FanFic100: #050 Spade
She wonders if this was really such a good idea. But then again… it’s too late for regrets anyway since they’re only a few hundred yards away from her parents’ house. One last time she looks at Evan and he gives her an encouraging smile. She’d like to mirror it but right at that moment one of the twins makes him- or herself known quite forcefully and she can’t help grimacing a little. Immediately Evan’s face changes to worried and he asks, “Hey, everything okay?”
Resisting a sigh, she just gives him a half-smile. “Yeah, don’t worry. I’m fine.” And because she just can’t resist, she adds, “But you look a little green around the gills.”
He looks at her and is now somewhat disgruntled. “I do not look “green around the gills”. I am perfectly fine, thank you very much. Now, can we get this over with or what?”
And he does look a little pale at least. However, that’s kind of understandable since they’re about to meet her parents - at least she made sure her brothers would both be far away from home - and her father had not been amused when she’d told him that he would get to meet the kids’ father. “Whatever you say, flyboy.” With that, she gestures for him to finally take the last bend in the road and after only a few more moments they reach her parents’ driveway.
The moment they do, the door opens and her mother practically storms out the door. Evan has already left the car and before she can open the door he got to do it and even has the guts to offer her his hand. Or maybe he’s just anxious to appear as courteous and decent as possible to her parents. She’s tempted to ignore the hand and get out of the car on her own but she is rapidly approaching the end of her eighth month. So she leaves it at a mean glare and takes the hand anyway.
A little awkwardly she leaves the car and immediately her mother is there to give her a hug… or something that would have been a hug if she wasn’t heavily pregnant. Looking over her mother’s shoulder, she can see her father step out of the door, demonstratively crossing his arms in front of his chest. When her mother lets go of her again, she can see that Evan has grown a few shades paler but is trying his best to appear unfazed.
“Mom… I’d like you to meet Major Evan Lorne.” For a moment, her mother hesitates… but when she sees Evan’s brave smile he has won her over. But then again… she suspects that he already won her mother over the moment he played her knight in shining armor at the car’s door… or maybe when she related the story of why suddenly there is a father for her children after all.
“Nice to meet you, Major.” She can see the relief in Evan’s eyes when he takes her mother’s hand and feels a little guilty for what is about to come.
“Thank you, ma’am.” At that her mother perks up and she’s pretty sure that she’s thinking something along the lines of “What a nice, polite young man.” And then her mother throws her a very stern glance, for just a second or two, probably to tell her what she thinks about her refusing to tell Evan about the kids. Well… that was to be expected.
“Oh, call me Carol. Well… if I may call you Evan?” Ah, her mother at her best. Of course Evan can’t resist her charm and simply has to nod at that. “Ah, good. Now, let’s get inside. Lunch’s ready.” Oh great! She’s famished. Unfortunately the only thing standing between her and her mother’s food is… her dad. Oh well, no guts, no glory.
Her mother leads them both over to the door and she wishes she could take Evan’s hand and squeeze it but that would make a totally wrong impression on just about everyone involved… and Evan wouldn’t want her support anyway. Evan never needed her support either. Still… No, no more dwelling on that. “Dad… this is Major Evan Lorne.”
Her father’s only reaction is a glare. Bravely, Evan still extends his hand and says, “Pleased to meet you, sir.”
After another moment of glaring, her father just growls, “Wish I could say the same.”
Dammit, he’s really set on making this as hard as possible for Evan, isn't he? “Dad…”
“Who wants some good old fashioned chicken wings?” Mom and her impeccable timing, she thinks and just for once she’s grateful that her mother always likes to take matters into her own hands and that she can’t stand watching other people fight. And she’s even more grateful that for once her father doesn’t try to resist her mother’s attempts at pacifying him and turns around to stalk off to the dining room.
