A/N: This is it. The end of this story is near. It's completely written and the last two chapters have been sent off for beta work. It's been quite a ride with this story and I'm sad to see it go, but it can't go on forever. I hope you've all enjoyed the journey. Thanks to Crye4Me for the brainstorming sessions. Some of the ideas she gave me months ago can finally appear Thanks to Shadows-of-Realm for the beta, who said there were no errors in this but we'll see. Please be kind and leave a review.


Chapter 29- Welcome to the World

"I think this is an incredibly bad idea. Just in case I've haven't said it before," Rodney crossed his arms over his chest, standing between the door and his wife.

"You've said it at least a dozen times," Jennifer was equally annoyed with her husband as he was with her. "It will be fine. The village is not far from the gate. It's only a few simple checkups. Nothing more."

Rodney stubbornly shook his head, "You are only three weeks from your due date. I don't think you should be going off world until after she is born."

"Most times the first pregnancy goes late. I'll be fine," she tried to allay his fears. "I'll be there a couple hours tops and I won't overexert myself. Stop worrying. The second I start feeling tired I will come home."

"That doesn't make me feel any better." The father to be stood his ground. He did not know why she was being so stubborn about wanting to go on this mission. "Why can't you just take it easy the next few weeks?"

"I'm not just going to sit around for the next month and do nothing. It's not a hard mission...physically. We will be okay. Really," she tried to convince Rodney that it would be okay. She pressed her hands on his crossed arms. "I love you and it's sweet that you are worried, but it will really be okay." There was not enough times she could express that and get it through his thick skull.

Rodney pouted for a few moments and had to give up, knowing his wife was as stubborn as he was. "Then I'm at least coming with you."

"That's fine. I have no problem with that. Ronon is coming too. That way you both can look after me."

"Wait? Ronon is coming? Why?" The scientist's voice raised several octaves, clearly not pleased with the idea.

Jennifer shrugged. "I don't know. He just offered. I think he is bored and looking for an excuse to get off world." It did not seem like a big deal and frowned when Rodney got visibly upset. "Come on let's get going, sexy," she slowly kissed Rodney, giving a preview of what was in store for him when they got home.

"That's cheating."

"No it's not," Jennifer said smugly and left him behind with some of the supplies she was bringing. If he was worried about this mission the least he could do was carry the bags.


"What do you mean she is not here?" Rodney looked like he was about to hyperventilate. The second that Erran told them that Jennifer had finished and left to meet them, the worst thoughts went through his mind. He knew this mission was a bad idea and he was just proven right.

"How long ago did she leave?" The agitation growing by the second. This was the lives of his wife and child that were at stake. These people did not seem the type to kidnap a pregnant woman.

"More than sufficient time that you should have crossed paths on your trip back here," Erran backed away from the upset men, scared of the shorter one whose temper looked like it was about to explode.

"Has there been any strangers in your village? Or did you hear any struggle?" Ronon remained calm for the both of them. Someone had have taken Jennifer between the house and the pub and if no one heard anything then it could be worse than he feared.

"No. I heard nothing."

"McKay, wait," Ronon watched as Rodney ran off without thinking. It was only a second later that he chased the Canadian down. "Where do you think you are going?"

"To find my wife," Rodney was blind with rage and worry. "I knew coming here was a mistake. I was right." The fact that Jennifer was so close to giving birth made his anxiety a hundred fold than normal.


Jennifer felt a haze covering her and throbbing in her head as she slowly regained consciousness. "Rodney..." she mumbled, holding her head. Panic set in when Jennifer realized that she was no longer in Erran's house but a cave. "This is so not good." In the back of her mind, the pregnant woman heard her husband saying he was right in the cute but condescending tone.

"You're awake." The gruff voice made Jennifer's headache worse.

"Who are you?" Getting up was out of the question as a sharp pain made Jennifer cry out in pain. "What do you want from me?"

"It does not matter. Don't ask so many questions. You are a healer, right?"

"Yes." The pain started to get worse and it forced Jennifer to take several deep breaths and her hand fell to the top of her stomach. "What are you doing in there?"

The captor looked as Jennifer talked to herself, "You are with child?"

Jennifer shook her head and pushed done the urge to ask the man if he was an idiot. "No. I'm just carrying a watermelon in my stomach." Her sarcasm was more biting than Rodney's on a bad day. "I take it you haven't seen many pregnant women."

