August 2024 - Eighteen Years Old

"Things are changing. It seems strange and I need to figure this out. You've got your life, I got mine, but you're all I cared about. Yesterday we were laughing, today I'm left here asking where has all the time gone now? I'm left alone somehow. Growing up and getting older, I don't want to believe it's over. Don't say goodbye, 'cause I don't wanna hear those words tonight." - Skillet, "Say Goodbye"

Chuck was playing solitaire on his laptop when it suddenly alerted him that the jumper bay roof was opening. "Jumper three, please identify," he called over the radio. There was silence. "Jumper three, identify immediately." When there was still no answer, he called for Dr. Weir.

"What is it, Chuck?" she asked, handing him a new cup of coffee.

"Jumper three left the bay and is headed for the mainland."

"I wasn't aware anyone was scheduled to take one of the jumpers out," Elizabeth commented.

"No one is."

Elizabeth raised a brow. "Do we know who it is?"

"That's the thing, ma'am. I radioed them twice, but they refused to identify."

"Patch me into the jumper," Elizabeth ordered. Chuck did so. "Jumper three, please identify." Still more silence. "Jumper three, this is Dr. Weir, identify yourself now."

"Dude, they're probably going to fire drones at us or something if we don't say who we are."

"They wouldn't do that…would they?"

"I wouldn't put it past them."

"Oh, fine. Uhh, Atlantis… this is Aiden Sheppard in jumper three."

There was a long silence on the other end. "Are you by yourself?" Elizabeth finally asked.

"No, ma'am," Aiden answered with a cocky grin. "I've got Aaron Murphy as my copilot."

The strain in Elizabeth's voice was evident as she asked, "And are you two boys taking a joyride?"

"What would give you that idea, ma'am?"

There was an exasperated sigh. "Jumper three, return to Atlantis immediately. You're both due for a full parental debriefing."

"Yes, ma'am. Jumper three out."

"Dude, we are so busted," Aaron lamented.

"Yeah, but it was worth it," Aiden grinned. "Watch this." He turned hard right, making a sharp u-turn, and then began doing loop-the-loop's on his way back to the city. "Whoo-hoo!"

XXXXXX

Summer, Evie, and John were waiting impatiently in the jumper bay when Aiden and Aaron stepped out of the stolen jumper.

"And what do you two partners in crime have to say for yourselves?" a very irate Summer asked.

"We're very sorry, we'll never do it again, and we'd like to go to our rooms right now and think about our naughty behavior," Aiden answered with mock-sincerity.

"Aiden Nathaniel, if you didn't have a crapload of things to get done today, that's exactly what you'd be doing," Evie said sternly. "Do you have any idea how foolish that was? A hundred things could have happened to you!"

Aiden fought the urge to roll his eyes. "Like what?"

"The jumper could have malfunctioned, you could have crashed, we could have had to evacuate the city, the Replicators could have shown up, you could have gotten shot down," John listed. "I could go on…"

"We'd never done anything crazy before and just wanted to have a little fun," Aaron answered honestly. "We're really sorry."

"I forgive you, Aaron, but you're still going to be grounded for a week starting tomorrow," Summer decided.

"But it was Aiden's idea!" he insisted.

"I don't care; you went along with it. Besides, I'm sure Aiden's getting punished, too."

Evie thought for a minute. "Grounding won't work, he's leaving tomorrow… Umm… I can't confine him to his quarters because the city's put a lot of time and energy into planning his party tonight… Umm… Crap."

"You could make him write 'I will not steal puddle jumpers' a thousand times," John suggested, only half-teasing.

"How about a letter of apology to Dr. Weir," Evie said. "And then I don't want to see you again until your stuff is completely packed."

"Yes, ma'am," Aiden answered, knowing that he was getting off easy.

"And no video games or movies or music," John added. "At all."

Aiden sighed. That was a little more like what he'd been expecting. "Yes, sir."

XXXXXX

"I can't believe you have so much crap," Aaron said, tying off a trash bag full of clothes and odds and ends to be donated.

