Unexpected by Oparu
Author's Chapter Notes: Sometimes a long journey only ends in a new one.
the tenth of the United States (later the eleventh)
one hundred ninety-three days after Earth
The brilliant white light of the transporter faded into the brown walls of the chair room. The door was shut tight and the lights beside it glowed blue in the darkness. The emergency lights weren't very bright as he turned towards the chair. The same alarm, the contamination warning, blasted through the room. John's eyes searched desperately for the figure he knew had to be there and missed the white silhouette off to his left.
His stomach was cold, tight and wound into a dangerous knot of concern. Elizabeth's eyes were closed as he took the first step towards the chair. Her forehead was tight with concentration and a white light lit the sweat on her face until it glistened. The light should have been blue, John's mind insisted stubbornly. There wasn't any white light in the control room.
He ignored his thoughts and grabbed Elizabeth's wrist. Her pulse was steady beneath his fingers and though her skin was hot to the touch, she seemed to be all right. John couldn't decide how best to pull her out of the navigation of the city without shocking her too badly. He didn't even know how she had done it. She'd been only able to work it with his help last time and nothing had changed since then. Looking over the swell of her belly, John wondered if the baby was involved.
Something white moved at the edge of his vision and he whipped his head around. Teyla smiled at him as she started to appear out of a cloud of white. The white took on a green tinge, like new grass emerging from the ground, and coalesced into her body. The marks of the wraith were still on her face, but her eyes were human and soft. She shook out her hair and it floated behind her head, as if it was made of something no longer affected by gravity.
"Busy night," Teyla promised and her voice seemed to reverberate into his chest. The terrible, screaming alarm faded away and all he heard was her voice.
John dropped Elizabeth's wrist and drew his weapon. He felt the safety snap and the hammer click into readiness as the cold steel started to warm in his hands.
Teyla waved her hand softly and the air shimmered around her. "You don't need it," she promised. "I've already eaten." When she smiled again, John saw the pointed teeth and felt fear run cold down his spine.
Keeping his pistol level with her eyes, John swallowed back the feeling of nausea. Whatever she was, she wasn't the woman he'd known. She was a creature. An incredibly powerful being that posed a threat to those he most needed to protect.
Teyla's eyes cut into him and he forgot about the dark, black hue of her tongue. She took a step towards him and the light from her skin started to sear his eyes. His heart beat once and he felt understanding come with the rush of blood to his brain. Her lips started to smile again and he felt his conviction waver even though the pistol was a rock in his hands.
"Still in there after all?" John asked as he watched her move closer. What was the smell? Why didn't he know what is was?
Teyla moved faster than his eyes could process and his gun flew from his grip. John's hands were still stinging as she grabbed him and pulled his head down to her forehead.
Suddenly, his hands stopped stinging. He stopped feeling the ache of too many sleepless nights in his limbs. The bruises that hadn't yet gone purple from his abrupt meeting with the deck during the attack, faded from his arms. John held Teyla against him, feeling her breath beneath his hands and wondering if the voices teasing him were her thoughts.
"Not quite," Teyla whispered with soft amusement. She released him and touched his face in blessing. "You are strong, John Sheppard, strong enough for what is to come. Never doubt that."
He opened his mouth and closed it feebly. She knew what he wanted to say, even if he didn't.
"I have the Asurans to attend to," Teyla explained as she started to brighten. The light was almost golden as it surrounded her.
Elizabeth's sigh was almost too soft to count as a sound, but John heard it. He felt her pain sear through him.
Teyla touched his arm and her patience radiated through her skin. "This is your place," she whispered to ears that no longer heard her. "You are exactly where you need to be."
The light took her, but John didn't see her go. The alarm came back, lancing through is skull as he tried to listen to Elizabeth. The blue light of the chair was starting to flicker. Was she losing control of the city?
He grabbed her wrists and lowered himself over her legs. When he leaned forward, John felt himself begin to sweat. Something was wrong with the vents in the chair room. The air was starting to thicken. He dropped his head to just over her shoulder and her cheek brushed damply against his own.
The blue flash took him and enveloped his mind. Atlantis welcomed him in like an old friend. Elizabeth was just out of reach. He could feel her crouching, confused and trying to hold on to the controls. Her mind was searching for something, a protocol she didn't know, and she was growing more desperate.
"I can't find it," she murmured to herself without feeling him with her. "I know it's here. I know. I know--"
John reached around her and pulled up the navigational calculations for the jump into hyperspace. He tried to tell her it was all right, that this was what she wanted. He couldn't speak and work the computer at the same time, but he felt the tension ease as she noticed him.
Elizabeth sighed and let him take control as the panic slipped from her mind. The feeling of impending destruction faded and John could almost feel the city quiet. The subroutines she'd accidently activated shut down and everything prepared for the jump. He reached out with communications and felt the Artemis computer respond immediately. Hoping the Daedalus and the Hera could follow Carter's ship and pull in close enough for the jump, John turned his attention to Elizabeth.
He had to guide her out of the systems, get her free without hurting her. He started feeling Atlantis fill with energy as the great city punched out of normal space. Elizabeth relaxed, knowing they were safe. She quieted and started to listen to him, but abruptly she was out of the systems entirely as if she'd been pulled bodily away.
John spent a precious second feeling for her in the city and then locked Atlantis on course. Dumping himself out as quickly as he could, John tried to calm his racing heart. Had she passed out? Had something else happened?
Elizabeth's arms were wrapped around his shoulders and her fingers dug into his skin. Her face was still pressed against his and he could feel her lips move as she spoke. "Something's happening," she gasped into his neck. "John, I- I don't know--"
He hushed her and lifted himself from her body. For a second, he remembered the first time he'd been over her watching her fight to stay conscious through the pain in her leg. She'd been pregnant then. The baby had already been there between them, connecting them with a fragile line of flesh before they'd known how entangled they were.
John stroked her hair as he stood up. "The city's in lockdown but Rodney will figure it out..."
"...No," Elizabeth interrupted as she struggled for breath. It took her eyes a moment to lock onto his. "Yes," she corrected. "Virus. Teyla did something. Changed something. The virus--"
There was light in her green eyes. Power, richness, and life poured from that light. It was Teyla's light. Her strength glowing within Elizabeth's eyes. Elizabeth was right and Teyla had changed something deep within her.
Elizabeth shuddered and bit her lip. Her hands dropped from John's shoulders and found her belly. When his hands followed, he felt what was darkening her eyes with pain. The muscles were contracting, tightening around their baby. His breath caught in surprise and he wondered why they didn't have more time.
Simon's voice echoed up from his memories. "Babies are not born when it is convenient or easy."
Birth.
The idea rattled through his head like a bullet confronting a barrier of tissue paper. His thoughts were shredded and scattered to the wind as Elizabeth's muscles to relax.
Fear gave way to surprise as Elizabeth kissed him. Her lips were soft and wet from her tongue. He could taste a hint of metal and wondered how hard she had bitten her lip a moment ago.
Her lips moved outward, dancing across his cheek. "I think it's coming," Elizabeth whispered with the kind of surety that shook him down to his feet. "I couldn't get into the city. I couldn't fight the Asurans and I didn't know where you were. Then Teyla was here and she..." Elizabeth licked her lips and tried to think. "...Teyla touched me and I was in. I was in Atlantis...God, John, it was so beautiful."
"You're all right," he tried to calm her weakly wondering if he shouldn't just believe. "You did good. You scared them off, turned the city upright like a frisbee."
Elizabeth started to smile at him and his fear started to stop screaming with the alarm in his ears.
"I'm not letting you get a big head and start thinking you're a pilot or anything..." John teased and felt her take his hand. "We're all right. The Asurans are gone for the moment and we're in hyperspace. Remind me to give you some serious flight lessons when this is over. In a jumper, mind you, no more of this skipping straight to flying giant cities..."
Elizabeth's breath caught and her smile disappeared. Her eyes widened in shock and her hand went iron and hard against his. Her other hand dug into his upper arm and she bit back a shocked sound. John felt her pain jolt through her hands like an electric shock.
