Disclaimer: I am not a Doctor or medical healthcare professional. Although I have tried to research medical terms, they may not be 100 percent accurate.
Chapter 3: An accident in Rodney's lab.
John sat on an exam bed in the infirmary waiting for Carson to come and take the cast off of his left wrist. He was relieved that it was coming off at last, because at least he'd have one good arm that he could use.
His right shoulder had still caused him pain after every physical therapy session he'd had, but the session he'd had the day before was no-where near as bad as the first one had been.
Life had slipped into a routine over the last week, sleeping, eating and physical therapy were the three main activities that he undertook daily. The day after Dave and Jane had arrived, he'd taken them on a tour of the city, but by the time he'd arrived back in his apartment has right leg was screaming at him for walking so far. He didn't dare tell the doctors or Claudia about it, as he knew that they would shout at him for overdoing it.
A voice pervaded his thoughts and it barely registered that someone was talking to him.
"Are you ready to get this cast off Laddie?"
"I Sure am Carson, can you fix my shoulder up, so that I can get back to work as well?" He asked with a hopeful look in his eyes.
"Sorry, son time and physical therapy, are the only things that are going to fix that."
He sighed, something that he seemed to be doing a lot of these days, "I know, can we get this cast off now, so that I can get back to doing nothing." He said with sarcasm.
Carson nodded and produced a small medical saw and proceeded to saw through the cast. "Don't cut my arm off Doc, as I might need it." John quipped.
"Cheeky bugger," Carson muttered as he continued his work.
It didn't take long until Carson was finished, "how does that feel son?"
"It still aches a bit and feels a bit stiff, but I can move it without any problems."
"Alright I'll put an ace bandage on it and you can be on your way."
"Thanks, Doc, but what am I supposed to do? Life's pretty boring right now."
"Believe it or not you're supposed to rest. If you don't want to sleep go for a short walk, or watch T.V., or maybe you can go and find someone to play cards with."
He sighed as Carson walked off, he was pretty sick of resting, he really needed to do something. Perhaps he would go and visit Rodney and annoy him for a while.
Carson returned a minute later and put an ace bandage on his wrist. When Carson had finished giving him instructions on what he could and couldn't do he left the room and headed for his apartment. He would see Teyla first and see if she wanted to hang out.
He entered his apartment and found that Teyla was in the kitchen finishing the dishes, he went up to her and put his good arm around her.
"Where's Torren?"
"Dave has offered to look after him this morning, as he doesn't have a lot of work to do." Teyla explained.
She turned and kissed him on the lips, "I have to go to work this morning, but I should be back by lunch."
John responded by kissing her back, "work can wait this is much more fun."
"Sorry Honey, but I have a meeting with some of the members of the coalition of planets this morning and that can't wait."
He pulled away and pouted, "well, have fun then. I'll be sitting here all by myself feeling very lonely."
She just rolled her eyes, "I'm sure you can find something to keep yourself occupied John, why don't you go and visit Dr McKay in his lab?"
"I might do that later, but for now I think I'll go back to sleep. For some reason I feel incredibly tired," he grinned, knowing why. They had made love for the first time the night before, as it was the first time since they'd gotten together that he actually felt well enough to be intimate with Teyla.
"Well, perhaps you should sleep then, who knows how busy you will be tonight honey." Teyla teased and then pushed him into his lazy boy chair.
"Do not distract me any longer as I must get to work," Teyla told him, a serious look crossing his face.
He sighed. "Have a great day and I'll see you tonight sweetie," John told her closing his eyes.
She kissed him on the cheek and headed out of the room.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Rodney entered his lab determined to test some of the ancient devices that had been sitting in his lab for weeks before he had gone to earth. I'll do it even without that messy-haired flyboy he thought.
He picked up the first object and scanned it into his computer, trying to figure out what it did. He looked at his computer and figured he had no idea what the object did. He was moving on to the next one when his com activated.
He tapped his earpiece. "McKay here."
"Hey, McKay its Sheppard here, watcha doing?"
"I'm actually doing some work, unlike some people."
"Do you want to watch a movie, or we can play a video game, or how about a game of chess?"
"No, I really need to do some work." He told him forcefully.
"I'm bored, are you sure you can't spare some time for your best friend?" John begged.
Rodney sighed trying not to get angry with his friend, "If you're that bored why don't you come to my lab and help me?"
There was silence on the other end, before John finally answered, "Okay fine, I'll be there in five minutes, Sheppard out."
