Time falls away, yeah but these small hours

And these small hours still remain, they still remain

These little wonders, these twists and turns of fate

Time falls away, but these small hours

These little wonders still remain.

Chapter Nine: Little Wonders

FOUR YEARS LATER...

The sound of children’s laughter echoed through the halls of Atlantis. Kathryn Jackson, now four years old was running stealthily away from her three playmates. One was a three year old girl known as Charlie. She had bright blonde hair and blue eyes and she in turn was being followed by a two and a half year old Athosian boy known as Torren Emmagen. Behind them, the slowest of the lot was Sarah. She was two years old and had messy black hair and bright hazel eyes and was always the one to be left behind.

“Nah—nah!” teased Kathryn as she ran away from her pursuers. “Can’t catch me! Can’t catch me! Can’t catch me!”

“Kathryn Jackson!” came the stern voice of her mother as she scooped her daughter up into her arms. “What have I told you about teasing Torren and Sarah and Charlie?” Vala paused as she watched her daughters face crumple. “What would Aunt Teyla and Uncle Kennan say if Torren went missing, hmm? And what about Aunt Sam and your Uncle Jack, you know how precious Charlie is to them.”

“That’s right,” came a male voice from behind Vala. “And don’t forget that your Uncle John and Aunt Liz would be most displeased if their little princess went missing.”

“Daddy!” Kathryn exclaimed as she squirmed and reached out to her father. “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!”

“Oooh!” Vala sighed as she handed her daughter off to Daniel. “Take her. She’s impossible.”

Daniel laughed heartily as he held his four year old close. “She gets that from her mother…” he paused and watched as Vala reached to her stomach which was slightly rounded. “…don’t worry. I’m sure that our second won’t be as bad.”

Vala eyed Daniel carefully. “Are you sure, because all the books that I’ve read say that the second child is more impossible than the first…”

“You’re not the only one who’s hoping that,” added another voice. Vala and Daniel turned to watch little Sarah be scooped up by her father, and little Torren as well. “Elizabeth is hoping that our second one won’t be too bad.”

“Oh but your princess is a princess,” Vala assured as she smiled at the man who had helped to save her Daniel nearly four years ago now. “The only thing that can get her all riled up is my little one.”

“Oh our Charlie gives the both of them a run for their money,” stated Jack as he and Sam walked up to them, scooping up their little angel into their arms in the process. “Don’t you sweetie?” he asked cooing at his daughter. For the first time in a very long time Jack was happy, completely happy as were the people around him.

Daniel laughed. “Well children will be children, the little wonders that they are.”

“You’re right about that Daniel,” John agreed as they all began walking back to the mess-hall where the children were supposed to be playing meeting Elizabeth along the way. “You are right about that.”

“I wonder what sort of adults our children will make,” Vala mused as they continued to walk. “I wonder if they’ll follow in our footsteps…”

Jack and Samantha, Daniel and Vala, John and Elizabeth all stopped dead and looked at the children before smiling and shaking her heads.

“Nope.”

“Definitely not.”

“Far too dangerous.”

“Not for my baby girl.”

“I don’t think so”

“As if.”

Then, after another moment of silence they all broke out laughing. Their children would do what they were meant to do, the four adults knew that—just as they had been meant to do what they were doing and had done. They took part in a larger galaxy of problems with responsibilities that would stretch for many generations to come. But while they worried for their children, none were petrified for they had survived all that had been thrown at them so far and because of that they were confident that their children would survive too.

After all, they were wonders in and of themselves and they would make their way among the stars—just like their parents.

-END-

————Author's Note————

And so it is finally done. Practically, two years to the day my trilogy is complete and even though the sequel and the sequel to the sequel were much shorter in length I can only hope that you, my beloved readers enjoyed it.

I want to thank each and everyone of you who have reviewed over the past two years. Your comments mean a lot to me and I know that I must have been frustrating with all the long breaks.

And now the story is done…or at least I hope it is. I have three new characters to play with, with two more on the way and while it would be fun to write about the children of my favourite characters I don’t know how that’s going to work out.

So for now dear readers I say goodbye. I have one more Daniel/Vala story to finish—for which I apologize—but after that who knows what will happen. I’m trying to focus on my original writing with fanfiction taking a back seat.

Until the next story I write, know that I appreciate all of you. It has been a fun two years writing about my favourite characters and combining the two worlds while changing the canon…I can only hope that you all had as much fun as I did.

Thank you again from the bottom of my heart.

TTFN—Ta Ta For Now

-Anjirika