Review Responses

X Varda X – Thanks again for your continued responses, they are definitely appreciated! It's interesting to me how a story can take a different route than you intended for it. The Zelenka thing was one of those cases lol. I didn't plan for it, it just kind of happened naturally as the story progresses. I'm glad you like it though :) I do love the friendship those two have and it's fun to get to write it.

ElisaD263 – You too, thanks for continuing to review each chapter! I love hearing what people think. And yeah lol, I always think of Carson as the one who sorts out Rodney's bickering. He is so special for being able to have the infinite patience it takes to handle Rodney's constant complaints and I did try to work it into this chapter, hope you like it!

J – Thanks for your input. Again, I am just starting the series, so I apologize if I write the characters a little OOC. I really appreciate it when people more experienced with the fandom chime in and help me with the smaller details. I tried to rein Carson in a bit here and let him be a little not so overbearing. Feel free to tell me if it feels better/worse than the previous chapter, either way, I hope you keep reading!

Deblease – Thanks for the compliment, and I will keep trying to keep with the frequent updates. I find that I stay more excited about a fic when I am writing it when it's fresh in my mind. I hope you keep with it and find the rest enjoyable.

The Watch Stander – In other fics I have written dialogue always seemed to be the one thing that I didn't include enough of, and it's something I've really been trying to work on in this story. I still think there are writers out there that write the dialogue a lot better than me, but I'm glad you think it's pretty on target. Oddly enough, I find Beckett's accent one of the hardest bits to write lol. I keep going back and listening to him talk in scenes from the show to try to get it down. I hope you enjoy this latest installment!

Juliet164 – I'm glad you thought the POV thing worked ok. It's a device I've seen used in other fics and I thought it was a neat thing to try. Here is the next update as promised, hope you like it!

Crusoe89 – I do love to get inside Carson's head a bit and it's been fun to write. I don't feel like we get to see his thoughts quite enough in the show, so it's been interesting to get to write that myself. I hope you like this chapter.

0o0-The-Melodious-Nocturne-0o0 – Aww, don't feel bad for not reviewing previously! It's always nice to hear from readers, but it's always optional lol. I write because it's fun :) I was really drawn to writing on this pair of episodes because Rodney got so much grief and whumping (getting tortured, punched in the face, getting held over the railing) and on top of that he obviously had to be exhausted after this. I wanted to do him justice and show that even if on the surface he looks fine, he's gotta be feeling it somewhere in there. I hope you keep reading and enjoy the rest of the story!

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Chapter 6: Erratic Behavior

Radek and Rodney had reached the transporter and used it to move them closer to the control room. Currently Rodney was sitting on the ground leaning up against the wall. Zelenka was standing and pacing back and forth, every few seconds alternating between watching to see that Rodney was ok and throwing a glance over toward the hallway that the medical team should approach from.

"Zelenka, stop pacing. The floors are steel so I'm not worried about you wearing a hole in the floor, but I'm getting tired just watching you."

Zelenka stopped his nervous pacing and looked down at his companion, "You're getting tired has nothing to do with my pacing. You're at fault for that, not sleeping, not eating, generally neglecting yourself. What were you thinking Rodney?"

"Whoa, whoa! What's with the sudden change of heart? A few minutes ago you were playing nurse, now all of a sudden you're yelling at me? Let's backup five steps here and you can go back to being nice again. That was preferable to this."

"Five minutes ago I was worried you were going to go unconscious on me! Now that I have you situated right and proper I am prepared to ream you a new one for this! I cannot be watching after you all the time! I already bring you meals when you feel the need to skip to work on an urgent project among other things!"

Rodney broke his gaze away from Zelenka's, "I never asked you to do any of that stuff. I can take care of myself just fine. If it's such an inconvenience then don't do it."

Zelenka's hard stare softened a bit, "Rodney, you, here like this, it's scary. You need me to calibrate a jumper or double check your equations, or hell, even get you another cup of hot coffee, I can do that. But you're here puking, can't even stand. I can't fix that! That's Beckett's area!"

"Aye, it would be," the pair of scientists' conversation was interrupted as Beckett, a nurse, and a pair of Marines strolled into the corridor. The Marines stopped about fifteen feet back, knowing Beckett didn't like to be crowded. It usually only took one good reprimand from the physician for any of the new troops to get that bit down. They were perfectly content to stand back and let the medical team do their work if it meant avoiding the Scottish man's rare but brilliant spurts of anger that erupted when he felt someone was getting between him and helping a patient.

The nurse rolled the gurney up next to Rodney, Zelenka also moving back to stand at Beckett's shoulder as he bent down to get a look at his patient, "Now let's see what ye've done to yerself this time Rodney, shall we?"

Carson put his kit on the ground, reaching for Rodney's pulse first as he took in the physical appearance of the man. His eyes were a bit glazed, not quite as sharp as normal, his clothes were damp with sweat, and a blood spotted bandage was wrapped around his arm. Pulse was a little too rapid for his liking

"I take it this is the laceration I keep hearing about," he asked, nodding down at the limb Rodney had protectively clutched to his chest. "Let's see it then."