"We're okay?" she fumbled with the words as she tried to keep herself breathing.
"Everything's fine," John insisted as solidly as he could. "No one even really got hurt and they can't fire on us until we drop out of hyperspace."
Elizabeth's voice was pitched higher than normal. "How long can we stay in hyperspace?"
"It'll be at least ten days to get where we're going," John promised as he watched in bizarre fascination as her muscles went taunt beneath her damp, black t-shirt.
She released him and squirmed in the chair. Something was wrong with her back and she was trying vainly to get comfortable. When the contraction, that had to be it, started to fade, Elizabeth started to laugh. Her surprise echoed off the walls of the tiny room as the alarm was finally silenced.
"I don't know what I'm doing," she admitted as the hysterical giggling kept her from looking at him. "This hurts like hell, John, and I've been paying so little attention when Simon talks that I haven't a clue what's happening to me. It's like the emergency meeting in the Balkans, when I forgot to study my notes--"
He found her back with his hands and guided her slowly to her feet. John smiled in quiet response to her laughing, but kept her close to him. "We'll get out of here," he hoped softly as he realized how difficult it might end up being. That thought burrowed into the lining of his stomach and stayed there like a parasite. "Rodney will figure something out."
Elizabeth cupped his cheek but shook her head slowly. "This virus, whatever it is, was a bomb waiting to go off. It won't be quick or easy, even for Rodney, to figure it out."
She was certain and though he knew she was right, John still shook his head. "Rodney's actually a genius, no matter what I tell him," he admitted as he got a better grip on her back and helped her down from the dais. "I did my homework," he promised as an answer to her underlying worry. "I think we'd be okay if we got stuck here for awhile."
Rocking back and forth slightly, Elizabeth seemed to be dealing with something pulling at her back. John knew that look of concentration. "My mother never talked about the night I was born. I guess she was proper," her voice softened as her eyes started to moisten. "My father just said he couldn't believe I was so beautiful the moment he saw me."
"It'll be a good story," he reassured her as he lifted her out of the past with a kiss on her cheek. "Mom fighting back the replicators moments before going into--"
They both stopped and left the last word remain unsaid.
"I don't think I'm ready," Elizabeth admitted to the silence in the smallest voice he'd heard her use.
"God," John shook his head and kissed temple for strength. "I'm not. Maybe together we'll, you know, figure it out somehow."
"You're here," she whispered back as her fingers squeezed his. "You're here and it's all going to be fine."
"I'd wish Carson, Keller," John struggled and then admitted, "or Simon was here instead of me."
"Good thing you aren't me then isn't it?" Elizabeth retorted mysteriously. Her eyebrows started to tighten a moment before she winced. She clung to him and braced her hand against the wall as she tried to find a way to cope. "I thought," she panted and her tone dropped in frustration. "I thought this was supposed to hurt in front."
Sneaking his hand around, he started to push on her spine. When Elizabeth gasped, he knew he'd hit the right spot. John wracked his brain for everything else he should have been remembering and made sure she was stable on her feet. She fought through it, making less noise than he probably would have if it hurt as much as Simon said it did.
"Six minutes," John said softly as he lowered his watch. Her eyes glinted with surprise.
"Didn't realize you were timing," Elizabeth groaned and slammed her hand against the wall in frustration.
"I'm stealthy," John offered playfully as he forced himself to smile. "Maybe you should sit."
"No," Elizabeth answered shaking her head as she lifted her eyes from the floor. "Walk with me while I can."
He obeyed and gave her his right hand as his left went solidly around her back. They didn't have far to go and John started to count the circles they made around the chair.
After the second, Elizabeth stopped and started to move his hand. "Something's weird," she acknowledged as she tried to think. "Tight, strange--"
"Painful weird?" John prompted as he studied her face. "Dangerous weird?"
"Tight," Elizabeth struggled and finally sighed in frustration. "I can't explain it." She took a step and then stopped short. "Can anyone get in here?"
John shook his head. The lights on the wall were still flashing in emergency mode, and though the alarm was silenced he knew the city was still locked down. "No, the city won't let them."
"Take off my boots," she demanded in a stronger tone than he expected. John smirked a little as he knelt in front of her. It was still hot in the chair room and he could feel himself sweating in his jacket. He removed it and tosses it onto the chair before he started the laces of her boots.
"You might want to sit," he suggested when they were loose. "I don't know how good your balance is right now."
Elizabeth obliged and sank to the floor against the wall. Her eyes started to tear up as soon as she left her feet and the next contraction lanced through her body. This time he felt her stiffen and heard the cry she bit back sharply.
Instinctually, John dragged her back to her feet and crushed her between him and the wall. Her breathing started to ease and he felt her collapse against him as it began to ebb.
"It's like a knife in my spine," she whispered when she had breath. Elizabeth's hands dug into his back and she held on. "Every single time."
"Keep your hands on my shoulders," John coached as he knelt down again. Somehow, fumbling in the weak lighting, he managed to free her feet from her boots. Elizabeth's toes moved for a moment and she smiled when he stood up. "Can you stand on your own for a while?"
"Yes," Elizabeth decided as she watched him. John's eyes were on her the entire time as he ripped off his own boots. He couldn't risk stepping on her feet. He couldn't take that chance and she was right, it was damn hot in the chair room and his socks were damp with sweat.
"Water?" he asked as he got to his feet again.
Elizabeth stared at him blankly, as if she didn't recognize the word.
"Water. Amniotic whatever," he remembered as he caught her around the hips. "It's tight here because your water hasn't broken yet."
Her eyes lit with agreement. "I should have realized."
"As long as it's not painful tight," John assured her as he reached for the buttons on her pants. "These are my pants," he pouted and pretended to be shocked. Elizabeth managed to giggle and he stopped to stare at the beauty in her face. "This okay?" he asked and she nodded.
"Not like you haven't been in there before," she remarked lightly as his fingers slipped inside her panties.
"It was different when I still wore them as my pants," John retorted and kissed her chin. "Although, I've been in yours."
"That's something I'd like to see," Elizabeth purred and turned his gentle kiss into something more passionate.
John reached in, fumbling in the wetness. Something bulged against his fingers and he pushed up to feel for the baby. All he felt was liquid, like he was pressing against a balloon. Elizabeth moaned when his wrist brushed something sensitive and her fingers were suddenly very tight in the muscles of his shoulders. Sex was the last thing he should be thinking about, but John could tell she was struggling with the same confusion.
"I think it needs to break," John decided as he pulled his hand free. He wiped it dry on the inside of his shirt only after he was sure there was no blood in the fluid on his fingers.
"Take them off," Elizabeth pleaded as she leaned against the wall. "I might have to wear them," she started to explain. "I'd rather they weren't soaking wet."
John felt himself chuckle as he reached for her hips again. "Practical," he noted as her hips suddenly stiffened. The joking ended as the contraction hit her with a vengeance. Elizabeth fought so hard against her pain that he heard her teeth grind beside his head. His hand dropped to her spine and he dug his knuckles in as hard as he could. He wasn't ready for this. It was one thing to listen to Simon try and explain how difficult it was going to be. It was something else entirely to have Elizabeth Weir, the indestructible, indomitable Elizabeth, sob into his shoulder.
John pressed inward, trying to brace her against the pain in her back. She was heavy against his chest, but she was clinging to him. Trusting him to keep her standing as she lost control, he was more hers than he'd ever been. She had him so wrapped up that his heart wanted to beat with hers and as much as it terrified him, John wouldn't trade it for the galaxy.
"Dammit," Elizabeth complained finally as he wiped tears from her eyes. "Seems real, doesn't it?"
"Hold still and I'll get your pants off," John ordered and wondered how much of an understatement 'damn' was. Could he do it? he wondered as he slipped the pants she'd stolen from him off her hips. Fluid was already starting to trickle down the inside of her thighs and it wouldn't be long until her water broke.
"Maybe it'll hurt less," Elizabeth supposed for both of them. "After the water's gone."
