Disclaimer - I do not own SGA or its Characters. I do own Dr. Orla Grant.
Rated T for violence & threat.
Thank you for the kind reviews.
A/N - Couldn't help but use the advise Ronon had given Carson once on SGA about being sick.
"You have a go, gentlemen, good luck," Woolsey said to the three men beside him in the gate-room.
"What about Carson?" Ronon asked glancing at Sheppard.
"He's not due back until tonight, I'm afraid. Dr Biro's on duty currently," Woolsey quietly remarked.
Ronon looked between Sheppard and Woolsey, "has she ever been outside of Atlantis before?"
"She's been to New Athos to help Dr. Keller administer vaccines but that's about it, she is a doctor though," Sheppard reasoned.
"The incubator! I'll meet you both in the jumper bay," Rodney declared as he rushed to his laboratory.
"Incubator?" Ronon asked looking at Sheppard in confusion.
"It's a piece of medical equipment Rodney designed in case the baby came early and needs a little help," Sheppard explained quickly regretting his words as he saw the flash of fear play across Ronon's face. "Rodney made one because we don't have one on Atlantis. It's just a precaution, Ronon. Orla's probably sitting by a fire in a shelter made by Lorne all safe and sound as we speak."
Ronon nodded, his face relaxed slightly. "Can we go now?"
"Go to the jumper bay, Ronon. I'll go get Dr. Biro," Sheppard ordered as he ran out of the gate-room.
"Well, good luck and I'm sorry, Ronon," Woolsey said feeling uncomfortable at being left with the angry Satedan.
Ronon's anger was being steadily replaced with hard cold fear. It was bad enough Orla was stuck out in a storm and he couldn't get to her, but now at eight months pregnant. If anything happened to either of them. He mentally shook himself. He couldn't allow the fear to grab hold, he needed to do something, to react. He stepped closer to Woolsey, leaned down and whispered, "this is not over," he stepped back and broke into a steady run heading for the jumper bay.
Woolsey swallowed and closed his eyes. This place was going to be the death of him.
Orla scooped her hair back into a ponytail, the light braid didn't stand a chance against the increasing gusts of wind. Smiling at Laura they headed back towards Lorne and Jennifer. "How are we going to get Lorne back to the infirmary? Carry him?" Orla shouted, the wind making it difficult to be heard.
"I don't know yet, you can't exactly pilot the jumper not to mention, it would take too long to get back to it in your condition. We'll have to wait for Atlantis to send someone. Probably after the storm," Laura shouted back.
"I'm sorry,"
"What?"
"I said, I'm sorry,"
"It's not your fault, Prof. At least you didn't get hurt this time so Ronon will only partially kill us all." Cadman half-joked.
"How far are they from here?"
"A few minutes, maybe ten in your condition. You're okay though, right?"
"I'm fine, worry about Lorne!" Orla yelled.
Sheppard bounded into the infirmary, "Doc?" he yelled.
Dr Biro appeared from behind a screen, "Colonel Sheppard, what's the emergency, how many and who is it?"
Sheppard held up his hand to calm the excitable doctor. "Doc, we need you to come to the mainland. Major Lorne's expedition is late checking in and there's a storm developing, we don't know whether they're late because of the storm or something else but Dr Grant is with them. Normally Carson would come with us but he's off-world. I need you come with us and be ready ASAP!"
"Oh, my, well, I, don't, I don't, do that usually, I."
"Doc, I haven't got time to walk you through how this would normally go down. You know Ronon, right? Big scary, Satedan? He's losing the tiniest piece of patience he's ever owned knowing his heavily pregnant partner is in that storm. You understand me now, Doc?" Sheppard tried cajoling the nervous woman.
"I know Ronon, of course, we all do, patched him up enough and you of course, all that sparring…"
"Doc, you're killing me. Please!" Sheppard pleaded.
"Right, let me get my bag. We always have an emergency med kit bag for off-world emergencies and I guess this does qualify…"
"Doc!"
"Right." Dr Alice Biro turned and fled to the rear of the infirmary.
