Chapter 4- Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire

Major Sheppard strolled through the infirmary dead set on seeing McKay and carrying a tray of food, and that meant seeing Garin too he supposed. The place was still empty, just the way Carson liked it, except for the backroom, where John approached now.

"Sgt. Bates."

"Major Sheppard sir."

John stopped and turned to him, "How long have you been here?"

"Since 0600, Sgt. Stackhouse was here during the night."

"Well it's not necessary any longer, you're dismissed."

"Sir-"

John forcefully reordered his command, "Dismissed."

"Yes sir." Bates left reluctantly but quickly and quietly as John thought the door open and stepped in. The two chairs were still there and McKay was standing by the window so his back was turned to the door.

"Rodney?" John called almost whispering.

"No."

"Garin?"

"Yes."

John never had to deal with a friend with this particular problem before and he felt odd. After a moment of awkward silence John spoke, "Well, can I speak to Rodney?"

Garin turned around as he said, "You need not ask." His head shook like before with Kate.

"Rodney?"

"Who else who I be Major? Wait, that was a stupid question. Food!" He took it gratefully from him, "You got one hell of a shiner don't you? I didn't know this body could hit that hard."

"It's courtesy of Garin. So how you doing?" He sat down in Kate's chair, resting his right arm on its back.

Rodney snarked with a mouthful of a relative to the potato, "For a man who's just been told he's nuts I'm terrific."

"You're not nuts…you have a type of…disorder." John could see a calm fear behind Rodney's eyes, not overwhelming and hysterical like he was in dangerous situations.

Rodney set the tray down on the small bedside table and gripped the back of the other chair so tightly his knuckles turned white, "Which is a nice way of saying I've lost my marbles somewhere in this galaxy, or maybe I left them back on Earth."

"Look, you'll be fine, this is fixable."

"Yeah, so I've been told." Rodney sat down. "This really sucks. I have all these projects running and I'm stuck in here for who knows how long."

"Dr. Heightmeyer said she'll release you to your quarters in a little while."

"Trading one prison for another. Perfect. Who all knows about this anyway?"

"Other than me, Beckett, and Heightmeyer, just Dr. Weir and Zelenka and Grodin since she has them running the science department in your absence. Bates and his team don't really know anything but what they've seen. You're geeks and everyone else were told you're under Beckett's orders to rest."

"So only the senior staff, Zelenka, and Grodin know I'm insane, at least no one else knows."

"You're not insane, well, not technically."

"Thanks Major, that really helps." He snipped and rubbed his face.

"I do what I can." He faked a grin, this really did suck.

"Gentlemen."

Both men looked up and saw Dr. Weir just on the inside of the door.

"Elizabeth. Well, isn't this a party now. Did you happen to bring me anything, preferably my nice little laptop?" Rodney made the motion of 'air-typing.'

"No, I didn't. Besides you're not supposed to work today, or tomorrow, or until Kate and Carson agree you can." She hoped it would be soon though, she hated seeing him like this.

"Which won't be until this Garin goes away right?" Suddenly Rodney shouted out of frustration aiming his shouts to his own mind, "Go away Garin!"

John quietly said, "I don't think it works like that."

Rodney shrugged, "It was worth a shot anyway."

---

Dr. Kate Heightmeyer had walked back to her office after the meeting, she needed to do some research on the subject before she went further in diagnoses or treatment. Built-in shelves were behind her and they continued a small way on the side walls, loaded with books she brought from Earth. The room also had a sitting area where she talked to patients.

She was sitting at her desk with a stack of books sprawled about, the present one she was looking through was the DSM-IV, its full title being the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders edition Four, open to the section on dissociative disorders. No wonder why all professionals referred to it as the DSM, try to say that title three times fast. The book was large, a couple inches thick, and dog-eared from previous use.

Not only is DID the most famous of the dissociative disorders, it is also one of the most controversial. Even the name is an issue, internationally it is still known as MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder) but the American Psychiatry Association lists it in the DSM as DID. The skeptics of this condition consider it a fad and that people who are diagnosed with it are simply role playing. Of course Rodney just had to present the major symptoms of this disorder.

She finished using the DSM and opened another book for a different perspective. The sudden onset of Rodney's condition is what really bothered her. She flipped the pages until she found what she was looking for.

"Kate."

She looked up and saw Dr. Beckett in his white lab coat. "I didn't even know you were in here Carson... you haven't been standing there long have you? I know I can space out when I'm working."

He sat down in the chair facing her desk and eyed the mess of books, "Just a few moments. Anything I can do to help?"

She looked at the shelf to the side of him and pointed, "Yes, could you hand me that book? The blue one who's binding reads 'The International Society for the Study of Dissociation.'"

He stood up and moved to the shelf, "That's all? Good, because I'm no psychologist."

"That honor falls to me."

He pulled it out and read off the title, " 'Guidelines for treating Dissociative Identity Disorder, or Multiple Personality Disorder in Adults.' This is why I'm a medical doctor, I like to see what's wrong with my patients." He handed the book to her.

Taking it, "Thanks." After a moment she continued, "There's one aspect that is really odd about this case, the acuteness of it."

Carson sat back down, "It did come out of nowhere."

Kate tapped her pencil, "I had a client, one of those who went just went for therapy periodically to talk, and he suddenly started showing the main characteristics of depersonalization disorder. He described having sporadic moments of feeling as if he was in a dream, I didn't even have time to diagnose him. It lasted not even for a week. When I left for this expedition and referred him to my colleague, he still hadn't had a recurrence."

"If I recall, that's also a dissociative disorder."

