Claire watched Caleb's face as he finally seemed to accept that she was actually fine. If she'd been more aware of her own body, of the changes that were now all too apparent, they could have been prepared for this news, could have talked things through. But it was a bit late for that. She was coming up on halfway through her pregnancy, and all they could do now was to move forward together, as a family.

She had been so terrified that Caleb wouldn't be able to accept it, would walk away from her, that his bubbling enthusiasm got her daring to feel excited too. Caleb would make an amazing father: her nieces and nephews adored him, and he was so good with the Athosian children who often swarmed the halls of Atlantis. They were both going to miss them when they were all fully resettled, but now...

Wow.

They were going to have a baby of their own. They were actually going to get to be parents. That was scary as hell, but at least they would muddle through it together. She grinned as Caleb seemed happy neither of them wanted to know whether they were having a boy or a girl. "Well, at least we can add one more surprise to the list, huh," she laughed, finally starting to come to some sort of equilibrium.

The thought of teaching Caleb the haka had her in giggles, and Claire squeezed the hand that lay on her belly. "Oh yeah, you and our little one are going to be all sorts of trouble together, aren't you," she laughed. Different images danced through her head: Caleb swinging a laughing little girl above his head, a little girl with crazy fair hair, Caleb helping a little boy with wavy dark hair, wobbling on his first bicycle, catching him as he fell. The very thoughts were intoxicating.

And then, Caleb came back to form, proclaiming his greatness in managing to get her pregnant, and Claire pulled him into another hug as he kissed her cheek. "Careful there, stud, otherwise you'll end up getting used for breeding, and I'll be jealous as hell," she replied, pulling back and kissing the tip of his nose.

Calling him daddy seemed to break him just a little bit, and Claire tenderly brushed the stray tear away, not commenting, just smiling softly at the man she adored. Yup, he was going to make a great dad.

The smile deepened as he called Carson out on lingering. She had known he would be out there, making sure everything would be okay. Over the last year or so, she had developed a strong, close friendship with him. He was, in fact, almost like the brother she had never had. After Caleb, he had become her closest confidante, and was protective of her.

Carson, for his part, did little more than cough politely and tug back the curtains. There was maybe a hint of embarrassment on his face, but not much. The smile was much more evident, in fact. "I assume you two have talked everything out now," he asked, glancing between the two of them. Claire nodded, giving Caleb's hand another squeeze as it rested on her belly. "Yup, we're all good," she said, her eyes locking back on Caleb's again. "But... I guess I forgot to ask you whether the baby's okay. And... I think we might like to see it, if we can?" She looked to Caleb, to make sure that was what he wanted.

Caleb put on a mock outraged look as she said that him and Bump were going to get into trouble at every corner. He honestly had no idea where she even got them kind of ideas from, it wasn't like he went out to purposefully find trouble. Trouble just found him, repeatedly.

“Am sure you won't have us any other way,” he said.

He could just about imagine a girl wondering around Atlantis, Claire's looks and his smooth talking ways or maybe there would be a boy walking around, five years old, his features and using every swear word he'd heard Claire use in Maori. Caleb laughed slightly at himself for his own thoughts, either way, their child was going to cause some interesting times on Atlantis. That was if they got to stay?

Caleb laughed along with her as he was pulled into a hug, had hoped to add a little more normalcy to their relationship with his little flirt and it seemed to have worked. He scrunched his nose up slightly as she placed a kiss onto it, he loved that she did that, but it also made him feel kind of silly. A good kind of silly, that represented every silliness in their relationship.

“Nope, no one but you gets to have me,” he said quite firmly.

He wasn't afraid to make them kind of declarations nowadays. It didn't send him running to the hills like it would have done mere months ago, he had come along way in being able to feel comfortable feeling the way he did about Claire. About being able to tell her he loved her with everything he had, it was hard to imagine himself as anything other than the mature man he currently was..

