This was inspired by some chatter on the gateworld forum and a tie-in to the season two episode "Epiphany". Spoilers for this episode.
What happens after John got attacked by the Beast for the first time? Many fans felt cheated out of a little TLC there. Hehe.
Note: This is the same story as a couple days ago (for those who have read it already) but I felt that it needed a little tweaking. Also thanks to Endgame65, who prodded me on the spelling for the characters. Looks like subtitles got it wrong *blush*.
Disclaimer: Stargate Atlantis and any of their characters are sadly not my own.
The Arrival of our saviour
Still shaking from the shock of witnessing this stranger getting slaughtered while trying to save him, Avrid slowly wills himself out of his cowering position and looks around for the Beast, but it seems to have vanished. He looks down at his saviour, fallen in the field in front of him, with regret. The least he could do for the man was to give him a proper burial.
After chancing a last lookout for the Beast and ensuring that it was no longer an immediate threat, Avrid picks the man up and lifts him over his shoulder. A wet hotness seeps through the thin fabric of his tunic, painting a red trail down the front, where the blood of the stranger drips from the man's throat. A shudder goes through the wrecked body and a hot, laboured breath touches Avrid´s own neck. He gasps when he realizes that the wounded stranger is still alive. Avrid lifts his head to take a closer look at his charge and sees him still unconscious, a deep gash carved down the length of the man's throat and seeping out blood. He hopes that he reaches the cloister in time for his sister Hedda to be able and help the man before it is too late for him. He would not let it happen for this man to come to their Sanctuary and still be denied his chance to reach ascension, not after he just risked his life to save him, Avrid himself. A barely audible grunt of pain escapes the injured man as he shifts him into a more comfortable position to carry him the long way back to safety.
His sister Teer gasps at the sight of her brother´s cargo when they finally reach the cloister.
"Avrid, are you alright?" She asks him with fear in her eyes. As he nods to assure her of his own well being, she turns her attention to the man he carries. "How is he?"
Avrid carries the man inside his sister's hut and lays him carefully onto his front side on the bed. "The Beast was there when I reached him," he answers, "it came out of nowhere. He saved me by fighting it, but was badly wounded himself. I thought for sure he was dead!"
"Get Hedda, she is out with the others meditating," Teer says and sits down on the edge of the bed. "I take care of him."
"Do you need help?" Avrid asks, not sure if he should let his sister handle this alone.
Teer shakes her head. "No. But he will need Hedda or he might die," and waves her brother outside. "Hurry."
Avrid nods and rushes out to find his sister with the healing powers while Teer returns her attention back to the man on the bed.
Careful not to cause more harm, Teer starts to remove the injured man´s shredded clothing and winces at the sight of his back, deeply lacerated and still bleeding from where the Beast had struck him. Catching herself staring, she finally forces herself away from the sight and stares down at the piles of lumps left of his outer clothing. He had probably come here to leave his former life behind him anyway and won't need them anymore. Since she sees no use in mending them, she decides to throw them out, then strips the man down to his undergarments and briefly considers taking those off as well, but finally decides against it. Instead, she goes to a nearby closet and takes a pair of her brother´s trousers out to put the stranger into them. The man is not even stirring at her actions as she carefully dresses him.
That done, she covers him up to the waist with a blanket, but leaves his upper body undressed and stares down at the unconscious man, her hand briefly hovering over the bleeding lacerations still glistening on his back. Curious, she trails the metal chain around his neck with her fingers and takes a closer look at the two little plates attached to it. Something is carved on them, but she cannot make any sense out of the letters. Considering it of some value to the stranger once he comes to, she takes the chain off and puts them on a nearby table, out of the way for the healing.
Gently stroking the scratch on his handsome face, she sighs. "This is not exactly how I envisioned our first meeting."
"What happened to him?"
Her younger sister Hedda, still a child but with skills of healing beyond her years, walks in and past her, straight to the unconscious man while her brother Avrid gives her an encouraging nod.
"He saved our brother, but the Beast has left him in a terrible state," Teer replies.
"I have never seen such strong injuries before," Hedda says after taking him in, looking up at Teer with nervous eyes. "I am not sure if I am strong enough for this."
"You must have faith in yourself," Teer squeezes her sister´s shoulder for encouragement,"you have done this before."
"Not like this," Hedda whispers, but finally nods her readiness. She reaches out with her hand, lets it hover above the torn skin on the back of the man and closes her eyes in concentration. The wounds start to heal, but Hedda releases a breath of exhaustion before the gashes are even halfway mended. "I cannot do this at once. The injury is too great," she says, tears running down her young face. "I am sorry."
"It is alright, Hedda," Teer smiles at her. "You have stopped the bleeding already. Stay calm, focus, and try again. Like grandmother would do," she adds with a knowing smile. Their grandmother had had healing powers as well, and she knows her sister is proud to have that inherited from her.
Hedda nods, takes a deep breath, closes her eyes once more and reaches out again. Slowly, the wounds are mending further and the deep lacerations turn into angry red lines across the back of their patient. But once again - before they vanish completely, Hedda sighs and leans to sit on the bed, exhausted. "I am sorry. I must try again later."
