Fic: The first move (a Grandview story) Rated G
Title: The First Move
Series: Grandview
Rating: G
Warning: Excessive cute and middle of the night cravings!
Spoilers: none
Word count: 2,210
Disclaimer: Sadly, neither Stargate Atlantis nor her characters belong to me. If they did the show would never have been nor would it ever be cancelled!
Nathan is all mine though so take THAT mgm!
John scrubbed the spaghetti sauce off the plate and handed it to Rodney who ran it under water so hot it would melt plastic, then he turned his head and stole a glance at his husband.
“What?” Rodney asked when he caught John looking at him.
“Nothing,” John returned with a small smile and picked up a fork out of the soapy dish water.
Rodney took the fork and ran it under the water before putting it in the strainer along with the other fork and Nathan’s toddler spoon.
John looked at him again.
Rodney looked back without saying anything this time. The eye contact lasted a long moment before John found himself being turned and pulled close to Rodney.
Rodney smiled as he wrapped his arms around John’s back and leaned over his expanding belly to kiss him quickly on the mouth.
“What was that for?” John asked coyly.
“Nothing,” Rodney returned in the same tone John had used a moment before.
Rodney turned and rested his back against the edge of the counter and pulled John a bit closer.
“Uhn!” John grunted at the same moment Rodney blinked and looked down at their touching stomachs. “Did you feel that?” John asked.
Rodney continued looking down with his mouth hanging open until John said his name again and he slowly lifter his face to John’s.
“Did you feel that?” John asked again.
Rodney smiled his crooked smile and nodded. “yeah,” he said.
“That was your son telling you to stop squishing him.”
Rodney turned John around and led him out of the kitchen and into the living room.
“Rodney…” John protested but Rodney insisted.
Rodney led John to the couch and told him to sit, then he laid a pillow at the end and made John lay back and prop his feet up.
“What are you doing!?” John insisted when Rodney pulled his shirt up to his chest.
“We didn’t get this with Nathan, John because Jeanie was in Vancouver and we were here. We just got stories and ultrasound pictures. We never got to experience this part; we only got to feel him move a couple of times. This is the first time he’s kicked and it happened at a precise moment when we would both feel it. That is the McKay genius working inside, John. He knew his daddy was right there and he wanted me to know that he knew it.”
“Is that so?” John asked as he watched Rodney fumble with putting a fresh DVD into the camcorder.
“That’s so,” Rodney returned as he pushed the flap shut and turned the camera on. He set up the tripod and zoomed in on John’s stomach and waited. “Okay buddy, any time now, daddy’s ready.”
“What exactly are you doing, Rodney?” John asked.
“Waiting to get it on camera.”
“You think you’ll-”
“Oh!” Rodney exclaimed as John’s belly jumped before the camera.
“Damn boy,” John said as he rubbed the spot that had just popped. “He’s going to be a quarterback,” he added proudly.
“That’s what you think. He’s going to be a scientist. He’s going to eradicate world hunger and poverty right after he fixes these pesky issues we have with global warming and the ozone.”
“Rodney, when did you become so ecological?”
“As soon as I realized I’d like my children to have a planet to live on when they grow up.”
“They could always go live on New Athos.”
“I meant a home planet.”
“I bet Ronon could teach the boys some good football moves! Not to mention, Teyla could teach them how to kick ass with those bantos rods.”
“John, our boys are brains, not brawn.”
“Rodney, there is no reason why they can’t be both. They can kick ass and not only look good while they do it, but they can know exactly how to get away with it!” He barely got the sentence out before the baby kicked again forcing a surprised grunt from him. “Rodney, go get Nathan. I want him to feel this; hopefully he won’t be in one of his duhduh bad moods.”
“Those have been tapering off,” Rodney said as he walked down the hall. He returned a moment later with Nathan, who was none too happy to have to leave his tower of blocks in the dining room. He sat Nathan on John’s thighs and made sure the camera was close, but not too close as to not see Nathan.
Rodney returned to the couch and took Nathan’s hand.
“Right there,” John said and pointed at the spot the baby had chosen to bruise, and Rodney put Nathan’s hand there and held his hand over Nathan’s.
Nathan had the look of utter confusion on his face until three seconds later when the baby kicked.
Nathan pulled his hand from under Rodney’s and looked down at his palm. “Eh!” he said with disgust and wiped his hand on his pants leg. “Duhduh nucky!”
Rodney laughed.
“That’s not yucky, that’s your baby brother saying hello,” John told him.
Nathan pointed at John’s stomach. “Baby budder?” He asked as he looked up at Rodney.
“Yeah,” Rodney replied and ruffled Nathan’s hair.
“In duhduh?” Nathan asked, his confusion showing not only on his face but in his voice as well.
“Yeah,” John said and rubbed his stomach, “the baby is growing in daddy’s belly getting strong so he can come out and meet you.”
Nathan sat there for a moment; he scratched his head and then put his hands on John’s stomach. He leaned close to John’s stomach and said “tum out budder!”
John and Rodney both laughed then John said, “He still has to grow for a few more months.”
“Four and a half to be exact,” Rodney stated.
Nathan looked disappointed for all of fifteen seconds before he turned to Rodney and asked “I go play bocks now?”
Rodney smiled and lifted Nathan off of John and put him on the floor. “Yeah, go play with your blocks.”
After Nathan scampered down the hall and back into the dining room, Rodney lifted John’s legs and sat on the couch, then he put John’s feet in his lap. He pulled off John’s tennis shoes and socks and began massaging one of his feet.
“Oh God,” John moaned, “Rodney, that’s good.”
Rodney smirked and looked at John. “You’d think we were having sex.”
“No way, that’s much better than sex,” John said as he closed his eyes and leaned his head back a little further into the pillow.
