“John?” Teyla questions when he stops her with a hand on her arm. They’d been walking casually down the hall, discussing routine Atlantis needs, but he has guided them to the mess hall without her taking notice of the path. It’s not a meal time, so she’d assumed they were just passing by.
“This is supposed to a surprise, so, act surprised, okay?” He glances down at the baby asleep in her arms, the only place he seems to sleep. Everyone has become quite used to seeing her move around the city and do her duties with the baby in tow.
“What’s supposed to be a surprise?” She wants to glance into the mess hall but he is blocking her view - or, she considers, perhaps blocking their view of her.
“It’s an Earth tradition, to throw a baby shower for expecting mothers. It should have happened before he got here, but, uh, you know…”
“There was much going on,” she interrupts him gently.
“Yeah,” John smiles at her, grateful to skim over the exact circumstances for today. “There is still a lot going on, but everyone wanted to do this, for you. And it’ll help boost morale. We hope. Anyway, I just didn’t think you’d want to be blindsided, but they all think it’s a surprise.”
“I can be surprised,” Teyla agrees, and it’s not going to be entirely an act. After all, she has no idea what a ‘baby shower’ entails. Briefly, she entertains visions of babies falling from the sky like rain, but of course that’s nonsense, even for the Earthlings.
“Okay, then. Let’s go.” He pushes open the door and she walks past him into a wall of noise, as what seems like half the city calls out some variation of ‘Surprise!’ or ‘Hey!’ or ‘Teyla!’. Blinking, she takes in the whole scene.
It had seemed like the whole city at first glance, but now she can see it’s really only people she knows and likes. Her team is front and center - Ronan sitting beside McKay, with Dr. Keller. Kanaan is not far from them, with Lorne. Other friends spread out across the room, smiling and waving; it’s probably only twenty-five people in total, but even as she makes that observation, a few more people squeeze in the doors behind John, wishing her well exuberantly as they go by.
There definitely isn’t any rain of babies.
Apparently reacting to her confused silence, both Kanaan and Jennifer get up quickly and hurry over. “Kanaan, will you take Torren? Let Teyla enjoy the party for a few minutes,” John says from behind them. Kanaan nods and takes Torren from her, and they share a bemused look just before Jennifer grabs her hands and pulls her in a different direction.
“This seat is for you!” she pulls Teyla over to a chair that has, indeed, been differentiated from the rest. It appears that someone has taken some fabric - possibly bedsheets? - dyed them pink and blue, and decorated the whole room, but the chair she’s pushed into is swathed in the decorations. “Do you want to do cake first, or presents?” Jennifer continues as if that means anything to Teyla. “We were thinking cut the cake sooner than later so people can get some as they wander in and out during their shifts, but you’re the guest of honor.”
“What cake?” she looks around and finds that her immediate friends have varying expressions. Ronon and Kanaan also look uncomfortable and confused; McKay is working on something on a handheld datapad and appears not to care; John looks amused at her unsettled state but doesn’t seem inclined to help. “What presents?”
“Cake and punch to celebrate,” Jennifer says blithely, “and gifts for you and Torren. We should have done it before he was born, when you didn’t have anything you needed, but hopefully late is better than never.” Cake and punch, at least, Teyla has been initiated into already, the first time she’d encountered a birthday party on Atlantis. Those early attempts to make ‘cake’ with rationed food and scavenged materials had been often less than appealing to the tastebuds, but with time, creativity, and reestablished travel to and from Earth, she has to admit the Earth sweets have become more palatable.
Presents were a less foreign concept, though the times that the Tau’ri chose to give gifts had been an adjustment the first year or two. “You didn’t need to go to the trouble -” she protests, only to be cut off by Sheppard clearing his throat.
“Sure we did. We should have before.” Teyla looks at him over her shoulder, and he gives her a pointed look, and she remembers him mentioning morale. And, indeed, looking around all of her Atlantian friends seem excited and upbeat. Perhaps there is a method to this madness. She inclines her head, just a little bit, and he smiles back. “Think of it as a pre-birthday. A zero birthday.”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” Rodney complains, finally drawn from his own work to the conversation.
