Chapter 41: Treatment

Jack and O'Neil had been thoroughly checked over by the time Teyla, Ronon and David entered the infirmary. They had been cleared initially but still found themselves in fresh scrubs with orders to stay put overnight until all the tests came back clear. Seeing them the small group moved over to join them although David was clearly searching the infirmary for his brother.

O'Neil immediately sought to ease the man's fears and give him the little information he had; one of the nurse had kept him updated as she could. "John is stable and as far as they can tell he doesn't have any life-threatening injuries but he does need surgery to repair a broken leg, that's where he is now." He was aware that John had been in one piece, relatively, the last time David had seen him so he paused unsure of what else he should say to explain the situation.

Before David could say anything however Rodney intervened; "Is Jennifer around still? I need to talk to her about something I've been working on."

"Do you really think this is the best time?" Teyla asked

"Well obviously that is a decision for Jennifer to make but as it relates to Sheppard I do think this would be the ideal time if she isn't busy."

"Fair enough," O'Neil said "ask one of the nurses. They have been in surgery for a while but the nurse will be able to get her if she's free."

Rodney wondered off in search of a nurse leaving a very subdued group behind. O'Neil couldn't think of anything to say and looked to his counterpart in hopes of some inspiration. Jack wasn't in the greatest of moods however; the nurses had been babying him a little, as they probably would have with any teenager but that was the problem; mentally he wasn't a teenager and despite all the stuff he had managed to get used to, being babied wasn't one of them. He looked back round at the group as Ronon said; "Sheppard will be fine Dave, he has a way of bouncing back from these sorts of things."

"Of course he will be fine," Rodney said bustling back over "a broken leg isn't going to keep him down for long. Knowing him he'll probably try to leave the infirmary tomorrow."

O'Neil smiled; it was a character trait that he recognized in many of the soldiers under his command. "Did you manage to find the Doc?"

Rodney scowled very slightly "The nurse wouldn't let me talk to her directly, but she did agree to pass on a message and if Jennifer isn't busy then she said she would let her know to come and talk to me. Apparently they have been in surgery for an hour and a half! How long does it take to set a broken leg and put a cast on it?"

O'Neil thought about it for a second; he wouldn't have been surprised if it took a while. Even though the nurse had said that the stab wounds were superficial they would still need cleaned up, he was about to say as much to Rodney when his train of thought was interrupted.

"It takes a while when it has to be pinned back together" Keller said exasperatedly from behind Rodney. "You saw the state he was in, we had a fair amount of stitching to do too." Before he or anyone else had a chance to ask her anything she continued "He's stable, Doctor Reilly is still in surgery with him, what did you want to talk to me about Rodney?"

"Right, yes, I've been working on that cutting tool we used to get the cuff off of Sheppard's wrist a couple of months ago. I think that I may have managed to adjust it so that whilst you wouldn't be able to remove the implants below the skin you could at least remove the parts that are visible above the skin. I thought you might like to do that while Sheppard was still in the operating theatre where you could close up after the removal of each implant."

"That's… very thoughtful Rodney" Keller told him "Do we need special personnel to operate the machine or could you show us how to use it?"

Rodney looked flustered for a second; he clearly hadn't thought about who was going to operate the machine; "Well… I could show you how to use it, its relatively simple I could probably show you fairly quickly." He admitted.

"Ok well go get it then." Keller told him "Colonel Sheppard's leg is going to take a while to pin so we have time."

Rodney hurried off leaving the small group behind. There was a pause but David very quickly filled the silence "What's wrong with my brother?"

It seemed that in the chaos everyone had forgotten that David didn't know what had happened in the time after he had left the ship and apparently no one had updated him since the rescue. Keller looked around the group wondering if any of them had something to say before she started. They were all looking at her and it was obvious they all wanted more details on his condition. "Well, as most of you are aware the colonel was looking very badly injured when we found him," she hurried along not wanting to give anyone the chance to interrupt her or to get too worried "we have however established that most of his injuries were not actually as serious as we thought. Most of the stab wounds, while deep, hadn't hit anything vital with the exception of one which nicked the liver. All of the wounds have been cleaned and stitched and it was a relatively simple job for me to repair his liver." She didn't mention that she had had to lengthen the original incision from the stab wound to access the liver; it probably wasn't relevant at the moment. "With the exception of a few more scars to add to the collection the colonel shouldn't have any lasting side effects. It's nothing like the damage we saw last time he was injured. I'm also happy to report that it would seem his shoulder has held up fairly well so whilst he's probably going to need a lot more physiotherapy that's all he should need for his shoulder. His legs are different matters entirely, the left has been broken but Doctor Reilly has already set that and put a cast on it, I would expect it to be fine in about six to eight weeks perhaps slightly less depending on how the colonels system reacts to the injuries this time. The other leg is not such a simple story. Both the tibia and fibula were snapped so Doctor Reilly has decided the best way to repair them is to surgically stabilize it. It's going to take quite a bit longer to recover from that and will probably require extensive physiotherapy. I would estimate it will be the best part of two months before he is back on his feet to any degree."