John left her for a moment and left her pants with her boots. It was too hot to worry about her being cold. The city was hotter than he remembered it being, almost as if the city itself had been afflicted with the virus. He could activate the chair and check. Maybe somewhere there was protocol that could unlock the doors and let him bring her to the infirmary but he didn't risk leaving her. She shouldn't have to drag herself through any of this without him.
"Warm enough?" he asked even as he realized it was a stupid question. Elizabeth's hand was slippery as she grabbed him for support.
She blinked slowly and rubbed her forehead before she took his other hand. "It's warm enough."
John checked his watch and waited for her grip to tighten on his hands. Elizabeth closed her eyes again kept them shut for a long moment. "I'm glad you're here," she murmured without looking at him. "You've been great John."
"Not dismissing me now are you?" he teased as he watched the numbers pass four minutes on his watch. Elizabeth started to crumpled and he seared the seconds into his mind. Five seconds became twenty, then fifty as Elizabeth grappled stoically with the pain in her back. It took her almost that long to open her eyes.
Tears had escaped her lashes and flowed freely down her cheek before she dropped her head to his chest. "I might never let you go," she whispered as she found the strength to smile.
"Want to walk?" John offered as he searched the room with his eyes. He had a knife in his jacket. It was clean and he could probably find something to sterilize it. The first aid kit was on the wall, neat and military with it's red cross on the front. There was another box next to it; one of the blue ones Elizabeth had insisted be in each room people might be trapped in after the storm had wrecked the city.
She nodded and let him guide her. Her feet were slow and John kept checking the floor the for blood. Her feet had gotten swollen in the last few weeks and he couldn't help thinking how unlike her they seemed. Everything about Elizabeth was neat and controlled; her feet should have behaved accordingly. When their steps finally brought them to the box he stopped and knelt. "Hang on," he promised as he reached for the water inside.
"John?" her voice was a plea and he flew to his feet. He should have had another minute but she was already starting to fold at the waist. John debated for a second and then pushed her back against the wall. He might have been too rough, but her breathing lost the panicked edge once the pressure was on her spine. Her hands were fists on his chest but she stayed with him.
"Sixty-one seconds," John whispered as she finally started melt. His brain was turning it all to numbers and making it something he could quantify. "Too hard?"
"I think you can push harder," Elizabeth replied as she shook her head. Her fingers were slow to release from the balls she'd turned them into. "It helps."
"Okay," John filed it away in his head as he tried not to worry. Her water still hadn't broken and it only seemed to be making things harder. He wondered if he was supposed to do something but he wasn't a doctor. People who weren't doctors delivered babies sometimes. Hell, all the time on television, and Teyla said they'd be fine.
With Teyla, John didn't even know where to start thinking about that her. She'd been through something he'd never understand but he wanted to trust her. She was part of his team, even if she'd become a creature. She knew more than she'd said, but she'd always been that way. Teyla was calm in a way he didn't understand, like Elizabeth usually was, and he wished she was here to help him.
He stole away and freed the bottled water from the case on the floor. Holding it up as he waited for Elizabeth to drink, he ran his hand over the side of her belly. John forced himself to be calm; be Teyla so Elizabeth would have no cause to fear. She managed to swallow some of the water, but her body contracted before she was ready.
Without the time to brace herself, Elizabeth cried out from shock and pain. John pushed her back against the wall, trying to angle her body so all the pressure he could bring to bear was against her spine. One hand clawed along the wall until she found his arm and dug her hand into his flesh.
He listened as her cry faded into a groan that she bit back. He moved his hand down her belly and felt through the muscles for the hardness of the baby. John thought he had it, but it seemed too far up. Was the head down? He thought the head was supposed to be down, but he wasn't sure if he could tell the which end was the head.
Elizabeth squirmed and her grip grew even tighter. When her panting didn't end with the contraction, John waited for the pressure to break. Something had to snap, he could feel it in the air in the room. Silently praying the membrane would give in, he lowered his hands to her hips and tried to keep her upright. When he pushed her back, she suddenly gasped.
Elizabeth's eyes widened again, and the whites seemed too large to be human She held her cry back for a moment but he felt the fluid on his feet first. John had to keep himself from jumping back as it ran down her legs in a sudden flood. To his relief the fluid puddling around their feet was clear and Elizabeth was already starting to come back.
"Better?" John asked as her eyes started to focus again.
"Thanks for getting me out of my boots," she sighed and licked her lips. "I only have one pair."
"What about the weird?" he pressed trying not to sound too concerned.
"Better," Elizabeth replied with a weak nod. Her hands stayed on his shoulders as he bent for the water bottle. This time she managed to get a few swallows and smiled softly as he wiped her mouth. "This would be kind of fun, under different circumstances, don't you think?"
John gave her a look and couldn't believe she raised an eyebrow at him. "It was never one of my fantasizes," he teased as if he was surprised she even thought that way. "I thought we'd be in a jumper."
"Pilot to the end?" Elizabeth wondered as she wiggled her toes in the fluid on her feet. "I used to think about it, sometimes, when I was in my office way too late at night." She shook herself away from the wall and took a shaky step. "I, um, well, I kinda had a crush on you a couple years back."
Chuckling as he made sure she wasn't going to slip on the floor, John lead her around. "After Kolya?" he guessed trying to keep the conversation light.
"No," she sighed and he felt her start to laugh with him. "It was when you came back during the siege. I didn't realize how damn heroic you were until then," Elizabeth stole a moment to kiss his cheek and John wondered if she knew he was blushing.
"Never thought you'd want to be saved," John replied with honest surprise as his voice dropped. He checked her legs again, nearly neurotic in his worry. There wasn't any blood and she seemed to have perked up a little.
"Even Phd's need a white knight now and then," Elizabeth teased as she tensed preemptively for the next contraction.
John fell silent and listened to her breath. She wasted so much energy trying to hold this back her pain. "I'm the only one who can hear you," he whispered as he dug his fists into her back. "It's just you and me, and you don't have to impress me. We're a little past that."
Something that might have been a scream became a sob and she shuddered in his arms. She didn't breath until he shook her shoulders and the gasping that followed barely filled her lungs. "You're okay," he repeated as a mantra. "You're okay."
Elizabeth's legs buckled a little and without him she would have sank to the floor. John kept her up. John kept her solid between him and the wall; making her steady when she needed to stay on her feet.
"It's different," she gasped when the contraction ended. "It hurts more now," she stammered as her fingers tore at his shirt sleeve.
John wondered if she wanted him to lie and say it was going to be all right. He didn't have to say anything because she knew it was going to get worse before it got better. She only had three minutes in between now and her legs were getting shakier.
"Eighty-three seconds," John answered when her eyes fell on his watch.
"Remind me never to drink off-world again," she complained when he took her away from the wall.
"Walk with me," he insisted against her reticence. "It'll go faster if you keep walking." The hope that it would be over got her to take a step and John's mind went to the rubbing alcohol in the first aid kit. He could sterilize his knife. He needed string as well, but he could use his boot lace if he had too. Elizabeth shook him off and took a few steps on her own, but as soon as he took a step towards the first aid kit she reached for him.
He was a slave to her hands moving his where she needed them and holding on when her fingers tightened. Elizabeth was bound to her breath, fighting it when agony took her and clinging to it when it faded. John wondered what the baby felt within her and he found himself taking a sentimental moment to wish he could tell it to be patient.
"Life's not going to be easy," John whispered down to her belly when Elizabeth clung to him and started to cry. "Sometimes it really sucks," he continued as he watched a foot move beneath her skin. "But Elizabeth...your mom and are going to be here and we'll get through it because that's what we do. We get through things."
Elizabeth was fading out again and John found a trickle of blood when he ran his hand up her thigh. It was slow, browning blood but it still sent a new wave of cold through his body. He wiped it on his pants before Elizabeth saw it and kissed her forehead when she didn't open her eyes.
There was blood on her lips and he caught it with his thumb. "You hang on," he reminded her slowly. "You're gonna get through this," he promised as he waited for her eyes to open. "You're tougher than this."
