Evelyn POV
"Shit," I said without thinking as we stared down at the gray fabric scrap on the floor of the room.
According to Ronon, it looked like a close match to the uniforms the Genii usually wore and there was some blood and charred skin on one side. Which meant that the surge was probably intentionally caused by a forreign invader, and that if they'd hidden in this room, they were probably still somewhere here in the city. There'd been no gate activity since before the storm, and wouldn't be for a while, not now that we'd detected the anomaly. It also meant that if it was the Genii, that there was at least some understanding of what they were doing. So this surge was not random and it was definitely no accident.
"Yep, you can say that again," John said with a sigh. "Get McKay, see if there's any way to identify individual lifesigns on the life sign detector and find out where this Genii soldier is. If not, we need to do a lockdown operating with a skeleton crew in the major stations and start doing a city wide, military sweep. We need to lockdown the gate and make sure there is no other way out of this city."
"I am on it," Teyla said, putting her hand to her earpiece and started relaying orders.
"And Ronon," John said. "No lethal force, we need to know what exactly they were up to, and what their plan is."
"You got it," Ronon said, looking almost disappointed but following his lead.
"Has this happened before?" I asked. We were operating in secret, on a floating, impenetrable base with a max of two ways into the city. Gate travel and boat from the mainland. And without the gate there was no way to get to the mainland.
"Once," John confirmed. "And we've tightened security since. And that was before we told everyone we blew the city. I don't know how they slipped by our defences, but I plan on asking once we get ahold of them," he said all of this through gritted teeth. Clearly the last time this happened was something that still pissed him off. I almost regretted asking. "Watch your back with these guys, O'Neill, they're..."
"Complete bastards from my experience," Rodney interrupted, having just arrived, and I snorted.
"I'll keep that in mind," I said.
With the rest of the base's security sweeping the other buildings we left Teyla and Ronon to guard McKay while he did his work at the site of the power surge. When reinforcements arrived, they would finish sweeping the upper floors. Meanwhile John and I headed back down to the floor we were on when we were trying to get into each other's pants instead of working.
"So those complete bastards…" I said after a few rooms of sweeping in complete silence.
"Let's just say not everyone out here are our friends," John replied.
"Wait," I paused. He turned back to me. "We've been making friends?" the corners of his mouth turned up in a slight smile and he shook his head, scoffing and turning back to the search.
"Get back to it, O'Neill," he said and I smiled to myself.
We fell into a comfortable silence as we walked through the remainder of the rooms on this floor and climbed down the next flight of stairs to start all over again. We went like this for the better part of an hour and no joy. I was upset. On one hand so far there was no intruder but on the other, we knew there should be. And not being able to find them was concerning.
"What do they want?" I asked.
The silence lost it's comfort and became deafening. I'd had no experience with the Genii and only read a couple of mission reports, which I'd learned since coming out here, are usually very different from what actually happened. I scanned the lab we were walking through anxiously, waiting for someone to pop up out from somewhere like a communist jack in the box.
"I don't know," John sighed. "Their motivation borders between stopping the Wraith and becoming the most powerful force in the Pegasus. Whatever they're here for, they must think it'll benefit one of those two things."
"What were they here for last time?" I replied, turning to face him.
"Medical supplies, guns and a lot of C4," John replied. "Look, it doesn't matter why they're here, we just need to stop them."
"I know," I nodded, sighing myself. It would seem that once this was over, I needed to request access to rather a lot of mission reports.
I turned away and started making my way through my section of the room. I wasn't optimistic we'd find anything but we still had to finish what we'd come here for. This room didn't have much to offer, it was just some disused lab. One that didn't even have any specific purpose, or at least not one I could spot off the bat. I started scanning the floor, see if I could see the shadows of anyone about to pop out like we were in a horror movie.