Jennifer squeezed past the stakes their deadly points almost chest height to her. Cautiously, she made her way to the side where Lorne was, he was still unconscious. She managed to get herself wedged between the edge of the trap and the stakes, much like Lorne had. Raising her slender arm, she placed her two fingers to where his carotid pulse should be on his neck and waited. His pulse was weak but still steady. Relief washed over the young doctor.
"Evan, can you hear me? It's Jennifer."
She waited, nothing. She checked his head and neck for further injuries finding none she now had to get to his leg. At least the bags were already there, sort of. Slowly and carefully she manoeuvred her way around the stakes until she reached his leg. She assessed his leg; the thigh was impaled by one stake and the calf another. She swallowed her nerves, she needed to act quickly before gravity took over and Lorne slid further down the stakes. First, she needed to stem the flow of blood, reaching one of the bags she unzipped it and tried to rummage through as best as she could considering she couldn't exactly bend easily. As she used her finger tips to search the bag and pulled at something familiar. It was the blood pressure cuff she'd used on Orla. Best I can do for now, she thought. She used it as a tourniquet on Lorne's calf, it was not the best but she tightened the tubing as hard as she could, relieved she had something. Now for his thigh, she actually had proper tourniquets but it was almost impossible in her position to reach them. She resumed rummaging through the bag, fishing out first haemostatic bandages, she'd need those. She was sure she could at least use them as packing around the wood before securing with a plain bandage. She couldn't find anything large enough for his thigh. The rope would do, that's when she remembered Laura had tucked it away up top. Sighing, she continued to search the bag.
Ronon paced in and out of the jumper, his patience wearing thin. He growled and swore in Satedan before he finally lost patience and activated his radio. "Sheppard?"
"I'm here, Chewie, so is Dr Biro. Be nice!" Sheppard ordered as they appeared alongside the angry Satedan.
"Hi, I'm Alice, you know me as Dr Biro but…" she extended her hand.
"Let's get you inside the jumper and settled, doc," Sheppard interceded grimacing at the look Ronon was giving the young doctor.
Rodney appeared carrying the incubator, seeing Ronon he shoved it into the larger man's arms, "we need to secure this so it doesn't get damaged," the physicist explained as he pulled small clear tubing from the inside of his jacket. "We already carry a small oxygen cylinder, we can attach it to this tubing, it will be small enough for a new-born."
Ronon placed the incubator inside the jumper and secured it with ratchet straps. He turned to face Rodney his own face stoic, he grabbed Rodney causing him to yelp in surprise. Putting his arms around McKay, Ronon said, "thank you."
Rodney patted Ronon on the back, "you're welcome."
"Uh, not to be a party pooper or anything but how is the incubator going to work outside of the infirmary?" Biro quietly questioned.
"I adapted a standard incubator for just this type of event. Where the control unit sits under the tank is a rechargeable battery pack, should last 24 hours. No electricity? Switch on battery pack and that will draw in the air from outside through a filter and over the water tank beside it causing warm air to circulate the tank and for the excess steam to be vented out of the tank. I hadn't quite completed it to allow for a warming lamp but it will do for now. One can be added back in the infirmary," Rodney explained with a triumphant smile upon his face.
"That's actually quite amazing, Dr. McKay," Biro gushed.
"I know," McKay beamed.
"Okay folks, let's get this jumper started, strap in this is going to be a little bumpy," Sheppard warned.
"It will? Don't these jumpers have inertial dampers?" Dr. Biro nervously enquired.
"They do but as we're not about to travel at lightspeed, they're of no concern. Besides, the problem we have is that Sheppard doesn't have control over the jumper's internal navigation systems," Rodney blurted out regretting his tone as he watched all color leave the doctor's face. "It will be okay though, Sheppard's done this sort of thing before you know."
Sheppard activated the jumper, the systems instantly came to life, smiling he tapped at his radio, "flight, this Puddle Jumper 2, do you read me?"
"Puddle… we … you," Chuck's voice hissed through the radio intermittently.
"I'm guessing that's the storm?" Sheppard looked across to Rodney.
"Which means we'll have no communication at all by the time we reach the mainland."
