Fic: The Only One Pt. 2 (2nd in TDTWM); John/Cam
*****
John tried not to rearrange the muffins on the plate again. Daniel had humored him all morning, not saying anything as John re-arranged the muffins four times, scrubbed the counters twice, and folded and re-folded the blankets on the back of the couch. John wasn’t normally this restless or this OCD, he just needed to keep busy.
Then John’s mom had come down the stairs and John had stopped fidgeting and made her breakfast.
John wished Rodney were there so that John could get distracted in numbers and problems that he could solve. But Rodney was packing up his apartment, or so he said, but he would be there for dinner. John just wondered who else would be.
Then Cameron walked in, with his mother, and before John could get more than a glimpse of his boyfriend Daniel stole him away leaving John with his mom and Cameron’s mom.
John tried to smile a little at Cameron’s mom.
“Would you like a muffin, Mrs. Mitchell?” John asked, gesturing lightly to the baked goods on the table.
Her smile was strained as she said, “I would love one, John. What kind do you have?”
“There’s chocolate chocolate chip, banana nut, and cinnamon apple.”
“Oh, I’ll take a cinnamon apple, dear.”
John nodded and got down a small plate from the cupboard.
“Anything to drink?”
“Do you have any juice?”
“We’ve got apple juice and cranberry juice.”
“I’ll take some apple juice, if you don’t mind.”
Cameron’s mom sat down at the table next to where Daniel had been sitting and next to where John’s mom was sitting. John placed a cinnamon apple muffin on the small plate and walked it over and set it in front of Wendy Mitchell. He then went back and filled up a glass with apple juice for her.
There was an awkward silence as John stood in the kitchen watching the two moms eat breakfast.
When Cameron finally came back in, John felt some of the tightness in his chest ease. He brought down another plate and plopped a banana nut muffin onto it. Cameron came into the kitchen, to John, and accepted the plate. He leaned in close to John and gently rested a hand in the center of John’s lower back.
“Good morning,” Cam said quietly.
“Good morning, Cameron,” John answered softly.
“Thank you for the muffin.”
“Sure.”
He leaned in and gave John a small peck on the cheek. John was pretty sure it was the first time they’d ever kissed in front of someone else. If a kiss on the cheek counted.
“Did you make any coffee?”
John nodded, “Daniel’s still standing isn’t he?”
Cameron let out a soft laugh. “I supposed you’re right about that.”
Cameron reached up to grab a mug and John reached forward to grab a coffee pot. In an almost synchronized move Cameron lowered the mug and John poured some coffee out for him.
“What are your plans for today?” John asked.
His boyfriend shrugged. “Not sure.”
“Well, I think it’s going to rain.”
“Probably,” Cameron agreed. “McKay’s coming for dinner, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, let’s go out for lunch then.”
John shook his head. “I have to go to the mountain for a couple of hours. I’m working with Colonel Carter and Rodney on some energy calculations.”
“When are you going in?”
John glanced at his watch. “An hour or so.”
“That’s plenty of time to make lunch,” Cameron said.
John gave him a look. “Since when has anything Colonel Carter, Rodney and I do taken just a couple of hours?”
“Oh. Yeah, you’re right. Hmm.”
“Are you working tomorrow?”
“No.”
“How long is your mom staying?”
John shrugged, “I’m not sure.”
“Well how about I take Patty and my mom out to lunch with Daniel and then we’ll meet you back here for dinner?”
John offered his boyfriend a wary look. “Maybe I should call Colonel Carter and cancel.”
“I’ll be fine,” Cameron told him.
John was little more worried about what his mom might say to Cameron’s mom.
“I should cancel.”
“Don’t cancel, really,” his boyfriend insisted. “It’s just lunch, John. What could possibly happen?”
*****
Cam took his mom, John’s mom and Daniel--who Cam thought was kind of like John’s live-in mom--to a nearby restaurant that he and John frequented. It had a nice atmosphere, nice food, and great service.
“Colonel Mitchell! Welcome!” The hostess greeted him.
“Hey, Megan.”
“Colonel Sheppard’s not with you today?”
“Nope. His mom is here though,” Cam gestured to Patty Mason.
Megan held out her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Colonel Sheppard is a wonderful guy.”
