more solstice fic!
Dec. 21st, 2007 12:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
so_jangTitle: John Sheppard's worst holiday to date
Recipient:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
atomicpagan who rocks with boulders and jingle bells like the best of 'em.
Rating: PG
Summary: John realizes they have no luggage. It's snowing in New York and Elliot and Olivia bring their straglers home. Bonus Sam/Jack.
part one
"Elizabeth?" John's hand in her hair startled her out of watching Evie run around the fort Elliot had built out of their luggage. His hands were empty and his eyes looked tired. "I don't think our stuff is coming."
"Oh, John, really?" she sighed softly and tried to think if she'd seen where he'd dropped off their luggage. Though Elizabeth searched her memory, she didn't remember seeing him do it. "Are you sure?"
"Everything else is gone," he explained as he sank to the floor and watched his daughter babble contentedly to part of Detective Stabler's suitcase. Elizabeth was sitting on the floor next to him, leaning back against the pillar in baggage claim and looking slightly better now that she was only tired instead of nauseated. Being off of the plane had helped tremendously, but she still was taking great care not to move her head.
Running his thumb across her forehead, John leaned closer and wished he could make something go right.
"I forget other means of transportation don't have inertial dampeners," Elizabeth whispered low enough that only he heard her. "I figured I'd be fine on the plane because I'm always fine in the jumper."
"I don't know if it's even possible to get motion sick in the jumper," John mused as he whispered into her hair. "Want to know something pathetic?"
Elizabeth nearly laughed, and then groaned in surprise as Evie choose that moment to climb onto her lap. Baby fists impacting her stomach made her eyes widen for a second in uncomfortably panic until John plucked the baby away from her mother. "Thanks," she groaned and waited for him to finished.
"I think I put my wallet in the bag," John admitted leaning his head back and lifting his daughter up so she giggled at him. "Did I put the wallet in the bag, baby?"
Elizabeth nodded her head slowly and to John's chagrin, Evie began to mimic her mother.
"i think you're right, pumpkin," John lowered her to his lap and then released her back into the luggage fort. "What do you have in your purse?"
"My purse?" Elizabeth wondered as she looked around. The luggage fort was constructed entirely of Elliot and Olivia's things. The carryon bag only had baby things and their passports. She and John planned on taking a bag of their own, but she'd been so sick in the airport neither of them had wanted to bother trying to remember one more thing and he'd checked it with the rest. "I think you put it in the bag so I wouldn't leave it in the bathroom somewhere."
Elliot and Olivia returned from checking on the connecting flight to Denver. The weather in New York was hideous and from the looks on their faces, John and Elizabeth were stuck there.
"This storm reaches nearly all the way to the Mississippi," Elliot explained as he offered a few goldfish crackers to the baby. "I think they'd try to fly in it, but it looks like it just turns to freezing rain south of here and they don't want to risk it. We talked to the airline and they're trying to find hotel rooms for everyone but it's Christmas--"
"Maybe we should call the Air Force," Elizabeth teased with a sigh, lowering her head to John's shoulder. "See if they're rescue us."
"They still probably won't make it until tomorrow," John admitted as he checked his watch. Ten-thirty-eight pm meant most of the hotels would be booked, and the airline would find them one halfway across town, in the snow, with Elizabeth and the baby in a taxi. If the hotel would even let him check in without a credit card, even if it was on the airline's dollar. "Okay," John began as he put his hands on his knees and started dragging himself to his feet. "I'll go look for the lost baggage people if you think you can get yourself through customs and wait for me on the other side?"
"Are you taking the baby?" Elizabeth asked miserably trying to smile for his benefit.
"We'll help," Olivia offered as Elliot scooped Evie out of the luggage and started collecting his. "We're both off until tomorrow morning. Least we can do is get you through the airport."
"You don't have to--" Elizabeth started to protest as she began to stand up. Leaning against the pillar helped but the room swam darkly when she moved.
Olivia and John's hands both went to her shoulders and she let John help her find her balance.
"Okay then," Elizabeth corrected herself and tried to release John. Keeping a hand on Olivia's arm helped her keep her balance and she managed to smile weakly in John's direction. "I will do my best to stay conscious until you get back."