"I need your assistance. You will help me."

"Or what?" She thought the least he could do was reveal his name if he expected her to comply.

"You don't have much of a choice in your state. I doubt you can move very fast."

"Kiryk..." A weak voice of a child called out. "Kiryk, where are you?"

"I'm here, Celise. I'll be right there," Kiryk's tone was kind, almost fatherly for the first time. "Celise is the one who needs your help."

"What is wrong with her?" Jennifer gritted through the worsening pain. Braxton Hicks contractions are normal, she reminded herself. She just had to breathe through the pain that will hopefully soon pass.

"She injured her leg the other day. I did what I could do for it, but now she can hardly walk on it."

"Is she your daughter?"

Kiryk shook his head, "No. She is the only survivor of her village after a Wraith attack. I should never have stayed the night." His defenses dropped ever so slightly.

"You're a runner?" It was the only logical conclusion given his last statement.

"Yes. So you know we can't stay here long before the Wraith come looking," he helped Jennifer up. "After you help her I'll let you go." Keeping her around would only slow him down, making them an easy target.

"We can change that." She saw the doubtful look. "One of the men with me used to be a runner. His tracker was disabled. I might have the equipment with me to do the same. You don't have to always be on the run and won't have to kidnap people when you need medical treatment." Jennifer had help where she could if she had any hope of getting home. "You know you could have just asked for my help. It would have been a lot easier."

"I didn't know if you could be trusted." And Kiryk still was not sure. Jennifer was unlike any woman he had met before. There was a fire about her that reeked of unpredictability and he could not take a chance where Celise was concerned.

"A doctor never turns away a patient and the mother in me would especially never turn away a child." Jennifer put her pain aside to help a child in need.


"This is so not good," Rodney ran away screaming as soon as the Wraith darts appeared through the gate. Whatever could go wrong was going wrong...very wrong. "Ronon, come in. We've got trouble."

"Wraith?" Ronon had been tracking a heavy set of footprints under the safe assumption that they belonged to whom ever took Jennifer.

"Gee...ya think." Rodney said sarcastically. "What are they doing here? Erran said they haven't been here in generations and it's too few of them to be a culling." He hid behind a tree, hoping he had lost the Wraith but luck was not with him and he found himself face to face with the bone white creature.

The feeding hand was closing in on him and the bullets Rodney emptied into the Wraith had no effect. He closed his eyes and braced to be fed upon, but the moment did not come and instead he heard a blast followed by the Wraith falling.

"What took you so long?" Somewhere in the high-pitched whine there was a measure of gratitude.

"You're welcome," Ronon helped his teammate up.

"Yes. Well thank you." The shaken scientist brushed the dirt off himself.

"We've got to get moving. There will be more Wraith on the way soon. I took care of all the ones that came through the gate. Those were Wraith hunters...they hunt runners." The ex-runner spoke from experience at the many times he was hunted by them.

Rodney felt small and insignificant that he couldn't take down one Wraith and it was nothing for Ronon to kill five with no problem. It was a constant problem for the scientist. He could take care of technical stuff, but there were too many times his teammates had to save his backside from trouble. "Well good for you," he said with no emotion. "We've got to find Jennifer before they get back. Maybe we should radio back to Atlantis for help."

"No time. They could come back by then. Waste of time."


Jennifer finished doing what she could for Celise's leg and slowly righted herself up. The pain was getting worse, worse than any she had felt before. Panic started to bubble up as the possibility that she was in labor surfaced. It's too soon. It's too soon. Not too soon. Your water hasn't broken yet. "I've done all I could do for her. She is going to need stronger medicine than what I have here." A strong contraction made Jennifer gasp and double over, but as quick as it came the pain was gone.

"Are you okay?" Kiryk did not wish harm to come to the woman who helped Celise.

Jennifer did not want him to know the truth and she was not sure if she was okay. "Fine. She is just acting up. Take it easy little one." The mother to be rubbed her stomach, hoping to calm the rambunctious life inside her. She needed something to take her mind off the pain. "Let me see what I can do about the transmitter."

The last thing Kiryk remembered was Jennifer saying she was going to use some machine to short out the device the Wraith used to track him and when he came to the doctor was doubled over in pain, looking like she had wet her pants and he asked if she did.

