I do not own Stargate, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, nor do I own any of its characters. I make no profit off this story excepting in my own personal pleasure of writing it. This is set AU after the end of Season Five of Stargate Atlantis. It completely disregards the Legacy book series, so please no flames that it's ignoring those. Also a few characters may go a bit OOC because I feel like it. If you don't like it, don't read it.
AN: For the question about Bitterwind, no she was not previously introduced. Her connection to Todd, how she knows him, will be clarified pretty quickly in this chapter. I already intend for her to have this role, so enjoy.
Chapter 22: Oh, Baby, Baby
John could feel Todd's discomfort even before he fully woke up. As his husband neared his 40th week of pregnancy, just another two days to go, and Keller insisted on having Todd exactly at 40 weeks before delivering their daughter, his stomach and made it increasingly difficult for Todd to sleep well. This meant that, as a result, John got just as little sleep. It was the only real downside that John had found to their bond so far. Well, that and Rodney freaking out when he had seen Hawk breastfeeding his baby, named Yuki.
John didn't mind in the slightest that one of the side effects of the bond meant that he and Todd would both lactate and breastfeed their baby. It made sense in a way, even human males had mammary glands, it was just that they didn't ever get the chemical signals from the brain to trigger lactation, normally at least. The bond meant that John's did, and he was actually a bit relieved by this.
It was one of the biggest fights he had had with Nancy was while Rikki was a baby. Nancy had been constantly exhausted at first because she had been bound and determined to breastfeed Rikki until she was one, convinced it was the healthiest option for her. John had argued to at least allow him to take over some of the night feedings using formula so that she could rest more. The fight had finally been settled when John's father had given them a breast pump a month after Rikki's birth. It meant that John could give their daughter breastmilk, but also that Nancy would get the necessary rest.
The fact that John would be breastfeeding this baby, and the future babies, as well as Todd, meant that the possiblity of the argument had been completely avoided. Of course, that didn't mean that Rodney hadn't completely freaked out over the whole thing, blowing it way out of proportion and driving John bonkers in the process.
When Todd stirred, trying to adjust into a more comfortable position, John allowed his mate to shift his body to better support the bump. His thoughts then drifted over to all the events of the past months. Bitterwind had been better than her word. With the addition of her efforts to influence other hives and the process of the Lanteans destroying any hives that attempted to attack human and Wraithkin occupied worlds, seventeen more hives had submitted to the retrovirus. They had all agreed to it without even attempting to attack other worlds, instead approaching Bitterwind and getting the retrovirus make up and process from her Clevermen.
The population of the Wraithkin Hives, and the ten different worlds they occupied, was now at 37,648. In addition to this success, they had located another four breeding colonies. Three of them were massive just from their scouts' reports. They each had over sixty sires, over three hundred breeding carriers, hundreds of children, and thousands of Worshippers. Of the carriers, seven total were in their first pregnancy and much like the youth found on the second breeding colony, responded, if slowly at first, to Keller's drug treatment. In the end, the Wraithkin hives had moved onto those worlds, took in the children, and made an arrangement of mutual assistance with the worshippers, most of whom had been born into that life. The protection of the Wraithkin and access to better live styles, with medicine and comforts in exchange for food were seen as reasonable terms for them, especially as there wasn't a risk of becoming the food added into the equation.
On the other hand, the pregnant carriers went to Atlantis, though little could be done for them. Keller's NICU had almost always been filled to brim with the preemies for the past four months. The upside was that the population of Lantea, Human, Jaffa, and Nox alike had embraced the infants with open arms. The Jaffa in particular had taken to adopting the babies. The knowledge that they would one day be strong warriors, highly intelligent scientists, or both appealed to them. There had been an early shock, just after Bitterwind's alliance had taken the retrovirus, when one of the Jaffa warriors that had joined the SpecOps, a young man by the name of Yu'tra, bonded with the rescued carrier who had been placed under his care when it became clear that the young Wraith had no clue how or capability to care for or defend himself. John hadn't wanted to take risks with the carrier's safety.
Yu'tra was young enough at only 19 that the three-year age difference didn't make it weird and the bonding portion had taken a shorter amount of time, though Keller suggested that might have been because the carrier, who had been given the name Menelaus Goodfortune, was already pregnant. It was probably for the best that the age of majority had been lowered to 16 though. Yu'tra was, in John's opinion, a good kid, and the couple was a little adorable, or it would be if John didn't feel a level of concern over Menelaus's behavior indicating that he was terrified of everyone who wasn't Yu'tra, Keller, John, or one of the Nox. Wraith Sires in particular would send him scurrying behind Yu'tra or whichever Nox he was spending time with that day.
