Chapter 4

Present

After hearing that Private Goodrich's condition was becoming worse, Carson raced into the room that the Private was in. Turning to the nurse he asked, "Is his fever getting higher?"

"Yes and his breathes are becoming labored."

"Okay, let's get him a portable oxygen mask, take a blood sample, and his temperature again."

"I'll get you the supplies doctor," with that she hurried off.

Carson walked over to the very ill looking Private. The he seemed semiconscious.

"Hang in there son," he said patting the Private's arm. Goodrich nodded his head very tiredly. The nurse came back shortly with the medical supplies on a tray.

"Here Dr. Beckett."

"Thank you." They quickly placed an oxygen mask over the Private and hooked him up to an oxygen machine. "Could you get the Private's test results from the lab? They should be done now."

"Sure."

As the nurse left, Carson took the empty syringe from the tray. He turned to the Private and said, "Son I'm going to take another blood sample from you and then take your temperature again." The Private seemed to nod his head slightly. Carson carefully injected the needle into a vein on the Private's arm and withdrew some blood. Turning around while putting the lid on the needle he bumped into the nurse who came back with the test results. He cursed under his breathe as he felt the needle poke through one of his gloved hands.

"Oh, Dr. Beckett I'm so sorry. You didn't get poked by the needle, did you?"

"It's nothing to worry about, lass. Take his temperature; I'll be in the lab testing his blood." Capping the syringe off he placed it in his lab coat pocket as he hurried to the nearest sink, which was in the room next door. At the sink he quickly pulled off his glove and washed his hands. He sighed in relief when he saw his hand was not bleeding. "Nothing to worry about," he mumbled to himself but as he moved his hand out of the water he noticed it was bleeding. "Bloody hell," he said softly under his breath. This was bad; he quickly used his other hand to stop his finger from bleeding as he walked over to the supply cabinet. Opening the cabinet he pulled out a band-aide and put it over his bleeding finger. He silently hoped the Private only had a really bad case of the flu though it did not look likely.

Carson carefully placed a slide with a sample of Goodrich's blood on it under his microscope. Adjusting the lens slightly, he leaned forward and peered at the sample. He frowned, not finding anything out of the ordinary in the blood. He leaned back and rubbed his forehead with his hand. He baffled at what was making Goodrich sick. His symptoms at first made his illness look like the flu but as he kept getting worse the symptoms were indicating something else. Carson looked at the sample again, hoping to find something he missed. He then saw it, small brownish bacteria, within the blood that was barely noticeable. It did not look like the flu bacteria; the Private definitely had something else. Absentmindedly he rubbed his bandaged finger, as he tried to figure out caused Goodrich's illness. The test results, he almost forgot about them. He had not been back in to check on the Private after getting the blood sample. Just as he was about to go looking for the nurse he saw her by the door.

"Dr. Beckett the Private's temperature is 105 and here are the tests results you asked for earlier," she said.

"Okay let's try giving him something to lower it," he said as he reached out to take the papers. Looking down at the results he saw that they confirmed that the Private did not have the flu.

"Call SGA-2 and tell them to come down to the infirmary immediately," he told her. She nodded and left the room. He hoped that the rest of the Private's team did not have the same bacteria in their blood. He wanted to confirm if the bacteria was contagious before he notified Dr. Weir on the situation. This day was just getting better and better.

He sighed in relief after looking at the rest of SGA-2's test results. It appeared that the bacteria was not contagious. He rubbed his bandaged finger again, it was starting to throb which was not a good sign. He hoped that he was not infected, very unlikely at the moment. The probability of him not being infected was very small; to make matters worse he felt the start of a headache. He had hoped that he found the cure before anyone noticed he was sick. He should probably also tell someone and test his own blood to be sure. Grabbing an empty syringe he walked over to his office, carefully avoiding any confrontations with his staff, and shut the door. Carson didn't want anyone seeing him take a sample of his own blood; it would lead to too many questions. Pulling his sleeve up, he skillfully drew some of his blood. Placing the sample down, he applied pressure to his arm, and bandaged up the arm. He then pulled his sleeve back down and placed the blood sample in his pocket. He would look at it later, right now he needed to inform Dr. Weir about Goodrich's condition.

As Carson reached Dr. Weir's office he saw the door was open with Dr. Weir, Colonel Sheppard and Rodney inside. He walked in only to find Colonel Sheppard and Rodney arguing over something.

"Excuse me Dr. Weir," he said barely over the arguing.

Elizabeth stopped rubbing her temple with her finger tips and looked up at Carson, who was standing in the doorway. She made a motion with her hand gesturing to speak.

"There's a situation in the infirmary you need to know about," he said raising his voice over the argument being voiced in the office. At that both John and Rodney stopped talking.

"How serious is it?" asked Dr. Weir.

"I'm afraid its life threatening."

"Wait is it contagious? Oh, god. Am I infected? I was just in the infirmary last night," asked a very worried Rodney.

"No Rodney. It's not contagious."

"Are you sure?"

Carson rolled his eyes. "Yes I am sure. I've run enough tests to confirm that it's not air-borne."

"So you're hundred percent sure that it's not contagious?"

"Rodney!"

"I was just clarifying."

"Who's infected Doctor?" asked Dr. Weir.

"Private Goodrich from SGA-2. I believe he inhaled bacteria while off world after falling into a river. If I could get a sample of the water from the river I think I can come up with a cure."

"That's good to hear. Wait Rodney you were in the infirmary yesterday?"

"He managed to injury himself again," said John grinning.

"Says who," asked an annoyed Rodney.

"Me and I saw you going in." Turning to Carson he asked, "What did he do this time Doctor?"

"Ah," started Carson. He hated being stuck in these situations. He didn't want either of them mad at him and accuse him of picking sides. He paused trying to think of a way to avoid getting either of them extremely mad. "I can't say, that would be against my patient and doctor confidentiality policy."

Rodney grinned at John satisfied that the extent of his injury was safe.

"Let me see you're hand."

"NO."

"Stop being a baby about it and let me see it."

"NO."

"That's enough," interrupted Elizabeth, she had enough of them arguing. "Colonel Sheppard can you prepare your team to leave in thirty minutes?"

"Yes ma'am," replied John.

"Oh be sure to bring the commanding officer of SGA-2 with you." John nodded his head and heading toward the door with Rodney trailing behind him. Once out the room they could be heard bickering again. As soon as they were completely gone Dr. Weir asked the burning question on her mind.

"How much time does he have?"

"I really can't say. We have him stable right now but it doesn't look good."

"Let's just hope they get back in time."

Author's note: Sorry for the long delay. Finals and studying got in the way but they're finally over.  I'll try to update more regularly.