Five people John Sheppard included in his will and what he left to them (SGA/SG-1, Cam/John, PG)
Title: Five people John Sheppard included in his will and what he left to them
Author: skieswideopen
Fandom: SGA
Pairing: Sheppard/Mitchell (only #5)
Rating: PG
Notes: Written for and reposted from sg1_five_things, set 48.
1. John has two wills. One is informal, filed only on Atlantis. It lists who John wants the various personal items in his quarters to go to. Keepsakes, really, since he doesn't have anything especially valuable on Atlantis. (Although valuable is a relative term when the Daedalus only showed up every couple of months.)
In this will, his guitar goes to Teyla. He's rarely played it since coming to Atlantis, and he isn't really sure why he brought it, except that he's had it for more than twenty years and has dragged it across every continent on Earth, and discarding it now is kind of unthinkable. He thinks Teyla might appreciate it, even though she won't have any memories associating it with him. He's been to enough Athosian celebrations to know how important music is to them, and he's seen Teyla slip out to watch Sergeant Mazer strum his way through "Stairway to Heaven" on quiet nights on Atlantis. He thinks she might even make the effort to learn to play it.
2. Ronon gets a soapstone carving of a horse. Nancy gave it to John early in their relationship, and he held onto it even after the end of their marriage. He was originally going to leave Ronon his surfboard, thinking that he'd take the Satedan out and teach him one day. And then that day came, and ended as disastrously as Ronon's early attempts to teach John those ridiculous Satedan fighting games that invariably left him hopping on one foot with both hands tied behind his back. So he changes it over to the horse, because he's noticed that Ronon gravitates toward whenever he's in John’s quarters, turning it over and over in his hands as he talks to John. John suspects that it reminds him of home, or childhood, or something else precious. He never asks what.
He also leaves Ronon his collection of action movies, even though he's not sure Ronon will remain on Atlantis long enough to watch them once John's gone, because he and Ronon watched them together, and he's not sure who else would want them.
3. The other will was drawn up by the family lawyers, and now sits in their offices. Occasionally, when he's back on Earth, John pays them a visit and has it updated, because he isn't quite as careless about money as his brother thinks.
The first provision of the that will assigns all of his shares in the family company to his brother and any children his brother might have, because he also isn't as careless about family as his brother thinks, and John really doesn't want the company his father and grandfather built up to fall into strange hands. He just didn't want to have to run it himself.
4. The formal will also leaves a large chunk of money to Rodney. (John has money--capital M money--though he rarely tells anyone that. It was tied up in a trust fund until John was 25, but it's his to control now, because his father never expected this kind of rebellion when he set it up. He's never found much use for it, but he takes pleasure in the occasional expensive and frivolous purpose, just because he knows it would have bothered his father.)
Whenever John watches Rodney bitch about yet another ridiculous IOA or Air Force decision, he knows--as if he could see straight through to the other man's core--that one day Rodney is going to walk away from the whole program, his previously boundless enthusiasm crushed and left for dead by politics and expediency and morally questionable decisions. And when Rodney leaves, John doesn't want him forced to take another position where politics might rule his life. The way he sees it, what he's really giving Rodney is freedom.
(He's made similar provisions for Elizabeth in his will, for similar reasons. He almost changed it the last time he was on Earth, but then decided to leave the money in trust for her, just in case.)
5. John wanted to leave some of his money to Cam, too, but he thinks it would be a little hard to explain to their superiors and he knows how much Cam loves the Air Force. Besides, Cam--who's one of the few people who has some idea how much money John has--scoffed when John hesitantly brought up the issue, and told John that he wasn't planning on spending his life as a kept man and John was going to outlive him anyway. So instead John has a quiet word with Alex Shah, who he's always found to be one of the more approachable attorneys at the firm and who has been discreetly involved with another man for ten years. Alex performs some legal wizardry and sets up a trust fund that's excluded from the will and won't be noticed unless someone goes looking for it. The money's slated to be turned over to Cam if and when he retired from or otherwise leaves the Air Force.
And then John goes back and revises his informal will, leaving Cam the tiny silver knife he'd received from the people of Palus on one of his first trade missions in the Pegasus Galaxy. He quietly chuckled at the size of the knife when he first got it, but it's saved his life no less than five times since then, all in entirely improbable ways, and has become something of a good luck charm for him-a symbol of survival in difficult times. He isn't sure the knife will survive his death since it comes with him on most of his missions, but he's hoping it would, and that Cam will get it and understand what it means:
Live.
