Roo'verse Update! Dominus, Secundus, Pleb (John/Rodney, John/Cam)
Title: Dominus, Secundus, Pleb
Author: Tzzzz
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: mpreg
Parings: John/Cam, John/Rodney, Dave Sheppard/OMC, Dave Sheppard/OMC
Spoilers: Outcast, Phantoms, Common Ground,the Return, the Roo'verse AU: Not a Lullaby.
Summary: John and Cam visit John's family and realize they must make some difficult decisions. Follows Tables Turned, Once There Was a Man Named Holland, Not a Henry, The Kangaroos and the Bees, What Rodney Wants, Conception, The Good of the One, Transferred, Baby Deedee, and Brothers and Sisters.
A/N: I realize that I haven't updated this in forever. I sort of wrote myself into a corner where I couldn't figure out how John and Cam would want to raise the kid and then got distracted by Not a Lullaby and by finding a new fandom and real life. But I'm back now and I promise that I will do better at updating this now that I know for certain where it's going.
Dominus, Secundus, Pleb
Cam sighed. They'd only been in the air for half an hour and already John was fidgeting like a hen ready to lay an egg. Cam might've attributed it to the nervousness that he'd seen in some pilots while traveling commercial, but he'd flown with John before when John came out to visit his family and John had slept peacefully the entire trip.
"I've had enough, Sunshine, you need to calm down," Cam ordered, yanking up the divider between them and wrapping an arm around John before he got yet another elbow in the ribs. Not that holding John would ever be a hardship. Cam forced down a smug grin when he felt the slight swell of John's belly push up against him. Sure, John was in complete denial, wearing a few shirts he appeared to have stolen from McKay and insisting he hadn't started to show yet, but instead of the equation "i > u", all Cam could see was the fact that John was incubating their son and Cam had put that little bump there. He brought his other hand around to rest on John's stomach, rubbing below the pouch scar. One of the stewardesses gave them an indulgent look and Cam winked at her. Yep, he'd done good.
"I know what you're doing," John growled. "You're trying to piss me off so I forget about how you're making me go see my brother."
"Not working?"
John shook his head. "It's not that I don't love Dave so much as the fact that I hate his husband." John had mentioned several times that his brother was more like his father, which while tolerable, Cam imagined wasn't pleasant.
"Come on, John, they can't be all that bad." Cam was just happy that McKay wouldn't be joining them for the ceremony. This was a moment for the family and McKay wasn't family. "Besides, we'd see them at the Registration in a few days anyhow. This way my family gets to come out East for a real live Registration ceremony and I get to make your brother love me before he's faced with the whole Mitchell-Wilder clan."
John winced, but cuddled a little closer to Cam. "About that. I know your parents and your brother will have to come, but I don't know if it's such a good idea for everyone to come out."
"Why not? Avery has known you since Washington and god knows Claire has heard enough stories."
"It's not me that's the problem," John ground out through clenched teeth. Cam had seen him more relaxed in front of an Afghani warlord. "Look, you haven't met my brother's family."
"I know your brother is an incredible tight ass who runs the family company. I read that article about him in Time." Dave Sheppard had been hailed a visionary in the field of management and productivity, as well as a public relations genius when it came to believable corporate responsibility programs. That on top of numerous roles at the Guild club and being an attentive husband and father.
John sighed. "Dave's not the one to worry about. Sure, he'll polite you to death, but he's fun compared to Alexi."
"His dominus domi?" Cam remembered that from the article - that John's brother had married and carried his first son at eighteen.
John nodded. "Alexi was an arranged marriage - the son of one of Dad's oil suppliers."
"Tzarist?" The article had conveniently left that out. But maybe that was an even greater display of PR genius, considering all the unsavory Russian connections such a marriage could imply.
"Yep. His donor won the rights to Romashkino Oil Field at the end of the Russian Civil War. Alexi is a royal and the third son of a secundi, and both of his brothers are imperials. The family shipped him over here to 'foster business ties,' but I honestly think they just wanted to get him out of their hair." John winced. "Just, don't listen to anything he says. He almost made Leo cry, and you know Leo never went anywhere expecting everyone to like him."
"But we're going to be family," Cam protested. Surely they could set aside their differences in order to make life easier for the children.
"Something that Alexi will absolutely hate. He pretty much ordered me not to marry Leo."
"I hoped you punched him in the face."
"Oh, trust me, I'd like to. But he's my brother's husband." That seemed oddly passive of John. But then again, there was so much about noble society that Cam didn't understand. "I told him it wasn't his right to tell me otherwise and that I'd be marrying Leo. That's when he tried to destroy us. Remember, that's when I came to spend Thanksgiving with you." How could Cam forget? "Don't worry. I won't let him get like that with you."
"Yeah, well, maybe he won't care. We're not getting married." Cam hoped he managed to keep most of the resentment out of his voice. Yes, they'd only had sex once and, yes, John kept insisting that he'd be heading back to Atlantis and his life one day, but they were a couple, damnit! It didn't matter if they were having sex or not. In fact, he'd heard that many nobles didn't. But they were partners in raising a kid and that should count for something. "And besides, the damage is already done," he gave John's belly a little squeeze for emphasis. "I'm going on his family tree whether he likes it or not."
John frowned. "We could always leave the kid unregistered. I don't think I would've been worse off for it. Rodney's not registered and he seems fine." Rodney McKay, fine? It didn't take a genius to realize that Rodney McKay had a huge chip on his shoulder and Cam would bet anything that his donor not agreeing to register him had something to do with it.
Of course, being a noble probably hadn't done John himself any favors. John had never flaunted his heritage. In fact, he'd done his best to hide it. But it shone through nonetheless in John's sometimes-chilling charm, the way he managed to convince everyone to follow him as their 'better' without even mentioning his pedigree, and by the way he made decisions, as though there was always a net beneath to catch him if he jumped. Cam would be proud to have a son as down to earth as John, but John didn't realize that the very opportunity to choose to reject the noble lineage played a huge part in the amazing man he was today.
"No," Cam insisted, "our son deserves all the opportunities we can give him, and that includes eating at the Guild Club and stamping letters with the family crest if he wants to. Besides, he might not be as 'independent' as his father so that he can do without the crest."
John stiffened against Cam. They hadn't ever talked about John's crash landing and the Pasteur rupture. The scans had come out good and the neonate had made it to the pouch, but that didn't negate the possibility that the neonate had been starved for oxygen enough to face permanent brain damage.
"I guess he can do all that stuff if he wants to," John admitted, cradling his belly thoughtfully. "Dave does it and he's still a good guy."
"I can't wait to meet him."
***
Dave Townsend was a formidable man. He wore a suit like he was born to it and somehow managed to not get the thing even the slightest bit wrinkled carrying a six-year-old boy on his hip. The kid had coffee-colored skin, but shared the same piercing hazel eyes that seemed to run in the family.
Cam didn't know if it was rude, but he figured that if John could fall in love with Leo Holland, a little rudeness couldn't hurt. He poked John in the ribs as they made their way across the lawn towards where John's brother was hoisting the kid up to pet a big chestnut-colored horse. "I thought your brother married a Russian."
John laughed. "Oh, he very much did. Cody is Dave's kid with his secundus. Have you heard of Darren Barry?"
Cam shrugged. The name sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it.
"He's a jazz musician."
Cam blushed a little. He listened to mostly country and classic rock, never any of the "classy" stuff John probably grew up on.
"He and Dave met during college. They're a love match," John sounded almost wistful.
Dave picked this time to notice them, putting his son down and striding over to them. He wrapped his brother in a tight hug, before pulling back and shaking Cam's hand with a twinkle in his eye.
After John made the introductions, Dave commented, "Congratulations to you both. And special congratulations to you for finally prying open my brother's pouch."
John winced at the comment, but his body language was truly relaxed, not the fake relaxation John normally used to disarm. He and Dave were less than a year appart in age. They were probably close. Cam bet that John had missed his brother, all the more so for his self-imposed exile due to his spouse.
Dave's son also didn't waste any time running over and embracing John. "Uncle John! Uncle John! Daddy's going to start letting me ride this year. He says that once I get Starbuck to like me, I can ride her."
"That's great, sport!" John replied.
"Your Uncle John was an expert horseman. He won a whole room full of trophies when he was a kid. Maybe he can take you out while he's here."
"Could you, Uncle John? Please."
John smiled fondly at his nephew. "I'm afraid I won't be able to, buddy."
Dave frowned at John.
"Dad didn't tell you?"
"When does Dad tell me anything important?" Dave complained, but he looked concerned.
"I had a Pasteur rupture. I was lucky that my doctor had access to some advanced medical technology. Everything's fine now, but I'm supposed to take it easy until the baby's a little bigger."
"In other words until the time when you'll be too big to want to get on a horse," Dave said knowingly. "Damnit, I knew I should have come to the transfer."
"You had that merger."
"It was nothing Alexi couldn't have handled in my place. John, why didn't you tell me?"
John shrugged. "I didn't want to worry you."
"John, after what happened to you in Afghanistan, you know I'd want to be there for you in any way I could."
John looked away. As much progress as they'd made, it still hurt John to be reminded of what happened to Leo. "I'm sorry," he said after a moment. "But I did have Dad." They both laughed. "And Cam has been great. His mom baked me all sorts of amazing things while I was on bed rest. I think I gained five pounds."
Dave laughed. "Five pounds you probably needed. You look great for right after the transfer - already starting to show a little."
"Am not!" John's boyish grin was infectious.
"Whatever you say, Johnny."
Cody chose that moment to interrupt, pulling at John's pantleg and pointing to Cam. "Who's that, Uncle John."
"Cody, I already explained this to you," Dave said patiently. "Your Uncle John is carrying a baby and your Uncle Cam is the baby's deedee."
"And," John added, "if you're good, Uncle Cam might take you for a ride."
Cody seemed thrilled, but Dave looked somewhat uncomfortable with the idea. John just rolled his eyes. "Cam grew up in Kansas on a farm and has piloted planes you couldn't even imagine. God, you're so paranoid."
"So is your face," Dave replied, before the two brothers broke out laughing.
"I used to tell Dave that all the time, when we were growing up," John replied.
"Try all throughout college. Let's just say that the military never exactly succeeded in making John more mature."
Cam agreed. "Still hasn't."
"Hey," John poked Cam. "As the donor to my child, you're supposed to be on my side."
"I never agreed to that, Sunshine," Cam replied, but he did give John a quick peck on the cheek.
John shoved him off, but with a smile on his face. Cam couldn't help but smile back. This was what he loved about John - being with him just felt so easy.
Cody seemed to grow bored with their conversation and the way that Cam was making doe-eyes at John and ran back over to stare at the horses.
"Six is a little young, don't you think?" John asked his brother as soon as the boy was out of earshot.
Dave scowled. "That's what I said. But Darren and Alexi think I need to relax. Though I don't know why Alexi even cares since Cody isn't his. Darren must have bribed him with something. Maybe if I tell them that even the man who broke five bones riding horses thinks it's unsafe . . . ."
"Hey, I don't want to get drawn into one of your arguments. And you already promised the kid."
Dave sighed. "I know I already promised him. At least Alexi let me buy Starbuck. She's a retired stunt-horse. Literally a bomb could go off next to the old girl and she'd just stand there. But you know how kids are. All of his brothers ride, so Cody wants to do it too."
