AN: Want to start by asking you all to be patient. I don't want to hurt Carson
Betaed by the lovely lorellipsis.
Thanks for the wonderful reviews, it's nice to see you like it.
He woke up when a supply box fell to the floor with a loud bang. The Daedalus' crew was bringing in the medical supplies, and they weren't very quiet about it. He could hear Schwartz trying to calm them down.
"There's no hurry! We're not gonna bite your heads off! Hey! Easy with that." The man seemed desperate, and Carson understood perfectly. It seemed that everybody tried to get away from the infirmary, as fast as they could, even if they didn't have a medical problem.
"Okay, okay. Calm down, Doc. You're gonna have a heart attack!"
"Yeah, well… get out of here! I'll manage."
Carson wanted to help, but he realized that Schwartz had to get used to these things. He needed to, for when he was going to take over the infirmary. He was the 2IC and he always took over when Carson wasn't there. Carson hoped to have a say in the appointment of the new CMO, that they wouldn't bring in some doctor from Earth who thought he was the best in the world. Schwartz was the best doctor here.
He'd given this a lot of consideration over the past few days, after he found out… He wanted to believe that he could continue his research, work as any other scientist, but he wasn't just any scientist, he was their Head Surgeon, as well – was. He wouldn't be able to be that, and the expedition needed someone who could be both.
If Schwartz was going to be the new CMO, the retrovirus research would most likely slow down. He knew that the man didn't approve of the project. As CMO, he would have every right to decide what research his men would focus on and Carson knew it wouldn't be the retrovirus.
He considered working in other fields, as well. His knowledge of botany was good and he was pretty good at chemistry, too. But he was a doctor. A medical doctor. It was too late for him to start over and Atlantis wasn't the place for it.
He might be able to get a job at the SGC, he thought. But the Cheyenne Mountain complex felt like a bunker, like a big, gray trap. After living in Atlantis for two years, who could stay there more than a few days?
Home. He would have to go home, to Scotland. The only thing he could do was to teach. He was appreciated by his colleagues and he was pretty sure he could obtain a teaching position, but how could he go in front of students and tell them lies? There were things he knew now that could turn medicine upside down.
His thoughts were interrupted when Schwartz approached his bed."I think it's time for you to go home."
Carson shuddered. He hadn't expected to hear those words – not this soon. He stared at Schwartz, feeling betrayed.
"What's wrong? Don't you want to leave the infirmary?"
He realized then what the man meant. He was allowed to go home, to his quarters – he wasn't being sent back to Earth. Not yet.