Disclaimer: I'm only going to say this once: I don't own any of the characters and I'm not making money off of doing this. This is simply for fun.
Present Day (February 21, 2009):
It's the rehearsal dinner and everyone has gathered at the Presidio room. Evan's parents have arrived to join the dinner and are talking to Marie about the arrangements for the next day.
After everyone's done eating Elizabeth grabs her wine glass and taps her fork on it to get everyone's attention. "I'd like to make a toast!" She announces and everyone quiets down. She turns to Evan and Marie who's sitting at the middle of the U table. "Evan, I for one can say that I've known you for a very long time. We grew up together…"
"Taken baths together," John butts in with a naughty grin. Everyone laughs at this.
Elizabeth makes a face at him and then continues "We've gotten into a lot of trouble together, mostly because of John's thirst for adventure and Rodney's incessant curiosity." More laughs follow. "But among the four of us, you've been the level-headed one, the one who thought about everything first before jumping into something. Most people actually thought it was me who calmed everyone down, when in fact I was the one who got hysterical or angry. You were the one who was always relaxed and said 'let's just go with the flow'."
And then she turns Laura who stands up beside her, and then looks at Marie to say "And you! Well, we've been best friends for a long time now. I remember the times when my parents would drag me along with them to visit your family. I was always bored out of my mind." She says with a smile. "I never really liked going to your house because you could never play with me. You were always in your music room with your piano teacher. But one day, she got sick and nobody was around to watch you." You snuck out and called me from outside the window while your parents were busy showing some rare vase to mine. And we ran together to your secret hideout. And we played with dolls that your housekeeper and gardener had secretly given you." She continued to say. "Two days later, we were exchanging sandwiches at lunch. From then on, we were inseparable. Two peas in a pod. I always got us in trouble, but you always managed to get us out of it before anyone found out.
Flashback to October 1994:
"Earth to Marie!" Laura says, snapping her fingers in front of Marie. They had both just turned eleven years old that year. They're sitting in the bleachers at the indoor gym trying to study. Trying being the key word.
"What?" Marie asks, snapping to attention.
"I asked if you if you wanted to go to the mall today to pick out new swimsuits." Laura said. "What are you looking at anyway?" She asks, turning to look at the court.
"Nothing." Marie says, blushing furiously.
"Oh my gosh. Are you blushing?"
"No I'm not!" Marie protests.
"Yes you are! You are blushing!" A few kids turn to look their way.
"Ssssh!" Marie shushes her.
"Who is it?" She asks, and then mentions the guys' names one by one. "Mike Branton? Bates? Kavanaugh? Eiw!"
"Eiw!" Marie says, making a face. "No!"
"Uh… Chuck? John Sheppard? Not a bad choice. Evan? McKay?" Marie's ears turn pink at the mention of Evan's name. "Oh my gosh! It's Evan!"
"Sssh!" Marie says and at the same time clamping her hand down on Laura's mouth. "Sssh!"
"Okay, okay. How long have you liked him?" Laura says more quietly. And then pushes Marie away. She grabs the book that had fallen to her feet and then turns back to Marie.
"Four years maybe."
"That long?" Laura asks incredulously. "How come you never told me?"
Marie shrugs. "Coz I thought you'd laugh."
Laura frowns a bit and then says "I think you should just forget about him?"
"Why?"
"Because."
"Because. Just because." Laura says, and then finally adds as she sees Marie's confused face. "Because of the people he hangs out with."
"What about them?" Marie asks. "John and Rodney?"
"Yes."
"But they're nice guys. They're nothing like Bates." Marie says.
"They're popular." Laura simply says.
"So? They're still nice." Marie says in defense.
"Yeah, they're nice. Well, John and Evan are at least." Laura says with a face. "But they also hangout with Elizabeth and Kate. And then there's that new girl, Teyla."
"But they're nice too." Marie says. "Especially Elizabeth."
"Doesn't mean that they would hang out with us." Laura tells her.
Marie turns back to watch Evan out on the court. Evan and John are playfully pushing each other, obviously showing off in front of Teyla, Kate and Elizabeth who are sitting on the sidelines.
Back to the Present:
"The both of you are like PB & J. Independently, you're great." Elizabeth adds.
"But together you're both absolutely amazing." Laura finishes for her. "So here's to you both!"
And then Elizabeth says "May you both live happily ever after."
"Here! Here!" Everyone says. And they raise their glasses and clink them together.
Evan's mother, Julie, dims the lights and Jamie starts playing the slideshow of photographs of Evan and Marie. The photographs are shown randomly. First with family, then relatives and then friends. It then shows a picture that Evan's mother had taken when she took him and Jamie to the beach. It was a very heartwarming picture. One that was taken without him or the little girl in the picture knowing while they built sandcastles.
