Torren John Emmagen s bedtime stories.

Prologue

Teyla looked down at her beautiful baby, Torren john, staring at his closed eyes, burning his face into her memory, his smooth tan skin, his curly brown hair, tiny nose above his, precious lips. She never took her son for granted, never for a moment forgot how lucky she was to have him.

He really did look serene, now he was finally asleep.

Teyla was mesmerized by him. He had such a bumpy arrival to this world, being born on a wraith hive ship, kidnapped, before he was a month old, and yet here he lay, so peaceful, so lovely, so trusting, in the crib below her.

Teyla was intrigued by the way Torren slept so peacefully, after john had nursed him to sleep, usually Teyla would have to walk him around the city humming to him to make him fall asleep, but john could get him asleep within half an hour.

John would baby-sit Torren every Thursday, when Teyla would supervise the sparring lessons. John would look forward to it every week, and Torren looked forward to the storeys of Atlantis.

Chapter 1- Sir john meets the Athosians

Torren had just turned 2 months old, it was early April. Teyla, had taken to walking around Atlantis, as she spoke to him, hoping the motion and sound of her voice would lull him into sleep, she decided to head back to her quarters, after being ran over by two robotic cars that john and Rodney had been racing with, in one of the halls. As she walked back to her room slowly swaying as she did so, she began telling him a bedtime story.

'once, there was a race of people called the Athosians' she looked down at her son cradled in her arms, as she wiped his head lovingly.
'they were a happy and peaceful people, but they were plagued by a evil enemy, that came to them from far beyond the stars, they would awaken once every five generations, to cull their human heard. They were soooo strong and so great in number that no one on any of the planets would challenge them, we were afraid.' she pulled him closer to her, opening the door to her room.

'but one day some travellers came to visit our planet, through a biiig grey ring just out of the camp, they were strong and they possessed the power to challenge the evil ones, when they first arrived in the village, some of the Athosians were afraid, for they wore big black armour, and possessed some magical powers.' Teyla paused raising her eyebrows for emphasis, as she put baby Torren into his crib,

She continued 'the Athosians leader was a woman, and she did not like the man who lead these new travellers, he looked straight through her, as if she didn not exist, but there was another man, who did see her, he spoke of things that she had never heard of before, these things were new to the Athosians, and the woman grew curious of these travellers, so she took the man to an ancient city, that told the story of her people on its walls, the new traveller man ..'

'who was exceedingly handsome' john smiled.

'john' Teyla said softly as she turned to him. 'how long have you been standing there?' She asked as he leant up against the edge of the door frame.

'um since the magical powers bit,' he grinned.

'oh, I was just telling Torren a story to put him to sleep' she explained

John smiled 'ill have to continue it'

'that would be good, I think Torren should know of his people' she said with a look of pride.

'I think so' agreed john

'well I shall be back soon, you know where I am if .' she began

'Teyla I ll look after him,' john promised, 'sides you don't wanna keep the sparring waiting'

'I believe you would, but after Rodney dropped him last week'

'I wont let Rodney near him' promised john

Torren began to stir as if he were objecting 'it is okay my son, I shall not be long' Teyla whispered as she kissed his head, this action only seemed to awaken him further. And he began to cry again.

's ok go' john gestured to the door, as he lent in and picked Torren up, and gently bounced him.

Teyla smiled and left through the door

John bounced him a little more, and tried singing to him for a while,

'I fell into a burning ring of fire,
The flame went down, And the flame went higher, no that s wrong isn t it? Oh well,
And it burns , burns,
The ring of fire, the ring ..' It didn t take long for john to realize it wasn t working,

So he continued with the story 'so Torren, 'uhh where was mommy up to? ..... these people they came from a galaxy far far away, they lived in a flying city from the stars' he began,

Torren settled as soon as johns voice reached him.

