Chapter 8: A strange illness.

Teyla walked into the infirmary onboard the Daedalus. She knew that she should probably head to the waiting room, but she wanted to see John first. There was nothing unusual about John ending up in the infirmary because he had the worst luck in the world when it came to being injured or sick. The only problem was that this time he wasn't home on Atlantis surrounded by his friends. She smiled when she thought of how someone would always be sitting by his bed when he was sick and injured as no one wanted him to wake up alone. The same went for the rest of his team, none of them had to ever wake up alone when they were sick or injured. Although it was expected that if there was a mission to complete the person who was in the infirmary would understand why no one was with them when they woke up.

When she arrived, she found a middle-aged woman with blonde hair and blue eyes attending to Sheppard, so she focused her attention on Dr Keller and John. She watched as Keller took his vitals and she didn't miss the worry, in her eyes.

"How is he, Dr Keller?"

"It's Dr Keller-McKay these days but most people still call me Doc. His arm will need surgery as soon as possible and as for the infection, it is unlike anything I have ever seen before, but I will try and administer some powerful anti-biotics to see if we can beat it." Jennifer took a deep breath before continuing, "My major concern is for his arm right now so I'm going to scrub up, "she then turned to the other woman, "how is Sheppard, Dr Miller?"

"His temperature is slightly elevated, and his left arm seems to be red and inflamed, and it is unlike anything I have ever seen before. I suspect that the bone was never set properly so it probably needs surgery as well. But we can discuss that with him later, once we get this strange infection under control."

Teyla turned and studied Dr Miller, the bright blue eyes looked vaguely familiar, it took her a while to realise that it was Rodney McKay's niece Maddison Miller, "Maddie?" She asked in a gentle tone.

"I go by the name Dr Miller-Sheppard these days, but most people just call me Dr Miller. I don't really have time to explain right now as I am needed in surgery, but I'm sure my husband will explain everything if you just go and wait in the waiting room."

"Come on Mom, let the doctors do their jobs and I will escort you to the waiting room," Torren suggested gently taking her by the arm, ready to lead her out of the infirmary.

She took one last look at John and followed him out. They had finally admitted their feelings for one another, but now John was sick and injured and they were stuck in the future, where their son was older than they were. Ronon was at least eighty and possibly older and Amelia was probably a similar age. Jenn was in her mid to late seventies but could still pass for sixty and was still practising medicine. They had come across an older version of John who had two children and his wife another version of Teyla was dead. The worst part of the future though was that Rodney McKay was dead, leaving Jennifer a widow. Even though her husband had just died, Jennifer was still the consummate professional when it came to her patients and at that moment, she was happy that some things never changed.

These thoughts were too much for her to deal with so she was relieved when they arrived in the waiting room and Torren guided her to a chair. She immediately put her head in her hands trying to stop the tears that were threatening to come. She felt an arm around her and she immediately recognised it as Ronon's. Looking up at him she recognised the look of sorrow that crossed his face, it was the same one she saw when his home had been destroyed by the Wraith, but now New Sateda was thriving, which filled her heart with joy and made her feel a little better.

Once she had regained her composure she looked up and found that not only were Ronon and Torren in the room but Amelia was there with Sheppard's children. She wondered how they were feeling right now, were they as worried about their father as she was about John. Of course they are you idiot, She thought chastising herself.

Dave slowly approached her and looked at her with sadness in his eyes, "do you know how my dad is?"

She looked straight into his expressive hazel eyes and all she saw was sorrow and worry there, "I am sorry Dave, but he is not well. The doctors are with him now and they should be able to give us some information soon."

"Thank you Teyla," he said before sitting down next to his sister again.

Now that she felt a little better she turned to her son, "Torren is Maddie your wife?"

He nodded his head and smiled before answering, "Yes and we have been married for twenty years and the last ten years we have both been serving on the Daedalus."

"Where were you before that?"

"We spent a lot of years on Earth, but eventually we decided that we wanted to be involved in what was going on in the Pegasus Galaxy again. So when Stargate command asked Maddie if she wanted to be a Doctor on the Daedalus we jumped at the chance."

"Do you have any children?" Teyla asked, hoping that she was a grandmother.

"We have two teenage girls, Teyla and Elizabeth or Beth for short. At the moment they are both on earth Beth is nineteen and studying astrophysics and Teyla is eighteen and studying medicine."

"You must be incredibly proud of them both?"

A look of longing crossed Torren's face and she got a sense of how much he loved his children, "We are and we miss them terribly when we're away from earth, but when we get home we make sure we catch up with both of them."

She was about to reply when Amelia stood up and announced, "I hate all this waiting around so I'm going to get something to eat. Does anyone want anything?"

"A turkey sandwich and a cup of tea would be nice if you have it."

