Title: The Ladder of Life
Author: Lady Valmar
Genre: General
Rating: T
Archive: FF, SGAHC
Spoilers: Season 2 Critical Mass
Date: Oreo.
Summary: A drabble/tag on what kept Teyla from losing control before Charin's Ring Ceremony.
Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate Atlantis or any of the characters, So stuff not owned by Stargate Atlantis is mine and therefore please ask and do not infringe nor steal my original themes, concepts, ideas or characters please.
... .LV. ...
The Ladder of Life
By Lady Valmar
When they had finally arrived to greet her, Teyla couldn't help but feel another piece of her heart tighten within her chest. She had lost all of her close family and didn't think she could bare losing Charin.
Charin's usually energetic self, full of such life, bouncing around making tuttle-root soup for herself and Teyla while reminiscing about times past, remained still upon the cot. Her features paler than Teyla had remembered seeing them, the sparkle still danced in her eyes but somehow they seemed reserved, quiet.
Then the worst had happened, Charin had asked for the Ring Ceremony. Teyla had felt her heart twist sharply, the tears welling closely to the surface. Her control slipped if but a few seconds, but she was sure Charin and Beckett understood. When Beckett had given them some time alone, Charin reminded Teyla that they all must take the journey eventually. It was the five cycles of life that was how it had to be.
Teyla'sworst fears had become a reality. She couldn't allow it to happen. She wasn't ready to let go of her past. Charin was her only link, her only connection to a past almost forgotten but to her. Her parents, it seemed like a lifetime ago, had been taken by the Wraith. So when Charin had asked for the ceremony, she felt the only tie to the past being ripped along with her heart at the thought of losing her only family left.
Before the ceremony, she felt it was her duty and lasting tribute to Charin's memory that the Ring ceremony be conducted as was requested by her. Performing the last few touches to the gift she would offer to Charin's body, Teyla retrieved the blue dress she had gotten as a gift from Dr. Weir, during the Daedulus's last return voyage.
If there was one thing Teyla felt she lacked, was control. The sorrow in her heart weighed heavily on her shoulders. She did not know how she would make it through the entire ceremony, let alone the song.
Collecting herself into her usual vote of Confidence, Teyla retrieved the gift from her bed…that was when she had remembered Charin's gift. She had called it the Ladder of Life. A Necklace made of shells shaped into horizontal slats connected by rounded beads and fashioned to a pendant finding and the chain. The Ladder had been a gift to her when she had stepped up to be the leader of the Athosians.
Charin had said only that the five slats represented the five cycles of life. Birth, childhood, adulthood, elderhood and death. The five steps to Heaven. To the Ancestors above. As she trailed the slats with her finger, almost as a last moment thought, Teyla unhooked the clasp and put the necklace on.
Now she could perform the ceremony. Sweeping up the gift in hand, Teyla gazed down once, smiling as she felt her strength renewed, Charin would be with her always.
A/N: Yeah, I'm a sucker for jewelry and the stories behind them.