AN: See, I told you this one was longer! Enjoy the Whumpage!

Poisoned

"What happened?" Rodney asked, as Ronon dumped a barely-conscious Sheppard on the floor of the cave.

"Poison."

"Poison?" Rodney echoed. "How?"

Ronon shrugged and started gathering sticks for kindling. "Food from the village, I guess." He snapped a large branch in half and tossed it on the pile. "One minute, he was talking with someone, and the next, he was on the ground, gasping for breath."

Teyla stripped off her field jacket and tried to lay it over Sheppard's chest, but he pushed it away. "Too hot," he complained.

Frustrated, she looked to Ronon, who merely shook his head, and she gave up. She settled instead for wiping the sweat from Sheppard's forehead.

"He is very pale," she observed. Rodney knelt down beside her, intent on seeing for himself just how bad his friend was. His fretting only got worse when he took in Sheppard's condition, though he managed to hide it for the colonel's sake.

"And shaky," Rodney added thoughtfully. "My guess is some kind of toxic fruit, maybe a berry." He peered straight into Sheppard's unfocused eyes. "John, did you eat any berries in the village?"

Sheppard shook his head weakly. "No. Just some bread, and a cup of tea."

Teyla's head snapped up. "Tea? Are you sure?"

"Yeah," he replied, his voice quiet and raspy.

"What?" Rodney asked, as Teyla jumped up and made her way to the mouth of the cave. "What's wrong?"

"There are certain kinds of tea that can be prepared, the ingredients of which create the symptoms John is experiencing."

"On purpose?" Rodney squeaked. "Why would anyone do that?"

He followed Teyla out into the forest, where she began to collect various kinds of plants and bark.

"Many reasons," she explained as she worked.

"Such as?"

Teyla sighed. "To rid one's self of an enemy. Or, to allow one's spirit to visit the land of the Ancestors."

The physicist's eyes grew wide. "What, like an acid trip?"

When she peered at him curiously, he waved his hand and explained, "It, uh, makes you hallucinate…you know, see things that aren't there."

Finally, she nodded in understanding. "Precisely like your 'acid trip', then. When a person drinks the tea, their limbs become weak, their breathing slower. Eventually, they fall into a deep sleep, and often have visions." She bent over and grabbed a slender-looking stalk from the base of a tree, pulling it from the ground with a single, hard yank. "But that is not what I am worried about."

"What now?"

"I fear that the colonel has been given too much of the plant that causes these symptoms. It may not have been on purpose, but I am concerned that the damage has already been done."

"And that goes back to the 'rid one's self of their enemy'," Rodney guessed, scratching at a bug-bite on his forehead.

Teyla nodded. "Which is why I am collecting the makings of an antidote."

"Okay, so it's curable, then?"

"Only if he gets the antidote very soon. Once the plant has gone through his entire system, there will be no way to help him."

Rodney mimicked a deer in headlights as he stared at her. Then, he glanced around and rubbed his hands together. "Well, then, tell me what to do to help."

Rodney and Ronon paced in front of the small fire, where Teyla stirred a clay pot full of a brown liquid. Nearby, Sheppard's body shivered violently, sweat plastering his dark brown hair to his forehead. Time was running out – everyone inside the cave was well aware of that. They had already contacted Atlantis through the Stargate, but Keller decided that moving Colonel Sheppard could speed up the delivery of the toxin through his body, and so instructed them to let Teyla try her method first. If it did not work, then they had her permission to bring him back to the city, where she would attempt to cure him.

"It is ready," Teyla finally said, drawing quiet sighs of relief from the two men before her. She dipped a cup into the pot, then added a little cool water to it before stepping over to where Sheppard lay. She knelt beside him, setting the cup down so she could use both hands to help him sit up. When he was upright, she again lifted the cup of tea and held it to his lips.

"You must drink the entire cup," she told him, and then held the cup as he obeyed her. She was forced to stop once, when he swallowed wrong and began choking on the strong tea. Rodney uttered a single, sharp cry of fear, but Sheppard managed to catch his breath, and Rodney resumed his pacing, veering carefully around Ronon's own pacing path. Sheppard gestured for Teyla to continue feeding him. She did, and soon he had drained the cup of its contents, leaving nothing but a few stray leaves on the bottom.

"How soon until we know it worked?" Ronon asked then.

Casting a sidelong glance at Sheppard, who gave her a weak, lopsided grin, she took a breath and replied, "Not too long. But there is another step that needs to be done."

"What is it?"

"I need you both to go into the woods and bring back a special plant."

Rodney immediately stepped forward. "We'll do it. What does it look like?"

"It is a small plant, close to the ground. There are five petals on each flower, and they are a very light pink. But do not, under any circumstances, pick the purple ones."

Rodney nodded in understanding. "Okay, got it. Small plant, five pink petals. But no purple flowers."

"That is correct."

"We'll be right back," he assured both her and Sheppard. As he and Ronon stepped out of the cave, he waved at her and repeated, "No purple flowers!"

