Authors Note: I know updates on this have been slow but I promise I'm still working on it. A special thanks to; csiaddictfan87, jasminesmommy and AngelBlue68 for their reviews. I hope you enjoy the chapter, let me know what you think.
Chapter 8
Elizabeth had fallen to sleep some time ago despite her attempts to remain awake. Carson had tried to tell Teyla that there was no need for her to sit with a sleeping patient but Teyla knew John had not sent her there just to visit her friend, no matter what his exact words were. He was worried for her safety, as was she, and wanted someone there he could trust beyond a doubt to protect her when he could not. Elizabeth's survival presented a threat to the person responsible for the attempt on her life and it was likely they would attempt to finish what they had started in order to prevent her having the chance to remember.
She informed the doctor that she would not be leaving, he had muttered something under his breath as he walked away but Teyla suspected he was glad to have the extra protection there. There was little for her to do though, the guards on the door would more than likely prevent any threat from entering the infirmary. Carson appeared only briefly to check on Elizabeth and remove some more wires from her. She was left more or less alone with her thoughts, she tried not to think about recent events, she had gone through them in her mind more than enough times already.
Instead she tried to focus on other things, she thought of her people and the upcoming harvest. She would visit them as soon as she was able, she spent too much time away from them, each year it seemed she saw them less often. The guilt that always accompanied such thoughts emerged, she had to remind herself, not for the first time and likely not the last, that she was doing this for her people. She could do more to ensure their future by remaining here, by working with Atlantis, than she could ever do by remaining with the Athosians.
She wondered how she would fare if she returned to live among her people. She had briefly experienced it when the expedition had been forced to return to Earth by the very Ancients they had rescued. Ronon had struggled, it wasn't the life for him and she wasn't entirely sure that she would be as at ease with that life in the long run as she had once been. She had grown very used to life on Atlantis, to its comforts and conveniences, and to the… adventure that she was able to be a part of. She would adapt if she had to but she would miss this life, more than she would probably admit to anyone but herself.
The doors to the infirmary opened and Teyla stood quickly prepared to face a threat. It was a guard who entered, with one of the scientists who appeared to have a bad burn on their hand. Carson came quickly from his office and gestured his new patient to the furthest bed from Elizabeth. The guard took up a position close by, his hands on his weapon, ready in case anyone should try anything. Teyla sat down, but she did not let her guard down again until the patient had been treated and was on his way again. The guard returned to his post outside the room and Teyla finally relaxed.
When the doors opened again it was John. His eyes surveyed the room quickly, in a manner she had seen many of the earth soldiers do and something she had learned to do more efficiently herself during her time in Atlantis. They settled on Elizabeth as he approached the bed and Teyla gave him a nod when his gaze finally came to her.
"Anything I should know?" he asked her. He looked tired, she noted, the last couple of weeks had taken its toll on all of them, the last couple of days even more so.
Teyla shook her head slightly, "No, she has been sleeping for some time. Is everything alright with Agent Gavorn?"
"Yeah, I think he was banking on Elizabeth remembering something but he's continuing his investigation. He's going to be speaking with Dr Harper soon," John told her as his attention returned to Elizabeth once more.
"Only Dr Harper?" Teyla questioned, she knew that Harper was one of a number of people under suspicion.
"No," John replied but offered no further explanation. Teyla didn't need one, she knew who else was under suspicion. She'd already been asked about Dr Shaw, she was sure she'd be asked about the others as well, including Dr Harper.
xXx
Teyla had heard the commotion as she'd passed by the infirmary. It was late, the corridors of the city were all but deserted, which was why Teyla liked to walk them when she found sleep difficult to achieve. She heard shouting, a crashing sound, more shouting. She hurried into the infirmary in time to see someone running out the other door and Dr Harper on the floor, clutching her arm.
She knelt beside the young doctor who looked pale and wide eyed. "Are you alright Dr Harper?"
"What?" Harper said, turning an unfocused gaze on Teyla as though she had only just realised she was there. "Yes, I'm fine."
Harper pushed herself to her feet, still clutching her arm to her side as Teyla used her radio to contact security and then Elizabeth. Harper seemed to be surveilling the mess around her, the overturned medical tray, instruments scattered around the floor.
Teyla watched her for a moment, there was something slightly strange in her behavior. She couldn't figure out what it was, she supposed John would have called it a hunch. "You need to have your arm treated," she said gently.
