Stole Soul Picnic 4/?
(Told you I was working on it....)
Previous
Chapter 3
Only Human
“No,” said Chaya Sar.
Dean was getting a headache from the double-strength annoyance he was feeling. Granted, Chaya was the only ascended Ancient they were able to actually talk to, and that only because she was exiled and blahblahblah. But if Dishon was right that the Others were all like her in general attitudes toward stuff, and if Sheppard couldn’t get her to see sense, the Others weren’t going to be convinced by anything short of an actual demon attack that resulted in one or more Ancients being un-ascended or whatever, captured, and used to power an attempt to take over Hell.
“You’re just humans,” Chaya continued. “I know you mean well, but I don’t think you quite grasp the nature of the ascended. So thank you, but I really don’t need your protection.”
“With all due respect, ma’am,” Sam returned, and judging from his tone of voice, he and Salim might be even more ticked off than Dean and Dishon were. “I don’t think you quite grasp the nature of the threat. Maybe if you’d hold your hand out toward my brother, he can give you a practical demonstration.”
She laughed and put her left hand down on the table in front of Dean. “Demonstration of what, a flea bite?”
Okay, that was it. Dean pulled the consecrated iron dagger he’d hidden in his belt and nailed her hand to the table.
She gasped. “OW! That... that... hurts!” The wound wasn’t bleeding or even burning much, but she couldn’t pull away from the dagger when she tried.
Dishon took over. “As the Tau’ri would say, Chaya Sar, the ascended are nothing more than supercharged ghosts. You may possess the might of demigods, but even true gods can be slain. We have seen them die as easily as the System Lords they sought to aid.”
“Your kind could not defeat the Wraith or the Goa’uld in life,” Salim added. “How, in this living death, do you hope to defeat a host of demons intent on your enslavement?”
She snarled and looked at Sheppard. “How dare you bring these things into my presence!”
“These things happen to be personally responsible for saving Earth by fighting demons,” Sheppard replied. “Answer his question.”
She didn’t, her eyes full of shock, confusion, pain, anger, and fear as she tried again to simply pull her hand back. Dishon let her struggle a couple more times before his lip curled and he pulled the dagger out. She promptly disappeared.
“Let’s go,” Sheppard said quietly.
The brothers followed him back to the Puddle Jumper at just short of a run. Chaya didn’t try to stop them, which Dishon figured meant she was glad to see them go and Dean figured probably meant she just didn’t want to find out whether they had a weapon that could actually kill her. They didn’t-the Colt was at Bobby’s-but there was little chance of Chaya knowing that.
Once they were in space and headed for the Gate, Sheppard snapped, “That was not a good idea.”
“She was askin’ for it,” Dean snapped back.
“It’s called diplomacy. Ever heard of it?”
“Dean has all the tact of a bull elephant,” Sam snarked.
Sheppard didn’t look at Sam, just dialed the Gate. “Well, you encouraged him, Mr. Stanford Pre-law, and I happen to know you took International Relations for that degree.”
The Jumper shot through the Gate and back into Atlantis.
Sam huffed. “We had to prove to her that she’s still vulnerable.”
“Look,” Sheppard replied, “I’m not the Ancients’ biggest fan, either. But you can’t go stabbing our allies in the hand just to prove a point.”
“Allies?!”
Dishon stepped forward. “Your history with her notwithstanding, Chaya Sar is less an ally to Atlantis than the Genii are. She cares only about her own people, and her exile is the result of that, not the cause.”
Sheppard guided the Jumper back to its usual parking space in the Jumper bay. “And now she’s even less of an ally than she had been.”
“But if she’s smart, she’ll live,” Sam stated. “And that was the point.”
“Still.”
Dean held up his hands. “All right, fine, I won’t be shooting or stabbing anyone else. Unless the Wraith try to eat me.”
Sheppard snorted. “If things go that pear-shaped, you’re probably on your own.”
The back of the Jumper opened, and the three men were halfway down the ramp when Sam suddenly frowned a little, slowed, and stopped. Dean and Sheppard looked at him questioningly, but his eyes were unfocused, as if he were listening to or watching something they couldn’t hear or see.
“Sammy?” Dean prompted.
Sam held up a finger, but soon he started carrying on his end of the conversation out loud. “T-... To-Tor-Torren. Torren. Let her sleep. She-she’s okay, but you need-Torren John. Settle. Down. ... We’re here now, and we’ll be there in just a minute, okay? ... Okay, buddy. Hang tight.” His eyes widened as they focused on Dean and he blew the air out of his cheeks.
“Dude,” said Dean. “You pulled out the Dad voice.”
“And used both names,” Sheppard added. “What’s up?”
Sam shook his head and started toward the transporter, the other two falling into step beside him. “Torren’s all upset because Teyla’s still under and he can’t hear her thoughts. We’d better go check on him; I’m worried he’ll try to pull her out of the sedation. That’s the last thing Jennifer needs-hell, the last thing Teyla needs.”
“You think he can do that?”
“Hard to say. Not like there’s a precedent. With a double dose of the Gift, I’d say it’s possible. Or he could just make enough psychic noise that he’d be able to get through.”
Sheppard cursed quietly and punched in their destination as soon as they got to the transporter. Dean didn’t curse out loud, but both he and Dishon concurred with Sam’s analysis. Teyla and her ex Kanaan, Torren’s father, were both among the handful of Athosians descended from subjects of a Wraith experiment that left them fully human but with enough recombinant Wraith DNA in their genes to make them able to tune into what the Winchesters called Wraith Radio. So far as anyone knew, Torren was the first child ever to have “the Gift” on both sides of the family, which had the potential to make life interesting. To date, the only people he’d connected with were Teyla, Todd, Kanaan, and-for reasons still unknown-Sam, plus McKay the one time he and Sam had been body-swapped. And that had been only minor-league telepathy. But considering that Teyla had successfully mind-controlled Wraith queens before, including once while pregnant with Torren, there really was no telling what the boy was capable of on his own.
