"Patient Zero"

Show: Stargate Atlantis

Genre: General/Angst/Missing Scene

Pairing: A little bit of Sheppard/Teyla

Summary: Missing scenes of "Conversion". After Dr. Beckett realizes that the retrovirus is taking hold, Sheppard is worried that his uninhibited moment with Teyla may have unexpected consequences.

Disclaimer: Sadly, none of the characters belong to me. What I wouldn't give for a little John Sheppard of my very own!

Author's Note: This does contain SPOILERS for "Conversion." I know that this episode hasn't aired in places and that some are a bit behind their Atlantis watching, so you have been properly warned that plot points are evident in this story. Anyway, to a lighter note – double Atlantis on Friday, always a good thing. Hope you like this idea– it's been rattling around my head for days now so I'm finally letting it out into the fresh air for you all to peruse. Have fun and drop me a line when you're done! And I don't write dialect very well, so you'll all have to imagine Beckett's lovely accent yourself when you read his lines.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Colonel Sheppard rolled down his sleeve and rubbed distractedly at the needle mark that Dr. Beckett had left on his forearm. He had extracted yet another sample of blood – can never be too sure, he had said with mock cheerfulness. John lay back on the hospital bed with a groan. Dr. Beckett was an excellent, careful doctor, but he was also a horrible liar. It didn't take an expert to pick up the way in which he looked at Sheppard with worried eyes, how his gaze didn't quite meet the colonel's as he offered him hollow reassurances. As much as he would like to convince himself of the contrary, Sheppard knew that the retrovirus was taking over much too quickly and that Beckett was scrambling for ideas…and probably coming up horribly short.

He watched out of the corner of his eye as Carson handed off the blood sample to Dr. Gerlach. There was a brief whispered conversation between the two of them, and she cast Sheppard a nervous glance that he pretended he didn't see. As Beckett began to make his way back over to the bed, John closed his eyes in mild frustration. The fact that he was very likely going to get a lot worse before he got better ('if he got better' he thought blackly) was bad enough, and having the good doctor fuss over him was enough to make the situation almost intolerable.

"Can I get you anything, lad?" he heard Beckett ask kindly.

Still keeping his eyes closed he replied very slowly and firmly, "Doc, I'm just as old as you are. It's bad enough that I'm going to be way below you on the evolutionary ladder pretty soon, but you don't have to treat me like I'm getting younger too."

"Well, actually the Iratus bug is quite advanced. We've already seen that you have increased stamina and –" Beckett quickly snapped off the end of his sentence when Sheppard shot him a nasty glare. "But you're right. I don't mean to talk down to you, and I'm sorry."

"That's okay. But since we're on the topic, what are we talking about here? Do I have weeks, months? A couple of hours?"

"I'm thinking more like days. We've got that long to figure something out for you," he replied with a sigh.

"Until I turn into one of those Wraith bugs," he finished with disgust.

At Beckett's grim nod, Sheppard bit off another groan. "I really hate those bugs." There was an uncomfortable moment of silence between them until John spoke up again. "So what do you have planned, Doc? Any ideas yet about how to stop this thing?"

"I don't want to lie to you. I'm not sure exactly what we're dealing with – the effect the retrovirus had on Elia was so extreme and her DNA is so different from yours, that I'm not sure how this is going to assert itself in you." He turned to the counter to start fumbling together some of his current lab work. "We have a good idea of the symptoms that might occur –"

"Like I might start sucking out people's guts through their necks?"

The doctor sighed. "Unfortunately, that may not be that far off. But besides that, we don't know much else. We don't know how quickly it will take hold, if it will fully transform your DNA, even how it can be transmitted."

Beckett shuffled together a few more files and glanced up at Sheppard. The colonel was looking deathly pale, and his working eyes showed that he was clearly deep in thought. The doctor immediately thought that he had slammed him with too much information too quickly and was about to apologize when Sheppard flicked his eyes to Carson's and asked with a quiet urgency, "You don't know about its transmission yet?"

"Not entirely. We obviously know it can travel through blood, but besides that, we don't have any other evidence. Colonel, are you –"

Sheppard's eyes suddenly took on a panicked, unnatural light, and he sat up a little bit straighter on the bed. "Do you think it'd be possible to infect other people through other body fluids? Like saliva?"

He considered this. "There's a good chance that the DNA in saliva or semen could carry the retrovirus, but I'd have to run more tests to find out. Why'd you ask?"

If anything, the colonel seemed to get even more edgy after that, and he gripped the edge of the examining table with white-knuckled intensity. "Doc, I need you to do something that's going to seem a little strange, but you need to trust me on this one. I need you to find Teyla and bring her down here right now."

Beckett was beginning to grow increasingly alarmed at Sheppard's erratic behavior. "Colonel, maybe you should just –"

Sheppard shot out a hand and grabbed the doctor's forearm, not in a grip of anger but one that Beckett sensed was of desperation and fear. "Doctor, please listen. You need to go find Teyla and get her in here. You need to get a blood sample from her and test her for that damn retrovirus. You've got to make sure she's okay – start putting her on antibiotics or anti-Wraith meds or something, and you've got to do it right now."

Putting his own hand on Sheppard's and pushing it carefully but firmly away, Beckett slowly answered, "Colonel, I can't force anyone to undergo involuntary medical procedures without a justified reason. I know you're worried about your friends, but I can't order her to sickbay without cause."

Sheppard held his intense, wild-eyed stare with Beckett for a few more seconds before letting out a shaky sigh. "You practice that whole doctor-patient confidentiality where you come from, right?"

"Aye."

"So you won't tell anyone else what I'm going to tell you?" Beckett shook his head, mystified by the colonel's behavior. "I don't know what made me do it…it just happened."

"Colonel, if this is important…" Beckett gently urged.

John nodded. "Okay, I, um…I kissed Teyla, a couple of hours ago while we were sparring. I didn't think much about it then – it just took me by surprise more than anything."

In spite of himself, Beckett found himself suppressing a small smile. "What makes you think that that was due to the retrovirus?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sheppard asked. At the doctor's innocent shrug, he rubbed his forehead. "I guess the way it happened, it…well, let's just say that it wasn't the best way it could have gone. I've never roughed a woman up before, and I don't know what made me do it then. She was surprised by it."

"So you want me to make sure that Teyla didn't catch the retrovirus from you?"

"Yeah," Sheppard said wearily. He seemed to struggle with his next words before blurting out, "I think she was scared of me. I was scared of me – when I pulled back all I could think of was what would have happened if I couldn't stop. I was afraid I almost hurt her...and now if I gave her this thing…" He motioned futilely at the stacks of notes behind Beckett containing the retrovirus research. "Will you make sure she's taken care of, Doc?"

Carson had never seen Sheppard look so frightened and desperate before, and it both touched and shocked him. "Aye. I'll go find her."

John nodded in a hollow fashion as Beckett squeezed his shoulder comfortingly. The colonel's eyes never left the doctor's back as he headed out the door.

TBC very soon!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I'll post the next chapter as soon as I write it. No promises as to the exact day, but hopefully it will be soon. Please drop me a review – I love to hear from you guys!