Patty took it, “Thank you. I’m quite fond of him myself.”
Cam laughed. “We have four today, Megan.”
“Sure thing, Colonel Mitchell.”
“How many times have I told you to call me Cam?”
She grabbed four menus and grinned at him. “Probably close to a million by now.”
Cam rolled his eyes. “And yet you still don’t do it.”
“Nope. Follow me, please.”
She led them to a nice table towards a window and off to the side. It was a bit late for the lunch crowd, as Cam had held out hope that John would finish early and be able to join them.
Cam sat next to his mom while Daniel held a chair out for Patty before taking the empty seat next to her. Megan handed them their menus.
“Your waiter will be with you shortly.” She smiled.
“Thanks, Meg,” Cam said again.
“No problem, Colonel Mitchell. Say ‘hi’ to Colonel Sheppard for me, too, will ya?”
“Will do,” Cam promised with a smile.
“Do you come here a lot, honey?” Cam’s mom asked.
Cam nodded. “Yeah, it’s close enough to base that John and I can come here for lunch if we get an hour.”
“Any recommendations?”
“John and I usually get the special, but we’ve both had the tri-tips and the ribs.”
Wendy laughed, “I think I’ll stick to something a little less messy, dear.”
Daniel glanced at Cam over the top of his menu and Cam offered a reassuring smile. So far, so good.
*****
“So tell me more about John,” Cam’s mother said as they waited for their food to arrive.
“I’ve told you about him,” Cam said. “He’s all I talk about.”
“You’ve told me that he likes Ferris wheels, flying and cooking. Am I to assume that’s all there is to the man?”
Cam groaned. “What else do you want to know?”
“Has he always wanted to be in the Air Force?”
“He always wanted to fly,” Patty said. “John loves flying.”
“Cam was pretty much born with a joystick in his hand.”
Cam ignored the snigger from Daniel that statement produced.
“Mom,” Cam whined. “Not the baby stories.”
“Hush, Cameron. It is my prerogative as a mother to share these with future family.” She offered Cam a twinkling smile. “Cam only ever wanted to be in the sky. I remember when he was three, he begged to go to a nearby air show--three! Everyone else his age wanted Sesame Street and cookies, but not my Cam. I imagine John was the same way…?”
Cam shifted awkwardly and a look of pain floated across Patty Mason’s face. Cam was pretty sure that when John was three he only begged for his father to stop.
“No,” John’s mom said quietly. “John didn’t ask for much.”
“Ah,” said Wendy Mitchell with a small smile. It quickly shifted into a frown, “Does John go by another last name? I thought the waitress called him Colonel Sheppard… I could have sworn Cam said your last name was Mason.”
Everyone at the table, who wasn’t Cam’s mom, froze. John wasn’t ashamed of being adopted, in fact, Cam was pretty sure his fiancé considered it to be the best thing that ever happened to him, but Cam couldn’t tell his mom about it without explaining more, and that, he was sure, John was ashamed of.
“Sheppard is John’s father’s last name,” Patty said finally.
She let the assumption hang in the air that she had been previously married. Cam shifted uncomfortably again.
*****
After spending three hours with Rodney and Carter, John knew why he’d joined the Air Force and hadn’t gone down the science path. People with doctorates never got along and never agreed.
He stood there and rubbed his temples as Rodney and Carter fought over something else. Again.
“Look, McKay, the calculations don’t provide for--”
“Yes, they do! Sheppard already did the math!”
“I’m not questioning John’s math, I’m questioning your application of it to--”
“My application?! My application is perfectly feasible, something I don’t expect your small, puny brain to understand! Sheppard allowed for--”
“I know he did! I can see it, McKay! I just don’t think you allowed for--”
“It’s right there!”
“That’s something else, Rodney.”
“What? No it isn’t.”
“Yes it is.”
“No it isn’t.”
John sighed. They’d already gone through seven rounds of ‘yes it is’ and ‘no it isn’t’. Rodney had been right four of those times and Carter the other three. John wisely chose not to butt in.
Instead he pulled up the rest of the math that they had yet to do. It was complicated and challenging and sometimes, at night, John would dream about it; numbers would float through his head. It was beautiful.
John loved numbers. They made sense. They had answers and perfections and all the other things that John had never had in real life. Best of all, numbers were in everything. They were all over the universe, if you knew to look for them. And John knew to look for them.