Overall, though, the people of the city, and world, were thriving more than John could have anticipated when Earth had been destroyed. The Apollo had made three successful trips to the Milky Way, each time bringing back allies, mostly surviving Jaffa, and a few groups of Unas, who settled on Athos. In addition to this three more of the Lantean ships had been brought into service, manned by the growing mixture of young Lanteans, who were inspired to prepare for the fight against the Naari, Wraithkin, Travelers, and Jaffa. The Jaffa had, after a great deal of consideration, just the month before, requested being officially annexed into the official Lantean population, to the Tok'ra's annoyance. The Tok'ra saw it as an attempt to gain greater influence over Atlantis, although they themselves refused to live with the city.
Their alliances thrived too though. With the newly established governing council settling more firmly into their roles each day, they formalized informal trade agreements of the past. Dr. Torres had excelled in her job as the representative for Lantea. Nancy had ended up falling in as her second and together they were a force of nature. Nancy in particular seemed to have obtained a new lease on life, between her adopted son, a Wraithkin baby named Remus, and her work. John realized that she seemed to have even finally let go of their failed marriage, making their relationship much less tense. John also knew that in terms of her work, at present they were organizing what was being dubbed the Interplanetary Coalition of Pegasus, which was being modeled on the United Nations that had existed on Earth and primarily sourced from the original Coalition and their allies, only far better structured. The first official meeting was anticipated to occur in a month's time.
Each planet with a known government and agreements either with Atlantis, the Genii, or the Coalition would send representatives, be they the planet's leaders or their chosen negotiators. In addition to this, each of the Hives would have their Queens present, though they had, at Bitterwind's suggestion, collectively decided that John would be the official representative of the Wraithkin Hive Alliance, and their human populations of their worlds. John wasn't certain if this was because he was human and they knew that others would respond better to him or because he genuinely held their respect, but he felt a mild level of irritation at them for the decision.
It meant that the time he had hoped to spend enjoying the new baby and Todd time was now going to be filled with meeting with Wraithkin Queens discussing concessions that they would make in 'reparation' to the worlds that had once been fed on. These 'reparations' were similar to the assistance that they had given to the humans that lived on their worlds, i.e. the technology to determine the best locations for crops, the means of easily removing trees and their trunks from desired farm land using the beam from the darts, then being able to easily transport those trees to designated 'wood piles' for chopping, and setting up water systems for both irrigation and plumping, along with teaching the people how to maintain them.
John figured that this was actually a good method of attempting to make amends. There was nothing that could be done to return the lives lost but providing the people they once harmed with assistance going forward and helping up their technology for agricultural purposes would assist in population growth. That growth meant the people could produce more crops, raise larger families, and all around their populations would grow at a better rate. This in turn would help with cultural growth and a more natural advancement of technology for these worlds. All this without causing them to advance too quickly with weaponized technology, which the few surviving Tollan had been vocal against.
John likewise knew that for all their good intentions, the Genii would nitpick every bit of thing offered and demand more because they didn't need that and wanted more power instead. John had absolutely no intention of giving the Genii what they were likely to demand, weapons. Instead, he suggested to the council to offer to allow Genii children the opportunity to board in Atlantis and be educated there. It would have the duel effect of proving that the Genii were war mongers when they most likely would deny the offer and opening up the idea of better schooling for the IPC worlds. After all, if the Genii truly did want to advance their technology at a healthy rate, and not just develop more dangerous weapons, they would accept the opportunity to accept the education avalible to the Lantean children.
John also had another issue that derived a bit closer to home, that came from his frequent interactions with the Wraithkin queens, or rather three in particular. He noticed Todd stirring and decided that he might as well bring up the conversation now, rather than dwelling pointlessly on it. After all, just because they had access to each other's minds, didn't mean that they dug deep into the memories of their pasts and in Todd's case, those memories went deep. Still, this in particular was something that John would have appreciated knowing about before being blind sided with the information by Bitterwind.
"You're thinking too loudly," Todd grumbled as he shifted, clearly trying to get at an angle that he could push himself into a sitting position more easily.
"You know, coming from anyone else, that phrase makes no sense, but considering my thoughts can be heard by you… Well… can you blame me? Why didn't you tell me Bitterwind was your mother? Also, why do you guys both behave like you have absolutely nothing in common? She's your mother," John grouched back as they both settled to lean against the back board of the bed.
