Chapter 5

~,~,~,~

Arriving at the office he shared with Sheppard a bit early, Lorne was relieved to not find any more unexpected presents on his CO's desk. Shaking himself, he sat and began to access the personnel files, digging into Ruth Hanson. The events of the prior day had ramped up his suspicions but he hadn't had the time to do his sleuthing. During a long sleepless night, he'd decided to make time today. Her psych evals were all spot on but that didn't stop him. He kept digging, using some hacking skills he'd learned from Dr. McKay, not that he'd ever admit that to the egotistical physicist. Three hours later, he hit pay dirt. A sealed entry in her college file that had to do with a botany professor. The man claimed that she'd fixated on him and built a fantasy life where the two of them were a couple. The man in question was married and claimed that she'd targeted his wife, who had suffered a series of weird accidents that had no explanation, accidents he was sure were attributable to Ruth Hanson. Unfortunately, it was a he said, she said, situation and the man had eventually withdrawn his accusations, finding no one who would support him and no evidence to prove what he was saying as she protested her innocence and threw some aspersions on his character. The whole incident was sealed due to her age at the time and the fact that there was no proof. If someone hadn't been looking specifically for this type of incident, it would have gone unnoticed during the background checks the SGC did. Something he'd be bringing up during their next contact with Earth. Lorne shivered as he felt something that must be akin to what Sheppard had always described as his spidey sense, kicking in. He'd never really believed in it but now he found himself changing his mind.

He copied the file and sent it off to the rest of team Sheppard, feeling somewhat relieved as he put his worries into words about his sense that something was definitely off with the good doctor. A sense that wouldn't let him retract the email. He was surprised when McKay responded almost immediately, not with a caustic email about paranoia and delusions but asking for more details. He wasn't surprised that he didn't hear from Teyla or Ronon as he wasn't sure either of them even remembered they had an email account, let alone how to access it. He emailed McKay back, asking him to just come see him. He sat back and waited, not disappointed when the scientist stormed into the office asking for more information at a mile a minute.

"Look, doc, slow down."

McKay stopped his ranting and looked at Lorne closely, finally noticing the worry on the other man's face and found an answering feeling within him, a feeling he'd had since Sheppard had told his story, but he'd put down to the tragedy of it. Now he wanted to know what Lorne felt. "So, what exactly are you worried about Major?"

"It's hard to explain. Sheppard and I were leaving the mess hall yesterday afternoon after eating lunch with you guys. We were the last two to leave. John was looking back at me when he bumped into Dr. Hanson, the botanist. It wasn't a hard hit but she almost went down. When he apologized, she said it was fine but then took a step and almost fell again. You know the Colonel, if he felt it was his fault someone got hurt, he'd do anything in his power to help them so, after a bit of back and forth, he ended up taking her to the infirmary on his own."

"So?"

"Doc, I offered to take her in John's place and I saw a look of utter rage cross her face, although I'm pretty sure she didn't realize I was watching her. Nor was she happy about the idea that I go with them. I'm telling you, there's something wrong with that woman."

"Fine. If John took her to the infirmary, she would have been examined. Let's go check it out." McKay turned and stormed out, not bothering to make sure Lorne was behind him. Evan sighed and hurried to follow, pausing only to lock his laptop and then the office door behind him. Not that that seemed to deter his CO's stalker.

Entering the infirmary side by side, both headed to the office Carson used, the same one from before he'd died and come back, well his clone had come back. Jennifer preferred to sit in the lab so didn't insist on the office as would have been her prerogative as CMO. Lorne went to knock but Rodney just sailed right in. "Carson, we need to ask you some questions."

"Good afternoon to ye too, Rodney. And, no, I wasn't in the middle o'anything."

"Yes, yes, good afternoon and all that. Look, did Dr. Ruth Hanson come in here yesterday?"

Carson frowned, remembering his suspicions that the woman had faked her injury to get the Colonel's attention. However, doctor/patient confidentiality was very real to him. Still, he was starting to get a bad feeling. "Aye, she did."

