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bluflamingo.livejournal.com posting in sg_five_things Feb. 5th, 2009 01:17 pm)Four ways Mark Carter and/or Dave Sheppard didn’t find out about the stargate program, and one way they did
Participation is open to all. If this is your own prompt, you're free to write to it (please do!). Post your list as a comment to this post, adding additional comments if you exceed the character limit. It's OK to post as Anonymous, then come out later or not as you choose. Responses will be screened until February 16 to see what people come up with independently. You can still respond to the prompt after the February 16 unveiling.
General info and a place to ask questions: the comm 'welcome' post.
Technical-support questions: tech help.
Suggestions: the suggestion box.
To supply a new prompt: the open call for prompts.
Subject-line spoiler warnings for late-season SGA eps and the SG-1 movies, thanks!
February 16 is the official due date. If you're posting a response after the unveiling announcement on February 16, please copy the link to your comment, click on the 'set 64' tag, and reply to the post 'Set 64 Responses Unscreened' with the link to your new comment-response. That helps people find and read and comment on responses that weren't there when they cruised through right after the reveal. Pimp the link in your journal, too, if you want to let your flist know you've posted something new.
Participation is open to all. If this is your own prompt, you're free to write to it (please do!). Post your list as a comment to this post, adding additional comments if you exceed the character limit. It's OK to post as Anonymous, then come out later or not as you choose. Responses will be screened until February 16 to see what people come up with independently. You can still respond to the prompt after the February 16 unveiling.
General info and a place to ask questions: the comm 'welcome' post.
Technical-support questions: tech help.
Suggestions: the suggestion box.
To supply a new prompt: the open call for prompts.
Subject-line spoiler warnings for late-season SGA eps and the SG-1 movies, thanks!
February 16 is the official due date. If you're posting a response after the unveiling announcement on February 16, please copy the link to your comment, click on the 'set 64' tag, and reply to the post 'Set 64 Responses Unscreened' with the link to your new comment-response. That helps people find and read and comment on responses that weren't there when they cruised through right after the reveal. Pimp the link in your journal, too, if you want to let your flist know you've posted something new.
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Four ways Dave Sheppard didn’t find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part 1]
i.
Dave hates the bitterness between them. He hates that they never took the chance to heal old wounds, that Dad’s dead and now they’ll never have that chance.
No matter what he said, Dave knows that John isn’t here for money. He wishes he hadn’t made the accusation, because it’s just one more hurt on top of everything else and because of the look in John’s eyes, but the sting of John leaving the wake halfway through was too much. He doesn’t really expect John to come back, and certainly not to look so entirely beat up and destroyed.
“What the hell happened?” Dave asks when John winces, sitting down on the sofa. He remembers how his brother broke his arm when he was seven and never shed a tear, didn’t even tell anyone until three hours later when their mother had asked why he was cradling it.
“Work,” John says succinctly.
It kills Dave, not knowing what John does or even where he’s stationed, not knowing whether John won’t tell him because it’s classified or because he doesn’t think he’d care.
“Work!” Dave yells. “What do you do that requires you to leave your father’s funeral and come back looking like you’re halfway to the grave yourself?”
“I got you security clearance,” John says, looking up at him with bruised eyes. “Do you really want to know?”
Dave nods, and John tells him.
ii.
Ever since John announced that he was joining the Air Force, Dave has been terrified by the image of an officer in crisp dress blues, unsmiling and holding a letter, showing up at his door.
It’s almost twenty years past John’s declaration when it actually happens.
The only real differences from Dave’s early vision are that there are two officers instead of one and that they have a video tape in place of a letter. Not only are they unsmiling and sober, the younger man –a major Dave reads from his insignia– looks totally wrecked.
They introduce themselves as General Jack O’Neill and Major Evan Lorne and they say the words Dave has dreaded for twenty years, “Your brother was killed in action. I’m sorry for your loss.” They say other words about John, how he died heroically, saving other people, the way he would have wanted. They say that he was a good man, that he had many friends. Dave wonders if he was happy.
