Author's Note: Well, so far I haven't hit writer's block again - chapter four is all written and ready for my edit before being sent to my wonderful beta and I've even got a start on chapter five. Here's hoping that I don't get stuck again before the end. :)
Much thanks to Sally for the beta, and for being the one who prodded me into writing again. :)
Thanks also to everyone who has reviewed! I'm terrible at answering individual reviews, but I want you to know that I really appreciate the feedback, and am so exicted when I check my email and find another review waiting!
Spoiler warnings and disclaimers in the previous chapters
Once they were inside the house, Elizabeth quietly asked for the restroom, wanting to use the facilities and freshen up a little bit after her drive. Kathy directed her down the hall to the half-bath, then turned to John and gave him an assessing look.
"Did you find the cemetery okay?" she asked as they headed into the kitchen.
Eric looked up from where he was arranging lunch meats on a tray, obviously interested in the conversation as well.
John nodded. "The directions were fine." He didn't say anything else for a moment, and Kathy and Eric kept quiet, moving about the kitchen getting things ready for lunch while they waited for him to speak.
He sighed. "I talked to him," he said. "It helped. Got some things off my chest."
Kathy nodded. "I do that, too. I like to think he's there, and that he can hear what I'm saying, even if he can't respond."
"Yeah." John grinned, then. "I saw Hanna's drawing."
Kathy smiled back. "She likes to leave a new one every time we go. And she insisted on putting you into them as soon as I told her about you."
"She's a great kid," John said. He nodded to Eric. "You're going to have trouble with her when she gets older."
Eric rolled his eyes. "Tell me about it. I'm already thinking about finding an all girls high school."
Kathy punched his arm lightly before reaching down and taking his hand. "You will do no such thing."
Smiling at their byplay, John said, "She looks like Mom."
Still holding her husband's hand, Kathy turned to her brother. "She does. I have some pictures of Mom when she was a kid, and she and Hanna could almost be twins. I'll show them to you later, if you want."
"I'd like that," John replied, although he wasn't entirely certain he would. He was only just coming to terms with his sister and his father; he wasn't sure he wanted to bring too much focus onto his mother just yet.
"Okay," Kathy said. Then she handed him a stack of plates, and a few glasses and picked up the rest of the glasses and a pitcher of something and gestured for him to follow her to the dining room.
Elizabeth followed the sounds of voices – grown up, voices, that was, since she could hear the kids upstairs arguing as they washed up in their bathroom – back to the kitchen. When she got there, neither Kathy nor John was in the room. Instead she found a tall man standing by the counter, slicing up carrot and celery sticks and arranging them on a plate.
She cleared her throat, and he turned to look at her.
"Hi," she said.
He wiped his hands on a towel and stretched out his right one. "Hi! I'm Eric Mayrand, Kathy's husband. You must be Elizabeth."
Elizabeth shook his hand. "Elizabeth Weir," she replied.
"Weir?" Kathy said from behind her. Elizabeth turned and saw her standing with John in the doorway.
Kathy turned a quizzical look to John. "Weir?" she repeated. "As in Dr. Weir? The one who you said is in charge of everything?"
"Uh, yeah," John said, and from his expression Elizabeth knew he trying to think back on what he'd written in his letters. She knew he hadn't mentioned her first name; he'd confessed that it was force of habit to refer to everyone by last name in writing. But he surely hadn't written anything that would warrant Kathy's sly smile upon finding out that Dr. Weir and Elizabeth were one and the same.
Elizabeth smiled a diplomat's smile, the one she used when she wasn't entirely sure if a situation had shifted in her favor or against her. Before she could say anything, however, Kathy spoke up again.
"John's written a lot about you."
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at the man in question. "Good things, I hope."
"Oh, yes." And there was that worrying smile again, the one Kathy had worn when she greeted them at the front door, the one that made Elizabeth swallow nervously in anticipation of the conversation ahead of her.