"Because when I failed her, I was no longer worthy of her recognition. In truth, up until she and my younger sisters took the retrovirus, any time her hives encountered one that I was on, she attempted to destroy it. That is actually how I ended up in the Genii's prison. My mother successfully destroyed the hive, I was forced to flee in a dart… I made the mistake of landing on a Genii controlled world that Kolya had his claws in," Todd admitted.
That answered a good number of lingering questions John had on how Todd was captured by Koyla. He had known it was a sore spot, but not how much so it was, "How did you fail her so badly that she actively tried killing you."
Todd hesitated for a moment, "Steel Flower… She was my younger sister, the one I was closest too. She was only two hundred years younger than me and was likely Bitterwind's favorite child. She was a gifted queen, had earned her own hive, rather requiring Bitterwind to win one for her… Steel Flower chose me as her First Commander, against Bitterwind's wishes. While the hive was rightfully Steel Flower's, Bitterwind felt I was too young, too academic, too much a Cleverman, too much a carrier, not ruthless enough to be a First Commander. She recommended older, more wily Commanders but Steel Flower would not be convinced, and I was all too eager to prove my worth. We were both still very young, you see. I was only a little over 900 years old and Steel Flower was just over 700. For a little over 200 years we managed, but not well. Bitterwind was right. With an older, more experienced First Commander, Steel Flower would have been far better off, and I would have been better off as her Chief Cleverman. Still, we learnt as best we could until a far shrewder Queen saw our weaknesses for what they were.
"She persuaded Steel Flower and I that she wished to form an alliance of mutual strength with Bitterwind. The initial negotiations were to take place on our hive and then we would send for Bitterwind to finish them, if we deemed the alliance worth it," Todd paused.
"It was a trap? Teyla mentioned how you seized control of the Alliance you had with her help," John eyed Todd. He didn't add that Todd had named Teyla Steel Flower. He had used his own sister's name as a ruse, but than if she was his first Queen other than his mother, the name held real meaning to him, any hive he controlled with out a queen was perhaps Steel Flower's in spirit.
Todd nodded, "It was. I should not have left Steel Flower alone with so much older a Queen. As it turned out, the Queen, Red Poison, had a daughter who was old enough to take control of a hive. I had little interest in heeding such a queen though, one that killed my sister. So, I killed them. Red Poison was quite startled with this reaction. Most hives would not risk going without a queen. Our hive, however, wasn't most hives. The Commanders within it were loyal to me, not a Queen that had just killed our queen. After I assured them that I would acquire us a new one, they gave up any semblance of protest. We did manage to find another Queen, though I changed the name I went by, altered the marking that Bitterwind had once given me, so that the Queen didn't know who I was. Bitterwind's wrath towards me was already vocal. I had both failed my queen and then violated custom.
"For a few centuries, things went well enough, we were an auxiliary hive to a Queen who allowed for Hive Daughters. The Queen assigned to us was… easily influenced by me. However, eventually, Bitterwind found the hive and knew it. I abandoned that queen easily. She was little more than a pawn. From there, it was almost a game of hunter and runner for Bitterwind and myself. I would change my appearance as much as possible, find a new Queen to manipulate to my advantage, and remain with her until Bitterwind found me. She never failed to recognize my mind," Todd was rubbing his stomach now. "If I fled the hive quickly enough, Bitterwind would allow it to survive and attempt to capture me. Otherwise, it was destroyed."
"Well, she's not trying to kill you now," John pointed out.
Todd let out a bitter laugh, "Only because I have somewhat redeemed myself in her eyes. I have proven that I have learnt from my failures. The Queens I left behind were wiser, more cunning, more adaptable for their time under my manipulations. For the most part, that is why they allowed it. That is how I gained the name Guide of Wraith. I have been on so many hives, served so many queens, my influence over the whole has been felt. I have also done what Bitterwind feels is my proper place. I have submitted to a sire, a worthy one, a great leader in his own right, and resigned myself to working as a respected scientist, a Cleverman. I have given up being a Queen's second-in-command."
"But you're a warrior too. You know I won't stop you from fighting after Fianna is born, right? The only objection I have at present is the risks to her. I know you can hold your own against the best of SpecOps," John countered, putting his hand over Todd's the rubbed the mound where their daughter lay.
"I am aware of this. Bitterwind will not approve, but she holds too much respect for you, I believe. You have a mind and tactical brilliance that is greater than most queens. She knows that. Which is why, for all that it goes against the long-standing traditions of the Hives, she and the other Queens submit to you and see you as their primary. She will likely never forgive me for Steel Flower's death, I do not forgive myself for it, so how could she, but she at least recognizes that I am your carrier and you would not tolerate harm or disrespect towards me," Todd admitted. "In a rather ironic twist, most of the Queens who had submitted, were once hive queens that I was a First Commander too."