Elizabeth shuddered and it shook her to the core. She slipped and he guided her down when her legs went out. For a minute, she struggled with something she wouldn't share with him. In that time, John felt her belly. The hard lump of the baby was closer to the surface and he thought he had found a shoulder by her left side. His t-shirt had finally torn and a loose thread stuck to the skin of his arm.
Her hair was drenched in sweat and it clung to her neck as if it had been glued there. John ran his hands over her forehead anyway. Kissing her skin before he left her for the water bottle and the alcohol. It only took him a minute to wash his knife, and his fingers shook as he left it out on his jacket. He had the water in his hands when she screamed.
Elizabeth tried to fight it, but the sound tore out of her throat like a beast with a life of it's own. He fell to his knees at her side and lifted her head. Her eyes were screwed shut, but she took a trembling breath. When he touched her, something eased.
"John?" she whispered through lips that were bloody again. "Where are you?"
He held her face and ran his thumbs beneath her eyes as he slid them down her cheek her eyes opened. Elizabeth was worn, more than she'd admit and it took her precious time to focus on his face. He watched her eyes swim and shift until she finally found his face.
"I'm here," he promised as he waited for her to see. "Right here."
Her hands crept up his arms and covered his. Elizabeth's eyes sharpened finally and her lips twitched. "There you are."
"Trust me," he began it as a question, but it quickly became a promise. "I'm going to check. See if I feel anything, okay?"
"Okay," she murmured as her fingers trailed back down his hands. "I don't have a lot of time."
"I'll be quick," John assured her as he parted her legs.
Elizabeth let him lay her back on the floor and he held her face as long as he dared. "I have to sit up before--"
"I know," he soothed and gave her his left hand to hold. He wasn't usually between a woman's legs, especially this woman, without thinking about sleeping with them. John felt along her thigh and up after the trail of blood. It was still brown, so he reminded himself not to worry. The light was awful and though her body was angry, it didn't seem that different to his eyes. His fingers slipped within her and John realized how much had changed. His entire hand fit inside of her and she moaned in surprise.
"We're okay," he promised gently as he tried to distract her. "Just trying to make sure it's a head, not feet that's trying to go first." John couldn't help raising his eyebrows in surprise. His fingers found the hard, round curve of something wet. He thought he felt hair.
Elizabeth's body closed in tight around him and she started to pull away, trying to escape the pain in her back. He brought himself back from his astonishment and pulled her up. Pain wracked her body and she fought him as he dragged her up. John took a fist to the chest before she gave in and let him hold her. He rocked slowly trying to keep her from getting lost again.
"Stay with me," he insisted as he waited for her to breathe through it.
Elizabeth couldn't stop gasping; couldn't fight the way her chest was too tight. "Make it stop," she begged through clenched teeth. "Just make it stop."
"Hang on," John coaxed and watched the seconds drag by on his watch. He didn't have time to be afraid or really contemplate the fact that he'd touched his child with his bloody, slimy hand. "Almost there," he promised as the numbers ticked past ninety seconds.
When the agony faded from her body, she returned. Elizabeth hugged him and tried to stay on her feet. Before she could speak, John found her eyes and put his hands a few inches apart.
"It's coming," he explained with naked surprise. "Shouldn't be long."
"How long has it been?" Elizabeth nearly choked on the sentence and he hurried to get the water bottle in the break between. Water bubbled down her lips, but she drank gratefully.
"A while," John answered cryptically. He thought Rodney would have found them, saved them by now. Something had to be wrong. No one had even tried to make radio contact.
He didn't have time to think about the control room. He had just gotten the cap back when the contraction hit her. Elizabeth's voice was raw this time and she'd gotten past the point where she'd the strength left to fight it. Letting her cry of pain stab through him, John let her brace against the wall as he dug both fists into her back. That helped and she quieted, but she was starting to change.
Elizabeth's scream faded and became primal. She grabbed his hand and brought it to her pelvis. The hard knot of bone he'd felt from within was resting just over the bones of her hips. Her sound was deep and alien, like the grieving of a creature far from human. She pushed him, forcing them both down.
John knelt as she squatted against the wall. Her back was straight again and beneath the bright agony in her eyes, Elizabeth was stone. The granite he knew, the immobile leader, could make it through this pain. Whatever had gotten her through the nanites, the replicators and the invasion of her blood by ascended beings was ready to stand firm.
Her head dropped and her hands held him as her anchor.
"Guess we're pushing now," John answered his own question. She panted her way through the pathetic space between contractions and groaned her way through the beginning of the next one. Her voice rose as it started to peak and she started to struggle with her panties.
John started to remove them as the contraction left her. Elizabeth wasn't looking at him. He wasn't even sure if she could see, but she led with her fingers. Her panties flew over her hips and fell to the floor. John pulled them aside as the next contraction crawled on the heels of the last. She raised her head and screamed towards the ceiling. It reverberated and filled the room.
More blood, fresher this time, dotted the floor between her feet and John shoved fear away. Her fingers were talons as they dug into her shoulders. Speech was too much for her and she only babbled when he spoke to her. His hands could feel her hips shift. His heart heard the terrible, unrelenting agony in the screams he couldn't listen to. The bones were being wrenched apart, torn from their places as something foreign forged its way through.
Blood was smeared on her white legs and his tan hands. John felt his heart skip a beat when he held the crown of his child's skull in his palm. Elizabeth's hand drew blood from him as she ripped it across his back. She put everything she had into the push. It didn't matter that Elizabeth had never been taught, her body pushed. When the scream became a wail, John kissed her. His hands waited beneath her, wet with the fluids of her body, and he kissed her.
She kissed him like he was the last man on Earth and it pounded in his head that he loved her. Beyond a shadow, beyond the darkest corner of space, he loved her and that was all they needed. His lips moved against hers and he said everything he couldn't put into words.
The head slipped and the fragile weight of it filled his hands. John stared down in disbelief and saw the face of their child. It was facing him, its hard head had ridden all the way down her spine through the whole labor. His fingers wiped mucus reverently from the tiny eyes and nose. Elizabeth screamed her way through a shoulder, and he extracted the other when she was shaking with sobs. Light filled his hands and poured from her body until they were both a single being brimming with that light.
It was over. Elizabeth was crying into his neck and he was holding a wet, purple thing. John stared at it and waited for it to move. The cord ran from its belly to disappear up within her, but it was free. He cradled the baby in his left arm and reached for his knife.
He needed something to wrap the baby in. He couldn't tie or cut with one hand. John pulled his jacket over with shaking fingers and laid it down. As he looked it over, he realized it was female. She had toes and fingers and eyes that open when he ran questing fingers over her face. She met his eyes and his heart was forever changed. It didn't matter that he'd failed. It didn't matter how many times he'd beaten back the enemy, he wasn't just John Sheppard, he was a father.
"You're crying," Elizabeth ventured in a whisper as she dropped to the floor next to his jacket. "Is it?"
"She's fine," John stumbled over his tongue and tore his eyes away from the deep blue eyes of his daughter. "God, Elizabeth, she's a she--"
instead of a wail, their daughter's first sound was a gasp for air that changed their universe. In the blue light of the walls, her skin went from purple to pink and she began to breath. John's hands shook as he tied the cord with two tight knots. They were steady as he lifted the knife.
Once she was free, he lifted her from the floor.
Elizabeth wavered slightly, but with his help she sat against the wall. Her belly still twitched and tightened as her body released the placenta that had fed the little girl in her arms for so long. John released his daughter into Elizabeth's arms and helped her fight with her bra. The breasts he loved, the ones that had swelled so painfully in the early months, finally had their use.
His daughter ignored the nipple, at first preferring to wrap tiny lips around his finger, but after a minute she started to nurse.
Elizabeth's eyebrows tightened and she tried to deal with the sensation. She reached for him and caught a tear on his cheek. When his hand covered hers, she started to smile.
"There you are," she murmured as she looked down at their daughter and up at him. "Both of you."