Rodney moved it away as Carson went to grab it. "It's fine. I already cleaned it out and bandaged it."

Beckett frowned a bit at this. What was Rodney's issue today? Normally he was one to exaggerate pain, complain if he didn't get the attention he felt he deserved, now all of a sudden he was pulling the bravery card? "Aye, of course ye have. As a totally qualified physician I am sure that you are capable of making that determination."

He reached down for it again, this time moving more rapidly than the sluggish McKay could react. He made sure to grab the hand and not the arm, recalling that Zelenka had said he was very pain sensitive in the area. Rodney didn't try to shake him off this time; he just sighed and let his head dip back against the wall, realizing it was futile to try to hold the Scottish physician at bay.

Beckett slowly unwrapped the wound; McKay wincing a bit reflexively as he pulled the last layer off, the dried blood had made the bandage stick to the wound. Beckett's brow furrowed as he conducted his preliminary exam of the wound. It was approximately three inches long, and from the looks of it, went down through the muscle.

"Rodney, you should have come down with this the moment ye got it. This needs stitches."

"Well excuse me! You were on the mainland if I recall, and I was being held captive by the Genii, and oh, yeah! There was also the bit about me having to single-handedly save the city from a hurricane accompanied by a giant tsunami. So forgive me if I didn't come running to the infirmary the moment it happened, I was a little indisposed at the moment!"

Rodney tried to pull his arm away from Beckett's prodding, but the doctor tightened his grip. "Now stop it Rodney, I'm not done lookin' at this!" Beckett wasn't used to Rodney being this defensive, but he'd work his way to the bottom of it when he found himself without an audience. Perhaps Rodney would be a bit more forthcoming with information on how this had happened.

"Ye should've come down the moment you were able to. This wound is infected. You see the swelling, the redness; those are signs of infection that any physician would have noticed. There's a reason we have medical personnel here, among them, so engineers don't get the brilliant idea to treat their own serious injuries."

Rodney stopped pouting for a moment and relaxed his tense muscles, "It's infected? I…I thought it was ok, I really did. Is it bad?"

"Ach, don't be worryin' son, we'll get you fixed up proper." He was already securing a sterile gauze pad to the wound to keep out any foreign bodies until he could clean and stitch the wound when they got back up to the infirmary.

"Now let's look the rest of ye over, shall we?" He looked up to an anxious Zelenka, who up till now hadn't uttered a word.

"What else was there Zelenka?"

"Like I said, he's thrown up four times, mostly just bile the last time, not much food left considering McKay hasn't eaten a real meal since before the storm. He hasn't been able to keep his own two feet under him without starting to keel over in one direction or the other. I supported him pretty much the whole way back."

"It wasn't that bad! I could have walked back, Zelenka was just being over-protective!"

"If I had let you walk back you would have a concussion or three to add to your list! And we'd probably not even have been a third the way back at your speed in this condition!"

"Stop yer bickering lads! Let's be adults here, can we do that?"

The two stopped arguing, a bit ashamed that the doctor had called them on their juvenile behavior.

"I'm trustin' Radek on this one. I brought an IV to get your sugar headin' back in the right direction and we'll be getting a real meal in you when we've gotten you situated in the infirmary."

"Carson! You can't keep me, just stitch me up. I'll go sleep in my room."

Beckett didn't want to argue with the man any more, he knew he was keeping the man overnight, for a few days most likely until his system was sorted out, but he didn't have to tell that to Rodney right now if it meant some peace and quiet, even for a little while.

"We'll see Rodney. Let's just take a good look at you back in the infirmary and then we'll talk."

Rodney seemed to be ok with this as he stopped arguing. Beckett motioned the two Marines forward and before McKay could complain about the indignity of being picked up, one grabbed his shoulders, the other his legs, and they moved him up to the gurney.

Beckett stood up, cracking his back as he did so. Jenna had already prepared the set of IV's and handed one of the needles to him without needing to be prompted. A few months working under Carson had taught her the exact protocol he followed when treating each patient.

The fight seemed to have flowed out of Rodney. He didn't complain about the IV as Carson swabbed his good arm with antiseptic and expertly inserted the needle into a vein successfully on his first attempt. He hadn't even made a snippy comment about being handled like a sack of potatoes or something similarly insulting. The man really was exhausted.

He attached the line and handed it to his nurse. As she connected it to the sucrose-enriched bag and hung it from the pole attached to the bed, Carson was watching Rodney. His patient had his eyes closed and seemed relaxed for the first time. With that, he picked up his kit and the group moved to get Rodney to the infirmary where Carson could get down to the bottom of what exactly was going on inside Rodney's head. As they got moving, a thought kept nagging at Carson's mind, stemming from McKay's strange avoidant behavior. One thing was certain, and that was that there were details that Carson didn't have, facts that he might very well need to get to the bottom of this mystery.

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