John chuckled, "So, what you're saying is that even though your mother and sisters aren't likely to reconcile with you, they still recognize that you're the main reason the Wraithkin have an alliance of hives that far exceeds the size of any other Hive alliance in existence at present?"
Todd nodded, "This is one point that I am sorry for, though. Traditionally, when a Carrier that was born of a Queen, or a Queen who was born of a Queen, has their first daughter, their mother will attend the birth to recognize the child as of her offspring. The child is presented with a gift. A symbol of her connection to her grandmother and her lineage, as you would call Bitterwind. I am the oldest of Bitterwind's living children, and yet Fianna will not have that recognition."
John smiled sadly, kissed Todd's cheek, and then moved to where he could mentally sense their daughter's head was and kissed the part of Todd's belly over it, "It's her loss if she doesn't recognize her granddaughter. Fianna will never endure what you did. We both know that children make mistakes. As long as they learn from them, and what they did wasn't outright evil, we forgive them for the mistakes and teach them how to avoid making them in the future. As for what happened to Steel Flower… Todd you shouldn't blame yourself for that. Steel Flower was fully grown, not a child, not still in transition. You lacked the experience, by your own admission, to know better than to leave her with an untrusted Queen. You didn't kill your sister. You made a mistake, I'm sure it's one you have learnt a lot from and would never make a second time. What's more, you didn't just sit back and follow your sister's murderer's orders. You killed the bitch who did it. Which, as far as I'm concerned, Red Poison had it coming. You should forgive yourself, even if Bitterwind will never forgive you."
Todd snorted bitterly at that, "The majority of the time you are as ruthless and as sure as any Wraith Queen. So much so that on occasion, I forget that you hold far too much compassion for others to have been raised Wraith." He wriggled his body to the edge of the bed with that and made his way to the bathroom, making it clear that the conversation was over.
John shook his head. He knew better than to push the point now. John seriously doubted Todd had ever really purged the story of what happened between him, his sister, and his mother before now, and even what he told John was a seriously abbreviated version, given that the events had been occurring for over more than nine thousand years. A marriage of less than a year to John wasn't going to do much in the way of soothing that festering wound.
Todd sighed in relief the morning of the planned C-section. Granted, he couldn't eat before the process, per Keller's orders, but soon his daughter, Fianna Ata Sheppard, would be out of him, and over a few hours, his body would repair itself from the distortions created from carrying her. Furthermore, for all that he bore his daughter a great deal of affection, as he had developed for Rikki as well, who was as clever as Todd himself was, he longed to have his mobility back and to show those of SpecOps that for all that he was a Carrier, he was one that was fully capable of holding his own against any sire, human, Wraithkin, or Jaffa, with ease.
Keller had, in an act of mercy, scheduled the C-section to take place first thing, with the promise of food for Todd afterwards. John had, thankfully, not brought up the matter of Bitterwind again in the past two days, but Todd still felt the tension in his body at the knowledge that she would not be there to acknowledge his daughter. To accept the name they chose for her, though John and Todd had kept the choice quiet. Rikki's middle name had been Sorcha, which was the name that John's mother had taken when she had de-ascended and married his father. However, her name Rebecca was chosen by Nancy and was biblical. In contrast, Todd and John had chosen a stronger name for their child, Fianna was a feminine variant for the Gaelic for the term used for 'band of warriors', and Ata, in addition to being the true name of John's mother, it also had the Arabic meaning of 'gift'. Thus, the name implies she was the gift of a band of warriors or a gifted leader of a band of warriors, which Todd rather liked. It was a reminder that she was a symbol of united strength.
Todd allowed himself to be helped onto the medical bed by John after he had changed into the hospital gown that Keller had provided him with. John was bedecked in medical gear, his hair even covered in the odd hat thing that the nurses were also wearing, though he explained that it was to keep his hair from getting into the incision, which would be bad.
Todd found the idea ridiculous, given that he couldn't get an infection, due to his regenerative abilities, in fact, he would be fully healed within a few hours of the c-section, with no physical evidence of it or the pregnancy occurring, beside their daughter's existence. Keller appeared in the room, clearly prepared for the surgery, along with Beckett and the two 'OBGYNs' that had been learning of Wraithkin carrier pregnancies, though Dr. Perrel was the one that Todd was more familiar and comfortable with given his earlier consultations with Keller. This wouldn't be their first delivery of a child of a carrier. However, it would be the first of a hybrid child, one that was part Wraithkin, part human, and part Alteran.
