A/N: Here's my next foray, been working on this for a while and it's almost done, so updates should be quick. If you enjoy please drop me a line! -Punk

Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate Atlantis or The Head and the Heart

The world's just spinning

A little too fast

If things don't slow down soon

we might not last

So just for the moment, let's be still

Lets Be Still - The Head and The Heart

SGASGASGA

First Trimester 0 - 13 weeks

Jennifer stared at herself in the mirror. Dressed in her uniform, hair up in a ponytail, she looked...exactly the same as she had the day before. The week before. Really, she hadn't changed much since high school. Only she had.

Something had changed a lot.

She sighed for a third time in as many minutes. The last couple of days had been an emotional roller coaster. Between the new recruits brought in on the Deadalus and the subsequent tours, sparring injuries, emergency medical field trainings she'd been leading and...the elephant in the room...Jennifer was pretty sure she hadn't been this exhausted since her first year of residency.

Another sigh.

And it wasn't over yet.

Giving herself a small determined nod in the mirror, she thought out the light and turned to leave the bathroom, only to bump directly into a Satedan door jam.

"Ronon." She grunted. She hadn't stumbled but Ronon's hands shot out to steady her anyway.

"You okay?" He said, his tone slightly more concerned than necessary. His gaze bounced between her face and her stomach a few times before coming to rest on her eyes.

Jen gave him a wry smile. "If you're gonna be this freaked out this is going to be a very long nine months."

His body language relaxed slightly and his hand slid off her arms but instead of letting her go completely one hand came to rest on her lower abdomen.

"Not freaked out."

Jen snorted. "Oh really? Because I'm pretty sure every time I got up to go to the bathroom," or throw up, "last night you were awake."

In fact he would shoot straight up in bed the moment her feet touched the floor the half dozen or so times she'd gotten up the night before. He hadn't spoken, but he was always waiting just outside the bathroom door when she came back out, guiding her back to bed by the small of her back. Or carrying her, as the case had been at around 4 am when she'd been dry heaving into the toilet for half an hour and had tried to convince him that it would be more efficient to let her sleep - or die - there on the bathroom floor.

"I always wake up when you get out of bed." He countered, but the sheepish tone of his voice and how he was avoiding her gaze told her he knew she was right. "You sure you don't want me to go with you?" He asked, changing the subject.

She shook her head. "No. You promised to go off world with Teyla weeks ago. You can't back out now."

"I think she would understand."

Again, Jennifer shook her head. They'd agreed the night before they weren't telling anyone yet.

Well...except for one.

Ronon didn't argue, but he kept looking at her with those eyes that held that soft carefulness that had been overwhelming her every time their eyes met since she'd told him the previous afternoon.

She'd known, well, had been pretty sure that he would be happy. From what she knew about the indigenous peoples of Pegasus, they looked on childbirth as a happy occasion. A rebellious act against the Wraith. Another generation would live to fight them.

Still, the moments of heavy silence while she tried to wait patiently for him to process the information had been the slowest she could remember. He'd stared at her, speechless, and she'd fidgeted in anticipation and fear under the intensity of his gaze. She hadn't realized she was holding her breath until he started to smile and she'd exhaled so loudly they both started to laugh. When he caught her up into his arms and spun her around she'd been laughing so hard she almost hadn't been able to tell her that he was making her dizzy and she was going to throw up on his head if he didn't put her back down.

"I'm fine. I'll be fine." She nodded, punctuating the point, "and I go on shift in a few hours. I'll be here when you get back."

Ronon sighed and nodded, putting a hand on her shoulder to draw her to his chest and she willingly stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. Usually it was Jennifer who initiated their frequent hugs, when she was happy, when she was sad. But Ronon had been known to pull her to him as well, almost always it was motivated by worry, an intense desire to feel her physically against him. Know she was there, know she was okay.

Jen recognized this for one of those embraces that comforted him as much as her and happily snuggled against him, letting him rest his chin on top of her head for as long as he needed.

She leaned back and looked at him when she felt his grip start to loosen.

Ronon sighed, dropping a kiss onto her lips. "I'll be back in a few hours.

SGASGASGA

Jen stood outside the Colonel's quarters for several minutes working up the courage to chime the door. It was the third strange look she was thrown by a passing member of the expedition that had her blowing her her bangs off her forehead in frustration and swiping her hand in front of the controls in one quick motion before she could change her mind again.

"Hey Doc, fancy meeting you here." John smiled and waved her inside, walking back across his quarters to the bed where he flopped down, placing his bookmark in the thick book on his bed.

"War and Peace? That's a pretty thick read."

John nodded. "Almost halfway through."

"Is it any good?"

He raised and lowered one shoulder and angled his head toward the chair near the foot of the bed, indicating she should sit. "It's long."

Jen smiled, scooting forward on the chair and pressing her hands between her knees. She looked at the floor.

"Soooo...what can I do for you Doc?" John tilted his head at the distracted look on her face. Not fearful though, just...distant.

"Um...I wanted to...well theres something you should know," she began slowly, "we aren't really telling anyone but I thought...well I figured you could...you should know. And maybe you would have...an idea...or something."

John raised an eyebrow. "There a problem?"

