A/N: Posting Ch. 5 and Ch. 6 together because they are companions but just did not work in the same Chapter.
Chapter 5
Ring, Ring
"Blood clot in your lungs. We caught it in time to prevent any damage or…well…"
"You wouldn't be talking to me now," Sheppard finished for Beckett from the hospital bed. He moved his head around. Teyla and Ronon were sitting up in their beds and Rodney was across from him dressed in casual clothes snoring.
He was not ready to deal with McKay just yet. Sheppard frowned.
"Why's he still here Doc?"
"We cannot get him to leave," Teyla answered instead. "Ever since your lapse."
"I think he's worried we'll disappear again. He's being…overly nice," added Ronon with a rumble.
"It is not natural." Teyla looked unsettled, almost militant. "He needs to return to his former self so I know what to expect of him."
Ronon nodded in agreement.
"He needs to leave the infirmary," stated Carson.
"Get Lorne and tell him to find…" Sheppard yawned; he really was trying to stay awake, "…the Sixth Sense. Let's give him movie night away from here."
Carson smiled while asking, "Anything else?"
"Yeah, there is…" Sheppard said coyly while glancing at Teyla and Ronon.
Sheppard woke up on his floor in his cell.
"Come on Bobby, be in the shower." He peeped one eye open and looked around. "Nope, not a horrible, horrible dream, it's a horrible, horrible reality." He deflated.
He sat up, albeit gingerly and very slowly. He looked around the cell to locate the facilities. A trough cut into the floor seemed the only apparent place. Standing up woozily, he took care of the morning ritual with what he assumed was a video audience.
"Good morning Col. Sheppard!" A very cheerful, bright-eyed and bushy headed assistant greeted from the hallway outside the cell.
Correct-a-mundo, he thought.
He did not reply and stared noncommittally at the young woman. Another assistant, a big burly orderly type, waited for the door to open. When it did, Burly ordered him out with a wave of the hand. They walked the hallway in silence.
Bushy finally broke the silence once they reached the chair alcove. "Today we're going to map how your brain responds to Ancestral technology. We want to figure out how to make it work for us. Like the chair works for you."
"Chair's not Ancient," he mumbled.
"Ancient?" She asked while waiting for him to sit in the chair.
"Not of the Ancestors, it's Wraith. Whole lab is Wraith."
If she had had glasses, she would have been looking over them and down her nose at him. "Sure it is. That's why it only works for you."
"Sort of…" he looked out into the lab. Something so familiar and natural caught his eye. Rodney asleep at a console. It made him smile and very homesick.
Ironically, McKay was the answer to the question they were asking. The hell he would let them know that though. "Brain has very little to do with initial start up. Touch or presence of a certain code in the body does it."
Bushy stared blankly.
"This chair was specifically designed to work on an Ancestor. You don't have to do this. I can light up all the Ancestral doodads you want. None of you can because you don't have the right grandparents."
"Sit down Col. Sheppard."
His eyes narrowed, no way was he going to make it easy even if his legs were quickly becoming spaghetti. But something was out of focus. He called them idiots in his head but they did not seem the have any idea they were in a Wraith lab or that this equipment was not Ancient. Scientists, though arrogant and single minded at times, would certainly figure this out. At least his would.
Bushy lost her spunk and threatened him. "Don't make us physically put you in that chair." Burly stepped closer and loomed.
A door sliding open made him look back out into the lab. Bama walked out of the fat man's office, across the lab and pointed a gun, one of their guns, at Rodney's snoring head.
Sheppard sat down. His questions would have to wait.
Spider webbed restraints secured him in the chair. Burly pulled his head forward and removed the bandage to the back. Instead of multiple skewers up his back, he got the ice pick to the base of the skull only. Felt like an ice pick too. He could feel the little tentacles slithering inside his skull attaching to prearranged positions. Disconcerting was an appropriate sentiment. Terrifying was another.
"Now, let's get you some breakfast. Can't work on an empty stomach." Her spunk had returned.
An off topic thought occurred to him as the chair maneuvered into place. If this sludge was older than dregs at a stop and rob, what kind of effect would it have on him? He did not think they were the kind to update the rations. Even Ronon would have trouble ingesting this stuff.
After a scrumptious breakfast, they started their laughable experiments. The life signs detector (his or McKay's probably) was the first thing placed in his hand. The current gave him a tingling sensation under his skull. It made his eyes itch. Next, Burly gave him another type of scanner that reminded him of a Geiger counter. More tingling and a monster headache pulsing with each heartbeat were his reward for it lighting up so nicely. Lastly, they brought out the coups de grace, except it was not really. The other one that he lived in had been though. It scared him shitless anyway.
