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It took all of two seconds for the door to swing open to reveal a man who looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties, with shaggy dirty blonde hair.
"Lily, what happened?" he asked, helping her inside with the nearly-unconscious man.
"Lycans, six of them. Can you help him? He…he saved my life, dad, please tell me you can help him!"
Michael Corvin looked grim, "I'll try my best, honey. Go get the stairs so I can get him up to the lab."
Lily ran to a corner of the room where a drawstring dangled from the room inconspicuously. She pulled it, opening a trapdoor in the roof from where a small ladder/staircase dropped, like the entrance to an old attic.
Michael easily hoisted Sheppard up the stairs, into a surprisingly large lab/infirmary full of medical equipment, scanners, etc. The room was about the size of a large recreation room and had no doors, other than the trapdoor leading from the apartment. Most of one side of the room was very practical medical equipment like in an infirmary; the other side was set up like a hospital pathology lab with various testing kits, microscopes, and various chemicals and stuff.
On the infirmary side of the room, Michael set Sheppard down onto a steel operating table, peeling away the now soaked jacket to get a better look at the wound.
The now unconscious Air Force colonel had a large shredded hole in his left shoulder, which was gushing a constant stream of blood. Through the crimson haze Michael could just make out a small splotch of white; the body. Quickly pulling over an X-ray, he noted that the collar bone was broken in two places.
A moment later, Selene was standing by Michael's side with fresh bandages and other various medical equipment, however, upon seeing the patient she shook her head solemnly.
"He's not going to make it." She stated, "he's already lost far too much blood, but ignoring that, the wound is far too much for a human to heal."
"I know," Michael replied, "but I thought I'd try anyway."
"Are you sure there's nothing you can do," Lily pleaded.
"I'm sorry darling. There is one thing, but it's not guaranteed…" Selene started.
"You want me to turn him, is that it?" Lily finished for her. "If it's the only chance he's got, then I'll do it." Michael and Selene nodded. Lily shook John gently, trying to rouse him. He groaned in pain and squinted at her.
"John, you've lost too much blood. I'm sorry."
Just great, he thought, I've fought wraith, lived in another galaxy and been military commander of Atlantis, and I'm gonna die in some backwater apartment on Earth.
"John, I need you to focus on me for a second. There's one thing we could try, but I don't want to unless you agree first." He nodded slowly, indicating for Lily to continue, "There's no easy way to put this. Werewolves, vampires, immortals, they're all real. If I was to bite you, I could try to turn you into one. It might not work, but…"
John nodded again. He was far to weary to question what he was being told. If becoming a vampire or something gave him enough time to get back to Atlantis, or at least say goodbye to Elizabeth, Rodney and the others, then it was worth it. "Do it," he mumbled, falling back into the black abyss of unconsciousness.
Lily cautiously lifted his head and leant it to the side. Gently, she bit into the right side of his neck, letting her virus filter into him. After a minute she set his head back on the table and settled down to wait. Wait for him to get better, or wait for him to die.
Michael had busied himself over the other side of the room, setting up various equipment he might need, and Selene had pulled over two chairs and set them beside the table John was lying on. Taking a seat in the second chair, beside her mother, Lily began to cry softly.
"It's all my fault. I let down my guard for a minute and the next thing I knew a pack of rouge Lycans had my pinned against the wall. John must have been walking past and heard the commotion or something, because just as they were going to get me he hit one of then with a slingshot and got their attention. They let me down and went after him and…Oh, I tried to stop them, but it was too late, they already got him…" she continued sobbing. Selene hugged her daughter, rubbing small circles on her back as she cried.
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After a few minutes, Lily pulled herself together and wiped her eyes. "Why don't you go get some rest, mum? It must be working, because John's not dead yet, so you can bet dad will be staying up all night, but that's no reason for you to lose sleep as well. That way there will be someone to watch him later when we rest."
"Alright sweetie, but if anything happens, you come get me, okay?" Selene said, standing up and stretching a little. Lily nodded in reply and Selene headed back down into the apartment.
