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John looked around the daycare room. He was the new kid; he didn't know where he was or who he was with. There was a lady with long brown hair tied back with a purple ribbon surrounded by the other kids.
"Hi Johnny," the lady said sweetly, "we're getting ready to have circle time, why don't you come sit with us?"
"Okay," John said and walked over to the carpet. He sat next to a boy with blond hair and one untied shoe.
"Class, this is our new friend, Johnny Sheppard," the lady said. "John, my name is Ms. Leona, and your friends are Evan, Elizabeth, Radek and Rodney."
The boy Ms. Leona had indicated was Evan smiled at him. The one named Rodney didn't look up from his notebook.
"Hi," Evan said. Elizabeth and Radek were poking at each other, not paying any attention to the teacher.
"Lizzy! Radek! Please, say hello to Johnny," Ms Leona scolded lightly.
John looked at them and raised his eyebrow, waiting.
"Hi," Lizzy said and poked Radek again.
John smiled, "Hi Evan and Lizzy."
From beside him, Rodney huffed slightly, never stopping his scribbling. Evan was still watching John, but he was silent for the moment. Radek didn't look at John as he finally mumbled his own hello. His voice sounded strange, like the word didn't fit quite right.
Lizzy giggled and stretched her foot across the open space of the carpet and kicked Rodney's foot. "He's a gymnast," she said.
Evan giggled and shook his head. "That's not right."
John looked over at the notebook kid. "Are you a gymnast?" he asked.
Rodney looked up, eyes narrowed. "What? Of course not. I'm a genius, and a musical protege." He didn't wait for a response before he was back to working in his notebook.
Radek laughed and peered over Rodney's shoulder at the notebook. Wordlessly, he pointed at something, and Rodney smacked his hand with his pencil. Radek only giggled and pointed again, earning another smack before Rodney looked at what he was pointing at. He scribbled it out and kept working.
John giggled and looked up at Radek, "Are you a gymnast too?" he asked.
Ms. Leona clapped her hands and demanded their attention. They sang The Wheels On The Bus, Happy And You Know It and The Itsy Bitsy Spider before the lady lead them all to a table covered with craft supplies. "Alright guys, I want you to create something from your imagination using anything on the table."
Rodney quickly hoarded glue, Popsicle sticks, and brown construction paper and flipped his notebook to another page, where there was a picture of a telescope. Without a word to anyone, he started gluing Popsicle sticks together.
Evan selected a large piece of yellow construction paper and lots of colorful scraps. With Elizabeth's help, he worked carefully, gluing them to the paper.
Halfway through, Rodney looked up at the teacher. "I need wax paper or saran wrap. Something clear."
John looked around at the other kids, he could see what Rodney was making, and Radek was making something that looked like a chair, and he wasn't sure what Lizzy and Evan were collaborating on. He reached over as Rodney was fiddling with the saran wrap the teacher had given him, and stole some of the Popsicle sticks. He worked with the sticks and glue and markers until his project began looking like a helicopter.
Rodney glared at John when he took the Popsicle sticks, but he didn't say anything. Carefully, he glued pieces of rice to a small circle of Saran wrap, then just as carefully glued it to the front of the telescope. He grabbed the construction paper and glued it around, wrapping the Popsicle stick frame.
"That's a lovely chair, Radek," Ms. Leona said sweetly as he walked around the table.
"Is not chair," Radek said flatly. "Is giraffe,"
"Yes, and it's a great giraffe," Leona said.
John giggled and spun the propellers of his chopper. He looked over at Rodney and scooted close. "That's pretty cool, what stars are they?" he asked.
Rodney shrugged. "Look and see for yourself," he told him, gluing the last piece of construction paper in place.
John leaned over Rodney and looked through the miniature telescope. "Wow, that's cool," he said. "It looks like Pegasus."
Rodney looked up at him, eyes wide. "You know constellations?" he asked, finally sounding interested. He looked over at what John had built. "That's not half bad, though the body's out of proportion."
John smiled and shrugged. "Well, I'm no gymnast, but I know constellations. I also know lots about other stuff too." He looked at his helicopter and sighed. "Yeah, well all the sticks were the same size and they got all stupid when I tried to break them," he explained.
"Genius," Rodney corrected, irritated. "And scissors work pretty well, but you have to use the teacher's scissors, not these stupid 'child-safe' ones."
John nodded, "that's a good idea, I'll remember that next time."
