By the time John walked through the gate, Cobbs and Teyla had already been rushed to the infirmary. Woolsey was standing in the gate room, looking overwhelmed by the recent events.
"Colonel Sheppard, what happened? Major Lorne said something about creatures?" Woolsey asked.
John's mind was concentrating on getting to the infirmary. He was worried for both of them, but mostly Teyla. Guilt was pulsing through him for leaving her alone.
"Yeah, something like that. I'll explain it all in my report tomorrow, but right now I need to see how Telya and Cobbs are doing," he proclaimed as he marched past Woolsey.
Woolsey noticed how badly Sheppard looked as well. "And make sure you get yourself check out as well!" he shouted, but John didn't show any signs that he heard him. Woolsey was flabbergasted by how the day's event went and McKay stayed behind to explain everything to him.
"Thank you, Rodney for taking the time to apprise me of what has happened," Woolsey said with deep concern for the all involved. "Please keep me informed of any changes."
"I will," Rodney answered in a somber voice and walk off towards the infirmary.
John walked in the infirmary with blood still dripping from his neck. An intending nurse rushed some gauze in hand and tried to get him to sit down so he could be treated, but he brushed them off.
"I'm fine," he tried to convince the nurse. "I need to know how Cobbs and Teyla are."
"Let me treat your wounds first and then I'll go see what I can find out," the nurse suggested.
John let out a frustrating sigh. "How about you go find out now?" he snapped demandingly.
The nurse's eyes widen with apprehension and she quickly did as he asked. John took the wad of gauze left behind and held it to his neck while waiting for her to return. He could see a disappointed look in her eyes and knew it wasn't good news.
"I am sorry, sir, but Lieutenant Cobbs didn't make it," she said softly.
His breathing quicken from the overwhelming regret. He paused before asking his next question, "What about Teyla?"
"Doctor Keller has her in O.R right now and… and they said it didn't look good."
She was reaching to treat his neck, but he rolled his shoulder to shrug her off and began to get up.
"Sir, I need to treat you. You're still bleeding," she pleaded.
John scanned the room, "Give me some more gauze and some tape. I'll patch myself up while I'm in the observation room."
"But, sir. I can't allow you to do that," she shouted as he was walking away.
He turned back and gave her a glare that was unsettling to her and she said no more. He went to continue towards the observation room, but paused without looking back, "I'll come back if it doesn't stop." And he continued on.
McKay and Ronon are already in the room when John arrived.
"God, you're a mess," McKay blurted out. "Didn't you let them treat you?"
John shook his head slowly, "Cobbs is dead…"
"Yeah, we just found out," Ronon interjected sadly.
"I… I just had to be up here…" John stutter to get the words out.
Ronon nodded, "Us too."
John was feeling a little light headed and pulled up a chair by the window to sit down. Ronon and Rodney looked at each other. They've seen him like this before when they went to rescue Teyla. His pale complexion, his irregular breathing and the distress look on his face.
"Sheppard, why don't you go back to the infirmary and get checked out? We'll tell you if anything happens," McKay offered.
John struggled to keep his eyes open, "No. I need to stay here." A moment a silence hung in the air.
"It's not your fault she's in there," Ronon spoke up.
John hung his head, "Isn't it? If I hadn't left her…"
"You did what any of us would've done… and you know it," Ronon went on.
John remained silent. He didn't dare respond, plus he was too tired to try. He rested his forehead on the glass in front of him as he stared down below, watching Keller and her team take care of Teyla while fighting his weary eyes.
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They had been in the room for over an hour when Rodney noticed the hand that John had on his neck dropped and he began to lean towards the left, heading for the floor. Rodney quickly caught him before he fell completely off the chair.
"Sheppard," Rodney said anxiously. He could feel he was extremely hot. "Oh, God. He has a fever."
Rodney went to reach for the comm. in his ear to call for medical help when John's eyes began to open slightly. He squinted to try to focus.
"Kolya?" John sounded confused.
Ronon squatted next to John, "No, it's me and McKay… Com'n buddy, let's get you down to the infirmary."
John struggled trying to stand up only using his right hand, "No! Kolya's here." John deliriously looked around.
"No, you killed him. Carson confirmed it …" Rodney tried to convince him.
