Title: BUG KARMA

Disclaimer: borrowing for fun
A/N: This incident actually happened to ME several years ago! XD Only had the chance to finish, polish, and put it up now. Not a doctor, not an English native, and out of practice, so forgive me for errors, mistakes, etc ^_^

Colonel John Sheppard woke up with a jolt. Shivering minutely from the abrupt awakening, John lifted his head from his makeshift pillow and scanned his surroundings. He was still lying on his side, tucked inside his sleeping bag, just the way he remembered before he fell asleep. Part of the planet's bright moonlight illuminated the cave he was in, the entrance half-blocked by a Ronon-shaped shadow as the Satedan took his watch while carving a block of wood. Must have been early dawn, then, John surmised. By his side, John could see the remaining two of his team members, slumbering away in their respective sleeping bags. All was calm and quiet, the faint crackling of woods in the small fire the only sound filling in the silence.

John was about ready to relax again and go back to sleep when a rustle made known. As he unconsciously was about to stuck a knuckle into his left ear, he instantly froze. The rustle was heard again, which then he realized… that it came from INSIDE his ear!

"The hell…" he jerked into a seating position with a hoarse yelp.

"Sheppard?" The ex-Runner on watch was immediately alerted. Carving all forgotten, Ronon started inching towards his team leader. By the time he'd made it to John's foot, he found the Colonel had turned white as sheet and was slightly shaking with cold perspiring dotting his forehead. "What's wrong?"

The small ruckus had stirred Teyla, who had been lying between John and Rodney, into wakefulness. Catching the worry in Ronon's voice, she propped herself on an elbow. "John? Ronon? Is there anything wrong?"

John had to gulp against the feeling of dread building inside of him, the unidentified noise made known from time to time. "I, uh… I think, there's… something in… my left ear… It's rustling…"

Without any delay, Teyla untangled herself from her sleeping bag and went to John's side after snagging a flashlight from her pack. "Let me see, John."

While Teyla sat on her heels at his side, pointing the light into his ear, a feeling—which later John had begrudgingly admitted as fear—had began to grow inside of him as his heart rate ratcheted along with the increasing of rustling inside his head. He tried asking the Athosian, but his voice faltered by the rolling emotion, forcing John to swallow several times before trying again. "Wh—what is it?"

Teyla let her hands dropped to her lap, her expression bleak as she released a long sigh. "John, I am sorry, but I think there is an insect of some sort inside you ear and now it seemed to be lodged. The rustling you have claimed to be hearing was made by it trying to wriggle itself free."

At the moment, John found that Rodney was also awake, sitting ramrod straight with blue eyes saucer-wide. "The hell, Sheppard…"

Still shell-shocked by the news delivered by Teyla, John just sat there frozen, feeling every scratch the creature made by its movements. It was starting to hurt. Until Ronon placed a hand over his shoulder and said to him in a low tone, "Stay put. We'll pack. We're going home."

With Teyla's smaller hands under his arm, John was gently guided to stand aside while Rodney and Ronon packed their belongings.

"Seriously, Colonel, what is it between you and critters in this galaxy?" Rodney grumbled half-heartedly as he tried stuffing his rolled sleeping bag into his pack, an attempt to break the somber mood. He took a glance over his shoulder to his team leader who sat uncharacteristically quiet at the corner of their cave with a dazed look. "You must've done something to one of them in the past."

"Huh?" John slowly turned his now pounding head to the direction of his best friend, realizing belatedly that the roar originated in his ear was starting to slowly rob his concentration ability. Or the fact that Teyla was slipping on his socks and tying off his boots on his feet.

The slow reaction had Rodney halted his flurry of actions and actually looked at the spiky-haired man. "Right. You've started staring off." He pushed himself onto his feet with knees squeaking and huffed exasperatedly. "I can almost swear there must've been something between you and bugs in this galaxy from how many unfortunate encounters you've had with them." The astrophysicist paused again, pondering to himself. "Wonder if it's because of the ATA genes of yours. Maybe I should talk to Zelenka to start looking for logs regarding to it." He made another stop before continuing, "Or probably some kind of karma bitch payback for all of the nasty experiments the Ancients had done to them here in Pegasus. And since you're the only one available, being the only direct descendant and Colonel Gene Boy and all, it all fell on you."

