Atlantis Season 5 Episode 1 – Search and Rescue
Episode summary: While searching for Teyla, a building implodes, trapping McKay, Lorne, Sheppard and Ronan under the rubble. Sam leads a search and rescue team. They recover McKay and Lorne who were close to the surface, but Ronan and Sheppard are further down – Sheppard gravely injured. When Michael arrives in orbit, they have to withdraw to the jumpers. The Daedalus arrives, and transports Sheppard and Ronan aboard just in time to evade Michael's forces digging for them. Sam's jumpers board at the same time. Sheppard – still injured, but stubbornly persevering – leads his team aboard the Wraith ship in an attempt to rescue Teyla. They succeed in finding her, and McKay delivers her baby, before Kanaan – the baby's father – helps them escape. The Daedalus destroys Michael's hive ship. Teyla names her son Torren John Emmagen. At the end of the episode, Sam is recalled to Earth for an 'exhaustive' review of her first year in command, and is surprised to be informed that she is being removed from command and replaced with Woolsey.
Author's note: You'll notice I've futzed with the canon timeline a bit here, as for the purpose of my timeline I'm saying Sam was commander of Atlantis for a total of eight months, not a year. Sorry. My only excuse was that I didn't want to miss out on the Atlantis story points, but couldn't justify Sam actually being gone for a year in my altered timeline. Just stick your fingers in your ears and whistle if it bothers you – that's my tactic for dealing with annoying continuity errors. Also, in my timeline Sam's obviously not going to be surprised to be removed from command, as it's what she's requested. P.S. Please read the author's note at the bottom of this page.
Sam had been in her office with Steven Caldwell when she got the call that Sheppard had woken up after his surgery. The two of them headed down there to visit.
In the infirmary, Teyla and Sheppard were in adjacent beds, Teyla sitting up with little Torren cradled in her arms, and Sheppard leaning back against the tilted incline at the head of his bed.
"How are you feeling?" Sam asked John as she and Steven approached.
"Well, all my insides are back where they're supposed to be, so much better, all things considered." John said wryly. "Plus my bed neighbour has a pretty cute distraction over there."
Teyla grinned, as all attention was drawn to the bundle in her arms.
"Sam." John said, calling her attention back to him. She looked at him expectantly. "You should sit." He said, nodding at the chair between the beds.
She rolled her eyes at him. "I'm fine."
Sam was now 21 weeks pregnant, and she now had an unmistakeable baby bump protruding from her open jacket.
Steven put his hands on her shoulders and firmly but gently propelled her towards the chair. "Sit." He said, in a tone that brokered no argument. She huffed but did as she was told.
She had some pretty warm feelings towards Steven Caldwell at the moment. With his return to the Pegasus galaxy, he not only rendered assistance with saving both of the people on either side of her in the infirmary beds, but he had also brought with him Sam's long awaited transfer orders. She was going home. Sure, it would be a three week schlep back on the Daedalus, but every day would be one day closer to Jack and Beth and home.
She hadn't seen her daughter in five months. Steven had brought back with him letters and videos of home – Beth was just learning to walk, and had said her first word. Dada.
Sam realised that she'd been staring at the baby with a sad expression as she thought of Beth, and that Teyla was looking at her with concern.
"Would you like to hold him?" Teyla asked, when Sam looked up and met her eyes.
"Oh, no, that's alright, I'm sure he's comfy where he is." Sam said with a smile.
"Please, I insist." Teyla said, and she lifted the baby a little with a pointed look at Caldwell, the only one still on his feet.
Steven stepped forward and lifted Torren from his mother's arms with practiced ease, and laid him in Sam's waiting arms. He was so much smaller than Beth had been, when Sam had first held her.
"He's gorgeous." Sam said, stroking his tiny arm with the back of a finger.
Teyla smiled proudly.
"I trust you will send us pictures of your little one when he is born?" Teyla said.
Sam grinned at her. "Of course."
"So you're going home, huh?" John said. "You must be pretty excited."
"I can't wait." Sam agreed. "Not that I haven't loved it here, and I'm going to miss you all a great deal, but … I've already been here two months longer than I was supposed to be. I just want to get home to my little girl."
She looked down at the little scrunched up face of the newborn in her arms, and her vision suddenly swam with tears. "Steven, would you …?" She lifted the baby a little and he stepped forward to take the baby and pass him back to Teyla.