Lily stood up also and began to look the Colonel over. There was something familiar about him, but she wasn't sure exactly what. Looking at the wound she noted that the bleeding had decreased a little, which made her feel better for a second, until she looked at the bit and saw a very thick, syrupy, black liquid was oozing from it.
"Oh, shit. I think he's rejecting the bite," she called to her father. "I've never seen this happen before; normally if the bite is ejected they just die within the hour. It looks like his body is actually ejecting the virus."
Michael brought over a syringe and put it to the crook of John's right arm, drawing some blood.
"I'll run some tests and try and see what's happening. You keep watching him and make sure he keeps breathing," Michael said, going back over to the lab side of the room.
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A few hours later, John's condition had not improved much, but thankfully it had not gotten worse either. The bleeding had stopped, and Michael had given him some pain medication. Looking carefully at the wound, Lily gratefully noted that it seemed as though it was beginning to heal. She breathed a sigh of relief. Her relief grew as Sheppard began to rouse. She settled her hand lightly on his arm.
"John? Can you hear me? How are you feeling?"
A groan came as her reply, followed shortly by, "like I've been run over by a truck, stamped on, then shot and hung out to dry. Where am I?"
"You're in my house. You might be feeling a bit foggy at the moment from a combination of the blood loss and pain medication, but it should pass. Let me know if the medication is making you nauseous, alright? I'll grab you some water, you're probably feeling a little dehydrated." She returned a moment later with a cup of water, which he gratefully drank in small sips. "Do you remember what happened?"
"I was…I was walking back from a little bar where I'd been watching football, then I heard a sound…There were these things, one pinned me against the wall…then I was shooting at it, and now I'm here…How long have I been out and what were those things?"
"You've been out for a few hours now. Those things were werewolves, John. I know it sounds crazy, but…"
"Believe me, what I've been through the last few years, nothing sounds crazy anymore. Aw crap, I'm probably late for the conference, Elizabeth's gonna be pissed…" As if on cue, the cell phone in his jacket pocket began vibrating and ringing. Lily grabbed it from his jacket for him and clicked the 'answer' button, holding it to his ear.
"John, where are you? The meeting started well over half an hour ago!" Dr Elizabeth Weir's voice chided in his ear. He coughed a bit and tried to ignore his throbbing shoulder before replying.
"Uh…I'm not feeling crash hot. Can you hold the meeting without me, just for today?" he asked.
Elizabeth took a moment to mull over his request. On one hand, he was ranking military officer of Atlantis and really should be present at the talks, but on the other hand, she knew that John wouldn't ask for the day off unless he was feeling really, really ill. If it was just a cold or something he still would have gone to the conference. She still remembered the time he went on a mission with a cold, then ended up having save all of Atlantis from themselves, while he was still ill.
"Alright John, but I'm going to drop by and check on you when the talks are done for the day. I knocked on your door this morning before I left, but it was locked and you didn't answer. Do you want me to pick you up anything on the way back?"
"No, I should be right…Unless you feel like grabbing me some Tylenol or something like that? I'm alright without it for now, but I might need some later."
"Alright John. I'll give them your sincerest apologies and tell them you won't be able to make it. I hope you feel better soon. If not for your sake, then to shut Rodney up." That made John smile.
"Alright. See you later then, bye."
Lily ended the call and put the phone away for him, raising an eyebrow.
"My boss," he stated. "What happened while I was out of it? I feel…different. I can practically feel my shoulder healing itself, which is ridiculous in itself, if only because I can't really feel my shoulder at all. You must have me on the god stuff."
"We've got you on a saline drip and given you a dose of morphine. It's good that you can feel your shoulder healing that means the…treatment…is working. Do you remember what I asked you before you passed out again?" Lily asked, watching John concentrate on remembering.
"My memory is really blurry, but I can remember something…something about immortals…you asked if you could turn me? Did it work?"
"Well, you're alive. Dad's running the blood work now to see exactly how well it worked."