"Hey, my mom's a packrat, too," Aiden said in his own defense. "Aww, I made this robot in sixth grade!" He held up the creature made from discarded circuit boards, a battery, and hot-glue. He flipped the switch on the back of the robot and the two green LEDs that had been inserted as eyes lit up. "His eyes still glow," he chuckled, then turned it off and placed the creation in the new bag Aaron had labeled "donate".

Aaron opened another one of Aiden's drawers. "More t-shirts? Are you kidding me?"

Aiden shrugged.

Aaron pulled out a pink shirt that all the kids had been forced to wear for a benefit a year ago. "I think this one should just be thrown away," he joked.

"Go for it," Aiden said, jerking his thumb in the direction of the "trash" trash bag, which was also nearly full.

Aaron tossed the pink monstrosity and then continued sorting through the drawer. "What about this one?" he asked, holding up a t-shirt that said in colorful letters, "I love you like a fat kid loves cake."

Aiden chuckled when he saw it. "Rachel gave me that."

"I don't get it."

"It was an inside joke."

"So…donate?"

"No, I'll keep it," Aiden said, taking the shirt from his friend.

Aaron looked confused. "But I thought you two--"

"We did."

Aaron was silent for a moment. "How'd she take it?"

"Actually…she was the one who had the guts to say it first," Aiden said, placing the shirt in his suitcase…

"I think it's awesome that you want to be in the Air Force and hopefully come back to Atlantis someday, I really do, Aiden. I mean, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. But I do know that I could never be the good little military wife who stays back in the states with the baby while her husband is shipped off to God knows where. And I know we've never talked about getting married or even thought that far ahead, but if we try to keep this going after you graduate from the Academy, that's exactly where we'll be. Besides, do you really want to try to have an intergalactic relationship? We'd never get to see each other."

Aiden was speechless for a moment. "I think that is the most mature thing you've ever said to me," he cracked after his pause. Rachel rolled her eyes. "But honestly…" he continued. "I was kind of thinking the same thing."

Rachel's eyebrows went up. "You were? Really?"

"Well, not the whole stateside wife thing," he answered truthfully. "But trying to keep up our relationship when we'd never see each other? When I'm off at the Academy with all these new people? I know that'd be impossible for both of us. I just… I couldn't think of how to tell you that I thought we should break up."

"So, of course, you left it up to me."

Aiden shrugged. There was an awkward pause.

"So this is it? We're just…over?" She looked sad.

"I guess…" He looked a little gloomy, too.

"We're still friends though, right?" she asked quickly, looking worried now.

"Of course," he assured.

She nodded. There was silence between them for a moment, then she asked, "Now are you glad that we never had sex?"

Aiden chuckled, then nodded his head. "Yeah… Now maybe the guy you give it to will be the one you're really supposed to end up with."

Rachel smiled. "Hopefully."

Caitlyn interrupted them by poking her head in the door. "Rachel, c'mon, we're gonna be late!" She dashed off.

Rachel looked up at Aiden sadly. "I have to go. See you later, I guess?"

Aiden leaned over and gave her a final kiss. Rachel then pulled him into a tight hug. "I know we're doing the right thing, but I'm gonna miss you," she whispered.

"Yeah," he mumbled sadly. "Me, too…"

XXXXXX

Later that evening, everyone except two guards and a technician in the Gate Room were gathered in the Great Hall for Aiden's reception. Nothing special had been done when Aiden had graduated in May, so they'd decided to do something to honor him the night before he left. A lasagna dinner had been prepared, along with several wonderful-looking desserts. It was informal enough, but Evie was wearing a skirt and had made Aiden put on a dress shirt and slacks, as he was the guest of honor. A screen and a projector had been set up and a slideshow of pictures of Aiden from birth to eighteen played on a loop throughout dinner.

After everyone had finished dessert, the lights were dimmed and a video pieced together from all of the home video footage Evie had taken began to play. Evie had tried to work on the video with Rodney, but when she'd started crying for the fourth time, Summer had come in, hugged her friend, and sent her off for ice cream while she helped Rodney finish putting the video together. The tribute started off with Evie handing a tiny baby Aiden to Michael.

