Disclaimer: Nothing I wrote of do I own lol.
Author Notes: Set in the future, definite spoilers for 'The Kindred 1 & 2'. Almost certainly AU from what I have heard about season 5. Huge thanks to my wonderful beta Claire, who knocked my work into shape with her suggestions and encouragement. All comments are welcome.
ALMOST LIKE HOME
It's immediately noticeable to Carson that a great deal of time has passed since he walked into the stasis pod.
He can't see Colonel Carter or Colonel Sheppard.
He has to no time to ask as he is rushed into the infirmary and a doctor he recognises from Stargate Command tells him he's got to be sedated for the cure to work. He nods and lies back, heart thumping and silently praying, Please God.
The sounds of the infirmary sooth him more than the sedative. He's asleep in seconds.
He dreams for the first time in……he doesn't know how long. The dreams feel real. The most vivid he has ever experienced. He can smell the Highland air. They're all together and he doesn't know why: him, Elizabeth, Ronon, Rodney, Teyla, Sheppard, Colonel Carter.
The whiskey is the best taste in a couple of galaxies. It feels like coming home.
Ronon's there when he wakes up. Carson can feel his own heavy sigh in every part of his body. Someone is still here that he knows. It's a powerful relief, truth be told.
"Did it work?" Carson's eyes go to the machines he's plugged into and the levels of his IV.
"It's working," the Satedan replies. He sounds amused or happy - it's difficult to tell - then lifts his hand to his radio. "Beckett's awake."
"How long?" Carson asks.
Ronon steps under the artificial light. Carson sees the shorter silvered dreadlocks, the thick scar that runs down his left arm, the lines starting to map his face.
"Long enough," is Ronon's reply.
"That's not a bloody answer, Ronon. Tell me."
"30 years."
Carson's heart jumps, just a wee bit. 30 years is an age; it's a lifetime. But he nods, counting his blessings. It could have been a lot worse. He could have woken up to find not one person he recognised.
But he's alive. And he's bloody grateful.
"You need to drink."
"That'd be good."
He can feel Ronon studying him as he holds the glass to his lips. It's water and never has it tasted so good. Carson gulps it down as slowly as he can.
"Doctor Beckett," a new voice says.
It's not someone he knows, but there's a lot that's familiar about her somehow. She's lanky with bronzed skin and fine long hair plaited back. When she stands next to Ronon, Carson sees it.
"Aye, and you'd be Ronon's daughter I take it," he replies, feeling the full weight of the 30 year gap. It's going to take him a bit of time to wrap his head around this.
"Liz, and it's an honour to meet you," her smile is pretty as she takes his pulse. "I've heard all about you from Dad and Mom. Mom's sorry she's not here."
"You're going to have to forgive me, lass," Carson tells her as she shines a penlight into his eyes. "But the last time I was awake, your dad didn't have kids."
He watches as Liz smirks slightly in a very Ronon-like way and her father lifts his eyebrows. It's like a lot of Ronon's communication – silent and infuriating when you actually want information.
"Jennifer," Ronon supplies at last before Carson can ask again, his expression definitely smug now to match his daughter's smirk.
"I have good news," Liz says before Carson can react and with a smile that makes him suddenly see her mother. "The cure's working as we'd hoped. We'll keep you in here for a couple of days just to be sure, but if it continues like this, you'll be fine."
Carson catches sight of the tattoos on her forearms and the start of one on her shoulder as she leaves. They're names and shapes that aren't clear. Her necklace is like the one Ronon wears. She isn't wearing a medic's uniform.
"Dr Keller?" he asks Ronon, his mouth twisting in a smile. "Now that's a surprise, big man."
Ronon grins back, flexing his arm up to reveal a silver and brown bracelet. He and Keller have been joined for twenty-seven years, he tells Carson, and they have twins. Liz and her brother Daya.
Neither of them are medics, Ronon tells him when Carson asks. They're shamen.
