One Day Later
"Janet, there is something that I feel I really need to report to you. Well, actually, there are two somethings that I feel like I need to report to you."
"Ah… ok."
"I'm going to need to be put on medical light duty. It won't affect my job much, 'cept I won't be able to lift nobody. But I still thought you should know."
"Medical? Is something wrong, Shelby?" Janet asks in surprise.
Shelby's face flushes, "I'm pregnant."
"Really?" Janet's eyebrows raise, "I thought you and Teal'c weren't going to try to have babies."
"We changed our mind. Well, I changed our mind, if you want to be more precise."
"Well, that is wonderful," Janet says smiling.
"The really strange part of the news is how I found out about that part of the news," Shelby rushes on, "See, Teal'c told me. Apparently he can sense heartbeats."
Janet blinks, "He can sense naquadah in people's blood."
"Well, yes, but the way he described this was that he can actually sense the heartbeat of our baby. That he can sense all heartbeats. He didn't tell anyone before, because he assumed that all humans could do it. To him, this is as natural as seeing and hearing."
"That's amazing, but on a certain level, it makes sense. The heart send out an electromagnetic signal; it would not be impossible for Jaffa to have evolved an organ to sense that. Of course, I'd like to do some testing."
"You don't believe him?" Shelby says incredulously.
"It's not so much that, as that I want to have some hard and fast evidence before I go with my findings to anyone else. I also want to see the extent of it. See what could fool it, and what could heighten it. You know, of course, that this has great strategic value for his team?"
"I know, that's why I'm making him tell Jack right now."
"I'll schedule some testing for the next time that his team is on stand down," Janet says.
"Ok, just don't make it too… lab-ratty," Shelby says nervously.
"Oh, no, of course not," Janet assures her.
-0-0-0-
"How are you and our fetus doing today?" Teal'c says.
"Let's say baby from now on, ok?" she prompts.
He puts a hand on her stomach, and meets eyes with her. There is terror in his eyes, and it spreads to his wife without a word between them.
"What?" she asks.
"The baby is different."
"There is something wrong with the baby, isn't here?" she asks, scared.
"I don't know if there is something wrong, I only know that the baby is different," he repeats slowly.
"Different how?"
"It feels different."
"I can't feel it, you have to tell me how it is different."
He shakes his head, uncertain.
"Well, is it just different like this baby is different from Ry'ac, or different in a different way?"
"It is different than any baby I have sensed in a womb up until now," he says.
Shelby reaches past him to the bowl they keep their keys in by the door.
"Have I done something to anger you?" he asks.
"No, I'm going to figure out what is wrong with our baby."
"I will accompany you," he says nervously.
"No, honey, you have to stay with the kids."
"We could take them with us."
"You want to wake up the kids after bedtime, let them see us all panicked, and drive them all over town trying to figure out what is wrong with me?"
"You will call me as soon as you have information," Teal'c says.
"Yeah," she says heading out of the door.
-0-0-0-
Shelby didn't cry very often. When you lead a tough life you often end up with a tough outer coating, but it isn't chain mail. It's more like a crusty coat of dirt. While it may protect you from the sun or from dirt or even to some degree from a blow, it is not match for a steady stream of water.
That universal solvent, terror, has worn away any protective coating that Shelby had developed over the years.
The whole drive tears have been streaming down her face, until she really expected to look down and see a puddle on her lap.
So her eyes are red and blotchy by the time she arrives at Janet's doorstep.
"Shelby, what happened? Come in!" she says moving out of the doorway to give the younger women entrance.
"Thank you, but could you please come with me to the infirmary, we have an ultrasound machine there, and I just need to check on the baby."
"Of course, why?" Janet says fearing the worse.
"I don't know, Teal'c just said there was something different."
Janet retreats into her house to tell her husband, and returns quickly.
-0-0-0-
"Oh," Janet says.
"That sounded good. So, is it like 'oh, it's not quite as bad as I thought', or 'oh, this is medically interesting'."
"Honey, there are two heartbeats."
"Why does our baby have two heartbeats?" Shelby says, scooting up in the hospital bed in order to see the monitor more clearly. "Oh, two sacs. Two whole babies."
"Yeah, you're having twins," Janet says with a smile.
