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sga_flashficTitle: Various means of comfort
Author: less_star
Characters: Teyla, Rodney, Jeannie, Torren
Rating: Gen
Length: 1400
Spoilers: Search and rescue
Summary: One in seven to one in ten mothers experience post-partum depression. Past and present.
A/N: Rushed, again. If you spot any mistakes, please tell me.
Various means of comfort
He never used to go straight home from school before. He went to the playground with Billy, or to Billy’s home to play with Lego or he and Billy went to look at the posters outside the movie theatre. But he got to skip two grades this year, and the kids in his new class think Lego is stupid and Billy leaves school much earlier than him now. He could probably go look at movie posters by himself but he wants to get home at once. Just to see.
It’s quiet when he enters and he goes up the stairs slowly, his heart beats so hard and he doesn’t really know why. It’s only home. Everything is alright.
The bedroom is dark even in the afternoon, curtains still drawn and only the bedside lamp is lit. Mom is a lump under the pink blanket. She’s holding her book, but she’s looking at the window. From the door he can’t see if Jeannie is in the crib. He stands for a moment in the doorway, listening. When he hears a tiny noise from the crib something happens inside. It almost hurts a little. He steps in and mom turns to look at him.
“Mer! I didn’t hear you!” When she reaches out to hug him her arms look so small against the wide sleeves of dad’s blue pajama jacket.
He goes to look at Jeannie. She’s on her back and when she sees him she starts to wave her little arms and legs, all excited. He picks up her rattle from where she’s thrown it at the foot of the crib. She grabs at it and it looks like she’s smiling. She’s only wearing a diaper and her tummy is soft and warm when he touches it, real careful like he’s been told. Babies are sort of stupid, anyway.
Mom is looking at him when he turns around, smiling. People smile when they’re happy.
“You’re so good to your sister, Mer.”
He goes to his room to get his Lego (a spaceship). He drops his shoes and jacket on the floor. Mom doesn’t mind getting dirt in the house anymore. That’s pretty neat. On his desk is a packet of cookies, half empty. He can have some even though it’s before dinner.
He sits on the floor between mom’s bed and the crib, building his spaceship. When Jeannie gets bored she almost cries a little and he goes to check up on her. Maybe he’s like a giant from a fairy-tale to her. She’s too small for cookies and mom doesn’t want any. Mom is quiet, still holding her book but he doesn’t hear her turn the pages. It’s one of her favorites, she’s read it to him, before. Euclid.
“Are you hungry, sweetheart?” Mom puts her book on the bedside table and wraps herself even tighter in the blanket. “We can have dinner late tonight. I’ll make soup and toast, OK? And we can see if Star Trek is on tonight.”
He nods. Soup and toast is OK. None of the other kids get to stay up late and watch Star Trek, so that’s OK, too. Dad doesn’t like it when kids watch too much TV. It’s bad for you in many ways. But dad only comes home on weekends now. He got a job and that’s a good thing, even if it is in Vancouver. They need the money for Jeannie and piano lessons and a Good College, which is an important thing.
He wakes up on the couch, much later. He fell asleep before the end of the Star Trek episode. He can make up his own ending, anyway.
SsSsSs
There’s something profoundly wrong with seeing Teyla so still. Not that she’s in any way a fidgety person, just the opposite, but ... He can’t put his finger on it, but it’s wrong.
Rodney stands in Teyla’s doorway, watching her lie completely still, wrapped up in a blanket. Torren is on the bed beside her, waving his chubby little arms. He’s got a death grip on the wooden knife Ronon gave him (Rodney’s confiscated it twice since it’s nowhere near enough blunt to be safe). Teyla seems to be just watching him.
As he steps into her room he feels an odd sort of shift in perspective, like he’s suddenly much smaller. It only lasts a second, and he’s barely aware of it. Probably a side effect from spending the day in a ‘jumper with faulty dampeners.
“Um, hello.” Teyla actually looks surprised to see him. Huh. She’s usually keenly aware of her surroundings. She must have been far away. “Everything...ah...OK? Here? With you and. And little man?”
Teyla smiles. Is that a sad smile? He can’t really tell. It’s a Teyla smile. “We are both fine.”