“Colonel Sheppard left this for you,” Major Lorne says, holding out the video tape. Dave takes it with numb hands and watches the men leave.
When he puts in the tape, he is greeted with John’s smiling face on the television screen, at once familiar and half forgotten. “Hi Dave,” John says laconically, and the smile drops from his face for a moment. “If you’re watching this, then I’m sorry for what that must mean about me, but there are some things I want you to know.” John’s smile comes back full-force and he looks so much like their mother and so much like himself that Dave has to cry. “I want you to know that I was happy here,” John continues. “I want to tell you about something amazing called the Stargate Program.”
From:
Re: Four ways Dave Sheppard didn’t find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part
From:
Re: Four ways Dave Sheppard didn’t find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part
From:
Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part 2]
Everything is on fire. Washington and London and Tokyo and Moscow. Newscasters are talking about something called the Ori and Dave doesn’t understand how this could have happened and he doesn’t know what to do, who to call, if there even is anyone. Shirley left and Dad’s dead and he hasn’t heard from John since the funeral.
He hears a car pull up in the drive and runs outside, a sudden wild hope in his chest. A man in a military uniform gets out of the black car. It’s not John.
“Are you Dave Sheppard?” the man asks. Dave nods. “I’m Sergeant Bates. If you come with me, I’ll take you to your brother.” Dave figures he doesn’t really have anything to lose.
An hour later, he’s standing with a small group of people in front of a round circle of blue light called the Stargate and someone is saying how they are on a list of evacuees and if they’ll just step through the wormhole, they’ll be with their loved ones. There is a couple beside him with a young daughter, crying in her mother’s arms. “Shh, Madison, it’s okay,” he hears the mother say. “We’re going to see Uncle Mer.”
Dave steps through the Stargate and comes out somewhere entirely different, with stained glass windows, people and soldiers everywhere. “Dave!” someone shouts. The crowd parts, and suddenly John is in front of him, hugging him like they’re still children, or like it’s the end of the world. “Dave,” John says again, close to his ear, and Dave hugs back tight.
iv.
John calls randomly one night in early October and says, “Hey Dave, um, watch the news tomorrow, okay?” He hangs up before Dave can ask why.
Dave wakes up at 5 am and turns on the TV, but it’s just weather forecast and entertainment recap. At work, he keeps half an eye on the set in the lounge, waiting, and almost has a heart attack when he hears the word explosion. It turns out to just be a filler story about a gas leak.
Finally, the 6 o’clock news has an icon in all caps that reads: BREAKING STORY. The President gives a short, strange speech that only makes sense in context when generals in dress blues start talking about something called the Stargate Program.
They run pictures and video clips that are both horrifying and amazing and then Dave sees John up on a podium with the American flag behind him. “Hey, everyone,” John addresses the huge group of screaming reporters surrounding him, laid-back and cheerful, without the smug superiority of many of the earlier military leaders. Dave knows that John is talking to him. “I’m Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, and I’m the military CO of the best part of the Stargate Program. Atlantis.”
From: (Anonymous)
Re: Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part 2]
From:
Re: Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part 2]
From:
Re: Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part 2]
God, I know this won't let me fall asleep tonight, going round and round in my head and I'll keep wishing for such a story for a long, long time...
Thank you for this!
Saphira
From:
Re: Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part 2]
Here's a snippet for your reading pleasure:
“There are life-sucking space vampires here and you didn’t think you should tell me that?” Dave yells.
John winces, glancing around the control room and catching a few Marines smirking. “You were already looking kinda shocky when you got here,” he replies. “I didn’t want to worry you.”
Dave has no words for how fucked up this is so he just ends up making furious, ineffectual gestures in John’s direction.
