Chapter Twenty One
When Weir finally made it to the infirmary, five minutes after Beckett and his medical team had entered. Things were swiftly in motion; Beckett was tending to McKay and barking orders to everyone else. They had him hooked up to a monitor, and he had even chose to use the Ancient equipment which had been completely baffling him for weeks on end.
"Carson," Weir said gently, rushing to his side and looking down to McKay. "Anything."
"This is going to take some time," Beckett answered looking back to her more sternly than he meant to do, he was trying to get to work and run all imaginable tests but he couldn't do it with this bloody woman interfering.
As if she sensed all this from the look, Weir took a step back and gave him some room. "Could it be a contagion of some sort?"
"It's a possibility," Beckett replied attaching another lead onto McKay's body, while looking over at the monitor as it started running. "ECG looks fine," he replied reading the information. He removed the leads as quickly as possible, then motioned for one of the nurses. "Let's get him set up for an electroencephalogram," he ordered quietly as he removed the last of the leads. Beckett glanced to Weir; "This will take a little more time I'm afraid."
The nurse wheeled in a recording machine, complete with an amplifier. While a technician brought in a box contained flat metal discs and another round box with a little brush or something. Weir watched it all in complete fascination, the speed of how they worked and how Beckett had been fully prepared for anything the expedition could throw at him. "Here you go Doctor."
Beckett looked at the man and took the box from him, opened it up and took out the electrodes while the technician opened the round box and it had something that looked like paste and handed it to Beckett. He quickly applied a little to one of the electrodes then stuck it onto Rodney's head, choosing precise positions as he repeated this process 16 times. "Ready," Beckett said looking up at the nurse with the machine, she wheeled it over to him and he started attaching wires from the machine to the electrodes individually. Now he was completely ready to run the EEG, he turned it on and began to monitor brain activity.
Beckett finally stood back and looked to Weir. "As I said before, this could take some time."
--
After the incident in McKay's lab, both Teyla and Sheppard had agreed that they wouldn't be able to settle down for a while. It seemed to have shaken them both ever so slightly so Sheppard had suggested going down to the East Pier, give them time to themselves and time to think until Weir informed them of McKay's condition.
"This is strange and I mean really strange," Sheppard answered as he leaned on the balcony, looking out to sea.
"The ocean?" Teyla asked. "Or the situation with Doctor McKay?"
Sheppard looked back at her, appreciating the fact that she was trying to cheer him up with a mild form of sarcasm but he was afraid that it was done in vain. He had known something was wrong, had just known it and not from McKay's behaviour. "McKay."
"You are bound to be concerned," Teyla answered placing a hand on his shoulder. "As am I."
"It just seems that there was something that we could have done, didn't you notice how McKay was acting incredibly peculiar and I mean even more for Rodney."
"He did seem to be acting out of character as you would call it," Teyla said, eyes shifting down the ground as she considered this possibility. "He did not seem at all concerned about his health."
"That's what I mean, remember when he cut his hand when we were moving stuff into the messhall. He blatantly refused to carry on working until Beckett had come down to tend to him himself," Sheppard replied shaking his head. "But this allergic reaction or whatever it was, he just shook it off as if it was nothing."
Teyla nodded firmly. "I agree Major, the signs were obvious and we did not pay enough attention." That didn't exactly comfort Sheppard as he turned back to face Teyla, he hated to think that they had completely neglected McKay and the comments he got about Kiki kicking his ass hadn't helped. As Sheppard saw Teyla's expression, he realised her words hadn't meant to be comforting. He turned back to look at the ocean. Her words were a blunt observation.
--
Beckett had finally finished up his tests, he was completely bewildered by everything that he had seen but the results spoke for themselves. His EEG was completely normal even for his unconscious state, although his red blood cell was extremely low as was his white blood cell count. Beckett had done some reading up and the symptoms seemed to coincide with a lot of conditions, one that had gained his attention was ALPS.
"Well," Weir asked from her seat, she had chosen to remain behind while Beckett worked. It seemed she was as eager to get to the bottom of this mystery as he was.
"From what I can gathered, his red and white blood cell counts are very low. Extremely in fact," Beckett answered quietly as he took a seat down next to her and looking over to McKay. "The symptoms seem to indicate that it could be ALPS…"
"ALPS?" Weir asked.
"Autoimmune LymphoProliferative Syndrome," Beckett replied then realised he would have to describe it in further detail for her. "It's a disease that effects the immune system, effectively turns the antibodies that are supposed to fight germs against the body. It causes a hell of a lot of problems."
"And you think this is what is effecting Rodney?"
"It what it seems to be," Beckett answered somewhat unconvinced by his own findings and let the doubt creep into his voice. "Skin rashes are a common sign in patients but this disease is incredibly rare Doctor Weir."
"You don't sound convinced that it's this…" Weir stopped, struggling for the word.
"ALPS," Beckett said quietly and shook his head. "No I'm not, it would make sense if he hadn't received the injury."
"You think it's something to do with that?" Weir asked, her brow furrowing slightly.
"Yes I do, it could be an infection he picked up which is why I'm trying to use some of the Ancient technology. It's my best bet."
Weir stood up, Beckett doing the exact same thing. "Do what you can Carson."
"I can try him on a course of antibiotics and try to boost his immune system," Beckett replied quietly.
"As I said," Weir said gently. "Do what you can."
Beckett gave her a small nod then walked back over to McKay.
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