Patience had never been one of John Sheppard's strong suits, so sitting around the infirmary all day was torture, although he'd threatened Beckett into letting him stay at Elizabeth's side. John didn't understand much of the medical babble that Carson and Rodney were using, but he knew that something was very wrong.
Beckett had been tipped off that morning that there might be a problem with Elizabeth when he'd gotten around to analyzing her blood sample. She was highly anemic and her white blood cell count was almost nonexistent. Once Elizabeth had been brought in, they realized that the age reversal was taking a much more serious physiological toll than anyone had previously thought. John and Rodney were – for now – protected by the ancient gene, but they still didn't understand how, and knew it wouldn't be permanent. John hadn't heard them start to give any time estimates yet, but he knew it couldn't be long, considering the condition of the girl sleeping beside him in an isolation room that had been set up for her.
He heard a cough behind him and turned around in his chair to see that Elizabeth wasn't actually asleep anymore. He tried to offer her a smile, "Hey, there."
"John?" she asked once the coughing subsided. "Are we on Atlantis?"
"Yeah…did you have another dream?" He took her silence as a yes. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired…sore. Where's Carson?"
"With Rodney. You need him?" She shook her head, her mind finally clearing enough that she could take in his appearance – he was wearing a far-too-large drape over his clothes, had a mask over his face, and for the first time since she had met him, his hair had actually been tamed and was underneath a little cap.
"What's going on?"
"Well, apparently you've also got a pretty good talent for making a mess of things."
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "That's your specialty."
"I know, and I don't like the competition, so cut it out." She cracked a smile. "Carson insisted on all this junk, though, if I wanted to stay with you. Apparently someone caught a rather nasty respiratory infection last night. Can't imagine how…" At least the mock-glare he was giving her earned him a small smile.
"You actually stayed?" she asked, a bit of awe in her voice.
"I told you I would."
"Thank you."
"Don't worry about it."
"So…how bad?"
"You want the short version or the long version?"
"Short."
"The Doc and Rodney are working on it." Elizabeth rolled her eyes.
"Okay, long."
"Your immune system has pretty much disappeared in the past two days."
"Related to our little trip in time?"
"Mmm-hmm. If you had the ancient gene…"
"Story of my life. Keep going."
"Well, like I said, Carson and Rodney are working on it. I think they've almost got a plan to turn us back."
"Almost?"
"Yeah."
"Will 'almost' be in time?"
"It'll have to be, won't it? You'll be back to running this place in no time." Elizabeth sighed.
"I had so much to do today…"
"No one's going to let this city fall apart on you." She was quiet for a long moment.
"I dream about the Wraith coming," she told him. "Taking the city, feeding off of everyone…but not me."
"Not you?"
"No…they keep me alive to see them destroy Earth." He didn't know what to say. The same thing was his most terrible nightmare, only worse because it was his fault the Wraith had awakened. "If I'm in here," Elizabeth spoke up, changing the subject, "And you're in here and Rodney's in the labs: who's running the city now?"
"I put Bates in temporary control."
She stared. "You're kidding."
"I didn't see what other option I had. Until you're back to top form, everyone else is taking care of things. So don't worry about the city." She finally conceded.
"Do you know if they're making any progress?" Elizabeth asked as she caught a glimpse of Carson talking with another doctor across the room.
"I'm not sure. I think Rodney wanted to run a test with the gate a little while ago, but I don't know what the results were. You want me to go ask?"
"No…stay here." He took her hand again.
"Yes, ma'am."
Several hours later, Carson and Rodney were in the Gate Room, trying to reconfigure the Stargate to reverse the de-aging. They'd spent every second on it since Elizabeth had been brought into the infirmary the previous morning, knowing they were racing against the clock. She was protected from any further illness, but the one she already had was doing a number.
"Have you managed to stabilize the event horizon?" Rodney called up the stairs to Grodin, who was at the dialing computer. They'd been having some problems with getting the right energy signatures once Rodney had added his modifications.
"I think so," Peter called back.
They'd chosen a planet they knew to be safe and unoccupied as the target. Once they got to the other side, they were to wait five minutes for the gate to be modified, dial back to Atlantis, and then come home, hopefully arriving as their normal adult selves. They had to get everything right the first time – there was no way to test the gate before the three of them went through.
"You better do more than 'think'," Rodney shot back.
"It'll be stable," he amended.
"Sheppard to Beckett," he heard John's voice over his headset.
"Go ahead, John."
"Elizabeth's gotten worse – she's coughing up blood!" Carson exchanged a look with Rodney.
"I'll be right there," he told John. "How long do you need?" he asked Rodney.
"I don't know…a couple hours."
"I can probably only keep her stable for one." Rodney sighed as the doctor left.
"Then we've got one."
It took quite a bit of scrambling around, but they actually were ready to go sixty-eight minutes later when Carson returned with John on his heels and Elizabeth in his arms. Both boys helped keep her on her feet once Beckett put her down.
"Dial it up!" John demanded of the officer that was at the computer upstairs. The chevrons started lighting up, and then the event horizon formed. The three children disappeared through it, and a few moments later, the gate shut down. The scientists in the room hurriedly began making the needed changes to the gate.
Bates descended from the control room to stand with Beckett. "If this doesn't work…" he commented to the doctor, who shook his head dismissively.
"It'll work.
Despite that assertion, no one in the control room was happier to see the three people who came through the gate a few minutes later. It had been a long few days, but at least everything had worked out in the end.