"Well? How bad was she hurt?"

"Rodney, ye know I canna discuss a patient's condition with ye!"

Rodney's mouth opened to, no doubt, scathingly retort, when Lorne stepped in. "Look, doc, we're not here to find out all the details or break any confidentiality between you and Dr. Hanson. We just want to know if, in your professional opinion, whether or not she was hurt at all."

Carson looked from one to the other, the bad feeling continuing to grow. "Och now, why would ye be asking such a thing?" He asked warily.

Lorne took his tone as the answer. "I knew it! She wasn't hurt, was she? I bet she didn't even stay for an exam."

"Look, laddie, the wee lass just wanted some of the Colonel's attention. It was but a bit of harmless playacting."

"Yeah, well, you didn't see her face when I offered to take said Colonel's place to bring her down here. That was not the face of someone who was indulging in anything harmless." Lorne retorted. "And I did some digging and found that she was accused by one of her college professors of trying to get his wife out of the way so they could pursue a relationship he had no idea they were even in!"

"Oh dear, that does sound worrying." Carson stood up and began to pace a bit. "Still, the lass hasn't done anything except lie about being hurt." He didn't sound all that convinced.

"Yet." Lorne said darkly.

McKay finally put a word in. "Look, why don't we just tell John about what you found and that Carson doesn't think she was ever hurt? Then let him decide what to do. At least he can keep his eyes open and try to avoid her."

"I agree with Rodney, Major. I think the Colonel needs tae be informed as soon as possible." Now Carson couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. "Do either of ye know where he might be right now?"

Lorne frowned as he realized he had no idea. Sheppard might be nonchalant about the chain of command, but he always made sure that his XO knew where he was when he was on duty. He glanced at his watch, realized it was after noon and he hadn't heard a word from Sheppard that day. His concern ratcheted up several notches. "No, I have no idea and he hasn't checked in with me today. McKay, have you talked to him?"

"Not today. Last I saw of him was in my lab late yesterday afternoon, all starry eyed about having dinner with Teyla later." He was really starting to worry now and reached up to tap the radio in his ear. "McKay to Colonel Sheppard." He waited and frowned when he only got static. Reaching up again he said. "McKay to Zelenka. Radek, can you hear me?"

"I hear you Rodney. What's the matter?" Zelenka knew that tone of voice. Something was wrong.

"Have you seen Colonel Sheppard today?"

"No but was not expecting to. Why?"

"I'm not sure. Meet us in the infirmary." He turned and looked at his two friends. "He's not answering me and I just proved that my radio is working."

"Maybe he's just busy?" Carson asked, knowing that wasn't the answer but wanting it to be. The Colonel had a bad habit of getting into sticky situations.

Lorne answered. "That's not like him, doc. He'd at least answer McKay, if only to tell him to leave him alone."

McKay reached up to touch the radio once again. "McKay to Ronon and Teyla, please respond."

Ronon's voice came back almost immediately. "What do you want McKay? I'm kind of in the middle of wiping the floor with some of Sheppard's marines." Rodney could almost see the grin on the big man's face.

"Look, have you seen John today?"

The tone of voice changed. "No, I haven't. What's wrong?"

"We're just not sure, it might be nothing. Could you meet us in Carson's office? Oh, and find Teyla. She didn't respond to my hail and now I'm worried about her too."

"What's going on?"

"Did I not just say that I don't know?" Rodney responded then he thought about it. "If you happen to see Dr. Ruth Hanson around, make sure she doesn't get close to Teyla."

"Why?"

"We're not sure, but we think she's gotten fixated on John and might try to get Teyla out of the way." He swallowed hard and left out that they weren't able to reach Sheppard. They'd go into that in person when both of them got here.

"Like that stalker guy Sheppard was telling us about yesterday?"

Rodney remembered the look on Sheppard's face, the regret, the grief and the anger and found himself praying to a god he didn't believe in that his team would not be experiencing the same feelings before this was over. "Yeah, just like that."