John kissed her cheek and grinned even though his eyes were dark with concern. "
"It's the little things," he finished gently. "I'll be right there."
"You'd better," Elizabeth retorted playfully watching Evie grin happily at Elliot. "Someone might be tempted to try and go home with the detective."
John kissed his daughter's fat cheek for good measure. "You'd better not," he admonished his daughter as he mussed her hair. "Okay, now luggage."
"No," Elizabeth finished simply as she glared at the TSA security guard and his bland expression. John knew the death glare when he saw it and stopped making eye contact.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm going to have to ask your husband a few questions," the guard insisted as he tried to wave John aside.
"No," Elizabeth argued in her iciest tone. "He hasn't done anything, he has his family out here and we've just gotten off an eighteen-hour flight from Thailand."
"Ma'am," the guard touched John's shoulder when he didn't move. "The rules exist for a reason."
Elizabeth muttered something under her breath and Elliot decided to intervene. "Look, Frank, I'm a detective with the NYPD and this is my partner. This man and his wife are with us, so why don't you just let him go through?"
"If you really are with the NYPD I don't need to tell you about the rash of counterfeit passports, military passports, coming through our points of entry," Frank replied bristling angrily. "I can't just let some possible enemy combatant through because you said he's okay."
John watched Elizabeth stiffen and her eyes tart to narrow. "Detective, may I borrow your phone?" she asked politely holding her hand out to Olivia.
Wordlessly, Olivia placed her phone into Elizabeth's hand and waited. Elizabeth started to dial as John watched her and shook his head.
In Washington D.C., Jack cursed as the phone interrupted the movie. Though they'd been interrupted by dire emergencies each and every time they'd tried to watch it, he and Sam were trying to finish "Planet Terror" for the fifth time. She was the one who sighed and responsibly reached for the phone.
"New York?" she wondered as she reached for the pause button.
"I don't know anyone in New York," Jack complained as he glared at the caller ID.
"John and Elizabeth were flying through there," Sam reminded him as she got up for more popcorn. "Maybe it's them."
"Sheppard better not be in trouble," Jack sighed as he answered on the third ring. Sam heard nothing for a long moment. Then Jack started to speak and all the annoyance drained from his voice. "Look, just hand me to the moron," he ordered as Sam listened.
"Yes, you, moron," Jack repeated into the phone as someone argued with him. "No, shut up and listen to me. I'm Major General Jack O'Neill- two 'L's'- and you're ruining my movie so I'm going to make this short. You let John Sheppard through your damned line and you do it right now. Or what?"
He stood up and stomped towards the window. "Or what? What's wrong with you? Do you want to be disappeared into guarding the border in International Falls, because that's really where you're headed. Yes, International Falls, Minnesota, the city where it was thirty-below for two weeks. Shut up. Yes, just shut up and listen to me. Call your superior, call your wife, call the damn president because I am the Cheif, you heard me, Chief of HomeWORLD security, not some damn petty little officer who gets his rocks off by intimidating exhausted travelers.
"You bet your ass I said world, go ahead, call someone. Call anyone in your chain of command who doesn't damn well know who I am and what I do to knot-it-all numbskulls like you."
"Yes, I'll wait, I'd love to wait. I'd love to wait while you throw your career away. If you get around to calling the President tell him he still owes me a pitcher from last week's game," Jack covered the phone and winked at Sam. "He does."
"I'm sure he does," Sam murmured as she settled back into the couch. "I'm surprised he hasn't learned not to bet against you."
"He just thinks he can win-" Jack interrupted himself as the phone started to speak again. "Well thank you very much, you have a lovely night." He waited a moment for Elizabeth to come back. "Did that work? Yes? Good. Call tomorrow and we'll come get you. Okay? Good." Tossing the phone aside he plopped back on the sofa. "Sheppard lost their luggage and TSA wanted to take him and toss him somewhere unpleasant," he explained as he pulled her into his arms.
"Everything okay?" Sam asked with gentle concern.
