A/N: Thanks again to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Hope that you enjoy this one.
"McKay!" Rodney nearly fell off the edge of the gurney as Ronon shouted his name from the doorway to the infirmary.
"What the…Are you trying to give me a heart attack, because you're certainly going about it the right way."
"Nope. Just checking for brain damage. You obviously still know who you are, so it can't be that bad."
Rodney rolled his eyes, not even bothering to dignify Ronon with a response, before turning his attention back to Beckett.
"Right, as I was saying, we're going to need to run some tests. As to yet I have no idea what these devices are for, or what they are doing. I don't even want to think about removing them until I know exactly what we're dealing with."
"Carson, do you think that there's any danger to Atlantis?" John didn't like the way that Elizabeth seemed to be eying him and Rodney, as though she expected them to both turn into raving lunatics, and try killing everyone at any moment. He told himself that he had to think rationally, he probably would have been thinking the same thing had he been in her position. Hell, now that he did think about it, who was to say that they weren't some kind of mind control device.
"Yeah Carson, could we be a danger to Atlantis. I mean we have no idea what these things do, for all we know they could be some kind of mind control device." John wasn't entirely sure that he had been able to keep the panic that he was currently feeling out of his voice. He'd been through a similar situation once before, when his mind had been occupied by Thalan, an alien consciousness with a serious grudge. He remembered all too clearly the feeling of being trapped in his own body, having no control over it. Being forced to watch as Thalan had shot Ronon, he wasn't sure that he could go through that again, in fact he knew he couldn't go through that again. It wasn't until he looked across at Rodney, that he realised the effect that the very idea was having on the physicist.
Rodney had gone pale, too pale. "Oh God, I didn't think this could get any worse. How did I not think of that before. That's it isn't it, we're not going to lose our minds, they're simply going to be taken over by something, and we're going to be forced to destroy Atlantis, or something equally as disturbing."
Carson glared at John, before turning his attention to Rodney. "Now look Rodney, you need to calm down. We have no idea what these devices do, and there is absolutely no point in panicking yourself until we are absolutely sure what we're dealing with" Turning his attention back to John he added, "So I'll thank you to keep your opinions to yourself Colonel."
"What, I was just voicing what everyone else was obviously thinking. Right guys?" He turned to Teyla and Ronon for support.
"Actually Colonel, I was thinking that there could be many possible explanations as to their purpose. As we know so little about them I would not like to speculate." Teyla gave John a small smile in way of an apology.
"Yeah. And I was just thinking that I like McKay's brain damage theory better." Seeing the look of disbelief on John's face, Ronon added. "Sorry, but McKay's theories are usually right."
Desperately trying to dig himself out of the hole that was getting deeper by the minute, John turned his attention to Elizabeth, pinning her with his best wounded puppy dog look.
"Sorry John, but I'm immune to your charms. I think you've used them one too many times. And I don't recall saying anything about mind control. I simply questioned whether the safety of Atlantis would be compromised. For all we know they could be emitting some kind of signal back to the planet where you were being held, or worse, the Wraith."
Turning to McKay, who was sporting an extremely smug grin, John, like a petulant child who had just been suitably chastised, and then told that he had to apologise, ground out, "I'm sorry, okay. I won't mention the idea of mind control again."
"Okay. Well now we've all tossed our theories around about what these things might be, can we please get on to the part where we actually find out what these things are? I'd rather know in advance whether I'm going to have the urge to go on a sudden killing spree."
"Rodney's right." Carson turned to face Teyla, Ronon, and Elizabeth. "I think it would be best if you leave for the time being. I don't see that they're in any immediate danger. I'm just going to be running a whole heap of tests, it's going to be pretty boring." Carson ignored the groan that he heard from behind him. "Although I would like to get Radek down here. I think it would be wise to make sure that they aren't giving off any kind of signal before I run any other tests."
"I agree." Elizabeth nodded, before saying slightly louder, "I guess I'll be seeing you two later. Try not to upset Carson too much while we're gone." That statement earnt her a mischievous waggle of the eyebrows from John, Rodney feigned nonchalance as if to say I have no idea what you're talking about, while Carson simply rolled his eyes at her, they both knew full well that they wouldn't be making it easy for him.
"I will come by later to see how you are doing, of course if that is alright with you Dr. Beckett."
"Aye Teyla love. That should be fine. I'll radio you once we know more."
"Later." Ronon never really was much of a talker.