Charlie smiled and looked at her, "Teyla, turkey sandwiches are dad's favourite. At least that's what he always told us. We never had anything like that on our planet, but I'd sure love to try one now."

"They're my Dad's favourite too, so I guess I'll have one as well," Torren commented.

"Me too," Ronon mumbled and Teyla wasn't sure whether he meant he wanted one or if he was indicating that they were his favourite. He'd certainly loved them in the past.

Dave nodded and Teyla assumed that it was to indicate that he would have the same.

Once Amelia had left the room Teyla took a moment to relax and close her eyes, she felt comforted by the fact that Torren and Ronon were sitting beside her and for the moment she felt that she could rest, even though she was incredibly worried about John.

Her peace didn't last long when someone entered the room and she instantly knew who it was by the heavy footsteps and the smell, "Todd, I knew it would not be too long before you turned up."

"Ah, Teyla my queen, it is good to see you again after all these years and might I say you are looking as lovely as ever."

"As Ronon told you before I am not your queen, so how about you tell me what you want so I can get back to my peace?!" She told him feeling extremely frustrated that she had to deal with him right now.

"Is it true that you were stranded on the planet with the anomaly surrounding it?"

"Yes, we were stuck there for a few days until Sheppard found a way off it."

Todd smiled and Teyla shuddered at how yellow his teeth were, not to mention his breath smelt, "and who is this Sheppard?"

Before Teyla had a chance to answer him, Dave spoke, "he is my father."

Teyla winced when the wraith turned to stare at Dave, "how is that possible?"

"You are a smart Wraith Todd, I am sure you can figure it out. But I'll give you a clue; it includes time travel and alternate realities," Teyla replied with a smirk.

"The anomaly caused you to time travel," Todd suggested and Teyla suspected that he was thinking out loud, "twice, meaning that two separate versions of you and John Sheppard crashed on that planet in two different time periods. So, if that is true where is the other Teyla?"

"My mom died after my brother Patrick was born, he died around the same time, and my Dad has been sad ever since. In fact until two days ago when John and Teyla landed, I never thought I'd see him happy again." Charlie answered, coming up to stand beside the Wraith, "my dad used to talk about you all of the time Todd, he told me how you often worked together, although he never really trusted you."

Todd chuckled, and patted the child on the head, "Your father is a very smart man and he was wise to not trust me," he paused before continuing, "Were you sad when your mother died?"

"Of course I was, "Charlie replied with confusion in her eyes.

Todd shrugged, "I still find it hard to understand human sentimentality and emotion, even after spending years around humans."

"Perhaps you never will," Charlie informed him.

Teyla watched the interaction between Todd and Charlie and smiled, Todd seemed to have changed over the last fifty years even though he still didn't understand humans. "John did appreciate your help on occasion though."

"And he is an honourable man," Todd then turned to look at Charlie again, "and I'm sure that your father is an honourable man as well."

"Thank you, Todd," Charlie said before hugging him.

She watched as the Wraith reluctantly put his arms around the child and was almost in tears watching the scene play out. Todd seemed to have softened over the years and she wondered what had happened for him to change so much.

Before the conversation had a chance to continue, Amelia came back with a platter of sandwiches and a pot of tea and placed them on the small table in the room. She had also managed to bring along some small plates and teacups.

Teyla was happy to take a sandwich and make herself a cup of tea, she then sat back and listened to the conversations around her, hoping that she could catch an hour or so of sleep before the doctors came back with news of John. She suspected that the doctors would be out long before that though to give them news of Sheppard. Closing her eyes she let the noise fade into the background and it wasn't long before she fell into a deep sleep.

When she became aware again the first sound she heard was soft voices and for some reason, they sounded worried so she sat with her eyes closed for a moment or two not really wanting to find out what was going on in case it concerned John and although part of her wanted to know how he was, there was a big part of her who dreaded the news.

The whispering continued so she finally relented and opened her eyes to find that Maddie was in the room and she was talking quietly to Charlie and Dave. She thought about getting up and heading over to hear what Maddie was saying, but then perhaps she would give the children their privacy as the news didn't look good.

A few minutes later Amelia stood up with the children and walked out of the room and she assumed that they were going to the infirmary to see Sheppard. Taking a moment to look around the room, she soon realised that Ronon and Todd had left the room and Torren was staring at Maddie.

"How's Dad?" Torren asked and Teyla didn't miss the worry in her son's eyes.

"We have managed to fix his arm using rods and screws, and when the swelling goes down we will put it in a cast. That was relatively simple to fix, although there appeared to be some strange bacteria in the break that we have never seen before so I have taken a sample to analyse. He is very ill at the moment and unfortunately, he has just slipped into a coma."

"And how is Sheppard?" Torren asked voicing her own concerns.

"He's in the same condition as John only worse and if we can't find a cure soon, I'm afraid he may not make it. I suspect that some of the same bacteria entered his arm at the time he broke it and for some reason, it hasn't affected him until now."

