A/N: Thanks, everyone, for the wonderful reviews!
Part Three
"Carson, I feel fine! I'd like to get back to work." Rodney plucked at the IV in his arm. The glucose drip to which he was attached was almost empty and the skin around the needle itched.
The Scotsman looked exasperated. "Rodney, there's a wound in your chest from a Wraith that you received not four hours ago that looks a week old and you just had a hypoglycemic episode. You're going to stay right here, for the rest of the day at the very least. I'll want to take another blood sample from you later. If you still feel well tomorrow morning, you can go back to work."
Rodney slumped on the infirmary bed. "More blood? Okay, okay, Dracula. I'll stay. How's Sheppard?" He cast an almost furtive glance at the Major, who had fallen asleep while being examined, and now lay snoring gently on another bed.
Teyla, who was usually examined by the verbose Dr. Biro, chose that moment to return to the main infirmary with the expression Rodney had come to realize meant that she was exercising extreme patience. He'd had that look directed at him several times and wasn't quite sure why he disliked it intensely. She made straight for Rodney and Carson.
"The major is apparently suffering from nothing worse than exhaustion and a touch of anemia," Carson addressed his reply to both of them. "Which is odd, since he was the picture of health at his last exam just a few days ago. But a little rest, a little food and a few supplements should set him to rights."
"Doctor McKay, you look much better," Teyla greeted him after giving Carson her formal nod of acknowledgement. Rodney sat up straighter, gratified that she had noticed.
"I feel much better, but there's no telling Carson. He wants me to stay for observation." He directed a sour look at his friend. "Could I at least get some work done while I'm sitting here? I could get my laptop." He moved to hop down from the bed, but Carson pushed him back.
"I'm sure Teyla will fetch your laptop, won't you, love?" Beckett raised an eyebrow at Teyla, who smiled.
"It would be my pleasure. The device is in your lab, Doctor McKay?"
Rodney nodded, surprised by her response. He wasn't entirely comfortable with the Athosian beautiful women tended to make him nervous but he'd managed to avoid insulting her, partially because he tried to avoid getting involved in conversations with her. He didn't expect her to be so nice to him, though.
"I want you to try and take a nap, Rodney. Teyla can bring your laptop this evening. Perhaps you'd like to come by for dinner with the boys, lass?"
She smiled. "I would like that very much, Doctor. I will ask Lieutenant Ford to come as well, if you permit."
Rodney hated to admit it, but he'd fallen asleep almost right away after Teyla left. Some part of him was aware that he was dreaming he never confused reality with dreams but that didn't make the dream any less disturbing.
He felt chilled, not quite cold but not warm enough to be comfortable. It was the images that were disturbing: standing before a fully charged ZedPM, putting his hands on it and pulling the energy out of the device and into himself; the Wraith, its avaricious smile turned seductive as it sucked the life out of Sheppard and invited him to share; the even stranger image, although this one felt more real, more like an actual memory, of the Wraith with its feeding hand pressed against his own chest. He clutched its arm, feeling the unpleasantly rubbery, slightly damp texture of its skin under his fingers. He fought against it, and found himself pulling the cold vitality out of the Wraith like he had done to the ZedPM. It filled him, made him feel strong and sated, power moving sensuously through him to inhabit every cell and warm the spaces between. He wanted it all, and when he had pulled every drop of life from the Wraith, it crumbled into dust before his eyes.
He sat up, shuddering. "Oh God, it was a dream, please, it was just a dream!"
"It was just a dream, Rodney," a familiar voice sounded from a few feet away, and he looked over to see Sheppard on the hard, narrow infirmary bed next to his own. He was lying on his side, facing Rodney, one hand curled loosely under his chin. His eyes were closed.
"Major?" he asked tentatively. One hazel eye opened, then the other, and the soldier sighed deeply but didn't move.
"You were dreaming, Rodney. Actually, it sounded like you were enjoying it."
Rodney flushed. "You try dreaming about the Wraith and see how much you enjoy it," he snapped. Sheppard raised an eyebrow, and Rodney realized that his friend had undoubtedly already had plenty of nightmares about them. "Uh…sorry. I didn't mean to wake you, Major."
"You can call me John, you know." He stretched luxuriously, but didn't sit up. "And you didn't really wake me up. I was just dozing. Beckett got me up a little while ago to give me a shot. Why it couldn't have waited a little longer…" Sheppard grimaced.
"A shot?" Rodney was immediately fully alert and ready to freak out.
"Relax, McKay. It was just iron and B12, stuff like that." He waved his hand dismissively. "Beckett said I was a little anemic."