At that moment, Hanna and David came crashing into the kitchen, where Kathy loaded them each up with a plate of food to carry. Everyone else grabbed something as well, even Elizabeth, who insisted on helping, and they all moved into the dining room to eat.
Conversation at lunch was light. Once Kathy realized John hadn't bothered to properly introduce her children to Elizabeth, she remedied the situation, and Elizabeth delighted both children when she told them things about themselves, things she'd gleaned from what John had shared of Kathy's letters.
Elizabeth learned that Kathy had her degree in microbiology and worked for a small pharmaceutical company, while Eric worked in computers. Kathy asked a few questions about what she and John did, and Elizabeth told her that she headed up an international research group. She could tell that Kathy wanted to know more, especially about why the group required the presence of military personnel like John. Eric was quieter on the subject, and when Elizabeth learned that his father had been military, she realized that he probably had a better understanding of classified projects than his wife did.
After lunch, the kids immediately latched onto John, reminding him of his promise to play aliens with them. He shot an apologetic look over his shoulder at Elizabeth as they dragged him off, leaving her alone with his sister while Eric started washing the dishes in the kitchen.
"Is there something I can do to help?" Elizabeth asked as she brought in the last plate from the table.
Eric shook his head, as Kathy replied, "No. My husband is a sick, sick man who actually enjoys washing dishes. Why don't you join me for some coffee on the back porch and we can watch the kids torture my brother while we talk?"
Elizabeth had issued enough orders phrased like questions to recognize one when she heard it, and she sighed, accepting that it was her fate to be questioned by John's sister.
"So," Kathy said once they were comfortably seated on two cushioned lawn chairs. "John hasn't said, exactly, but I get the feeling your project takes you pretty far from home."
"Yes, it does," Elizabeth replied, thinking of the inconceivable number of light years that separated them from Atlantis.
"It must have been difficult to leave behind all your friends, family, boyfriend..." Kathy trailed off.
Elizabeth had to grin. Kathy clearly had only a passing acquaintance with subtlety. "It was," she said, knowing her response would only pique Kathy's curiosity.
Kathy's narrowed eyes suggested that she knew Elizabeth was deliberately teasing her. She turned her attention out to the yard for a moment, watching John enact a horribly exaggerated death scene as her children "killed" the "alien."
"All right," she said, smiling in defeat. "I'll just come right out and say it. I want to know how things are between you and John. What you are to each other. Because from the way he talks about you in his letters, I can't figure it out. And maybe I'm being nosy, but I've missed twenty years of big sisterly bugging, so I figure I've got a lot to catch up on."
What she and John were to each other? How could Elizabeth answer that question when she wasn't sure herself?
She took a moment to think about her answer before replying, "He's my right hand."
Kathy took a sip from the mug cradled in her hands. "Do you mean that professionally or personally?"
Settling back in her chair, Elizabeth raised her own mug to her lips. "Both, I suppose." She wasn't entirely comfortable with the personal nature of these questions, especially since she'd only met the woman a few hours before. But Elizabeth knew that Kathy wasn't simply prying. All joking about sisterly bugging aside, the other woman was trying to get to know her brother after twenty years of silence, and Elizabeth knew just how unforthcoming John could be.
Kathy seemed to accept her response, but Elizabeth could tell she wanted to ask more. Balancing her coffee mug on her knee, John's sister glanced back out into the yard where her children were playing with their uncle. She licked her lips in a move so reminiscent of John that Elizabeth had to smile. "Is he... does he... I want to know if he's happy, Elizabeth. I don't know what, if anything, he's told you about our past, our mother..."
"He's told me some. About her death, if that's what you're asking."
Kathy nodded. "After she died, he changed. He used to be so outgoing and open and funny. And he still seems to be, but I feel like he's holding part of himself back from me. He talks about her a little, and about our father, but I don't feel like he's really sharing everything."
Elizabeth put down her coffee and leaned forward, elbows on knees, looking directly at Kathy. "I think he's working towards happy, Kathy." She hoped he was, and that all the times they'd spent drinking coffee on the balcony or talking as they walked around the city, he'd really enjoyed himself and hadn't been showing her another façade.
