John was grinning as an almost bouncing Ford walked along beside him towards the Jumper Bays. The moment Rodney had told them the ceiling had retracted, he’d been eager to get the Jumper out and check out the planet they were on. Ford has bribed his way on the trip with a turkey sandwich.
“Alisa?” he heard Ford say, pulling him out of his thoughts, “What’cha doing?”
The teenager looked up at them from her spot on the stairs, a grimace on her pale face, “Studying.”
“Explain that one to me,” John told her, folding his arms.
Alisa gave a sigh, “Dad, somehow, managed to get everything he’d need for me to be home-schooled. I thought I’d try study here since I can’t get any work done anywhere else.”
John picked up her book and grimaced, “History, yeuch.”
Alisa laughed, “That pretty much sums it up.”
John glanced at Ford and grinned, “We’re going for a little jaunt around the planet. Want to come?”
Alisa’s eyes lit up, “Really?”
John nodded, “Sure. Have a break from studying and get back at it refreshed.”
“That sounds great,” she grinned before hesitating, “I don’t know if Dad will…”
“I’ll talk to your Dad,” John assured her, motioning her to move, “Come on.”
Alisa bounced up and joined the two men. As they entered the Jumper, her eyes ran over everything before she took the seat behind John, watching everything he did intently.
“Flight, this is Jumper Three,” John called over the radio, “We're go for bay launch.”
Alisa and Ford tilted their heads round to see the roof as it slid open, both grinning openly.
“Jumper three, you are good to go,” Peter replied a hint of a grin in his voice.
John motioned Alisa to sit down, “Yes we are,” he murmured as he lifted the ship slowly off the ground.
“This is so cool,” Alisa breathed as they started to speed through the clouds.
“It's strange, not pulling any G’s,” Ford noted after several minutes of skimming the clouds.
“Yeah, kinda miss it,” John nodded in agreement, “Although at this rate of acceleration, we'd be dead by now.”
“Yeah?” Ford asked as he and Alisa shared a glance.
“Oh yeah,” John grinned, staring out into the clouds, “Without inertial dampening we'd be hit by so many G’s our eyes would pop, the skin would pull away from our faces, our brains would squish up to the back of our skulls and our internal organs would be crushed into these chairs.”
“Thank you so much for that image,” Alisa grimaced at the pilot who grinned back at her before turning to Ford.
“What about that sandwich?” John took the offered bag and opened it, removing his prize with a grin, “Flight, we're gonna take a low orbit around the planet. We'll advise when we're back in radio range.”
“Copy that, Jumper Three. Good luck.”
Rodney was getting annoyed. Alisa was meant to be in their quarters, studying as today constituted what would have been the first day of school. His daughter was bright; in fact she was incredibly bright, to his level possibly more but if it didn’t interest her, she couldn’t be bothered to even pretend to learn about it. It was one of the reasons he had to make sure she actually studied everything so she could graduate High School, especially here in the Pegasus galaxy.
However when he’d gone to check on her, she was nowhere to be found. As he checked the few places he could think of where Alisa would have gone, Rodney started to panic because she was nowhere to be found.
“Okay,” he took a deep breath; heading up to the main control room, reasoning that maybe she’d come to see him, he’d told her he’d be there most of the day. However when he reached there, his daughter was nowhere to be seen.
“Where the hell is she?” he snapped to himself, trying very hard to not panic.
Peter glanced up from his console at the question, “Who?”
“Alisa,” Rodney replied, “I can’t find her.”
Peter nodded, “I think she’s with Major Sheppard.”
Rodney sighed, feeling a little better.
“They’re out in the Jumper, looking around the planet,” Peter continued, “They’ll be back soon.”
“What?” anger filled him before he turned to the other man, “Tell me when they’re going to land.”
“Of course, Rodney,” Peter nodded from the console, sighing in relief as the scientist left.
“That was so cool,” Alisa grinned excitedly as she exited the Jumper with John and Ford.
“Alisa Jennifer McKay,” her father’s angry voice made her stop dead.
“Uh oh,” she whispered; turning to where he stood arms folded across his chest, his eyes blazing.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Rodney snapped.
“Rodney,” John started, “It was just a…”
“I will deal with you in a minute, Major;” Rodney cut him off before turning back to his daughter, “What are the rules?”
“Dad…”
“What are the rules, Alisa,” his use of her full name made her wince.
“That if I go out, I tell you where I’m going,” she replied, keeping her eyes down, “And I ask permission for any trips…like that.”
“And did you?” Rodney held up his finger to keep John from answering.
