Ok, here's chapter five. I'm sorry if I'm driving you all crazy, but thanks for sticking with me, so I'm gonna cut to the chase, whatever that means, so I don't own these characters, and if I did, I'd kiss Sheppard, then get McKay to do my homework, and Ronon could be a bodyguard, and Teyla and I could beat up my ex-boyfriend...
Chapter 5
The first thing he felt was pain. Painful pain. The kind of pain that was really, really painful. Then he heard voices.
"He's very lucky to be alive. He should be dead-I mean-well, you get it, don't you?" asked a man.
"I know, Carson. So it's the retrovirus?" the woman asked.
"Aye, it was. Elizabeth, it seemed to make his body reject the Wraith, like it would a bad kidney, or a lung," said Carson.
"I don't know what body wouldn't reject the Wraith, Carson. Do you know when he'll be concious?" she asked.
"Should be soon. I just hope he'll be all right, after this. I don't know what other side-effects this will have over him," Carson answered.
"Ok, so you'll call me when he wakes?" asked Weir.
"Elizabeth?" John said. Things were getting too weird, and he really had no idea what they were talking about. Then he remembered the Wraith in the infirmary. And the fight.
Elizabeth looked over at John to find him attempting to sit up with a pained look on his face.
"John, how are you feeling?" asked Weir.
"My chest hurts. Is Carson-" John cut himself off when he saw Beckett smiling beside Weir.
"I'm all right, Colonel, thanks to you. If you remembered, you did save my life. Thank you, greatly," he told him.
"What the hell happened? How did that Wraith get in the city?" asked John.
"Oh my God! We didn't tell you!" asked Weir, then she felt so dumb. 'How could I have forgotten to tell him?' "John, Ronon carried the Wraith back to Atlantis. One of the ones that-um, attacked you. And yesterday-" she stopped talking at that moment, and John realized something was wrong.
"What? Did it kill someone? What happened?" he asked her.
"No, no, no-one died," Weir told him. "The Wraith...it tried to feed off you, John."
John just stared at her. "It...it what?" he asked.
"It tried to feed of you," she repeated, then continued. "I'm so sorry, John. But in the fight, you...Carson, would you explain it, please?" Elizabeth looked from John to Carson, then back to John as her eyes watered.
"John, you fell on the syringe containing the retrovirus when you were fighting the Wraith. You were injected with it, and when the Wraith fed on you, the retrovirus somehow protected you," Carson explained.
"It fed on me!" John said, once again alarmed.
"It tried, John. But you're fine. You're still you, the same you you were yesterday. Still young and still healthy," said Weir.
"And the retrovirus-I heard you talking a while ago, Carson, you don't know the side-effects?" asked John. "It's not gonna try to turn me into a Wraith, is it? Since it turns Wraiths to humans?"
Carson sighed, then answered. "I really don't know, Colonel. I really don't."
John tried to get up, but Carson put a hand on his shoulder. "You can't stand, Colonel. Your body is too weak, yet. Wait a few more days, and I'll get a physical therapist in here. And speaking of therapists-"
"No," said John before Beckett could finish his sentence. "I'm not gonna see a therapist, Carson. Elizabeth?" he said, looking at her for support. "I can't go talk to a therapist. I'm not a nutcase. Not yet, anyways. Please," he begged.
"John, this is a very emotional time for you. You're gonna need someone to talk to-"
"Then I'll talk to you," he said.
Weir looked at Carson.
He considered the matter for a moment, the spoke up. "All right. If you have any nightmares, insomnia, or flashes of what happened to you, anything like that, I want you to see me, and I might have to make you talk to Heightmeyer, understand? And when I say see me, I don't mean put it off until it gets worse. You'll be out of here in a few days, maybe a week. I don't want you back to duty for a while, all right?"
"Ok, Carson, I get it," said Sheppard.
"And John, if you experience any headaches, stomachaches, or any other aches and pains, come see me. They might be the side-effects of the retrovirus-"
"And I'll be sure to make a note of any transformations, Carson, thanks. I get it, really. Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea. Symptoms, gotcha," said John.
"Ok, then. I'll get going," said Carson, then left.
"Elizabeth, what happened to the Wraith?" asked John.
"It's dead," said Weir.
"Where do we put dead Wraith?"
"I don't know. The morgue takes care of it," said Weir.
"We have a morgue?" he asked.
"Well, we do, now," Weir said, smiling.
John looked down at his hands quietly.
"What is it, John?" she asked, concerned.
"I thought I was gonna die, Elizabeth. I saw the Wraith, I felt his claws in my skin, I felt my body being torn apart," he told her.
"John, you're not dead, though. The Wraith's dead, and you're not. You don't need to think about that, now, John. Just don't think about it," she said.
"I can't not think about it!" he shouted.
Started, Elizabeth jumped a little, then looked away.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly, looking back down at his hands. "It just hurts. How can I feel him sucking the life from my body, but it didn't actually happen? I can't take this, Elizabeth. I just can't."
"John," she said, her voice shaky.
He looked at her and saw that her eyes were watering.
"Elizabeth-"
"I'm glad you're alive, John. They wouldn't let me see you, and they said you'd been attacked by the Wraith, and I just assumed-" she stopped herself, putting her hand to her mouth as a tear slid down her cheek. "I'm sorry," she said, laughing a little. "I fell so dumb."
"Elizabeth, you're not dumb, you're just displaying emotions. Everyone does, sometime, or another," said John.
"I'm supposed to be comforting you, and here you are, comforting me," she said.
"You wanna pull up a chair? I'd join you on the balcony, but I'm a little immobile, right now," he joked.
She smiled, then pulled a chair over and sat on it. "You know you missed lunch with me and McKay yesterday, right?"
"Huh?" he said.
"Lunch yesterday. 'You can't leave me alone with him, Elizabeth. He'll drive me nuts,' I believe were your words. Something like that, anyways," she said, then saw the look on John's face and laughed.
Carson overheard the two talking and smiled. Sheppard would get through this. Physically, at least.
Eyup. I tried, all right. I don't really know how he'd react to something like this, so I just hypothesized, all right? I'm close enough. Well, bie:0D