Chapter 8-Through Sickness and in Health
Dr. Garin Trelio woke up on his back in Rodney McKay's bed and automatically rolled on his right side and reached out. He patted the bed, feeling around, but found no one. He grunted as he opened his eyes, sat up, threw the covers off, and went over to take a shower. Thankfully since McKay was one of the senior staff, he had one of the best quarters they had found yet, with a private bathroom.
He then proceeded to get dressed and headed to the mess hall for breakfast and then planned on setting off to the lab. He walked through the halls remembering the faces of his former colleagues that he would have greeted, but instead seeing the faces of the Atlantis Expedition.
Walking into the mess hall and picking up a tray, he looked over at the corner and Elana was already there, eating and looking at a file. After hurriedly getting some food, he headed over and sat down across from her.
"Morning."
She looked up and smiled, "Hello."
"You were gone when I woke up."
She sighed and leaned forward, "We can't exactly have the resident psychologist leaving her patient's quarters in the mornings. It wouldn't look… good." She leaned back.
"I know that, you could have told me you were leaving though." Garin moped, picking at his food.
"You know how you sleep, I could smack you in the face and you wouldn't wake up." She smiled at the memories of trying to get him out of bed every morning, literally having to drag him out to wake him.
He knew it was true and cheered up a little, "Yes, anyway how's your schedule for the day?"
"Apparently Kate scheduled today off, but I plan on reviewing her files. Memories sometimes do not suffice in these matters. You?"
"Lab work. I have the science department to run and Rodney liked to do everything himself. He kept extremely busy."
"Maybe you should delegate more work to the others. I'm sure they're qualified, I could even do most of the things they're doing."
"That's what makes it so frustrating. I could do a good part of the work in my sleep." He drank a sip of coffee, "So, you talk to Kate yet?"
Elana set her fork down, "Excuse me?"
"Talk to her in her mind…"
Her mouth dropped open, "You talk to Rodney?"
"I have before. He's lying on a couch right now by the Gate, attempting to think of a way to assert control."
She leaned forward, "He's conscious! Garin, I can't believe you!"
"It's not that big of a deal."
"Yes it is! You're torturing the man! At least I have Kate in a constant black out."
Garin reached across the table and put his hand over hers, "Calm down, Elana."
She pulled her hand away and put it in her lap speaking sternly, "Don't touch me. You are not the man I married. Something happened to you after I was attacked on that planet and I need to know what at this very moment or I am walking away from here, from you, from this life."
"It was nothing. Now please-"
She softened her voice, "I know it is a conflict of interest to have you as a patient, but I don't see any other choice. Something has changed you, and it had to be dreadful. I can help you, it's what I do. Let me."
He shook his head and replied forcefully, "No, I can't."
She sighed, "You know where to find me when you decide to." She stood and walked away, leaving her tray, "I have to go." She was fighting back tears as she hurriedly left the mess hall.
Major Sheppard had been sitting quietly on the other side of the mess hall, catching a quick breakfast when he saw McKay walk in and make a bee-line for Kate. He didn't think anything of it until he noticed Kate pulling her hand from Rodney's and looking very upset, and then ultimately leaving him sitting there looking stunned and angry. It looked like they just had a lovers' quarrel, but he thought that wasn't possible.
He turned his tray in and made his way to the corner table, where McKay was sitting, staring out of the window at the city and the ocean. He sat down, "McKay, what's going on?"
Garin snapped, "Nothing, absolutely nothing," and left John sitting there, wondering what the hell was going on with Rodney McKay, and now with Kate. He got up and followed.
Garin Trelio stormed out of the mess hall and turned down the hallway. He had to find Elana before she discovered the truth. He had just ruined all his plans by revealing to Elana that one piece of information, she didn't take ethical matters lightly. It was hard enough convincing her to give this a chance. He couldn't tell her what happened after he made a duplicate of her mind, those two weeks had been the worst of his life and he wanted to push he memories away, start a new life, and forget what he had done out of anger, spite, and resentment.
The last thing he remembered was people banging at his office door and copying his own mind as a last resort. He was that copied consciousness, as was Elana, they wouldn't remember their deaths. He could only speculate what happened after he copied himself, but he knew he wouldn't have let them take him alive.
---
Elana went directly into the transporter, wiping her eyes. The doors closed and she pressed the coordinates in. Garin had an experience after he copied her consciousness and before he copied his own, and she had to find out what. A memory she had fought for the past day suddenly came flooding back at that thought.
"Wraith are in the city, all non military to the transport!"
Elana heard the call over the private communicators they all had, and made her way to the Bay, she turned a corner and ran right into a male Wraith. He snarled and put his hand on her chest, starving. She could feel her life being taken, pain surging throughout her body, forcing her to her knees, and it seemed as if it was forever before it stopped. When it did, she saw a soldier standing over the knocked-out Wraith and who then promptly shot him.