Caleb nodded as Claire explained to Beckett that they had indeed spoken – he was sure once they were back in their quarters more would be said – and they were ready to see Bump.

“And make sure, mum is okay as well,” he put in, he wouldn't let her get out of check up.

"I wouldn't have you any other way," Claire repeated, her gaze fond as she looked at Caleb. She knew what he was like when they had started their relationship: his flirtatiousness, his bed-hopping ways, his pure blokiness, and, aside from his bed-hopping, nothing had changed. She would never ask him to change, either. Sure, he occasionally still flirted with other women, but Claire could tell it meant nothing to him any more. The heat that was there when he flirted with her, however, was palpable.

The emotional storm within Claire was ebbing, and things were definitely getting back to normal. Well, whatever was going to pass as normal between them now. The next few months were going to be an experience, that was for sure, and then they would actually have the learning curve of being new parents for the first time. She wondered who they would be able to turn to for help and advice, seeing as their parents weren't going to be an option.

She smiled deeply as Caleb reaffirmed he was hers, and hers alone. "Glad to hear it," she replied, her voice low and teasing. "The city couldn't handle more than one mini Caleb running around!" It was bad enough with the full sized version, sometimes.

Carson smiled at the couple in front of him. He was glad they appeared to have gotten over the shock of the unexpected pregnancy, seemed to have worked through any reservations Caleb had had. It wasn't easy at the best of times, but the prospect of raising a child on Atlantis would likely have some unique challenges of its own. "Claire is fine, just a little anaemic, which isn't uncommon in pregnancy, and nothing regular iron supplements won't sort out," he explained. "She needs rest, though, so I'll be signing you off duty for a couple of days, you hear me, Claire?"

Claire rolled her eyes. "A good night's sleep is all I need, Carson, come on," she said, giving him a pleading look. "At least let me go home once we've checked on the baby. Please. I promise I'll rest up, and I'll sleep better in my own bed, now Caleb's back."

Carson looked at his deputy for a few moments, not believing her for a moment about resting up, but all he could do was stand her down from duty. "Alright," he conceded. "But you have to promise me you'll rest." He looked at Caleb. "And I'm sure you'll have a couple of days of leave after that mission, so I'm trusting you to make sure she does look after herself."

However, it was time to move onto nicer things, and Carson smiled broadly. "So you'd like to see the baby," he grinned. "Now, before we do, would you like to know what you're having, so I can make sure I either include or avoid the right details?"

Caleb just let Beckett and Claire hash out exactly what she was going to be doing for the next few days, if there was one thing he had learnt with his time working not only on Atlantis but at the SGC as well, that nine times out of ten the doctors always trumped the military. He could still remember a couple of times he'd gotten admonished not just from Claire for not actually following there instructions and landing his arse back in the infirmary a few days later.

He listened as Beckett basically repeated what Claire had told him about her being fine, yet somehow it seemed to actually stick this time around. Not that he didn't trust Claire's judgement, he did implicitly, he trust hers more than anyone else at times. But hearing it from someone that she trusted just as much, it seemed to actually sink in properly this time and he couldn't help giving her hand another gentle squeeze.

“I have the next four days off after the last mission,” he replied, “I'll make sure she gets plenty of rest, nothing too exciting is going to be happening.” He tried looking sternly at Claire, telling her they wouldn't be doing anything, but he was sure that he failed, he also knew if she asked he was likely to cave in and just give her whatever she wanted.

It would actually be the first time he had 'looked after' someone in the way that Beckett was talking about, sure he had helped team mates when they were off world hurt, or back when he was a Submariner, you looked after your own people so everyone could do their job. This, this was going to be something altogether different kind of looking after, something he didn't actually have that much experience with.

He felt his hand shake slightly as they got nearer to actually seeing their child, he was nervous, it was one thing to speak of her being pregnant, of carrying their child, it was going to be another to see it. He felt his heart rate pick up again and he couldn't help rubbing a hand across the back of his head as he shifted positions slightly so he was sat almost leaning against Claire so he'd be able to see whatever screen Beckett offered them.