And they really did need to keep Torren calm. Todd had come to the conclusion that the only way to get the Wraith to listen to the warning about the combined threat from the demons and the Lucian Alliance was for Teyla to reappear as the Primary of Todd’s former alliance, with Todd as her second in command and Sam and Dean as specimens captured during a jaunt into the Milky Way. He was sure he could bluff past any suspicions of the truth that the ZPM-powered superhive had kicked him out and then been destroyed over Earth... as long as Teyla was there to provide visual proof that he was still in her good graces. So Dr. Jennifer Keller was currently in the process of performing the surgery needed to transform Teyla’s appearance so she could pass for a Wraith queen. But it was a long, complicated procedure, and Torren clearly hadn’t fully understood just how long Teyla would be unconscious. Hell, Dean had vague memories of thinking the first hour Mom had been in labor with Sam was an eternity, so he could sympathize. He just hadn’t had the power to make Sammy arrive any faster. If Torren managed to wake Teyla... well, Dean really didn’t want to think about it.
The transporter deposited them two doors down from where Gate technician Amelia Banks was babysitting Torren for the day. This time it was Sheppard who set the pace, though, and Sheppard who got the first knockdown tearful Torren hug. And in Dean’s opinion, that was probably as it should be. He didn’t know when circumstances would allow Sheppard and Teyla to get together for real, but he hoped for everyone’s sake it would be soon so Torren would have the green light to start calling his namesake “Dad.”
“Hey, TJ,” Sheppard said gently, holding Torren close. “What’s the trouble?”
“Mommy!” Torren wailed.
“Aunt Jennifer’s still working on her, buddy. You need to let her sleep.”
“But....”
“It’s a long time. I know. But if she wakes up too soon, it’ll hurt her.”
“But....”
“Shh.” Sheppard rubbed Torren’s back. “She’s still here. She’s still with Aunt Jennifer. You just gotta be patient.”
“Don’t wanna be patient. I want Mommy.” But while Torren’s tears hadn’t subsided, the volume of his voice was now more of a whine than a wail. That was progress.
Sheppard’s voice dropped to more of a whisper. “I know. I’m worried about her, too. But we’ve done this before. It takes a long time, but she’ll be fine.”
Torren sniffled. “If she’ll be fine, why are you worried?”
“I always worry about your mommy.”
“Why?”
“Same reason you do.”
Torren whimpered and buried his nose in the crook of Sheppard’s neck.
Banks smiled sadly and turned to address the Winchesters. “How’d it go on Proculus?”
Sam sighed. “About like you’d expect with Ancients. Chaya wouldn’t take us seriously until Dean proved she was vulnerable.”
“Yeah,” Dean added, “and apparently she doesn’t like snakeheads, even if they’re Tok’ra. ’Course, I dunno how she knew about the Goa’uld if she was born here, but....”
Banks shrugged. “Probably part of the history the Ancients learned in whatever kind of schools they had. We learn about Greece and Rome; they probably learned about the Milky Way years.”
That is reasonable, Dishon agreed. Ancients were much like humans; they would not have passed on genetic memory as my kind do. But it is clear that the Ancients recalled enough about Earth to return there when the war against the Wraith turned against them.
“Hey, after you guys brief Mr. Woolsey, Dr. McKay needs to talk to you. He thinks he’s found a way to use the shield generators to form a city-wide devil’s trap.”
Dean brightened. “Seriously?”
“He still thinks it’s stupid, but yeah, he says it’s one of the strongest ones.”
“Awesome,” the brothers chorused, which got a giggle out of Torren, as usual.
“Anything from Lorne?” Sam asked.
“Heard from Ronon,” Banks replied. Ronon had gone with Lorne and SGA-2 to the Genii homeworld to sit in on Coalition negotiations regarding the ship the Genii had captured from the Pegasus Asgard the previous year. Ladon’s engineers had succeeded in reverse-engineering a fleet that they were now busily securing against any attempted theft by the Lucian Alliance, but the Coalition still had to decide whether to use the original ship to try to warn the elusive rogue aliens. “Turns out, the Genii don’t even know how to use the Asgard communications platform. And considering that these Asgard have been experimenting on humans, plus the fact that they activated the Attero device and blew up so many Stargates in the process of trying to take out Wraith, there’s a pretty strong sense that maybe they deserve whatever the demons might do to them. Ronon sure thinks so, and Maj. Lorne’s leaning that way.”
“Can’t say I blame ’em,” said Sheppard. “On the other hand, we’re planning to warn the Wraith.”
“Yeah,” Dean conceded, “but it’s kinda like the difference between werewolves and witches. Werewolves don’t have a choice; they have to kill humans to live. When a witch kills, it’s pure malice.”
“Well, with the gene therapy Todd helped Keller perfect, it’s more like vampires and witches,” Sam noted. “I mean, vampires like Lenore can survive by feeding on animals, but it has to be a conscious choice. And taking the gene therapy would be a conscious choice.”
“Still.”
“Yeah, no, I see what you’re saying. And you’re not wrong.”
Banks shrugged. “Well, Mr. Woolsey said that if we’re warning everyone else, we ought to warn the Asgard. So he’s asked the SGC for instructions on how the Othalla Asgard platform worked. But he recommended that whoever contacts them be from a world that hasn’t tangled with them lately.”