"Yeah, yeah," Jack waved off her worry. "Elizabeth sounds like hell though."
"Probably jet-lagged," Sam supposed as she started the movie again. "She mentioned feeling a little off before they left."
"Jet-lag," Jack corrected. "That's it."
"Right," Sam agreed lazily reaching for her beer as neither of them said what they were thinking. The first time Sam had ever seen Elizabeth actually sick was the week before John had dragged her down to the infirmary to diagnose
"I need ninjas," Jack complained as he watched the zombies converge on a house on his flat-screen television.
"Ninjas?" Sam repeated as she tried not to choke on her beer. "Why ninjas?"
"I'm a general," he started to complain bitterly still upset at the audacity of that security guard. "I'm a two star general who isn't allowed to fly or do anything fun anymore and some stupid little stuffed-shirt security man-thing thinks he can argue with me." He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the thought. "I need ninjas minions to do my bidding."
Reaching for the popcorn across his lap, Sam shrugged and kept her eyes on the movie. "I could build you a robot," she offered without paying any real attention to his tantrum.
"Would it be a ninja robot?" Jack asked as he dug into the popcorn.
"I could paint it black," Sam suggested putting her beer aside with a sigh and getting up to make coffee. "Are we driving to New York then?"
"Yeah," Jack sighed and reached for the remote. "Tell me again why we can never make it through a simple movie and the age-old struggle of zombies against mankind?"
"Because between my city and your world, our numerous skills are in high demand," Sam teased as she started grinding coffee.
"And my SUV," Jack sighed and picked up the popcorn as he stretched out his back. "Tell me again why we're so nice to our underlings?"
"You don't have ninjas," Sam reminded him as she threw a pair of socks in his direction from the bedroom.
"Right."
"It's not much," Olivia explained as she circled the car to open Elliot's door for him. His hands were full of a sleeping baby Evelyn, and he'd been happy to accept the responsibility of serving as her car seat. "But, it beats waiting at the airport."
John brushed snow out of his hair and pulled his coat a little tighter before he lowered his hands for Elizabeth. Aside for a moment on the drive over when she'd nearly needed them to stop the car, she looked marginally better. The dark circles under her eyes were getting worse, but she looked slightly less green. Her hands trembled slightly in her borrowed gloves, and John held them tight as she stood up. "Evie?" she wondered as she lowered her face out of the blowing wind.
"Elliot's got her," John comforted as he wrapped an arm around her back. "When did you sleep?" he worried as he lead her over to the door into the police station.
"I slept on the plane," Elizabeth insisted as she covered her mouth and yawned. "I slept more than you did," she continued to protest even though her feet were unsteady.
"I'm not dizzy," John pointed out as he guided her up the snowy steps to the NYPD building. "You're the one who's a little weavey."
"You got me pregnant again," Elizabeth reminded him as she waved him to a stop. "I- uh--"
"Again?" John sighed sympathetically as her head dropped to his shoulder. "What did you eat in Thailand? Something squirming?"
"No squirming," Elizabeth moaned into his neck as she listened to his steady breathing and Olivia laughing in the background. "Evie?"
"Snowflakes make her make faces," John explained as he watched the detective's play with his daughter. One of Evie's most useful traits was a patience with most adults she met. "I can't remember if she's seen snow in the city."
"Not our city," Elizabeth answered as she lifted her head and let him finish leading her up the steps into the NYPD building. "I think this will be the first time I've spent the night in a police squad room."
"Would I get in trouble if I said it wasn't?" John teased just cheerfully enough to get her to smile. "I was doing my part of MP duty, learning riot control and SWAT team responses."
Elizabeth's naked hand grabbed the frigid stone wall for support. "Did you deserve it?" she asked lightly as she found her breath. The cold air was helping, but she still looked pinched, exhausted and pale.
"Oh yeah," John murmured as his hand wiped melting snow from her cheek. "I really did. Learned a lot though, once they got done letting me be the bad guy."
"Bad boy," she chided with as she patted his hand with her chill fingers. "Come on, it's warmer inside."
"So, what happened to that tropical, easy, lazy vacation you wanted?" John wondered as he watched cars struggle in the snow on the street.
