Chapter four: Learning Curves
Teyla heard the door slide open and in came Rodney who was muttering about something. She poked her head in from outside and saw that Rodney was struggling to hold the two trays of food on his hands. Teyla just smiled and went to him as she took one of the trays from him.
"Thank you for this Rodney." Teyla smiled.
Rodney looked at her for a minute and then shook his head and asked, "Feel like eating it outside, I can use some fresh air?"
Teyla nodded and the two of them went outside to eat. As soon as the two of them settled in their seats, Teyla looked at her food and laughed, "I think this tray is your Rodney, I don't eat blue Jell-O."
Rodney glanced up and smiled, "Oh, well, I thought you might want to have some, I already have some Jell-O on my tray too."
"More likely you were going to eat this too. I'm surprised Dr. Keller hasn't talked to you about how much you eat and what you eat yet." Teyla smirked as she started to eat her salad.
Rodney sputtered, "No, it wasn't like that! Jell-O is not that bad Teyla! Honest! Trust me; your Jell-O is safe from me!"
Teyla closed her eyes as she tried to stifle her laughter but thought of something else to say, "Rodney, what happened in Col. Carter's office?"
Rodney stopped shoving food in his mouth and looked up at Teyla but he was interrupted again for the second time that day by the door ringing, "Hang on, I'm going to see who that is, stay here okay?"
Rodney put down his fork and muttered about people who had no decency to leave him alone in peace today and Teyla just shook her head at hearing Rodney's muttering. By then, Rodney had already reached the door and slid his hand in front of the door's sensors to open it. In front were Ronon and Major Lorne with trays of food in their hands too. Rodney sighed and stepped aside to let them in.
"We're eating on the patio; feel free to join us please! Is that all that is going to be here?" asked Rodney as he poked his head out of the door once Ronon and Lorne were inside and heading out towards the patio. Rodney took one look to his left and to his right and saw no one else in the hallways so he leaned back to let the door close and went to join the rest of them out the patio.
"So what did happen today in Col. Carter's office?" asked Teyla as Rodney finally joined them again.
Ronon shrugged a bit and bit into his sandwich and Lorne heaved a sigh since he knew he would have to explain some things, "Rodney told Sheppard that he'll be leaving the team to be there for you as a support for your pregnancy and that he has a lot of unfinished projects around here and that he can't do that if he's being dragged off world all the time."
"Not counting that Sheppard ticked Rodney off too." Ronon piped in quickly.
"Hey! Okay, that's true, Sheppard did make me a little mad but I think that was partly due to what happened earlier, not when we were in the office." Rodney protested loudly in defense.
Lorne looked at Teyla and Rodney before he asked, "What did happen earlier? Before Ronon and Dr. Keller arrived to Carter's office, Col. Sheppard arrived in a very foul mood. He was foul enough to scare Radek into hiding behind me. I had to tell Sheppard to stop scaring the man. Even Sheppard growled at me and stormed off to Carter's office. I didn't hear much then since everything was muffled as the door shut behind him. What I do know, it was all Sheppard's voice that was yelling."
Teyla sighed, "I'm afraid I'm the results of him being surly and I'm very sorry Maj. Lorne that you had to put up with that. I had earlier slapped John in the mess hall after we had an argument about whether I could be re-instated to the team. John felt otherwise and his choices of words are what angered me in the first place."
Lorne felt bad for Teyla upon hearing that but he was even more surprised that Teyla would even slap his commanding officer in the mess hall of all places, "Let me get this straight, you slapped Col. Sheppard? No wonder he was bellowing when he showed up to the gate room."
"Not only that, but after Rodney left to see to Teyla, I talked to him and was quite rude to him as well. That might be partly my fault that he stormed off that way." Ronon spoke softly.
"Ronon, give me a break please! The whole point is that Sheppard himself went about all this in the wrong way and he had to be told that. It's not our fault that he can't take criticism." Rodney huffed.
