Chapter 7

Elizabeth was in her office enjoying a cup of coffee and the peace. She hoped it would last all day but knowing John, him or someone on his team was bound to ruin it. Looking down at her watch she figured she only had thirty minutes left of peace before they were due back. She almost wished, for once, things would be normal but considering that they in an alien galaxy to begin with, they probably never would be.

"Dr. Weir?"

Her radio broke her train of thought. She sighed; it looked like her remaining half-an-hour of peace would be disrupted. She picked up her radio she said, "This is Dr. Weir."

"Can you please come down to the infirmary immediately?"

"What happened? Can I speak to Dr. Beckett?"

There was a slight pause.

"I've been told only to tell you to come down to the infirmary."

"Okay, I'm on my way over."

Frustrated Elizabeth got up from her desk quickly and hurried towards the infirmary. She definitely was going to talk to Carson about his staff; it would have been nice if they were more informative on the radio. She would have thought he would have trained them to do that, unless it was bad news. She started to walk faster, hoping she was wrong and that nothing serious happened.

Walking as fast as she could without running she made her way to the infirmary. She though of the possible scenarios of what could have happened. Within no time she was at the infirmary doors. She held her breath as she walked through the doors. Once inside she first noticed how empty it looked. She had seen the infirmary almost empty before but not as quiet, there always seemed to be someone injured. Fearing for the worst she walked around looking for Dr. Beckett. Seeing no one she ventured further into the infirmary. Finally seeing a nurse coming out of one of the back rooms she walked toward her. The nurse not noticing Elizabeth continued walking, almost making Elizabeth run to catch up with her.

"Excuse me," Elizabeth said to her, catching up to her and tapping her arm lightly.

The nurse seemed surprised and stopped walking. "Can I help you ma'am?" she asked.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you but could you tell me where Dr. Beckett is?"

The nurse's face paled quickly and tears started to form in her eyes. Unable to respond she gestured toward the room she just left.

Getting more worried Elizabeth asked, "Is Goodrich…did he…" She stopped, unsure of how to put it.

The nurse shook her head and took a deep breath, "Goodrich is stable."

"Oh, that's good to hear," Elizabeth said in relief. She was worried he had passed away but she soon became worried again when she saw the nurse was still pale.

"Are you okay?" she asked the nurse.

"No, I rather not talk about it. I need to get the supplies Dr. Biro needs," she said as she tried walking away but Elizabeth stopped her.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, please I need to go."

"Okay. Dr. Beckett is in that room," she asked.

The nurse glanced down and nodded.

"Did something happen?"

"I think you should talk to Dr. Biro," with that she walked away quickly toward a cabinet.

Elizabeth could feel her heart beating fast as she made her way toward the door. Reaching the door she saw it was ajar, pushing it open she poked her head in. Looking in she saw Dr. Biro and some of the medical staff around one of the beds, but she couldn't make out who the patient was.

"I need someone to take a blood sample and his temperature again when Michelle come back with the supplies. We need to hook him up to a heart monitor," she heard Dr. Biro say.

Suddenly one of the nurses looked up and noticed Elizabeth standing by the door; she tapped Dr. Biro's shoulder, causing her to look up.

"Dr. Weir!" she exclaimed.

She hurried toward the door, turning around she made a gestured with her hand saying continue working. She quickly ushered Elizabeth out of the room before she could see the person lying on the bed and to another selection of the infirmary.

"Where's Dr. Beckett?"

"Ah...you see," tried Dr. Biro. It looked like she was struggling to find the right words.

"I just talked to one of the nurses. I thought Goodrich was stable. Who was that in the room back there?" asked Elizabeth pointing to the other room. "Where's Dr. Beckett?"

Biting her lip and tried to explain, "That was Dr. Beckett. He is really sick and it looks like it maybe the same thing Private Goodrich has."

"How is that possible? I just talked to him an hour ago." Elizabeth could not believe what Dr. Biro was telling her.

"We have to wait for his blood sample to get back to confirm it but he has the same symptoms."

"How bad is it?"

"He's unconscious right now and is having some difficulty breathing. He has an oxygen mask but if he gets worse we're going to have to tube him. He also has a high fever but hopefully we can bring that down with some medication."

"I thought it wasn't contagious."

"It's not. I'm not hundred percent sure how he got infected. By the time I found him he was barely conscious. Though I'm pretty sure he poked himself with the Private's blood sample."

"How do you know?"

"A nurse said they bumped into each other and he had the sample in his hand. He told her to take the Private's temperature and rushed out of the room. That might be nothing but Dr. Beckett's left hand does have a band-aide around one of his fingers."

"Do you think he knew?"

"Without a doubt, he probably didn't want anyone to worry and was too worried out the Private. I should have known. I thought he was just getting tired from the lack of sleep. I even asked him how he was feeling." Dr. Biro ran a hand through her hair, her voice starting to crack as she started to lose it. "He's getting worse. I should have checked on him sooner. I mean what if he had stopped breathing?"

Elizabeth tried calming down the shaken Doctor. She wrapped her arm around the Dr. Biro who was crying now.

"Sh...it's okay. He's pretty stubborn. He probably wouldn't have rested anyways, he's always puts his patients before his own health. I'm sure Colonel Sheppard will be back soon with the sample."

Elizabeth stood there, letting Dr. Biro cry on her shoulder while she was lost in her own thoughts. Her day pretty quiet and peaceful day was now anything from it.

"I need to get back to Dr. Beckett," Dr. Biro said straightening up.

"Do you think he's going to be okay?"

"I …" she started to say when a voice behind them interrupted her.

"Dr. Weir we're back. What are you doing in the infirmary? Where's Dr. Beckett? We've got the water sample he wanted."

Elizabeth sighed, recognizing the voice. She was hoping to have more time to figure out how she was going to tell them Carson was infected. She turned to face Colonel Sheppard and his team to tell them the bad news.

AN: Thanks to all of you who have been reading my story, I really appreciate it. Please keep reading and reviewing. I'm sorry if Dr. Biro seems out of character, I haven't really seen much of her in the episodes of Stargate Atlantis I've seen. I'll have the next chapter by…next week or sooner.