Author: skieswideopen
Fandom: SGA
Pairing: Sheppard/Mitchell (only #5)
Rating: PG
Notes: Written for and reposted from sg1_five_things, set 48.
1. John has two wills. One is informal, filed only on Atlantis. It lists who John wants the various personal items in his quarters to go to. Keepsakes, really, since he doesn't have anything especially valuable on Atlantis. (Although valuable is a relative term when the Daedalus only showed up every couple of months.)
In this will, his guitar goes to Teyla. He's rarely played it since coming to Atlantis, and he isn't really sure why he brought it, except that he's had it for more than twenty years and has dragged it across every continent on Earth, and discarding it now is kind of unthinkable. He thinks Teyla might appreciate it, even though she won't have any memories associating it with him. He's been to enough Athosian celebrations to know how important music is to them, and he's seen Teyla slip out to watch Sergeant Mazer strum his way through "Stairway to Heaven" on quiet nights on Atlantis. He thinks she might even make the effort to learn to play it.
2. Ronon gets a soapstone carving of a horse. Nancy gave it to John early in their relationship, and he held onto it even after the end of their marriage. He was originally going to leave Ronon his surfboard, thinking that he'd take the Satedan out and teach him one day. And then that day came, and ended as disastrously as Ronon's early attempts to teach John those ridiculous Satedan fighting games that invariably left him hopping on one foot with both hands tied behind his back. So he changes it over to the horse, because he's noticed that Ronon gravitates toward whenever he's in John’s quarters, turning it over and over in his hands as he talks to John. John suspects that it reminds him of home, or childhood, or something else precious. He never asks what.
He also leaves Ronon his collection of action movies, even though he's not sure Ronon will remain on Atlantis long enough to watch them once John's gone, because he and Ronon watched them together, and he's not sure who else would want them.
3. The other will was drawn up by the family lawyers, and now sits in their offices. Occasionally, when he's back on Earth, John pays them a visit and has it updated, because he isn't quite as careless about money as his brother thinks.
The first provision of the that will assigns all of his shares in the family company to his brother and any children his brother might have, because he also isn't as careless about family as his brother thinks, and John really doesn't want the company his father and grandfather built up to fall into strange hands. He just didn't want to have to run it himself.
4. The formal will also leaves a large chunk of money to Rodney. (John has money--capital M money--though he rarely tells anyone that. It was tied up in a trust fund until John was 25, but it's his to control now, because his father never expected this kind of rebellion when he set it up. He's never found much use for it, but he takes pleasure in the occasional expensive and frivolous purpose, just because he knows it would have bothered his father.)
Whenever John watches Rodney bitch about yet another ridiculous IOA or Air Force decision, he knows--as if he could see straight through to the other man's core--that one day Rodney is going to walk away from the whole program, his previously boundless enthusiasm crushed and left for dead by politics and expediency and morally questionable decisions. And when Rodney leaves, John doesn't want him forced to take another position where politics might rule his life. The way he sees it, what he's really giving Rodney is freedom.
(He's made similar provisions for Elizabeth in his will, for similar reasons. He almost changed it the last time he was on Earth, but then decided to leave the money in trust for her, just in case.)
5. John wanted to leave some of his money to Cam, too, but he thinks it would be a little hard to explain to their superiors and he knows how much Cam loves the Air Force. Besides, Cam--who's one of the few people who has some idea how much money John has--scoffed when John hesitantly brought up the issue, and told John that he wasn't planning on spending his life as a kept man and John was going to outlive him anyway. So instead John has a quiet word with Alex Shah, who he's always found to be one of the more approachable attorneys at the firm and who has been discreetly involved with another man for ten years. Alex performs some legal wizardry and sets up a trust fund that's excluded from the will and won't be noticed unless someone goes looking for it. The money's slated to be turned over to Cam if and when he retired from or otherwise leaves the Air Force.
And then John goes back and revises his informal will, leaving Cam the tiny silver knife he'd received from the people of Palus on one of his first trade missions in the Pegasus Galaxy. He quietly chuckled at the size of the knife when he first got it, but it's saved his life no less than five times since then, all in entirely improbable ways, and has become something of a good luck charm for him-a symbol of survival in difficult times. He isn't sure the knife will survive his death since it comes with him on most of his missions, but he's hoping it would, and that Cam will get it and understand what it means:
Live.