The cafeteria is packed and I'm having a hard time finding a table with enough spots for the kids and me. And they're getting antsy. I roam my eyes around the room one more time hoping, no praying, that a table will suddenly open up. But no such luck. I sigh in frustration and open my mouth to tell the kids that we're gonna have to wait a bit before lunch.
"Max!" I hear my name being shouted over the din. "Over here!"
I see someone standing and waving their arm out of the corner of my eye. I turn to see who it is and see that it's Lydia. "What?" I shout back.
"Bring the kids over; I got the entire table saved." She says while motioning with her hand.
We make our way to the table and sit down. "Why is so crowded here?" I ask once everyone's seated and eating.
"The Daedalus got here this morning." She takes a bite of her sandwich and then says through a mouthful of BLT, "I guess that they finished unloading."
"Neat, did they already do a mail call?" I ask, smiling. I hope that there's stuff from Christmas. I can't wait to see everyone got me. Their presents had been with me on my failed attempt to go home on the Daedalus, and had stayed on Atlantis with me. So now that the Daedalus is here I can send them. Teyla took me to the Athosian settlement a few times and the last time I was there I was able to get a number of things that I'm sending as gifts. Not much, but I know that everyone's gonna love them.
"Not that I know of. Why? Expecting something special?" Lydia asks raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, they're called Christmas presents." I reply. "What about you, anything you're looking forward to?"
She nods her head and says, "Same thing as you."
"Maybe we should get the gang together and open presents together." I suggest. Hey, it beats opening them alone.
Lydia's silent for a minute, obviously thinking about it. She then takes a sip of her water and says, "Maybe."
After she speaks a young looking girl passes our table with Miko and a number of science geeks. The girl waves to Lydia and Lydia waves back. They walk off and I'm curious as to who the girl. "Who was that?"
"Chelsea McCay. Been here awhile."
"McKay?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. "There's two of there here?"
Lydia laughs at me and says, "No, thank God. She spells it C-a-y, not K-a-y."
"Oh. She looks a bit young to be here." I mention as I watch her walk into the hallway. "How old is she?"
"Not even twenty; she's one of those child geniuses. Went to college when she was fifteen. Miko told me that she's great at engineering and actually built her own car when she was fourteen."
"So why is she here?"
Lydia shrugged and said, "You got me. The SGC must have noticed how smart she was and wanted to pick her up before the NID did." The second Lydia said those words her eyes went wide and she sucks in a breath.
Ok, that got my attention. "What's NID?" I ask. Sounds like an 80's band.
"Nothing that you need to know." She says hurriedly. "Don't forget that we're watching 'Dark Angel' tonight. Second season."
"But-" I say as Lydia gets up from the table. "what's NID?" I finish, talking to myself. The kids and I finish up lunch and head on back to the classroom. We reach the room with little trouble (however crowded the hallway is) and the afternoon passes by quietly. The only thing that I notice is that I have to watch the kids a bit longer than normal, again. Not to long, we were halfway through dinner when they show up, well everyone except Evan and Rodney. Apparently they're still working. On what I don't know. It's not like they're gonna tell me because that would actually make sense. The adults grab dinner and sit down with us so we're like one big family.
"So where did you go to school?" Elizabeth asks, handing Kelly her glass before she tips it over.
"I went to a community college for my Associates and then to Colorado State for my Masters." I reply. "I lived in the dorms at State since it's so far from Springs."
"Then how did you meet Dr. Jackson if you went to State?" John asks.
"Through mutual friends. I was home during winter break and there was a party at P3 and they invited me to go. I agreed and when they picked me up Daniel was with them. At the club Daniel and I started talking and we learned that we both frequent the same coffee shop, Victor's, but have never run into each other. We ended up talking the entire time and made plans to meet at the shop later on in the week. It ended up being a ritual when ever I was in town and we became fast friends. He thought that it was great that I was working with little kids and until just before I came I wondered why the Air Force wanted with an archeologist."
By the time that we finish eating Evan still hasn't joined up so I radio him and ask him if he's going to be much later. He admits that he doesn't know how much longer he'd be and asked if I could watch Maria. I agree, I love the kid to pieces but sometimes I feel like I'm her parent instead of Evan.
Don't get me wrong, I can't begin to understand what Evan does here, but it seems that there are times when he has all the time in the world and then suddenly he hardly has time to even pick her up. Sometimes I wonder how that's affecting Maria.
-Why do you tell me only things I want to hear why don't you tell me this could just disappear…-
Maria and I leave the cafeteria and head to the rec room with a stop off at Evan's quarters to get Maria changed into her pj's. We arrive at the room the same time as everyone else and Crysta holds up the DVD case. "Ready?"
"Sure, what eps. are we going to watch?" I ask, settling down next to Maria on the couch.
"I dunno, any preferences?"
"Anything except 'Berrisford Agenda'. As much as I love to watch Alec be all 'emo boy' I want something funny."
"What about 'Boo'?" Lydia suggests.
