Reminder:
"This is spoken English."
"This is spoken Czech."
This is a thought.

Last time: Anna's learning all kinds of new things, like how to handle guns! She's more excited than Radek. And Radek obviously has a cold or the flu or something (since approximately chapter 30), but it seems likely he's trying to give it to Rodney.


Chapter 32. Best Way to Learn.

Anna couldn't believe that she was going to be the one dragging Radek out of bed this morning. Or else he'd already gone and gotten breakfast and just forgotten her. It would be a strange thing to forget. She buzzed his door and waited. Buzzed it again.

The door finally opened. He looked like death warmed over. He coughed and squinted—though the latter may have been because he wasn't wearing his glasses. He wasn't wearing his uniform, either, just a t-shirt and shorts.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

He put his head down, blocking the sunlight from his eyes. "I am coming down with something." He sniffed. He turned back into the darkness of his room.

Anna stepped into the doorway and looked around. Of course, he was coming down with something… He already had whatever it was yesterday, but did he listen to her? Maybe this would teach him. "Should I get Doctor Beckett?"

"No." It sounded hard for him to speak. Anna wasn't sure what that meant. He sat on the edge of his bed and put his head in his hands. "I think it's just a cold or something." He coughed like he might lose a lung and laid back down. He picked his head up and looked toward the doorway. "Can you close the door please?"

Anna stepped back out of the room and stood staring at the closed door for a few moments. She had wondered if she could or would navigate Atlantis in the bustle of the early morning alone. She'd been alone during the rest of the day, of course, when it was relatively empty and everyone was already where they were supposed to be. She usually waited to venture out until that time.

This morning would be an adventure. Because she was certainly hungry.

She stepped out of the room to see all the usual people going to all the usual places. She boarded the transporter stood quietly while all the important people selected their destinations. Soon enough she was the only one in there… And she didn't know where to go.

She finally opted for the infirmary. It probably wasn't a big deal. It sure looked like a cold or the flu or something. The Pegasus galaxy flu? Unless someone brought it with them from Earth.

Anna stood in the entrance to the infirmary for a few moments. It seemed like a slow morning. She looked around. Doctor Beckett and Jennifer were sharing an early morning coffee and apparently talking about something important.

Jennifer saw her first. "Good morning, Anna. What are you doing here so early? I thought we weren't meeting until well after lunch." She looked around like she thought maybe she'd gotten the time horribly wrong.

"Yes," Anna said. "I'm not here for lessons. Radek is sick…"

"Oh?" Doctor Beckett looked concerned. "Is he coughing? Congested?" She nodded. "Light-sensitive?" When Anna paused, he looked for other words. "Uh, photophobia?" That was at least close to something that she could guess what it meant. When she nodded, he looked at Jennifer. "Seems to be going around." He went to a nearby shelf and picked off a package of medicine.

"What is it?" Anna asked.

"Nothing to be concerned about, love. A few people from Doctor McKay's science team have come down with flu-like symptoms, too. I'll go check up on him, bring decongestants and… bring these…" He continued talking to himself as he rounded the shelf. "Jennifer, can you hold down the fort for a few minutes?"

Jennifer nodded with a grin. "Absolutely." She looked at Anna. "Also want to make sure he's drinking lots of fluids."

"But not coffee," Doctor Beckett put in. "If it is the flu, he'll want to sleep through it." He looked at the medications in his hands. "Ah, but I'll tell him that myself." He walked out of the infirmary, leaving Anna and Jennifer standing in the otherwise empty room.

Jennifer turned to Anna. "So what's on the list for you today?" she asked.

Anna shrugged. She wondered if he had already told Doctor McKay he was sick and not going to be there. "I think I'll go to Doctor McKay's lab and tell him that Radek is sick."

"Oh, better hurry," Jennifer said. "He's going offworld later this morning."

Anna had to imagine that Doctor McKay wouldn't care, but someone else might.

Atlantis in the early morning was busy, but tranquil at the same time. It was, for some reason, the time of day most people decided to run their errands. Down long, window-lined hallways, the city's tall towers cast bars of shadows. The morning's sea air seemed stronger and sweeter than the rest of the day… At least, it did to Anna. Maybe she wasn't quite used to it.

The stairs up to the lab were wide. Anna couldn't imagine them being used to full capacity, ever. The scientists that worked there didn't seem to use them very often. Just in the morning when they came, and the afternoon when they left. Sometimes the middle of the night when they left…

She looked into Doctor McKay's lab.

"Yes, what?" Doctor McKay looked up before she could say anything. He looked around her and past her. "Oh. Zelenka isn't coming either."

Anna shook her head. "Doctor Beckett thinks he has the flu."

"Yeah, him and everyone else." Doctor McKay spun in his chair to face Collins. "Why aren't you sick, hm?"

"I've always had a healthy immune system," Collins answered absently, not even looking at him. Collins had his face decidedly rested in his hands as he stared at his screen. He periodically tapped his temples. Didn't generally look very pleased.