"Cody's the youngest of four," John explained to Cam. On one hand, four was a pretty big family, but on the other it was remarkably restrained for a family of three royal carriers.
Dave looked suddenly away, causing John's eyebrows to rocket up. "Dave?"
"You know that condoms are only 98% effective, right? That means that 2 of every 100 couples using them each year will have an unintended pregnancy and we've been having regular sex for roughly 18 years, so . . ."
"You actually have a 30.5 percent chance of an unintended pregnancy over that time period."
How had John known that? Had he calculated it in his head? Cameron knew that John was a lot smarter than he liked to admit, but that was pretty crazy.
"You're having a baby with this man and you've never shown him your freakish math genius thing?" Dave asked, shooting John a look. Cam might not be able to do math like that in his head, but he was smart enough to know that John's brother did not approve of John marrying someone who apparently didn't know him well enough. The accusation stung. Cam was about to protest when Dave laughed and punched his brother on the arm. "You can come out of your geek closet to the donor of your children at least."
"Can we not change the subject, please," John replied, eyes narrowed, though there was something in his eyes that said he and Dave would talk more about this later. "You or Darren?" Cam was surprised that John didn't think to include the other spouse. Cam thought he was a royal carrier too.
"Me," Dave replied, his hand going automatically to his stomach. "Alexi doesn't know yet."
"He's not going to do anything . . . unacceptable, is he?" Ah, that must be the voice that John used to leverage information out of enemies. It was probably the voice he used to get the goddamned Wraith who'd fed off of him to be his ally.
Dave looked equally resolute. Cam could easily see how this man was the head of a Fortune 500 company even though he appeared to be a charming family man to Cam. "For the last time, Alexi is a pompous, entitled, emotionally distant, cheating jerk with dubious moral principles and horrible childrearing skills, but he is not abusive and he is ultimately a very pragmatic man. He doesn't want any more children and he might ask me to bind, but to be honest, there's really nothing he can do about it other than throw a little tantrum and run off to Russia for a few weeks. We may not love each other, but trust me, I know my husband."
John seemed to subside a little bit, but Cam could tell he was still angry. "Sorry, Dave. You know I'm just trying to keep you safe, right?"
"I'm not the one stationed in a top secret war zone who's still recovering from a Pasteur rupture," Dave pointed out. "Beside, I don't think Alexi cares about me carrying one way or another. It barely affects our work and Darren and I take care of the kids and manage the nannies and lord knows we can afford it. No, it's more the fact that right now, two of our four are Alexi's, which is a respectable distribution between the dominus and the secundus. I'm more concerned that Alexi's pride will make him want to even the score."
"Why is that a problem?" Cam asked. It was probably a stupid question, considering that having a child was a big deal, but Dave seemed pretty disturbed by the possibility.
"Well, I guess if you're going to be family anyway, you deserve the full briefing on our dysfunctional family gossip. I carried Piotr, who is Alexi's. Then I met Darren and almost immediately conceived Patrick Junior. They were pouchmates for several months - I didn't pouch-wean Piotr for quite some time. A few years later, I gestated another child for Alexi, but the neonate didn't transfer." Dave still looked haunted by that, though not half as haunted as John. "Then, when Piotr was 10, Alexi started to hear some whispers at work about why he hadn't carried. They were saying that he wasn't really a noble and he felt insecure, so the two of us actively tried for Ivan. Alexi only incubated him long enough that he was showing and then Darren had his pouch opened to carry him the rest of the time. Darren liked that experience so much that a few years later he and I conceived Cody."
"So Darren and Alexi don't have any children together," Cam observed.
"You really like the bright ones, John. Yes, that's the problem. Darren and Alexi mostly tolerate each other for my sake. Alexi sees Darren as more an affair that I invited into our marriage than an equal partner. He enjoys the prestige of being married to a famous musician, but the two of them have practically managed to avoid being alone in a room together for 18 years, let alone having sex without me as an intermediary. Alexi allows me Darren as an indulgence. Darren puts up with Alexi because Alexi was a condition of marrying me that he knew about going in. But Alexi is wary of cultivating this as a public image. The fact that they have no children together and that I have two children with each of them already makes it seem as though I am the most powerful in the household. This child will make it even more obvious. Darren can barely stand to have sex with Alexi and I know carrying his child will hurt him, but it may be the only option to keep our marriage healthy."
It sounded like something out of those nobility-themed soap operas that Cam never bothered to watch. It seemed ridiculous that John's brother would stay in a relationship with someone he didn't love and even more ridiculous for Darren to agree to a marriage when he wasn't even attracted to one of the partners in it. "Why don't you just divorce him?"
Both Sheppard brothers turned to Cam, looking shocked. Cam must've put his foot in it.
"He's serious," John told his brother after a beat, flushing a little in vicarious embarassment.
"I initiated relations with Darren and bore his first child. Alexi would have an easy case for a covet of affinity. And it would be true. The divorce penalties would be staggering."
Cam was still confused. He knew that nobles had different rules of marriage and divorce depending on their guild, but he couldn't fathom this.
"You need to go even more basic," John said, taking in Cam's bewildered expression. Cam wanted to kick himself for not researching the traditions of John's guild before coming here. It didn't matter that John himself had told him not to bother. "Taking on a secundus is supposed to be a traditional solution to fertility problems. It's also been a solution to unhappy marriages, but nobody wants to officially acknowledge it. It's not a big deal if brining in a secundus solves either of those problems, but the guilds are very wary of couples who use a secundus as a way to find their next spouse without leaving the first."
"It's called a covet of affinity," Dave interjected, "when one spouse elects a secundus despite a lack of fertility problems and then divorces the original spouse but not the secundus. The penalty is usually favorable conditions for the first spouse in asset division, a monthly fine in proportion to income, and a requirement that the secundus and the spouse initiating divorce do not see each other unsupervised for a year and a half."
"That's ridiculous!" Cam exclaimed. "Is that even legal?"
"It's not legal in the sense that the lay courts can only enforce the terms of the divorce, not the separation of the spouses that remain together, but the consequences of disobeying the separation order are to be expelled from the guild and have their names and those of any children they have together deleted from the Registry."
"Which you could always do," John protested.
"That would be a horrible business decision," Dave replied matter-of-factly. "Besides, I wouldn't do that to Alexi."
"He's barely around. He ignores your kids when he is and treats you more like a trophy than like a husband. And he's an ass!" John bellowed.
Dave pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm not having this conversation with you again, John. Alexi has many flaws, but he has been exceedingly tolerant of me and Darren."
"In exchange for a ridiculous number of his own affairs."
"Look, Alexi may not be the love of my life or a true father to my children, but I do respect him and care for him. I've been with him more than half my life - how could I not?"
"Because he's an asshole!"
"John, you are so like Dad sometimes. You need to stop judging people for not living up to your own weird moral code. We're not divorcing Alexi and if he wants another child with Darren, we will welcome that child into our lives."
"Fine," John replied, crossing his arms over his stomach stubbornly.
"Sorry about that," Dave told Cam. "Sometimes we can't help but rehash our old fights. But the real reason I extended an invitation was because I wanted to get to know you better." Cam didn't really like Dave's smile - it was a little too much of a shark's grin. "Let's head into the house and have some tea. My husbands are both home today, as are Ivan and P.J. Piotr is away at college - his first year at Columbia. He'll be back for the Registration ceremony, though."
"Columbia, that's a good school," Cam remarked, for lack of anything better to say.
"Yes, well, our father was disappointed it's not Harvard, but it'll do," Dave replied. "Piotr wants to major in art history, though I can't fathom why. I suppose it doesn't matter much, considering we already have him engaged to one of the sons of the CEO of Solartec." Dave noticed that Cody wasn't following them and ran back to get him.
"Wait," Cam whispered. "If he doesn't like his arranged marriage and would rather just be married to his secundus, then why is your brother arranging a marriage for his own son?"
John shrugged, far less bothered by this than Cam would think he'd be after the fit he'd thrown about Alexi. "With the green energy craze, they need to make alliances with alternate energy companies."
"Yes, but doesn't he want his son to marry for love?"
"Look," John replied, "Dave is a traditionalist. He doesn't see his marriage as some great tragedy and neither do I. His dominus is an asshole, but Dave still has great kids and a secundus that he's madly in love with. Piotr is their eldest and the only imperial in the family. It'd be a shock if his marriage wasn't political."
Cam admitted that he just didn't get it. For all John acted like just an ordinary guy, as much as he seemed to embrace the plebian values that permiated the military, it seemed as though the apple hadn't fallen quite as far from the tree as Cam had thought. "You were the eldest and an imperial."
John shrugged. "Dave didn't want to do the military service and I wanted to fly. Our Dad didn't like it, but he knew it'd make us both happier."
"So you were supposed to marry Alexi?"
John snorted, as though the answer were blatantly obvious. "I'm an imperial. Dad would've married me to one of his close business partners, not their son."
"So, Cam," Dave said upon returning with Cody in tow, "tell me more about yourself."
"Not much to tell. I work in the same organization as John, but on a different base. I lead a five man team. Some of them might pop in at the Registration ceremony. We do mostly ground ops, but I still get to fly some really neat planes. Kansas, born and raised. I'm plebeian, which I'm sure you already figured out."
Dave chuckled. "It was glaringly obvious. How did you meet John?"
"We actually met years ago training at Twenty Nine Palms. John rescued me from my own training mission. It wasn't at all romantic."
John laughed at that, draping his arm over Cam's shoulder. "That's only because you were basically unconscious the whole time and when you were awake, you were so concussed that you barely made any sense. You couldn't decide if I was your guardian angel or the angel of death. My crew gave me shit about that for weeks."
Cam blushed. It sounded like a bad pickup line now, in retrospect, though in the heat of the moment, the question of who John was had been his world. "You never told me that."
"Figured you'd be embarrassed. But no embarrassment can top the story of how Dave met Darren."
"He's right," Cody agreed. "Deedee and Dad's story is funny."
Cam turned to Dave - his grinning face was a welcome reprieve from the giant mansion they were walking towards. Cam didn't think he'd ever been in a house so big (not counting the White House, of course). And Cam found that the prospect of the upcoming meeting was far scarier than meeting the President had ever been.
"I was in my second year at Harvard at the time," Dave began, clearly settling into a familiar retelling of a familiar story. "I was carrying Piotr at the time and was big as a whale. I'd stopped bothering to even look at my fellow students, considering I was married already with a child on the way. I didn't mind carrying or have any serious health problems, but I didn't do any extra curriculars and I was taking extra classes so I could finish early. School was pretty secondary for me. I just wanted to get through my degree program quickly so I could move to St. Petersberg with Alexi."
"Wait, Alexi wasn't with you?" Cam asked. They were having a baby for crying out loud.
"Alexi was studying at the Tsarist University of Russia and taking his sweet time with it. I was even studying Russian so I could transfer there for a semester while I was pouch-weaning Piotr. So, I'm sitting on the quad having my own private picnic, talking to my giant belly in Russian when this kid with dreadlocks and a saxaphone plops down on my blanket and says, 'You're perfect,' with this look of awe on his face. I was flattered. I hadn't though anyone would be looking at me with my huge stomach and everything." Dave turned to Cody, "Your dad was very handsome and I was a little speechless. I was gathering up the courage to return the compliment when he asks me to join the crew team."
