Well, I'm starting to fall behind. Busy days are catching up with me. Thanks for the nice words in the reviews – I'm wearing a big, silly grin!

The Wrong Place at the Wrong Time – Chapter 7

Hearing footsteps coming their way, Elizabeth rose to meet Dr. Biro, the others following her lead. The pathologist adjusted her glasses nervously as she stopped to talk to the waiting group of friends.

"Dr. Weir, I thought you might like an update."

Elizabeth nodded and smiled, trying to put the physician at ease, knowing that she still wasn't really comfortable working with patients. "Yes, we would appreciate that very much Dr. Biro."

The woman seemed to relax a little as she fell into "report mode". "As you know, Dr. Strauhan is in surgery. He had several broken ribs and that eventually resulted in some internal bleeding. I just checked with Dr. Beckett and he said the doctor is doing well under the circumstances." She turned toward Kelly, directing the next comment to her. "They should be finished soon and then he'll be out to fill you in. Dr. Strauhan's in good hands."

Kelly nodded, wiping the remnant tears from her face. "Thanks, I know he is."

Dr. Biro turned back to Elizabeth. "Colonel Sheppard has been in and out, but never really coherent. He seems restless, almost like he's in pain, and he's suffering from sporadic muscle tremors. He's dehydrated and has three cracked ribs and one broken rib. There's no indication of internal bleeding, but he does have a bruised kidney we're watching."

"So, he'll be okay, right?" asked Rodney, leaning on his crutches.

"I think so, yes. His injuries are painful, but not severe. The main concern right now is the lingering effects of the neurological device they used on him. The sporadic muscle contractions come and go, along with the firing of his pain receptors. They have changed from an occasional, intense burst of tremors to an almost constant, lighter array. The effects are not as intensely painful and debilitating, but it also means he gets almost no relief. I suspect that no drugs were involved, so if his blood work comes back clean, I'll be able to give him something stronger for the pain."

"How long do you thing it will last?" asked Elizabeth, verbalizing the question in everyone's mind.

Dr. Biro shook her head. "I have no idea. But until it dissipates on its own, there's not much we can do for him but try to keep him as comfortable as possible and wait it out."

"Drug him and wait for it to go away? That's it? That's not a plan." The pitch of Rodney's voice went steadily higher as it got louder. "This is why I say medicine is not a real science. Let's not fix him, just let him wait it out. It's Sheppard, he can handle it."

"Dr. McKay, they cannot help it that the Colonel was tortured with this device or that there is not more they can do to help him. You know they are doing all that they can." Teyla now rested her hand gently on Rodney's forearm, her eyes asking him to calm down. He knew the look, he'd seen it before. Teyla, the peacemaker, at work again.

"Fine, fine. I get it," he snapped. He wasn't really mad at Dr. Biro or any of the medical staff. He just wished there was something more they could do.

Dr. Biro had been around McKay long enough not to take offense. Ignoring his outburst, she looked back to Elizabeth. "From all indications, the electrical signals, or whatever is triggering these events, are slowly fading. We believe the introduction of several powerful bursts in close proximity to the spinal cord is the reason for the continuing effects, but as I said, they are fading and should eventually go away."

Elizabeth nodded. "Well, that's certainly good news. Can we see him?"

Dr. Biro hesitated, then nodded. "I guess you can sit with him if you'd like. It might not be a bad thing to have some friendly faces around when he finally wakes up enough to be lucid. I understand he and Dr. Strauhan have had a rough couple of days."

"You could say that," said Ronon.

They followed the doctor back to John's bed. They could hear and see him stirring restlessly in the bed as they approached, mumbling and moaning softly in his sleep. He was pale and dressed in scrubs, the sheet tangled around his legs as he seemed to fight some battle in his sleep. His body momentarily stiffened and then he rolled to his side, his body shaking with tremors. He opened his eyes for a few seconds, rolling them sightlessly before closing them again with a grunt.

"See what I mean?" asked Dr. Biro. "I'm hoping when his blood work clears and I can give him something stronger, that he'll be able to get some rest.

Elizabeth frowned. "Is he hurting?"

Biro shrugged her shoulders. "No real way to know, but I figure there must be discomfort on some level or he wouldn't be so restless. Like I said, you can stay here if you'd like until Dr. Beckett gets out of surgery, just be quiet and don't disturb the colonel. I've got some work to attend to." The doctor turned and walked across the infirmary.

