I seem to be overcome by the warm fuzzy Beckett bunnies lately. The last few shorts in this series have focused on him. What's a girl to do -- the bunnies rule all.

Thanks to Jen for the beta!

LIAR'S TONGUE

Beckett pulled up a stool by the child's bed. Teyla had reported that the five-year-old girl had come down ill with a bad cough, so he had made a trip out to the mainland to check on her. As he reached for her wrist, she pulled away towards the woman who sat opposite him at her bedside. The woman embraced her and kissed the top of her head, shushing her.

"What's all this, then?" he asked the woman, surprised by the child's fear. He was always exceedingly gentle with the children of the village, most flocked to him when he visited -- though he was too much of a pragmatist to think they were attracted to his winning personality rather than the assortment of sweets he kept in his pocket whenever he visited.

"Her brother Tehanon has been scaring her with tales of large needles and sharp knives," said the woman, her mouth set in a grim line which boded ill for the boy once she got her hands on him.

Beckett frowned, trying to place the name. Yes, he remembered him now -- a bossy thirteen-year-old, and something of a bully if he recalled correctly. The boy and his playmates had been climbing trees and Tehanon had fallen and broken his wrist almost a year ago, now. The child's uncle had brought him to Atlantis for treatment and Beckett had x-rayed the arm and placed it in a cast. There hadn't even been any needles involved, but he remembered the boy had been a holy terror the entire time, trying the patience of his nurses with his tantrums and exceedingly bad behavior.

"Well, now, I'm guessing Tehanon tells you many things that don't turn out to be exactly true, doesn't he?" he asked the child, peering through her curtain of blonde hair.

She nodded and shifted slightly, staring out at him with big blue eyes from within the protective arms still encircling her.

"I'm sure your moth…Leena would not have let me in here if she thought I would hurt you." It was always safer not to make assumptions about familial relationships when it came to the Athosians. Wraith cullings often ripped families asunder. Fulfilling a long-standing tradition originally born of necessity, members of the village simply stepped in to fill the holes left by those taken.

The child glanced up wide-eyed at her companion.

"It is true, little one. You know your father would not have left you in my care if he thought I would let any harm come to you while he is away hunting."

The child relaxed slightly and released the woman, allowing Leena to prop her up on some pillows to make her more comfortable. The child had a coughing fit during the process and Beckett winced as the racking shook the tiny body.

He pulled the thermometer from his bag. "Do you know what this is?"

She shook her head, glancing at Leena uncertainly and receiving an encouraging smile and a pat on the hand in response.

"It's a wee birdy. He likes to talk to me." Beckett placed it in his ear and the thermometer beeped a few seconds later much to the amazement of the child. "Would it be okay if he talks to you?"

His small patient nodded her head and Beckett placed the thermometer in her ear, checking the reading a few seconds later. He turned it towards the child and pointed to the numbers. "He's telling me you have a bit of a fever." She looked at the reading with curiosity, then back to him, narrowing her eyes a bit as she apparently tried to decide if he was pulling her leg or not.

"He has a friend, you know. Would you like to meet him?" At the child's nod, he returned the thermometer to his bag, making it do a little dance along the way, and pulled out his stethoscope. She apparently found this device much more intimidating and Beckett saw fear spring up in her eyes. "This is my bird's friend," he reminded her, holding it out in invitation. She reached out tentatively and touched the device, calming a bit when she found nothing to fear. "Do you want to hear what he says?"

The child nodded cautiously and Beckett carefully placed the earpieces in her ears and held the bell to his chest. "Can you hear my heart beat?" he asked, exchanging an amused glance with Leena.

The girl's eyes widened in amazement and she nodded her head excitedly. He took the earpieces out of her ears and placed them in his own. "My turn now, alright?" She nodded again and he surreptitiously warmed the bell with his hand before sliding it under her shirt and placing it to her chest, listening to the telltale wheezing. "Can you sit up for me?" he asked after a few moments, moving the bell to her back when she complied. "Take some deep breaths for me, lass," he encouraged, listening to the rattling sound in her upper airway and putting a supporting hand on her back when she was overcome by another coughing fit. Leena held a soft cloth to the child's mouth as she spit out the thick yellow phlegm that had resulted.

He watched the tiny face wince in pain as she took a few deep breaths after the coughs subsided, lying back against the pillows. "Does it hurt here?" he asked her, tapping his finger just below her breastbone. At her nod, he gave her arm a sympathetic pat. "Alright then, lass, we're all done."

