Once again, I'm sorry for the delay. My excuses are a nasty head cold with BIG accompanying headache that makes my thinking (and writing) fuzzy and a twelve hour plus day working the regional science fair (and I do mean working). Hope you enjoy and thanks again for all the wonderful feedback!
Memories or Nightmares – Chapter 9
By the time Nick arrived at the infirmary, Beckett had Sheppard hooked up to a ventilator and a heart monitor. Sheppard was covered by a sheet up to his lower chest. Nick found his CO standing beside the bed, talking to one of the nurses. Kelly was just cleaning up around the bed where they had cut the Colonel's clothes off when she looked up and saw him. She gasped and dropped the tattered cloth she'd been holding.
"Nick!"
He held his hand up. "It's not as bad as it looks, I promise."
His defensive motion didn't stop her from rushing over and taking a closer look. "What happened? We'd better get that cleaned up."
Nick smiled down at her. "In a few minutes, I need to talk to Carson first about our patients. This will wait."
Kelly frowned, but accepted his answer. "All right, but you don't be trying to treat yourself. It really is true that doctors make the worst patients." She walked back over to Sheppard's bed and retrieved the clothes she had previously dropped in the floor.
Nick turned to Beckett and found the doctor eyeing him carefully. "I'm fine, really. How's the Colonel?"
Beckett sighed. "We're getting you examined and x-rayed as soon as we get your two patients settled. The Colonel isn't faring too well. He's still not breathing on his own, his blood pressure is extremely low, and pulse is rapid and weak. Obviously, we don't have any anti-venom, so about all we can do is to treat the symptoms and try to keep him alive."
Nick nodded. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking. His symptoms included lots of pain, particularly at the bite site, some nausea and vomiting, blurred vision, muscle cramps and weakness, and obviously some difficulty breathing. I also noticed some slurring of his speech. The bite is on his left shoulder and he experienced a great deal of pain in his left arm, followed by numbness and near paralysis. Come here and I'll show you."
They walked over to Sheppard's left side and Nick removed the bandage he had applied earlier. The reddened area was slightly larger and the middle was discolored and weeping. Nick frowned.
"There's more tissue destruction than earlier. I guess we've got some hemolytic properties to this venom as well as the neurotoxin."
Beckett nodded. "Aye, although it still appears to be more of a neurotoxin than anything else. We'd better get this cleaned and debrided and we'll need to keep an eye on it in case there's any further necrosis."
They straightened and stood beside the bed, looking down at Sheppard, the ventilator tube obscuring much of his face. "What do you think his chances are?" asked Nick.
"He's pretty weak. I wish we could have gotten him back to Atlantis sooner, but I guess it wasn't to be. He's alive and seems to be stable for the moment, and the Colonel's a fighter. I think he's got a good chance."
Nick's expression relaxed, the heavy lines in his face easing a little. "I was hoping you'd say that. I was afraid . . . I guess I was afraid after all that, that we'd end up losing him too. And we've lost enough men."
Beckett put a hand on Nick's shoulder. "I guess it was pretty bad out there."
Nick looked at the floor, trying to calm his jittery nerves. His mind kept flashing back to scenes from the planet, to wraith attacking from every direction, to men dying around him. He closed his eyes and wavered a second.
"Nick? Maybe you'd better sit down, lad."
His eyes snapped open as he shook his head. "No, I'm okay. We'd better start calling in off duty personnel because in about an hour, this room is going to be full of injured. Shouldn't be anything serious, but lots of cuts and scrapes, some will need stitches, several sprains and a few broken bones. We're going to need everyone we can get to clear them out in a decent amount of time." Nick looked around the room. "And where's my other patient. He has a head wound, probably a skull fracture. He's going to –"
Beckett put his hand firmly on Nick's arm. "Calm down, son, he's in x-ray right now. I'll start calling in extra people and you let Kelly clean you up. I can't have you bleeding on our patients, now can I?"
Nick took a couple of deep breaths and felt his heart start to slow a little. "Okay. Sorry, I guess I just . . . I'm a little wound up right now."
Beckett nodded. "I know. You need to let Kelly get you treated and settle down. I want you to go find her right now. I'll call in extra help and work on the Colonel's wound."
Nick nodded. "Thanks, Carson."
Beckett watched as Nick walked across the infirmary. He'd let Kelly get Nick's wounds cleaned and then do an exam himself. He smiled, knowing what she had said earlier was probably true. Doctors often did make the worst patients. He was about to find out if that could be said about Nick.
Nick lay back on the exam table and thought about how much more comfortable he was standing over one than being in the position he was in now. He felt vulnerable and exposed and he didn't like it.
