Author's Chapter Notes: Sorry it’s taken so long for me to add!!! My brain’s decided to go on vacation without permission! But hopefully it’ll kick back in and let me continue to add quickly to my fanfics!
2006 ~ Above Atlantica
Once they had jumped ahead, they had stayed in orbit of Atlantis. They had even been hailed by Atlantis, but no one had responded. The group had just sat there staying quiet, mainly just taking in that they were to start what they had worked all their lives to complete their mission. But meeting their parents all over again would be difficult, or at least it seemed like it. Some were excited, but others weren’t. And Lily was one with mixed feelings. She wasn’t too sure about seeing her biological parents, but she did miss Marie and Carson badly. Those had been her parents in her heart for so long…she was almost scared to meet and experience her actual parents.
*Please identify yourself.*
It was getting old, but Lily supposed it was better than them sending up a drone or some other sad excuse to try to blow them up. In this time, Atlantis was so different; it was on the water…Lily was far too used to it being underneath Atlantica’s vast ocean. “This is getting old,” she mumbled.
“Just speak up, Lily,” Acaisha pushed a bit. “At least then maybe they’ll stop radioing us. It’ll at least give us some time…” She sighed and fixed her hair, it was a bad habit. When she was nervous she’d fix her ponytail until finally she ended up with a headache from having it too tight. Acaisha was far too excited and though she couldn’t wait to land, she knew the others needed time. And she’d give them that. After all, she being one of the eldest, it fell on her shoulders to look out for the younger ones.
Lily looked back at Acaisha nervously and then over at Jeff sitting next to her. When she received nods from the others, she opened communications. It was only communications, after all. It didn’t mean she had to continue talking or land yet. She still had time. “This is PJ 1 NE. I repeat, this is Papa Juliet One November Echo.” She had broken it down into phonetics hoping that maybe it would take them longer to respond.”
*~*~*
2006 ~ Atlantis
“PJ1NE?” John Sheppard questioned trying to put the letters and number into some sense. “That’s not a very good name for a ship.”
“It’s a jumper,” Rodney cut in quite annoyed. “PJ,” he responded shaking his head, “Puddle. Jumper.”
“And the NE?”
Elizabeth shook her head, “Does it really matter why they’re using that as their designation? I think it’s more important to find out /why/ they have one, where they’re from, and who they are…” She directed her attention back to the monitors. She supposed that at least they could take in a breath of relief that it wasn’t the Wraith.
“What do you suggest?” Rodney opened his mouth full of sarcasm, “We should invite them down to tea?”
Ignoring him, Elizabeth continued to think, “Can you tell me how many are in the jumper?” she asked one of the techs sitting nearby at a laptop.
“Twelve, Ma’am,” he responded.
Nodding, Elizabeth noted it, “Open a channel.” When she got a nod from the tech, she started speaking. “Jumper 1 NE, this is Weir. We’d like to learn more—”
“Ma’am! The jumper’s descending at a sharp erratic rate!” the tech shouted.
*~*~*
2006 ~ Puddle Jumper 1 NE
“Lillian, breathe,” John prompted. He had dragged Lily from the pilot’s chair and forced her to break her mental lock with the jumper. Instead, Jeff took over as pilot and Sean slipped in as co-pilot. Pulling the clips from her hair, he set them down on the bench and then started to run his fingers along her scalp through her brown rings of hair. “It’ll be okay. I’m going to be there the whole time. We all are.” This was one thing that John had feared, that Lily would snap. Atlantis with Grandfather was what they were used to, and he knew Lily’s stress level had sky rocket-ed when he had told them that they would be going on their mission. She had started this low humming between them. He blamed their ATA gene and closeness on that. Either that or they just had a tele-empathic bond. Once she started to calm, he thrust forward a water bottle into her hand.
When John had broken Lily’s mental contact with the jumper, the jumper had dropped from it’s stationary orbit and had started almost a dive, but Jeff had gotten it to slow and the slope leveled out. With Sean’s help, they managed to stop the jumper from going headfirst into the ocean. Instead, had been able to maneuver into the roof and land in the jumper bay. Breathing heavily in relief, the two teens looked at each other before breaking into wide smiles. “Pretty cool,” Sean commented.