'now, I think these people need a name, lets call them sir john, the great warrior, and princess Teyla,'

'Now after they had visited the ancient city, the bad guys rocked up, to bust up the party, the great warrior, sir john, fought nobiley, but the bad guys had magical powers that, would make him see things that weren't there, so as good as his efforts were, he found he was fighting nothing, when princes Teyla appeared to him out of a cloud, he followed her,...... to protect her of course,'

'but alas the baddies were too many and too strong, and so they took the princess, along with many others from the village.' john paused as he switched baby Torren to his other arm.

'Luckily, there was another brave knight, who's name was Aiden, he saw where the baddies went, so, the brave knights escorted the people of the village back to their flying city, it was a magical city, and it was underwater, the city of Atlantis! A mythical city, where the ancient ones once lived, it was widely told that they would return and save the galaxy one day, for new the people from earth were only camping there. but oh no!, when they got home, the city was being destroyed, the shields were failing, and the water was flooding the city, We were afraid, but there was a small boy who s name was Jinto, and he knew the address of many worlds,'

'do you think he could save them?' john asked, as he laid baby Torren in his crib. Before continuing,

'as the small boy Jinto began to show them the address to a safe world, the city began to shake and creek and suddenly it rose above the water, and the people of Atlantis were safe once again. But the brave knight still wanted to rescue princess Teyla, but like all good knights know, he needed a noble steed., so strong and handsome sir john, and brave sir Aiden, went in search of a steed worthy to challenge their great enemy. Eventually they found one with magical powers that would rival the baddies, it had the ability to turn invisible, sir john liked this like a lot, its really really cool!' Torren stirred in his crib almost asleep, john rubbed his forehead and continued,

'so the two knights took the noble steed to their queen Elizabeth, at first she did not see it, until it made itself visible, she decided it was pretty cool to, and thought it was worthy of the challenge, so she allowed them to leave the city to rescue princess Teyla and the other captured people. But first they had to give their new noble steed a name, so they could call on him. Sir Aiden and sir john, thought of a few before sir Aiden suggested an awful name, he wanted to name their noble steed gatesship1, how dumb is that?? sir john thought this was a terrible name, and when sir Aiden told him that Rodney liked it,'

'Rodney was the city's Igor, by the way, he was very smart, but very ugly and nobody liked him. sir john thought it was official, if sir Aiden got his ideas from the Igor, then sir john was making a new rule. Sir Aiden should not be allowed to name anything else ever again.'

'you asleep now buddy??' john asked as he leaned back from Torren, hoping he was asleep, Torren stirred a little and so he continued on a for a while, just to make sure he was asleep.

'sir john gave the noble steed the wonderful name, that was, puddle jumper, as sir john and sir Aiden rode off into the sunset to rescue princess Teyla atop puddle jumper, all the people in the city came to see them off.'

Torren was sure to be asleep now so john finished the story.

'Queen Elizabeth smiled and whispered be safe as tears filled the eyes of all the women who lived in Atlantis, for fear handsome sir john would not return. He waved as they disappeared through the circle of shimmering water john smiled to himself, he could get used to this. Being the hero and all.'

He stood watching baby Torren sleep for a short while, before he silently crept to the CD player and pulled out one of his favourite Johnny cash CD s from his jacket pocket and played it softly, he then slumped on Teyla s bed and opened his sprite, squinting at the noise the bottle made as it opened, he looked in Torren s direction, but he didn t seem to move, so john pulled his comic magazine out of his back pocket and began reading it.

The time passed quickly and Teyla soon returned, she walked in silently, looked at her son and smiled as she passed his crib, by this time john had fallen asleep, she gently, tugged at his arm and he snapped awake, gasping as he sat up.

'all is well john' she said with concern 'thankyou for watching Torren 'she whispered

'T's all good, he fell asleep quickly he grinned 'I am glad, he must of liked your story.'

She smiled 'yeah well I ll have to finish it next week' he grinned as he retrieved his CD from the player.

thankyou john she smiled once again as he headed for the door He nodded once and kissed Torren s head as he passes him. Silently john closed the door behind him and headed to his room, for a long restful nights sleep.