"Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot" for sugargroupie
Title: Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot
Author: caroly_214
Characters/Pairings: Sparky, Simon
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1743
Disclaimer: if I owned it, I wouldn’t have stopped watching it.
Spoilers: Only up to the beginning of season 2 (AKA: the good old days)
Recipent: sugargroupie, who requested: "established relationship, Elizabeth and John run into Simon while on earth. Please don't make Simon into some evil ex-boyfriend or pretend that Elizabeth never loved him. Can include angst and/or sex." Well, I don’t write sex, and I’m more of a fluff person than an angst person. Besides, I think season 4 has provided us with more than enough angst. This is probably not what you had in mind, but I hope you like it.
Comments: Thanks to daisycm83 for gallantly taking on beta duty. Also, big thanks to my Mom, who, when I complained that I was stuck, made a suggestion that started things going. The title comes from the song "Auld Lang Syne."
Elizabeth closed her eyes as she tilted her face up to the sky, a smile spreading across her face as she felt the cold feather-touch of snowflakes falling onto her skin. She had always loved winter, and it was something she had truly missed in Atlantis. Breathing in the cold, crisp air, she let herself relax into the sounds and smells of winter.
Until, that is, the sounds of a car horn rudely interrupted her reverie.
She rolled her eyes as John came up beside her. “Remind me again why we decided to go shopping during the after-Thanksgiving sales.”
John slipped an arm around her waist and propelled her across the parking lot toward the store’s entrance as he gave her the mischievous grin she knew all too well. “Because, ‘Lizabeth, Julia’s first Christmas is coming up, and we need more presents.”
“You’re spoiling her, John,” she retorted, trying to be stern. After all, she had a lot of practice at it.
He smirked. “I know,” he said, as he left her to wrestle a shopping cart out of the queue. Rejoining her with a cart, he continued, “It’s my right and duty as a grandfather to spoil my granddaughter rotten. Besides,” he added, his voice becoming a conspiratorial whisper as they moved towards the aisles and aisles of toys, “it’s also revenge on Anne, for all that we had to put up with raising her.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “You’re incorrigible,” she told her husband of 32 years, who then had the gall to look shocked.
“You’re just now figuring that out? I’d’ve figured you’d have figured that out a long time ago.” She raised her hand to give him a playful smack, but he just smirked and hurried away, his longer stride carrying him quickly out of range of her hand.
She followed him more slowly, but soon realized he wasn’t going anywhere near the baby toys. “Where are you going, John,” she called after her errant husband.
“Toy planes!”
Elizabeth barely held back a groan. “John, she’s not even six months old. I think she’s a little too young for toy planes.”
“No, she’s not. You need to start them when they’re young.”
Thirty-two years of marriage and 37 years of acquaintance had taught her she wouldn’t win this fight, and decades in the Pegasus galaxy had taught her to only fight battles she could win. “Fine,” she called back at him. “I’ll be on the other side of the store.”
John looked puzzled. “Doing what?”
It was her turn to smirk. “Looking at educational toys, of course. I need to find something that will teach her different languages.”
“Elizabeth, she’s not even six months old. She can’t even speak English yet, and you want to teach her other languages?”
She smiled sweetly. “Well, you need to start them when they’re young.”
He barked a laugh and then shook his head. “That’s right. Julia Elizabeth Scott: the world’s future premier linguist pilot. Anne’s going to hate us for this.”
Laughing herself, Elizabeth said, “Meet you in 20 minutes?” At his nod, she walked to the other end of the huge toy store.
It was odd, she reflected, being a grandmother. It seemed like only yesterday that her daughter was a baby, and now her daughter had her own baby. But she was taking to the grandmother experience quite happily, enjoying spoiling the baby, and handing her back to her mother when things became difficult.
Of course, if Elizabeth was happy being a grandparent, John was ecstatic. He was taking to the spoiling with gleeful abandon, driving everyone - especially their daughter and son-in-law - insane. And now that he was officially retired (though unofficially consulting - no one involved with the Stargate program ever fully escaped its clutches), he could devote most of his time to spoiling his only grandchild. Julia may be her father’s little girl, but she was her grandfather’s little angel.
Finding the right aisle, she ducked into it and began perusing the various linguistic programs. She had done this same thing nearly 30 years ago, but the selection wasn’t as good then, and, unfortunately, Anne just didn’t have her mother’s gift for languages. Hopefully, the genes had just skipped a generation.
“Elizabeth?”
Startled, she turned, and found a man staring at her in shock. It took her a moment, but when she recognized him, she knew her own jaw dropped.
“Simon?”
He looked different, though that was only to be expected considering she hadn’t seen him in over 30 years. Thankfully, his hair was shorter, though nearly white, and he’d gained a little more weight, but his warm brown eyes were just as she remembered.
