Well everyone, this is it. These are just a few little peeks into Miley's life. I hope they bring you as much joy as they did me!

Epilogues

1

~o~ Several Months Later ~o~

~o~ Miley ~o~

After months of physical training, mental stimulation, team building, and, you know, graduating high school, I was in the middle of nowhere. Well, I was on the Daedalus in a hyperdrive window in the Pegasus galaxy. For the millionth time, I paced the length of the ship to end up in the cafeteria so I could look out at the glowing green atmosphere without driving Col. Caldwell insane.

Since the whole Wraith in the parking garage debacle, I had suffered through what remained of my high school career. After that things went both really quickly . . . and slowly. Basic training was a lifetime in and of itself, then it took a while to get the training and formal approval for Atlantis, and then finally it took so long to actually travel between galaxies.

Because my luck, the gate bridge got blown up. I suspected Sheppard, but no one was willing to verify.

And now I was just a half hour out of being home.

It was going to be the start of a whole new life for me. Jake and I broke up, something about going to two very different places. But we were still friends. You know, intergalactic pen pals. Lilly and Oliver were weirded out my whole military thing, but accepted it.

My musings were interrupted by the green fading out into an endless expanse of stars. A planet was barely visible through the lower edge of the window.

A rush of orders and us new recruits were ready to be beamed down.

The Asgard beaming technology felt no weirder than stepping through the gate. Crazy the things you could get used to.

We rematerialized in the gate room of Atlantis. Familiar faces were waiting there for us. Or well, more specifically, me.

"Hey, Airman Stewart," Sheppard said.

"Hello, Colonel." My perfect military form was messed up by a surprise hug from Ronon that lifted my feet off the floor.

"Don't break the new people," Sheppard said with a smile.

I noticed the other new military personnel watching us with interest.

"It's good to have you back officially," Teyla said with a big smile.

"Yeah, I see you went the easy route with airman instead of doctor," Rodney added.

"I could do your job before I had a high school diploma, remember?" I retorted.

"Hey, kids, let's behave," Sheppard said.

And then the warning alarms began to blare.

Yep, I was finally home.

2

~o~ One Day in Atlantis ~o~

Sheppard and I were heading to meet with Ronon and Teyla for a sparring session. We turned a corner and Rodney was heading toward us with a few other blue shirts.

"Oh, hey! Miley, there's someone you should meet," Rodney said.

"Okay?" I replied.

"This here is Dr. Morgan Stewart," he said with an unusually large grin. "You know, Dr. M. Stewart."

"Oh, hi . . ." I said awkwardly.

The woman just gave an equally uncertain wave.

"I'm sorry for accidentally stealing your identity," I told her.

"It's fine. Glad you didn't die as me, would have been awkward for my family."

"Mine too," I agreed.

We did an awkward head nod before continuing on our separate ways.

"You like me better than her, right?" I jokingly asked Sheppard once the scientists were out of ear shot.

"Definitely," he replied in a way that there was no way for me to actually know if he was lying or not.

"Good."

3

~o~ A Mission ~o~

I stared out at the beautiful leafy greens that the actual Dr. M. Stewart could probably name but I couldn't. The sky was a gorgeous blue and the weather was temperate. But something just felt so off to me.

"Hey, Lorne," I called to the leader of my team.

"Yeah, Stewart?"

"I gotta say, we've done like, nine other missions with me officially part of your team, right?"

"Something like that," Lorne replied.

"It's just weird. I haven't been abducted by Wraith, shot, maimed, cloned, killed, and I'm honestly just not used to that," I explained.

"This is what missions are supposed to be like. Go check a village, village is good, trade some stuff, go home. You've just had what we like to call the Sheppard Paradox. Nine out of ten missions go smoothly, Sheppard just tends to always be that other one."

"Huh. Quiet missions where everything goes according to plan? I think I could get used to this. It has been so quiet today."

