"The Past Always Finds You"

[kellifer]

So I meant for 'Minor In Action' to have a neat little followup story... and this happened.

Title: The Past Always Finds You - Part One
Author: kellifer_fic
Characters: Team
Rating: PG13
Note: Prologue - the sga_flashfic entry Minor In Action
Spoilers: None.
*Thanks to my beta superfox*

Summary: Sheppard and Lorne are transformed into children by accident and given a new life offworld. Fifteen years later, they find their way home.



…Then …

He had watched the great steam powered Tantou slice through the sky and had thought, I wish to fly too.

When he stepped off the second floor roof of their Taku, he had Lorne’s grubby hand clasped in his own and even though he landed with a soft flump in the Bayou feed, Lorne landed on the cobbled walkway beside it and broke his leg in three places.

“I still wish to fly,” he had informed his parents sulkily as they had set Lorne’s leg and had demanded to know just what had possessed him to do such a thing. They had forbidden him from doing anything like that again so three days later he was back on the roof, Lorne balanced precariously on tiny crutches below, watching with his eyes shaded and a desperate wish to be beside his brother. The ache of his broken leg was nothing compared to the pain of watching him attempt to fly on his own.

Sheppard had looked down at his younger brother and had sighed mightily, leaving the roof and climbing down the stairs to join him below.

“We’ll wait until your leg is better,” he advised solemnly and Lorne smiled.

***

Everybody’s names meant something.

Everybody’s that is, except for his and his brother’s.

“Karei means beauty,” he told his mother, who nodded while trying to work a comb through his unruly hair. “Chikara means strength.” Lorne had been sitting at a tiny table in the corner of the sun-drenched study but looked up with curiosity at his brother’s line of questioning. “The children at school say our names mean nothing.”

His mother clucked her tongue in disapproval. “They know nothing,” she said, annoyance in her tone.

“Then what do they mean?”

His mother paused in her attack on his hair to tap the brush on her chin, brows drawn in thought. “You know how your father and I have told you how you came to be with us?”

“The Gods willed it,” Lorne piped up, his eyes shiny.

“We lost our first son and we wept for a year and on the last day of that year the gods decreed that we had suffered enough and we were gifted with two beautiful boys who brought us more joy than we could have possibly hoped for. On that day, the Gods named you and the meaning of those names is their secret. One day, when you are both tall and strong, you may find your path and the meaning of those names,” Karei said, hugging Sheppard’s tiny frame to her body.

Silently she added, and let it be many years from now.

Later that night, curled around the body of her husband, Karei whispered into his shoulder, “they know they are different.”

Chikara brought her face up so he could trace her brow with a finger. “We will tell them. Just not today.”

For many years to come, he said the same words.

Just not today

…The not too distant Now…

“No!”

The young doctor looked at the man before her with a wary eye. She had only recently been transferred to the Atlantis base and had many stories about the Chief scientific officer but had just thought it was the usual ghost stories to spook the new recruits.

Now the man was before her in the infirmary, turning an alarming shade of red and she was willing to believe every single one.

“Doctor McKay, you haven’t been Earthside for two years. It’s just a suggestion.”

Rodney threw up his hands, rolling his eyes. “You don’t get to tell me what to do,” he snapped and the Doctor had been ready for it.

“In medical situations, I can overrule Doctor Jackson,” she said smartly, crossing arms over her chest. Rodney’s eyes narrowed in response.

“I’m sure that makes you feel all happy and important but I am actually working on important projects at the moment and I can’t really take a…a…holiday.”

“There’s probably always an important project to keep you here,” the Doctor sighed and Rodney snorted.

“Of course.”

“Okay, would you at least consider going to Fiora. I hear it’s nice this time of year and I’m sure you’d like to see Doctor Zelenka. A nice, Wraith-free galaxy and another Ancient outpost that’s only just up and running. It will almost be a holiday. Just, your kind.”

“I can’t… I just don’t like leaving Atlantis,” Rodney said seriously, one hand drifting unconsciously to trace the line of a wall. The Doctor was watching him with her brow furrowed, knowing that there was more to the reluctance of the ‘Heritage’ Atlanteans to leave.

She’d heard all the rumours before she came. Doctor Weir had held onto her post until only three years before, when she finally relinquished it to oversee the building and command of a large battle platform in the far reaches of Pegasus, and apparently only when she knew Doctor Jackson, who had for all intents and purposes was retired, had signed on to take over.

Teyla Emmagen was still a familiar face, although she spent most of her time on the three larger offworld Athosian settlements and then there was the large Satedan, Ronon Dex, who now headed his own offworld team and had refused to give up the role for a more sedentary position. He had trained a black ops team who specialized in extraction but spent most of his time cooling his heels since the Wraith had gone silent four years before.

Something not unheard of, but deeply troubling all the same.