"No," Jennifer looked at Kiryk like he was crazy. "My...water...broke." She gritted out the words through the pain. Her eyes rolled when he looked oblivious to what she was saying. "My daughter...she's coming."

Kiryk went pale. He had heard stories of women giving birth and from what he heard the process was not pretty. "What? Here?"

"I don't think I can walk anymore." Tears started to pour out. This is not how she wanted to give birth. Not in the middle of a cave and not without Rodney by her side.

"What do you need me to do?"

"My husband...call him. My radio. Where is it?" Jennifer started hyperventilating from all the pain and pressure. This would be about the time she would have asked for something for the pain if she was in the infirmary.

"The little thing that was in your ear. It's broke. I'm sorry. Is he one of the two men that came with you?" Kiryk found Jennifer scary when she started to yell and he knew nothing about birthing a baby.

"Yes. Rodney is. Find him. Get him here." Jennifer yelled like a woman possessed.

The runner started to obey but stopped when new orders were yelled.

"Wait don't go!" A contraction came hard and fast, causing a few expletives to spew forth. Jennifer held her stomach as she barely made it to her bag on her own. "I need help with this," she needed something at least halfway clean and nothing in this cave came close especially what he had been using to sleep on.

Kiryk helped Jennifer set up a silver thermal blanket over his bedroll and jumped back at what he saw next. "What are you doing?" he asked as Jennifer tried to remove her pants with little luck.

"You really don't know where babies come from do you?"

"I do. Shouldn't you wait for that? I don't want your husband to hit me for seeing something I shouldn't." He thought especially if her husband, Rodney, was the large one that he'd seen earlier. "I'll get him for you."

"No. Don't you dare go anywhere." It sounded as if a demon resided within Jennifer. "I need to see how dilated I am and I can't do that on my own. So you better man up and help." The last she wanted was to have stranger look at her private area, but Kiryk was the only option.

Kiryk looked almost frightened as the woman before him was different from the quiet one he observed treating the people of the village. "Shouldn't another healer be looking there?"

"You're right, but you are the only one here and I have no choice but to need your help. With any luck Rodney and Ronon will find us and you can leave me the hell alone and live your now runner-free life. Thank you, by the way." The pains of labor made the snarkiness come out in full brute force.

Kiryk was not one to take orders from anyone but there was a tone in Jennifer's voice that made him obey. In addition, he had heard about the power of Atlantis and he knew if anything happened to this woman and her child that the Wraith would become the least of his problems. He helped lower Jennifer onto the makeshift hospital bed and began to remove her pants. The so-called big strong man flinched when he saw her underwear were soaked with a reddish-brown fluid and her legs stained the same color. "What do you need me to do next?"

"Put on a pair of gloves and this is what you do..." Jennifer went on to explain exactly what had to be done.

Kiryk did as he was told, "About this much." His fingers were spread about eight or nine centimeters. The man had about enough of what he could take when a gush of disgusting fluid surged out. Then when Jennifer let out an ear-piercing scream, Kiryk fainted when he saw what looked like a tip of a head appear.

"You got to be kidding," Jennifer rolled her eyes. When another contraction came quickly so did a scream loud enough to wake the dead. "So much for the strong runner staying strong."

The scream was loud enough to draw the attention of the remaining Wraith who came to investigate.

Jennifer found herself unable to move as the Wraith closed in on her. It was about three feet from her when a blast from behind felled the creature. Panic was about to overtake her until Jennifer heard what she had been waiting to hear: Rodney's voice.

Rodney's heart had been racing the moment he heard Jennifer's screams and his stomach dropped at the sight of the Wraith. "I thought you got them all," he screeched at Ronon who only shrugged. "Jennifer!" he rushed to his wife's side. "Are you okay? What did he do to you?"

"She's coming. Meredith's coming!" Jennifer looked as Ronon pulled Kiryk up off the ground and pushed him against the wall. "What are you doing to him?" another strong contraction distracted her.

The next hour was a blur and it all ended with one final push and the first cries of a new life.

"Welcome to the world, my little Meredith. Let's go meet your mom." The new father had a grin from ear to ear, as he held his daughter. It was time for the family to bond a little their return to Atlantis.

To be continued…