"I'm the doctor on shift tonight, the nurse took her break, she'd probably be in the cafeteria," Harper said, her voice sounding far away.
"I should take a look at it then," Carson said as he stepped through the doors along with two officers. She briefly explained to them what she'd seen and they left in the direction of the person who had fled. Carson was just ushering Harper to a bed when John arrived, his eyes took in the state of the Infirmary and Harper before coming to Teyla.
"Elizabeth radioed, asked me to come down, what happened?" he asked, Elizabeth herself walking in a moment later.
"I'm not sure, I heard shouting and crashing as I was passing by, when I got here there was someone running through that door. I sent the two officers that responded to see if they could see anyone but they were moving quickly, it is unlikely they will find anything," Teyla explained, then nodded her head towards Harper. "Dr Harper was on the floor, her arm was injured."
"How is she?" Elizabeth asked, moving over to Carson.
"Minor injuries," Carson told them.
"Why don't you tell us what happened?" Elizabeth turned to Harper.
"I.. I don't know, I had Dr Bair in here, he was the only patient we had tonight. He suddenly lost it, got out of the bed, started shouting…" she glanced at Teyla for a second before continuing. "He shouted 'where is it?' over and over, he grabbed my harm, hard, I told him I didn't know what he was talking about. He got angry, knocked over the tray and then ran out the door."
"Did he say anything else, maybe before his outburst?" John questioned, he had a look on his face Teyla only recognised because she'd worked with him for so long, carefully concealed wasn't sure what had put it there so quickly but she could tell Elizabeth had seen it as well from the way she suddenly straightened, as though it was an automatic response.
"No," Harper shook her head, "He was laid there one minute and the next he was getting up and shouting, I don't know what happened.
John stepped away, clicking the radio at his ear to communicate with security, at least they knew who they were looking for. Elizabeth excused herself and Teyla followed her to where John was standing. He finished relaying orders before turning to Elizabeth.
"Want to tell me what made you suspicious?" Elizabeth asked with a raised eyebrow. John frowned at her for a moment as though not realising he'd been that obvious.
"She looked at Teyla, before she told us what he'd been shouting," John sad
"As though she realised Teyla might have overheard him shouting so she had to tell the truth, at least part of it," Elizabeth nodded her head in agreement. "Why would she lie?"
"Good question," John said before he was distracted by his radio. "They found Dr Blair, apparently he's in one of the medical labs, and he's out of his mind."
They made it to the lab in record time, there were four guards outside the room, one of them nursing a head wound. Another informing them that Blair had lifted a heavy metal box and thrown it across the lab at them. The box had missed thankfully but the contents had come flying out and one of them had hit the other guard in the head.
"So talking him down was out of the question, I tried to taser him but that just made him angry," the guard explained. "I've sent for a wraith stunner, maybe that'll slow him down. I swear, it's like he's on some crazy powerful drugs."
"Where is it?" The shout came from inside the lab.
"What are you looking for Dr Blair?" John questioned, poking his head around the corner of the doorframe. He gestured for Teyla to take up a position on the other side of the door. The guard gave her his side arm and she moved into position.
"It has to be here, there has to be some here," Blair shouted, then through a rack of test tubes at the wall with enough force to break the rack into small pieces as well as to shatter the glass tubes. "Where is it?"
"Where is what Dr Blair?" John asked him again. Blair looked up suddenly, his eyes locking on John and Teyla.
"You!" he shouted, "You'll know where it is!"
"You need to tell me what it is first," John replied and was met with a moment of silence. "I can't help you if I don't know what you're looking for."
"I need it," Blair continued, "I need it, where is it, I know we have more here, where's the enzyme?"
John cursed under his breath, Teyla bit back a curse of her own. She knew what the Wraith enzyme could do, had experienced it first hand, this guy wasn't going to go down easy.
"I assume you mean the Wraith enzyme," John said, "We don't keep it here, we only have a few samples and they're kept in a secure place."
"Then bring them to me now!" Blair shouted.
"You know I can't do that," John said firmly. There was another moment of silence, Teyla hoped it was a moment of clarity but she was wrong. Blair suddenly charged at them, they stepped aside, Blair flying passed them both in his rage. A bolt of light came from further along the corridor, someone arriving with the Wraith stunner. It hit Blair but did little to slow him down, he turned and charged again, this time toward Elizabeth. John and Teyla both fired their weapons at the same time, both hitting Blair in the back. The bullets were more effective than the stunner had been and still Blair clung to life on the ground.