Narrowing my eyes, I realised something was wrong here. Something that would ordinarily have gone overlooked. Dark rubber scuff marks trailed along the floor, leading behind a bench. They were the kind of marks you'd expect to see from someone's shoes on the floor or those little stoppers on the legs of chairs to stop you from scratching up the floor. But, as far as I was aware, the Ancients didn't wear shoes with black rubber soles nore did they use rubber stoppers on their chairs or tables. Or at least, I didn't think they did. We'd have come across something like this before now, if that were the case.
I followed the black marks around behind the bench and around again towards a bookshelf where I stopped dead in my tracks. A pair of small black shoes poked out from beside the shelf. Oh no. I swallowed thickly. Spying grey trouser legs to accompany the little black shoes, I grew apprehensive that by following those marks I'd solved our little Genii problem. In fact, I think I'd just solidified the belief that this was going to get worse, just as they always did in the Pegasus.
"John," I called out and gestured without looking up for him to come over. I could feel my stomach turning. If this was a Genii solder, who killed them and why?
Following the legs around the bench completely, I saw the mummified body of someone in an old fashioned, grey military uniform. Classic example of a Wraith feeding victim. I pressed my lips together in a thin line. This was not good.
"I found our Genii, but we've got a bigger problem," I said, squatting down to see if the Genii wore dog tags or similar. Nothing. Since John had apparently decided on not coming around to see for himself, I climbed to my feet, ready to start describing the site before me. I supposed he might be securing the room before coming over, which was practical, protocol even, but there had been no communication of this. In fact, I hadn't heard him speak in a while. And we still hadn't seen the Wraith, only it's lunch.
"Looks like one of our other friends found her first, my guess is sometime between now and this morning she became a tasty snack for…" I had turned fully around to where I'd last seen John and was greeted with the sight of him wrestling out of a choke hold. "Shit."
"Are you armed?" the Wraith demanded and I reached for my sidearm.
Glancing at John, I saw him desperately trying to tell me something with his eyes, his mouth still covered. I really hoped what he was telling me was he was a-okay for me to shoot. Because I was going to. I aimed at the Wraith's head, knowing that was the most guaranteed way to kill him, knowing if I shot him anywhere else he could potentially heal himself and probably eat John. My hand was steady and I exhaled and moved to pull the trigger.
"Ah ah, I warn you, if you shoot I will kill your colleague," the Wraith told me and I smiled.
"He's my CO," I replied. "And you'll only kill him if I miss."
"That confident with your aim, are you?" he asked and I chuckled.
"The way I see it, if you die, the base is secure. If he dies, I get a promotion," I shrugged and pulled the trigger. It clicked but there was no firing. I frowned and pulled the trigger again. Click. Nothing. Shit.
"Well, I guess we do things your way," I said, placing the gun down on the bench beside me. It was jammed and I doubted the Wraith was going to let me clear out the casing.
"Where are the other conduites leading to the shield's power supply?" it demanded. "If you tell me, I'll let your superior go."
"No you won't," I scoffed. "And even if I believed you, I don't know what you're talking about. What does this have to do with the part of the floor you dug up and ripped out?"
"You dare play dumb with me?" he growled and Sheppard struggled in his hold.
I stared blankly at him. I really didn't know what he was talking about. I hadn't been on Atlantis long enough to learn that about the city, and if he was talking about something that had happened out here, I really hadn't read that many mission reports. I only read the ones concerning the Wraith and even then only some. I just wanted to know what I was up against.
"You're not playing dumb?" he cocked his head in confusion as Sheppard struggled harder. I shook my head. "Who would know?"
"Uh… well I know some of the scientists a little," I said vaguely, tapping my chin as I pretended to think. "I bet if you took your hand off my boss's mouth he'd be able to tell you."
I paused, waiting to see what this Wraith would do. It was enver simple, they never just tried to kill us. Why could they never just try and kill us? There were always negotiations, always some plan or plot. I'm starting to prefer my time in the river with that mutant goldfish.
The Wraith shifted it's hold on John, he was still being held by the throat but the hand that had been covering his mouth, stopping him from warning me was gone. John cleared his throat, struggling still against the arm across his windpipe. I discreetly pressed the button to activate my radio, hoping the others would be able to hear John from how far he was from me.