"Rodney, please…" John pleaded. His now rather grey pallor was pinched as if in pain. "I-it's moving… more frantic… in there…"

Having finished her packing, Teyla set aside the gears she'd stowed away back to John's side. "John, are you alright?"

It took several blinks for John to answer. "I-I-I think… i's kinda' poisonous… Feelin' funny already…"

Teyla placed her palm hand over his sweating forehead. "He has started to develop a fever."

"Poison's acting pretty fast, we gotta get help fast," Ronon was the first one ready. With his pack slung across his front and John's on his back, the tall man took a step out of the cave. "I'll run ahead."

"Better get a Jumper to meet us. By the speed of deterioration he's been showing, he's gonna need medical attention ASAP," Rodney interjected, blatant worry coloring his voice. There were times when Rodney would whine over everything. But, lately he'd been growing a back bone, and a damn good one, impressing Ronon day by day.

"Agreed," said Teyla while bundling John with his extra jacket. Looking up to her taller teammate, she voiced her trust, "Be safe and come back soon."

And with that, Ronon was off, taking wide steps down the mildly sloping hill before making a mad dash until his towering figure disappeared behind the sparsely grown trees.

"Okay, Colonel, we've done the packing, no thanks to you, and now you gotta at least cooperate, you understand me?" Bending in front of his friend, Rodney's face contorted into a deep frown. "Sheppard? You still listening?"

"Uh…" The blank stare the Colonel sent back to him had him unnerved. Swallowing all further insults, he huff a breath and slung an arm over his own shoulder. "Okay, up you go, then. C'mon, Sheppard, work with us here."

Assisting from the pilot's left side, Teyla had his other arm across her shoulder and placed a hand over his torso to keep him from toppling over. "Come, Colonel, we are going home."

The considerably small planet was a rarely friendly place. No harsh climate, no treacherous trek, no vicious fauna or what so ever, and more over, no skittish combative locals. Long time ago, a gigantic volcano on its only continent erupted, killing all things alive on the planet. Over time, living organisms had started to blossom and once again life was slowly filling the surface. At that time was when the Ancients found interest into the reemerging of life on the planet and built a small outpost to study it. Database back in Atlantis had no records of the latest condition of the outpost, only stating the brief history of the construction along with its purpose and location. As the flagship team, of course it fell into John's team to check it out first before giving the okay for the scientists to scour over it. Hence the reason of their arrival the day before. After walking for seemingly hours, they were forced to stop before reaching the outpost because of the coming darkness since the rotation of day turned out to be pretty fast on the planet.

Ronon was the one who discovered the cave, which was actually right in front of the outpost they had been looking for. Abandoned for a long time and withstanding geographical changes, the outpost had been partly buried by land and vegetation although initial scans made by Rodney stated that other than being overcome by nature, the outpost was left intact in pristine condition. Even John backed his findings after feeling the power source responding faintly to his genes.

Still able to walk although aided, John felt like he was watching a TV show with a first person POV, through a blurry lens, and wearing a pair of thick ear muffler. Each step he took felt like floating, like he wasn't even touching the ground, even though he recognized the feel of solid ground under the sole of his boots. He tried figuring out what was he doing, but the only thing he could concentrate on was the rustle in the left side of his head. There's something there, he thought dreamily, not able to voice it anymore. Something was moving. Scratching and digging and biting. It made him feel hot. But he was shivering slightly.

And then suddenly all movements stopped. Something was pressed over his lips and tipped over, sending trickling of cool water into his mouth. Huh, never thought he was thirsty. Hands that were all over him slowly slid away, leaving him swaying on the spot where he stood for a moment. Just when he felt like the world was tilting over, the hands were back and they were on the move once more. Where were we going, again?