“No we don't want to know,” he answered, smiling, “just want to make sure Bump is healthy.”

Claire rolled her eyes at Caleb, too. She hoped that he wouldn't take this as a cue to be too attentive, and end up making her feel smothered and constricted. "We're not talking about total bed rest, you know," she said, her voice amused, and her eyes sparkling. It wasn't uncommon for a man to take this advice too far, and end up treating the mother of their child like a china doll, barely going near them, and taking protection to a whole other level. "I promise I'll take it easy until I've had a few good nights' sleep, okay? I'll be fine after that."

She squeezed Caleb's hand back as they told Carson they wanted to see their baby. This was both exciting as hell, and terrifying, too. She had prepared herself so well for the fact that she would likely never be a mother that this still all seemed like a dream.

Claire swallowed deeply, even as Caleb ran a nervous hand across the back of his head. She laced her fingers with his as he all but leaned against her, turning her head and dropping a kiss on his shoulder as Carson busied himself to go fetch whatever scanner he was going to use. She'd have to talk to him about this: chances were that hers wouldn't be the last pregnancy they'd see on Atlantis.

"It's okay, you know," she murmured. "I'm scared too. But we'll get through this together." Every scenario was running through her mind at that moment. She hadn't taken special care of herself in the last few months, and, with hopping between Atlantis, earth and the Beta site, not to mention some of the physical strains and stresses she had put her body through, she was scared that she might have put their child at risk. She daren't voice this to Caleb, though, not yet. He was too worried as it was.

"Right, are you ready to see your baby in glorious Technicolor," asked Carson, as he returned, brandishing one of the hand held diagnostics scanners and a screen. "I thought you'd like to see it in as much detail as possible, but I'll try to make sure we don't find out whether it's a boy or girl."

Claire smiled nervously, giving Caleb's hand another squeeze, before lifting their twined fingers off her belly. "You have to let go for a few minutes, e ipo," she said, her voice shaking, just a little, as she lifted her scrub top, exposing her softly rounded belly. She laughed. "How the hell did I think I was just getting fat??"

“We'll make sure you're well rested, sweetheart,” he replied, not really answering her own statement regarding the bed rest.

He wasn't about to actually detain her to bed rest, he wouldn't be forcing her to stay in there quarters for the next few days doing nothing at all, he wouldn't do that to her. But until he got use to her carrying their child, and they knew what her limits were going to be – although he had no doubt they were going change as they progressed further along – he was going to worry about her. He just wouldn't stop her doing the things she wanted to do, he could worry about it silently and then sooth her if she started complaining about doing too much, besides he didn't even want to try to stop Claire doing something, she was a force to be reckoned with at the best of times.

Caleb nodded his head, he knew it was okay to be scared, this wasn't something they had planned by any means necessary, so it was all happening really quickly. Sure he was down with having a child with Claire, he wanted nothing more now he'd gotten over the shock of her actually being pregnant, but hat was going to be completely different to actually seeing there child on screen.

Another thought did occur to him as Beckett began setting up what he was going to use, and that was if she was carrying twins, he knew twins didn't run in his family, but they ran in hers. He wasn't sure what he'd do if they suddenly found out they were having twins and he found himself holding his breath at the thought.

He didn't want to move his hand though even as she lifted it off her stomach and pulled her top up, he found himself staring at the stomach as though he had never see it before, of course he hadn't seen it that rounded before. As much as seeing Claire half naked normally led to more pleasurable activities for the both of them, he realised seeing her stomach now filled him with something other than arousal and that was a need to protect. That stomach in front of him contained what they'd both wanted, a way to make there family bigger, the urge to put his hand back on her stomach was a strong one.

“Come on doc, you can't keep us in suspense like this,” he said as Beckett seemed to take his sweet time about setting everything up. Not that Caleb was impatient of course, but his own nerves were starting to get the better of him a little, the sooner they saw, the sooner they could go back to their quarters and he could probably freak out a little more in private then.