"McKay," John rasped. "McKay knows all about the power conduits in the floor and how to prevent Atlantis from being able to use it's shields."
"Good luck getting him to talk though," I said. Trying not to laugh about what I was about to say. "McKay is incredibly brave, he'll never give in to some Wraith."
"Colonel Sheppard, Captain O'Neill, am I reading you correctly? You are with a Wraith?" I heard Teyla say through the radio and I tried not to let my relief show through.
"That's right," John said, looking vaguely amused he was having to go along with this McKay's a "stubborn hero" ruse. "You can hold us in the North Tower's communication lab for as long as you want, but McKay will never bow to the demands of a Wraith."
"Message received, Colonel," Teyla said.
"We're on our way," Ronon added after her.
"Just an FYI, I seriously object to you using the radio to imply I'm some sort of coward who would easily give in to a Wraith," Rodney said and I tried not to snort as I watched the Wraith hold John. "I'll have you know lots of people think I'm very brave."
"Is that so?" the Wraith said, looking between myself and John. I shrunk back, having forgotten momentarily the hostile situation we were in. We were trapped in a room with a deadly predator, John was pinned and my gun was jammed.
"Yeah," I agreed.
"Well I guess I'll just have to kill you and find this McKay for myself," he said and John chose that moment to bring an elbow down hard into the Wraith's abdomen and stomp down at an angle on his shin. The Wraith roared and briefly relinquished his hold, letting John grapple free and get away from the Wraith.
I sighed in relief as John reached for his sidearm and I grabbed mine off the bench, moving to clear the blockage from the chamber. I heard several shots go off and glanced up to see the Wraith dodging and running straight for me. I swore, leaping up onto the bench I was standing beside and running across it. I dove into a roll and ended up near Sheppard, still trying to get the casing out of the way so I'd have an effective side arm again.
John kept providing me cover fire and I slammed the gun on the side of one of the benches I'd ducked behind, finally clearing the chamber. I shot up off the ground and aimed, pulling the trigger just as it reached me, lead sinking straight into its chest. The Wraith slapped the gun straight out of my hand and I groaned, just as I'd managed to get it working again. Typical.
It grabbed me and I slammed my fist forward into it's ugly, green face, hearing a crunch as I did so. It howled and I fought its grabby hands, spinning and turning as we fought. Sheppard tried to get a few shots off but couldn't do much because I was constantly in the way. He ran over and grabbed the Wraith's arms, pulling them off me and allowing me to get a few gur punches in.
The Wraith growled at John, grabbing him by the vest and launching him across the room with impressive force. I cried out as I saw him make contact with the wall and drop limply to the floor. I saw him move a little, trying to get up but he instantly dropped down again and stayed frighteningly still.
"Sheppard!" I cried out. I felt a sharp sting across my face and I registered I'd been hit only after the force had knocked me into a bench. The countertop hit my hip hard, causing a dull ache to spread through me. I groaned out, this time from the pain and tried to stabilize myself.
"You should really show more concern for yourself, little one," the Wraith taunted. "If you don't fight any better you won't be getting that promotion."
"Fuck off," I spat, throwing up my prosthetic as I block while I reached for the knife on my belt.
The Wraith pushed forwards against my prosthetic and swept it's leg under mine, taking me off my feet and sending me hard towards the ground. I tried to slash at him with my knife but he managed to catch my arm mid swing and keep it from harming him.
"Does it happen instantly?" he asked. "Should I eat your superior officer first so you can be awarded your new rank? I'm not a cruel person, perhaps I should grant you your dying wish."
"I find it hard to believe you're a person," I growled back as I struggled against it's hold on the floor. I kicked like my life depended on it but he seemed more amused than bothered by this. I crossed my legs underneath him, using the X created by my shins to push him up off of me.