"Well, aren't you just adorable?" Michael cooed, bouncing the baby in his arms.

Aiden burbled happily for a moment, then spit up half the milk he'd just been fed.

Michael's shocked expression was priceless as he stared at Aiden, then at his ruined shirt, then at Evie. "Evie…your baby just exploded all over me…"

Evie laughed so hard that she snorted.

There were several more short clips of Aiden as an infant, and then they moved on to him as a toddler.

"Aiden! Go tell Uncle John your new word," Evie coaxed from behind the camera. When seven-month-old Aiden just looked at her funny, Evie set the camera down on a shelf to act as a tripod, then walked over beside John and pointed at his boots. "Aiden, what is this?" she asked.

"Zhoo!" Aiden cried with a smile.

John looked amused. "'Shoe'?" he repeated.

"That's his first word," Evie announced proudly.

"It couldn't be something cool like 'plane' or 'cookie'…" John said. "No, my son picked a girly word like 'shoe.'" They both stared at each other a second later when they realized what he'd said. "Don't show that to anyone," he said and she nodded.

Unaware of his parents' predicament, Aiden cried, "Zhoo!" again and stuffed John's bootlace into his mouth.

When John looked over and noticed that Evie was sniffling into a tissue, he leaned over and whispered, "Well, you made it past the first minute, which is better than I thought you'd do."

"There's a pool going based on how much I cry tonight, isn't there?"

John shrugged innocently.

Evie reached for a new tissue and continued watching.

"Why are you bothering me?" Rodney asked.

"'Cause I wike you," three-year-old Aiden answered innocently.

Even Rodney couldn't resist that. "Fine. What do you want?"

"Unca John wants me to tell you something," Aiden replied.

"Alright, what is it?"

Aiden cleared his throat. "Your mommy was a han-ster and your daddy smelled wike bewwies."

Rodney looked up at the person holding the camera. "Sheppard, you let him watch Monty Python?"

The next clip was of Aiden when he was about five.

"Hey, mom, look what I can do!" little Aiden said. He slipped his arm inside his shirt, placed it under his armpit, and grinned boyishly as he showed off his new talent of "arm-farting."

Evie did not look pleased. "Aiden, who taught you how to do that?"

"Uncle John," he answered.

Evie turned and glared at the person holding the camera.

Everyone laughed at the severity in Evie's expression, and then the image on the screen changed to one of Dakota, Rachel, and Aiden performing one of their plays. Dakota was dressed as a witch, Rachel as a princess, and Aiden as a prince.

Aiden pretended to stab Dakota several times before she collapsed onto the floor.

"Oh, my handsome prince!" Rachel exclaimed, leaning in to kiss Aiden.

"No!" he cried, pointing his wooden sword at her to stop her.

"Aiden, we practiced this! The prince and Rapunzel kiss and then live happily ever after!"

"I'm not really kissing you," Aiden insisted, keeping the tip of his sword aimed at her.

She put her hands on her hips and gave him a stern frown. "Aiden," she said firmly, trying not to get angry. "You're ruining the movie."

"I don't care. I won't kiss you."

She stomped her foot. "You're a horrible prince! I knew I should have married Aaron instead!"

Everyone burst out laughing and nearly drowned out the next clip, which was of Aiden's eighth birthday party and the piñata Jay Felger had bought for him. The video continued for about five minutes more, ending with a shot from just a few months ago of Evie and Aiden making his birthday cake.

"Aww, look at my little boy," John said from behind the camera. "He's baking…"

"Go away," Evie said, tossing a pinch of flour at him.

"So is this a new hobby of yours?" John teased.

"No, we do this every year," Aiden answered.

"Oh. Why wasn't I invited?" he asked, feigning hurt.

"Because it's a mother-son thing," Evie replied.

"Yeah, we're bonding," Aiden said. He pulled his mother against him and began patting her head like a doll. "I wuv my mommy."

