Away from Atlantis
Disclaimer: Not mine, I don't own John, I don't own Stargate Atlantis. I don't own the episode Vengeance nor do I own any parts that I pull of The Kindred or The Kindred part two. I only own the bigger picture, and because it was my idea. But I don't get paid for it so I might as well own nothing.
This story starts up after The Game and ignores Irresponsible. So Kolya is still alive.
Chapter Seven song Bet On It from High School Musical 2
Ten weeks after his change.
He'd re-materialized everyone, since his Wraith still wasn't good enough to let him figure out who was who. Rodney and Teyla were very surprised to see Carson, but he stopped them from really asking any questions.
"We need to get back to Atlantis before we talk about anything." Was all he'd said.
So they quieted their questions for later.
Rodney dialed, and he sent his IDC code through, then they walked home to Atlantis.
Elizabeth greeted them with a smile that faded, as she looked over their tired faces. As the gate shut down she realized they were missing some.
"Are you alright? Where are the Marines?" She asked clearly concerned.
He sighed, "They didn't make it."
"What?"
"We barely made it out our selves." Rodney put in.
That was when Elizabeth, noticed there was someone else standing there.
"Carson?!"
"Yeah, what can I say. It was a very strange mission." He said, as Elizabeth looked to him for answers.
Four Hours Later
He and his Team stood in the observation platform watching as Dr. Keller checked out Carson.
He and Ronon had briefed Elizabeth about how they'd found him, and about the basics of what had happened there on the planet, including Michael's death.
First she'd been surprised that he was still alive, and relived at his death, and then the horror of his project sunk in. The fact that he'd hinted at having more was terrifying.
He'd glossed over his using the dart to kill more of the Creatures. Over all they were more preoccupied by Michael's labs and Carson, so his team never really thought about it, Elizabeth had indicated they would talk later.
He knew they were tired and so was he, but there was no way any of them would sleep an till they knew who he was. He'd sound like the Carson they knew, he looked like him, but...
As Ronon put it, it was just weird.
"Are we sure he's not a Replicator?" He was afraid of finding out that person or friend down there, was something that would kill them all.
"Yes." Rodney said exasperated, "The scans would have picked up on that right away."
"Then who is he?"
"I don't know." Rodney said. "Look I'm as freaked out about this as you are."
"Do you think thats him?" he knew it was stupid; but the idea of Carson being back- meant he once again had someone who could tell him, if he was crazy, or just keep track of his changes. Not that Elizabeth hadn't been great in the weeks without Carson but she was no doctor, and she was very busy she couldn't keep track of him at all times.
She couldn't tell him what his actions at the planet had been caused by.
He really wasn't sure what to tell Elizabeth. Yeah, I sensed the bugs, and I think I kinda lost it, wasn't something he wanted to say, because he hadn't really lost it he'd just felt strange. Hell he didn't really know what had happened.
He was just pretty sure, he hadn't been himself.
Then there was Michael's question, what had he done to make Michael ask that or what had Michael seen?
Ugh. If he thought about it to much more he would go crazy.
Yes he'd changed, but what could he do?
He got out his nail clippers, he'd taken the last three or four weeks to carrying them around with him. Just trimming his nails at night wasn't keeping them as short as he'd like, it was becoming a nervous habit.
He clipped his nails short and put his clippers back in his pocket.
Carson or the Carson look-a-like smiled up at them.
"Just because he's not a robot doesn't mean he's still not Carson... It still leaves us with half a dozen other possible explanations."
John felt a little bad, he had tuned out Rodney's answer to his question. Oops.
"Like?"
John was amused by Ronon's need to hear a real answer.
"Well, like alternate timeline, parallel universe, cloning. Take your pick."
"Just another day in Pegasus." he said tiredly.
Teyla shook her head. "Some times it does not matter what I have seen, I just can't quite bring myself to believe what I'm seeing now."
"I hear ya." he said, shaking his head.
Keller came up the stairs, still clad in most of her hazmat suit, just the helmet missing.
"What did you find?" Elizabeth asked.
"Well, we've completed the first round of tests."
"And..." Rodney encouraged.
"Every test we've run says, that man down there is Dr. Carson Beckett."
Next Morning
After that revelation, they had gone to talk in the conference room. They hadn't come up with a plan or anything, they were going to wing it.
But before they went to talk to Carson, Elizabeth demanded they get a good nights sleep.
Or what was left of the night, it was close to three a.m.
So that morning when talking about who should go and talk to Carson they decided to draw straws. Rodney won, and got to go talk to the... well Carson.