"Alright children," Ms. Leona said, "put your projects on the drying table, and go to the carpet. It's bathroom time then outside time."
john followed Rodney to the drying table and put his helicopter down. He jumped when he heard a breaking sound, he turned around to see Radek's chair-giraffe on the floor in pieces. The boy looked shattered, so John hurried over and helped him put the sticks back together. "It's okay, it still looks like a giraffe," he said as he carefully helped Radek get it to the table. He smiled at the kid and ran over to sit next to Rodney.
"John, do you know why we don't run inside?" Leona asked.
"Yeah," John said, "cause there's not enough room to get up a good speed before you get where you're going."
Even Rodney had to laugh at that. He had his notebook tucked under his arm, obviously intending to take it with him outside.
"He takes that book everywhere," Lizzy told John as she settled down beside him. Radek sat on his other side. Evan finally brought his project over to the drying table and came over to sit with the others.
Rodney leaned forward and fiddled with his shoe for a minute, but the bow he tied was loose and already falling apart again. He huffed at it in annoyance and ignored it.
John smiled and grabbed Rodney's foot, he tied the shoe tightly and looked at Lizzy. "That's okay, he likes to draw stuff."
Rodney looked from his shoe to John and back again. "Oh," he said. He looked up when the teacher told them to get in line for the bathroom.
John smiled and tipped his head to the side, "Its all in the wrist," he said.
The kids all lined up at the door and Ms. Leona walked them through the halls and to the bathroom. By the time they got back to their classroom, thick fat raindrops were pattering on the windows. "Aw," John complained and sadly plopped back down on the carpet.
Rodney shrugged, unconcerned. "Look," he showed John a picture in his notebook. "We should build that next."
"Wow," John said as he looked at the picture of a tubular shaped thing with engines on the side. "What is that?" he asked, but before Rodney could answer John raised his hand. "Ms. Teacher, since we can't go outside and play, can me and Rodney go back to the making table?"
"What now?" Rodney questioned, but then he nodded. "Yeah, can we?"
"Of course," Ms. Leona said softly. "You may all do free activities, just remember to use your indoor voices."
John and Rodney hurried back to the craft table as the other three children scattered. In a matter of moments the room was chaotic with noise, no one using their inside voices.
"We need more Popsicle sticks. And something to maybe light up? The engines have to light up," Rodney insisted as they gathered supplies. He turned and went up to the teacher. "I need to use your scissors," he told her.
Ms. Leona handed Rodney the scissors, reminding him to be careful with them.
After a bit of trial and error, John found a big box of Popsicle sticks but couldn't find anything that would make the engines light up. "Um..." he said to Rodney when they met back at the table. "Maybe we could just paint them the right color. I couldn't find anything lighty uppy."
"Hmm," Rodney thought about it as he started cutting Popsicle sticks to different lengths. "We need LED lights or something. Go get me a flashlight." He didn't look to see if John did was he was told. He was too absorbed in looking at his drawing and getting things together.
John sighed and looked around, where was he supposed to find a flash light? A moment later he gasped as he remembered seeing a big black backpack in one of the closets. He snuck over to the closet and dug through the backpack until he found the thin black cylinder. His test of the light showed the bulbs were strong, so he stuck the flashlight in his pocket and went back to the table. "Here," he said and handed the flashlight to Rodney secretly.
Rodney nodded and took the light. "Start putting things together, I'll get this figured out." he snatched the teacher's scissors and sat under the table to pull the flashlight apart. He pulled the batteries, then used the scissors to get into the light bulb and wires, prying the casing apart in the process.
John nodded and began gluing the sticks in place. He studied the drawing making sure he had everything perfect. By the time Rodney crawled out from under the table, John had made an art of gluing the sticks to one another.
Rodney left the flashlight bits under the table, only bringing tha batteries, the bulbs, and the wires and switch with him. He fitted them inside the engine pod cases that John was done with, then tested them. They lit up when Rodney pushed the wires against the batteries. "That will work," he said, smugly satisfied. He glued the bulbs in place and worked on covering the casing with dark paper.
John pulled over a chair and kicked his feet up onto the table as he watched Rodney work. "Looks good," he said.
"It's almost rest time children," Ms. Leona called out, "Finish up you activities and clean up your messes."
Rodney ignored the teacher as he put the rest of the paper over the frame and attached everything together. "More Saran wrap," he mumbled, looking at the front. "It needs a wind shield." He glanced at John and raised his eyebrow, obviously expecting him to find some.
