All Together Now

[erda]

Fandom: SGA
Title: All Together Now
Author: keefaq
Word count: 822
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Summary: Teyla is careful with her teammate's feelings.
Episode tag for 5.01: Search and Rescue
Written for the Season Five Tagathon at sga_episodefic


When Rodney stopped by Teyla's room as she'd requested, he hadn’t expected to find her only partially dressed, although maybe he should have. He knew Athosian women went topless when they were nursing their babies; he’d just thought Teyla wouldn’t do that here, on Atlantis. After all, when in Rome and all that, don’t make it hard for your teammates to figure out where to put their eyes. It ought to be okay to look at the baby, for Christ’s sake, but the baby was attached to a part of her anatomy he didn’t feel comfortable looking at, not that it wasn’t a nice part of her body, of course. He decided it would be best to concentrate on her face.

She was smirking a little, but her voice was fond. “I have made you something,” she said, reaching down into the covers and pulling out what looked like a bracelet woven out of roughly torn strips of cloth. Looking closer, he saw the cloth was familiar, was in fact taken from the jacket he had placed under her when the baby was born. “It is a custom of my people,” she explained, "to braid together strips of material from the birthing blanket in this manner and present it to be worn by the baby’s Nala.”

“Nala? What is that?”

“Athosian mothers choose the people they wish to attend the birth of their children. One of them, usually the father or a very close friend, is the baby’s Nala. The midwife normally places the Nala’s hand onto the baby’s head when it crowns. The Nala is first to touch and first to hold the baby, and formally presents the baby to the mother. We have an Athosian idiom for it, which translates literally to ‘catching the baby’, but it means much more than that.” She looked at him searchingly, and Rodney tried to be whatever it was she was looking for. Finally she gave a little nod of satisfaction. “ I ask you now to wear this for Torren.” Pushing Rodney’s sleeve up, she wrapped the bracelet thing around his upper arm and tied it. “When the baby walks, this token of his birth should be returned to him as a keepsake.” She pulled Rodney’s sleeve back down so that the bracelet was hidden. “Usually the birthing blanket is larger than your jacket, but I believe there is sufficient material in case this needs to be replaced."

She bowed her head and Rodney leaned to press their foreheads together, which put his eyes where he didn’t want them to be again, so he squeezed them shut. He could feel her chest shake and knew she was laughing at him. He pulled back. “It’s not funny,” he said. It came out way sulkier than he’d wanted.

Teyla laughed outright at that. “It’s very funny, Rodney.”

*~*~*

Ronon wasn’t in his quarters or the gym, but Rodney finally ran him down in the mess hall. Ronon gave him a big grin and clapped him on the back with no regard at all for his still healing bruises. “Heard Teyla made you the baby’s Nala,” Ronon said.

“Uh, yeah. I just happened to be there, you know. It could have been you or John.”

Ronon pulled the neck of his shirt back so that Rodney could see the hand woven bracelet around the top of his own arm. “You’re Nala, too?” Rodney asked. He knew it was petty to be disappointed, but he couldn't help it. Looking closer, he saw Ronon’s bracelet wasn’t the same as his. For one thing, it was made out of metal. Of course Ronon's bracelet would be all macho and cool looking.

“Nah,” Ronon said. “Teyla wanted you for Nala. She gave me this weeks ago. A Nala is just a friend. I get to teach him how to beat you up.”

*~*~*

It was good to have John back in his room that night. Rodney hadn’t slept well the three nights Jennifer had made John spend in the infirmary after his surgery. John insisted Rodney get completely undressed before getting into bed, not for any sexual reason, but because he could never take Rodney’s word that he was okay no matter how many times Rodney reminded him that he wasn’t the type to equate manliness with stoicism and he certainly would not conceal injuries, because that was a fucking stupid thing to do. But he knew from experience that John wouldn’t be able to rest until he’d seen for himself that Rodney was fine.

“What’s this?” John asked. He was stroking his hands methodically over Rodney's arms as if he didn't entirely trust his eyes to scope out injuries.

“Oh.” He’d forgotten about it. “Teyla made it. It’s for the baby. It means I’m his special friend or something.”

“Can I have one?”

"What? No!” and at John’s pouty look, “Oh, don’t be so greedy. You got the name.”

Comments

[argosy.livejournal.com]

Aww, loved this. I'm so glad you let the other team members get some recognition too. :)

[keefaq.livejournal.com]

I really felt the whole naming the baby after John thing needed a fanfiction fix.