“No,” Alisa replied, still not looking up.
“You’re grounded,” Rodney told her, “One week.”
“Dad,” she protested, looking up for the first time.
“Do you want two?” he snapped.
Alisa dropped her eyes again, “No.”
“Room. Now,” he ordered, watching her until she had left the bay. Once he was sure Alisa was gone, he turned on John, “What the hell did you think you were doing?”
“Come on, McKay,” John replied, “I just took her along for a ride.”
“Without my permission,” Rodney yelled, “How dare you? Alisa is my daughter and you do not ever take her out of this city without first talking to me.”
With that he turned on his heel and strode out of the Jumper Bay.
John let out a long breath, turning to Ford, “I think he was a little mad.”
Rodney headed back to his labs, knowing that going anywhere near his daughter right now was not a good idea. He was in too bad a mood to deal with her. Once he was in the solitude of the lab, he sat down and rested his head in his hands.
He could only think of a few times he’d ever been so scared. Not knowing where she was terrified him to a degree Rodney didn’t know had existed until she’d been born.
*********************************************
Rodney couldn’t actually remember the ride back from the hospital; he wasn’t sure which route had been taken or even how long it took but one minute he’d been in front of the hospital, the next he was back at his apartment building.
Vaguely aware of the man walking beside him carrying a bag; Rodney shifted his daughter to one shoulder as he pulled out his keys, letting them both in. Once inside the apartment, he stopped and felt his heart clench.
“Rodney,” Arthur said softly, worried at how pale the young man had become, “Are you alright?”
Rodney nodded, “Fine,” he managed to say, “I just forgot how much of Lis was in here.”
“I know,” Arthur whispered, the pain of losing his daughter fresh.
“I should put Lissa down,” Rodney murmured absently, heading towards the bedroom where they’d curtained off a corner for the nursery.
Arthur put the baby’s bag on the couch, wondering if they were doing the right thing leaving Rodney alone tonight. It wasn't that they didn’t trust him with the baby, he’d already demonstrated how attached he’d already become to the child but Arthur worried that he would give in to the anguish he was feeling.
“You should probably get home to Andrea,” Rodney’s voice was quiet, filled with melancholy, “We’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay for a while?” Arthur asked.
Rodney shook his head, “I need to get some sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Arthur reached out and placed his hand on the back of Rodney’s neck, “If you need us son, just call. Okay?”
Rodney nodded, not trusting himself to speak as his father-in-law hugged him tightly. He forced back the tears threatening to overwhelm him as Arthur let him go.
“We’ll see you tomorrow,” Arthur sighed before he left Rodney alone.
“We’re not in just now,” the message told him, “But leave a message after the beep.”
Rodney sat with the phone to his ear, listening to the message for about the fifth time but this time, instead of hanging up, he managed to speak.
“Mom, Dad,” he said, “I don’t know if you’ll care but two things happened to me recently that I think you should know. My fiancée, Alisa died. She had cancer and she died,” Rodney stopped, taking a deep breath before continuing, “Before she died she was pregnant and now I have a daughter. I don’t know if you care but if you do you have my number.”
With that said he dropped the phone back into its cradle exhausted. They’d met Alisa once at Jeannie’s birthday party and hadn’t been too receptive to the fact they were engaged, his father had muttered something about them being far too young. Rodney wasn't sure why he’d called them, he hadn’t spoken to them in a long time but he needed someone to be there for him just now, he needed to feel that he had support and they were the only ones he could think of.
He was jolted out of his thoughts as his daughter started to cry. He quickly headed into the room and lifted her from her cradle. Her pink face was screwed up, her tiny fists clenched as she used her powerful lungs to show her displeasure. Rodney brought her into the lounge and picked up her bottle, settling on the couch he began to feed her smiling slightly as he watched her guzzle down the milk. He never expected this, never expected to be alone on her first night home. Once she finished, he gently rested her on his shoulder rubbing her back, after a while he realised she was asleep again. Rodney moved to place her back in her crib before stopping and using the pillows created a small safe space on the bed before he lay beside her. As Rodney lay watching his baby girl sleep, his eyes drifted shut and sleep finally claimed him until Alisa started screaming a few hours later.
The rain battered down upon them as they stood in the graveyard, watching the coffin being lowered into the ground. Andrea and Arthur stood beside him Arthur’s arm was wrapped tightly around his wife holding her as she cried, Rodney stood beside them with his daughter held close to him, thankfully fast asleep at this moment in time.
He sat silently in the car heading back to Andrea and Arthur’s house for the wake, his eyes constantly on Alisa and he refused to let anyone else hold her. Only Andrea was allowed and that was only because Rodney had to fix her dinner.