"I wuv you too, but if you get flour in my hair, I'll crack an egg on your head."

Aiden just laughed.

Evie decided she was glad that she hadn't bothered to wear any eye makeup as she wiped her eyes for the umpteenth time and then joined the applause.

When the clapping had died down, Elizabeth stood up. "Oh behalf of John, Evie, and Aiden, I would like to thank all of you for coming tonight," she began her impromptu speech. "Aiden, you had the honor of being the first baby born in Atlantis. Unfortunately, this also means you're the first one we have to say goodbye to. I know that your eighteen years here have been an incredible, if a bit rocky, journey. Know that we all love you and you'll be missed." Radek handed her laptop with a big red bow on it. "As a parting gift, we'd like to give you this for school."

Aiden's eyes about bugged out of his head. He'd begged and pleaded and thrown a small fit when his parents had refused to buy him a laptop; now he finally understood why they hadn't. When he realized that everyone was clapping again and waiting for him to accept his gift, he left his seat and walked over to where Elizabeth was standing.

"Thank you, Dr. Weir," he said, taking the wrapped box.

"You're very welcome," she smiled. "Good luck at the Academy." She offered him her hand, but Aiden hugged her instead.

XXXXXX

John was in that state of consciousness somewhere between awake and asleep. He didn't know what had woken him up, but he didn't really care so long as he fell right back to sleep. He rolled over to his other side and stretched his arm out to find his wife. When he felt only empty mattress, he opened his eyes. "Evie?" he mumbled sleepily. It didn't take long for his eyes to adjust. It was then that he realized that there was a lot more moonlight shining into the room than normal; the door to the balcony was open.

He got out of bed, picking up the blanket and wrapping it around himself. He stepped outside and saw Evie leaning against the wall, chewing her thumbnail worriedly. "Hey," he said, sitting down in the chair.

"Hey." She released her thumb and looked over at him. "Couldn't sleep…"

"I noticed. So what's on your mind?"

"We're dropping him off at college tomorrow, John," she said with anxiety evident in her voice. "College. Our baby is going to college. And I won't be there with him."

"Getting out from under your parents' wings is kind of the point of going to college, Evie," John pointed out.

"I know, but… What if he makes bad choices? Or falls in with the wrong crowd? What if he goes out drinking and misses an exam because he has a hangover?"

"Evie, we raised him better than that," he assured her. "Now he's got to take what he's learned and decide how to make his own decisions. It's like what eagles do. You've got to push him out of the nest and see if he flies or goes splat."

"But I don't want him to go splat!" she cried.

"Evie," he started, trying not to laugh. "He'll be fine, I know he will. And we can go visit him every weekend if you want."

"Nuh-uh! For the first five weeks of Basic Cadet Training he can't have any visitors or even phone calls. Don't think I didn't look it all up. He's going to be all on his own for five weeks."

"Evie… You knew he had to grow up someday."

"I just didn't want it to come so soon," she said sadly.

John opened up his blanket. "C'mere." Evie shuffled over to him and then curled up on his lap. He wrapped the blanket around them both and kissed her cheek. "You know, you're not the only one who's going to miss him."

"But you're not going to cry the whole car ride there and back tomorrow…"

John chuckled. "I'm still gonna miss him. But I think he's going to miss us, too. He's not going to cut ties and never see us again."

"I know, I just… He's my baby."

"I thought I was your baby?"

"Mmm…he's my helpless boy and you're my handsome prince," she murmured as she snuggled against his chest.

"You really think he's helpless?"

"Well…he can't cook," she said after a pause.

"Somehow I think he'll manage."

"Maybe." She sighed.

They fell into silence for a few minutes and John was just about to ask if they could go back to bed when Evie asked, "So when are we going to retire?"

John had not been expecting that. "I… That was kind of out of the blue, Evie."

"No, it's not. Aiden's leaving, so that got me to thinking about when we'd leave."

"You want to leave Atlantis?"

"Not right now," she answered. "But I don't want to be here forever."