Carson was pacing when Rodney walked in, the rest of them were watching on camera.
"Rodney." Carson smiled,
"Carson."
"Sorry I didn't come talk to you sooner, but Elizabeth wanted us to be well rested before we talked to you, must of thought we'd make more sense that way or something."
"Thats alright, I know how tough those Creatures were."
"So any word on when I'm going to get out and get back to work?"
Rodney hesitated. "That might take some time."
"Really, why?" Carson only seemed confused, not really angry, or upset.
"God! It's good to see you." Rodney said, still uncomfortable.
"Think about how I feel." They shook hands, then went in for a hug.
"I mean I was stuck with Michael for the last eight months." Carson sat down in one of the chairs.
Rodney asked about that, while sitting down with Carson. "Last eight months? How did he capture you?"
"Surely you remember?"
"Ah... Yeah just need you to fill us in on the details."
"Okay."
"Well you remember M8G-352, the planet it where we left Michael and the other converted Wraith."
"Yeah."
"Well despite daily injections, some of them including Michael began to revert. I think they used their telepathic abilities to call for another Wraith hive, but I'm not certain about that."
"All I know is I was being interrogated by Michael, and then he must have given me an injection because the next thing I know I'm on another planet."
"Why'd he take you prisoner?" Rodney asked unable to contain himself.
"To help with his hybrid research, of combining human and wraith DNA."
"Of course, I refused to help him."
"Then one day he brought a young lady to my cell, she couldn't have been a day over twenty."
"And he killed her in cold blood right in front of my eyes."
" He said for every day I refused to help him, he'd kill another just like her. I cooperated with him after that."
John felt bad for the kindly doctor, Carson must not have slept well for along time after that. He looked over Carson's bowed head, to look at Rodney. Rodney had sympathy written across his face. Of course they'd been captured often enough, that Rodney had been forced to work to try to save their lives.
"Carson I'm so sorry." Was all Rodney could say.
"It wasn't easy." Carson said sitting a little straighter, wiping at his face a little.
"I'll admit I wondered at times, and almost gave up. But then all I had to do was think about you and Colonel Sheppard, and Teyla, and everyone else looking for me, and it kept me going."
Apparently that was a little much for Rodney, he broke eye contact with Carson. Guilt written across his features.
He felt like he'd been punched in the gut, it brought home to him in that moment, how much it would have upset Rodney. To know that in his attempt to help rescue him from the machine's beam, he'd made in worse. If he knew how many nightmares John had had in the last weeks... Suddenly for the first time, hiding it didn't seem like such a burden.
"Yeah about that..."
"See, the thing is, we weren't."
"Weren't what?" Carson asked, confused.
"Well, looking for you, we didn't even know you were missing."
"Excuse me?"
John could see this was not going to go over well.
"We went back to M8G-352 and rescued you from Michael."
"What are you talking about?!" Carson cried, standing to his feet.
Rodney stood up as well. "I mean he got away and all, but you were brought back to Atlantis safe and sound."
"What the hell are you talking about?" he said more levelly.
"Obviously, not you-you, but another Carson Beckett."
"Is this a joke?" he asked weakly.
"No, but I wish it was."
He sat back down abruptly. "Your telling me there is another Carson Beckett walking around this base?"
"No, not any more."
"Rodney!"
"He came back from the planet, he went back to work. Everything went back to normal."
"Then just last month, he was killed in an explosion."
"To us, you weren't missing. Carson, you were dead."
He stood up and paced some more. "Rodney," he said quietly, "Please give me some time to think on this."
"Sure, Carson."
An Hour Later
He and Elizabeth headed for her office to discuss what they had just learned.
"This is really weird."
"Tell me about it." Elizabeth said. "I was just getting used to him being gone, then here he is again."
"Yeah."
"John, do you think he's what he seems?"
"Yes, and no. I want to trust him because his name is Carson, but he was in Michael's complex. Speaking of which, when are we going to go and clear it out?"
"I was thinking tomorrow."
He nodded, here was his chance. "Elizabeth well we were at the complex, I felt different. I wasn't quite myself."
She leaned forward over her desk. "What do you mean?"
"Well...
A knock on the doorway stopped them, Dr. Keller stood in the doorway. "Sorry to interrupt, but I thought I should tell you right away. I think that this Dr. Beckett is a clone."
They stared at her, she blushed a little.
"Sorry. Do either of you know what a telomere is?"
"It's part of a human chromosome right?"
She looked at him surprised, then shook it off. "Yes. Each time a cell divides the chromosome is torn apart and rebuilt, and in the process, a small amount of the telomere is used up. As a result, telomeres become shorter over time. The more they age the shorter they get."