She realized, from his expression, that he was also comparing her to his memories. Her hair was longer, and had turned silver - thankfully not gray - and she knew she had more lines. But, apparently, she was still recognizable.
Elizabeth smiled at him and stepped closer. “It’s good to see you, Simon,” she said. And it was. She gotten over the pain of their break up long ago, and had only wished him the best.
Simon looked tentative for a moment, but then smiled in return. “Yes, it is. You look good. How have you been?”
“Good. Busy, as always. What about you? Still working, or have you retired yet?” It seemed odd; at one point in time they had intended on getting married, and now they were reduced to superficial small talk. But, Elizabeth realized, that’s what a separation of 30 years will do.
“Mostly retired. I still cover a few shifts a month at the clinic, but it’s just enough to keep me from getting bored. You?”
“Consulting for the government. They’re never going to let me fully retire.”
He chuckled, then asked, “And what made you brave the after-Thanksgiving sale crowds? You always hated these sales.”
Elizabeth gave him a rueful grin. “It’s not exactly by choice. My husband insisted that we needed more Christmas presents for our granddaughter.”
His smile broadened. “A granddaughter! Congratulations! How old is she?” he asked.
“Not quite six months.”
Simon nodded knowingly. “Ah. Just starting to move and get into things. That’s the age where they start to get really fun. I have two grandchildren, but the youngest is 6. I keep telling my son and daughter-in-law they should have another baby, but they’re not listening.”
Laughing, Elizabeth replied, “Well, we only have the one, and my daughter has made it quite clear it will be some time before she’s willing to go through that again. But my son is engaged to be married, and my husband is hoping for more grandkids soon, though he hasn’t made any suggestions yet.”
“There you are, ‘Lizabeth!”
At the sound of her husband’s voice, Elizabeth turned and smiled. “There I am. Did you find enough planes?” she asked, eyeing the nearly full shopping cart.
“Uh-huh,” he responded, moving to stand slightly in front of her, his eyes not leaving Simon. Elizabeth sighed. You could take the man out of the military, but you couldn’t take the military out of the man.
“John, let me introduce you. This is Dr. Simon Wallace. Simon, this is my husband, General John Sheppard.”
Simon offered his hand. “Nice to meet you, General.”
“Actually,” John drawled as he shook the other man’s hand, “I’m retired.”
Simon nodded, and glanced back at Elizabeth. “Well, I need to be going. I’m supposed to meet my wife outside.” He paused, and his gaze softened slightly. “It was good seeing you, Elizabeth,” he said, extending his hand.
She took it, squeezing it gently. “Yes, it was.”
He smiled and squeezed back. “Take care, Elizabeth. And have fun with your granddaughter.”
As he stepped back, she laughed. “I will. Good-bye, Simon.”
Elizabeth watched as he walked away, not surprised when John came up behind her, wrapping his arm around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder.
“You know,” John began conversationally after Simon was out of sight, “I think I aged much better than he did.”
Rolling her eyes, she shrugged out of his grip and walked back over to the linguistic programs.
“Well, I did. Are you disagreeing?”
She turned to face him, looking into the features she’d come to know so well over the past few decades: unruly hair, now gray instead of black; narrow face, with more lines around the eyes and mouth, and body just as skinny as it was nearly 40 years ago. She could disagree and hope to rein in his ego, but he knew the truth, so she might as well admit it. “No,” she said, smiling slightly. “I’m not.”
His expression grew triumphant, but before he could gloat too much, she turned back to the programs. She had just picked up one to examine it more closely, when he came up behind her again, his arms wrapping around her waist.
“Did I ever mention,” he asked lowly, his mouth close to her ear, “how glad I am that he was an idiot and broke up with you?”
Elizabeth melted into his embrace and closed her eyes. After 32 years of marriage, children, and now grandchildren, he could still make her melt with just a few words.
Smiling, she turned in his arms to face him. “Have I ever mentioned how glad I am he was an idiot and broke up with me,” she whispered.
John smirked and leaned in for a quick kiss before pulling back. “Now pick your program so we can go home and I can show you just how glad I am.”
With that sort of promise, Elizabeth decided not to spend any more time looking, and threw the program she’d already picked up into the cart. If that wasn’t a good choice, well, Julia was only 6 months old, and she could get a better program later.
“Is that what I think it is,” she asked, spying what appeared to be a toy drum set in the shopping cart.
“Yup,” he answered, barely able to suppress his smirk.
“More of that revenge you were talking about?”
“Yup,” he answered, now not bothering to hide his smirk.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, imagining their daughter’s reaction when that particular present was unwrapped. Grabbing John’s hand, she began to lead him - and the cart - to the checkouts. “Let’s go home, flyboy. You have a promise to make good on.”