I smile and nod my head, "Yea that's a good one. How about 'Fuhgeddaboudit'? Another classic funny."
"Don't forget 'Medium is the Message'? Funny and serious at the same time." Crysta says, opening the case.
" 'Freak Nation' is another good one; the fight at the end is awesome."
"Yea Lita was kick ass."
"So what'll it be first?"
" 'Boo' first." I say.
"Sounds good to me." Lydia says.
"Coolie." Crysta says, putting in the disc. She then sits down on the floor in front of Lydia who is on the other side of me. "Why do I have to sit on the floor?" she asks as the Manticore symbol pops up on the screen.
"No one said you had to, you sat down there of your own free will." Lydia said, dropping popcorn on Crysta's head. "You can join us on this nice comfy couch."
"How? It's designed for three and there are three on it right now."
"We can shift around." I say, sitting up. "Wanna sit on my lap, Maria?"
" 'K." she says, climbing onto me. We both shift around for a few seconds, trying to get comfortable and she ends up reclining on me at a slight angle with her head resting against my shoulder.
"There," I say as Crysta stands. "Now there's space for you."
"Thanks." She says, sitting down. "Now then let the laughter begin." Crysta then hit's play and the episode begins.
-"So, you got candy? 'Cause me and my crew here got a carton of eggs."-
"What's up with those glasses?" Crysta asks when Michael Weatherly's character comes on screen. "I mean he's got the nice streamlined glasses and then suddenly he's wearing old people glasses."
"Shhh!" Lydia says, shushing us.
Crysta just rolls her eyes and continues her rant. "And while we're at it, what's up with the mushroom haircut and the scraggly beard? The first season he had a nice preppy hair cut and the scruffy look worked for him. Now it's like he doesn't care what he looks like."
I shrug my shoulder and say, "Well he was going undercover for Asha in 'Designate This'. I mean, it's kinda hard to sell the rugged vet when you're clean shaven and have nice looking glasses."
"Shhh!" Lydia says, throwing popcorn at Crysta.
"Hey, what was that for?"
"For not shutting up. Now watch the rest of the episode quietly." Lydia said, turning her attention back to the TV screen.
-"Do not attempt to adjust your set. This is a streaming freedom video bulletin. The cable hack will last exactly sixty seconds. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped, and it is the only free voice left in this city."-
"You know doesn't Michael Weatherly's character look a lot like Logan?" Lydia says, looking at the frozen screen. We paused it for a break and had just sat back down on the sofa.
Crysta and I look at the screen for a bit, considering what Lydia said. "Nah." I say after a bit. "Logan's better looking and the scruffy look works for him."
"You're right." Crysta agrees. "Logan is defiantly better looking and he doesn't have the whole 'can't touch my girlfriend or I'll die' problem."
Lydia shrugs her shoulders and says, "Whatever, it was just an observation."
"Ok enough talking," I say grabbing the remote. "let's watch the rest of 'Fuhgeddaboudit'."
-"Oh! Ooh, ooh--you know what? The big gargantuan impasto strokes--loved 'em. Get crazy. Go on. Do it up. Do it up. Get crazy, dog-boy. Joshua, get crazy…"-
We finish 'Medium is the Message' and by that time Maria is asleep and even I'm finding it hard to stay awake. I stand with Maria in my arms (not an easy feat) and tell Lydia and Crysta good-night. I then carry her to Evan's quarters where the door slides open for me. Hmm, Evan must have had some program it so I didn't have to bother Zelenka or Lydia whenever I needed to go in there. I step inside and head directly to Maria's room. I then pull back the covers with one hand and lay her down on her bed. She stirs a bit when I let go. I smile and whisper while brushing a strand of hair out of her face, "Don't worry, you're home."
"Night." She mumbles, turning over so that her back it to me.
I stand there for a second, watching her sleep. She looks so peaceful there, sleeping in her bed surrounded by familiar things and people that love her and would do anything to protect her. After awhile I quietly exit her room and head to the living room. I sit down and lean my head against the back of the couch. Mmmmmm, that feels good.
I close my eyes and relax. I stifle a yawn, open my eyes and sit up. It wouldn't be good if I fell asleep on Evan's couch while waiting for him to get back from whatever it is he's doing. I'm alert for all of five seconds and then start to drift off again. "Five minutes of shut eye." I tell myself as I settle down onto the couch. "Five minutes and then I'll open a window to keep me awake."
A/N: I just had to. The fact that I brought Logan Cale into my story just begged that I have a chapter about him in 'Dark Angel'. That and I'm riding high from the other day when Sci-fi ran a DA mini-marathon. -grin- I'm a hopeless Logan fan. Chelsea belongs to nwfairy, Crysta belongs to Nenya, Lydia belongs to Techie, Maria is owned by Reefgirl, Logan Cale and all things Dark Angel belongs to James Cameron, I own Max, P3 belongs to 'Charmed' and all cannon places, things and people belong to Wright-Cooper. Review.