Deadly Intent
Chapter11
In his office several floors above the infirmary, John thought again about what Atlantis had done to Trumble. Another quiet chuckle left his lips. It served him right for being such a disagreeable ratbag. Although the idea could have been something he might have done. This time it wasn't. He thought about what he knew regarding the cities AI. As far as John understood it, she needed a thought from a strong ATA carrier to initiate such commands, just like a Puddle Jumper. Another way was for someone to sit in the control chair to input commands directly, like initiating the stardrive and flying the city. He quickly called up the logs on his computer and found that no one had used the chair in the last three weeks. Of course, McKay or Radek could have fixed the logs but somehow, he doubted it. Which left only a few of other possibilities, Becket, Lorne or Beth could have initiated it? He honestly didn't think his XO or Carson would have done that. So that left his strong-willed daughter. Sighing he left it at that. If it happened again, he would have to confront her.
Pushing the matter aside, he finally decided to check the flash drive Woolsey had given him the day before. In truth, he'd kind of forgotten about it. Most times it was just routine stuff anyway. Woolsey had mentioned something about an extra data file the SGC had sent him. It was for his eyes only, so it was really time that he read it. He opened the sealed container he kept on his desk to retrieve the flash drive, putting his forgetfulness down to his troubles with Trumble. Moving to his computer, he inserted the drive. First off, he opened the file containing the promotions. Quickly scanning through that he smiled as all the people he'd wanted to be promoted were mentioned. He saved a copy to be printed out later. Of course, he would individually congratulate the men and women as soon as Trumble was out of his hair.
Then John relaxed back in his chair and started to read the private data file. Surprised to see it originated from Jack O'Neill. He suddenly sat upright as he began to absorb the words in front of him. Then a smile slowly spread across his face. For the first time in days, he felt somewhat relieved and maybe, a little annoyed at the same time. His job seemed to be secure enough at the moment, but according to O'Neill, it seemed they were using him to expose rogue I.O.A. members, a senator and several high-ups in the Military. Officers who could have helped Trumble rise from Colonel to a one star General, despite his rather volatile nature. Oh, just great!
However, before he could truly digest the information, McKay suddenly bustled into his office without as much as a polite knock. "Ah, there you are. Hiding away again are you?"
"You know one of these days I'll have a locking device put on that door, so no one can enter without my permission," John grumbled. He was just about to tell Rodney his news when he decided against it. As much as he trusted his friend, sometimes Rodney spoke without thinking. "You wanted something?"
"Er…nope," Rodney quickly answered looking a bit uncomfortable. "Well, just wondered if you have time to babysit for an hour?"
John suddenly registered that baby Peter was snugly tucked against his father's chest in his little sling. John quietly removed the flash drive from his computer and slipped it back into the lockable container. "Sorry, I have important things to do."
"Like what?"
John rolled his eyes and sighed. Even after all these years, Rodney still didn't comprehend that the military didn't run itself. In his mind, a grunt simply picked up a gun, one that didn't need maintaining, and waited for the enemy to strike. No organising, no logistics, and definitely, no brains required. Regular training wasn't necessary either even though Ronon frequently beat the crap out of the Marines. Maybe Rodney simply thought Ronon did it just as a hobby. Also when the team weren't away on a mission or there was no crisis to deal with, Rodney still thought John had nothing better to do than to sit on his ass playing computer games or watching sport. Well, he did sometimes during quiet periods. Worst of all, Rodney and several other scientists still expected him to initiate Ancient gizmos with his super gene from time to time.
John really didn't feel like explaining things at the present time, but he did anyway. "Like…I have a welcome to my command speak for the new recruits in…," John looked at his watch, "four hours."
"Four hours! That gives you plenty of time to watch Peter." McKay's loud voice almost woke his son.
John winced at the volume and was truly grateful when the baby slept on. Obviously, the little fella was already used to his father's booming tone. "I also have the medical assessment at 13:30 with Dr Ross. Anyway, why can't you keep him with you? Where's Jennifer?" Or other baby minders come to that, John thought.
"Oh, no, no, I have an experiment in my lab that needs checking. You don't honestly think it's safe to expose Peter to it?"
"Why is it that dangerous?"
Rodney's 'umms and ahhs' gave the game away. "Maybe not dangerous, but I can hardly calibrate a delicate Ancient artefact with a baby strapped to my chest."