"I'm usually not this unlucky," Elizabeth reminded him as he guided her towards a desk and started taking off her coat. "It must be you."
"Think they'll be okay?" Olivia asked as she watched Elliot balance the baby on a his desk as he teased her chubby hands out of her coat. "It's fine for you and me to spend the night here but they'll have her and I don't think Elizabeth's going to be up to much."
"Ever spent the night in the airport?" Elliot asked as he tickled the baby's chin to get her to smile toothily at him. "The airline would probably have kept them for hours then sent them to some chain hotel that was overcrowded. They'll be fine. People will be here if they need anything. It's safe. It's quiet in back."
Munch emerged from around the corner with his coffee and stared at the baby on Elliot's desk. "I thought you were bringing kids home to Thailand," he joked drolly as he grinned at the baby. "She's kinda cute. Those her parents?"
"Rescued them from the airport," Elliot explained as he dug into the bag for baby food.
"Good people?" Munch asked watching as the baby used two hands to snatch a pretzel out of Elliot's grasp.
"Sickeningly cute," Olivia answered as she returned with coffee for her partner and herself. "You'll like them but not admit it, like usual."
"At least I'm consistent," Munch teased over the lip his coffee cup. "Are you taking them back when they tart flying again?"
"Someone's coming to get them tomorrow," Olivia offered as she watched Elliot amuse the baby with a hidden pretzel in his hand. "Friends of theirs from DC."
"Good friends to drive all the way down up here in the snow," Munch commented as he shook his head at Elliot. "Big Marine like you, undone by all the babies that come through here."
"See how she keep smiling?" Elliot asked softly as he brushed crumbs off her cheek and watched as she headed for Olivia's coffee cu out of curiosity. "We don't get a lot of kids like that."
Olivia met her partner's eyes and shared his silence for a moment. "Your baby will smile like her, you'll see," she promised.
"Probably a lot easier with two parents," Elliot sighed and took Olivia's coffee so she could lift the baby off the desk. "I'll go check on a couple bunks. See if they need dinner?"
"Casey was bringing us poor slobs some Chinese," Munch said waving his elbow towards the door. "They're more than welcome to that," he nodded towards them. "I'll go introduce myself." He stopped as he watched Elizabeth bury her head against her husband's stomach. "She okay?" he asked softly as he passed Olivia's shoulder.
"Jet-lag, something stomach related from the trip," Olivia paused tried to detangle baby fingers from her hair. "They just found out she's pregnant again too."
"Heck of a vacation," Munch intoned dryly. "Remind me to save her some of the white rice."
"Good man," Olivia said thankfully watching up towards Elliot and the bunks. "Come on sweetie, let's go find that partner of mine."
Elliot was pulling blankets out of a storage locker and making up two of the bunks on the far side of the room.
"Hey," Olivia started as she balanced the baby on her hip and watched him. "You okay?"
"First time Kathy was pregnant, we were terrified," he explained as he fluffed out the simple blue blanket over the bed. "I remember sitting there and praying that test was going to be negative. then when it wasn't-" When he paused a hint of a smile lit his face. "Part of me realized this could be the best thing to ever happen to me. I mean, this was my chance to be someone's dad. What could be better than that?"
Olivia set the baby down and let her explore the bed as she sat down next to her. "Not this time?" she asked softly waiting for him to answer.
"Kathy just showed up," he answered tugging on the blanket and watched Evie try to figure out how it was moving. "Walked in and told me she was pregnant."
"You had a choice," Olivia insisted weakly watching him shake his head.
"Let my kid grow up with a dad on weekends and every other holiday?" the question hung in the air as he scratched the back of his neck. "That wasn't even working for the older kids. Kathleen, Maureen...how can I ask a baby to grow up like that?" Pulling the blanket again, he knocked Evie gently onto one chubby arm and she batted the other one at the blanket as she stared at it, waiting for it to move again. "Think you'll ever want one?" Elliot watched her face contort and started to chuckle. "You never know. They sneak up on you."
"Yeah, yeah," Olivia muttered as she scooped up te baby and led Elliot back downstairs. "I think I'm missing a vital part of that equation."