Her arms free, Sam pulled a tissue from her pocket and wiped at her eyes just as the first trickle escaped.
"Are you going back with the Daedalus?" John asked.
Sam nodded. John looked at Steven, and the two of them exchanged a meaningful look that Sam couldn't interpret.
"What?" She asked.
"We think you should go by stargate." Steven told her. "Just dial direct with the ZPM."
Sam shook her head. "I'm not wasting valuable ZPM power just for my own convenience."
"It wouldn't be just for your sake though." John argued. "In the last couple of weeks we've got hold of a hell of a lot of intel that Earth should have as soon as possible. We've just defeated Michael, rescued Teyla, got hold of all of Michael's research and plans, and intel on all of his activities and resources, and we now know the source of the Hoffan virus and have enough information to stop it. And that's before we get into all that I learned on my brief jaunt 48,000 years into the future. I think we can more than make a case for a direct dial."
"None of that intel is particularly time sensitive though." Sam argued. "It won't hurt them or us if they don't hear it for another three weeks."
"Personally, I think the IOA would rather hear it sooner than later." Steven said. "John's right, it is a lot of information. If you go back with it now, they'll have the three weeks that it'll take me to follow in the Daedalus to come up with whatever response they want to give."
"I would also argue that your health is no small concern." Teyla added. "The Daedalus is a fine ship, but if you were to have any complications in your pregnancy along the way, they may not be equipped to handle it."
Sam looked at Steven. He nodded. "She's right Sam. Our infirmary's good, but it's not a maternity ward. If anything were to happen …" He trailed off and shrugged uncomfortably.
Sam sighed, and closed her eyes briefly. "I feel like I should argue, but the truth is I really don't want to."
"Good." John said with a smile. "Then it's settled."
Sam shook her head. "Alright. But if I'm doing this, I need everything prepared and ready to be transmitted. That includes your mission reports." She said to all three of them.
"I'll get Keller to bring us a couple of laptops." John said.
Sam nodded, and stood. "I'll go ask Rodney to have his report ready."
"Sam." John said, and Sam turned back to him. He held out his hand, and she gave him a bemused frown but obediently gave him hers. "We're going to miss you like crazy. But I'm glad you're going home." He said sincerely, squeezing her fingers.
I will not cry. I will not cry.
"Thanks John." She said.
Two days later, everything was compiled and ready to be transmitted to the SGC in a high-density compressed data burst, in the manner in which they had sent information and files before, back when they had had regular scheduled contact via Midway.
Sam's belongings were packed into a large wheeled suitcase, and she stood with it down by the gate to say her goodbyes. She'd said goodbye to Teyla and John already back in the infirmary, and now she gave Rodney a hug.
"I'm going to miss you." She admitted to him.
"Really?"
"Don't let it go to your head."
He chuckled. "I'm going to miss you too Sam. It's been fun."
"It has." She agreed, stepping back with a smile. "Take care of yourself."
"You too."
Ronan was next. He wrapped her in a bear hug. "Take care of that baby." He said gruffly.
"Take care of McKay." She quipped back. Rodney snorted indignantly as Ronan chuckled, the sound vibrating into her through his chest.
He stepped back and smiled, and she nodded her head to him in goodbye.
Steven hugged her next. "I'll stop by when the Daedalus gets back." He told her.
"I'll see you then. And thank you, for everything." She said.
"You bet."
Sam stepped back from them all, and took a deep breath, before nodding to Chuck up in the control room.
"Dial Earth, Chuck."
The stargate dialled, and before she knew it, there was an open wormhole to the SGC. She toggled her radio.
"Stargate Command, this is Atlantis, please respond."
"Atlantis, this is General Landry. It's good to hear from you, Colonel."
"You too sir. We're transmitting a data burst to you now," she waved a signal to Chuck, and he gave her a thumbs-up to indicate it was done, "and I'm requesting permission to …" she broke off as her voice started to waver, taking a deep breath, "to come home." She finished.
Steven squeezed her shoulder and smiled at her, and she smiled ruefully back.
"You're cleared to proceed through the gate Colonel." Landry said. "Whenever you're ready."
She took a deep breath, and looked at the three of them one last time.
"Go on, before the gate shuts down." McKay said, his tone impatient, but softened by the look in his eyes.
She nodded, and had a last glance around the beautiful Atlantis atrium. "Goodbye." She said, both to her friends and the city.