John laughed. "Dave was actually very good a crew at Exeter, but you'd never know it when he was carrying."
"Turns out," Dave continued, "Darren was part of the campus ACLU and they were trying to get a test case for reproductive discrimination in university athletics and crew was the only sport that was still trying out. So Darren rushed me down there, even managed to get me into a boat. Of course, the boat is rocky when you have a man six months into his incubation and a bunch of frosh who know nothing about crew trying to paddle it. The coach is shouting at us and I've been thinking about me and Alexi and how we still didn't know each other at all, and I vomit all over both Darren and the coach."
Cam laughs at the proof that even those guys who wear perfect suits and only eat at the Guild clubs still have a past.
"Oh, it gets better," John interjects. "Dave was apologizing to everyone and the coach was trying to get them to all steer the boat back to shore when Piotr decided it would be the perfect time to make his first emergence from the pouch."
"Darren was so startled that he fell overboard," Dave added. "And then Coach told Darren, 'And that, Mr. Barry, is why we have the policy of not allowing students to bring their children along to sports practice.' He didn't want to risk the boat tipping with my newly emerged baby in it, so he made Darren swim back to shore."
"Wow, that's something of a first date."
"Wasn't our first date," an incredibly handsome man says as he emerges out of a beautiful rose garden to greet them. He's traded the dreadlocks for a shaved head and sunglasses that Cam would never in a million years be cool enough to pull off. He's wearing a suit with no tie, but unlike Dave, he has clear evidence of interaction with children in the form of a muddy handprint in the middle of his stomach. "I'm Darren Barry," he shook Cam's hand and gave John a hug. "No, we hung out and 'studied' almost every day after for the next three months. I didn't know if we'd ever be more than friends, but I couldn't help myself."
"I knew right away," Dave replied, giving his husband a kiss. "I was waiting for Alexi to sign the paperwork giving me the option of taking a secundus."
Darren laughed. "Turns out we could've been together that whole time. Alexi hadn't even told his classmates he was married. How many affairs did he have?"
The two of them laughed. "Three boyfriends and a girlfriend?" Dave offered.
It made Cam's blood boil thinking about this asshole stranding John's brother in Boston, giving up the whole fun of college in order to finish early and join him in Russia when he was cheating on him on the side.
"Yeah, but to be fair to Alexi, the ink barely dried on the document before we conceived P.J.," Darren replied. "And Dave never did join him in Russia. After taking six years to graduate, he had come back and live with us here."
"All those Russian classes were a waste," Dave grumbled. "I should've studied Chinese instead."
"But do you really want to know the kicker?" Darren asked.
Cam nodded.
"His senior year, after both Piotr and P.J. were pouch weaned enough to let him actually attend practices, Dave turned out to literally be the star of the crew team."
They all shared a laugh. Cam felt tender, soft with his arm around John's waist and his family sharing their stories with warm, happy smiles. But he couldn't help but wonder why he and John didn't have stories like that. Sure, not everyone had a first meeting worthy of a romantic comedy, but the most romantic thing that had happened to Cam and John was that John had decided not to bind his pouch for Cam. He felt small and insignificant somehow next to how obviously in love John's brother and his secundus were.
"Darren, your suit," Dave complained, already wiping at the smudge on it.
"P.J. and Ivan were practicing lacrosse again. P.J. accidentally hit me in the stomach with a muddy ball and Ivan got his muddy hands all over me trying to wipe the mud off. They're showering now. Don't worry, I think Maria is an expert at getting these stains out by now." He turned to John and Cam, "We'll just pop in the study to say hi to Alexi and then I'll show you to your rooms to have a rest before dinner. John, you must be tired. The first month of incubation when your body is just learning how to produce milk can be very tiring."
As they made their way through the labyrinthine mass of wood-floored hallways and rooms with no demonstrable purpose other than to display antique furniture, Darren turned to his husband and asked, "So, you told them?"
"How did you know?"
Darren rolled his eyes. "John has his quiet rage thing going on."
Dave seemed to deflate. "Yeah, too much to hope for that my brother would just be happy he's getting another nephew."
Before John could protest, they arrived at their destination. It was a room with imposing mahogany doors, high ceilings, lined with tall frosted windows that let in natural light from two sides. There were two desks in the room as well as a large carved wooden table that looked as though it belonged in a library. Behind what was clearly the main desk sat a handsome man with dark hair and deep brown eyes. He was large, with broad shoulders, but the bulk was obviously muscle and not fat. The small amount of grey that crept in at his temples and in his goatee made him look distinguished and slightly older than his husbands, though Cam knew that the were all roughly the same age. Somehow, Cam hadn't pictured Dave's husband would be so handome. Alexi calmly lifted a bookmark and placed it precisely where he had left off in the large legal tome he had been reading and rose to shake both Cam and John's hands.
"So my brother-in-law is finally adding a name to the family Registry," he said, though his eyes glared daggers at Cam. "Come. Sit," he gestured towards the small sitting area of two armchairs and a couch in one corner of the large room. "I'll have Sonya bring us some tea." He pressed a button on his desk that Cam presumed would summon one of the house's many employees. Cam couldn't believe they actually had a tea-delivery button.
Alexi walked over to one of the high-backed armchairs and pulled out a large wooden box of cigarettes, offering them to Darren, who took one, and to Cam and Dave, who declined. Alexi seemed a little puzzled that Dave didn't accept, but lit up nonetheless. He sat in the chair and patted his lap. Dave somehow managed to not look resigned when we walked over and sat, leaving Darren the other chair and John and Cam the couch.
"We are all very excited for you," Alexi continued, not doubting for a second that he was holding audience with them on behalf of his family, even though it was obvious that Dave and Darren would have already offered their congratulations.
"My Daveed loves babies." Dave's name rolled of Alexi's tongue like a snake's hiss. "He is unhappy unless he is beremennay. I say he should spend more time working and less fucking, yes? I was with child only one time and that is enough for me. Our investors know you are royal man, moy zaichik, there is no more need to impress them more."
"Why not? We have the money," Dave argued, shooting a meaningful glance at Darren.
Alexi laughed, pulling Dave closer and away from the tea that had just been delivered. "It is not the money, but the time. It is you who complains about back and skin sagging and knees."
"But now that John's taking his family duties, I won't have as much to do," Dave protested.
"Uh, Dave, I," John tensed against Cam's side, obviously uncomfortable. "I'm not retiring from the military. I'm on medical leave for now, but I'll be heading back to base once he emerges and, after he's weaned, I'll go back on active duty."
Dave looked stricken, but he rallied, clearly not willing to show too much weakness in front of his other husband. The atmosphere was tense and stuffy, compared to the easy comraderie of earlier. Cam had no idea how John's brother could stand to live like this.
"Oh. It's obviously your choice to make, John, but are you sure that's the best thing for your son?"
John and Cam hadn't really discussed it. Cam had hoped that John would stay on Earth until their son was completely weaned, hopefully longer. In fact, he'd assumed that was the plan. Cam didn't want John to leave the Air Force, but he'd be lying if he said that he didn't want John on Earth, where he at least wasn't living in a flying alien fortress.
Alexi's eyes narrowed as though he could sense Cam's discomfort like a shark sensing blood in the water. "You allow your husband to shame you this way?"
Cam forced himself to hold his head high and hide the shame he felt deep down where even John wouldn't see it. "We still haven't decided whether we will get married. And even if he were my husband, he wouldn't be my property. He's free to do what he wants."
John squeezed Cam's hand gratefully.
Alexi glared at the two of them for a minute more before turning his attention back to Dave. "You wouldn't do that to me, would you, moy zaichik?"
Dave laughed. "Considering I left military service up to John in the first place, I doubt it." He leaned in to kiss his husband without acrimony. The longer Cam spent with John's family the more uncomfortable he began to feel. Things that seemed unconscionable to Cam were normal to these people - normal to John. Alexi pursued the kiss until Cam himself was blushing. He easily hauled Dave to his feet when he stood. "We have a conference call with Senator Wallace in half an hour, so I'm afraid that I will have to steal David away from you. But before you go, I must feel it."
Cam had to force himself not to step in front of John when Alexi reached out to grab his belly. So far, only Cam and the doctors had touched John's little bump. John shuddered a little, but Alexi either didn't notice or didn't care.
"I suppose it might be nice to again feel you heavy with my child," Alexi said to Dave, who was looking downright panicked now. Since Darren was black and Alexi white, it wasn't as though they could pretend the neonate was his.
But Dave was John's brother through and through because despite his supposed brilliance with public relations, he couldn't help but awkwardly blurt out, "that won't happen for a while now. I'm already gestating."
Alexi narrowed his eyes, but the kind of violent outburst Cam expected did not materialize. "Excuse us, brother-in-law, but I have some family business to discuss with my husbands. Sonya will show you to your rooms."
John lead Cam out of the study with a tight grip on his elbow.
"Should we, um, stay?" Cam asked. His training told him that Alexi wouldn't be violent, but John had seemed genuinely concerned earlier.
"No," John replied. "Dave is right. Alexi prefers leverage to outright showing of anger. He probably will want Darren to carry for him. Or maybe he'll use this to block Dave's next proposal to the board. Alexi wants to to keep the quick-charging stations the Green Energy division has developed under wraps until the electric car market is larger, whereas Dave wants to roll out the stations even though right now there isn't a lot of demand to put pressure on the car companies. You can see why I'm not eager to leave the military."
"Because electric car markets are so much more interesting that interplanetary forecasting of tava bean futures?"
"Aw, honey, you read my mission reports!" John drawled sarcastically, though Cam could tell he was a little touched.
"Actually, I overhead that one when Daniel was trying to explain to General O'Neill why the SGC had just hired a team of economists."
"They've actually been surprisingly useful," John replied, following the employee who had brought them tea up the staircase without so much as a friendly word to her, obviously born into a household of servants. But he did wait to finish his sentence until the were deposited in what appeared to be a small sitting room, decorated in a modern style that seemed completely incongruous to the baroque style of the rest of the house. Cam said thanks to Sonya, while John collapsed onto one of the black leather couches. "Some of them go on trade missions and others offer consulting services to our allies. But the best part is that they came up with a model that's 95% accurate about which planets have just been culled by the Wraith purely by using prices in the five biggest markets in Pegasus." After Cam sat down, John maneuvered his head into Cam's lap. "It literally makes Rodney turn red every time someone mentions those guys. He spent a week trying to construct a program that tracks energy disturbances caused by hyperdrive fields which is right about half as often."
"John," Cam said stroking his hand through John's hair, "I do read your mission reports. Mostly I skim them to make sure you're okay. Then I read the ones that Dr. Weir has marked as Milky Way relevant and the ones that Lorne has marked as funny. And then, I read the rest."
John sat up, looking serious for once in his life. Maybe Cam had been edging too close to a declaration of love. "I think at least one of us needs a drink." He pressed a button on what Cam had thought was a stainless steal lamp stand, revealing a small bar. John poured Cam a bourbon and himself a coke. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think we need to talk."
Cam never thought he'd see the day when John Sheppard voluntarily agreed to a relationship talk, but Cam supposed that parenthood was supposed to change you. It made sense that it should start to do so even before the baby was even born.