"Caleb..."

Claire's voice held a warning note, wondering exactly what he meant by that. She would be bored rigid on bed rest, or confined to her quarters, but she knew she would have to slow down now, at least a little. Instead of working every spare hour when Caleb was offworld, she would actually have to stick to her shift times, and listen to her body when it was telling her to stop.

But if Caleb thought that she would spend the entirety of the next couple of days in bed, he had another think coming. Well, unless he was prepared to spend the time in bed with her. That, she could just about handle.

It was going to be hard adjusting to life in the slower lane, though, and she just hoped that Caleb wouldn't mind too much. She wouldn't have the energy - especially towards the end of her pregnancy - to continue the frantic pace of life they had become accustomed to, and Claire needed to know that Caleb wasn't going to get bored. Here and now wasn't the place to talk about it, though.

Claire laughed as Caleb urged Carson on. "There's no hurry, e te tau, she grinned. "It's still got a few months left to cook!" Carson chuckled, and powered on the scanner. "Right, this will feel a little warm," he explained, as though he was talking to a normal patient, not his deputy, who had used the scanner a hundred times herself. He held the scanner over her abdomen, frowned for a moment, moved it slightly, and, with a beaming smile, turned the hand held screen to Claire and Caleb. "There you go," he said, almost sounding proud. "Meet your baby."

Claire had been expecting a normal earth scan, despite knowing the scanner's capabilities, and was stunned at what she saw. It was a perfectly formed baby - she could see its ears, hands, toes, everything - even the shadows of its eyes, tiny blood vessels just under the skin. It was perfect. She felt tears course down her cheeks as she looked at something that just shouldn't have been possible.

"Bloody hell," she murmured, glancing up at Caleb, her face wreathed in smiles. "That's our baby. Our child. We made that."

“Claire,” he parroted back to her, not really taking notice of the warning tone.

He didn't plan on keeping her locked up the remainder of the pregnancy, damn he didn't even plan to keep her bed bound for the rest of there very short downtime. He was just going to make sure that she actually did eat something, rested in the evenings with him – because despite everything he might have slept whilst off world but it was nothing compared to coming back to Claire – as they actually got over the shock of the news.

He wasn't sure how much he would get away with when it came to looking after Claire, he had never really 'looked after' her before, and she was a strong woman, half the time she didn't need him looking after her. It normally ended up being the other way around, he got looked after by Claire. But he wanted to do this for her, he had somehow managed to get her pregnant and yes he was beginning to feel a little bit big headed about that, him of all people managed to give Claire something that he hadn't even thought possible.

He pulled her hand up and gave it a brief kiss, “We'll be fine,” he said, like that was going to make everything all okay. Although what they'd be fine about he didn't know, the whole situation was something neither of them had prepared for, even in the abstract way they had spoken of children this hadn't even crossed his mind and yet there he was faced with the prospect of raising a child, and it made him wonder exactly what he would teach the child.

He briefly wondered what people would say once the populace of Atlantis found out, his reputation might not have followed him as much around Atlantis, they were such a small outpost that most people knew him pretty well now and knew half the reputation thing was just talk. But still people would wonder, wonder whether he'd make a good father, hell he himself was wondering the exact same thing, he'd bed hopped for so long, treating women in a way that he wouldn't want his child to be treated. Was he going to be a good father?

Pushing the thoughts aside for now, he was still in a public place, he didn't want Beckett noticing his worry and commenting on it, not that the doctor would, but still he didn't want anyone to see it. He would talk to Claire, once they were back in their quarters, once they were in private, maybe he could have a mini freak out then to wrap his head around the whole thing.

He laughed lightly as Claire told him that Bump still had several months to cook, he could imagine there was going to be a lot of bad puns shared between the two of them over the coming months. He might be a patient bloke at times, but he knew deep his heart that the closer Claire got to giving birth the more impatient he was going to get, not that he would show that to Claire, after all she was the one that would have to give birth, not him.