Well that’s good, then. Everything is alright. Teyla is alright.
“Well, good. Oh, ah, I came to give you this. From Miko. They can’t gate back from ‘810 until tomorrow and she said you wanted to borrow this.” He hands her the DVD case. It’s that awful Wormhole X-treme spin-off. Wormhole Andromeda, or something. Seriously. He should have a long talk with Miko about subjecting innocent Athosians to that kind of second-rate sci-fi. And if he wasn’t sort of scared of Miko he totally would.
Teyla takes the case and puts it on the bed beside her. Then she curls up on her side again, looking at Torren.
Rodney has two simulations running, ground-breaking stuff that none of the others can handle (and he can’t let Radek get his grubby paws on). And if he doesn’t fix the cloak on Jumper One tonight he’ll be subjected to Sheppard pouting and whining ‘but I don’t wanna take Jumper Three, Rodney’.
“Do, ah, do you want some company? Watching” that abysmal piece of ...“your show?” Oh, god, that came out wrong, didn’t it? “Or is Kanaan...?”
Teyla sits up. It takes sometime for her to get untangled from her blanket. She looks down at her hands, frowning. “Kanaan wishes to stay another fortnight with his mother.” She’s wearing a grey sweatshirt that she must have stolen from one of the beefier marines. When she pushes her sleeves up her arms look tiny. Rodney watches, finds that he can’t look away. The sight makes him feel strange. Suddenly he knows is that he needs to stay with her. Needs to see that she’s alright. “I would like it very much if you stayed with me a while.” She starts looking for something on her beside table which is messy, full of baby stuff. “I still have some of the cookies you gave me.”
“Good, good.” Rodney sits beside her which is probably all kinds of wrong but the bed is big enough that it doesn’t really feel weird. And if he’s going to suffer through that kind of show he’s not sitting on the floor. She lets him hold Torren since they’re on a soft surface. Rodney takes the wooden knife away (safety) and gives him the soft rabbit-shaped rattle Sheppard tries to pretend he didn’t spend a lot of time picking out.
On the laptop screen the heroic space captain battles against overwhelming odds (and seriously dodgy CGI). Teyla eats nearly all the cookies and wants to listen to the commentary.
“Miko was very upset to learn that the space captain would not have any more adventures.” Rodney’s got this thing going where he pretends to take the rabbit from Torren, and it takes him awhile to decipher what Teyla’s saying.
“Mm, yes, the show was cancelled.” Small wonder. Miko and Simpson had been on the verge of hysterics for days after that databurst. “But, um, that way you can make up your own ending, you know. Personally, I think the brave and witty mechanic marries the alien princess.”
Teyla reaches over to touch one of Torrens soft little feet. He grins triumphantly when Rodney lets him have the rabbit again and Teyla looks down at him and smiles. Then she starts the next episode (commentary by the director).
“You know” Rodney says “Ronon and Sheppard are probably done at the shooting range by now. I could ask them to stop by the kitchen and get us soup and toast.”
“That sounds delicious.”
“But they get to sit on the floor.”
“No.”
“But it’ll be all crowded...OK, fine.” He taps on his radio. He still feels a little strange inside. It’s probably because he’s hungry. Soup and toast will do the trick.
End
Author: less_star
Characters: Teyla, Rodney, Jeannie, Torren
Rating: Gen
Length: 1400
Spoilers: Search and rescue
Summary: One in seven to one in ten mothers experience post-partum depression. Past and present.
A/N: Rushed, again. If you spot any mistakes, please tell me.
Various means of comfort
He never used to go straight home from school before. He went to the playground with Billy, or to Billy’s home to play with Lego or he and Billy went to look at the posters outside the movie theatre. But he got to skip two grades this year, and the kids in his new class think Lego is stupid and Billy leaves school much earlier than him now. He could probably go look at movie posters by himself but he wants to get home at once. Just to see.
It’s quiet when he enters and he goes up the stairs slowly, his heart beats so hard and he doesn’t really know why. It’s only home. Everything is alright.
The bedroom is dark even in the afternoon, curtains still drawn and only the bedside lamp is lit. Mom is a lump under the pink blanket. She’s holding her book, but she’s looking at the window. From the door he can’t see if Jeannie is in the crib. He stands for a moment in the doorway, listening. When he hears a tiny noise from the crib something happens inside. It almost hurts a little. He steps in and mom turns to look at him.