"Your brother's right, you know," Cam offered, knowing that both instigating the talk and getting the ball rolling was probably asking too much of John. "It's probably not the best parenting decision to bring the baby back to what is essentially a floating warship. I'm not suggesting that Earth, with all its enemies, is any safer than Pegasus, but we both know that Atlantis isn't an ordinary city. It's a target for every enemy in the galaxy, a laboratory filled with experimental technology, and still isn't fully explored."
"The Athosians . . ." John began to protest.
"The Athosians know they're better off commuting."
The bourbon was smooth as silk and probably worth half Cam's paycheck, but it did nothing to soothe the uncomfortable tension in Cam's gut. John loved Atlantis enough to leave Cam and ignore Landry's direct orders in order to return to it. There was also the elephant in the room that Cam hoped they wouldn't have to discuss: Rodney McKay.
John sighed. "So you want me to live with the Athosians and commute into the city? No, that would never work. I need to be on hand for crises."
"No, John, I don't want you to live with the Athosians. I want us to make a decision about where we're going to live."
John's eyes widened. "Cam, we're not married. We're not even in a relationship. I can't ask you to come live in a tent with me in Pegasus."
Cam closed his eyes. He knew they weren't married or in a romantic relationship, but maybe one day they could be. "We do have a relationship, John. Even if we're just co-parents, that's a pretty damned heafty relationship."
John nodded. "Okay, so you're not willing to split time with the baby."
"Where the baby goes, I go, John. Even if that means I have to live in a tent in another galaxy."
"But SG1?"
"Now that Adria's gone, they're already talking about splitting us up. The way I see it, we have three options. You can come back to Earth and we can both keep working at the SGC. You can come to Earth and one or both of us can quit. Or I can move to Pegasus and we can commute from the mainland."
"There's a fourth option," John said, more to his glass of coke than to Cam. "You and the baby can stay on Earth and I can return to Atlantis."
Cam froze. John could probably punch him in the gut and he wouldn't budge. "I thought you wanted the baby," he said slowly.
John smiled sadly. "I do. I want him more than anything, but I know you'll take good care of him and, don't tell Teyla, but I don't think Pegasus is safer than Earth. Not deep down."
"You wouldn't give up Atlantis?" Cam asked.
John stood, pacing now. "I don't know, Cam! I was miserable before on Earth. You were the only thing that made it even remotely bearable. And Rodney's in Pegasus, and my team. And they need me out there."
Cam stood, capturing John in his arms to stop his pacing. John was practically hyperventilating, rubbing his belly compulsively. "John, I'm moving to Pegasus, where we're going to find a way to make the whole galaxy safe for our child."
"But, Cam."
"To late, John. We're doing this."
John took a few more gasping breaths as Cam rubbed his back. "Okay," he whispered, his arms coming up to grip Cam tight, "Okay."
As it turned out, when Alexi had said 'rooms,' he hadn't meant a room for each of them, but a separate set of rooms for the two of them, more like an apartment. They stumbled out of the antechamber and through a small study and into a bedroom with a huge bed and floor to ceiling windows overlooking a swimming pool and a football-stadium-sized lawn.
John collapsed onto the bed and Cam couldn't resist the temptation to curl up behind him, one hand resting over the small bulge in his belly. They napped through the afternoon and only after they had showered and John had pressed a button that magically made Sonya materialize with coffee, did John ask. "I guess we should get married, so you can get transferred to Pegasus."
Cam's heart fluttered at the prospect, but he'd seen how well John's brother's marriage of convenience turned out. He didn't want John to marry him unless John actually wanted to. "Naw, O'Neill will approve my request. I have no idea what I'll actually do there, but I'm sure we'll think of something."
"You can have my job," John shrugged.
"You mean lead your team?"
"No, my team is my team. I mean you can have the paperwork and the meetings and all the dirty looks from Elizabeth when you're not being mature enough."
Cam laughed. "I've never had to worry about that last part. Won't that screw up the chain of command?"
"I have no idea. I know that you're one of the only people I'd ever surrender the position to. But if the IOA doesn't like it, you could have SGA-5."
"And what's wrong with SGA-5?"
"Nothing," John was looking far too innocent for his own good. Cam pinched him. "Ow! Fine, SGA-5 is the team the economists are on. You can pick your team - except for mine and maybe Lorne's."
"Hey, I know better than to piss off your XO."
"Or, I've been thinking about asking O'Neill for a squadron of F-302s. You could lead those."
"Or I could be a stay-at-home dad."
John snorted. "Yeah, that'll last all of five seconds."
"I'll have you know that my Momma raised me right. I can change diapers and bake apple pie with the best of them."
John shook his head. "We'll figure something out." He leaned forward and gave Cam a lingering, but chaste kiss on the lips. "Thanks, Cam."
Cam stayed there a moment after John pulled back, staring into the eyes of a man he didn't think he could love more, the father of his son. But somewhere, deep down, doubt was festering. What if John never learned to love him back?
"C'mon, Shep, let's go make sure your brother and his husbands haven't killed each other."
John laughed, letting Cam wrap an arm around his waist.
They found Darren by the sound of a saxophone coming from one of the upstairs balconies.
"He's really good," Cam whispered to John.
"He's actually pretty famous," John replied. "I'm surprised you haven't heard of him."
Cam blushed. "Hard to disrupt my busy schedule of plagues, quests, and fighting aliens to listen to Jazz."
"Good point." John yanked Cam out onto the balcony, where Darren was playing to the sunset.
"Hey, buddy, how'd it go?"
Darren turned, grinning. "Looks like we won't be seeing 50% of the car market be electric by 2020 after all."
"So Alexi doesn't want a kid with you?"
"No. Apparently, he wants to sell more gasoline and knock Dave up again."
"And Dave's okay with that?"
Darren laughed. "Alexi's right. Dave actually likes carrying. Plus he's always been sad that Piotr and P.J. only shared the pouch for a couple of months. He's always wanted a proper pair of pouchmates."
A knock on the door balcony door interrupted them.
"Excuse me, Colonel Sheppard," Sonya said. "A phonecall for you."
Cam and John exchanged a look. If it was the SGC, then they might have to leave.
"A Doctor Rodney McKay. He says it's not urgent, but he sounded pretty high strung."
"Don't worry, Rodney's always high strung. Excuse me, guys, but I should get this."
Once they were alone, Darren turned to Cam. "You play any instruments?" he asked.
Cam shook his head.
"Too bad. You can always sing, I guess. We normally do music time after dinner," he explained. "Dave plays the violin and Alexi the oboe. John can play piano and guitar and the kids are versatile." Of course they did. It seemed like John's family's job was to make Cam feel out-classed in every possible way.
Cam couldn't restrain his curiosity any longer. "What's it like, being a secundus?"
Darren paused for a long moment, thinking. That was something he had in common with his husbands. All three were very deliberate and not prone to jump into things the way John and Cam were. "It's difficult. With three people there are three egos. And to add to that, you can form alliances with three and not with two. Even though I'm sure it's obvious that Dave and I have more affection for each other, I tend to agree with Alexi more often than not. I don't think we fight more than couples, but we certainly fight more complicated."
"That makes sense. And you don't feel jealous?" The way Cam felt like he could punch something any time John so much as mentioned Rodney McKay.
Darren shrugged. "I could care less what Alexi does on his personal time, and I know Dave loves me more, so there's really no need to be jealous."
"What if Dave loved Alexi more?" Cam asked.
"Well, Alexi's not the secundus. If Dave loved Alexi more, he never would have married me."
"Okay, but how do you think Alexi feels? He had Dave first." Just like Cam had John first.
"I think he gets jealous sometimes. Mostly if Dave chooses me over him, but unlike when I first married them, Alexi is very involved in the business. He's not even here half the time and when he is, he and Dave spend time together at work. It's not often that Alexi want's Dave's personal attention and when he does, Dave and I make sure he gets it."
"I don't understand that. If I thought my husband loved someone else more than me, I'd go crazy."
"I don't pretend to understand Alexi, but I don't think he ever needed Dave to be in love with him. The two of them were raised very traditionally, which is something they share. They were taught that a marriage is based in fecundity, respect, and being more powerful together than you are appart. And that's exactly what they are to each other. Whatever John might think, Dave doesn't want to leave Alexi. They're a power couple and they both get off on that. In fact, I'm not sure that if Dave hadn't been married to Alexi first, if he would have married me - a struggling musician who wouldn't contribute to his family name or Guild status. In Dave and Alexi's world, what the three of us have is a fairytale happy ending."
Cam still couldn't wrap his head around it. "And you?"
Darren laughed. "For me, a fairytale happy ending would be me and Dave not having to ask a Russian asshole permission to have another baby. But I'd do anything for Dave, including being a secundus."
"How can you stand to live and raise your children with someone you clearly don't like?"
"I love Dave and I love our kids, including Alexi's. The fact that Alexi and I don't get along isn't as important as the rest."
"Oh," Cam replied inarticulately, wanting to know more, but having no idea what to ask.
Fortunately, Darren took pity on him, clapping a hand on his back. "But this isn't just because you're curious. You and John?"
Cam nodded. "I don't know how much John told his brother, so I'd be happy if you kept this between us."
"Done."
"John and I have been friends since John was engaged to Leo."
"Oh, Leo. I liked that one. He drove Alexi absolutely mad," Darren grinned.
"We conceived our son by accident while John was temporarily transferred to my base. He got immediately recalled before we had a chance to be more. After that, John started a relationship with someone on his base. And, well, he won't marry me."
Darren nodded. "You're in love with him, but you think he's in love with this other guy."
"Yeah," Cam agreed. Seriously, Darren was better than a shrink at guessing what Cam was thinking. "I think I'm the Alexi in this situation."
Darren shook his head, pulling Cam into a one-armed hug. "No, Cam, you're not Alexi, because Alexi has never been in love with Dave."
Cam sighed. "So where does that leave me?"
"There's only two options. There's only ever two options: you can make peace with the situation or you can move on."
Cam nodded. "Darren . . ."
He didn't get a chance to ask Darren if he thought John could ever love Cam back because John had appeared. "Guys, I'm sorry but I think I may have to take off for a few days."
"Why?" Cam asked. "The SGC?"
"No. It's a long story, but I promised Rodney I would go to Canada with him. I won't be gone more than a few days."
Darren shot Cam a knowing look, but said. "I'm sorry to hear that John. The kids will be disappointed. But, Cam, if you have the time, we'd be happy to host you. It'll be good to get to know the father of my future nephew a little bit better and we have plenty to entertain you."
"Yeah, you need to check out their gaming room," John enthused. "Playing Call of Duty is like being inside an action movie."
"So, just like my daily life then," Cam joked.
"Yeah, except in real life you can't trash talk with the bad guys without giving away your position. Hey, I'm going to pack before dinner. I'm on the 11 o'clock flight to Vancouver." John paused, whispering to Cam. "You're okay with being left alone with my crazy family right?"
Cam was okay with John's family, but not so much with being abandoned so John could spend time with his lover. He plastered on a smile that even the priors could probably identify was fake and said, "they're not that bad."
"Good." John gave him a peck on the lips before leaving. Apparently John Sheppard was even more oblivious to the basics of human interaction than a not even fully corporeal worshipper of evil gods.
"So," Cam could see the skepticism in Darren's face even in the twilight. "Rodney?"