“Pretty crazy,” Jeff agreed.
Rowan leaned up between the two seats, directing his comment directly at the younger two, “We are /not/ doing that again.”
“Awww!!!”
Shaking her head, Caitlin got up following Acaisha to the back of the jumper. Looking briefly over at Lily and John, she gave John a small smile when she saw he had gotten her to calm down. “Let’s unpack, kids!” she shouted.
“That’s so my line,” Acaisha mumbled picking up a couple bags as the puddle jumper ramp opened to form a stable ramp for her to walk down before setting her things outside. There were soldiers waiting with guns trained. Shaking her head, Acaisha shouted their way, “Don’t shoot, boys, wouldn’t look too good if you shot kids.” Turning to go back into the jumper, she added under her breath, “Even worse if you shoot your own.”
As soon as the bags were all out of the jumper, Acaisha had started to get the others into lines. All, but Caitlin, Lily, John, and Jake were out. A line was formed for Daedalus, one for Odyssey, and one for Atlantis. Acaisha watched as a small group entered the jumper bay. She recognized a couple, John Sheppard and Rodney McKay. She wasn’t sure who the woman was, but she seemed familiar. Before they could speak up, she took the chance to start, “I know you have questions,” Acaisha spoke up. “But let my friends…” she started and then picked her next words wisely. “Have another minute before we start.” When the woman nodded, Acaisha gave her a smile before moving back between Jeff and Sean.
“Lily, it’ll all be okay…” Jake promised. “I’ll even hold your hand if it makes you feel better,” he told her helping her up. He hated seeing Lily freak out, it was just as bad as when she was sick. It wasn’t the Lily he knew and loved. And sometimes that scared him.
A small smile came to her face, and Lily wiped the tears from her eyes. “Hold my hand, eh?” On her tip toes, she kissed Jake’s cheek, “Thanks…” she whispered. “But I think I’m better now…”
John pushed a new bottle of water into her hand, “Keep this.”
Caitlin gave Lily a bright smile, “C’mon…it’ll be fun to watch the clueless parentals.” Pulling Lily by the hand, she managed to get her friend out of the jumper and the group walked out to join the others. Jake was the first to move away and take the front of the far line on the right, while Caitlin walked to the middle group head only letting go when Lily took her place beside her at the head of the left hand group with John right behind her.
*~*~*
2006 ~ Atlantis Jumper Bay
Smiling at the group before her, Elizabeth couldn’t help but notice how young they all were, but they wore similar uniforms….her smile dropped as she moved closer to one of the lines and managed to read the name on the front. It shocked her and she couldn’t help, but stare.
Sheppard frowned, Elizabeth was quiet, he moved forward and put his hand on his shoulder, “You okay?”
Caitlin couldn’t help, but grin. “It’s pronounced Cald-well,” Caitlin spoke up.
“I know,” Elizabeth responded finally. “Are you related to Steven Caldwell?”
She shrugged a bit, “You could put it that way.”
Sheppard stayed close a bit weary that Elizabeth had practically frozen up like that and then just the plain creepiness he was currently feeling. He almost wanted to ask if he was the only one. He glanced over at the other line and then frowned. Why was his name on one of the jackets? He didn’t like this at all. But he’d bring that up and the Sheppard girl later. Hearing the hiss of the doors, he looked quickly over his shoulder to see Teyla, Ronan, and Carson enter. “What are you guys doing here?”
“You called for us,” Ronan responded.
“No…”
“Aye, ya did, Lad,” Carson responded.
Teyla walked up to join Elizabeth, “Lantian children?” she asked, even though their apparel didn’t seem to express that heritage. It wasn’t often since her people had moved to the mainland did they have children on Atlantis, but these were older children, almost adults, if not some of them already at that stage.
“I don’t know yet,” Elizabeth responded looking back at Teyla. Looking back at the three lines of four, she tilted her head slightly, “They’re being awfully problematic…”
“We prefer ‘challenging’,” Jake spoke up. “Problematic is usually a term we use when there’s mass chaos…” He smiled at her briefly before going back to staring straight forward again.