"Yes, yes it is. The man also had been through some terrible things in his past, but nothing within a few months. There only have been a couple documented cases like this because they last only a little while, and anyone experiencing symptoms for that short duration would pass it off as a bad week."

"We happened to have a resident psychologist. Do you believe this will also pass?"

She shook her head, "I can't say, but one can hope. Psychology is a relatively new branch of science, so much is uncharted. It wasn't that long ago doctors were putting patients in what were basically machines of torture."

"According to Rodney, we still do." They both managed to laugh a little.

Kate started to gather a few things, "If he thinks his science is the only real science, then we're both voodoo priests."

"Our voodoo has saved everyone here time and time again."

"Yours more than mine. Though I keep busy, there's so much to cope with here."

"I heal their bodies, you heal their minds."

Kate smiled and stood, "That's what I'm off to do now. Would you like to walk with me to see Rodney? Depending on how it goes, I'll release him to his quarters."

Carson stood, "By all means, let's make our way."

---

The commander of Atlantis, the ranking military officer, and chief scientist were still in the backroom of the infirmary. John had given Elizabeth his chair and was now seated on the edge of the bed, and they had moved the chairs and formed a semi-circle. Elizabeth was in one, Rodney the other.

Their conversation had turned to discussing the SGC, then other Earth things. The three had managed to temporarily forget the reason they were in the room, and somehow in her attempt to ease Rodney's mind, Elizabeth found herself defending her favorite outdoor pastime, baseball, from the two men.

Rodney leaned back on his chair, "Oh come one, it's hitting a piece of cowhide with a stick."

"It's more than that Rodney, it's a difficult sport that requires concentration and skill."

John commented, "I would rather just watch football."

Rodney turned his attention to the Major, "That's even worse, running with a ball of pig hide down a field."

John grinned, "And I suppose hockey's better? A bunch of people in ice skates pushing around a flat black piece of rubber with sticks."

"That's not the point."

Elizabeth smiled, "Is there a point to this conversation?"

"No, not really." John grinned and that set them off laughing.

"Let's just agree that all sports are borderline absurd." Elizabeth barely got that sentence out.

"I'll drink to that." John automatically reached out for an invisible glass, "But we don't have anything to drink…" The three continued to laugh, Elizabeth leaning forward and covering her mouth, Major Sheppard scratching his head, and Rodney was sitting cross-legged, bowing his head and resting his hand on his face.

The laughter had calmed down when John and Elizabeth noticed Rodney wasn't laughing anymore. Elizabeth looked up at John, and turned back to Rodney, "Are you alright?" She placed a hand on his back.

"I'm fine." He sniffed and brushed her away.

"McKay," John paused, "Rodney, we're here, you can talk to us."

"And we'll always be here or just a page away."

Rodney looked up, his face slightly red, "What am I supposed to say, huh? We're all in agreement that this thoroughly sucks and that it's a possibly I could be 'normal' again. But there still is that overlying factoid that I have a mental disorder. After everything in this galaxy, a mental problem stops me dead in my tracks; not the Wraith, not a black energy-sucking cloud, not a nanovirus, not Kolya, my own mind!"

"There have been brilliant people in the past that have battled the abnormal." Elizabeth said compassionately.

"But they weren't me. They weren't in a galaxy far, far away living in a city built by a race thousands of years ago battling a life form that uses humans as food."

Major Sheppard looked at the door, "More visitors."

Carson and Kate stepped in the room, Kate talking, "It is getting a little crowded isn't it?"

Rodney scoffed, "With all six of us."

The other four senior staff of Atlantis quickly did a mental head count, five, and then immediately realized he was counting Garin.

Kate looked at the others, "I would like to be left alone with him, if you all would excuse us."

Elizabeth got out of the chair, "No problem. We'll see you later, Rodney."

"Bye McKay." John followed suit.

Rodney gave a sarcastic wave.

Xxx xxx

Rodney was sitting in his chair at his desk, flipping through one of the physics books he brought along to Pegasus. He would much rather be watching one of his The Outer Limits DVD's, but they just had to remove his laptop from his room because it had his work on it.

It had been one remarkable day, and not in a good way.

After another mind grueling session with Kate Heightmeyer, he was indeed released to his quarters, but he couldn't work or go anywhere without someone with him. There was still a risk of Garin becoming violent and attempting to restart his own drug-making factory. Kate had been unsuccessful in retrieving information on the chemical Garin had made, but he had assured her it wasn't harmful.

"Finally."

Rodney spun around to see where the stern voice had come from, and jumped back at the sight of… Sigmund Freud.

At seeing Rodney's expression and behavior, the man said, "I thought this form would be suitable, considering the psychologist has come to see you and this figure was instrumental in developing psychology on Earth. Or would you rather I take my own form?"

Freud suddenly turned into a middle-aged man, his hair still dark brown, and was about Rodney's height, but Major Sheppard's build. He was dressed in white linen. "Dr. Rodney McKay, let me say I feel as if I know you."

Rodney stood up, noticing that this man was blocking the door, "Who the hell are you?"

"My real name is Dr. Garin Trelio."

Rodney's gestures became a little wild. "Excuse me? What are you doing here?! Aren't you supposed to be inside my head?"

"This may seem like your quarters, but it is not." The room suddenly changed and they were standing in front of the Stargate, no one else was around. Rodney turned around and searched the room, unable to express what was going through his head.

Garin continued, "We are in your mind. Our mind, well, it's really mine now. Let me use a quote from that show you watch, modified a little of course, 'Do not attempt to adjust your mind. I now control all that you see and hear.'" He ended with a smirk that chilled Rodney to his bones.


TBC…