Kylie Lee | Slash fan fiction

"Here. Right here." Carson Beckett pointed.

Halling stepped back to give some room to the two Athosians wheeling the litter up the puddle jumper's ramp. He felt in the way. Everyone was talking at once.

"Doc, are we good to go?" John Sheppard yelled from the front.

Lora chose that time to scream. Her husband, who had trailed the litter all the way from the settlement, looked at Halling in desperation. Lora's screams settled into panting.

"No," Halling said. "Do what you can here."

Carson turned at his voice. He looked at Halling, a moment that stretched into infinity, a moment that was just for the two of them, but there was no time because Lora was laboring and it was not going well. Carson looked at Ty, the midwife. "I'd rather go back to Atlantis," he said. "We have more equipment there."

Ty shook her head. "The baby needs the earth," she explained.

"Could we take some earth with us?" Carson asked. As usual, Carson took something symbolic literally.

"The spirit resides in the earth, not the dirt," Halling said. Lora's husband had taken her hand. He looked terrified. Lora had gone white. Her breathing was quick and shallow.

"Does that mean no?"

There was no point in explaining. The people from Earth simply didn't understand or appreciate the power of the Ancestors.

"That means no," Teyla said firmly, voicing the mute appeal from Lora and her husband.

"Doc?" Major Sheppard called.

"Let's see what we can do here," Carson said.

"You want me to keep it hot?" Major Sheppard asked. Halling knew what he meant: Major Sheppard would keep the engine online, and if Carson said the word, they'd close up the back of the jumper and take off, whether Lora wanted him to or not.

"Yes," Carson said. He looked up and met Halling's eyes, and Halling felt the jolt in his stomach that he always felt when Carson spoke to him without words. He'd do it. Halling knew he would. He thought that saving Lora and the baby's lives meant everything, just as he thought that what was on the surface was more truthful than what lay underneath. "You and you. Out." Carson gestured to the litter bearers, who seemed all too happy to leave. "Halling, Teyla, you too."

Lora screamed again. Her contractions were close together now, but the baby hadn't turned properly—that was why Ty had asked Halling to contact Carson. Halling followed Teyla to the ramp, but he hesitated, watching Ty and Carson touch Lora's round stomach. Carson wore gloves, but Ty's hands were bare. The doctors from Earth shielded themselves from pathogens, but they also shielded themselves from skin-to-skin touch. Lora's husband looked lost. He was supposed to be behind her as she labored, holding her in his arms, soothing her with his body and his presence, and instead, she was flat on her back on a litter. Halling feared terribly that the first child born to the Athosians on Atlantis would be unable to touch the earth, would be unable to share in the spirit that bound them together as a people.

"Let's image the baby's position," Halling heard Carson tell Ty. He turned his back to them and stepped into the sun, where Teyla waited a few meters away.

"It will be fine," Teyla said. "Carson is a good doctor, and Ty will not let anything happen to Lora."

"Ty thinks she may have to operate," Halling said.

Teyla nodded. She touched the book Halling held. "You're ready for the naming ceremony already?" she asked, the implication clear. The naming ceremony usually occurred a few days after the baby was born, so faraway friends could be invited and so food could be prepared. If Halling was ready to name the child, then they were ready for Lora or the baby to die.

"Just a small one," Halling said. "Just to name her as an Athosian and to welcome her." The earth would bind her to them, just as her name bound her to the Athosians. He extended the book to Teyla. "You're here now. It's your task."

"No." Teyla waved the book back. "No, Halling. I'll do it if Lora asks, but you've been living here. You're a better intermediary for the Ancestors than I am. You always have been. Your faith has always comforted me." She smiled. "You know me. I am a terrible doubter."

"Belief is not required," Halling reminded her. She had never understood that. Those who said the words by rote, who felt no meaning, still gave comfort to those who did. Even as a child, before he understood the language, Halling had loved the sound of the words. Teyla thought he should say the words because he believed in them, and that somehow made them more true.

"I know. One builds tradition by repetition. That is what my father taught me." Teyla stared into the back of the jumper. The day was too bright to make out anything in the darkness within, but they heard Lora, her husband, Carson, Ty, Carson's nurse, their voices all raised at once, all trying to bring the baby into the world. They shared so much with their new friends, but at the same time, they shared so little. "Doctor Beckett is a good man." Teyla took Halling's hand and leaned into his side. She knew Halling loved Carson. "Lora's baby will be born here, and we will all welcome her. And then Dr. Beckett will have to remain to watch Lora and the baby, so he will have to stay in your house with you, because it's so big. Just for a few days, you understand. Until after the naming."

"He doesn't understand why it's important that the baby be born here," Halling fretted, not mollified by Teyla's teasing. The power of the earth was far away in the city, deep under the metal, deep under the water. His time in the city had made him cold inside. The warmth had returned when the Athosians had moved onto the mainland. He wished that it was not so, because he had had to say no when Carson asked him to stay, but it was. They had freed each other when Halling left, but Halling did not yet feel free.

"And belief is not required." Teyla squeezed his hand. "He knows that we wish it, and he will remain until Lora's or the baby's life is in danger. With Doctor Beckett, that is enough. Would it be so terrible, to be named far away from home?"

"Yes," Halling whispered, remembering his own son's naming.

"Perhaps it's not just Lora's baby we need concern ourselves with in this matter," Teyla said. "Perhaps it is our friends from Earth. Perhaps if the baby were born at Atlantis, or named there, a new kind of bond would be created with them."

"I hadn't thought of that," Halling said slowly. Teyla often had such insights. She was asking for a compromise. "A naming ceremony at the city might be a very good idea—if the baby could be born here, near the earth, as is proper."

Teyla laid her head briefly on his shoulder, then stepped away. "I believe we have a while to wait," she said. "I think I will visit the settlement. Will you join me?"

"No, thank you," Halling said, and she nodded and turned away. He wanted to remain, with Carson nearby.

He stood in the sun, book in his hands, and waited for the baby's cry.