A Glimpse into the Future
By Major Dork
Summary: He went to bed in his own room alone, he woke up with a wife, three kids… and a screwed up future.
A/N: There's some mention of the episode "Sanctuary" in this chapter at the end, I know every Weir/Sheppard shipper hated that story… but I just couldn't resist yet another twist. :D
Part Three "The Way We Weren't"
The disk had been kept under his bed collecting dust, the title so strange from normal home videos. "The Way We Were." He remembered the song, but he doubted that's what this video was about. After putting it in the laptop, the Ancient computer quickly brought up the holographic image.
He could see her, her face, smiling as if she didn't have a care in the world. Suddenly the camera moved back and he saw himself holding Elizabeth. He was sitting against a tree, probably on the mainland, with Elizabeth in between his legs, his arms wrapped around her as they relaxed. The John on the camera laughed, shaking his head. "Rodney what are you doing?"
"Capturing a memory! Years from now we'll watch this and think about the good old days, you know, before we got all old and boring."
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at him. "You want to see a memory, huh? I'll give you a memory," she told Rodney mischievously then turned in John's arms and gave him a kiss that would have knocked any man's socks off. The John on the DVD raised both eyebrows in surprise, but wasn't about to stop it from the look of things.
"Oh come on guys! Guys! I'm trying to make a memory here, not candid home sex tapes!"
John finally broke the kiss and grinned. "I dunno Rodney, I'm sure me and Mrs. Sheppard over here could find a few uses for that little memory."
"I can't HEAR you!"
Elizabeth laughed at the two, moving off John before she walked up to the camera, taking it from Rodney. Suddenly the camera was focused on a boy and girl, Jason and Anika, running around in the fields with a toddler, Noah, trying to chase after them.
Sheppard laughed at the video, watching as Noah burst into tears. His future self quickly ran for his son, picking him up and trying to settle him down. He kissed the toddler's forehead, rocking him gently.
"It's okay, kiddo… Daddy's here," John whispered on the tape, holding Noah close. Sheppard's smile faded as Noah held his tight to his father, relaxing in his future self's arms.
"Dad?"
John turned to see Anika standing at the door, rubbing her eyes, obviously just waking up. It was rather late. John hadn't gone back to his quarters for hours after his talk with Jason. "Anika," John greeted, pausing the video and getting up.
His daughter smiled, amused.
"What?"
"Nothing… it's just… the only time you call me Anika is when I'm in trouble."
"Ah." John stood before her awkward, trying to think of what to say. "Then what do I usually call you?"
"Ani… almost everyone calls me Ani."
"Ani… right. Nice to meet you Ani," he said with a smile.
His daughter's smile grew. "This is pretty weird isn't it?"
"Uh yeah… I can definitely say this is one of the weirdest experiences of my life… that's including life sucking aliens and pretty much everything else you could imagine."
"Yeah well, I can imagine quite a bit." Ani walked over to him, her eyes moving from him to the frozen imagine of him holding a young Noah Sheppard. "I remember that day. We went on a picnic on the mainland. Rodney and Ian came with us."
"I saw it in some box under my bed… thought I should check it out."
"It's one of your favorite videos. Sometimes you watch it at night when you think no ones around… to remind yourself of the good old days I guess," she explained with a sad smile.
John frowned. "I talked with Jason today."
Anika sighed, a worried expression on her face that could have only come from her mother. "He told me."
"You and him must be pretty close," John observed.
"Since you and mom split he's kinda felt that it's up to him to take care of me and Noah. You were messed up bad by what happened, and Mom… well; she's not doing all that hot either. He doesn't worry so much about me anymore though… but Noah… he's taken it the hardest."
Sheppard almost winced at the thought, not sure he wanted to know just how hard it was on his youngest son. John slowly sat down on his bed, moving his head in his hands. "I'm a bad father… aren't I?"
He felt the bed dip as Anika sat beside him. "Never."
When he looked up and into her eyes, he knew she was telling the truth. "Jason said I didn't fight for her… that I just let Elizabeth go. Why would I do that?"
"Because you thought she didn't love you anymore… that you'd lost her and it was over, seeing her kiss Simon was kinda the nail in the coffin. She said things… things that really upset you."
"And was I right, about those things I believed?" he asked, his voice wavering a bit.
There was a long pause, and John was sure he knew the answer to her question, when suddenly she spoke. "No. It's always been you, Dad. Always." Anika moved off the bed and took control of the laptop, freezing it to an image of Elizabeth staring at John while he cared for Noah. Rodney had obviously gotten his camera back. Sheppard was surprised to see the love that literally shown from her eyes, a love so strong it was hard NOT to miss. "I won't say Mom doesn't love Simon, because she does. And as much as I'd like to, I don't hate Simon… he's not a bad guy. He really cares about mom. But I will say this… THAT kind of love never dies. All you have to do is open your eyes and look for it." Finally Anika walked back over to John, moving his head so that he'd meet her gaze. "Mom said you were sent here to correct a mistake that could ruin your life. Elizabeth Sheppard IS your life, Dad. We all could see it. Even when I didn't want to think about it, I knew you two had passion… the kind you read in Shakespeare. That's something Simon will NEVER have with Mom."