"Don't disturb the colonel," McKay parroted. "Looks to me like he's already disturbed."

oOo

John snapped his eyes open in response to the burning pain making its way down his spine, automatically arching his back against it. As the pain eased and he relaxed against the pillows, he realized he was in the infirmary. He vaguely remembered what had happened, but it almost seemed like a dream. He let his eyes wander the space around him and he smiled. His team was here, along with Elizabeth and Kelly. Nick. He didn't see Nick. John sat almost straight up in bed, panic rising from his gut.

"Nick!"

He was instantly surrounded by people pushing him down, but he struggled to get back up, to look around them searching for Nick.

"John, it's okay. You need to lie back down."

He looked up into Kelly's face, standing next to the bed, her hand on his shoulder. "Is Nick okay? Where is he?"

"Well, he's not okay, he's in surgery. But he's alive." Kelly tried to put on a brave smile, but she wasn't sure if she succeeded or not.

John licked his lips and looked around at the worried faces. "Surgery for what?"

Kelly took a deep shuddering breath, and that's when he noticed she'd been crying. "He was bleeding internally. Dr. Beckett's with him."

John closed his eyes and tried to absorb the news. He'd let Nick get hurt, he hadn't protected him. They should have headed for the gate as soon as Mistdol had told them they couldn't talk to the Chancellor. He opened his eyes and looked up sadly at Kelly. "I'm sorry, Kelly. I should have protected him. I should have gotten us out of there sooner."

One side of Kelly's mouth turned up into a half smile. "I have a confession to make. My first thought was anger with you for just that, for not keeping him from getting hurt. But then rational thought took over and I remembered how hard you fight to protect your people. I know you had to have done everything possible. I'm sure it's not your fault."

Elizabeth stepped up behind Kelly. "John, you don't need to be stressing yourself out over this right now. Just take it easy and relax." She smiled impishly. "If we get you all upset, Dr. Biro will kick us all out."

John just looked away, still convinced he should have done more. He grabbed his right arm and pressed it to his chest as a muscle tremor began making it shake. One of the nurses came up beside the bed and smiled.

"Good news, colonel. You're blood work is clean, so I have a little something to take the edge off the pain."

He watched her empty a syringe into his IV before patting his shoulder. "You should feel better in a minute."

Almost as soon as the nurse walked away, there was a flurry of activity as Beckett came across the room and the waiting crowd surged forward to meet him. John struggled to sit up and lean forward, hoping to hear the news. "Guys?"

They turned at his plea, Beckett heading over to the bed as soon as he saw his patient holding himself up by hanging doggedly onto the bedrails.

"Colonel, what are you doing? Lay back down before I have you sedated. I'm betting you have broken ribs as well and you're going to hurt yourself."

John let himself back down on his back when he saw the group heading back his way. "Sorry, Doc, I just wanted to hear how Nick was. Please tell me he's okay."

Beckett stopped at John's bedside, checking his IV before turning to face the worried group before him. He decided he'd better hurry before they attacked him. He reached out and took Kelly's hands and smiled. "Nick's doing very well. He's in recovery and then we'll move him out here in a bit. I'm sorry it took so long, love, but he had a stubborn bleeder that we had a wee bit of trouble finding. We've had to give him a few units of blood, but he's holding up well and I expect a full recovery."

Kelly sighed audibly and swayed a little, her knees suddenly feeling weak. Beckett guided her to a chair and pushed her into it. "Just take it easy a minute, lass."

The rest of the group exchanged smiles and taps on the shoulder or arm at the good news. Elizabeth reached out and held John's hand, squeezing it as he smiled and nodded at her. His hand suddenly tightened and his arm jerked spasmodically, but she held on tight as she watched him wince and bite his lower lip. She knew he was fighting not to make a sound.

"How long do you think he'll be in the infirmary?" asked Kelly.

Beckett sighed. "Well, I expect it will be a while. He was dehydrated, so that's not helping him any. Whenever you have to recover from major surgery like this, you aren't going to just jump up and go about your business. He has a host of more minor injuries, but the surgery and broken ribs will take the longest to get over. He's in for a rough few days ahead, but it'll get progressively better."

Beckett's voice suddenly got sterner as he turned to face Sheppard. "And I need to have a little talk with the two of you about . . . " He stopped when he saw John's eyes were closed and his face had relaxed. He still had a twitch at the side of his right eye and the hand Elizabeth held still trembled, but he had settled down from the restless tossing of earlier.

"I don't think he can hear you," said Elizabeth as she watched him sleep. "I guess you'll have to scold him later."