Still trying to appear cheerful, her mother follows, leaving her and Evan behind… and now that her parents are out of sight for a moment, he allows himself a brief moment of looking genuinely distressed. It gives her a little stab to the heart to see him like that and it’s enough to make her reach out and squeeze his hand after all. He lets it happen… even looks a little like he’s grateful for it. She takes a deep breath. “I’m… I’m sorry for that, Evan. I didn’t think…”
“It’s okay, Laura. He’s your father, after all.” For a moment he looks like he wants to add something but then he just gives her a shaky half-smile and gestures to the door. “And besides… nothing here can be worse than what I… what we faced… out there.” It makes her smile involuntarily and they finally step through the door and she leads him to her parents’ dining room.
The table has already been set - her mother outdid herself with the perfect mixture of casual family lunch and official get-to-know-the-parents-lunch - and she sits down beside Evan, facing her father. The first few moments of the meal are taken in awkward silence but then her mother takes pity on all of them… again. “So… Laura told us you were deployed until recently?” Evan, thankful for the easy entrance, nods and wants to say something… but doesn’t get very far.
“Sure he was. It’s where he got our little girl in trouble, remember, Carol?” Okay. Obviously, her father didn’t even bother to put on the velvet gloves so that he doesn’t have to actually pull them off again. At least that spares her the trouble of pussyfooting as well.
“Hate to remind you, dad, but… I’m 28. And I was 27 when it happened.” Evan doesn’t really look happy that she jumped in to defend him so fast but like hell she’ll turn him over to her father’s unjustified wrath.
She hopes that’s enough to shut her father up… but he’s on a roll now. “So what? He was still acting against better judgment and he practically destroyed your career… and he didn’t even think it necessary to step up and do right by you.” Okay, this is enough. Her father will not warm up the argument they were having ever since she told her parents she was pregnant. He knows it was her decision to resign her commission and to raise her children all on her own. Evan had nothing to do with it and she will not let her father accuse him of anything.
Ignoring the twitches and twangs the twins are causing her today, she puts down her fork and knife and glares at her father in a perfect imitation of his glare. “Dad, really… We’ve been over this… and you will not talk about Evan as if he’s not even in the room.”
Under the table, she can feel Evan nudging her with his foot but she can resist looking at him. If she looked away now, her father would simply interpret it as if she her not being serious and that’s about the last thing she wants him to think. And yes, it’s her father who breaks eye contact first… only to direct his glare towards Evan again. “You want me to talk to him? Fine. Here’s the thing, Major Lorne: You got my little girl into trouble and you didn’t take care of her.” She wants to step in, shout at her father, drag him over the table, at least kick his shin… but he’s too fast for her and simply carries on his tirade. “And then you suddenly appear out of nowhere, expecting us to welcome you into the family with open arms and let everything be sunshine and roses. But I’ll tell you something: As long as you don’t do what’s right and pop the goddamn question… let me just say, I got a shot gun, a shovel and 40 acres out back. Don’t make me use it.”
That is just… that’s it. Not one step further. Either he will accept Evan now or she’ll never talk to him again. He just has no right to talk like that to Evan. It makes her almost… physically sick that someone - let alone her father - would talk like that to Evan, after everything he did for her and risked for her. “That’s enough, dad. That’s really… it’s just enough.” With that, her cutlery clutters to the table and despite her advanced pregnancy, she manages to get up pretty quickly. “Living room, dad. Right now.”
Her father rises as well. “You will not…”
“And you will not insult the father of my children like this. Living room or I’ll stop talking to you right this minute.” She can see her mother shake her head and Evan looks very much like he’s about to tell her to remember doctor’s orders and take it easy. But she’s fine… at least fine enough to give her father a piece of her mind.
For a moment, it’s silent in the room but then… a small miracle happens: He growls, “Fine. Have it your way,” and moves toward the living room. She follows him, too agitated to even close the door behind her.