The cell phone in his pocket started to buzz and John quietly slipped out of the room to answer it.
“Sheppard.”
“John?”
“Daniel?”
“Where are you?”
“On the mountain, so my signal will probably cut out at any time. What’s up?”
“We’re heading home from lunch now, Mitchell picked up something to go for you and Rodney.”
John glanced at the door he’d just exited through. “I think we’re close to calling it a day.”
“Okay… is that John?” John heard someone in the background ask. “Give me the phone, Jackson.” There was a rustling sound and then, “John?”
“Hi, Cameron.”
“Hey. Lunch seemed to go okay.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Your mom can definitely win someone over.”
“She’s really awesome like that.”
“Yup. When will you be finished there?”
John looked again towards the room where Rodney and Carter were still fighting.
“I’ll leave now.”
“I’ll meet you at your house then.”
“Okay.”
“Bye, John,” Cameron said softly.
“Bye, Cameron.”
John shoved his phone back into his pocket and had his hand on the lab door and of course, that’s when red lights started flashing and a voice came over the intercom announcing that the base was now under quarantine lockdown.
*****
Cam had just started the car when his phone rang.
“Mitchell.”
“Cameron?”
“John? Didn’t we just talk?”
“Yeah, uh…”
Cam cringed at the sounds in the background.
“What’s that noise?”
“The quarantine alert.”
Cam blinked, “Well, damn.”
“Yeah.”
“So you’re gonna be late?”
“Yeah.”
“What happened?”
“Not sure. SG-7 was scheduled to arrive back sometime today. I guess they brought extra life forms back with them.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Cam said with a frown. “How about you just stay put in McKay’s lab, all safe and sound?”
There was a long pause. “You don’t really think I’m going to do that, do you?”
Cam shook his head before remembering he was on a cell phone. “Yeah, I guess not. I’ll explain it to the moms.”
“Thanks.”
“If you need anything, just call.”
“I will.”
“I love you,” Cam said softly.
“I know.”
*****
“Sergeant,” John said, poking his head into Sergeant Bates’ room.
“Yes, sir?” Bates asked, standing up and saluting John. John offered a crisp salute in return.
“I need you to get thirty guys, post them at all the exits and make sure no one leaves this mountain until the quarantine has cleared.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And no,” John said, preempting the man’s next question. “I don’t know how long that will be. The standard is forty-eight hours.”
“Got it, sir. Should I post more men around the base?”
John shook his head. “I want as many people as possible to stay out of the hallways.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Notify me when they’re in position.”
“Yes, sir.”
*****
John was bored. He was bored four hours ago when the quarantine began, and he was bored now. After about an hour of creating a rotating schedule of personnel to guard the exits, sending out notifications to off-world teams, arranging non-housed personnel into unoccupied rooms, and various other tasks, John was ready for lunch. And dinner. Although maybe not in that order.
“Sheppard! Come look at these!”
John looked up from his MENSA level sudoku and stood up, setting the book aside. John stood next to Rodney in front of three large white boards with scribbled equations all over them.
“What about them?”
“There’s something wrong with them.”
“Of course there’s something wrong with them.”
Rodney stared at him. “Well?! What is it?!”
John startled. “Oh. It’s allowing for a denser composition of this compound,” John gestured to one of the boards. “Then exists.” John squinted… “Is that subspace? Is that even a compound?”
“I’m really beginning to doubt the credence of those PhDs, Sheppard. This is jell-o.”
John blinked. “You’re mapping out an equation for the viscosity of a dense jell-o?”
“For jell-o shots.”
“…”
“What?”
John shook his head. “Are you sure the alcohol would make it denser?”
*****
Cam quickly discovered that there really wasn’t much at John and Daniel’s house to entertain middle aged women with. So they broke out the Scrabble. Cam had vowed to never again play with Daniel, but he found himself doing just that. He also vowed to never play with John or McKay again either. Cam was pretty much alone in a house full of geniuses and they exploited that fact every time they played some kind of game.
Eleven months into dating, John had taken pity on him and had made them form teams. Cam wished that John had also made it so that he was on Cam’s team. Instead, Cam was always stuck with Daniel while McKay got John. Cam still wasn’t sure how that had happened.