"See you soon, McKay out."
Rodney went back to scanning the devices in his lab and ten minutes later John arrived.
"Okay, McKay how about we work for an hour and then we'll take a break for an early lunch."
"How about we work until we finish?" Rodney suggested not looking up from what he was doing.
John sighed, he wished he'd just stayed at home and watched a DVD. He knew that this wasn't going to be much fun, "alright, McKay what do you want me to do?"
"Here hold this and think on so I can see what it does?" He told him while thrusting a device into his hand.
The device started to hum and emit a pale blue light and then it stopped. Rodney looked at John and told him to try harder.
John closed his eyes and focused and thought on, slowly the device began to hum to life, he kept his eyes closed and the device seemed to grow stronger. Rodney sat at his computer and started to record his observations about the device until it deactivated again.
"Okay let's try another one," Rodney suggested shoving another device in John's hand.
John closed his eyes again and thought on and the device came to life, he sat there with his eyes closed for about ten minutes keeping the device on before his concentration slipped and the device turned itself off.
About an hour later, John had had enough. They had tested most of the devices on Rodney's desk, but John really didn't think he could put up with it any longer, so he announced, "I'm going to lunch."
"No, No, No, just one more, please?" Rodney begged.
John looked at him and sighed, "Okay McKay one more and then I'm going to lunch."
Rodney placed a device in John's hand and he thought on. The device started to hum; nothing unusual John thought, but then it started to heat up.
"McKay this is getting a little hot."
"Just a little bit longer," McKay told him, his eyes not leaving the computer screen.
All of a sudden a bright shower of sparks flew from the device and there was a loud explosion and John was thrown sideways into Rodney's desk. The device dropped from his hand and fell to the floor totally lifeless.
"Aw crap," Sheppard muttered, as he hit his head on the corner of Rodney's desk. He was unconscious before he hit the floor. Which probably wasn't a good thing, because he landed on his injured shoulder.
Rodney quickly recovered from the explosion and went over to look at his friend, he wasn't happy by what he saw. Sheppard was lying on the floor with a large gash to the side of his head, looking down at John's hand he realised that it had been badly burned. The worst thing though was that Sheppard seemed to have shrunk, instead of a six-foot soldier, lying in his place was a small child of about nine or ten. His uniform was huge on him and he could barely see his friend. The only thing that gave away the fact that John was in there was the mop of unruly black hair on top of his head.
"This is not good," Rodney muttered to himself before tapping his radio, "McKay to the infirmary, I need a medical team in my lab STAT."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Jennifer entered the infirmary to begin her shift. Looking around she realised that they didn't have a single patient. She sighed with relief; it was nice for things to be quiet. She entered the office she shared with Carson and found him asleep in his cot in the corner.
"Good morning Carson," she said loudly, hoping to wake him up.
He stirred and awoke slowly, "good morning Jennifer, as you can see I had a busy night," he said sarcastically. "Other than removing the cast from Colonel Sheppard's arm, all I've done is sleep."
"Yes, well hopefully I'll have a quiet afternoon, the Colonel should be home resting, so he shouldn't be able to get into much trouble today."
"Well, I think I'll go and get some lunch. Maybe I'll stop by and see if Claudia's ready to eat, I'll see you a bit later then." Carson told her and headed out of the door.
Jennifer sat down at her desk and opened her computer thinking that now would be a good time to do some paperwork. Five minutes later her com activated.
"Mr Woolsey what can I do for you?"
"I'm just wondering if you can send me a report on the Colonel's current medical condition?"
"It's pretty quiet in here at the moment, so I'll get right on it."
"Okay let me know when you've sent it, Woolsey out."
"Will do, Keller out."
She sat down at her computer ready to do some paperwork and the first thing she did was sent the file that Woolsey had requested through.
Twenty minutes later her com activated. "McKay to the infirmary, I need a medical team in my lab STAT."
"What's the medical emergency, Rodney?"
"An ancient device exploded in my lab and Sheppard is unconscious. There is a large gash on the side of his head and his left hand is badly burned and umm… he appears to have shrunk, he looks more like a ten-year-old child than a grown-up."
Jennifer couldn't really believe what she'd just heard, so she chose to ignore the fact that an ancient device had turned John into a ten-year-old boy. "Make sure you put pressure on that head wound and I'll be there in a few minutes, Keller out."
"Make it quick, McKay out."