Beckett smiled and nodded. "Aye. Well, I suppose the lad deserves the rest. I know he needs it. All right, out with all of you and let the man sleep. Kelly, I'll come get you when we move Nick." And with that, he ran them all back out to the waiting area.

oOo

His first awareness was the pain in his stomach and he knew it was not his ribs that were hurting. As his thoughts cleared and he grit his teeth against the fire in his belly, he knew what it was. The pain of an incision, which meant he'd been to surgery. The doctor in him figured pretty quickly that he must have been bleeding internally. He attempted to shift and release some of the tension in his stiff muscles, only to awaken all the other aches across his battered body. He groaned slightly as the assault on his already overburdened nervous system.

"Nick? Nick, can you hear me, hon?"

He smiled even before he opened his eyes, recognizing the voice he had longed to hear for several days.

He wanted to reply, but when he cleared his throat, he stirred up the nausea that had been hovering on the edge of his awareness and began gagging. He felt Kelly help him roll to the side and he wanted to scream when the heaving began. Every contraction seemed to stab him in the ribs and straight through the surgical incision. Tears were streaming down his face by the time he stopped and he saw spots, even behind his closed lids. He was fuzzy enough not to realize when they rolled him back over and wiped his face.

"Nick, come on babe, I need you to open your eyes and look at me." Her voice was back and he knew he must have passed out. He wanted to open his eyes and look at her, but his body wasn't really under full control yet. After several minutes of prodding and pleading, he finally managed to crack his lids to slits and was rewarded with one of the most beautiful smiles he ever remembered seeing.

"Much better. Marcy brought some ice chips for you." She slipped one in his mouth and thought she heard him moan in pleasure. "You should be okay now. That was just a reaction to the anesthesia."

Nick grunted. "Doctor . . . 'member?"

Kelly grinned sheepishly. "Oh, yeah, sorry. I'm so used to explaining the nausea after surgery to patients that I forgot who I was talking to."

"So'kay. How's John?" He glanced around the infirmary, noting the dimmed lights. It must be late for it to be this quiet and dark.

Kelly sat down beside Nick and carefully took his hand in hers. "He's okay. Roughed up, like you, but no internal bleeding. He's having a little trouble with effects from that thing they poked him with, but Dr. Biro and Dr. Beckett say it's getting better."

Nick closed his eyes and grimaced, pushing his head back into the pillow. He decided he would have a new outlook on patient pain after surgery. Nothing like identifying with your patients to increase the sympathy factor.

"Nick, you want me to get Dr. Beckett? You look like you're really hurting."

"Who's hurting?" asked Beckett softly, walking up beside the bed. "Nick, are you in pain?"

"I'm 'kay . . . think. Don't have . . . lot of experience with this kind o' thing."

Beckett frowned a little. "It's almost time for your next dose anyway. I was just coming to see if you needed it and it looks like you do." Beckett lifted the syringe he'd brought with him and emptied it into Nick's IV. "Okay, that should give you some relief." Beckett checked Nick's IV and vital signs, before patting Nick gently on the arm. "Everything looks good, just hang in there."

"Mmmm . . . hanging." The pain was beginning to fade from the sharp, stabbing kind to the milder, achy kind. Nick felt his eyelids beginning to drift closed and he didn't have any desire to stop them.

"Sleep, Nick. I'll be right here beside you." Kelly smiled up at Beckett, who nodded at her as he turned to leave. She turned back to Nick, watching the gentle rise and fall of his chest and taking comfort in the soft sound of his breathing. "I'm going to have a hard time letting you out of my sight after this."

oOo

The guards shackled John's hands above his head again. He was so tired and so sore, he could barely keep his feet under him. The Enforcer came at him, waving the neurodisrupter in front of his face and laughing. He turned and walked away from John, still laughing, as two guards entered the room dragging Nick between them. He was bloody and pale, his eyes barely open as they dumped him on the floor in front of John.

"What did you do to him? Let him go. It was my fault, not his." John pleaded with the Enforcer as the man continued to laugh at him.

"No, we aren't done with him yet. You will answer my questions or he dies."

"But I've already answered your questions. Please, just let him go."

The expression on his torturer's face went from entertained to angry in a heartbeat. He walked over to stand beside John, his face inches from the pilot's. "Tell me now, or he dies."

John almost screamed in frustration. "Tell you what? I've told you everything; I don't know what you want me to say."

The Enforcer looked at him sadly for a few seconds before smiling. "Very well, say goodbye to your friend. And be sure to tell your friends back in Atlantis that you killed him." He jabbed the neurodisrupter into Nick's back and activated it again and again and again, until Nick's body stopped convulsing and lay still. John screamed and yanked at the shackles the whole time, falling silent only when he realized Nick was dead.