Just as Keller and Beckett were about to begin, with the two others observing, there was a commotion outside the operating room. John stood and gently clasped his hand on Todd's shoulder, "I'll see what's going on. Don't start without me."
He was almost at the door when there was a crash and Bitterwind and Semper were forcing their way into the room. John immediately put himself between Todd and the potential threat, though Todd knew he was frozen in shock. This wasn't about threatening him just as he had his child, this was about tradition, one that Bitterwind had apparently decided to honor after all.
Todd felt his mother mentally address John before she started speaking, "I made a point of informing you of my connection to Todd so that you would know I had a right to be here, so why do I find myself being barred from attending the birth of my own offspring's first daughter? This is a tradition that has been maintained since long before my own birth much less yours, and it will be honored here. He is my eldest living offspring, as well as the best I have ever produced."
John immediately held up his hands, though it was more placating than it was in surrender, "Okay, there appears to be some sort of misunderstanding here. We were under the impression that you wouldn't want to attend our daughter's birth. However, as long as Todd is happy with the idea, I have no issues with you being present for your granddaughter's birth. Todd?"
He sent a wave of acceptance to both of them, unable to vocalize his wishes, but also not willing to pass up the opportunity of reconciling with his mother in some form. John nodded his understanding, "Well, he clearly wants you present, so I don't have an issue with it. However, there are certain procedures that need to be observed. Jennifer?"
Keller sighed before turning to a nurse, "Go get the surgical gowns and hair covers for them. Guess grandma and grandpa are staying."
The nurse left for a moment before coming back in and getting the pair into the gowns, though they only did so reluctantly. Keller held up her hand before they approached, "You don't hold the baby until after you've thoroughly scrubbed up. Daddy and Papa get to hold their daughter first. Then we will weight her and scan her, make sure she's perfectly healthy, which I'm sure she will be, then, and only then will you get to hold her, understood?"
Bitterwind looked sour over this but gave a stiff nod. With that satisfied, she and Semper shifted around the operating table and took Todd's other side. Bitterwind placed her hand on Todd's shoulder and eyed the hand that John was holding, though made no comment on it. Todd felt himself relaxing a little. Traditionally, it was the sire that removed the child from the carrier, this was why, do to the possible the event of some difficulty, another, trusted, Wraith would attend the birth. Their job was to, if there was a risk to the carrier's survival, provide the necessary 'Gift of Life' while the sire cared for their offspring. In the cases where the child was their first female, and the carrier was the child of the Queen, this position was always preformed by the Carrier's mother.
Bitterwind was making it clear that if she had still had her feeding hand, she would save Todd's life if there was a complication. She was telling him that she considered him her offspring once more. Todd resisted the urge to clench too tightly at John's hand when the pain of the first incision was made. There were far greater pains that Todd had endured and this was at least worth every nerve ending being enflamed.
Keller and Beckett were quick and efficient, not wasting any time and ensuring that the wounds did not attempt to close while they extracted his daughter. As soon as they got Fianna out and the cord cut, Keller quickly removed the afterbirth. Once it was extracted, they made sure the seams of the incisions made were aligned properly and watched as each stage of incisions healed itself properly. Todd felt the pain of the process eb away as Keller handed over their wailing daughter to John who had a tender smile on his face. Todd could recognize the look of absolute love, unconditional love, for their daughter on John's face, even without the need to sense his feelings through the bond, though the sense of it was nearly overwhelming.
John handed their daughter over to Todd and Todd froze, "Her hair… it is violet…"
John chuckled in amusement, "We knew that the genetics mixed together might get a few weird results. It's probably brought out latent red pigments from Bitterwind. I think it's cute."
Todd relaxed. It was a logical point. He knew Semper's own carrier progenitor had had the blue that Todd possessed. He had also made a study of human genetics and how they worked. The alleles for hair color were particularly complex with them and some of Todd's younger, carrier brothers had also had violet hair. Instead, he focused on the rest of his daughter's appearance. Her skin tone was neither the coloring of a Wraith's or the pale pinkish of a human's but rather an extremely light, pale, almost white, blue. It also lacked the stiffer, glosser appearance, but more resembled a human's than a Wraith's in texture. Her eyes, when she blinked them open at her fathers, were a bright, vibrant yellowish green, with the slits that appeared to indicate that she would have exceptional night vision from her Wraith heritage.
