Chapter 14

Slowly but surely, Jennifer started to get a hold on Rodney's injuries. Some of the cuts had to be stitched, other were closed with wound glue, hoping that scaring would remain at a minimum.

The blood work had shown some odd substances. But over the time he was in the infirmary, the amount of foreign substances was going down. Another 24 hours and they would be out of his body all together. The small wounds were bleeding less as well. They had to re-glue some of them as blood built up underneath and burst through the glue again.

But finally by nightfall, Rodney was sleeping peacefully. Jennifer stood over him, looking at his face. Not caring if anyone saw her, she quickly kissed him on the forehead.

'Please, wake up, Rodney.' She whispered. But there was no response. She had to be patient.

His fever was down, his wounds taken care off, dressed in clean fresh hospital pj's.

Sheppard found her still standing over Rodney. Teyla had joined him also wanting to find out what was wrong with Ronon.

'Hey, Doc. How is he doing?' She looked up.

'Better. But he still hasn't woken up.'

She finally tore her eyes away from Rodney. She noticed Sheppard looking across the medical centre to Ronon.

'Come to my office.' She distracted him and preceded them both to her office.

They all sat down. Sheppard allowed her some time, even though it was difficult. He wanted to know what was wrong so he could fix it.

'Colonel, . . . ' She didn't know how to start.

'Just tell me what's wrong.' John tried to help.

'Well, we repaired the hole, stitched up his arm and remodelled his foot. It will take a while for him to get better again. He'll need a lot of physiotherapy to get his foot working again as it did. The team did a great job repairing that as we knew Ronon would hate to have a limp after this.'

'I understand all of that. Why is he so angry?' John asked anxiously.

'Sometimes, when people are under great stress, their body reacts in a certain way, a defensive way.'

John nodded.

'Ronon is angry because . . . he can't hear you anymore.'

'What?' John jumped up.

'Did he hurt his head? How did that happen?' John paced around the office now.

'Colonel Sheppard, I've never seen Ronon as hurt as he is now. For one or other reason his body has convinced him that he no longer can hear anyone around. There is nothing physically wrong with him. There is nothing for me to heal.' She sounded desperate. She is a doctor and yet she can't help her patient.

John stopped pacing around the room, looking through the window to his friend.

'Jennifer, is there anything we can do?' Teyla asked cautiously.

'Patience. I have been using the pad, next to his bed to answer his questions. Keep talking to him.'

John nodded and left the office, walking straight to Ronon. Now he knew what his friend was doing. For sure, he would try the same thing. But it would not work, not on John Sheppard.

He noticed Ronon was awake but refusing to look at him. So Sheppard picked up the pad and wrote:

I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO DO. WON'T WORK!

He shoved it under Ronon's face.

Ronon tried to pull away but Sheppard was feeling angry. He walked to the other side of the bed and showed the pad again. This time when Ronon tried to turn away, Sheppard stopped him, holding his face in his hand.

He felt Ronon resist for a moment but then turn to face him. His eyes were empty but Sheppard didn't release him. Again he showed the pad and said the words out loud:

'I know what you are trying to do. It won't work.'

For a moment, Ronon closed his eyes, a tear escaping.

'Sheppard,' Ronon said hoarsely, 'I'm useless.'

Sheppard quickly typed.

NEVER. WE'LL GET THROUGH THIS.

Ronon quickly whipped the tear from his face. He seemed to relax a little and John decided to leave it at that for now.

HOW YOU FEELING?

'Not too bad. Doc has me on some strong sedatives. Sheppard, I'll be out for a while.' Ronon replied.

John nodded.

SO

And for the first time, a little smile touched Ronon's face again. He should have known Sheppard would not let him go that easily.

'What's up with McKay?' Ronon asked.

CUT ALL OVER. NOT WAKING UP.

But as soon as he showed Ronon the message, a scream was heard from Rodney's bed.

TBC