NOTES: Written for the sgaflashfic challenge on LJ - 'Not Human'.
Augment
In the dark of the night, Teyla lies in her bed and feels the presence of her son beneath her heart.
Earlier this day, he seemed so tiny and fragile a presence, like a candle too easily snuffed out. But, now, like a candle, he drives away the darkness within her spirit, filling her with quiet comfort.
Her people are gone and Kanan with them; Teyla has her team-mates, but they cannot be to her what her son is within her. She was one, but now she is two. And for a little while today, his mind augmented hers to control the Wraith Queen.
She should not have done it - if she had known what price might have been asked-- But, no, she would not have appreciated the price without the cost laid out before her. One life, so small and buoyant, giving her a reason to fight, to hold on, beyond even the friends she feared to lose.
It was the feel of her son's mind by hers - so young and yet with her fighting spirit and Kanan's stubbornness - that kindled a flame within her. She had seen such fire in other women - Jielle, mother of Jinto, Mila, mother of Tanys, Lifidi, mother of Abnon - a protectiveness that Teyla had felt in part towards her people, the lifeblood of her reason for joining the Lanteans, but never in full.
Never like this.
As she tugs another blanket over her too-cold legs, Teyla remembers her struggle against the Wraith Queen, the sense of being torn in too many directions: her team's need of her attack against her son's need of her defence, her need to be loyal to her friends against the growing need to protect the life that she sheltered with her body.
She spoke with Jennifer afterwards, a sudden concern in the face of her control over the Wraith Queen. "Will he be human?"
Jennifer seemed surprised by the question. "You're human, aren't you? And I haven't detected anything unusual about the pregnancy. But if you're worried..."
"No." Teyla decided. She would wait and see what knowledge time would bring, if anything. Physically, she is not so concerned. If there is trouble with his health, they can be dealt with.
Mentally... She asks what she has done this day - what her son has faced before he ever has grown enough to face the world. The mind of one who would have stolen his life if Teyla had not protected him, if John had not shot the Wraith Queen.
Voices pass outside her room, a gradually-rising murmur in the night that fades as they pass by.
As she pushes gently at the fullness of her belly, feeling the skin tender and stretched there, Teyla wishes for the comfort of her people. She wishes for her parents, for Charin, or any one of the Athosian elders who remembered her mother's pregnancy with her, her own birth. Her gift was her mother's legacy, and Teyla would give much to know if her mother's sensitivity to the Wraith had strengthened during her pregnancy, even as her own has strengthened beyond belief.
But there is no-one who can tell her such things, no-one who can plumb such depths. She has only those who are willing to support her, succour her, whatever may come.
Look, I'm really bad at this, but you won't be. Bad at this. I mean, bad at being a mother.
Ronon's a good name, you know, boy or girl.
You're a part of my team. You always were.
The city rises above her, around her, a womb of safety and assurance.
Teyla is the last of her people, with the exception of her son within her.
But that does not mean she is alone.
- fin -