A sad McShep post
Dec. 27th, 2019 01:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
popkin16MermaidMayonnaise posted this last night and it makes me so very sad. Our little fandom really has grown quiet. That makes sense, what with canon being closed and all new Stargate content about new characters. Maybe I should read the comics and post about those? They're supposed to be a continuation...
Anyway, in the link I provided, I mentioned how fun it'd be if we suggested changes to episodes and discussed what would happen. Maybe we could give that a try? It's okay if nobody's interested, but I miss connected with my McShep friends and feeling the excitement and love. It's lonely out here.
So: what do YOU think would have happened if John's mother had been alive when he went to his father's funeral?
A lot of fics have John's mother's death a point of contention between John and his father. It's possible to say that John had a falling out with his father over being gay, and/or joining the military. But we could always twist things further. John's mother lives. She forces her husband and her son to find common ground. John keeps in sporadic contact. He decides to go on the Atlantis mission because he's always been a geek at heart, daydreaming about living in Star Trek. And spacehips exist! Aliens are a thing!
Maybe he flips a coin on whether to tell his family that this particular mission is a bit more dangerous than his usual.
Maybe he doesn't send a video home in Letters From Pegasus because he's worried about how his family will react. Because saying goodbye is even more difficult when you care.
It's even more fun to think about John returning for his father's funeral with Rodney in tow. What would Mama Sheppard make of Rodney McKay? Rodney doesn't make a good first impression. It could go terrible. Or she could see right through Rodney's prickly exterior to the soft center. Maybe she's like John and finds him funny. Oh my gosh, imagine the boys on vacation and they have to split their time between Jeannie's house and John's childhood home. Rodney gleefully going through photo albums, bright eyed at the thought of embarrassing childhood stories.
Maybe when things go wrong and John desperately needs a break, he has someplace earthside to go. With John gone the whole team goes on standdown, and maybe they go with.
Maybe John gets to keep his family, all of it.
Anyway, in the link I provided, I mentioned how fun it'd be if we suggested changes to episodes and discussed what would happen. Maybe we could give that a try? It's okay if nobody's interested, but I miss connected with my McShep friends and feeling the excitement and love. It's lonely out here.
So: what do YOU think would have happened if John's mother had been alive when he went to his father's funeral?
A lot of fics have John's mother's death a point of contention between John and his father. It's possible to say that John had a falling out with his father over being gay, and/or joining the military. But we could always twist things further. John's mother lives. She forces her husband and her son to find common ground. John keeps in sporadic contact. He decides to go on the Atlantis mission because he's always been a geek at heart, daydreaming about living in Star Trek. And spacehips exist! Aliens are a thing!
Maybe he flips a coin on whether to tell his family that this particular mission is a bit more dangerous than his usual.
Maybe he doesn't send a video home in Letters From Pegasus because he's worried about how his family will react. Because saying goodbye is even more difficult when you care.
It's even more fun to think about John returning for his father's funeral with Rodney in tow. What would Mama Sheppard make of Rodney McKay? Rodney doesn't make a good first impression. It could go terrible. Or she could see right through Rodney's prickly exterior to the soft center. Maybe she's like John and finds him funny. Oh my gosh, imagine the boys on vacation and they have to split their time between Jeannie's house and John's childhood home. Rodney gleefully going through photo albums, bright eyed at the thought of embarrassing childhood stories.
Maybe when things go wrong and John desperately needs a break, he has someplace earthside to go. With John gone the whole team goes on standdown, and maybe they go with.
Maybe John gets to keep his family, all of it.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-27 06:54 am (UTC)What if she does show up at Patrick's funeral just to spit on his grave, so to speak? What if Rodney is there and picks a fight with her for abandoning her son? <3 <3 <3 What if John falls head over heels all over again for his fierce, adorable boyfriend for being so protective and awesome?
I'm just sayin'. :D
no subject
Date: 2019-12-27 05:11 pm (UTC)OMG, I can completely see this... (Warning: Disrespect for the dead ahead)
~*~*~
Rodney and John pull up to the cemetery and, hand in hand, slowly make their way to a crowd that seems to be thinning out. "Let's just wait here a second," John says, and so they hold back under the shade of a mountainous pine tree and decades-old graves, headstones littered with pine needles.
When the crowd is gone, and only a couple of workers remain behind to cover the casket, John nods to Rodney and they finally make their way to where Patrick Sheppard's coffin is being covered with dirt.
John lets go of Rodney's hand just long enough to reach into a pocket of his black jeans and pull out a couple of bills. Rodney had no idea where he'd gotten them since they hadn't been back on Earth all that long. "Can you guys give us a second?" he asks the confused workers, then adds, "He was my father. We were...estranged, you could call it."
Based on everything Rodney's heard John say about Patrick Sheppard, estranged didn't even begin to cover what the elder Sheppard had done to John.
With the workers now retreated to a respectful distance, John turns to Rodney, a wistful smile on his face, and then back to the partially covered coffin six feet below them. "Hey, Dad," John says, his voice barely above the whisper of the wind. "I know we had our differences and everything, but I just wanted to say two things. First of all," he turns to Rodney and kisses him on the cheek, "this is my partner, Rodney McKay. Not that you cared. You only wanted me in your life if I met your requirements, and being gay wasn't one of them."
Rodney flushed. John's talk about his family was quite sparse, and while he figured John being gay might have been part of it, it was something else to hear the words.
"Your requirements for being loved," John continued, the scorn in his voice not hidden at all. "Who the hell puts qualifiers on loving their children? Well, let me tell you what I think of your ideas of love, Dad."
Rodney watched John's hands undid his belt and heard the buttons escape the buttonholes of the thick denim material. He looked over, shocked, as John pulled his dick out of his now exposed boxers.
The short-lived silence was broken by the sound of urine splashing over the top of a fancy coffin, half a dozen feet below. He stood there, mostly in shock, although a little bit of him expected it, until the sound stopped and John tucked himself back into his jeans.
"I could use a drink," John said, then took Rodney's hand in his own and turned them back around to where the car was.
"And I could use some hand sanitizer," Rodney replied, though he never let go.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-27 08:36 pm (UTC)I love this, Squidge, totally a John Sheppard move.
If I had a dick, there would be a few graves in the future I'd piss on.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-28 05:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-28 04:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-28 05:24 am (UTC)Ahhhhh I love the idea of Rodney getting all protective and angry on John's behalf <333