Fic: Morning Conversations (a Grandview story) Rated G
Title: Morning conversation
Series: Grandview
Rating G
Word count: 1,119
Warnings/spoilers: none
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 canceled.
Nathan is mine though, so take THAT mgm!!
Summary: Nathan looked up at John and put his finger to his lips. “Shh, dada doe nigh-nigh,” he said quietly.
“Mmm,” John groaned grumpily at the rough hands on his stomach that pulled him out of a sound sleep.
As he swam toward wakefulness he heard a whispered voice.
“Tum pway budder,” the voice prompted.
“Nathan?” John asked groggily. He was lying on his side and when he opened his eyes in the early dawn light, he found a mop of unruly dark hair barely peeking over the top of the mattress. “What are you doing?” he asked half a second before he realized that Nathan was no longer in his crib.
He sat up as quickly as he could, which was actually slow and sloppy, and shook Rodney awake.
“What?!” Rodney asked frantically as he sat up.
“Look,” John said and pointed at their son.
“Nathan,” Rodney said matter of factly.
“Yup.”
“You’re not supposed to lift him.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then how’d he get out?”
“You’re the genius.”
“He climbed out?”
“Apparently.”
“Budder won’t tum and pway,” Nathan said sadly.
“Aww,” John said. He took Nathan’s hands and helped him climb onto the bed.
“He still has a few months to grow,” John told him.
“But I wan pway wif him.”
“Nath,” John began softly, “when the baby comes out he’ll be little. Too little to play with.”
“Why?”
“Because he’ll be a baby.”
“Baby tant pway?”
“No, he’ll be too small. He’ll just eat and sleep. You were small too when you were born.”
Nathan lowered his brow over his eyes and pouted his lips slightly, it was a look Rodney had said made Nathan look exactly like a little John. “I not baby,” Nathan said.
“Not any more. Rodney…” John tapped Rodney on the shoulder.
Rodney grunted, obviously having gone back to sleep. “Huh?”
“Go get the photo album of when Nathan was a baby.”
“Now?”
“Yes, now. We need to explain this; he thinks he’ll be able to play with the baby when he’s born.”
Rodney sighed and threw off the blanket. “Okay,” he said as he got up and staggered out of the room with his eyes half closed.
“Daddy’s gonna show you some pictures,” John said after Rodney had left the room. “If daddy ever brings the book back that is.”
Rodney came in a moment later with five thick photo albums in his arms.
“You said “the” photo album, there is no “the” photo album of Nathan as a baby, but these were on top,” Rodney said and laid the photo albums on John’s legs.
“Dada look at pitchers too?” Nathan asked as Rodney got back on the bed.
“Not this time bud,” Rodney said gently. “Daddy needs to catch up on some sleep so he can paint your brothers nursery later.” Rodney pulled the blanket up to his neck and turned over.
Nathan looked up at John and put his finger to his lips. “Shh, dada doe nigh-nigh,” he said quietly.
“Okay,” John returned, “we’ll talk softly then.” He reached over and gently squeezed Rodney’s shoulder, receiving a pleasurable moan in return.
John opened the cover of the first book and was pleased to see that the first page had pictures of Nathan in the hospital and of his first few days home.
“Baby budder?” Nathan asked and pointed at the picture that showed John holding the tiny baby swaddled in the blue blanket not long after he was born.
“No,” John said, “the baby’s in daddy’s belly remember? That’s you.”
“Not me, I not wittle,” Nathan protested.
“Not anymore, but you used to be.”
“I big now like Maddie.”
“You are bigger, but you’re still growing.”
“Not in your beddy,” Nathan said firmly.
“No,” John chuckled, “not in my belly.”
“I pway wif Torren, he big too.”
“He is big,” John was deliberately keeping his answers short to see where Nathan would take the conversation.
“But baby budder wittle, tant pway.”
“That’s right. He won’t be able to play with you for awhile, but you can help me and daddy take care of him.”
“How?”
“Well, babies need bottles and baths and diaper changes.”
“Chain a diaper nucky,” Nathan said and curled his lip.
John chuckled, “you wouldn’t have to do that part.”
“I div budder a baf?”
“You can help,” John pointed at another picture, this one showed Rodney bathing Nathan in the baby bath tub on the island in the kitchen. “Daddy gave you a bath and I took the picture. This was your very first bath in the tub. You were one month old; up to this point we just washed you with a soapy cloth.”
Nathan leaned in and examined the photo closer. “I wittle,” he said amazed.
“Yeah, you were just born.”
“I in duhduh beddy too?”
John sighed, he hadn’t expected to explain that part quite yet.
“No,” he said gently, “You weren’t in daddy’s belly because daddy couldn’t get pregnant yet.”
“Where den?”
“You grew in Aunt Jeanie’s belly.”
“I in Deanie’s beddy,” Nathan asked scrunching up his face.
“Yeah, she grew you for daddy and me. The baby doctor took something out of daddy and put it in Jeanie and you grew from that.”
Nathan got another of those utterly confused looks; he’d only gotten a few of those in his entire eighteen months of life. John could literally see Nathan trying to work it out.
“Deanie Maddie and Occar mommy,” Nathan stated firmly.
“That’s right.”
“Deanie my mommy too?”
John sighed out another breath. That was the only downfall to having a genius son; the hard questions came early in life.
“Aunt Jeanie grew you for us because I couldn’t grow a baby yet, but daddy and I are your parents,” John said without saying ‘no’.
“Oh.”
John could tell by his tone that Nathan wasn’t completely satisfied with that answer.
“How about we look at more pictures and we’ll talk more about that when daddy wakes up. Okay?”
“Okay.”
John let out a relieved sigh and turned the page. Maybe Nathan would forget to ask them about it and they’d have another one or sixteen years before they had to explain it, but John doubted it. Nathan McKay Sheppard never forgot anything.
It wasn’t that John wanted to keep the information from Nathan, but he wanted him to be old enough to understand fully before they told him.
Nathan was John’s baby boy, his first born, the dream he’d had since he and Rodney had gotten together. Jeanie had assisted in making that dream come true by carrying Nathan for him and Rodney. John wanted Nathan to be able to completely understand those exact words before he had to explain the circumstances of his birth to him. Nathan was smart, genius smart, but he was still only 18 months old.
TBC…