“Mer! I didn’t hear you!” When she reaches out to hug him her arms look so small against the wide sleeves of dad’s blue pajama jacket.
He goes to look at Jeannie. She’s on her back and when she sees him she starts to wave her little arms and legs, all excited. He picks up her rattle from where she’s thrown it at the foot of the crib. She grabs at it and it looks like she’s smiling. She’s only wearing a diaper and her tummy is soft and warm when he touches it, real careful like he’s been told. Babies are sort of stupid, anyway.
Mom is looking at him when he turns around, smiling. People smile when they’re happy.
“You’re so good to your sister, Mer.”
He goes to his room to get his Lego (a spaceship). He drops his shoes and jacket on the floor. Mom doesn’t mind getting dirt in the house anymore. That’s pretty neat. On his desk is a packet of cookies, half empty. He can have some even though it’s before dinner.
He sits on the floor between mom’s bed and the crib, building his spaceship. When Jeannie gets bored she almost cries a little and he goes to check up on her. Maybe he’s like a giant from a fairy-tale to her. She’s too small for cookies and mom doesn’t want any. Mom is quiet, still holding her book but he doesn’t hear her turn the pages. It’s one of her favorites, she’s read it to him, before. Euclid.
“Are you hungry, sweetheart?” Mom puts her book on the bedside table and wraps herself even tighter in the blanket. “We can have dinner late tonight. I’ll make soup and toast, OK? And we can see if Star Trek is on tonight.”
He nods. Soup and toast is OK. None of the other kids get to stay up late and watch Star Trek, so that’s OK, too. Dad doesn’t like it when kids watch too much TV. It’s bad for you in many ways. But dad only comes home on weekends now. He got a job and that’s a good thing, even if it is in Vancouver. They need the money for Jeannie and piano lessons and a Good College, which is an important thing.
He wakes up on the couch, much later. He fell asleep before the end of the Star Trek episode. He can make up his own ending, anyway.
SsSsSs
There’s something profoundly wrong with seeing Teyla so still. Not that she’s in any way a fidgety person, just the opposite, but ... He can’t put his finger on it, but it’s wrong.
Rodney stands in Teyla’s doorway, watching her lie completely still, wrapped up in a blanket. Torren is on the bed beside her, waving his chubby little arms. He’s got a death grip on the wooden knife Ronon gave him (Rodney’s confiscated it twice since it’s nowhere near enough blunt to be safe). Teyla seems to be just watching him.
As he steps into her room he feels an odd sort of shift in perspective, like he’s suddenly much smaller. It only lasts a second, and he’s barely aware of it. Probably a side effect from spending the day in a ‘jumper with faulty dampeners.
“Um, hello.” Teyla actually looks surprised to see him. Huh. She’s usually keenly aware of her surroundings. She must have been far away. “Everything...ah...OK? Here? With you and. And little man?”
Teyla smiles. Is that a sad smile? He can’t really tell. It’s a Teyla smile. “We are both fine.”
Well that’s good, then. Everything is alright. Teyla is alright.
“Well, good. Oh, ah, I came to give you this. From Miko. They can’t gate back from ‘810 until tomorrow and she said you wanted to borrow this.” He hands her the DVD case. It’s that awful Wormhole X-treme spin-off. Wormhole Andromeda, or something. Seriously. He should have a long talk with Miko about subjecting innocent Athosians to that kind of second-rate sci-fi. And if he wasn’t sort of scared of Miko he totally would.
Teyla takes the case and puts it on the bed beside her. Then she curls up on her side again, looking at Torren.
Rodney has two simulations running, ground-breaking stuff that none of the others can handle (and he can’t let Radek get his grubby paws on). And if he doesn’t fix the cloak on Jumper One tonight he’ll be subjected to Sheppard pouting and whining ‘but I don’t wanna take Jumper Three, Rodney’.
“Do, ah, do you want some company? Watching” that abysmal piece of ...“your show?” Oh, god, that came out wrong, didn’t it? “Or is Kanaan...?”
