Alisa rolled her eyes as she listened to her father and Radek playing their favourite game, Prime-Not Prime.
She gave a long sigh as she walked beside her father, not surprised when he turned to her.
“What?”
“It’s a sad, sad day,” Alisa said as she moved to Radek’s side, away from her father, “When you realise your parent is insane.”
Rodney glared at her, “Why are you here?”
“I believe the conversation went something like this.” Alisa said, slightly dramatically, “You said you were all going to check out to see what damage the storm had caused out here in the outer reaches of the city, I mused aloud at what I could do with a free day, maybe ask John to take me out on a Jumper again and you said I was coming too. So ask again.”
Rodney shook his head disgusted, turning to Radek, “You know, it was so much nicer when she couldn’t talk. I miss those days of peace and quiet.”
“You taught her too well, Rodney,” Radek patted his shoulder in mock sympathy, “It is a tragedy for us all.”
“Hey,” Alisa cried indignantly but was interrupted as Elizabeth called Rodney.
The day had turned into a nightmare that Alisa wanted to waken from but she couldn’t. Her father was going to die, this time it was for certain because they’d watched the people before him die. Just like Hays had moments before.
“How are you feeling?” Ford asked Rodney, while keeping a comforting hold on his daughter.
Rodney swallowed, “I'm ... I'm ...” he trailed off and his eyes firmed decisively, “Listen, I have a sister.”
“What?” Alisa breathed in shock.
Rodney looked at her sadly, “We're not close, I don't even know how you'd find her.”
Ford frowned at him, “Don't talk like that.”
“She's the only family Alisa has,” Rodney snapped, his eyes rested on his daughter’s pale face, “So someone should tell her what happened.”
“Dad…”
“I just want you to have someone, Lissa,” he told her, “Jeannie will be there for you,” he swallowed again, “Zelenka, I've got some theories on looping the power on the Gate to charge a dummy ZedPM. It probably won't work, but-but you should have someone look at it cause it might lead somewhere else.”
“We'll look at it together,” Radek told him.
“Look,” Rodney snapped getting angry, a few tears welling in his eyes, “You seriously have to stop interrupting my last thoughts. I mean, this is important stuff you need to hear. Now, if you're here for more than a year, I've left some notes on how to roll blackouts to effectively maintain your power requirements and-and, oh, tell everyone that I was, I was inches away from a Theory of Unification but uh, uh, the notes, they were lost when I died saving…”
“Kids?” Radek suggested.
“Yeah,” he paused; looking around the room, expecting ghostly visions to start. He turned around slowly staring towards the ceiling, but still the horrors didn’t come. After a long moment Rodney looked confused, “OK. I should be dead now.”
Carson moved over to him interest in his eyes, “You ran into Dumais at the same time?”
“Exactly the same time,” Rodney confirmed.
“Then, yes,” Carson told him. “You should be dead.”
Rodney stared at the others in the room astonished, “Oh, God!” he grinned at his daughter, “I'm still here.”
Ford nodded, holding up Alisa who was taking deep breaths, “Yes you are.”
“Interesting,” Radek mused.
Rodney turned on him “Interesting?”
Carson looked at him thoughtfully, “Don't take this the wrong way, but...”
“Why?” Radek finished for him
Carson nodded, “Exactly. “
Rodney started to laugh, “Well, I don't care.” he moved and grabbed his daughter in a tight embrace, “I mean, I really don't care!”
“Me neither,” Alisa breathed, hugging him just as tightly.
*********************************************
Alisa had travelled back to the main part of the city, just wanting to crawl into her bed and sleep for a week. Unfortunately her mind kept going over and over something her father had said when he thought he was dying.
She had an aunt.
There was actually more to her family than just herself and her father, it was something she’d never dreamed of. As much as she loved him, she’d always desired there to be more than just the two of them. A lot of that was because she wanted there to be someone her father could talk to.
It niggled at the back of her brain that he’d lied about that, what else hadn’t he told her.
“Lissa?” Rodney called; entering their room, finding her curled up in the chair with the laptop hooked up so she could watch a movie.
“Hey,” she paused the film, “Are you finished playing with the virus?”
He frowned at her, “We had to study it while we could.”
“Yeah,” she muttered sharply.
Rodney sighed; he really wasn’t in the mood for a fight just now, “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong,” Alisa cried incredulously, “I don’t know. Let’s try the fact that I have an aunt.”
“Oh,” Rodney groaned.