"You're nothing more than a slimy, green biped in need of a really good stylist," I yelled, trying to free my right arm from his grasp so I could stab him.
"You humans lack grace," he told me, smacking the knife out of my hand with ease. Where the hell was Ronon? I missed that giant battle tank. "Even in your dying moments you prove to be nothing but ferrell. Wild animals, not fit for more than fodder for a superior army."
"How wrong you are," I snarled, trying to free either hand from his grip. "People are friends, not food."
"I disagree," he said, displaying a significant amount of amusement despite also managing to be absolutely terrifying.
As if in slow motion, I watched in horror, unable to do anything as his feeding hand unzipped my vest and made contact with the bare skin underneath. I screamed out in agony and with a reserve of strength I didn't know I had, I pushed forward off the ground and bit down hard on his arm. He howled in distress and retracted his feeding hand. Pulling his arm back, he slapped me across the face with what was almost break neck force, a sharp punishment for causing him even a small amount of suffering. I cried out again, shaking underneath him with the searing pain of his hits. I used the momentary distraction of his own agony, despite fighting my own, to reach out for the knife. My fingers crawled across the floor and wrapped around the handle of the knife and just as he brought his hand to my burning cheek, to resume feeding. I forced my hand up, sharp tip of the knife sliding through the jelly of his eye.
I lay under him for a moment, my chest heaving, stuttering breaths making it out of my mouth as I waited for confirmation he was really dead. He was motionless and I was immobilized with the shock. I let out a startled cry, it was over and this time it had been so much worse than when we'd fought Ellia.
I could feel hot tears sliding down my cheeks. I was overwhelmed, and I honestly had no idea what had just happened. We'd started the day with a technical fault somewhere in the building, then it was Genii sabotage and then we had a Wraith in the building. A Wraith we had to convince Rodney was a daring, Rick O'Connell type because both myself and John, had somehow both managed to fail at shooting him, despite us being highly trained air force personnel. How had that Wraith had so much more strength than the two of us? Myself I could understand, I was short, I was female, young, and I was missing an arm but John? How had that Wraith had so much strength he was able to throw John across the room and knock him unconscious? At least I hoped he was just unconscious.
"John?" I croaked after a few more moments. Still shuddering with the pain of the inscrutably hard hits, and the feeding wound burning on my chest. Tears still slid down my cheek, salt stinging my already damaged skin.
"John?" I tried again, a little more desperately.
"I'm coming," he said, sounding a little worse for wear but decidedly alive. I sighed in relief, no actually dead coworker. I hadn't meant it when I'd told the Wraith that I'd still win if John died, I knew John knew that too, but I didn't want it to be the last thing he heard me say.
I heard movement above me before I saw his head above the Wraith. My chest heaved and I let out an almost pathetic sounding cry. I was so out of my depth here in the pegasus. I don't know why I came here.
"I'm here, I got you," he said soothingly.
John pulled the Wraith's still motionless body up and off me. The knife I was still tightly gripping slid out of it's eye and a thick, green-y/black ooze flooded out from the wound. My eyes snapped shut before impact and I was covered in the sticky, warm substance. I screwed up my face as I felt John drop the body down on the ground a few feet away.
"Sorry," he said and I heard his gun go off. He crouched at my side and I felt some fabric wipe across my face and eyes and I opened them back up to see him mopping up some of the alien blood with a rag he'd found.
"Are you alright?" I asked and he nodded.
He looked down to see I was still holding my knife tightly in my grasp. He brought one of his much larger hands on top of my own and gently pried my fingers off one by one. He put the knife down on the ground beside us as he squatted in front of me.
"What about you, are you okay?" he asked and I nodded slowly. I could still feel the agonizing burn of my chest where the Wraith' had attempted, or succeeded in feeding.
"I'm not real fond of these Wraith guys," I told him and he chuckled lightly, wiping away some of the wet hair that was plastered to my face.
"Are you really okay?" he said, refusing to take his eyes off me, even at the sound of nearby footsteps. Honestly? I didn't know.
