Impact plus 14 hours 55 minutes
The scientists had been put under arrest.
No one called it that. But the change had begun after Rodney came back from the engine room with Seavey -- after Seavey had had a chance to talk to Caldwell. That was when Rodney had begun noticing an armed escort hovering conspicuously in the scientists' vicinity. Miko told him tearfully that she'd tried to leave the group to get some bottled water for them, and one of the soldiers had blocked her with his gun and told her that she couldn't do that -- told her she had to stay where she was. Of course they claimed this was because it was too dangerous and everything was all for their own good. Rodney was still allowed to come and go as he pleased, but he noticed a couple of the soldiers giving him suspicious sideward glances, as if wondering why the rest of the civilians were under loose house arrest while Rodney could go free.
When he found Caldwell -- who was proving elusive -- Rodney intended to subject him to a rant that would strip the paint from the metal walls. He'd trusted that ass, he'd told Seavey to go to him, and this was how Caldwell reacted ... by blaming the scientists! Oh sure, Dana Price the Wraith worshipper was a scientist. So Caldwell the wannabe detective had obviously leaped to the conclusion that they were all guilty by association. Meanwhile he was allowing the real saboteur free run of the ship.
Rodney was going to kill him.
In the meantime, he paced. By this point he'd learned the entire cargo bay by heart. He would have paced the entire Daedalus if he dared, but roaming those dark halls, with possible Wraith worshippers and saboteurs running around, seemed like an unnecessary risk to him. Radek slept, as did Elizabeth. Rodney had drowsed for a couple of hours beside Zelenka, until the cold drove him awake, and now he walked not only because he was thoroughly pissed at Caldwell, but also because he was afraid to sleep for fear of freezing to death. He felt jittery and tense, as if from too much caffeine, though he hadn't had any.
He looked for Seavey to find out what the hell she'd told Caldwell, but she was sleeping -- wrapped in a blanket, looking young and vulnerable. He had no idea where Stark had gotten off to. He had not seen the young man since they'd separated outside the engine room. And he didn't like that at all, remembering the look in the Airman's eyes when he'd last seen him.
He paused at the rip in the hull to stare out into the blackness. The wind had picked up a lot, and moaned around the ship's bulk. Flurries of snow went skating past the opening in the light of the guards' flashlights.
"Gonna be a blizzard," said a soft voice by his shoulder.
Rodney looked around. Armstrong. "What are you, Daniel Boone?"
The lieutenant just grinned. "Spent a lot of time in the woods when I was a kid. You can see how the wind's rising out there."
"As far as I'm concerned, anyone who wants to be outdoors is crazy."
Armstrong's grin widened, as he held out an MRE and a bottle of water. "Well, dinner's on the crazy man tonight, if you haven't eaten yet." At Rodney's suspicious look, he laughed and said, "I'm the designated meal delivery boy at the moment. For right now, we're not strictly rationing food. We'll probably have to soon enough, but in this cold, Major Perry says we need all the calories we can get to stay alert."
Rodney had been running on PowerBars and adrenaline for ... how long had it been? Twelve hours? Fifteen? Good God. Food sounded very nice indeed. He took it with a mumbled thanks, and went off to the sickbay corner to check on Elizabeth while he ate.
It seemed slightly warmer behind the sheets providing a semblance of privacy to Ling's patients. Most of them were sleeping, probably under the influence of sedation and painkillers. Rodney did a quick check for the Sickbay Harpy, as he'd mentally termed her, but the coast was clear -- the only medical staff he saw were Cora and a young male corpsman, checking IVs and noting patients' vital signs.
Elizabeth's bruised face was still and pale, as it had been ever since they had pulled her from the rubble. Rodney sat down next to her and stretched out his legs with a sigh. He set the MRE to one side to heat, and when he turned back to Weir, he saw that her eyes were open and looking at him.
"Elizabeth!" He bent over her, aware that his relief and delight probably showed in his face, but too happy to care. "Can you hear me?"
She smiled a little. "I can hear you fine, Rodney." Her voice was soft and slightly hoarse, but her words were clear.
"How do you feel? Okay, stupid question, shut up McKay. Uh, do you hurt anywhere? Do you want anything? Should I call the doctor or something?"
One of her hands twitched and moved, half-covering his. "Rodney, I'm all right, I think. I'm not really feeling much. I'm thirsty ... that's about the only thing ..."
