The Wishing Well
Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate Atlantis or any of the characters associated with it.
May contain spoilers for Season One and Two.
A/N: Italics in this chapter represent the actions, thoughts and words of Sheppard, Anna and Chaya when they are visiting the realities. I hope that it isn't too confusing…
Chapter Thirteen
Chaya let Sheppard and Anna rest for as long as she dared, then woke them gently. Exhaustion and sadness lined both faces.
"Okay, Chaya. What's next on your evil walk down my memory lane?" John was feeling irritated and more than a little pissed about having to relive things that had taken many years to bury. He watched Anna surreptitiously. She was too quiet, too pale, no zippy comeback or elbow to his ribs.
"You must choose which reality to visit first. I will act as escort and we will go together. You will be able to see, smell and hear everything around you but you will not be visible to the occupants of the reality. We have limited time to visit. Your bodies are beginning to decline. We have been in this place longer than we should."
Anna turned to Sheppard. "You went first on the memory Power Point show. I want to go first this time, John."
Sheppard shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me which place we visit first. We have to visit both, right?" at Chaya's nod, "Well, then lets go. How does this work?"
"Come, take my hand." Chaya stepped up close to the center of Anna's wall. She held out her hands to the two skeptical people at her side. After a small hesitation, Anna clasped Chaya's hand.
Sheppard sighed and followed suit. "Now what?"
"Now, we walk." Chaya stepped forward into the wall, tugging them along. The image flickered, expanded, bounced once and then surrounded them, becoming real.
Just like stepping into a bubble, Sheppard thought as he dropped Chaya's hand and took a step toward the body lying on the cot. Anna joined him. "Wow!" was all he could manage.
"Yeah, wow!" Anna echoed his words. She jumped back at the tingling sensation she experienced as Rod passed through them and knelt next to the cot.
Sheppard, more than a little disturbed by the fact that he'd just been violated by Rodney McKay, gave himself a mental shake. "That was weird!"
"Yeah." Anna repeated. She focused her attention on Rod.
"Anna Banana, we're working on trying to get you back. You just hold on, okay. Seriously, you can't leave me! I don't like being by myself. You know I'm afraid of the dark!" Rod was whispering to the unconscious Anna. He brushed her dark air away from her face with unsteady hands and placed a tender kiss on her forehead.
"Anna Banana?" Sheppard's howling laughter stopped short as a dainty fist connected with his shoulder. "Hey, watch it!"
"It's a pet name." Anna's bubbling laugh made him smile. "He calls me "Anna Banana" and I call him "Hot Rod", okay?
"Hot Rod? You actually call him that?" He grimaced at her quick nod. "Eeww, I'm not sure I needed to know that! On second thought, I'm positive I didn't need to know that!"
Anna was watching the rest of her Atlantis team try to rouse her.
Rod still knelt by her bedside while Radek, Beckett, Caldwell and Lorne encircled her body, each articulating their idea or suggestion for the group to bat around as a possible solution. The subject soon turned to Anna, herself.
"She is such a kind, caring person; smart and funny. I've done all I can, but I don't think it will be enough. Sad, really, I don't want to lose her." Beckett shook his head remorsefully.
"Yes, Carson, she is very special. Her gift of laughter calmed many restless nerves among scientists." added Radek.
"She always makes time to discuss our military missions with me. I know we're only here for security, but she makes us feel welcome and useful." Lorne hung his head in sadness.
"I agree. She is a gifted leader and we can't afford to give up. Are you sure there is nothing more we can try?" Caldwell directed his question and his gaze to Rod's jittery form huddled near Anna's cot.
"This is crazy! There has to be something we've missed, some small thing in the database that will point us to a way out of this!" Rod's voice raised an octave as his fear got the best of him. "I won't….I can't live if she….AHHH!" With a bellow of rage, Rod jumped up and began a mad destructive path around the camp. He grabbed equipment and tossed it over, smashing anything he could get his hands on.
Sheppard and Anna jumped out of his way, forgetting it wasn't necessary. Anna chased after him but he couldn't see or hear her. "Rod, stop this! Rod, please! Honey, no…nooo" she sobbed.
