Epilogue

When Teal'c opened his eyes, he felt groggy and out of sorts – and a fair amount of pain, although that he ignored immediately. He looked at the ceiling – which told him he had been sleeping on his back – and tried to decide from that ceiling where he was.

"You're awake. Good."

The voice he knew immediately, of course. He turned his head, wincing slightly at the drum that was suddenly pounding inside his skull. Melony Mitchell was sitting beside his bed – although he noticed immediately that she was slouched far more than usual, and that there was a cane leaning against the padded chair she was sitting in.

"Colonel Mitchell…"

The woman smiled.

"Teal'c. How do you feel?"

"I am fine."

She nodded.

"Carson agrees. Which is a relief to me, let me tell you."

Teal'c frowned, looking around. Beside the bed he was lying in – and it was in the infirmary at Atlantis, he now knew – there was a small stand. On this stand were several small gifts; flowers and candy boxes for the most part, and one very large white stuffed bear. A teddy bear, he knew. It was holding a balloon with a large yellow smiley face and the words get well scribbled on it in a seemingly random pattern.

Melony followed his gaze.

"That's from Jack."

Teal'c wasn't surprised. O'Neill was really the only one – aside from Mitchell herself – who would ever dare to get him something so nutty. However, he didn't mind. He was used to being on the receiving end of Jack O'Neill's odd sense of humor and even enjoyed it at times. He turned back to her, studying the way she was seated, which was obviously designed to keep her thighs from touching the chair she was seated on.

"Are you injured?"

She shrugged.

"Not so much. Just some scratches. They're almost healed. You took the brunt of things."

"Your injury is my fault, Colonel."

Melony shook her head. She'd expected something like this, which was one of the reasons it was her sitting here waiting for him to wake up once Carson stopped the slow of sedatives into Teal'c's IV instead of Teyla being there. That and that she wanted to make sure he was okay first hand, of course.

"It wasn't your fault."

"I am the one who surveyed the planet and told you there was minimal danger. I was incorrect."

She shrugged.

"It's pretty easy to miss shape changing people, I imagine. Especially when they have a mystical being protecting them – and apparently cloaking their village somehow."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow at that, and Mitchell smiled.

"I sent one of the Wraith darts out to do a scan of the planet – just to see if the Wraith would be able to find the village of the Shasari – or the other one Cane mentioned while we were there. It couldn't find either."

"Which means they are cloaked, somehow…"

Melony nodded.

"And that means there's no way you could have known what was there."

"I still should have checked," he said, stubbornly. "It was my duty to-"

"You didn't fail, Teal'c," she interrupted. "Not as far as I'm concerned. But you did a great job bringing in a rescue party to find me, and I appreciate that."

He didn't know how to respond to that, and Melony knew it. She smiled.

"Are you up to another visitor?"

"Who?"

There weren't very many people here he wanted to allow to see him sprawled in bed like he was just then.

Mitchell reached for her cane and stood up, slowly and with a wince of pain.

"Teyla."

His frown faded, much to her amusement – although she definitely hid that.

"I'll tell her you're awake."

"Thank you."

"I expect you to be ready to get back to work in 72 hours, though. We have some things to take care of."

Teal'c nodded. He was ready now, but knew she wasn't. Not to judge by the way she was leaning on the cane.

"I will be ready."

"Good."

First Primes were hard to train, after all, and Melony had no intention of finding a new one.

OOOOOOOOOOO

She left Teal'c in the infirmary and started toward the command center. Sheppard and the others were due back that morning, and she was interested in seeing any pictures they might have brought back of the babies. She wasn't a particularly maternal person herself – which was just as well since she definitely didn't want any kids just then – but babies were irresistible, and she was curious what Light One babies looked like.

"Are you supposed to be out of bed?"

She turned and saw Sheppard heading toward her, looking tan and cocky as usual. She also noticed that his hair was growing out again, but she didn't mention that.

"Yeah. I have to move around so I don't stiffen up. How was the trip?"

Sheppard grinned, and pulled out a thick stack of photos from his breast pocket.

"I have pictures."

Perfect.

When she reached for them, though, he pulled them away.

"Why don't we go sit down somewhere so you don't fall over or something?"

Bah.

OOOOOOOOOOO

They ended up in the little lounge. Mainly because it was closer than anywhere else, and Mitchell definitely didn't want to walk too far. She was healing nicely, but was still rather stiff – and Talon couldn't do all that much about it, really. Once she'd seated herself gingerly on the cushiony sofa, John handed her the stack of pictures and she smiled as she thumbed through them.

"Oh, they're adorable, aren't they?"

He nodded, grinning a smile that could only be fatherly pride.

"The girl is named Jane – which is my mother's name – and the boy is named Aiden."

Melony smiled, not really surprised that Sheppard would name the baby after Ford.

"I'll bet he loved that."

Sheppard nodded, smugly.

"It's a good name."

"Yeah. What did Rodney name his two?"

"Elizabeth and Myron."

She smiled.

"Cute."

"I was going to name mine after you, but the Light Ones have a custom that says it's bad luck to name an infant after a deity. Even if it's not one of theirs."

"I'm not-"

"I know. But they know that the Jaffa consider you to be their god – or goddess, or whatever – and that ruled you out. Sorry."

"I'll get over it." She looked back down at the pictures, amused. "What did the council have to say about the Shasari?"

Sheppard shrugged.

"I'm not sure. There was a lot of surprise when Kale and the others returned with the news, and they probably are still getting over it. He did mention – after McKay pestered him – that they might be going into the ancient city to check it out."

"And did they invite McKay?"

"They hadn't made any arrangements by the time we left, and I made him stop bothering them about it. The Light Ones have a lot on their plates already with the four new babies."

"Oh?"

He nodded, smiling.

"Apparently the entire group raises them, so everyone's involved with them – some kind of bonding thing. It's really interesting, because the babies are telepathic, too, and when they start crying or screaming they do it both out loud and mentally. Everyone starts wincing and holding their heads."

"Good thing we don't do that…"

"I agree."

"It didn't have any effect on you guys?"

"Nah. But it does explain why Kale is so willing to help us with the Wraith traps if we need him."

Melony smiled, and leaned back just a little.

"We'll be ready to bait the traps as soon as Rodney is ready to get started."

"I'll let him know. How long until you're back to normal?"

"A couple more days."

"That should be about right then…"

"Yeah."

By then, the signal coming from the device they'd removed from Ronon should be actively sending – and maybe they'd even get a nibble. Then things would get interesting again.

Like they haven't already been?

We don't want to sit around doing nothing forever, do we?

Talon grumbled, but she knew his answer without him even saying it. Of course he didn't. There were Jaffa to lead, and worlds to explore…

And Wraith to kill

And who knew? They might even meet up with the Shasari again – or maybe some other splinter group of Light Ones or some other unknown race.

Woo hoo

She smiled at the sarcasm, but knew he didn't mean it. He was just as nosy about the rest of the universe as she was.

"There you are!"

She was pulled from her internal conversation by the arrival of Rodney McKay, who had an even larger stack of pictures in his hand. He crossed the room, grinning excitedly.

"I have pictures!"

Other races and worlds would have to wait, though. New fathers with pictures were a force of nature that neither she nor Talon could stand up against.

"Well bring them over here…"

Babies were meant to be oohed and ahhed over, after all. Even ones that would some day be able to turn themselves into wolves and birds.

The End

Author's Note: So! The end. I hope you all liked it. I know there's a lot more I can and could do with the Shasari, and I might bring them up again, sometime in another story. Who knows? Thanks for reading!