They all smiled at her, and Sam turned her back, pulling her suitcase with her as she stepped into the gate.
A disorienting moment later, she stepped out of the wormhole into the SGC gate-room, the suitcase dragging to a stop as its wheels got caught on the mesh of the ramp.
She grinned at General Landry.
"Welcome home Colonel." He said. His eyes drifted to her pregnant belly. "That's new." He said.
"Not really." She said with a smile, and walked down the ramp, leaving her suitcase where it had stuck.
"You got the data burst we sent?" She asked.
"We're de-compressing it as we speak." Landry said. "I've also paged SG-1 to the briefing room, and Walter's calling General O'Neill at home. In the meantime, let's go have a little de-briefing."
He issued some orders to have her suitcase taken up to the women's locker room, and Sam followed him up to the briefing room.
She'd barely got through the first sentence of explaining what had happened, when her boys thundered up the stairs into the briefing room.
"Sam!" Daniel yelped, and was across the room in seconds and pulling her into a tight hug.
She couldn't help it. The relief of being home and seeing them all after so, so long, was compounded by the pregnancy hormones that made her emotions much more volatile than they would be usually. She burst into tears.
Daniel didn't let her go until Teal'c made him, tired of waiting his turn, and she was folded into his arms instead.
She calmed down and the tears had stopped by the time she got to Cam, and after a brief hug, he pulled back and gave her a big kiss on the forehead, gently patted her baby bump. "Look at you." He said, awestruck.
"Has someone called Jack?" Daniel asked, looking in Landry's direction.
"Walter called him the second she stepped through the gate." Landry said. "He's on his way, although he needs to drop off Beth with Vala first."
"How's Serena?" Sam asked, looking at Daniel, who beamed. The Daedalus had brought Sam news that Serena had been born six weeks ago.
"She's perfect, and Jackson is insufferably proud." Cameron answered before Daniel had a chance.
"I can't wait to meet her." Sam said.
"All in good time." Landry cut in. "But first, we should try and get through as much of this de-briefing as we can before Jack turns up and I lose your attention entirely."
Sam smiled ruefully. "Yes sir."
She sat down at the briefing room table, her guys settled around her, and she explained the events of the last few weeks.
Surprisingly, they actually managed to finish the debriefing – albeit in a rather more abbreviated fashion than usual – and SG-1 had escorted Sam down to the infirmary for a check-up, before Jack arrived.
He certainly made an entrance. He burst through the door dramatically, calling 'Carter!' before he'd spotted her.
She hopped off the gurney at the end of the room, catching his eye.
He froze for a half second, looking down at her belly, and then Daniel had to take a hurried couple of steps backwards to get out of his way as Jack barrelled towards her.
She threw her arms around his neck and his arms encircled her torso, and then she was crying again, almost hysterically, her face buried in his neck.
An unquantifiable amount of time later, she became aware that Jack was making shushing noises and stroking her back soothingly, and she made an effort to pull her breathing back under control, calming down.
"I missed you so much." She said, her voice catching.
"You're home now." He said. "I've got you."
She gave another little sob, and he planted a kiss at her temple. He rearranged her in his arms so he could rest a hand over the baby.
"How's the little one?" He asked.
"He's fine." Sam said. "How's Beth?"
"She's excited to see her mom."
"Really?" She asked disbelievingly. She highly doubted Beth even remembered who she was. The little girl was now 14 and a half months, and hadn't spent a significant amount of time with Sam since she was six months old.
"I've been showing her your photograph and telling her that you're 'mommy' with every chance I get." Jack said. "And even if she's too little to understand, it won't take her long to bond with you again now you're back."
"She's walking and talking?" Sam asked.
Jack cocked his head with a squint. "Well, she's saying 'Dada' and 'No' and filling in the rest with incomprehensible babbling. And she's not so much 'walking', as throwing herself forward at an almost-run and then falling over."
Sam gave a watery laugh. "I want to see her."
"Can I bust you outta here yet?"
Sam looked around, and realised SG-1 had vanished along with Dr Lam. "I should probably go check with Dr Lam."
"I'll come with." He said, and followed her to the doctor's office with his hand at her back.
"Doctor?" Sam said as she reached Carolyn Lam's office door.
Dr Lam smiled at her, and Sam abruptly became self-conscious of her tear-streaked face, and scrubbed away the evidence with her hands.
