Sorry about all the trouble everyone had earlier in getting to chapter 9. I discovered the wonders of Tylenol Flu this afternoon and felt better, so I whipped up chapter 10. I have no idea if you'll be able to get to it or not, but here it is.
Memories or Nightmares – Chapter 10
"Nick, wake up." For a moment, he tried to respond to the voice, but then the lethargy of sleep began tugging him under.
"Nick, open your eyes." The voice was more forceful this time, but there was no longer any desire to respond, so he ignored it and curled back into the warm blanket of sleep.
"Nick!" This time the sharp call was accompanied by something tapping the side of his face.
"Stop," he moaned as he slapped sluggishly at the offending limb.
"Nick, open your eyes or you'll be working night shift until you're ninety."
"Trying," he mumbled, almost incoherently. He finally managed to get his hand up to his face and rub the sleep from his eyes. Blinking hard, Beckett's face drifted into focus, peering anxiously down at him. "What?" he breathed out.
A smile crept across Beckett's face. "It's amazing what results you can get with a little threat. Nice of you to join us Dr. Strauhan. How do you feel?"
Nick stifled a yawn. "Like some band is missing their percussion section and it's in my head. I'd kill for about five Tylenol right now."
Beckett leaned back and crossed his arms. "I'll get you some Tylenol, but it won't be five. Are you dizzy or nauseous?"
Nick thought for a second, allowing his head to clear a bit before he tried to answer. "No, not really. Just the headache . . . and the side of my face burns, you know, the part with no skin."
Beckett frowned. "Yes, there is that. I should probably give you something a little stronger than Tylenol." He turned and spoke to the nurse that had been standing a few feet away.
"I am glad to see that you are awake and all right, Dr. Strauhan."
Nick gently turned his head to see Teyla and Ronon sitting on the bed next to his. He hadn't been aware of their presence until she had spoken. That had him a little worried.
"Uh, thanks Teyla. What are you still doing here? How long have I been out?"
Ronon grunted. "Almost two hours. Dr. Beckett said you needed the sleep."
"We wanted to stay and make sure you were all right. Dr. Beckett said you have a concussion, but that the x-rays did not show a fracture."
"X-rays? What x-rays?" He looked back to Beckett.
"I took advantage of the fact that you were still and not arguing and I had a skull series run. No sign of a fracture or intracranial bleeding, but you do have a nasty concussion. You'll be staying right there until I release you tomorrow and we'll be waking you every two hours."
Nick sighed. "So this was my first wake-up call, I get it. How's the Colonel?"
"About the same."
"Oh." He frowned a second, as if he was thinking. "There's another . . . someone else."
Beckett smiled. "You mean the lieutenant. Actually, he woke up for a few minutes earlier. There's some short term memory loss, but he was lucid and making sense. There's no sign of any swelling yet. I'm hopeful he'll make a full recovery, but we're keeping a close eye on him."
Nick breathed out, visibly relieved. He reached up and rubbed his temple, closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, he pushed the blanket back and sat up, twisting around to hang his legs off the bed. The motion was so sudden, it caught everyone off guard and it took a moment for Beckett to react. Nick was on his feet by the time Beckett got to him.
"Son, what are doing?"
"I've gotta check on my patients," Nick slurred as a wave of dizziness sent him lurching sideways. Ronon appeared on the other side of the confused doctor, and together he and Beckett pushed Nick back into the bed. Beckett pulled the blanket back up as Nick closed his eyes tightly against the spinning room.
Teyla looked worriedly at Beckett. "Is he all right?"
"Yes, he's just a bit disoriented from the head injury. He'll be fine."
"Dizzy . . . not disoriented." Nick eased his head back and slowly opened his eyes, happy to find the room had decided to sit still for the moment. He swallowed hard against the nausea it had stirred up.
Beckett smiled down at him. "No, you're not disoriented. That's why you're trying to get out of bed and check on patients while you're suffering from a concussion."
The nurse returned with a tray and Nick watched as Beckett swabbed his arm and injected the contents of a syringe.
