Secrets
By: SNBRADY
Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate: Atlantis or any of it's characters.
A/N: Yay a new chapter, this one's a bit out there, hope ya'll enjoy.Oh and just so ya'll knowI'm a total review whore so they're really appreciated.
No seriously, what?
Chris watched as Sarah's expression changes from the little smile she'd been wearing almost continuously since she sat down, to a much more serious one. Worry began to creep into his mind as to weather she was suddenlyhaving second thoughts about becoming involved with him.
Holding up one of her fingers Sarah says to Chris, "just hold that thought for a second." Quickly her fingers sweep up behind her ear to tap on her headset, "this is Dr. Reilly, go ahead."
Chris felt a sense of relief wash over him, that is until Sarah says rather sharply a few moments later, "what!" Sarah's next question comes out somewhat skeptical, "like a seahorse?" It only takes a moment before she rolls her eyes, "never mind, I'm on my way."
Chris couldn't help but smile at Sarah's little nautical reference, though he was also intrigued as to what she meant by it. "Is everything ok?" Chris asks quickly taking his hand off Sarah's knee as she starts to stand.
"Don't know yet," Sarah answers looking a little flustered, "Colonel Sheppard you might want to come with me, Dr. Weir and Col. Caldwell will be meeting us there as well."
John's a bit taken back by the invitation, "ok," he says warily as he goes to follow Dr. Reilly.
Chris and Laura watch them leave the mess hall, "wonder what that was all about?" Laura says turning to Chris.
"I imagine it has something to do with Hermiod," Chris states returning his attention to his now cold breakfast.
"That's not exactly what I meant," Laura says suspiciously as she watches Sarah and Col. Sheppard enter the transporter.
"So what did Beckett say was going on with Hermiod?" Col. Sheppard questions as the doors to the transporter close in front of him and Dr. Reilly, or the snake charmer as he was secretly calling her inside his head.
Sarah shot him a look that said I don't really like you right now, but then she just sighs before answering, "I'd really like to confirm it for myself before I start to make a fuss… or add to the gossip mill," adding the last part with a smirk.
Sheppard shots her a bit of a glare, but decides the best thing to do would be to just keep quiet for now, he'd find out soon enough and Dr. Reilly looked a bit wired over the news from the infirmary so he decided it couldn't be to bad.
The trip to the infirmary was mercifully short and quiet for Sarah and Ash if you discount the Colonel's almost constant fidgeting. This was one of the most annoying things for Sarah about being a Tok'ra, when people knew they had a tendency to be nervous when she was around. The only one here on Atlantis who knew, but hadn't seemed even the littlest bit nervous was Dr. Beckett though Sarah and Ash chalked that up to his scientific curiosity overshadowing any nervousness.
Though it wasn't just on Atlantis, Col. Caldwell had been more than a little wary about her posting in the beginning, not that she held it against him. He had every reason in the universe to feel uncomfortable around her. The fact was Sarah and Ash felt a lot of sympathy towards him for what he was forced to endure at the hands of a Goa'uld, a forced implantation… just the thought of it sicken both of them, because among the Tok'ra there was no higher crime than to take an unwilling host.
When Sarah, Ash and Colonel Sheppard arrived at the infirmary, Dr. Weir and Col. Caldwell were already there with Dr. Beckett staring at a computer screen.
"Hurry up Sarah, I want to see," Ash exclaims excitedly as they made their way over to the others.
"So what exactly am I looking at?" Col. Sheppard asks curiosity laced throughout his voice.
Completely ignoring the Colonel for the moment Sarah leans over Carson's shoulder to see the screen a huge smile curving her lips, "oh my God look at it," She says in a breathy whisper. A little laugh escapes Sarah's mouth unable to tear her eyes off the screen, "sorry Beckett guess I was looking too closely before, must still be the epidemiologist in me."
Carson chuckles a little at Sarah's response, "that's alright dear now I can officially claim the discovery myself," Sarah and Carson both start laughing like a couple of giddy children.
"If you two are quite finished, could you please explain what's going on," says Col. Caldwell a touch of impatience in his voice.
Carson and Sarah finally look at the other three people standing nearby, huge grins on their faces, Sarah answers, "well it would seem that Hermiod's… pregnant."
Blink, blink, Dr. Weir and Colonels Caldwell and Sheppard just stand speechless in front of the two physicians.
"Shouldn't there be crickets chirping in the background right about now?" Ash asks her voice laced with her usual sarcasm.
Sarah can't stop herself from giggling at Ash's response, she's still a little giddy about the news of Hermiod's pregnancy, "I don't think they have crickets here unless they imported 'em," Sarah could feel Ash's smile at her quip.
Dr. Weir is the first to snap out of it, "he's what?" she asks, her voice is still slightly weak from shock.
"Yeah I'm with her," Col. Sheppard breaks in a moment after Dr. Weir's question, "I mean how is that even possible because I thought he was a… he."
"Actually there are several species where it is in fact the males that carry the children," Sarah answers quickly launching into teacher mode. Turning back to Carson, Sarah continues with the elaboration, "that's what I meant with the seahorse comment earlier; male seahorses carry the baby seahorses."
Col. Caldwell finally speaks up before Sarah can make any more examples, "wait I don't understand, I thought that the Asgard weren't able to reproduce."
"That's sort of our point here Colonel," Carson cuts in, "we might be lookin' at the future of Asgard race right now."
"You mean that little thing there," Col. Sheppard says pointing at the screen; however, he is actually pointing at one of Hermiod's internal organs, not the baby.
Sarah can sense that if Ash was in control of her body at the moment she would be rolling her eyes at Sheppard, "ok that clenches it he's an idiot," Ash says the annoyance in her voice more than obvious.
Carson; however, beats them to a response, "not exactly… but this isn't the most surprising thing."
"Carson if there's something more than Hermiod being pregnant, I'm not sure I want to know," Dr. Weir says her expression still one of shock.
"Actually I was more so talking to Dr. Reilly," Carson responds turning back to the computer to bring up another image. The image he brings up is of a triple helix DNA strand, "this is what we picked up from the scanners of the baby's genetic makeup." Carson zooms in a specific section, "as you can see it doesn't look like normal Asgard DNA, so this leads me hypothesis that perhaps this is what there DNA looks like in its embryonic or fetal stages, since we have no way of knowing precisely how far along this child is." Carson continues with his thoughts, "or it's possibly some kind of genetic abnormality…"
"It's not," Sarah states making Carson finally turn to look at her again her face has gone white as a sheet, "I've seen something like this before… you remember about four years ago when SG-1 made contact with the alien race that called themselves the Serrakin and that they had learned to co-exist with humans even inter-breed with them." Sarah begins to point out spots on the computer screen, "you see here, here and here those are human genetic markers."
Dr. Weir takes the opportunity to break into the conversation, "so are you saying that this child is part human?"
"Yes that's exactly what I'm saying," Sarah states matter of factly to the others.
Silence once again descends over the group until it's finally broken by Col. Sheppard when he says quite incredulously, "no seriously, what?"
A/N: Bet ya'll didn't see that one comin', but this is what happens when I watch a documentary on PBS about declining seahorse populations in Indonesia. I thought it would be a really interesting twist for the Asgard if it turned out that it was the males that carried the babies. You know that old saying about how if men had to give birth that the species would die out; however, in this case that statement was entirely true. I promise the next chapter will have much more Chris and Sarah fun in it too and we'll find out who the mama is, though some of you may have already guessed.
