General disclaimers apply. Not yet beta'd as I'm in a rush to post this :-P. This is Lorne/Teyla friendship and Lorne/OC. Still have more in the works, but this story is complete.
The Painting
1/1
Carrie Key, vatazes
It was calm and quiet in the room. She sat there, on her bed, gazing at her child with adoration. Teyla held Torren close, enjoying the moment. The little hands peaking out from the folds of the blanket, leading up to his scrunched up face. Something so precious. Only a month old-had truly been such a short time? Her little boy. Her lifesaver. Without him, she had no reason to move forward in life. He was just perfect…
A sound interrupted her thoughts. Looking up she saw Major Lorne standing there, easel in front of him, though he wasn't looking at it. Nor was he painting. Instead he was starring. At her? No, at them, with a far away look on his face.
"Major Lorne?" he called to him. When that didn't work, "Evan?"
He shook his head slightly. "Huh, oh, Sorry. You can rest now Teyla." He put the palette down and grabbed a towel to wipe his hands with.
"Are you all right, Major?" She carefully stood up, putting Torren in his crib next to the bed.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Probably just working too hard." As he cleaned his brushes, Teyla could not help but notice a tear on his cheek. "I do appreciate you doing this for me."
"Evan, is there something bothering you?" She crosses the room, the concern building. She felt closer to the Major, especially with all the time they spent together after she became pregnant. He usually accompanied her on missions in search of her people.
"I'm fine, really, I am Teyla."
Looking at the half finished painting, she spoke softly, "This isn't the first time you've painted a mother and child, is it?"
Sighing deeply he responded, "No, it isn't. It has been a long time though." He wiped his cheek. It hadn't dawned on him that he'd been crying.
"Evan, I'd like to think we've been friends long enough for you to be able to talk to me." She rested her hand on his shoulder. "Who were they?"
"Thraya and Etoh." He spoke so quietly, Teyla had to strain to hear him.
"That is not your sister's name." They'd talked before, several times about his sister and her sons. Arleen, Steven and James were their names.
"No, no, it's not. They were, uh, my wife and son, actually." He half smiled. "Seeing you with Torren, it reminded me of them."
"Where are they now?" In all of their conversations, Teyla could not recall him ever mentioning a marriage or having a child. Then she thought for a minute, recalling the conversation aboard the Wraith ship, shortly after John found out about the baby. He never said anything about a son, but he did speak as though he knew from personal experience about children.
"Dead."
"Oh… I am sorry. I did not mean," Teyla began to apologize.
This time he placed his hand on her shoulder. "It's ok. You didn't know. Not many do. It's in my file, but I just… After it happened I kind of closed that part of me off, you know."
"Thraya and Etoh." She recalled how he spoke their names. "You loved them very much."
"They were my life. And the fact that Thraya wasn't from Earth made me working at the SGC much easier." He could feel some of the same old emotions begin to overwhelm him. That dreadful day's memories creeping back into his mind.
"What did she look like? Do you still have the painting?" Teyla realized too late that this might be too much for the Major. He was always a very personal man, reluctant to share too much with anybody.
He laughed a little, almost knowing what she was thinking. "She was a blonde beauty fiery green eyes. A hair shorter than me. And I gave my sister the painting, before I left for Atlantis. They didn't know each other too well, but Arleen thought the world of Thraya."
"That's good. And I am sorry if I am prying, Major. I don't mean too."
"It's ok Teyla. Elizabeth and I used to talk about them a lot. It helped."
"She knew her?"
"They never met, but Elizabeth worked with one of Thraya's people on the Antarctica project. She remembered reading in my file about Thraya and we started talking about the Revolution." He stumbled over the last word, as if it were a bad word never to be uttered again.
"Revolution?" Teyla was confused. It sounded as though there was more to this than a simple marriage and a child.