"And?" he prompted.
"According to my scans his telomeres are thirty precent shorter then they should be for a man of his age. The only explanation is that the original DNA came from an adult cell, one where the telomeres had already started to degrade."
"Making this Carson Beckett a clone?" Elizabeth said.
"Yes."
"Well, that clears that up." He said, smiling.
Both of them got up, to go tell everyone.
Four Hours Later
"So how did Carson take it?" He asked, sitting down at the table with Rodney.
"Not very well I'm afraid."
"Well thats not too surprising, who would take get told you're a clone well?"
"True." Rodney took a bite and seem to be thinking. "Of course, he might feel a little better if we trusted him enough to take him back with us."
He sighed, "I'll talk to Elizabeth about it."
"Thank you."
Rodney had finished eating, so he got up and left.
Leaving John to ask himself, why he felt like he'd been used.
Next Day Back Under the Taranan Settlement
He could tell he'd killed a lot of the Creature's with his killing spree in the dart. He only had a small headache, and so far they'd found two more shielded areas. Michael hadn't been kidding when he'd told John they would all die, without the dart they defiantly would have died. Because as it was, with over thirty men, grenades, and more ammo. They still were having trouble killing them.
He'd convinced Elizabeth to let them take Carson, in exchange, he owed her. He hadn't liked the deal, but he took it anyway.
He was leading the expedition, he found now that he wasn't under as much stress, it was easier to keep his cool head. Which made him feel a little better, at least he wasn't a loose canon.
Every team of eight or two teams put together had a life-signs detector which had worked well. They only had real five injuries, and only one was bad enough for the man to pull back to the gate.
At the two hour check in, Weir was glad to hear it was going so well, and the hurt guy went through back to Atlantis.
Finally after five hours of hunting down every life sign they could find, it was clear. Rodney and Carson went to work downloading the research, translating it, and all that.
It was pretty boring, for him and Lorne but they managed.
Just when Rodney thought he, and Carson were almost done, Carson fainted.
He rushed over, while Rodney rolled him over to check his pulse. "He's still alive, he just passed out."
"Well, people don't just faint for no reason, Lorne help me carry him, we're taking him back to Atlantis."
They carried him through the tunnels, heaved him up the rope, and ran him through the gate.
Two Hours Later
John came in with Rodney and Ronon, they'd been called by Dr. Keller to the infirmary.
"After he collapsed, I ran scan, and found evidence of necrosis in several of his internal organs. His cells aren't renewing fast enough to sustain tissue function."
"Why?" Elizabeth asked.
Dr. Keller adjusted the oxygen mask over his face.
"I can only assume it's a complication, because of the fact he's a clone."
They all looked to the man in the bed.
"I've started him on a course to try and stimulate cell growth, but the bottom line is I can't help him."
"What do you mean?" He asked, how long was she talking here. They just got Carson back, and now he's gonna die. He wished she was kidding, but as he looked at the sick man on the bed, he knew she wasn't.
"On the outside, he looks fine, but on the inside he's a very sick man."
He looked again, she was right, his color was still good, there weren't any other signs. So why had he agreed with her? He sniffed, it smelled like hospital air, but he thought he smelled something from Carson. Weird. He'd chalk it up to his recent changes.
He went back to try to talk with Elizabeth about his actions on the planet that were not in the report. All the other times they'd started to talk about it, only to be interrupted every time. He was starting to feel a little frustrated. Seriously, was five minutes uninterrupted with Elizabeth that hard to come by?
He knocked, she looked up. "Come in, maybe this time you'll be allowed to finish what you've been trying to tell me."
He grimaced, she laughed a little.
Half an hour later she wasn't laughing.
"So other than feeling vicious towards the creatures, you didn't really do any thing else did you?"
"No, well mostly. At one point I kinda mentally told them where I was, but it was more like I challenged them, then called." he offered weakly.
Elizabeth rested her head on her hands.
"General O'Neill warned me." she mumbled.
"What was that?" He said, if not for his hearing being better then human, he never would have understood that.
"He told me you get in to trouble, but I never guessed how much."
He shrugged.
She sat up, "John I'm too tired, you're still too worried about the word Wraith being applied to you. We will talk about this once Carson's better."
He nodded, and left her office.
(Three Days Later...And Week Eleven since John's Change)
They'd come to the conclusion that if they were going to save Carson, they had to put him in a stasis pod. To give them, him, and the research team more time.
He'd been hard to convince, but they'd done it.
