Fic: Picture Perfect Moments
Title: Picture Perfect Moments
Rating: G
Category: Missing Scene from McKay and Mrs. Miller
Pairing: McKay/Weir, Sheppard/Heightmeyer
Summary: Remember Rod showing Jeanie a picture of her 3 kids from his reality? This is about the other pictures in his wallet.
He sat at the desk in the other McKay’s office; his shoulders slumped as he gingerly fingered his small photo packet. It was all he had left of his reality; just a few small photos of those he loved and cared for, those that loved and cared for him. In a few minutes he would be heading back to the lab, to attempt to return home. Personally, he gave it an eighteen to twenty percent chance that he would actually live to see those faces in his photos, but he couldn’t stay here. Even if he had wanted to stay, there was a chance that their realities weren’t alike enough and he would die from an entropic cascade failure. Just because he hadn’t shown any signs of it yet didn’t mean that he still couldn’t. Besides… he had too much waiting for him back home not to at least try.
He opened the packet and looked at the picture of his niece and nephews he had shown the Jeanie from this reality. They really were great kids, smart too. That photo in particular had been taken at Christmas, all three kids decked out in matching red with a fake tree in the background. It had come with a care package of cookies they had baked, and he still remembered the poor beheaded gingerbread they had decorated to look like him. He couldn’t help but smile at that memory as he looked at the companion picture on the other side.
It was a simple picture, just John and himself standing against a wall. The significance of it was that it was taken at John’s wedding where he had stood as best man. It was very odd to see the Sheppard here single, as the John he knew was enjoying the married life with Katie Heightmeyer. When those two had first met, there had been an instant connection. Despite them trying to keep it a low profile affair, everyone could see that John was devoted to her. He hadn’t been surprised, after the discovery of Hive ships approaching Atlantis; that they had asked Elizabeth to allow them to marry. It had been a quick ceremony, nothing fancy since they had only their uniforms to wear, but it was enough to make Katie blush like the bride she was. He had briefly wondered if he shouldn’t say something to this Sheppard, he didn’t even seem to notice the Heightmeyer here. But they were both different people, he supposed, and it really wasn’t his place to muddle about in the affairs of this reality.
He was glad the first page of pictures had been innocent enough; the next two were innocuous as well, just him with Jinto at his coming of age ceremony, and one of Carson taken on their many fishing trips. It was the last four that he had hidden from view that would have most definitely caused a distraction for this reality’s McKay, and he wanted that man focused and on task while he worked to help send him home. He couldn’t help but smile though as he looked down at the picture of Elizabeth. She had been talking to him in Antarctica, about what he couldn’t remember, when Peter had snapped a shot of them while cataloguing the items on the wall around them. He’d found the picture when they were preparing to go to Atlantis, and the sweet smile she had givin him in it had been enough to make him reconsider his “blonds only” rule.
When they had been only three days out from Atlantis, he had convinced her to take a few hours off before she burnt out to accompany him to the zoo. It had been a lame excuse, but he had wanted to spend some time with her outside of work to see if there was anything to what he had been feeling. Boy was there! By the end of the afternoon, he had been pretty sure brunette was the way to go, but he hadn’t known what to do about it, and wasn’t sure what she was feeling. As they had walked past the monkey house a zoo photographer had ambushed them for a picture. Without hesitation, Elizabeth had snuggled up to him and he had put his arm around her waist. When they had realized what they had done they had looked at each other and grinned, and that was where he got the second of his four Elizabeth pictures.
The third photo, Elizabeth didn’t even know he had. It was just a simple picture he’d taken, of her napping on the bed. They’d been together almost a year and a half when she’d told him she was pregnant. He hadn’t bothered to ask if it was an accident or if she’d stopped her birth control, he had been too happy to care either way. The day he’d taken the picture, he had come to grab his pack for a mission and found her asleep, her long brown curls half covering her face. She had looked like an angel, and her hand had been possessively poised over her stomach, making her even more beautiful to him. He had reached for the camera in his pack and had impulsively snapped his sleeping beauty where she lay before regretfully waking her to send them off.
The last of his pictures he gently brushed with his fingertip. It was his most precious memory, the one that gave him the courage to take that eighteen to twenty percent gamble with his life. It was a picture of his little girl. Elizabeth had been a real trooper during the labor, Carson had taken care of her, and she had delivered a healthy blue eyed baby. When Carson had placed the tightly wrapped bundle in his arms, he had thought his heart would burst out of his chest. He had taken her over to Elizabeth so she could see what they had made together, but had only a few moments together before John had poked his head in asking to see his future team member. He’d brought his camera and caught both him and Elizabeth looking down fondly at their perfect treasure.
She was trying to crawl now, well army crawling at least. John joked that she was apparently a born soldier and had taken up whittling in order to make her a toy gun to play with. It was highly inappropriate, but he appreciated the sentiment. He knew if he didn’t make it back that John would take care of her, and he took some solace in that, but as eager as he had been to make the attempt to come to this reality, he was just as eager to make it home. He straightened his shoulders and stood up, giving the other McKay’s office one last look around. No assortment of photos, no stuffed animals shoved into bookshelf corners, nothing that gave evidence to just how important family was to the other McKay, was visible in the room. He looked down at the small photo packet in his hand and once again turned to the picture of he and Elizabeth holding their baby. He took the photo out of the sleeve and placed it on top of the keyboard on the other McKay‘s desk before walking out to meet everyone at the lab. If he made it home, the picture was easily replaced, if he didn’t make it… well, the McKay of this reality would know that somewhere out there was a family that loved him.