Chapter Text
Izzi typed quietly on the laptop as the monitors rhythmically beeped in the room. Her father was still in recovery, Hermiod had removed the Goa'uld only a day or so ago, and she had spent each and every waking moment she was allowed with him. She wanted the first thing he saw when he broke from the induced coma to be her face. But her hands and mind raced, as they tended to do when she was worried or nervous. So she worked, putting her mathematical and science PhD's to work calculating. It kept her busy.
A small box appeared and blinked in the bottom right of her screen as she typed.
Any news on the MG-78 calculations, Raneri?
She smiled. Rodney. Her mentor, occasional bully and friend. She wasn't surprised that he found a reason to message her but the fact that he made it so obvious was hilarious. Dr. Zelenka had long since completed those. She could let him know that he was caught but she thought better of it. She typed swiftly.
I'll ask Zalenka to let me do one final pass.
Good. Last thing we need is a faulty gate activation on a world so close to Wraith space. A beat later. So...Calculations are good?
He wasn't asking about the planet this time. She looked at her father, who was still sleeping, eyes stinging and watering before typing.
He's not awake yet. We won't know anything until then. Dr. Beckett is hopeful. But again, waiting.
It was several minutes before he responded.
You hungry? It's almost lunch time. I could bring you something...macadamia nut cookies?.
"Wow…" she said softly, allowing a tear to travel down her cheek. Rodney doing something completely without a thought for himself? The ocean was going to freeze over. Nah. I'm good Rodney. Really .Thanks.
She slid her computer and the table it sat on away, smiling to herself as she gingerly grabbed her father's hand, careful of the IV shunt. "You hear that, daddy? Even Rodney is concerned for you. That means you have to wake up."
Hours later that night her wish would be granted. Stephen Caldwell opened his eyes, waking up from the coma to see his daughter asleep in a chair beside him, hand still clasped in his. He tried hoarsely to speak to wake her up, but before he could, Dr. Beckett and his staff rushed in to check his vitals while simultaneously awakening the young woman and moving her away.
The next hour or so was a blur. Sheppard came in, along with Dr. Weir, McKay, and Ronan for a quick debrief. Rogers and Novak came from the Daedalus to do the same. Standard protocol. Nothing personal. He expected Hermiod would ask some questions of his own later. But now, now of all times, he needed someone, anyone to think about his daughter. He needed to see her. To talk to her. It had been only them for a long time. She was young when her mother died in the car accident and because of protocol it had taken him two weeks to get discharged and come home. She had to spend two weeks without him. Two weeks with distant relatives that she barely knew. He promised himself no matter what life threw at both of them, even with her induction into the Stargate program, that he would never put her through that again.
Dr. Weir stopped the debrief, reminding all of them that there was an impatient member of her team that had also been waiting for a debrief and that she was the only one who had not been given a chance to speak.
"And she called dibs first," Colonel Sheppard quipped.
His support ended the discussion and moments later, a family face entered the room. She looked so professional, so grown-up since she started working in Atlantis, but for some reason today, he kept seeing her as he saw her then, a little girl. He even imagined the same pigtails. "Hi, Daddy." She even sounded the same.
"Come'ere, baby." he replied softly as Izzi obeyed, taking a seat beside him and holding his hands again. There was some soreness from both the beaming and the beating he'd received prior to it, for now at least, it would have to do. For long while she looked at him skeptically, as if trying to sus out every twitch, every expression. "It's me, babygirl. It's me." This earned him a small smile, then a laugh which he shared with her in spite of the broken ribs (he'd have to thank Ronan for that later).
He thought back on the past months. The constant threats of the Goa'uld, all that he had done to resist and the utter despair he had at that moment knowing that it had won, that he would be shipping members of Atlantis back to Earth on the Daedalus but that Atlantis itself, along with his own daughter, would be destroyed. At least until she discovered it. He remembered positively gloating to the Goa'uld when they had beamed him to Atlantis where she, Dr. Weir and Colonel Sheppard stood. He watched it use his eyes and his voice to manipulate Izzi as Dr. Weir spoke to him first, trying to convince her that her father could never do such a thing, but his kid was made of sterner stuff. "I knew you would find it," he said finally. "I kept telling the Goa'uld you would."
She had stood tall, level gazed staring directly into his eyes. "Your identification code was used to access this city's operating system. You copied it, took it back to the trust, whose Goa'uld scientists then rewrote the program to overload the ZPM. You then brought it back here and uploaded it into the Atlantis computers."
The both spoke simultaneously
"I'm so proud of you."
"I'm sorry."
Caldwell sat up in spite of the pain. "I don't want to hear that from you. Not about this. Ever. You hear me? You have nothing, I repeat, NOTHING to apologize for. I - I should be the one…"
"If I can't apologize, then you can't either," it was soft, almost childlike. He hadn't heard her voice take that timbre in years. "You had no control at all." Izzi let a few moments pass. Dr. Weir said they're sending you back on the Dedalus when you're well enough to travel for a more formal debrief. I'm coming with you."
Caldwell leaned forward again and grimaced. How hard had the man been hit? "You're not going to do that. Your work, your career is here."
"And my family is here," she countered, squeezing his hands still in hers. "Besides, I may not be military but I was raised by one so you'll find I'm just as stubborn." She stood, releasing his hands to temporarily smooth out the irritation wrinkles in his brows, her grin growing until she kissed his head, irritating him even more and earning her a laugh. Her face grew sad for a moment. "Besides, you promised," she said, biting her lip, eyes welling up, "or, did you forget?"
Caldwell took her hands again and brought her forehead down to his. "No babygirl, I didn't. Never again."
"I love you Daddy."
"I love you, more."