Carson moved in, Teyla hadn't even seen him arrive. She kept her weapon trained on Blair, even on the ground with bullets in him he was silently seething, the rage not abated by his wounds.
"I think Dr Harper has some more explaining to do," Elizabeth stated as she moved toward John.
xXx
The incident with Blair had been over a month ago but the fallout was still being dealt with. Blair had eventually succumbed to his injuries and there had been no possibility of questioning him about what had happened. They'd only had Harper's version of events which they'd suspected to be untrue but had been unable to prove.
"Atlantis to Teyla," John's voice cut through her thoughts.
"I am sorry," she said, giving her head a little shake. "I was… lost in my thoughts."
"Happens to the best of us," John said, a half amused smile on his lips, the first she'd seen since Elizabeth had been shot. He still looked tense, as he had for the last few days but some of it seemed to have eased now that Elizabeth was recovering. "What were you thinking about so intently?"
"Dr Harper," Teyla said, "I was thinking of the incident with Dr Blair."
"Hard not to think of the incident with Dr Blair where Harper is concerned," John replied with a note of sarcasm. "She wanted to make a name for herself and that's what she did, just not in the way she'd hoped."
xXx
"Alright," Dr Harper said, holding her hands up. "I admit I lied, I knew you wouldn't understand."
Teyla, John and Elizabeth had returned to the infirmary to question Harper about how Dr Blair could have gotten Wraith enzyme into his system. She hadn't looked altogether surprised, she had to have known they'd figure out what had happened to Blair, lying had only bought her time to come up with an explanation.
"How did this happen?" Elizabeth asked, her voice somehow filled with both patience and demand.
"I've been working on the wraith enzyme," Harper admitted. "I've been doing it in my own time, trying to decrease the psychological effects and the addictiveness."
"As far as I know you weren't given clearance to work on the enzyme," Elizabeth said.
"You all shot me down so fast about the Hoffan drug research I wanted to do, you wouldn't even give me a chance. I had some ideas about the enzyme, I knew you'd just shoot me down again if I asked so I figured it was better to beg forgiveness than ask permission."
"These things require security clearance for a reason," Elizabeth replied.
"You weren't going to give me a chance, so I took one," Harper defended, "I worked on it in my own time, I was making good progress."
"How did Dr Blair get it?" Teyla asked.
"He's been getting headaches, he's been a few times now, late in the evenings. I usually give him painkillers and tell him to get some sleep. He had a bad one tonight, said his vision was all blurry. I was concerned so I kept him in for observation while I ran a couple of tests. He knew about my research, he's a good scientist, I've talked to him about it a few times, he was really interested. I was working on it tonight, there were no patients when I came on shift so I figured I'd use the time to get some extra research done. I swear I turned my back for a minute, Blair got the vial of enzyme and injected into his arm."
"Why would he do that?" John asked incredulously.
Harper sighed sadly, "He was injured off world a few months ago, it wasn't serious but it scared him. I thought that might have been the reason for his headaches, it caused him a lot of anxiety. He talked about being scared of going off world, about how much better things would be if we didn't have to be scared of the Wraith. I shouldn't have talked to him about my enzyme research, I know that now but I never expected he would do something like this."
"You shouldn't have been doing the research in the first place," Elizabeth said.
"So what you're saying," John began, his voice still incredulous, "is that Dr Blair was suffering from anxiety, decided to take a dangerous drug to try and make himself invulnerable and just happened to be in the infirmary with you tonight when the drug was left unattended?"
"It's crazy," Harper shook her head, "Maybe that's why he kept coming in when I was on duty, maybe that's why he took such an interest in my research, he wanted something that would help him be less afraid."
Teyla saw John and Elizabeth share a look, one of the many they often shared where they seemed to have an entire conversation without either of them speaking. She could tell they didn't believe Harper, Teyla couldn't blame them.
xXx
"Do you think Agent Gavorn will be able to find out what really happened to Dr Blair?" Teyla asked, remembering the frustration of knowing that she was lying and not being able to do anything about it.
"If he suspects that she was lying about what happened he'll have the same problem we did, no evidence. There was no physical evidence and whatever happened was off camera so we have no security footage, just her word and our suspicion," John told her as Carson walked into the room with a raised eyebrow.
"I thought I said my patient needed to rest," Carson said as he approached.
John gestured to the bed with his sleeping patient in it, "She's resting."
"Just keep your voices down."
TBC
