"Teyla, get McKay - now!" Sheppard sprinted over to the elevator and pulled Beckett out onto the floor. Praying that Teyla and McKay arrived quick, Sheppard pressed a couple of fingers against the doctor's neck. Feeling a weak but steady pulse, Sheppard gave Beckett a quick once over. There didn't appear to be anything wrong with him, aside from the whole unconscious thing. Hearing footsteps, Sheppard turned around, to see Teyla and McKay racing towards him. McKay got to within a few feet of Beckett, then stopped, his eyes widening. "Carson!"
McKay sprinted the last couple of feet, ignoring the spasm of pain in his knees as he dropped beside Beckett. "What happened?"
"I don't know," Sheppard said. "The elevator opened, and he was inside it, like this."
"Oh, that was informative," McKay snapped, checking Beckett's pulse. "Help me get him to the infirmary."
Together, the two of them managed to carry Beckett to the infirmary, while Teyla went and woke up all the appropriate people. Moments after placing Beckett gently in an empty bed, they found themselves joined by the entire medical staff, Lt. Ford, and, of course, Dr. Weir.
As a nurse got Beckett hooked up to the proper equipment, McKay surveyed the room, as much to find a possible answer to Beckett's condition, as to avoid looking at him. He looked too pale, too fragile, lying in that bed, wires seemingly hooked up to every available space of skin.
McKay's eyes fell upon the quarantine unit, and the open box lying inside. Instincts bristling, he walked slowly over, and peeked into the clear box. The box was empty. That could only be bad. Fighting the urge to panic, McKay quickly left the room, ignoring the strange looks the rest of his colleagues shot him. Only when he was out of sight of the infirmary did McKay break into a run, racing down to the research lab where he had found the box in the first place. The box was the key to Beckett's condition, he knew it. Skidding to a halt inside, McKay looked around, wondering where to start.
"That box. That had something to do with it, didn't it?"
McKay jumped at the sound of Sheppard's voice.
"Yeah, I think it did."
"What was in it?"
"If I knew, do you think I'd be here?" McKay hurried over to one of the consoles scattered around the room. "The text that came with the box didn't say." He began to type into the laptop attached to the Ancient terminal. "Whatever it was, it somehow managed to get through a quarantine unit. That's disturbing."
"So, what are we going to do about it?"
McKay sighed in frustration, resisting the urge to punch Major Sheppard in the face. Which was probably a good idea, he realized, since the Major probably would have hit back, and much harder.
"I don't know yet," he said, forcing some measure of patience into his voice. "I'm going to have to go through this text, see if maybe there's another mention of it."
"Okay, I'll go check on Beckett. Let us know when you find something."
McKay could hear Major Sheppard moving towards the door. "Major?" He tried to sound as casual as possible. Somehow, it didn't quite work. "Will you tell me if - if Carson's condition changes?"
There was no answer, and McKay looked up, wondering if the Major had already left. Sheppard was standing by the door, watching McKay with a strange expression on his face. "Major?" McKay sighed. "Please, Major, Carson is one of my closest friends around here. I just - I want to know if something happens."
After a moment, Sheppard nodded and left. McKay turned back to his console, trying to concentrate on the screen, but he couldn't seem to focus. Images of Carson, pale and still, kept forcing their way into his mental vision. Finally, McKay gave himself a mental jerk.
Come on, Rodney, pull yourself together. You never freak out like this when Sheppard is hurt, do you?
Well, there was the time on the Puddlejumper, when we got stuck.
That was different. Why so concerned? Yeah, Carson's your friend, but...
McKay sighed again. He so did not have time to be second guessing his emotions. Especially when it came to Carson Beckett.
Stop it. Get back to work, or you're going to lose someone you care about.
McKay took a deep, steadying breath, forced his attention back to the consoles. He would worry about this all later, after he kept Beckett from getting killed by whatever monster had been in that box.
