Chapter 8: Misfortune

Sheppard carried Lexa through the Infirmary door and Carson immediately got to work. He motioned to the bed closest to the door, "Put her down here Colonel." He hooked her up to an IV and gave her double the dose of the sedative she had been receiving over the past week. He drew a blood sample, and with in the hour had the results. Her hormone levels were higher than ever before, so he gave her another shot of sedative.

With the amount of sedative in her system, Lexa should have been out until the next morning, but with her high level of hormones she was burning through the dosage. She awoke three hours later, completely aware of her actions. She rolled onto her side and hid her face in the pillow. While she tried to find a way to deal with what happened, she heard Carson come over to check on her. Still pressed into the pillow she mumbled out, "Thanks Carson, but I really don't want to talk right now." She picked up her head to look at him, "Colonel Sheppard didn't tell you, did he?"

"Ah, I had a feeling he was leaving something out." Carson could tell by her complexion that she was embarrassed. "But if it's nothing life threatening, you can keep it to yourself." She gave him a half smile and he went back into his office. A tear fell down her cheek and she put her face back into the pillow.

A few hours later, in the middle of the night, the quiet city was disturbed by an unscheduled off-world activation. The few Security Officers that were on duty took positions around the Gate Room. Technician Chuck radioed Weir who was busy doing paper work, and Sheppard who was up still working on War And Peace. As they ran in they noticed the shield was down, and saw Dr. Langly huddling behind one of the SOs. Chuck informed them that they received her IDC, lowered the shield, and she immediately came through. At the present moment they were still waiting on the rest of Lorne's team.

Colonel Sheppard took one of the SOs P-90s, who switched to his back-up, and took position in the military formation. The next few seconds seemed like eternity, and then they finally received a transmission from Major Lorne, "We're coming in hot, under foot and air pursuit! Clear the Gate!" Stunner blasts began to fly threw the Gate and the men information stepped back out of the way, but kept their eyes and guns trained on the Puddle. A few more stunner blasts flew through accompanied by a couple dart blasts. One blast blew a moderately sized hole in the staircase leading up to the control room, while another left a skid-mark like impression in the wall. Time continued on, in what seemed to be slow motion, and finally on team member came through, then another, and finally Major Lorne. They eyed the Puddle, waiting for the shield to raise. As Chuck reached for the touch pad to activate the shield, a final dart blast made its way through. A painful scream drowned out the sound of the activated shield. Lorne was grazed by the blast just above his knee, and it did a pretty good amount of damage.

After a few hours of monitoring Alexa and then fighting with her about leave in the Infirmary, a fight which he lost and she went back to her room, all Carson wanted to do was sleep. He had been lying in bed for over an hour and was finally falling asleep when "Medical team to the Gate Room" came booming through the city. He knew the on-call team could take care of things there, so he got up, got dressed and went down to meet them in the Infirmary. On his way down Elizabeth informed him via radio what had happened. He had made it there first, so he quickly prepared to take the Major directly into surgery.

The sun began to creep over the horizon, and soon rays began to full Alexa's room. They slowly made their way from the floor, to the bed, and finally to her face. She awoke to the warmth on her cheek, and immediately thought of Marc. She sat up quickly, suddenly realizing that something was wrong. She didn't know what, for she had slept through the commotion of the past her hours, but she had a sinking feeling that he was in trouble. Her head filled with worry and for the time being she completely forgot about the mishap of the previous day. She quickly jumped in the shower, threw on some jeans and a baby-tee, and made her way to the control room. She knew he wasn't due back until mid-day, but with her feeling, she just wanted to check and see if they had heard anything from him or his team.

Lexa walked into the Gate Room and immediately noticed the damaged wall and the maintenance team attempting to repair the staircase. She froze in disbelief, her feeling of worry deepening. She looked up to Weir's office and saw her talking with Carson. She then eyed the hole in the stairs, and carefully maneuvered around the maintenance team as she made her way up to join them. As she walked through the control room she knew all eyes were on her, and her heart sank. She stopped for a moment just before reaching Weir's office, and realized things couldn't be as bad as she thought, otherwise they would have told her already. She took a deep breath, walked through the door, and the room fell silent. Lexa looked them each in the eye, and then finally asked, "What's going on?"

Weir sighed as she tilted her head back and forth, unsure how to answer. "Well, Lorne and his team made an unscheduled return a few hours ago. And by now you've probably pieced together that they came through under fire," she nodded to the control room.

Lexa pressed her lips together, fighting back tears, "Yeah, and why do I have a feeling that there's more to it than that?"

"Aye, there is," Carson knew what, well whom, she was referring to. "He took a dart blast to the knee. It wasn't as bad as it sounds, but he will need to stay off of it for a few weeks. He came out of surgery about and hour ago, and should be waking up soon."

Lexa sighed, as some of her worries were put to rest, "Thanks Carson, I think I'll head down there now." She nodded to them both and exited the room.

Lexa walked into the Infirmary and found Marc half awake. "Hey, you alright," she asked as she walked over to him.

"Yeah, I'll be alright. Tired though, it's been a long day,"

"Well, then, you should sleep." She cuddled up with him on his left side, seeing as how it was his right leg that was hit. She laced the fingers of her left hand into his on his right, "I'm just glad it was nothing serious. I woke up with a horrible feeling."

"Oh well, no not serious. Unless you consider getting ambushed on a Wraith Worshipper planet, barely making it back through the Gate, and then getting blasted after you've come through something serious."