Patrick Sheppard
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Patrick Sheppard is an upper class business mogul from Omaha, U.S.. His family has an estate there, built in the early 1900s, and the family business is something he inherited from his father and grandfather. In the mid-sixties he meets and falls in love with French immigrant Valerie. They get married and have a son, David, in 1967. They have a second son, John, in 1970. Patrick wants everything his way and early on plans out the details of his children's lives: where they will live, what kind of people they will socialize with and marry, what to study and where to work (in the family company, of course) ... Valerie and John, as he grows up, do not agree with this.
Rodney McKay, after meeting Patrick in 2006, describes him as a "terrifying individual" in an email to John. we are the raven and the ghost / nou ani atlantusPatrick always quietly suspects that John isn't his true son, because the boy does not look at all like any Sheppards, and is also quite different from the Durants. Patrick and the others don't speak of this because of the shame it would bring on the family, and he keeps John isolated through home schooling with select private tutors and relatively few visits from outsiders. This because John is born without a Dæmon and one doesn't Emerge for years. John is very inquisitive child, asking difficult questions and sneaking into the house's Library to read books Patrick doesn't want him to read. After
This is one of the causes of strife between him and his wife. Another is that Patrick has rigid ideas for their sons' futures, while Valerie wants to give them more freedom. There is also Valerie's drinking problem. As their sons grow, Patrick and Valerie begin to fall out. In 1985, they decide they want to divorce, despite the social stigma at the time. However, Valerie is killed in a car accident on December 27, 1985. Patrick's immediate reaction is one of anger and disbelief, which he in part takes out on his sons. Years later, he regrets the way things ended between him and Valerie, and he regularly visits her grave with fresh flowers. After Valerie's death, Patrick grows even more distanced from his youngest son. Dave, on the other hand, goes to the university his father wants him to and studies to one day work in, and possibly take over, the family company (Sheppard Industries Inc.). John, meanwhile, applies and is accepted to a college Patrick doesn't want him to attend, to study mathematics instead of business or law, while only 17. At 19, John joins the Air Force Academy. Around this time they have a big fight and more or less stop communicating with each other. Patrick even denies John his inheritance. The last day of January, 2006, Patrick is at home in his study when there is a knock on the door. Colonel Carter delivers a letter to him. The President has agreed to let him know about the Stargate Program. The letter is from John, who tells him about Atlantis, his team AR-1, and his recently Emerged Dæmon, Shy, a Raven. There's also a photo featuring John, Shy and Rodney and his Dæmon Meredith (taken by Lt Ford on an offworld mission with AR-1). Patrick is overwhelmed, and after reading the letter he calls Dave, whose number is on speed-dial, to tell him that John is alive and has a Dæmon now. seeking antebellumOn February 15, Patrick is in New York for a business conference with a potential business partner, Eric Human of Fellow-Marshall Aeronautics. He is unaware it is only part of a plot to lure John to Earth. He is stabbed in the NY subway by a Goa'uld possessing former Colonel Everett. Medics and police arrive on scene and he is transported to the Bellevue Hospital Center, NY, and undergoes emergency surgery led by Dr Green. His emergency contact is Dave, who takes the best available flight there with Laura Shannon, his fiancée. At the hospital, Dave and Laura meet Colonel Carter and Colonel Mitchell, who tell them about the Stargate Program, and take them and Patrick to the SGC for their protection.
Patrick is treated first aboard the Prometheus in its infirmary. It is there he meets John - in Rodney's body via the Ancient Communication Stones - for the first time since John left for the Air Force seventeen years earlier. Patrick is heavily medicated and does not fully understand what happened until later. He stays in Cheyenne Mountain to recuperate for the next few weeks, and learns more about the SGC, Atlantis, and his son. In Match, 2006, Patrick arranges a dinner in a fancy restaurant with Dr McKay, Dave and Laura Shannon. In an email to John afterward, Rodney describes it as "a very awkward family dinner", and Rodney warns John that Patrick asked about their relationship, suspecting the two men are more than friends. Patrick implies the same in an email to John, saying "I'm aware I can't ask and expect an answer as to the exact nature of your relationship" (Don't Ask Don't Tell is still policy in the U.S. military at this time). In the same email, Patrick calls John his son, regardless of blood, and gives his support, expressing regret that they fell out the way they did after Valerie's death. |
Patrick and Valerie are worried and horrified when no Daemon Emerges, and they wait and wait for years, causing Patrick to grow angry and distanced in his fear of this "abnormal" child. He does however love John and is always concerned for his son, who quickly proves to be clever, asking (too) many questions, and reading a lot. They try to support him. At first they home-school the boy to keep him out of sight of others - no one knows of his lack of a Daemon, not even relatives. During that time they also have a butler, Jason, helping out at in the house. When John turns eleven they send him to a private school so that he can socialize with other children his own age and catch up on his social skills.