What?
He was shivering like a frightened child waking up from a nightmare. And this nightmare was real. They were dead. He heard his team die. He was not even sure if he had helped. The dreams bled into reality and the wonderful drugs did not help his clarity either. A blond doctor swam into view. A newbie or a hallucination, he could not tell.
"Dr. McKay, welcome back. Everything is all right. You're on Atlantis." The man gave his best, reassuring, bedside manner smile. "Dr. Beckett is on his way."
A nurse appeared on the other side adjusting, checking, and injecting. She smiled at him.
He tried to sort through what his last actual memory was. Instead, a hand touched him on his arm making him jump and derailing the thought train.
"I seem to be having that effect on people today," greeted a very bloodshot eyed Elizabeth.
"Not a warrior," he whispered. He grew more agitated and voiced a little louder, "Not a warrior."
Weir started searching for a doctor.
"Killed by wraith or Kolya." Tears trickled down his face. "Broke your neck."
Beckett entered the infirmary and made his way to Weir.
"He's awake but not making sense." She held Rodney's hand.
"Rodney, it's Carson. Do ya know where ya are?" Carson kept his face in McKay's.
"Not a warrior." He was not good enough. The wraith said so.
"Rodney focus. What happened?" Weir forced herself to switch into her role as leader.
"Elizabeth?" McKay noticed her for the first time. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry?" Weir looked between McKay and Beckett obviously confused.
"Killed you." It was almost inaudible.
"He's a little befuddled by the medication and the trauma," explained Carson. "He'll get more coherent as time moves on."
Weir nodded continuing to hold Rodney's hand as he slipped back into sleep.
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Dr. Biro stepped back from the body. She had visually inspected every inch of it. Compound fractures in both legs, a dislocated shoulder, broken ribs, contusions to the head and neck, multiple lacerations and contusions in different places, environmental exposure and last but not least, two strange yet separate markings on his head and abdomen were evident.
The two strange markings did not seem related. One was a burn mark on his forehead and the other an entry wound by a three pronged instrument. They all had these abdomen wounds in common. He was the only one with the burn mark. He and the others looked as if they had been for a ride in a rock tumbler. They all had multiple broken bones; he was in the worst shape though.
Dr. Biro looked down at the table of instruments and back over to her assistant, Dr. Lindsey. "Well, let's get started." She turned on the recording device and picked up the scalpel.
The visible physical injuries did not seem immediately life threatening. The hand shaped contusions around the neck plus other signs suggesting strangulation. Then there were the trio of puncture marks- injection maybe? The burn mark, she could not even hazard a guess. They would hopefully learn more after she opened him up.
She took a deep breath and looked down at the face of Col. Sheppard one last time. He looked as if he was just taking an afternoon nap. She started her incision.
Her assistant screamed and backed away from the table quickly.
Annoyed, Dr. Biro glowered at the young woman until she followed her line of sight.
She stood stone still. Sheppard's eyes were open and then they dilated. Biro held the scalpel as still as herself and watched his eyes close. She and Dr. Lindsey exchanged appalled looks. Biro carefully extracted the scalpel, but no blood flowed.
"Get monitors, get those labs done and get Beckett down here now. We need to check the others." Biro grabbed some gauze and placed it over the incision. "We have questions that need answering."
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"What on earth could that woman be smoking?" Beckett said under his breath as he came charging down the corridor to the morgue. He stopped in the doorway and bellowed, "What do ya mean they're not dead?" He was hanging onto the door jam for support and panting from the sprint.
"They show an involuntary and very specific response to pain. But, there are no breath sounds, no heart sounds and no higher brain activity. There is no organ function at all, yet they have localized muscle movement and no cellular decay. It is as if they were preserved or frozen or... I have no idea." Biro gave her report as detached as possible. She was still unnerved from her experience.
"Has any of the blood work come back yet?" Beckett asked.
"No, but look." She walked over to Teyla and rolled her onto her side. "No collection of blood in the back. I believe that is the way she was found, correct? I missed that on my precursory examination."
"The blood did not pool back there? I noticed he had a lot of his original pigmentation when I came down with Dr. Weir," said Beckett pointing to Sheppard. "Just did not think much on it."
"Now watch." Biro picked up an instrument with a handle and a free moving wheel on the end. It had tiny spikes protruding from the wheel. While pressing hard, she ran the wheel across Teyla's palm.
Teyla's eyes opened and her eyes dilated adjusting to the light in the room. Biro pulled the instrument away and Teyla's eyes closed.
Carson's brain left for holiday. When it came back, he tried to kick the sand out of its imagined flip flops. His mind was trying to wrap itself around what he had just witnessed. They were clinically dead- almost fourteen hours dead. The monitors attached to each individual confirmed it. A simple instrument did not.
Maybe a drug of some sort was injected. Or some device was used on them. Or the wicked witch cast a spell. He needed the lab work done yesterday.
"Transfer them to the infirmary. Let's get them scanned by the bed, maybe it will reveal something." He looked at each placid face. He would figure this out.
He grabbed Sheppard's gurney and noticed the bandage on his sternum. Now he realized how Dr. Biro had come to her conclusion. She had started the autopsy. He shook the thought off and started moving the newly resurrected team to his infirmary.
His next step would be to rouse Rodney from his stupor. The answer man needed to live up to his name.
---------------
In the dim light of the corridor he saw Sheppard and Ronon in front of him. One pressed up on each side of the hall. Sheppard clutched his P90 and Ronon clutched his hand cannon. Rodney inched forward stealthily as a perceptive grin reached Sheppard's face.
"Glad you could make it Killer." He faced Rodney. "Wraith are here Superman. Don't think they have Kryptonite but you'd better detonate that bomb," he said pointing to Rodney's hands.
McKay looked down at his sixth grade science project. "Nah, think I'll finish what I started."
Bomb forgotten, he moved supernaturally quick and pinned Sheppard against the wall. His borrowed knife magically appeared in his hand and he thrust it home into the soft skin. Sheppard shuddered and terror filled his eyes.
It was not right. Sheppard did not show terror. Not at this. He had shown amused arrogance in those quicksilver eyes, because he knew the nano-bots would take care of the injury. Sheppard also knew he had the upper hand and had distracted Rodney so Lt. Cadman could gain entrance to the Gate room. No, he had seen that terror somewhere else. He had seen that terror for real. Then Sheppard screamed and he just knew he had heard that scream for real.
He tried to cover Sheppard's mouth with his hand. He tried to block out the sound. His humanity tried to pry its way into the situation. It tried to remind him of who he was. He tried to ignore it.
Rodney turned to Ronon, "Help me keep him quiet."
Ronon was face down on the floor not moving. A cold force gripped McKay and lifted him off the floor. At the same time, Sheppard was lifted up the wall by another unseen force.
"Not a warrior," was whispered like a condemnation in his ear. And then he was Superman flying through the air back down the corridor. Sheppard's screams echoed down the hall after him. He just knew he had done this before and for real.
Sweet.
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A/N: Glad y'all are enjoying this. See, I told you, it was just acting like a death fic. Even stories like costumes. Now please leave me a treat- review.