After a few shocked seconds, Beckett sprang into action. "Colonel, Major! Hold him while I administer a sedative!" The two men managed to corner the exhausted,grieving man and pin him down long enough for Beckett to jab him and send him to his happy place, if only for a little while. They lifted Rod onto a cot and put him in restraints. Beckett hovered, checking vitals and then covered him with a military issue green wool blanket.
Anna was near hysterics. "What are they doing to him? Don't hurt him! Oh, God.. Rod! I love you, and I'm right here!" She sank to the ground near his cot, crying, and tried to hold his hand, which she could not do.
Sheppard watched in horror, then turned to Chaya. "I think Anna's been through enough today without having to stay here and watch any more of this, don't you?" He asked in a voice sharp enough to cut glass. At her sorrowful nod, he walked to Anna's side.
"Anna lets go back now." When she continued to weep and rock back and forth, he squatted down next to her and wrapped his arms tightly around her shaking frame. "Anna…Shhh, Shhh. The sooner we finish this, the sooner you can return home, and then Rod will be fine. Come on, let's go back." He edged her up and turned her around. Chaya took their hands and led them out of the bubble and back to their padded cell.
The trio stood silently staring at each other, not quite sure what to say after watching Rod's breakdown.
"That was….cruel." Sheppard eyed Chaya with indignation and disbelief, his lips turned up in a sneer. "What possible benefits can an experience like that have on getting us out of here?"
Chaya's eyes dropped to her tightly clasped hands, slender fingers interlaced. She exhaled slowly as she consciously relaxed her hands and smoothed them down the sides of her filmy white dress.
After a moment, she raised her eyes and regarded the two people in front of her. Sheppard stood in a defiant stance, arms at his sides, head thrown back, his multi-facetted hazel eyes afire with equal portions of outrage and agony. Anna stood silently at his side, shadowed green eyes downcast, tears glistening, arms wrapped around her body, swaying slightly in her attempt to remain on her feet. They were emotionally spent and yet she saw resolve behind the pain in their eyes. Good, they will need it.
"I am sorry you had to go through that. It was not what I expected to see. Everything you experience during your journey will impact the decisions you make in the future." Chaya wanted to embrace them, but knew her ministrations wouldn't be welcome. Instead, she indicated Sheppard's wall with raised eyebrow. "Are you both ready to visit John's reality or do you need a moment?" At Sheppard's incredulous look, she quickly added, "I am not trying to hurry you, but we are running out of time."
Sheppard's gaze shot to Anna's face. "Anna, you okay?" He stepped forward and gently tipped her face up to better view her eyes. He cringed when he read torment. "Oh, sweetheart…" and pulled her into his arms and held her close. She remained strangely still, no sobbing, no shaking. He pulled back and took inventory.
Her face was remote, wiped clean of emotion. "Let's get this over with." She said weakly.
Chaya stood silently at the center of Sheppard's wall and held out her hands. Sheppard and Anna stepped up, grabbed her hands and, as one, stepped into chaos.
Sheppard watched himself lying on the cot, Beckett working quickly around him, adjusting lines and taking vitals.
"Carson, are we going to try this or are you going to give Sheppard a tune-up and oil change first?" McKay stood off to the side, tapping his fingers on the back of Teyla's chair in irritation.
Weir, Lorne and Ronon gathered around trying to stay out of Beckett's way.
"Rodney, I will be ready in just a bloody minute, if you'd quit pestering me, man!" Beckett's irritated scowl was visible above the edge of the medical chart upon which he was jotting down entries.
"Carson, take your time. We'll be here when you're ready." Weir used her diplomatic voice while stabbing McKay with eyes that were far from diplomatic in their message.
"What?" McKay managed to get out before Ronon's menacing face appeared mere inches from his own. "Oh, right. Um, I'm good whenever you are Carson!'
"Thank you, Rodney!" Beckett replied with studied calm and went back to work, setting out instruments and the reengineered water on a special metal tray near the cot.
"That's my Rodney." Sheppard said to Anna proudly and her reply astounded him.
"He's hilarious in a sexy kind of way." Anna smiled fondly as she watched McKay pout.