Todd also pointedly checked her hands, to ensure there was no feeding apparatus. Though the scans showed no signs of one, and the retrovirus seemed to have eliminated it from his genetic code, Todd wanted to ensure that there weren't latent genetics that would bring it forth again in future generations. He relaxed when her hands showed no present seam, indicating the presence of a feeding hand. Reluctantly, he allowed Keller to take Fianna back and bring the baby over to a scanner. Then, she weighted her before bringing her back.
Keller smiled brightly, "Perfectly healthy, and pretty damned cute looking too. I think I like the increased variety in hair colors in the city. It makes the place feel more alive. The purple looks good on her."
"Yeah, it does. She's going to be a real heartbreaker when she gets older," John responded with his voice laden with affection.
However, Todd could sense Bitterwind's growing agitation. If this were occurring on a hive, she would have been the first to hold Fianna. Todd sent a mental request for her to come over to take her grandchild. John tensed but didn't stop it. Todd did notice that John was watching her like a hawk as she carefully cradled Fianna's head. Semper pulled something out from a pocket underneath his surgical gown and handed it over to her.
Bitterwind gave her granddaughter a crooked smile, "Her mind is exceptionally strong even now. She would be a great Queen, one that would instill fear into the hearts of other Queens. You chose your mate well. What is her name to be?"
"Fianna Ata Sheppard," John answered.
Bitterwind narrowed her eyes as she sounded out the name, "Fee-ah-na, and what does this name mean? I understand the names chosen by humans always have a meaning."
"Fianna is the feminine of Fiann which means band of warriors. Ata means gift. Together, the name means gifted leader of a band of warriors," Todd went with the definition that he knew would most please Bitterwind.
Bitterwind nodded approvingly, "A strong name for a strong Queen, it is fitting. To my eldest surviving offspring's first daughter, I gift her with my progenitor carrier's favorite hair binder. He was a strong, wise Cleverman, may Fianna Ata Sheppard be so wise as he once was and take wisdom from this gift." She held up a silver, ornate, long, thin tube that Todd recognized as from the things she had kept stored safely away as gifts for her first granddaughters. She then gently placed it in Fianna's flexing hand and curled her hand around it.
John clearly didn't understand the significance of the gift, but Todd did and felt it fully. The possession of a Queen's source was a prized gift to receive for a granddaughter. She handed Fianna back to Todd, "You should have returned to me when Steel Flower died. My ire would not have been so great towards you if you had. That you continuously went to other Queens than me, gave them guidance where you should have been the First Commander for one of your sisters, of course I ensured those Queens felt my wrath. You are and always will be my offspring, do not forget it again." With this, she pressed a shocking kiss to Todd's head, causing him to freeze for a moment.
The moment passed and Bitterwind nodded to John, "Do not expect him to remain so complacent and obedient now that he is no longer carrying a child. My son has always altered the perceptions of how things should be to others." With this, she swept from the room with Semper, leaving a group of stunned medical professionals, John feeling relieved, and Todd feeling completely overwhelmed.
The silence was broken by Beckett, "Right, well, I'm not entirely certain what that was all about, but that's a lovely gift for her granddaughter, I think. Something of great sentimental value, I'd wager. I would make sure to put that somewhere safe for Fianna if I were you. It's a lovely name you picked out too. A good means of honoring your heritages."
Keller smiled next, "Well, I thought it was sweet, though I clearly don't know everything that was going on in that conversation. I had no idea that Bitterwind was Todd's mother. If I had, we could have avoided the dramatics of her bursting in like that."
"It was an old misunderstanding brought on by a lack of communication. I'm sure we'll be able to settle things properly with her later. Todd just didn't think she would want to be here," John offered vaguely.
Todd forced himself to process the information he was now in possession of as Keller transferred him to a clean bed in the main infirmary, Todd gave Fianna her first feeding, and then they announced people could come in and visit. A nurse brought Todd a tray with a hardy porcuboar and tuttle root stew in it to eat. Rikki had been waiting impatiently off to the side of the infirmary with her friends and produced a massive, stuffed porcuboar for Fianna, "Of course, this is only the first gift, wait till you guys see the nursery. It was a bit of a time crunch as we put the finishing touches on it, but we got done early this morning before Fianna was officially born."
"I am not certain what this is for. This stuffed creature is larger than Fianna," Todd admitted.
"Oh, it isn't for her to play with now, it's for when she's a bit bigger and can appreciate it properly. Every baby needs their stuffy," Rikki responded chipperly. "She and you guys will appreciate the nursery way more. We only just finished the last of it this morning because we had some difficulty with the wallpaper. We're going redo Remus's room next week now that we figured it out. Nothing but the best for my baby siblings."
John chuckled, "Well, we appreciate the effort you've made, even though we have no idea what you did with the room."