Kissing her tasted sweeter than it ever had and John settled down beside her. When Elizabeth put her head on his shoulder, and he wrapped a hand around their daughter within his jacket, he was full. His heart was bursting in his chest and he had never felt more loved. This was where he was most meant to be. Here, with his family, he learned to truly fly.
one hundred ninety-three days after Earth
The brilliant white light of the transporter faded into the brown walls of the chair room. The door was shut tight and the lights beside it glowed blue in the darkness. The emergency lights weren't very bright as he turned towards the chair. The same alarm, the contamination warning, blasted through the room. John's eyes searched desperately for the figure he knew had to be there and missed the white silhouette off to his left.
His stomach was cold, tight and wound into a dangerous knot of concern. Elizabeth's eyes were closed as he took the first step towards the chair. Her forehead was tight with concentration and a white light lit the sweat on her face until it glistened. The light should have been blue, John's mind insisted stubbornly. There wasn't any white light in the control room.
He ignored his thoughts and grabbed Elizabeth's wrist. Her pulse was steady beneath his fingers and though her skin was hot to the touch, she seemed to be all right. John couldn't decide how best to pull her out of the navigation of the city without shocking her too badly. He didn't even know how she had done it. She'd been only able to work it with his help last time and nothing had changed since then. Looking over the swell of her belly, John wondered if the baby was involved.
Something white moved at the edge of his vision and he whipped his head around. Teyla smiled at him as she started to appear out of a cloud of white. The white took on a green tinge, like new grass emerging from the ground, and coalesced into her body. The marks of the wraith were still on her face, but her eyes were human and soft. She shook out her hair and it floated behind her head, as if it was made of something no longer affected by gravity.
"Busy night," Teyla promised and her voice seemed to reverberate into his chest. The terrible, screaming alarm faded away and all he heard was her voice.
John dropped Elizabeth's wrist and drew his weapon. He felt the safety snap and the hammer click into readiness as the cold steel started to warm in his hands.
Teyla waved her hand softly and the air shimmered around her. "You don't need it," she promised. "I've already eaten." When she smiled again, John saw the pointed teeth and felt fear run cold down his spine.
Keeping his pistol level with her eyes, John swallowed back the feeling of nausea. Whatever she was, she wasn't the woman he'd known. She was a creature. An incredibly powerful being that posed a threat to those he most needed to protect.
Teyla's eyes cut into him and he forgot about the dark, black hue of her tongue. She took a step towards him and the light from her skin started to sear his eyes. His heart beat once and he felt understanding come with the rush of blood to his brain. Her lips started to smile again and he felt his conviction waver even though the pistol was a rock in his hands.
"Still in there after all?" John asked as he watched her move closer. What was the smell? Why didn't he know what is was?
Teyla moved faster than his eyes could process and his gun flew from his grip. John's hands were still stinging as she grabbed him and pulled his head down to her forehead.
Suddenly, his hands stopped stinging. He stopped feeling the ache of too many sleepless nights in his limbs. The bruises that hadn't yet gone purple from his abrupt meeting with the deck during the attack, faded from his arms. John held Teyla against him, feeling her breath beneath his hands and wondering if the voices teasing him were her thoughts.
"Not quite," Teyla whispered with soft amusement. She released him and touched his face in blessing. "You are strong, John Sheppard, strong enough for what is to come. Never doubt that."
He opened his mouth and closed it feebly. She knew what he wanted to say, even if he didn't.
"I have the Asurans to attend to," Teyla explained as she started to brighten. The light was almost golden as it surrounded her.
Elizabeth's sigh was almost too soft to count as a sound, but John heard it. He felt her pain sear through him.
Teyla touched his arm and her patience radiated through her skin. "This is your place," she whispered to ears that no longer heard her. "You are exactly where you need to be."
The light took her, but John didn't see her go. The alarm came back, lancing through is skull as he tried to listen to Elizabeth. The blue light of the chair was starting to flicker. Was she losing control of the city?
He grabbed her wrists and lowered himself over her legs. When he leaned forward, John felt himself begin to sweat. Something was wrong with the vents in the chair room. The air was starting to thicken. He dropped his head to just over her shoulder and her cheek brushed damply against his own.
The blue flash took him and enveloped his mind. Atlantis welcomed him in like an old friend. Elizabeth was just out of reach. He could feel her crouching, confused and trying to hold on to the controls. Her mind was searching for something, a protocol she didn't know, and she was growing more desperate.
"I can't find it," she murmured to herself without feeling him with her. "I know it's here. I know. I know--"
John reached around her and pulled up the navigational calculations for the jump into hyperspace. He tried to tell her it was all right, that this was what she wanted. He couldn't speak and work the computer at the same time, but he felt the tension ease as she noticed him.
Elizabeth sighed and let him take control as the panic slipped from her mind. The feeling of impending destruction faded and John could almost feel the city quiet. The subroutines she'd accidently activated shut down and everything prepared for the jump. He reached out with communications and felt the Artemis computer respond immediately. Hoping the Daedalus and the Hera could follow Carter's ship and pull in close enough for the jump, John turned his attention to Elizabeth.
He had to guide her out of the systems, get her free without hurting her. He started feeling Atlantis fill with energy as the great city punched out of normal space. Elizabeth relaxed, knowing they were safe. She quieted and started to listen to him, but abruptly she was out of the systems entirely as if she'd been pulled bodily away.
John spent a precious second feeling for her in the city and then locked Atlantis on course. Dumping himself out as quickly as he could, John tried to calm his racing heart. Had she passed out? Had something else happened?
Elizabeth's arms were wrapped around his shoulders and her fingers dug into his skin. Her face was still pressed against his and he could feel her lips move as she spoke. "Something's happening," she gasped into his neck. "John, I- I don't know--"
He hushed her and lifted himself from her body. For a second, he remembered the first time he'd been over her watching her fight to stay conscious through the pain in her leg. She'd been pregnant then. The baby had already been there between them, connecting them with a fragile line of flesh before they'd known how entangled they were.
John stroked her hair as he stood up. "The city's in lockdown but Rodney will figure it out..."
"...No," Elizabeth interrupted as she struggled for breath. It took her eyes a moment to lock onto his. "Yes," she corrected. "Virus. Teyla did something. Changed something. The virus--"
There was light in her green eyes. Power, richness, and life poured from that light. It was Teyla's light. Her strength glowing within Elizabeth's eyes. Elizabeth was right and Teyla had changed something deep within her.
Elizabeth shuddered and bit her lip. Her hands dropped from John's shoulders and found her belly. When his hands followed, he felt what was darkening her eyes with pain. The muscles were contracting, tightening around their baby. His breath caught in surprise and he wondered why they didn't have more time.
Simon's voice echoed up from his memories. "Babies are not born when it is convenient or easy."
Birth.
The idea rattled through his head like a bullet confronting a barrier of tissue paper. His thoughts were shredded and scattered to the wind as Elizabeth's muscles to relax.
Fear gave way to surprise as Elizabeth kissed him. Her lips were soft and wet from her tongue. He could taste a hint of metal and wondered how hard she had bitten her lip a moment ago.
Her lips moved outward, dancing across his cheek. "I think it's coming," Elizabeth whispered with the kind of surety that shook him down to his feet. "I couldn't get into the city. I couldn't fight the Asurans and I didn't know where you were. Then Teyla was here and she..." Elizabeth licked her lips and tried to think. "...Teyla touched me and I was in. I was in Atlantis...God, John, it was so beautiful."
"You're all right," he tried to calm her weakly wondering if he shouldn't just believe. "You did good. You scared them off, turned the city upright like a frisbee."
Elizabeth started to smile at him and his fear started to stop screaming with the alarm in his ears.
"I'm not letting you get a big head and start thinking you're a pilot or anything..." John teased and felt her take his hand. "We're all right. The Asurans are gone for the moment and we're in hyperspace. Remind me to give you some serious flight lessons when this is over. In a jumper, mind you, no more of this skipping straight to flying giant cities..."
Elizabeth's breath caught and her smile disappeared. Her eyes widened in shock and her hand went iron and hard against his. Her other hand dug into his upper arm and she bit back a shocked sound. John felt her pain jolt through her hands like an electric shock.
"We're okay?" she fumbled with the words as she tried to keep herself breathing.
