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Reckless Abandon

Chapter 6 – That Cold Feeling

There was silence in the jumper as they proceeded toward the planet. It was a change from the initial excitement that initially had permeated the atmosphere inside the jumper. They'd headed through the gate to a desert landscape and Sheppard had immediately angled their flight trajectory upwards toward the vacuum of space.

He'd thrown a glance over his shoulder once or twice to see Teyla and Ronon looking out of the windows as the landscape shrunk below, giving way to the grey mist of clouds and eventually the blackness of space interspersed occasionally with small flecks of light in the distance, the light of stars reflected across vast distances. He couldn't help but smirk at Carson who kept his gaze purposefully pointed at the floor of the jumper like it was the most interesting thing around to ponder. That or he just didn't want to think about the fact that he was travelling in an alien space ship. The doc really did need to loosen up a bit and learn to really appreciate the small miracles and adventures they shared every day. A bit of enjoyment and amazement went a long way toward quelling the knot in his stomach over the absence of his friend.

But after that initial burst of excitement everything had fallen into an easy pace. He flew the jumper, Teyla appeared to be meditating. Ronon sat silently, watching Carson and the Colonel. Occasionally the big man sighed out of boredom or checked his gun for the sixth or seventh time. Beckett had occupied the first part of the trip by arranging his medical supplies in the order he thought they might be needed, and then he too had been resigned to the waiting game. His eyes were closed at the moment, arms crossed over his chest. Sheppard wasn't quite sure whether he was simply deep in thought or he might have genuinely drifted off. And so they had continued on for a time, a quiet and subdued mood within the walls of the jumper veiling what one otherwise would know to be an uneasy peace. The reason they were out there, to rescue a teammate; underneath the apparent calm this unspoken thought was on everyone's mind.

A few hours later it was eventually Sheppard who broke the silence, "Hey guys, we're about to break atmosphere. I'm not sure how smooth the ride is going to be with the storm and all. Might want to grab on to something."

There was a rustling of movement in the back. Ronon grunted in response to Sheppard's statement and checked his gun in his holster one more time. Teyla opened her eyes and stretched each stiff limb. When Beckett didn't respond Ronon gave him a soft bump in the ribs and murmured something too low for Sheppard to hear. But it apparently worked; Carson woke up and started moving around.

As for Sheppard himself, he kept his attention glued to the scene outside the jumper's windshield. Breaking atmosphere was the most risky part of any jumper flight and it required all of his attention. He stabilized his hands against the bumpy motions of the ship and its controls as they began their descent toward the planet's surface.

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Sheppard divided his attention between the flight path ahead and the display screen telling him where to navigate toward the gate. Or where the gate would be if it weren't underwater. From what they'd seen so far outside the jumper's window, the monsoon showed no sign of abating anytime soon. If Sheppard had to guess, he would say that the only direction the water levels had gone were probably up.

And then a blip appeared on his screen, a life sign, a signal. "Guys! I have Rodney's sub-q transmitter. He's alive," he shouted back over his shoulder.

There were a few relieved sighs and Sheppard increased the speed of the jumper, causing his teammates to brace themselves against the sudden change in motion. They'd do this just fine. The next ten minutes were tense. Sheppard kept looking at the screen, almost worried that the sign might blip out, that Rodney would disappear at the moment they were preparing to get him back. But they closed the distance quickly and the colonel began decelerating the jumper until they came to a halt over the location where the gate should have stood, where Rodney should be.

Sheppard dropped the hatch on the back of the jumper, the torrential downpour immediately beginning to soak the interior of the jumper near the entrance. Carson was on his feet, shielding his face against the wind with one hand as he tried to watch look for any sign of his friend out in the monsoon.

Ronon didn't wait for the jumper to stop all the way; he jumped off the back platform and into the water with a grunt before anyone had a chance to protest. The water came up to his chest and he plodded toward the boat which was bobbing near the tree. With his knife, he slashed through the rope anchoring it to the trunk and began pulling it back toward the jumper. Teyla and Beckett positioned themselves at the entrance. They held the boat steady as Ronon hauled himself back up into the jumper, giving a shake or two to shed some of the water weight his clothes had taken on before bending down and pulling their scientist's limp form from the waterlogged canoe.