"And you wife is?"
"She's gone back to the infirmary to help out with an emergency seeing as Carson is currently busy with your lady."
John suddenly sat up straighter and remained stock still, only his eyes roamed down to look at his watch. "It's 11:45 already," he said in dismay.
Rodney nodded. "Yes, so what?"
"I promised Teyla I would come down and be there when Carson did the next sonogram. I missed the first one. Oh God, I'm late!"
Rodney nearly sang, 'I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date.' Thankfully, he didn't. In fact, he kept quiet as John began to remove the baby sling so he could take Peter from him.
"I'll take the little guy down to the infirmary and keep an eye on him while I'm with Teyla. If Jennifer can't have him later, then I expect you to take him back after lunch. Don't forget I have an important medical and I also have to deal with the new guys later. It wouldn't look too good if their CO turned up with a baby strapped to his chest. He could just imagine what Trumble would have to say to that. John gently lifted the sling with the little boy still fast asleep as Rodney quickly helped him fasten it around his shoulder.
John moved to leave, but before going through the door, he called back. "You know we really do need to employ a full-time childminder and teacher."
Rodney wondered about that. As much as he loved looking after his son, he just wouldn't always have the time, especially when Sheppard was back to taking the team off-world. Then there were Teyla and Sheppard's children to consider. Rodney knew the Athosian girl Amiera wasn't always available these days as she had a new boyfriend back on New Athos II. Lately, she'd been spending a lot of her spare time with him.
oOo
In the infirmary, Dr Ross continued to wait patiently for the nurse to come back from wherever she had disappeared to. The wait had been quite a while already, and Julia was beginning to grow edgy. Now she knew how some of her patients must feel while they waited for her. She was just beginning to wonder if she should look for someone when two young children approached her. They seemed a little unsure. "Hello there and who are you?" Julia asked.
Beth talked first being a little more confident than her brother around strangers. "I'm Beth. He's my brother Torren. Momma sent us to tell you to come, but we're looking for our daddy."
Just then Marie came rushing in from another direction. "I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting, doctor. We've just had another emergency to deal with. Dr Cole is in attendance, and I have to get back to help her. The children will show you the way to the examination room where Dr Beckett is waiting."
Although the place seemed fairly quiet to her, Julia began to wonder what really went on behind the scenes. She knew Marie was too busy to ask at the moment, so maybe she could get some information from Dr Beckett.
Before the head nurse could leave, Beth spoke up in her high pitched voice. "Have you seen our daddy, Marie?"
"I'm sorry, Beth, I have not. I'm sure he'll be along soon. Now, will you and Torren please take Dr Ross to the room where your mother is."
Two little heads nodded and Torren held out his hand. "Come with us."
Julia smiled at him and took his hand in hers. Then Beth went the other side and together they left the main ward. The doctor couldn't help thinking what super kids they were and quite good looking too. The little boy had a mop of dark curly hair and a darker skin tone than his sister. The girl was fair-haired and her skin much lighter, almost too pale. Julia vaguely wondered who their daddy was, but evidently, she was just about to meet their mom.
They entered another room a few minutes later and the visiting doctor was surprised to see a serene and very attractive dark-skinned woman lying propped up on a padded table. From the looks of things, she must be between eighteen to twenty weeks along as her stomach had nice little bulge already. However, it was the dark-haired, pleasant looking man that drew Julia's main attention.
Carson stood up and moved around Teyla to shake hands with the lovely doctor. "Hello there, I'm Carson Beckett and this is Teyla Emmagan." Julia moved to shake Teyla's hand and was again surprised by the firm handshake from such a petite looking person. She then shook hands with Beckett as he said. "I'm just about to do the sonogram, but her wayward man has yet to put in an appearance.
"We couldn't find daddy," Torren piped up.
Teyla sighed. "I expect he has something important to attend to. You can take a picture, can you not, Carson?"
"Aye that I can, love."
"You're Scottish? I just love that accent." Julia found herself saying. Then she went slightly red realising how American that sounded.
Carson just laughed. "I've had that said a lot. Why do Americans find British accents so fascinating?"
"We just do. Well, there are some that don't sound so nice, but the same can be said for American accents."
"Aye, you've got that right. Now let's take a look at the baby in a minute, shall we?"