“What?” Rodney asked.
“Oh yeah, at the moment, nothing in life has ever felt as good as what you’re doing right now.” John opened his eyes and lifted his head to look at Rodney and added, “Of course, after the baby is born, we’ll go back to sex feeling better than foot massages, but for right now, don’t stop what you’re doing.” Then he laid his head back down on the pillow.
Rodney chuckled and moved to the other foot.
~*~
Rodney laid awake long after John had fallen asleep. He was snuggled up to John’s back with his arm draped over John’s side and his thumb was lightly running over the spot their unborn baby had been kicking.
As he rubbed, he silently reflected on his life before Atlantis and before John. He thought about how he had disliked kids so much that he swore that he’d never have any of his own, and how now with one son and another on the way, he couldn’t imagine life without them. He remembered life before Nathan, but it seemed like something out of a book he’d read. It felt like, even though Nathan was only seventeen months old, he’d always been with them. Like his entire life and all the decisions he’d made had lead him to this point in his life.
In the past he’d burdened himself with the ‘what if’s’ what if he hadn’t been brought onto the Stargate project? What if they hadn’t sent him to Atlantis? What if John hadn’t gotten that black mark on his record and made to fly General O’Neill around Antarctica? What if John didn’t have the ATA gene? What if John had died any of the many times he’d come close in Pegasus? What if Rodney himself had died one of the many times he’d come close in Pegasus?
But he’d since decided not to worry about the what if’s, because none of the what if’s happened. He was sent to Atlantis and John did have the ATA gene and neither of them died, for very long, and now they were living on Earth, happily married with one and a half kids.
Rodney wondered for a moment when he’d become such a sap, but then he decided not to worry about that either. He guessed when a person had everything in the world that could make them as happy with their life as he was; they were entitled to be a little sappy from time to time.
Rodney smiled and sighed, then he gently kissed John’s shoulder and closed his eyes.
~*~
“Rodney,” John said as he shook Rodney’s shoulder.
“Hm?” Rodney asked sleepily.
“Pepperoni,” John said simply.
“What?” Rodney asked as he snuggled further into the covers.
“I want pepperoni.”
“Now?”
“Yes now, I can’t go back to sleep until I have some.”
“What time is it?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“It’s four in the morning.”
“It’s four am and you woke me up because you want pepperoni?”
“No, it’s four am and I woke you up because your son wants pepperoni. And when he wants something he gets it, otherwise daddy is very cranky.”
“There’s pepperoni in the fridge,” Rodney said and turned over onto his left side.
“No there isn’t, I ate the last of it yesterday.”
Rodney sighed and kicked the covers off. “Alright, I’ll go to the store.” He sat up, turned on the lamp and pulled his pants on.
“Thank you,” John said sweetly.
“Uh huh,” Rodney said as he pulled on his shoes. “You want anything else while I’m out?”
John thought for a moment. “Cheese puffs, the crunchy kind but not the hot ones, they give me heart burn. And blueberry bagels and cream cheese, regular not flavored.”
“Is that it?”
“Cherry cordial ice cream and waffle cones, Oreo cookies and some thin mints!”
“John, I really don’t think girl scouts will be outside the store at four in the morning, I’ll get you some mints but not the cookie kind, that’ll have to wait at least until the sun comes up. Anything else?”
“Chocolate milk.”
“Okay, so you want pepperoni, crunchy not hot cheese puffs, blueberry bagels and regular cream cheese, cherry cordial ice cream with waffle cones, Oreo cookies and mints.”
“And chocolate milk.”
“And chocolate milk. Got it. I’ll be back in an hour.”
“An hour?!”
“Okay, twenty minutes.”
“Better.”
Rodney turned the lamp back off and walked toward the door.
“Rodney,” John called to him.
“Yeah?” he asked as he turned back.
“Thank you.”
Rodney smiled and nodded. “Anything for the mother of my children,” he said and opened the door.
“Ass hole.” John joked as Rodney walked out.
~*~
Rodney turned on the lamp on John’s side of the bed and sat the tray across John’s lap. There was a bowl of ice cream with waffle cones crushed and sprinkled on the top just like John liked it, a small bag of cheeto’s, a box of mints, a package of pepperoni, a bagel with cream cheese (which Rodney hoped John wouldn’t notice wasn’t blueberry since the store was completely out of blueberry bagels), a plate of Oreo’s and a glass of chocolate milk.
Rodney stripped to his boxers and got back in bed and pulled the covers up to his neck. He was almost asleep when John finally got to the cheeto’s and decided to crunch them loudly.
“I hope you’re not getting crumbs in the bed, John.”
“Nope,” John replied around a mouthful of cheetos, “crumbs all fell on the tray.”
“Good, are you just about done?”
“Yup, cheeto’s and melty ice cream left.”
“Good, I’m tired.”
John patted Rodney on the shoulder. “I know,” he said.
A few minutes later Rodney heard John put the tray on the floor beside the bed, then he heard the swishing sound of John brushing crumbs off the comforter, then he felt John’s five and a half month pregnant belly pressing against his back. And John started kissing Rodney’s ear and neck.
“John?” Rodney asked.
“Thank you, Rodney,” John said as his hand snaked around Rodney’s body and slipped into the waistband of his boxers. To Rodney’s slight disappointment John rested his hand at the bottom of Rodney’s stomach just above his pubic area. Then he felt John’s lips light as a feather brush across his shoulder and Rodney sighed that soft content sigh he’d gotten used to hearing from his own mouth and rested his hand over John’s. A few minutes later he heard John’s breathing become slow and deep indicating that John had finally gone back to sleep.
Rodney smiled into the moonlit room and whispered “I love you,” then he closed his own eyes and listened to John’s breathing until he fell asleep.
TBC…