AN: I know I'm updating really really fast, but this story has just seemed to take over. It probably doesn't help that I'm listening to the type of songs that fuel my angsty writing. (Like "Broken" by Lifehouse & "Keep Holding On" by Avril Lavigne) LOL Oh well. What's better on a Sunday night than SGA fanfic? Nothing, that's what!

Anywho, enjoy, and try not to throttle me after this chapter. It'll get better, I swear!


LEGOs and Love

By scarlet79

Chapter 4


John couldn't help but think that maybe he was dreaming, or that this whole thing was a joke someone was playing on him. That had to be it, he thought. Someone – maybe Rodney – was playing a trick on him, and he was falling for it. In any case, this wasn't really happening, he decided. It just couldn't be real.

"That's...are you sure?" he asked Teyla, who nodded slowly, as if she were just then realizing what she had said.

As he carefully sank into a chair to ease the ache of holding Torren's dead weight without waking him, she glanced down at the tablet again and replied, "I am sure."

"Well, that makes sense," Rodney said then, and John jumped. He'd forgotten that his radio was on. While John's heart attempted to slow down to a more reasonable rate, Rodney continued, "You have the strongest instance of the ATA gene ever known – more so than even General O'Neill. It's only logical that if Michael wanted Torren to have it as well, that he'd take it from the best possible source."

"I am still a little confused," Teyla admitted, crossing her arms over her chest. "What does all this mean for Torren?"

"Not too much, so far. He's still the same kid he always was, only now we know he has John's ATA gene, and as much as I hate to admit it, whatever other genes he got from the colonel are probably the ones that relate to his increased brain activity, cognative reasoning and such."

John rolled his eyes. "Rodney, we're not scientists. Bottom line it, please."

"He's a smart kid, okay?" Rodney grouched, perturbed that he was being forced to admit something that was fairly close to his worst nightmare. It was bad enough having to tell someone like Zelenka that he was brilliant, and worse to say the same to John. But a kid? One who couldn't even speak in full sentences yet? That was pain at a level he had never before experienced.

"Probably nowhere near as brilliant as I am," he continued, "but still way above an average toddler. It's why he was able to imitate my catapult, even though right now kids his age are still smearing finger paint all over themselves. "

"But after you asked him if he'd made that thing, he threw the LEGOs all over the place," John reminded him, drawing a nod from Teyla. She would no doubt be the one to clean that whole mess up, and she was not looking forward to it. Nor was she eagerly awaiting the possibility of stepping on a missed block when she got up in the middle of the night.

"Yes," Rodney acknowledged, "but only because the rest of his brain hasn't quite caught up. Look, I'm coming down to you right now. I know it's a little late for this, but I'm not really sure we should be talking about this over the radio, and I just thought of something else."

John had to admit that he had a point, on both accounts. It was potentially dangerous to discuss such information over something as easily accessible as the radio, but they had been talking for the better part of ten minutes. If anyone had been listening in, they had surely gained all the information they needed by now.

"Great."

As soon as John shut off his radio, Rodney jogged through the doors of the infirmary, his mouth already picking up where he'd left off.

"I'm sure that if you catch him at the right time and put him under the scanner, certain parts of his brain would light up like a Christmas tree, while others would stay the same. As he grows older that will all change. More and more areas will become active, but it'll balance out because they probably won't stay 'lit' for as long. The problem, the one I told you I just thought about on the way down here, comes with those in-between times, when his genes turn those areas on for the very first time."

"What do you mean?" Teyla asked him, her mind still trying to grasp exactly what he was saying. She was baffled by his explanations on any normal day, but now not only was he giving her tons of information to process, he was firing them off at a rate that only John could possibly comprehend. And from the frown that creased his forehead, she guessed that he was having trouble, too.

"Think of it like a light switch," Rodney explained, grabbing a chair from the computer area and setting it in front of where she stood, then dropping into it. "Torren's brain is the light, and the gene is the switch."

She nodded, with him so far.

"Okay. So, if there's too much power – too much information going to the light, and you flick the switch on, what happens?"

"The light explodes," John replied most unhelpfully from his seat. Teyla looked from him to Rodney with a horrified expression on her face, and the scientist folded his arms and uttered another of his martyr's sighs.

"That is sometimes true, but I was going somewhere a little less dramatic, thank you." Now, his hands joined the discussion, making small gestures here and there as he spoke. "If you have the wrong wattage in the light socket, the bulb will glow extra bright for a minute, maybe even a few minutes, and then black out again. It's not a perfect illustration, but that's loosely –" he glared again at John to stop him from making any comments "– what's going on with Torren. As each new area is accessed, the activity in his brain ramps up a level, but since he isn't old enough to fully process the information, it eventually fades back down to normal."

"With my ATA gene, though," John added, finally grasping the full scenario Rodney was trying to lay out for them, "he'll be able to access Ancient technology, but with no understanding of what he's doing..."

"He could get into a whole mess of trouble if someone ever takes their eyes off of him," Rodney finished for him.