Recipient:
atomicpagan who rocks with boulders and jingle bells like the best of 'em.Rating: PG
Summary: John realizes they have no luggage. It's snowing in New York and Elliot and Olivia bring their straglers home. Bonus Sam/Jack.
part one
"Elizabeth?" John's hand in her hair startled her out of watching Evie run around the fort Elliot had built out of their luggage. His hands were empty and his eyes looked tired. "I don't think our stuff is coming."
"Oh, John, really?" she sighed softly and tried to think if she'd seen where he'd dropped off their luggage. Though Elizabeth searched her memory, she didn't remember seeing him do it. "Are you sure?"
"Everything else is gone," he explained as he sank to the floor and watched his daughter babble contentedly to part of Detective Stabler's suitcase. Elizabeth was sitting on the floor next to him, leaning back against the pillar in baggage claim and looking slightly better now that she was only tired instead of nauseated. Being off of the plane had helped tremendously, but she still was taking great care not to move her head.
Running his thumb across her forehead, John leaned closer and wished he could make something go right.
"I forget other means of transportation don't have inertial dampeners," Elizabeth whispered low enough that only he heard her. "I figured I'd be fine on the plane because I'm always fine in the jumper."
"I don't know if it's even possible to get motion sick in the jumper," John mused as he whispered into her hair. "Want to know something pathetic?"
Elizabeth nearly laughed, and then groaned in surprise as Evie choose that moment to climb onto her lap. Baby fists impacting her stomach made her eyes widen for a second in uncomfortably panic until John plucked the baby away from her mother. "Thanks," she groaned and waited for him to finished.
"I think I put my wallet in the bag," John admitted leaning his head back and lifting his daughter up so she giggled at him. "Did I put the wallet in the bag, baby?"
Elizabeth nodded her head slowly and to John's chagrin, Evie began to mimic her mother.
"i think you're right, pumpkin," John lowered her to his lap and then released her back into the luggage fort. "What do you have in your purse?"
"My purse?" Elizabeth wondered as she looked around. The luggage fort was constructed entirely of Elliot and Olivia's things. The carryon bag only had baby things and their passports. She and John planned on taking a bag of their own, but she'd been so sick in the airport neither of them had wanted to bother trying to remember one more thing and he'd checked it with the rest. "I think you put it in the bag so I wouldn't leave it in the bathroom somewhere."
Elliot and Olivia returned from checking on the connecting flight to Denver. The weather in New York was hideous and from the looks on their faces, John and Elizabeth were stuck there.
"This storm reaches nearly all the way to the Mississippi," Elliot explained as he offered a few goldfish crackers to the baby. "I think they'd try to fly in it, but it looks like it just turns to freezing rain south of here and they don't want to risk it. We talked to the airline and they're trying to find hotel rooms for everyone but it's Christmas--"
"Maybe we should call the Air Force," Elizabeth teased with a sigh, lowering her head to John's shoulder. "See if they're rescue us."
"They still probably won't make it until tomorrow," John admitted as he checked his watch. Ten-thirty-eight pm meant most of the hotels would be booked, and the airline would find them one halfway across town, in the snow, with Elizabeth and the baby in a taxi. If the hotel would even let him check in without a credit card, even if it was on the airline's dollar. "Okay," John began as he put his hands on his knees and started dragging himself to his feet. "I'll go look for the lost baggage people if you think you can get yourself through customs and wait for me on the other side?"
"Are you taking the baby?" Elizabeth asked miserably trying to smile for his benefit.
"We'll help," Olivia offered as Elliot scooped Evie out of the luggage and started collecting his. "We're both off until tomorrow morning. Least we can do is get you through the airport."
"You don't have to--" Elizabeth started to protest as she began to stand up. Leaning against the pillar helped but the room swam darkly when she moved.
Olivia and John's hands both went to her shoulders and she let John help her find her balance.
"Okay then," Elizabeth corrected herself and tried to release John. Keeping a hand on Olivia's arm helped her keep her balance and she managed to smile weakly in John's direction. "I will do my best to stay conscious until you get back."