"That should take the edge off the pain for a while. You are not to get out of this bed. You're a patient for now and you'll bloody well behave like one. You know as well as I do that head injuries can be dangerous and I don't want to up wandering around. We'll take care of your patients."
Nick looked slightly confused as to why he was in trouble, but didn't address it. "Okay. Thanks, Carson." He scooted around in the bed, seeking a more comfortable position, before looking back over at Teyla and Ronon. His eyelids were beginning to droop a little. "How are you guys feeling?"
Teyla smiled. "We are fine. We should go and let you get some sleep." She slid off the bed and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Rest well, Dr. Strauhan and thank you for helping us on the planet."
"Hey, that's what we're here for. Speaking of rest, you two need to follow that advice as well, You both look exhausted."
Ronon grinned. "On my way there right now . . . well, after the mess hall." He touched Teyla on the shoulder and they turned and left.
Beckett watched them all the way to the door, noting how Ronon gently placed his hand on the small of Teyla's back as he guided her into the hall. "I wonder if there's anything sparking there?" he mused. He looked back down at Nick to see if he had noticed, but decided he probably hadn't. He was sound asleep.
oOo
Rodney limped quietly into the darkened infirmary and looked around the room. He could hear a couple of muffled voices coming from the back, but didn't actually see anyone in the front part. He knew where he was going, so he headed purposefully across the infirmary. He could hear the steady, gentle beeping of the heart monitor and the soft whoosh of the ventilator before he was even close to the bed. He stepped around the privacy curtain and was surprised to see the chair by the bed was already occupied. He was even more shocked to see Jack Kramer. He stood there for several seconds, unsure of what to do next, when the man looked up and saw him.
"Dr. McKay?"
Rodney swallowed hard and stepped up to the end of the bed. "Yes, it's me. Kramer . . . why are you here?"
Kramer just looked lost as he stared at him, trying to formulate an answer, He finally looked back at Sheppard. "I'm . . . I'm not sure, actually. I just felt like I needed to be here. I don't know where else to go."
Rodney grabbed a chair near the next bed and dragged it over to sit beside Kramer. "Shouldn't you be resting? I know you cracked some ribs or something, didn't you?"
"Mostly bruised, just a couple are cracked. Dr. Beckett decided not to keep me."
Rodney smiled. "I don't think this was what he had in mind. You should be in your quarters."
Kramer sat staring at Sheppard. "Mark's gone. I wasn't there to help him and he's dead and there's nothing I can do about that. I put Colonel Sheppard here. It's my fault. I need to stay with him, to be sure he's okay. If he needs me for anything, I want to be here. I don't want to let him down again."
"Wait a minute. How is this your fault? Somehow I don't think you're responsible for venomous spiders on distant planets."
Kramer whirled his head around to face Rodney, his eyes red and swollen. "I know you know about the prank with the plastic bug. He would have told you. When I told him about the spider on his shoulder, he didn't believe me. If he had taken me seriously, we might have gotten it off him without him getting bitten."
McKay shook his head. "You have no way of knowing that. You can't blame yourself for something like this and I know Sheppard wouldn't." McKay watched him for a moment before continuing. "If you want to stay because you're worried about him or because you still feel like you're guarding him or just because you miss Mark and need somewhere to be, then stay. But don't stay because you feel guilty."
Kramer nodded. "I was telling Mark, before, that I've never had a CO like him before. He's . . . different."
McKay snorted. "Now that's an understatement."
Kramer looked back up at McKay. "You two are friends, right?"
Rodney shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know if we're exactly friends. We work together, you know, and we seem to save each other's lives periodically, and sometimes we . . . " He caught Kramer staring at him knowingly. "Oh, okay. He's my friend, probably my best friend. There, are you happy?" McKay crossed his arms and sighed loudly.
Kramer smiled for the first time since finding out Mark was dead. "Why do you do that, both of you? You argue and fight and act like you can't stand each other. You just admitted he's your friend and I could tell by the way he acted on the planet that he considers you a friend too."
McKay sat watching the rise and fall of Sheppard's chest and wishing with all his might the man would wake up as he considered Kramer's question. Sheppard was a good friend and he was terrified to think that one day, he wouldn't make it back to Atlantis in one piece. He shuddered as he brought his eyes around to meet Kramer's pain filled ones and realized how close he'd come to being in this man's shoes.