“Where are you from?” Elizabeth tried, hoping from a straight answer.
Lily stepped forward not looking at the woman, “Our ancestors are what you call Ancients,” she spoke quietly. “We all carry what you call the ATA gene.” She avoided eye contact with anyone looking at her; she just concentrated at a spot on the wall. “We are entrusted to you,” Lily continued before breaking away from her spot on the wall and looking directly at the woman. She knew who she was, and Lily also knew that she couldn’t ignore her. “Doctor Weir.” Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the small flat metal item that Grandfather had given her. “We are from the future, and I am to give this to you…it explains everything,” she said as she walked towards Weir, her hand open and out offering the item. But when Sheppard stepped in front of her, she jumped and took two steps back.
John studied her, and then tried to grab the metal from her hand that reminded him of some kind of woman’s compact. “I just want to look at it. Make sure it’s safe.”
“It’s safe,” Lily told him closing her hand and pulling back so that he couldn’t take it from her.
Frowning, he glared slightly, “And why does your jacket say ‘Sheppard’ on it? And who said you could steal puddle jumper? I so trademarked it.”
Elizabeth moved quickly between Sheppard and the girl, not wanting him to scare her. “It says Sheppard?” she asked hearing the last part as she stood between them.
“You’re paranoid,” Lily shot at Sheppard. Placing the metal item back on her palm, she spoke in Ancient, just briefly before the metal fluttered open like a flower and a hologram appeared on the platform of Grandfather.
“Doctor Elizabeth Weir, as I’m sure my children have already informed you, they are from the future. These precious children are entrusted to you, as your people are their parents. They are the key to making the future safe for us all. They are the key to destroying the Wraith. Treat them well. Cherish them.”
With that, the hologram of Grandfather disappeared and the metal petal-like pieces folded back until it was flat. Lily just glared at Sheppard before taking her place back at the head of her line and placing the object back into her pocket where it would be safe. How could Grandfather had thought that these ‘parents’ would be able to care for them and ultimately save the future?
*~*~*
Once they had jumped ahead, they had stayed in orbit of Atlantis. They had even been hailed by Atlantis, but no one had responded. The group had just sat there staying quiet, mainly just taking in that they were to start what they had worked all their lives to complete their mission. But meeting their parents all over again would be difficult, or at least it seemed like it. Some were excited, but others weren’t. And Lily was one with mixed feelings. She wasn’t too sure about seeing her biological parents, but she did miss Marie and Carson badly. Those had been her parents in her heart for so long…she was almost scared to meet and experience her actual parents.
*Please identify yourself.*
It was getting old, but Lily supposed it was better than them sending up a drone or some other sad excuse to try to blow them up. In this time, Atlantis was so different; it was on the water…Lily was far too used to it being underneath Atlantica’s vast ocean. “This is getting old,” she mumbled.
“Just speak up, Lily,” Acaisha pushed a bit. “At least then maybe they’ll stop radioing us. It’ll at least give us some time…” She sighed and fixed her hair, it was a bad habit. When she was nervous she’d fix her ponytail until finally she ended up with a headache from having it too tight. Acaisha was far too excited and though she couldn’t wait to land, she knew the others needed time. And she’d give them that. After all, she being one of the eldest, it fell on her shoulders to look out for the younger ones.
Lily looked back at Acaisha nervously and then over at Jeff sitting next to her. When she received nods from the others, she opened communications. It was only communications, after all. It didn’t mean she had to continue talking or land yet. She still had time. “This is PJ 1 NE. I repeat, this is Papa Juliet One November Echo.” She had broken it down into phonetics hoping that maybe it would take them longer to respond.”
*~*~*
2006 ~ Atlantis
“PJ1NE?” John Sheppard questioned trying to put the letters and number into some sense. “That’s not a very good name for a ship.”
“It’s a jumper,” Rodney cut in quite annoyed. “PJ,” he responded shaking his head, “Puddle. Jumper.”