John nodded, smiling at his daughter. "You are so much like your mother… just as beautiful and just as wise."
Anika grinned back at him. "Funny, that's exactly what my boyfriend said," she told him, turning and walking back to her room.
"Boyfriend! What boyfriend!" John called just as Anika got to her door.
"Good night, Dad," she called out just as she walked inside.
John frowned.
He'd tried to sleep, he really did try, but he hadn't been able to. There was so much he needed to know, needed to understand, and he knew the only way he'd get what he needed is if he spoke with Elizabeth Sheppard. He knocked once more, knowing he was probably waking her up, but didn't really care. Finally the door opened, but Elizabeth was NOT at the door.
"John, what the hell are you doing here?" a tired looking older man asked.
John frowned, guessing who the man before him was. "You're Simon… right?"
The man sighed, rubbing his face. "Right… Elizabeth told me what happened. What do you want?"
"I need to speak with Elizabeth, it's important."
"Well obviously so if you're here at two o'clock in the morning banging on her door," he muttered in annoyance. "Hold on a sec."
John nodded as the door closed once Simon walked away. Less than a minute later, Elizabeth walked to the door wearing silky red pants and a tight spaghetti strap shirt to match. John was silenced by how beautiful she looked, surprised by the depth of feeling that came over him at the sight of her, looking so tired… so hot. "John? What's wrong?"
John looked her up and down, not sure how to take these new feelings. It seemed like they came from nowhere… and yet… he'd always thought she was beautiful, but had respected her too much to do anything or say anything about it. When they'd started to become friends, he'd know he could never do anything to ruin that relationship, she had been too important to him.
"John? Hello! John!"
John snapped out of his daze, shaking his head to clear the cobwebs. "Uhhh right… sorry, I just… ahem… you're beautiful." He hadn't meant to say that. He REALLY hadn't meant to say that. John sighed, mentally kicking himself. "I mean… I just…" John stuttered. Finally he ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. Elizabeth was looking back at him with a mixture of uneasiness and embarrassment. "Look, I need to know what happened between us, because I can't figure out how we can go from being as close as we've been in my timeline to this! You act like you hate my for pete's sake!"
"John… I don't hate you," she whispered, a sad look on her face.
"Well it sure seems like it, and frankly I don't get why. What happened?"
"What does it matter?" she asked, avoiding the subject, her uneasiness growing.
"It matters because it may be the reason why I'm here! I need to know what happened… because I need to know how to make things right, how to make US right," he told her, deciding that she needed to know the truth.
"I'm getting MARRIED, John. That man you saw before is the man I'm going to marry. There is no US, John, not anymore!"
John glared at her, frustrated by her resistance. He'd know it was coming, but it was still driving him nuts. "Rodney said it plain and clear that the reason I'm here is to correct a mistake that may in fact ruin my life! I think it's pretty obvious that the way things are… it's only gonna get worse. I can see how my life is now… and I've seen my life before… I lost something when we split up… something important."
"John, if you were really here to fix things between us, then why here? Why now? Don't you think if it was us splitting up that was the mistake that it would take you to a time before we split?"
John paused, unsure of how to respond. She had a point. "I don't know, I don't know why I'm here instead of there… if I could change what happened I would… whatever it was. The thing is I can't… but I'm here now. I don't want to be the Sheppard you know now… the man you hated, the guy whose kids barely respected him. I don't want to be that man. Obviously somewhere along the way in our lives… you became one of the most important things in my life… and when I gave that up… I lost myself."
Elizabeth wiped a tear from her eyes, trying to hold back. "If I had really been one of the most important things in your life, we wouldn't be standing here having this conversation. You want to know what happened? Fine, I'll tell you what happened… after almost FIFTEEN YEARS of marriage I find you kissing another woman. THAT is what happened, THAT is why you lost me, and THAT is why there can NEVER be an US again," she shouted before turning around and closing the door before Sheppard could say another word.
John stood at the door frozen, shocked at what she'd just told him. Could what she'd just told him be true? Could he really have cheated on her? And with who? Why would he do that? Even Carrie had known he still loved Elizabeth, why would he make such a huge mistake! It didn't make any sense! Jason had said it hadn't really been his fault! John was more confused now than ever. He needed to talk with someone… anyone!
Colonel Sheppard knew only one place where he could find the truth. Out of anyone on Altantis, Elizabeth had always been good friends with Doctor Carson Beckett. They'd known each other long before they'd set camp in Atlantis, and although they hadn't been best friends per say, John knew if anything had gone wrong with him, Elizabeth would most likely lean on Carson Beckett. "Carson."