As he turned and set the man down gently on the blanket that Carson had already set out he heard the jumper door shutting behind him. After depositing Rodney on the floor of the jumper he backed off to the side to let the doctor in to evaluate the man.

"Teyla, lass, I've gone through a bit of hypothermia treatment with you when you wanted to learn about field medicine. Feel up to helping me out with Rodney here." he asked as he began assessing the man.

"Of course, doctor," she said as she moved up beside him, waiting for his instruction before jumping in to assist.

Carson handed her an IV to hang from the webbing that sat above the benches to hold most of their supplies. In the meantime he began by checking for any signs of trauma that McKay might have obtained during his time on the planet that could explain his unconsciousness. Not finding any, he began cutting through the raincoat starting at the neck. He paused as he saw something green between the slit he had begun to make in the rain coat. He reached a gloved hand and drew something out of the jacket," What the…"

Teyla and Ronon's expression mirrored his own. Beckett held the reptile up in the light. It appeared to be breathing although it wasn't moving much…he held it out to Ronon, "Can you do something with this Ronon?"

He raised an eyebrow at the strange request but took it out of the physician's hands, "What do you want me to do with it? A little late to throw him back," Ronon muttered as eyed the closed hatch door.

Beckett shrugged although he kept his gaze locked on his patient, He continued cutting off the rain jacket and then began stripping the tactical vest off, "Just put it in a corner or something. Let me worry about Rodney here for a spell."

Sheppard kept an ear cocked to the conversation, "What is it?"

"A lizard of some sort seems to have taken residence in Rodney's jacket."

"I could kill it I suppose," Ronon added, fingering his gun with his empty hand, "It's a pest, right?"

"Let's not be getting trigger happy. It looks harmless enough," Beckett threw back at him. He might not want to play veterinarian for the critter, but that didn't mean it needed to be exterminated. As for the Satedan, he sometimes had to just shake his head and wonder whether Ronon didn't consider it a successful mission unless he got to fire his weapon at least once.

Ronon gave a resigned grunt but deposited the lizard on the bench and returned to sit on the ground next to Teyla and Carson as they continued to work. They'd gotten him stripped down to his boxers and toweled off in a matter of moments. Beckett then pulled a set of rolled up sweats from his bag and shook them out before throwing the pants to Ronon, "Alright lad, don't just be sitting there. Help me get these on Rodney. We could use a little extra muscle. Dressing an unconscious Rodney is a bit like trying to dress a sack of potatoes. Not the most graceful process."

Ronon gripped a corner of the pants that had just been deposited in his lap and moved over to help, filling in a spot next to the scientist as Carson moved aside to make room for him. Between the three of them they soon had Rodney in the dry clothing and Beckett then proceeded to wrap him in several more blankets.

Beckett sat back on his heels to survey the man. He still hadn't stirred. The most immediate concern taken care of- getting McKay warm and dry- he could slow down and begin a more thorough set of diagnostics. First thing he did was put a thermometer in the scientist's ear and set Teyla to holding it until the reading was finished registering.

He paused for a moment to watch Ronon nod in approval before the big man withdrew to the other side of the jumper, still on the ground and near enough to jump in if his presence was needed again. Beckett made eye contact with him and gave him a slight appreciative nod as he drew his penlight from his medical pack. Ronon returned the nod and Beckett did have to marvel for a moment that for such a quiet man, he was entirely receptive. He knew the exact moment when his presence was hindering instead of helping and had withdrawn without a single comment. Beckett felt a slight swell of pride for a moment. Ronon considered Rodney a friend and a teammate, one of the few people he had made a connection with since coming to the city. The soldier was entirely protective of his friends and it spoke volumes that Ronon had moved away to leave the man in Beckett's care as quickly as he had.

There was a beep of a thermometer and Carson shook his head and turned his attention back to the man lying before him. He let out a quiet, disapproving noise as Teyla handed him the thermometer. Rodney's core temperature was entirely too low at ninety-five degrees. That was a solid bout of hypothermia.

He put the thermometer aside and pulled back an eyelid to check his friend's pupil reactions. The sudden burst of light seemed to animate the man; he let out a low hiss and turned his head to the side to move it out of the line of the flashlight's beam. "Rodney, you with us lad?"

Rodney vaguely heard a voice calling out to him, but it was far away, muffled somehow. Like he was floating and someone was disturbing the peace and quiet. Like the voice was coming through a layer of water. Water. At that thought he began struggling. The boat had flipped and he was finally drowning, hallucinating his friends' presence in his final moments.