"Is there any way to slow it down again?" Teyla asked then, sending John an apologetic look. She didn't hate the fact that it was John's DNA that had been merged with Kanaan's – in fact, if she'd had to choose she would have picked him, over everyone she knew – but Michael's interference had caused a potential problem, not only for her son but for the entire city of Atlantis. There was no telling what kind of things a two-year-old like Torren could get into when their backs were turned, and she would rather not find out the hard way what those things were.

"Maybe," Rodney considered with a frown. "But it would mean a whole lot of research for me, and even more tests for Torren. And there's still no guarantee that even with all that, we'd be able to find a solution. We might just end up putting him through a lot of unnecessary procedures."

"Not an option," John spoke up at last, his hand splayed across Torren's back as if to protect him. As everyone's head turned toward him, he grinned, falling back on his usual tactic of glass-half-full-type reasoning. "Come on, guys. He's only two! It's not like he's gonna be wandering around the city unsupervised. Someone's always with him. How much could he possibly get into?"

Rodney gave him a look and scoffed. "He's got your genes, Sheppard. Do you really need to ask that?"

"If there is any way of helping him to become a normal child, I will take it, as long as it does not cause much pain," Teyla informed them, with a final nod.

John suddenly hopped out of his chair, his cheeks flushed red. "Now, wait a minute! Rodney just said there was no guarantee for a permanent solution. I don't think we need to put a little boy like him through so much, at least not before we can be sure it'll work."

"The decision is not up to you, John," she replied, her eyes flashing, daring him to argue further. "He is my son, and as his mother I have the right to do what I feel is best for him."

"You're right. You are his mother. But he shares part of my DNA, too, and that has to count for something. Now, I won't pretend to be his father..."

"Then stop, right now!" she cried, her hand lifted up, palm out toward him. When his mouth shut with a snap she dropped her hand, though her voice remained louder than usual. "Would you still be against this if you had discovered that Torren shared DNA with someone other than you?"

"Yes, I would!" he shouted back, his hand now covering Torren's head in a futile attempt to muffle his ears against their argument. The boy had awakened a few moments before, and, sensing the tension in the air, started to whimper pitifully.

"You know what?" Rodney put in then, suddenly very weary and sorry he had ever decided to get involved in the first place. "I think I'll just go now. Jennifer, would you care to join me?" He asked, turning to the doctor, who had been sitting nearby and flinching with every word. She nodded and got up to circle around the pair, and had just reached Rodney's side when Teyla uttered a single word that stopped them both in their tracks.

"Why?"

The doctors' heads swiveled to John, waiting. Rodney couldn't help but think of a tennis match. A horrible, nightmarish tennis match that would most likely end in bloodshed, his pessimistic mind shrieked, but still the resemblance stuck with him.

"Because he's just a little boy, Teyla!" John cried. "You of all people should be the last one to ask that!"

She tossed her head defiantly, angrily. "I do not believe you. Now, tell the truth. Why are you against changing him back to normal?"

John's eyes widened. "Normal? What the hell do you know about 'normal'? You can sense the Wraith from miles away. I wouldn't exactly call that normal."

"Answer the question, John!" Teyla shouted as Torren began to wail at full volume.

He was so angry, the words just spilled out before he could stop them. Over Torren's cries, he bellowed, "Because I love him and I don't wanna see him hurt!"

As the realization of what he'd said hit the others, he drew in a breath and blew it out again, seeming just then to hear Torren. He shushed him gently, and the toddler laid his head back down on his shoulder, wiping his nose on his shirt. John instantly switched back to his angry voice as he scowled at Teyla. "And, as his mother, I can't believe you'd be okay with putting him through all of that, especially after seeing how so many of our 'experiments' have gone."

Jennifer and Rodney stared at each other then, silently communicating with their eyes. They had both had an inkling that John had felt more than a normal bond with the newest member of their expedition, but this? This went way beyond what either of them had imagined.

"We're gonna go," Rodney tried again, this time grabbing Jennifer's hand and tugging her toward the door. John turned to watch them leave, but kept silent.

"That is not what I said," Teyla replied at last, her arms reaching for her son. John handed him over, a little disappointed when Torren didn't even resist, instead cuddling tightly against her chest.

He shook his head. "It absolutely is, and there used to be a time when you respected my opinion."

"As I still do."

"It doesn't sound like it to me," he said. Running his hand through his hair, he was startled and frustrated to discover that his limbs were shaking, as the burst of adrenaline they'd received slowly wore off.

"John," she called softly, reaching out to lay her hand on his arm. He purposely took a step back, still too angry with her to let her touch him.

"I gotta go. Just..." he looked wistfully at Torren's back, curled in a half-circle as he clung to his mother, and then his eyebrows dipped into a frown as he said, "Just do what you want. I'll see you later."

Before she could utter a word to stop him, he shoved through the swinging doors of the infirmary, leaving her alone with her son.


TBC...