DEVIL INSIDE
By ErikaHK
Title Devil Inside - Ch. 10/14
Rating: T
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Elizabeth Weir, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex, Carson Beckett
Genre: Drama, Angst, H/C, Suspense, Gen
Disclaimer: Stargate and all related characters are the property of MGM Television Entertainment. Not done for profit, just for fun.
Summary: A mysterious entity takes over the bodies of the members of the Atlantis Expedition. Season 3 pre-Sunday. No spoilers.
Special thanks to my beta Lauriel!
Chapter 10
Elizabeth decided to take a break from her office to check out John's condition. She knew that Carson would inform her of any change in the Colonel, but somehow she knew that being at his side would greatly help her concentration. For that reason Elizabeth brought her laptop along with her under one arm and a cup of coffee in the other hand. She wore a tired expression on her face and the lines under her eyes betrayed her best attempts to look like she actually had any rest during the night.
"Elizabeth?" Carson approached her from her side and caught her off guard. "What are you doing here?" His voice carried a tone of concern.
She paused and turned to him "I needed to get out of my office. See if there is any change in his condition."
"I told you that you would be the first one to know if there is." His eyes turned to the laptop she carried. "Thinking about staying a bit longer, hmm?"
"I have a lot of work to do and couldn't focus." She tilted her head. "I hope you don't mind."
The Scot let a smile light up his face. "I don't mind as long as you don't overdo it. You didn't happen to be working the whole night, did you?"
"Carson…" She didn't want to sound pleading, but that's how it came out. "We are in the middle of crisis and-"
"What about food? Did you get any of that into you since yesterday?" He crossed his arms in an intimidating fashion.
"As a matter of fact, yes." She tilted her head and lifted an eyebrow. Carson continued to stare at her. "You can check with the attendant at the mess hall if you doubt me."
"I certainly will." He patted her in the shoulder. "Don't work too hard, Elizabeth."
"How's Teyla?" Elizabeth asked to change the subject.
"Yes, Teyla. I did a complete set of tests on her and the last few results just came in." He led her into his office and showed his notebook filled with charts and names totally unrecognisable to her. "It all falls into place. The scan result from last night showed an abnormal brain wave pattern suggesting that there is another, well for the lack of a better word, another person inside her." He awaited her nod before continuing. "There are also slightly elevated chemicals in her body that are conflicting, making it difficult to interpret."
"Conflicting?" Her gaze shifted from the screen of the computer to the blue eyes beside her.
"Yes, some of then indicate a sense of awareness and other substances only show in a deep state of coma. It could be from the entity trying to keep Teyla at bay while it's occupying her body."
"What about getting it out of her?"
"I have no idea how to do that." He tinned his lips.
She sighed. "Okay, doctor. Rodney is finished with the decryption and the translation is coming around. Hopefully we'll be able to figure this one out from the ancient data base." She smiled.
"Aye, hopefully."
…
Elizabeth cocked an eyebrow and lifted the corner of her lip. She was seated across from Sheppard's bed with her laptop on a tiny surface that she transformed into her desk for the entire morning. She looked up and her eyes met the still figure on the bed. The faint hiss of the ventilator and the constant beep of the heart monitor were the only clues that he was actually alive. That sight still got to her. His pale features and all the wiring and tubes connected to his bed, most of all performing functions she couldn't understand completely, showed her the danger they were constantly facing.
She caught herself imagining if things would have turned out differently if she had listened to Rodney and John on the night they first talked to her about their suspicions. Maybe Radek could have worked out some information ahead of schedule and warn them about the energy creature.
She went back to staring at her computer screen and re-read what she just finished translating. Two full pages containing information on the detection and very complex explanations on the physics and the physiology of the entity took most of the night and morning to finish. Important clues as how to deal with this creature was being slowly released throughout the text, but nothing definitive. She still had a lot to translate; even with several teams dividing the job into parts it was a huge task. She imagined that maybe she got stuck with the worse part. All the technical jargon was especially difficult to translate and she was happy for the Canadian scientist that now napped silently on a bed beside the colonel for helping her with that.
Deciding she was satisfied with the final version of this part of the work, she opened the next file on that folder to begin her analysis. It was even more complex. It was twice the size of the previous file and most of those words made no sense to her on an overall look. She rubbed her eyes, expecting them to see the letters clearer afterwards, but she still stared blankly at the foreign symbols for several moments until a slight movement caught her eye.
She looked over the bed and saw a flicker of John's fingers. She stood up promptly and walked up to his bedside noticing another move from his hand.
"John?" She couldn't avoid the smile that appeared on her face as she saw the frown forming on his face.
She hurried to the door and called Carson out of his office.
When she reentered the ICU Rodney was standing beside the Colonel pointing a finger towards the bed.
"He's regaining consciousness." Rodney said.
She stopped beside the scientist and the CMO examined his vitals on the screen beside the bed then gently peered over Sheppard's face as the pilot's eyelids flickered, attempting to open.
"C'mon now, Colonel, snap them open for me, please." The soft accented voice spoke.
"John?" She called as his eyes slowly started to open.
…
The first sensation he felt was the one on the back of his mouth. He tried to swallow, but felt the presence of the tube and coughed. He panicked for a moment when he felt the tube blocking his throat. He tried to get his hands to take the tube off, but they didn't move. He watched the face looking down at him and gentle hands touched both of his shoulders and a familiar voice spoke to him.
"You have a tube down your throat doing the breathing for you, lad. I know it's uncomfortable, but it's necessary. Just let it do the job."
The words settled into his brain and he nodded in understanding.
"I'll take the restraints off now. Promise you won't take the tube out."
He nodded again and the restraints were removed. Slowly, the images that last registered into his brain started to come. He wanted to speak, but the tube prevented him and every try he made provoked an unpleasant sensation as it rubbed against his throat.
"Don't try to speak." Carson observed.
"John?" A female voice called. It was Elizabeth. She appeared in his line of sight and smiled.
There were so many things he wanted to know. He wanted to ask them about Teyla, if she was all right, what happened to the entity, if the city was safe, if they got rid of it, but none of these things escaped his lips. He just stared blankly at Elizabeth and Carson peering over his face and tried to turn to look at them better, but was held by the hands of the physician.
This was without a doubt one of the worse sensations he had ever felt. The helplessness, his inability to communicate, and how vulnerable and exposed he felt with their stares of concern over him.
"It's okay, John. Don't worry about anything and just focus on getting better." Elizabeth spoke softly to him.
"Yes, and don't you dare scare us like that again! Do you know what you did to my blood pressure as I kept calling for you on the radio without getting a response?" He recognized Rodney's voice even though he couldn't see him. "Is it difficult to warn me that you're dying instead of simply staying quiet and moaning to yourself?"
"Rodney!" Carson shot a warning glance to the scientist.
John chuckled at Rodney's snarky outburst and coughed slightly because of it. A smile crept up his lips under the tape of the tube as he slowly closed his eyes again. He tried to keep them open, but the tiredness consumed him and soon he was back in the land of dreams.
…
TBC…