Title: Return to Pegasus
Summary: A rewrite of The Return Pt. 2 where Carson is injured during the episode. Better than it sounds, I promise.
Disclaimer: Not mine, just borrowing.
AN: Written for GW's Carson Beckett Challenge of scene rewrite.
Doctor Carson Beckett didn't struggle in the hands of the Replicators. It wouldn't do any good and would only serve to make the bruise on his bicep from their grip even bigger. The throb from the Replicators grip however was starting to pale in comparison to the throb in his ankle.
You wouldn't have known it from looking at him, and in fact none of his friends did, but he had in fact injured the ankle the day they left for Pegasus. He had been trying to get into better shape and had been jogging more during his time off. It was a slow process to say the least but he'd managed to get into good enough shape to be able to jog a mile a day. Before he went to pick up Elizabeth to meet John and Rodney for dinner, he'd gone for a short jog, wanting to release his frustration at being kicked off Atlantis and tossed back on Earth. His mind had been so busy running through hopeful ways of getting back that his eyes hadn't noticed how dangerously close he'd been to the curb until he managed to land his right foot on the edge, painfully twisting his ankle as it went.
Unfortunately he'd barely had time to take a shower and get ready when he'd gotten home so there hadn't been time to rest the injury or ice it. Instead he'd swallowed a couple ibuprofen, painfully gotten into the shower while trying not to put too weight on his ankle, then gotten dressed. He'd tried to wrap a compression bandage around the joint then put his shoes on but it wasn't working so he'd abandoned the bandage in favor of the shoe. It went against his medical knowledge to do that but he also wasn't about to show up at Elizabeth's door in slippers nor was he going to cancel because he was injured, not when she needed to be around friends again and get out of her apartment.
He'd done his best not to limp the entire time to, during and from dinner, and he found that though getting his foot into the military boot had hurt a lot it had also helped serving as a form of a compression bandage and a support brace in one. While they'd been stuck on the jumper in the underwater jumper bay, he'd tried to rest the ankle as much as he could without actually showing that he was doing it but he'd only managed to be able to inconspicuously loosen the strings of his boot in hopes to relieve some of the pressure and pain echoing from the joint.
They turned the corner, entering a room with an empty cell where the Replicators proceeded to push him and Teyla harshly into the cell. Teyla, with the grace of a fighter, was able to regain her balance before she crashed into the ground but Carson, having not expected to be tossed like a sack of potatoes fell to the floor, the side of his face cracking loudly against the bench in the cell. It occurred to Carson that the traction on his boots was spectacular as the sole of his right leg stuck to the ground as though super glued, cruelly twisting his injured ankle as his body went to the left and his foot remained where it was.
"Carson, are you alright?" Teyla asked as she knelt down beside him. Her brown eyes radiated concern and her touch was feather light as her fingers danced across his bruised and cut cheek.
"Aye, I'll be alright," Carson answered wincing when her touch became painful over a tender spot where the deepest of the bruising was. His eyes tracked to the doorway where Elizabeth was being marched and Ronon was being dragged in to join them. "I think we should move though." He and Teyla just managed to skitter out of the way as Elizabeth was pushed in and Ronon was dropped unceremoniously on the floor.
Carson went over to examine Ronon, crawling so he didn't have to try to get up then try to walk over, as Teyla went up to Elizabeth.
"Elizabeth, are you alright?" she asked putting a hand on the leader's arm.
"Yeah, you?" Elizabeth asked her friend smiling when the Athosian nodded.
"I am unharmed but the same cannot be said for Doctor Beckett." Her brown eyes moved down to focus on the man as he awkwardly examined Ronon.
"Carson, what's wrong?" Elizabeth asked unable to hide the worry in her tone.
"As far as I can tell nothing. I think he's just been knocked unconscious," Carson answered knowing that was not what she meant. His head throbbed and his vision still swam before his eyes but he knew that would go away soon though he doubted the headache would any time soon. His ankle burned shooting throbs of pain throughout the limb as he attempted to lean back on his heels while he tried to move out of the Satedan's way while he woke, causing him gasp and move instantly.