Instead, she starts talking almost immediately. “I’ll say this only once, dad so you better damn well listen. The man you just threatened to kill if he didn’t propose to me didn’t even know he was going to be a father until about four months ago. And that was my decision. I didn’t want him to know because I didn’t want to destroy his career. I already told you before and I’ll tell you again: It was my fault that it happened, not his. If it hadn't been for one clueless botanist, he wouldn’t have known about this and if it hadn't been for his insistence and his stubborness he wouldn’t be here now. He practically had to force me to accept his assistance. And just for the record: I told him not to propose.”
She takes a deep breath, restraining herself from massaging her back or rubbing her belly and forcing herself to keep on ignoring the trouble the twins are giving her. But as it is… it’s a lot harder than withstanding her father’s furious glare. “Don’t you dare defend him…”
“Goddammit, dad, of course I will defend him. He didn’t have to but he still gave up… he gave up a great posting. Maybe he even gave up his career for me… I mean, for the twins.” Because seriously… the idea that leaving Atlantis had anything to do with her is simply… wishful thinking on her part. She should stop that. “I owe him… Dad, I owe him more than I could ever repay him. Don’t you dare go off on him like that ever again.”
It wasn’t… easy for her to admit this to anyone, not even to her father… most of all not to her father. But she knows with unerring certainty that she owes this to Evan for taking it upon himself to confront her and blatantly refuse to let her have her way. Since he came back from Atlantis - maybe before that - he had been there for her, much more than she expected him to and much more than he had to. He never complains when she brings herself to ask him to help her with all kinds of things or when he has to sacrifice his sparse spare time to make sure she heeds doctor’s orders. He doesn’t even give her the feeling that it’s her fault his stellar career is finished, maybe forever, not even subconsciously.
The realization of that - or at least the first time of openly admitting all of that to herself - makes her almost start to cry but she blames it on hormones and bravely fights all attempts of her stupid tears to spill over. She also has to fight the sudden urge to go back to the dining room, grab Evan by his hand and drag him somewhere secluded to kiss him senseless… Dammit, where did that come from?
“Laura… baby… I just… it’s not easy being your father.” She sighs. Finally he starts to see reason.
“It’s not easy being your daughter, dad.” He rubs his neck, still trying to uphold his furious façade but already starting to fail miserably. She can already see huge cracks in it.
Gruffly, her father states, “He better be worth all of this.”
She can’t help smiling brightly at her father. “He is, dad. Every little bit of it.” Something in that - maybe the fact that it’s been a while since her father has seen her smiling like this - melts the last bits of his resistance away.
“Alright, fine. But I’ll still have the gun ready… just in case.” She gives him a slap on the arm.
“Dad!” Her indignation makes him put his arm around her shoulders and squeeze them, laughter bubbling up his chest.
“Just kidding, baby. I’m sure he could disarm me in less than three seconds anyway if he served wherever you served.” She feels herself nodding, full of pride for the exceptional officer Evan is. God… she doesn’t deserve him to be the father of her children.
“Absolutely. Now… can we go back to lunch, please? I’m starving.” And she needs to sit down again because the twitches and twangs just won’t stop but there’s no way she’ll tell anyone about this. There’s really been enough excitement for today.
Her father lets go of her shoulders. “Sure. And maybe we should keep your mother from occupying your Major’s attention fully. You might not get to see much of him if she does.” Relief floods through her because her father has finally let himself accept Evan. That’s one problem down, then… the only problem she now has left is convincing herself to stop the butterflies in her stomach from fluttering whenever she thinks of Evan because friends usually are not supposed to inspire butterflies in you.
Taking a deep breath, she follows her father back into the dining room. When she retakes her seat beside Evan… she feels his foot touch hers again and looks up to him, immediately wishing she hadn't. The mixture of worry, relief and caring in his eyes… will haunt her for the rest of the day, she’s sure of that. Well then… time to play the good old suppression game, she thinks, and is glad when her mother takes up the conversation again, effortlessly and without even missing a beat. “So… where were we? Oh right… do tell us a little bit about yourself, Evan. We’re all so very curious…”
~*~
TBC in These Small Hours