Bringing Home Baby

Cainwen: I know it's short. I promise to update tomorrow, if you promise to REVIEW!!!
"Well, how'd it go?" asked Dr. Weir as the team stepped through the gate and the wormhole closed behind them.

"Good," said Sheppard. "A little weird, but good."

"Oh," replied Elizabeth. "And Mairghread?"

Teyla stepped forward. On the way back to the gate, they had of course stopped by the village. There, one of the women provided Teyla with a baby sling "to make travel simpler" she said. The Athosian gracefully lifted the sleeping babe to show Elizabeth.

For a fleeting moment, a look of revulsion passed over the leader's face. However, it was quickly replaced with that loving, indulgent and gently fierce pride generally seen on the face of a new aunt or grandmother as the baby stirred, awoke and gazed at the tall, curly haired woman.

Dr. Weir made the soft clicking noise with is universally understood to mean "oh, how precious/adorable/tiny she is" and gently stroked the baby's cheek with a finger. The wise leader had clearly melted in the gold-green eyes of the babe.

"If ye doon't mind," interrupted Beckett. "Ah'd like to take her oover tae tha nursery."

"Oh, of course," murmured Dr. Weir, coming out of her maternalistic trance.

"Teyla, luv?" Beckett waved her on in front of him, Sheppard, Ronon and several others following behind.

ooooooooooooooooo

"Well doc?"

Beckett sighed heavily. He was trying to give the wee lass a bath and then check her more thoroughly before feeding her and putting her to bed. However, the crowd of spectators, included Sheppard, Teyla, Rodney, Elizabeth and what seemed to be all of off-duty Atlantis, plus Ronon, who seemed to be on the verge of exploded with the presence of a wraith in his territory, reminded Beckett acutely of his stint as an obstetrics intern.

Then, in a small Glasgow hospital, there had been anxious, bordering on panicked, fathers, mothers and relatives of all degrees.

Now, he had surrogate mothers, fathers and relatives of yet-to-be-determined degrees all breathing down his neck and he found it rather irritating.

"It's going fine, Sheppard," Beckett struggled to control his temper. Fortunately for all concerned, Mairghread decided that it was an ideal moment to experiment with splashing, which sent everyone but Teyla and Carson back several steps. For a moment, Ronon looked as though he were about to attack, but clearly he ended up thinking better of it.

"Och noow, wae're just hav'ng fun, aren't we, lass?" the Scotsman crooned in his soothing brogue as he gently lifted her from the infant bathtub and wrapped her in a towel. He turned to Sheppard. "Colon'l, would ye taeke her oover tae tha changin' table, while Ah get soom clothes faer the wee bairn?"

"Uh, sure," replied Sheppard as he awkwardly took the cooing infant and held her as though she would shatter in his hands.

Having retrieved a onesie and sleeping sack, Carson turned around from the dresser to see that Sheppard had not moved, seemingly rooted to the spot, while everyone had crowded around him.

"Out o' ta tha wae!" he said loudly as he plowed through the spectators. By the time he reached Sheppard, Radek had materialized out of the crowd and was holding Mairghread, speaking to her in Czech and tickling her while she giggled, while Sheppard looked on in evident relief.

When the Czech made no sign of moving, Beckett cleared his throat loudly. Zelenka looked up at him with wide, inquiring eyes.

"Oh, yes yes, of course," he mumbled and carefully made his way through the crowd to the changing table where he set her down like an old pro and quickly dried and diapered her without so much as the blink of an eye.

"How'd you learn to do that, Radek?" asked John wonderingly.

"Oh, um, many nieces and nephews," the wild-haired scientist replied offhandedly.

TBC

Next: Baby Games