"I think it's a defense mechanism," he said softly. "I never had many friends. I never quite fit in with other people and their groups. Sheppard tells me I have no people skills and I suppose he's right. Everyone I thought was my friend turned out to be just riding my coat tails in the scientific community. Then I came here, to Atlantis. We were alone and stranded the first year. We came to depend on one another and we became closer than I am to my own family."
Rodney leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees and rubbing his hands together. "Somewhere along the way, I developed friends. But we've lost a lot of friends over the last year or so. We lost a lot in the Wraith attack. I guess this is just my way of pushing Sheppard away a little, trying to convince myself that we're not really friends and if he dies on the next mission, I won't be devastated. Sheppard's pretty closed-mouth about his past, but I get the impression he's lost a lot of people he cared about over the years. I think maybe he's playing the same game I am."
Kramer considered the information for several seconds. "Does it work?
McKay smiled. "No. But I think we've come to enjoy the game, so we continue to play. It's old hat at this point. And sometimes he really does annoy the heck out of me."
Kramer grinned. "That's okay, I think sometimes you annoy him too."
McKay rolled his eyes. "So who asked you anyway? And if you ever repeat any of this to anyone, especially him, I'll deny it and claim you have brain damage from your injuries."
"It'll be our little secret, Dr. McKay."
"What will be your little secret?" They turned to see Nick standing at the foot of the bed, barefoot and in scrubs, dark hair standing almost straight up. "You guys standing vigil?"
Kramer looked from Strauhan's tall, slender form to Sheppard and back to Strauhan. "Are you related to Colonel Sheppard?"
Nick yawned and rubbed his eyes, wincing as he accidentally rubbed the edge of the abraded area of his face. "No, why?"
"I was just noticing for the first time that you two kind of look alike. I think it's the hair."
Nick frowned. "Excuse me? My hair does not stick straight up, thank you. I have a comb." He reached up and ran his hand through his hair as the two men in front of him laughed. "Okay, so my hair sticks up right now, but that's not on purpose." He narrowed his eyes as he studied Sheppard, but realized he couldn't see much of anything for the ventilator tube. "Do you really think we look alike?"
Kramer smiled. "It's more than just looks, now that I think about it. Some of your mannerisms are similar, too. I don't know, it just kind of made me think of brothers or something."
Nick grunted. "Guess I never thought of it before."
"What are you doing out of bed, mister?" Kelly appeared suddenly beside Nick, taking him by the arm. "You will get yourself back in bed right now or I'm calling Dr. Beckett."
Nick sighed. "Jeez. I had to pee, okay? I just thought I'd look in on the Colonel on my way back to bed."
"Well, you've looked and you've seen, now back to bed with you before you faint again."
"I didn't faint, I passed out."
Kelly rolled her eyes. "I swear, what is it with men and word fainted? You're all a bunch of babies in my book." She tugged on Nick's arm until she had him headed back to bed. Nick just waved at them weakly and followed along.
"By the way, that's doctor, not mister. I didn't suffer through all those years of med school for nothing," Nick murmured as he was led back to bed.
They were sitting in a comfortable silence, keeping watch over Sheppard when Kelly returned a few minutes later. "Okay, gentlemen, I happen to know you're both under doctor's orders to get some rest, so I'm throwing you out. Get to your quarters and get some sleep. We'll take good care of Colonel Sheppard, I promise."
McKay frowned. "We're getting rest. We're sitting down."
Kelly put her hands on her hips. "You know what I mean. You need sleep. Don't make me call in reinforcements."
McKay held up his hands defensively. "Okay, now, there's no need to get drastic. We'll leave peacefully." He carefully got up and began limping toward the door. "Come on Kramer, if you know what's good for you."
Kramer looked at Kelly for a second and decided to join McKay in his retreat. "I'm coming."
Kelly followed them to the door, making sure they were actually leaving. She listened with interest to the exchange as they left.
"Man, she's tough," said Kramer.
"Oh, you don't know the half of it. Hey, did you know Nick's dating her?"