"It's supposed to be a surprise! Of course, you don't know," Rikki did a neat little imitation of Rodney with her huff.
With this, Rikki settled in a chair and got in a little bit of snuggles with her little sister before returning her back to Todd as more people arrived.
The next to arrive was John's former team and company. Rodney produced a basket of stuffed toys that resembled small farming animals, announced what they were and then handed them over to John. Teyla produced the first useful present, what looked to be a hand-crafted rattle, "Kannan spent a great deal of time carving it. The writing carved into it is in Ancient and it is an old Athosian blessing. 'May the Ancestors guide your path and ensure those you encounter are true of heart.'"
Fianna watched the rattle as John shook it for her and then let her take it in her empty hand, the other still clutching the gift from her grandmother. Ronon produced another useful gift. Two specially designed carriers for Fianna, "So, you can hold her and work at the same time. One's sized for John, one for you." Ronon told Todd.
Jeannie produced something nice as well, "It's not made of the same material as the new uniforms, so it isn't as durable, but they are extremely durable, and easier to clean and more comfortable, which is necessary for a baby. The fabric won't stop a bullet, but knives and feeding hands won't stand a chance against it, plus it isn't as likely to tear." She explained as she held up the baby clothing that she made for Fianna in sizes that would carry them for up to a year in theory.
Zelenka gave them a CD of music that had been recorded on another world. It was, Todd had to admit later when he listened to it, beautiful music, for all that he didn't recognize the instruments. After that group left, Windwhip and Silverclaw arrived. Silverclaw gifted Fianna with her first dagger, which was traditionally given when a Queen safely survived her transition, but given that Fianna would never have one, it could be considered appropriate to give it now. Windwhip presented Fianna's first wristband, clearly crafted to match with Todd's grandcarrier's hair binder, and intended to be worn when she was a little older.
As they were the two eldest of his sisters, these were, by right's, their gifts to present. Todd once more felt keenly the message in these gifts, they said they were still his sisters, for all that they had not grown up seeing his fighting prowess and cunning wit. They also gave their niece a kiss on the forehead and a pointed reminder that he owed their daughters the proper gifts as well. He had every intention of giving them too. After that, there was a mixture of various people from both SpecOps and the labs dropping off token gifts, children's tales from their lands of birth, trinkets, stuffed toys, more than a few brought Todd diapers and baby wipes, to his bemusement.
Vala was among the last to arrive, delayed by caring for her baby boy, James Cole Mitchell-Jackson, and presented Todd with a hand croqueted blanket that she had made with careful instructions from Cam's mother and grandmother. The blanket was black, with the point of origin symbol for Lantea carefully croqueted into it in a pale blue. It was clear that it was a gift that she had likely spent the last several months working on for Todd and the sentiment held value to Todd for that effort.
Finally, after two more feedings, one by Todd and one by John, Keller scanned Todd and declared him fit to leave the infirmary, though she pointedly told him he was to take it easy for the next week, to his annoyance. The mountain of gifts were ferried by Rikki and her friends back to their quarters. Rikki bounced in excitement as they put everything down in the living area of the suite. John held Fianna and watched as Rikki moved over to the door that she had intentionally kept sealed against all outside her little group the past few months, unlocking it for them.
John scanned around the room curiously and wondered what special features were hidden in the room. On the surface, it looked like a rather bland looking baby's nursery from Earth. Three walls were of an off-white wallpaper while the fourth was lined with bookshelves, where the windows weren't, a dresser, and a changing table.
John knew there was more to it than the surface, especially given the number of times he had interrupted Rikki and her friends debating how to improve the wall circuitry or make something compatible. Rikki led them first over to the crib. It had, by far, the most obviously modernized features. The screen built into the side held the same information that was contained on the bassinets and such in the NICU for starters.
"Right, so, first, you put Fianna down in the crib and we'll show you how everything works," Rikki announced.
John eyed her before following the instructions. As soon as Fianna's back was on the mattress, the screen began putting out information. Rikki explained, "Now, the basic design is based off what I made for Dr. Keller. The mattress takes Fianna's vitals like heartbeat, breathing, temperature, and audio to determine if she's in destress. However, there are a lot of features that this crib has that the ones in the NICU don't have. Now this icon indicates neural stimulus."
Rikki pressed it and a list appeared, "There are, of course, a verity of options and we can always program new ones in for you if you want. The ones here already have three different settings. The first is just the mobile setting."
