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Author's Chapter Notes: I was considering making this a series with the kids, but I don’t think there’s enough interest in this story that would fuel me enough to keep it going…


2006 ~ Atlantis Conference Room

It had been a week since Lily had come to plead with the senior staff to let them help. Elizabeth hadn’t given her an answer; she had just said that they’d think things over. And she had. But it was hard, part of her wanted to protect them because they were children, but then another part of her just wanted to sit down with each one and hear their whole life story and try to learn from the mistakes that had been made. She knew that neither John nor Ronan seemed very excited about the idea, but she figured; why not give them a real chance?

“You’re in here early,” John said as he arrived early himself to the meeting with the senior staff, a bit surprised to see Elizabeth at the conference table alone. “I didn’t miss the meeting, did I? Because if I did…I have a good excuse…” He smiled before taking a seat across from her, and then noticed a couple things he hadn’t picked up when he had first entered the room. She wasn’t at the head of the table like usual…and she looked concerned…even worried… “What’s wrong?” he asked tilting his head trying to read her features.

Putting on a smile for him, she looked up towards him, “I-I’ve just been thinking… I guess I’m just torn…” she explained. “It’s a hard decision… Either way, it seems like I upset someone.”

“You’re still deciding about the kids?” he asked a bit surprised. He had thought that that had already been decided and the decision had been that the kids would not go out on missions or help in any day-to-day duties. Although DNA declared them each uniquely as children of the Atlantis Expedition, Odyssey, and Daedalus…it still didn’t seem right to him. When he saw her nod, he sighed and leaned back in his seat. “You’re thinking about what she said… Elizabeth, she’s using the fact that you’re biologically her mother against us…ya know tugging at your material strings…”

Elizabeth’s smile dropped, “John… If I were in her place…I would ask for you to be included…all of you… I think you’d go crazy otherwise… And it’s not like Lily’s asking us to put her into danger. John, the others are adults…and all they’ve been training for is this… Wouldn’t you want to complete your mission if you’d been training so hard for it?”

“But they’re children…”

Nodding, Elizabeth folded her hands together in front of her. “They’re the children of our senior staff…of Odyssey and Daedalus crew…” she said. “Caldwell has two children who Zelenka simply adores…most of those children are engineers of some kind… Why not let them help? It’s not like they won’t be supervised…after all, you supervised Rodney until he got into how missions work and how to be prepared for missions…”

He crinkled up his face, “But I don’t wanna be a babysitter… I’ve done that already with McKay…”

“Look, John…I’m not going to force you to take one of them with you… I just want to start integrating them into this expedition… Give them some purpose… I wouldn’t assign one of them to you anyways, without your approval…that would be unfair to them and you,” Elizabeth said thinking about how interesting things would be.

“So, I don’t have to take any of them?” John asked perking up. He liked that idea…that meant that he didn’t have to take on one of the children and play babysitter. It wasn’t exactly one of his favorite roles.

Elizabeth pushed forward a file, “I’ve talked to most of them… Not in great depth, but more just to feel like out… I’ve talked to Lily a lot about them, their personalities…strengths…and weaknesses… I know you don’t want one of them with you, but I thought that this person might meet with your approval…”

“Is this some kind of guilt trip?” he asked raising his eyebrows taking the file from her. “If it says Lily Sheppard I’m going to laugh…” he warned keeping his hand over the folder.

She shook her head, “Lily’s too ill, you know that, John…” Elizabeth wanted to add that it wasn’t something to joke about because for all they knew they’d loose Lily. Carson went back and forth on progress or regression reports. One day it looked good, and the next Carson didn’t give her more than a year to live. And though Elizabeth knew she was only her mother by biology at the moment, she still felt a ting of familiarity and motherly attachment to her, which included worry.

Looking down at the file, John slowly opened up the file and stared at the picture. He knew the person in the picture and he had to admit that there were others that he would have thought that Elizabeth would have suggested rather than the one he saw. John had to admit that the ones he had in mind were of another gender… “Caitlin Caldwell?” he questioned. He read over what Elizabeth had jotted down. She seemed reasonable and level-headed. But he wasn’t sure if he wanted her on a team.

“She’s capable, John…” Elizabeth pushed. “We all have to move on…”

John sighed and stared back down at the file, “But she’s a child…” he pointed out. “Shouldn’t she be attending some sort of school? All of them for that matter?”

“They don’t want to,” Elizabeth argued. “Just…please…think about it?” she asked gently. She felt like it was something that they all needed to do. It would be good for morale and her general sanity…

“I’ll think about it…” he told her with a small smile and then nodded his head in the direction of the door as he saw that Teyla had arrived and could hear Rodney arguing with Carson coming right behind her.

*~*~*

The team was ready to ship out a week after John made his decision about taking another person on. It had been hard for him to decide, Elizabeth had seemed to be guilt tripping him and he hated to have her disappointed at him. The military he could deal with, but he didn’t like it when Elizabeth was disappointed in him. It was an irk he had.

There had been another team who had reported back that there was a possible new trading partner on a rural planet with people who were willing to trade. They were going to see what they had to offer and what could be reasoned to trade for anything of interest. Mostly, it would be for food items, but he also figured looking at the local arts and crafts would come in use when he needed a present for someone.

The Atlantis gate slowly dialed out, and John looked about making sure that his team looked ready. Ronan and Teyla he didn’t worry about. Rodney looked bored, which was usually a good sign, it meant that he hadn’t seen anything shiny to be interested and over-hyped about. And then there was Caitlin Caldwell…he wasn’t sure what to think of her. She had performed well in all the training sessions he had had with her, but he knew he wouldn’t know for sure until they were out in the field.

As soon as the event horizon appeared, Ronan and Teyla started towards the Stargate. Rodney followed them after a second. John and Caitlin exchanged looks before John used his head to motion for her to go ahead. He turned and looked upward and saw Elizabeth watching them.

“Good luck,” she told him when she saw him looking back at her.

He gave her his classic boyish smile, “Don’t worry…I’ll look after the kids…” he told her before turning around. There was a kind of tension that he had been feeling ever since the ‘future kids’ had appeared that had seemed to have faded away…it was nice. John took that thought with him as he approached the gate and hoped it was some kind of good omen towards their mission.

*~*~*

The End


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