Beth jumped up and down. "Uncle Carson, I want to see the baby now!"
Carson moved back and began to rub gel over Teyla's bare tummy. "You're a mite impatient, young lady. It takes a few minutes to prepare things."
"Why are you putting that gooey stuff on Momma?" Torren asked with big worried eyes.
"That gooey stuff helps the machine to get a better picture of the baby, Torren. Without it, we might not see so much because your Momma's skin would be too dry."
"That's a good explanation, Carson." A deep voice rumbled from the other side of the room. Both Torren and Beth ran to greet the man.
"Daddy, come on we want to see the baby. Oh, you've got baby Pettie with you." Beth shouted.
"That's Peter, sweetheart, and please don't wake him." John moved over to his partner and kissed her on the check. "Sorry, I'm late." Then he noticed Dr Ross. He gave her a nod. "Oh, hi there."
"Hi yourself, Colonel. I didn't know you were a family man?"
John didn't stop to think, the words just came tumbling out. "You mean Trumble hasn't spouted on about me living in sin with an alien woman?" Then he wished he hadn't said it when Teyla gave him a disgruntled look. He quickly bent down and kissed her again. "Believe me that's not my words."
It was plainly obvious to Julia that the two people in front of her loved each other very much. "He did say something like that actually, but I didn't think it was in connection with a loving partner. He just ranted on and on about you being a sinful person in league with the enemy. I'm sure he didn't mean you Ms Emmagan," she quickly elaborated. "To tell you the truth, I kind of switched off and did my best to avoid him during our long trip here."
John rolled his eyes. "I don't blame you. He was probably referring to either Todd the Wraith or the Taliban he claims I collaborated with." There was silence for a minute as Julia didn't know who Todd the Wraith was and Teyla didn't know who the Taliban were. Thankfully they didn't ask. John noted that Carson wasn't listening anyway. He stood mesmerised at the lovely female doctor with a big smile on his face. Smitten already it seemed. John winked at Teyla, and she gave him an acknowledging nod. "Okay, are we going to see our baby or not?" John asked.
That brought Carson out of his daydream. "Oh, aye."
John and the children moved closer to Teyla, so they could see the screen a little better, but Beth was fussing because she couldn't quite see over the top of the table. Julia grabbed a chair and stood her up on it, so she could see properly.
John nodded his thanks. "You okay, Torren?"
The little boy nodded as Carson began to move the scanner over Teyla's bulge. The screen lit up with the image of the foetus. It clearly showed the growing baby as this machine was top of the range that Earth had to offer. Jennifer had ordered the machine during Teyla's first pregnancy. It was used for various other reasons too, including the annual check-up for breast cancer among the female staff. They had yet to find an Ancient machine that actually did ultrasonic imaging. Maybe they simply had gone beyond the need for that as the Ancient medical scanner used a totally different method. Of course, that was also a very useful diagnostic tool.
Although the image was clear enough, it wasn't what Beth wanted to see. She looked almost tearful as she turned to her parents. "Baby looks nothing like Pettie. It's ugly and squiggly, and has too many dotty things."
Teyla exchanged a look with John. He had tears in his eyes for a totally different reason. Seeing his child had been quite overwhelming for the tough Colonel. Teyla didn't really have a good explanation for Beth, she was beginning to regret letting her and Torren come. Surprisingly, it was John who spoke up and not the doctors. "That's because the baby is still growing, sweetheart. At the moment baby could easily fit into the palm of my hand as it's only about this tall." John held his fingers apart to indicate approximately six inches.
Carson didn't comment as he was busy looking at the image. He began taking measurements. Dr Ross was also studying the screen intently. Teyla looked at them as she was worried by their silence. It wasn't the first sonogram she'd had as Jennifer had performed one very early on at eight weeks. Jennifer had announced at the time that everything was fine and it wasn't necessary to do another until now.
John also wondered about their silence. "Is everything okay, Carson?"
Carson straightened up. "Oh aye, everything looks fine. Baby is at the right stage of development." He looked at Dr Ross. "Do you confirm the gender?" The lovely doctor only nodded as it really wasn't her place to say anything. Carson looked away to face the parents. "Although it's quite early to tell the sex of the baby at this stage, in this case, it is clear to see. Would you like to know now or wait until the birth?"
TBC