Beckett smiled back at him, a look of surprise on his face. "Well you're up early."
"Yeah…" John muttered, not in a very good mood at the moment.
"Is everything okay?" Carson asked, frowning as he saw the upset look on Sheppard's face.
"She said I cheated on her, Carson," he whispered, looking down.
There was a long pause. "Ah… you spoke with Elizabeth I see."
"Yeah, I spoke with Elizabeth, only she didn't really tell me what happened, she just told me I kissed another woman and shut the door in my face!"
Carson sighed, taking a seat on one of the beds. John took the bed across from him, his legs hanging down. "Why would I cheat on Elizabeth? How could I cheat on Elizabeth! How after almost fifteen years, and three kids could I even THINK about another woman! Jason said it hadn't exactly been my fault, how exactly could that be true if I was cheating on Elizabeth!"
"Truth be told, I was never exactly told the whole story… not many were. I knew what you both told me… but I was never there to witness anything but you two yelling at each other."
"It was that bad, eh?"
"Probably worse," Carson admitted with a sad smile. "You kept telling her it wasn't how it looked; she kept getting angrier and angrier. She didn't believe you. She hadn't even wanted to hear what you had to say… or what she had to say. The next thing any of us knew… she'd something that had upset you pretty badly. You stopped trying to convince her that it'd hadn't been what it seemed after that. She'd said that she should have known after all the woman you'd been with that this would happen. You'd always had the reputation, Rodney teased you about being Captain Kirk more than once, and it always bothered you. You didn't want to be seen that way. The fact that your wife believed that you were like that, the love em and leave em type, well… it changed a lot of things."
John closed his eyes, moaning at the headache that was forming. He was stressed out, tired, and frustrated… and it was starting to affect him. "Tell me the whole story. I need to know what really happened… all of it… every detail. You said I claimed that it wasn't what it seemed… what did I mean by that?" He needed to figure this out, he needed the full story, of that he knew. If he was ever going to figure this whole thing out, he needed to know everything.
"Well as I said, I don't really know the whole story… only what you and she told me, I'm afraid, but there is… one who does know what really happened between you two."
"Who?" John asked.
Carson hesitated. "She lives on the mainland. I'll take you."
Never had the ride to the mainland felt this long. John sighed, wondering why time seemed to be going so much slower than normal. After checking with the kids to make sure they'd be okay while he was gone, he'd hurried to the first puddle jumper he'd seen, reading to get going. Sheppard turned to look at Carson. "Elizabeth said some things… some things I couldn't explain."
"Like what?"
"I keep pursuing this. I mean, I KNOW that the mistake I made with Elizabeth is the thing I need to focus on. It changed me, of that I know, but why would Janus' machine bring me here instead of just taking me to the time before what happened… happened?"
Carson shrugged. "I don't know lad, could be quite a few things. Or maybe what happened between you and Elizabeth wasn't the choice that ruined your life. Perhaps letting Elizabeth walk down the isle is the thing that needs to be changed," Doctor Beckett told him, keeping his eyes ahead, trying to concentrate.
John smiled. "Maybe… you know you're a lot wiser than people give you credit for."
Beckett just laughed. "I have my moments."
"Yes you do, Doctor Beckett," John agreed, turning his gaze back to what was ahead just as the mainland came into view. Sheppard tried to keep his cool as Carson headed towards the village that seemed far more efficient than he'd remembered. Instead of Teyla's people living in tents, they had log houses; some of them even brick, impressive in size and structure. "Amazing," he breathed in surprise.
"Aye, they've done well for themselves here. With Atlantis to protect them, they've been able to truly settle here. Carson flew over farms and houses until they saw woods up ahead, farther from the beach. There stood only a few houses, one being right at the edge of where the clearing met woods. Carson slowly set the puddle jumper down, expertly landing, something John hadn't expected from the man. The man had obviously practiced. Finally Beckett turned to him. "Prepare yourself lad, you're in for a bit of a surprise."
"What do you mean by that?" John asked, his uneasiness returning.
"You'll see," Carson told him.
The Scottish Doctor stood, turning off the puddle jumper and opening the door in the back. John followed him out of the jumper as they headed to the lone house off to the side, a beautiful log house if ever John saw one. They soon reached the door, and John could see Carson become steadily uncomfortable. He knocked as loud as he could and waited. "Come in!" shouted someone from inside. Carson moved his hand to the knob and opened the door, turning to Sheppard. "Well go on… if you want to know the truth, you'll find it in here."
John nodded, walking inside. The living room was beautiful, a mixture of nature and country all woven neatly in a beautiful package. Whoever lived here, they had great taste. Carson walked in behind him, closing the door when the woman walked into the living room, making Sheppard gasp in shock. "Chaya?"
To Be Continued…
A/N: Hope you enjoy the nice little cliffhanger I left for you:evil grin: Don't worry, it won't be left here for long! ;) But if you want to see more… I need my review fix! lol