"Just out of curiosity, what are you. I mean, what will I become? A vampire?" The very thought of being something so Wraith-like made John's stomach turn, but he ignored it.
"Well, that's the million dollar question. It seems like your body rejected some of the virus, but you're healing so some of it must have worked. I'm a hybrid, of sorts. My mother has immortal and vampire blood, and my father is a lycan –werewolf – hybrid. So I'm a bit of a mutt, myself."
"To be honest, I didn't even know there could be hybrids."
"There can't, really. My father could only become a hybrid because he had some of the original strain of the virus in his blood, because he's a direct descendent of Alexander Corvinus, the first immortal. The legend goes that Alexander had three sons. One bitten by bat, becoming the first vampire, one bitten by wolf, becoming the first werewolf, and one left to walk the lonely road of mortality. My father was a mortal descendent, until he got pulled into the war." John gave her a questioning glance, so she began to explain, "For almost a thousand years there has been a great war raging. Vampires against lycans. The vampires originally had the lycans enslaved, by one day the daughter of one of the vampire elders fell pregnant to a werewolf. That vampire elder, Viktor, would not tolerate a joining of the species. He has his own daughter burnt alive while her mate was forced to watch. Her mate, Lucian, broke free and rallied the other lycan slaves against their masters. That was how the war began.
"Before I was born, Lucian tried to track down any descendents of Alexander Corvinus, believing that if one of them happened to have a pure strain of the virus, they would be able to be infected by both species, and therefore become the very thing that Viktor feared. Half vampire, half lycan, but stronger than both.
"Eventually they found my father and had him infected by both species. My mother, a vampire warrior at the time, left her vampire kin to join my father in a bid to make peace. Somewhere along the line they met Alexander himself and, before he died, he gave my mother some of his blood so that she would be immortal, not just a vampire. It made her stronger, as well as letting her go out in the sunlight.
"The war keeps going. We get closer to peace each day, but there a some, one both sides, that cannot bear to let go of old hatred. Does that explain everything for you?"
"Pretty much, yeah," John replied. "So your dad, he just got dragged into this? Sort of like, no offence, but sort of like I did?"
"Exactly like you did," Michael smirked, coming over from the other side of the room. "I'm Michael Corvin, Lily's father."
"I'm Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard; it's nice to meet you Michael. I could have hoped for better circumstances, though."
"So could I. I'm sorry about what happened. If there was anything else I could have done, I would have."
"That's alright. So you're a doctor?" John asked.
"Yeah. Well, I used to be, anyway. Before all this happened. How'd you know?"
"You just seemed like one. Believe me, I've met enough to know how they act."
"I just finished doing your blood work. If you want, I can put some bandages on your shoulder, then show you." When John nodded, he set about dressing the wound. When it was done, he helped John over to a chair on the other side of the room and picked up various printouts from different machines. "By the looks of things, your body produces an extra protein of sorts, which attacked the viruses as they entered your body and forced them back out. It completely eradicated the lycanthropy virus, and the vampiric one. The pure immortality virus managed to take, but there's something in your bloodstream which is stopping it from taking complete hold. So basically you heal a hell of a lot faster than a normal human would, but it's still going to take time." He showed John a monitor that was attached to one of the electron microscopes and put in a slide with some of John's blood on it. He pointed out the immortality virus and the other things in John's blood, and John recognised what was happening.
"That," he said, pointing to the protein, "is my ATA gene. It must have conflicted with the lycanthropy and vampiracy, so it got rid of them. And that," he pointed to the anti-bodies that were preventing the immortal virus from fully taking hold, "is the anti-body Beckett ended up coming up with when I had the retro-virus. Long story. Long, highly classified story that if I told you, the US military would lock you up and throw away the key. Or kill you, whichever came first."
"Alright. Your shoulder won't be healed entirely for a few weeks yet, but you should be able to use it in a few days, and it won't hurt so much after about a week. For now, though, I recommend morphine until you can stand the pain without it."
