"Defense perimeter has been breached. Wraith armada inbound, ETA earth orbit one hour."
"Orbital Cannons in position. The Daedalus, the Odyssey, and the Orion holding in orbit."
"Ancient outpost powered, drones ready to fire."
"We have contact, Wraith armada is exiting hyperspace. Squadrons of Darts are being launched."
"F-302 squadrons launching."
"The enemy has been engaged."
"Odyssey has been destroyed and the Orion is severely damaged."
"All the remaining F-302s have expended their ordnance."
"The Ancient outpost has taken a direct hit."
"Enemy troops have landed."
Jerking awake Troy, heart pounding, bolted up right in bed. His body reacting before his mind could clear out the fogginess of sleep, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and reached under his pillow for the hand gun he kept there...only there was no gun. That confused Troy, he always had a hand gun under his pillow.
"Easy lad, it's alright. It was just a bad dream." The familiar accent registered in Troy's mind, as he felt hands brace his shoulders, keeping him from completely bolting off the bed.
"Carson?" It took a second for his mind to catch up and realize that he was in Atlantis in the past and not on earth during the Wraith attack.
Tension easing from his muscles Troy slouched back slightly, putting his right hand down to support him. He winced when pain shot up the arm. Lifting it back up he frowned in confusion at seeing his wrist wrapped with white gauze. His head felt foggy and for the life of him he couldn't remember how he'd gotten hurt. The last thing he remembered clearly was being on the balcony with his dad after that things got hazy, it was mostly just feelings; intense rage, anger, sorrow, and something about Marcus Antonius. Troy mentally shook his head, he didn't even want to know how that last part fit in.
"Troy?" The sound of his Carson's voice brought him out of his thoughts.
Looking up from his bandaged arm Troy looked first at Carson, then his mom who was standing next to Carson, "What happened?" He indicated his arm.
"What's the last thing you remember?" Elizabeth questioned, while Carson busied himself checking Troy's vitals.
"I was talking to dad, but after that everything gets fuzzy, kinda like I've been on a weekend long drinking binge with a bottle of Radek's hooch." Troy didn't miss the way his mom raised an eyebrow, a hint of disapproval in her eyes. He ignored the look he was a grown man and of legal age to drink. after all. "Mind filling me in on the rest?"
"Well it seems for whatever reason, you decided to destroy your quarters and in the process you managed to slash your wrist open on the mirror you smashed."
"And of course instead of seeking proper medical treatment you went to the gym. While there you literally beat the stuffings out of the punching bag, which lodged the piece of glass stuck in your wrist deeper into your arm." Carson added, obviously not pleased. "It was a close one, if Teyla hadn't been there you very well could have bled to death."
Thinking about it for a minute, it suddenly all came flooding back to Troy, everything that had happened. "Actually doc it was probably a good thing that I didn't come here after trashing my room. With the mood I was in I probably would have ended up trashing this place as well. And I'm pretty sure a punching bag is easier to replace then some of the stuff in here." He ran a hand through his hair, "When can I get our of here?"
Definitely his father's son, Carson thought as he let out a soft sigh, "Everything looks to be alright, so I suppose you can go now." You didn't have to be a rocket scientist to see that the man wasn't completely thrilled with the idea, but had no real legitimate reason to keep him there. "I'll go get your close."
Looking down it was then that Troy noticed that he was wearing scrubs, "How long have I been here?" He asked as Carson left.
"Since yesterday afternoon." Elizabeth answered as she moved to sit next to Troy on the bed. "We should talk."
"About what?" He didn't think there was anything to talk about. So he'd had one little freak out, it was no big deal.
"About what happened yesterday, about why you went on your little rampage." John had told her everything about his conversation with Troy the day before, but she wanted to hear her son's side of it.
"What's the point? It's done and over with. Besides I think everyone's entitled to a freak out every now and then."
Elizabeth was about to speak but paused, her eyes going slightly wide and her hand going to rest on her stomach. She was around five months pregnant now and it was beginning to show. The hand stayed in place for a moment before moving slightly to the left.
"What...what is it? Are you ok. should I get Carson?" Troy slid off the bed and was about to go after Carson when Elizabeth grabbed his uninjured arm, moving the hand to rest on her stomach where here hand had just been.
It wasn't long after that, that Troy's own eyes went wide. "Is that...?"
"Yeah, that's you moving around in there." Elizabeth couldn't keep her grin from growing at the wide eyed wonder on her son's face.
Troy suddenly jerked his hand back, realizing that yes that was him moving around in there. "Ok that was just weird, even for me."
Returning with Troy's clothes Carson was just in time to see the younger man jerk his hand away from Elizabeth's stomach. Setting the clothes on the bed he raised a questioning eyebrow towards Elizabeth.
"The baby moved," was her explanation.
"Finally?" Carson held a hand out stopping just short of her stomach, silently asking permission. Elizabeth nodded her head taking Carson's hand, placing it where she could feel the baby moving.
Using their moment of distraction Troy quickly grabbed his clothes from where Carson had laid them and high tailed it out of the infirmary. He didn't know where he was going to go - his balcony was out of the question, that would be the first place his mom went looking for him - but he had to get away from there, away from the conversation his mom had been trying to have with him.
