Chapter 40: Repairs begin

Keller was slightly worried about how pale John was, the wounds he had sustained were deep. There was no visible catastrophic bleeding but it was steady and given the accounts she had heard from the others there was a good chance he had been bleeding for quite some time. She checked the pulse in his badly broken leg thankful that it was still strong, meaning they had a better chance of repairing the damage. She wished that Sheppard would wake up so that she could get more information about what had happened.

Sighing as the second medical team entered the jumper she finished stabilising Sheppard and all the equipment now hooked up to him ready for transport. "Get two units of type positive blood ready to go as soon as we get to the infirmary."

Sheppard was going to need yet another blood transfusion, every transfusion he had increased the risks that he would have some sort of reaction to the transfusion. She really needed to have a long conversation with him about avoiding severe blood loss.

The backboard that Sheppard was lying on was lifted by several of the medics and Ronon, the ease at which they did so was not entirely unexpected given how thin Sheppard looked but it was still disconcerting as the group was used to Sheppard's trim frame being much heavier due to muscle mass.

The backboard was transferred to a stretcher and the group started off at a rapid pace; although there was no immediate rush they were all keen to ensure Sheppard suffered for as little time as possible.

Word had spread around the city that the missing earthlings had been found, including their missing military commander. As such, despite the fact that the corridor they were currently travelling down was normally fairly quiet, people were appearing from down connecting corridors and peering out of doors as the group passed, Sheppard was not going to be impressed that so many people had seen him in such a weakened state; despite the number of trips to the infirmary he had made over the past couple of years he still liked to project an air of indestructibility to the residents of the city.

This attitude helped people maintain their faith that no matter what happened their military leader would do all he could to stop people being hurt or killed. Many people, although having heard about Sheppard's previous injuries, had never actually seen the damage done to the colonel's now bare torso as he was very careful to keep covered up a majority of the time.

Keller could hear the muted exclamations and the subsequent discussions as their group passed but she had too much to focus on to worry about the unconscious colonel's image.

They eventually reached what was already a relatively busy infirmary thanks to an offworld mishap involving two teams and a lab accident that had confined a further three scientists to the infirmary. Thankfully all these injuries had been dealt with a few hours earlier meaning that a majority of the infirmary staff, with the exception of those ensuring their patients were comfortable, were free to assist with their newest patient.

Keller was happy to enough that Sheppard was had remained stable enough during their journey that she could safely take him straight to the scanner. She guided the gurney straight through the infirmary and into the back room that contained the Ancient scanner. The team transferred Sheppard onto the bed beneath the scanner and then moved back awaiting their next orders whilst one kept an eye on Sheppard's vitals.

Keller thanked the Ancients for their efficient medical equipment as she immediately established that only one of the stab wounds was any cause for concern. Furthermore, she was able to confirm in seconds that the blood supply in Sheppard's leg was indeed intact meaning there was no risk that they were going to have to amputate the leg.

Taking a good look at the broken leg she said; "Someone please page Doctor Reilly, I'm not an orthopaedic specialist and this leg is definitely going to need one. I'm happy that we don't need to stabilise the colonel further before he goes into surgery so I want you to go ahead and set up an operating suite for three teams; one will work on his leg another to clean out a majority of these stab wounds. It looks like his liver has been nicked so my team are going to go in and repair that."

The team went to work immediately; Sheppard was transferred back onto the gurney and while a nurse slipped a second line into the opposite arm to the one which already had the saline and antibiotics, hanging a bag of blood, another nurse began to cut away the sodden scrub bottoms that Sheppard still wore.

Doctor Reilly appeared at this point the hair on one side of his head was sticking up and he was adjusting his scrubs where he had just pulled them on. It was obvious he had just rolled out of bed but his sharp eyes focused immediately on Sheppard's badly broken leg. Looking across to Keller he asked "Can I get a look at the scans?"

Keller nodded pulling up the images she had just taken before she moved off to change her clothes. Having changed into scrubs she moved back over to see how Doctor Reilly was getting on. Doctor Albright also joined them at this point having just finished up with another patient; he was going to clean up most of the wounds.

"I'm going to have to go in and stabilise the bones in that leg using pins and plates." Reilly admitted "Fortunately his other ankle just needs to be set and we can put a cast on it, which will be the simple part."

They spent the next several minutes discussing their plan of action before they headed through to the surgical suite to scrub in.

A/N: Just a short one to keep you going, im about to go into a very hectic month of exams so im not sure when i will next be able to post but I will do my best to make it as soon as possible as I finally seem to have rediscovered my muse for this story. Again thank you for all the amazing reviews they mean so much!