- Chapter 13 -
With a slight swoosh, the door to Grodin's room opened and Dr Kusanagi shyly went inside. Peter had been a friend, one of the few who had taken the time to get to know her a little better. She was on her way back to the lab, after one of the kitchen staff had helped her glue the broken foot of her microscope. And when she passed this section she just wanted to have a moment for herself and her memories. Life outside right now was too hectic and still too frightening for her.
It was already dark outside, so, using her gene, she switched on the lighting in the room, only to stumble back in shocked surprise when she found she wasn't alone.
Besides a tuft of brown hair there wasn't much to see of the huddled up frame, but Miko knew Rodney McKay well enough to recognise him.
Startled to have interrupted whatever he was doing, she instantly backed off. "I.. I'm sorry, Dr McKay. Didn't want to… I will go…Really sorry for disturbing you!" He didn't move or yell at her, for which she was glad, so she quickly turned around and left him in peace.
oOo
"Major."
Caldwell's greeting, when Sheppard came into Elizabeth's office, spoke of decades of military training. Stiff, but not outright unfriendly, with a touch of arrogance. Emotions completely unreadable behind a neutral face. John knew these types and approached the Colonel with some caution. He didn't quite trust him.
"Colonel." He politely, but guardedly, nodded at the other man.
"I must say, now that I had time to look around, it's quite an impressive city you have here." Caldwell fell into a seat near Elizabeth's desk and leaned back casually.
John had spent the better part of the past year on top of the military food chain. Being suddenly confronted with superiors left him nervous and a little unsure of himself. During the siege he had acted on autopilot. Now that things had quieted down he found himself thinking too much and hated himself for his own insecurity.
"You have yet to really see it, Colonel." Elizabeth came into her office, her voice held pride, but also sounded tired, and harder than usual. Sitting down in her office chair, she motioned John to sit also, and he took the opposite chair, leaning back with the same casualness, right foot resting on the left knee. This was his city after all - well, his and Elizabeth's - his territory. And he planned to show as much.
"I've just been down to the infirmary. Dr Beckett is holding his own, the fever has come down a bit. He's been awake a couple of times and is asking for you and Dr McKay, Major. It would probably be good, if you could spare a minute and pay him a visit." She might not have been military, but the order, wrapped in a friendly request, was so obvious, he was tempted to answer with a shouted "Sir, yes, Sir".
She knew damn well he'd been avoiding this part of the city like the plague. But he was relieved to hear Carson was doing better. John wasn't sure why he was so angry at Elizabeth. It was like everything she did or said was aggravating him, and everything he said or did was obviously pissing her off. It was probably just stress that needed some kind of valve. And right now, hell, if it didn't feel good to fight with someone, even subtly. As long as it wasn't Rodney. Him, he could not face right now.
"I assumed Dr McKay would be joining us?" Caldwell spoke up, clearly surprised about the tension in the room.
"He was supposed to. Major?"
"What?" No, he didn't know where their resident genius was. As long as it wasn't here, it was fine with him. People had kept asking him where Rodney was the entire day. But he wasn't McKay's watchdog and if the guy wasn't able to check his timetable, it wasn't his problem.
"Dr McKay?"
John settled for a shrug that had Elizabeth shooting daggers at him.
"Since no-one has been able to call him on the radio, it would probably be best if you could go down and remind him of the meeting, Major? This concerns the future of the entire city and I want both of you here." Again, not a request. "I suggest we better postpone this until we're all here."
Sheppard gave her a sour look for ordering him to baby-sit tardy scientists, but got up to find McKay. He would drag him back here by his nose-hair if necessary, if that meant getting this meeting over and done with. Then he could grab some dinner, go to bed, and forget this day ever happened.
"Major, a word." Caldwell had followed him out of the glass-encircled office.
"Sir." What did he want now?
"Is everything alright between you and Dr Weir?"
"Yes, Sir. No problems." Just a bunch of crappy days and raw nerves. None of which were any of Caldwell's business.
"I just wanted to say, that was good work the last couple of days. I'm sure the Air Force will appreciate your efforts."
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
Between gritted teeth, Sheppard forced out a "thank you, Sir", then watched the Colonel head back to join Dr Weir.
He had a bad feeling about this. Now that they had established regular contact to Earth and a means of transportation, someone else, someone higher ranking, was most likely going to take military control. He'd been anticipating this situation ever since he got this job. Where would that leave him? Here? As second in command like originally planned? Or would he be sent back to Earth?
This day just wasn't getting any better.
oOo
"Where is he?" He took some perverse pleasure when Dr Zelenka, shocked at his sudden appearance, lost the grip on his glasses he'd been holding and watched them sail high through the air.
"Oh, uh, what? Who?" Radek looked like the proverbial deer caught in the headlight.
Sheppard caught the spectacles in mid-flight and handed them back. "McKay, Doc. You know, short guy, not much hair, pretty full of himself." He didn't try to hide the annoyance in his voice.
"I don't know, Major. Been looking for him myself for some time now." Setting his glasses high on his nose, the engineer fixed Sheppard with a sharp glare. "Is something wrong?"
"Nothing, except he's nowhere to be found, ignores his calls, doesn't help with the repairs and is missing his meetings."
"We've had a couple of pretty hard days. He's entitled to a little down-time, is he not?" John felt like Radek was trying to protect McKay from something, and he had the sneaking suspicion is was from him.