Dr Keller chooses that moment to make her entrance, finishing up what sounds like a pretty heated argument over her radio. Her smile is big as she carefully hugs Carson. He can feel her grey hairs stiff against his cheek.
"We got there," she says, squeezing his shoulder. "We made the cure work."
"Thank you," Carson feels himself tremble on those two little words. He knows what the likelihood of manufacturing the cure was and the work that would have gone into its creation. "From the bottom of my heart, thank you."
Ronon smiles with his eyes moving to his wife and Carson sees right then a look he never thought he'd see on Ronon Dex's face. Happiness, mostly without an edge. It's strange to see, but warming. Aye, that's the word. Jennifer's got the same look. It makes them look younger than they have to be.
"So what have I missed?" he asks, both ironic and eager all at once.
Jennifer settles down in a chair, Ronon behind her, and they answer his questions.
Colonel Carter left Atlantis to marry a retired General O'Neill well over a decade ago. She's still at the SGC. She made sure that Carson's mother got his letter.
Colonel Sheppard fulfilled his promise and found Teyla. Her son, Lenel, is part Wraith, but they got him and his mother back in time to help him. When he was old enough, he chose the stars over Atlantis. Teyla is very proud of him.
Rodney is……Rodney. According to Ronon, Carson won't find much difference. He's still a genius and a hypochondriac. He's still saving everyone's lives on a regular basis. He and Sheppard are drawing even there.
Teyla visits him and presses her forehead to his in wordless greeting. Carson closes his eyes: her gesture's welcome even if it does still make him feel slightly uncomfortable after all this time. That's good, though. It's all part of being home again.
"It's good to see you," he tells her as they draw back.
"And you," she replies with one of her slow meaningful smiles.
She still looks regal, maybe even more so now that there are more years on her. She's still beautiful, flawless in that way that she's always been. She's maintained her superb physical condition. Carson asks her how many times she's been tempted to kill either Sheppard or Rodney since he was last awake. Teyla laughs, it's a rich sound.
"You have missed much," she says, her hand affectionate on his own. "But you have not been forgotten, Carson. We are so glad to have you back."
Sheppard claps him on the back, tells him it's good to see him again with a smile that lifts the tiredness that's still there in his eyes for at least a minute or two, and tells Carson to come to the team night every week.
Rodney's glad to see him for all of a day, until he comes to Carson for an unofficial diagnosis of a condition he's convinced he's suffering from and no one else on the medical team is taking seriously. Carson threatens to get him barred from the infirmary and tells him to please leave the medical staff to do their jobs. Carson never thought he'd be glad to be saying that again.
A few days later, Carson is allowed up and out of the infirmary. Whatever crisis is hitting Atlantis now, he can't help with yet because he isn't back to full health and has no experience of the enemies Atlantis is now facing.
He feels like a ghost, unable to help in the only way he can. It's incredibly frustrating.
It is home, even though it is a different Atlantis, and Carson knows he can help here. Here is where he belongs. He knows that from every day he spent in that stinking jail cell.
He's the only Carson Beckett they have left and they'll need his skills, no matter how much time has passed. He's sure of it.
The diplomat in charge, Karrie Parront, is welcoming and warm. Tells him there's a place here for him. That he'll find it much the same as he left it.
She's not completely right.
Zelenka is buried on one of the Pegasus planets. He didn't want to go back to Earth.
Sheppard has a very distinct limp. Got into a little trouble way back, is his explanation. Carson can list a million different foolhardy scenarios that could have created the scars. He wishes he'd been there.
Sheppard's hair isn't grey. It doesn't fit with the wrinkles.
"Of course he dyes it," Rodney snorts in the canteen one day when Carson brings it up, and goes on about the stains hair dye leaves behind on sinks and clothing. Carson tells him to stop there and feels as though he's gotten more information that he ever wanted.
Liz and Jennifer take turns at taking blood and skin samples and checking on his progress. Liz isn't there for days at a time, spending it at the Athosian settlement. Her husband's people. He splits his time the same way.
