Author's Note: I freely admit that I'm an overly romantic, sentimental, emotional chick who loves happy endings and this story is right up there! If you want action, at least the kind that involves guns, you won't find it here. I have this story completed and future chapters will be posted quickly. Adult Content Warning: There will be hot & heavy sex (my kind of action!) but I've mostly contained it to chapters 8 and 15, which can be skipped without affecting the story very much. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy this! Please leave feedback!

Feelings by Tripwatcher

Chapter 1

John sat with the hard chair pulled up as close to the bed as he could get it. He held one of her small hands in both of his, rubbing it carefully. He was glad that she was finally sleeping – and that the contractions had stopped. Pre-term labor is what the Doc had called it and it had scared the crap out of him!

Teyla was finally free of the fetal monitor and blood pressure cuff but still had an IV in the hand that he held. No longer able to rest comfortably on her back, she lay slightly on her side, facing him. He carefully checked her face again to see if she was still sleeping and then his eyes wandered down to her swollen belly. The thought that there was an actual little tiny baby in there amazed him. How human life was created was such a miracle but yet something he had never really thought much about before. The baby wasn't his, of course. SHE wasn't his either for that matter, but he still found himself there, in the infirmary, watching over them both.

Up until the moment John had heard her moan his name into the microphone in his ear and had rushed to her quarters to find her doubled over in pain, he had been telling himself that his care and concern for Teyla was just because he was responsible for her safety and well-being, along with everyone else on Atlantis. It was his job as the military leader to protect them all and Teyla was his friend and teammate, nothing more. But the way his heart stuttered at the sight of her scared face and the joy he felt when she softly asked him to stay while the Doc examined her and hooked her up to all sorts of machines, told him that she WAS more, so much more.

There had been "something" between them since the very first moment they met but neither of them had ever fully acknowledged it. They had danced around it instead, flirted a little and argued a LOT, and had become very good friends. But John was quickly realizing that she meant more to him than any friend ever had. Like he would for Ronon or Rodney, he would kill for her, he would even die for her, but unlike Ronon or Rodney, he felt as if he might die WITHOUT her. Is this what love felt like? Had he ever felt this strongly for anyone before? John didn't think that he had and that fact scared the crap out of him too!

His eyes had begun to wander back up to her face, when he caught a slight movement of the sheet that was covering her protruding stomach. At first John thought that maybe Teyla had shifted in the bed, causing the sheet to move, but after watching her stomach for a few seconds more, he saw that it was the baby moving around inside of her. With only the thin infirmary gown and even thinner sheet over her, it was easy to tell that "Junior" was becoming very active. John only hoped this was normal and didn't mean that she was in labor again. He doubted however that she WAS in labor though, since she was obviously sleeping soundly through the baby's acrobatics. That must feel SO WEIRD he thought to himself and a mental picture from the movie "Alien" popped into his head but he shook it off, knowing that Teyla would NOT appreciate the comparison.

John thought back to the only time he had ever touched her stomach, when they were locked in Rodney's lab together because of the quarantine false alarm. The baby had surprised her by kicking hard and she had grabbed John's hand and placed it over her stomach. It had been so unexpected that he had not known at the time how to respond. Her belly was slightly larger now than it had been then and the baby seemed to be moving even more. John wondered what it would feel like to once again place his hand on her stomach. Would she mind? Would she get that same pained look he had seen the last time? The look that said she was thinking of the baby's father and wishing it were him touching her belly instead of John? Even though Kanaan was dead, did Teyla still long for him? Would she always long for him, especially since they had conceived a child together?

Even with these negative thoughts running through his mind, John still found himself reaching out to touch her stomach gently, glancing up at her face nervously to see if it woke her. When she didn't stir, he went from just barely touching her with his fingertips to actually placing his palm fully against the side of her swollen belly. He waited a few seconds and was about to decide that the baby must have gone to sleep when suddenly, he felt a very distinctive push outward against his palm. Whoa, that was amazing! John barely pushed back, and this time, felt a hard thump against his outstretched hand.

Without even thinking about it, John leaned in and spoke softly, directly at eye level with her belly. "Hey, take it easy there, Junior! We're all anxious to see you too but it's too early for you to make an appearance just yet. Just sit back, take it easy, and let your mom get some rest, okay?" He left his hand in the same place for a few moments more and then, feeling no movement, removed it from her stomach and began to lean back in the chair. As he did so, he glanced up at Teyla's face only to find her awake and smiling at him.