Cam nodded. "Rodney fucking McKay."
Next: Fathers and Sons
Author: Tzzzz
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: mpreg
Parings: John/Cam, John/Rodney, Dave Sheppard/OMC, Dave Sheppard/OMC
Spoilers: Outcast, Phantoms, Common Ground,the Return, the Roo'verse AU: Not a Lullaby.
Summary: John and Cam visit John's family and realize they must make some difficult decisions. Follows Tables Turned, Once There Was a Man Named Holland, Not a Henry, The Kangaroos and the Bees, What Rodney Wants, Conception, The Good of the One, Transferred, Baby Deedee, and Brothers and Sisters.
A/N: I realize that I haven't updated this in forever. I sort of wrote myself into a corner where I couldn't figure out how John and Cam would want to raise the kid and then got distracted by Not a Lullaby and by finding a new fandom and real life. But I'm back now and I promise that I will do better at updating this now that I know for certain where it's going.
Dominus, Secundus, Pleb
Cam sighed. They'd only been in the air for half an hour and already John was fidgeting like a hen ready to lay an egg. Cam might've attributed it to the nervousness that he'd seen in some pilots while traveling commercial, but he'd flown with John before when John came out to visit his family and John had slept peacefully the entire trip.
"I've had enough, Sunshine, you need to calm down," Cam ordered, yanking up the divider between them and wrapping an arm around John before he got yet another elbow in the ribs. Not that holding John would ever be a hardship. Cam forced down a smug grin when he felt the slight swell of John's belly push up against him. Sure, John was in complete denial, wearing a few shirts he appeared to have stolen from McKay and insisting he hadn't started to show yet, but instead of the equation "i > u", all Cam could see was the fact that John was incubating their son and Cam had put that little bump there. He brought his other hand around to rest on John's stomach, rubbing below the pouch scar. One of the stewardesses gave them an indulgent look and Cam winked at her. Yep, he'd done good.
"I know what you're doing," John growled. "You're trying to piss me off so I forget about how you're making me go see my brother."
"Not working?"
John shook his head. "It's not that I don't love Dave so much as the fact that I hate his husband." John had mentioned several times that his brother was more like his father, which while tolerable, Cam imagined wasn't pleasant.
"Come on, John, they can't be all that bad." Cam was just happy that McKay wouldn't be joining them for the ceremony. This was a moment for the family and McKay wasn't family. "Besides, we'd see them at the Registration in a few days anyhow. This way my family gets to come out East for a real live Registration ceremony and I get to make your brother love me before he's faced with the whole Mitchell-Wilder clan."
John winced, but cuddled a little closer to Cam. "About that. I know your parents and your brother will have to come, but I don't know if it's such a good idea for everyone to come out."
"Why not? Avery has known you since Washington and god knows Claire has heard enough stories."
"It's not me that's the problem," John ground out through clenched teeth. Cam had seen him more relaxed in front of an Afghani warlord. "Look, you haven't met my brother's family."
"I know your brother is an incredible tight ass who runs the family company. I read that article about him in Time." Dave Sheppard had been hailed a visionary in the field of management and productivity, as well as a public relations genius when it came to believable corporate responsibility programs. That on top of numerous roles at the Guild club and being an attentive husband and father.
John sighed. "Dave's not the one to worry about. Sure, he'll polite you to death, but he's fun compared to Alexi."
"His dominus domi?" Cam remembered that from the article - that John's brother had married and carried his first son at eighteen.
John nodded. "Alexi was an arranged marriage - the son of one of Dad's oil suppliers."
"Tzarist?" The article had conveniently left that out. But maybe that was an even greater display of PR genius, considering all the unsavory Russian connections such a marriage could imply.
"Yep. His donor won the rights to Romashkino Oil Field at the end of the Russian Civil War. Alexi is a royal and the third son of a secundi, and both of his brothers are imperials. The family shipped him over here to 'foster business ties,' but I honestly think they just wanted to get him out of their hair." John winced. "Just, don't listen to anything he says. He almost made Leo cry, and you know Leo never went anywhere expecting everyone to like him."
"But we're going to be family," Cam protested. Surely they could set aside their differences in order to make life easier for the children.
"Something that Alexi will absolutely hate. He pretty much ordered me not to marry Leo."
"I hoped you punched him in the face."
"Oh, trust me, I'd like to. But he's my brother's husband." That seemed oddly passive of John. But then again, there was so much about noble society that Cam didn't understand. "I told him it wasn't his right to tell me otherwise and that I'd be marrying Leo. That's when he tried to destroy us. Remember, that's when I came to spend Thanksgiving with you." How could Cam forget? "Don't worry. I won't let him get like that with you."
"Yeah, well, maybe he won't care. We're not getting married." Cam hoped he managed to keep most of the resentment out of his voice. Yes, they'd only had sex once and, yes, John kept insisting that he'd be heading back to Atlantis and his life one day, but they were a couple, damnit! It didn't matter if they were having sex or not. In fact, he'd heard that many nobles didn't. But they were partners in raising a kid and that should count for something. "And besides, the damage is already done," he gave John's belly a little squeeze for emphasis. "I'm going on his family tree whether he likes it or not."
John frowned. "We could always leave the kid unregistered. I don't think I would've been worse off for it. Rodney's not registered and he seems fine." Rodney McKay, fine? It didn't take a genius to realize that Rodney McKay had a huge chip on his shoulder and Cam would bet anything that his donor not agreeing to register him had something to do with it.
Of course, being a noble probably hadn't done John himself any favors. John had never flaunted his heritage. In fact, he'd done his best to hide it. But it shone through nonetheless in John's sometimes-chilling charm, the way he managed to convince everyone to follow him as their 'better' without even mentioning his pedigree, and by the way he made decisions, as though there was always a net beneath to catch him if he jumped. Cam would be proud to have a son as down to earth as John, but John didn't realize that the very opportunity to choose to reject the noble lineage played a huge part in the amazing man he was today.
"No," Cam insisted, "our son deserves all the opportunities we can give him, and that includes eating at the Guild Club and stamping letters with the family crest if he wants to. Besides, he might not be as 'independent' as his father so that he can do without the crest."
John stiffened against Cam. They hadn't ever talked about John's crash landing and the Pasteur rupture. The scans had come out good and the neonate had made it to the pouch, but that didn't negate the possibility that the neonate had been starved for oxygen enough to face permanent brain damage.
"I guess he can do all that stuff if he wants to," John admitted, cradling his belly thoughtfully. "Dave does it and he's still a good guy."
"I can't wait to meet him."
***
Dave Townsend was a formidable man. He wore a suit like he was born to it and somehow managed to not get the thing even the slightest bit wrinkled carrying a six-year-old boy on his hip. The kid had coffee-colored skin, but shared the same piercing hazel eyes that seemed to run in the family.
Cam didn't know if it was rude, but he figured that if John could fall in love with Leo Holland, a little rudeness couldn't hurt. He poked John in the ribs as they made their way across the lawn towards where John's brother was hoisting the kid up to pet a big chestnut-colored horse. "I thought your brother married a Russian."
John laughed. "Oh, he very much did. Cody is Dave's kid with his secundus. Have you heard of Darren Barry?"
Cam shrugged. The name sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it.
"He's a jazz musician."
Cam blushed a little. He listened to mostly country and classic rock, never any of the "classy" stuff John probably grew up on.
"He and Dave met during college. They're a love match," John sounded almost wistful.
Dave picked this time to notice them, putting his son down and striding over to them. He wrapped his brother in a tight hug, before pulling back and shaking Cam's hand with a twinkle in his eye.
After John made the introductions, Dave commented, "Congratulations to you both. And special congratulations to you for finally prying open my brother's pouch."
John winced at the comment, but his body language was truly relaxed, not the fake relaxation John normally used to disarm. He and Dave were less than a year appart in age. They were probably close. Cam bet that John had missed his brother, all the more so for his self-imposed exile due to his spouse.
Dave's son also didn't waste any time running over and embracing John. "Uncle John! Uncle John! Daddy's going to start letting me ride this year. He says that once I get Starbuck to like me, I can ride her."
"That's great, sport!" John replied.
"Your Uncle John was an expert horseman. He won a whole room full of trophies when he was a kid. Maybe he can take you out while he's here."
"Could you, Uncle John? Please."
John smiled fondly at his nephew. "I'm afraid I won't be able to, buddy."
Dave frowned at John.
"Dad didn't tell you?"
"When does Dad tell me anything important?" Dave complained, but he looked concerned.
"I had a Pasteur rupture. I was lucky that my doctor had access to some advanced medical technology. Everything's fine now, but I'm supposed to take it easy until the baby's a little bigger."
"In other words until the time when you'll be too big to want to get on a horse," Dave said knowingly. "Damnit, I knew I should have come to the transfer."
"You had that merger."
"It was nothing Alexi couldn't have handled in my place. John, why didn't you tell me?"
John shrugged. "I didn't want to worry you."
"John, after what happened to you in Afghanistan, you know I'd want to be there for you in any way I could."
John looked away. As much progress as they'd made, it still hurt John to be reminded of what happened to Leo. "I'm sorry," he said after a moment. "But I did have Dad." They both laughed. "And Cam has been great. His mom baked me all sorts of amazing things while I was on bed rest. I think I gained five pounds."
Dave laughed. "Five pounds you probably needed. You look great for right after the transfer - already starting to show a little."
"Am not!" John's boyish grin was infectious.
"Whatever you say, Johnny."
Cody chose that moment to interrupt, pulling at John's pantleg and pointing to Cam. "Who's that, Uncle John."
"Cody, I already explained this to you," Dave said patiently. "Your Uncle John is carrying a baby and your Uncle Cam is the baby's deedee."
"And," John added, "if you're good, Uncle Cam might take you for a ride."
Cody seemed thrilled, but Dave looked somewhat uncomfortable with the idea. John just rolled his eyes. "Cam grew up in Kansas on a farm and has piloted planes you couldn't even imagine. God, you're so paranoid."
"So is your face," Dave replied, before the two brothers broke out laughing.
"I used to tell Dave that all the time, when we were growing up," John replied.
"Try all throughout college. Let's just say that the military never exactly succeeded in making John more mature."
Cam agreed. "Still hasn't."
"Hey," John poked Cam. "As the donor to my child, you're supposed to be on my side."
"I never agreed to that, Sunshine," Cam replied, but he did give John a quick peck on the cheek.
John shoved him off, but with a smile on his face. Cam couldn't help but smile back. This was what he loved about John - being with him just felt so easy.
Cody seemed to grow bored with their conversation and the way that Cam was making doe-eyes at John and ran back over to stare at the horses.
"Six is a little young, don't you think?" John asked his brother as soon as the boy was out of earshot.
Dave scowled. "That's what I said. But Darren and Alexi think I need to relax. Though I don't know why Alexi even cares since Cody isn't his. Darren must have bribed him with something. Maybe if I tell them that even the man who broke five bones riding horses thinks it's unsafe . . . ."
"Hey, I don't want to get drawn into one of your arguments. And you already promised the kid."
Dave sighed. "I know I already promised him. At least Alexi let me buy Starbuck. She's a retired stunt-horse. Literally a bomb could go off next to the old girl and she'd just stand there. But you know how kids are. All of his brothers ride, so Cody wants to do it too."