"Teyla persuaded her to ask the SGC first," Jennifer comments when she's taking a sample of Carson's blood. "Liz didn't see the point, said it wasn't their decision to make."
"Like her father, eh?"
Jennifer's smile is hugely affectionate and the sun glints off the bracelet that matches Ronon's.
"So tell me. Shamen? Your husband wasn't exactly open when I asked about……"
Jennifer tells him about the settlement where the twins went to stay when they were young. Atlantis was under serious attack from a Wraith faction led by Michael, who had pinpointed the location of the city and wanted Teyla and her child back. So Liz and Daya were sent to a planet inhabited by one of Atlantis' allies – advanced people who chose to live in tribal communities – and the twins were brought up there for several months.
"When Ronon and I went back to find them, they'd become part of that world," remembers Jennifer, a nostalgic and proud look in her eyes. "There's no singular defined roles. Liz and Daya are medically trained and learnt to be warriors."
"Shamen."
"So they can 'mend what they break'."
Jennifer smiles, carefully handling his blood sample. There's an almost faded burn in a shape he doesn't recognise on her thumb.
His friends have so many scars from fights and struggles that he wasn't around to heal. It's what irritates him the most about all that missing time. Not being there to do his job, save lives and make sure that they can do their jobs in turn.
So he asks her about the burn and she tells him and shares medical notes. It's what he needs.
"Dr Keller says you can start work at the end of the week," Sheppard tells him a few days later over a drink. "We need all the help we can get with these spores……."
That part of Atlantis remains the same. There are still disasters and diseases. Carson's been reading up on what he's missed: the new races they've crossed and the plagues they've contracted. Between him and Dr Keller, with help from the twins, they manage to halt the spores spreading beyond a handful of people.
It feels like a homecoming. Carson only notices it's a different Atlantis when Parront congratulates him.
He keeps readjusting. He can feel it all settling down.
In fact, it's so like home again that he half expects to wake up to find that bastard Michael sticking him with another needle. But it's real: the changes tell him that.
The people staring tell him that too. The people who did and didn't know him: the real him, the original - there's no right way to think about the other Carson Beckett. But he ignores it most of the time, knowing it'll wear off and doubting he'll be the most memorable oddity they'll encounter in the Pegasus Galaxy. He only notices them when he stops working.
"Come on, doc, we need your help."
This is what he knows.
He and Dr Keller work well together and the twins are very good for their young ages. Sharp and bright, often with Ronon's laconic sense of humour. That's still annoying under certain high-pressure circumstances.
He can see them being doctors like their mother, really fine ones, only he witnesses them sparring with their father and protecting Atlantis when the Oxlons get through. At least they can stitch themselves up.
"So did you miss it?" Jennifer asks him as she's taping her husband's knuckles. She smiles at Carson like she's not expecting an answer. From one doctor to another, she knows.
"Alien infections, daily disasters, and Rodney calling me a witch doctor? What's not to miss?" he replies anyway.
Jennifer laughs and, aye, she knows.
"You gonna come out in the field with us, doc?" asks Ronon, flexing his taped hand.
"It's up to you," adds Jennifer. "You're fit enough to get out there again."
Carson's never liked being out in the field, but he agrees. They need experienced doctors out there sometimes and he's called out soon after when Rodney manages to spectacularly put his foot in it with the community's leader and initial contact ends really badly. Sheppard and Teyla start the covering fire and Ronon picks off the guards who are aiming at them with some really nasty weapons. The team is only a half a step slower than Carson remembers them, but it feels the same.
Carson focuses on the injured marine who's coughing up blood, which shouldn't be happening from the injuries Carson has determined he has. Then he sees the green dart stuck in the marine's thigh and swears in a way that makes Ronon look very impressed. Carson doesn't notice.
"We have to get back him back to the gate," Carson yells above the gunfire. "Now!"
Keller's waiting on the other side, and Carson tells her what he knows as Sheppard's team crowd around them. It's as bloody annoying as it always was, since Teyla is the only one who ever has the information he needs, and Sheppard and McKay are engaged in their usual unhelpful and obstructive marital bickering about what actually happened. They're just distracting and under foot.
