#de-aging fics

The little boy stared up at the spindly trees, his hands resting on the fabric of his black shirt, far too large for his tiny frame. In fact, he thought absently, his mind still clouded with something too thick for sleep, it was like a daddy shirt, with tiny buttons and long flappy sleeves and a pointy collar that made no sense at all.

The soft crackle of leaves under someone's foot turned the boy's head. What he saw caused him no alarm, although the man moved in stops and starts, like a puppet at the pantomime with a loose string.

And the puppet-man carried something in his arms, and that something moved.

The little boy clutched at the black fabric of his shirt and watched as the puppet-man laid down his burden, then vanished in the blink of an eye.

The little boy did not pay much mind to the vanishing puppet-man. He stared at the twitching pile of cloth, and as he waited the fog in his head began to lift.

Finally, something squirmed its way out of the cloth, and the little boy realized that the cloth was a blanket, and it was wrapped around another little boy, and that boy wore a grey t-shirt far too long for his small body.

The other little boy got to his feet, unsteady in his long shirt, and rubbed at his eyes with clenched fists. Then he looked around, saw the first little boy, and rubbed his eyes again.

"Hi," said the little boy in the black shirt.

"Hi," replied the other boy. He wiped his nose on his sleeve and sniffled hard. "Where are we?"

The little boy shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "Who are you?"

The other little boy sneezed. "I'm Meredith. Who're you?" He sneezed again.

The little boy paused to consider. "I'm Johnny," he said, only just remembering his name. "Why you sneezing?"

The boy called Meredith sniffled. " 'Cause I'm 'llergic."

"To what?"

"Everything," said Meredith, and sneezed again. "Why don't you know where we are?"

Johnny thought for a minute. "Why don't you?" he finally said.

Meredith poked at the blanket with his bare foot. "I was in that."

Johnny pointed across the clearing at a crumpled black leather jacket, large enough for one of the stable-hands back home. "I was in that when he brought me here."

"Oh." Meredith deflated somewhat. He looked around and around, poking at his t-shirt and the blanket, and then he even came over and poked at Johnny. "What's that?"

He pointed at a thin metallic chain around Johnny's neck. Not having seen the chain before, Johnny drew it out from under the shirt curiously. On the end of the chain hung two little metal tags with writing on them.

"Sheppard, Johnathan," Johnny read slowly. "Oh-oh-two--"

"Those are dog tags!" interrupted Meredith. "I saw them on television! Is your dad in the army?"

Johnny frowned. "No. My dad is Patrick. He has an office and grows horses."

Meredith looked down his nose at Johnny, which didn't really seem possible since Johnny was taller than Meredith. "You can't grow horses, they grow themselves!"

Johnny was getting mad at the other boy. "He does too grow horses!"

"Does not!"

"Does too!"

Johnny clenched his fists at his side and walked away from Meredith. His daddy did too grow horses, Johnny had seen him! Johnny had been in the barn, and watched the horses eating and standing around. He liked it in the barn where there were horses and hay.

But he didn't really like it in this place.

Johnny only took a few steps away from Meredith before he stopped walking. The trees were big and scary, and everything was really quiet. It was nothing like the forest back home, and Johnny didn't like it.

Meredith pounded up beside Johnny, his eyes wide and scared. "Hey, where are you going?" he demanded.

Johnny shook his head. "I don't know." A distant memory came back to him, something his preschool teacher had once said. "We should find a po-lice man. That's what you do when you get lost."

Meredith looked around. "How are we going to find a policeman?"

"We gonna have to look," Johnny declared, feeling a little bit better that he wasn't alone.

"Look where?"

Johnny pointed off in the direction of a hill, where there were fewer scary trees. "Over there."

Johnny started off, Meredith at his side. Neither of them had shoes, so they didn't go very fast. Meredith didn't seem to know how to walk in bare feet over rough ground, but Johnny didn't say anything. Johnny had been walking in barefoot in the forest around Daddy's house for as long as he'd been able to sneak out of the house when Mommy was mad at him.

So when Meredith asked how Johnny could go so fast, Johnny could say he'd been doing it forever.

They made it halfway up the hill when they heard voices. Both boys stopped walking. "Maybe it's a policeman," Meredith suggested.