"Everything's fine," John insisted as solidly as he could. "No one even really got hurt and they can't fire on us until we drop out of hyperspace."
Elizabeth's voice was pitched higher than normal. "How long can we stay in hyperspace?"
"It'll be at least ten days to get where we're going," John promised as he watched in bizarre fascination as her muscles went taunt beneath her damp, black t-shirt.
She released him and squirmed in the chair. Something was wrong with her back and she was trying vainly to get comfortable. When the contraction, that had to be it, started to fade, Elizabeth started to laugh. Her surprise echoed off the walls of the tiny room as the alarm was finally silenced.
"I don't know what I'm doing," she admitted as the hysterical giggling kept her from looking at him. "This hurts like hell, John, and I've been paying so little attention when Simon talks that I haven't a clue what's happening to me. It's like the emergency meeting in the Balkans, when I forgot to study my notes--"
He found her back with his hands and guided her slowly to her feet. John smiled in quiet response to her laughing, but kept her close to him. "We'll get out of here," he hoped softly as he realized how difficult it might end up being. That thought burrowed into the lining of his stomach and stayed there like a parasite. "Rodney will figure something out."
Elizabeth cupped his cheek but shook her head slowly. "This virus, whatever it is, was a bomb waiting to go off. It won't be quick or easy, even for Rodney, to figure it out."
She was certain and though he knew she was right, John still shook his head. "Rodney's actually a genius, no matter what I tell him," he admitted as he got a better grip on her back and helped her down from the dais. "I did my homework," he promised as an answer to her underlying worry. "I think we'd be okay if we got stuck here for awhile."
Rocking back and forth slightly, Elizabeth seemed to be dealing with something pulling at her back. John knew that look of concentration. "My mother never talked about the night I was born. I guess she was proper," her voice softened as her eyes started to moisten. "My father just said he couldn't believe I was so beautiful the moment he saw me."
"It'll be a good story," he reassured her as he lifted her out of the past with a kiss on her cheek. "Mom fighting back the replicators moments before going into--"
They both stopped and left the last word remain unsaid.
"I don't think I'm ready," Elizabeth admitted to the silence in the smallest voice he'd heard her use.
"God," John shook his head and kissed temple for strength. "I'm not. Maybe together we'll, you know, figure it out somehow."
"You're here," she whispered back as her fingers squeezed his. "You're here and it's all going to be fine."
"I'd wish Carson, Keller," John struggled and then admitted, "or Simon was here instead of me."
"Good thing you aren't me then isn't it?" Elizabeth retorted mysteriously. Her eyebrows started to tighten a moment before she winced. She clung to him and braced her hand against the wall as she tried to find a way to cope. "I thought," she panted and her tone dropped in frustration. "I thought this was supposed to hurt in front."
Sneaking his hand around, he started to push on her spine. When Elizabeth gasped, he knew he'd hit the right spot. John wracked his brain for everything else he should have been remembering and made sure she was stable on her feet. She fought through it, making less noise than he probably would have if it hurt as much as Simon said it did.
"Six minutes," John said softly as he lowered his watch. Her eyes glinted with surprise.
"Didn't realize you were timing," Elizabeth groaned and slammed her hand against the wall in frustration.
"I'm stealthy," John offered playfully as he forced himself to smile. "Maybe you should sit."
"No," Elizabeth answered shaking her head as she lifted her eyes from the floor. "Walk with me while I can."
He obeyed and gave her his right hand as his left went solidly around her back. They didn't have far to go and John started to count the circles they made around the chair.
After the second, Elizabeth stopped and started to move his hand. "Something's weird," she acknowledged as she tried to think. "Tight, strange--"
"Painful weird?" John prompted as he studied her face. "Dangerous weird?"
"Tight," Elizabeth struggled and finally sighed in frustration. "I can't explain it." She took a step and then stopped short. "Can anyone get in here?"
John shook his head. The lights on the wall were still flashing in emergency mode, and though the alarm was silenced he knew the city was still locked down. "No, the city won't let them."
"Take off my boots," she demanded in a stronger tone than he expected. John smirked a little as he knelt in front of her. It was still hot in the chair room and he could feel himself sweating in his jacket. He removed it and tosses it onto the chair before he started the laces of her boots.
"You might want to sit," he suggested when they were loose. "I don't know how good your balance is right now."
Elizabeth obliged and sank to the floor against the wall. Her eyes started to tear up as soon as she left her feet and the next contraction lanced through her body. This time he felt her stiffen and heard the cry she bit back sharply.
Instinctually, John dragged her back to her feet and crushed her between him and the wall. Her breathing started to ease and he felt her collapse against him as it began to ebb.
"It's like a knife in my spine," she whispered when she had breath. Elizabeth's hands dug into his back and she held on. "Every single time."
"Keep your hands on my shoulders," John coached as he knelt down again. Somehow, fumbling in the weak lighting, he managed to free her feet from her boots. Elizabeth's toes moved for a moment and she smiled when he stood up. "Can you stand on your own for a while?"
"Yes," Elizabeth decided as she watched him. John's eyes were on her the entire time as he ripped off his own boots. He couldn't risk stepping on her feet. He couldn't take that chance and she was right, it was damn hot in the chair room and his socks were damp with sweat.
"Water?" he asked as he got to his feet again.
Elizabeth stared at him blankly, as if she didn't recognize the word.
"Water. Amniotic whatever," he remembered as he caught her around the hips. "It's tight here because your water hasn't broken yet."
Her eyes lit with agreement. "I should have realized."
"As long as it's not painful tight," John assured her as he reached for the buttons on her pants. "These are my pants," he pouted and pretended to be shocked. Elizabeth managed to giggle and he stopped to stare at the beauty in her face. "This okay?" he asked and she nodded.
"Not like you haven't been in there before," she remarked lightly as his fingers slipped inside her panties.
"It was different when I still wore them as my pants," John retorted and kissed her chin. "Although, I've been in yours."
"That's something I'd like to see," Elizabeth purred and turned his gentle kiss into something more passionate.
John reached in, fumbling in the wetness. Something bulged against his fingers and he pushed up to feel for the baby. All he felt was liquid, like he was pressing against a balloon. Elizabeth moaned when his wrist brushed something sensitive and her fingers were suddenly very tight in the muscles of his shoulders. Sex was the last thing he should be thinking about, but John could tell she was struggling with the same confusion.
"I think it needs to break," John decided as he pulled his hand free. He wiped it dry on the inside of his shirt only after he was sure there was no blood in the fluid on his fingers.
"Take them off," Elizabeth pleaded as she leaned against the wall. "I might have to wear them," she started to explain. "I'd rather they weren't soaking wet."
John felt himself chuckle as he reached for her hips again. "Practical," he noted as her hips suddenly stiffened. The joking ended as the contraction hit her with a vengeance. Elizabeth fought so hard against her pain that he heard her teeth grind beside his head. His hand dropped to her spine and he dug his knuckles in as hard as he could. He wasn't ready for this. It was one thing to listen to Simon try and explain how difficult it was going to be. It was something else entirely to have Elizabeth Weir, the indestructible, indomitable Elizabeth, sob into his shoulder.
John pressed inward, trying to brace her against the pain in her back. She was heavy against his chest, but she was clinging to him. Trusting him to keep her standing as she lost control, he was more hers than he'd ever been. She had him so wrapped up that his heart wanted to beat with hers and as much as it terrified him, John wouldn't trade it for the galaxy.
"Dammit," Elizabeth complained finally as he wiped tears from her eyes. "Seems real, doesn't it?"
"Hold still and I'll get your pants off," John ordered and wondered how much of an understatement 'damn' was. Could he do it? he wondered as he slipped the pants she'd stolen from him off her hips. Fluid was already starting to trickle down the inside of her thighs and it wouldn't be long until her water broke.
"Maybe it'll hurt less," Elizabeth supposed for both of them. "After the water's gone."