Great, she thought Sheppard had been injured again and what was worse was the device seemed to have altered John's appearance. They really needed to ban Rodney and John from playing together, because when they did one of them always ended up in the infirmary.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
John slowly awoke to a pounding in his head, it felt like a jackhammer vibrating in his skull, his left hand felt like it was on fire and his right shoulder felt like someone was driving a knife through it. He lay there not moving, trying to figure out what had happened this time. All of a sudden he felt nauseous. He rolled over and curled up on his side, trying to settle his stomach, but it was too late, he expelled his stomach contents all over the floor, he lay there dry heaving for what seemed like forever before the darkness took him again.
"Thanks, Sheppard," Rodney muttered when he realised that Sheppard had vomited all over the floor of his lab. He wondered if Sheppard had realised that he was the size of a ten-year-old. There were a million questions that he could be asking right now, but right now his major concern was stopping the bleeding on Sheppard's head.
He sat there holding a towel on Sheppard's head waiting for the medical team to arrive.
Five minutes later Jennifer arrived with a couple of nurses and a gurney.
Jennifer knelt beside her patient; trying to avoid the mess on the floor. She looked at Rodney, "Has he gained consciousness?"
"He did for a while when he did his rendition of 'The Exorcist'."
"How long ago was that?" She asked shining a penlight into John's eyes.
"About five minutes ago."
"His pupils are sluggish; my guess is he has a concussion." She told one of her nurses. "Let's get him on a gurney and attach an IV."
Rodney was a little worried that no-one had even commented on the fact that Sheppard looked like a child. Before they had a chance to lift him onto a gurney, Rodney felt the need to say something, "really, no-one's going to comment on the fact that he looks like a kid?"
Jennifer glared at him and it certainly made him feel uncomfortable, he hated it when she was upset with him.
"Rodney, my major concern right now is that he is injured, the fact that he's been turned into a child is your department, so I suggest you try and work out how to fix that!" She put an IV in his arm and then turned to the nurse assisting her, "Okay let's get him down to the infirmary." Jennifer suggested, tapping her earpiece as she left Rodney's lab.
"Keller to Beckett, come in please?"
"Aye lassie, what can I do for you?"
"I'm bringing Colonel Sheppard in with a possible head trauma and second degree burns to his hand and he landed on his right shoulder, so can you set up the scanner please."
"Aye I'll get right on it, Beckett out."
"I'll see you there, Keller out."
Rodney was hovering behind the gurney all the way to the infirmary. "Will he be okay," he asked looking a little freaked out.
"I don't know Rodney. What were you thinking, getting him to play with your ancient devices, he's only been back on Atlantis for a week and he's still recovering from a gunshot wound to the shoulder and now you've gone and turned him into a child as well!?" She asked him, her anger rising.
He was shocked by the anger in her voice, "I'm sorry Jen I didn't know it was going to explode in his face."
"Save it, Rodney, I don't have time to discuss this now. We can talk about it later!" She replied the anger evident in her voice.
He stopped following her at that point and turned to go and look for Ronan and Teyla, he knew it was time to leave her to her job and he felt that Ronan and Teyla need to know what was going on.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Jennifer arrived in the infirmary to find Carson setting the scanner up, "what the hell happened?" He asked as they scanned John's body.
"It seems that one of Rodney's devices, exploded in his face," Jennifer told him in disgust.
"Well luckily it looks as if he only had a mild concussion, but why does he look like a child?" Carson asked her.
"Don't ask," she told him before looking at his hand.
They transferred him over into a bed and looked at his hand. "It looks like second-degree burns," Carson observed.
"I agree and luckily, he doesn't seem to have done any damage to his right shoulder," Jennifer said sighing with relief.
Jennifer took her time cleaning his hand and once she was sure that his hand was clean, she bandaged it carefully. She was struggling to come to terms with the fact that the little hand that she had just bandaged was that of their military commander. She really had no idea whether his mind would be the mind of a child, or would he still be the adult John Sheppard when he woke up? At the moment she really didn't have time to contemplate that though, as his medical needs needed to come first.
Carson started to clean and stitch the wound on the side of his head.
"He has a concussion, so we need to wake him every two hours for the next twelve," Jennifer instructed the staff.
"Right I think I'll let his friends know what is going on and then I'll head to my quarters for some rest. I have dinner plans with Claudia tonight; before I'm on duty, so please try not to interrupt." Carson told her.
"Shouldn't we tell Woolsey what's going on?" Jennifer asked, feeling a little worried that the fact that Sheppard had been turned into a child was something that he needed to know.