Kelly pulled the stool up to sit beside him and arranged her equipment on a tray next to the bed. She placed one hand on the top of his head and the other under his chin and turned his face away from her so she could see the injuries better. After removing the field dressing, she sat looking at the side of his face a few seconds.
"How did you do this, anyway? The whole side of your face is raw."
He could hear the snap of latex gloves and see some movement in his peripheral vision. Man, this was going to hurt. "A Wraith tried to make a tree hugger out of me. I never realized how truly rough bark can be."
Kelly sighed. "I guess I'll apologize ahead of time, because no matter how I go about this, it's going to sting."
"I know. Just do it." He closed his eyes and a few seconds later was rewarded with cold fire licking his raw flesh as Kelly washed dirt and debris away from the wound site. Nick clenched his teeth and tried to think of something else. It only took a few minutes, but Nick would have sworn it was much longer.
"Well, how's our patient?" Beckett strolled over to the bed and looked down at Nick. "Is he behaving himself?"
"So far."
Kelly moved so that Beckett could get closer for a better look at the injuries. He studied the cut over Nick's eye, probing until Nick swatted his hand away. "You're going to need stitches."
"I figured as much."
"We got the lieutenant settled and I'm just waiting on his x-rays. I can go ahead and stitch you up, shouldn't take long."
"Fine, just quit mining for gold or what ever you're doing up there."
Carson smiled. "I'm not doing anything I haven't seen you do to Colonel Sheppard and others under similar circumstances."
Nick wanted to make a come-back, but hesitated, knowing that Carson was speaking the truth. He was sure glad Sheppard hadn't been able to hear that. Instead of the sharp retort he wanted to make, he settled for a grunt as he lay back and waited on Carson to sew him up.
oOo
Elizabeth watched as the first of the soldiers began to come through the gate, supporting some of the wounded. Teyla, Ronon, and McKay came through, circled protectively around Kramer. They all looked battered and exhausted, almost ready to drop in their tracks. She noted with some sadness that Kramer, who had looked so exuberant and excited yesterday, looked so completely defeated today. Had that only been twenty-four hours ago? It didn't seem possible.
Ronon and Teyla seemed to turn Kramer over to one of the soldiers, who began leading the injured man toward the infirmary. Elizabeth recognized his gait, having seen it many times before – the ginger walk of someone nursing rib injuries. They watched until Kramer was headed down the hall and then turned and approached Elizabeth, meeting her at the bottom of the steps.
"It's good to have you home," she said warmly.
Teyla nodded, although the motion caused her to wince in pain. "We are thankful to be back safely." Elizabeth noted the colorful bruise forming on the side of her face, along with the swollen eye.
"I really thought we weren't going to make it back this time," lamented McKay. "That's about as bad as it's ever been. How's Sheppard?"
"I just talked to Carson a few minutes ago. He's on a ventilator, but he's stable for the moment. He stopped breathing about the time they came through the gate."
The three of them exchanged worried glances. McKay voiced their concerns. "He's okay, though, right?"
Elizabeth nodded. "They got him intubated pretty quickly. Carson said if they can just keep him stable until the venom works its way out of his system, he thinks he'll be okay."
"Thinks? He doesn't know?"
"Rodney, he's dealing with an unknown toxin here, give him a break. He's doing the best that he can under the circumstances."
McKay nodded and kneaded the back of his neck. 'Yeah, I know. I'm just tired and worried and hungry and my ankle hurts."
Elizabeth smiled and patted his arm. "I know. You should all get to the infirmary. You look beat. Oh, I saw Airman Kramer come in, but I didn't see the other new guy, Simpson, I think."
Teyla and McKay looked down as Ronon clenched his jaw and tightened his hands into fists. They turned to the gate as soldiers came through, carrying six black body bags back to Atlantis, one at a time. Soldiers saluted and civilians hung their heads as the dead were carried through the gateroom and down the hall. They looked back at Elizabeth and she just nodded. No wonder Kramer looked like he'd lost his best friend. He had.
oOo
They arrived at the infirmary a few minutes later to find it noisy and full of people. Injured soldiers were everywhere with medical personnel tending to them and scurrying around fetching equipment and supplies. Semi-organized chaos seemed to reign supreme at the moment.
Ronon noted Kramer sitting in a chair against one wall, silently staring at the floor and waiting his turn. One of the marines who had been in Atlantis for several months sat next to him and seemed to be trying to comfort him. The boy had seemed so hopeful and innocent just a few hours ago, a condition he was now destined to leave behind. Ronon realized with disdain that he couldn't remember having ever been that unmarred by the death and violence of this galaxy or by the fear of the Wraith. He mourned Kramer's loss of something he was pretty sure he himself had never had.
Teyla gazed across the infirmary, noticing that Nick seemed to have gotten cleaned up. His haunted expression and lines of exhaustion stood out in stark contrast to his fresh scrubs and new bandage. She watched him for a few minutes as he worked with patients, talking to them, treating them, and comforting them. She turned back to see Beckett approaching them.
