A Week Later
"Hey, honey," Shelby says easily as she walks into the room.
Teal'c panics and guilty tries to turn the TV off.
Shelby glares at him suspiciously, and turns on the television, fully expecting to see a naked women on it. Instead she sees a scene from a really cheesy romantic comedy. "You're watching a chic flick?"
"There are no chickens in this film."
"No, but it's a romantic comedy. You know, it's the kind of show that usually only girls watch."
"I have been watching films that how a variety of romantic situations."
"Why exactly?" Shelby asks with a raise of her eyebrow.
"I am studying the methods of wooing that are common in your culture."
She grins at him, and sits down on the edge of the couch near his knees, "You've got me, babe. You don't need to woo me."
"I don't have you, and I'm going to woo you long after I do," he says, smiling at her.
A furrow forms between Shelby's eyebrows. "I feel really sad that you don't think you have me."
He puts his palms against hers, and they flex their fingers out.
"I'm not sure what this means," Shelby tells him.
He just smiles at her.
Two Days Later
Shelby stands in the doorway of Teal'c's room, and looks in on him.
"So you seriously never sleep?"
"It seems that you don't, either," he says, opening one eye to look at her.
She giggles, "I just can't sleep tonight. Well, sometimes. So you just meditate all night or whatever?"
"I require only a few hours of meditation a night."
"So what do you do the rest of the night?"
He opens her eyes, and smiles at her. "It is peaceful at night. The whole of your world is asleep. It is when I learn about your world."
"And how do you learn about my world?"
"Once I discovered the television is not an accurate portrayal of the happenings of your world, mostly through books I obtain through the library."
"You read a lot of sociology," Shelby comments, having noticed the books that were laying around the apartment.
"If you are going to study humans of Earth that would be the wisest area to study."
"Will you teach me to meditate?"
Teal'c looks at her in surprise.
"I mean humans can do that, right? We are capable, right?" Shelby asks.
"Indeed," Teal'c replies, "Why would you want to learn this skill?"
"I don't know," Shelby shrugs, "You came to live in my country. You are doing all of these things to learn about my culture, to adjust to my culture, and I haven't done anything to learn about your culture."
He nods his head toward his legs, and she takes the hint by folding her legs under herself. "You focus on the light of the candle. You have to let put everything out of your mind. When other things start to come back into your mind, you must push them back out of your mind. Only focus on the flickering of the candle."
She closes her eyes, and tries to do what he asked her too. But there are a lot of thoughts swarming into her mind. The smell of the candles, and the smell of Teal'c, different from human smell, and gloriously manly. She can feel his body, even though they aren't touching, even though her eyes are closed. She feels like she can feel his entire soul, and it is glorious.
She opens his eyes, and looks at him. He's staring at her with awe in his face. "Did you feel that too?" she whispers, unwilling to ruin the sanctity of the moment, but needing to know the answer desperately.
"You're supposed to be focusing on the candle," he says with what passes for a self-satisfied smirk, although he doesn't actually use any of his facial muscles to make it.
"You're a lot more interesting than the candle," she says.
"That is the point. During Kal-no-rem, you must focus on a simple thing. In truth, the candle is almost too complex to begin with."
"Ok, I'll try again," Shelby says with a giggle.
This time her mind is completely focused on the task before her. But Teal'c does not try to go back to meditation. He just looks at the women before him. He admires the way that her hair has waves, only after she's been sleeping on it all night. He analyses the reasons why this strand choose to fall over a shoulder while another goes the other way.
He observes the way he can see the blue of her veins through her skin at her wrists and her elbow.
He notices the way she breathes, not like you should when you Kal-no-rem, but correcting it now when she's so deep into meditation would be more of a distraction than its worth.
And he knows that he loves this women a way that he's never loved before. The way that people loved in stories. The kind of love that had delayed his marriage until three decades had passed over him. He'd give up hoping that this was ever going to happen.
"I can feel you looking at me," Shelby says, peeping one eye open to look at him.
"You're much more interesting than a candle," he says, quoting her words back to him.
Two Days Later
Daniel has just come back from a two-day mission. It's four in the afternoon, and Cassie is working on her homework.
"Hey, kid," he says kissing her forehead, "Where is your mother?"
"She's at the hospital," Cassie says casually.
"What?" Daniel asks panicking, "We have to go right now."
"Relax, she left me a message at school and said she couldn't keep anything down. She just went in for an IV."
"No, it has to be something else. She would never have left you alone."
"She knew you were coming home today. And if you weren't home in a half hour I was supposed to call Sam. I can look after myself for a couple of hours," Cassie says with a roll of her eye.
"Well, pack up the homework, because we're going into the hospital."
"She told me not to let you do that. She'll be home in a couple of hours. It's just morning sickness, dad."
Daniel closes his eyes, knowing that Janet had gone through a lot of effort to ensure that their daughter didn't worry. He doesn't want to undo all of that now. There is no way he can go to the hospital and keep Cassie from worrying. So he goes over to the stove and starts to make her food.
-0-0-0-
"Hey, Daniel," Janet's voice on the phone fills him with an incredible amount of relief.
"Hey, I wanted to come see you, I swear. I just didn't know how to do it without terrifying the kid."
"Daniel, calm down, you did exactly what I wanted you to do. I just need you to come pick me up now."
"You're ok?"
"I'm totally ok, I just needed an IV, because I haven't been able to keep anything down for almost two days."
"See, that doesn't exactly sound like nothing to me," Daniel says cautiously.
"Daniel, I'm a doctor, I have this covered. It is just Hyperemesis gravidarum. It happens to a lot of women."
"You're in the hospital, Janet."
"Come pick me up, babe, I promise I'm fine. And the kid doesn't need a babysitter, she's going to be fine for an hour."
The Next Day
Shelby knew that this was not the day to take an extra shift. Teal'c called her two times during the day to remind her about their dinner date.
So she isn't surprised when the table is alight with the thousands of candles that he loves so much. But he is surprised by the way he stands up when she enters the room, staring at her. It's a look she's never seen before. There is something in it of the look that people give the sunrise, and something in it that they give a deity, and the whole thing makes her flush.
"Shelby, I want to offer you this token," he says, holding out a ring.
"That's not a token, man," she says.
"It represents my desire to enter into matrimony with you."
"There is nothing token about that."
Teal'c smile at her. A real human smile, and it makes her stomach jump in excitement.
"You want to be with me forever?" she asks.
"I want to join my life, my soul, my body to yours," Teal'c says.
Sheby's face flushes at the last word.
"So you accept?" Teal'c asks holding the ring out to her.
"Yes," Shelby says putting it on her hand before leaning forward, and gently kissing him.
He pulls her into a deeper kiss.
"I don't want kids, is that a deal breaker?" Shelby asks.
"I have a child."
"Right, but he doesn't live with you."
"I see him periodically. I want him to be a part of my life when I am."
Shelby nods her head. "I would be ok with that."
"Why do you not want to produce offspring? I believe that your genes are superior to many of those of your species."
Shelby smiles, "I appreciate that, but I don't necessarily agree. My family is screwed up, like really screwed up. There is mental illness, and cycles of abuse, and I'm not brining another kid into that. It ends with me."
"Nurturing has more effect on children than genetics. I believe you would be a very good mother."
"I don't want to risk it," Shelby says softly.
He nods his head gravely.
"But I feel bad, I mean… maybe you want to have kids?"
"I already have a child. I am fine with your decision."
"We're getting married," she says, swaying her hips as she steps even closer to him.
"Indeed," he says, running his hand through her hair, which is already starting to curl for the night. He loves this woman, and he knows that his future is bright.