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John couldn't help but feel sorry for Radek, as for the fifth time since he'd entered the infirmary Rodney proceeded to tell him how he was a complete moron, and that a monkey could do his job better. They both knew that he didn't mean it, Rodney was a hard person to deal with at the best of times, but whenever he was stressed what little social skills he did have always seemed to suffer.
"Look Rodney. Why don't you leave it to me, hmm? You are clearly not thinking properly. I am more than capable of running a diagnostic. Now please. Leave me to my work."
"You need to make sure you…"
"Check for all sub frequencies. Yes, I am aware. Now please. Go and annoy the Colonel, or something."
"Yeah McKay. Leave poor Zelenka alone. He'll probably get it finished a lot quicker if you're not looking over his shoulder all the time. Besides I'm getting bored of playing solitaire, how about a game of Go Fish?"
Rodney snorted. "You can not be serious. Go Fish, what are you like, five? Don't you know any grown up card games?"
John couldn't help but smile, his interruption was having the desired effect. Although Rodney was currently mocking him, he was making his way across the infirmary, leaving Radek to get back to his work.
Hopping up on the bed next to John, Rodney pulled the pack from his hand, and began to shuffle them. "Okay, so how about a game of poker?" Seeing that John was pulling a face, he asked "What?"
"Rodney, do you remember the last time we played poker? I got your entire pudding ration for a month. Lets face it, you're not exactly the best poker player in the world."
"Okay, fine. Have it your way, we'll play your stupid game."
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"Got any fives?"
"Go Fish."
"Oh come on, you are so cheating."
"I am not."
"There is no way that you can win fifteen times in a row without cheating."
John was stopped from replying by the entrance of Radek and Carson.
"Okay, well there is good news, and bad news." Radek looked from Rodney to John.
"Start with the bad news. Then that way at least we have something good to look forward too afterwards." John wasn't sure that he liked the way Carson was currently looking at him.
"Well, bad news is that we are no closer to finding out what the purpose of the devices is."
"Oh, well, I've had worse bad news."
"And the good news?" Rodney snapped a little impatiently. John knew the feeling. They had already been cooped up in the infirmary for hours, and they were no further forward. He knew for a fact that there would be no escaping Beckett's clutches until the devices were removed, and there would be no removal of said devices until they knew what they were for.
"The good news is that they're not emitting any kind of signal."
"Or chemical. The results of your blood work came back, and there are no foreign chemicals in your bloodstream."
"Okay. So now what?" John wasn't sure that he wanted to know the answer, but he knew that someone had to ask the question.
"Well, I'd like to run a complete scan on you both, and of course you'll be staying with me overnight. Other than that, at the moment I have no idea. They don't seem to be having any physical effects on you at the moment, but I don't want to take any chances. They obviously have a purpose, we just need to find out what that is."
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Rodney couldn't sleep, as he lay staring at the ceiling of the infirmary he found himself wishing that he had Sheppard's ability to sleep anywhere. He knew without a doubt that the man would be asleep within minutes and he often assumed that John being in the military, had forced him very early on in his career to condition himself to being able to sleep anywhere. He just wished that he could say the same. He could say with some certainty that a stay in the infirmary for him would mean a sleepless night with a bad back in the morning.
Rodney found his attention being pulled towards Sheppard's half of the infirmary as he heard a loud, "Son of a …." before John was sitting bolt upright in bed.
"John?" Getting no response, Rodney got out of bed and made his way, almost silently as he padded barefoot across the infirmary. As he got nearer Rodney could make out the harshness of John's breathing, and the way that his eyes seemed to be unfocused, and he couldn't pretend to miss the way that John's hand was now unconsciously brushing the back of his neck. Making sure to step into his line of sight Rodney touched his arm. "John?"
This time calling his name had the desired effect as John's eyes slowly turned to focus on Rodney. "The er, device thing, it just electrocuted me."
Okay, so he hadn't been expecting that. "What? What are you talking about, electrocuted you. Why would it do that?" If Sheppard was playing games then this wasn't very funny.
"How the hell should I know?" Rodney could tell from the slightly panicked look in John's eyes that he wasn't joking, and for once he found himself wishing that this was just another one of Sheppard's jokes.
"What the bloody hell is going on here?" Rodney turned around to find a very grumpy looking, slightly crumpled Scottish doctor glaring at him. "Rodney, what are yah doing over here, bothering the Colonel. Can't you leave the poor lad alone for more than half an hour?"