“Send Larrin,” Sheppard drawled. “If she can’t knock some sense into ’em, no one will.”
The other adults in the room laughed, and Torren giggled even though he hadn’t ever met the Travelers’ leader.
Sheppard rubbed Torren’s back again. “I gotta go talk to Mr. Woolsey. You gonna be okay to stay here with Amelia?”
Torren sniffled. “When’s Mommy gonna wake up?”
“It’s probably gonna be a few more hours. Like, after supper. But I can come right back after I make my report.”
Torren whined.
“That’ll take maybe thirty minutes, bud. Promise.”
“’Kay.” Torren sniffled again and let go.
Dean knelt down as Sheppard stood. “Hey, Teej. We’re not goin’ anywhere without your mom. You know that, right?”
Torren nodded and hugged Dean.
“All right. Me and Sam, we got some stuff to take care of after we talk to Woolsey, but we’ll see you at supper, maybe sooner.”
“’Kay.”
“And if you’re real good for Miss Amelia, maybe I’ll tell you about the time we got stuck in a sitcom. And then Sam got turned into a car.”
“For reals?”
“Yeah. Story’s a lot funnier now.”
“As I recall, you thought the last part was pretty funny at the time,” Sam retorted, and Dishon couldn’t suppress a mental snort.
Dean just smiled. “So what do you think, TJ? ’S it a deal?”
Torren thought for a moment, then smiled. “Deal.”
“Awesome.” Dean hugged him again quickly, then tweaked his nose with a wink and stood.
“A car?” Sheppard echoed.
“I got better,” Sam deadpanned and gave Torren a hug of his own.
Sheppard waited until they were in the transporter to continue. “Seriously? A car? What....”
“Gabriel,” the brothers replied, and Dean punched the button for the Gateroom.
Exactly how Dishon managed to pull rank on Woolsey to get Dean out of any disciplinary action for stabbing Chaya, Sam didn’t know. It had something to do with some dirt the Tok’ra had on the IOA, but Salim wasn’t inclined to explain. The long and short of it was, though, that Dean wasn’t in trouble and was on his way to check with McKay about the energy-beam devil’s trap he was setting up via the shield generators. Sheppard was headed back to Torren, who was starting to get anxious again, and that left Sam to check in with Todd about the arrangements for the show they’d be putting on for the Wraith the next day.
On the iratus-infested Wraith homeworld.
“Do not worry!” Todd assured him. “I know the planet well enough to take us to the location without the slightest possibility of harm.”
Sam rubbed his neck anxiously. “You sure we have to have the meeting there?”
“It is the closest thing to neutral ground that Wraith will recognize. No single hive may claim that planet; it is common to all. Any other location would fall within the territory of one hive or alliance, and we would be in grave danger from more than the iratus.”
“Perhaps we should take salt water in super-soakers,” Salim suggested. “That would ensure our safe passage.”
Todd laughed, but when Sam ran the idea by Woolsey later, Woolsey thought it was the best idea he’d heard all day. And how he happened to know that Rivers had bought a super-soaker for Torren’s birthday and never given it to him, Sam had no clue.
Now, the plan, as Sam understood it, was for Todd, Teyla, and the brothers to Gate to a neutral planet, where one of Todd’s hives would pick them up and take them to the Wraith homeworld. There they’d set up a conference space in a clearing (surrounded by salt, Sam suggested and Todd agreed), and the Primaries from the other major alliances would show up to hear them out. Each queen was allowed one commander but no other warriors. Todd would do most of the talking, since he had the best grasp of how to explain the threat in terms the other Wraith would understand. Sam and Dean would be there mainly as visual specimens-which Sam translated as eye candy and made Salim laugh heartily-and backup in case one of the other queens decided to try something. But everything depended on Teyla’s ability to bluff past the other queens’ guard.
Sam suddenly found himself as anxious as Torren was to have Teyla back with them.
“Dude,” Dean said when they caught up with each other outside Banks’ quarters. “What the hell are you nervous about? This can’t be as bad as Detroit.”
Sam huffed. “That’s not the point, Dean. Yes, Lucifer’s a whole lot scarier than even a dozen Wraith queens, but at least then we knew what we were getting into. And we weren’t taking... anyone else with us.”
“-You realize you almost called Teyla a civilian.”
Sam rolled his eyes.
“Seriously, Sam.”
“I... I dunno. I guess it’s just not knowing what she’s gonna look like, whether she can carry it off.”
“She’s done it before. Fooled Todd’s Primary.”
“For what, two minutes?”
“Sam.”
Sam sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
But the conversation was interrupted by Lorne calling in on the radio. “Message received and rejected,” he reported. “We’re heading back through this wormhole.”
“Lorne, this is Sheppard,” Sheppard replied. “Did you send Larrin?”
“She wasn’t available, but Shiana was.”
“Wow. Bet that was a shouting match.”
“Not really. They hung up as soon as she said ‘demons.’”
Brothers and Tok’ra snorted and chorused, “Idjits.”
“I heard that!” Sheppard called, having first turned off his radio.
“We meant the Asgard,” they called back as they walked into Banks’ quarters to find Sheppard grinning, Banks fighting giggles, and Torren not even fighting.
“Man, we are batting .000 on the winning friends and influencing aliens front today,” Dean continued. “Even the mist creatures on 224 had sense enough to find some way to bury their Gate when we told ’em what was going on.”
Sheppard ruffled Torren’s hair. “Asgard always have had an attitude when it comes to humans. At least Hermiod did.”