“Stop that,” John says, catching Dave’s wrists. “You look like Rodney.” He clears his throat, his eyes going dark green and serious. “There are some…dangers out here. But we’ve got weapons and shields and brilliant people like you wouldn’t believe. So just, hold tight for me, okay?” He squeezes Dave’s wrists gently and lets go.
“Okay,” Dave says, turning away, suddenly ashamed by all the ways that he is weak here, where John is strong.
From:
Re: Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part 2]
Oh, it don't have to deal with the destroying of the earth (be it ori or something else). I'm happy as long as there is Dave and John getting to know each other and Dave realising what John has done the last years, mix it with a bit of team-ness, angst, action and maybe some John whump and I won't be able to do anything else than adore this fic... :) (and the snippet is very, very promising! =) )
One last thing: Would you please so kind and tell me where you plan to post the story so that I can check there from time to time if you already posted it? *puppy dog eyes*
Thank you!
Saphira
From:
Re: Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part 2]
When it finally gets written I will probably put it up on
From:
Re: Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part 2]
Thank you, a link here - that would be great! :)
Saphira
From:
Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part 3]
i.
There is a loud pounding on Dave’s front door at 3 o’clock in the morning and when he pulls open the door to yell at whatever idiot doesn’t understand the meaning of 3 o’clock in the morning there is a short man with thinning hair and a gun strapped to his leg. “You’re Dave Sheppard, right?” he says, pulling Dave out of the doorway without waiting for an answer.
There is a helicopter on the front lawn.
Dave stares and the man shouts, “Hurry up!” and pushes him inside. “Okay, okay,” the man says, while Dave continues to stare, shell-shocked. “Okay,” the man says again, finally calming slightly. “I’m Dr. Rodney McKay and I’m sorry about this, but your idiot brother was injured pulling another one of his heroic, self-sacrificing stunts and the doctor said to get the next of kin.”
Dave feels his heart stutter and suddenly doesn’t care about any of the weird shit that’s just happened as long as it’s getting him to John. “How?” he croaks.
Rodney talks and talks and talks all the way through four military checkpoints and down into a huge underground complex. Dave doesn’t really get the parts about wormhole physics and hive ships, but he does get the other galaxies and aliens.
Oh my God, Dave thinks, my brother fights space aliens and then he just thinks Oh my God, because there is John in a hospital bed, pale and bandaged, with nurses and doctors flitting around in every direction screaming things like, “Charge to 150” and “We’re losing him!”
John wakes up two days later and Rodney tells him, “Beckett was on M4X-333 so we had to evacuate you to the SGC for treatment. Also, your brother is here” and leaves.
“Dave?” John says weakly, and he sounds like his little brother again, who wouldn’t ask for help, but sometimes needed it.
“I’m here,” Dave answers, taking his hand. “So, this is what you do, huh?”
John smiles. “Yeah, this is what I do.”
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Re: Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part 3]
From:
Re: Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part 3]
#3: I think Dave on Atlantis would be great fun! Although probably not so much under those circumstances...
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Re: Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part 3]
From:
Re: Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part 3]
From:
Re: Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part 3]
From:
Re: Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part 3]
From:
Re: Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part 3]
I totally love the image of John, relaxed and cheerful, talking about his beloved Atlantis - telling the world, and especially his big brother. :-)
From:
Re: Four ways Dave Sheppard didn't find out about the Stargate Program, and one way he did. [Part 3]
I think #3 is my favorite - which makes me worry about myself a little bit! Apocalypse, anyone?
Lol. I'm totally with you. I love Apocalypse fic :)
From:
Some John/Cam; spoilers for SGA up to 519
He’s interrupted by Elizabeth on his radio before he gets any further, and then he forgets about it. When he remembers, it’s too late, the files are about to be sent, and he figures it’s the universe’s way of telling him not to do it. Dave and his dad have managed perfectly well without him for years; what’s the point of getting in touch just to tell them that he’s probably dead?