"Maybe," Johnny said, although he didn't really believe it. Memories of the puppet man danced in his head. "What if it's not?"

Meredith didn't have time to answer, because up ahead, a whole bunch of men burst into the clearing, grown up army men with guns and angry faces and Johnny jumped and grabbed Meredith's hand. He didn't like it here anymore.

One of the men spotted the boys and froze, his gun pointed at the ground. He wasn't like the other army men. He had long hair and a long jacket and looked like a cowboy man!

Johnny thought he was pretty nifty.

"Teyla!" the cowboy-army man shouted while he took slow steps toward the boys. All the other army men stopped moving.

"What the..." one of the army men said.

Meredith pulled his hand out of John's grip and marched across the clearing. "Are you a policeman?" he demanded of the cowboy-army man. "We got lost and we need a policeman."

The cowboy-army man put his gun back in its holster. "Who are you?" he asked gruffly.

"I'm Meredith. That's Johnny," Meredith declared. "Who are you?"

Behind the cowboy-army man, one of the army men muttered, "Sonofabitch," before someone elbowed him in the side.

"Ronon Dex," said the cowboy-army man, going down on one knee so he could look closer at Meredith. Then he looked at Johnny. "Huh."

A woman came running up behind the army men. "Major Lorne, what is going on..." her voice trailed off when she saw the boys. "Ronon?"

"I think we found Sheppard and McKay," the big man rumbled.

"Hey, how'd you know my last name?" Meredith demanded, standing on one foot to scratch his knee. "Do you know my mom? Are you a policeman?"

"What's a policeman?" Ronon Dex asked.

"A policeman's like a Mountie!" Meredith said, waving his arms everywhere. "They have big cars and police hats and sometimes they wear red and ride horses!"

This all sounded like nonsense to Johnny, because he'd never seen Sheriff Taggart in red, and the man was too fat to ride a horse, but then the woman was kneeling in front of Johnny and Johnny forgot to think about other things. She was really pretty, unlike anyone Johnny had ever seen before, with really friendly eyes and pretty hair and such a nice smile. Johnny liked her already.

"Hello," she said in a soft voice. "Are you John Sheppard?"

Johnny nodded, then he stuck out his hand because that was what grown-ups did.

The woman took  his hand and shook it twice, her fingers strong and cool against Johnny's grubby skin. "Do you know who I am?"

Johnny scrunched up his nose. "Are you Teyla?" he guessed. "Mr. Dex called you Teyla."

The woman's smile twisted into something a little less happy, and she exchanged a glance with the man she'd called Major Lorne. "Yes, I am Teyla. Do you not remember meeting me before?"

Johnny shook his head. "Are you from town? I'm not supposed to talk to people in town."

Behind Teyla, Meredith and Mr. Dex were now arguing about something called the R-C-M-P.

"John," Teyla said, "What can you tell us about yourself?"

Johnny took in a deep breath. They'd practiced this at preschool, in case they got lost and had to get home. "I'm Johnny Sheppard and I live at 13 Ivy Crescent," he recited.

"And how old are you?"

Johnny held up four fingers. "But I'm nearly five," he hasted to add, in case Teyla though he was just a little kid.

Major Lorne let out a long sigh. "I'll radio Atlantis," he told Teyla, then walked away while talking into a tiny microphone near his ear.

Johnny watched the man go. "What's a Lantis?" he asked Teyla.

"Atlantis," Teyla corrected. "It is a place."

"Oh. Is it a nice place?"

"We think so."

Johnny was quiet for a moment while he chewed on his thumb. Then he said, "I think I should go home. Dave needs me."

"Your brother?"

So Teyla did know him. Maybe she'd met his family in town. "He's just a baby. What if he misses me?"

Teyla reached out and drew Johnny close to her side, careful to keep him away from her gun. "I am certain that he is well," she said.

Johnny didn't say anything, just burrowed closer to Teyla. He didn't really like it here, with its puppet men and scary forests. Even Teyla was strange, a lady with a bulky vest and a big gun. There weren't ladies like that in town, not that Johnny had ever seen.

But she smelled nice and she gave good hugs and she didn't mind that Johnny's hands were grubby or that he sniffled a little against her neck.