Title: Adapting

Chapter: Treatment

Author: Gypsy Lupin-Black

A/N: Here's chapter 25! Wow, cant believe I've gone on this long… lol. More to come soon, so please review!!

Rodney had been summoned to the infirmary. He was rather annoyed at the summons, actually. He'd been at lunch with Radek, going over the new data from the shields. Well, Radek had been going over it, Rodney admitted to himself. He'd just been grilling him about every aspect of the data. He'd been having fun though. It kept his mind off the entity, which had not made any sort of appearance for a few days now. Almost like it knew they were looking for it.

Radek had found a series of odd lines of code in the shield programs, though, which had been a welcome distraction for Rodney. He spent lunch questioning everything Radek said, partly to put it all together mentally, since he couldn't see the screen, but a lot of the reason, he knew, was just because he wanted to annoy Radek. The Czech had said a very relieved goodbye when Rodney had left the mess.

Carson and Dr. Henning were waiting for him when he got to the infirmary. "Out of quarantine then, I take it," Rodney smirked and drawled.

Henning nodded. "Yes, and before you ask, I did spend quite a bit of time working on your eye problem. And I think I have a treatment plan."

"That's why we called, Rodney," Carson told him, smiling.

Rodney stared at them. "You have something that will work?"

Henning gestured to one of the treatment beds. Rodney only hesitated a moment before following. He sat on the bed, took off his sunglasses, and watched Carson and Henning move about the infirmary. As Carson was counting some pills, Henning came to stand in front of Rodney. He was holding something in Rodney's face.

"What's that?" Rodney asked. It was thin and round rather like a pen.

"It's a penlight. I'm just doing a quick exam," Henning told him. "That echolocation device sure is great, huh?"

Rodney didn't bother answering. Henning rubbed him the wrong way. He was too busy considering how weird it was to see what Henning was doing, even as the man shone what was probably a very bright light into his eyes. And he didn't feel or see anything.

"You're going to be on these medications until either we get results or I decide it's not working," Henning said. He finished his exam and turned as Carson joined them.

"These eye drops should go in four times a day," Carson told him as he handed Rodney a bottle. "You'll also be receiving a daily injection. We'll start that now, and you can just come visit me after lunch every day."

Rodney sighed. "Fine. What's the pills for?"

"For any pain," Henning replied as Rodney took the last bottle from Carson. "In case the treatment doesn't work." Rodney wondered just what exactly he meant by that ominous statement, but Carson spoke before he could ask.

"Rodney. This is an experimental treatment to an issue we haven't exactly seen before. The Ancient database has some information, but we had to fill in the blanks ourselves." As Carson spoke, he prepped an injector and held it up. "Ready?"

Rodney rolled his eyes, "as ever," he snarled, and Carson pressed the injector to his neck.