She paused at this point to let both the good and bad news sink in "I will let Doctor Reilly explain the details when he has finished and has had a chance to talk to colonel Sheppard." Deciding they had probably had more than enough bad news for one day she decided to discuss Rodney's plan with them, it could be a little premature but it sounded fairly positive; she remembered the device Rodney was talking about as they had used it to cut something off of Sheppard's wrist a couple of months ago. It was designed to cut artificial objects very effectively while not leaving a mark on any flesh it came into contact with.

"If it works as Rodney suggests it will then we can attempt to at least try to return John's back to some form of normalcy. Just removing the surface portion of the implants would certainly aid in psychological recovery and hopefully make him more comfortable. I'll have a look at the device and assess the options before I move forward."

Keller looked at the device that Rodney was holding in his hand. It looked very much like a knife but instead of a cold steel blade there was a short beam produced by a laser "I modified the original device as it was slightly too unwieldy for smaller work. Like the original device it will cut inorganic material but won't affect organic material at all." Rodney told her

"Are you sure that it works?" Keller asked; she remembered the original device but if Rodney had modified it she was concerned he may also have inadvertently modified the parameters of the operation of the device.

"Yes yes of course!" Rodney exclaimed and before Keller could stop him he moved the laser over his own hand and chopped down. The beam passed harmlessly over his skin not leaving a single mark.

Knowing that there was no way Rodney would do something unless he was sure there was no possibility it would harm him Keller nodded reaching out to take the device from him. "Ok I'll see what I can do, thank you Rodney." Rodney smiled obviously happy that he could help.

Keller handed it to the nurse and started the process of scrubbing in so that she could re-enter the surgical suite whilst maintaining a sterile environment. Once she had finished the process she pushed through the surgery doors to see Dr. Reilly just finishing hammering the metal rod into Sheppard's tibia. This was good as it meant that he just needed to insert the screws that would hold the rod in place and close up the relatively small incisions.

Keller needed to turn Sheppard over for the next procedure. She waited until the screws were placed and then offered to help close up in order to expedite the process. Once they were done Sheppard was turned over and they exposed his back. Keller paused briefly contemplating the fact that if this went wrong she was risking the colonel's ability to walk at the very least. Ultimately she knew that Rodney never would have suggested the device had he thought that it posed any risk to Sheppard.

Keller had been studying the devices in Sheppard's back for some time now and she was relatively sure that removing the surface protruding parts of the devices wouldn't pose any risk to Sheppard. Still, when dealing with anything to do with the spine you could never be too careful. After assessing everything and deciding that moving forward with the procedure was the best course of action Keller decided to start with the device at the base of Sheppard's spine as if anything were to go wrong; while Sheppard's legs would be affected his upper limbs and respiratory system would not.

Taking the cutting tool she ran it across the surface of Sheppard's back and the surface portion of the device slipped sideways off his back and landed on the table. There was silence in the theater as everyone surveyed the monitors to see if there was any change in Sheppard's stats. There was no change and a collective sigh went through the room. Keller began to quickly check the reflexes in Sheppard's feet. One of the nurses moved the remainder of the device away and placed it in a tray. Blood began to well at the site of the device but it wasn't a substantial amount, Keller indicated that she wanted the scanner positioned over Sheppard and stepped back so that she could see the display screen.

She was relieved to see that the internal portion of the device was unaffected and the bleeding was superficial. Moving back over to the table she wiped away the blood and assessed the site; she could see a way of drawing the skin around the site over to close up the wound. She cleared the site and set to work.

Over the course of the next couple of hours they worked systematically; each device was removed and each time Keller would stop and use the scanner to ensure everything was still alright before proceeding. Eventually the site of the last device at the base of Sheppard's skull was closed up and Keller stepped back to survey her work sighing with relief. The dull glow of the device at the base of his spine could still be seen beneath the skin but it was much more unobtrusive than it had been before. It flashed steadily with the beat of Sheppard's heart but as he was still unconscious and as of yet not in pain it was the only one that was glowing. Keller was fairly sure that the bottom one would be easy enough to hide on a daily basis and as such most of the time the only evidence of the other devices would be the relatively small scars where the skin had been closed over them.

Sheppard had never really been one who spent a lot of time with his shirt off prior to the fateful mission that had left him with the implants and even less so since, unless she had insisted during physiotherapy sessions when she had been determined to use the devices to ensure that the notoriously stubborn colonel was unable to push himself too far. As such, unless he was under severe physical stress or in severe pain, which she sincerely hoped would be few and far between in the future, the top couple of devices would not be visible.

She indicated that she was ready for Sheppard to be taken to recovery and preceded out the door to clean up before informing the others of the success of the procedure. She also wanted to consult with doctor Reilly to ensure there was nothing else the others needed to know that they didn't already. She would let him explain the procedure to Sheppard when he woke up, as well as the recovery process.

Having a thought she headed for her office; she needed to double-check that there were no other patients who had physical injuries in the infirmary. Given Sheppard's sensitivities to other peoples injuries and the fact that he was going to need to stay in the infirmary for several days at the very least Keller wanted to ensure they had a plan of action in place for major injuries. Unless something had happened in the last couple of hours there were just a few minor cases ready for discharge.