“So you said John was stuck at work?” Cam’s mom asked.
“Uh, yeah he can’t get away.”
“Do you know how long he’ll be?” She asked.
Cam hesitated, “It could be a while.”
“How long is a while, dear?”
Cam shifted and rearranged his tiles again, this time to spell ‘dog’ instead of ‘god’. “It could be a couple of days, mom.”
“A couple of days? He’s not coming home tonight?”
He glanced at Daniel and sighed. “The base went under quarantine for something and John got stuck there.”
John’s mom looked alarmed at that, “Quarantine?”
“It happens all the time,” Daniel cut in. “Someone gets a bug and they just want to make sure it stays contained.”
“So this is… normal?” Patty asked.
“Yeah, every… few weeks or so,” Cam confirmed.
“That seems… quite frequent, Cam.” His mother said.
“Just a hazard of the job, mom,” Cam answered weakly.
“A hazard of… deep space telemetry…?”
Cam groaned. It was going to be a long night.
*****
“Hey, so Sam and I--what’s that?”
“A remote controlled airplane,” John answered. He zoomed the airplane low and over Rodney’s head before turning it back around to circle the room again.
“I can see that, where’d you get it?” Rodney asked, following the plane’s movements.
John shrugged, “Made it.”
“You made it? Out of what?”
“Spare parts.”
Rodney eyed him suspiciously. “Spare parts of what?”
“Not sure. They were sitting in a crate in Zelenka’s lab.”
“Zelenka doesn’t have a lab.”
“Oh?”
“And he doesn’t have a crate full of spare parts.”
“Really?” John flew the plane over Rodney’s head again.
“I have a crate of parts I use for calculations.”
“Oh, well I don’t think these were yours.”
John looked up at his plane again. Rodney reached over him towards the still half full crate.
“My name is on the side,” the astrophysicist said.
“Oh?” John squinted to look at the box.
“Don’t play dumb, Sheppard! It says in huge block letters… ‘DO NOT TOUCH, PROPERTY OF DR. RODNEY MCKAY, (PhD, PhD, PhD)’!”
“I guess I didn’t see that.”
“See it?! You’d have to be blind as a bat to miss it!”
“C’mon, Rodney,” John said. “I’m so bored. I promise to return all the parts to you.”
Rodney huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “I can’t believe you built a remote controlled airplane out of half dead computer parts. You’re wasting your life in the Air Force.”
“Will you stop being mad if I let you fly it?” John asked, holding out the remote.
Rodney eyed it before taking the controller from John. “How fast can it go?”
“By my calculations it should at least be able to…”
*****
“Will I see John again before I leave tomorrow?” Cam’s mom asked.
They were driving back to Cam’s house for the night. He had lost spectacularly at Scrabble. He still wasn’t sure how that had happened.
“I’m not sure. Quarantine is usually for forty-eight hours.”
“Hmm.”
“It’s not like he planned this, mom.”
“I know, dear.”
“What do you think of his mom?”
“They don’t look at all alike. He must get his coloring from his father,” she answered.
Cam had never seen a picture of John’s first parents. He was pretty sure that John didn’t have any.
“Uh, yeah.”
“But Patty seems like a very nice lady.”
“She is. She’s great,” Cam said with a grin. He parked the car in front of his apartment and turned it off. He turned to look at his mom, “John loves her to death.”
“They do seem to have a close relationship,” she commented. “A bit unusual for a man his age.”
Cam shrugged, “I guess.”
“And you love him, Cameron? Truly love him?” She asked, turning in her seat to face him.
“Yes,” Cam answered honestly, meeting her gaze. “I truly love him, momma. When I’m with him… when I’m with him, it’s better than flying. He’s amazing mom, but John’s had… he’s had a rough life and he tends to keep to himself. He’s not very open, so I’m not sure you’ll ever get to see what I see. I wish you could, because he’s beautiful, mom. And he loves me.”
His mom smiled, somewhat sadly and nodded, “Okay, Cam okay.”
“I want you to approve of him, mom,” Cam said quietly.
“Would it make a difference if I did?”
“To me,” Cam answered softly. “It would make a difference to me.”
“Bring him home for a weekend, Cameron.”
Cam nodded slowly, “Okay, momma.”