"No… no he said he had and ancient device that tricked us," he became more distressed. "Parish, Kiang… he said he killed them."
Ronon turned to look at Rodney, both baffled with what he was saying.
"Umm, John. Parish and Kiang are very much alive and well," Rodney said in a confused, soft voice. The delirium only grew and they could see it in John's eyes.
He raised his left fist and began shaking it in the air, "Look at my hand! He cut it off so he could use the jumper. He's planning to get off the mainland and destroy Atlantis…. I need you both to help me stop him!"
"Sheppard, your hand is still there… It's the fever. It's making you delirious," Ronon said with great concern. Sadness filled his eyes and heart to see his best friend that way.
John was about to debate him until his eyes rolled back into his head, collapsed and fell unconscious.
Rodney clicked on his comm., "We need a medical team in the observation room… now! Sheppard's down"
Ronon didn't want to wait. He scooped John up and despite it being awkward, since John was almost as tall as him; he headed towards the stairs leading to the infirmary.
"Never mind," Rodney called back to the medical team. "We're coming to you."
Woolsey was already at the infirmary when he saw Ronon carrying Sheppard in and placing him on the nearest bed.
"What's going on?" Woolsey asked. "Why is Ronon carrying him?
"He was upstairs with us watching over Teyla," Ronon started to explain.
"Yeah, and he refused treatment as well," Rodney jumped in. "Apparently he now has a fever."
"Isn't that awfully fast?" Woolsey asked.
Marie, the head nurse, started working on Sheppard right away, hooking him up to monitors, starting an IV and motioning an assistant to get blood for transfusion.
She heard Woolsey's comment, "We won't know until we've done further testing, but it could have something to do with the creature that attacked him. Not to mention that he wouldn't let us clean his wounds and he's lost a great deal of blood."
"Marie," another nurse called out. "Here are the test results on Lieutenant Cobbs that Dr. Keller asked for."
"Thank you," Marie said as she grabbed the computer pad. She quickly examined the chart and her eyes opened wide and handed the chart back. "Get this to Dr. Keller right away."
She pointed to another attending, "I need you to get me two doses of Tetracycline. One for Teyla and the other for Colonel Sheppard…. STAT!"
"What's going on? "Woolsey asked nervously.
"According to Lieutenant Cobbs' chart he had an extremely high fever when he died. The test results also showed that he had an infection throughout his bloodstream," Marie explained.
"But that fast?" Woolsey questioned.
"I'm afraid so," Marie replied. "Most likely the creature has a high bacteria count in its saliva. Perhaps similar to the Komodo dragons." She began injection the medicine into John's IV. "Let's hope it's not too late for the both of them… and that it works."
In a low tone, John started to moan and occasionally he would mumbling incoherently. His head slightly moving side to side as if he was remembering something. Ronon and Rodney watched helplessly, fearing that he was slipping away from them.
"Marie, what is he saying?" Woolsey queried.
She shook her head, "I can't understand what he's saying…sorry." She continued tending to him, including placing cool clothes on him to try to lower his temperature.
Ronon and Rodney exchanged an uneasy look between the two of them, both not sure if they should repeat what John had been spouting upstairs.
Woolsey noticed the look, "What? What was that I just saw between the two of you? If you know something, I would greatly appreciate it."
"It's nothing," Ronon answered in his deep voice.
"Right… nothing. Everything is fine," Rodney's voice increasingly pitched as he poorly tried to convince Woolsey.
Woolsey frowned, "I might not have been here that long, but I know well enough when I'm being lied to."
Ronon glared at Rodney, disgusted that he failed keep his composure and lie well. Ronon was smart enough to know that when Sheppard was on the mainland with Parrish and Kiang it was the same time Woolsey and Rodney saw their AI's. It was also when he noticed John became more reserved about his time with them and not willing to say what happened with his experience with his AI.
He understood John probably better than most of the people in Atlantis. He had many of his own demons in his past that he wasn't willing to share and he respected not to push John when he didn't want to say whatever was bothering him. The one thing that separated them was he knew he couldn't change the wrongs he did in his life and accepted it. Where Sheppard did seem to let go and beat himself constantly over his past failures and trials.
