A few more months slowly passed on Atlantis. It was filled with missions and research, without much incident. Alex grew like a weed and soon cut her first teeth. Along with getting bigger, she seemed to become smarter. Soon she was crawling and holding her own bottle, which meant she was no longer interested in feeding from Fred. Even though Alex could now hold her own bottle, she still liked to cuddle against her parents while she ate.
Things had been slow in the city and Fred found herself with not much to do. She went to Earth a few times with Jennifer, Ronon and John - once to help Jennifer pick out baby things and once to show Alex Earth.
The relationships in the city seemed to change too. Carson shocked everyone, especially Carter, when he popped the question during one of their movie nights. Laura and Rodney moved in together, and Teyla seemed to be spending a lot of time with Daniel. Even Lorne started to date a girl from the medical department. Fred was happy to see her friends just as happy as she was with John.
"How did you manage this?" Jennifer asked one day as Fred and her walked toward the dining hall for dinner.
"Manage what?" Fred asked as she shifted Alex on her hip.
"Being pregnant and still working," Jennifer said as she rubbed her small baby bump.
Fred shrugged. "You have it worst than me. You do more walking and standing than I did," she said. "You should speak to Carson about making your workload lighter."
"I think I will," Jennifer said as they walked into the dining hall. "Oh and Ronon wants to babysit Alex tonight for a while. He said he wants to practice and thinks John and you need some time alone."
Fred grinned. Even though Alex was a calm baby, sometimes it was nice to just spend time with her husband. "I think we can do that," she said before walking over to the table Carson, Daniel, Carter and Laura were sitting at. It seemed John and the rest weren't back from their mission yet.
After getting Alex in her highchair, Fred grabbed some food. She had to laugh as Alex took to throwing Cheerios on Daniel's plate and laughing when he threw them back on the highchair tray. Soon the little girl looked to the side and started to bounce in her chair. Fred didn't have to look to know John was there - Alex always got excited when one of them walked into a room.
"Is daddy here?" Fred asked.
Alex started to babble and pointed toward John as she continued to bounce.