The area that had been set up for Sheppard and Weir on the north pier was a large lab that the team wasn't using because it had been deemed too far out of the way. They shut off all equipment that wasn't essential to minimize machine noise, and moved the city's leaders down there while they were still asleep. The sedatives they'd been given weren't supposed to wear off until morning, so most of the medical team was able to get a little bit of sleep as well.
"Any progress?" Beckett asked a couple of the doctors as he returned to the infirmary just after dawn. He received a few shaken heads. They had started trying to work on an antidote for the poison; the aphasia had been one thing, but this was torture. No one knew if they would be able to come up with anything faster than the normal course of the drug, but they had to try.
"Dr. Beckett?" of the nurses who was monitoring their video feeds called to him. As he approached, he could see on the screen that Sheppard was waking up.
Just the process of sitting up in bed made enough noise that he was wincing. As the noise – and pain – faded, John got a look at his surroundings. He knew he was in a lab, but nothing looked familiar. His eyes finally landed on a large dry erase board that was propped against the wall.
YOU'RE ON THE NORTH PIER TO MINIMIZE NOISE.
15 HOURS LEFT; WE'RE WORKING ON A QUICKER SOLUTION.
TELL THE CAMERAS IF YOU NEED ANYTHING.
There were three cameras around the room, and Sheppard waved at one of them. Food had been left on one of the lab benches, as well as anything else they would need. Someone had even gotten John's copy of War and Peace, although he wasn't in the mood for reading it at the moment.
A noise behind him made him cringe again, but he knew that Elizabeth was now awake as well. He pointed the sign out for her before lying back down as carefully and quietly as possible. If he had a fifteen hour wait ahead of him, he was going to get some sleep.
When Teyla and Ronon got to the mess hall after a morning training session, they noticed that Rodney was also there having breakfast. "May we join you?" Teyla asked as they approached with trays.
"Sure," McKay mumbled around a mouthful of food. "I've got a full day a head on the Daedalus; we think we've got all the calculations for the extraction; now we can start testing."
"What happens to Caldwell if your plan works?" Ronon asked.
"He'll be taken back to Earth. What happens after that depends on exactly how long the Goa'uld has been in his brain. It's up to SGC to decide."
"Has anyone considered what we are going to do with our own prisoner?" Teyla asked.
Ronon smirked. "Personally, I like the sound of 'an eye for an eye'."
"You would," Rodney shot. "In the end, it's going to be Dr. Weir and Colonel Sheppard's decision…Things could get interesting."
Elizabeth hadn't ever really taken the time to consider all of the little tiny things there were in the world that made noise, but she'd now received an opportunity to do so, whether she wanted it or not. The sounds of her own lungs and heart were the loudest, followed closely by Sheppard's breathing. The electronics in the room were whirring not-so-quietly. There were several walls between her and the ocean, but she could still faintly hear the water lapping against the edge of the city. It was actually the most tranquil setting she'd been in for a very long time, but she was completely on edge, just waiting for whatever was going to come next. Sheppard had actually managed to fall asleep, but Elizabeth knew there was no chance of that happening for her.
She flinched at the sound of a rustling noise, and figured that John was getting up for something. However, the noise didn't stop – he was seizing.
Beckett and his team noticed what was happening on the monitors at about the same time, and quickly left the infirmary. "There weren't supposed to be any other symptoms!" one of the med techs exclaimed as they hurried to the nearest transporter.
"This may be indirectly related," Carson replied. "In case you hadn't noticed, Colonel Sheppard's been wracking up quite a few frequent flyer miles in the infirmary lately. His system just may not be able to handle it all."
Elizabeth braved the additional noise that came from getting up, and moved over to Sheppard's bed. His eyes were open but she had no idea whether he was still conscious, if he could hear or see her. Every muscle in his body had gone rigid, and she wondered if it hurt – if it WOULD hurt when the same thing happened to her. Elizabeth knew that if he could hear her, speaking would be just as painful for him as it would be for her, so she simply took his hand and squeezed it, praying that the medical team would show up soon.
She could hear the med techs coming long before they actually arrived; by the time they got to the room she was in, the noise was pretty much unbearable. Elizabeth got out of the way, sliding down the wall behind her to sit on the floor.
"Let's get him on his side," Beckett said to the other doctors.
They began trying to treat John, checking his vitals and giving him medications. A heart monitor started beeping loudly once they got it hooked up. The doctors' voices rose in order to be heard over it. Instruments clanging added to the ruckus. The moments it took before anyone remembered their second patient were an eternity for the woman in the corner with her knees under her chin, her hands over her ears, and her eyes closed tight.
"Here," Beckett told one of the other med techs, handing the man a needle with a sedative. He nodded and went to administer the drug.
TBC...