Aftermath
By Ann3
Writer's Note: Thanks so much for the reviews, they're keeping me inspired ! I'm guessing you want to know what's going to happen next, right...? Well, the good news is that Carson wakes up. The bad news ? Ah, that'll come in the next bit !
Yes, yes, so I'm evil... I hope you enjoy anyway...!
Chapter Three
Awakening
To the untrained eye, the monitors at his bedside showed little more than jumping lines across a screen. But to a doctor keeping watch over her patient, their increasing activity meant everything in the world. It heralded a vital change in that patient's condition, which had Kate Buchanan instantly on the highest alert
After fifty hours of lying in painstakingly controlled sleep, Carson Beckett was starting to wake up – soft sobs of discomfort, winces across still closed eyes, warning her it was not a pleasant awakening.
And it would get worse, Kate sadly reflected, placing the gentlest of comforting hands on his shoulder. After those precious two days of complete oblivion, she knew that he'd be re-waking into total hell.
"It's alright, Carson, you're safe now… you're safely home now, son, it's all over…" she said softly – noting, in both personal and professional concern, that her attempts to reassure him weren't working.
If anything, he was becoming more and more restless, flinching more agitatedly away from her – further muffled sobs, growing steadily louder, now rousing several others from their own restless sleep
First to find his bearings, John Sheppard was already out of his seat. Seconds later, Rodney stood at John's shoulder, while Elizabeth, Teyla and Ronon flanked the other.
From the adjacent bed, Laura Cadman was rising too, stumbling in her haste to reach Carson's side – sagging against her CO's supporting arm as, yet again, her hopes and prayers were brutally shattered.
She'd prayed so hard for this moment. Waited so long for him to show some precious sign of life. And for that yearned for moment to come like this, as Carson flinched in pure terror at her touch…? It was too heartbreaking for her to take.
A rising, bitter, furious anger then rushed through a mind too exhausted and demoralised to stop it. So some lowlife Wraith held more sway over her precious Carson than she did…?
Well, to hell with that.
"Carson…? Carson, please, you've – you've got to wake up from this…" she finally whispered – lingering fear still cracking unashamedly through her voice as she tried, yet again, to reach him. "Come on, baby, start to fight this thing... start fighting it, Carson, you hear me…? Carson…?"
It could have been the recognition of her voice, or the gentlest of kisses that had settled on his cheek.
Maybe it was the spirits of the Ancients – uniting, in time of Carson Beckett's darkest need, to revive one of their own. Or it may have been pure and simple, sheer Scottish bloody-mindedness, which found its way through. But as he thankfully quietened into Laura's cradling arms, Carson's eyes started to flicker slowly open. And while still clouded beneath a fog of exhaustion, those eyes held a precious hint of awareness – this trace of recognition answering the prayers of a city as the faintest of voices breathed out her name.
"L – La'ra…?"
Even as elated hugs and backslaps erupted along his bedside, Kate Buchanan still signalled for quiet – a request met with still restless obedience as she placed the gentlest of hands on Carson's shoulder.
"Carson…? Aye, son, I know this must be unsettlin' for ye, and awfu' confusing... but do ye know where you are…?"
Such a simple question – yet one that a still confused, deeply traumatised mind struggled to answer. Finally, though, the pained eyes which had flitted nervously around him gained a little more focus – a voice which could still barely make itself heard whispering another precious sign of recognition.
"'l'ntis… 'fm… 'nf'm'ry…"
Even Kate was smiling more easily now as she nodded, giving Carson's hand a heartening squeeze.
"Yes, Carson… aye, you're home… safe in the Infirmary…" she said at last, still holding his hand – quietly grateful that sleep reclaimed him before he could think to ask the next, inevitable question. They'd barely got him back this time around. God alone knew what would have happened if he'd started to remember again.
Once sure that he'd settled, Kate then glanced along the relieved yet still anxious faces beside her, nodding confirmation that Carson had safely returned to the land of the living.
He'd woken blessedly lucid, still able to recognise his surroundings – the reassuring promise of safety. But everyone who'd witnessed that awakening knew that something else had re-wakened with it. Once those memories returned, the nightmares that had tormented him so cruelly would return.
Carson Beckett's ordeal wasn't over yet. Everyone who now traded uneasy glances around him knew that. If anything, it was about to get a whole lot worse.