CHAPTER 76 – 1962

He rolled over and spat out a mouthful of sand. Felt the burning Hawaiian sun beating down on his back and smiled. The woman beside him groaned and he was instantly aware and rolling over to make sure she was all right. Home. Hawaii. 1962. He knew this would be difficult for her.

"John?"

"I'm here sweetheart. We're here... we made it back. 1962."

She pushed herself to her knees and he pulled her back against him, needing just to sit for a while and get his own equilibrium back. From one time line to another. One dimension to another. He wondered briefly what sort of crap must be going on inside their bodies. All that matter disintegrating and reintegrating, but then guessed it was no likely more damaging than constant gate travel and no one had ascertained yet, whether that would have long term effects on a body.

"I don't think that will ever get easier John..." She hugged her knees now looking pale, then suddenly leaned sideways and retched. He held her hair back and rubbed her neck until he felt the spasms stop, then simply held her.

"Doesn't help that you're three months pregnant Gina – and another thing? Carlie in there, might be reacting to the Carlie who is already here. They're effectively sharing the same time line again. And the same dimension. I still think there are repercussions when that occurs."

"How do we find them John? Ourselves? Go and see Callandra?..."

"Or she will come to you..." They heard her voice and pulling her head up to finally face the bright Hawaiian sun, Gina spotted Callandra standing just a few feet away from them, Nate beside her. Tears rolled down Gina's eyes when she saw him and pushing herself up from the sand she ran and threw herself into his arms, needing the comfort of a father.

"Daddy..."

"Shhh baby... you've done well – you got through and I am so damn proud of you." His hand reached down and touched her stomach. "I wish I could be there when Carlie is born – she has abilities you will not yet understand, that is why it was so important for the other dimension to get their hands on her."

"Daddy? It's changed now though... Carlie in their dimension is John's child now, not Terrence's. She has the same gene as this Carlie, the same abilities?"

"Yes sweetheart – that's why they chose to stay here rather than take her back. They knew if she went back then she would likely be used for experimentation, once it was established she had the gene. Her life was safer here."

"You knew – all along, didn't you? And kept the information from us. So that I wouldn't come back and send them back to their own dimension."

Gina felt John move in behind her and Nate released her then, pushing her back towards John, into the arms of the man who had travelled a timeline with her and crossed a dimension to rescue her.

"We selfishly thought to keep them here – I wanted her here – both Gina and Carlie... as a replacement for you and your Carlie. I was wrong. My reasons were wrong as were Callandra's. We couldn't stand it when you left so this was how we chose to fill the hole. We thought it ensured their safety."

"But you need to fix it Daddy. In their dimension, Jack is dead and there are wraith making liason's that cannot be allowed to happen. All because the gene has been bred out. Let them go back – the gene is safe, and Jack didn't have to die. By doing it your way, you lost the gene pool that both John and Jack could have provided – in your arrogant and near sightedness you totally missed the full picture. With those two, and Carlie – you have a perfect gene pool – the strongest and the best. But you sacrificed it so that you could keep us close – here, with you. That was wrong."

Callandra glanced at Nate, then back at Gina. "You are right Gina – it was wrong. They were happy here... but we couldn't bring outselves to send them back."

"So you arranged for Jack to get the pictures... knowing that once he saw them – once we saw them – I would be the one to fix it. That I couldn't allow it to happen."

"Hey, hey... so a 2012 reunion – guys!" John's head swung around at the familiar voice and a smile immediately lit his face.

"Rodney! Damn..." He moved forward quickly to give the man a hard hug and stepping back, looked him up and down. "Complete with Hawaiian shirt... not so much a good look on you..."

Rodney laughed. "Eloquent as always I see, Sheppard. But, it's good to see you – tell me, what have I missed in Atlantis? Any earth shattering discoveries since I've been saving the world here on earth?"

John rolled his eyes. "Seems earth and 1962 haven't changed your arrogance in any way... but we have been following your successes, courtesy of two meddling ancients... so we know what's in store for the space programme, more or less."

