Title: Sheppardology 101
Author: Yodakitty
Rating: M
Pairings: John Sheppard/Carson Beckett (BeckShep) slash - yes, again, it is slash, if you don't like it, don't read it. You have been warned.
Spoilers: mild reference to 'Instinct'
Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape, or form own the characters, concepts, or anything else related to Stargate: Atlantis that may be copyrighted or otherwise previously owned. Those belong to Gekko and MGM and all those other people who actually make money from it. Same goes for 'The Great Escape', from which I pulled inspiration for the Steve McQueen reference.
A/N: Thanks as always for the reviews! I enjoy hearing from you all, and I try to respond to any reviews/pm's that I get. *insert usual plea for reviews here* You know the drill... :P
Day 17 brought about the next major change. John finally fully woke up, over two weeks after the initial accident. Rodney was the first to notice the pilot was actually awake, mostly because Jennifer had only recently managed to chase Carson back at least as far as his office to get some sleep. He's never going to let me do that again, Jennifer thought wryly as Rodney finally managed to tell her of the change in John's status after about three breathless tries. Ya know, he's kind of cute when he's excited and flustered like that. It's sweet, really. She shook her head, setting aside thoughts of Rodney being cute and slightly fluffy for a time when she didn't have a recently awakened patient to deal with.
"Have you been listening to anything I've been telling you? He's awake. Finally," Rodney reiterated, sounding annoyed at having to repeat himself.
"Yes, Rodney, I heard you the first time. How about you go tell Carson that John's awake, while I go check on him, okay?" Jennifer forced a brighter tone to her voice, smiling slightly at him. Cute he may be, but he could still be very, very aggravating.
"Hm? Yeah, I'll, uh, do that." Interesting how he's at a loss all of sudden. Wonder why he didn't go get Carson first anyway? Think I'm missing something here, Jennifer thought as she watched Rodney head off towards Carson's office and then headed towards the isolation room where John was.
Taking a deep breath, Jennifer waved the door open, bracing herself against whatever it was she was about to walk into the middle of. Which turned out to be watching Ronon trying to restrain John without causing additional injury to the pilot, while John was apparently bound and determined to get out of bed, regardless of the fact that his muscles were being less then cooperative after being in bed for a bit over two weeks.
"Damn it, Chewie, get off me! I can walk, or I could if you weren't sitting on me," John demanded, trying to put as much command into the statement as possible.
"No. You already tried that. Twice. It didn't work. Either time," Ronon replied, not moving. It occurred to Jennifer to wonder how it was that John was able to talk at all after all the screaming he'd done lately. After listening to the debate for another few moments, she decided it was mostly pure force of will. If you listened carefully, you could hear how rough his voice sounded from the combination of disuse for a while and then the abuse on his vocal cords from the screams, but he decidedly wasn't letting such details as possible additional damage to his vocal cords get in the way of making his displeasure with the situation known in no uncertain terms.
"Consider it an order if you must, just get off me! Besides, if I'm really that bad, it's not like I'm going to go much of anywhere anyway. What difference does it make to let me try?" John reasoned, switching tactics.
"Already let you try. Twice," Ronon said, looking at Teyla for confirmation that this was one of the times she had been referring to that it was okay to ignore orders. He seemed to remember that it was as long as it was for Sheppard's own good. Teyla nodded, understanding the unspoken question. This was indeed one of those times they needed to protect John from himself. Jennifer was spared having to intervene in the debate by the arrival of both Rodney and Carson.
"Conan, I said not to let him get up, not crush him. Am I the only one who realizes just what a bad plan this is? He only just woke up, how much trouble could it possibly be to not let him get out of bed? He shouldn't even be able to walk after having been in bed so long," Rodney said launching into the beginnings of a 90-mile a minute rant.
Before either Ronon or John could answer, Carson chimed in. "Harder than you'd think, actually. He's tried to escape while in worse condition than this before."
"He is right here you know. I can speak for myself," John retorted, glaring at the room in general as if offended by the universe at large, not just the people immediately present.
"We know, love. It's alright Ronon, he's not going anywhere, you can let go," Carson answered crossing over to the bed and ruffling John's hair. "How are you feeling, other than awake and already annoyed with the galaxy?"
"I want to go home. Other than that, awake and annoyed with the galaxy about covers it," John snarked back, clearly not having forgiven any of them for talking over his head like that.
"Figured as much. You've been awake for all of what? 5 minutes? That's usually long enough for you to start planning your next Steve McQueen imitation," Carson replied, teasing lightly. Best not to start trying to get answers out him about Tim and the nightmares this early, that was a conversation better left until later.
Of course no sooner had Carson thought that then Rodney opened up with the rapid fire questions. "Now that you're making more sense, who the hell is Tim? Where did he come from? And you kept promising not to do something again. Not do what again? What did you do?" The string of questions only stopped when Ronon smacked Rodney upside the head, similar to what he'd seen John do on several occasions. The physicist sputtered a bit, but it brought him up short enough that he realized John was now paler then the pillows he was laying on.
"How did you know- Never mind. Don't answer that. I really don't want to know what else I've said recently," John had actually turned another couple shades paler as he spoke and was visibly fighting not to start hyperventilating.
"John, easy, love. It's alright. Just breathe," Carson said, splitting his attention between trying to calm John down and glaring at Rodney. "You don't have to answer any of that. Just relax, it's alright."
"John, I- I'm-" Rodney stuttered, unable to finish the thought, cursing himself for letting his curiosity get the better of him like that.
John shook his head, back in control once more. "It's okay. Just…forget about it, okay? It's not important." The pilot realized he sounded more than a bit plaintive, putting it that way, but he was tired and really wished the floor would open up and swallow him, so he wasn't too worried about it just now.
Rodney started to say something but was quickly silenced by glares from multiple directions. "Okay, forget I asked. We good?" He said instead.
"Yeah, we're good. Just…yeah. It's fine," John replied, waving a hand vaguely in Rodney's direction, the shock apparently having drained whatever energy John had left. Conversation turned to further questions about how John was feeling, dismissing any lingering concerns about side effects from the original concussion, and starting to catch him up on the events of the last couple of weeks. It didn't take long before he fell asleep again, hoping he was exhausted enough not to dream this time.