“And the NE?”
Elizabeth shook her head, “Does it really matter why they’re using that as their designation? I think it’s more important to find out /why/ they have one, where they’re from, and who they are…” She directed her attention back to the monitors. She supposed that at least they could take in a breath of relief that it wasn’t the Wraith.
“What do you suggest?” Rodney opened his mouth full of sarcasm, “We should invite them down to tea?”
Ignoring him, Elizabeth continued to think, “Can you tell me how many are in the jumper?” she asked one of the techs sitting nearby at a laptop.
“Twelve, Ma’am,” he responded.
Nodding, Elizabeth noted it, “Open a channel.” When she got a nod from the tech, she started speaking. “Jumper 1 NE, this is Weir. We’d like to learn more—”
“Ma’am! The jumper’s descending at a sharp erratic rate!” the tech shouted.
*~*~*
2006 ~ Puddle Jumper 1 NE
“Lillian, breathe,” John prompted. He had dragged Lily from the pilot’s chair and forced her to break her mental lock with the jumper. Instead, Jeff took over as pilot and Sean slipped in as co-pilot. Pulling the clips from her hair, he set them down on the bench and then started to run his fingers along her scalp through her brown rings of hair. “It’ll be okay. I’m going to be there the whole time. We all are.” This was one thing that John had feared, that Lily would snap. Atlantis with Grandfather was what they were used to, and he knew Lily’s stress level had sky rocket-ed when he had told them that they would be going on their mission. She had started this low humming between them. He blamed their ATA gene and closeness on that. Either that or they just had a tele-empathic bond. Once she started to calm, he thrust forward a water bottle into her hand.
When John had broken Lily’s mental contact with the jumper, the jumper had dropped from it’s stationary orbit and had started almost a dive, but Jeff had gotten it to slow and the slope leveled out. With Sean’s help, they managed to stop the jumper from going headfirst into the ocean. Instead, had been able to maneuver into the roof and land in the jumper bay. Breathing heavily in relief, the two teens looked at each other before breaking into wide smiles. “Pretty cool,” Sean commented.
“Pretty crazy,” Jeff agreed.
Rowan leaned up between the two seats, directing his comment directly at the younger two, “We are /not/ doing that again.”
“Awww!!!”
Shaking her head, Caitlin got up following Acaisha to the back of the jumper. Looking briefly over at Lily and John, she gave John a small smile when she saw he had gotten her to calm down. “Let’s unpack, kids!” she shouted.
“That’s so my line,” Acaisha mumbled picking up a couple bags as the puddle jumper ramp opened to form a stable ramp for her to walk down before setting her things outside. There were soldiers waiting with guns trained. Shaking her head, Acaisha shouted their way, “Don’t shoot, boys, wouldn’t look too good if you shot kids.” Turning to go back into the jumper, she added under her breath, “Even worse if you shoot your own.”
As soon as the bags were all out of the jumper, Acaisha had started to get the others into lines. All, but Caitlin, Lily, John, and Jake were out. A line was formed for Daedalus, one for Odyssey, and one for Atlantis. Acaisha watched as a small group entered the jumper bay. She recognized a couple, John Sheppard and Rodney McKay. She wasn’t sure who the woman was, but she seemed familiar. Before they could speak up, she took the chance to start, “I know you have questions,” Acaisha spoke up. “But let my friends…” she started and then picked her next words wisely. “Have another minute before we start.” When the woman nodded, Acaisha gave her a smile before moving back between Jeff and Sean.
“Lily, it’ll all be okay…” Jake promised. “I’ll even hold your hand if it makes you feel better,” he told her helping her up. He hated seeing Lily freak out, it was just as bad as when she was sick. It wasn’t the Lily he knew and loved. And sometimes that scared him.
A small smile came to her face, and Lily wiped the tears from her eyes. “Hold my hand, eh?” On her tip toes, she kissed Jake’s cheek, “Thanks…” she whispered. “But I think I’m better now…”
John pushed a new bottle of water into her hand, “Keep this.”