"Maybe so Rodney but what is done is done. I am off Col. Sheppard's team and so are you. Ronon, will you be okay dealing with Col. Sheppard without me?" asked Teyla as she looked to Ronon.
Ronon shrugged his shoulders and Lorne piped up, "Well, that's another story all together. Shortly after Rodney left and I went to inform Radek that's he was being reassigned to Sheppard's team, I heard Sheppard yelling loud enough to wake the dead mind you. Next thing I know, Ronon struts out of the office with a smirk on his face with Dr. Keller following him smiling too. Ronon, what did you say or do to Sheppard exactly?"
"Oh, something along the lines that I'm not staying on his team no longer and that I will be joining your team to be there with Teyla and Rodney. After all, someone has to watch's McKay's back while he's off world from time to time. Teyla won't be able to worry about him due to the fact that she's got enough on her plate." Ronon announced.
Lorne looked at Ronon with a shocked look on his face, "You're on my team!?"
Teyla laughed at seeing Lorne looking so shocked, "Ronon, you should've told him this before now!"
"Figured I tell him in private and this is as private as it gets.
"No wonder why Sheppard is mad. It makes me sorry that Radek will be bearing the brunt of this though." Rodney muttered.
"Well, it can't be helped now Rodney. Besides, what's done is done. So Teyla, how far along are you exactly?" asked Lorne as he quickly changed the subject.
Teyla leaned back in her chair and smiled, "Well, if today was my appointment, I will be around the end of my 12 week. But she wants to make sure what stage of development so we do have a better idea of its accuracy."
Rodney thought for a minute and he gasped, "That's what I was going to show you Teyla! I completely forgot about it! I've been looking in Atlantis Medical Database for information and I came across something interesting!"
Lorne and Ronon's curiosity got piqued and they stopped eating for a moment to listen to what Rodney was saying.
"What did you find Rodney?" asked Teyla.
"Well, Dr. Keller made an offhand comment that the body scanner would not be useful in your case because the scanner would be a bit too loud for the unborn baby and that she'll have to resort to modern earth technology to track your pregnancy and all. Well, that got me thinking that the ancients must have something cause I'm pretty sure they had kids themselves before they got all focused on ascension. Anyhow…I'm going off topic here. According to the database, there's a facility that's all about child bearing and all that. It's down by the west side of Atlantis. From what I read, there's room for nurseries and day care and all that. I meant to mention this to Dr. Keller but there's a body scanner there that's especially equipped for pregnancy and it won't harm you or the baby." Rodney rambled on as he decided to get up to fetch his laptop.
"You found this in the database? Well, we really need to check it out then!" suggested Lorne.
"Let's eat first and we will all check it out. I have to admit, Rodney got me curious about this. I have been thinking that I will need bigger rooms since I'm going to have a baby soon." Teyla agreed.
Rodney stared at Teyla and was thinking of something but he will have to file that away for later.
Several hours later, Rodney was leading Lorne, Ronon and Teyla down the corridor with a flashlight and his laptop. He was reading the readings on the screen and trying to lead the way at the same time. Lorne and Ronon were suited up with their weapons and were making sure that there was nothing lurking in the darkness. Teyla was also suited up but she remained behind Rodney while Lorne and Ronon were behind her. They insisted and Rodney insisted that he lead the way.
"Well, according to the map, the entrance to the obstetrics facility is just ahead." Rodney informed everyone as he finally looked up from his screen and shined his flashlight ahead of him.
Sure enough, the door was there and it was shining blue.
"Rodney is there power in this area?" asked Lorne as he saw the door.
Rodney thought for a minute before replying, "I don't think the main power is even attached to this facility; there could be an independent source though."
"Okay, we will go ahead, Teyla stick with Rodney and wait till we give you guys the go ahead." Lorne said to Teyla as he gestured with Ronon with a nod of his head to follow him.
Teyla and Rodney stood aside and watch the two of them approach the door. As soon as Lorne got to the door, the door slid open and he looked at Ronon and nodded. They saw them both go in and they waited. They could see the flashlight beams checking around the room.