"Ok, you're the doc. When can I go back to the hotel though, because Elizabeth said she was going to check in on me on the way back from the conference. Chances are she'll be bringing Rodney with her too, so I'd better be there with a good excuse."
"You should probably stay here for another hour or so at the very least, but we'll help you back to where you're staying and give you some doses of morphine to take with you. You'll need bandages, too, and I think we should keep your arm in a sling. Your right shoulder has completely healed, and so has the bite on your neck, so as long as you're careful and take it easy for a few days you should be able to get away with saying you fell and wrenched your shoulder or something. Lily told me you were just visiting, so when do you have to leave?"
"The talks are supposed to be open for about the next fortnight, so unless something comes up back at my base, we should be here until then. I may have to leave at the drop of a hat though."
"I'll have Lily check in on you every couple of hours for the next few days just in case there are any complications, and after that I want you to come in for a check-up every day. You're going to have to be very careful though. I don't want you walking around at night, and try and stay away from trouble. You're a part of something now, and there's nothing you can d to turn your back on it. Like it or not, every vampire or lycan you go near is going to know what you are. That makes you a potential target. When you go I'll give you something to arm yourself with."
"By the look of thins, you can handle a gun alright," Lily said, remembering his near perfect aim, even with a lacerated shoulder.
"Ma'am, with all due respect, I'm the military commander of a very active base. I can do more than just handle a gun alright," he smirked cockily, lifting an eyebrow at Lily and causing her to giggle.
Michael and Lily went to get some much needed rest after being up all night and left Selene to escort John back to his hotel when the time came, giving him plenty of weapons choice and ammunition before they left.
"Do I know you?" John asked her, leaning on her slightly as she helped him hobble down the street.
"I think I've seen you somewhere before, but I can't be sure where." Selene agreed.
"Well, the last time I was here was about eight years ago on service leave, so it's understandable for you to not recognise me if I saw you before then."
"I remember now, you're the one who helped Lily up when she was being hyperactive and bowled you over in the street."
"Yes! That must be why I can remember you. You haven't aged a day!" John smiled.
"Immortality will do that to you," she sighed. "You haven't changed much either, you know. I'd never had a stranger in the street call me 'ma'am' until that day."
"Well, it's what I do, ma'am," John winked.
"So, sir, this is your hotel?"
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John was stirred from a listless slumber by someone rapping lightly on the door to his hotel suite.
"Just a minute!" he called to placate his visitor while he pulled on some jeans and a fresh shirt, careful not to tousle his shoulder while he did so. He checked carefully in the mirror that his bandage had not bled through, before slipping on a sling so that his arm didn't hurt quite so much. The morphine was beginning to wear off, so he should probably take another dose, but he decided to deal with his guest first. Pulling the door open, John was met with Dr Weir's critically analysing gaze, and a disgruntled looking Rodney McKay.
"Come in," John said, showing them both into the nice living space the relatively upmarket hotel had provided him with, and onto the cream suede sofa and armchairs. Elizabeth took one of the offered armchairs and John sat in the other. McKay bypassed the lounge room completely and headed straight for the kitchen in a quest for food.
"What happened, John?" Elizabeth asked, looking quite concerned.
"Uh…I had a little fall…wasn't really watching where I was going, y'know…wrenched my shoulder pretty bad, but I'm ok now," he lied smoothly, avoiding her eyes.
McKay appeared in the doorway that divided the kitchen from the living room, holding up a small glass vial, "And I suppose that's why you've got a bottle of morphine hidden in your kitchen?"
John paled.
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Meet my friend, Cliffy the Cliff-hanger! Ooh, what's going to happen to John now, ey? To be honest, I have about as much idea as you guys do, so suggestions would be great. And on the honest note, I really hated this chapter. To me it jus seemed very rushed and distant, but I wanted to get something to you guys after making you wait so long. I realise that there are probably a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes, but the longer I take to proof-read it, the less likely I am to post it and/or more chapters. Anyway, hope you liked it. Please R&R and make me a very happy person! Fuel the fire!
