Disclaimer: Still don't own Stargate Atlantis or it's characters, if I did Carson would be feeding me ice cream right about now. Steven and Anita Sheppard are my creation.
A/N: Thanks to my mom (IguanaGrandma? ;-) and flah7 for beta reading this chapter for me. I'm amazed I actually wrote this chapter at home, no Red Cross office required, Yeah!
A./N: As I sit writing this part I've got tears in my eyes. I can almost see my father lying in his hospital bed in the middle of our living room, hooked up to a noisy oxygen concentrator and bottles of medicines all around. It's been 13 years since he passed away from lung cancer (that metastasized to his brain) and my heart still breaks sometimes thinking about him. Daddy's only girl misses him but I know he is in heaven and that we will be together again someday.
A/N: The dang editor won't let me put a break between sections, sorry about that.
Part 4 – Sadness and Reconciliation
John stood in the doorway of his parents den, hesitating to go in. His father was lying in a hospital bed, medicines of all sorts littering the table next to him. An oxygen concentrator loudly announced it's presence in the room. The once strong, healthy, over-bearing man was lying in the stark white bed, his complexion almost matching the sheets. John stifled a gasp at the site before him. At that precise moment he realized that he'd rather die at the hands of a Wraith than have to face what his father was going through. John steeled himself for what was to come and quietly entered the room.
Steven Sheppard turned his head at the sound of someone entering his makeshift hospital room. He saw a man walking into the room and it took a few moments to realize that it was his son. John Sheppard had left a boy and had returned a man.
"Hello son." Steven said as he motioned John to come closer.
"Hi dad." John replied sheepishly. "Long time no see".
John had no idea what to say next, he felt rather like a deer staring at approaching headlights. "Is my mouth hanging open? Oh where to begin?" he thought to himself. He wanted to make things right but he just couldn't do this. He couldn't stand there and chat with his dying father like nothing was wrong. Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, fighter pilot, warrior, and defender against Wraith, turned around and high-tailed it out of the room.
Carson was sitting at the kitchen table with Anita Sheppard, drinking orange pekoe tea and listening to stories of "Johnny's" youth. He was rather enjoying himself, Mrs. Sheppard was a nice woman, and she was giving him plenty of ammunition for any future blackmail schemes if any should ever be needed. Oh, the things he could tell Rodney. John walked into the room looking rather shaken.
"That was fast" Carson said. "Did you have a nice talk?"
"I just couldn't do it. He looks so frail and helpless." John answered, sitting heavily in a chair.
"Young man you get your butt out of that chair and go speak to your father, now!" John's mother demanded.
" But, I don't know what to say. I'll upset him."
"Colonel, he's dying. You need to try and work things out between the two of you while you can. For both your sakes" Carson said. "Now to quote your mum, get your butt out of that chair and go speak to your father, now" Carson said with a devilish smirk on his face.
"YES SIR, Doctor SIR!" John replied with a salute, then got up from the chair and left the kitchen.
John hovered in the doorway to the den.
"Young man get in here, I won't bite, much." Steven said with a weak smile. "We have a lot to talk about." John hesitantly entered the dreaded room and stood next to the bed.
"I've had a lot of time to think, to try and get my life in order before... you know. I'm sorry, I'm sorry for wanting you to be what I wanted you to be and not accepting you for who you are. You are a brilliant young man and whether you're a mathematician teaching at some big university or flying helicopters in Iraq you are my son and I am proud of you. It took me a long time to get over the hurt of you defying me but I've realized that I was in the wrong. Can you forgive me?"
Wow! John was taken aback, he hadn't expected that. What he had expected was something more akin to a shouting match. "I guess time and illness have changed him" he thought to himself.
"Of course I can forgive you dad. I'm sorry too, for not being the son you wanted me to be. I've had a good life though. I've got good friends and a job I love, I'm happy with my life. John replied.
"How about you both kiss and make up then we can have dinner." Anita Sheppard announced from the doorway. "Doctor Beckett is cooking haggis for us." she said with a smirk.
"Haggis?" Father and son said in unison.
"Whoever this Doctor Beckett is he better not come anywhere near me with that crap! I'm dying as it is I don't need to be tortured too." John's father replied breathlessly. A smiling Carson appeared in the doorway, "don't worry lads I won't torture you with my cooking, me mum is the only one that I know that can cook haggis proper anyway."
"Dad, this is my friend Doctor Carson Beckett, we work together."
"He's Scottish! since when does the U.S Air Force recruit Scotsmen?" Steven asked.
"I'm a civilian Mr. Sheppard and I guess you could say I'm on loan. Now, if you wouldn't mind I'd like to listen to your lungs. You sound like you're having a wee bit of trouble there, so what do you say I check you over, then we can eat."
A/N:Reviews much appreciated. Last chapters reviews prompted me to get this chapter written at home, and sooner. Keep them coming.