John was an observant child, he always had been, so when Rodney asked for saran wrap, John thought back to earlier that day. "Hang on," he told Rodney and went to a shelf. A bit out of his reach was a roll; John grabbed a chair and stood on it, stretching his fingers were just able to reach it. He flapped his hand until the roll fell off the shelf and he grabbed it. John hurried back over to Rodney and handed him the roll. "Here," he said.
Rodney cut a rectangle out of the Saran wrap and glued it to the front of the body. "We need orange paper to cover the ends of the engine pods," he told John as he worked.
Between the two of them, they were finished soon. Rodney stood back and surveyed their creation. "What is it?" he asked.
John shrugged, "I don't know, it came out of your brain. And, the next time we build something, tell me all the things you need one time. I got the light, then the saran wrap, then the orange paper..." he sighed and looked at their project. "It's very nice, we should call it a... um..." he furrowed his brow as a word came to him. He grinned at Rodney. "A puddle jumper," he said.
"Why puddle jumper?" Rodney asked. "There's nothing jumpy about it. It goes up, it comes down. Maybe it even goes into space. It would go explore all the stars. Of course, it would take a long time for that."
John smirked at Rodney, "What do you do when you jump in puddles? You go up, then you come down in the puddle, it makes sense. And... Well I don't know. It just sounds right. It's a good name. What would you call it? The Up And Down Into Space Flying Thing? Puddle Jumper is a good name."
Rodney rolled his eyes and nodded. "Fine, Puddle Jumper it is." He looked at their creation again, face screwed up in concentration. "I feel like I should be remembering something."
There was a crash behind them, and Evan was on the ground, Radek sprawled across his legs. Both boys looked shocked for a minute, then Evan's face crumpled and he took a shuddering breath. "He's gonna cry," Rodney warned John. "He's really loud."
John braced himself, prepared to throw his hands over his ears, and when Evan began, John learned that Rodney was right. The sound of Evan's wailing could probably be heard in the bathroom.
Ms. Leona hurried over, helped Radek to his feet and cradled Evan in her arms, rocking and shushing softly. A long time later, Evan's cries were softer and Ms. Leona called, "Alright boys and girls, I'm going to get your mats out, it's rest time."
Rodney looked up from his notebook. "Oh, I'm not tired," he told the teacher dismissively.
Evan sniffled a little longer, taking hitching breaths until he had calmed down.
Ms. Leona looked at her students and nodded, "You may not feel tired, but your body needs rest; you're only four," she said as she gently sat Evan down on the floor. John watched her go over and start pulling mats off of a pile, he looked at Rodney, "Rest close to me and we can talk about what to build next, I have an idea."
"Okay," Rodney agreed. He took his mat and put it on the floor next to John's.
Radek laid down next to Evan and hugged him. "Sorry?" he said quietly.
Rodney ignored them and looked at John. "What's your idea?"
John smiled when he saw Radek hug Evan. "Okay," Evan said softly.
"Alright," John said when he turned his attention back to Rodney. "I have a picture in my head, it's like the dial wheel on an old telephone, only instead of numbers it has constellations," he explained. "Can I see your book? I'll try to draw it."
Rodney looked at him for a minute, then slowly pushed his notebook to John. "Be careful with it," he warned.
"I'm not two," John said as he pulled the book over to him. He grabbed a grey crayon and turned to a blank page. He drew the circle and the dots for constellations, then he colored the center of the circle blue and pushed the book back to Rodney.
As Rodney looked at the picture, the room settled down; the other children drifting off to sleep. "It's missing something," Rodney whispered to John. He snatched the crayon and worked on drawing something in front of the circle.
Far above them, Teyla stood on the observation deck, watching. "They're starting to remember," she said with a smile.
Beside her, Ronon nodded. "This is weird," he grumbled.
Carson scribbled something on his clipboard. "Hopefully, their memory returning means the effects of the reverse aging potion is wearing off." He looked at Teyla, "How are things going with Elizabeth out of commission?"
"It has been fairly quiet, thankfully," Teyla answered. "I am thankful that they are aging forward again. Having them as toddlers the last few days was... interesting."
"To say the least," Ronon added. "Why is it that no one but me and Carson would change John's diaper?"
"Because, lad," Carson chimed in, "None of his men wanted to tell him they'd seen him half naked."