Chapter 6
Sheppard awoke to a hand gently shaking his shoulder. He looked up to see Ronon looking down at him. The Satedan looked exhausted. "Teyla's out," he said.
Sheppard sat up straighter, seeing Beckett sink exhaustedly down into a chair on the other side of Rodney's bed. Sheppard reached over and shook Rodney's arm, eliciting a groan from the scientist and a glare from Beckett.
"What do ye think you're doing?" Carson demanded.
"I told him I'd wake him," Sheppard shrugged, stifling a yawn. "Wake up, Rod van Winkle."
Rodney's eyes snapped open. "Do not EVER call me that again," he said hoarsely, then coughed. Beckett quietly handed him a cup of water. After he took a drink, he locked eyes with the doctor. "Well?"
Beckett moved his gaze to take in all three of Teyla's teammates. "Well, she'll live. Lucky, lucky lass. Her neck is broken, but her spine didn't sustain much movement before we could stabilize her."
Everyone relaxed slightly at his words. Teyla was going to live. "What about…you know, paralysis?" Rodney asked hesitantly. "I mean, her head did fall over to the side."
"Well, we won't know for certain until she wakes up, lad, but I'm cautiously optimistic."
"What does that mean, 'cautiously optimistic?'" Rodney demanded, sending himself into a coughing fit. As Beckett gave him more water, Sheppard patted his arm. "Means just what it sounds like. He doesn't know, but he's hoping for the best." He winked at Beckett's glare. "But I know Teyla, and she'll be fine."
Rodney looked at him uncertainly, then glanced at Ronon, who had been quiet throughout. "He's right," the runner said softly. "She's one of the strongest people I know."
Rodney looked at him a moment longer, then nodded. "Yeah," he agreed.
"And now," Beckett said briskly, standing up, "we are all going to go to our beds and get some sleep. Except you, Rodney, who's going to sleep right where you are."
"I'm fine here," Sheppard protested, but he broke eye contact with Beckett's glare.
"Rodney needs his sleep, Colonel, as do you. Go. To. Bed. Come back in a few hours, if you must."
Sheppard stood up unhappily. That was apparently the best he was going to get. He bid them all good-night (or good morning, to be accurate, as it was nearly six), and headed off to his quarters. He decided he would take a shower, have a meal, and then try to sneak back into the infirmary while Beckett was still sleeping. He sat down on his bed to take off his boots, and woke up nearly four hours later.
He staggered out of bed and into the shower, slightly upset that he had fallen asleep, more upset that Beckett had been right that he needed it. He used the old trick of alternately hot and cold water to wake himself up. Then, feeling somewhat refreshed, got dressed and headed straight to the infirmary, skipping breakfast. He headed for Rodney's bed, found it empty, and followed the sound of quiet voices behind a curtain across the room.
"Cinnamon," Rodney was saying as Sheppard came around the curtain.
"Sinful," Ronon replied. "Too easy. Oh, Sheppard." He said, acknowledging Sheppard's arrival.
"Sheepdog," Rodney said, then turned to wave. They were seated on opposite sides of Teyla's bed, obviously playing some sort of inane game to pass the time until she woke up. Sheppard looked at her. She looked frail, wearing a neck brace, surrounded by monitors, with dark circles under her eyes.
"Wrong sound, McKay," Ronon said. "It should be something like…like…" He stood to let Sheppard have the seat.
"Ah-ha!" Rodney said triumphantly. "You can't think of anything better, can you?"
"What the hell are you two doing?" Sheppard asked, still looking at Teyla, but curious despite himself.
"Well," Rodney explained, "Ronon can't seem to get the hang of Prime Not Prime, and I refuse to play I Spy. So we've invented this game. It's First Syllable." He was still speaking softly, probably to keep from disturbing Teyla, but his voice sounded better.
"How's your throat?" Sheppard asked.
Rodney's hand went to the bandages. "Still hurts, but not enough to warrant being in bed. Carson assures me I'm going to live," The last he said lightly, but a slightly haunted look in his eyes revealed that he hadn't been too sure of the effects of the Wraithtopus tentacle suckers.