"Okay, it's clear! You can come in now!" shouted Lorne.
Rodney heaved a sigh of relief and hurriedly ran towards the room with Teyla following behind.
Once inside, Rodney looked around and saw the control panel and went straight towards it and was busy hooking his laptop to the panel to see if he could restore the lights. He sat down on the dusty chair and started clacking his keys away and looking at the results on his screen.
"It's a fairly big place." Ronon noticed as he walked around slowly and he finally holstered his weapon away.
Lorne agreed with a grunt as he set his weapon against the wall and sat down in the nearest available chair. He watched Teyla walking around and looking at things.
"Hmm…that's strange?" muttered Rodney.
"What's wrong Rodney?" asked Teyla who got a bit concerned.
"Its nothing major but the area is loaded with sensors and the sensors are already picking you up Teyla due to your pregnancy. It's already compiling a report right now. I'm just at a loss as to why we don't have any lights here though." Rodney explained.
"Its aware of me and my unborn child?" asked a stunned Teyla.
"Yeah, hey….okay, now I know what's its doing. Hang on guys, the power should be on full time!" warned Rodney.
Suddenly the room went from dark to light as the power finally kicked in. The four of them could see the room much better. Rodney shouted with glee but was interrupted by a voice in his ear piece.
"Rodney, what did you turn on this time?"
Rodney sighed and looked at Lorne pleading for help. Lorne rolled his eyes and tapped his ear piece to talk to whomever it was that was talking to Rodney, "Rodney didn't turn anything on; it went on by itself Radek. From what I understand, this facility is not connected to Atlantis main power supply correct?"
"You are correct but it doesn't mean it's not connected to the computers here. Dr. Keller just received Teyla's bio information from the computer. Let's say, it was a surprise."
"Okay, that I didn't know it would do that!" Rodney protested loudly so that Radek could hear it through Lorne's radio.
"Have Dr. Keller comes on down here then." Lorne suggested.
"I'm already down here!" growled a familiar voice.
Lorne turned around and smiled, "Welcome to Obstetrics Dr. Keller."
"Rodney, are you out of your mind for bringing Teyla down here!" yelled Jennifer.
"I came here on my own free will Dr. Keller, besides there is nothing here that will harm me and Rodney made sure of that." Teyla reassured Jennifer.
Jennifer eyed Teyla with great scrutiny and glared at Rodney but he was already tapping away on the computer before him. Jennifer threw her hands up in defeat and went to see what Rodney was doing.
"Wow!! This is sooo cool!" exclaimed Rodney.
"What is it?" asked Ronon who got curious suddenly.
"There's a holographic system here. Teyla, do you want to see your baby as it is now?" asked Rodney excited.
"Sure Rodney, are you sure of this?" asked Teyla.
"I'm totally sure of this. Hang on, I'll activate it!" Rodney spoke as he tapped a key on his keyboard.
The room suddenly dimmed and in the middle of the room, there was this tiny figure, surrounded by a white light.
Jennifer drew a sharp breath in and smiled, "Well, this is soooo much better than ultrasound I'll tell you that!"
"Rodney, is that…?"Asked Lorne in amazement.
"Yes, it is, this is Teyla's baby. Teyla, I can tell you right now, our estimations are right on the dot. And from what I see here in front of me, everything looks just fine!" smiled Jennifer.
"Is that a…?"Pointed out Ronon to the holographic image of Teyla's baby.
Jennifer laughed and Teyla saw what Ronon was looking at and spoke softly, "I'm having a boy?"
"You are right Teyla, you're having a boy. Congratulations!" laughed Jennifer as she went to Teyla and hugged her.
"A boy, that's great news Teyla!" Lorne agreed.
"Wow, that will help in picking out a name for the baby Teyla!" shouted Rodney in joy. He too got up from his chair and went to hug Teyla as Jennifer step aside and watched the two of them.
Teyla was stunned, she would never thought to see her child before it was born but she was very thankful that her son will be born in the city of the ancients. The first child to be born in Atlantis in 10,000 years.