2. Dave is not an idiot, and neither is he unobservant – you don’t get far running a Fortune 500 company by not seeing things. He may not have seen John for years, but even while he’s pissed at John for leaving, he can tell there’s more to John’s this is work-related than having to go back for a conference call. Not that he expects to ever find out. John’s always been secretive.
It’s a surprise when John comes back, though not, in the end, entirely unwelcome. Dad’s house feels strange without him, too empty, and John might not be Dave’s first choice for company, but there’s something about funerals that makes him want to be around family. It’s obvious that John’s in pain even before he turns down Dave’s offer of a drink with an awkward, “Painkillers.”
Dave knows better than to ask, so he can’t explain why he hears himself say, “The work-related thing?”
John looks up, mouth open like he’s about to speak, and it’s all there on his face: how big this is, whatever he’s doing, how huge a secret it is. How he wants, for that moment anyway, to actually tell Dave. It’s more than Dave ever expected from his brother, and he knows what it must cost John to let him see it. Almost as much as it would cost John to know that he broke the trust placed in him.
“Don’t,” Dave says softly. John looks at him for a long moment, then blinks, looks down, shaking his head. Dave sits down next to him on the couch, nudges his arm till John looks at him from the corner of damp, red eyes. “Thank you,” he adds.
3. Rodney’s not really sure what makes him look up John’s brother when they’re thrown out of Atlantis, after Ronon and Carter are killed trying to stop Michael. Maybe it’s that, with his team gone and Atlantis abandoned, John’s brother is the closest thing he has to John now. Maybe it’s wanting to know something about a part of his life that John never talked about. Maybe it’s just wanting something to distract him from everything he’s lost, even with Jennifer.
Dave Sheppard’s contact details are not difficult to find. A few clicks through the corporate website, a few minutes hacking their database – apparently Sheppard Utilities aren’t fluffy enough to have one of those ‘contact our CO’ links – and he’s got Sheppard’s email address looking at him from the to line of his gmail.
He leaves the subject line blank and starts typing: Dear Mr Sheppard, You don’t know me, but I was a close friend and colleague of your brother’s. We worked together for four years on a project with the United States Air Force, for a subdivision called Stargate Command, on a base called Atlantis, in the Pegasus Galaxy…
He doesn’t send the email, just leaves it open on his laptop when Jennifer comes home.
When he gets up the next morning, she’s closed down the window. Rodney logs back into his email client, checks the sent items and the drafts folder. The email’s gone, like he kind of knew it would be.
He doesn’t type it up again.
From:
Some John/Cam; spoilers for SGA up to 519
Men from the Air Force are just about the last thing Dave wants to deal with. He’s tempted to send them away, but he’s not sure they’d actually go, and he’s not having Sheppard Utilities on the front page for an argument between two Air Force officers and his security people. “Send them in, Phyllis, thanks.”
They turn out to be one man from the Air Force – “Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, sir,” – and one man connected to the Air Force – “Dr Rodney McKay.” Mitchell’s in his dress uniform and McKay is in a dark suit, and neither on them smiles as they sit down.
“Your brother is John Sheppard,” McKay says, not really a question. Dave nods, looks at Mitchell, whose face isn’t quite as locked down as McKay’s and thinks, No, please, not today, like hearing what they’re about to say would be any better in a week, or a couple of months.
“I’m sorry to have to tell you this, Mr Sheppard,” Mitchell says, soft southern voice that reminds Dave of his mom. “But your brother was killed two days ago.”
“He’s not even in the Air Force any more,” Dave says stupidly. “He’s a detective.”
“He was working with us,” Mitchell says. “You should know that he died doing something important, that he saved a lot of lives.”
Dave nods, not sure if he believes Mitchell or not. He hasn’t spoken to John since well before Dad’s funeral, other than to leave an angry voicemail asking what the fuck John had been doing instead of coming to the wake. Even so, he knows that John fucked up badly when he was in the Air Force, hasn’t done much better as a cop. But the Air Force wouldn’t want him back if they didn’t really need him, so maybe it is true. “Can I have his body?” he asks.
