Title: Breathing Through Death
Summary: She'd come to close this time. Kindred/The Last Man tag.
Characters: John & Teyla
Pairing: John/Teyla
Rating: K
Death is inevitable, he knows this. He's experienced it, all too recently. He knows that everyone one day will die. He's just not ready for it to be her and as he sits beside her bed, listening to the steady sound of her breathing, he realises just how close she'd come this time. He closes his eyes as his hand wanders to hers, lying lifeless by her side. He doesn't like seeing her like this but he has to reassure himself that she – unlike so many – was alive, that she'd made it while others – of her people and his – were not.
He doesn't think she'll mind if she wakes up and he's there; it's not the first time and it certainly won't be the last. He listens contentedly to the rhythmic sound of her shallow breaths and finds himself thanking God that she's okay.
She'd come too close this time. He can't bring himself to leave her until he knows that she's okay. He's so glad that this time, again, it wasn't her.
There's so much he has to say to her, so much he should have said already. He knows he thinks this every time and he wonders why this time it's different. Because it is, he can feel it with every fibre of his being.
This is their time.
It has to be, because he's been waiting for so long.
He knows he can wait a few hours longer. He settles in, puffy eyes watching the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest, willing the right words into his head, into his heart.
But as the sun rises on the horizon, the words don't come. Even as she awakens, they're not there and as he turns to leave after assuring her she's all right, that she's alive, he knows he's not ready yet.
He wonders if he ever will be.