"Cody's the youngest of four," John explained to Cam. On one hand, four was a pretty big family, but on the other it was remarkably restrained for a family of three royal carriers.
Dave looked suddenly away, causing John's eyebrows to rocket up. "Dave?"
"You know that condoms are only 98% effective, right? That means that 2 of every 100 couples using them each year will have an unintended pregnancy and we've been having regular sex for roughly 18 years, so . . ."
"You actually have a 30.5 percent chance of an unintended pregnancy over that time period."
How had John known that? Had he calculated it in his head? Cameron knew that John was a lot smarter than he liked to admit, but that was pretty crazy.
"You're having a baby with this man and you've never shown him your freakish math genius thing?" Dave asked, shooting John a look. Cam might not be able to do math like that in his head, but he was smart enough to know that John's brother did not approve of John marrying someone who apparently didn't know him well enough. The accusation stung. Cam was about to protest when Dave laughed and punched his brother on the arm. "You can come out of your geek closet to the donor of your children at least."
"Can we not change the subject, please," John replied, eyes narrowed, though there was something in his eyes that said he and Dave would talk more about this later. "You or Darren?" Cam was surprised that John didn't think to include the other spouse. Cam thought he was a royal carrier too.
"Me," Dave replied, his hand going automatically to his stomach. "Alexi doesn't know yet."
"He's not going to do anything . . . unacceptable, is he?" Ah, that must be the voice that John used to leverage information out of enemies. It was probably the voice he used to get the goddamned Wraith who'd fed off of him to be his ally.
Dave looked equally resolute. Cam could easily see how this man was the head of a Fortune 500 company even though he appeared to be a charming family man to Cam. "For the last time, Alexi is a pompous, entitled, emotionally distant, cheating jerk with dubious moral principles and horrible childrearing skills, but he is not abusive and he is ultimately a very pragmatic man. He doesn't want any more children and he might ask me to bind, but to be honest, there's really nothing he can do about it other than throw a little tantrum and run off to Russia for a few weeks. We may not love each other, but trust me, I know my husband."
John seemed to subside a little bit, but Cam could tell he was still angry. "Sorry, Dave. You know I'm just trying to keep you safe, right?"
"I'm not the one stationed in a top secret war zone who's still recovering from a Pasteur rupture," Dave pointed out. "Beside, I don't think Alexi cares about me carrying one way or another. It barely affects our work and Darren and I take care of the kids and manage the nannies and lord knows we can afford it. No, it's more the fact that right now, two of our four are Alexi's, which is a respectable distribution between the dominus and the secundus. I'm more concerned that Alexi's pride will make him want to even the score."
"Why is that a problem?" Cam asked. It was probably a stupid question, considering that having a child was a big deal, but Dave seemed pretty disturbed by the possibility.
"Well, I guess if you're going to be family anyway, you deserve the full briefing on our dysfunctional family gossip. I carried Piotr, who is Alexi's. Then I met Darren and almost immediately conceived Patrick Junior. They were pouchmates for several months - I didn't pouch-wean Piotr for quite some time. A few years later, I gestated another child for Alexi, but the neonate didn't transfer." Dave still looked haunted by that, though not half as haunted as John. "Then, when Piotr was 10, Alexi started to hear some whispers at work about why he hadn't carried. They were saying that he wasn't really a noble and he felt insecure, so the two of us actively tried for Ivan. Alexi only incubated him long enough that he was showing and then Darren had his pouch opened to carry him the rest of the time. Darren liked that experience so much that a few years later he and I conceived Cody."
"So Darren and Alexi don't have any children together," Cam observed.
"You really like the bright ones, John. Yes, that's the problem. Darren and Alexi mostly tolerate each other for my sake. Alexi sees Darren as more an affair that I invited into our marriage than an equal partner. He enjoys the prestige of being married to a famous musician, but the two of them have practically managed to avoid being alone in a room together for 18 years, let alone having sex without me as an intermediary. Alexi allows me Darren as an indulgence. Darren puts up with Alexi because Alexi was a condition of marrying me that he knew about going in. But Alexi is wary of cultivating this as a public image. The fact that they have no children together and that I have two children with each of them already makes it seem as though I am the most powerful in the household. This child will make it even more obvious. Darren can barely stand to have sex with Alexi and I know carrying his child will hurt him, but it may be the only option to keep our marriage healthy."
It sounded like something out of those nobility-themed soap operas that Cam never bothered to watch. It seemed ridiculous that John's brother would stay in a relationship with someone he didn't love and even more ridiculous for Darren to agree to a marriage when he wasn't even attracted to one of the partners in it. "Why don't you just divorce him?"
Both Sheppard brothers turned to Cam, looking shocked. Cam must've put his foot in it.
"He's serious," John told his brother after a beat, flushing a little in vicarious embarassment.
"I initiated relations with Darren and bore his first child. Alexi would have an easy case for a covet of affinity. And it would be true. The divorce penalties would be staggering."
Cam was still confused. He knew that nobles had different rules of marriage and divorce depending on their guild, but he couldn't fathom this.
"You need to go even more basic," John said, taking in Cam's bewildered expression. Cam wanted to kick himself for not researching the traditions of John's guild before coming here. It didn't matter that John himself had told him not to bother. "Taking on a secundus is supposed to be a traditional solution to fertility problems. It's also been a solution to unhappy marriages, but nobody wants to officially acknowledge it. It's not a big deal if brining in a secundus solves either of those problems, but the guilds are very wary of couples who use a secundus as a way to find their next spouse without leaving the first."
"It's called a covet of affinity," Dave interjected, "when one spouse elects a secundus despite a lack of fertility problems and then divorces the original spouse but not the secundus. The penalty is usually favorable conditions for the first spouse in asset division, a monthly fine in proportion to income, and a requirement that the secundus and the spouse initiating divorce do not see each other unsupervised for a year and a half."
"That's ridiculous!" Cam exclaimed. "Is that even legal?"
"It's not legal in the sense that the lay courts can only enforce the terms of the divorce, not the separation of the spouses that remain together, but the consequences of disobeying the separation order are to be expelled from the guild and have their names and those of any children they have together deleted from the Registry."
"Which you could always do," John protested.
"That would be a horrible business decision," Dave replied matter-of-factly. "Besides, I wouldn't do that to Alexi."
"He's barely around. He ignores your kids when he is and treats you more like a trophy than like a husband. And he's an ass!" John bellowed.
Dave pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm not having this conversation with you again, John. Alexi has many flaws, but he has been exceedingly tolerant of me and Darren."
"In exchange for a ridiculous number of his own affairs."
"Look, Alexi may not be the love of my life or a true father to my children, but I do respect him and care for him. I've been with him more than half my life - how could I not?"
"Because he's an asshole!"
"John, you are so like Dad sometimes. You need to stop judging people for not living up to your own weird moral code. We're not divorcing Alexi and if he wants another child with Darren, we will welcome that child into our lives."
"Fine," John replied, crossing his arms over his stomach stubbornly.
"Sorry about that," Dave told Cam. "Sometimes we can't help but rehash our old fights. But the real reason I extended an invitation was because I wanted to get to know you better." Cam didn't really like Dave's smile - it was a little too much of a shark's grin. "Let's head into the house and have some tea. My husbands are both home today, as are Ivan and P.J. Piotr is away at college - his first year at Columbia. He'll be back for the Registration ceremony, though."
"Columbia, that's a good school," Cam remarked, for lack of anything better to say.
"Yes, well, our father was disappointed it's not Harvard, but it'll do," Dave replied. "Piotr wants to major in art history, though I can't fathom why. I suppose it doesn't matter much, considering we already have him engaged to one of the sons of the CEO of Solartec." Dave noticed that Cody wasn't following them and ran back to get him.
"Wait," Cam whispered. "If he doesn't like his arranged marriage and would rather just be married to his secundus, then why is your brother arranging a marriage for his own son?"
John shrugged, far less bothered by this than Cam would think he'd be after the fit he'd thrown about Alexi. "With the green energy craze, they need to make alliances with alternate energy companies."
"Yes, but doesn't he want his son to marry for love?"
"Look," John replied, "Dave is a traditionalist. He doesn't see his marriage as some great tragedy and neither do I. His dominus is an asshole, but Dave still has great kids and a secundus that he's madly in love with. Piotr is their eldest and the only imperial in the family. It'd be a shock if his marriage wasn't political."
Cam admitted that he just didn't get it. For all John acted like just an ordinary guy, as much as he seemed to embrace the plebian values that permiated the military, it seemed as though the apple hadn't fallen quite as far from the tree as Cam had thought. "You were the eldest and an imperial."
John shrugged. "Dave didn't want to do the military service and I wanted to fly. Our Dad didn't like it, but he knew it'd make us both happier."
"So you were supposed to marry Alexi?"
John snorted, as though the answer were blatantly obvious. "I'm an imperial. Dad would've married me to one of his close business partners, not their son."
"So, Cam," Dave said upon returning with Cody in tow, "tell me more about yourself."
"Not much to tell. I work in the same organization as John, but on a different base. I lead a five man team. Some of them might pop in at the Registration ceremony. We do mostly ground ops, but I still get to fly some really neat planes. Kansas, born and raised. I'm plebeian, which I'm sure you already figured out."
Dave chuckled. "It was glaringly obvious. How did you meet John?"
"We actually met years ago training at Twenty Nine Palms. John rescued me from my own training mission. It wasn't at all romantic."
John laughed at that, draping his arm over Cam's shoulder. "That's only because you were basically unconscious the whole time and when you were awake, you were so concussed that you barely made any sense. You couldn't decide if I was your guardian angel or the angel of death. My crew gave me shit about that for weeks."
Cam blushed. It sounded like a bad pickup line now, in retrospect, though in the heat of the moment, the question of who John was had been his world. "You never told me that."
"Figured you'd be embarrassed. But no embarrassment can top the story of how Dave met Darren."
"He's right," Cody agreed. "Deedee and Dad's story is funny."
Cam turned to Dave - his grinning face was a welcome reprieve from the giant mansion they were walking towards. Cam didn't think he'd ever been in a house so big (not counting the White House, of course). And Cam found that the prospect of the upcoming meeting was far scarier than meeting the President had ever been.
"I was in my second year at Harvard at the time," Dave began, clearly settling into a familiar retelling of a familiar story. "I was carrying Piotr at the time and was big as a whale. I'd stopped bothering to even look at my fellow students, considering I was married already with a child on the way. I didn't mind carrying or have any serious health problems, but I didn't do any extra curriculars and I was taking extra classes so I could finish early. School was pretty secondary for me. I just wanted to get through my degree program quickly so I could move to St. Petersberg with Alexi."
"Wait, Alexi wasn't with you?" Cam asked. They were having a baby for crying out loud.
"Alexi was studying at the Tsarist University of Russia and taking his sweet time with it. I was even studying Russian so I could transfer there for a semester while I was pouch-weaning Piotr. So, I'm sitting on the quad having my own private picnic, talking to my giant belly in Russian when this kid with dreadlocks and a saxaphone plops down on my blanket and says, 'You're perfect,' with this look of awe on his face. I was flattered. I hadn't though anyone would be looking at me with my huge stomach and everything." Dave turned to Cody, "Your dad was very handsome and I was a little speechless. I was gathering up the courage to return the compliment when he asks me to join the crew team."