McKay and Mitchell talk him through getting John’s body back from them, offer their condolences again, and leave. It’s only when Phyllis is showing them out of the building that Dave realizes he never asked exactly what John was doing.
And one way he did:
“Hey,” Cam says, leaning close as he and John wait for the SGC’s publicity officer to finish talking them up to the gathered press. “What did your brother say when you told him what you’ve been doing for the last six years?”
John turns round, close enough that his hand brushed against Cam’s, making him grin until he catches the guilty look on John’s face. “You didn’t call him?” he demands. “You said you’d do it last night!”
“Yeah, well, you distracted me,” John points out, which, okay, it was Cam who started things, but it was John who passed out afterwards and nearly made them late by forgetting to set the alarm.
“I can’t believe you forgot to tell your own brother,” he says, though, really, this is John and his family. It’s the least surprising thing he’s heard in months.
The airman on the door leans in and says, “Colonels, they’re about ready for you.”
John steps away from Cam, straightens his dress uniform jacket. “Pretty sure he’s going to find out now,” he says, and follows the airman out to the conference room to stand with O’Neill and Landry while they tell the world about the stargate program.
From:
Re: Some John/Cam; spoilers for SGA up to 519
From:
Re: Some John/Cam; spoilers for SGA up to 519
Feh, the others were way to depressing to be the real ones :)
From:
Re: Some John/Cam; spoilers for SGA up to 519
From:
Re: Some John/Cam; spoilers for SGA up to 519
But it's so much *easier* than actually having to do it in person... :o)
From:
Re: Some John/Cam; spoilers for SGA up to 519
And #4 surprised me completely by turning out to be AU! Very sneaky. ;-)
From:
Re: Some John/Cam; spoilers for SGA up to 519
I'm all about sneaky :o) Not really, I just have a weird obsession with Vegas, considering it made me cry.
From:
Spoilers for Atlantis episode, Enemy at the Gate
1. The same way everyone else did, when a giant alien city's shield failed in the middle of San Francisco Bay.
2. With a flash of light and an unexpected trip on a spaceship, complete with a little grey man, to deliver some sort of genetic component only a sibling could provide to save John and Sam from the latest alien illness to sneak past Atlantis's sensors.
3. On Oprah, during "I've got a secret" week.
4. A knock on the door, a solemn General O'Neill on the other side, three tons of papers promising swift retribution if they even thought of breathing a word of this to anyone, and and unbelievable tale of how their siblings had died to save the universe.
And the way they did:
5. Mark - A knock on the door, a solemn Sam on the other side, three tons of papers promising swift retribution if he even thought of breathing a word of this to anyone, and and unbelievable tale of how their father had cheated death, saved the universe on borrowed time, and died as he lived - a hero.
Dave - A knock on the door, a solemn John on the other side, three tons of papers promising swift retribution if he even thought of breathing a word of this to anyone, and and unbelievable tale of alien ancestors, flying cities, and a committee called the IOA who had changed the rules and allowed Dave to be witness to Atlantis's first wedding, his brother's, if he didn't mind watching him tie himself forever to one slightly grumpy astrophysicist.
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Re: Spoilers for Atlantis episode, Enemy at the Gate
From:
Re: Spoilers for Atlantis episode, Enemy at the Gate
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Re: Spoilers for Atlantis episode, Enemy at the Gate
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Re: Spoilers for Atlantis episode, Enemy at the Gate
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Re: Spoilers for Atlantis episode, Enemy at the Gate
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Re: Spoilers for Atlantis episode, Enemy at the Gate
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Re: Spoilers for Atlantis episode, Enemy at the Gate
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Re: Spoilers for Atlantis episode, Enemy at the Gate
Thanks.