He tried to flail his limbs, to force his way to the surface and get some desperately needed air. His lungs were burning. A panic gripped him as he realized something was preventing him from moving his limbs, water? That watery grave and its comforting coffin rocking him gently to rest at the bottom of an ocean on an alien world. He arched his back and pushed harder against the restrictive bonds, this wasn't the way it was going to end!

Beckett watched the sheer terror in his patient's eyes and tried to calm him down with soft words. But his voice cut out mid-sentence when he realized the lad wasn't breathing. "Damn it, Teyla lass. Fetch me the oxygen if you could?"

He began stripping the blankets to either side to reveal the man's torso. The minute he had done so, though, Rodney's arms shot up to start resisting, "Ronon, can you hold him? He's not breathing; I need to treat this now!"

"Beckett, what's going on? Is Rodney ok," Sheppard anxiously asked from the front. Carson let the question hang in the air, too busy at the moment to take the time to ease the Colonel's fears.

Beckett swore he didn't even see Ronon move; a moment later the Satedan was by the scientist's side and holding his arms firmly against the metal floor. Beckett folded his hand into a fist and brought it down on Rodney's sternum with all of his weight behind the blow. McKay let out a startled breath and began rapidly exhaling and inhaling as his lungs gasped for air, "There we go lad. That's better. Much better."

He put a gentle hand on Ronon's tight grip and motioned for him to let go. He did so, but didn't withdraw this time, content to crouch where he was in case he was needed again.

Beckett kept his eyes glued to the scientist, watching his chest rapidly rise and sink as he continued to breathe in and out deeply. All of a sudden the man's hands twitched and contracted into fists and his eyes darted around the jumper until they froze on Carson's gaze, "Carson," he wheezed.

"Aye lad. Gave us a fine fright there you did. You with us now?"

"I-I think…Where are we?"

"In a jumper headed back to Atlantis to get you looked after. How are you feeling?"

"Tired. C-cold," he added weakly as a series of shivers ran through his limbs.

Beckett immediately began re-bundling the man in the wool blankets he had hastily discarded in his effort to restore his patient's breathing. He paused to examine his work, only the scientist's head peaked out above the mass of blankets, "There, that should start to warm you up."

"I can't move…feel like I'm in a cocoon."

"Aye, at least it's a warm one. Anything else bothering you lad?" the Scottish physician added a bit apprehensively.

The scientist shook his head back and forth before letting it drop back against the ground. He saw the man's eyelids start to sink as he lost the battle against his body's desire to sleep. Carson sighed. Really, the scientist should be kept awake, but he hadn't thought to bring the stimulants that would do the job. He'd just have to keep a very close watch on him for any signs of shock.

"Beckett! Is Rodney ok?" Sheppard shouted back again.

"Aye, he'll be ok once we get him back to Atlantis."

There was a relieved exhalation from the colonel, "Can you come up and take the controls so I can see for myself? I promise it pretty much flies itself, we just need someone with the gene in the command seat."

"Sorry John, I need to stay back here and keep an eye on Rodney."

"Come on Carson! Two minutes. He can't go south that fast….Please, I haven't seen him since I lost him on my watch," he finished with a tinge of guilt in his voice.

Beckett motioned for Ronon to move aside and he himself backed off a few steps to the side, "Then go ahead and look," he spoke to Sheppard.

Sheppard kept his hands on the controls but turned as far as he could without abandoning them. He craned his neck the rest of the way to be able to see. He inhaled sharply and shook his head, "He looks terrible."

"Aye, but he's alive and was up and talking for a minute there."

"Please, can I just sit with him for a minute?"

Beckett bit his lip but spoke firmly, "Colonel, you do the piloting, let me do the doctoring. You can visit him when we get back to the city and I get him settled."

John opened his mouth for a rebuttal but thought better of it and turned back to the navigation console. They were still a good few hours out from the city. He didn't want to wait that long, but he supposed he could do it. Rodney was a few feet away instead of the vast distance that had hung between them during this debacle. "Fine. Watch over him Carson," he added softly.

Beckett didn't give a verbal response but he nodded again as he settled the oxygen mask over Rodney's nose and mouth. He'd give the man no less than his best.

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