After briefly ducking into a supply closet to change out of his scrubs, Troy just started walking letting his feet take him where ever they pleased. It was with only a small amount of surprise that he ended up in the Jumper Bay. He loved flying, especially the jumpers - it was one of the few things he and his dad had in common, although they'd never really done it together - so it only made sense that he would end up there.
Boarding one of the jumpers Troy sat in the pilots seat, he was tempted to take the jumper out for a flight but with out his PDA to hack into Atlantis' system, his departure would alert the control room, which was the last thing he wanted. So he just sat there and let his mind wander back over all the good memories he had of flying. He couldn't have been there more than twenty - thirty minutes before he heard someone else enter the jumper bay.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry. I know that doesn't mean a whole lot to you, but I am." Troy didn't look at his dad as the man boarded the jumper, stopping in the bulkhead doorway. "I'm sorry that I was such a lousy father to you, I'm sorry I treated you pretty much the exact same way my old man treated me."
Troy remained silent, absently fidgeting with the jumper controls. John was at a loss for what to do. When he'd been informed that Troy had taken off from the infirmary before Carson had 'officially' released him, John had just instinctively known to check the Jumper Bay. It was were he would have gone to try and think things through, to try and clear his head.
"Look Troy, I...I'm not good with the whole deep emotional thing, never had been. So could you help me out here, tell me what I have to say or do to set things right. Cause, you know I gotta tell you I'm flopping hear, I have no clue what to do."
Troy still remained silent, but had stopped fidgeting with the controls, that was something at least.
"Please say something, anything, I don't care what. Yell at me if you want...just...just say something, please."
There was a moment of silence before Troy lifted his head up, "It wasn't entirely your fault." He finally whispered.
"What?"
This time Troy actually turned to look at his dad. "It wasn't...this rift between us...it wasn't entirely your fault." He dropped his gaze again. "You're not the only one who gave up. After a while I...I just got so fed up with having to work my ass off for every tiny scrap of attention I got from you that I just stopped trying. I left you to your grief and pain, the way you left me to mine."
"So what do we do now? How do we fix this?" John moved to sit in the co-pilot's seat.
"I don't think there is anything that we can do. It's too late for us." Troy paused at the crestfallen look on his dad's face."But just because there's nothing you can to do fix things between you and me doesn't mean you can't fix things between you and him."
John didn't need to ask who 'him' was...him...the baby currently growing inside of Elizabeth, the baby that would grow up to be the young man in front of him...and yet not at the same time.
Taking the words for what they were - a truce - John gave a slight nod, turning to the controls in front of him. "What'd ya say we take this thing out for a flight? I hear Rodney's the one who taught you how to fly." He couldn't help the small sarcastic smirk.
"Hey, lay off the man. He's not that bad of a pilot...once you get past the whole flying in a straight line thing." Troy also turned to the controls, starting to run through the pre-flight checks.
Before long the two were soaring through the sky headed for a low orbit around the planet and John had to admit the kid was a pretty dang good pilot...who knew Rodney had it in him to be a good flight instructor?
The next day everything was set and ready to send Troy back to his time period. Standing in the gate room staring into the faces of his family Troy wasn't sure how to say goodbye and by the looks of it neither did they.
It was Teyla who finally made the first move, placing her hands on his shoulders and bowing her head, " May the Ancestors always watch over you."
"And they you." Troy returned the gesture touching his forehead to hers.
Ronon was next, he didn't say anything just held out his hand, which Troy gladly took. Neither man needed to say anything, they both knew that in away this wasn't goodbye, just a 'til next time.
After Ronon came Carson, "Take care of yourself lad."
"You too Carson." He hugged the man. Next he turned to Rodney, giving the man a hug as well. "Don't let my dad give you a hard time about flying. You're just as good as him, you just have to have confidence in your abilities." Troy whispered into his surrogate dad's ear.
When his mom hugged him, Troy actually feared the woman might break one of his ribs. Pulling back he placed a hand on her stomach, still feeling a bit weird about the fact that he could feel himself moving around in there - but then again it could have been worse, he could have been around after the kid was born and need a diaper change; that would have been too much. "Stop worrying about everyone else so much, they're big kids, they can look after themselves. You need to take better care of yourself more often."
She didn't bother to ask him to clarify, she'd given up on trying to get details like that from him. "I would tell you to keep out of trouble, but it wouldn't do any good." She smiled, "Because whether you like it or not, you are your father's son."
Normally Troy would have bristled at such a comment, but after the last few days he had to admit that, yeah maybe he was a little bit like his dad. Speaking of which he turned to said man holding out his hand; they weren't quite to the hugging stage. "Don't screw up, you might not get a third chance."
"Not planing on it." John returned the hand shake, then stepped back a step and saluted his son. Troy immediately returned the salute. In that moment something passed between the two men - an understanding of some sort. With a final glance over his shoulder, Troy turned and walked through the rippling gate.
A/N: Ok only one maybe two more chapters left (I have two possible epilogue ideas bouncing around in my head and might write them both out).