"Oh."

"Why? Do you?"

"I honestly haven't thought about it much."

"You want to keep fighting Replicators when you're eighty? You'll be chasing after 'em with your walker, wheezing, 'Git back here and fight, you piece of crap!'"

John laughed. "And I suppose you'll be watching me from a rocking chair, pointing your knitting needles at me and saying, 'Run faster, you old fart!'"

Evie giggled. "Something like that."

"I'll guess we'll retire before that point. But what will we do? Are you going to make quilts and watch soap operas while I go out and play golf with stuffy military people?"

"Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of doing lots of traveling and maybe taking care of my aging parents and/or the grandbabies," Evie said.

"There's going to be grandbabies?"

"There better be grandbabies. But you don't even have to stop working completely," she said, offering a compromise. "You always said that if you got injured and had to leave that you wanted to maybe teach high school calculus."

"But I'm not injured."

"John…"

"Well what do you want me to say?" he asked, clearly frustrated. "You want me to give you a date? Like, we'll retire in five years, I promise?"

"No, baby, I just want you to think about it," she answered softly. "I'm sorry."

"It's just that there's still so much we can do here," John said. "Obviously my desk job isn't what I'd prefer, but I still haven't met anyone else that I'd trust to do it. And Dr. Coulson managed to not get himself killed last week, thanks to your combat training."

"I know, John. I didn't mean right now."

"Besides, we still have to get Aiden through college."

"Yeah…"

"How about we agree to seriously talk about this after he graduates?" John suggested. "Would that make you happy?"

"Okay." She yawned.

"But we definitely can't retire before Rodney," John decided. "He'd love that. He'd call us quitters."

"Mmm."

"But Catie and Dakota are like two years behind Aiden. So Rodney'll probably have to stay a few years longer…"

"Mmm."

"You're going to fall asleep on me, aren't you?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Hope you don't get a crick in your neck." After a pause he added, "G'night."

Evie didn't say anything, she just snored quietly.

XXXXXX

"Mom? Dad?" Pause. "Mom, Dad!"

Sheppard started at the loud voice. "Nuh?" He blinked at the bright sunlight shining in his eyes. Why the hell was he outside?

"While I think it's adorable that you two fell asleep watching the sunset together or whatever," the annoying voice spoke again, "we gotta go soon."

"Five more minutes…"

John looked down and saw his wife in his lap, both of them wrapped in the blanket. Oh, yeah… "What time is it?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Almost ten," Aiden said. "I assumed that you guys had already eaten breakfast and were busy doing something before we left."

John began shaking Evie, who groaned pitifully in protest. "Evie, we don't want to be late and miss the move-in time."

"Yes, we do."

"I'll push you off my lap and onto the floor," he threatened.

"No, you won't." When John started shoving, Evie squealed and climbed off his lap willingly. "I'm up, I'm up!"

"Then go get dressed," Aiden hurried her. "They're bringing all my crap to the Gate Room at ten-thirty."

"I'll be there," she promised through a yawn.

XXXXXX

"Did you already sign the non-disclosure agreement?" John asked Aiden as Chuck began dialing Earth.

"Yes, Dad," Aiden sighed. "I've done everything, everything's ready, and, yes, I have all my stuff."

"Okay, okay…"

"Are you off?" The Sheppard trio looked up to see Rodney walking towards them just as the Gate kawooshed.

"Yep," Aiden answered.

"Well… Congratulations," Rodney said. "Good luck, study hard, don't do drugs, and all that."

Aiden laughed. "Is this your way of telling me that you'll miss me, McKay?"

"Miss is a strong word," Rodney stated. Then he stuck his hand out in a manly parting gesture and said, "Have fun."

When Aiden went to shake his hand, Evie rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, just hug him, Aiden."

Their near-handshake turned into a semi-awkward hug and Evie giggled.

"Alright," John said, beginning to push one of the dollies that had Aiden's boxes on it. "Let's go."