“’S it supper time yet?” Torren asked.
Sheppard looked at his watch and shrugged. “Ah, close enough.”
The five of them made their way to the mess hall, where Ronon and Lorne joined them just in time for Torren to wheedle the story about TVLand and the Sampala out of Dean (and Sampala was one of those portmanteau words that struck Sam as just all kinds of wrong, even if Salim laughed uproariously). Then McKay and Zelenka showed up and started getting into all kinds of really technical explanations about this trap-generating plan Dean had signed off on, and Sam found it harder and harder to pay attention to his friends rather than worrying about the next day-about Teyla. He couldn’t quit thinking through all the ways the plan could go wrong.
Sam, Salim suddenly barked.
Sam blinked. What?
Why have you taken Torren’s fear?
The question startled Sam. He hadn’t even been aware that was what he was doing. But Torren seemed to be having a grand old time now that he had most of his extended-by-choice family around him. And so was everyone else-except Dean, of course, who was keeping a wary eye on Sam.
Sam cleared his throat. “Uh, Dean, can I....” He jerked his head toward the exit.
Dean didn’t look any less worried when he nodded. “Yeah, sure. ’Scuse us,” he added for the rest of the table’s benefit before following Sam out into the hallway. Once they were out of the general earshot, though, Dean grabbed Sam’s arm. “Dude, what the hell is going on with you?”
Sam blew the air out of his cheeks. “Salim thinks I’m absorbing Torren’s anxiety.”
Dean blinked. “How?”
“Hell if I know. But you gotta admit, it makes some sense. And honestly, given the panic he was in earlier? Better me than him.”
“Yeah, until you lose control of the EMF and start blowing out equipment left and right. Seriously, Sam-”
“Look, I don’t even know what I’m doing, never mind how to stop.”
“Well, shove it off on Todd!”
“I don’t know if I can!”
Dean shook his head as he half-turned away and ran a hand over his nose and mouth.
Sam sighed. “I’m sorry, Dean. At least it isn’t visions this time,” he added in an attempt at levity.
Dean huffed and shook his head again. “Dude, don’t. Just don’t.” But he wasn’t able to keep the corner of his mouth from twitching upward.
Before Sam could say anything else, though, he sensed Teyla beginning to surface from the anesthesia. “We’d better get back,” he told Dean. “Teyla’s waking up-on her own, I think.”
Dean nodded and turned-just in time to catch Torren as he came barreling out of the mess hall. Just how Dean managed to sweep Torren up over his shoulder without even breaking stride was beyond Sam, but Torren barely had time to yelp before Dean was hauling him back to the team’s table.
“But MOMMY!” Torren protested.
“She’s not all the way awake yet, dude,” Dean replied firmly. “We’ll go see her when Jennifer says we can go see her and not before.”
“Saaaam!”
Sam held up his hands as he followed. “He’s right, Torren. And even if he weren’t, I don’t argue with him when he uses that voice.”
Dean didn’t have to turn around for Sam to know what incredulous expression he was wearing. “What are you talkin’ about? You argued with Dad when he used that voice.”
“I meant now.”
“Oh, whatever.” And Dean tickled Torren’s side for good measure.
Torren shrieked and squirmed and flailed, but he couldn’t get away from Dean’s grasp until Dean handed him to Ronon, who handed him to McKay, who handed him to Lorne, who handed him to Banks, who spun around with him three times before handing him off to Sheppard. At that point, Torren was giggling too hard to try to escape again. It was only about five minutes later that Keller called the lot of them up to the infirmary waiting room, and Sheppard had just finished reminding Torren that he needed to walk and stand next to Teyla’s bed rather than following his usual flying tackle method when Keller let them in to see Teyla. Sheppard kept his hand on Torren’s shoulder as they trooped into the room, and Torren did behave himself, neither pouncing on his mother nor freaking out at her new face.
And the new face was... somewhat disturbing. Sam hadn’t been sure what to expect, but he didn’t think he’d expected to see Teyla’s dark skin turned Wraith greenish-grey, her short copper hair now long and black, her usually warm brown eyes hidden under yellow slit-pupiled contacts. She looked... well, she looked like a Wraith, which had been the whole point. And he didn’t know whether he was more creeped out or relieved.
Oh ye of little faith, Salim teased.
“Mommy?” Torren prompted.
Teyla smiled. “Hi, baby boy,” she replied quietly, her voice now flanged like a Wraith’s but still gentle.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded. “Still pretty sleepy and a little sore, but I’ll be fine in a little while. Have you been good for Amelia?”
He nodded in turn. “I was scared, though. I couldn’t hear you.”
“I’m sorry, angel. The procedure just takes a long time. It’ll be the same when Aunt Jennifer undoes it in a few days.”
He took a deep breath and nodded again. “Okay.”
“Now that you know, will you not be so scared?”
“I... I think so.”
She caressed his cheek with her left hand. “That’s my good, brave boy.”
Dean looked away, and Sam wondered what he was imagining-or remembering.
“You gonna be good to go in the morning?” Sheppard asked.
Teyla nodded. “Yes. A good night’s rest should be all I need. Todd will not have to instruct me this time, and I will have Sam and Dean as backup.”
Dean blinked and looked back at her. “Instruct? Y’mean, Todd did the whole My Fair Lady thing last time?”
It took Teyla a moment to place the reference, but when she did, she fought a smile briefly before replying with a remarkably good, “Just you wait, ’Enry ’Iggins!”
Everyone laughed, and Sam felt the last of his anxiety-or Torren’s, or whatever-evaporate. They’d be as fine as they ever were.