Teyla sits up. It takes sometime for her to get untangled from her blanket. She looks down at her hands, frowning. “Kanaan wishes to stay another fortnight with his mother.” She’s wearing a grey sweatshirt that she must have stolen from one of the beefier marines. When she pushes her sleeves up her arms look tiny. Rodney watches, finds that he can’t look away. The sight makes him feel strange. Suddenly he knows is that he needs to stay with her. Needs to see that she’s alright. “I would like it very much if you stayed with me a while.” She starts looking for something on her beside table which is messy, full of baby stuff. “I still have some of the cookies you gave me.”
“Good, good.” Rodney sits beside her which is probably all kinds of wrong but the bed is big enough that it doesn’t really feel weird. And if he’s going to suffer through that kind of show he’s not sitting on the floor. She lets him hold Torren since they’re on a soft surface. Rodney takes the wooden knife away (safety) and gives him the soft rabbit-shaped rattle Sheppard tries to pretend he didn’t spend a lot of time picking out.
On the laptop screen the heroic space captain battles against overwhelming odds (and seriously dodgy CGI). Teyla eats nearly all the cookies and wants to listen to the commentary.
“Miko was very upset to learn that the space captain would not have any more adventures.” Rodney’s got this thing going where he pretends to take the rabbit from Torren, and it takes him awhile to decipher what Teyla’s saying.
“Mm, yes, the show was cancelled.” Small wonder. Miko and Simpson had been on the verge of hysterics for days after that databurst. “But, um, that way you can make up your own ending, you know. Personally, I think the brave and witty mechanic marries the alien princess.”
Teyla reaches over to touch one of Torrens soft little feet. He grins triumphantly when Rodney lets him have the rabbit again and Teyla looks down at him and smiles. Then she starts the next episode (commentary by the director).
“You know” Rodney says “Ronon and Sheppard are probably done at the shooting range by now. I could ask them to stop by the kitchen and get us soup and toast.”
“That sounds delicious.”
“But they get to sit on the floor.”
“No.”
“But it’ll be all crowded...OK, fine.” He taps on his radio. He still feels a little strange inside. It’s probably because he’s hungry. Soup and toast will do the trick.
End
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-22 10:10 pm (UTC)“Mm, yes, the show was cancelled.” Small wonder. Miko and Simpson had been on the verge of hysterics for days after that databurst. “But, um, that way you can make up your own ending, you know. Personally, I think the brave and witty mechanic marries the alien princess.”
:)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-23 10:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-22 10:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-23 10:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-22 11:06 pm (UTC)This is so very sweet; I love the juxtaposition of the two situations, and how little Rodney didn't understand what was going on and adult Rodney still doesn't understand why the situation is so familiar to him, but does the right thing anyway. Rodney with baby Jeannie and baby Torren is too sweet. (And Ronon gave him a wee knife! Awwww!)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-23 10:40 pm (UTC)Ronon can't understand why Sheppard and McKay got all weirded out about the knife, like it was dangerous or something. Like, what else would you give a newborn?
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-22 11:46 pm (UTC)This was just so... fuzzy and adorable, in a refreshingly realistic way. I love how Rodney is incredibly sweet while still being Rodney, and Ronon giving the baby a knife is the cutest thing EVER. I love it.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-23 10:47 pm (UTC)Ronon couldn't believe it when Sheppard brought that soft animal toy - some days he thinks he'll never understand earth people.
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Date: 2008-09-23 12:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2008-09-23 11:00 pm (UTC)not at allonly a little ashamed to admit.(no subject)
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Date: 2008-09-24 08:33 pm (UTC)Wonderful job. ^__^
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-24 09:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-24 10:04 pm (UTC)I'm sniffling a little but this is definitely comfort, yes. The first part was quite bleak to me and made Rodney's reaction in the second one even more comforting. Definitely a story I'll reread :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-25 08:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2008-11-02 10:13 am (UTC)And wow, that's the sweetest icon I've ever seen!
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-02 04:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-02 11:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-05 02:44 pm (UTC)Nice juxtaposition of Rodney's past with his mother, shortly after Jeanie's birth, to his present with Teyla, shortly after Torren's birth.
Thank you for sharing this!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-06 09:36 pm (UTC)