The Prophecy

Chapter 17

For the second time, John was glad to wake up to the sight of the infirmary ceiling. He had made it, he was awake. It had worked , just like Teyla had sat it would. He felt truly lousy. He had been awake for less than a minute and he could already feel his headache starting to built up. That did not bode well. At that rate, he was going to black out again before he even got a chance to talk to Dr. Weir about going to Athos. Not that he felt like going anywhere. He felt exhausted even though he was only lying in bed. He carefully tried to prop himself up on his elbows to get a better view on the rest of the infirmary.

The effort to only get that far, left him dizzy and panting for air. He was definitely in bad condition. He spied two other patients in the infirmary, they seemed to be still asleep and both were turned away from him, so he couldn't make out their faces. Good, although he hadn't brought it up the previous night, he hadn't failed to notice that Teyla didn't exactly look like her usual healthy self either. She too had a lot of recovering to do. She needed her rest. And if his condition was beyond Beckett's scope of experience than he probably couldn't do much for her either.

When his arms started to get shaky from muscle exertion, he dropped back down to the mattress. Pain stabbed through his brain and for a moment, he thought he was going to pass out. His little manoeuvre hadn't gone unnoticed. He heard footsteps approaching rapidly and when he opened his eyes again, one of Dr. Beckett's nurses stood at his bedside.

"Oh, you're wake! Dr. Beckett didn't expect you to wake up for a while. I'll page him immediately. In the meantime, is there anything you need? Anything for the pain?"

"Yeah, something for the headache would be good. You don't have to wake Beckett."

"Dr. Beckett wanted to be notified if anything in your condition changed. I'll get you something for the headache."

Ten minutes later, John was waiting for the painkillers to kick in while Dr. Beckett checked his vitals.

"So, what's the verdict, doc?" John asked.

"Considering the shape you are in, I'm amazed that you are conscious and coherent. Your fever is falling, which is a good sign. It's no longer dangerously high."

"You have no idea what is happening to Teyla and me." It was not a question, more a statement.

Dr. Beckett looked down.

"Yes, it's a first. It's the first time; we have to do with telepathy. Thankfully the Aronans have given us some help. Otherwise I don't think you two would have made it. The Aronan doctor gave me a lot of material; I'm still working on it. But it takes time, major.

"I wasn't saying that you weren't trying. I know that you do the best you can. But why weren't you going to tell me about the rest, that I had seizures, that my genes are into something more like an Ancient. I deserve to know about these things. To know about them now and not sometime in the future. I know that you really were going to tell me later.

"How-" Dr. Beckett asked, then realization dawned and he briskly turned and walked away, out of the infirmary.

John looked after him dumbfounded. He knew what he had done and why Dr. Beckett was upset. If their positions were reversed, he'd been angry and repulsed about the intrusion into his thoughts. But he hadn't done so purposely. Beckett's thoughts had just been there and he picked them up. He hadn't dredged up anything from the man's memories. What had Teyla said? . The Gift will be too much for their minds to handle and will cause them great pain, but they will prevail with the help of a great Healer and will be able to use their Gift against the great Enemy. In order to learn about their Gift and their destiny the Chosen must journey to the Old City of the Forefathers, buried on the planet know to our people as Athos. John was becoming more and more convinced that there was at least some truth to the words of the prophecy. They could not stay on Atlantis. So far this 'Gift' had caused him nothing but trouble. It couldn't really get much worse. He sighed before drifting off to sleep.

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Dr. Weir was fuming. She had been looking forward to a crisis free weekend on Atlantis. After the business with the Aronans earlier that week, she really deserved same quiet days. Apparently all alien leaders had heard her plea and had left the off-world team alone, but when it was peaceful out there for once, she had in house crisis on her hands. What made it all worse was that she had to hear about it in the commissary of all place. As the leader of the expedition she shouldn't have to find out about important matters from the rumour mill. Even Dr. McKay had know about the uprising of the infirmary personnel before she had. Now she was going to see number one of the main culprits of the situation.

She had arrived in front of Dr. Beckett's quarters. She pressed the door chime long, hoping that would make the doctor forget about any ideas that he might entertain that she might eventually just leave if he didn't open. After he had rung for the third time, he opened the door. He looked at her, like he had been expecting her visit. Silently, he offered her the only chair in the room and sat down on the bed himself.

"I assume this is about what happened in the infirmary this morning?"

"It is. But first, I'd like to know what exactly did happen? All I know is that everyone is refusing to set foot in there now and that your nurses are running around the station telling everyone to flee if they see Teyla or John. One of them kindly took a break long enough to tell me that it all started with you storming out of the infirmary in the middle of talking to John.

"Bloody hell! No! That should never have happened! How could I have let that happen!"

He dropped his elbows to his knees, holding his head. "I'm a stupid fool."

Dr. Weir had expected a lot: accusations, a resignation, a strike, refusal to ever treat the major again, even the thought of a mutiny on Atlantis had occurred to her. But she had not expected the doctor to be aghast and shocked at the repercussions of his accusations.

But it wasn't about what I did or didn't do. I ran off because I couldn't stand the thought that John had read my mind. I just…just like my thoughts to be my own, I guess. It was disgusting to hear him tell me what I had been thinking, I couldn't do it. I had to leave." Beckett shrugged. "I should have been able to handle it. I don't even know whether he did it on purpose or not. The prophecy that Teyla has told us about, is true. John can read minds."

"How come everyone knows about it now?" Dr. Weir asked, needing to know. She would deal with the wounded emotions later. First she needed to prevent the situation from spinning even further out of control.

"Dr. Woods came to see me in my quarters, he asked whether I was doing all right. I had seen me …'leave' earlier. He wouldn't let up, so I told him. He swore he wouldn't tell anyone else."

"I can see where this went. It probably went on from there until the entire staff was in panic and left the infirmary. By now the entire city is talking about Teyla and John. They are afraid and I have to say that I can't blame them. Violating the privacy of other people's thoughts is unacceptable and there is no way this can change."

"Still, I feel terrible about it. If I had kept my mouth shut none of this would have happened. They don't deserve that everyone is afraid of them. Rationally I know it, but nobody is going to make me step into the same room with John again." Beckett ran a hand over his face.

"What are you going to do now?" he asked Dr. Weir.

"I'm going to talk with John and Teyla and get their side of the story. I'm not too comfortable with the idea, but they deserve to have their say, like everyone else. Then, I'll try to calm the masses, the last thing I need is a mutiny on Atlantis. I'm responsible for everyone, but going against the majority makes enforcing the rules a though game."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"I could order you resume your work as CMO and get back to the infirmary. The only reasons why I don't are the highly unusual circumstances we are facing. Under these conditions, I'm not forcing anyone. But if you could find someone with medical training who is willing to check up on John and give him his medication, it would be very helpful. Talk to your staff, if there is no one, talk to everyone in the military who has had extended medical training. Also, is there anything in the information that the Aronans gave you that might be useful?"

"They gave us lots of material. I have found some reference to drugs they used to suppress telepathic abilities, but apparently this concept was abandoned on Arona. I'll need to look further into it." Beckett was glad that there was at least something that he could do to remedy the disaster that he had inadvertently set off. He felt guilty even though he knew that it would have happened eventually, if he hadn't triggered it, someone else would have. People would always fear telepaths.

TBC