Next
Previous
Chapter 3
Only Human
“No,” said Chaya Sar.
Dean was getting a headache from the double-strength annoyance he was feeling. Granted, Chaya was the only ascended Ancient they were able to actually talk to, and that only because she was exiled and blahblahblah. But if Dishon was right that the Others were all like her in general attitudes toward stuff, and if Sheppard couldn’t get her to see sense, the Others weren’t going to be convinced by anything short of an actual demon attack that resulted in one or more Ancients being un-ascended or whatever, captured, and used to power an attempt to take over Hell.
“You’re just humans,” Chaya continued. “I know you mean well, but I don’t think you quite grasp the nature of the ascended. So thank you, but I really don’t need your protection.”
“With all due respect, ma’am,” Sam returned, and judging from his tone of voice, he and Salim might be even more ticked off than Dean and Dishon were. “I don’t think you quite grasp the nature of the threat. Maybe if you’d hold your hand out toward my brother, he can give you a practical demonstration.”
She laughed and put her left hand down on the table in front of Dean. “Demonstration of what, a flea bite?”
Okay, that was it. Dean pulled the consecrated iron dagger he’d hidden in his belt and nailed her hand to the table.
She gasped. “OW! That... that... hurts!” The wound wasn’t bleeding or even burning much, but she couldn’t pull away from the dagger when she tried.
Dishon took over. “As the Tau’ri would say, Chaya Sar, the ascended are nothing more than supercharged ghosts. You may possess the might of demigods, but even true gods can be slain. We have seen them die as easily as the System Lords they sought to aid.”
“Your kind could not defeat the Wraith or the Goa’uld in life,” Salim added. “How, in this living death, do you hope to defeat a host of demons intent on your enslavement?”
She snarled and looked at Sheppard. “How dare you bring these things into my presence!”
“These things happen to be personally responsible for saving Earth by fighting demons,” Sheppard replied. “Answer his question.”
She didn’t, her eyes full of shock, confusion, pain, anger, and fear as she tried again to simply pull her hand back. Dishon let her struggle a couple more times before his lip curled and he pulled the dagger out. She promptly disappeared.
“Let’s go,” Sheppard said quietly.
The brothers followed him back to the Puddle Jumper at just short of a run. Chaya didn’t try to stop them, which Dishon figured meant she was glad to see them go and Dean figured probably meant she just didn’t want to find out whether they had a weapon that could actually kill her. They didn’t-the Colt was at Bobby’s-but there was little chance of Chaya knowing that.
Once they were in space and headed for the Gate, Sheppard snapped, “That was not a good idea.”
“She was askin’ for it,” Dean snapped back.
“It’s called diplomacy. Ever heard of it?”
“Dean has all the tact of a bull elephant,” Sam snarked.
Sheppard didn’t look at Sam, just dialed the Gate. “Well, you encouraged him, Mr. Stanford Pre-law, and I happen to know you took International Relations for that degree.”
The Jumper shot through the Gate and back into Atlantis.
Sam huffed. “We had to prove to her that she’s still vulnerable.”
“Look,” Sheppard replied, “I’m not the Ancients’ biggest fan, either. But you can’t go stabbing our allies in the hand just to prove a point.”
“Allies?!”
Dishon stepped forward. “Your history with her notwithstanding, Chaya Sar is less an ally to Atlantis than the Genii are. She cares only about her own people, and her exile is the result of that, not the cause.”
Sheppard guided the Jumper back to its usual parking space in the Jumper bay. “And now she’s even less of an ally than she had been.”
“But if she’s smart, she’ll live,” Sam stated. “And that was the point.”
“Still.”
Dean held up his hands. “All right, fine, I won’t be shooting or stabbing anyone else. Unless the Wraith try to eat me.”
Sheppard snorted. “If things go that pear-shaped, you’re probably on your own.”
The back of the Jumper opened, and the three men were halfway down the ramp when Sam suddenly frowned a little, slowed, and stopped. Dean and Sheppard looked at him questioningly, but his eyes were unfocused, as if he were listening to or watching something they couldn’t hear or see.
“Sammy?” Dean prompted.
Sam held up a finger, but soon he started carrying on his end of the conversation out loud. “T-... To-Tor-Torren. Torren. Let her sleep. She-she’s okay, but you need-Torren John. Settle. Down. ... We’re here now, and we’ll be there in just a minute, okay? ... Okay, buddy. Hang tight.” His eyes widened as they focused on Dean and he blew the air out of his cheeks.
“Dude,” said Dean. “You pulled out the Dad voice.”
“And used both names,” Sheppard added. “What’s up?”
Sam shook his head and started toward the transporter, the other two falling into step beside him. “Torren’s all upset because Teyla’s still under and he can’t hear her thoughts. We’d better go check on him; I’m worried he’ll try to pull her out of the sedation. That’s the last thing Jennifer needs-hell, the last thing Teyla needs.”
“You think he can do that?”
“Hard to say. Not like there’s a precedent. With a double dose of the Gift, I’d say it’s possible. Or he could just make enough psychic noise that he’d be able to get through.”
Sheppard cursed quietly and punched in their destination as soon as they got to the transporter. Dean didn’t curse out loud, but both he and Dishon concurred with Sam’s analysis. Teyla and her ex Kanaan, Torren’s father, were both among the handful of Athosians descended from subjects of a Wraith experiment that left them fully human but with enough recombinant Wraith DNA in their genes to make them able to tune into what the Winchesters called Wraith Radio. So far as anyone knew, Torren was the first child ever to have “the Gift” on both sides of the family, which had the potential to make life interesting. To date, the only people he’d connected with were Teyla, Todd, Kanaan, and-for reasons still unknown-Sam, plus McKay the one time he and Sam had been body-swapped. And that had been only minor-league telepathy. But considering that Teyla had successfully mind-controlled Wraith queens before, including once while pregnant with Torren, there really was no telling what the boy was capable of on his own.
