Title: First Aid for Sleeping Scientists
Author: Ellex
Rating: Umm…I would have said PG for a little dry blood and mention of possible murder…I thought the standard disclaimer was the only one I had to worry about, but since the MPAA has been flexing its muscles…this is suitable for anyone, say, age 10 and above?
Category: missing scene, h/c
Season/Episode: "The Eye"
Archive: Sure, just tell me.
Feedback: You know you want to…and I want you to.
Disclaimer: Stargate:Atlantis does not belong to me, blah blah woof woof. Do you really want my mortgage payment that badly?
Spoilers: "The Storm" and "The Eye"
Summary: Epilogue for "The Eye"
A/N: I've read a number of excellent epilogues for "The Eye"…here's one where nothing much really happens. It reads pretty slashy but you don't have to take it that way.
"You say these things happen every twenty years, right?" Sheppard asked.
"That's what they tell me," Elizabeth answered, wondering where this was going.
"How far in advance can we book days off?" he asked, carefully not looking at her.
She heard Rodney give a soft grunt of amusement and turned away, rolling her eyes, heading back into the Command Center with the fervent hope that she would be able to lie down and rest soon.
A couple of hours later she wandered into the conference room with some vague idea of making another pot of coffee with the used grounds still in the filter. No one would notice the foul taste at this point, as long as there was some remnant of caffeine in it.
She was already halfway to the coffeemaker by the time she realized the room wasn't empty. Rodney sat at the table, his head pillowed on his uninjured arm, the other with it's clumsily wrapped bandage held by John Sheppard. The Major knelt beside Rodney's chair, cutting away the bandage and the bloodstained sleeve underneath. A large first-aid kit lay open on the floor beside him.
Sheppard glanced at her and flashed a tight, anxious smile before carefully pulling away the layers of cloth and gauze. One spot stuck briefly and Rodney twitched, then his breathing evened out again into the slow steady rhythm of exhausted sleep.
John picked up a wet washcloth and began to clean the dried blood from Rodney's arm with gentle swipes.
"This will be easier now, while he's asleep," he said softly. "I don't know where he picked up his first aid skills, but I'd better remember never to let him practice on me."
He dabbed at the deep slice and Rodney twitched again, a small sound of pain coming from deep in his throat. John stopped immediately, his eyes going to the scientist's pale face.
"No," Rodney murmured, but the eyes, ringed by dark circles, didn't open. His face twisted with an expression of pain and fear. "No, don't...you can't..."
John stood up wearily and bent over the sleeping man. "It's okay, Rodney," he said softly, lightly rubbing the back of the scientist's neck, "you're safe now."
Rodney calmed right away, but didn't wake up. Elizabeth finally managed to make herself move, taking Sheppard's place on the floor beside the first aid kit. She tore open the foil packet of an alcohol wipe but hesitated.
"Go on," Sheppard told her. "He's so far out of it he probably won't even feel the sting." He pulled up a chair on Rodney's other side and draped his arm over the slumped shoulders. To Elizabeth's surprise, he began to stroke the short soft hair on the back of Rodney's skull. The exhausted Canadian sighed and seemed to settle deeper into sleep.
He never moved as Elizabeth carefully disinfected the wound before examining it.
"It doesn't look infected, which is surprising considering how long it's gone untreated," she said. "I think it might need a few stitches, but it isn't bleeding anymore. If I wrap it up tight we can probably let him sleep for a few hours first."
Sheppard nodded but didn't stop petting the dark head beside him, so she smeared antibiotic ointment on the short, deep slash and covered it with a gauze pad before wrapping a bandage around the arm. She lifted it gently and let it rest in Rodney's lap so it would be supported, then closed the first aid kit and hauled herself to her feet only to slump into another chair. She was so tired her brain felt like it had been shot full of novocaine.
"You would have been proud of him," she said softly. "He stepped in front of a gun for me. Kolya was about to shoot me, and he just - stepped right in front of it and convinced him to keep me alive. For a moment I thought Kolya was going to shoot both of us. Rodney was so scared he was shaking, but he never backed down."
"I am proud of him. He saved both our lives today, and the city. He's a hero." John smiled, but his eyelids were drooping. He laid his head on Rodney's shoulder. "But we'd better not tell him that. If his ego gets any bigger, there won't be room in Atlantis for the rest of us." A moment later, he began to snore softly.
Just watching the sleeping men made her feel tired, so Elizabeth put both her arms on the table and pillowed her head on them, watching the two of them sleep until her eyes closed and she nodded off.
finis