John laughed. "Dave was actually very good a crew at Exeter, but you'd never know it when he was carrying."
"Turns out," Dave continued, "Darren was part of the campus ACLU and they were trying to get a test case for reproductive discrimination in university athletics and crew was the only sport that was still trying out. So Darren rushed me down there, even managed to get me into a boat. Of course, the boat is rocky when you have a man six months into his incubation and a bunch of frosh who know nothing about crew trying to paddle it. The coach is shouting at us and I've been thinking about me and Alexi and how we still didn't know each other at all, and I vomit all over both Darren and the coach."
Cam laughs at the proof that even those guys who wear perfect suits and only eat at the Guild clubs still have a past.
"Oh, it gets better," John interjects. "Dave was apologizing to everyone and the coach was trying to get them to all steer the boat back to shore when Piotr decided it would be the perfect time to make his first emergence from the pouch."
"Darren was so startled that he fell overboard," Dave added. "And then Coach told Darren, 'And that, Mr. Barry, is why we have the policy of not allowing students to bring their children along to sports practice.' He didn't want to risk the boat tipping with my newly emerged baby in it, so he made Darren swim back to shore."
"Wow, that's something of a first date."
"Wasn't our first date," an incredibly handsome man says as he emerges out of a beautiful rose garden to greet them. He's traded the dreadlocks for a shaved head and sunglasses that Cam would never in a million years be cool enough to pull off. He's wearing a suit with no tie, but unlike Dave, he has clear evidence of interaction with children in the form of a muddy handprint in the middle of his stomach. "I'm Darren Barry," he shook Cam's hand and gave John a hug. "No, we hung out and 'studied' almost every day after for the next three months. I didn't know if we'd ever be more than friends, but I couldn't help myself."
"I knew right away," Dave replied, giving his husband a kiss. "I was waiting for Alexi to sign the paperwork giving me the option of taking a secundus."
Darren laughed. "Turns out we could've been together that whole time. Alexi hadn't even told his classmates he was married. How many affairs did he have?"
The two of them laughed. "Three boyfriends and a girlfriend?" Dave offered.
It made Cam's blood boil thinking about this asshole stranding John's brother in Boston, giving up the whole fun of college in order to finish early and join him in Russia when he was cheating on him on the side.
"Yeah, but to be fair to Alexi, the ink barely dried on the document before we conceived P.J.," Darren replied. "And Dave never did join him in Russia. After taking six years to graduate, he had come back and live with us here."
"All those Russian classes were a waste," Dave grumbled. "I should've studied Chinese instead."
"But do you really want to know the kicker?" Darren asked.
Cam nodded.
"His senior year, after both Piotr and P.J. were pouch weaned enough to let him actually attend practices, Dave turned out to literally be the star of the crew team."
They all shared a laugh. Cam felt tender, soft with his arm around John's waist and his family sharing their stories with warm, happy smiles. But he couldn't help but wonder why he and John didn't have stories like that. Sure, not everyone had a first meeting worthy of a romantic comedy, but the most romantic thing that had happened to Cam and John was that John had decided not to bind his pouch for Cam. He felt small and insignificant somehow next to how obviously in love John's brother and his secundus were.
"Darren, your suit," Dave complained, already wiping at the smudge on it.
"P.J. and Ivan were practicing lacrosse again. P.J. accidentally hit me in the stomach with a muddy ball and Ivan got his muddy hands all over me trying to wipe the mud off. They're showering now. Don't worry, I think Maria is an expert at getting these stains out by now." He turned to John and Cam, "We'll just pop in the study to say hi to Alexi and then I'll show you to your rooms to have a rest before dinner. John, you must be tired. The first month of incubation when your body is just learning how to produce milk can be very tiring."
As they made their way through the labyrinthine mass of wood-floored hallways and rooms with no demonstrable purpose other than to display antique furniture, Darren turned to his husband and asked, "So, you told them?"
"How did you know?"
Darren rolled his eyes. "John has his quiet rage thing going on."
Dave seemed to deflate. "Yeah, too much to hope for that my brother would just be happy he's getting another nephew."
Before John could protest, they arrived at their destination. It was a room with imposing mahogany doors, high ceilings, lined with tall frosted windows that let in natural light from two sides. There were two desks in the room as well as a large carved wooden table that looked as though it belonged in a library. Behind what was clearly the main desk sat a handsome man with dark hair and deep brown eyes. He was large, with broad shoulders, but the bulk was obviously muscle and not fat. The small amount of grey that crept in at his temples and in his goatee made him look distinguished and slightly older than his husbands, though Cam knew that the were all roughly the same age. Somehow, Cam hadn't pictured Dave's husband would be so handome. Alexi calmly lifted a bookmark and placed it precisely where he had left off in the large legal tome he had been reading and rose to shake both Cam and John's hands.
"So my brother-in-law is finally adding a name to the family Registry," he said, though his eyes glared daggers at Cam. "Come. Sit," he gestured towards the small sitting area of two armchairs and a couch in one corner of the large room. "I'll have Sonya bring us some tea." He pressed a button on his desk that Cam presumed would summon one of the house's many employees. Cam couldn't believe they actually had a tea-delivery button.
Alexi walked over to one of the high-backed armchairs and pulled out a large wooden box of cigarettes, offering them to Darren, who took one, and to Cam and Dave, who declined. Alexi seemed a little puzzled that Dave didn't accept, but lit up nonetheless. He sat in the chair and patted his lap. Dave somehow managed to not look resigned when we walked over and sat, leaving Darren the other chair and John and Cam the couch.
"We are all very excited for you," Alexi continued, not doubting for a second that he was holding audience with them on behalf of his family, even though it was obvious that Dave and Darren would have already offered their congratulations.
"My Daveed loves babies." Dave's name rolled of Alexi's tongue like a snake's hiss. "He is unhappy unless he is beremennay. I say he should spend more time working and less fucking, yes? I was with child only one time and that is enough for me. Our investors know you are royal man, moy zaichik, there is no more need to impress them more."
"Why not? We have the money," Dave argued, shooting a meaningful glance at Darren.
Alexi laughed, pulling Dave closer and away from the tea that had just been delivered. "It is not the money, but the time. It is you who complains about back and skin sagging and knees."
"But now that John's taking his family duties, I won't have as much to do," Dave protested.
"Uh, Dave, I," John tensed against Cam's side, obviously uncomfortable. "I'm not retiring from the military. I'm on medical leave for now, but I'll be heading back to base once he emerges and, after he's weaned, I'll go back on active duty."
Dave looked stricken, but he rallied, clearly not willing to show too much weakness in front of his other husband. The atmosphere was tense and stuffy, compared to the easy comraderie of earlier. Cam had no idea how John's brother could stand to live like this.
"Oh. It's obviously your choice to make, John, but are you sure that's the best thing for your son?"
John and Cam hadn't really discussed it. Cam had hoped that John would stay on Earth until their son was completely weaned, hopefully longer. In fact, he'd assumed that was the plan. Cam didn't want John to leave the Air Force, but he'd be lying if he said that he didn't want John on Earth, where he at least wasn't living in a flying alien fortress.
Alexi's eyes narrowed as though he could sense Cam's discomfort like a shark sensing blood in the water. "You allow your husband to shame you this way?"
Cam forced himself to hold his head high and hide the shame he felt deep down where even John wouldn't see it. "We still haven't decided whether we will get married. And even if he were my husband, he wouldn't be my property. He's free to do what he wants."
John squeezed Cam's hand gratefully.
Alexi glared at the two of them for a minute more before turning his attention back to Dave. "You wouldn't do that to me, would you, moy zaichik?"
Dave laughed. "Considering I left military service up to John in the first place, I doubt it." He leaned in to kiss his husband without acrimony. The longer Cam spent with John's family the more uncomfortable he began to feel. Things that seemed unconscionable to Cam were normal to these people - normal to John. Alexi pursued the kiss until Cam himself was blushing. He easily hauled Dave to his feet when he stood. "We have a conference call with Senator Wallace in half an hour, so I'm afraid that I will have to steal David away from you. But before you go, I must feel it."
Cam had to force himself not to step in front of John when Alexi reached out to grab his belly. So far, only Cam and the doctors had touched John's little bump. John shuddered a little, but Alexi either didn't notice or didn't care.
"I suppose it might be nice to again feel you heavy with my child," Alexi said to Dave, who was looking downright panicked now. Since Darren was black and Alexi white, it wasn't as though they could pretend the neonate was his.
But Dave was John's brother through and through because despite his supposed brilliance with public relations, he couldn't help but awkwardly blurt out, "that won't happen for a while now. I'm already gestating."
Alexi narrowed his eyes, but the kind of violent outburst Cam expected did not materialize. "Excuse us, brother-in-law, but I have some family business to discuss with my husbands. Sonya will show you to your rooms."
John lead Cam out of the study with a tight grip on his elbow.
"Should we, um, stay?" Cam asked. His training told him that Alexi wouldn't be violent, but John had seemed genuinely concerned earlier.
"No," John replied. "Dave is right. Alexi prefers leverage to outright showing of anger. He probably will want Darren to carry for him. Or maybe he'll use this to block Dave's next proposal to the board. Alexi wants to to keep the quick-charging stations the Green Energy division has developed under wraps until the electric car market is larger, whereas Dave wants to roll out the stations even though right now there isn't a lot of demand to put pressure on the car companies. You can see why I'm not eager to leave the military."
"Because electric car markets are so much more interesting that interplanetary forecasting of tava bean futures?"
"Aw, honey, you read my mission reports!" John drawled sarcastically, though Cam could tell he was a little touched.
"Actually, I overhead that one when Daniel was trying to explain to General O'Neill why the SGC had just hired a team of economists."
"They've actually been surprisingly useful," John replied, following the employee who had brought them tea up the staircase without so much as a friendly word to her, obviously born into a household of servants. But he did wait to finish his sentence until the were deposited in what appeared to be a small sitting room, decorated in a modern style that seemed completely incongruous to the baroque style of the rest of the house. Cam said thanks to Sonya, while John collapsed onto one of the black leather couches. "Some of them go on trade missions and others offer consulting services to our allies. But the best part is that they came up with a model that's 95% accurate about which planets have just been culled by the Wraith purely by using prices in the five biggest markets in Pegasus." After Cam sat down, John maneuvered his head into Cam's lap. "It literally makes Rodney turn red every time someone mentions those guys. He spent a week trying to construct a program that tracks energy disturbances caused by hyperdrive fields which is right about half as often."
"John," Cam said stroking his hand through John's hair, "I do read your mission reports. Mostly I skim them to make sure you're okay. Then I read the ones that Dr. Weir has marked as Milky Way relevant and the ones that Lorne has marked as funny. And then, I read the rest."
John sat up, looking serious for once in his life. Maybe Cam had been edging too close to a declaration of love. "I think at least one of us needs a drink." He pressed a button on what Cam had thought was a stainless steal lamp stand, revealing a small bar. John poured Cam a bourbon and himself a coke. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think we need to talk."
Cam never thought he'd see the day when John Sheppard voluntarily agreed to a relationship talk, but Cam supposed that parenthood was supposed to change you. It made sense that it should start to do so even before the baby was even born.