Caitlin gave Lily a bright smile, “C’mon…it’ll be fun to watch the clueless parentals.” Pulling Lily by the hand, she managed to get her friend out of the jumper and the group walked out to join the others. Jake was the first to move away and take the front of the far line on the right, while Caitlin walked to the middle group head only letting go when Lily took her place beside her at the head of the left hand group with John right behind her.
*~*~*
2006 ~ Atlantis Jumper Bay
Smiling at the group before her, Elizabeth couldn’t help but notice how young they all were, but they wore similar uniforms….her smile dropped as she moved closer to one of the lines and managed to read the name on the front. It shocked her and she couldn’t help, but stare.
Sheppard frowned, Elizabeth was quiet, he moved forward and put his hand on his shoulder, “You okay?”
Caitlin couldn’t help, but grin. “It’s pronounced Cald-well,” Caitlin spoke up.
“I know,” Elizabeth responded finally. “Are you related to Steven Caldwell?”
She shrugged a bit, “You could put it that way.”
Sheppard stayed close a bit weary that Elizabeth had practically frozen up like that and then just the plain creepiness he was currently feeling. He almost wanted to ask if he was the only one. He glanced over at the other line and then frowned. Why was his name on one of the jackets? He didn’t like this at all. But he’d bring that up and the Sheppard girl later. Hearing the hiss of the doors, he looked quickly over his shoulder to see Teyla, Ronan, and Carson enter. “What are you guys doing here?”
“You called for us,” Ronan responded.
“No…”
“Aye, ya did, Lad,” Carson responded.
Teyla walked up to join Elizabeth, “Lantian children?” she asked, even though their apparel didn’t seem to express that heritage. It wasn’t often since her people had moved to the mainland did they have children on Atlantis, but these were older children, almost adults, if not some of them already at that stage.
“I don’t know yet,” Elizabeth responded looking back at Teyla. Looking back at the three lines of four, she tilted her head slightly, “They’re being awfully problematic…”
“We prefer ‘challenging’,” Jake spoke up. “Problematic is usually a term we use when there’s mass chaos…” He smiled at her briefly before going back to staring straight forward again.
“Where are you from?” Elizabeth tried, hoping from a straight answer.
Lily stepped forward not looking at the woman, “Our ancestors are what you call Ancients,” she spoke quietly. “We all carry what you call the ATA gene.” She avoided eye contact with anyone looking at her; she just concentrated at a spot on the wall. “We are entrusted to you,” Lily continued before breaking away from her spot on the wall and looking directly at the woman. She knew who she was, and Lily also knew that she couldn’t ignore her. “Doctor Weir.” Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the small flat metal item that Grandfather had given her. “We are from the future, and I am to give this to you…it explains everything,” she said as she walked towards Weir, her hand open and out offering the item. But when Sheppard stepped in front of her, she jumped and took two steps back.
John studied her, and then tried to grab the metal from her hand that reminded him of some kind of woman’s compact. “I just want to look at it. Make sure it’s safe.”
“It’s safe,” Lily told him closing her hand and pulling back so that he couldn’t take it from her.
Frowning, he glared slightly, “And why does your jacket say ‘Sheppard’ on it? And who said you could steal puddle jumper? I so trademarked it.”
Elizabeth moved quickly between Sheppard and the girl, not wanting him to scare her. “It says Sheppard?” she asked hearing the last part as she stood between them.
“You’re paranoid,” Lily shot at Sheppard. Placing the metal item back on her palm, she spoke in Ancient, just briefly before the metal fluttered open like a flower and a hologram appeared on the platform of Grandfather.
“Doctor Elizabeth Weir, as I’m sure my children have already informed you, they are from the future. These precious children are entrusted to you, as your people are their parents. They are the key to making the future safe for us all. They are the key to destroying the Wraith. Treat them well. Cherish them.”
With that, the hologram of Grandfather disappeared and the metal petal-like pieces folded back until it was flat. Lily just glared at Sheppard before taking her place back at the head of her line and placing the object back into her pocket where it would be safe. How could Grandfather had thought that these ‘parents’ would be able to care for them and ultimately save the future?
*~*~*