When It Snows (chapter 14)
"Sheppard!"
The sleeping colonel's eyes instantly flew open, his heart pounding in his chest when he recognized the urgent call from Dex signaling trouble. Throwing off the encumbering blankets that someone had draped over him, he dropped his foot fromthe stool, momentarily forgetting the wound in his thigh as he struggled to push himself to his feet. His leg instantly resisted, threatening to buckle under the weight, before Teyla's arm snaked around his waist, drawing his arm over her shoulder with her other hand as she tugged him through the room full of awakening villagers. Several men and women cleared the way as the pair quickly hobbled to the back of the lodge, towards the infirmary.
Bursting through the doorway of Beckett's room, right behind Dr. Nex and Prem, they were startled to see Ronon on the floor. His back was to them, but it was clear that he held another person propped against his large chest, by the second pair of legs crooked awkwardly against his own. A quick glance to the far bed revealed McKay still asleep amidst the ensuing noise and bustle, so it had to be Carson in trouble.
Chal dropped to his knees beside the pair on the floor. "What happened?" he snapped impatiently, his deft fingers pressed against Carson's sweaty neck in search of his pulse.
"I found him this way. He said to call for help."
"Carson," Chal urged, tapping the physician's pale cheek in attempt to get the man to look at him, "what happened? Can you tell me what's wrong?"
"Fool," he panted between his tightly clenched teeth, his eyes squeezed shut as the constricting pressure engulfed his chest. A moan escaped his lips and he tried to curl tighter into himself but his body refused. When an unknown strong hand gripped his right hand, he clung to it like a lifeline from the encroaching darkness.
Chal looked up, meeting Ronon's piercing gaze, "Let's get him up on the bed." Before he had a chance to pick up Carson's legs, the runner had already stood up with the ailing man in his arms, careful of the still attached IV line, before depositing him in one smooth move back onto the empty mattress.
Carson moaned again, his breath coming in puffs.
"Oxygen," Chal ordered, his hands pressed against Carson's chest to keep him put before he ripped the smock open.
Prem squeezed past Ronon, pushing the large man out of her way as she grabbed a mask off the wall and placed it over Carson's face.
Chal appeared oblivious to all in the room as he listened with his stethoscope over various spots on the exposed chest. Frowning, he glanced back up and then checked Carson's pupils and then pulse once more.
"Doc?" Sheppard asked hesitantly from just inside the doorway, still propped up by Teyla.
The village physician shook his head before giving Carson's chest a hard rub. "Wake up," he demanded.
Bleary, pain-filled eyes were forced open to stare back at him while Prem reattached the heart monitor pads.
"What did you do?" Chal urged, his face practically nose to nose with his patient.
Carson weakly licked his dry lips behind the mask, relishing the cool air flowing against his face. Blinking several times in an attempt to stop the room from shifting about him, and trying to keep control of what little he had in his stomach, he finally raised a finger and pointed across the room.
Chal spun around on his heels, and for the first time noticed the items set up across his small counter. Devices that he'd seen the visiting physician use back in the village were once more displayed, unfamiliar bottles cluttered any free space, as well as several syringes. "Did you give yourself something?"
"Rodn'y," Beckett mumbled from behind the mask.
"You gave Dr. McKay something?" Chal frowned when he received a small nod. "What about you, Carson? Did you give yourself something?"
By this time, Sheppard and Teyla had made their way over to the temporary workstation, both going through the vials and equipment. Picking up all the medicine in view, Sheppard handed them to Teyla, "Take this over to him."
She quickly made her way across the room and presented them to Chal who was watching the heart monitor readout. "Doctor," she said quietly.
He glanced down to see what she had. Sifting through the vials, not all familiar to him, he stopped when he read the label on one, filled with clear liquid, which was almost full. He plucked it from her hand and held it in front of Carson's pale face. "Did you give yourself this?" he demanded, his voice becoming angry.
Carson nodded with great effort, his eyes rolling back as he lost consciousness.
"Fool is right," Chal muttered under his breath. He shot a glance back at the others anxiously waiting for news, "It's his heart." He paused when several audible gasps could be heard from around the room, but he didn't have time to explain. Accepting several medications handed to him by Prem, he slipped off the oxygen mask and placed a tablet under Carson's tongue before administering more into the IV. His eyes focused on the display screen, his hand still wrapped around Carson's wrist as he physically monitored the pulse rate, he watched and waited for the medication to take effect. Eventually it worked, bringing the rapid unsteady rhythm to more normal pace.
"The initial strain from acute hypothermia and not being able to regulate his body temperature for hours afterward, and then taking it upon himself during the middle of the night to oversee Rodney's care, as well as his own, has taxed his system beyond his heart's limit." No one in the room missed the irritation in his voice.
"What can we do to help?" Sheppard asked, slowly making his way to Rodney's bedside and finding his friend sleeping easier than he'd seen in days.
Chal shook his head, "Nothing. I've got him stable and will take care of him. I'll take care of both of them. You need to go get off that leg, Colonel, and give me some room to work."
Clearly dismissed, but hating to go, the team gradually made their way to the open doorway, giving their teammates one final glance before leaving.
"Doc, if you…"
Chal held up his hand, his attention still focused on Carson, "I've got them, Colonel."
Sheppard nodded and scratched the side of his face, feeling the scruff of a two-day beard. When Teyla tugged his arm, and seeing Ronon standing guard beside the door, he paused for one last look at both of the pale sleeping men, before allowing himself to be led down the hall.
He was exhausted mentally and physically from the events of the past 48 hours. Nearly losing McKay and Beckett, the snowstorm from Hell, the cravits from Hell, and knowing what was waiting for them back on Atlantis, he wanted nothing more than for someone to wake him from the extended nightmare he appeared to be trapped in.