"Right now, he's supposed to let us know where the hell he is, what he's doing and why he isn't at work." The heated discussion threatened to turn into a full blown argument.
"Why? He has been 'at work' constantly, without a break, for days now. Unlike other people."
Sheppard saw Radek cringe with his last comment, but chose to ignore it. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
The scientist held up both his hands in an apologetic manner. "Sorry. That's not what I meant, Major. Honestly. It's just… I'm worried about Rodney. I've been looking for hours and just can't find him. He was pretty upset the last time I saw him."
"What's going on, Radek?" John felt the urge to strangle the astrophysicist fade somewhat. It was replaced with a sick feeling in his stomach.
"He's taken everything that happened to heart, Major. The last days were hard on him. Then what happened to Dr Beckett. And now the argument with Dr Kavanaugh…"
"What did he do?"
"He pretty much accused Dr McKay of deliberately leaving Peter behind in the satellite." Radek's voice was full of disdain.
"He didn't? The son of a…"
"Uhm, excuse me? Major Sheppard? Dr Zelenka?"
John swallowed the two dozen curses on the tip of his tongue, when Dr Kusanagi spoke up, her voice, as usual, barely more than a whisper. "I did not want to intrude, but you are looking for Dr McKay, yes?"
She looked ready to run away, but Radek quickly crossed the distance and touched her shoulder encouragingly. "Yes, Miko, we are. Do you know where he is?"
"I really did not want to disturb him, and please tell him, I'm really, really sorry, if I did."
"That's okay, Doctor. I'm sure, you didn't." Sheppard toned his voice down, and felt Radek's stance towards him relax minutely. "So when and where did you see him?"
"In Dr Grodin's quarters. But is has been a couple of hours, maybe he isn't there any more."
"Thank you, Miko. You helped us out a lot." Zelenka sounded as if he were talking to a child, but she seemed to brighten up at his words; even blushed a little behind her large glasses, before quickly retreating into a nearby lab.
Sheppard called after her "Sorry, about the… uh…" but the woman had already disappeared, and he quickly headed towards the main living quarters.
oOo
John was already half-way down the corridor, before Radek caught up and tried to match his stride. Thoughts and emotions were running haywire through his brain and the sick feeling in his stomach had only gotten worse since talking to Kusanagi.
"He's fine, right?" The engineer was already breathing hard, even though they weren't running, just… walking fast.
"I'm sure he is", Sheppard answered without much conviction and sped up a little more.
The rest of the journey was done in silence. Radek, because he didn't have any more breath to spare, and John, because visions of Rodney lying face-down in the water or smashed on one of the lower balconies forced their ugly faces into his mind.
Finally arriving in the appropriate section, he barked, "Which one?"
Zelenka pointed to a door on the left. "This is Peter's."
Not bothering to knock or activate the sensors, Sheppard used his gene to open the door and instantly breathed a sigh of relief. Rodney was there. Quietly sitting near the bed.
It was pitch dark in there, but the lights from the corridor were just bright enough to illuminate the huddled form.
"McKay?" He had to squint his eyes when he switched the lights on, and was a bit surprised that Rodney showed no reaction at all to the brightness. The man was sitting with his arms around his legs, fingers loosely entwined, face pressed onto bent knees.
"Rodney? You alright?" Not wanting to startle the scientist from his obvious doze, he approached him slowly. Radek looked worried, but gave him room and waited behind him in the doorway.
When the major finally reached the physicist, he crouched down next to him, then gave the nearest shoulder a slight shake.
And was totally unprepared when Rodney suddenly slipped from his touch, simply falling over onto his other side, his head connecting with the carpet with a soft thud, limbs opening up like a puppet with its strings cut.
"Oh, shit." Quickly climbing over the unmoving form, Sheppard started checking for injuries.
"Major, what…?"
"Get someone!" Hoping Radek was smart enough to do as asked, John felt for a pulse. He found it beating, but weak and rapid under cold skin that was slick with sweat. Carefully taking Rodney's face in both of his hands, he turned it to face him, then gave the pale cheeks a few soft taps.
"Come on, Rodney, wake up", he urged, but no reaction was forthcoming.
Radek suddenly appeared next to him. "I called for help. They should be here soon."
Sheppard checked McKay's pulse once more. He hadn't found any bleeding gashes or other things that would have told him why the man was unconscious, but the unnatural stillness frightened him more than anything and he had to do something.
"Not good enough", he decided.
As gently as he could, he manoeuvred one arm underneath Rodney's shoulders and wrestled the other one under the still bent knees. Zelenka helped support McKay's rolling head when he got up, then laid it gently on John's shoulder, and steadied him until he had his legs back under him.
"What's wrong with him?" John could hear the fear in the other man's voice.
"Don't know. – Damn, you're heavy." Groaning, when the dead weight of Rodney's body in his arms pulled painfully on his joints, he was finally upright. "But I intend to find out."
Shifting the weight a little, to hold his burden more secure, he tried to ignore that one arm had become loose and dangled freely in the air. The lump in Sheppard's throat grew heavier and fouler in taste, when Rodney still didn't move. At least he could feel the small puffs of air against the skin of his neck whenever the physicist breathed. And all he could do on the way to the infirmary was count them and pray they wouldn't stop.