Rodney looked around for a medic, but Cora looked busy and besides, he had water right here. Feeling nervous and somewhat shy, he cupped his hand under Elizabeth's head and helped her take a few small sips. "I probably shouldn't give you any more than that. I don't know if you're supposed to have it. Does that help at all?"
"It's much better, Rodney; thank you." Her voice did sound a bit stronger.
"I, um --" There was so much he wanted to talk to her about, but he hated to dump all the Wraith-worshipper stuff onto her when she'd just regained consciousness. Still, he really didn't want to be one of those annoying people in a murder mystery who collected all the clues, unraveled the murderer's identity and then got killed before they could freaking tell anybody. Not Rodney McKay. "Um, do you mind if I eat while we talk? Because I'm really hungry and I can feel my blood sugar dropping while we speak. Are you hungry? I can have one of the nurses --"
Her hand tightened briefly on his before letting go. "I'm fine, Rodney. I don't mind if you eat, and I'm not hungry."
You really should be, he wanted to say, because it had been hours and hours since any of them had eaten a decent meal -- but maybe it was the painkillers taking her appetite away. He hoped. Digging into his MRE, he said through a mouthful, "Elizabeth, I'm really sorry to drop this on you right away, but it's important. There's something you should know ..."
And he told her about the signs of Wraith sabotage in the Daedalus's engines, and then, everything that Seavey and Stark had told him about Stark's encounter with Wraith worshippers ... and Caldwell's overreaction. As he spoke, Elizabeth's eyes widened, and then grew dark and narrow.
"Wraith followers on Atlantis," she whispered when he'd finished. "I can't believe it."
"Believe me, it's not just you." He set the MRE to one side, and ran a hand over his face, suddenly feeling the exhaustion and terror of the last fifteen hours closing in on him. Noticing the medic, Cora, tending to a patient not too far away, he dropped his voice. "Elizabeth, what if ... God, what if Caldwell's actually right? If the person who did this -- what if it's one of our people, one of the scientists?"
Her hand closed over his, gripped it tightly. "Don't think that, Rodney. You know them. You trust them."
"Yeah, but I thought I knew Dana Price, too!" And he didn't have to tell Elizabeth that he wasn't the best judge of character, never had been.
She gripped his hand even more firmly, and looked into his eyes. "Rodney, you have to take care of our people. I can't do it; you have to, you can. Radek and Miko and Robert and Nikolai and all the others here -- if this gets out, they're going to be scapegoats for a lot of very angry people. I'm not saying that Caldwell or his officers would deliberately instigate violence against them -- but, Rodney, I've seen the mob mentality at work, and the Daedalus's crew are very much on edge. They have lost some of their friends, their comrades-in-arms. They're stranded on a strange world. They will be looking for someone to blame."
Rodney found himself shivering, only partly because of the cold. "Seavey doesn't seem to blame us, and she knows the whole Price story."
"Keisha Seavey is a genuinely nice person, for one thing. And it may be that it simply hasn't occurred to her, as it obviously has to Colonel Caldwell, that Dana Price's colleagues are the most likely people to have picked up her ideas. Rodney --" She squeezed his hand, hard, as his mouth opened for a heated response. "You and I both know that the scientists on this ship did not do this. But to an outsider, it looks bad. You must protect them."
Rodney closed his eyes in despair. "I should never have told Caldwell anything, should I? Elizabeth, I didn't even think. I just thought he ought to know."
The pressure of her cool fingers grounded him, brought him back, as her soft voice said, "Rodney, it's not your fault. And while I hate to find myself in the odd position of defending Steven Caldwell --" Her lips quirked in brief amusement. "... I can see why he's reacted the way he has. I disagree, strongly, and I intend to tell him so at the earliest opportunity. But I can't say I wouldn't have done the same in your position."
"Dr. Weir! I'm glad to see you've decided to join us." It was Ling's voice, and Rodney jumped, because he hadn't heard her come up behind him. The woman moved as softly as a cat. How much had she heard?
Elizabeth gave Rodney's fingers a final squeeze before releasing his hand. "We'll talk later," she promised him. "Remember what I said. Take care of them, Rodney."
Rodney just nodded and moved back, reluctantly, as Ling moved in to take up the position he'd vacated. From the look she gave him, her opinion of him had not improved, and he couldn't help hovering anxiously as she took Elizabeth's vitals, asked her some questions and -- most alarmingly, to Rodney, injected something into her IV port. At that point he couldn't contain himself anymore.
"Hey, what did you just give her?"
"It's to make her more comfortable," Ling informed him icily. "Unless you would rather see her in pain?"
