Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 81

Chapter 81 - An Hour In The Life Part 1

The Visitor

When Teyla had experienced Earth through the people of mist's enforced dream, it had been a generally pleasant endeavor outside of the very end of things when John had pulled a weapon on his dead friends. However the past two days of waiting for various circumstances to line up so she could actually leave the SGC, had done a rather remarkable job of showing her just how obviously dreamlike that first experience had actually been.

So far she had sat though several interviews with people asking her various questions about why she wished to visit Earth, multiple hours of an extraordinarily dull man explaining all the things she wasn't supposed to talk about to others, and an extensive series of medical tests that had left her missing the talkative friendliness of the Doctors on Atlantis.

Unfortunately that last had for some reason necessitated a return to the infirmary today, something that was more than a little worrying given the many things that request could connect back too.

“I believed you wished to speak with me about something?” She inquired, eyeing Doctor Carolyn Lam with a bit more caution then was probably warranted given the general friendliness the people of the SGC had so far shown her. 

“Yes.” Doctor Lam confirmed, taking a moment to set the clipboard she had been reading down on a nearby table. “Something came up in your blood tests, Miss Emmagan. And well.” She paused, glancing around at the various other people in the infirmary before frowning. “It might be better if we go into one of the private exam rooms to talk about this.”

The wish to talk about the issue without others around suggested the Doctor thought the problem fell into the realm of various privacy considerations that Earth based medical officers so heavily valued. It also suggested however that the issue wasn’t of the type to require a military or quarantine response, which was reassuring.

“All right.” Teyla agreed with a permissive nod.

Following the doctor to one of the small rooms off the side of the main infirmary, Teyla offered the other woman a somewhat wane smile as she closed behind them.

Doctor Lam took a breath as she turned to Teyla. “This is somewhat awkward to talk about given you’re not exactly from our planet. But as you know a full blood workup is part of the standard battery of tests we run on anyone returning through the gate.”

“Yes.” Teyla confirmed. “Doctor Beckett performs the same sort of tests.”

“Well” Doctor Lam continued, oddly hesitant in her tone all of the sudden. “Your blood test shows that you're pregnant.”

Teyla's heart skipped a beat at the doctor's words, and for a moment everything seemed to narrow down to a single point.

“Apologies, Doctor.” She finally got out, suddenly more than a little glad for the fact that they had an entire small room to themselves for this. “Did you say pregnant?”

Doctor Lam nodded. “Your blood test showed elevated levels of hCG congruent with a woman in the beginning stages of pregnancy.”

Teyla had no idea what that hgc was, but she supposed the idea that she was in the beginning stages of things would have done have done an adequate job of putting a very firm timeline on when if it wasn’t for the fact her bed had been empty for nearly half a year prior to her string of encounters with John over the past couple weeks.

“I… I see. And you are sure?”

“As sure as can be given the circumstances.” Doctor Lam confirmed.

Taking a moment to try and dispel the shock by centering herself, the morbid thought briefly flashed across Teyla’s mind that it had to be as much of a curse as a blessing to know this early given the rate at which such things were known to go bad in the early months.

“That is… Unexpected.”

Which was putting it mildly, the only time she and John had not used protection had been their first somewhat drunken night together. And while she was fully aware that once was often enough when it came to such things, she had not thought she would ever be on that particular end of things given the care she usually took with partners.

“I don’t know how your people do things.” The doctor began in a sympathetic tone. “But I know Atlantis has at least one fully qualified OBGYN on staff, so they should be able to handle things if you decide you want to go through with the pregnancy.” She paused, glancing furtively over at the still closed door. “And if you don’t, there are a few drugs I can prescribe which can take care of the issue.”

Teyla flinched, her hand almost unconsciously covering her lower abdomen at the thought. “Thank you, but my people do not practice such things outside of a few very unfortunate circumstances.”

Given the constant depopulation by the Wraith very few peoples could afford to limit their births in such a way. And truth be told, even if that wasn’t the case she wasn’t exactly adverse to the idea of being a mother.

The real question on her mind at the moment however was just how John would respond.

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The Diplomat

The twenty four year old version of Shen Xiaoyi that had just begun working at the ministry of foreign affairs would have likely accepted the praise Ambassador Wang Guangya was giving her for her quick thinking in securing the attention of the visiting Ancient without question. 

The thirty nine year old Shen Xiaoyi however could pick out the undertones of distaste whenever the Ambassador mentioned her success and all but see him planning out various ways to try and sideline her from what may very well be their first real chance to get a leg up on the Americans since the Stargate program had begun.

Ambassador Guangya gave a dismissive wave. “Yet again you think too highly of yourself Xiaoyi. If this Ancient can indeed be seduced, there are any number of younger and much more impressive women we can turn to the task.”

The fact he had glanced dismissively down at Xiaoyi's chest while saying the last grated on her nerves at several different levels.

“Ones who have been trained in the intricacies of such spycraft since they were young at that.” He finished with a huff.

Xiaoyi bit back her immediate urge to call the man a blind idiot, knowing with absolute certainty that as satisfying as it would be, it would only make what she was trying to do that much harder to accomplish in the long run.

Resting a hand on her hip, she began to pace the width of the small room to burn off some of her outrage to the more normal simmer of anger. “You assume much about a man whose personality we know dangerously little about.”

She turned abruptly to stare directly at the sitting man and threw up her hands. “He has shown interest in me! That is fact.”

“Yes, of course there are younger and better looking women we could put to the task.” And she hated herself just a little for judging herself like that even as nothing more than a talking point to manipulate the Ambassador with. “But the question you are not asking yourself is why me?”

A question Xiaoyi had been doggedly trying to work out the answer to since she had first noticed the Ancient actively responding to her flirtations.

“Because we can't afford to line up women for him only to find out as he leaves that the only reason he cared in the first place was because I look like his dead girlfriend.”

Guangya grimaced, and she could see the slow realization settle over him about just where the blame would fall in such a circumstance.

“It would be just our luck that he was a romantic.” He muttered, running a hand over his bald head before letting out a sigh. “But you're right, we can't risk that sort of failure.” He turned a scornful glare on her. “However we also can't risk resting all our hopes on your limited seduction abilities.”

Xiaoyi felt her eye twitch slightly despite the iron crontrol she was using to keep her outrage from showing, so she covered her true feelings further by bowing her head in feigned acquiesce to his point. 

“Be glad.” He continued, completely oblivious to anything but her outward showing. “I will support the idea of giving you lead in this, and we can use the chance to plumb the truths of the Ancient’s personality.”

She could tell from the calculating look on Guangya's face that he was already working out various ways to make sure any blame fell on her. But she had expected that going in, after all, someone like her didn’t get where they were without being willing to face the consequences of other people’s incompetence.

Something seemed to occur to Guangya, and Xiaoyi suddenly felt her gut hitch in some premonition of alarm as he suddenly grinned up at her. “And I suppose having the child of an Ancient would be an achievement to be proud of for many reasons. Even if it means you would no longer be suitable for your position as our people’s representative to the IOA.”

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Author’s Notes: Something a bit different for this and next chapter with four small perspective switches to show what’s going on outside of the main storyline. The next two are McKay and Ba'al.