Thankfully his move came at an opportune time as Ronon awoke swinging. His fist would have impacted with Carson's face if he hadn't moved but as it was it did connect with his already bruised arm. The Satedan grunted as he sat up and gave the Scot an appraising look, taking in the way he was holding his arm against his side, not moving his legs and the bruise on his cheek. "You okay Doc?"
"We're still trying to determine that," Elizabeth answered for him making his cheeks burn with embarrassment.
"Let's get off the floor shall we?" Carson asked wanting to turn the attention from himself to all of them. Ronon shrugged his answer and got up then held out a hand to help Carson up. The minute he stood, Carson felt himself begin to sway as his blood pressure dropped but it soon righted and he saw Ronon give him a questioning look before he let go. Sharp, stabbing, throbbing pain greeted him when he tried to move away to allow the others entrance when they should arrive and he collapsed to the floor, holding onto his hurting leg.
"Carson? What's wrong?" Elizabeth asked concerned as she knelt down beside her CMO.
"Just sprained my ankle," Carson answered as he waited for the pain to calm. Oh how he wished massage could help soothe the discomfort of a sprain. He'd probably be good but sadly any touch, gentle or massaging, was too painful for his foot to handle.
"Is it bad?" Teyla asked, joining Elizabeth on the floor. She carefully reached out and grabbed a hold of his arm, quickly moving her hands when she grabbed the bruised bicep, and with Ronon's help, lifted him onto the bench behind him.
He was saved from having to answer by the entrance of Colonel Sheppard and Rodney being thrown into the cell as well. John groaned as he stood up but asked, "Everybody okay?" There was a general answer of yes along with Carson's dodging answer of, "I'll be fine," then John asked if everyone completed their task.
"You?" Ronon asked as he leaned against the bars that lined their cell.
"Yeah, just under the wire," Rodney answered from his spot beside Carson.
Silence filled the small space as the team members allowed their thoughts to wander but soon Ronon broke that. "Why aren't we dead yet?"
"I expect they're saving us for a little recreational mind probing," John answered just as the Replicators marched General O'Neill and Mr. Woolsey in.
Rodney reluctantly got up allowing for Mr. Woolsey to sit down but when Carson tried to get up, he found Ronon's hand firmly hold him where he was. He blushed when he realized everyone else noticed the protective gesture hoping he didn't get bombarded with questions any time soon or at all. He was saved from any rant Rodney was just about to come up with when the Replicators entered carrying a bag and a smug look.
Carson barely listened to the talk between the two sides. His headache was slowly beginning to grow, drowning out the noise around him with the jackhammers in his head. He tried to refrain from bringing a hand to his head but soon gave in, using the limb to massage at the painful temples until he began to feel the jackhammers recede to mallets. When he was finally able to bring the world back into focus and ignore the pain in his body, Carson was just in time to see all the Replicators around them dissolve into particles.
"What just happened?" Mr. Woolsey asked completely baffled as the rest of them enjoyed in their success.
"We turned the shield into one gigantic anti-replicator weapon," Rodney explained quickly.
"I knew that!" General O'Neill exclaimed.
"You did?" Woolsey practically accused.
"Well I new enough to know that McKay was faking with the whole door thing."
"But I bought it completely."
"I believe that was the idea," Teyla answered growing tired of the man.
"You-you used me?"
By now the headache he'd managed to tone down was beginning to ratchet up again and Carson found himself losing patience. "You're alive and you're welcome," he said with a little more bite in his tone than he usually wanted.
They all waited while Ronon and John made sure everything was all clear then they slowly began filing out and to the control room. Carson remained sitting until everyone else had walked out then he gingerly stood. The pain that emanated from his ankle made him dread the thought of even trying to put weight on it but he knew he couldn't stay where he was so he tried anyways. He cried out as his ankle immediately rolled underneath him and excruciating pain attacked his leg.
