That had to be the last question that I wanted to answer at that point in time. Abbi was precious, and I loved her dearly, but every time I looked at her I was reminded of just how screwed up her short life had been. I didn't know if I had the right to uproot her, and take her away from the only family she had ever truly known. Once she was in Atlantis, there would be no going back, as she was still too young to remember that there are some things that she is not allowed to talk about. I answered as honestly as I could.
"I don't know."
"Dave thinks she would do better over here than with James and Erin. Apparently she pines for you for weeks every time that you leave her to come back to Atlantis."
"I didn't know that. Erin just about refuses to tell me anything about how Abbi is. Says she's fine and if I were really worried about her, I'd resign from the Air Force and come home to help run the family business. I love my daughter, but the only people who have ever understood why I ran away at fifteen were your father, and later your elder brother."
"Why did you run away?"
"It was not long after Patrick's first visit to my Father's. He had sent me back to the private boarding school I attended because I had apparently embarrassed him in front of your Father and brother. One of the teachers who had stayed at the school to look after the students left there, told me I was a failure and was bringing shame onto my family. He said that the best gift that I could give them was to get lost."
"So you ran away?"
"Not exactly. I had access to one of my bank accounts, and it had enough in it to convince a judge to emancipate me. Once I had that paperwork, I signed myself out of the hell hole that had been home to me nine months a years since I was five, and started renting an apartment in town. I enrolled myself in the local public high school, and have never looked back."
"And approximately two years later you started at the Academy."
"Yep, best decision I ever made, although it severed what little contact I still had with my family."
Sheppard stood up then, as if sensing that I wasn't going to tell him anymore on that subject today.
"Are you coming to get lunch?" He asked me.
I nodded and stood up, taking my data tablet with me.
A/N – Hi, um, well, I really need to apologise for how late this is. RL got really, really crazy on me for a long time and only recently have I gotten my muse back. Sorry for how short this is, I will be writing more soon. And I have a beta(who will yell and scream and shout at me if I don't publish regularly .) My sister Izabel Forester (her pen name on FF) has taken on the job, and wants to read the rest of the story, so it should come soon (also she wants to read my next project which I have been talking about, that I refuse to start until I finish this one (it will be a massive Bones/Sherlock crossover)).