Brothers in Arms

20 - Dave and Evan have a talk

Warning: The following chapters are unedited. When I orignially wrote this Story it was on hold for more than a year because I got realy sick. So in that time I sadly lost contact to the person doing the editing.

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Evan's POV

When Carson had returned to Atlantis after things increased with John, Evan had feared they wouldn't be able to get John to comply but, with his family and especially his mom watching him, John had been on his best behavior. Evan himself had already been released from hospital whereas his brother had to stay some days longer since the medical stuff wasn't content with his breathing. Dave had to get back to business and Julie to her children and Tom. They decided that their mom would stay behind with John since he wouldn't have much chance to have quality time with her for catching up due to him getting deployed again as soon as possible, Stargate Command had been clear about it, and the same went for Evan: Evan had one more week before he had to get back to active duty on Atlantis and Dave had invited him over along with his father.

Dave pulled the limousine up to a huge house. Well, estate would be a better world, Evan mused. So this was where John grew up. He had a hard time picturing John here since his brother cared so little about money and appearance or society connections. None of this ever came up on their conversation contrary to Dave. Evan was sure that Dave wasn't even aware of it, it was his daily life and as much as society connections seemed to be necessary for his business he also seemed to enjoy this part of his life.

The car came to as stop.

"Well..." his dad said dryly "you sure have enough room for the two of us, Dave."

"Um," Dave actually squirmed a little bit which let Evan to the impression that Dave never gave the size of his estate another thought and it probably only now occurred to him that they might be living in a much smaller house. Evan noticed Dave squaring his shoulders and simply saying:

"Welcome. I hope you'll feel at home here soon."

His housekeeper, a middle aged woman with a friendly smile, opened the door greeting him "Welcome home Mr. Sheppard." Dave then introduced them: "Mrs. Crocket, these are Major Lorne and his father Mr. Lorne. They are family. Dave, Martin this is my housekeeper Mrs. Crocket." For now they had decided to not tell anyone – on earth – outside of their family their real relationship because they knew if Dave Sheppard's mother suddenly returned from the death the press would go crazy. Therefore Dave simply introduced them as family. 'Dave must have called ahead' Evan mused, since Mrs. Crocket didn't seemed surprised to see them much less that her employer suddenly had an unexpected extended family.

"Welcome Mr. Lorne. Major Lorne. If you would please follow me, I'll show you to your rooms."

"Thanks Mrs. Crocket." Evan and his dad replied.

But Dave cut in: "I'll do it myself, thank you Mrs. Crocket. You may leave."

That made her look at her employer stunned but she quickly covered it and addressed Dave: "I prepared the two larger guestrooms on the south side Mr. Sheppard."

Of cause Evan couldn't fail to notice how formal Dave became with his housekeeper and shared a look with his dad when they followed him into the house. Evan became more and more aware just how different John upbringing must have been to his own. Once they were settled Dave showed them around before they returned to the house. They talked all afternoon and continued over dinner. The conversation switched from personal questions to politics up to family history and many other topics. Evan was glad they had no problems talking to another and also taking their time keeping silent now and then without anyone feeling the need to fill that silence with some random remark. Mrs. Crocket had left shortly after dinner and about half an hour ago his father had called it an early night claiming he was tired but Evan could see right through it. He wanted to give them some alone-time to get to know each other better. It had never really been just the two of them these last days. Dave and he had shared an animated and easy conversion but now Dave shifted somewhat uncomfortable and Evan wondered what had gotten him riled up again.

"So what is it you want to ask me? Just ask." Evan was trying to reassure his new big brother.

"You and John are both in the military and I just can't figure out why." Dave came out.

Evan should have known that this topic was on his mind and he was glad he actually addressed it. "That's what bothering you?"

"Yes." Simple as that.

"Yeah I got that feeling from what I observed and John told me that your father and you for that matter weren't fond of his career choice. But what I don't understand is why? You don't strife me as a convicted pacifist."

"No that not it. It just... You see John had good grades in school, extraordinary in math even, but he never seemed to care. It seems such a waste."

Evan was sure Dave wasn't aware that he also insulted Evan's own intelligence with that statement and replied without being resentful: "Good grades in math help a lot if you want to fly and further more if you want to be an air force officer."

"How so?" And as naive as this question may sound, Evan could tell that, maybe for the first time, Dave really was trying to think things through from some other ankle than his own. He got the feeling that Dave never bothered to learn the skill set the air force required in their officers. But for now he focused on the math since that was the one to obviously bothered Dave the most.

"You do know that flying is all about physic, mechanic, electronic and even meteorology to some point, which is again all about physic?" Evan deadpanned trying to keep the mood lightly.

Dave nodded: "Yeah, but how much math could you actually need..."

"Okay you think it just requires the basics?" Evan wasn't one to show off but he got the feeling that he had to show off in order to get his brother to understand that they weren't wasting their brains. "Well than let's start with the basics..." Evan began to lecture his brother about the basic elements in fluid mechanic and how the bernouille-effect wasn't the cause that kept airplanes from falling out of the sky. To make it a real show off he used the actual technical terms without of replacing them with terms a normal person could easily follow. He also made sure to throw around the mathematic formulas like in every second sentence. This was his chance to make his brother see some reason. He be damned if he let it slip through his fingers. This wasn't the time to be modest.

Dave didn't interrupt him but seemed to really listen to him. When Evan finished his speech none of them said a word for some time until Dave finally admitted with a shaky laugh: "It's all about math and physic, isn't it?"

"Yeah. That's for sure."

Dave POV

Later that evening when Dave was lying in his bed trying to sleep, Evan's lecture kept running through his mind. He slowly began to change his opinion upon his brothers' career choices. Obviously there was much more to it then he had given it credit for. All these years he had followed his father's lead without given it a second thought, not a real one. John's wasting his abilities and that was it. He still couldn't understand why John had gone to the air force but he had to admit that he hadn't been wasting his talents there. If only John and Evan could tell him more about what they were actually doing. Of cause he knew that in the wide scheme his brothers were protecting their country. But now that he had started to rebuild his relationship with John and had in addition another younger brother in the air force he really wanted to know more about their day to day job. What was on the schedule on a typical day? Perhaps he could ask Evan to tell him about it tomorrow.

AN: I was thinking Evan would be the guy to step up for John – he deserves it.