Note: I know this is a short chapter, but it's just a kind of wrap-up for the story. I was gonna draw it out, add more stuff, but it just kind of worked out this way. If I get the itch, I may write an alternate ending...though it won't be different, per se, but just longer. Anyway...Hope you likes....

HALF-LIVES

CHAPTER 12 - EPILOGUE

The door chime sounded, and Sheppard sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes and feeling as if he hadn't slept in weeks. At least, he mused, he was alive, and that thought brought a peace to him that he'd taken for granted many times before, but not now.

"It's open," he rasped, his throat still sore from the intubation he'd received a few days ago. The door slid aside, silhouetting Teyla against the bright light in the corridor. In her arms, she carried Torren, who was making soft, contented noises from within his warm blanket. She took a moment to look down at her son, and smiled at his apparent happiness.

"Hey," Sheppard said, waving for them to enter. He tossed an extra pillow behind his head and wriggled back against them, so that he was now mostly sitting up. Under the comforter, another pillow supported his leg, which hardly hurt at all, but Keller had ordered him to baby it anyway. For once, he'd decided to listen to her.

Teyla drifted into the room, taking in the sight of him sitting there, shirtless and with a goofy smile on his face, and decided she couldn't be happier. Keller had said that he was healing nicely from all his wounds, that with any luck, he'd be back on light duty in a week or so. She guessed that he would be ecstatic when he finally got the o.k. for that. She might not know everything about the man sitting before her, but he made no secret about his love for adventure and action.

And flying, of course, she told herself with a smile. He'd already promised to teach Torren to fly a Jumper as soon as he was old enough.

"I was supposed to bring Torren to visit you in the infirmary after your leg injury, but I never got the chance. I decided to see if you were up to having some time with him now."

Sheppard's grin widened even more. If he wasn't careful, Teyla thought, his face might actually crack. "Sure," he said, then took a quick gulp of water from a bottle he'd had tucked beside him. "Bring him on over here."

Teyla stepped over to the bed, and carefully passed the baby to him. Sheppard automatically settled the small bundle into the crook of his arm, and was rewarded by a small coo of satisfaction from Torren. He looked up at Teyla with a proud glint in his eye, and her own eyes filled with tears. If she hadn't known better, she could've believed that Torren was Sheppard's own son. They looked so incredibly natural with each other.

"I believe he is very comfortable with you, John," she whispered, and he nodded, his bottom lip stuck out as he worked up the courage to say something to her that had been weighing on his mind since he'd woken up in the infirmary, from the moment he'd had the tube removed from his throat.

After watching Torren stare around in awe as only a baby could, Sheppard had finally found the nerve to speak the words he wanted to say, and gazed directly into Teyla's eyes, making sure she listened to every word he said.

"I almost didn't think I'd see either of you again."

"I also felt that way about you," she breathed, suddenly feeling very vulnerable. She'd come to learn lately, that Sheppard was the only man who could make her feel both weak and safe at the same time. While it was a strange feeling, it didn't frighten her. In fact, it only deepened her affection for him. "I am glad you are all right."

"Me, too," he replied, lifting his eyebrows at her comically.

They sat in amicable silence for a while, simultaneously watching Torren as he waved his fists, and listening to the crash of the waves on the ocean below. Sheppard drew in a breath, glad beyond words to hear that sound, to smell the surf as it splashed against the city, even as it mingled with the scent of Teyla's perfume, teasing his nostrils with their salty-sweetness.

"He's such a tiny little thing," Sheppard said then, and Teyla wrinkled her brow at him. "TJ, I mean."

"Oh," she replied, understanding. "Yes. But he will grow all too soon."

"Ahh, don't worry about it. We've got a while, yet."

Teyla sat up straighter, startled. "We?"

"Of course." Then, he frowned. "I just thought…with Kanaan…well, a boy needs a dad."

Still, she stared at him, and it was just beginning to make him nervous. Isn't that what she'd wanted all along? he asked himself. Ronon had seemed so sure of it when they'd talked.

Just when he was about to backpedal, if only to end the awkward silence between them, Teyla pressed herself against his chest, and he had to wrap his free arm quickly around her to balance himself before he tumbled backward.

"I love you, John," she said into his chest, and her words brought a warmth to him, one that started somewhere near his heart and quickly spread throughout his whole body.

Burying his face into her hair, he murmured, "I love you, too."

Right then, he realized what he'd been missing all these years, and yet, had the entire time. The sudden knowledge of it sent a tear rolling down his cheek, where it dampened a lock of Teyla's golden-brown hair.

He had a family.

THE END