Caleb felt like someone had taken the air from his lungs as Beckett turned the scanner to them, he had been expecting one of them black and white grainy pictures that everyone got when they'd come back from the hospital. He had even mentally prepared himself for seeing just that, but what he saw, made him stop breathing for a moment, his hand tightening around Claire's, this made the whole damn thing so much more real.

He couldn't take his eyes away from the screen, wanted to commit it to memory to what this child, what his child looked like, fingers, toes, arms, everything and anything. His heart felt like it wanted to jump out of his chest, like it wasn't going to be able to be contained the longer he looked at the screen but he couldn't look away. The only thing he could liken it to was watching something happen in slow motion, you knew you should look away communicate with the person next to you, but nothing happened you were frozen to the spot.

His flight and fight instinct kicking in big time, and all he could do was stare at the screen in front of him, not uttering a word, even as he heard Claire say something. It was like it was coming from underwater, it wasn't very clear and he didn't really respond to her, just squeezed her hand tighter. He had - miraculously – helped create that, to make them an actual person that was, how had Claire put it, oh yeah still had several months left to cook.

Everything in him wanted to reach out and touch the screen, to want to hold that child that was currently 'cooking' inside of Claire. There was also a stronger emotion rearing it's head, one he had on really briefly felt when he'd been around her nieces and nephews and that was the need to protect. It was strong, very strong, part of him wanted to wrap Claire up in cotton wool, or maybe bubble wrap they had enough of that stuff on Atlantis for some bizarre reason, and never let her work another day until their child was born.

It was at that thought that he finally tore his eyes away from the screen, let himself take a breath that he hadn't realised he'd been holding and looked at Claire, seeing the tears run down her face. He smiled so proudly at her as he wiped the tears away, before kissing her soundly on the lips, there weren't exactly words he could summon up in that moment. What did he say? They had created something that was for all tense and purposes impossible, they had defied odds at near enough every turn in their working lives, he hadn't exactly expected them to do it in their personnel lives as well.

Pulling away slightly, he looked back at the screen, watching as their child seemed to move slightly, he wondered if Claire had felt that, wondered what it would be like the further along she got so he could feel it against his hand. Their child kicking up a storm, he couldn't quite believe that this was happening to them.

“Can we..” he started before clearing his throat, not realising how choked up he actually sounded, “Can we get a picture to keep? Do the scanners do that?”

He felt like he should know the answer to that question, but everything he seemed to know had for some reason fled his mind. There wasn't anything left in his mind except Claire and their child, he hoped that he hadn't overstepped by asking for the picture to be printed. Claire would get to feel their child as it grew, he would only be able to see his child when they had scans like this, he wanted something that he could carry around with him.

Claire rolled her eyes as Caleb said her name, a slight smile on her lips. This was going to be an interesting time, that was for sure. Neither of them had ever expected to become parents, and to find out in such a manner was shocking, to say the least. It would take a while for them to come to terms with it, to get used to the notion, and there was no way she was going to stay in the infirmary that night. She'd bet Caleb was in even more turmoil than she was, and they needed a little time together, on their own, to work through things.

After Caleb kissed her hand, telling her they would be fine, Claire let her fingers trace across the side of his face. "I know," she murmured. She had no doubt that they would be okay, no matter what he was referring to. She just hoped it didn't take too long to get to the stage where they were less shell shocked, and more preparing for whatever the future threw at them.

Claire had always wanted children, and to have had that chance ripped from her by Tama had devastated her. While she had been honest early on with Caleb about her infertility, she had never really gotten the vibe from him that he wanted kids of his own. Sure, he was great with her nieces and nephews, and with the Athosian kids in the city, but she hadn't really felt that he had wanted to become a father. He'd certainly never mentioned it. And, in the way that topics that are uncomfortable for one half of a couple tend to get ignored, any further discussions about children had been neatly tucked away.