Author: caroly_214
Characters/Pairings: Sparky, Simon
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1743
Disclaimer: if I owned it, I wouldn’t have stopped watching it.
Spoilers: Only up to the beginning of season 2 (AKA: the good old days)
Recipent: sugargroupie, who requested: "established relationship, Elizabeth and John run into Simon while on earth. Please don't make Simon into some evil ex-boyfriend or pretend that Elizabeth never loved him. Can include angst and/or sex." Well, I don’t write sex, and I’m more of a fluff person than an angst person. Besides, I think season 4 has provided us with more than enough angst. This is probably not what you had in mind, but I hope you like it.
Comments: Thanks to daisycm83 for gallantly taking on beta duty. Also, big thanks to my Mom, who, when I complained that I was stuck, made a suggestion that started things going. The title comes from the song "Auld Lang Syne."
Elizabeth closed her eyes as she tilted her face up to the sky, a smile spreading across her face as she felt the cold feather-touch of snowflakes falling onto her skin. She had always loved winter, and it was something she had truly missed in Atlantis. Breathing in the cold, crisp air, she let herself relax into the sounds and smells of winter.
Until, that is, the sounds of a car horn rudely interrupted her reverie.
She rolled her eyes as John came up beside her. “Remind me again why we decided to go shopping during the after-Thanksgiving sales.”
John slipped an arm around her waist and propelled her across the parking lot toward the store’s entrance as he gave her the mischievous grin she knew all too well. “Because, ‘Lizabeth, Julia’s first Christmas is coming up, and we need more presents.”
“You’re spoiling her, John,” she retorted, trying to be stern. After all, she had a lot of practice at it.
He smirked. “I know,” he said, as he left her to wrestle a shopping cart out of the queue. Rejoining her with a cart, he continued, “It’s my right and duty as a grandfather to spoil my granddaughter rotten. Besides,” he added, his voice becoming a conspiratorial whisper as they moved towards the aisles and aisles of toys, “it’s also revenge on Anne, for all that we had to put up with raising her.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “You’re incorrigible,” she told her husband of 32 years, who then had the gall to look shocked.
“You’re just now figuring that out? I’d’ve figured you’d have figured that out a long time ago.” She raised her hand to give him a playful smack, but he just smirked and hurried away, his longer stride carrying him quickly out of range of her hand.
She followed him more slowly, but soon realized he wasn’t going anywhere near the baby toys. “Where are you going, John,” she called after her errant husband.
“Toy planes!”
Elizabeth barely held back a groan. “John, she’s not even six months old. I think she’s a little too young for toy planes.”
“No, she’s not. You need to start them when they’re young.”
Thirty-two years of marriage and 37 years of acquaintance had taught her she wouldn’t win this fight, and decades in the Pegasus galaxy had taught her to only fight battles she could win. “Fine,” she called back at him. “I’ll be on the other side of the store.”
John looked puzzled. “Doing what?”
It was her turn to smirk. “Looking at educational toys, of course. I need to find something that will teach her different languages.”
“Elizabeth, she’s not even six months old. She can’t even speak English yet, and you want to teach her other languages?”
She smiled sweetly. “Well, you need to start them when they’re young.”
He barked a laugh and then shook his head. “That’s right. Julia Elizabeth Scott: the world’s future premier linguist pilot. Anne’s going to hate us for this.”
Laughing herself, Elizabeth said, “Meet you in 20 minutes?” At his nod, she walked to the other end of the huge toy store.
It was odd, she reflected, being a grandmother. It seemed like only yesterday that her daughter was a baby, and now her daughter had her own baby. But she was taking to the grandmother experience quite happily, enjoying spoiling the baby, and handing her back to her mother when things became difficult.
Of course, if Elizabeth was happy being a grandparent, John was ecstatic. He was taking to the spoiling with gleeful abandon, driving everyone - especially their daughter and son-in-law - insane. And now that he was officially retired (though unofficially consulting - no one involved with the Stargate program ever fully escaped its clutches), he could devote most of his time to spoiling his only grandchild. Julia may be her father’s little girl, but she was her grandfather’s little angel.
Finding the right aisle, she ducked into it and began perusing the various linguistic programs. She had done this same thing nearly 30 years ago, but the selection wasn’t as good then, and, unfortunately, Anne just didn’t have her mother’s gift for languages. Hopefully, the genes had just skipped a generation.
“Elizabeth?”
Startled, she turned, and found a man staring at her in shock. It took her a moment, but when she recognized him, she knew her own jaw dropped.
“Simon?”
He looked different, though that was only to be expected considering she hadn’t seen him in over 30 years. Thankfully, his hair was shorter, though nearly white, and he’d gained a little more weight, but his warm brown eyes were just as she remembered.
