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"He is strong," Jinto observes, peering down at Torren. Torren has one fist wrapped tightly around two of Jinto's fingers. Torren gurgles in reply and Jinto grins at him.
"Yes," Teyla agrees. "He is." Her eyes are on Jinto's smile.
Jinto does not smile as easily as he once did and he has lost the naïve exuberance of his youth. Halling, who is making tea over the fire outside, has lost his long hair and he's thinner than he was, but he is perhaps the strongest of the rescued Athosians. He is old enough to remember the last time their population was reduced so drastically and remember what he lost back then, and so he knows what it means to survive. He still has his son and that is what keeps him going.
Teyla turns her gaze to Kanaan, who sits beside her without touching her. Kanaan, restored to his normal appearance by Carson's retrovirus, is still haunted by what he was, no matter how often Teyla tells him that what is important is what he did not do, that he was still himself, that he helped them escape. He was skittish with her at first, so she spoke to him calmly and would not let him withdraw into himself. But he still refuses to touch Torren. He stares at his son with wonder and longing, but always snaps his hands back to his sides when he finds himself reaching out.
Teyla sighs wearily. "I will go help Halling with the tea," she says and steps through the tent flap into the afternoon light.
Halling looks up when she approaches.
"May I help you?" she asks.
He smiles at that, lifting an eyebrow. "With cooking?" he teases.
"I am not so bad that I cannot make tea," Teyla replies, settling herself on the ground beside the fire. Truthfully, she is relieved that he is making fun of her, like old times. "If I could not make tea for myself in the city, I am afraid I would be like Rodney without his coffee."
Halling hands her an elettaria branch and she begins picking off seedpods to add to the tea.
"You are restless," he says, stirring spices into the brewing tea.
"I am still tired of shadows," she admits. "I like to feel the sun on my face."
"We are all grateful to feel the sun again. And to wander freely. Many still have nightmares, but we are slowly healing."
"And Kanaan?" Teyla asks, twisting the elettaria leaves between her fingers. "Do you think he will be okay? He is still distant with Torren and me."
Torren cries from within the tent and she tenses, but then he stops. She waits a few moments and then settles down again.
"He talks about you, when you leave," Halling says. "He is proud of both of you. He does not quite know how to leave behind the shadows yet. But the three of you will find your way. 'A homebound traveller will find his way in the dark.'"
"We are weary travellers," Teyla says with a sigh. "I have a son now, who needs me, and Kanaan, who pretends not to. Our people are trying to rebuild their lives yet again. And I still have duties in Atlantis. There are still Wraith out there and every time I step through the Ring, I do not know if I will return. It did not worry me before, when it was only my own life I was risking, but now..."
"Now," Halling interrupts, "it is time for tea." He pours the brew into the teapot and lifts the tray to carry it back to the tent.
Teyla rises and follows him. Halling is right. There are many things she has to think about when she returns to the city later, but, for now, there is time for tea.
She pauses in the entryway, staring at Kanaan with Torren held awkwardly in his arms. He looks terrified, but Torren is content. She blinks to clear her eyes, then smiles as she ducks into the tent and resumes her seat beside him. Kanaan immediately gives Torren back to her, but his hand lingers on Torren's forehead for a few moments more.
Halling pours the tea and offers a prayer to the Ancestors, and Teyla can feel another layer of shadows lift away as the spicy warm scent of the tea dances in the air between them.