Title: My Family.
Summary: It's Elizabeth's turn. Sequel to InLaws.
Paring: Sheppard/Weir
Spoilers: Probably won't be any, but anything from season one is fair game.
Disclaimer: Stargate Atlantis is not mine. Only the story line and any made up characters that may appear in the story belong to me.
A/N: The character Hannah Alexandra Sheppard is the creation of Jenn R. She has kindly allowed me the use of her character for this story. I hope I do the character justice.
'Signing'
/signing and talking at the same time/
Standing inside the Colorado Springs airport John paced back and forth nervously, while Elizabeth, amused by the sight, sat watching him. John's little sister Hannah Alexandra's – Alexis as he called her – plane was due to arrive at any minute. When Elizabeth had first brought up meeting his family John had been against the idea, it wasn't that he didn't want Elizabeth to meet his family or vis-versa, quite the opposite actually he'd love it if Elizabeth and Alexis got along. It was just that neither of them had, had the greatest family life growing up, not like Elizabeth had, had anyway.
When Alexis had been about a year old she'd gotten sick and started loosing her hearing. If it hadn't been for John taking care of her their parents probably would have handed Alexis off to someone else; John had never minded taking care of his little sister even though there was almost a 16 year age gap between them. John's parents had been the free spirited, peace loving, hippie types and when at the age of 18 John had announced he was joining the Air Force his parents had reacted badly and literally disowned him.
So fearing what might happen to his sister, John had taken Alexis with him when he left home. He'd neither seen nor heard from his parents since and didn't really care where they were or if they were even still alive. The plan had been that while John was doing his service, setting aside enough money for Alexis and him to live comfortably, Alexis would live with John's best friend's family. When Alexis was 9 it had been suggested that she be enrolled in The Learning Center for Deaf Children, a private school in Framingham; she's been going to school there for the last 8 years.
John had actually been planning to retire after he'd gotten himself banished to Antarctica, but then he'd learned about the Stargate, the threat earth was under, and the fact that he had a gene in his body that let him operate alien technology. At first he'd said no to the Atlantis expedition because he didn't want to leave his sister behind, but after he thought about it, the whole reason he'd joined the Air Force was so that in some small way he could help protect his sister from danger and what better way to do that than by trying to help find away to keep earth safe from an outside threat most people couldn't even imagine. So even though John had known the chances of it being a one way trip he'd agreed to go.
After several days of Elizabeth hounding him about meeting his family John had given in and contacted his sister. Since the school was out on summer vacation Alexis had decided to go visit John and Elizabeth in Colorado instead of them going to Framingham; she'd be staying with them until after the wedding. Finally after what felt like an eternity John spotted his 17 year old sister coming towards him. Grinning John engulfed his teenage sister in a bear hug. John couldn't believe how much Alexis had grown up; he'd been expecting to see the scrawny little girl that use to follow him around everywhere, dragging her raggedy old stuffed bear along.
'Look at you. Who gave you permission to go and get older on me?' John signed, greeting Alexis.
'You're one to be talking old man.' Alexis signed back as she ruffled John's hair.
'Hey no messing with the hair. It takes me forever to get it just right.' John pulled his head back slightly.
'Right.' Alexis rolled her eyes. John was about to retort when he felt something poke him in the back, turning his head he found that the poker was Elizabeth.
/Right sorry, Alexis this is Elizabeth. Elizabeth this is my sister Alexis./ John introduced the two most important women in his life to each other.
'Nice to meet you.' Alexis held out her hand.
'It's nice to meet you, too.' Elizabeth signed back.
"You never told me you knew sign language." John's jaw had nearly hit the floor when he'd seen Elizabeth signing back, her technique was a little sloppy but you still got the gist of it.
"You never asked." Elizabeth smirked at John's stunned state.
"But how…? When…? Why…?" Before John could get an actual sentence out he felt Alexis smack him up side the head, giving him a slightly annoyed look. Right away John knew why she was annoyed; he'd stopped signing and she couldn't see his lips to lip read.
/Sorry, it's been a little while cut me some slack./ John rubbed the back of his head.
'Fine you're forgiven, this time.'
Grabbing Alexis' bagged the group headed for the car. Arriving at the nice little three room house the Air Force had set John and Elizabeth up with while they were on earth, Alexis went to unpack her things in the guest room while Elizabeth and John got dinner started.
"So why didn't you tell me you knew sign language?" John questioned as he set the table.
"Like I said you never asked." Elizabeth answered. "Besides you never know when something like that might come in handy during negotiations. I only know a few basic signs though, I'm nowhere near as fluent at it as you and Alexis."
"Right." John gave Elizabeth a dubious look, but kept his mouth shut going back to setting the table.
The rest of the evening went by quickly with John and Alexis catching up and Elizabeth and Alexis getting to know each other a little better. Before any one realized it, it was after midnight and Alexis had dozed off on the couch. Carefully picking his sister up John took her to her room while Elizabeth went off to get ready for bed.
A/N: I'm going to apologise now if my posting for this story gets a bit sporadic. It's the last couple of weeks of school so of course all the teacher are stacking up the work load.