Title: The Cousins McKay
Universe: Memoirs
Author: miriel
Rating/Pairing: PG; McKay/Sheppard
Author's Note: This was supposed to be a drabble response to a prompt. It's, um, not. Written for loriel_eris, who wanted a Morgan Sheppard old enough to speak visiting Earth. Spoilers for McKay & Mrs. Miller. 1,937 words.

Summary: For her fourth birthday, Morgan Sheppard's parents got her a cousin.

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For her fourth birthday, Morgan Sheppard's parents got her a cousin.

All right, so she knew it didn't quite work that way, but it sounded much better than the alternative. And after all, when she'd turned two her parents had gotten her a grandfather, so it really wasn't much of a stretch. As for the alternative version of her birthday present? "Sorry, Morgan, but the leave happened to fall over your birthday, and Daddy hasn't seen his sister in five years, so we're going to spend two weeks in a spaceship with nothing to do and bad food."

Two weeks was a really long time to be trapped in a ship, especially when you were almost-four and there were no other kids and lots of rules. And when they got to Earth? Both her daddies had to spend a day and a half in meetings. Daddy J had told her once that "meetings" were the grown-up version of "time out". She asked what they'd done to get in so much trouble, but nobody would tell her anything.

It was a long two days.

* * *

With a yawn, John handed his immigration form to the official, tightening his grip on Morgan. "Purpose of your visit, sir?"

John grinned ruefully. "Meeting the in-laws."

The official nodded sympathetically. "Good luck. Location and duration of stay?"

"Um, about three days, five at the outside. Depends if they kill each other or not." The official blinked at him. "Erm, that was a joke. Well, I hope it was. Jeannie lives just outside Vancouver proper, I think. Address is on there. She's supposed to be picking us up."

"Right." The official glanced at the card again, and nodded. "The greeting area is just through there. Welcome to Canada, sir."

"Thanks. No, Morgan, wait. We have to-"

"Daddy, I gotta go now."

John sighed, and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Of course you do." He looked back up at the official. "Can you tell me where I can find the nearest-"

"Just through the doors into the main greeting area, sir."

"Thank you." John adjusted his grip on duffel, and looked over at Rodney, who was being escorted off to the side by men in uniforms. Well, it wouldn't be a normal day if Rodney didn't get into a fight with someone, and the flight had been alarmingly smooth sailing. John hoped this didn't take too long. He pointed at himself and Morgan, and then at the doors to the outside world, and got a harried nod from Rodney. "All right, kiddo, let's go."

Morgan, who had been jumping up and down, took that as permission to drop his hand and bolt for the doors; John was forced to jog to keep up with her. As he caught hold of his errant offspring, John took a quick glance around the waiting crowd, but didn't see Jeannie. Hoping that Rodney would find her if she arrived before John was back from his 'errand', he scanned the room for the universal symbol for 'bathroom'. Finding it, he guided Morgan through the crowd toward the doors.

"I can go by myself, Daddy."

He blinked; that was new. "Are you sure?"

She rolled her eyes, and he knew exactly where that came from. "Dad-dy. I'm a big girl."

"Okay, okay. I get it; you're a big girl. I'll wait out here." With a sigh, John looked around and settled for leaning against a nearby wall. He missed the days before Morgan had learned how to speak. He nodded companionably to the man slouching next to him. "They grow up so fast, don't they?"

The man nodded, curls bouncing gently. "Sure do. How old is she?"

"Almost four, and ready to take on the world. Yours?"

"Nine, and very much her mother's daughter. Isn't four kind of young to, you know...?"

John shrugged, and rubbed self-consciously at the back of his neck. "She's got five minutes, and a set of lungs like you wouldn't believe. She goes past five minutes, and I grab a passing mom to check on her; it should be fine. So, yours is a troublemaker, I take it?"

"You have no idea." The man shifted, and held out a hand. "Kaleb Miller."

"John Sheppard. Nice to meet you." John smiled as he shook the man's hand. If someone had told him ten years ago he'd be commiserating with another man over the drawbacks in raising a strong-willed daughter, he'd quite possibly have laughed himself sick. Of course, he'd have done the same if they'd told him he'd be the military commander for an inter-galactic trade hub, so perspective was everything. "So, where did you fly in from?"

"Oh, we didn't fly in. We're picking up my brother-in-law. He's supposed to be getting in about now, but he's the kind of guy who never seems to get anywhere on time, you know? Blew off his last visit, and almost broke Maddy's heart."

"I hate it when people do that." John made a face as he checked his watch, and then flagged a passing woman. "Excuse me just a minute. Ma'am?"