Jen shook her head, "no. Not exactly. Well, yes and no."

He narrowed his eyes at her hedging.

"Does Ronon know?"

"Yes," her eyes snapped to his. "Why?"

"Well, I figured if there is something wrong and Ronon doesn't know, you're telling me so he doesn't take care of it by going off like a loose cannon on my city. And if he does know you're probably telling me so I can stop him from going off like a loose cannon on my city."

Jen smiled ruefully and shook her head, "no...not that kind of problem. I mean...it's not a problem. Exactly."

"Yeah...you said that." He leaned back on his hands and crossed his feet at the ankles. John was practiced at waiting in situations like these. He'd found on Atlantis, surrounded by brilliant scientists who were often easily intimidated by someone who reminded them of childhood bullies, it took a while for some of them to get around to saying what they really needed to say. For Rodney, that meant urging him on impatiently with sharp tones and smacks on the head. For Jennifer, he was willing to wait.

"Um...yeah. I did." Jen stood and started pacing back and forth in front of him. "So, like I said, we aren't really telling anyone I just...it's really early to be telling anyone...anything could happen...but I thought with you being you. Ranking military officer on Atlantis, I figured you could use some extra lead time."

John narrowed his eyes, listening, trying to read the strain in her voice and the agitated hand movements she kept using. Touching her face, then her abdomen, then waving, then back to her abdomen.

Maybe she was injured? Maybe Ronon was? But why wouldn't she be in the infirmary?

"Where's Ronon?" John asked suddenly.

Jennifer stopped and looked at him. "Went off world with Teyla. He promised a while ago to go with her to help her carry some heavy things she traded for."

"Oh." He nodded.

"John." Jen had stopped pacing and was standing directly in front of his outstretched boots.

He looked at her.

"I'm pregnant."

Johns reaction was almost the opposite of Ronon's. Where Ronon had been quietly stunned, eyes unblinking and swirling with one emotion after another crashing over each other like a storm, John was instantly on his feet, instantly loud and the only emotion she saw was confusion.

"Wait. What?" He stumbled backward a couple steps, pointing at her stomach, "you're...you mean...in there?"

"Well yeah John. This may be Pegasus but this is still where we grow babies." She laughed and laid her hands on her stomach again. "And it's not contagious." She raised an eyebrow at him, now backed against the opposite wall of his room.

"Well yeah, I know but-" he stepped forward, hands out, hands down, hands balled up and then in his pockets. "Was it...you know...planned?"

Jen scrunched her face. "No. And before you ask, or are asked, I was on birth control. It just obviously wasn't tested in the Pegasus galaxy." Or on young, virile Satedans. She swallowed thickly. "And, like I said it's still really early. Until after the 8th or 9th week there's still a chance that...that..."

"Yeah," John cut her off so she wouldn't have to say it. He knew the odds, well enough anyway. He swallowed and was quiet for a moment and then, "So why are you telling me?"

Jennifer resumed pacing. As she talked, John began to understand the strain he'd heard in her voice earlier.

"Well, I'm kind of painfully aware that the IOA won't be super happy about having a pregnant woman on their top secret base. I mean, I know Teyla was pregnant here but...she's from here. And I'm not. But Ronon is. So I don't know..." she shrugged, throwing her hands in the air. "I mean, I don't know if they will let me keep my job. I don't know if they'll let Ronon come to Earth with me. I...I need," she paused and turned toward him, "I need your help."

John blinked and nodded. It wasn't a question of 'if'.

"Okay. What are you thinking?" He stepped forward, the shock having worn off and the commander in him ready to start brainstorming solutions to their problem.

"I thought maybe you could make some under the radar inquiries. Find out what the IOA's stance on all of this might be, what kind of wiggle room there is. And," she took a deep breath, "I wanted to ask you if...if I were to resign...if you would consider allowing me to stay on the base as a...consultant maybe?"

John frowned, then licked his lips. "If you did that...you would probably never be allowed to go back to Earth."

Jennifer swallowed hard. "I know," she said quietly. Then proceeded with a little more bravery. "Thats why thats Plan D."

John raised an eyebrow.

"Plan A is I get to keep my job on Atlantis," she began, ticking the plans off on her fingers, "Plan B is I get fired but Ronon gets to come back to Earth with me. Plan C is always for C4 and not really applicable to my situation," he smiled a little at that and it put her at ease, "so that leaves us with Plan D."

John nodded and stared at her for a moment. She looked hopeful, she looked tired. She looked young.

And scared witless.

But he figured that was normal for the situation.

"I'll ask around. See what I come up with."

She graced him with a relieved smile and John was left with that warm feeling in his chest that said he'd made at least a few good choices in life.

"Thank you Colonel."

She turned and John fell into step beside her, walking her to the door.

"I guess...congratulations Doc." He smiled at her, "How far along are you?"

Jen sighed. "Five and a half weeks. I think. If the nausea, fatigue, mood swings and bathroom frequency is anything to go by."

John grimaced. "Sounds like fun."

"Oh yeah, a blast." She stepped into the corridor and then turned back after taking a step. "Oh and uh, you might want to read in General O'Niell. I think he might be helpful."

John raised his eyebrows but tilted his head in acknowledgment. "Sure thing, Doc."