John kissed her cheek and grinned even though his eyes were dark with concern. "
"It's the little things," he finished gently. "I'll be right there."
"You'd better," Elizabeth retorted playfully watching Evie grin happily at Elliot. "Someone might be tempted to try and go home with the detective."
John kissed his daughter's fat cheek for good measure. "You'd better not," he admonished his daughter as he mussed her hair. "Okay, now luggage."
"No," Elizabeth finished simply as she glared at the TSA security guard and his bland expression. John knew the death glare when he saw it and stopped making eye contact.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm going to have to ask your husband a few questions," the guard insisted as he tried to wave John aside.
"No," Elizabeth argued in her iciest tone. "He hasn't done anything, he has his family out here and we've just gotten off an eighteen-hour flight from Thailand."
"Ma'am," the guard touched John's shoulder when he didn't move. "The rules exist for a reason."
Elizabeth muttered something under her breath and Elliot decided to intervene. "Look, Frank, I'm a detective with the NYPD and this is my partner. This man and his wife are with us, so why don't you just let him go through?"
"If you really are with the NYPD I don't need to tell you about the rash of counterfeit passports, military passports, coming through our points of entry," Frank replied bristling angrily. "I can't just let some possible enemy combatant through because you said he's okay."
John watched Elizabeth stiffen and her eyes tart to narrow. "Detective, may I borrow your phone?" she asked politely holding her hand out to Olivia.
Wordlessly, Olivia placed her phone into Elizabeth's hand and waited. Elizabeth started to dial as John watched her and shook his head.
In Washington D.C., Jack cursed as the phone interrupted the movie. Though they'd been interrupted by dire emergencies each and every time they'd tried to watch it, he and Sam were trying to finish "Planet Terror" for the fifth time. She was the one who sighed and responsibly reached for the phone.
"New York?" she wondered as she reached for the pause button.
"I don't know anyone in New York," Jack complained as he glared at the caller ID.
"John and Elizabeth were flying through there," Sam reminded him as she got up for more popcorn. "Maybe it's them."
"Sheppard better not be in trouble," Jack sighed as he answered on the third ring. Sam heard nothing for a long moment. Then Jack started to speak and all the annoyance drained from his voice. "Look, just hand me to the moron," he ordered as Sam listened.
"Yes, you, moron," Jack repeated into the phone as someone argued with him. "No, shut up and listen to me. I'm Major General Jack O'Neill- two 'L's'- and you're ruining my movie so I'm going to make this short. You let John Sheppard through your damned line and you do it right now. Or what?"
He stood up and stomped towards the window. "Or what? What's wrong with you? Do you want to be disappeared into guarding the border in International Falls, because that's really where you're headed. Yes, International Falls, Minnesota, the city where it was thirty-below for two weeks. Shut up. Yes, just shut up and listen to me. Call your superior, call your wife, call the damn president because I am the Cheif, you heard me, Chief of HomeWORLD security, not some damn petty little officer who gets his rocks off by intimidating exhausted travelers.
"You bet your ass I said world, go ahead, call someone. Call anyone in your chain of command who doesn't damn well know who I am and what I do to knot-it-all numbskulls like you."
"Yes, I'll wait, I'd love to wait. I'd love to wait while you throw your career away. If you get around to calling the President tell him he still owes me a pitcher from last week's game," Jack covered the phone and winked at Sam. "He does."
"I'm sure he does," Sam murmured as she settled back into the couch. "I'm surprised he hasn't learned not to bet against you."
"He just thinks he can win-" Jack interrupted himself as the phone started to speak again. "Well thank you very much, you have a lovely night." He waited a moment for Elizabeth to come back. "Did that work? Yes? Good. Call tomorrow and we'll come get you. Okay? Good." Tossing the phone aside he plopped back on the sofa. "Sheppard lost their luggage and TSA wanted to take him and toss him somewhere unpleasant," he explained as he pulled her into his arms.
"Everything okay?" Sam asked with gentle concern.
"Yeah, yeah," Jack waved off her worry. "Elizabeth sounds like hell though."
