Fic - SGA; The Family You Choose
The Family You Choose by bergann
(Stargate Atlantis, Lorne/Teyla friendship, PG) for siggen1 on her birthday! I love you and I hope today is a fabulous day :D ♥
954 words.
For Kaden's first birthday, Lorne paints a series of three paintings.
*
He starts the first one, restless while Teyla is still gone - wondering how she's doing, how the child is doing, and it takes him by surprise how he worried he is. He thinks of his sister back on Earth, of her kids and the days he spent playing ball with them in the sun, taking them out for ice cream. He feels slightly sick, doesn't want to think of Teyla without her child, and he doesn't even really think about it, merely starts painting.
And the painting helps, relaxes him, and he manages to forget the worst of what is going on when he holds the brush in his hand. Manages to forget the memory of her distress after she took over that Wraith Queen's body. The painting helps him. It feels important that he should pass that on.
*
The second he starts shortly after Sheppard disappears, seeing the growing desperation in everyone, feeling it himself, and the lost, determined look on McKay's face is practically a kick to the gut. He seeks out the painting again, doesn't think his mother quite envisioned he'd use his art to distract himself in quite this way. He remembers nights spent in her studio, letting her voice guide him and her awed whispers once he started to really get the hang of it, once he saw the beauty she wanted him to see and managed to get it down as he saw it.
He's only maybe halfway done when Sheppard returns, but when he comes back from the collapsed building and with Teyla safely returned to them, a healthy boy in her arms, he determinedly spends his recovery finishing it. The colors are a shade brighter than those he'd used before, a fact that would have annoyed him before, made him start over.
Now, it makes him smile. Everything seems brighter.
*
The third has no major event as its starting point. But he took one look at the paintings he had already finished, carefully stacked in a corner and thinks of the date that is approaching. It seems natural to get out the easel, the paints, and once he explains things to Colonel Carter, she seems happy to let him take one of the puddle jumpers, as long as he takes along one of the botanists who has been begging to go to the mainland again.
He cloaks the jumper when they approach, asks the confused botanist to keep quiet about him being there - a surprise, he explains, and her eyes shine with excitement - and sets up where the Athosians are unlikely to spot him and gets to work.
It takes him nearly until Kaden's actual birthday to complete it, since he can't go to the mainland as often as he likes, and he doesn't want the Athosians to know what he's doing; just in case one of them decides to tell Teyla and ruin the surprise.
But when it's done, he looks at it and it makes him smile. Well worth the trouble of secrecy, he thinks, and carefully wraps them up.
*
"These are magnificent," Teyla says, her eyes wide with wonder and her smile is bright and happy in a way it hasn't been since Kanaan didn't return.
"I realize they're not really gifts for a baby, especially not a one year old, but I thought he should have a...visual of life around here when we were all waiting for him." Lorne says, and rubs at his wrist nervously.
"They are magnificent," Teyla repeats, places her hands on his shoulders and bends her head. Lorne follows her example and touches their foreheads together. "And I am grateful to have a friend such as you, Evan Lorne. You have used your gift to make sadness, loss and the rebuilding of a broken village seem beautiful.
I hope that you will be around to tell my son of the stories behind these paintings one day. It is something I wish now with all my heart." She whispers the last part and releases him, let's him step back.
"I'd love to tell them to him," Lorne says, smiling widely back. "It'll be my pleasure."
"Then we have an agreement." Teyla smiles and they turn to look at the paintings lined up on the floor.
Atlantis at night, New Atlantea's moon casting an eerie light over the city. McKay and Ronon sitting together in the mess, heads bowed and the faint but bright outlines of Teyla and Sheppard standing by their side. The Athosian village, still not yet completely rebuilt, with the young children chasing after one another in the street - the older children helping the rebuilding by carrying equipment.
Sadness. Loss. A new beginning.
"May I ask a favor of you?" Teyla asks quietly as she picks the newly awakened Kaden up from his crib.
"Of course."
"Could I ask you of a painting of my people?" Teyla asks, and something on his face must have shown, because she quickly added, "My people on Atlantis. John, Ronon, Rodney. You."
"I'm not on your team," Lorne says stupidly, and Teyla smiles patiently, and with a certain fondness, as she holds Kaden out for Lorne to hold. Uncertain, he takes the small boy from her arms and can't help the smile that spreads across his face.
"No, you are not part of my team." Teyla agrees, hand running softly down Kaden's cheek and coming to rest over Lorne's left hand. She takes three of his fingers in her grip, almost as though she is mimicking the hold of a baby, and squeezes once, but doesn't let go. "But you are family."