"Carson, what's wrong?" Rodney asked having been the last one to follow besides the doctor. He didn't bother trying to hide his concern as he came back into the cell and knelt next to his friend – there wasn't a point to it since there wasn't anyone around to comment other than Carson. He felt a bit awkward standing in front of his friend. He'd never seen Carson in such pain and not only didn't he like it but he didn't know what to do. Sure he'd seen him with a couple black eyes and the occasional concussion but this was different.
"Rodney," Carson breathed, his voice strained from pain, "I need you to help me to the infirmary."
"Shouldn't we, I don't know call for Ronon to help or something? I mean you can barely walk." Rodney hated how – dare he say – panicked he sounded but he couldn't help it. If Carson couldn't walk on his own how in the crap was he supposed to do it while leaning on Rodney?
"No Rodney, I'll be fine just help me up." Carson reached a hand out and felt his face morph into surprise when he recognized the size and strength of that fist.
"Call me for what?" Ronon gruffly asked as he lifted Carson off the floor and slung the right arm over his shoulder. "Come on little man. We gotta get you looked at."
"And who exactly are you going to get to look at him? He's the only person from the medical staff on the base," Rodney felt obliged to point out.
"Caldwell's here. The Daedalus infirmary staff is already on its way to scan us all," Ronon informed as he shouldered most of Carson's weight. He began walking toward the infirmary barely allowing Carson's good leg time to touch the ground in between steps.
"Scan us for what?" Rodney asked annoyed as he tried to keep up. Geez was Ronon flying with Carson?
"Nan-thingies." Ronon strengthened his grip around Carson's waist when he heard the doctor suck in a pained gasp as his injured foot hit the ground and hauled him up more. He was trying to let it look like Beckett was walking under his own power while actually carrying him.
They arrived at the infirmary before Rodney had a chance to correct the Satedan on the name. Doctors, nurses and medics swept each one of them off into a general area where Elizabeth, John, Teyla, Woolsey, and O'Neill stood looking rather impatient. Upon noticing that Carson was injured, one of the nurses grabbed a chair for him to sit on while he waited for a doctor to come examine his ankle.
The group pretended ignorance at Carson's malady and simply stared at the medical professionals around them as they set up a sterilized scanning area then proceeded to take each one there.
Elizabeth was the first to finish and she quickly scampered out and back up to the gateroom. General O'Neill was next and soon he followed. Rodney went next so they didn't have to hear him whine and complain anymore and, when they came to get Teyla, another doctor came to examine Carson.
She pulled up a chair and sat opposite him, gently pulling his leg onto her lap. When she offered him an apologetic glance, John and Carson knew what to expect and while the Colonel winced with sympathy, Carson cried out in pain as his boot was forced off his foot and his sock was removed.
The slight deformation of his ankle showed them all it was broken but Carson could have told them all that from the pain in the joint and the tenderness he experienced. Now that his shoe had been removed the foot and ankle began to swell even worse, the skin growing purple and red with bruising as the damaged tissue beneath bled into his leg.
The doctor gingerly probed the foot, making sure that it hadn't been damaged as well but when Carson flinched at her touch she began to suspect it was, albeit not as badly as the ankle itself. She turned her torso to face the nurse that stood outside the unit and requested a wheelchair and an ice pack knowing the two items would have to do until they were able to get the Scot under the scanner and see how bad the damage was.
Given his situation, Carson was taken to the scanner next and John and Ronon allowed him to precede them without fuss. They understood the sooner Carson was taken care of the sooner he could be pain free and that was something they all wanted.
"What happened to your face Doctor Beckett?" the doctor asked as the scanner moved over his head.