"He told me earlier." Rodney rubbed his hand the IV needle had been removed while he slept and plucked at the front of the ugly red scrubs Carson had insisted he change into. The thin cotton was slightly damp with sweat. "Major John what happened?"
"That's what I was going to ask you. What the hell happened to that Wraith? And what was that that attack you had? You started gagging, I thought you were going to choke, and then everything got kinda fuzzy. The next thing I know, I'm on the ground, Ford's telling me we're heading back to Atlantis, and I feel like I just ran a marathon and got run over by a truck at the finish line."
"How should I know?" Rodney replied, and his voice shook a little. "It grabbed me and " he really didn't want to remember this, but he was going to have to tell Carson and Elizabeth the grisly details. So far, he had only given them the basic facts. Maybe if he told Sheppard now, it would be easier to repeat later. The others hadn't encountered the Wraith face to face before Sheppard had.
"The thing was trying to feed on me. It burned like ice – like the blood in my veins had turned to liquid nitrogen." He put his hand lightly on his chest, feeling the gauze pad covering the Wraith's handiwork through the thin fabric of the scrubs. "It wasn't anything like Gall described. My head hurt so much I guess I passed out."
He glanced at Sheppard to see if the soldier was going to tease him about fainting, but his friend just nodded, looking supremely comfortable if slightly rumpled. John still lay on his side so he could watch the scientist, who had turned to dangle his legs over the side of the bed.
"When I woke up, I guess it was still " Rodney made a vague gesture towards the middle of his chest, "um holding me but it looked kind of dried out. Then it collapsed. Well, you saw it. There was hardly anything left. And then you came along, and kept asking me where the Wraith was. I still can't believe how long it took you to understand. And then it seemed to start all over again, the cold, I mean. But this time I couldn't breathe, and I was choking…and then I felt better and you were sick or something…"
"Or something," Sheppard agreed.
"In your case, Major, 'or something' doesn't seem to be anything serious." Beckett spoke from the doorway of his office.
"Didn't your mother ever tell you that eavesdropping is rude? How long have you been standing there?" Rodney demanded.
"Long enough," Carson replied cryptically, walking over to join them. "How are you feeling, Major?"
Sheppard rolled onto his back, put his hands behind his head and favored the physician with a lazy smile. "Okay. A little tired. Nothing a good night's sleep won't cure. Hopefully in my own quarters?"
"Ford and Teyla should be here soon with dinner. You can have a nice little picnic here in the infirmary, and if you eat everything on your plate I'll release you."
Sheppard nodded solemnly, then rolled his eyes as soon as Carson turned to Rodney, who concealed his laugh with a manufactured cough.
"Rodney " the Scotsman's face was suddenly serious, " – to tell you the truth, I have no idea why you aren't dead or dying. From what little we know of the Wraith, you should be." As he spoke, he performed a brief examination on the scientist.
"And you wonder," Rodney said with dripping sarcasm, "why I call medicine 'modern voodoo'. If I should be dead, perhaps we could go find another Wraith to finish the job properly? Really, Carson, if you don't mind, I'd prefer to keep living."
Beckett heaved a sigh. "As far as I can tell, there's nothing particularly wrong with you. Your blood pressure and temperature are slightly elevated, but after the day you've had that isn't unexpected. Your blood sugar is back to normal – " he made a sound of pure frustration, " –everything's within normal limits. You're healthy as a horse."
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Sheppard said dryly.
Rodney snorted. "If only I could get you to pay this much attention to me when I actually feel sick."
"There's so much we don't know about the Wraith, Rodney," Carson looked miserable, "I have no idea what it could have done to you or what to do if you get sick."
John half-expected to hear the 'Three-Hour Tour', Rodney's traditional doom-and-gloom speech; tried and true and tested, and oddly reassuring, because John knew that a sharp 'McKay!' would snap him out of it and he'd get down to business. And once Rodney shut his mouth and put his brain in gear, he could be relied on to pull a rabbit out of his ass and save the day.
That particular image short-circuited his current train of thought and he laughed out loud before he could stop himself. Carson and Rodney both stared at him in surprise, then shared a look that would have offended him on a normal day. Not that they ever had normal days on Atlantis.
"So can I go back to work now?" Rodney asked calmly. "Kavanagh and Simpson are sure to get into a screaming match if they're left unsupervised for too long. I feel fine."
Beckett, who was also expecting a McKay rant, was caught off guard. Flustered, he answered, "Yes," then as Rodney grinned in triumph and hopped off the bed, "tomorrow."