"I… I'm sure it's nothing. He's got a fever and was just babbling nonsense," McKay stuttered nervously.
"Please, let me be the judge of that," Woolsey urged him.
Ronon shook his head to Rodney to not saying thing and looking even more displeased. If Sheppard wanted them to know, he would've said it himself, but he could see the torment in McKay's eyes and out of disappointment for what Rodney was about to do he walked away, not wanting to be part of it.
"I know you both think you are helping him, but we've all seen how he's been lately. Trust me, whatever it may be might be nonsense like you said or it could be the key to helping him," Woolsey pressed to get the information out.
"He said something about being on the mainland, Kolya being alive, that Kolya killed Parrish and Kiang and cut his hand off to use it for getting the jumper to destroy Atlantis," Rodney quickly blurted out. "See. Nonsense." McKay clasped his hands together. "Ok. Now we know it's nothing, I think we should go see how Teyla is doing".
He tried to diminish what was said and quickly leave so he didn't feel anymore worse than he had already did. He was worried it would get back to Simons, despite it being a feverish babble and somehow used against him. Plus, not to mention John being mad when he found out.
"Hold on," Woolsey said before Rodney tried to leave to go back to the observation room.
You could see the wheels turning as Woolsey was processing what was just said. Ronon could see out of the corner of his eyes that the man was coming up to the same conclusion he had.
"When Colonel Sheppard brought Dr. Parrish and Dr. Kiang to the mainland for botany samples, it was the same day you and I saw the Sarakis' AI's," Woolsey started pace as he was thinking. "That might explain why Vanessa… I mean my AI, apologized to him."
Rodney looked puzzled, "What? You mean you think that this could've actually happened to him? Isn't that a bit extreme? I mean, they didn't do anything like that to us."
Ronon was thrown back by Rodney's slowness, "You're just getting it now?"
Rodney pulled a face of disbelief, "Oh and you did."
"Yeah," was his simply response.
Woolsey looked at Ronon, "Well if you knew this before…"
"I didn't say I knew about this before. I came up with just like you did," Ronon interjected.
"So… why didn't you say anything once you figured it out," Woolsey questioned.
"Not my place to say. Plus, if he wanted us to know, he would've told us," Ronon replied standoffishly.
Woolsey sighed, not understanding how Ronon could seem so cold about the situation, "But if this actually happened to him, then he needs to talk about it so we can help him."
"You sound like that doc," Ronon continued to be distant.
"Don't you care about Colonel Sheppard?" Woolsey pressed on.
Ronon's brows furled, "Of course I do."
"So why wouldn't you help him? This could be serious," Woolsey said with concern towards John.
"Soldiers go through this stuff all the time. Each one deals with things differently and when they're ready to talk about it, they will… obviously he wasn't ready," Ronon spoke in a rough manner. He looked over to Rodney, "I respect him enough to wait 'til he's ready."
McKay looked at him apologetically, "What? I didn't know…"
Ronon started to walk away to get out of the room when Keller exited the operating room.
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She walked out pulling her surgical cap off of her head and looked relieved.
"How is Teyla doing?" Woolsey asked with anticipation.
Ronon turned around when he heard his question and waited anxiously for Keller's response.
"She is doing fine," Keller smiled. "Unfortunately, the creature clawed her up pretty badly, but she didn't sustain any bite marks. Which I believe was the reason why Colonel Sheppard and Lieutenant Cobbs had high fevers."
"Because of the bacteria," Rodney said to get confirmation from what Marie had mentioned earlier.
"Yes, that's right," Keller responded with a nod and a slight smile. She looked over towards Sheppard. "If it wasn't for Marie's quick thinking we might have lost Colonel Sheppard."
"But we lost Cobbs," Ronon said with a somber tone.
Keller frowned, "Yes, unfortunately we did. He was too far gone. The antibiotic wouldn't have been able to save him."
"How bad were Teyla's injuries?" Woolsey asked.
"Well, most of the claw marks were on her arms and abdomen. Mostly likely she raised her arms to guard herself when it attacked. I'm also assuming that they have long claws…" Ronon and McKay nodded their heads to confirm her theory. "…because the lacerations in her abdomen were deep and we had a lot of little bleeders we had trouble finding."
"But she's good now," Ronon questioned.
