[prompt] President's Day Quote

Title: Untitled
Prompt: "Children are our most valueable natural resource." from museimagination
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Character: Michael Kenmore
Word Count: 646
Rating: PG
Summary: Prompt response; Teyla and Michael's child
A/N: Set in the AU 'verse where Teyla and Michael met in the lunatic_cafe, written as a drabble for a topic response for a comm. Cross-posted here and linked at teyla_michael

Perhaps the advantage to them requiring so much preparation and careful manipulation of biology to make it happen was that there were no unauthorized or unexpected conceptions. Every child was wanted, from the first to however many there might be. They sat together in the laboratory when they could, when she could steal moments away, him hard at work and her silent except for the occasional murmur of their conversations. How Atlantis was faring. How he was surviving.

Occasionally the conversation ventured into the area of, did they both truly want this child. The question was more out of insecurity than anything else; the answer was invariably something along the lines of don't be silly and of course. Combined with the little touches, hand to hand and mind to mind, that reinforced those words. Teyla's longing for a child was not desperate but palpable enough to make him ache with it. He had been alone for so long and now, even with Teyla, it was not the gentle pressure of a Hive, all those minds all linked by family and purpose. He missed that, so much, so terribly much.

It had to be done, not the old fashioned way with nothing but two people desiring to share their love with a new life, but with enzymes and equipment and much discomfort for Teyla. They consoled themselves with the thought of what would be, the hope of a healthy child, neither of them allowing the thought to cross their mind that cross-species hybridization often went through a lot of sick or disfigured creatures before something that could be considered whole emerged. Neither did they think on his previous mad-scientist attempts. Those were creatures, things to be pitied for certain but things nonetheless, desperate attempts to reach some sort of demented goal. This was different. This was two people wanting a child. And that was surely different.

Weeks became months. Of waiting, of hoping, of the light in her eyes as she found him in the laboratory certain that she had noticed some change in herself, only to have the elation fade from them both as they realized it was nothing. Disappointment echoed back and forth between them until it was painful to be together, compounding hurt upon hurt.

When Atlantis' former Wraith ally took her Michael thought it was first as a hostage, and finally approached the human city to offer his assistance. When they learned what his true purpose was Michael felt a simultaneous surge of elation and dread. And a conviction that this was the worst idea of all possible ideas. Their child (their child!) would be wanted all the way across the galaxy for what she or he represented, a new race, a new creature that mixed the best qualities of both species and hopefully the weaknesses of neither.

Not that he cared about any of that. Michael found that, beyond anything his or her physical form might represent, he wanted Teyla and their child back with him, his family, safe and whole and with him. For no other reason (he snarled at Sheppard and Ronon and anyone else who insinuated otherwise) than that they were his family, both of them. If he no longer had a Hive, he at least had his beloved and his child, more precious to him than any material goods or knowledge or power or currency in the universe. If he had not wanted to be with Teyla, he would not have risked so much to be with her. If they had not wanted this child, they would not have worked so hard to conceive it. Him. Or her. He wanted his family returned to him; he would protect them at any cost to himself, or to anyone else, for there was nothing in the universe he held so dear.

It was, at least, a sentiment both Wraith and human could understand.