"You did well, Hedda." Avrid smiles at his sister. "I am sure he has a much better chance for survival now."
Hedda sighs and traces the scratch on the stranger´s face with a gentle touch of her finger. "He is not fully healed," she says, looking up at her siblings with the eyes of a much older person. "He is running a fever I could not quell yet."
Teer exchanges a worried look with Avrid, and stares at the man on the bed. "How bad is it?"
"We must watch it until I am rested enough to try again and heal him completely," her little sister says, stands up and fills a bowl with cold water from a pitcher on the table. "If we keep his fever down with the old methods, he might-"
A rush of clothes brings their attention away from her task and back to their patient. The feverish man turns first onto his side under the covers, then fully onto his back. Despite witnessing Hedda´s mostly successful efforts to heal those gashes, all three of them tense in anticipation of a painful cry. It does not come. Instead, the man's eyes slowly open, regarding them with a confused look until he sighs and his eyes close again.
Hedda looks up at her brother and sister, a worried look in their eyes reflecting her own.
"At least he has woken up, even if only briefly."
The young girl walks to the bed and places her little hand on the side of the man's face, then on his forehead. "His fever is not very high," she tells her siblings, "I will watch him while you two are meditating." She sets the bowl with the water onto the table near the bed and finally allows herself a relieved smile.
Avrid nods with a relieved smile of his own, and leaves to meet with the group.
Teer walks over to the bed, smiles at her sister and dresses the man in one of their brother's tunics before pulling the blanket over him.
"Very well", she finally says and turns to join her brother outside. Before she exits the hut, she throws her sister another look over her shoulder, "call us when he awakens again."
Hedda smiles back at her, "I will."
***
John wakes to the sound of chatter from someplace near him, and of a wet cloth being wrung out nearby. Soon, that wet cloth firmly presses against his forehead and he looks up to check who was mopping his brow.
"Hi," he says to the little girl who seems completely enthralled in her task. She also seems far too young to be on the Atlantis nursing staff, but by looking further, he notices that he is still not back home. Was this Pegasus version of the Afterlife? He certainly feels better than he probably should, given his recent fight against a creature ripping him into pieces.
The girl smiles at him, then turns and calls out loudly, "he's awake again!"
John flinches at the noise, his head aching like crazy. "I am now!" he says quietly. If this was their version of heaven, it sucked. The girl mops his brow again and the chatter from before stops.
A young woman in an orange colored dress comes into his view and walks over to the bed.
"I am Teer," she says, smiling at him.
"Have we met?" Sheppard regards her with a confused look. She must be in her early thirties, no doubt pretty. But he cannot recall ever seeing her before.
"When Avrid first brought you here," Teer clarifies. "You were terribly injured from fighting the Beast. Avrid carried you almost halfway across the Sanctuary."
The little girl stops her ministrations and beams a proud smile at him. "And I healed you."
John looks at her with a raised eyebrow. The girl can´t be older than twelve years. "You did? You're a little young to be a doctor."
The woman called Teer answers for her, "Hedda is one of the few among us who possesses the healing power."
Sheppard stares at her, then again at the little girl who obviously freed him from a world of pain. "Well, good. Thank you." Even though he would prefer to be back on Atlantis, this probably beats even the best of Doc Beckett´s good stuff.
Teer protests, "It's we who should thank you for saving our brother from the Beast."
John looks at her, confusion overwhelming him now. "It's funny -- I don't remember winning." Last he could remember - he had been laying face first in the grass, with his back slashed open. Now he cannot even feel anything more than general soreness from lying in bed too long.
The door opens and a man enters, carrying a plate with food. John recognizes him as the guy he's met before, shortly before the creature attacked.
"It's good to see you awake and well again," the man says.
He looks unharmed, not even his clothes look battered. So, did this Beast only go after John then?
"Didn't it come after you?" John inquires. Though glad for the man´s health, it hardly seems fair.
"No," the man shakes his head. "Only the Ascended know why."
"None of them are around, are they?" John doesn't really expect an answer to this but he can't resist the remark. Pegasus really does have it in for him these days. His team better hurries up the rescue.
Avrid holds out the plate. "Are you hungry?"
"Starving." John can´t deny it, his stomach demands some food after days of living off power bars, and nothing more than imaginary meals.
Avrid smiles and puts the plate down on the bed beside John's legs.
John props himself up on his elbows and looks down at the shirt he's wearing. No doubt, definitely not his own. He lifts the blanket to see what else he is wearing and finds his BDUs gone as well, replaced by white trousers.
"Which one of you got me out of my clothes and into these?" he asks, a little embarrassed.
Teer smiles at him, "I did." Her face straightens at the uncertain look she receives in reply. "Is that alright?" she asks, partly sounding offended.
John nods slowly, still not entirely comfortable with the news. "Yeah. I just usually like to meet a woman before she sees me naked." He notices her smile and looks down at the plate of food, pulling it towards him. "What do we have here?"
He might as well get some food into him before his team arrives to rescue him.
Hopefully, any day now.
End