Teyla nodded back. When they were gone, she leaned back against the cave wall and breathed out a sigh.

"What're…flowers for?" Sheppard asked her, and she looked down and smiled.

"To get them out of here. Their pacing was beginning to bother me."

"Diabolical," he sighed.

"I also did not think you wanted them to see the antidote's effects on you." She pulled her field jacket over his shoulders, and this time he did not protest. "First, the tremors will become worse, but only for a few moments."

"Great."

She gave him an apologetic glance. "That is not the worst part. You may also become sick to your stomach." As she pulled an empty pot closer to him, she lifted an eyebrow and added, "Very sick."

He groaned and shut his eyes. "Very great."

"I am sorry, John. But it is the only way to rid your body of the poison."

"It's…" he cut himself off and looked down at his arms, which had just begun to shake more fiercely than before. A moment later, his legs followed suit, and his gaze shifted to her face, a panicked look clouding his eyes. Though she had warned him about what was now happening, it was still frightening for him to actually experience it.

Quickly, she pulled his upper half onto her lap, wrapping her arms loosely around his trembling body. "It is all right," she soothed, stroking the side of his face with the backs of her fingers.

"T…Tey…la," he stuttered. He tried to reach for her, but his limbs were too jittery, too uncontrollable, and he failed miserably to catch hold of her.

She let her fingers press harder against his skin, feeling the sharp stubble on his jaw scrape against her knuckles. "Shh. I am here with you, John."

He finally managed to grab of one of her arms, his fingers digging hard into her bicep, but she ignored the pain. Though she knew there would be a bruise there later, she still let him hang on; the only thing that mattered to her right then was making him feel safe. It seemed to help; even as his body shook uncontrollably, he let his eyes slide closed, and his heartbeat slowed back to his normal rhythm.

Slowly, as seconds turned into minutes, his tremors quieted, then stopped altogether. His hand fell away from her arm, and he lay his head in her lap, panting as if he'd just run a marathon. She quickly wiped away the tears of empathy that blurred her vision, then dug into Rodney's pack for the spare t-shirt she knew he kept inside. When she found it, she pulled it out and used a corner of it to gently dry Sheppard's sweat-dampened face.

"Tired," he told her as she dipped the shirt into a cup of water and then dabbed at his lip, which he had bitten unknowingly during his episode.

"I know," she replied sadly, "but you must stay awake for a little while longer."

"Can't." His trademark puppy-dog look gazed up at her. "Please?"

At the pitiful look in his eyes, Teyla closed her mouth tight, stifling the sob that threatened to escape, and shook her head. "I am sorry. But I promise, this will all be over soon."

Sheppard stared at her for a few seconds longer, then, resigned to his fate, closed his eyes and let his head fall to the side. Teyla stroked the soft skin of his temple right where it met his hair, praying to the Ancestors – or anyone else, for that matter – that she would have the strength and knowledge to help Sheppard through this. As soon as she had opened her eyes again, she was aware that he was breathing more deeply, more slowly, as if he was actively trying to calm himself, and she glanced down at the side of his face.

"John? Are you all right?"

He moved his head against her lap, and she knew he had tried to shake it. "Stomach."

"Is it a sharp pain, or a dull ache?"

"Both." He slowly pulled his legs up, curling in on himself. "Feel like dying."

She wisely said nothing, only continued to soothe him. Soon, however, he quickly pushed her hand away and sat up, grabbing the nearby pot and dry-heaving into it. Meanwhile, Teyla busied herself with wetting Rodney's spare shirt and wringing it out. She let him collapse against her again, this time sitting up with his head against her chest. She laid the wet cloth across the back of his neck, and he gave a quiet sigh.

"Teyla?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks. You didn't have to do this."

She smiled, though he couldn't see it. "I could not leave you to try and deal with this on your own." She patted his hand, then laid hers on top of it. "Still, you are welcome."

He looked over and saw the contents of Rodney's pack strewn around them. "He's gonna have a fit, you know."

Teyla giggled softly. "Yes, but he will, as you say, 'get over it'."

Twenty-five minutes and three bouts of dry-heaves later, Sheppard finally felt well enough to try and eat something. Teyla pulled a packet of instant broth out of her bag and ripped it open, then dumped the contents into a cup and added some warm water. As she handed it to him, they both heard footsteps approaching the cave entrance, and Sheppard's eyebrow shot up.

"They're back."

Teyla said nothing, only smiling impishly in return. Ronon walked in first, the delicate flowers Teyla had asked for cupped carefully in his palms. He set them down gently in front of her, and she nodded serenely, drawing a large smile from the man.

Rodney soon appeared as well, his face reddened and covered in perspiration. When his eyes had adjusted to the dim interior of the cave, he glanced around, curious. Finally figuring out what was different, his eyebrows angrily knit together over his eyes.

"Hey!" He shouted, "What the hell happened to my pack?"

On to the next!