Teyla sighed, that was the last thing she needed to hear right now and although she was worried for Sheppard her major concern was for John because if he didn't make it, there was no way she wanted to go home to her own time. Although she knew that she had a son back on New Athos to raise, she didn't think she could do it without John and besides Torren seemed to have turned out fine without them.

"May we please see him?"

Maddie gave her a small smile, before she spoke, "follow me."

She stood to her feet and grabbed Torren's hand trying to draw some comfort from him, and followed her out.

They walked along in silence until they reached the area that had been designated as the ICU. Maddie was the first to enter and Teyla was close behind and what she saw shocked her. Because although she had seen John injured many times nothing prepared her for seeing him like this. He was paler than she'd ever seen him, he appeared to be trembling from head to toe and was completely silent. His left arm was bandaged heavily and placed on a large fluffy pillow, there was an IV in his right arm and a nasal cannula under his nose.

She took a glance at the man in the other bed and realised that Sheppard appeared to be in the same condition. The children were sitting next to his bed, holding his hands and whispering to him.

Turning her attention back to John, she took his hand and started to sing an Athosian lullaby to him. Torren sat on the other side of his bed and held his other hand.

"I recognise that song, where would I have heard it before because I know that Uncle Ronon or Uncle Rodney never sang it to me when I was young? In fact, I don't think I ever remember either of them singing to me." He said with a grin crossing his face.

"I used to sing it to you when you were a baby Torren, and you loved it."

"I love hearing you sing it now, and I really hope that Dad can hear you singing it because I am sure it will make him feel better."

"Thank you, sweetheart, that certainly makes me feel a lot better."

"I kind of like it when you call me that did you call me that when I was a baby?"

"Yes, I always did, but your Dad always called you T.J. I get the impression that your dad loves to use nicknames so I suspect that is why Sheppard calls Charin, Charlie and David Dave. Even though they're not the same person now I am convinced at one point they were."

"You know what Mom, although I studied astrophysics, I really hate time travel and alternate realities. Technically Sheppard and his children shouldn't exist because you never got sucked into that anomaly a second time therefore you never crashed landed on that planet fifteen years before you originally did. But somehow an alternate reality has been created that can't be changed."

She flinched at his long-winded speech because for a moment he sounded exactly like Rodney," Torren you are giving me a headache so please do not continue with this line of reasoning?"

"Sorry, Mom."

They sat in silence looking down at John and she found herself praying to the ancestors that she didn't even believe in that John Sheppard would make a miraculous recovery once again. In the past, she could always rely on Rodney or Carson to pull a miracle out of nowhere, but both of them were gone so she knew that she would have to rely on Maddie and Jennifer and although she trusted Jennifer with her life, she didn't know what Maddie's capabilities were. She smiled when she remembered how Rodney used to insult the medical profession and she wondered what he must have felt when his niece decided to follow in her aunt's footsteps and become a doctor.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Todd entered the infirmary, "how is he?"

"He is incredibly ill Todd and at the moment the doctors are not quite sure what they can do for him. Sheppard seems to be in the same situation as John, but apparently, his condition is worse."

"I have a theory, but I would like to discuss it in private before I suggest it to the doctors."

"Can we not discuss it here because I do not wish to leave John?"

Todd just shook his head, which for some reason totally annoyed her, but she decided to acquiesce to his demands anyway. Taking a deep breath, she looked down at John and squeezed his hand before whispering in his ear, "I will be back soon my love."

She caught the eye of one of the nurses to indicate that she would like them to look after John and she was relieved when someone came and sat by his bed.

"We can use my lab," Torren suggested before letting go of his father's hand and following her through the door.

She followed her son and Todd through the ship until they came to an area marked 'restricted access' where Torren allowed a device to scan his retina, he then placed his finger on a fingerprint scanner and then waited. A few seconds later a mechanical voice spoke to them, "access confirmed for Torren Sheppard."

It made her heart beat faster to know that Torren had taken John's surname and when he awoke that was the first thing that she would be telling him.

Once they were inside and Torren had locked the door she turned to Todd, "okay tell me your theory?"

"What if that strange bacterium is indigenous to the planet that you were on and it entered John and Sheppard's bloodstream when they broke their arms'," Todd suggested with a gleam in his eye, although she couldn't work out why he would be gleaming at someone else's misfortune.

She just looked at him and scratched her head, "that may well be true but how does that help us and why has it not affected John until now? Come to think of it why has it not been a problem for Sheppard until now either?"

"Perhaps it is something to do with the strange radiation in the atmosphere," Todd surmised.

"If what you are saying is true, how can we use it the help, Dad and Sheppard. Surely they can't spend the rest of their lives on the planet?" Torren asked with a worried look, one which Teyla had come to know well over the last twelve hours.