“Yeah,” Alisa continued with a roll of her eyes, “And you know, I’m not angry, anymore. I just want to know if I have any other relatives running around you’ve forgotten to mention.”
“Lissa…”
“Dad,” she stared at him confused, “Why did you never tell me? Were you ashamed of me?”
“Honey,” he sighed, moving to her, “No, never. Sit down.”
Alisa sat cross-legged on the couch, facing him as he sat across from her.
“Alright, Lissa,” Rodney started, “What you have to understand is that my parents didn’t actually like me.”
Alisa spread her hands, waiting for the punch line, “Meaning.”
Rodney rubbed his eyes, “They had very definite plans for after they were married, that were ruined when my mother found out she was pregnant. They always made sure I knew this.”
“So you were an accident,” Alisa shrugged, “So was I.”
Rodney laughed fondly, “You were an accident, I was a mistake.”
“Ow,” Alisa muttered.
“Anyway, they met your Mom when we went to your aunt’s birthday party one year,” he continued slightly wistfully, “They both went on and on about how we were too young to get married, to young to even think about it.”
Rodney paused and sighed, “My father is…the only way I can put it is ultra-religious, though I don’t think he even follows a specific religion.”
“That’s why we’re not,” Alisa noted.
Rodney nodded, “Anyway, if I’d told them your mother was pregnant without us being married, would not have been a good thing.”
“Do they know I exist?” Alisa whispered.
Rodney moved and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, “I called just after you were born, I still don’t know why. I think I was still in shock, anyway I got the answering machine so I left a message.”
“They never called back,” Alisa saw the sadness in his father’s eyes, “Did they?”
Rodney shook his head, “And just after your 1st birthday, I took you to see them.”
Rodney stopped the car outside the house he’d grown up in, wondering once more why he was doing this. He rolled his eyes as he remembered, it was because Andrea had told him continuously that Alisa’s other grandparents should get to know her.
Getting out he went to the back of the car, opening the door he smiled down at his sleeping daughter. Gently he disentangled her from the car seat, lifting her onto his shoulder, being very careful not to wake her before pulling her bag onto his shoulder. Slamming the door shut, he turned to the house and swallowed hard, he could do this.
Shifting the slumbering child on his shoulder to a slightly more comfortable position, Rodney started towards the door.
He heard the ominous footsteps of his father coming and held onto his daughter as she snuggled closer to him.
The door opened and Rodney found himself face to face with his father.
“What are you doing here?” Stuart McKay demanded, his eyes falling on the baby asleep on his shoulder, “What are you doing with that?”
“This is my daughter,” Rodney snapped back, his voice quiet so not to wake her.
“Get out of here before your mother sees you here,” Rodney’s father yelled at him, “And take your…bastard with you.”
Rage flowed through Rodney, how could this son-of-a-bitch not want this little angel that slept on his shoulder? How could he not want his own granddaughter?
Rodney glared at him, for the first time in his life not afraid of the man who’d terrorised him throughout his childhood.
“I came here,” Rodney forced out through gritted teeth, “To let you see your first grandchild. Look at her because you’ll never see her again. I will not put my daughter through the shit you put me through.”
With that said he turned and headed back to the car, putting his daughter safely into her seat before he drove away, refusing ever to return or contact them again.
Alisa stared at her father once he’d finished telling her the story. After a few seconds, she moved and wrapped her arms tightly around him.
“Dad, I don’t want to meet them either,” she said, “They can go to hell, we don’t need them.”
Rodney hugged her back, “Thanks, Lissa,” he sighed, “But your aunt more than likely didn’t have a choice then I didn’t contact her.”
“Then maybe we should try once we find a way to contact Earth,” Alisa told him decisively, “Because…I’d like to meet her.”
Rodney smiled and gave her one more squeeze, “Alright, honey. I have to go and try find out more about the virus.”
Alisa nodded, “I’m going to get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning, Dad.”
Rodney smiled and waved her away, “Night, Lissa.
*********************************************
“Good morning,” Alisa greeted John the next morning as she dropped to sit across from him, “I hear you got your ass chewed out by Weir for what you did yesterday.”
John frowned at her, “What happened to respecting your elders?”
“Yeah, keep hoping for that,” she took a bite of her toast.
John watched her for a few minutes, “How are you, after the scare you had yesterday?”
Alisa shrugged, “I’m getting kinda used to it, which I think has to be the strangest thing of all. Fear he’s going to die, then he’s okay and life goes on.”