Claire had worked with children for most of her life, so being comfortable with them was as natural as breathing for her. However, Caleb's ability with children seemed to be inherent. He had the uncanny ability to interact with them on their level, without being patronising, and they adored him for it. Her nieces and nephews had taken to Uncle Caleb the moment they had met him, and, every time they had seen her when she had been in NZ, they had been more interested in where Uncle Caleb was.

She wouldn't have changed a thing.

Now, though, they had a child of their own on the way, something they had thought could never happen, and it was going to take some getting used to, even though the evidence was now on a screen in front of them. Claire marvelled over the details: it was like looking at a video of their baby, it was that clear. She guessed it was a video, really. The Ancient scanners were so far advanced beyond anything earth technology had to offer, she might as well have had a camera inside her belly.

"Caleb," she murmured, her voice cracking again as he squeezed her hand tighter. "Bloody hell, that's our baby. Our baby. You did that, you realise? You helped me make that." The tears were flowing, and Caleb brushed them away before kissing her firmly on the mouth. She returned the kiss, letting her fingers rest on his cheek. "Kei te aroha au i a koe, e ipo," she breathed, her eyes drawn back to the scan as Caleb asked Carson about pictures, his voice as choked as her own.

"Of course you can have pictures, lad," Carson grinned, tapping a couple of buttons on the screen. "I'll get them for you shortly. Would you like a video as well?" In another few weeks, he'd get Claire in for another scan, and, as far as he was concerned, they could see their baby as often as they wanted before it was born. He smiled as the baby turned, rapidly turning off the scanner. They'd said that they didn't want to know the baby's sex, and, if they looked for more than a moment at what he had just seen, it would be all too obvious what they were having.

"Claire, why don't you get dressed, I'll discharge you, and then you can go home," said Carson. "Caleb, if you come with me while Claire sorts herself out, I'll get you those pictures, okay?"

As the screen in front of them fell to black it was like waking up from some kind of dream, except that dream was reality and there wasn't going to be any escaping it. Not by a long shot, not that he wanted to, no matter how scared he felt, how much his stomach was tied up in knots, as he pushed himself off the bed, kissing the top of Claire's head once more.

There were still no words he could say to her that would say what he was feeling, no words that felt were big enough to say what he was feeling and everything he went to say or thought of saying just sounded cliché, or wrong. He had never been a person of many words anyway, preferred actions nine times out of then than words, especially when it came to his relationship with Claire and this was definitely one of them times actions were going to be speaking louder.

He nodded his head at Beckett, not that he hadn't seen Claire get dressed multiple times, or helped her undress as well – which was probably less helpful – but he figured she would need a moment to herself before they were back in their quarters hashing out future plans.

Caleb picked up his jacket from the end of the bed, slipping it back on, he felt like he should be cold, there were definite goosebumps on his arms that was for sure. But once the jacket was on, he felt too hot, almost like it was suffocating him, but he'd deal until he got back to their quarters.

Following Beckett towards where he was planning on getting the images printed, he really hadn't noticed that they could do such things as print images out. Unless he knew they could but his mind was too shocked to actually remember at the moment, which was the case with most things it was like he had kind of forgotten everything.

“You okay, lad?” Beckett asked, as he started printing out the images for the couple.

Caleb nodded, “Yeah, fine, just...fine,” he said, rubbing a hand across the back of his head. He wasn't sure what he was meant to say or do at the moment, all he wanted was to be with Claire.

He didn't hear what Beckett said next, just that one moment his hands were empty and the next the picture of his child was in them. Again he found himself unable to look away, even as Beckett guided him back towards where Claire was waiting, this was all that mattered in the world right then. His hands shook as he traced the outline of the baby, he'd done that, he'd help Claire create life and damn if he didn't want to just sit on the floor and laugh like some kind of crazy person. Which is what he felt like at the moment, a crazy person on a ride that didn't know how to get off or to stop the damn thing.

Looking up as he reached Claire again, he asked, “You both ready to go?”