*****
“I’m sorry, Cameron.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for, John.”
John sighed and shifted a little on his bed. He was in a spare room at the SGC. Rodney was lightly snoring in a bed on the other side of the room. John envied his ability to sleep so easily.
Cameron had called him about an hour ago and they’d been quietly talking on the phone since. John loved the sound of his boyfriend’s voice.
“I’m not--I mean--I know that people don’t like me.”
“People like you, John. Hell most of the Marines think you’re God’s gift to the SGC. Even General Landry loves you, and that man likes nobody.”
“They don’t really know me,” John said quietly.
“What about Lorne? Stackhouse? Markham? They’re your team. They know you and I’m pretty sure all three of them worship the ground you walk on.”
John scoffed, “They don’t really know me either, Cameron.”
“Neither does my mom, John.”
“She knows enough that she doesn’t like me.”
“She just thinks you’re quiet, John and she doesn’t know why.”
“She thinks I’m unhappy,” John guessed.
There was a pause and then, “Yeah.”
“You make me happy, Cameron.”
“I know.”
“I’m… I think that’s what it is.”
“What what is?”
“This feeling inside of me; I think it‘s happiness.”
Cameron didn’t say anything for a few minutes and John began to think he shouldn’t have said anything after all.
“John.”
“Yeah?”
“You… you weren’t happy when you solved those math problems?”
“It’s just math, Cameron.”
“Or when Daniel descended?”
“I was still angry at him for leaving me,” John admitted.
“What about when McKay finally gave you the time of day?”
John frowned, “I was embarrassed that I wanted him to be my friend so much.”
“And me? Why am I different?” Cameron asked softly.
To John it sounded like he really couldn’t believe he was. To John, he was so completely different that he wasn’t even in the same group as Rodney and Daniel.
“I don’t know,” John answered quietly. “You just are, to me.”
“I love you, John,” Cameron said and John could hear the smile in his boyfriend’s voice.
A small smile slowly stretched across John’s face.
“Tell me about the rest of the Scrabble game.”
“Ugh, John… you’ve seen me get my ass handed to me in person, why do you want to hear about it also?”
“I can always just ask my mom.”
“Alright, alright… well… I kept getting horrible tiles. I swear I had the z and the x and a q all at once…”
*****
John was released from the mountain almost a day after Cameron’s mom had left to go back home. He felt really bad that she had flown all the way to Colorado and then John had gotten stuck in quarantine.
John sighed and finished doing the dishes that Cameron and Daniel had left in the sink. Daniel and John’s mom were still sleeping and Cameron had been called off-world. John had to go into work at eight and Daniel would be driving in with him. He figured he could make them breakfast before leaving.
“John?”
John looked up to see his mom smiling at him from a few feet away.
“Hey, mom.”
“What are you doing awake, sweetie? It’s not even five yet.”
John shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep, thought I would do the dishes, make breakfast.”
“It’s early, honey. Why don’t you make some tea and come sit with me?” She gestured to the couch.
That sounded like a much better idea than washing dishes and John nodded. He grabbed the electric kettle and filled it with water before returning it to its dock and flipping the on button. While the water heated, John grabbed two tea mugs and set them on the counter.
“What kind do you want, mom?”
John opened the cupboard that had a dozen little boxes of tea. John had bought them in an effort to wean Daniel and Rodney off of their coffee addiction. He was pretty sure that he was the only one who drank any. Sometimes Cameron did, but Cameron also loved his coffee.
“Do you have any peppermint, dear?”
John nodded and grabbed two bags of the peppermint and waited. It didn’t take long for the electric kettle to heat up and John dropped a tea bag into each mug, pouring water over the top.
John carried both mugs over to the coffee table in the living room and his mom followed close behind. She took a seat onto the couch next to John.
“Are you cold, mom? I can turn the fire place on.”
“That would be lovely, John. Thanks.”
John reached for the remote to their fireplace. He and Daniel had upgraded it last year from a traditional fireplace to a gas one, allowing them to turn it on and off with the press of a button. He hit the ‘on’ switch and adjusted the flame height so that it would keep them warm, but not too hot.
“So where are you guys thinking of holding the wedding, John?”
John thought about it for a second. “There’s a couple of parks nearby.”
