CHAPTER 8 – SAVED
He did not leave her room for a long time, in fact time ceased to exist in his mind and in his actions and there was only the two of them... hell he thought laughing out loud not just the two of them, at least another who had been a part of what they had shared, and many others in tiny form, a part of him, and a part of her...
He looked down at the woman whom he had spent this time with, hand still restless on her body as thought he was still not able to get enough through the touching of her flesh. She had gotten under his skin and into his mind and pulling her closer, he whispered a kiss across her cheek watching as she smiled in sleep. Well I guess that one page add in the Atlantis Times has been taken out about now... maybe now, the time will belong to us, not to her...
He stirred himself. He still had duties to attend to on this base, and being the donor of sperm for an alien entity was not exactly part of his job description. She attempted to pull him back to her, but gently he took her hands and held them until her eyes opened.
"I need to go Andrea – you rest, I'll be back later. We need to take her back to the Lantian star, don't we?"
Andrea nodded sleepily, gently touching her stomach where rested, the beginnings of a species that would have been lost. "We need to go soon John, they need the radiation in which to sustain themselves. My body cannot provide more than a temporary home for them, I sense the urgency."
Kissing her hard, he turned to dress so that he could leave. "We'll take her back today. I need to go and see Elizabeth, then we'll go."
Surprising, there was a lack of levity and jest at his expense as he made his way through Atlantis and to the control room where Elizabeth had arranged to meet him. Some speculative glances maybe, but perhaps the enormity of what he had actually done, had had a somewhat sobering effect on the continued jokes. Ah, let them get it out of their system muttered John to himself. She's still mine, when this is all over... she's still mine. And felt that tight fist of need and desire spike through him again.
Ronon, Rodney and Elizabeth were waiting in the control room for him, and if anything, Elizabeth's expression held one of sympathy. "You're still in one piece then, so I'm assuming it all went... well?"
"Delicately put Elizabeth, thank you for your tact. And yes, mission accomplished, so to speak. The entity hangs on by a thread and there is some urgency to get her and her offspring... hell, my offspring, back to the star where they can live. They'll die if we try and keep them here."
"Want us to come with you Sheppard?" It was Rodney who spoke, and John looked for the usual sarcasm, but found it absent. He nodded his head. "Yeah, company will be good. This is gonna feel a little... weird, I guess."
"How is Andrea? She doesn't feel anything different from this?" Ronon stood close to his friend, looking down at something he could see flicker through John's eyes.
"She's got no baseline Ronon, so that's a good thing. Remember, she's a newly created human, clean slate so to speak. She could feel the entity and knew that the mating was successful from the entitie's side of things, and that was as much as she passed on her me. The rest was pure her – her feelings, her emotions, and Jesus, I am lost man... I am gone... she's rocked my world." Ronon nodded once, recognising that that was what he had seen flicker through his friend's eyes.
"Seems like you are John, seems like you are."
"So Rodney, no jokes, no alien humour, nothing... so not what I expected from you!" John attempted a smile, but feeling just a little of that tension building, couldn't quite pull it off.
"I'll wait Sheppard... didn't seem an opportune time..."
"Hasn't stopped you in the past Rodney?"
"You're right there... but hey, I've got a small amount of decency, believe it or not, and this is one of those times when I just might happen to let it out..."
John gave him a brief smile of thanks and turned to leave. "Let's do this then. Consider my team and jumper one out of action for the duration of the day. Copy that Elizabeth?"
"Copy that John..."
It was a somber group who flew jumper one toward the Lantian star, for all the joking, it was a task that involved the saving of an entire race, made all the more surreal by the fact that the humans who now escorted them to a safe haven, were unable to see them in tangible form.
Andrea smiled as they neared the star, her hand resting on her stomach and felt a pull inside her as the entity recognised it's home and understood that it was coming near the end of it's quest for continuity of species.
"Here John, this is the right place... it feels right."
John brought the jumper to stillness so that they floated calmly in the infiniteness of space, broken only by the brilliant light coming from the Lantian star. His hands rested on the controls and he bowed his head slightly, now feeling a little unease of what he had done and what they were about to to.
Rodney was fascinated. "So what do you do now... does it just happen? Does she speak to you." He looked out at the darkness behind them, back towards Atlantis.
Andrea stood and went toward John, laying a hand on his shoulder and she felt the tension that had been there begin to ease. "She says thank you, John – although a simple thank you can never be enough for what you have done for her. She says also, that she'll never forget you, everytime she lays her eyes on her offspring, she will see you in each of them and remember the kindness you showed her."
John stood then, and turning to face Andrea he looked deep into her eyes, seeing a flash which passed briefly before her eyes, then was gone and suddenly the jumper was filled with the tiniest pinpoints of light that dazzled briefly for just a moment, then was gone. He reached his hands into the air, into the space they had just passed through, and felt the connection, the instant when he knew that these tiniest fragments were a part of him.
And smiled. Drawing Andrea close now he murmured in her ear. "Just us now sweetheart... just us."