Author's Note: Sorry about the slow, mundane pace of this chapter. I'll try to pick up the pace next time.

The Day of Reckoning – Chapter 10

Nick stepped into Beckett's office. "I think Kelly and I are leaving if you don't need us anymore."

"No, you two go ahead."

"Did you ever find anything in the Ancient database that compares to what's going on with the Colonel?"

Beckett nodded. "Aye. I found one reference to something presenting itself exactly like what's affecting the Colonel. We're doin' the right thing by just treatin' the symptoms and trying to make him as comfortable as possible. Seems to be similar to a very rough version of our flu."

Nick looked somewhat confused. "Wonder why he's the only one that got it."

Beckett sighed. "It actually makes sense, considerin'."

Nick crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe. "Considering what?"

"Well, two things actually. First, I think the Ancient gene may have something to do with this, since he has the strongest gene of anyone here. The second thing has to do with who the virus tends to hit hardest. According to the records, most people were able to fight the virus off. The only ones it really made sick were those with compromised immune systems."

Nick nodded and frowned. "And the past couple weeks, the Colonel's certainly been a nice feeding ground for a virus looking for a new home."

"Aye. The good news is that it's rarely fatal. Patients just have a miserable time for about a week. Since his fever has come down and stabilized, I think we have him through the worst of it."

"Well, that is good news. He'll be glad to hear that. Just be careful touching him when he's dreaming." Nick rubbed the side of his nose. "If he punches that hard when he's sick, I'd hate to be on the receiving end of one when he's healthy."

Beckett frowned. "I never did look at that."

"Just bruised. Nothing broken, I promise." Nick paused, his brow furrowing. "The nightmares are getting worse, aren't they?"

Beckett rubbed his chin. "Aye, it seems they are. Not much we can do about that."

Nick glanced back over his shoulder. "Here comes Kelly, so I guess we're outta here."

Beckett smiled. "So, do you two have another date?"

"I don't know if I'd call this one a date; I think we're just eating together because we're both starved. Probably just eat and hit the sack."

Beckett raised his eyebrows. "Oh, really?"

Nick's face turned bright red. "Not like that! In our own quarters . . . alone. Sheesh, Carson, we just started dating."

Kelly stopped right beside Nick. "Are we ready?"

"Oh, yeah. We're ready."

"See you tonight, Dr. Beckett," said Kelly as Nick hurried her out the door.

oOo

Sheppard managed to get his hand up to rub the sleep from his eyes. He blinked and squinted at a room that stayed out of focus for a few minutes. When his sight cleared, his eyes widened in surprise.

"Ronon?" he croaked.

"We were checking up on you."

Sheppard let his eyes move around the room, but he didn't see anyone else there. He was beginning to worry that he was more out of it than he had realized. "We?"

"Teyla is talking to one of the nurses."

"Oh," said Sheppard, relieved.

"Feel any better?"

"A little." Sheppard tried to clear his throat of a persistent tickle, but only succeeded in triggering a coughing fit. After a minute, he finally laid back against the pillows, exhausted and breathing hard.

"Ice?"

Ronon was now standing beside his bed and he hadn't even seen the man move. Unlike the nurses, who slipped the ice chips in your mouth when you were weak and sore, Ronon just held out the cup toward Sheppard.

"Thanks." Sheppard reached for the cup with his trembling hand, and then gripped it with both hands as he leaned forward off the pillows. Focusing all of his attention on holding the cup steady, he brought it to his lips. Much of the ice had melted, leaving cold water that felt good in his dry mouth and sliding down his tortured throat.

Suddenly the ice, which had temporarily wedged in the bottom of the cup, broke loose and crashed into his face, sending water and ice into his lap. Caught off-guard, Sheppard fumbled the cup, dumping the remaining contents down the front of his shirt. The shock of the cold water caused him to inhale suddenly, sucking a piece of ice down his throat. Sheppard coughed and sputtered on it.

Not knowing how to help, Ronon finally slapped Sheppard soundly on the back, right between the shoulder blades. Sheppard gasped at the pain that exploded from the bruise there.

Teyla and Marcy came through the privacy curtain just in time to see Ronon hit Sheppard on the back.

"Ronon!" snapped Teyla.

The two women moved to either side of the bed and Ronon moved quickly aside. When Sheppard finally caught his breath and quit coughing, they helped ease him back against the pillows.

"We'll need to get you into some dry scrubs, Colonel. These are soaked," Marcy said, narrowing her eyes at Ronon.

Sheppard closed his eyes and moaned.

"I'll be right back," said Marcy.

"I will stay with Colonel Sheppard," assured Teyla. She then turned to Ronon. "What were you doing?"

Ronon shrugged. "He wanted ice. I gave it to him."

Teyla's eyebrows shot up. "You just gave him a cup of ice water?"

"Guess so."

"Could you not see that he needed help?" Teyla's voice was slowly rising with her level of exasperation.

"I figured he could handle a cup of ice."

"Well, you figured wrong. The Colonel has been very ill and is very weak. You should have held the cup for him."

Ronon sighed. "I'm not a nurse."

"Got that right," said Sheppard weakly.

Teyla turned to Sheppard. "Are you all right, Colonel . . . John?"

"Will be. Ronon?"

"Yeah, Sheppard."

Sheppard opened his eyes to stare at Ronon. "You ever hit me like that again and I'll kick your ass."