Finally everyone left, their condolences whispered and Rodney sat in the lounge with his mother and father in law, simply staring into space. He looked up when Alisa was taken from his arms.
“I’ll put her down,” Andrea told him, leaving the room before he could protest.
“Have you thought about what you’re going to do, Rodney,” Arthur asked, jolting him into the room again.
“Do?” Rodney asked.
“Alisa told us you were offered a job recently,” Arthur replied softly.
Rodney nodded, “I don’t know how I’ll be able to do it though. I can’t leave Lissa for such a long time each day and if I’m in a lab…”
“She will be fine with us, Rodney,” Andrea reminded him as she re-entered the room.
Rodney frowned, “I guess I just don’t want to leave her.”
“We understand,” Arthur reminded him, making Rodney wince.
Rodney licked his lips, “If I do take it, I’ll make sure I am here for her as much as possible. That I’ll…”
“We know, Rodney,” Arthur cut him off, “Go and get some sleep and we can discuss it properly tomorrow morning.”
Rodney gave a sad smile, “Thanks. Goodnight.”
Rodney was woken up a few hours later by his daughter screaming. Tiredly he got out of bed and picked her up, changing her quickly before rocking her back to sleep. He sat watching her; amazed that he’d had a part in making this little angel.
“I can’t do this,” he frowned, “I can’t. You’re going to end up hating me, I know it.”
Rodney didn’t know how to raise a kid; he didn’t know what to do when he had to discipline her or how he was going to talk to her. He was awful when it came to dealing with kids and they hated him just as much.
Rodney reached into the crib and touched his finger to her hand; smiling as even in her sleep, she gripped it tightly, “Guess I have absolutely no choice in the matter,” he laughed softly to himself. There was no way on Earth he could give her up and he was just going to have to find out everything the hard way.
*********************************************
The past few days had been hell, Rodney decided, especially the stress Bates’ suspicion of Teyla had on the team, to them going after and capturing the Wraith and the fact that Alisa had been ignoring him since he’d grounded her, wasn’t making his home-life any easier.
Entering their quarters, after being released by Carson after their mission to capture the Wraith, Rodney wasn't surprised to find her sitting flipping through a book staring out across the ocean not bothering to turn to acknowledge his presence in the room.
“Lissa,” he greeted her, not surprised that she didn’t even look at him, “Alright, that’s enough.”
“What?” Alisa asked quietly, still not looking at him.
Rodney sat next to her and took the book making, her glance up at him, “I’m sick of you ignoring me, Lissa. We agreed on the rules a long time ago and you broke them meaning you have to take the consequences. Here in Atlantis, they are more important than ever before; do you understand that, Lissa? This place can be very dangerous and I need to know that you understand that fact.”
“I do,” Alisa murmured.
“Good,” Rodney replied, “Because the work I’m doing is important.”
“Yeah,” she snorted, “More important than anything else.”
Rodney stared, realising what she meant, “Nothing is more important to me than you, Lissa. Nothing. Do you have any idea how terrified I was when I couldn’t find you?”
Alisa looked up at him surprised.
“Lissa, why didn’t you come and ask me?” Rodney asked, deciding to try another way of talking to her.
Alisa shrugged, “I don’t know. Major Sheppard said he’d talk to you and…”
“And you hoped that’d be enough,” Rodney finished for her, “because I couldn’t object if you’d already been.”
Alisa nodded, not looking up at him.
“I would have said yes to you going by the way,” Rodney told her, making his daughter look up at him confused.
“Really?” disbelief covered her face.
Rodney nodded, “The database told me there were no threats that could take down the Jumper on this planet when we first got here. Not to mention, I do actually trust Sheppard.”
“I’m sorry, Dad,” Alisa sighed.
“I know, kiddo,” Rodney smiled and pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly, “This time, and this time only, your grounding is revoked but the rules are there for a reason and the next time you break them, there will be no reprieve.”
“Thank you, Dad,” Alisa smiled, hugging him back.
Rodney sighed in relief before pulling away, “Okay, let’s go get dinner.”
“One thing, Dad,” Alisa said with a hopeful look, “I can’t study like this. I’m bored and I was hoping you could find some way for me to help out in the labs?”
“Well I could use…”
“Not with you,” she cut him off.
“How about Zelenka?” Rodney suggested as they left the room.
Alisa nodded, “That’d be good.”
“I’ll talk to him,” Rodney promised her, “But you still have to do the rest of your schoolwork. Deal?”
“Deal.”
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