And they really did need to keep Torren calm. Todd had come to the conclusion that the only way to get the Wraith to listen to the warning about the combined threat from the demons and the Lucian Alliance was for Teyla to reappear as the Primary of Todd’s former alliance, with Todd as her second in command and Sam and Dean as specimens captured during a jaunt into the Milky Way. He was sure he could bluff past any suspicions of the truth that the ZPM-powered superhive had kicked him out and then been destroyed over Earth... as long as Teyla was there to provide visual proof that he was still in her good graces. So Dr. Jennifer Keller was currently in the process of performing the surgery needed to transform Teyla’s appearance so she could pass for a Wraith queen. But it was a long, complicated procedure, and Torren clearly hadn’t fully understood just how long Teyla would be unconscious. Hell, Dean had vague memories of thinking the first hour Mom had been in labor with Sam was an eternity, so he could sympathize. He just hadn’t had the power to make Sammy arrive any faster. If Torren managed to wake Teyla... well, Dean really didn’t want to think about it.
The transporter deposited them two doors down from where Gate technician Amelia Banks was babysitting Torren for the day. This time it was Sheppard who set the pace, though, and Sheppard who got the first knockdown tearful Torren hug. And in Dean’s opinion, that was probably as it should be. He didn’t know when circumstances would allow Sheppard and Teyla to get together for real, but he hoped for everyone’s sake it would be soon so Torren would have the green light to start calling his namesake “Dad.”
“Hey, TJ,” Sheppard said gently, holding Torren close. “What’s the trouble?”
“Mommy!” Torren wailed.
“Aunt Jennifer’s still working on her, buddy. You need to let her sleep.”
“But....”
“It’s a long time. I know. But if she wakes up too soon, it’ll hurt her.”
“But....”
“Shh.” Sheppard rubbed Torren’s back. “She’s still here. She’s still with Aunt Jennifer. You just gotta be patient.”
“Don’t wanna be patient. I want Mommy.” But while Torren’s tears hadn’t subsided, the volume of his voice was now more of a whine than a wail. That was progress.
Sheppard’s voice dropped to more of a whisper. “I know. I’m worried about her, too. But we’ve done this before. It takes a long time, but she’ll be fine.”
Torren sniffled. “If she’ll be fine, why are you worried?”
“I always worry about your mommy.”
“Why?”
“Same reason you do.”
Torren whimpered and buried his nose in the crook of Sheppard’s neck.
Banks smiled sadly and turned to address the Winchesters. “How’d it go on Proculus?”
Sam sighed. “About like you’d expect with Ancients. Chaya wouldn’t take us seriously until Dean proved she was vulnerable.”
“Yeah,” Dean added, “and apparently she doesn’t like snakeheads, even if they’re Tok’ra. ’Course, I dunno how she knew about the Goa’uld if she was born here, but....”
Banks shrugged. “Probably part of the history the Ancients learned in whatever kind of schools they had. We learn about Greece and Rome; they probably learned about the Milky Way years.”
That is reasonable, Dishon agreed. Ancients were much like humans; they would not have passed on genetic memory as my kind do. But it is clear that the Ancients recalled enough about Earth to return there when the war against the Wraith turned against them.
“Hey, after you guys brief Mr. Woolsey, Dr. McKay needs to talk to you. He thinks he’s found a way to use the shield generators to form a city-wide devil’s trap.”
Dean brightened. “Seriously?”
“He still thinks it’s stupid, but yeah, he says it’s one of the strongest ones.”
“Awesome,” the brothers chorused, which got a giggle out of Torren, as usual.
“Anything from Lorne?” Sam asked.
“Heard from Ronon,” Banks replied. Ronon had gone with Lorne and SGA-2 to the Genii homeworld to sit in on Coalition negotiations regarding the ship the Genii had captured from the Pegasus Asgard the previous year. Ladon’s engineers had succeeded in reverse-engineering a fleet that they were now busily securing against any attempted theft by the Lucian Alliance, but the Coalition still had to decide whether to use the original ship to try to warn the elusive rogue aliens. “Turns out, the Genii don’t even know how to use the Asgard communications platform. And considering that these Asgard have been experimenting on humans, plus the fact that they activated the Attero device and blew up so many Stargates in the process of trying to take out Wraith, there’s a pretty strong sense that maybe they deserve whatever the demons might do to them. Ronon sure thinks so, and Maj. Lorne’s leaning that way.”
“Can’t say I blame ’em,” said Sheppard. “On the other hand, we’re planning to warn the Wraith.”
“Yeah,” Dean conceded, “but it’s kinda like the difference between werewolves and witches. Werewolves don’t have a choice; they have to kill humans to live. When a witch kills, it’s pure malice.”
“Well, with the gene therapy Todd helped Keller perfect, it’s more like vampires and witches,” Sam noted. “I mean, vampires like Lenore can survive by feeding on animals, but it has to be a conscious choice. And taking the gene therapy would be a conscious choice.”
“Still.”
“Yeah, no, I see what you’re saying. And you’re not wrong.”
Banks shrugged. “Well, Mr. Woolsey said that if we’re warning everyone else, we ought to warn the Asgard. So he’s asked the SGC for instructions on how the Othalla Asgard platform worked. But he recommended that whoever contacts them be from a world that hasn’t tangled with them lately.”