John left her for a moment and left her pants with her boots. It was too hot to worry about her being cold. The city was hotter than he remembered it being, almost as if the city itself had been afflicted with the virus. He could activate the chair and check. Maybe somewhere there was protocol that could unlock the doors and let him bring her to the infirmary but he didn't risk leaving her. She shouldn't have to drag herself through any of this without him.
"Warm enough?" he asked even as he realized it was a stupid question. Elizabeth's hand was slippery as she grabbed him for support.
She blinked slowly and rubbed her forehead before she took his other hand. "It's warm enough."
John checked his watch and waited for her grip to tighten on his hands. Elizabeth closed her eyes again kept them shut for a long moment. "I'm glad you're here," she murmured without looking at him. "You've been great John."
"Not dismissing me now are you?" he teased as he watched the numbers pass four minutes on his watch. Elizabeth started to crumpled and he seared the seconds into his mind. Five seconds became twenty, then fifty as Elizabeth grappled stoically with the pain in her back. It took her almost that long to open her eyes.
Tears had escaped her lashes and flowed freely down her cheek before she dropped her head to his chest. "I might never let you go," she whispered as she found the strength to smile.
"Want to walk?" John offered as he searched the room with his eyes. He had a knife in his jacket. It was clean and he could probably find something to sterilize it. The first aid kit was on the wall, neat and military with it's red cross on the front. There was another box next to it; one of the blue ones Elizabeth had insisted be in each room people might be trapped in after the storm had wrecked the city.
She nodded and let him guide her. Her feet were slow and John kept checking the floor the for blood. Her feet had gotten swollen in the last few weeks and he couldn't help thinking how unlike her they seemed. Everything about Elizabeth was neat and controlled; her feet should have behaved accordingly. When their steps finally brought them to the box he stopped and knelt. "Hang on," he promised as he reached for the water inside.
"John?" her voice was a plea and he flew to his feet. He should have had another minute but she was already starting to fold at the waist. John debated for a second and then pushed her back against the wall. He might have been too rough, but her breathing lost the panicked edge once the pressure was on her spine. Her hands were fists on his chest but she stayed with him.
"Sixty-one seconds," John whispered as she finally started melt. His brain was turning it all to numbers and making it something he could quantify. "Too hard?"
"I think you can push harder," Elizabeth replied as she shook her head. Her fingers were slow to release from the balls she'd turned them into. "It helps."
"Okay," John filed it away in his head as he tried not to worry. Her water still hadn't broken and it only seemed to be making things harder. He wondered if he was supposed to do something but he wasn't a doctor. People who weren't doctors delivered babies sometimes. Hell, all the time on television, and Teyla said they'd be fine.
With Teyla, John didn't even know where to start thinking about that her. She'd been through something he'd never understand but he wanted to trust her. She was part of his team, even if she'd become a creature. She knew more than she'd said, but she'd always been that way. Teyla was calm in a way he didn't understand, like Elizabeth usually was, and he wished she was here to help him.
He stole away and freed the bottled water from the case on the floor. Holding it up as he waited for Elizabeth to drink, he ran his hand over the side of her belly. John forced himself to be calm; be Teyla so Elizabeth would have no cause to fear. She managed to swallow some of the water, but her body contracted before she was ready.
Without the time to brace herself, Elizabeth cried out from shock and pain. John pushed her back against the wall, trying to angle her body so all the pressure he could bring to bear was against her spine. One hand clawed along the wall until she found his arm and dug her hand into his flesh.
He listened as her cry faded into a groan that she bit back. He moved his hand down her belly and felt through the muscles for the hardness of the baby. John thought he had it, but it seemed too far up. Was the head down? He thought the head was supposed to be down, but he wasn't sure if he could tell the which end was the head.
Elizabeth squirmed and her grip grew even tighter. When her panting didn't end with the contraction, John waited for the pressure to break. Something had to snap, he could feel it in the air in the room. Silently praying the membrane would give in, he lowered his hands to her hips and tried to keep her upright. When he pushed her back, she suddenly gasped.
Elizabeth's eyes widened again, and the whites seemed too large to be human She held her cry back for a moment but he felt the fluid on his feet first. John had to keep himself from jumping back as it ran down her legs in a sudden flood. To his relief the fluid puddling around their feet was clear and Elizabeth was already starting to come back.
"Better?" John asked as her eyes started to focus again.
"Thanks for getting me out of my boots," she sighed and licked her lips. "I only have one pair."
"What about the weird?" he pressed trying not to sound too concerned.
"Better," Elizabeth replied with a weak nod. Her hands stayed on his shoulders as he bent for the water bottle. This time she managed to get a few swallows and smiled softly as he wiped her mouth. "This would be kind of fun, under different circumstances, don't you think?"
John gave her a look and couldn't believe she raised an eyebrow at him. "It was never one of my fantasizes," he teased as if he was surprised she even thought that way. "I thought we'd be in a jumper."
"Pilot to the end?" Elizabeth wondered as she wiggled her toes in the fluid on her feet. "I used to think about it, sometimes, when I was in my office way too late at night." She shook herself away from the wall and took a shaky step. "I, um, well, I kinda had a crush on you a couple years back."
Chuckling as he made sure she wasn't going to slip on the floor, John lead her around. "After Kolya?" he guessed trying to keep the conversation light.
"No," she sighed and he felt her start to laugh with him. "It was when you came back during the siege. I didn't realize how damn heroic you were until then," Elizabeth stole a moment to kiss his cheek and John wondered if she knew he was blushing.
"Never thought you'd want to be saved," John replied with honest surprise as his voice dropped. He checked her legs again, nearly neurotic in his worry. There wasn't any blood and she seemed to have perked up a little.
"Even Phd's need a white knight now and then," Elizabeth teased as she tensed preemptively for the next contraction.
John fell silent and listened to her breath. She wasted so much energy trying to hold this back her pain. "I'm the only one who can hear you," he whispered as he dug his fists into her back. "It's just you and me, and you don't have to impress me. We're a little past that."
Something that might have been a scream became a sob and she shuddered in his arms. She didn't breath until he shook her shoulders and the gasping that followed barely filled her lungs. "You're okay," he repeated as a mantra. "You're okay."
Elizabeth's legs buckled a little and without him she would have sank to the floor. John kept her up. John kept her solid between him and the wall; making her steady when she needed to stay on her feet.
"It's different," she gasped when the contraction ended. "It hurts more now," she stammered as her fingers tore at his shirt sleeve.
John wondered if she wanted him to lie and say it was going to be all right. He didn't have to say anything because she knew it was going to get worse before it got better. She only had three minutes in between now and her legs were getting shakier.
"Eighty-three seconds," John answered when her eyes fell on his watch.
"Remind me never to drink off-world again," she complained when he took her away from the wall.
"Walk with me," he insisted against her reticence. "It'll go faster if you keep walking." The hope that it would be over got her to take a step and John's mind went to the rubbing alcohol in the first aid kit. He could sterilize his knife. He needed string as well, but he could use his boot lace if he had too. Elizabeth shook him off and took a few steps on her own, but as soon as he took a step towards the first aid kit she reached for him.
He was a slave to her hands moving his where she needed them and holding on when her fingers tightened. Elizabeth was bound to her breath, fighting it when agony took her and clinging to it when it faded. John wondered what the baby felt within her and he found himself taking a sentimental moment to wish he could tell it to be patient.
"Life's not going to be easy," John whispered down to her belly when Elizabeth clung to him and started to cry. "Sometimes it really sucks," he continued as he watched a foot move beneath her skin. "But Elizabeth...your mom and are going to be here and we'll get through it because that's what we do. We get through things."
Elizabeth was fading out again and John found a trickle of blood when he ran his hand up her thigh. It was slow, browning blood but it still sent a new wave of cold through his body. He wiped it on his pants before Elizabeth saw it and kissed her forehead when she didn't open her eyes.
There was blood on her lips and he caught it with his thumb. "You hang on," he reminded her slowly. "You're gonna get through this," he promised as he waited for her eyes to open. "You're tougher than this."
Elizabeth shuddered and it shook her to the core. She slipped and he guided her down when her legs went out. For a minute, she struggled with something she wouldn't share with him. In that time, John felt her belly. The hard lump of the baby was closer to the surface and he thought he had found a shoulder by her left side. His t-shirt had finally torn and a loose thread stuck to the skin of his arm.