"You can go." She allowed with an indulgent smile. "But I'd like you back here tomorrow morning so we can do a full physical, once I've had a chance to go over Dr Keller's notes."
"She'll be here." Jack said from behind her.
"Then by all means, go home."
"Thank you." Sam smiled, and headed up to the locker room with Jack.
As she hadn't been expected, there weren't any clothes waiting for her – not that she owned any clothes on Earth that would fit her at the moment anyway – and so she ended up just removing her Atlantis uniform jacket and exchanging it for Cam's leather one, which he draped over her shoulders as she left the locker room, pulling her suitcase behind her. SG-1 were still on shift, so they said goodbye at the elevator, promising to come round for dinner that evening. Jack carried Sam's suitcase to the truck and hauled it up into the back, and Sam buckled herself into the passenger sheet, huffing in amused exasperation when she had to let out the seatbelt a bit more to strap herself in.
Jack regaled her with tales of Beth's antics as he drove, and Sam just listened happily.
She frowned in confusion when Jack pulled up outside a house she'd never seen before.
"It's Daniel and Vala's." He explained at her perplexed look. "They bought it a couple of months before Serena was born."
Well that made sense. They would have struggled to manage in Daniel's little house just as Sam and Jack had at Sam's old place.
Vala had obviously been watching for them, and opened the door as they walked up the path, with a tiny person laid delicately on her chest and shoulder and secured with one arm.
"Hi!" Sam breathed, looking at her friend and the baby girl that she had known in 2034 as a vivacious twenty-something beauty.
Vala grinned at her. "Hi yourself. We'll catch up later – the little darling that you want to see most is playing in the living room."
Sam beamed at her and gave her arm a squeeze in thanks on her way past her into the house, and then hung back to let Jack take the lead when she realised she had no idea where the living room was.
She followed Jack into the room, and then stopped short to stare at the little girl on the living room floor. She had see videos from a month ago, and she knew how old Beth was, but it still couldn't prepare Sam for the reality of actually seeing Beth with her own eyes. She had grown so much. She had proper golden curls, her facial features had become more distinct – more individual to her – and she babbled happily when she looked up and saw her dad.
Jack scooped Beth up off the floor, and Beth snuggled her head against Jack's chest with a muffled 'Dada'."
Sam approached, tucking herself into Jack's side, and felt like she was meeting Beth for the first time in the social services office all over again.
"Beth, this is Mommy." Jack told her. "You remember the pictures of Mommy, don't you?"
Beth grinned as she looked at Sam and half hid her face in Jack's chest shyly.
Sam reached out and touched Beth's back softly. "Hey baby." She breathed. "I missed you so much."
"Are you gonna say hello to Mommy?" Jack asked, and lifted Beth into Sam's arms carefully.
Sam felt a moment of terror that her daughter would start crying at the move, but it didn't happen. Instead Beth babbled amicably and wound the little fingers of one hand around Sam's braided hair, which had fallen forward over her shoulder, and tugged experimentally, looking up at Sam with a wide smile as if to share the joke.
"Don't pull Mommy's hair, Beth." Jack scolded gently, but Sam shook her head.
"She can pull my hair as much she likes, if I get to hold her while she does it." Sam said, and kissed Beth's little forehead.
There was a wail from behind them, as Serena woke up with a complaint.
"Sorry." Vala said from the doorway. "Didn't mean to spoil the moment."
"It's fine." Sam chuckled, looking at Beth who had narrowed her eyes seriously at the noise from Serena. The wailing grew quieter as Vala disappeared into another room to tend to the baby.
Beth suddenly kicked, and her foot collided with Sam's distended belly, making Sam exclaim with a soft, surprised 'Oof'."
"Ok kiddo, you and I need to have a discussion about not kicking Mommy's tummy." Jack said, seizing Beth under the arms and taking her back. "You ok?" He asked Sam.
She rolled her eyes. "I'm fine, Jack, she's hardly a soccer player."
Jack's cellphone suddenly started playing an inane, girly pop song, and Sam gave Jack a weird look. "What on Earth …?"
Jack rolled his eyes. "It's Cassie. She thinks it's funny to steal my phone and program it to play embarrassing songs when she calls."
He put the phone to his ear, shifting Beth to his hip. "Hey Cass."
Sam played peekaboo with Beth while Jack talked, and Beth cackled in delight.