"Probably jet-lagged," Sam supposed as she started the movie again. "She mentioned feeling a little off before they left."
"Jet-lag," Jack corrected. "That's it."
"Right," Sam agreed lazily reaching for her beer as neither of them said what they were thinking. The first time Sam had ever seen Elizabeth actually sick was the week before John had dragged her down to the infirmary to diagnose
"I need ninjas," Jack complained as he watched the zombies converge on a house on his flat-screen television.
"Ninjas?" Sam repeated as she tried not to choke on her beer. "Why ninjas?"
"I'm a general," he started to complain bitterly still upset at the audacity of that security guard. "I'm a two star general who isn't allowed to fly or do anything fun anymore and some stupid little stuffed-shirt security man-thing thinks he can argue with me." He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the thought. "I need ninjas minions to do my bidding."
Reaching for the popcorn across his lap, Sam shrugged and kept her eyes on the movie. "I could build you a robot," she offered without paying any real attention to his tantrum.
"Would it be a ninja robot?" Jack asked as he dug into the popcorn.
"I could paint it black," Sam suggested putting her beer aside with a sigh and getting up to make coffee. "Are we driving to New York then?"
"Yeah," Jack sighed and reached for the remote. "Tell me again why we can never make it through a simple movie and the age-old struggle of zombies against mankind?"
"Because between my city and your world, our numerous skills are in high demand," Sam teased as she started grinding coffee.
"And my SUV," Jack sighed and picked up the popcorn as he stretched out his back. "Tell me again why we're so nice to our underlings?"
"You don't have ninjas," Sam reminded him as she threw a pair of socks in his direction from the bedroom.
"Right."
"It's not much," Olivia explained as she circled the car to open Elliot's door for him. His hands were full of a sleeping baby Evelyn, and he'd been happy to accept the responsibility of serving as her car seat. "But, it beats waiting at the airport."
John brushed snow out of his hair and pulled his coat a little tighter before he lowered his hands for Elizabeth. Aside for a moment on the drive over when she'd nearly needed them to stop the car, she looked marginally better. The dark circles under her eyes were getting worse, but she looked slightly less green. Her hands trembled slightly in her borrowed gloves, and John held them tight as she stood up. "Evie?" she wondered as she lowered her face out of the blowing wind.
"Elliot's got her," John comforted as he wrapped an arm around her back. "When did you sleep?" he worried as he lead her over to the door into the police station.
"I slept on the plane," Elizabeth insisted as she covered her mouth and yawned. "I slept more than you did," she continued to protest even though her feet were unsteady.
"I'm not dizzy," John pointed out as he guided her up the snowy steps to the NYPD building. "You're the one who's a little weavey."
"You got me pregnant again," Elizabeth reminded him as she waved him to a stop. "I- uh--"
"Again?" John sighed sympathetically as her head dropped to his shoulder. "What did you eat in Thailand? Something squirming?"
"No squirming," Elizabeth moaned into his neck as she listened to his steady breathing and Olivia laughing in the background. "Evie?"
"Snowflakes make her make faces," John explained as he watched the detective's play with his daughter. One of Evie's most useful traits was a patience with most adults she met. "I can't remember if she's seen snow in the city."
"Not our city," Elizabeth answered as she lifted her head and let him finish leading her up the steps into the NYPD building. "I think this will be the first time I've spent the night in a police squad room."
"Would I get in trouble if I said it wasn't?" John teased just cheerfully enough to get her to smile. "I was doing my part of MP duty, learning riot control and SWAT team responses."
Elizabeth's naked hand grabbed the frigid stone wall for support. "Did you deserve it?" she asked lightly as she found her breath. The cold air was helping, but she still looked pinched, exhausted and pale.
"Oh yeah," John murmured as his hand wiped melting snow from her cheek. "I really did. Learned a lot though, once they got done letting me be the bad guy."
"Bad boy," she chided with as she patted his hand with her chill fingers. "Come on, it's warmer inside."
"So, what happened to that tropical, easy, lazy vacation you wanted?" John wondered as he watched cars struggle in the snow on the street.