XXXXXX

By listening to quiet, calming music, and not making eye contact with her husband or her son, Evie managed to keep her eyes dry during the drive from Cheyenne Mountain to the Air Force Academy.

When they unloaded his stuff into his new room and Aiden pulled out the picture collage that Summer had made for him, however, Evie lost it. She did refrain from sobbing, but tears slipped silently down her cheeks as they unpacked and put away his clothes.

After a few more boxes, Aiden noticed the time and said, "I think I can take care of the rest."

"You sure?" John asked, and Aiden nodded. "Alright. We'd stay for lunch, but since your mother and I ate breakfast around ten…"

"Yeah… Time to say goodbye, then?"

Evie sniffled on cue. Aiden walked over to her and gave her a big hug. Evie held him tightly, his much larger frame towering over her. "I love you so much," she whispered.

"I love you, too," he said quietly. A moment later, when she was still clinging to him, he said, "Umm… Mom? You have to let me go at some point."

"Sorry," she whispered and stepped back. "Bye."

"Aiden, you make sure and study hard," John said, imparting final words of advice. "And remember that getting drunk is only fun for about the first three hours, and then yo--" John was caught completely off-guard by Aiden stepping forward and hugging him; they hadn't really had any physical contact since Aiden had walked in on his parents those rough few years ago.

When John's brain caught up, he hugged his son back, finally feeling a hint of the strong emotions that had had Evie frazzled all last night and today.

Aiden was apparently feeling a twinge of sadness as well, because Evie saw him swipe at his eyes as he was letting John go. "No binge drinking, no drugs, no prostitutes," he said. "I think I got it."

"We'll come visit after BCT's over," John promised.

"Sounds good." He walked them to the door and opened it. "Bye."

Evie turned around and gave him one last hug. "Bye, Aiden," she whispered. When she released him, she grabbed John's hand, squeezing it as they left his room and the door shut behind them.

"You okay, Evie?" John asked.

She just looked up at him with watery eyes. Then she noticed two duffels next to the dollies in the hallway. "Oh, he forgot these," she said, stooping to pick up the one closest to her.

"Actually…those aren't Aiden's," John replied. When Evie looked up at him with questioning eyes, he said, "Look in the front pocket."

Evie unzipped the duffel pocket and found a blue folder. When she opened it, she saw a travel itinerary, plane tickets, hotel reservations, and tickets to two Broadway shows. "Oh my-- John, are you taking me to New York?!" she exclaimed, jumping up.

"Surprise," he said with a smile. "I figured you'd need some sort of distraction after dropping him off, so…" He gestured to the folder. "I packed you a bag. And if you need a dress for the shows, you can buy a new one there." When Evie just stood there, speechless, John asked, "Do you like it?"

Evie nodded and jumped into his arms. "It's perfect," she said, hugging his neck. "Thank you, John."

"Anything for you, Evie," he said, holding her close.

She felt another rise of emotion and quickly wiped her eyes. "I love you so much, baby," she murmured.

He smiled. "I love you, too."

Finis

Final Author's Note:

I won't make this too long. Wow, this has been an incredible journey. I started this story on April 19, 2006, and finished it on August 22, 2008. Don't fear that this is the end, though. I have a few ideas for one or two much shorter stories, one dealing with some of the other kids growing up, as well as an "insert" story that takes place back when Aiden was still a baby.

Gracias: First off, I'd like to thank the readers. You guys were so faithful to this long story, and it wouldn't have been half the fun to write if you guys weren't there telling me that you liked it.

Tigger, thanks for keeping me in line, and providing inspiration when I needed it. And thank you for making sure that everyone's inner Monk was satisfied with an even 60 chapters. :-D

Commodore Norrington, I think you know this story wouldn't have been possible without you. It would have been an unfinished Works file of ideas, half-baked plots, and random lines. Thank you so much for all your beta work and brain-storming ideas.

For anyone who cares, when I get the chance I'm going to post a sort of "behind the scenes" list of trivia and inside jokes from this saga on my website, which is listed on my profile.

See you guys in the next fic! :-D