She blinked, but stepped over obligingly. "Me?"

John gave his most charming smile. "I'm sorry to impose, but my daughter seems to have gotten lost in the women's room. Could you poke your head in and see if there's a small, dark-haired girl that answers to Morgan?"

"Oh, certainly." The woman disappeared down the tile hallway, reappearing a moment later. "She'll be out in a moment. She and another girl were in the process of disassembling one of the faucets."

John groaned, and resisted the urge to bang his head on the wall. Rodney was totally getting an earful for encouraging Morgan to disassemble everything in sight; especially when he'd continually reprimanded John for taking her up in the jumpers. "Thanks for your help."

She gave him a shy smile, and shouldered her purse, giving him an eyeful of cleavage. "Not at all. Cute kid."

John nodded, and adjusted his wedding ring in a pointed gesture. "Thanks again." She pouted, but took the hint and went on her way. John let out a put-upon sigh, and turned back to Kaleb, who was obviously fighting laughter. "Sorry about that, and it's really not that funny."

"Of course not." Kaleb was saved from having to say anything else by the emergence of their long-awaited offspring. "Maddy? Wha-what have you done now?"

Maddy just smiled, and grasped her father's hand, hanging on to Morgan with the other. "Dad? This is my new friend Morgan. She wanted to know how the faucets worked, and one of them was kinda loose, so we pulled it apart. It was really cool!!"

John frowned. "Morgan, remember the talk we had about taking things apart that don't belong to us?"

She mimicked his frown perfectly, which was more than a little disconcerting. "But Dad-dy, it was broken anyway. And it's a public washroom, right? That means it's ours, too. That's what Maddy said! And she's nine, so she must be right!"

John opened his mouth to argue, then thought better of it. There was only so much room for logic when talking to a four year old. "We'll discuss this with your father. Once we find your aunt, who had better be here."

Kaleb blinked. "Her father? I'm sorry, I assumed..."

John waved a hand, dismissing the question before it could even fully form. "My husband. It's, um, a long story." He glanced down at the two girls, who were still holding hands. "Morgan, I'm glad you had fun, but you need to say good-bye now. I'm sure Daddy's through customs by now, and you want to meet your aunt, right?"

"No!" Morgan shook her head, and stomped her foot for emphasis. "I wanna stay with Maddy. She's my new friend! You wouldn't let me bring Beth, so I want Maddy."

John crouched down, and made a conscious effort not to grind his teeth. Between Morgan and Rodney, he was already in danger of doing serious damage to his molars. "I'm sorry, kiddo, but we have to go. You don't want to keep your aunt waiting."

"But Dad-dy-"

The rant was cut short when Kaleb cleared his throat. "How about a compromise? We're headed back that way, anyway, to meet my brother-in-law. If you'd like, it would be no trouble to walk over together until one of us finds our respective others."

John frowned. "I don't want to impose..."

Kaleb shook his head. "No trouble at all, and it'll keep Maddy entertained. She's been going a little stir-crazy since we got here an hour early."

"Well, in that case, if the ladies would care to lead?" John made a sweeping gesture toward the greeting area, and smiled when the girls giggled on cue. As they approached, however, he couldn't help wincing as he heard Rodney's voice over the general din.

"Well I'm sorry! Those idiots who have the nerve to call themselves mounties insisted on booting up every one of my external drives. As if I would be smuggling heroin, or whatever it is they're worried about this month." At this distance, John could just make out Rodney and a blond figure that looked like it might be Jeannie.

John turned to Kaleb, ready to explain that he'd found his party and thanks for the offer of providing free entertainment for the kid, but Morgan beat him to it, dropping Maddy's hand and running forward screaming "Daddy! Daddy! Guess what??"

John heard Kaleb say something to Maddy, but couldn't make it out; all of his attention was on Rodney. The man in question had turned, and said something to his sister that John couldn't hear. This was followed by Jeannie smacking him in the head. John winced in sympathy; Jeannie had a good arm. Following through on his earlier attempt to apologize and break company with his partner in commiseration, John found Kaleb's face going through a number of expressions, none of them good. Finally, the man seemed to pull himself together. "You're-you're married to Meredith??"

"I, uh..." John paled, pieces coming together in his mind. Kaleb Miller. Miller was Jeannie's married name, wasn't it? And she had a kid about that age; it was one of the reasons they'd decided to bring Morgan with them to start with, instead of leaving her with his father. "Yes?" John did not like the strangled quality to his voice, but there wasn't much he could do about it. Somehow, he got the feeling it was going to be a long, long, long day. And given the way Jeannie was flailing, Rodney might well be sleeping on the couch for the next year.

~ Finis ~