P is for Pancakes
30 Days of Shipping Day 30: A couple you will still ship a few years from now
Title: P is for Pancakes
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairing: Parrish/Lorne, OCs
Rating: Gen
Orientation: Slash
Word Count: 1,093
Warnings: No standard warnings apply
Summary: Evan is miserable, and trying to make pancakes
Prompts:Hurt Comfort Bongo Fill: “Invisibility”
10 Tropes Fill: “Kid!fic”
Parrish_Lorne thingathon prompt: “Making pancakes” (for
fififolle )
“Daddy?”
“Evan, Sarah is talking to you, put the phone down and listen.”
Evan held the bowl in the crook of his arm and stirred the batter as he tried to keep the phone wedged between ear and shoulder without dropping it into the pancake mix. “No, that is not where I said to put the crates! Why doesn’t anyone ever listen to me when I talk?”
“Daddy? ”
“Because if you put it there, the marines will toss it on a dolly and send it through the Gate!” He spooned out dollops of mix onto the griddle, annoyed that they were calling him from the base on Sunday morning when he had specifically told them he was off duty and staying home with the kids today.
“Her face is turning red, Ev, you better pay attention. Explosion in five, four, three, two...” David counted down on his fingers as he sat on the countertop.
“DADDY LISTEN TO ME!!!”
“I have to go, Walter.” Evan hit the end button, set down the bowl of batter and turned around. “I’m sorry, Sarah, what’s wrong?”
“We don’t want pancakes.”
He sighed and checked that the flapjacks weren’t burning. “Sarah, we always have pancakes on Sunday morning.”
“When Dad makes them. Your pancakes suck,” Eddie said, slumping in his chair and staring intently at his game.
“Don’t say suck!” Evan, Sarah and David all said at once.
Evan flipped the pancakes over, feeling tears well up in his eyes. He hadn’t been able to tell them yet. The twins thought David was away on a science thing for the government. They didn’t know he wasn’t coming home.
“Damn it Evan, stop that! I’m right here.” David kicked his feet against the kitchen cabinet, but it made no sound. “Why the hell can’t anyone see me? This is what sucks Eddie! And you turned them too soon Evan, that’s why they come out wrong.”
“Please guys, I’m having a rotten week, can we just...?” his breath came out in a shudder and he dropped the spatula on the floor. He bent to get it, and pressed his forehead to the oven door, willing the tears to stay away. They had to find David’s team. They had to. He couldn’t imagine life without him. He’d taken the SGC position so that he wouldn’t be offworld anymore, so that neither of them would be left alone with the twins. And now here he was, facing that possibility. He wiped his face on the dish towel hanging over the door handle and stood up.
The compassionate one, Sarah walked over and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I’ll eat pancakes Daddy. I don’t mind if they’re chewy.”
“You’re going to feed them chewy flapjacks? Honestly Evan.” David thumped his head against the cabinet door.
The phone rang again as he was plating bacon - which was only slightly overdone - and sliding pancakes onto each of their plates. Evan glanced at the caller ID display. It was Harriman again. He picked up the phone. “Lorne.”
“Colonel Lorne. SG-8 reported back in, they found evidence of an alien device near the site where SG-9 and Doctor Parrish were working.”
“Any idea what it does?” Evan pushed the plate with the butter on it towards Eddie, covering the receiver with one hand he told his son, “Eddie, put butter on, then syrup, it’ll taste better.” Eddie gave him a look that conveyed his disbelief.
“You are poisoning our children.” David said accusingly. “Why didn’t you stick to scrambled eggs? I taught you how to do scrambled eggs, you were coming along so nicely.”
“I think you mixed it wrong, Daddy,” Sarah whispered, holding up a lumpy, half cooked pancake.
Evan dropped into the chair, pushed his plate aside and thumped his head on the table as General Landry was giving him specifics of the mission site. When Harriman finally took a breath, Evan said, a little desperately, “Walter, please tell me David is coming home soon.”
“I wish I could tell you that, sir. I’m sorry. SG-8 brought the device back, Colonel Carter is looking it over. As soon as we know more, I’ll let you know.”
“Thank you.” He clicked the phone off and let it skid across the tabletop as he buried his head in his arms.
“Ev, you’re scaring the kids.”
After a minute, Eddie touched Evan’s arm. “Hey, Daddy, we can just have toast and bacon sandwiches, the bacon is good.”
He forced himself to look up and nod. “Yeah, okay. Bacon sandwiches. Want some melted cheese too?”
He muddled his way through sandwiches and the kids ran out to play video games in the living room. Evan wandered around the kitchen, haphazardly cleaning. This was David’s area, he felt wrong being in it. A wave of grief hit him and he slid down to the floor, resting his back against the refrigerator.
“No, no, no, don’t you do this!” David said, kneeling in front of him. “You have to keep it together, Evan. Please. I can’t watch you come apart like this.” He sat vigil as Evan buried his face in his hands and shook silently.
After about twenty minutes sitting on the kitchen floor, David felt a tingling sensation, which turned into a burning sensation, which turned into a flare of pain.
“Ow, damn, what the hell?” he grumbled, shaking his hands out as feeling suddenly returned to them.
“David?” Evan gasped, looking up.
And then Evan glomped onto him, holding him and saying repeatedly, “I thought you were dead. I thought you were gone.”
“No, I was right here. I was right here, you just couldn’t see me.” David wriggled out of the stranglehold Evan had him in and then hugged him.
The phone rang and Sarah ran in shouting, “I’ll get it!”
“Hi Dad!” she said, waving to him as she picked up the phone and put it to her ear. “Hello?” She skipped across the kitchen and kissed David’s cheek as she listened. “Yes, he’s here. I’ll get him.” Holding out the phone, she said, “Daddy, it’s Walter from work.”
Since Evan still had his face pressed against his chest, David took the phone and Sarah ran off again. “Hello Walter, it’s Doctor Parrish. Yes, we figured that out. I’m fine. Yes, I’ll come in. Uh huh. No, really, I’m fine. Yeah, we will. Thanks.”
“You scared the hell out of me,” Evan said as he smiled at his partner.
“You annoyed the hell out of me. Stop trying to make pancakes!”
The End
Originally posted at http://rinkafic.dreamwidth.org/