There was silence and then Ronon finally answered. His tone promised a world of pain to anyone who had hurt Sheppard. "You think she's the one leaving him presents." He stated it as fact. "I'll go by Teyla's quarters and we'll meet you in a few minutes."

"Good, good." He tapped his radio off and looked at the two worried men standing in front of him and wondered what Sheppard had gotten into this time.

~,~,~,~

Ronon reached Teyla's quarters and activated the chime. When she didn't answer, he tapped the radio the Lanteans had given him. "Teyla, this is Ronon. Are you in there?" Getting no response, he frowned and opened the box housing the device that controlled the door. He'd watched McKay do this often enough and he pulled out the center crystal, using it to bridge the other two. The door slid open and he was surprised at how dark it was, the drapes drawn over the windows. "Teyla? You in here?" He called out, hoping she was just in the shower. Still getting no response, he pulled out his gun and slowly advanced further into the darkened room. He almost fell over her body, sprawled out on the floor. He dropped to his knees and put two fingers on her pulse, breathing a sigh of relief when he found one. It was racing but she lived.

Reaching up, he tapped the radio once more. "Medical emergency in Teyla's quarters! You need to get here now!"

Carson responded immediately. "What's the emergency?"

"She's unconscious. She's breathing but her pulse is rapid and thready. I can't get any kind of response from her."

"We're on our way." Carson turned and looked at his friends. "You two stay here, you'll just be in the way and we'll be back here shortly anyway." With that, he hurried out of the office, leaving Lorne and McKay staring after him with concern. They'd both heard Ronon's words and worried that they were already too late. Grabbing two of his nurses, a gurney and his always packed medical bag, Carson raced to Teyla's quarters, everything he'd been talking about with Lorne and McKay going through his head. Already running through a list of poisons and the best remedy for each. The team arrived at her quarters in record time, mostly out of breath, to find Ronon pacing back and forth.

"It's about time!"

"We got here as fast as we could laddie. Now, let's see what we have." Carson entered and knelt down next to his friend, placing his stethoscope into his ears. He listened to her heart, took her pulse and checked her pupil responses. He wasn't happy about the enlarged pupils. Sitting back on his heels, he thought hard while his nurses worked around him, putting Teyla on oxygen support and prepping her to be placed on the gurney and brought back to the infirmary.

Ronon hovered over him. "What's wrong with her, doc?"

"I don't know for sure just yet, but I suspect some kind of poisoning."

"Poisoning? How could that happen?" Carson realized the big man hadn't been read in yet on everything they suspected. He looked up to say something when Ronon continued. "Is this why you had been looking out for this Hanson person? You think she did this to Teyla?" Ronon's eyes were glittering with fury and his hand strayed to his gun.

"We don't know for sure Ronon. Please, I need you to stay here and help with Teyla." He really didn't, the man was actually more of a hindrance, but the last thing they needed was a furious Satedan rampaging through Atlantis. He stood and looked around the room, searching for anything out of place. The only thing he noticed was a hardly eaten sandwich on Teyla's desk, along with an almost full glass of what looked like water. He pulled sample bags from his medical kit, put on some surgical gloves and placed the sandwich inside one, zipping it closed. Placing it back inside the kit, he then pulled out a specimen jar, opening the lid and carefully pouring the remaining liquid in the glass into it. Screwing it closed, he placed it in the bag with the sandwich and the now empty glass. They couldn't rule out airborne pathogens, but no one else seemed to be feeling any ill effects. He toured the room once more and found nothing else. Turning, he found his nurses had moved Teyla to the gurney with Ronon's help and were just about ready to head out. He yanked off the gloves with a little more force than necessary.

"Okay, let's get the lassie to the infirmary." He paused with a sudden thought. "Where's wee Torren, then?"

Ronon answered. "Amelia has him. She's babysitting today while Teyla held her meditation classes."