"Your brother's right, you know," Cam offered, knowing that both instigating the talk and getting the ball rolling was probably asking too much of John. "It's probably not the best parenting decision to bring the baby back to what is essentially a floating warship. I'm not suggesting that Earth, with all its enemies, is any safer than Pegasus, but we both know that Atlantis isn't an ordinary city. It's a target for every enemy in the galaxy, a laboratory filled with experimental technology, and still isn't fully explored."
"The Athosians . . ." John began to protest.
"The Athosians know they're better off commuting."
The bourbon was smooth as silk and probably worth half Cam's paycheck, but it did nothing to soothe the uncomfortable tension in Cam's gut. John loved Atlantis enough to leave Cam and ignore Landry's direct orders in order to return to it. There was also the elephant in the room that Cam hoped they wouldn't have to discuss: Rodney McKay.
John sighed. "So you want me to live with the Athosians and commute into the city? No, that would never work. I need to be on hand for crises."
"No, John, I don't want you to live with the Athosians. I want us to make a decision about where we're going to live."
John's eyes widened. "Cam, we're not married. We're not even in a relationship. I can't ask you to come live in a tent with me in Pegasus."
Cam closed his eyes. He knew they weren't married or in a romantic relationship, but maybe one day they could be. "We do have a relationship, John. Even if we're just co-parents, that's a pretty damned heafty relationship."
John nodded. "Okay, so you're not willing to split time with the baby."
"Where the baby goes, I go, John. Even if that means I have to live in a tent in another galaxy."
"But SG1?"
"Now that Adria's gone, they're already talking about splitting us up. The way I see it, we have three options. You can come back to Earth and we can both keep working at the SGC. You can come to Earth and one or both of us can quit. Or I can move to Pegasus and we can commute from the mainland."
"There's a fourth option," John said, more to his glass of coke than to Cam. "You and the baby can stay on Earth and I can return to Atlantis."
Cam froze. John could probably punch him in the gut and he wouldn't budge. "I thought you wanted the baby," he said slowly.
John smiled sadly. "I do. I want him more than anything, but I know you'll take good care of him and, don't tell Teyla, but I don't think Pegasus is safer than Earth. Not deep down."
"You wouldn't give up Atlantis?" Cam asked.
John stood, pacing now. "I don't know, Cam! I was miserable before on Earth. You were the only thing that made it even remotely bearable. And Rodney's in Pegasus, and my team. And they need me out there."
Cam stood, capturing John in his arms to stop his pacing. John was practically hyperventilating, rubbing his belly compulsively. "John, I'm moving to Pegasus, where we're going to find a way to make the whole galaxy safe for our child."
"But, Cam."
"To late, John. We're doing this."
John took a few more gasping breaths as Cam rubbed his back. "Okay," he whispered, his arms coming up to grip Cam tight, "Okay."
As it turned out, when Alexi had said 'rooms,' he hadn't meant a room for each of them, but a separate set of rooms for the two of them, more like an apartment. They stumbled out of the antechamber and through a small study and into a bedroom with a huge bed and floor to ceiling windows overlooking a swimming pool and a football-stadium-sized lawn.
John collapsed onto the bed and Cam couldn't resist the temptation to curl up behind him, one hand resting over the small bulge in his belly. They napped through the afternoon and only after they had showered and John had pressed a button that magically made Sonya materialize with coffee, did John ask. "I guess we should get married, so you can get transferred to Pegasus."
Cam's heart fluttered at the prospect, but he'd seen how well John's brother's marriage of convenience turned out. He didn't want John to marry him unless John actually wanted to. "Naw, O'Neill will approve my request. I have no idea what I'll actually do there, but I'm sure we'll think of something."
"You can have my job," John shrugged.
"You mean lead your team?"
"No, my team is my team. I mean you can have the paperwork and the meetings and all the dirty looks from Elizabeth when you're not being mature enough."
Cam laughed. "I've never had to worry about that last part. Won't that screw up the chain of command?"
"I have no idea. I know that you're one of the only people I'd ever surrender the position to. But if the IOA doesn't like it, you could have SGA-5."
"And what's wrong with SGA-5?"
"Nothing," John was looking far too innocent for his own good. Cam pinched him. "Ow! Fine, SGA-5 is the team the economists are on. You can pick your team - except for mine and maybe Lorne's."
"Hey, I know better than to piss off your XO."
"Or, I've been thinking about asking O'Neill for a squadron of F-302s. You could lead those."
"Or I could be a stay-at-home dad."
John snorted. "Yeah, that'll last all of five seconds."
"I'll have you know that my Momma raised me right. I can change diapers and bake apple pie with the best of them."
John shook his head. "We'll figure something out." He leaned forward and gave Cam a lingering, but chaste kiss on the lips. "Thanks, Cam."
Cam stayed there a moment after John pulled back, staring into the eyes of a man he didn't think he could love more, the father of his son. But somewhere, deep down, doubt was festering. What if John never learned to love him back?
"C'mon, Shep, let's go make sure your brother and his husbands haven't killed each other."
John laughed, letting Cam wrap an arm around his waist.
They found Darren by the sound of a saxophone coming from one of the upstairs balconies.
"He's really good," Cam whispered to John.
"He's actually pretty famous," John replied. "I'm surprised you haven't heard of him."
Cam blushed. "Hard to disrupt my busy schedule of plagues, quests, and fighting aliens to listen to Jazz."
"Good point." John yanked Cam out onto the balcony, where Darren was playing to the sunset.
"Hey, buddy, how'd it go?"
Darren turned, grinning. "Looks like we won't be seeing 50% of the car market be electric by 2020 after all."
"So Alexi doesn't want a kid with you?"
"No. Apparently, he wants to sell more gasoline and knock Dave up again."
"And Dave's okay with that?"
Darren laughed. "Alexi's right. Dave actually likes carrying. Plus he's always been sad that Piotr and P.J. only shared the pouch for a couple of months. He's always wanted a proper pair of pouchmates."
A knock on the door balcony door interrupted them.
"Excuse me, Colonel Sheppard," Sonya said. "A phonecall for you."
Cam and John exchanged a look. If it was the SGC, then they might have to leave.
"A Doctor Rodney McKay. He says it's not urgent, but he sounded pretty high strung."
"Don't worry, Rodney's always high strung. Excuse me, guys, but I should get this."
Once they were alone, Darren turned to Cam. "You play any instruments?" he asked.
Cam shook his head.
"Too bad. You can always sing, I guess. We normally do music time after dinner," he explained. "Dave plays the violin and Alexi the oboe. John can play piano and guitar and the kids are versatile." Of course they did. It seemed like John's family's job was to make Cam feel out-classed in every possible way.
Cam couldn't restrain his curiosity any longer. "What's it like, being a secundus?"
Darren paused for a long moment, thinking. That was something he had in common with his husbands. All three were very deliberate and not prone to jump into things the way John and Cam were. "It's difficult. With three people there are three egos. And to add to that, you can form alliances with three and not with two. Even though I'm sure it's obvious that Dave and I have more affection for each other, I tend to agree with Alexi more often than not. I don't think we fight more than couples, but we certainly fight more complicated."
"That makes sense. And you don't feel jealous?" The way Cam felt like he could punch something any time John so much as mentioned Rodney McKay.
Darren shrugged. "I could care less what Alexi does on his personal time, and I know Dave loves me more, so there's really no need to be jealous."
"What if Dave loved Alexi more?" Cam asked.
"Well, Alexi's not the secundus. If Dave loved Alexi more, he never would have married me."
"Okay, but how do you think Alexi feels? He had Dave first." Just like Cam had John first.
"I think he gets jealous sometimes. Mostly if Dave chooses me over him, but unlike when I first married them, Alexi is very involved in the business. He's not even here half the time and when he is, he and Dave spend time together at work. It's not often that Alexi want's Dave's personal attention and when he does, Dave and I make sure he gets it."
"I don't understand that. If I thought my husband loved someone else more than me, I'd go crazy."
"I don't pretend to understand Alexi, but I don't think he ever needed Dave to be in love with him. The two of them were raised very traditionally, which is something they share. They were taught that a marriage is based in fecundity, respect, and being more powerful together than you are appart. And that's exactly what they are to each other. Whatever John might think, Dave doesn't want to leave Alexi. They're a power couple and they both get off on that. In fact, I'm not sure that if Dave hadn't been married to Alexi first, if he would have married me - a struggling musician who wouldn't contribute to his family name or Guild status. In Dave and Alexi's world, what the three of us have is a fairytale happy ending."
Cam still couldn't wrap his head around it. "And you?"
Darren laughed. "For me, a fairytale happy ending would be me and Dave not having to ask a Russian asshole permission to have another baby. But I'd do anything for Dave, including being a secundus."
"How can you stand to live and raise your children with someone you clearly don't like?"
"I love Dave and I love our kids, including Alexi's. The fact that Alexi and I don't get along isn't as important as the rest."
"Oh," Cam replied inarticulately, wanting to know more, but having no idea what to ask.
Fortunately, Darren took pity on him, clapping a hand on his back. "But this isn't just because you're curious. You and John?"
Cam nodded. "I don't know how much John told his brother, so I'd be happy if you kept this between us."
"Done."
"John and I have been friends since John was engaged to Leo."
"Oh, Leo. I liked that one. He drove Alexi absolutely mad," Darren grinned.
"We conceived our son by accident while John was temporarily transferred to my base. He got immediately recalled before we had a chance to be more. After that, John started a relationship with someone on his base. And, well, he won't marry me."
Darren nodded. "You're in love with him, but you think he's in love with this other guy."
"Yeah," Cam agreed. Seriously, Darren was better than a shrink at guessing what Cam was thinking. "I think I'm the Alexi in this situation."
Darren shook his head, pulling Cam into a one-armed hug. "No, Cam, you're not Alexi, because Alexi has never been in love with Dave."
Cam sighed. "So where does that leave me?"
"There's only two options. There's only ever two options: you can make peace with the situation or you can move on."
Cam nodded. "Darren . . ."
He didn't get a chance to ask Darren if he thought John could ever love Cam back because John had appeared. "Guys, I'm sorry but I think I may have to take off for a few days."
"Why?" Cam asked. "The SGC?"
"No. It's a long story, but I promised Rodney I would go to Canada with him. I won't be gone more than a few days."
Darren shot Cam a knowing look, but said. "I'm sorry to hear that John. The kids will be disappointed. But, Cam, if you have the time, we'd be happy to host you. It'll be good to get to know the father of my future nephew a little bit better and we have plenty to entertain you."
"Yeah, you need to check out their gaming room," John enthused. "Playing Call of Duty is like being inside an action movie."
"So, just like my daily life then," Cam joked.
"Yeah, except in real life you can't trash talk with the bad guys without giving away your position. Hey, I'm going to pack before dinner. I'm on the 11 o'clock flight to Vancouver." John paused, whispering to Cam. "You're okay with being left alone with my crazy family right?"
Cam was okay with John's family, but not so much with being abandoned so John could spend time with his lover. He plastered on a smile that even the priors could probably identify was fake and said, "they're not that bad."
"Good." John gave him a peck on the lips before leaving. Apparently John Sheppard was even more oblivious to the basics of human interaction than a not even fully corporeal worshipper of evil gods.
"So," Cam could see the skepticism in Darren's face even in the twilight. "Rodney?"
Cam nodded. "Rodney fucking McKay."
Next: Fathers and Sons