New SGA fic: The Sheppard Sipher (R, 2 of 2)
It's three months before Dave hears again from John - the other John, as he has taken to calling him in his head. In the interim, he's exchanged half a dozen e-mails with the original John, which is as much contact as he'd had with him in the two previous years. If John is surprised at Dave's efforts to resume some kind of normal sibling relationship, he doesn't say anything; he seems game enough for it, responding to all of Dave's e-mails with something resembling promptness; even initiating a couple of his own. In none of those exchanges had the subject of a clone or duplicate ever arisen, and Dave had been too afraid to bring it up himself, even in code.
After the first couple of weeks, Dave stopped looking over his shoulder for Crighton's men, and life had pretty much returned to normal, full of early morning meetings and late nights at the office, newspaper interviews and graduate school lectures, half-eaten turkey sandwiches and a handful of uneventful first - and last - dates. The day with the other John becomes harder and harder to believe in, as if it had been some sort of dream or hallucination, but Dave's got a report in his safe that shows his blood to be clean from any "foreign contaminants", and he takes it out every time he starts to doubt his memory, the paper crisp and tangible evidence under his fingertips.
The e-mail, when it comes, is evidence too. It's not from an anonymous hotmail account this time. It's from someone called Jeannie Miller, who introduces herself as Rodney McKay's sister. Rodney McKay, Dave knows, is a colleague of John's. Dave knows very little about him personally except that he is a physicist of some sort and he holds John's medical proxy.
The e-mail's about nothing at all; Jeannie says she has met John on a few occasions but only recently learned he had a brother, which makes her happy, because she worries sometimes that he must get lonely. She says she wishes she could see her own brother more often and wonders if Dave feels the same, and maybe they should form a support group. She says she is knitting John a scarf because he is too skinny and must get cold, and wonders if he ever had any measurable body fat whatsoever. Her daughter Madison likes to send John pictures even though they have only met once; Jeannie thinks Madison has a crush on John, and isn't that adorable? It is a lot of nonsense coming from someone Dave has never met, nor even heard of, and Dave is about to send a politely bland response when he realizes belatedly that the e-mail has both key words embedded in the text.
It is a Saturday afternoon and Dave is reading the e-mail on his Blackberry. He's at home by himself, but he locks the door to the study anyway before turning on his laptop. A few clicks of the mouse proves that Jeannie Miller is a real person; a few more clicks and he knows that she is who the e-mail claims she is: Rodney McKay's sister, and a brilliant physicist in her own right, married and living in Canada, with a six-year-old daughter.
Decoding this e-mail is easier than the first one; the cipher is fresher in his head, and maybe he's been practicing, just a bit, just for fun. Just wanted to let you know I'm all right, it reads, in typical John understatement, and to say thanks again. I always knew I could count on you.
Dave grins to himself, feeling warm, and starts to compose his own reply. A support group sounds good, he says; maybe it will guilt both John and Rodney into coming home more often. A scarf sounds nice, but he hopes it's not real wool, because it gives John a rash. No, John never did have any body fat. His nickname in high school was The Twig, and Dave will pay Jeannie $100 if she calls him that to his face the next time she sees him. Madison isn't the first little girl to have a crush on John, Dave says. Girls have been having crushes on John since he was four and his cowlicks starting coming in; Dave just thinks it means Madison has very good taste.
That's what brothers are for, is what the message really says, hidden in among all the drivel. Call me if you need me.
He smiles as he hits send.