Last Goodbye

Last Goodbye

Breathalittlelonger

Summary: Jeannie gets some unexpected visitors. Set after season five.

Spoilers: Um...none of the obvious, but its set AFTER season five, so there might be a few in there.

Feedback: Yes please.

Author's Notes: Just a brief idea I had...

Jeannie stood at the kitchen sink, filling up a pitcher full of water for her plants that were looking kind of sad and depressed when they were getting to be really thirsty. It was hot, and all the windows were open, but there wasn't a breeze anywhere. She wondered, suddenly, how her brother was. He hated the heat, and always enjoyed the cold. This was definitely not the place he would want to be in.

"Mommy!" Madison, her five year old daughter, shrieked from the living room. "Help! Daddy's tickling me!"

Jeannie smiled, put the pitcher aside, and headed towards her daughter. Caleb was smirking as he ticked his daughter on her ribs, looking down at her as she shrieked out in torment and pleasure.

"Caleb, must you torment her so?"

"She called my hair 'fuzzy'." Caleb protested, glancing back down at his victim.

"That's not true!" Madison said breathlessly. "Daddy, please, stop!"

A knock at the door made all three of them look up in surprise-Caleb even stopping his tickling on Madison, who used the distraction to escape.

"You're brother, maybe?" Caleb asked, his brow furrowing. Jeannie shrugged.

"Good possibility." She admitted. "We've been emailing back and forth a lot, even after that…kidnapping." She briefly shuddered, and Caleb did the same. Madison made a face at the two of them, not understanding. She glanced towards the door, and sighed. "Guess I'll go and see who it is." She stood, and Caleb headed towards Madison, who ducked behind a shelf, giggling again. She smiled at hearing his pleas in her coming out to greet whoever was here.

To her surprise, it WAS Meredith at the door-with three other people that she recognized as well.

"Meredith!" Jeannie said happily. "What're you doing here?"

"Well, we've stopped by at the local group here, and figured to pay you a visit while I could. You've only briefly met my friends in the…well, you know; so here they are. Oh, and I brought Madison a present." He added. Jeannie smiled at his thoughtfulness.

"Thank you, Mer." She noticed that Colonel Sheppard-who she had gotten on very well with-was smirking. The woman, Teyla, whom she had only met briefly, was standing in the background next to Ronon, whom she'd seen even less of than Teyla. She briefly wondered about Radek, and why he wasn't there. Of course, Radek was second in command from Rodney, so maybe that made sense. "Come in, we were just getting a few things done around the house."

"UNCLE MER!" Madison's shriek of joy made Rodney startle backwards into the man Ronon, who propped him onto his feet again. Jeannie smiled at the man, who nodded back at her-a bit uncertainly.

"Hey, kiddo. Keeping mommy safe?" Rodney demanded.

"Uh-huh. Bring my present?!" Madison demanded. Rodney brought out a small box from behind his back, and Jeannie's breath caught at the beauty of it. She glanced at his friends, and saw that Teyla was smiling widely, Ronon was actually seemingly perfectly at ease for around her for a change, and Sheppard was staring down at the girl with something like happiness. Such as strange group-but they made Meredith cheerful, so she wasn't going to complain about them.

"Oh." Madison said, staring at the box in rapture.

"Did you want it, or am I just going to stand here all day and hold it in front of you?" Rodney teased, producing the box closer to her. Madison took it shyly.

"Thank you, Uncle Mer. Who're they?" She looked towards the other men. "I remember two of them…kind of." Rodney looked towards Jeannie, frowning a bit, but then looked back at Madison.

"That's Colonel Sheppard…Teyla Emmagen…Ronon Dex." He said, pointing to each one.

"Rodney, you know we don't have a whole lot of time-" Sheppard started.

"Yea, yea…Jeannie…" Rodney hesitated. "I might be going again, here after a bit; I have some…really big things to attend to." He looked towards Caleb; who had picked up Madison and was holding her next to his chest. Madison was eyeing Teyla with a great deal of interest. "I just came…look, if you don't here back from me: what I'm trying to say is, this might be goodbye." Rodney finished.

Jeannie stared at him in shock.

"What?" She demanded. "What can't you tell me?! I already know about the Stargate Program-you're not involved with something bigger, are you?!"

"No…we're about to go to war. In Space." Rodney answered meekly at her tone. She was staring at him in fear and horror and despair. "Against the wraith and the ori and every other bad guy we've ever come across. They've all banded together, and now SGC-with the Azgard, the Athosians, and the Satedans, are all banding together with every bit of technology we have to fight against them. This was…it's going to last as long as possible. And at the end…the fate of the world will change forever." Rodney said, staring at her.

"Wait…" Caleb said, swallowing. "Are you saying that…if you don't win…" He didn't finish.

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Rodney said earnestly. "And I'm also saying this: take care of yourselves."

Jeannie blinked at him in amazement.

"Because we're not going to be able to help." Sheppard said, speaking for the first time. "We've done all we can to make sure that there is at least the slightest chance that we succeed against this war. But I know that this chance is going to be a longshot at best…we have no idea how everything is going to turn out. So you need to watch, listen, and learn everything you can."

"How long are we talking? What kind of changes?" Jeannie asked, her heart thudding at the seriousness of it all. Rodney shrugged.

"It could be hours, it could be days. We don't know yet. But what I would do…don't just sit around, waiting for the end to come." Rodney ordered. "Pack things, get things ready for a long, difficult journey. A journey that might not end for years."

"And I hate to say it…but don't tell anyone." Sheppard said sternly. Jeannie blinked.

"We weren't even supposed to tell you." Rodney said unhappily. "But I asked Sheppard for a favor…I couldn't just up and leave you here, with no explanation as to how things went."

"Thanks." Jeannie said sarcastically, but she knew that he knew that it was also well-meant. "So…this is the end, then."

"In a way." Teyla said softly, from behind the two of them, speaking for the first time. "Yes."

Jeannie thought that over for a minute.

"Okay….then Mer?"

Rodney looked at her.

"Yea?" He asked.

"Take care of yourself." Jeannie said, and hugged him tightly. "Make sure that you come back here, and save the world again. You hear me? I know you can do this-it was what you were made for."

"Then you do something for me? Watch out for them." He said, nodding towards Caleb and Madison. "You guys are the only family I have…I have everyone back at Atlantis too, but you're really the actual _family_."

"I hope you don't mind just us popping up and then popping out." Sheppard quipped. "But we've a battle to go to."

Suddenly Caleb put a struggling Madison down-who shoved her new box to her father-and ran towards Rodney. Rodney picked her up, surprising his friends and Jeannie. Caleb was the only one who wasn't surprised.

"Uncle Mer, don't go!" She pleaded. "Please. I rarely get to see you!"

"Sorry, Little Maddy, but I've got to go." Rodney said softly. "People to save, and bad guys to kill."

"Meredith!" Jeannie said sharply.

"What?" He asked, startled.

"Go be a hero, and stop wasting time!" Jeannie ordered. "You're always lazy…this isn't the time or place to do so!"

"Okay, okay, I'm going! You're always so pushy, you know that?" Rodney grumbled.

"Because I'm the only one who can actually get you to move."

"I can too." Ronon said, his deep voice startling her. "Even if he orders me not to."

"Uh, yes." Jeannie said, staring at him.

"Bye, Sis." Rodney said suddenly, surprising her again. She turned to him, and gave him another hug, this one longer than before.

"Bye, Mer." She whispered.

And, a second later, all four of them vanished.

*


End file.