(Stargate Atlantis, Lorne/Teyla friendship, PG) for siggen1 on her birthday! I love you and I hope today is a fabulous day :D ♥
954 words.
For Kaden's first birthday, Lorne paints a series of three paintings.
*
He starts the first one, restless while Teyla is still gone - wondering how she's doing, how the child is doing, and it takes him by surprise how he worried he is. He thinks of his sister back on Earth, of her kids and the days he spent playing ball with them in the sun, taking them out for ice cream. He feels slightly sick, doesn't want to think of Teyla without her child, and he doesn't even really think about it, merely starts painting.
And the painting helps, relaxes him, and he manages to forget the worst of what is going on when he holds the brush in his hand. Manages to forget the memory of her distress after she took over that Wraith Queen's body. The painting helps him. It feels important that he should pass that on.
*
The second he starts shortly after Sheppard disappears, seeing the growing desperation in everyone, feeling it himself, and the lost, determined look on McKay's face is practically a kick to the gut. He seeks out the painting again, doesn't think his mother quite envisioned he'd use his art to distract himself in quite this way. He remembers nights spent in her studio, letting her voice guide him and her awed whispers once he started to really get the hang of it, once he saw the beauty she wanted him to see and managed to get it down as he saw it.
He's only maybe halfway done when Sheppard returns, but when he comes back from the collapsed building and with Teyla safely returned to them, a healthy boy in her arms, he determinedly spends his recovery finishing it. The colors are a shade brighter than those he'd used before, a fact that would have annoyed him before, made him start over.
Now, it makes him smile. Everything seems brighter.
*
The third has no major event as its starting point. But he took one look at the paintings he had already finished, carefully stacked in a corner and thinks of the date that is approaching. It seems natural to get out the easel, the paints, and once he explains things to Colonel Carter, she seems happy to let him take one of the puddle jumpers, as long as he takes along one of the botanists who has been begging to go to the mainland again.
He cloaks the jumper when they approach, asks the confused botanist to keep quiet about him being there - a surprise, he explains, and her eyes shine with excitement - and sets up where the Athosians are unlikely to spot him and gets to work.
It takes him nearly until Kaden's actual birthday to complete it, since he can't go to the mainland as often as he likes, and he doesn't want the Athosians to know what he's doing; just in case one of them decides to tell Teyla and ruin the surprise.
But when it's done, he looks at it and it makes him smile. Well worth the trouble of secrecy, he thinks, and carefully wraps them up.
*
"These are magnificent," Teyla says, her eyes wide with wonder and her smile is bright and happy in a way it hasn't been since Kanaan didn't return.
"I realize they're not really gifts for a baby, especially not a one year old, but I thought he should have a...visual of life around here when we were all waiting for him." Lorne says, and rubs at his wrist nervously.
"They are magnificent," Teyla repeats, places her hands on his shoulders and bends her head. Lorne follows her example and touches their foreheads together. "And I am grateful to have a friend such as you, Evan Lorne. You have used your gift to make sadness, loss and the rebuilding of a broken village seem beautiful.
I hope that you will be around to tell my son of the stories behind these paintings one day. It is something I wish now with all my heart." She whispers the last part and releases him, let's him step back.
"I'd love to tell them to him," Lorne says, smiling widely back. "It'll be my pleasure."
"Then we have an agreement." Teyla smiles and they turn to look at the paintings lined up on the floor.
Atlantis at night, New Atlantea's moon casting an eerie light over the city. McKay and Ronon sitting together in the mess, heads bowed and the faint but bright outlines of Teyla and Sheppard standing by their side. The Athosian village, still not yet completely rebuilt, with the young children chasing after one another in the street - the older children helping the rebuilding by carrying equipment.
Sadness. Loss. A new beginning.
"May I ask a favor of you?" Teyla asks quietly as she picks the newly awakened Kaden up from his crib.
"Of course."
"Could I ask you of a painting of my people?" Teyla asks, and something on his face must have shown, because she quickly added, "My people on Atlantis. John, Ronon, Rodney. You."
"I'm not on your team," Lorne says stupidly, and Teyla smiles patiently, and with a certain fondness, as she holds Kaden out for Lorne to hold. Uncertain, he takes the small boy from her arms and can't help the smile that spreads across his face.
"No, you are not part of my team." Teyla agrees, hand running softly down Kaden's cheek and coming to rest over Lorne's left hand. She takes three of his fingers in her grip, almost as though she is mimicking the hold of a baby, and squeezes once, but doesn't let go. "But you are family."