She pressed the first option for it, which said space. Immediately, the Lantean solar system was being holographically projected over Fianna's head. She then cycled through a few of the options, dinosaurs, atoms, jungle plants, cartoonish animals. She then moved on, "The second one adds audio stimulus, but it's intended to be soothing for Fianna."
The second setting for space added instrumental music, which John was fairly certain came from Star Trek. After that was thoroughly demonstrated, the dinosaur one had Jurassic Park music, making John was rolling his eyes at his eldest child. The third setting revealed what Rikki and her friends had been working so hard on, "Okay, that is cool." John admitted as the wallpaper on the walls turned out to be continuous screens. The space setting turned them black and the ceiling too, John realized now, and essentially turned the room into a space dome, showing the constellations as they would be visible from the city. The dinosaur setting had several options, one for each continent and their corresponding animal and plant life.
"This entire room appears to be designed to stimulate neural development," Todd observed.
"Yep," Rikki responded before turning off the extras for development connected to the system built into the crib. "That's not all though. This feature here allows you to track Fianna's feedings and diaper changes, any concerns you might have with regarding those. This one monitors the room's environmental controls. Its designed to keep the room exactly between 68 and 72 degrees and monitor Fianna to see where she seems most comfortable with the temperature in that range. This will help her sleep more easily without putting her at an increased risk of SIDS. This feature, in addition to monitoring her vitals, will send an alert to both your room and the infirmary if it senses something's wrong with her breathing, heartbeat, or she experiences a temperature spike. And last, but certainly not least. This feature is designed to recognize if the city is under siege from hives or other threats. If the city's shields go up and Fianna is inside the crib, it erects it's own personal shields. Now, you two, Mom, Keller, and me and my friends are currently the only ones who can override the shields, incase she needs to be fed or something, but you can add other people to that list. So, just incase Wraith or Naari get inside the city, she will be safe from immediate harm from them."
"What if they damage the controls? Will it lower the shield or lock it on?" John asked in concern.
"It will lock them on, but not to worry, because there is a secondary control panel that can be used to deactivate the shield on the underside of the crib that can be revealed if you shift the panel covering it. It's the third panel from the right side and five down from the head. It looks identical to the rest so don't forget that. Also, there are also environmental controls built into the crib, so CO2 filtration, and it's self-contained, so even if they released a neurotoxin into the room, Fianna will be perfectly safe. Oh, and we installed a venting system designed to detect any dangerous fumes or chemicals in the room. If it does, it will raise the shield, vent the room, and circulate clean air into the room," Rikki looked proud of herself.
"You really went full overkill when it came to designing this room. No wonder it took so long to finish," John commented, though the knowledge that so many protections were intentionally built in, did make John feel a little safer. "How did you power it, is it plugged into the city's grid?"
"Yes, but it also has a backup power source in case someone tampers with the main systems," Rikki smirked. "Each of the corners has a built in Mini ZPM. The system will draw from each individually if the power of the city goes out for some reason."
John nodded. This was definitely an impressive nursery. Todd looked thoroughly pleased, "This is excellent. I doubt there is a way to have designed a better room for Fianna. Might I ask what that oddly shaped chair in the corner is for?"
"It's a rocking chair. You know, for when you're feeding Fianna. Oh, that's right, that has features too. So, this button here indicates who is feeding her. The green is Dad, the blue is Todd. The first press activates a timer, the second one stops it and that way you can time how long she fed for and the mattress has a scale built in to monitor her weight. So, after every feeding, it measures her weight compared to what it was before she was taken from the crib and you can get a number on how much she ate. There's also bassinet versions for your offices that I made with the same data gather that gets sent back to the crib, so you can monitor day and night. Mom's nursery for Remus has all the same features, by we've been installing them as we finished them there. The last thing is the wallpaper for his room."
John couldn't help hugging Rikki in a bear hug, "You're the perfect big sister, you know that?"
"My friends helped too," Rikki protested.
"And they are awesome honorary siblings too, but you did this just so your baby sister and brother could have better than the best that ever existed before. I don't think the Ancients had something this good for their babies," John couldn't help the affection he felt for Rikki for the effort she had made for Fianna and Remus.
"Well, they did have holographic mobiles, but those only had atoms programed for them. Seb spent weeks working on the programing for that to modify it in his spare time," Rikki countered.
"And I thoroughly appreciate every ounce of effort you guys made for Fianna," John said with another squeeze before giving hugs to Seb, Amelia, Tom, and Jeff. "Seriously, this is the best baby gift possible."
Rikki beamed, "Yeah, now we just need to work all the designs into toddler beds for Teyla and Uncle Dave."
"I'm sure they would appreciate that, yes," John admitted with a chuckle.