Taking in Sheppard's glare and tone of voice, Ronon decided against laughing. After all, the man wouldn't be in the infirmary forever.

oOo

Carson Beckett strolled up to Sheppard's bed as Marcy finished getting the Colonel settled in a sitting position.

"He's all set. Do you need anything else?"

"No thank you, lass."

Marcy nodded and left as Beckett moved closer to the bed.

"How are you feeling this afternoon? Is your back any better?"

"Mostly just tired and achy. I feel like someone siphoned off every scrap of energy I have. The term 'washed out' just doesn't do it justice. My back's okay; finally quit throbbing. I just have to watch how I lay on it."

"Sorry I couldn't give you anything, but I didn't want to run the risk of making you nauseous again."

"That's okay, Doc. It wasn't that bad, not like that first day."

"Colonel, I want you to realize that it's goin' to take you a while to get over this. You weren't completely over the ordeal with the Genii and this illness took a lot out of you. I need you to be patient with your recovery and not try to do too much too fast."

"I know . . . I will."

"Your temperature is down to 101, so I thought we'd try to keep you awake for a wee bit this afternoon. We need to start trying to build your strength back up. Do you think you could eat somethin'?"

Sheppard frowned. "Maybe."

"I sent for a bit of broth."

Beckett turned at the sound of someone coming up behind him to see Marcy carrying a steaming mug of soup.

"Anyone here order soup?" she asked. She carried it over and set it on the rolling table, pushing it over Sheppard's lap.

As soon as the smell hit Sheppard's nose, his stomach recoiled. "Oh," he moaned as he clamped his hand over his mouth, turned his head, and began to gag.

Beckett immediately grabbed the mug and handed it back to Marcy. "Better get that out of here." He grabbed the basin so he'd be ready in case needed it.

Sheppard closed his eyes tightly and clenched his jaw shut, concentrating on keeping his meager stomach contents in his stomach. The thought of vomiting yet again was about as frightening as fighting a wraith right now. His eyes watered with the effort and another low moan escaped as the water he'd just ingested surged up.

Beckett just stood back watching, willing the man to hold it together. He didn't speak or touch the Colonel, afraid of distracting him from his effort. Sheppard finally leaned his head back against the pillow. Bringing his hands up to his face, he wiped his eyes and sighed. "Crap."

Beckett's brow furrowed. "Sorry about that. I should have anticipated the smell causing you problems. Maybe we can try something else later . . . maybe some jello."

"Fine, just not now. And nothing that smells. I'm thinking odorless and tasteless. Yeah, mess hall jello should fit the bill."

Beckett smiled. "I won't tell the cook you said that."

"Carson?" Beckett turned to see McKay approaching. "Is it safe?"

"Aye, you can come visit. Maybe you can help keep the Colonel awake for a bit while I get some things done." Beckett turned back to Sheppard. "Let me know if you need anythin', and I'll check with you in a bit."

"Okay, Doc." Sheppard watched Beckett leave and noticed that McKay hadn't really come much closer. "It's okay, Rodney. I won't hurl on you or anything."

"I just don't want to catch anything. I'm too busy right now to get sick."

"You won't get sick. Doc said probably the only reason I got it was a depressed immune system or something like that."

McKay frowned. "Why do you have a depressed immune system?"

"Not sure. I was kind of drifting when he was telling me all this, so I really only heard part of it."

"Why don't you ask him?"

Sheppard rolled his eyes. "Because then he'll think I wasn't listening to him."

"Well, you weren't."

"I was too! At least I was trying to listen. I certainly wasn't not listening to him on purpose."

"You never listen to people when they're explaining things to you. You have the best 'not listening' skills of anyone I've ever met."

Sheppard leaned his head back into the pillow. "I think my headache is coming back."

McKay crossed his arms. "So now I give you a headache, huh? See if I waste my time coming to visit you anymore."

"Well, look at it this way, McKay. At least you didn't help me dump ice water all over myself."

oOo

Kolya grabbed Sheppard's wrist, pulling him forward. Sheppard twisted and pulled away from the grinning face of his most hated enemy.

"No! I'm not going with you this time." Sheppard backed away, scrambling from Kolya's laugh.

"You can't escape me Colonel. I thought you would understand that by now."

Sheppard felt the hands of guards, trying to subdue him. Wrenching away, he managed to get to his feet and tried to run. But his legs were weak and shaky, and he didn't get very far before they gave way, dumping him on the floor. He crawled, desperate to get away from the punishment Kolya would take him to; he just couldn't do it again. He clawed and scratched and screamed against his captors until he felt the heavy, drugged darkness close in around him.

Beckett sat on the floor, clinging to the empty syringe and panting as he tried to catch his breath. He looked over to Marcy, Courtney, and McKay, all sitting around Sheppard's unconscious form. His gaze settled on the wide-eyed, pale face of the scientist.

"Are you okay, Rodney?" Beckett asked.

"Carson, what's happening to him? Is it the fever? One minute he's asleep and the next . . ."

Beckett sighed. "His fever is no longer high enough to be causin' this. It's nightmares. And they're getting' worse."

McKay shook his head. "That was more like a hallucination than a nightmare. He didn't even know who we were or where he was." McKay looked at Sheppard, sprawled out on the ground. Drops of blood were splattered on the floor and on Sheppard's scrubs from the IV line he had ripped out in the struggle. "This is bad, isn't it?"

"Aye. I think it's time Kate and I talked to Elizabeth."

TBC