“Where would you want to hold it?”
John blinked. “Caltech.”
“Really?” His mom asked.
“Yeah.”
“A lot of good things happened for you there,” she murmured.
John nodded. “Yeah.”
“Why don’t you ask them?”
“You can’t get married at Caltech, mom.”
“Why not?”
“You just… you can’t.”
“There’s no harm in asking, John. It’s a beautiful campus and they love you there. You finished three PhDs with them.”
“A lot of people have multiple degrees.”
“But most don’t get them from the same school. They ask you to lecture frequently, don’t they?”
“Yeah.” John took a sip of his tea.
“And they’ve asked you to teach there, right?”
John blushed lightly. “A couple of times.”
“The worst they can do is say ‘no’, John.”
“We want to get married in May, mom. There will still be classes.”
“So?”
“I don’t want to disturb them.”
“They let those tv shows film on their campus, John, I hardly think a wedding will be more disturbing.”
“I… oh. Huh.”
“Promise me you’ll ask,” she said.
“Yes, of course.” John blinked. He would do anything his mom asked him to.
She smiled sadly at him and gently touched his arm, “You’re a good son, John.”
*****
John’s mom left fifteen days after arriving. John missed her before her plane had even taken off.
“Hey,” Cameron said, slinging an arm around John’s shoulders. “Let’s go get some ice cream or something.”
“I’m not four, Cameron,” John protested, letting himself be led out of the airport.
His boyfriend smiled at him. “I know.”
“I’m a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force.”
“I know.”
“And I’m completely bad-ass,” John muttered.
“I know you are,” Cameron said with a smile. “How about some strawberry ice cream?”
Strawberry ice cream did sound good… “Only if it has real strawberry pieces in it.”
“We’ll get Breyer’s,” Cameron promised.
“I can pick up some bison meat for dinner.”
“Hamburgers?”
“Sure.”
“With bacon?”
“You know Rodney will insist on it being Canadian bacon.”
“I insist on it being real bacon.”
“I’ll get both,” John decided.
“You’re way too good to me, John Mason,” Cameron said. He leaned over and brushed his lips across John’s cheek in a soft and quick kiss.
“But you’re buying the ice cream.”
Cameron chuckled, “Deal.”
*****
“Well?”
Cam opened his eyes to see Daniel looking at him expectantly. “I haven’t even had my coffee, Jackson. Well, what?”
“What did Caltech say?” Daniel asked.
Cam eyed him. “What did Caltech say about what?”
Daniel suddenly had a look on his face that Cam interpreted as ‘Oh, shit, I shouldn’t have said that’. It was something that Cam saw mostly off-world and a few times around McKay.
“Uh, nothing.” The archeologist closed up the three books around him, piling them into his arms. “Sorry, gotta go.”
He left the room quickly and Cam blinked. It was way too early for this.
*****
Cam swung by John’s office around four. John was busy doing… whatever it was he did and Cam was busy looking like he was busy doing whatever he was he did. In reality, Cam was just staring at John.
“John?”
John looked away from his computer to look up at Cam. A soft looked passed across his face and Cam took that as a victory. Someday he would get a hundred thousand smiles of out John. But he wasn’t in a hurry. He’d get them eventually. Cam was already counting all of the ones he’d received. A glorious forty-seven.
“Daniel mentioned something about Caltech?”
John nodded and gestured Cam into his office. Cam took the chair in the tiny space between John’s desk and the wall. The SGC really needed to start coughing up bigger offices. John would soon be a full-bird colonel and Cam was sure they’d give him a better office then.
John looked at Cam, hazel-green eyes shining in the florescent lighting. “I should have talked to you about it first.”
“About what?”
“Um, a place for the wedding.”
“You want to get married at Caltech?” Cam asked, blinking. He hadn’t realized John had given it that much thought.
John nodded. “Yeah.”
“Okay… uh, wow. Caltech sounds great.”
“I need permission first.”
“Daniel seemed to think they answered.”
“They sent a letter.”
“And?”
“I, uh, haven’t opened it yet. I wanted to talk to you about it.”
“Where’s the letter?”
John gestured towards his jacket that was hanging from a hook on the wall by the door. Cam stood up and reached into the pocket to pull out a folded envelope.