While helping John to keep standing and walking, Rodney tried to fill the silence with his chattering. He had started by reciting the tale of how one of his underlings—his words—found records of the outpost from the Ancients' database. Once in a while, Teyla would put in a cent of her opinions into his rambling or threw questions at him to answer.

Their radio clicked and Ronon's voice filed in. "I'm at the gate, dialing now. Will be back with the Jumper in 15."

"Roger that, Ronon. Teyla, out," Teyla sent him a curt answer.

"I think… I'm gonna like this place. If it proves to be as good as it seems so far—well, beside this… critter problem of yours—I'll even send Woolsey… a proposal for pointing this place as Beta Site. We could even come here… I dunno, for a picnic or… something, once in a while." Rodney started over his mostly monologue, his tongue seemed to tumble away out of control just for the sake of his mind to keep focus over the main task in hands.

At the mention of picnic, Teyla had to smile. Rodney the workaholic, talking about having a picnic. How cute. He'd actually changed so much all these years. "I would like that very much… Rodney. This place is… a beautiful place… and we certainly could benefit… by spending our time off here…"

"Yeah, Ronon and I spoke last night before going to bed. There's a… small lake less than a kilometer… south of the outpost. We could check there… later and decided whether we could use the water… for swimming or not. Hope there's no… sharks or crocs or something there…"

"Sharks? But, I thought… they only live in… salt water?"

"Those are Earth sharks… Never ever read of sharks… around here… Hey, Teyla, you've seen "Jaws", right? You knew any… stories about creatures like… those here in Pegasus?"

"Big fish with sharp tooth… and carnivore? I am afraid I… had never heard… of such, Rodney… The only large… water creature I have… ever heard and encounter was… those whales you were… so fond of. Although, I do not… believe I have ever heard… of this… crocs?"

"Big lizard with… sharp tooth and carnivore. Remember that… gawd-awful B-class sci-fi movie… John had us watching two weeks ago... "Monster Croc" or something like it?"

"Ah, yes… I remember. Ronon had been… pretty enthralled by it."

Rodney made show of a roll of his eyes. "Of course he would. Just typical Sheppard and Ronon."

A change of wind suddenly hovered above their heads. From the ramp of the floating Jumper up there, Ronon's worried face popped out. "We're here, but there's no clearing nearby. We're gonna have to pull you up."

In less than 10 minutes, a medic was sent down with a rescue basket, then, with John safely strapped in the basket, they all made it into the Jumper and were on the fast track back to Atlantis.

"Jumper…" With a drunken childish smile, John mumbled happily as he burrowed deeper into the pillow beneath his head. "Home…"

Home as in Atlantis, which was back to where it should belong all along, the Pegasus Galaxy. It was only their second month back after almost a year being hauled around on Earth to evade detection, but life had returned to normal, at least, as normal went in the Pegasus Galaxy. Family ties rekindled, friendships rebuilt, allies reconnected—although not all were too happy for their abrupt departure, such as the Alliance. And old enemies met. Along with new ones. As for the Lanteans themselves... Most of the old crews had decided to 'come back home' to Pegasus, some having received promotions, like John had. A small number of people were SGC veterans and a more smaller number were completely new, mostly civilians. There were even children among those.

"You said he's got an insect in his left ear?" Assessing the colonel's stats in methodical precise movements, the first medic then turned John's head to the side to take a look into the troubled ear, while his partner set up the IV on John's right arm and started administering drugs into the line.

"He woke up early today with complaints of having rustling noises in his ear. That was approximately…" Consulting her wrist watch for a second, Teyla went on, "Three hours ago. After that, the Colonel's condition had deteriorated fast. At first, he was pale and sweating. Then, he'd had delayed responses over his surrounding, followed closely with the rise of body temperature and shivering. So far, respiratory has been normal, heartbeat a little bit faster. He had been completely silent and compliant, although still ambulatory, for the past hour."