“That’s a pretty weird thing for a teenager,” John told her, “I mean…”
“John,” she cut him off, “I’m sixteen. I’m not a kid anymore. Especially after everything I’ve seen here. And yesterday is just one more thing I have to tell my therapist.”
John laughed, “Heightmeyer is always available.”
“I’m waiting till I can send the therapist to therapy,” she grinned, “More fun that way.”
“You’re seriously weird,” John told her, smiling as she gave him a cheeky grin while munching on the remains her breakfast.
Alisa shrugged.
“What are your plans today?” John asked, as they both finished eating.
Alisa shrugged, “The dynamic duo are still working on the nanite thing so I am free from any actual work today.”
“Cool,” John told her as they started walking along the corridors, “I’ve not got anything either, some rubbish about flying too near a nuclear explosion.”
“Oh yeah,” she laughed at him, “That’s rubbish. Of course.”
They continued through the corridors, neither had anywhere particular to be so they started to randomly meander through the city.
“I overheard your Dad mention he had…”
“A sister,” Alisa cut him off, “Yeah, he told me about it last night.”
John looked at her confused, “You seem pretty okay with it.”
“I am,” she replied, “Now. I mean when I first found out he was dying, so I couldn’t be angry then I was relieved he wasn’t dead. Then I thought about everyone else here and I realised I’m lucky.”
“How?”
“Do you have any family?” Alisa asked him.
John stopped walking, “What?”
“It’s ‘cause you don’t talk about anyone, John,” Alisa told him, “Carson, talks about his Mom, Peter about his two sisters even Bates talks about his brother. But you…you never talk about anyone. Do you have anybody back on Earth who gives a damn about you?”
John shrugged, “It’s not important.”
“Why not?”
“Here,” John waved his hand around, “This is where my family is. I have your Dad and Carson who somehow have become like brothers to me, while Ford is a younger brother. Weir, who is an older sister but tell her I called her older I will kill you.”
Alisa giggled, “What about Teyla.”
John mused, “The good-looking cousin who intimidates me.”
Alisa continued to laugh.
“Then,” John draped an arm around her shoulders, “There’s little old you.”
“What am I?” she asked with a worried grimace.
“Annoying as hell,” John told her, “But I guess I kinda think of you as a niece, if you don’t mind.”
Alisa smiled at him, “You do realise the downside to having a brilliant and talented niece like I, is the fact…I will hit you for cash.”
*********************************************
The night sky was clear with the stars bright above them. On the balcony, Alisa lay next to the railing waiting for the meteor shower that had been predicted. Rodney was sitting leaning against a wall sipping coffee, John was sitting beside him with Teyla at his side. Carson was leaning on the rail beside Ford, who was trying to name some constellations.
“Is there any room out here?” Elizabeth asked, appearing at the door.
John turned round to look at her, “Grab a spot. Apparently there’s about five minutes before the show.”
“Peter better move his ass or he’ll miss it,” Alisa said from her spot on the ground, “What?” she cried as Rodney nudged her shoulder slightly with his foot.
“Language,” he told her.
“I’ve been living with Marines for months,” Alisa shot back, “Be thankful that’s the worst I came out with.”
“She has a point,” John laughed.
“Point or not,” Rodney replied, elbowing John, “Watch your language.”
“Yes, Dad,” she smiled at him before looking up at the stars again.
“Am I late?” Peter arrived, his arm filled with snacks.
Alisa looked up, “Not yet.”
“Good,” he squeezed onto the small balcony, managing to find a space in the corner and started handing out the last of the chocolate, “This is a pretty tight squeeze.”
Rodney gently nudged his daughter’s shoulder again, “If someone would sit up there’d be more room.”
Alisa batted his foot away, “I’m one tiny person. You take up more room sitting than I do lying here.”
“She’s got you there, Rodney,” John noted.
“It’s starting,” Carson called before Rodney could retort.
The eight people on the small balcony all looked up into the cloudless sky, watching in awe as the meteors lit up the sky.
From his seat on Rodney glanced around the group of people there, his gaze landing on his daughter. For many years he’d wondered if he’d done the right thing in cutting all contact with his family, if he’d done the best thing by lying to his little girl about them. He’d become afraid as she grew up and found out she’d resent him. But she didn’t hate him.
Alisa took the information in her stride because she did have more family than just him. Everyone on this balcony adored her, she was treated by them as part of the family, they treated him as part of the family and it was something he hadn’t had in a long time.
Alisa gave him a cheeky grin before returning to watch the sky and Rodney grinned back before looking up again.
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Winner of the Atlantis challenge for the December 2007 fic challenge contest.
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