“Let’s open it,” Cam said, sitting back down. He handed the letter across the desk to John.
“You open it,” John said quietly.
Cam pulled his hand back and nodded. “Okay.”
He grabbed the letter opener off of John’s desk and pushed it into the top open corner of the letter. He pulled it across the top, slicing the paper open. Cam handed the letter opened back to John and pulled the piece of paper out. He skimmed the contents before looking up and smiling at John.
“They said they would love to have you.”
“Really?” John asked. He reached for the letter.
“Yup. Oh, and a Professor Williams…? Says ‘hi’.”
“She’s been my advisor since my second year there,” John murmured, reading through the letter. He looked up at Cam, a dazed look on his face. “They said ‘yes’.”
“We’re getting married at Caltech,” Cam said with a grin.
“We’re getting married at Caltech,” John repeated in wonder.
*****
John bribed his team with good food and an even better dessert to help him and Cameron stuff wedding invitations. Cameron’s team had helped with the save-the-date cards they’d sent out last month. And now, two and a half months before the wedding, they were sending out invitations.
So there they were--John, Cameron, Lorne, Stackhouse and Markham--all sitting in John’s living room, stuffing wedding invitations.
It turned out that John and Cameron knew a lot more people than they thought they did.
John and Lorne had the best handwriting in the group, so they’d been delegated to writing names and addresses on the front. Cameron was putting in the actual invitation along with a piece of tissue paper. Markham was stuffing the smaller cards that would be sent back to John and Cameron stating a dinner preference and whether they were bringing a guest. Stackhouse was putting the smaller cards, and directions, into the larger envelopes and handing them off to John and Lorne to seal and address.
There were a couple hundred people on the guest list. John and Cameron had decided on a cap of seventy-five family members each and the other fifty were personal acquaintances. They were mostly from the SGC, some from Caltech that John knew and a couple friends of Cameron’s from previous postings that John hadn’t met.
Cameron had assured John that statistically only about half of everyone invited would attend, since it was out of state. John was paying for his mom and dad, as well as forty other immediate family members, in his and Cameron’s families, to attend. He was also paying to fly down his team. He’d offered to pay for Cameron’s team, as well as Rodney, but Rodney had huffed and said something about making more money than John did (probably forgetting about the money that came with solving two Millennium problems) and Cameron’s team had declined, saying they could pay their own way. John’s team had tried that, but John knew what they all made and hadn’t stood for any of it.
They’d also decided that if someone they really wanted to come, such as General Hammond or one of Cam’s buddies, but couldn’t because of cost, they would offer to pay their way as well.
The financial discussion had been interesting. John had never had it with anyone else before. His parents had never asked about the amount of money he had and neither had Daniel or Rodney.
Cameron had seemed momentarily affronted that John was so much richer than he was, but had quickly gotten over it. John had solved two math problems worth a million dollars each. He’d also invested, lectured, and done some private work for a few companies. He and Daniel owned the house, so there was no mortgage to pay, and John’s car had been paid off for years.
John thought he and Cameron should just get a joint bank account. Cameron was still thinking about it. He’d been thinking about it for three weeks and John worried more with each day that passed. He didn’t see what the big deal was about it. If they were getting married, it was forever, right? And they couldn’t just live forever with separate bank accounts. Could they?
“Sir.”
John shook himself out of his musings and looked to his left to see Lorne handing him a stack of cards to be sealed and addressed.
“Sorry,” John said, accepting them.
“No problem, sir.”
*****
Two months before the wedding, when everything was so chaotic that John’s life had become invitation replies, caterers, bakers, decorators, florists and family, Cameron’s mother casually requested that they come to her house for the weekend.
John hadn’t had time to sleep in a month, much less do anything more productive than pick a flower for the groomsmen to wear. But there he was on a flight out to Cameron’s house for the weekend. He figured he must be insane.
Cameron was sleeping on John’s shoulder and John was going through the guest list again, trying to create some sort of a seating arrangement. It was hard when there were still three more weeks for people to send in their acceptance cards, but there wasn’t much else he could do with Cameron asleep.
They’d taken Monday off as well and would fly from Cameron’s house, down to Pasadena, talk to the Dean of Caltech, as well as a local catering company and a bakery that they’d been in contact with. It was a lot to do in one day, but John was fairly sure that if he and Cameron could tackle the Goa’uld and the Ori, they could handle this.