As he spoke, Teyla led Evan over to some seats so they could be more comfortable. "Yeah, that's what the Asgard called it." He paused, taking a breath and closing his eyes. "You see, Thraya was from one of their worlds, in their galaxy. It's kind of hard to explain, but her people worked for the Asgard, trying to help with the Protected Planets against the Goa'uld. They had the major problems with the Replicators, so only a few of her people were left in the Milky Way. Mainly to help keep an eye on the System Lords. But there was only so much thirteen people could do."
The memories came flooding back to him. Meeting Thraya for the first time on an Asgard Protected World, shortly after signing up with the SGC. Her people hadn't even been made known to them yet, the reason why having died with the Asgard. Her people were the Einherjar, a different breed of human. They were a warrior society that prided itself on its military strength, but also its vast knowledge in the universe around them. But that was a story for another time. No, this story was about his wife and son.
Lorne told Teyla about her. The first time they met, her brother, Hroder, and two others, Erik and Bodi were with her. Apparently Ba'al wanted some sort of Ancient Artifact from this world, P3X-4202. He couldn't remember what it was, but Ba'al never found it. No, the System Lord found four Einherjar who had rebuilt the destroyed Asgard protection for the planet. They sent Ba'al packing with a weapons satellite system. From then on out, Lorne found himself on almost all the Asgard worlds for missions and they almost always ran into each other.
It was his first time in a space ship when he helped to orchestrate a meeting between the SGC and the Einherjar. It was also the night they conceived Etoh. The relationship had been anything but slow. From the moment Hroder bluntly told him to bed his sister so she'd get over this fancy of hers, it had been a nonstop whirlwind. Hroder told him that the second time they'd met.
"When did you get married?" Teyla was still absorbing everything in. She was learning about a new side of Major Lorne that she hadn't even imagined of him. He always seemed so in control and never one to rush, unless it was an emergency.
"Uh, well, the IOA actually pushed us into it. It's early form anyway…"
The Einherjar were a creation of Odin. The leader of the Asgard and father to Thor. To the IOA, they saw this as a great way to bring Earth closer to the Asgard, not that they weren't already. This was shortly after Weir was sent to Antarctica and Woolsey was sent to the SGC with the proposal. Well, the way they put it, there was no choice. Especially when someone had revealed the baby. Thraya balked at first, and again her brother intervened. Lorne had the misconception that because Hroder was the leader of their people in the Milky Way, he was looking for political connections, like the IOA. It was far from it though.
"Hroder told me one day he loved the smile I brought to his sister's lips. That the fact she was willing to have a child by me, it meant something." Evan smiled. "We were married a few days later, with the Asgard Tyr officiating. It was short and sweet, and Thraya looked so beautiful that day. She was seven months pregnant, so she was a different opinion. Though she never looked more beautiful than the day she gave birth to Etoh."
That had been a long labor. It actually concerned the doctor's at the SGC. And Hroder too, as brought a healer from their home world to help Thraya in the birth. Thankfully everything went well and mom and babe were both healthy, though it took Thraya several days to recover.
Etoh had been loud and full of life from the moment he'd been born. He was quick to voice his displeasures and concerns, as Thraya had put it. When Etoh had been a bout a month old, Thraya took him and Lorne to the Ida Galaxy, to her homeworld, Valhalla. It was there he'd painted them.
"Thraya didn't understand why I wanted to. 'You could take a picture', she told me. I countered that I wanted my blood, sweat and tears involved in the painting. She finally gave in." Teyla's heart went out to Evan as he told his story. She enjoyed watching his expressions, hearing the excitement in his voice, though it was laced with sadness. These had been very happy for him.
The Lorne family stayed on Earth for the most part. They'd each take turns going on missions for their respected peoples so Etoh would not be left alone. It lasted for a short time like that.
Six months before he asked for a transfer to Pegasus, Thraya had taken Etoh on ahead to Valhalla. There was a huge celebration happening for the connection between the Einherjar and the Asgard. He was to join them later as a mission went over its allotted time. Once he'd reached the Ida Galaxy though, he knew something was wrong. He was sent immediately to Valhalla, where he saw nothing but Chaos before him.