Her hair was drenched in sweat and it clung to her neck as if it had been glued there. John ran his hands over her forehead anyway. Kissing her skin before he left her for the water bottle and the alcohol. It only took him a minute to wash his knife, and his fingers shook as he left it out on his jacket. He had the water in his hands when she screamed.
Elizabeth tried to fight it, but the sound tore out of her throat like a beast with a life of it's own. He fell to his knees at her side and lifted her head. Her eyes were screwed shut, but she took a trembling breath. When he touched her, something eased.
"John?" she whispered through lips that were bloody again. "Where are you?"
He held her face and ran his thumbs beneath her eyes as he slid them down her cheek her eyes opened. Elizabeth was worn, more than she'd admit and it took her precious time to focus on his face. He watched her eyes swim and shift until she finally found his face.
"I'm here," he promised as he waited for her to see. "Right here."
Her hands crept up his arms and covered his. Elizabeth's eyes sharpened finally and her lips twitched. "There you are."
"Trust me," he began it as a question, but it quickly became a promise. "I'm going to check. See if I feel anything, okay?"
"Okay," she murmured as her fingers trailed back down his hands. "I don't have a lot of time."
"I'll be quick," John assured her as he parted her legs.
Elizabeth let him lay her back on the floor and he held her face as long as he dared. "I have to sit up before--"
"I know," he soothed and gave her his left hand to hold. He wasn't usually between a woman's legs, especially this woman, without thinking about sleeping with them. John felt along her thigh and up after the trail of blood. It was still brown, so he reminded himself not to worry. The light was awful and though her body was angry, it didn't seem that different to his eyes. His fingers slipped within her and John realized how much had changed. His entire hand fit inside of her and she moaned in surprise.
"We're okay," he promised gently as he tried to distract her. "Just trying to make sure it's a head, not feet that's trying to go first." John couldn't help raising his eyebrows in surprise. His fingers found the hard, round curve of something wet. He thought he felt hair.
Elizabeth's body closed in tight around him and she started to pull away, trying to escape the pain in her back. He brought himself back from his astonishment and pulled her up. Pain wracked her body and she fought him as he dragged her up. John took a fist to the chest before she gave in and let him hold her. He rocked slowly trying to keep her from getting lost again.
"Stay with me," he insisted as he waited for her to breathe through it.
Elizabeth couldn't stop gasping; couldn't fight the way her chest was too tight. "Make it stop," she begged through clenched teeth. "Just make it stop."
"Hang on," John coaxed and watched the seconds drag by on his watch. He didn't have time to be afraid or really contemplate the fact that he'd touched his child with his bloody, slimy hand. "Almost there," he promised as the numbers ticked past ninety seconds.
When the agony faded from her body, she returned. Elizabeth hugged him and tried to stay on her feet. Before she could speak, John found her eyes and put his hands a few inches apart.
"It's coming," he explained with naked surprise. "Shouldn't be long."
"How long has it been?" Elizabeth nearly choked on the sentence and he hurried to get the water bottle in the break between. Water bubbled down her lips, but she drank gratefully.
"A while," John answered cryptically. He thought Rodney would have found them, saved them by now. Something had to be wrong. No one had even tried to make radio contact.
He didn't have time to think about the control room. He had just gotten the cap back when the contraction hit her. Elizabeth's voice was raw this time and she'd gotten past the point where she'd the strength left to fight it. Letting her cry of pain stab through him, John let her brace against the wall as he dug both fists into her back. That helped and she quieted, but she was starting to change.
Elizabeth's scream faded and became primal. She grabbed his hand and brought it to her pelvis. The hard knot of bone he'd felt from within was resting just over the bones of her hips. Her sound was deep and alien, like the grieving of a creature far from human. She pushed him, forcing them both down.
John knelt as she squatted against the wall. Her back was straight again and beneath the bright agony in her eyes, Elizabeth was stone. The granite he knew, the immobile leader, could make it through this pain. Whatever had gotten her through the nanites, the replicators and the invasion of her blood by ascended beings was ready to stand firm.
Her head dropped and her hands held him as her anchor.
"Guess we're pushing now," John answered his own question. She panted her way through the pathetic space between contractions and groaned her way through the beginning of the next one. Her voice rose as it started to peak and she started to struggle with her panties.
John started to remove them as the contraction left her. Elizabeth wasn't looking at him. He wasn't even sure if she could see, but she led with her fingers. Her panties flew over her hips and fell to the floor. John pulled them aside as the next contraction crawled on the heels of the last. She raised her head and screamed towards the ceiling. It reverberated and filled the room.
More blood, fresher this time, dotted the floor between her feet and John shoved fear away. Her fingers were talons as they dug into her shoulders. Speech was too much for her and she only babbled when he spoke to her. His hands could feel her hips shift. His heart heard the terrible, unrelenting agony in the screams he couldn't listen to. The bones were being wrenched apart, torn from their places as something foreign forged its way through.
Blood was smeared on her white legs and his tan hands. John felt his heart skip a beat when he held the crown of his child's skull in his palm. Elizabeth's hand drew blood from him as she ripped it across his back. She put everything she had into the push. It didn't matter that Elizabeth had never been taught, her body pushed. When the scream became a wail, John kissed her. His hands waited beneath her, wet with the fluids of her body, and he kissed her.
She kissed him like he was the last man on Earth and it pounded in his head that he loved her. Beyond a shadow, beyond the darkest corner of space, he loved her and that was all they needed. His lips moved against hers and he said everything he couldn't put into words.
The head slipped and the fragile weight of it filled his hands. John stared down in disbelief and saw the face of their child. It was facing him, its hard head had ridden all the way down her spine through the whole labor. His fingers wiped mucus reverently from the tiny eyes and nose. Elizabeth screamed her way through a shoulder, and he extracted the other when she was shaking with sobs. Light filled his hands and poured from her body until they were both a single being brimming with that light.
It was over. Elizabeth was crying into his neck and he was holding a wet, purple thing. John stared at it and waited for it to move. The cord ran from its belly to disappear up within her, but it was free. He cradled the baby in his left arm and reached for his knife.
He needed something to wrap the baby in. He couldn't tie or cut with one hand. John pulled his jacket over with shaking fingers and laid it down. As he looked it over, he realized it was female. She had toes and fingers and eyes that open when he ran questing fingers over her face. She met his eyes and his heart was forever changed. It didn't matter that he'd failed. It didn't matter how many times he'd beaten back the enemy, he wasn't just John Sheppard, he was a father.
"You're crying," Elizabeth ventured in a whisper as she dropped to the floor next to his jacket. "Is it?"
"She's fine," John stumbled over his tongue and tore his eyes away from the deep blue eyes of his daughter. "God, Elizabeth, she's a she--"
instead of a wail, their daughter's first sound was a gasp for air that changed their universe. In the blue light of the walls, her skin went from purple to pink and she began to breath. John's hands shook as he tied the cord with two tight knots. They were steady as he lifted the knife.
Once she was free, he lifted her from the floor.
Elizabeth wavered slightly, but with his help she sat against the wall. Her belly still twitched and tightened as her body released the placenta that had fed the little girl in her arms for so long. John released his daughter into Elizabeth's arms and helped her fight with her bra. The breasts he loved, the ones that had swelled so painfully in the early months, finally had their use.
His daughter ignored the nipple, at first preferring to wrap tiny lips around his finger, but after a minute she started to nurse.
Elizabeth's eyebrows tightened and she tried to deal with the sensation. She reached for him and caught a tear on his cheek. When his hand covered hers, she started to smile.
"There you are," she murmured as she looked down at their daughter and up at him. "Both of you."
Kissing her tasted sweeter than it ever had and John settled down beside her. When Elizabeth put her head on his shoulder, and he wrapped a hand around their daughter within his jacket, he was full. His heart was bursting in his chest and he had never felt more loved. This was where he was most meant to be. Here, with his family, he learned to truly fly.