Well, that’s probably what Cameron was thinking. John’s thoughts had been a little bit darker.
The lights flashed and the pilot announced their descent. John gently shook Cameron awake and soon they were landing.
*****
Cam had hoped that with time his mom might eventually warm up to John. So he’d taken every phone call and e-mail opportunity to try to win her over to his fiancé.
And then they’d showed up and his mom had directed them to Cam’s old room, now a guest room, and then left them to get settled in.
John had shifted uncomfortable, eyes stuck on the single bed and Cam tried not to outwardly show his frustration. He’d told his mom that they would need separate rooms. She’d said ‘okay’ and that had been the end of that. Apparently, it hadn’t.
John’s breaths were getting closer and closer together so Cam made a bit of noise walking over to John, so as not to surprise him.
“I’ll talk to her, John. I told her we’d need two rooms. If worse comes to worse, I can sleep on the couch,” Cam said softly.
He touched the bottom of John’s shirt, careful not to touch John’s body. He waited until John could figure out his intentions and then Cam very moved his hand up and rested it on John’s shoulder.
John often reminded Cam of a spooked horse. Cam would talk in low volumes and approach them very slowly, hands out so that they could see his intentions. He did the same thing with John.
John swallowed, “Yeah, okay.”
“Okay,” Cam whispered.
He withdrew his hand and gave John’s neck a gentle caress and his hand a squeeze before leaving the room.
*****
“I asked for two rooms, mom.”
“I don’t see why you need them, Cam. You’re engaged to be married! Don’t tell me you’re saving yourself.”
Cam sighed and look to his dad for help. His father offered Cam a shrug and a half smile so Cam when back to his mom. She was chopping up onions to go into some sauce for that night’s dinner.
“I’ll sleep on the couch then.”
“It’s still cold out at night, you’ll freeze.”
“I’ll have blankets.”
“I don’t see why you’re being so stubborn about this, Cam.”
She pushed the onions aside and pulled out some garlic cloves.
“I don’t see why I can’t just use the other guest room.”
“It has stuff in it,” she answered.
“I just need the bed,” Cam argued. “I talked to you about this on the phone and you said it was alright!”
“I thought you were joking. Can you pass me the rosemary, dear?”
Cam sighed and opened the refrigerator. There was a small bag with a bundle of rosemary and Cam took it out, letting the door shut behind him. He handed it to his mom.
“Well, I wasn’t joking.”
“I don’t understand why you two can’t share a bed. That will make for an interesting wedding night.”
Cam silently groaned. “Mom, he’s a guest. Can’t he have his own room?”
“He’s not a guest, Cam he’s family.”
Cam sighed again. “Then we’ll go into town and get a hotel.”
“Don’t be absurd, Cameron,” his dad put in. “Wendy let the boy have his own room.”
“Frank!”
“Maybe they just don’t want the temptation while they’re here and I, for one, appreciate that,” Frank Mitchell said. “Sorry, son,” he said to Cam. “But the last thing I want is to walk in on you and your young man makin’ like rabbits up in that old room of yours.”
Cam choked, “Dad!”
His father chucked, “Don’t be such a prude, son.”
“Oh, Frank--leave the boy alone,” his mother said with a smile. “Fine, Cam, go clear out the guest room.”
“Thanks, mom,” Cam said. He bent down to press a kiss to her cheek. Cam quickly left the room, heading back up the stairs to John who was probably really freaking out by now.
“Be back in an hour for dinner!” She called after him.
“We will!”
When he reached his old room, John was still standing there, staring at the bed.
“John?” Cam asked quietly. He entered the room and shut the door lightly behind him.
John flinched a little but turned almost right away to face him.
“I’m gonna sleep in the guest room next door.”
There was a visible look of relief on John’s face.
“I’m sorry,” John said quietly.
“What for?”
“For causing so much trouble.”
Cam offered John a soft look and stepped closer to his fiancé. “You definitely aren’t causing trouble.”
John blinked at him. “Oh, okay.”
“Want to take a nap before dinner?”
“Will you sit with me?”
“Yeah,” Cam said smiling. “I can sit with you.”
*****
Part 1
Part 3