So now they stood waiting in the stasis room, Rodney and Zelenka had prepped the pod all they needed was Carson himself.
An aid wheeled him in, it was sad to see the man usually pushing the chair, in one. It hurt John to see his friend, looking so pale, and to hear his breath wheeze.
Keller stepped over and grabbed his arm to help him up. Elizabeth joined her, Carson smiled a little at them.
"Thank you, loves." he leaned a little heavier on them.
"Listen, Carson we'll cure this, we'll work it out. I've got a whole team on it." Keller said.
"Carson, we'll have you out of there in months. We promise." Elizabeth said, strongly.
He smiled a little, he looked over them. "As long as you swear not to leave me there for years."
As one, all of them swore.
"Good enough for me." he smiled again.
They help him over to the pod, and gotten him standing.
"Carson I'll see you soon, and maybe you can take me fishing." Rodney said trying to be cheerful.
John winced, he knew Rodney had felt badly about that day, but for him to volunteer. Not that he didn't have his own regrets, but he brushed them off, locked them deep in his mind. He almost never had nightmares except for the recent Wraith ones, and he rarely saw Dr. Heightmeyer.
"You'll be back with us soon." Elizabeth, said touching his arm.
"Yeah, Carson you'll be back to yell at me for showing up hurt again." He smiled a little, but it slid off his face, this was a little too close to saying good bye.
"Yes, Carson you'll be back among us soon. Teyla said, seriously.
Ronon stood quietly in the back round, Carson took time to smile at him. Ronon nodded before looking away, smelling of salt.
"I left a letter for my mother, it's just some thoughts... but please send it to her."
Elizabeth nodded.
"Thank you Elizabeth."
Carson leaned back in to the pod clearly fading.
"Right, now Carson you shouldn't feel anything other than a cool burst when it first starts. We will be watching your life signs, on that machine over there twenty four/seven." Rodney chattered, trying to make Carson feel better.
But Carson knew how to deal with his nervous chatter.
"Thank you Rodney."
Rodney stopped trying to talk, and looked at Carson sadly. Before blinking, and shaking his head a little.
"You should know, what ever happens, seeing you has been worth it." Carson said, looking over them.
"You know..." Rodney said trying not to think on the likely chance they wouldn't be able to bring him out of it. "I was toying with trying to program dreams in to it. Would you be interested?"
Carson laughed weakly. "No, Rodney. Just put me in, and work on getting me out."
Rodney nodded.
As Rodney went to push the buttons, that would put Carson in to stasis.
John called, "See you soon."
And Carson was in stasis.
After a moment, Rodney spoke. "Well thats that. He walked hurriedly from the room, but not before John caught the faint smell of salt.
Keller wiped at her checks, "Yeah, the soon I get back to the lab, the soon he gets out of there. She and the aids left, along with Zelenka, and Ronon.
It was just him and Elizabeth left. They both looked over Carson's frozen face.
"Walk me to my office, Colonel." Elizabeth turning away.
He looked at her confused, and remembered. The time to decide what they would do next had come.
"Okay. So..." Elizabeth rubbed her temples, and signed.
"Look, I'll wait to tell Keller, till the IOA approves her as your next chief of medicine. But I can't tell you how uneasy it makes me, to know only you know." He felt frustrated they'd been going around in circles over this.
"So tell your team."
"And explain to Ronon I'm part Wraith, and tell Rodney it's his fault. No thanks." He could see it. Yeah, hey. Ronon, I just wanted to tell you I heal uber fast, like a Wraith. And, Yeah Rodney next time you see me in the grasp of some weird machine leave me there, because this time you messed up.
"You could just tell Teyla."
"I'd rather not, if I tell any of my team, I tell them all."
Elizabeth nodded, even if it frustrated her, it was something to respect.
They were silent.
"You could still lock me up." He offered.
She signed, "John I have even less reason to lock you up now, then I did at the beginning of all of this."
"But..."
"No, your actions on the planet, are completely excusable, John. People," she added at his look, "normal people sometimes lose it like that."
"But thats my point I didn't lose it, I … I was lead by instincts that weren't mine."
"John, she said sadly, she cleared her throat. "But they are... you may not want them, but they are now."
"Elizabeth I'm sure one day my..." He wasn't able to stop his flinch. "My new instincts will not be a good thing." He was desperately afraid he would one day need to feed, that was what haunted his dreams, feeding...
"IF. If that day comes we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Elizabeth said firmly.
"Elizabeth..."
"John we have a plan for the short term, we will deal with it as it comes. You're dismissed."
He saluted her, and left. Afraid that something would happen, this was a bad plan.