She realized, from his expression, that he was also comparing her to his memories. Her hair was longer, and had turned silver - thankfully not gray - and she knew she had more lines. But, apparently, she was still recognizable.
Elizabeth smiled at him and stepped closer. “It’s good to see you, Simon,” she said. And it was. She gotten over the pain of their break up long ago, and had only wished him the best.
Simon looked tentative for a moment, but then smiled in return. “Yes, it is. You look good. How have you been?”
“Good. Busy, as always. What about you? Still working, or have you retired yet?” It seemed odd; at one point in time they had intended on getting married, and now they were reduced to superficial small talk. But, Elizabeth realized, that’s what a separation of 30 years will do.
“Mostly retired. I still cover a few shifts a month at the clinic, but it’s just enough to keep me from getting bored. You?”
“Consulting for the government. They’re never going to let me fully retire.”
He chuckled, then asked, “And what made you brave the after-Thanksgiving sale crowds? You always hated these sales.”
Elizabeth gave him a rueful grin. “It’s not exactly by choice. My husband insisted that we needed more Christmas presents for our granddaughter.”
His smile broadened. “A granddaughter! Congratulations! How old is she?” he asked.
“Not quite six months.”
Simon nodded knowingly. “Ah. Just starting to move and get into things. That’s the age where they start to get really fun. I have two grandchildren, but the youngest is 6. I keep telling my son and daughter-in-law they should have another baby, but they’re not listening.”
Laughing, Elizabeth replied, “Well, we only have the one, and my daughter has made it quite clear it will be some time before she’s willing to go through that again. But my son is engaged to be married, and my husband is hoping for more grandkids soon, though he hasn’t made any suggestions yet.”
“There you are, ‘Lizabeth!”
At the sound of her husband’s voice, Elizabeth turned and smiled. “There I am. Did you find enough planes?” she asked, eyeing the nearly full shopping cart.
“Uh-huh,” he responded, moving to stand slightly in front of her, his eyes not leaving Simon. Elizabeth sighed. You could take the man out of the military, but you couldn’t take the military out of the man.
“John, let me introduce you. This is Dr. Simon Wallace. Simon, this is my husband, General John Sheppard.”
Simon offered his hand. “Nice to meet you, General.”
“Actually,” John drawled as he shook the other man’s hand, “I’m retired.”
Simon nodded, and glanced back at Elizabeth. “Well, I need to be going. I’m supposed to meet my wife outside.” He paused, and his gaze softened slightly. “It was good seeing you, Elizabeth,” he said, extending his hand.
She took it, squeezing it gently. “Yes, it was.”
He smiled and squeezed back. “Take care, Elizabeth. And have fun with your granddaughter.”
As he stepped back, she laughed. “I will. Good-bye, Simon.”
Elizabeth watched as he walked away, not surprised when John came up behind her, wrapping his arm around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder.
“You know,” John began conversationally after Simon was out of sight, “I think I aged much better than he did.”
Rolling her eyes, she shrugged out of his grip and walked back over to the linguistic programs.
“Well, I did. Are you disagreeing?”
She turned to face him, looking into the features she’d come to know so well over the past few decades: unruly hair, now gray instead of black; narrow face, with more lines around the eyes and mouth, and body just as skinny as it was nearly 40 years ago. She could disagree and hope to rein in his ego, but he knew the truth, so she might as well admit it. “No,” she said, smiling slightly. “I’m not.”
His expression grew triumphant, but before he could gloat too much, she turned back to the programs. She had just picked up one to examine it more closely, when he came up behind her again, his arms wrapping around her waist.
“Did I ever mention,” he asked lowly, his mouth close to her ear, “how glad I am that he was an idiot and broke up with you?”
Elizabeth melted into his embrace and closed her eyes. After 32 years of marriage, children, and now grandchildren, he could still make her melt with just a few words.
Smiling, she turned in his arms to face him. “Have I ever mentioned how glad I am he was an idiot and broke up with me,” she whispered.
John smirked and leaned in for a quick kiss before pulling back. “Now pick your program so we can go home and I can show you just how glad I am.”
With that sort of promise, Elizabeth decided not to spend any more time looking, and threw the program she’d already picked up into the cart. If that wasn’t a good choice, well, Julia was only 6 months old, and she could get a better program later.
“Is that what I think it is,” she asked, spying what appeared to be a toy drum set in the shopping cart.
“Yup,” he answered, barely able to suppress his smirk.
“More of that revenge you were talking about?”
“Yup,” he answered, now not bothering to hide his smirk.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, imagining their daughter’s reaction when that particular present was unwrapped. Grabbing John’s hand, she began to lead him - and the cart - to the checkouts. “Let’s go home, flyboy. You have a promise to make good on.”