"Aye? Well, that's good then." He turned back to the task at hand and they all hurried out, Ronon trailing behind, warily watching the people they passed. All appeared concerned with the passage of the unconscious Teyla with the medical personnel hovering over her. He knew she was well liked amongst most of the Lanteans. When they found out that John and Teyla had finally become a couple, he was pretty sure her popularity would go down in some segments of the population, specifically the female part. He didn't notice anyone taking any undue interest though. They reached the infirmary without incident and he went to stand with Lorne, McKay and the now present Zelenka, while Teyla was transferred to a bed and her blood was drawn.

Carson pulled out the evidence bag and the specimen jar, handing both to the nurse to be taken to the lab with the blood. He turned back to his patient, finding his nurses had started a saline drip. Until they could find out what kind of poison she'd ingested, if it actually had been poison, they couldn't use any of the normal poison treatments. What worked for one, could actually make it worse for others. He hoped the lab would come up with something soon. All they could do now was to treat the symptoms and keep her comfortable. He walked over to the silent friends who watched him carefully. "We don't know for sure what poison she ingested, if in fact, any. We're making her comfortable and keeping an eye on things. She's stable right now and hopefully she'll come out of it on her own. If either the sandwich or water was tainted, she didn't ingest much of either, which should work in our favor."

"Main question is, how they got poisoned in the first place." Lorne said. Carson opened his mouth and he held up a hand. "If they were poisoned at all."

McKay was already pacing back and forth, his worry over two of his closest friends displayed through nervous energy. "Come on Carson, we all know Hanson did this."

"Oh, are ye psychic now Rodney?" He was pretty sure his friend was right, but as a professional, he had to work only on the evidence presented and, until they had everything analyzed, he couldn't condone going off half-cocked and accusing people of attempted murder.

McKay looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Yes, as a matter of fact I am. I am now seeing a holding cell in a certain botanist's future."

"Rodney, ye can't accuse someone o' something like this without proof! Even if the lab comes back and proves its poison, ye have no proof it was her!"

McKay's mouth opened again when Lorne broke in. "He's right McKay. We have no proof that Hanson had anything to do with any of this. While we're waiting on the results of the lab tests, what do you say we concentrate on finding the Colonel?"

In all the excitement over Teyla's condition, the others hadn't thought to tell Ronon they were pretty sure their military commanding officer was missing. They realized their mistake when the big man drew himself up even taller and frowned menacingly. "What do you mean finding the Colonel? Are you saying Sheppard is missing?" He looked ready to take Atlantis apart piece by piece to find his friend.

"Well, we don't know for sure. It's just that no one has seen him today and he's not answering his radio." Carson said, taking his life in his hands to pat the man on the arm. "We were just going tae try tae figure out what was going on when ye called about Teyla."

Not one to take things at face value, Ronon reached up and tapped his radio. "Ronon to Sheppard. Answer me!" He got no answer, the same as the others. "What are we waiting for? We have to go find him!" He started out of the room but was stopped when McKay stepped in front of him.

"And where exactly are we going to search, Conan? Do you know how big this city is? How many unexplored rooms and labs there are? We need to do a coordinated search, not run off and search willy nilly."

"Willy who?"

"It means….never mind. Let's just try to do this methodically." He suddenly snapped his fingers as he often did when he got an idea. "Why didn't I think of this sooner? We can track his sub-q transmitter and find him wherever he is on Atlantis." He started to leave. "We need to get to the control room." He stopped and turned back to look at Teyla's unmoving form on the bed, already attached to a heart monitor and pulse ox, most of her face hidden behind an oxygen mask. "Carson, take good care of her. Please?"

"Aye, I will. The lassie is in good hands. We'll do everything we can for her."

"I know you will." His eyes left Teyla's bed and met Carson's eyes. "Thanks Carson." Then he turned and hurried out, the others trailing behind him.

Carson watched them go and breathed out a soft. "Find John, Rodney. This place just wouldn't be the same without him. We've almost lost him too many times already." He walked over to Teyla's bedside and sat on a stool, preparing to hold vigil at his friend's side while another was who knows where.

~,~,~,~