His heart rate shot up and he really tried to pry himself out of the chair. He curled his hand up, but Burly undid it and placed the innocuous red cube in it. He waited that entire second for death. Instead, a hologram of a man emerged speaking in the long dead language of the Ancients. That was it. He still tried to let go but Burly would not let him. The tingle in his head morphed into a migraine of astronomical size then vertigo hit and his stomach flip flopped.
He realized the chair was thwarting any mental commands from the occupant. The scanner did not respond to mental commands so not much of a reaction. The cube must and that was why he had the massive headache. This just kept getting better and better.
They took the cube finally and shut the machine down. "Well Colonel, we're done. Bose here will take you back to you room."
They pulled him out and he could hardly stand. He leaned heavily on Bose. He looked up and out into the lab where Rodney had been sleeping. Rodney was wide-awake and his jaw was working as he watched Sheppard intently from across the lab.
For his part, Sheppard tried to give him an-everything-is-fine smile, but throwing up all over Bose's shoes negated that.
Guess I'm not going to have to worry about the effects of that crap after all.
Bose pushing him away and Sheppard landing flat on his face supported that negation. Warm blood trickling and tickling him down his back also tattled on his attempted lie.
Rodney crossed the lab faster than if the dinner bell had called him. He knelt down and sat Sheppard onto his knees before helping him to his feet. Before Rodney said a word, Bama pulled him jerkily away. Left unsupported, Sheppard was on his face once again.
"Well, I got to keep the nightgown this time," grumbled Sheppard embarrassed by his lack of equilibrium.
He shakily pushed himself to his knees again and came face to knee cap with the fat guy.
"Col. Sheppard stay where you are. Bose will help you up." Papa Jae's gaze hardened on McKay. "Doctor, I said his needs would be met. You go do your job and we'll do ours."
Bama dragged a glowering McKay back across the lab to the console.
Papa Jae gave a chastising tsk tsk to Bose. "Be more careful, we don't need Dr. McKay distracted. He has very important work to do."
There were two things Sheppard noticed this fine morning- besides the rancid crud injected into him was beige. One, Marlon Brando did want McKay distracted. Sheppard was there (most likely by luck) to keep him off balance. To keep McKay fixated on Brando's problem and not escape. To keep him from noticing the world around him.
Guy had not done his homework on the astrophysicist. McKay could see possibilities and strategies for more than two problems at a time. Hell, he could probably have as many three going- hello multitasker.
Two, Bushy never took notes. What kind of scientist never takes notes? This entire lab was full of posers. They were not doing anything. They walked around, looked at monitors, and moved things around. The equipment was a ruse and did not interest Marlon in the least. All for show, an injured teammate was a liability. It kept McKay tethered here because McKay would not leave him in this condition. Sheppard knew that with as much certainty as Brando did. Sheppard was a huge anchor stuck on a rock.
McKay had to be threatened out of the infirmary to go see a movie. In order for Rodney to leave without him, if it became necessary, Sheppard may have to take himself out of the equation. Rodney would hate him but it would make it easier in the long run. Sheppard was still a selfish man but McKay's welfare trumped his needs.
A third observation presented itself as he watched Brando follow McKay with his eyes. The man was afraid of Rodney. Not shaking in his boots because of physical harm afraid. But a force to be reckoned with afraid. He realized that McKay could bring his little empire down with a thunderous crash if not handled right.
Thus, the option cemented itself with that final observation. Move past the liability card. Motivate McKay to step up his plans and get out of Dodge. Even if Rodney never knew why Sheppard was about to do what he was going to do, it would go along way towards Sheppard forgiving himself.
Bose hauled Sheppard to his feet. His knees immediately buckled. The orderly held him up with one of Sheppard's arms over his shoulder and he grabbed him around the waist.
"Bose, escort him back to his cell and make him comfortable."
Funny asshole, thought Sheppard as Bose practically dragged him through the doorway. What's he gonna do? Fluff the floor?
However, Sheppard knew he had Brando's number and he was willing to make the call. Their next meeting would be interesting if this guy picked up the phone.
He gave a quick last look over his shoulder to McKay.
Atonement is a bitch.
A/N: Does anyone have 35 cents for Shep to borrow so he doesn't have to call collect?