"Carson?" Elizabeth slowly approached the doctor, almost afraid of what he might tell her.

Beckett looked up from the chart he was studying, standing near the foot of one of the two occupied infirmary beds. In it lay Rodney McKay, his face nearly hidden by the tube of the ventilator. In the other bed across the room, John Sheppard was still being settled after an extended visit to the OR, a matching tube breathing for him also. He smiled wearily at her, still dressed in his scrubs, and she felt the knot in her stomach loosen just a smidgen. "Elizabeth. I was just about to call you."

She nodded, still apprehensive. "I was just coming to check on Rodney when I heard that you'd finally finished with the surgery. How are they doing?" As much as she dreaded the coming report, she needed to hear it just as much.

Carson replaced the tablet at the end of the bed and steered her away from the bed. "The colonel is doing quite well, all things considered. His knee and ankle were merely sprained, not broken. He's also got quite the concussion, but so far we're not seeing any sign of complications and I'm not expecting there will be any down the line. His shoulder was dislocated, but Ronon did a fine job of getting it back into place and, again, I don't expect any problems there."

Beckett paused to look over as the nurses straightened John's blanket, having finished rechecking IV's and various other connections and monitors. "There were some internal injuries, however, that are giving us a wee bit o' cause for concern. He managed to break four of his ribs. Two of those punctured a lung and made a right mess of his insides. We've managed to stop the bleeding, but we'll be keeping a very, very close eye on him for the next while. He'll need to be on the vent for several days, possibly longer."

"But he'll be okay," she prompted, needing to hear Carson say the words she wanted to badly to hear.

The doctor threw another worried glance over at the injured pilot. "I'll na lie to ye, Elizabeth. He's far from out o' the woods here. Right now, it could easily go either way."

She drew in a deep breath, forcing herself to move on. She had to know it all. "Ronon said he wasn't breathing for several minutes before they were able to gate back. What about brain damage?" She braced herself for the answer, even now not certain how she'd handle bad news on this particular front.

Carson sighed. "Well, it's too early to tell for certain, mind ye, but so far there's no sign of anything amiss. I wish I had a more definite answer for ye, but I'm afraid we're just going to have to wait until he regains consciousness before we know anything more in that regard."

She drew a deep breath, nodding as she fought to keep her emotions in check. Not nearly the news she was hoping for, but pretty much the news she was expecting. "I see," she said. "And Rodney?" Though she was almost afraid to ask, she knew it was best to get it all out in the open. Besides, the others were going to want to know.

"I've only just now had a quick glance at his chart, but it appears he's doing well, or at least as well as can be expected under the circumstances. I was informed that Doctor Grayson has isolated the substance on the dart, but it's not likely we'll be finding an antidote anytime soon. It's quite unlike anything we've ever encountered, from what I hear. There is a bit of good news, however, in that it seems to break down fairly quickly once it's through the bloodstream. We expect it will work its way out of his system fairly rapidly, but until then, we'll continue to treat his symptoms as best we can, including keeping him on the vent until the paralysis has passed. From what Doctor Grayson says, we can expect that to happen sometime within the next twelve hours or so." The weary Scot's eyes were drawn to the annoying physicist's bed as he continued. "It's a good thing Teyla was able to get him back here so quickly. If they'd been delayed any longer, I fear we might well have lost him this time."

Her gaze had followed Carson's to the prickly scientist's still form. It was all she could do to keep from shuddering at the rhythmic click and hiss of the machine as it breathed for him. "Well that sounds encouraging, at least. How soon before he can have visitors?" Elizabeth knew well that there were two very anxious teammates waiting outside for news about both men.

Beckett hesitated, sighing. "I don't suppose it would matter to them that neither of these two will be awake or able to speak to them for hours, possibly even days yet, would it?"

She smiled, shaking her head. "I'd highly doubt it."

He returned her smile with a wry grin of his own. "I didn't think so. Ye can tell them that I'll send Jamie here to fetch them as soon as we have the colonel a wee bit more settled. That's the best I can do for now."

"I'll tell them. And I'm sure they appreciate everything you're doing." After a final look at each of the injured men, she left to deliver the news.