"All in place Colonel... notes carefully written, placed in the right hands – suggestions made to the right people – discreetly of course. All set in motion and ready to go – remotely, you might say.. All I need to do is push the buttons."

Gina was looking at Rodney with curiosity. "Remotely? You're coming back... aren't you? How? What happened to the 'balance' thing..."

Rodney burst out laughing at John's stunned look. "Oh look at that! Colonel John Sheppard too stunned to speak.. where's that damned camera."

John was looking in shock from Rodney to Gina. "Aaah crap... I am so out of my league here. Will someone tell me just what the hell is going on? We came here to send back a dimensional equivalent of myself, Gina and Carlie. We find Rodney acting as though he's spent far too long in the Hawaiian sun telling us he's coming back. Just what the hell is going on?" His shock had turned quickly to anger and it was Gina who stepped towards him and wrapped her arms around him.

"The coin John. From 1961. The commemorative coin. Remember? I thought it was important, but maybe something to do with Jack. Not Jack. Rodney! There's only one of you, in both dimensions. For some reason – only one. So you can cross and live within each dimension with no repercussions. We never needed the balance at all. We only needed Rodney to come back and fix the space programme, get it on track. John?"

"Oh baby, I'm six steps behind you on this... I'm sorry. I'm still flicking sand off my face from the trip here. Portal lag... or something... give me a moment, hell – give me a few hours! I need to think, ok..."

He was not joking and she saw that indeed he just need time by himself, to process. She touched his face gently.

"Go take a board John... the waves are looking particularly good at the moment, don't you think?"

And he looked into her beautiful eyes and saw that she understood and bending down, he kissed her – hard enough so that she rose up onto her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck, pushing her body against his – feeling his reaction immediately.

Into her ear he growled. "I'm going to make love to you on the beach tonight, under the moon – in 1962. Just like we did in the beginning. No crap, no dimensions, no problems. Just us."

"It's a deal – now go... grab a few waves, get your clarity. I'm going to spend some time with my family here, and we'll make it right. Each in our own way."

And he did just that. Her cottage was where it was just when he had last been there and that board? Still standing back in the shed, waxed and ready to go. He ran a hand over it softly, pondering all that had happened since the last time he held it in his hands, felt the texture of the wax and inhaled the residual smell of sea and salt. And thought briefly, just briefly... of simply staying here. Not going back, not dealing with anything more complicated than being worried about the tides and whether a good swell was going to sweep down upon them. Shaking his head at the idea that he was even entertaining such a thought, he let out a war woop and ran for the ocean, simply throwing himself into the wave coming up and shaking the salt and water out of his eyes. A simple task to bring about a simple solution. Stroking the arms, powerful and strong through the water, cutting a path through the warm Pacific swells. Turning, head facing the empty beach, golden sand, waving trees and sun. Swells beneath his board, rising – falling and he let the motion take him. Beyond this place, beyond this world, beyond this time. Home. Hawaii. 1962.

The repetition soothed him. Rising to a sturdy crouch on the board, feeling the strength of the wave beneath him, the power of a ancient tide that sought simply to carry this wave into shore, the conclusion of a journey that had taken a lifetime to complete. Feeling the power slowly seep out of the wave until it lay lost and without direction beneath the conqueror who had swept it into shore. The conqueror – a lone man on a board who found clarity out there on those waves.

Exhausted he dragged himself back into shore, and simply collapsed on the wet sand, his board lying beside him . He looked up at the blue sky without end and felt the sting of the island sun and it was Rodney's face who blocked out some of the sun's rays, staring down at him with concern and not just a little curiousity.

"So Sheppard. Worked off some of those demons yet? You always did need to take to the physical to sort your crap out..."

"Aaah Rodney. I missed you old buddy. Missed your wit, your smart mouth and your serious lack of respect for the word Colonel on my uniform. No one else does it like you..." He chuckled now, pulling himself up to a sitting position and looking sideways at Rodney as he sat down beside him.