"No, I can't be having twins. I am not a good enough mother for twins. I wasn't entirely sure that I was going to be able to handle three kids. I am almost certain that I am not going to be able to handle four. And two at once! I mean, they're going to need to be fed and diaper-changed all at the same time. Oh, my gosh, they're going to need someone to teach them to drive at the same time! Teal'c and I just learned to drive ourselves in the last couple of years!"
"You've got seventeen years before these kids are old enough to drive. You guys will have been driving for plenty of years by then," Janet says comfortingly.
"No, you don't understand; I can't do this! I get impatient when kids don't do exactly what I say the first time. And kids never do what you say the first time! I can't stand a messy house! I mean with two kids that are old enough to do chores, it's possible to have a pretty clean house. But when there are four of them, and two are babies… I'm never going to have a clean house again!"
"You can hire a maid."
"And Teal'c! He's going to have five kids!"
"Teal'c is really good with kids."
"And I only know one nursery rhyme. One! And I'm pretty sure I actually say it wrong. Quick who lives in a shoe? Is it a witch?"
"You know, they make nursery rhyme books," Janet says. Then she shakes her head, finally realizing that no matter what she says, she isn't going to calm down the women before her. "Look, maybe you should go home, and finish this freak out with your husband."
"Are the babies ok? There isn't something wrong with their hearts, is there?" Shelby asks.
"They're fine, perfectly healthy," Janet says, patting the young nurse on the knee.
-0-0-0-
"What sort of danger is our child encountering?" Teal'c asks as soon as Shelby comes through the door.
"Children, T, and no danger," she says.
"I do not understand," he says, wearing the face that is his panicked face, even though it barely varies from his normal one.
"We've got children, twins, honey," she says, pulling one of his large hands onto her stomach.
Relief flows over his face.
"Two babies," Shelby says in horror.
"We are doubly blessed."
"We are doubly screwed."
"I do not understand what coitus has to do with anything?"
"Really, you don't know how coitus has to do with my pregnancy?" she teases.
"I do not understand the word in this context."
"Right, 'screwed' means you're in trouble."
"Is it against the law to have multiple births in this country?" he asks.
She closes her eyes, "No, I'm just… we're going to have two babies, four kids. That is a lot, Teal'c; that's a lot of kids."
"Are you regretting the decision to have offspring with me?" he asks, cupping her cheek in one hand while the other stays on her stomach.
"No, I just… I'm not sure that I'm good enough for twins. I'm not even sure I'm good enough to have one baby. But if you have twins, you are going to have two of them needing their diapers changed at the same time. You're going to have two of them that need baths. They are going to have two of them learning to walk, and running in separate directions at the exact same time. I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to take care of that."
"Fortunately, our babies will have two parents," Teal'c says.
Shelby is silent for a moment.
"I am not going to leave you," he assures her.
"You're going to keep going through the 'Gate."
"I will stop if you ask me to," he says softly.
She shakes her head. Teal'c without the Stargate just wouldn't be Teal'c. And she would never ask him to stop being who he was just for her. She shakes her head, and with his hand where it is that results in her rubbing her hand against his cheek.
"I do not understand why you think caring for babies is so difficult," he says confused.
She raises her eyebrows completely befuddled by the fact her husband isn't joking right now. "Ah… cause you don't get to sleep." She pauses, "You don't sleep, anyway. So I guess it would be easier for you. But there are diapers."
"What?" Teal'c asks.
"What do you wrap around a baby's butt on Chulak?"
"Clothing."
"Well, when you have to clean the butt clothing, that's diapers."
"You do not have to clean it more often than you have to clean anything else," Teal'c says in a confused voice.
"Ah…are you kidding me? They go to the bathroom in them."
"That is untrue. The children of Chulak, go to the bathroom in the same place that adults do."
"Well, these babies aren't going to be super-babies, and we're going to have to deal with the poop, and the bottle, and the crying."
"I am excited to partake in this adventure with you," Teal'c says.
Shelby looks at him suspiciously. "I know that we probably should have talked about this before, but Jaffa men don't normally have a whole lot to do with childcare, do they?"
"They do not; however, I plan on being a hands-on parent with our children, in the same way that I have been with your sisters."
"Good," Shelby says with a relieved sigh.
Teal'c looks at his hand, which is still resting on his wife's belly, "I think that one of our offspring is mostly likely male, and the other one is most likely female," he informs her.
She stands on her toes so that her lips can meet his on equal terms, without him looking down on her. For the first time, that is very important.