Beckett noticed how tired and battered the trio shuffling across the infirmary looked. He knew they had been running from and battling the Wraith the longest and that they needed to be treated quickly so they could get some rest.
McKay nodded over toward where Nick was working. "Uh, should he be working?"
Beckett looked over to Nick and sighed. "Probably not, but he needs the distraction right now and I need the extra pair of hands. I've tried to put him on all the minor injuries. Rodney, you're limping. Should you be walking on that ankle?"
McKay sighed loudly. "No, I'm sure it's broken, but I didn't really have much choice, now did I? You have to be unconscious to get carried back and obviously, I wasn't. Hey, we brought you a present." McKay began carefully taking his vest off, sparking a raised eyebrow from Beckett.
"Now what kind of a souvenir do you bring back from a culled planet crawling with Wraith? I think I may be afraid to see this."
McKay opened one of the pockets and flipped the vest over upside down, dumping a mass of mangled, furry flesh and legs on the end of one of the exam tables.
Beckett took a quick step backwards. "Bloody heck, Rodney, what is that thing? And did you have to dump it on one of my clean beds? Can you not see that we're short on space right now?"
McKay looked sheepishly at the creature. "Oh, sorry. It's the spider thing that bit Sheppard. I thought you'd want it."
Beckett stepped closer and peered down at the supposed arachnid. "Oh, this is the actual animal that bit the Colonel? That is interesting." He picked up a pair of forceps and began to spread the creature out. He lifted up what looked like a leg and pulled it out straight. He continued until he had the whole thing spread flat on the bed. The body had two sections, each about two inches in diameter, and eight legs that were several inches long. It looked huge, flattened out like that. Beckett picked at one end for a second and then whistled.
"Look at those chelicerae, if that's what they are. I'll bet that bite packed quite a punch."
Teyla and Ronon frowned. "What are . . . chelicerae?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. On earth, spiders have mouthparts that are kind of like fangs and we call them chelicerae. This thing does look an awful lot like a spider. Have either of you ever seen creatures like this before?"
Teyla nodded. "We had several such creatures, but they were not so big and came in many patterns and colors. One or two could make people sick when bitten, but nothing so bad as in Colonel Sheppard."
Ronon nodded as well. "I have seen a few creatures such as these on other planets. I did see a large one like this on another planet once, but it was more of a reddish brown color and not so hairy. The people that lived there told me that it was deadly poison."
Beckett nodded. "I'll send it Dr. Kingston for analysis."
McKay looked up from the spider. "Dr. Kingston? Who's he?"
"Actually, she is the entomologist that came over on the Daedalus's last run. I think I heard she had a bit of an interest in venomous bugs."
McKay rolled his eyes. "I'm not a biologist and even I know spiders aren't insects . . . or bugs for that matter."
Beckett sighed. "Rodney, I don't need a biology lesson. Spiders may not be insects, but they're closely related and she probably knows a lot more about them than anyone else on Atlantis."
"Right . . . I knew that."
Beckett called a nurse over, carefully placed the spider in a tray, and gave her instructions about what to do with it. He then turned back to the team. "Okay, let's get you all checked out and treated so you can get some rest."
oOo
Nick returned to the bed where Teyla sat and handed her a small bottle. "This is Tylenol for the pain. You can take two pills every four to six hours as needed. You may not feel too bad right now, but tomorrow you'll probably feel like a truck ran over you."
Teyla raised one eyebrow. "What is a truck?"
Nick sighed. He kept forgetting Teyla wasn't from Earth. "Never mind. You'll feel like a puddle jumper crash landed on you. Is that better?"
Teyla grimaced. "It doesn't sound better, but I understand it."
"You need to take it easy for a couple of days until we clear you back to duty. And no stick fighting just yet. You don't have concussion, but you have some nasty bruises and swelling around that eye. I don't want you taking any chances. Let us know if it starts giving you too much pain, or if you have any dizzy spells or blurry vision, okay?"
"I will."
"Good. Just check in with us tomorrow and we'll take it from there. You can go now." Nick stepped back to give her room to get off the bed. He brought his hand up to his forehead as a wave of dizziness hit and his headache suddenly peaked. Teyla slid off the table and snagged his arm.
"Dr. Strauhan, are you all right?"
Nick steadied himself against Teyla's firm grip and reached out to touch the side of the bed. "Yeah, just a little dizzy. I just . . . " He tried to take a step closer to the bed so he could lean against it, but felt the room tilt wildly to one side as his legs folded underneath him. He could feel himself falling and Teyla's grip on his arm tightening in response. He thought he heard her call his name just before the darkness closed in around him.
TBC