“On Sateda, celebrating before the baby is born is bad luck,” he grumbles.
“Well good thing the baby is born,” Jennifer eyes him, clearly annoyed, and Teyla interferes with a hand on her arm before they can get into an argument.
“I think cutting the cake first is a great idea, Jennifer,” she looks across the room to a table filled with snacks, punch, and the aforementioned cake. “Would you mind doing that for me?”
“Of course!” Dr. Keller hurries off, and McKay shoves a box across the table.
“I’m one of the people who needs to go back to work, though I was staying for cake,” he says, “but here.” The box sits on the table between them until John leans forward and whispers in her ear that she’s supposed to open it. Tentatively, not quite sure what Rodney McKay thinks would be appropriate for a baby, Teyla opens the box. There’s a little tub inside, which she recognizes as one that Rodney usually keeps his homemade sunscreen inside of. “It’s, um, diaper rash cream. My own formulation, of course, so it should last a while, and it’s better than anything you can buy. I made a whole batch, but I didn’t have any more empty containers, so the big tub is in your quarters already.”
She unscrews the top and lightly touches a finger to the cream, which feels soothing on the skin of her fingertips when she rubs them together and has a light, inoffensive smell. She’ll have to ask later, perhaps one of the other women, what exactly its use is, but in the meantime she closes the jar and smiles at him, knowing the gift came from his heart even if he doesn’t know how to say so except to brag about it being the best. “Thank you, Rodney.”
“Mmm,” he watched her open it, but now that she’s done, he returns to his distracted state without another thought.
“Me next,” John says cheerfully, shoving an object messily wrapped in what looks like old reports down the table towards her. Not needing his prompting this time, she unwraps it to find that he’s constructed some sort of rattle from spare parts and wood, having clearly taken the time to choose materials that are safe to chew on as well as noisy.
And so it goes - it seems like an endless stream of people stopping by to have a piece of cake, offer their congratulations, hold the baby, and many of them present her with some sort of small gift, usually handmade or recycled or small things they have already that they don’t need. Some of them get extra creative; Jennifer offers several nights of free babysitting, Ronan has whittled Torren a toy blaster (Teyla doesn’t have the heart to tell him it’ll probably be a chew toy long before the boy can run around and pretend to be a soldier), and Woolsey presents her with a small camera that seems to be equipped to instantly develop pictures (he doesn’t explain why he had it with him or how he got it on such short notice, but she is warmed by his heartfelt, if awkward, attempts to get things right).
There are games, too. Silly games that serve no purpose (Jennifer apologizes that they have to improvise, because most traditional games are only for pre-birth, but she is quick to reassure the doctor that she is equally entertained by their new creations), but she was the Athosian leader for long enough to know how important these rituals can be. Spirits do seem to be high all afternoon, and she is grateful for the way the Tau’ri have embraced her as one of their own - and now, Torren as well. It makes her feel vastly better about her decision to stay with the Atlantis Expedition team instead of returning to the Athosians to raise her son.
They wrap up a few hours later when the dining hall personnel start to make annoyed noises about getting ready for dinner, and John offers to help her carry the pile of gifts back to the quarters she’s sharing with Kanaan and Torren. They load them into a couple of boxes and make the short trek; he sets his box inside the door and makes to slip away, but she stops him in his tracks.
“Thank you. That was nice.”
“I didn’t organize it. Keller did most of it,” he shoves his hands into his pockets, and she gives him a searching look. In the end, she decides to let him have his poor cover, though she’s quite sure it had been his idea. “Thanks for being a good sport about us springing it on you. Good night, Teyla.”
“Good night, Colonel.”
It wasn’t an easy decision, to leave the Athosians and join the Atlantis team. It wasn’t an easy decision to stay on the team, knowing each expedition, or wraith attack, or Gate activation might be her last, leaving her son without a mother. But she also knows it is the right thing to do, to continue fighting against the evils of two galaxies, with the team that has become her family.