"No one knew what was happening. All tech was down, so no one could use communications or scanner. People were running around scared and one word always seemed to pop up amongst them: Traitor. I… I remember running towards the mountain outside the capitol city, where the celebration was to take place. I…" he took a deep, shaky breath, suddenly realizing Teyla had taken his hands to offer comfort. She gave him a gentle, encouraging smile. This part was the hardest. This was the memory that haunted him in his sleep.
Taking another breath, he continued, "I saw my son's body… His little toddler body in the middle of the walkway, leading up to the mountain. I barely recognized hi. If it weren't for the tattoo of the mark of Tyr on his upper arm, I probably wouldn't have stopped. In a way, it's I good I did though."
Teyla had gasped as the brief description of his dead son. She figured Lorne had done it mainly for himself, but she also felt he did it out of consideration for her; sparring her gory details with since having had Torren not long ago. "Where was Thraya? I cannot imagine she was far."
"She wasn't." Lorne let his tears run freely. It'd been a while since he'd discussed this; it felt as though it were for the first time. "She was inside the mountain. Right after I found Etoh, the mountain blew its top. Rock and debris everywhere. I was found unconscious, holding Etoh. They found no survivors from inside the mountain itself. Nothing was left of the inside."
It had been hard to hear that. Major Lorne at first didn't believe it. Couldn't believe it. Couldn't understand it. "The Asgard never did go into detail about what happened. I don't think they ever found out. There were no unregulated ships nearby. No Replicators. None of the survivors could say what happened. They only remember hearing someone screaming 'Traitor!'."
They sat in silence, Teyla running his hands with her thumbs. Cooing noises from Torren's crib woke them from their trance. Releasing her hands, Lorne stood up. "May I?" He asked.
Teyla smiled, "Of course."
Evan went over to the crib, ever so gently picking the infant up, cradling him in his arms.
"Thank you for sharing your story with me, Evan. It means a lot to me." Teyla watched as her friend fussed over Torren.
"You're only the second person I've told it to that wasn't involved with it somehow. Elizabeth and I just started talking one day, our conversation leading up to Bodi, and she didn't even know that he'd died that day as well. She loved hearing about my time with Thraya and her people. Our adventures and stuff." He grinned.
"Elizabeth always did love to hear such tales. She always made time for us, to get to know us."
"Yes, she did." Torren began squirming and rooting around. Lorne took that as his cue and handed him to his mother. "I think he's asking for you."
"I guess so." Teyla began to get settled to feed Torren as Lorne picked up his canvas and paints. "I guess you having been through this already explains why you don't shy away when I feed Torren."
"The Einherjar were not a shy people, and it was not unusual to see a woman nursing her child in public. They had formulas and what not, but the majority were firm believers in the natural aspects of motherhood. A lesson they learned from the Asgard. And Thraya was a firm believer." He chuckled. "She made a few of the marines back at the SGC squirm a bit over it. It was funny. General O'Neil got a kick out of it."
They stayed in comfortable silence for a few minutes. She reveled in bonding with her child. He felt yet more tension leaving him after confiding in Teyla. "I would like it, Evan, if you would share more stories about your family and the Einherjar during our future painting sessions."
"I think I can arrange that. There was a lot to them."
"Are there Einherjar still left out there? I know that the Asgard are no more."
"No." He sighs. "They left Ida after the Asgard died. About three months after that, the Ori destroyed them for not bowing down."
"That is sad to hear."
Before Lorne could reply, they both heard the click of Lorne's ear piece. "Yeah, what is it?" Only Torren could be heard as he listened to Chuck. "Ok, I'll be right there."
"Everything all right?"
"Yeah, Woolsey just wants to see me and my team for a debrief. Apparently he has questions about our last mission."
"Thank you for spending your time with us Evan. I have enjoyed it."
"So have I, Teyla. Thank you."