"She's coming over." Jack said when the call ended. "We should probably ask Vala if she'd rather we relocated to our place for when everyone descends or if she wants the gathering here so she's got her stuff to hand for the baby."
"I'll go talk to her." Sam said, and leaned forward to kiss Beth on the forehead again before she went.
"She's beautiful." Sam said, perching beside Vala on the little couch in the nursery, looking at the baby in her friend's arms.
"She can scream loud enough to wake the dead." Vala commented wryly. "Daniel likes to joke that he should record it to use as an offensive weapon off-world. Although personally I think the contents of her nappies would be more effective in that regard."
Sam laughed. "And how are you doing? Did the birth go ok?"
"It was fine." Vala answered. "It happened rather more quickly than we had expected, so I almost ended up giving birth in the hospital parking lot, but apart from that, everything went according to plan."
"I'm sorry I missed it." Sam said sadly, touching her head to Vala's shoulder.
"Well, you're home now. That's all that matters." Vala said soothingly. "What about you, is everything alright with your little tenant?" She said, with a pointed look at Sam's belly.
"I've had some blood pressure issues, but nothing serious." Sam said. "He's fine."
"He?" Vala repeated. "It's a boy?"
"Yup." Sam grinned. "We're going to call him Jake. Short for Jacob, after my father."
Vala smiled, and then cocked her head in curiosity. "Was Beth named after anyone? I mean, I know you didn't technically name her, but as it was your clone who did …?"
Sam shook her head. "I don't know. In retrospect I like to consider it to be in honour of Elizabeth Weir, but the truth is Cara Fields didn't know Dr Weir, and Beth was born before we lost Elizabeth. Do you think it's allowed for me to retrospectively consider Dr Weir to be Beth's namesake?"
Vala chuckled. "I don't see why not. She's your baby."
Sam smiled. "I can't begin to describe how happy I am to be back here with her for good."
"I can imagine."
Sam watched Serena, squirming a little in her mother's arms with her eyes determinedly scrunched closed, and then remembered what she had come in here for in the first place.
"The guys and Cassie want to come over for dinner." Sam said. "Jack wanted to know if you'd be more comfortable with that being here so you've got all your stuff on hand for Serena, or if you'd like us to move over to our house."
Vala bit her lip, thinking. "Let's go to yours." She said. "Your place is bigger, and if we're here I'll feel like I have to play hostess."
"Ok." Sam said. It was time to go home.
Late that night, when the house was empty again, and quiet, Sam lay in bed with Jack and told him about her last five months in Atlantis. She told him about the friends she'd made, the adventures she'd had … and the people she'd lost. She told him about the things she'd learned about herself.
She'd missed Beth terribly of course. But she'd learned that she couldn't give up her career for the sake of motherhood. She was born to this life.
"Hey." Jack said, after Sam fell quiet. "You realise we're almost at the finish line?"
She cocked her head at him curiously.
He gave her that lazy smirk that she loved. "All these years, we've been driving ourselves nuts worrying that we'll screw up the timeline and Beth and Jake and Serena won't get born. Well, we've got Beth, and Daniel and Vala have Serena. And in a few months we'll have Jake. After that … the pressure's off. All we have to do then is get you to three star General rank."
He looked at her proudly, and tucked her long blonde hair behind her ear. "Somehow, I think you won't have any trouble with that at all."
Author's note: Right – bear with me – this is the last episode tag. BUT … I am working on an alternate version of Continuum as a new story in the 'Our Legacy' series. It will be called 'Our Legacy 3 – Continuum'. I was just going to put up an enormous Continuum tag as the last chapter to this story, but the thing is, at this point I've changed the timeline so much that the original version of Continuum really doesn't track, in terms of the character stuff. I mean, Vala has a newborn and Sam's five months pregnant. See what I mean? So, instead of trying to do a Continuum 'episode tag', I've decided to just write an alternate version of it. After that, 'Our Legacy 4' will continue the story in some form. There'll be a bit of a delay now because Continuum is taking longer to get my head around than anticipated, and I am mere weeks away from purchasing my first home - eek.
On a personal note, thank you so much to everyone who has followed on with this story, and a big, whopping, ginormous thank you for all the reviews. While I write this stuff primarily because it's my favourite hobby, it really gives me a warm and glow-y feeling to know that other people are enjoying the fruits of my labours.