Sheppard nodded, then looked back at Teyla. "She wake up at all?"
Ronon shook his head. "No, but nobody expects her to. We're trying a strategy McKay wanted to check out."
Sheppard looked at Rodney, narrowing his eyes. "What might that be?"
Rodney grinned. "We're trying to annoy her into waking up."
Sheppard rolled his eyes. "Remind me never to be unconscious around you two again."
Rodney's grin dissolved into a smirk. "What makes you think we haven't already tried it on you?"
Sheppard looked between the two of them, trying to figure out if Rodney was serious. But he realized, looking around at his team, that it didn't matter. What mattered was that Rodney and Ronon had enough in common to play games, and cared enough to devise strategies to wake Teyla up. They were a team, and a good one. He was proud of that.
He was interrupted when Teyla scrunched up her eyes and moaned softly. All eyes turned to her, and she was obviously trying to wake up. Sheppard and Rodney each took a hand, and Ronon put his hand on her forehead.
She writhed slightly, squeezing her eyes more tightly shut, gripping their hands, and curling her toes, then relaxed back into sleep. But it had been enough. Rodney caught Sheppard's eye, then Ronon's, and all three grinned. She had just proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that she could move all her extremities. She would be ok.
oOo
Epilogue
Teyla was trying to eat a cup of jello when Sheppard walked into her room two days later. Ronon was holding the cup and spoon for her, Rodney was trying to tell them how to do it, and Teyla was looking annoyed at both of them.
Sheppard sat down next to her with a grin. "How's it going?" he asked, glad to see her looking better.
She made a face. "Very well. Doctor Beckett tells me I will be fine in time. Now if we could just do something about the volunteer help…" she glared at Ronon and Rodney, but her eyes twinkled.
Sheppard's grin widened. "Ok, guys, leave her alone. You're obviously not helping, and something tells me Teyla can feed herself."
"That is what I have been trying to tell them," Teyla said, grateful for the support. She grabbed the spoon out of Ronon's hand. "There is nothing wrong with my hands."
"No, but Carson told you not to move around," Rodney said. "Hence, the feeding you."
Sheppard turned his attention to the scientist. He sounded almost normal, although his throat was still swathed in bandages. There didn't seem to be any lasting ill effects from the wraithtopus feeding. Sheppard still wasn't sure what the actual attack had been like, and Rodney wasn't talking about it.
"So," Rodney said, looking at Sheppard, "have you talked to it yet?"
Teyla and Ronon turned to look at him as well, jello forgotten.
Sheppard sighed. This was going to be hard to say. "No. It never woke up. Died a few hours ago."
"So we're just never going to know what it was, then, or what it wanted!" Rodney said in frustration.
"It obviously wanted us to bring it here," Teyla said. "And we obligingly did that." She looked guiltily at Rodney.
He fidgeted awkwardly. "Come on, Teyla, it wasn't your fault. It did a good job of pretending."
"It didn't fool you," Ronon pointed out. Apparently Teyla wasn't the only one feeling bad about being tricked.
Rodney looked even more uncomfortable. "Well, no, but I am a genius," he said somewhat lamely. "Look. It was probably…I don't know, casting some sort of spell on you or something."
"McKay, are you trying to make us feel better?" Sheppard asked, half amused at the attempt and half uncomfortable because it was appreciated.
"That depends on whether or not it's working," Rodney said. "But basically, we're never going to know exactly what it was up to. Or why it attacked me, for that matter," he added.
"Well, I'm going to go way out in a limb here and say it was because you were a threat to it," Sheppard said. "It was probably afraid you were going to blow its cover."
"Perhaps," Rodney said. "Unless it wanted something in my lab, and my presence was just incidental."
"Well, it's dead, so we'll never know," Ronon said. "It can never bother us again."
Sheppard agreed, although he was far from satisfied at how the whole thing had turned out. But at least none of his teammates had died. He picked up the cup of jello and offered it to Teyla.