"No-o-o, you're kidding. He's brave."
"Yeah, or crazy."
Kelly frowned. "Hey, I heard that!"
oOo
"and don't forget breakfast or you'll really have Beckett on your case - God you do eat don't you?" McKay frowned at him.
"Umm . . . Yeah, well, yeah sure, I eat . . . why?" Kramer stuttered, unsure of where the question was going.
"Oh, thank goodness." McKay rolled his eyes in relief "The last thing I need is another skinny, never-has-time-to-eat fly-boy to keep Carson in a bad mood - I couldn't stand it! Believe you me, when Carson is grumpy, he threatens with pointy objects."
Kramer started to smile at the thought.
"Oh, and he'll be wiping that smile off your face with the first jab, make no mistake. My advice to you for all our sakes? Keep eating! I'll pick you up at six." McKay poked the air in front of him. "And get a shower will you? And some sleep. Sleep is good - don't need you falling asleep on the job."
"Oh, I will - now even." Kramer started to point inside his quarters as if he was just about to go there. "I will . . . " but McKay had turned his back and started to walk away.
Kramer didn't see the smirk on McKay's face as he walked down the corridor. He didn't hear McKay muttering, " . . . another fly-boy to pull into line . . . They don't pay me enough for this."
oOo
The first thing that crossed Nick's mind when he woke up the next morning was his comment to Teyla the day before about feeling like a truck had run over her. He hadn't thought to apply that little piece of advice to himself. When he tried to move, he was shocked at how stiff and sore he was. His right shoulder, chest, and side felt like he'd been drop-kicked by King Kong. Stupid tree. He opened his eyes and let them wander around the infirmary, seeing all the early morning activity that he was normally a part of. It felt strange to lie in bed and watch others do his job. Note to self: Don't get injured any more. At least his head felt clearer.
"Hey, hon, how do you feel this morning?"
Kelly walked up to Nick's bedside and picked up his wrist while looking at her watch.
"Kelly, what are you doing?"
"Shh, I'm taking your pulse."
Nick pulled his arm away. "Don't do that, it's just . . . wrong."
Kelly tilted her head to one side. "What's wrong with you? I'm just taking your pulse for your chart. Don't be such a baby."
"My pulse is fine. It just seems weird for my girlfriend to be taking my pulse. I'll take it and tell you what it is."
Kelly rolled her eyes. "Oh my gosh, I do not believe this. Fine, just tell me what it is."
Beckett strolled up to the bed and smiled down at Nick. "Good morning, Nick. How do you feel this morning?"
"I'm fine, just a little stiff and sore. Any change in Colonel Sheppard?"
Becket nodded. "As a matter of fact, his blood pressure is up a little and his pulse seems a bit stronger. He's still not breathing on his own, but it's a step in the right direction."
Nick smiled. "That's something. You about ready to release me?"
Beckett grinned. "Slow down. I want you eat some breakfast and let me check you over first. I need to make sure you're a little more lucid than yesterday afternoon."
Nick looked at him blankly. "Yesterday afternoon? What about it?"
"When Teyla and Ronon were here and you tried to get out of bed. If Ronon hadn't been here to help me, we'd have been picking you up off the floor . . . again."
Nick frowned as he thought. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"That's pretty much what I expected. You were a bit disoriented yesterday. Which is one reason why you will stay put for a few more hours. I'll send out for a breakfast tray and we'll see how you handle that."
"Okay, I was just asking. It just feels weird to be lying here while everyone else works. I feel like I should be doing something."
Beckett nodded and patted him on the shoulder. Nick winced. "Easy, Carson. That's my tree-hugging shoulder."
"Sorry, lad. I understand what you mean, but you really need to relax." Carson turned to Kelly. "Kelly, why don't you go get you and Nick and breakfast tray and you can eat with him. No coffee, though."
"No coffee?" Nick looked horrified. After a few seconds, he sighed. "I know, I know. I just . . . miss my coffee."
Kelly grinned and squeezed Nick's hand. "I'll back in a minute. You rest and stay in bed."
Nick sighed as he let his head fall back against the pillow. "I hate this."
TBC