Over the years in Atlantis, Teyla had developed skills beyond her imagination. Seeing increasing tendencies of the danger they were facing during missions, Teyla decided to add another skill into her repertoire and she was now only a step away from being a certified medic herself under direct tutelage of Doctors Keller and Beckett. Following her steps, Ronon too had recently managed to convince the Marine's combat engineers into teaching him the basics of physics, a subject they all both felt adequate to the ex-Runner's strength and combat abilities. As so were some surviving Athosians and refugees from several other worlds who made requests to stay in Atlantis and study under supervisions of Earth scientists. All in all, Atlantis was on her way returning into a real city as the Ancients had wanted her to be.

From the helm of the Jumper, the newly-minted Lt. Col. Lorne announced, "The gate's up ahead. Dialing now and sending IDC. Doctor Keller's team's waiting on the other side."

Upon their arrival, John was whisked away to the Infirmary with lightning speed. His stats were once again taken, data recorded, scans ordered, along with many other procedures in medical jargon flying around. It was pretty much a chaos, Rodney felt like he'd got lost for a moment.

A warm hand over his arm brought him back to reality. It was Woolsey. "Come on, Dr. McKay. You could tell me what's happened while we walk to the Infirmary. You should get over your post-mission checkups, then we could wait news of the Colonel together."

In the beginning, Rodney had despised Atlantis' current commander. But Rodney had changed in the past couple of years. So did Woolsey. The ex-lawyer had become less strict, less annoying, and more of a worthy colleague. Despite everything that had happened, Rodney had even grown to like the man. John had caved in first to the commander, though. The two leaders had finally seemed to have some sort of understanding and were both willing to compromise to each other more. And Rodney had liked it, because somehow it made them looked more human: John becoming less suicidal and Woolsey becoming less a bureaucratic ass.

Two hours later, Rodney and his two other teammates were back in the Infirmary after withstanding a very thorough checkup—Carson didn't want to risk anybody having invested by the same insect elsewhere—get a decent shower, and had a satisfying lunch. Carson and his crews were settling the sleeping Colonel in his usual spot—furthest bed in the corner nearby the huge window facing the balcony—so Jennifer was the one who came forward to talk to them.

The beautiful smile adorning her small face had calmed Rodney a bit even before she said a word. "Sorry it took quite some time. It was a quick non-evasive minor surgery, but we had to take the scan several times from different angles to assure that nothing was left inside after we pull the insect out. It was lodged pretty firm inside the Colonel's ear."

She produced a specimen jar, where the culprit of the whole fiasco was now enclosed in. It was almost a couple of inches long, blackish-dark brown with six spiky legs—two of it was already unattached to its body. It seemed to have a hard shell on its back and had a pair of tiny antennae sprouting out its head. "It's dead. The rustling noises the Colonel had reported seemed to be its effort on struggling to get free, like Teyla said. The scratches made by the spikes in its legs to Colonel Sheppard's inner ear were what caused the noises. We consulted the biology lab and they said that while this kind of insect DOES produce poison when under duress, which was released through its legs, in normal amount it shouldn't be harmful to human. But after feeling being trapped, looked like it released its poison overtly, taxing its own metabolism to death and causing the Colonel the symptoms you had witnessed."

"So, Sheppard's gonna be okay?" Ronon pressed, stepping to the foot of John's bed.

The Scottish doc finished his ministration and stood beside the Satedan. "Aye, the poison will be flush out of his system in several hours with no long-term ill-effects. The fever was from a slight infection from the scratches site, we're giving him antibiotics and antipyretic now. The lad's gonna be his own charming self in a day or two."

"Stupid Colonel. Stupid bug. Stupid everything," Rodney grumbled with a scowl. "Do you know that he's actually HEAVY? Looking skinny as hell only to weigh a ton. Should've taken a bath to get my back relaxed. You know what? I swear…"

"Rodney…" A collective exasperated sigh came from several directions at the scientist.

Suddenly, the man in the sick bed stirred a bit, rendering the group into silence. The Colonel's eyes opened, green eyes peering from under heavy lids, scanning the clutter of people standing by his foot. Sighing softly, John let his eyes fall shut again while muttering in a voice so low they'd almost missed it, "I hate bugs."