-1"So, my dad wasn't…my dad?" Alexa stared at her social worker, Jan, with her huge eyes. Jan put her hand on Alexa's shoulder and sadly smiled.

"I'm afraid not, hon." Jan said sympathetically. "He's a test pilot for the air force. He lives in New Jersey and his name is John Sheppard. He really is a good man."

"So...whats going to happen now?" Alexa asked. "Does he even want to meet me?"

"Of course he does! Who wouldn't want to get to know you?" Jan tried to cheer the girl up. "In fact, he insisted. You're going to meet him in a few days."

Alexa continued to stare at her hands.

"We'd really like it if you went to stay with him…permanently." Alexa nodded half-heartedly. It wasn't that she didn't want to meet this man. Alexa just couldn't get over her mother's enormous lie. Jan had told her that this John guy hadn't even known that he had a daughter, so she'd lied to him, too. It wasn't his fault. In fact, he probably had an even bigger shock than she did.

Jan looked at her sadly and began to rifle through her purse. After a minute, she handed Alexa a picture. Alexa took it, startled after she had had a chance to look at it.

The man in the picture was an older, male version of herself. Her nose, eyes, smirk, hair…definitely the hair. His face looked warm and inviting, and Jan was right, he did look like a good man.

This might be okay, she decided.

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John shifted in his bar stool and stared into his empty glass and sighed. Ronon, his best friend, stared at him from across the counter. He'd seen John like this before, but not quite this bad. He kind of knew the fear John was feeling though. His wife, Amelia, was pregnant with their first child and was due in about a month. But, this was different and he knew it. He also knew he could think of no one who would be a better father than John.

"You know you're gonna be fine, right?" Ronon prodded, earning him a look from his friend.

"Hit me." was John's only reply.

"You're not gonna be able to do this when she gets here." Ronon said as he poured John another drink. "Drink yourself into oblivion, I mean."

"I still don't know how I'm gonna make this work."

"So don't."

"I have to." John looked at him like he was a crazy person.

"Exactly. So stop sitting around here worrying about it and just do it."