Doctor McKay didn't pay any attention to that. "He'll be out a few days, then?" Doctor McKay asked her, spinning back around. He didn't give Anna a chance to answer, probably because he already knew the answer. "I suppose that means you're on your own today. Unless you'd prefer I leave you in Collins' uniquely incapable hands."

"At least I'm unique," Collins said.

"And I mean that sincerely," Doctor McKay said with a grin. "I think you could use a break to get that scenario I assigned—what was it, last week?—finished."

"Sounds like a good break," Anna said. She'd taken so long on it simply because Elizabeth wanted a paper on ancient Earth cultures compared to what they knew of the Ancients of this city. It was a lot of reading. A lot of inferring. A lot of guessing.

And it was a lot of English.

"I thought this one wouldn't take you as long," Doctor McKay said.

"I have a paper," Anna said. She smiled. "And you didn't give me a deadline."

"Hm." Doctor McKay looked back at his computer screen. "I'll be sure to correct that next time. Your dad also has a problem with deadlines. Of course, his deadlines are usually more literal."

"McKay." Collins looked up from his computer with a smug look on his face.

"What is it?" Doctor McKay asked.

"Speaking of deadlines," Collins said. "Weren't you supposed to be in the jumper bay… now?"

Doctor McKay looked at his computer screen—apparently at a clock there. "Crap." He gathered his tablet and bolted past Anna.

Collins watched with amusement and then looked at her. "Let me know if you need help on that. Whatever it is. I'd appreciate the diversion."

"Thank you." She went to Doctor McKay's chair and jumped up. She spun toward his computer screen, where lines of code sat waiting for any additions. She would have loved to know what he was working on and how it worked, but they'd thus far refrained from giving her any useful information on the code that helped Atlantis run.

She spun toward Collins. "What are you working on?"

He glanced up a moment, then back at his screen. "Just streamlining a few things for the power distribution," he said. "Even though we have the ZPM now, the naquadah generators are backups and supplements if needed."

Anna nodded like she understood every word of that. It wasn't the words that were the problem, anyway. "Can I watch?"

He chuckled. "I'm not exactly doing anything to watch right now. There's some sort of error in here and I cannot find it for the life of me."

Anna scooted her chair around behind Collins.

"Doctor McKay wanted to get you into Asgard/Human coding before you touched Ancient/Human," he said.

"I don't know just Human coding, yet."

"You have the books, don't you?" Collins asked. He hesitated only a moment to tap his cursor up a few lines, where he added a bracket, and then a few words while he spoke. "Maybe you should start there."

The man was a marvel. Talking and typing English at the same time. English, less-thans, greater-thans, slashes, hyphens, and periods. He spoke English and Ancient/Human coding.

Even still, learning just Human coding seemed so boring. She'd touched on the most basic computer languages at home, and she always thought they were interesting. And then she'd learned that there were aliens. That sort of ruined everything.

Anna sighed and nodded. "I guess."

He paused his typing and looked over his shoulder at her. "But the best way to learn is to do."

#

"Good lord. You look like hell."

Radek didn't appreciate Carson's observation, but he wasn't going to argue. He probably did. "Oh, really?" he mumbled, walking back into the room after opening the door. He shaded his eyes from the light outside and kept his eyes on the floor, but it didn't do any good.

He could only barely see the room, but at least it was about in the same condition as it was every day. Living with Anna was very much like living alone. Except that sometimes there was someone else to talk to in the room. Or not talk to, as it happened. He vaguely remembered her speaking to him earlier... was it earlier? Anyway, he didn't remember talking back.

Carson emptied some drugs out of his pockets onto the nearby counter while Radek all but collapsed on the couch and covered his eyes. "Don't worry about it. It's probably not serious. Seems to be going around."

"I'm not worried," Radek grumbled. At this point, he didn't care if it did kill him. This was the worst cold or flu or whatever the hell it was, ever. "I told Anna I'd be fine. I don't really need a house call."

Radek squinted up when Carson came next to the couch. "She doesn't want you to suffer," Carson said. "That's good, right?"

"Yeah, it's good." It was touching, really. She probably thought he'd suffered enough this past week.

His head pounded, his eyes watered, and every muscle felt tight and limp at the same time. Every breath tickled his lungs to the point of coughing fits that lasted a good five minutes sometimes. "Since you're here, you have anything so that I can sleep?" he asked hopefully. Sleep like a rock or a log or any other inanimate object that didn't have to see or feel anything for a very long time.

"Aye. Let me have a look at you first. Sit up."

Radek was uninterested in a checkup, but Carson had the power of drugs. He did as he was told. Carson scanned him with a little handheld Ancient device, clicking his tongue in disappointment. "You need to take better care of yourself, Radek."

"I eat three good meals a day. Sometimes I even eat vegetables."

Carson chuckled as he swept his stethoscope from around his neck. "Was that a joke?"