As he moved to put the stethoscope back in his bag, a tiny tentative hand on his arm stopped him. He tilted his head at her. "You want to listen some more?" At her emphatic nod, he put the device back in her ears and put the bell on her own chest. He smiled to see her enraptured by the sound of her own heartbeat before turning his attention to back to her caregiver. "She has bronchitis."

Leena gave him a confused frown and shook her head slightly at the unfamiliar term. "An inflammation in her lungs," he explained while patting his own chest and she nodded her understanding then. "It's not serious," he reassured her. "Keep her warm and have her drink plenty of fluids." He reached into his bag, pulling out several items and handing her a small bottle containing some white tablets. "This one," he said, "is for pain if she becomes too uncomfortable. No more than one pill every six hours, understand?"

"Yes."

He was glad Dr. Weir had requisitioned watches for the entire Athosian village. It made rendezvous, off-world trips, and shuttling the villagers back and forth between Atlantis and the mainland much more efficient when everyone used the same time scale -- not to mention making it easier to administer medication in a safe and timely manner.

He handed Leena a second small bottle and a spoon. "You can give her one spoonful before bed if the coughing keeps her awake at night." Leena nodded her understanding of the instructions.

"If she feels well enough to play, that's fine, but don't let her overexert herself," he said, lightly tapping the tip of the child's nose with his index finger and earning himself a small congested giggle. "I'll come back next week to check on her. In the meantime, if she seems to get any worse, send word to me immediately and I'll come right out."

Leena smiled down tolerantly as the girl put the bell of the stethoscope on her chest to listen. "I will. Thank you, Dr. Beckett."

"My pleasure, love." He gently reclaimed his stethoscope from the child and tucked it back into his bag, exchanging it for a grape lollipop, which brought a delighted grin to his young patient's face.

He gave Leena a thoughtful frown, contemplating the ethics of what he was about to suggest. One look at the child's endearing smile convinced him, though, that the end would justify the means. "Now then, let's see what we can do about Tehanon while I'm here." He gave the girl a conspiratorial wink and she grinned back at him, revealing purple teeth.

-o-

There was a scuffle outside. "I have found Tehanon, Dr. Beckett," said Leena, pushing the boy through the doorway and into the hut.

"Good, good," said Beckett. "Tehanon, come and sit down. I need to examine you to be sure you haven't caught what your sister has."

When the boy hesitated Leena gave him another not-so-gentle shove towards the doctor.

"Sit down here," Beckett said, indicating a chair at the table in the center of the room as he placed his bag on the table and began rummaging through it. Giving the little girl an exaggerated wink from behind her brother's back, he pulled out a knife, borrowed from Leena, and let it glitter in the light as he contemplated the edge. Nodding his satisfaction, he put it down on the table and then pulled out a large syringe that he used to irrigate wounds. The boy was so nervous he didn't even notice there was no needle in it.

"Whaaat are you going to do with those," asked Tehanon, his voice breaking as he swallowed nervously. Panic was written all over his face as he glanced toward the door where Leena was standing, arms crossed, blocking his only means of escape.

Beckett made a show of shooting some water into the air from the syringe. "I think you already know. After all, you described it in great detail to your sister."

He put the syringe down on the table and pulled out a tongue depressor. "Open, please."

After shooting a one last desperate glance at the unsympathetic Leena, he did as he was told. Beckett made a point of 'aahing' and humming a lot as he looked in the boy's mouth. "Well, lucky I came. You don't have what your sister has, but are coming down with a severe case of liar's tongue." He shot a pointed glance at the knife on the table. "If it gets much worse, we may have to amputate."

-o-

Holling found himself almost knocked to the ground as a teenage boy came rushing pell-mell from under a tent flap, too busy looking behind him to watch where he was going. As the boy crashed into him, the tall man instinctively reached out and grabbed an arm to steady him, only then realizing it was Tehanon. Knowing the teenager intimately from his bullying encounters with Jinto, he wondered what could be causing such a reaction.

A brief glance in the direction of the tent where Tehanon had emerged gave him his answer. Dr. Beckett was standing in the entrance holding a large syringe with a smirking Leena at his side. A girl child peeked out from between him, a gleeful smile on her face. Holling recognized her as Tehanon's often put-upon younger sister. Giving them nod, he spun the boy around to face the hut. "Were you looking for Tehanon, Doctor?" he asked, subtly loosening his grip and purposely allowing the boy to escape his grasp. "Wait, Tehanon, come back," Holling called after him, but without any real enthusiasm. The three adults exchanged complicit grins before Lenna chivied her charge back into bed.

END