"Dr. Trelio, let's get you back to Atlantis."
She looked down at her hands and was in a state of shock, they looked so old…
-
She was lying in a hospital bed late at night, Garin in a chair next to her, his head bowed, her eyes fluttered open.
He looked up with a red face, obviously he had been crying, "Elana…"
"It's bad, I know." She whispered.
"No, you'll be fine." He tried to convince her and himself.
"I should have never left Atlantis…"
His mind snapped with an idea, "I can fix this."
"Your research?"
"Yes." He picked her frail body up and made his way to his private lab and office. "I haven't had the chance to go to a real trial yet, but I can copy you now and then I'll…" He sniffed, "I'll make you a clone once the process is perfected." He walked into his lab and entered some things in his computer with one hand, still holding her. "I love you."
"Love you too." She placed her hand on the panel.
Elana shook off the horrible memory and walked through a dark hall, one the expedition hadn't explored yet and stopped outside the library. She stepped in, the library didn't contain shelves of books, but rows of consoles. She looked around at the consoles that had been covered with material and went over to one, pulling the sheet off, revealing the monitor.
She took off the headset radio, not noticing the earring that came off with it, put it aside, and turned the console on. She started going through the database, looking for the articles from the time from the attack on the other city and the days after, which she found knowing exactly where to search. She began reading.
-The Wraith attack on Anfalas has left the outskirt city destroyed and hundreds dead… … …
-The whole population of Atlantis gathered on the Northernmost Pier to send Dr. Elana Trelio off into death. She was attacked by a Wraith and passed away yesterday here in the city. Dr. Zachary Hulin spoke at the ceremony:
"It is with heavy hearts that we are all here today. Elana was not only my sister and my friend, she was the hope in all of us. I am sure Dr. Garin Trelio would agree with me as I say she was one of the most talented psychologists among her colleagues. Most of us have lost loved ones in the war, and one thing we could be sure of the very moment news came in, was an empty seat in her office and her waiting with an open ear ……"
Her tears came back, "Oh Zach…" It was bizarre to read the speech from her funeral. She moved on to the next articles.
-Dr. Garin Trelio has been relieved of his duties by the Council upon the discovery of his plans to use his research to resurrect his wife, Psychologist Elana Trelio, in a cloned body that is not genetically her, and develop a mind-suppressant. The damage to her original body had been too great for him to use its cells… … …He led the team that restructured Atlantis and his absence will be felt. His work will be passed on to the rest of the team in hopes it will lead to results…
-Dr. Garin Trelio has refused to stop his research and leave his work to the other scientists, and confronted Council Member Davis in his office, requiring security to remove him…
-Authorities are investigating Council Member Davis's death. He was found last night strangled in his quarters. This comes after another homicide, Council Member Lockhart who was found in her office, struck by a blow to her head…
-Dr. Garin Trelio was killed last night in a scuffle in his private office by authorities who were attempting to take him into custody. Surveillance had revealed Dr. Trelio committing the recent murders. His office has been ordered sealed and the research abandoned due to its corrupting and degenerative nature……
Elana stared at the screen, her eyes darting back and forth at the words that told her husband had become a murderer after her death. He must have copied his consciousness into his computer shortly before they came for him. She laid her head in her arms on the console and cried alone, the sobs echoing in the empty room.
---
He turned the corner and literally ran into Dr. Weir, the person Rodney McKay knew the longest out of the whole expedition. She had requested he be put on the Atlantis Project and transferred to the Antarctica Outpost, and being as influential as she was, it happened within a week. Got him out of Russia faster than he could pack.
Garin grumbled an apology and tried leaving quickly but Elizabeth stepped in his way, "Rodney, is everything alright?" Her years as a diplomat taught her to read people's emotions in an instant.
Garin stopped facing her, "I'm fine Elizabeth. Don't worry about it." Garin did respect Dr. Weir, leading an expedition to another galaxy and discovering an enemy they knew nothing about.
Rodney was back up in his world's Control Room, Garin returning the screen show when he woke up that morning. He considered this hell, and there was no one he could talk to about it, even Garin had been missing in action since he left to make the mind-suppressant. As much as he hated the man, now Rodney was utterly alone.
It was now the fourth day since Garin had taken complete control, and Rodney couldn't believe he was still in this situation, that he had watched helplessly as Kate was brought into it. This was tearing him up, not being able to find a way out, and relying on others to save him when normally he'd be the one with some brilliant plan.
Garin still had full control, and unless he relinquished it or let his guard down, there seemed to be nothing Rodney could do.
He was wondering how Garin's wife was, if she was like him at all and doing the same thing with Kate in her mind. He hoped she was more humane.