Staring blindly at the railing of the back porch, Elizabeth let her thoughts drift back to the first time the Wraith had truly threatened Atlantis. "Some time ago, we were put into a dangerous situation, and in the middle of it we had our first chance to contact home. I asked John if he wanted to send a message, and he had the most haunted look in his eyes when he told me no. He was my closest friend for nearly two years before he told me anything about his family. He's opened up so much just in the time he's been writing to you. I don't see that look anymore."
"I was surprised when he sent me that letter," Kathy said. "I didn't know he knew where I was. I suppose it's a good thing I kept my maiden name, or he might not have been able to find me. I'm glad he did, though."
"I am, too," Elizabeth said. "When we were in that dangerous situation, we lost one of our people, a young man. I can't help but think that it was telling this man's family about him that somehow spurred John to contact you. And I'm very grateful that you wrote him back. Your letters have done him a world of good."
"So have you," Kathy said, quirking an eyebrow. "He really admires you, you know. I can tell that much from his letters. Whether he's angry with you or telling jokes when he writes, he really does admire you underneath it all."
Elizabeth felt herself blushing, and couldn't help but smile over at John and the kids. He looked up from where he was swinging a laughing Hanna around in a circle and grinned at her when he caught her eye. He gave Hanna one final swing and plunked her on her feet, jogging across the grass to Elizabeth and Kathy.
"Hey, 'Lizabeth, guess what Hanna told me!" he said excitedly.
"What?" she asked, caught by the happiness in his eyes.
"Apparently there's this great ice cream place a few blocks over, and they have..." he trailed off, obviously enjoying prolonging the suspense.
Elizabeth refused to give him the satisfaction, instead just looking at him calmly and waiting for him to finish.
His face fell slightly, but he was soon grinning again. "Extreme Moose Tracks! If I remember, you said that's your favorite."
It was, and Elizabeth was both amazed and pleased that he'd remembered. She shouldn't have been, she realized. Hadn't she already known that John had a tendency to be surprisingly sweet when she least expected it? Her mind drifted to the birthday jar that still sat in her office on Atlantis.
"Well, I'll have to get directions there and stop in on my way to the hotel. I won't have time to drive back down to Colorado tonight."
"Oh." He sounded disappointed. "I was thinking we could maybe go there now. If Hanna and David are allowed to have ice cream right now..." he glanced over at Kathy, a question in his voice.
She narrowed her eyes at her brother. "I guess I can make an exception, since it is kind of a special occasion," she said. "And, Elizabeth, you certainly don't have to stay in a hotel. Hanna can sleep on the trundle in David's room, and you can have her room, if you don't mind unicorns and baseball stuff."
Elizabeth was startled – she hadn't been surprised that Kathy wanted John to stay at the house, but she wasn't family. "Oh no, I couldn't put you out."
Kathy waved her hand, making a "pssh" sound. "Please. Anyway, if you don't stay, the guys will outnumber the girls, and we can't have that." She turned to John. "How long can you stay for, anyway?"
In turn, John looked at Elizabeth, who answered for him. "Colonel Caldwell said it would be another three or four days until they finished inspecting our, uh, transport, and then we'd have another day to get everything loaded up. He's supposed to call me when you need to head back."
"Perfect," Kathy said. "You can both stay here until he calls." Seeing that Elizabeth was about to protest, she held up a finger. "No arguments."
She stood and gathered up her mug and Elizabeth's. "John, I'm going to go get Eric. Would you get the kids inside? Elizabeth, you might have to move your car out of the driveway. You can park it behind John's on the street. If we're all going, we'll have to take the minivan."
Before she turned to follow Kathy inside, Elizabeth thought she saw John blanch and mouth the word "minivan," his pilot attitude clearly threatened by this symbol of suburban life. She couldn't help but laugh as she stepped through the door.
Behind her John called out, "Guys! Ice cream!" and the sound of children's excited shrieks followed her into the house.