"Do you think that was the only one?" I asked, glancing over to the definitely dead Wraith lying on the ground with several bullet wounds to the head and a hole gouged where an eye used to be.
"Possibly," he shrugged. "We're going to have to finish the citywide sweep to know for sure. And we're also going to have to try and figure out what it wanted. Come on, let's get you up."
He slid an arm under mine to hold my back and gripped my hand tightly with the other, pulling me to my feet. He let go of me too soon, but I understood, the footsteps were almost behind me and I turned around to see Teyla and Ronon staring in shock at me.
"Hey guys," I greeted.
"Teyla, Ronon, good timing," John said, still deep in business mode. "I need you two to secure the room. Did you finish your section?"
"Yes, we were on our way back to check on Dr McKay and Zelenka when you radioed," Teyla confirmed.
"Seems like you had it handled," Ronon commented, looking between me and the Wraith.
"Good," John said, ignoring Ronon. "I'm gonna need you to finish sweeping the rest of the tower. O'Neill and I were almost finished but as you can see, things got a little complicated."
"Got it," Ronon agreed.
"But wait for reinforcements to arrive before you do," Sheppard ordered, looking directly at Ronon.
"Teyla and I can..." he started to argue but one look from John and he sighed. "Fine."
"I'm going to take O'Neill to get checked out by Beckett," John explained. "Anything happens, stay on your radio. We don't know how many of them there were."
"Understood," Teyla agreed.
I let John put an arm around my waist, who was seemingly unbothered that I was absolutely covered in Wraith blood. But I suppose he also didn't care I was covered in fish monster blood when he gave me CPR all those months ago. I was barely paying attention when we walked back up the flights of stairs, into the transporter or even as we walked through the familiar corridor to the medbay.
"Ach, Christ, you were only in here last night!" Beckett yelled, knocking me out of my empty zoning and back into the moment. "How, how is it always you two?"
"Hey, I'm just here to get her checked out," John defended and I smiled to myself.
"But he should also get checked, he did get knocked unconscious," I reported and John glared down at me.
"Gee, thanks Evelyn, next time I'll let the Wraith eat you," John grumbled in false annoyance.
"If I remember correctly I saved myself," I argued. "And you."
"And me?!" He scoffed and I giggled.
While John and I had been teasing each other Beckett had been covering a bed in disposable liners so I could sit down without ruining the linen. He simply rolled his eyes at our interaction and waited for us to finish before he got down to business.
"Right, so what happened, and why are you covered in this goo?" Beckett asked as he patted the bed for me to sit on.
"This is Wraith blood," I corrected. "Not goo. I wish it was goo, somehow unidentified goo would be way better."
"I don't know," Sheppard argued, leaning against the bed I was perched on. "At least with Wraith blood we know the guy it came out of."
"Anyway," Beckett shook his head, pulling on some rubber gloves and a protective white coat.
"Right, well we found a Wraith and it tried to kill us so.." I said with a shrug. "I have bruises, he has bruises," I pointed to John who looked surprisingly no worse for wear. "I bit the Wraith because he used his feeding hand on me and then I stabbed him in the eye and got covered in blood."
"So he fed on you?" Beckett confirmed and I shrugged.
"I presume so," I said, pulling my vest completely off and dumping it on the bed beside me. I unbuttoned my uniformed button down and tugged my tank top down a little to expose my chest wound. "Why else would my chest still be burning…"
"You don't look any older," John commented and I tried to stop myself from smirking.
"I can run some tests to see how the feeding affected you, but you're incredibly lucky to have survived this unscathed," Beckett explained. "Wait, did you say you bit it?"
"Yes," I nodded. "It was holding both my arms and I couldn't use my legs to get him off me so when he connected his feeding hand to me I leaned down and bit his hand. And he wasn't all that thrilled. I think he might also have been trying to feed on my face as well after he hit me for biting him."
"That was incredibly risky, Evelyn," John scolded. I recoiled away from Beckett who was trying to clean a wound.