"So Rodney... you wanna come home? Or is there something more I don't know about. Say... 1962 has had enough of you and the ancients are actually sending you back?"

"Funny... Sheppard. A barrel of laughs... No. They're not sending me back. I never intended to stay. Once I got here I realised that I could cross between two dimensions. Remember my notes John? I had been playing around with the dimensional stuff before I left... I had figured it out – that there was only one 'me' between here and there... so I could go back and forward."

"Are you responsible for 'us' coming over here – to this dimension?"

"Pretty much. I can only cross in this time line – 1962 here – 1962 there. So I had to sort it out from their past. I knew the gene was going to be an issue..."

"You sent 10 year old Jack there... 1962. That damn coin. It was you! Do you have any idea what you did?"

Rodney looked sheepish. "Yeah, I know Sheppard. I sort of screwed up."

"Sort of? Damn it Rodney! There is no 'sort of'' about it! It was a right royal screw up. Jack died when you tried to send him back to his own timeline. Their gene bred out. The wraith formed an alliance with Atlantis." John had stood up now and looked down angrily at Rodney, remembering exactly why the scientist managed to get him so pissed off most of the time.

"I fixed it Sheppard! When I realised what had happened, I crossed over and left a note. Telling them that at a certain time their daughter would be sent back to 1962 in this dimension and if they went after her, it would change who the father was... and ensure Carlie had the gene. That much worked. They came. John and Gina – from their dimension and they were reunited with Carlie whom you sent here."

"Then why the hell are they still here? They have to take her back, in order for the gene to be reinstated in their dimension..." John impatiently kicked at the sand and he sharpened his gaze when he saw Gina walking up the beach towards them. He knew that she had deliberately stayed away to give Rodney and him some time together. It was Gina who answered the question, but not before she wrapped her arms around his naked torso and rubbed her face along his chest.

"That's not on Rodney, John. Nate told you that. He's wrongfully kept them from leaving... he wanted them to replace me and the child I carry. He knows it's wrong, he wants to make it right. We'll all here together now, and between us, we can make it right and make sure there are no more repercussions. Then we can all go home.

John wrapped his own arms around her and held her close. "Do we meet them? I don't know if I want to see another version of myself... it would be too... weird."

"No John, we cannot meet them for that very reason. We need to let Daddy deal with it from here. Our being here has opened the dimensional and time portal – so he is going to send them through tonight before anything else can happen. Then John, I promise. It's over, all over. Just us now, but tonight? Dad, my brother and Callandra – they want us to join them for a family dinner. A nice normal family dinner..."

She began to giggle... and John too saw the funny side. Normal? Hell, what about any of this had been normal? What about any of his life had been normal for the past five years?

I stand here now on a beach in Hawaii in 1962, fifty years in the past, with a woman from this time who is pregnant to me in my time. She carries our child, of my time and carrying a gene of an ancient so strong that her purpose in the Pegasus galaxy has not been shown to us yet. We are about to have dinner with two ascended beings, prisms of light and energy that technically do not exist anymore in material form. Oh, and there's Rodney. Scientist extraordinaire... also from 2012 and has just managed to save an entire space programme. Did I miss anything out? Oh yeah, we've just saved the lives of Jack O'Neill and sent three people back to another dimension, one of whom was myself, the other two – my wife to be and my daughter.

Wife to be?

Yeah, why not. Here, in Hawaii – in 1962.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

That is the end people – more or less...but... if you read The Soldier or the Man?, my newest series, you will find that it follows Evan Lorne and a young Captain whom he becomes involved in. It is set four months from this story, and guess what? That damn portal rears it's ugly head again... as does a friendship between Evan's new lady love and Gina... oh... and John Sheppard discovers a little skeleton in his family closet... hooked yet? Chapter one awaits...but bear in mind, it IS Major Lorne's story as I felt he was stiffed a little in the romance department in this story.

Hope you all enjoyed this – I had fun writing it, planning the infernal weaving of a complex plot and trying to work out how best to surprise you all!