John hung limply from the shackles, feeling a part of him had died with Nick. He felt sick and heavy and useless, not seeing the guards when they released him, allowing his limp form to drop to the floor. Crawling over to Nick, he checked for a pulse, just in case he was wrong. There was none. One of the guards hauled him to his feet and he launched into a kicking, screaming fit, determined that he would kill them or be killed himself. They pushed him to the ground and held him down. He was suddenly hot, so hot it took his breath away and he felt like he was suffocating.

oOo

"Kelly." The voice was so soft, she almost missed it. Kelly lifted her head from the edge of Nick's bed, where she had leaned over and drifted off sometime during the night. A blanket thrown over her shoulders told her that Dr. Beckett had been through at some point. Yawning, she looked over to see Nick looking at her. The gray light of dawn was beginning to filter in the infirmary.

"Hey, how are you feeling this morning?" She sat up and straightened her back, stretching.

"Check . . . John."

Kelly frowned, confused by what he meant. "John?"

Nick's face was drawn in either worry or pain or both. "Heard . . . something."

Kelly fine tuned her listening as she turned around in her seat. Realizing there was a privacy curtain between the beds, she stood and headed for the edge of the barrier. As she rounded the corner, she heard what sounded like wheezing and moaning at about the same time she caught sight of John. He was twisting and wrestling with his covers, moaning and mumbling in his sleep. Kelly thought she heard Nick's name and the word 'no' several times.

Moving quickly to his bedside, she firmly took Sheppard by the shoulders, intending to slow his movements before he ripped out his IV. "Colonel Sheppard, can you wake up for me?" She immediately felt the heat radiating from his body. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Marcy across the infirmary. "Marcy, get Dr. Beckett." She hated to raise her voice this early in the morning, but she was afraid to leave Sheppard and she needed help.

John opened his eyes briefly and seemed to be trying to focus on her. His breathing was labored and noisy. "I'm sorry, Kelly. I'm sorry. They wouldn't . . . I'm so sorry."

Kelly was getting more worried by the minute. "Colonel, there's nothing to be sorry for. Everything's okay. I need you to settle down for me, okay." She helped him sit up a few seconds later when he started coughing and couldn't seem to catch his breath. Suddenly there was another pair of hand across the bed, helping her lower the colonel back to the bed.

"What happened?" asked Beckett, coming up behind her.

"I'm not sure. Nick woke up and told me to check on him. When I came over here he was really restless and burning up."

Beckett put his hand across Sheppard's forehead for a second. "Oh, lad, what's going on with you now? Marcy, get a temperature." Beckett grabbed his stethoscope and listened to the colonel's breathing for several seconds. Placing the instrument back around his neck as he straightened up, he turned to Marcy.

"One hundred three," she reported.

"Looks like he's picked up some kind of infection, either from his wounds or something on that planet. Draw some blood and get it to the lab. Let's go ahead and start him on some antibiotics and put him on nasal cannuli."

"Nick?" John opened his eyes and lifted his head a couple of inches off the pillow. His eyes looked glassy and unfocused.

Beckett put his hand on John's chest, making sure he stayed put. "Nick's okay, Colonel, he's just over in the next bed."

"No, they killed him . . . "

"No, they didn't. It was a dream, it wasn't real. Nick is very much alive and worried about you."

John frowned and then his expression relaxed. "I remember . . . you came for us."

Beckett smiled. "That's right. Ronon tracked you and we brought you back to Atlantis. You and Nick are in the infirmary."

John smiled a little. "Yeah, I remember. Ronon's a good tracker. He found us. We're home."

"Yes, Colonel. Now, you've come down with a bit of something, but we're going to get you fixed up in just a few minutes, okay?"

"Why is it so hot?" John began trying to kick the covers off again.

"You have a fever, lad. We're going to give you something to help bring it down. Just relax and lay still so we can get you settled. Can you do that for me?"

"Yeah, I can do that. I don't feel so good." John rolled over on his side and curled up, but he stopped struggling with the sheets.

Beckett turned to Kelly, still standing beside him. "Why don't you go back to Nick and make sure he's okay. Once we get the colonel settled, I'll be over to check on Nick. And thanks for the head's up. This must have hit him pretty quickly."

Kelly nodded. "Nick's the one that caught it. He just can't stop being a doctor, even when he's a patient."

Beckett nodded. "I know, lass. And that's why he's one of the best doctors in two galaxies. Now, you'd better go fill him in or he'll be over here trying to help me treat the colonel in a minute."

Kelly grinned. "Yeah, you're probably right. Sometimes he can be very stubborn." Making her way around the curtain and back to Nick's bed, she found him watching her.

"Tell me . . . and I'm not stubborn."

TBC