Radek smiled. Damn, even smiling hurt. He closed his eyes and hung his head. It might have been a joke. "I don't know anymore."

"Take a deep breath please," Carson said, pressing the stethoscope on Radek's chest.

Radek tried to take a deep breath, but, well, good luck with that. A violent fit of coughs seized his lungs, not letting him breathe for what felt like minutes. Carson might have been talking to him, but he couldn't hear over the spasms of his diaphragm. After what felt like an eternity, Carson helped him lie back on the couch.

"Alright, don't take any more deep breaths," Carson mumbled.

That was supposed to be a joke, too.

Radek gave him a half-hearted thumbs up and covered his eyes with one hand. "Sorry."

"You're sick," Carson mumbled, continuing his examination. "No need to apologize." Radek was mostly unaware of what was going on for the next few minutes except that his eyes had begun to ache. That was a whole new level of awful. "Alright, your lymph nodes are swollen, and you have a high fever. I'm not worried, but I'm not sure if this is some new strain we haven't encountered from this galaxy, or something from ours. We're running tests to see, but in the meantime, I'm going to come back to see you tonight."

"I'll be here." Probably right in this exact spot. He didn't think he could stand anymore. Or move at all, really.

Carson sighed. "Okay. Well." He slapped a pair of pills into Radek's hand. "That'll let you sleep. It'll take about thirty minutes to kick in. In the meantime... uh... is that a tea kettle?"

Radek looked through his cracked fingers to see the blurry image of Carson silhouetted against the window. "Yeah, Anna drinks tea."

"Perfect." Carson went to put the kettle on and started humming pleasantly. It was incredibly loud for some reason.

Radek swallowed the two little pills Carson gave him and hoped he was exaggerating about the thirty minutes. He put his head back on the armrest and contemplated the insides of his eyelids for a few seconds. "How did she seem?"

"Who?"

"Who else?"

"Um..."

Radek pushed himself up onto his elbows and glared in Carson's direction. Sort of. He couldn't help but squint even though the window was beyond his field of vision. "Anna, Carson. Who the hell do you think I'm talking about?"

Carson shrugged helplessly. "I don't know, maybe there was some lady in the science department I didn't know about."

Some lady, right. That was the thing about Atlantis. Every single woman on Atlantis was too smart for that. Except... Doctor Brown?

Radek flopped back down onto the couch before realizing what a huge mistake that was. His head felt like a drum beaten by a particularly enthusiastic middle school marching band. The whole band. He threw his hands over his eyes and tried not to breathe. Breathing just made everything worse.

"Anna seemed fine," Carson answered. "A little bored, maybe."

He didn't answer and he hoped Carson understood. This was awful. He just needed the sun to set. Just needed to sleep. "Carson," he said quietly. "Could you close the windows, please?"

Carson didn't move for a second before crossing the floor uncertainly. "Yeah, of course. Sorry, I don't know why I didn't do that when I came in."

"It's fine, I..." He didn't think of it either, until just now. The room fell into comparative darkness and pounding in his head lessened. That was something.

What felt like a few seconds later, Carson was tapping his shoulder and handing him a steaming mug. "Drink this first. Then sleep."

"I'd rather just skip all that and..."

"No." Carson put the mug squarely in his hands and helped him sit before taking the seat on the couch beside him. "Half of it, at least, then I'll let you be."

Whatever it was, it was disgusting. Or maybe it wasn't. Nothing was tasting right recently. Maybe it was just today. Today and yesterday. He took another gulp and opened his eyes, finally. He didn't realize they'd been closed. The room was so dark he could barely see anything, but he felt like he was looking right into the sun anyway.

"Maybe this will teach you," Carson mumbled.

"Teach me what?" Probably a lesson he didn't need to learn. Like that lesson in humility he got this week. "Never mind," he said before Carson could speak. "Tell me later. Or, better yet, never tell me. I don't want to know what I'm supposed to learn from this."

"I don't recommend taking vitamins daily for nothing, you know," Carson said.

Radek chuckled, coughed, and took another gulp of tea. Carson pulled a quilt from the nearby chair and handed it to him. Sometimes the best way to learn was to be hit over the head with his mistakes. He would start taking his vitamins. He's start telling people exactly what he thought of their idiotic ideas, especially Colonel Sheppard.

Maybe.

Tomorrow. He'd start doing all that tomorrow.


A/N: Happy new year! See you next year. ;)
Rodney isn't a doctor, right? Well… not that kind of doctor… But what is even with that line in Trinity?
Also, I was thinking about it, and Zelenka pronounces "ZPM" like Americans... Is that weird? Shouldn't he be pronouncing the ZPM more or less like Rodney does? I could be getting my letters confused, but wouldn't that make it more like, uh... "ZetPM"? I mean, just because Rodney makes a point of saying it like "ZedPM." Not that I ever distinguish between how Rodney or anyone else says it... I guess I just sort of leave it to the imagination.


Next time: Just trying to find home.