He was rubbing his face in frustration when Garin had bumped into Elizabeth. If anyone, she had to know something was wrong, Garin couldn't be that skilled of an actor could he? Major Sheppard and Elizabeth should know…
Elizabeth eyed the man standing before her, he was acting completely different then when she saw him the day before, after lunch, walking with Dr. Heightmeyer. Yesterday he looked… happy, happier than she had seen him for a long time, and Kate was well… that was tough.
They had a brief meeting yesterday morning and even then she was acting content, but Elizabeth knew there was something beneath that emotion. She had tried to find Kate the night before to discuss some things, lend an ear, but couldn't find her. After all, who was the resident psychologist supposed to confide in? Now Rodney was upset and storming off somewhere.
"We can go on one of the balconies if you need to talk, one of the search teams just found a secluded one about a minute away."
Garin shook his head, "No, that's alright, I just need to take a walk." He moved around her, somehow being unable to defy her forcefully.
Elizabeth gave a slight smile and followed on his left side, "Then I'll walk with you."
He glanced over at the figure of Elizabeth walking next to him and thought she was one delicately persuasive woman and protective of the people in her command. He would have to watch out for her, be careful of what he said around her.
They went around a corner in silence and heard a shout behind them, "Hey, wait up!" They stopped and turned around to see Major Sheppard strolling towards them.
Garin was silently swearing, the two people in the whole city that would be the ones to tell he wasn't really Rodney McKay had now, without knowing it, gained up on him. But it provided him with a chance to sneak off.
Elizabeth greeted him, "Major."
Before John had a chance to respond, Garin cut in, "I have work to do." He hurriedly turned back around and stepped into the transporter, feeling their inquisitive eyes on his back the whole way.
After the transporter doors closed, John commented, "That was… weird."
"Yes it was. He's acting… I can't place it, but something is on his mind and he won't talk about it."
"You've noticed it too?"
Elizabeth looked around the hallway and saw the insane amount of people, "Let's go talk in my office."
They walked quickly, but without drawing extra attention to themselves, up to Elizabeth's office and closed the door.
"So Major, what do you have to tell me?"
John shifted his weight, "Not much exactly except I have had this nagging feeling about him since the day after Heightmeyer and Beckett released him from the infirmary. Something just isn't right."
Elizabeth sighed, "Same here. Anyone else you know of that feels this way?"
"Teyla and Ford noticed a subtle change in his sparring and Grodin and Zelenka think he's even more high-and-mighty in the lab than usual."
"And no one tells me these things!"
"Well, it's not anything really specific, feelings really, and you always seem to be in one meeting or another lately, you know making sure the city is running smoothly."
"I'll let you all off this time. I'll contact Dr. Heightmeyer." She keyed her radio, "Heightmeyer, it's Weir, come in." She listened for a moment but got no response, "Kate?" Still nothing.
---
After a minute, Elana pulled herself together, got up from the console, set everything back, picked up the headset that she hadn't heard go off, and left the library. She knew she had to go somewhere to talk to Kate, somewhere where Garin couldn't find her.
She didn't know what he would do once he found out what she discovered about him, and that now she wanted out, and with this new information, she didn't know if he would let her. He was changed. The man she knew and loved was a brilliant scientist, not a murderer.
He knew her too well, would know that she was in the library to figure out for herself what happened. It was hard to find a place that Garin wouldn't know, considering he knew the city better than anyone from their time. He could walk around with his eyes closed and know exactly where he was. It was downright freaky. So the trick was to go somewhere he wouldn't think she would go, where she could talk to Kate in peace, without the threat of being found.
---
John suggested, "Could be in her office."
Elizabeth activated the Ancient version of an intercom on her desk, "Kate?" Again no response. "Where in the world could she be? It has been hard to find her since yesterday evening."
John shrugged, "Out for a walk? Speaking of Heightmeyer, I saw her and McKay have a little dispute at breakfast."
She raised her eyebrow, "You're telling me this now?"
"It just came up now."
"Odd. I saw them together yesterday, Rodney cheerful, Kate… acting cheerful, and now they have a spat at breakfast?"
"And she's supposed to be treating him, not fighting with him."
Elizabeth crossed her arms, thinking. "If you see Kate, tell her I'm looking for her."
John nodded and started to leave, but turned around, "Oh, and I have Zelenka and Grodin checking out 13B secretly because we have a strange feeling about that place. It coincides too well with this whole situation."
"Major!"
He darted out before he could face her wrath about yet another thing he didn't inform her about earlier.
---
Garin exited the transporter at the end of a dark hall and immediately ran down to the library, he thought the door open and walked in, noticing one of the covers was strewn haphazardly on one of the consoles. He stepped over to investigate and saw a faint glint of something on the floor.
He stooped to pick it up and noticed it was an earring, the same one Elana had been wearing. He swore under his breath and turned on the console. He did a quick search and found the articles Elana must have read, telling her exactly what happened. He kept swearing and left the empty room.
TBC…