"Sorry," Beckett said, thinking I was reacting to the iodine.
"You think I had any other choice?" I demanded. "John he was going to feed on me either way, I wasn't strong enough to get him off me. I could have either held him off me until I ran out of strength or I could have let him think he won, bitten him as a distraction and then used him loosening his grip to pick up my knife again. You think I wanted to be a snack?"
"I wouldn't have let him.." John started and I slammed my hand down on the bed, making Beckett pull back a little from where he was trying to dress the wound on my chest.
"You were unconscious!" I said indignantly. "He was going to go for you too. I couldn't let that happen. I had no idea you were going to wake back up when you did, I had no idea you were going to wake back up again at all…" I shook my head, putting it in my hand, getting in the way of Beckett once again. "I thought you were dead. You weren't moving. I couldn't get over to check. I couldn't stop it from happening, all I had was making sure he didn't hurt anyone else."
"Except you," John pointed out and I lifted my head up again and glared at him. "You know what? We can talk about this later, I should let Beckett work."
"Aye, and you can use this newly free time to go and get your head scanned," Beckett said without looking up. "Don't think in the excitement I forgot you were unconscious for a few minutes, go on, you're not leaving this infirmary until I deem you medically fine."
I sighed and then sat in silence as Beckett cleaned me up and checked each cut and bruise. He helped me wrap and cover each one so I could shower, and offered me use of the medbay's bathrooms so I could ditch this uniform here. I had been wearing it for two days now, it would be nice to be in clean clothes. Mind you, if you count my time in the storm as a wash cycle I'd only been wearing this uniform for a few hours.
"I presume you remember where everything is," he said disapprovingly, reiterating how much he disliked how often John and I found ourselves in here. He put some clean, white scrubs on a chair in the bathroom and left me to it.
I let the warm water envelop me as I scrubbed myself clean both physically and emotionally. Tensions were already high with John before I'd survived a random Wraith attack in a lab, he wasn't yelling at me because of how I dealt with fighting it off, not really, I reasoned. I sighed into the steam, knowing I'd have even more to talk out with John. I loved the fun, teasing and trusting relationship I had with John, all of this talking, emotional and high tension shit was not what I signed up for. But even though it was harder? Just like living in the Pegasus galaxy, it didn't make me want to walk away.
I turned the water off and perched on the chair, gently drying myself when there was a gentle knock on the door.
"Yeah?" I called out, pulling on some clean underwear and scrub pants.
"It's me," I heard John reply. "You've been in there a while, are you okay?"
"Hang on a sec," I said, standing up and towelling my hair as I walked towards the door. I flicked the lock on the door and walked back towards the chair.
He took that as a cue to step inside and recoiled as he saw I was still shirtless. Looking unsure as to what side of the door he should be on when he closed it, quickly, he did a double take and kept glancing between the outside and me.
"You're letting the steam out," I commented. He pushed the door closed and locked it, leaving himself inside with me.
"You know, for someone who wanted to keep this need to know," he whispered harshly. "You're not doing a great job of being covert!"
"Would you relax, I'm about to put a shirt on," I shook my head at him. "And anyway, it's only Beckett and I think I could sway him into being silent."
"I think he suspects something anyway," John commented, deciding on ogling my shirtless chest instead of scolding me. "He has for a while, since before anything happened between us. He asked me a few of the times one of us has been in here."
"Weir asked me the same," I replied. "While you were being Iratus Bug John.."
"All the more reason we should come clean about this," John said and I sighed, dropping the towel.
"I'm not saying you're right," I said. "Or that I want to, but I just want to figure out whatever this is before we start telling people about it. Alright?"
"Fine," Sheppard rolled his eyes, and I pulled my scrub shirt over my head. Picking up all the discarded parts of my uniform, I dumped them in the hamper. Quickly cleaning up the space, making sure I had everything I needed, John waited patiently for me to finish.
"I suppose we have more important things to talk about anyway," John said and I looked back at him over my shoulder.