SG: A
Several hours later, the trio found themselves seated around a large table, their breakfast sitting cold on their plates before them. Dr. Nex had yet to come out from the infirmary, and they held onto the old adage of 'No news is good news'. When an icy blast of air swept through the room, they all turned to look at the main door of the lodge and spied several villagers coming in from the cold. One individual made his way over to their table, stomping snow from his boots while dusting off his shoulders. They discovered that it was Mathis within the deep hood, standing with a broad smile across his face as he pushed it back.
"The storm has broken," he announced, looking rather pleased. "The morning sun is clear in the sky."
"So you can take us to the gate." Ronon's impatience to leave was growing stronger with every passing second.
Mathis's smile faltered, his gaze becoming more serious. "Has Chal said your friends are able to travel so soon?"
"No. Excuse the big guy, he's just homesick," Sheppard answered with a forced grin, pushing his abandoned plate to the center of the table. "Nothing against you, but I think we all are."
The villager didn't miss their downcast expressions. "Did something happen?"
"Beckett," Sheppard started to say before Ronon got up and stalked back towards the infirmary. Nodding towards the disappearing figure, he started again, "Beckett's having some trouble, but we think McKay is doing better." His own leg throbbing a steady beat under the table, he refused to give in and bother Nex for something to ease his own discomfort. The man had his hands full and didn't need to be bothered, and Sheppard had had worse.
While Mathis undid his heavy coat and took a seat to join the pair, Johan arrived moments later, covered in snow the same as his father had been minutes earlier. Dropping into Ronon's vacated seat, he undid his own coat, letting the sides hang open. "Did you tell Dr. Nex about what might be wrong with Dr. McKay?" he hesitantly asked Sheppard.
Sheppard drew a blank gaze before he remembered their conversation from prior to the cravit attack. "Shit," he exclaimed, smacking himself in the forehead while jumping up from his seat.
"Colonel?" Teyla stared between the two, clearly missing something. When the dark haired officer grimaced and grabbed his thigh while hobbling after Ronon, she jumped up to join them. "What is wrong with Rodney?" she asked, nearly getting hit with a chair he shoved out of his way.
He merely shook his head, mentally berating himself for forgetting to tell Nex earlier. Entering the doctor's room under full steam, he nearly collided with Ronon standing right inside the entranceway. "Move," he ordered the runner.
Chal looked up in irritation, seeing the colonel limp over to join him Beckett's bedside. It had taken quite some doing to get the physician stable and resting, he didn't want anyone to disturb him. "Colonel?"
Sheppard hooked him by the arm, tugging him over towards McKay. "I know what's wrong with Rodney."
"What?"
"He came in contact with some bacteria while fixing the refrigerator."
Chal frowned at the other man not making any sense. "I don't understand."
"Back at the village. Johan said McKay had spent the day working in some cold storage room and that there was an offworld bacteria being kept frozen. If the unit was having trouble maintaining a constant freezing temperature, Rodney must have come in contact with it." Giving Chal's arm a hard shake, Sheppard nodded to Rodney, "I want to know what you had in there that is making him so sick."
The physician pulled his arm free, not liking the accusatory tone. "Colonel Sheppard, I wasn't aware that McKay had been in the unit. And even if he had been, the bacteria was sealed. There wasn't any way he could have been exposed."
"Actually, the seal was broken," Johan said quietly from the entranceway.
All eyes in the room focused on the young man, as he stood there looking as though he wished to be anywhere else but where he was.
"Explain," Chal demanded.
Johan shifted on his feet, his gaze settling on the floor. "Your assistant told me what he'd brought back from Brune, that it was a way we could defend ourselves if we were ever attacked." When no one interrupted him, he continued hesitantly, "He asked me to help him make a way of creating some sort of a weapon that we could use." He glanced back up, meeting Sheppard's sharp gaze and then cowering as Ronon took a menacing step closer. "I told him 'no'! But he wouldn't listen and smuggled the canister from the storage system to my work station one night."
Mathis's hand fell on his son's shoulder, having followed him when he'd jumped up to follow the offworlders. Disappointment clouded his face as he urged Johan to continue.
"I…I was working on making more flares." He sighed deeply, his hand fluttering nervously in front of his chest. "We had a fight and I told him to take it away. When he wouldn't take it, I pushed it at him and it fell off the counter. "
"And it broke," Chal suggested.
Johan nodded his head. "The seal cracked. When he saw what had happened, he ran and left me with it so I covered it instantly and carried it back to the storage."
Sheppard leaned against Rodney's bed, staring down at the still figure. "Where McKay was exposed."
Silence hung heavy in the room, broken only by the quiet sounds of the surrounding machinery.
"I believe Carson may have already taken care of Rodney," Chal said finally. Stepping over to the laptops, he hesitantly fingered several keys that he'd explored earlier, only to display a number of images. "If I understand this correctly, he was able to identify the illness. Unfortunately, at the risk of his own health."
A headache growing between his eyes, and a new mess springing up at them with every second, Sheppard grimaced. No matter how pissed Elizabeth might be, anything had to be better than this nightmare. "Doc, how soon before we can get them back to the gate?"
Chal ran his hand over his head, pushing his hair back on his forehead. "They can't be exposed to the cold, not even for a short period."
"But the storm's over. Mathis said it was all clear."
"I'm sorry, colonel, but you'll need to wait at least a few more days. They both seriously need to rest and regain some of their strength."
Giving Rodney a pat to the shoulder, Sheppard then hobbled over to Beckett's bed. "There's got to be another way," he murmured, contemplating a way on how he could get back to the gate to signal Atlantis.
TBC