Flashback to July 1990:
Marie is building sand castles with her buckets when a group of little boys purposely kick her towers down. She looks around for her nanny. She spots her talking to two other nannies. Her head bends down and her shoulders start to shake and she sits there, crying silently.
"Hi!" A voice says.
Marie opens her eyes to see a pair of feet in front of her. She looks up to find an almost chubby little boy with dark hair and expressive eyes staring down at her. "Hi." She chokes out.
"I'm bored." He tells her. "Can I help you fix your castle up?"
"It. Was. All. Done. A. Minute. Ago." She says in between hiccups.
"We can start a new one." He tells her as takes a seat in front of her. He empties out his pocket and sets a handful of pebbles to his side and then grabs a bucket and starts to scoop wet sand in and then dumps it to the side. Marie follows his lead and starts to do the same. "My name's Evan." He says.
"Marie." She replies with a sob.
Half an hour later, the same little boys are back and are ready to do damage again. Evan reaches behind his shorts and pulls out a slingshot and grabs a pebble beside him. He aims towards the boys and says "Stop! We're defending our fort!" The boys laugh at him and take a step forward. Evan lowers his slingshot and aims at a small piece of driftwood, splitting it in half, and then lifting it up at them again. The boys stop on their tracks, turn to look at each other and then walk away.
Marie watches them as they go and turn back to look at Evan, her mouth open in surprise. She shuts her mouth close, and starts to redden. Evan sets his slingshot down and continues to build their sandcastle like nothing significant had just happened.
Once in a while, Marie would look at Evan from the corner of her eye and smile.
Back to the Present:
Marie turns to look at Evan's mother with a confused look. Julie walks over to her and whispers "I had forgotten that I took this picture a long time ago."
"When was this taken?" Marie asks in surprise.
"Around summer. You were both six years old at the time." Julie tells her. "I though it was such a beautiful picture. It's the first picture of the two of you together."
Marie hugs her mother in law and says "Thank you."
X
A photograph of Rodney, John, Elizabeth and John at around the ages of three or four, with their arms around each others' shoulders is shown next. All four of them smiling, with Elizabeth and Rodney each missing a tooth.
At that very moment, the doors are thrown open and Torren and the other kids come running and screaming, with the nanny at their heels. The adults burst out laughing as they watch the nanny try to round them up and at the same time apologize to them. Patty and Jamie finally get up to help her.
Torren is standing near the screen in only his diapers. Smiling wide. "Mama! Mama! Look!" He says with a big grin, holding up a lacy bra for everyone to see. Teyla's eyes grow wide and she rushes to him, snatching the bra away and stuffing it in her hands and then picks Torren up.
John frowns and walks over to the laptop that's being used for the slideshow. He puts it in pause and stares at the screen. He then looks at Torren and then back at the screen. And then finally rests his eyes on Teyla. Who's looking at him with sad pleading eyes. He takes a deep breath and then looks at each person who's looking at him, too.
Evan looks surprised. And so are Rodney and Ronon. But Elizabeth isn't looking at him, her hand is on Teyla's arm as if to comfort her. He looks down at his feet and then shakes his head. He turns around and quietly leaves the room.
Ronon gets up, but Rodney stops him and nods to Teyla, who's handing Torren to Patty, and whispers to her. She walks out the door, intent on straightening things out with John.
X
After all the commotion, and everyone has calmed down, they continue with the slideshow. Photographs taken here and there. Pictures of Laura and Marie. Class pictures. Pictures of Evan, John and Ronon in high school after football games.
Ronon watches Jennifer from his seat across the table as she smiles and listens to Jamie talk about the pictures and the lives of Marie and Evan. Jennifer's expression suddenly change from happy to hurt, so he turns to look at the screen and see that it's actually a group picture of Rodney, Elizabeth, John, Evan, Kate, and himself as he gives Teyla a piggyback ride. He looks back at Jennifer and observes her reaction. Her head is half bent but he can see enough of her face to notice the tiny crease on her forehead.
But before he can say anything, Laura bends down and whispers in her ear. Jennifer laughs. But he can see a tiny trace of sadness in her eyes.
TBC.
Note: so, are you guys happy now? It's all out in the open. But it isn't over yet! I still have some more chapters coming up. I know you guys are probably thinking "Why didn't John or anyone else see the resemblance". But you see, Elizabeth did. Rodney and Evan had never seen Torren until now. And Ronon, well Ronon and John only knew each other in high school, and being a guy, he didn't really care about John's baby pictures. It's hard to remember how you looked like when you were two, much less remember how your friends looked like at that age. And then there's the fact that some people look differently to others. Like sometimes my other friends says I resemble my mom. But my relatives say I look like my dad.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter.