brother," she warned him gently.
With fingers crossed behind his back, Alexander replied, "I will."
"Hands up, Alex," his father knew him well enough.
When Alexander did so, he frowned. "I can't promise he won't end up in the Infirmary afterwards," he joked and rushed after his little brother.
Elizabeth looked back at her husband knowingly, her hands on her waist.
"What?" John asked innocently.
"I thought you told them no snowball fights inside," she said.
"I did, I did… but, you know, kids!" he shrugged.
Elizabeth chuckled and leaned against him. He kissed her lips and then her forehead.
"He challenged me to another race this morning," he said.
"Skateboards involved this time?"
"Yup."
Elizabeth had to laugh. "He never gets tired of it." She felt his head and shoulders move to this. "He beat you again, didn't he?" she guessed.
"He's just lucky that I'm not as young as I used to be."
Their peace was interrupted when a young woman burst in with excitement, dressed in warmer athosian clothing. "Have you seen Joe?" she asked about the little boy.
"Ah, I think he's running for his life from Alex," John casually replied. When she ran inside, he sighed. "Finally," he said and tightened his embrace around his wife's body. "Some peace and quiet."
"Yes, but for how long," Elizabeth said with a playful smile on her lips.
Children.
THE END
Author's note: Rodney didn't get Alexander's name wrong. Also, a special thank you to Jess. :-)