As always, Carson has enough. No one here seems to comprehend a medical life or death situation.
"All right! Everyone not part of the infirmary staff, out!"
"Dr Beckett's right; we need more room," Keller chimes in.
As the room clears, Carson starts work. Liz arrives and her husband offers an identity to at least one of the poison's components. Between them they work out an antidote and the marine is soon sleeping peacefully and just about out of danger.
"Good job, doc," Sheppard says after Carson radios him the news.
Carson writes the report and sends it to Parront. Keller says she'll update the database.
"You did really well," she tells him. "How are you feeling?"
"All right, exhausted," he replies, rubbing a hand over his face and feeling something ache inside of him.
He meets another part-time member of Colonel Sheppard's team when a lean young man brings Teyla into the infirmary. He's almost carrying her.
"It's all right," Keller tells Carson as they settle Teyla down. "This is Lenel."
He doesn't meet Teyla's son properly until Teyla's wounds have been dressed - the trauma from when she gave birth to Lenel still causes problems - and she is stabilised. Lenel sounds like Teyla in his deliberate and careful words and some of his clothing look Athosian.
But there are some Wraith ticks that Carson immediately notices and catalogues. There are deep scars on Lenel's palms and the way he moves his head sometimes is eerily Wraith-like. It's fascinating and Carson wonders just what did happen medically all those years ago. He looks out the records later.
Lenel's full of information of Wraith sightings that Sheppard and Parront are eager to hear about and Rodney inputs into one of his computers. Lenel looks at home, lacking a uniform but holstered with two patchwork guns and a keen clear sense of his surroundings.
So Atlantis is still collecting aliens that the SGC do not approve of. Carson shakes his head with a laugh when he has time. Rodney witnesses this and immediately assumes some sort of medical conspiracy.
Lenel doesn't stay long, less than two days. He spars with Ronon and Daya. Carson sees Ronon laughing from where he's been felled and Lenel offering him a hand up. Carson can easily imagine Ronon Wraith hunting with the lad, maybe sometime in the future or for Ronon's idea of a holiday.
Lenel checks his mother's condition and then heads off to find his team. Apparently they're keeping an eye on a dart seen in the area.
"They can handle it," Sheppard says at a meeting. "But a few jumpers out there keeping an eye on things would be a smart idea."
Lenel's team take care of the Wraith and he sends a goodbye message to Atlantis before entering hyperspace. Teyla's smile is full as she watches her son disappear.
Of course, Atlantis wouldn't birth any normal children, especially from Sheppard's team. But as far as Carson can tell, they're healthy.
Dr Keller tells Carson she's glad he's back. She's having trouble with the workload, especially as the years pass, and they were looking to get more medical personnel soon anyway to help her cope.
"Believe me, lass, I'm glad I can help," Carson tells her, looking through some more reports.
The changes are hardly noticeable now. He spends so much of his time in the thick of familiar work – stitches and antidotes and trying to convince Rodney that he does not have a tropical disease. Liz and Daya have become part of the infirmary. He doesn't know how the medical team would cope without them.
When he has time, Carson keeps learning what he's missed. So many advances and Pegasus galaxy cures. Case notes and incidents he wishes he'd been around for.
But he is now. Adding his own notes to the database.
A lot stays the same.
There's still Rodney irritating the infirmary staff, Sheppard and his frankly suicidal plans that freakishly continued to yield his own survival, drinks at the end of some days, an ungodly amount of work to do and never enough uninterrupted time, and too many of the city's occupants not getting proper rest and recovery time.
Sheppard, in particular, seems to think that four hours sleep a night constitutes enough to live on, even after spectacular explosions and being shot. Despite being married to a doctor, Ronon shrugs off bullet wounds and alien poisons and never seems to stop. Carson can hazard more than a guess as to where Jennifer's grey hairs have come from.
The genuine affection and occasional despair Carson feels is completely familiar.
-end