"Well, no, of course not, but ..." Rodney quit trying to make sense and just glared instead. If she was even thinking about hurting Elizabeth, she'd answer to him.
Ling sighed, rolled her eyes and ignored him. "Dr. Weir, Colonel Caldwell wanted to see you when you woke up. Do you feel up to having another visitor?"
Rodney could see the wry twist of Elizabeth's lips. "Why, I'd love to see him," she said, and he had to restrain a grin himself. The next best thing to knocking Caldwell down a peg or two for his treatment of the scientists was knowing that Elizabeth would do it, and probably do it very thoroughly.
Ling nodded. "I'll inform him you're awake, then." And she turned on Rodney. "As for you, I think you'd better leave and let Elizabeth get some rest."
"What? She's been resting! For hours! And I thought you just bitched me out for not spending time with sick people. Make up your damn mind!"
"She's injured, Dr. McKay, and sitting quietly with her is one thing, but getting her worked up isn't good for her health. Why don't you go check on your other friend now."
Rodney threw his hands up in the air. "Fine! I'll just run around in a subzero blizzard because you told me to! And fight off the wolves bare-handed while I'm at it! Maybe if I get my leg ripped off you'll give me some damn Tylenol!"
"And now you're waking up my other patients. I want you out of here in five minutes, Dr. McKay, or I'll have you escorted out."
"Harpy!" Rodney shot at her back as she walked away.
Elizabeth sighed. "Rodney, whatever did you do to antagonize that woman?"
"Who? Ling?" He couldn't believe it. "Why does everyone think it's my fault? She's got it in for me, Elizabeth! She's hated me from the beginning for absolutely no reason. Elizabeth, if she's the saboteur, I can't leave you here -- you'll be at her mercy."
Elizabeth's head moved against the pillow, shaking in amused negation. "Rodney, Carol Ling is a dedicated physician and would never harm a patient. I'll be perfectly safe here. She's right -- you should go check on Radek."
"But ..."
"Remember what I said, Rodney. I'm in here; you're out there. Keep them safe for me."
------
Impact plus 15 hours 20 minutes
After Rodney was gone and Ling had left again, presumably to find Caldwell, Elizabeth allowed herself to drift. Drowsy, with eyes half-closed, she watched the young blond medic, Cora, check on two of her other patients before coming over to kneel down by Elizabeth. Cora looked at the level of fluid in Elizabeth's IV, studied her chart for a moment and then began drawing an injection from the small medical case in her lap.
"I didn't think I was ready for another pain shot yet," Elizabeth said softly.
Cora jumped and almost fumbled the syringe. "I thought you were asleep! You gave me quite a shock." She finished measuring out the drug and injected it into the IV port. "It's easy to lose track of time when you're injured, Dr. Weir."
"I know, but ..." Elizabeth turned her head, trying to get a better look at Cora. The young medic's face was in shadow; Elizabeth could not see her expression. She didn't want to tell the girl how to do her job, but it was very busy with so many patients to care for, and something could easily fall through the cracks. "Dr. Ling just gave me a painkiller when I woke up ... I don't think it's been even half an hour."
Now she could feel the drug taking effect, warm lassitude spreading through her limbs. She might have blanked out for an instant, because Cora was now bending over her. "I know," the young woman said quietly. "She must have measured out too great a dose. Carol is a good doctor, but she's under so much stress and has so many patients to care for. She takes it very personally when she loses a patient. I'll have to remind her that it's not her fault; everyone makes mistakes."
Now that Cora was leaning forward, her face was no longer in shadow, and her eyes were fixed on Elizabeth with bright, bitter hatred.
Elizabeth struggled to open her mouth, to speak, to call out. But she couldn't move. She felt as if she were drowning in warm syrup.
"Who else knows?" Cora whispered, and the hate in her eyes pierced Elizabeth to her core. "You, and Dr. McKay -- I'll have to kill him too, of course. Who else, Dr. Weir?"
Elizabeth's mouth opened and closed. She couldn't seem to gather her thoughts, couldn't form words. "No," she managed to whisper.
Cora's hand touched Elizabeth's forehead with a mockery of gentleness -- just a caregiver lending comfort to her patient. Rodney! Elizabeth wanted to scream ... but no words would come. She couldn't breathe. A roaring sound in her ears blotted out all ambient noise in the room, and then darkness took her vision and swept her away.
------
TBC
Because everyone loves a cliffhanger ... heh, NOT!