Lorne spun around at my statement.

"You did not just say that."

"What?"

"You never say—"

Suddenly there were screams from the village up ahead. Flames rained down around us.

"Is that a dragon?" an airman shouted.

Lorne and I locked gazes. His death glare boring into my soul.

"Guess we're that lucky other one this time," I said meekly. But oddly, it felt right.

4

~o~ Several Years Later ~o~

"Hey, Sheppard," Col. Carter said, stopping him in the hall.

"What's up?"

"Can you explain to me why half of my expedition wants Saturday off and Earth access?" Carter asked.

"Yeah, Captain Stewart's graduating," Sheppard answered like it explained everything.

"Pardon?"

"She's getting her PhD . . ." he continued. Carter just shook her head like this wasn't giving her enough information. "In botany?"

"And what does that have to do with the heads of over half my departments plus nearly twenty other people wanting to be there?"

"It's kind of a joke."

"That everyone wants to take off?"

Sheppard stared at her for a moment.

"Right! You weren't here for that. Captain Stewart's the girl who accidentally showed up here at Atlantis as M. Stewart the botanist when she was a teenager. Now she's actually becoming Dr. Miley Stewart! She says it's a long running joke, but it's something she's been working on over the years."

"Finally, an answer that makes some sort of sense."

"So . . . do we get the day off?" Sheppard inquired.

"Barring any emergency, I guess I'll approve it."

~o~ Miley ~o~

"Dr. Miley Stewart," the announcer called.

The cheer that rose from one section of the audience was deafening. A sea of thirty people calling out my name and whooping. It was by far the biggest crowd for any one student.

The party after was filled with people from every corner of the planet and beyond.

"So, Parrish, I never really asked . . ." I started to inquire.

"We're colleagues now, call me Nikola," Atlantis's reigning botany expert said with a toothy grin.

"Right, Nikola, what got you started in botany?" I finished asking.

"You could say that I started out in a more electric field of science but got a bit tired of dealing with currents so at the advice of my dear friend Dr. Helen Magnus, I switched to spending time with good ol' mother nature. She said I would get into less trouble this way . . ."

"Well, I couldn't have done this without your help so, cheers." I held up my drink to his.

"Cheers to you, Doctor," Dr. Nikola Parrish replied.

5

~o~ At some point ~o~

A group of assorted military officers sat around a table in the Atlantis mess hall.

"No, no, the best conspiracy theory, hands down, is that one about the punk pop star being replaced by a body double!" Lt. Julia Wicker said.

"I still have to go with the government faking the moon landing," Airman Coldwater replied.

"Here's where we're going to have to disagree," Captain Waugh slipped in. "You're forgetting America's greatest disappearing act."

"Who, Eliot?" Dr. Quinn asked him.

"The mysterious disappearance of teen pop sensation Hannah Montana."

"Ooh, that's a good one," Major Hanson said.

"That one's simple. The boyfriend killed her. I never liked that Jake Ryan guy. And it's always the boyfriend," Dr. Adiyodi said confidently.

"Or maybe she just retired from the limelight," Wicker offered.

"I think it was aliens," Dr. Hoberman exclaimed. The others just looked at him like he was crazy. "Guys, we fight aliens on a daily basis, how is it so crazy that she was abducted?"

"He's right for once," Waugh said. "I'd say aliens. Probably Asgard."

"She was a voice of a generation though, wasn't she?" Hanson said, raising a glass. "She had that super unique laugh that made you feel like everything should be that funny."

"She did," Adiyodi agreed.

Across the room Captain Miley Stewart and Major Jesse Mason walked into the cafeteria hand-in-hand. Jesse must have said something funny because Miley threw her head back in laughter.

The group from the table all turned in unison at the sound. The exchange of looks were anywhere from shocked to disbelief.

"No," Waugh said.

"Couldn't be," Hanson agreed.

"Told you it was aliens," Hoberman said.