"Rodney McKay? Sexy?" Sheppard snorted and rolled his eyes. "Well, I've heard it said there's no accounting for taste!"
Beckett approached the group with a sober frown. "I believe it's time. Rodney, will you help me please?"
"Me? Oh, yes, of course." McKay stepped forward and followed Beckett to stand beside Sheppard's head.
"Help me sit him up so he doesn't choke on the water." The two men untied the restraints and worked Sheppard's limp body into a sitting position. McKay straddled the cot and sat behind Sheppard. He wrapped his arms around Sheppard and held him upright with his head resting back on McKay's right shoulder.
Beckett filled a large plastic medicine syringe full of the sparkling, glowing water and moved to Sheppard's side. "Let's hope this does the trick, lad. If it doesn't work, I want to say I'm sorry!"
Sheppard and Anna had stepped closer to Beckett to watch him work on Sheppard's other self. "It's okay, Doc. I know your doing your best and I appreciate it. Too bad your water isn't going to work, since I have to decide my own fate!"
"They care deeply for you." Anna's voice was low and pensive as she looked around at the concern, respect and love reflected on the faces of the Atlantis expedition members as they collectively held their breath.
"What's not to love?" Sheppard quipped, trying not to make such a big deal out of the whole situation. He was tired of this game and wanted it over.
Beckett slipped the end of the syringe between Sheppard's slightly parted chapped lips and slowly eased out a few drops, testing to see if his patient would swallow on his own. Sheppard gagged just a bit and then swallowed the water. Beckett administered a few more drops and repeated the process until the syringe was empty.
As Beckett set aside the empty syringe, Sheppard began to tremble. McKay, feeling the small movements, called out. "Uh, Carson? Is he supposed to be doing this?"
Beckett turned back and quickly grabbed Sheppard's upper arms. "Colonel! Can you hear me, lad?" He leaned in close to Sheppard's face, hoping for a whispered affirmation to his question, but received none. Sheppard's tremors increased until his whole body was in motion, his head thrashed about where it rested against McKay's shoulder, his arms and legs flailing wildly.
"What should I do?" McKay shrieked in a high, clipped voice.
"Just hold him, Rodney! Don't let him hurt himself." Beckett clamped down on Sheppard's misbehaving legs, holding them in place while McKay wrapped himself around Sheppard's upper half and pinned his friends arms to his sides with one hand, the other hand held Sheppard's head tightly pressed to the side of his own face.
At the sight of Sheppard's quaking body, Weir went rigid with fear. "Carson! What's happening?" She hurried to stand beside McKay.
Sheppard stepped behind Weir, trying to offer comfort, forgetting she didn't know he was there. "Elizabeth, I'm right here. I'm okay."
"She can't hear you, John, but I know how you feel. I tried the same thing when Rod was upset." Anna took his hand and held it tightly between her two.
"Elizabeth, he's having a reaction to the water." Beckett explained breathlessly while trying to hold down Sheppard's legs. "Without testing, I can't say if this is a good or bad reaction. We will just have to wait and see."
The color leeched from Beckett's face as the heart monitor shrieked to life and blared an ear-splitting warning. "Oh, God no! Not his heart!" The doctor jumped up and yelled to McKay. "Get up, Rodney. I need to recline him!" McKay released his hold on Sheppard and slipped out from behind him. He helped Beckett lay Sheppard down flat on the cot.
Beckett yanked his stethoscope on, ripped open Sheppard's shirt, and listened intently to his chest. "His heart rhythm is all over the place!" He checked the blood pressure readings and oxygen levels and, let loose a string of Scottish curse words showing his displeasure with the results.
Sheppard's breathing turned raspy and Beckett slapped on an oxygen mask. Weir managed to hold herself upright as Beckett grabbed a syringe, filled it with medicine from a small glass jar, and injected it into Sheppard's I.V. port. He watched the monitors closely for any signs of improvement. When Sheppard's heart didn't respond and his breathing slowed to almost non-existent, Beckett released an angry grunt and went back to work.
I'm losing him!" Beckett's frantic words echoed around the clearing impaling the expedition members like shards of broken glass as they looked on helplessly.
TBC