"Like what?" I said. I figured we'd wait till the others got back to talk about what happened and what we had to do next.
"For starters, it's going to take me a lot to ignore that the first thing I heard when I regained consciousness is you paraphrasing Finding Nemo," he said and I let out a loud laugh. I turned around fully and walked towards him, picking up my boots. He unlocked the door and held it open for me, escorting me back to my bed in the medbay.
"Right," Beckett said as soon as I stepped back into his sight. "Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" John and I exchanged a glance. "Good news is, after running those tests I've concluded that because you were fed on for such a short time, barely a minute, you're at no risk from it."
"That's good," John said I nodded in agreement.
"So the bad news?" I asked.
"I'm not sure if it was from the blood..." Beckett said and I hopped up on the bed intending to sit while he explained. John came over and hopped up beside me. "It has to have been, because there would be no other way for you to become exposed...unless Ellia somehow…"
"Beckett, spit it out!" I snapped. Why had Ellia come into this?
"Aye, sorry," Beckett replied, looking at me clearly. "I've just never seen anything like this before."
"Like what?" John asked.
"Well, O'Neill you have Wraith antibodies," Beckett answered and I shot him a look, cocking my head to the side.
"I have what?" I scoffed.
"Right, so, you know how when you get vaccinated you're being injected with a small, manageable amount of a virus which your body fights and then develops antibodies for that virus," he said and I nodded. I understood him so far. I glanced at John, he was nodding along as well. "Well somehow, you possess Wraith antibodies. If you'd been affected by the retrovirus, I'm almost certain with these antibodies it would have affected you astronomically differently. But I'm quite certain I have no idea of how you got them."
"Wouldn't it take a while for me to have gotten them from the Wraith's blood?" I asked. He looked back up at me, looking completely flabbergasted.
"Exactly," he said. "Which brings me to Ellia, are you sure she never tried to feed on you?"
"Well she did, she just grabbed my wooden arm," I replied. "But that was the only time. She didn't even scratch me, all my other cuts and scrapes were from the dirt."
"Then there should be no other way for you to have come into contact with the retrovirus," Beckett said. "Which is what has me so baffled."
John had gotten the retrovirus spread to him when Ellia tried to feed on him. He'd had to have direct contact with her in order for transference. I'd not had any with her, not really. In fact the only person besides her to get that close to me during that time was John but he…
I froze in shock. I'd cracked a joke about it but it wasn't possible… was it? No, this couldn't happen. He wasn't even showing any symptoms when we… And he'd tried when he was going gray but I'd rejected him.
"O'Neill, are you feeling quite right?" Beckett asked, concern in his voice. I snapped my head up to meet his gaze. He reached forward to put a hand on my head, checking for a temperature. "You've gone all pale, love, are you in any pain?"
"Uh… Beckett," I started, tilting away from his touch and trying to avoid eye contact. "When Ellia gave John the retrovirus she was able to because she'd had direct contact with John. She connected her feeding arm with his forearm, it's like her saliva was touching him as she punctured his skin."
"I'm with you," he agreed, still looking concerned.
"What would you consider to be… direct contact?" I asked. "You know, similar ways of touching that might elicit the same issues?"
"Well if we're treating it like the transmission of any virus and we've ruled out it being airborne or surface transmissible," he started. "And the only way is direct contact, like you've said. It could be any way that transfers fluids or gets into your bloodstream. So scratches, saliva, ect."
"Right," I nodded, biting my lip and looking down at my lap.
"I don't understand," John said, looking between the two of us. "What are you getting at, O'Neill?"
"Beckett," I said. "Is there anywhere more private that we could discuss this?"
"I can send John away, if that's your issue," Beckett said. "You don't need to leave your own hospital bed."
"No, he's fine to stay," I replied. "But I need to keep this between the three of us."
"Keep what?" Beckett scoffed. I looked up at his baffled face and out of the corner of my eye I could see the realisation slowly dawning on John's face. I leapt up and tried to tug all the curtains closed around us.