“Look, are you going to sign off on the physical or not?” Rodney asked, impatience in his tone. When he snapped his fingers in front of the Doctor’s face, she jerked out of her own reverie and offered an apologetic smile, looking down at his chart. “Alright, if I swear to take a trip to Fiora next month, is that enough to get me a rubber stamp?”

“Why next month?”

Rodney harrumphed, pulling his jacket on. “Elizabeth’s due to visit in about five days. We have a…call to make.”

The Doctor canted her head, but knew it was not her place to ask although her curiosity burned. “Alright,” she agreed. “One month and then at least a minimum of three weeks rest for you.”

“Yes, fine,” Rodney threw over his shoulder as he bustled out of the infirmary.

***

“Rodney!”

Rodney spun just in time to catch a still annoyingly sprightly Teyla launch herself at him. He hugged her awkwardly before setting her back on her feet and grimacing as he knuckled the small of his back. “Must you injure me every time you see me?” he complained, but couldn’t hide the genuine grin of pleasure at her presence. She’d been gone seven months that time, the gaps between her trips home lengthening. He was pleased and more than a little relieved that she was back early which meant he got to see her for a week before she traipsed off again.

“I know how you love to visit the infirmary and it is my duty as a friend to give you a genuine need,” Teyla smiled and Rodney grunted, nettled that his most recent visit to the infirmary would mean that he would be steering clear for some time to come.

“Have you seen Ronon yet?” Rodney asked, lowering himself into one of the large black padded chairs in the control room and hooking the other with a foot, dragging it over beside him that Teyla dropped into with a grateful smile.

“No. Major Easton informed me that he was offworld on training,” she replied, looking disappointed.

“Ah, yes. Apparently he’s bored so Daniel sent him out with the new influx of marines we just got. I thought he was back today though. It must be later this afternoon.”

“Good. It has been too long since I have seen either of you.”

“Well, you know where we live.” Rodney grimaced, knowing that his words had a tinge of accusation to them but Teyla met his eyes, looking serious.

“The winter on the newer settlement has been hard and we have lost many crops and much livestock. We may have to abandon the world. It seems there may be a winter every five hundred years that renders the environment unlivable. We have been deciphering the texts of those that lived underneath the surface and are starting to understand why they lived beneath. This is not a way of life the Athosians can adapt to. We are a people who need to sun.”

“Ah, that’s not so good,” Rodney allowed.

“No. That is why I am here. Daniel has allowed me a group of scientists to take back to the settlement to determine whether this weather will remain and what conditions we can expect.”

Rodney blinked. “I thought you were just early.”

It was Teyla’s turn to look confused. “Early?”

Rodney felt cold all over. “For… the call,” he said slowly.

Teyla blanched. “I had…I am only here for a matter of hours and I don’t know when I’ll be able to return. Our calendar is different and I…” Teyla looked away and Rodney realized she was lying and that she knew exactly what date it was. He leaned forward and grasped her shoulder, giving it a tiny shake so her eyes which had darted away would come back up to meet his again. “There has been so much loss this year. I am not sure I am strong enough to do this again.”

“When did this stop being hope for you and start being a meaningless ritual?” Rodney snapped, pushing away from the desk and coming to his feet only to meet the solid bulk of Ronon.

“Don’t be mad at her. We’ve all been feeling it for a while,” Ronon said mildly, his eyes sad.

“Oh really?” Rodney jutted his chin, looking defiant.

“Yes, really. Carson let it go six years ago when he went back to Earth. Elizabeth, finally, three years ago when she left Atlantis. It took Teyla a little longer but the last two years she’s been looking at the gate with dread rather than expectation.”

“What about you?”

Ronon shrugged slightly, a gentle lift of one shoulder. “I’m stubborn and also very patient.”

“Okay, well, it’ll be just you and me then.”

“McKay, you gave up before any of us, the moment they stepped through the ‘gate that last time.”

Rodney opened his mouth, looking appalled. “How can you say that?”

“Because after all this time, I think I know you, just a little. You lost all hope the moment you couldn’t see him anymore but our hope was enough for you. That’s why you’re so mad at Teyla.”

“I never gave up on them,” Rodney snarled, fists clenched.

“I didn’t say you ever would. You just don’t expect to ever see them again. Doesn’t mean you won’t stop trying. I’ve seen you when you just expect something to work. I know the difference.”

“I can’t just let it go,” Rodney said, losing all the fight in him.

“None of us are. We have this argument every year and yet all of us are here. Teyla will be, Elizabeth’s coming. You and I. We’re all too stubborn.”

“Teyla said she couldn’t-“

“I’ll be here,” Teyla sighed, real regret in her tone, like she was fighting a losing battle against the tide and had never expected to win.

“I do still hope,” Rodney said, knowing that it was true, in some small way. However much his rational mind told him it was ridiculous and that he would never see John Sheppard or Nicholas Lorne again after that first time they dialed the Graeneve and got nothing after they had passed through, he couldn’t let it go.

Not completely.

Part Two