Carson figured he'd had it coming. Once the duty physician had gotten over his near-panic at treating the boss, he politely but firmly laid down the law. He'd made Carson change into a pair of those ridiculous red scrubs and submit to a physical, all the while ignoring his repeated complaints. Finally, exasperated, the younger physician had said, "Dr. Beckett, if you don't cooperate I'm going to call security" and fixed him with a glare that would have intimidated even General O'Neill.

Carson recognized his own words and subsided. "Attila the bloody Hun," he muttered.

"What was that, Carson?" asked McKay as he stepped around the privacy curtain. "Bedside manner problem?"

"Rodney..." Carson said warningly.

"Right. How are you feeling after fain..."

"Not. One. More. Word." said Carson through gritted teeth.

McKay relented. "Allright, I'm sorry. What's going on? You bit my head off, Zelenka's, Dr. Whats-his-name's over there. Who're you going for next? Bates? He'll kick your ass."

Carson couldn't help but smile at that. "He wouldn't. Even the redoubtable Sergeant Bates needs medical clearance to go through the gate."

McKay cast a critical eye on his friend. Carson had lost weight and looked like he hadn't slept in days. There were dark shadows under his eyes, he had the beginnings of a beard, and his hair looked like a cross between Sheppard's and Zelenka's on a bad day.

"Are you okay? You look like hell." McKay said frankly.

Carson snorted. "Ever the soul of tact, Rodney." He was silent for a moment, then burst out. "I hate feeling helpless like this! We're really running low on medical supplies, and I'm responsible not just for the lot of you, but the Athosians, too. Half the time I feel like I don't even know what I'm doin'! Alien bugs? Wraith? My God, this wasn't covered in any class I ever took." His voice suddenly became very soft. "And I have to watch as a good friend and colleague slowly dies of something that I could have treated at home, if not cured."

McKay looked sad. "She's getting worse?"

"I should'na have said anything. Keep this under your hat, lad."

"There's nothing in the database? What about your medical Magic 8 ball?"

"You mean the one that almost fried my brain? Sure, it tells me what I can do if I had all of Earth's resources at my disposal. I was crazy to think that I could just wave my hands, mix two alien plants together, and come up with a cure for cancer." Carson said bitterly.

In some ways, this was better, though. So soon after Hoff, he didn't think that he could have dealt with trying an experimental drug on a patient. In retrospect, how could he have been so cavalier about the gene therapy?

"Well. Elizabeth's about to brief us on yet another trading mission for food. We should also see if we can trade for medical supplies and knowledge."

One of the nurses appeared just then. "Dr. Beckett, they're ready for you in the scanner."

"I should be goin' to that briefing!" Carson growled.

McKay stood up. "Be good, Beckett." he said chidingly. "Are they going to let you loose after that?"

"Nae. I'm here for the night. 'Observation'."

"Good. Maybe now you'll actually sleep." And McKay left, saying something under his breath about payback and female dogs.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Zelenka peered over the tops of his glasses at Carson. He'd called almost as soon as Carson had been discharged from the infirmary with a warning of dire consequences if he didn't rest and eat. McKay figured that the duty physician had taken a Valium as soon as the Chief Medical Officer was out of sight.

"Do you know how lucky you are?" Zalenka asked as they stood around a bench in his lab. "You could have been left with brains of turnip."

"Or Kavanagh."

"Rodney!"

"Sorry."

Zelenka cleared his throat and continued. "As I was saying, you were almost grilled bread."

"Toast," whispered McKay.

Zelenka pointed down at one of the cubes. "It seems they work by connecting your brain to the medical database. By using one part of the computer for analysis of the cubes while connected by the cubes to a different part of the computer..."

"... you set up a positive feedback loop..."

"If we hadn't broken your connection to the chair, poof!" finished Zelenka.

"Poof!"

"I'm sorry, Rodney, that I cannot come up with more scientific word. You know what I mean.."

"An engineer needs to be more precise than 'poof', Radek!"

"We're not exactly presenting at a conference..." Zelenka stopped. "Where's Carson?"

He was sitting on a stool behind them with his head down on the lab bench. Without opening his eyes, he said, "I'll be over here when yer finished."

Zelenka and McKay looked at each other over Carson's head. They'd never seen him look so drained. "Ah, you want we should do this later?" Zelenka asked.

Carson picked his head up, his normally electric blue eyes dulled with fatigue. "Please, just get on with it."

"There isn't much more to tell. We're still not sure where the cube draws its power from, but I'll keep working on it," said Zelenka. "One thing, though. If I didn't know better, I'd think that it was actually Major Sheppard in the chair yesterday doing your work. You've never used it that easily."

"I've never used it to try to save someone's life before."

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Teyla stood in the doorway to Carson's office, where his head was buried in a molecular biology journal. A cup of his jealously-guarded stash of tea sat on the desk at his elbow with a half-eaten sandwich on a plate next to it. He ignored both as he alternately read and typed notes on his computer.

After a minute, Teyla spoke. "You wished to see me, Dr. Beckett?"

He looked up. "Aye, Teyla. Please, sit." Carson gestured absently towards one of the chairs.

As Teyla did so, she looked at him solemnly. "Should you not be resting, doctor? I have heard of your latest encounter with the city's control chair."

Carson shook his head. "I'll be fine. It's the rest of the city I'm worryin' about. You know how low our medical supplies are."

Teyla nodded. She did know. Several weeks ago, she had started training in basic first aid and emergency medical skills with him. It had been Carson's idea to increase the number of personnel in the city who could handle a medical emergency. If the Wraith ever came, they would need every trained medic they could find.

Now Carson was looking annoyed. "Rodney told me that the four of ye were leaving on a trading mission. I'd like you to report back to me if there are any supplies or medical knowledge worth trading for." He'd wanted to go on the mission himself, but Elizabeth had vetoed it, not wanting to compromise the city's medical readiness.

"Is there anything specific you would like me to look for?"

"Depends on how advanced the culture is that you'll be dealing with. We really can use anything, though. At this point, we figured we would have found supplies or some sort of synthesizer here in Atlantis."

"Of course. I will inform Major Sheppard, so he will know what questions to ask our hosts."

"Good enough, love. Thank ye greatly." Then he looked down at his journal, returning to his studies.

Teyla hesitated. She knew he was worried about one of his people, but she did not know exactly what was wrong. She started to say something, to offer to help in some way, but then stopped. What could she really do? Instead, she inclined her head slightly and headed back to the gateroom to leave.

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Elizabeth and Carson stood at the rail in the gateroom, watching as the primary team prepared to move out through the Stargate. Sheppard was checking his pack and saying something to McKay, who looked indignant. Ford was trying not to laugh at them. Teyla looked up at the two figures against the rail and nodded.

Elizabeth turned to Peter Grodin and gave him the okay to dial the gate. When the wormhole opened, she called out. "All right, you have a go. Try not to get yourselves too bashed up this time!"

As the wormhole closed again, she turned to Carson. "Keep a medical team on standby. Somehow, I just don't have a good feeling about this."

"Aye. I think I know how you feel."

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