"That's not going to do much," John commented. "Beckett can we go into your office please?"
"What are you two trying to keep so secret?" Beckett laughed. "You're acting like you've got nuclear launch codes or something..."
"Or something," I said, grabbing his sleeve at the elbow and towing him to his office. John followed behind us and closed the door firmly, making sure no one could come in unannounced.
"Do you think it's possible?" he asked as I shoved Beckett into a chair.
"I wouldn't be in here if I didn't," I called angrily over my shoulder.
"Oh don't get mad at me, this isn't my fault," John replied and I scoffed.
"Yeah John, it kinda is," I argued and crossed my arms over my chest.
"I asked you if you wanted.." he started and Beckett yelled at us. We both turned to look at the Doctor and stopped mid argument.
"What exactly are you two arguing about? What does any of this have to do with O'Neill having Wraith antibodies?" Beckett demanded.
"Beckett I need you to keep this need to know," I begged, coming forward to squat in front of him. "I'm not even sure this is how it could have happened but I wouldn't be talking about it if it wasn't important."
"She wants to keep this underwraps for a while, just until we figure out what it is we're doing," John explained. "So it'd be best if you kept your mouth shut where possible."
"What are you two talking about?" he said, shaking his head.
"Before we knew anything was wrong with John.." I started. "He and I, we slept together…"
"Oh," he paused in shock before he perked up immediately. "that's fantastic! ...Cadman owes me money.." Beckett said trailing off. "So are you seeing each other then? I'm very happy for the two of you.."
"Beckett," John scolded. "The antibodies."
"Right," Beckett snapped out of it. "So your concern is, you might have developed the antibodies through your exposure to the retrovirus through sleeping with John?"
"Like an STD," I nodded. "You know, I made a joke about this a few months ago and now I'm pissed."
"You jinxed yourself," John said, shaking his head and folding his arms over his chest. He turned his attention back to Beckett. "You and Cadman had a bet going?"
"A few of us did actually," Beckett replied. "The two of you have always been close but after your near death experience with the retrovirus there's been some speculation over the extent of those feelings. Rodney's adamant that the two of you are just friends. Teyla's under the impression while there might be feelings between the two of you that you wouldn't act on them…"
"Regardless of the bets," I interrupted. "Did John give me a weird, new Wraith STD or not?"
"Aye, I'd say that's likely it," Beckett agreed. "It's the only contact you've had with someone who's had the retrovirus that's transferred fluid. Did you use a condom?"
"I've got the rod," I replied and he nodded.
"This is fascinating," he said. "But it is a shame, if you had've it would be able to tell us more about the virus or possibly we wouldn't even be having this conversation."
"You want to know if it could penetrate the latex, don't you?" I shook my head at the man. "I can't believe it was even transmissible via… actually do you think it was saliva or.."
"Well Ellia's feeding hand is similar I guess to a mouth which would be saliva," Beckett said. "But because the virus wasn't localised to any particular body part, it could really be any body fluid. I'd love to run more tests…"
"No!" I cried out. "Provided I'm not in any immediate danger I'd rather we never spoke about this again. I'm not even sure what John and I are, I don't want the whole expedition knowing we share a Wraith infection as well as a bed."
"Right," Beckett agreed. "Well when you go public I'd be grateful if you'd reconsider. I don't think you'll be in any danger but I'd like to run the same tests on you at certain intervals to make sure it doesn't change any. But I can keep this between us, if that's what you want."
"You'd do that?" I asked.
"Doctor/Patient confidentiality," he shrugged. "Plus, I kind of like knowing I'm right without needing the rest of the world to know it. Your secret is safe with me, love."
"Oh thank god," I sighed and stood up. I walked over to the wall and leant up against it as I got my bearings. Yet another scary situation over.
"I don't know how you're planning on keeping this a secret, though," Beckett commented. "You two aren't exactly subtle."
"Told you," John said and I rolled my eyes.
"Don't you start."