"Right now, I'm going off duty, so if you would like me to contact Woolsey, just let me know."
"No don't worry about it, I'll do it myself," Jennifer replied.
"I'll catch you later Jennifer."
"Thanks for your help, Carson."
Once Carson had left the room she turned to her patient and made sure that he was comfortable.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Carson left the infirmary and headed for the waiting area where he knew that John's family and friends would be waiting. He wondered whether he should cancel his plans with Claudia, given what had just happened to John. If it was just his injuries, they had to worry about it wouldn't be so bad, but what were they going to do about the fact that he had been turned into a child?
Upon entering the room where he found four eager faces looking up and him. "How is he Carson," Rodney asked looking worried.
"He'll be fine, he has a minor concussion, a cut to his head which we have stitched and cleaned and second degree burns to his left hand, which should heal up in a week or so. His shoulder hasn't been injured any farther, so that's one good thing. The only thing I'm not qualified to comment on is what that ancient device did to him. He hasn't woken up yet, so I have no idea whether he still has an adult mind and emotions, or whether his mental state has regressed as well."
"Oh, thank God," Rodney stated, with relief. "Well at least his physical injuries aren't too bad," Rodney said a little sheepishly.
"Yes well, Jennifer and I have decided to stop you and John playing with one another, because when you do one of you always ends up in the infirmary and more often than not it's Colonel Sheppard." Carson chastised.
Rodney opened his mouth to say something all that came out was a strange sound, "UUUUmmm…."
"May we see him now?" Teyla asked serenely.
"Yes, you may see him for a while, but only one person at a time may stay. For the next twelve hours, we will need to wake him every two hours." Carson explained.
Carson led them out of the waiting room and to the back of the infirmary to John's private room.
When they arrived Teyla entered the room first and was shocked by what she saw. John was still unconscious. He had a large bandage to the side of his head and his left hand was bandaged heavily and placed on a pillow. The most disturbing thing was his size.
Ronan placed his hand gently on John's shoulder, "I'm getting really tired of this Sheppard, and I really miss sparing with you." He mumbled.
Rodney looked at the floor and spoke to his friend, "I'm sorry Sheppard I never meant for this to happen. I'm going back to my lab to try and figure out how to get you back to normal."
Dave looked at John's face and spoke, "get better soon little brother I miss having fun with you," he turned to Rodney before he spoke again, "and Dr McKay I've had to deal with John growing up once, I don't want to have to do it again!" There was anger in his voice by the time he'd finished.
"Yes, well I'm a genius, so if anyone can figure it out I can," Rodney bragged.
Dave glared at him, before turning to Teyla, "I will pick Torren up from Amelia's if you like and he can spend the night with me and Jane?"
"Thank you Dave I will stay here with John for a few hours."
Once Dave and the others had left, she stood and looked at the child lying in the bed, he was the splitting image of John, but he was smaller, with fewer worry lines in his face and his hair was dark brown. It was still sticking up all over the place as usual, and there was an innocence in his face that was quite disconcerting.
She had no idea what was going to happen in the future, but for now, this child was John Sheppard and he needed her.
She sat next to his bed and settled in for the night.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Woolsey looked at his watch and realised that it was nearly dinner time, he was of two minds what he wanted to do about it, should he head to his quarters, or should he get some food and bring it back to his office? He was about to decide when his com activated.
Tapping his earpiece, he was surprised to find Doctor Keller on the other end.
"Keller to Woolsey, come in please?"
"Doctor Keller I was just going to head off to dinner, what can I do for you?"
I'm sorry to disturb you at this late hour, but there was an incident in Dr McKay's lab."
"What happened?"
"Dr McKay and Colonel Sheppard were testing ancient devices when one of them exploded in Colonel Sheppard's face."
"How is he?"
"He has a minor concussion and second degree burns to his left hand, his right shoulder wasn't injured further in the accident, but whatever the device was, that he was testing seems to have turned him into a ten-year-old boy. He hasn't regained consciousness as yet, so we don't know whether it was just a physical reversion or a mental one as well. Rodney has gone back to his lab to see if he can fix the device."
"Keep me informed of his progress and let me know when he wakes up because I will need to talk to him?"
"I will, Keller out."
Woolsey sighed, Colonel Sheppard was in the infirmary again and this time he wasn't just injured an ancient device had done something strange to him. He swore that he was going to wrap the man in cotton wool and never let him out of the infirmary again
TBC…