"Well here we go…" Sheppard concentrated, his mind following the usual thought process to raise the jumper. He initiated the shields, "shields holding." He stated. The jumper rose, it rocked slightly side to side as though the jumper couldn't decide how and which direction to move.
"Easy there, Sheppard," McKay said gripping the seat's arm rests.
"You wanna fly this thing McKay? Sheppard squawked.
"Not really," McKay replied.
"Can we just go, please," Ronon asked through clenched teeth.
"We're going, big guy. Hang in there," Sheppard tried to appease Ronon.
"I think I feel a bit sick," Dr Biro announced.
"Don't be," Ronon scowled at the doctor.
"Almost there, Prof, how you doing?" Laura shouted as the wind began to increase in speed and strength. She had to fight at times to keep herself and the bags she carried upright; her concern was now Orla.
"I'm tired, sore, just need to find somewhere to stop soon, please."
"We're almost there, look," Laura tilted her head to just ahead of them.
Orla nodded and tried not to fall which was becoming increasing difficult in the wind. The pitter patter of rain began to fall and it wouldn't be long before the storm hit in full. Orla shivered, they hadn't worn storm proof clothing and it wouldn't take long for her cardigan to became sodden if the rain continued.
Jennifer managed to put her fingertip onto the rough material of the tourniquet in her bag, she just needed a better feel, the tip of her finger to just drag it nearer her. She stretched with all her might; her fingertip caught the material. She slowed and gently tipped it nearer to her until she had a grasp onto the medical grade tourniquet. She pulled it out of the bag as the first signs of light rain fell, she'd heard the wind. The trap had acted as a barrier against the worst of the wind but it offered no protection from the rain, she would get as wet as anyone else. Jennifer quickly unravelled the tourniquet and inched passed the stake at Lorne's calf towards his thigh. She raised her arms as much as she could and threw the tourniquet over Lorne's thigh. She threaded it through the buckle and pulled until she was happy it had stemmed the flow of blood. Still Lorne didn't stir.
As they reached the trap Laura put down the bags she carried and reached for Orla directing her under the limited canopy of the trees nearby. "Let's get you seated, rest up."
Orla nodded, grateful to Laura for her help as they came to stop beside a tree. Orla held onto Laura's forearms as she began to lower herself to the floor and to lean against the tree. "Can I help?" Orla offered wearily.
"Yeah, don't give birth, okay?" Cadman smiled.
"Okay."
Laura stood and returned to the edge of the trap, the wind and rain had begun to increase. Lying on the ground once more she leaned over the edge. "Jen, how is he?"
Looking up at the sound of Laura's voice Jennifer shouted, "What?"
"How's Lorne?" Cadman yelled.
"Bad. I've stemmed the bleeding but, how the hell do we get him out? The longer we leave him like this the lower his body will move and the deeper the stakes will go." Jennifer yelled, as she looked up at Cadman, she was already beginning to get very wet. Her hair was plastered to her face and she had to squint against the rain to see Laura.
"What's that?" Laura shouted and pointed at the foil packets in Jennifer's hands.
"This?" Jennifer held up the packets watching as Laura nodded. "It's foil blankets, going to try to cover Lorne to try to keep him dry and warm. I have half a dozen of them so you might need a couple for Orla." Jennifer edged herself around the stakes to the edge of the trap nearest Cadman and began to toss some of the foil blankets at the Lieutenant.
Laura caught the flying blankets, just. "Got 'em," she yelled. "Look after Lorne, I'll see if I can make a shelter for Orla," Cadman watched and waited for Jennifer to acknowledge that she understood what she was planning on doing before she moved away.
Sheppard steered the Puddle Jumper towards the jumper bay exit. He imagined the craft moving forward and flying, instead it moved backwards. Sheppard instantly stopped imagining the flight path and bought the jumper to a complete stop. Instead he began to imagine the craft reversing, he smiled as the jumper flew forward out of the jumper bay exit. Once the jumper was flying, he kept imaging the flight in reverse which worked until the alarms systems began to wail.
"Sheppard?" Rodney
"I don't know but can't be good," Sheppard replied as the jumper lost all momentum and began to descend towards the waiting ocean below.
TBC... Please read and review