"And why did Sheppard believe he was dying, surely if the radiation has healing properties, it should have cured whatever was wrong with him?" Teyla asked with intensity in her voice.

"I don't know the answer to that, but I suggest that we land on that planet and investigate whatever is in that atmosphere that is holding John's symptoms at bay!" Todd hissed and Teyla could see he was clearly becoming annoyed with them.

Teyla was incredulous at his suggestion, "that is all well and good Todd, but the last time we ended up on that planet we crash-landed, thanks to that strange anomaly!"

"Well how did you get off that planet?" Todd asked with his eyes boring into her.

"We had a puddle jumper with a ZPM so as soon as we cleared the upper atmosphere we jumped into hyperspace."

"That's great news mom, all we have to do, is look at the calculations that Sheppard used to get us off the planet and reconfigure them, and I'm sure between Todd and I, we can do that."

"Unfortunately, the ZPM was depleted shortly after we left the planet so the hyperdrive won't work any longer. Is there a way we can land without it?" Teyla answered.

"We would possibly need it if we wanted to get off the planet again," Torren informed her in a soft voice,

Todd interrupted at that point and Teyla didn't miss the sly grin on his face, "I know where we can get one and I'm sure that Torren could install it in the jumper."

"You know where there is a ZPM," Torren asked and Teyla could sense his disbelief, "well why the hell, are you just telling us now and didn't you just tell me you suspected that there was ancient technology on the planet where Mom and Dad crashed?!"

"Well, we know now that was your mom and Dad's jumper and the ZPM was obviously the ancient technology I was detecting. So do you think that you can get hold of a ship and take us to find a ZPM?!" Todd growled and it was clear to her how frustrated he was.

"I will not be going anywhere," Teyla told him sternly, "I will be sitting with John because hopefully, he will be waking up soon."

"Perhaps Ronon would like to come with us, "Todd suggested.

Torren sighed, "I'll ask him," he said before turning to his mother, "do you think that we could use the jumper, that is if the planet with the ZPM is close by? I'm assuming that it is on a planet?" He asked turning back to Todd.

"Yes, it is on a planet nearby."

Teyla turned to look at her son, "if you take the jumper, you will need someone to pilot it."

"Uncle Carson gave me the gene therapy years ago and it took, so I have a very strong artificial ATA gene."

"Well in that case perhaps you should see if Ronon wants to go with you to go and look for the ZPM. I am going to stay with John."

"Come on Todd let's get going the sooner we get to that planet the sooner we can come back and help my father. We must go and inform Commander O'Neill what we are doing first though." Torren suggested tugging on Todd's arm.

She watched as Todd left the room and before Torren could follow, she grabbed his arm, "be careful because I do not trust that Wraith?"

"That's why I'm taking Ronon with me because if anyone can keep him in line Ronon can."

"Please hurry because I am worried about your father, and I fear that Sheppard doesn't have much time."

"How about I walk you to the infirmary Mom and then I'll go and speak with Commander O'Neill as I don't want to worry Captain McKay right now, he has enough on his plate, although I suspect that Aunt Jenn has already told him about you being aboard."

She nodded and took her son's hand and left his lab and walked back to the infirmary with him and she was grateful for his support. When they arrived at the infirmary a few minutes later she bowed her forehead towards her son in a traditional Athosian greeting and she was relieved that he reciprocated. Obviously, someone had taught him about Athosian tradition.

"Come back soon sweetheart," Teyla whispered in his ear before she let go.

She watched him walk away before turning and walking back into the infirmary. Walking into the ICU she was shocked to see that the Doctors were crowded around Sheppard's bed and the children were absent. While keeping an eye on what was going on with Sheppard she sat beside John's bed and was relieved to see that he hadn't deteriorated since she'd been gone. Taking his hand, she began to sing the Athosian lullaby that she had been singing before she'd left with Torren and Todd.

She was busy gazing at John when Maddie, came over to speak to her, "we've just had to intubate Sheppard and I'm not sure if he will ever wake up again. For the moment John's oxygen levels are stable, but I don't know how long that will last."

"Todd has hypothesised, that the radiation of the planet that we were on has healing properties and it was keeping the bacteria in John and Sheppard's systems at bay. So, they have gone to find a ZPM so that we can land on that planet without crashing. It is a long story as to how we got off that planet and how we plan to land again, but I think that it is their only hope."

"Well, I only hope that they come back soon, because if they don't it may be too late."

She looked down at John and wondered whether she should go on the mission to find a ZPM or should she stay with him, but in the end, she decided that John wouldn't want her sitting by his bed, when she could be out there looking for a way to cure him, so she kissed him on the cheek and turned to Maddie, "look after him, as I am going with Torren to find a ZPM so that we can go back to the radiation planet and try to find a cure."

Maddie nodded at her as she left the infirmary and she only hoped that John would be alive when they got back from the mission.

TBC…