The Canadian subsided with a roll of his eyes and Sheppard realized the lack of rant was just a new tactic to get what he wanted, but Rodney didn't argue as Carson continued, "I'll draw some blood now, and later I'd like to take a few tissue samples – a cheek swab and a scraping from the wound the Wraith made. Stay here overnight and I'll release you in the morning, barring further complications, as long as you return for check-ups twice a day. And promise to come to me right away if you feel at all strange or unwell."
"Doctor McKay feels strange and unwell most of the time, to hear him talk," Ford's tone was light and humorous as he entered the infirmary laden with a tray of food, followed by Teyla bearing a second tray, Rodney's laptop tucked under her arm.
"Hanging around with all you military types is enough to make anyone feel odd. Carrying a gun lowers the average man's IQ by 50 points." Rodney's eyes lit up, though Sheppard wasn't sure if it was the food or the laptop that excited him. Carson took advantage of his distraction to insert a needle in his arm to draw blood.
"You carry a gun," Ford pointed out reasonably.
"I'm not average," was the simple and truthful reply.
"Doctor Beckett," Teyla smoothly cut off Ford's reply, "will you join us for the evening meal? There is plenty for all."
"No, thank you, m'dear." He efficiently withdrew the needle from Rodney's vein and taped a bit of gauze over the puncture site. "I promised to meet Elizabeth and let her know how my two least favorite patients are doing. I'm hoping to persuade her to break for dinner with me. I swear, if I could just get her and Major Sheppard here to eat properly, half my worries would be gone."
Teyla had to smile at Rodney as he looked from the laptop to the food, clearly unable to decide which he wanted first. Carson solved his quandary by taking the laptop and setting it on a shelf near the end of his bed.
"Don't let him have that until he's eaten, love," the doctor instructed Teyla. He grinned in answer to Rodney's scowl and left.
Ford passed the plates around and perched on the end of John's bed, so Teyla seated herself on Rodney's bed and began to eat. A moment later, she noticed the two soldiers staring at the scientist beside her.
Rodney was shoveling the food into his mouth as fast as he could chew and swallow it. The sight was both disgusting and fascinating, and she made herself look away.
"Slow down, Rodney, you'll choke!" John exclaimed, but Rodney took no notice of him.
"Teyla, hand me my laptop," Rodney asked as soon as he'd finished the last bite. She was amused when John cleared his throat and directed a pointed look at the Canadian, who flushed and ungraciously added, "please."
She took his plate and handed over the device. He was instantly engrossed by the machine and ignored them from that point on. At first, she remained seated on the end of his bed as she engaged in conversation with John and Ford, but as the evening wore on she became more and more uncomfortable, although she was unable to ascertain the cause. When she moved to a chair on the other side of John's bed so they could play a card game, the feeling eased, and she dismissed it from her mind.
Rodney didn't even notice when Carson returned and shooed Teyla and Ford away. To his surprise, when he took the laptop away from Rodney an hour later, the scientist didn't fuss. He sat quietly through the cheek swab, looked away when the doctor carefully scraped some skin from the half-healed Wraith wound, and lay down to sleep without any objections.
"Alright, Rodney, what's the matter? You're never this quiet." Beckett tried to keep his tone light, but failed miserably.
The frown on his friend's face was so familiar Carson's worries nearly disappeared.
"Nothing's wrong. I'm tired, okay? It was a long day. Near-miss Wraith victim, here. I'm amazed the shock alone didn't kill me."
Carson just smiled and told him goodnight before moving over to Sheppard. After a brief examination, he released the major from the infirmary and said goodnight.
"Rodney – " John started while he changed from hospital scrubs into his own off-duty clothes, a serious look on his face, "I'm not sure I've ever really talked to you about this, and it's as much my fault as yours. I didn't even notice you weren't with us back there. But when we're off-world, you can't just go wandering off on your own. If you want to check something out, let me know." He ran hand wearily through his hair, making it stick up in all directions. "When I spotted the Wraith, and then realized that you weren't with us…jeez, Rodney, I thought my heart was going to stop." Rodney was on the verge of saying something rude and defensive, but that statement stopped him in his tracks. Taking notice, John continued, "I figure we both learned our lesson today, and I won't bring up the subject again. Okay?"
Rodney changed tacks with lightning speed and waved a hand dismissively. "Yes, yes, fault on both sides, no wandering off alone, no need to say any more. Now get out of here so I can get some sleep."
John grinned and left, leaving the scientist to his rest.
TBC...