“Send Larrin,” Sheppard drawled. “If she can’t knock some sense into ’em, no one will.”
The other adults in the room laughed, and Torren giggled even though he hadn’t ever met the Travelers’ leader.
Sheppard rubbed Torren’s back again. “I gotta go talk to Mr. Woolsey. You gonna be okay to stay here with Amelia?”
Torren sniffled. “When’s Mommy gonna wake up?”
“It’s probably gonna be a few more hours. Like, after supper. But I can come right back after I make my report.”
Torren whined.
“That’ll take maybe thirty minutes, bud. Promise.”
“’Kay.” Torren sniffled again and let go.
Dean knelt down as Sheppard stood. “Hey, Teej. We’re not goin’ anywhere without your mom. You know that, right?”
Torren nodded and hugged Dean.
“All right. Me and Sam, we got some stuff to take care of after we talk to Woolsey, but we’ll see you at supper, maybe sooner.”
“’Kay.”
“And if you’re real good for Miss Amelia, maybe I’ll tell you about the time we got stuck in a sitcom. And then Sam got turned into a car.”
“For reals?”
“Yeah. Story’s a lot funnier now.”
“As I recall, you thought the last part was pretty funny at the time,” Sam retorted, and Dishon couldn’t suppress a mental snort.
Dean just smiled. “So what do you think, TJ? ’S it a deal?”
Torren thought for a moment, then smiled. “Deal.”
“Awesome.” Dean hugged him again quickly, then tweaked his nose with a wink and stood.
“A car?” Sheppard echoed.
“I got better,” Sam deadpanned and gave Torren a hug of his own.
Sheppard waited until they were in the transporter to continue. “Seriously? A car? What....”
“Gabriel,” the brothers replied, and Dean punched the button for the Gateroom.
Exactly how Dishon managed to pull rank on Woolsey to get Dean out of any disciplinary action for stabbing Chaya, Sam didn’t know. It had something to do with some dirt the Tok’ra had on the IOA, but Salim wasn’t inclined to explain. The long and short of it was, though, that Dean wasn’t in trouble and was on his way to check with McKay about the energy-beam devil’s trap he was setting up via the shield generators. Sheppard was headed back to Torren, who was starting to get anxious again, and that left Sam to check in with Todd about the arrangements for the show they’d be putting on for the Wraith the next day.
On the iratus-infested Wraith homeworld.
“Do not worry!” Todd assured him. “I know the planet well enough to take us to the location without the slightest possibility of harm.”
Sam rubbed his neck anxiously. “You sure we have to have the meeting there?”
“It is the closest thing to neutral ground that Wraith will recognize. No single hive may claim that planet; it is common to all. Any other location would fall within the territory of one hive or alliance, and we would be in grave danger from more than the iratus.”
“Perhaps we should take salt water in super-soakers,” Salim suggested. “That would ensure our safe passage.”
Todd laughed, but when Sam ran the idea by Woolsey later, Woolsey thought it was the best idea he’d heard all day. And how he happened to know that Rivers had bought a super-soaker for Torren’s birthday and never given it to him, Sam had no clue.
Now, the plan, as Sam understood it, was for Todd, Teyla, and the brothers to Gate to a neutral planet, where one of Todd’s hives would pick them up and take them to the Wraith homeworld. There they’d set up a conference space in a clearing (surrounded by salt, Sam suggested and Todd agreed), and the Primaries from the other major alliances would show up to hear them out. Each queen was allowed one commander but no other warriors. Todd would do most of the talking, since he had the best grasp of how to explain the threat in terms the other Wraith would understand. Sam and Dean would be there mainly as visual specimens-which Sam translated as eye candy and made Salim laugh heartily-and backup in case one of the other queens decided to try something. But everything depended on Teyla’s ability to bluff past the other queens’ guard.
Sam suddenly found himself as anxious as Torren was to have Teyla back with them.
“Dude,” Dean said when they caught up with each other outside Banks’ quarters. “What the hell are you nervous about? This can’t be as bad as Detroit.”
Sam huffed. “That’s not the point, Dean. Yes, Lucifer’s a whole lot scarier than even a dozen Wraith queens, but at least then we knew what we were getting into. And we weren’t taking... anyone else with us.”
“-You realize you almost called Teyla a civilian.”
Sam rolled his eyes.
“Seriously, Sam.”
“I... I dunno. I guess it’s just not knowing what she’s gonna look like, whether she can carry it off.”
“She’s done it before. Fooled Todd’s Primary.”
“For what, two minutes?”
“Sam.”
Sam sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
But the conversation was interrupted by Lorne calling in on the radio. “Message received and rejected,” he reported. “We’re heading back through this wormhole.”
“Lorne, this is Sheppard,” Sheppard replied. “Did you send Larrin?”
“She wasn’t available, but Shiana was.”
“Wow. Bet that was a shouting match.”
“Not really. They hung up as soon as she said ‘demons.’”
Brothers and Tok’ra snorted and chorused, “Idjits.”
“I heard that!” Sheppard called, having first turned off his radio.
“We meant the Asgard,” they called back as they walked into Banks’ quarters to find Sheppard grinning, Banks fighting giggles, and Torren not even fighting.
“Man, we are batting .000 on the winning friends and influencing aliens front today,” Dean continued. “Even the mist creatures on 224 had sense enough to find some way to bury their Gate when we told ’em what was going on.”
Sheppard ruffled Torren’s hair. “Asgard always have had an attitude when it comes to humans. At least Hermiod did.”
