Anything with /'s inside quotes is being spoken in Czech.

Chapter 8

"Surprise!" Radek jumped a mile when he walked into the darkened room and was greeted by the shouts. He'd been called by Rodney to assist him in repairs he was making in this room.

"Don't worry, Radek, I'm still doing the baby shower, but this is the Radek shower." Rodney guided the other man to a chair, taking his toolkit and setting it aside. "Since you can't go to the nearest mall and pick up what you'll need between now and when she gets here, and your clothes are getting a bit on the tight side, we decided to give you a hand." Rodney patted the man's shoulder, and waded back into the party, as usual barking orders, apparently quite happy to be in charge of so many people. Radek caught John watching him, noting a fondness in the Colonel's eye which made him smile.

The party was largely an excuse to celebrate and everyone welcomed it, aside from the fact that Radek had a good many friends in the city. They had been planning it for a month or so, Radek learned later, to give people time to order anything they wanted from Earth for it. At the four month mark, Radek had begun to stress the seams of his clothing a little and had been wondering what to do when he got any bigger. He'd spoken to a few women on the mainland about altering some of his clothing – their delays in alterations made sense now, if they were covering up for the party.

The room had two tables and a dozen or more chairs, one of which was dressed with a red bow. It was a gift from the science department, ergonomically designed to accommodate Radek's pregnancy as he progressed. One table was laden with a buffet of Earth and Athosian dishes. Radek was embarrassed at the other, piled high with presents wrapped in everything from paper to cloth.

It was more than Radek had ever expected, even from his friends, and he wondered if it was the extra estrogen in his blood that made him feel a little teary-eyed at all the hugs and well wishes. The party continued merrily until Rodney determined it was time to open the presents, beginning, of course, with his own.

It was a cloth wrapped box, containing some more of the Athosian tea he'd been drinking so much of. It was Elizabeth, standing beside Radek on 'wrapping paper duty' who noticed the blue cloth wrapping was a shirt. It was the same as the blue shirts all the science teams had, but a bit larger around the midsection. Rodney covered his own generosity by pointing out the tea kept Radek from getting sick – and thus interrupting his job, and the blue shirt so he wouldn't be getting any extra attention. The words seemed harsh but those who knew Rodney as Radek did only smiled, knowing what the man was truly saying.

The other presents were along similar lines, a lot of new clothing, some extra pillows, various pregnancy-comforts and Radek never did figure how Cadman had gotten his shoe size to order a pair of sneaker-like slipon shoes that he could get on without bending. Some of the gifts were Earth bought, and some he recognized as Athosian made. A few he couldn't place, and concluded they were either traded from other worlds or hand made by the person giving the gift. The generosity warmed him immensely, and the horror of his attack so long ago, and the close call more recently were both dimmed in his mind.

Elizabeth pressed the chime on Radek's door, holding a package in one hand. The party had been two weeks ago, but her present for him had only just arrived on the Daedalus. She'd managed to get a last minute shirt from one of the Athosians, but she still wanted to give this to Radek personally. In a way it was better this way – the present was really more for Radek himself and less to do with his child. Seeing the other presents he'd been given, she was almost glad of the delay – half of it would have been out of place.

"Elizabeth," Radek couldn't hide his smile when he opened the door. He stepped aside, a hand resting on his five-month stomach under a light blue shirt.

"Thank you. /I meant this to arrive before the party but the post office didn't get to Stargate Command in time so it had to come on a later Daedalus run./"

"/Thank you./" He smiled, moving around the room and clearing a box of his no-longer-fit clothes off his desk chair. "/Sorry, I've been so busy I haven't had time to rearrange everything. I have more clothes now than I have room for./"

"/It's alright. I could talk to Rodney if you need time off .../" She didn't like the idea that Radek might be overworking himself, intentionally or not.

"/No! Thank you, but it's not that I'm overworking, not like that. Only that there really is so much to do. Rodney has put me in charge of getting the new staff acquainted with the place, and I can spend more time now with the city than before./" he smiled and Elizabeth was reminded of the city's music he spoke of.

"/Alright then, as long as you're not overdoing it./" Elizabeth turned the neatly wrapped package over in her hands before handing it across to him.

Radek settled back on the bed, sitting up as much as his stomach would allow. "/Thank you again./" He smiled and carefully unwrapped the package. The maternity part of the gift was on top. Several pairs of slacks, she'd had custom made for his height and potential waistline, along with a matching belt. Beneath the slacks was the more personal set of gifts. He opened the cardboard box, revealing a dozen or so wrapped trinkets, which he recognized immediately as being from his own home country.

"/I spent a little time there in college,/" she explained as Radek unwrapped all the little presents. "/I've always tended to collect things when I spent any time in a country, little things like that. I never get a chance to really display them, but I always keep them. I thought you might want a little reminder of home. If nothing else, you can give them to Marina, a little something of where her father came from./"

"/I don't know what to say./" Radek spoke slowly, his voice just a little awed as he ran his fingers over the precious little bits of wood, clay and metal. About half of it was really just tourist trinkets, but it was still a reminder of home. He felt a sharp pang of homesickness, seeing the familiar imagery, and yet, he realized the nostalgia was for a time, more than a place. "/I cannot thank you enough, Elizabeth./" Blue eyes shone behind curved glass and Radek wondered how she'd known, or had the luck to guess that he had been wishing for something more of his native country, some way to pass his heritage on to his child.