"Yep, but she will be out for at least two months if not longer. It's going to take awhile for those stomach muscles to heal. Especially since she's had abdominal surgery before, when she was in that explosion a couple years back." Keller answered.
"And what of Colonel Sheppard? How long do you think his recovery will be?" Woolsey queried.
"It all depends on how effective the antibiotics are, but as soon as the fever breaks and his blood work clear, he should be fine. It will take some time for the stitches in his neck and on his chest to heal though."
"Can we stay with them?" Rodney asked despondently.
Keller hesitated to ponder briefly, "Why don't you go and get something to eat or some coffee and then come back? They should be sleeping for awhile so take your time."
Reluctantly Ronon and Rodney agreed and they left to go to the cafeteria while Woolsey headed to his office.
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John groggily opened his eyes. He could see a figure standing by Teyla, but couldn't see who it was. His vision was a bit hazy. He tried to move, but searing pains from his neck a chest shot through him and he grunted in pain.
The figure turned around and got closer to him. John could finally see who it was.
"Kanaan… Teyla, how is she?"
Kanaan stood silent for a moment, "She is still asleep, but Dr. Keller reassured me that she will be… fine. Though it will take her a couple of months before she is able to get back on duty."
"Good," John simply replied, still feeling weak from his continuing fever.
Kanaan remained by John's side not saying a word. John was growing uncomfortable with him just hovering over him.
"Kanaan, is there something wrong?" John finally asked in a feeble voice.
"Colonel," he paused with a sigh. "I know that I am not like you, Teyla and the rest of you men. I do not go off to other worlds and fight, so as I am here looking at the mother of my child and wonder how you could have left her alone? How could you have allowed this?"
John eyes had finally come to focus better and as Kanaan stepped back John could see the bandages on Teyla's forearms. He could see faint traces of darken blood on the arm closer to him that had seeped through her dressings. A painful reminder of what the creature had done to her.
John closed his eyes in pain as Kanaan turned away from Teyla to face him again, waiting for an answer.
"Colonel, please. I need to know why you left her alone and unprotected," Kanaan continued trying not to be overly persistent.
John opened his mouth to answer, but he was interrupted.
"I told him to," replied the voice from behind.
Kanaan whipped around, "Teyla. I am most grateful to see you are awake."
He smiled, but it faded when he saw that she was not quick to turn the same gesture. She looked over to see John turning his gaze away from her. She had seen that look before and she knew he was feeling guilty. She also noticed his pale complexion and the bandage on his neck, she knew he did not come out of the ordeal unscathed either.
"Joh… Colonel Sheppard did what he knew had to be done. He had to look for Lieutenant Logan while I stayed to tend to Lieutenant Cobbs' wounds. It would have been no different if it was any other member of the team," Teyla explained.
"But they are both dead…" Kanaan blurted out. "…And we could have lost you…"
The anguish of the recent news only increased John's guilt. Teyla could tell it bother him more as he turned his face away much as comfort would allow.
"But you did not and there is no need to continue with this," Teyla rebuked Kanaan with a bit more stern tone.
Keller rushed into the room, "What is going on? My monitors are showing that my patient's heart rate is going up."
"I… I did not mean…" Kanaan stuttered.
Keller went to check on Sheppard. His eyes were closed and his skin tone was paler than before. She quickly gazed at the monitor.
"Get me a dose of Atenolol! His blood pressure and his pulse are too high and get me some more ice packs! His fever is on the rise again!" Keller ordered her staff. "Kanaan, I'm sorry, but you're gonna have to leave."
Kanaan gave Teyla an apologetic look, "I did not mean to…"
"I know, Kanaan," Teyla said softly.
Maria heard his concern, "It wasn't you. It's the infection. The fever is doing this."
She gave him a small, reassuring smile as she led him out of the infirmary and all Teyla could do was watch helplessly as Keller and her medical team frantically work on John.
"Jennifer?" Teyla called out in a small voice.
"We're doing our best, Teyla. This infection is foreign and it's trying to resist the antibiotic were giving him." Keller injected a syringe into John's IV. "Hopefully this one, which is the strongest we have, will do the trick."
The medical team piled on cold packs on John to try to quickly bring his temperature down. All they could do was to wait and see.
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