“’S it supper time yet?” Torren asked.
Sheppard looked at his watch and shrugged. “Ah, close enough.”
The five of them made their way to the mess hall, where Ronon and Lorne joined them just in time for Torren to wheedle the story about TVLand and the Sampala out of Dean (and Sampala was one of those portmanteau words that struck Sam as just all kinds of wrong, even if Salim laughed uproariously). Then McKay and Zelenka showed up and started getting into all kinds of really technical explanations about this trap-generating plan Dean had signed off on, and Sam found it harder and harder to pay attention to his friends rather than worrying about the next day-about Teyla. He couldn’t quit thinking through all the ways the plan could go wrong.
Sam, Salim suddenly barked.
Sam blinked. What?
Why have you taken Torren’s fear?
The question startled Sam. He hadn’t even been aware that was what he was doing. But Torren seemed to be having a grand old time now that he had most of his extended-by-choice family around him. And so was everyone else-except Dean, of course, who was keeping a wary eye on Sam.
Sam cleared his throat. “Uh, Dean, can I....” He jerked his head toward the exit.
Dean didn’t look any less worried when he nodded. “Yeah, sure. ’Scuse us,” he added for the rest of the table’s benefit before following Sam out into the hallway. Once they were out of the general earshot, though, Dean grabbed Sam’s arm. “Dude, what the hell is going on with you?”
Sam blew the air out of his cheeks. “Salim thinks I’m absorbing Torren’s anxiety.”
Dean blinked. “How?”
“Hell if I know. But you gotta admit, it makes some sense. And honestly, given the panic he was in earlier? Better me than him.”
“Yeah, until you lose control of the EMF and start blowing out equipment left and right. Seriously, Sam-”
“Look, I don’t even know what I’m doing, never mind how to stop.”
“Well, shove it off on Todd!”
“I don’t know if I can!”
Dean shook his head as he half-turned away and ran a hand over his nose and mouth.
Sam sighed. “I’m sorry, Dean. At least it isn’t visions this time,” he added in an attempt at levity.
Dean huffed and shook his head again. “Dude, don’t. Just don’t.” But he wasn’t able to keep the corner of his mouth from twitching upward.
Before Sam could say anything else, though, he sensed Teyla beginning to surface from the anesthesia. “We’d better get back,” he told Dean. “Teyla’s waking up-on her own, I think.”
Dean nodded and turned-just in time to catch Torren as he came barreling out of the mess hall. Just how Dean managed to sweep Torren up over his shoulder without even breaking stride was beyond Sam, but Torren barely had time to yelp before Dean was hauling him back to the team’s table.
“But MOMMY!” Torren protested.
“She’s not all the way awake yet, dude,” Dean replied firmly. “We’ll go see her when Jennifer says we can go see her and not before.”
“Saaaam!”
Sam held up his hands as he followed. “He’s right, Torren. And even if he weren’t, I don’t argue with him when he uses that voice.”
Dean didn’t have to turn around for Sam to know what incredulous expression he was wearing. “What are you talkin’ about? You argued with Dad when he used that voice.”
“I meant now.”
“Oh, whatever.” And Dean tickled Torren’s side for good measure.
Torren shrieked and squirmed and flailed, but he couldn’t get away from Dean’s grasp until Dean handed him to Ronon, who handed him to McKay, who handed him to Lorne, who handed him to Banks, who spun around with him three times before handing him off to Sheppard. At that point, Torren was giggling too hard to try to escape again. It was only about five minutes later that Keller called the lot of them up to the infirmary waiting room, and Sheppard had just finished reminding Torren that he needed to walk and stand next to Teyla’s bed rather than following his usual flying tackle method when Keller let them in to see Teyla. Sheppard kept his hand on Torren’s shoulder as they trooped into the room, and Torren did behave himself, neither pouncing on his mother nor freaking out at her new face.
And the new face was... somewhat disturbing. Sam hadn’t been sure what to expect, but he didn’t think he’d expected to see Teyla’s dark skin turned Wraith greenish-grey, her short copper hair now long and black, her usually warm brown eyes hidden under yellow slit-pupiled contacts. She looked... well, she looked like a Wraith, which had been the whole point. And he didn’t know whether he was more creeped out or relieved.
Oh ye of little faith, Salim teased.
“Mommy?” Torren prompted.
Teyla smiled. “Hi, baby boy,” she replied quietly, her voice now flanged like a Wraith’s but still gentle.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded. “Still pretty sleepy and a little sore, but I’ll be fine in a little while. Have you been good for Amelia?”
He nodded in turn. “I was scared, though. I couldn’t hear you.”
“I’m sorry, angel. The procedure just takes a long time. It’ll be the same when Aunt Jennifer undoes it in a few days.”
He took a deep breath and nodded again. “Okay.”
“Now that you know, will you not be so scared?”
“I... I think so.”
She caressed his cheek with her left hand. “That’s my good, brave boy.”
Dean looked away, and Sam wondered what he was imagining-or remembering.
“You gonna be good to go in the morning?” Sheppard asked.
Teyla nodded. “Yes. A good night’s rest should be all I need. Todd will not have to instruct me this time, and I will have Sam and Dean as backup.”
Dean blinked and looked back at her. “Instruct? Y’mean, Todd did the whole My Fair Lady thing last time?”
It took Teyla a moment to place the reference, but when she did, she fought a smile briefly before replying with a remarkably good, “Just you wait, ’Enry ’Iggins!”
Everyone laughed, and Sam felt the last of his anxiety-or Torren’s, or whatever-evaporate. They’d be as fine as they ever were.
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