"Me! It was all his fault." Rodney pointed his finger at John, and Carson couldn't help but think that it was more like looking after a pair of five year olds than two fully grown adults.
John looked sheepish before adding, "Sorry Carson. It really was my fault. I think we may have a theory as to what the devices are for."
Carson raised an eyebrow questioningly, before pulling the chair next to Sheppard's bed closer. "Aye, okay then. Care to fill me in."
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"Let me get this straight," Elizabeth folded her hands on the table in front of her, before turning her attention back to John. "You think that these devices were designed to stop you from going to sleep, all because you got an electric shock from it when you were trying to sleep last night. Surely it could just have been a coincidence."
John looked across at Rodney who was sat on the opposite side of the briefing table. "It was no coincidence. We spent half the night experimenting."
"The data's pretty conclusive, every time the Colonel or I tried to go to sleep, we received an electric shock. Thanks to the Colonels insistence that we had to be sure before we came to you, I now have one hell of a headache, as well as having had no sleep last night."
"Working on the assumption that your theory is correct, what's the point? Why would the Tenarians want to stop you from sleeping? It just doesn't make sense."
"Actually, it makes perfect sense. They wanted us to tell them the Gate Address and shield codes for Atlantis. If they'd truly heard about us then they would also have heard that we don't give up easily. That's why they only took Colonel Sheppard and I, they knew that if they couldn't get the codes out of us, then they always had the devices to fall back on."
Seeing Teyla's slightly confused look John added, "The devices are ATA activated, they wouldn't have worked on you and Ronon."
"Oh, I see. I had been wondering why we were left in the forest free to return to Atlantis. It seemed rather foolish to leave us to be able to return here, and warn Dr. Weir as to what had happened."
"They were obviously counting on Alcon not to disclose the address of the planet you were taken to."
"First rule of life: Never trust anyone." John couldn't help but feel sorry for the runner, to have lead such a life that he felt that he couldn't trust anyone. John couldn't imagine it. Granted, he didn't trust just anyone, it took a while for John to be able to give his trust. But he could safely say that he would happily trust his life to any one of the people sitting in front of him, it just hurt that Ronon couldn't say the same.
"Yes. Anyway, back to the point." John couldn't help but notice the way that Rodney had shifted uncomfortably in his seat at the runners statement. "They obviously weren't planning on you finding us so soon. The longer we went without sleep, the more likely we would have been to have given them what they wanted
"Aye. The longer a person goes without sleep, the more their mental defenses are compromised. You would have been a lot more susceptible to suggestion after a few days without sleep."
"Okay" Elizabeth sat forward in her chair, looking at Beckett for the answers. "So we know what they're for, how do we remove them?"
"We don't." Carson ignoring the look of shock on Elizabeth's face continued. "I ran a series of scans last night, and they're attached to the central nervous system, there is no way that I can safely remove them without brain damage or death. You're not going to like this but the only option I can see at this time is to return to Tenaria, they must know a way of removing the devices."
"You're right I don't like it." She glanced over at John, who clearly didn't seem to be as shocked as she was, they had obviously been discussing their options last night. "John, what do you think?"
John looked up from the table, before squaring his shoulders, as if preparing himself to do battle. "No. We're not going back to that planet. I'll not risk anymore lives. We'll just have to figure something else out. I mean it's not as if a few days without sleep is going to kill us." John could have sworn he heard Rodney mumble, speak for yourself but he decided to continue regardless. "We haven't looked at all the possibilities yet, there might be a way to turn them off or something."
"Carson?"
"I don't like it at all, Elizabeth. The longest anyone has ever been able to stay awake for is eleven days, and in that time the body, not to mention the mind, is put under extreme stress when it is deprived of sleep for an extended period of time. So that is the maximum amount of time we have to figure this out."
"Very well. In that case I'm recommending that we hold off on another visit to Tenaria, but keep it as a last resort option. In the mean time, whilst we are trying to figure this out you two," she turned her attention to John and Rodney, "are off duty. And I want you to cooperate fully with Carson. Is that understood?"
"Yes Elizabeth." They replied in unison.
"Good. Well in that case, dismissed." As she watched them all leave, she couldn't help but wonder if John and Rodney were simply attracted to trouble, or if trouble was attracted to them. Either way, they didn't seem to be able to go one week to the next without some sort of disaster befalling them.
A/N: And now the serious whumping begins.