Chapter 21- Calm Before the Storm
Rodney slowly drifted back to awareness and a steady beep...beep...beep drilling a hole through his skull. He groaned and groped out with his right arm to turn off the offending alarm. His arm felt strangely heavy and ached in protest to the movement as something caught it and held it still.
It took him a moment to remember how to open his eyes. Slowly, they focused on Lieutenant Ford holding onto his arm. He frowned a bit realizing his arm was in a cast. Bits and pieces of things slowly started to swirl up from the murky haze that still encasing his thoughts. He was in the infirmary on Atlantis. He was hurt, which explained his thundering headache and why it felt like his chest was caught in a vice, a very sharp pointy vise at that, and the cast on his arm.
"Doctor McKay, do you remember where you are?" the young man asked him.
He cleared his throat and started to cough, pain stabbing through his chest with cough. Ford leaned forward and held a straw to his mouth and he took a few small swallows gratefully. It took him a moment more to catch his breath after that. "Atlantis," he said finally and then added. "Thank you."
A wide smile spread across Ford's face. "Do you remember what happened?" he asked quickly.
Rodney thought long and hard, but other than a few brief memories of being in a lot of pain and Beckett being there and then the pain going away, there wasn't much of anything else. He shook his head. "No," he said, starting to feel a vague sense of worry. He should remember something. "We—"he tried to collect his scattered thoughts. "We were going to check some...a planet with—"he shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut and then pinched the bridge of his nose with the thumb and forefinger of his left hand, trying to think past the dull rumble of pain in his head. He cradled his aching right hand on his stomach. "I can't think."
"It's okay," Ford said a little too quickly. "This is the most you've remember so far. This is good."
The bed shifted and Rodney levered an eye open. Something large and cumbersome was propped against the end of the bed. He squinted to try to bring it in to focus. After a moment, he realized it was a cast on Ford's leg. He frowned at him. "You're hurt."
Ford gave his leg an annoyed look. "Doctor Beckett's not letting me walk on it for a couple weeks." He looked bit sheepish. "I'm supposed to keep it elevated. Hope you don't mind," he said nodding to it and wiggling his toes.
Rodney started to shake his head and thought better of it. The less movement the less it hurt. "No, help yourself. I don't think I'm going anywhere right now."
"How you feeling?" Ford asked after a moment's pause.
"I've been better," Rodney said a bit wryly. He looked around a bit. He frowned noticing that only Ford was there. When he had been knocked out by the Wraith blast, he had woken up to find Sheppard sitting there watching him. He was being stupid and conceited. Sheppard didn't have to be there to watch over him. He, more than likely, had much more important things to do and it wasn't as if he was dying, though the pain in his head made him almost wish he was. Sheppard had probably had been there ealier, unless, he had been injured and what about Teyla. His brows pulled down as his frown deepened.
"Doctor McKay?" Ford said in concern. "What's wrong?"He swallowed. "Are Sheppard and Teyla alright?"
Ford blinked and then nodded. "Oh, yeah, they're fine. Well, the Major got winged a little, but nothing serious. They've gone back to the planet with Stackhouse and Zelenka to turn the defensive grid back on."
Rodney looked at him. "Zelenka?" He started to frown again. "Defensive grid?"
Ford sighed. "Never mind, Doctor McKay. It's all being taken care of."
That did not make him feel any better and he struggled to try to sit up a bit. "What defensive grid and why is Zelenka going off-world?"
"Lieutenant Ford, I told you to keep him quiet, not agitate him," Beckett scolded as he came over. Far more easily than Rodney liked, he pushed him back onto the bed. "Rodney, I need you to relax."
"What's going on?" he demanded, disliking how petulant he sounded.
"You've had a nasty bump on the head and cracked a few ribs and your wrist," Carson told him. "And I need you to calm down or I will sedate you." There was more threat in his voice than Rodney had ever heard before. That wasn't good.
He took a careful breath and gritted his teeth as something in his chest grated at the move. He let the breath out slowly, collecting himself. "I'm calm," he told Carson.
The Scottish doctor smiled. "Good," he said, busying himself with the equipment Rodney was hooked to.
Rodney took a moment to glance around at the impressive array of things he was hooked to and it started to creep him out. "Um, is all this really necessary?" he asked after a moment, motioning with his good hand to the monitors.
Concern played across Carson's expressive face. "For now, humor me."
Now, he was defiantly creeped out. He stared to make a comment, but a concerned female voice interrupted.
"Carson, how's he—"Elizabeth Weir stepped into view and he gave her a small smile. Her face lit up in relief. "Rodney, you're awake. How do you feel?"
"Like an exhibition in the zoo," he said, before he could catch himself. He felt a blush spread across his face.
Carson chuckled. "Well, that put a little color in your cheeks," he quipped.
Rodney sighed testily and then grimaced as something in his chest pulled the wrong way. He wrapped his good arm around his chest protectively.
Elizabeth frowned deeply in concern. "Rodney are you alright?"
He caught himself before he snapped at her and closed his eyes a moment. He felt something pinch his arm and opened his eyes to see Carson, injecting something into his IV.
"What is that?" he asked.
"Something to help with the pain," Carson said gently. "Just give it a minute to work."
Rodney blinked hard as a warm sensation washed over him and the pain from his ribs and hand disappeared to almost nothing and the throbbing in his head inched back to a tolerable level. He sighed deeply. "Oh, that's nice."
Ford chuckled. "Better, Doctor McKay?"
He nodded sleepily. "Much."
Elizabeth smiled and straightened the blanket over him and tucked it carefully around him. "Rest, Rodney."
He couldn't think of a reason to argue with her. He saw something odd on the cast on his right arm and shifted it to where he could get a better look at it. He frowned puzzling over the shape. "Who drew Cthulhu on this?"
Ford gave him a confused look and Carson started chuckling.
"Cthulhu," he said, pointing at the squid head shaped thing drawn on the cast.
"Oh!" Ford smiled. "Major Sheppard drew that on there for the Wraith we smoked in the cave."
Rodney squeezed his eyes closed as a jumble of memories flashed through his mind. "We got them both?"
"Both?" Carson asked quickly.
"Both, as in, more than one," Rodney snapped.
Carson shot Elizabeth a concerned look. "Oh, crap."