"I'm usually not this unlucky," Elizabeth reminded him as he guided her towards a desk and started taking off her coat. "It must be you."
"Think they'll be okay?" Olivia asked as she watched Elliot balance the baby on a his desk as he teased her chubby hands out of her coat. "It's fine for you and me to spend the night here but they'll have her and I don't think Elizabeth's going to be up to much."
"Ever spent the night in the airport?" Elliot asked as he tickled the baby's chin to get her to smile toothily at him. "The airline would probably have kept them for hours then sent them to some chain hotel that was overcrowded. They'll be fine. People will be here if they need anything. It's safe. It's quiet in back."
Munch emerged from around the corner with his coffee and stared at the baby on Elliot's desk. "I thought you were bringing kids home to Thailand," he joked drolly as he grinned at the baby. "She's kinda cute. Those her parents?"
"Rescued them from the airport," Elliot explained as he dug into the bag for baby food.
"Good people?" Munch asked watching as the baby used two hands to snatch a pretzel out of Elliot's grasp.
"Sickeningly cute," Olivia answered as she returned with coffee for her partner and herself. "You'll like them but not admit it, like usual."
"At least I'm consistent," Munch teased over the lip his coffee cup. "Are you taking them back when they tart flying again?"
"Someone's coming to get them tomorrow," Olivia offered as she watched Elliot amuse the baby with a hidden pretzel in his hand. "Friends of theirs from DC."
"Good friends to drive all the way down up here in the snow," Munch commented as he shook his head at Elliot. "Big Marine like you, undone by all the babies that come through here."
"See how she keep smiling?" Elliot asked softly as he brushed crumbs off her cheek and watched as she headed for Olivia's coffee cu out of curiosity. "We don't get a lot of kids like that."
Olivia met her partner's eyes and shared his silence for a moment. "Your baby will smile like her, you'll see," she promised.
"Probably a lot easier with two parents," Elliot sighed and took Olivia's coffee so she could lift the baby off the desk. "I'll go check on a couple bunks. See if they need dinner?"
"Casey was bringing us poor slobs some Chinese," Munch said waving his elbow towards the door. "They're more than welcome to that," he nodded towards them. "I'll go introduce myself." He stopped as he watched Elizabeth bury her head against her husband's stomach. "She okay?" he asked softly as he passed Olivia's shoulder.
"Jet-lag, something stomach related from the trip," Olivia paused tried to detangle baby fingers from her hair. "They just found out she's pregnant again too."
"Heck of a vacation," Munch intoned dryly. "Remind me to save her some of the white rice."
"Good man," Olivia said thankfully watching up towards Elliot and the bunks. "Come on sweetie, let's go find that partner of mine."
Elliot was pulling blankets out of a storage locker and making up two of the bunks on the far side of the room.
"Hey," Olivia started as she balanced the baby on her hip and watched him. "You okay?"
"First time Kathy was pregnant, we were terrified," he explained as he fluffed out the simple blue blanket over the bed. "I remember sitting there and praying that test was going to be negative. then when it wasn't-" When he paused a hint of a smile lit his face. "Part of me realized this could be the best thing to ever happen to me. I mean, this was my chance to be someone's dad. What could be better than that?"
Olivia set the baby down and let her explore the bed as she sat down next to her. "Not this time?" she asked softly waiting for him to answer.
"Kathy just showed up," he answered tugging on the blanket and watched Evie try to figure out how it was moving. "Walked in and told me she was pregnant."
"You had a choice," Olivia insisted weakly watching him shake his head.
"Let my kid grow up with a dad on weekends and every other holiday?" the question hung in the air as he scratched the back of his neck. "That wasn't even working for the older kids. Kathleen, Maureen...how can I ask a baby to grow up like that?" Pulling the blanket again, he knocked Evie gently onto one chubby arm and she batted the other one at the blanket as she stared at it, waiting for it to move again. "Think you'll ever want one?" Elliot watched her face contort and started to chuckle. "You never know. They sneak up on you."
"Yeah, yeah," Olivia muttered as she scooped up te baby and led Elliot back downstairs. "I think I'm missing a vital part of that equation."