"I ran into a bench thanks to our friendly Replicator friends," Carson explained enjoying the feeling of lying down. His ankle throbbed acutely in time with his heart beat making him wish he could slow the pumping muscle down to barely there but he tolerated it. As long as the joint wasn't moved or touched, the pain was bearable enough until he could get some medication. His cheek throbbed incessantly, sending pain up to his eye and increasing the headache that had set up camp for the summer and his arm gave a particularly painful throb with any movement or strain but he knew the two injuries to be fairly minor.
"Well it seems that the bench did a fine job of cracking your cheekbone," the doctor remarked dryly as the scan moved further down his body, highlighting the areas the blood as pooling thanks to injury but thankfully no nanites. She winced when the scanner ended at his ankle showing a clean break but one of the worst sprains she'd ever seen. "Alright, you're clear. Let's get that leg taken care of shall we?"
"Aye that would be lovely."
Two weeks later saw numerous crates sprawled about in the infirmary and a very flustered Carson Beckett crutching around everything trying to help put things away. His staff was having none of it and kept telling him to go sit down and get off his feet but he stubbornly refused to listen. The Atlantis Expedition had been allowed to return and everyone on base was trying to settle back into the place that they called their home.
After three hours of helping however, Carson began to grow tired and his ankle had begun to hurt beyond the common ache he had grown accustomed to so he sat down to read over a bit of research to rest his leg. Since there were others needing chairs as well as he, he opted for leaving his leg on the floor as he perused emails and drug trials. He hadn't realized how far out his leg was resting until someone came by carrying a patient chart and tripped over it. He gasped as the motion jarred his injured ankle and quickly retracted the leg trying to keep it from touching the ground until the bone-breaking-deep throbbing ache had stopped.
"I am so sorry Doctor Beckett," the young nurse apologized looking appalled. "Are you alright? Here let me get you a chair to put your leg on. I'm sure that hurt. Do you need some ice?" As she prattled on, the nurse – Sarah – quickly grabbed an extra chair and before he had time to tell her it wasn't necessary she had placed a pillow on it and raised his leg up to rest upon it. She disappeared only to reappear with one of the infirmary's ice packs in her hand, the sound coming from within the pack saying that she'd filled it. As she gently lay the ice pack across his ankle she apologized some more. "Again, I am so sorry."
"It's quite alright," Carson dismissed with a warm smile. The throbbing in his leg had stopped long before the nurse had even begun her frantic questioning and it was back to its normal ache. "You're new to Pegasus correct?"
Marie, seeing that Sarah was entertaining their CMO, came by and grabbed the patient file out of her hands, silently nudging her to talk with Carson. He saw the gesture and felt bad. He must really be annoying his staff for them to do something like that.
"Yeah, uh, yes, I mean. I am," Sarah answered sounding nervous while in his presence.
"I won't bite you, love, I promise," Carson eased upon seeing her begin to fidget. He tried to bring his ankle off the chair to allow her a place to sit down but she quickly moved to keep the injured limb where is was, carefully grabbing hold of the part of his foot that wasn't covered with a cast and holding it still. He raised curious brow and felt heat burn in his cheeks when he felt her thumb oh so softly begin kneading the bottom of his foot.
Sarah's soft ivory cheeks blushed in embarrassment and she withdrew her hand quickly, using it to wrap around herself defensively. The small massage itself had felt so good that he was actually a little sad that it had stopped.
"I should get back to work," she announced, her face still holding the blush. "I'll come check on you later. Make sure you're doing alright."
"That's really not necessary, love," Carson denied. He felt immediately bad when she blushed even deeper and lowered her eyes to the floor to hide her disappointment.
"Well then. Take care Doctor Beckett." Sarah spun around and went about her duties leaving him wondering if he should have allowed her to come anyways. Deciding to take a chance he called out to her. "Sarah!" He waited until she spun around and felt guilt weigh down his heart when she showed tear covered eyes.
She quickly brushed them away and came up to him. "Yes Doctor?"
"Would you like to join me for dinner tonight?" She smiled at him a smile so bright he saw the room light up.
"I'd love to."
~fin~