-
-
As time dragged on, McKay had taken to pacing in and out of the cave, trying the radio every few minutes.
"Will you stop that?" Sheppard finally said in a weary voice. "You're making me tired just watching you. And you're making me nervous."
"I can't help it," McKay babbled. "It's too frustrating to just sit there, and wait for you to -- " He stopped abruptly. "I -- It's got nothing to do with you, really," he said, slightly flustered. "I -- I'm hungry; my blood sugar's all over the place… You're going to be fine, Sheppard, just fine."
Sheppard frowned. "Your beside manner sucks. Anytime someone says 'you're going to be fine' like that, what it really means is 'you're screwed and you're going to die'."
"John, Rodney, please -- this isn't helping," Teyla said as she sat beside the wounded man.
Sheppard was quiet a moment, flexing his fingers to ease the pins and needles feeling in his right hand, wincing at the pain that the small movement brought. His hands were like ice, the blue veins standing out starkly against the pale skin. The pain in his shoulder and leg throbbed with every heartbeat, and although they seemed to have stopped the bleeding again, he was acutely aware of how much of his life's blood had soaked into his clothing and bandages. He was cold, and it was becoming a huge effort just to stay awake. He was screwed, and they all knew it.
"Just keep trying the damn radio, McKay."
"Yes, sir -- Aye, sir -- Right away, Colonel, SIR!" McKay snapped, giving a mock salute, and stalked outside.
Teyla did not say anything, merely giving a long-suffering sigh as she gently took hold of Sheppard's left wrist, moving his arm back under the blankets, rubbing her hand slowly up and down the bare skin, trying to warm him a little.
"I fear you are too cold. Since we have no fire, when he comes back, I believe we must begin to keep you warm with our own body heat."
Sheppard gave her a funny look. "I don't think we've quite reached that stage yet. 'Snuggling up' with McKay?" He wrinkled his nose. "Don't think so."
She raised an eyebrow. "And me?"
His expression was the half-embarrassed, rather charmingly self-deprecating smile she'd seen on him so often. "Well, that's a little different. You're a woman, and you're on my team, and it's… " She could see he was struggling to find the words. "It's just different."
"John, this is a survival situation." Her expression became very serious. "I'm being straight with you. We have reached that stage -- you need our help to stay warm."
'And alive' hung in the air unspoken.
He sobered too. "Yea… ok," he said, wondering how they were going to manage to do that without him passing out or starting to bleed again.
-
McKay stuck his hands out into the rainwater that was cascading down the rocks, washing off the traces of Sheppard's blood. Wiping his hands off on his pants, he sighed as he stepped back under the overhang and tapped the radio for what seemed like the thousandth time in the last couple of hours.
"This is McKay. We have a medical emergency. Mayday, mayday -- any Atlantis team member please respond... Medical emergency, requiring immediate extraction. Do you copy...?"
Static answered yet again, and he swore under his breath. He waited a minute, then repeated the transmission.
"Answer, dammit," he muttered.
Sheppard was weak, growing progressively weaker as the minutes turned into hours, the cut on his jaw standing out plainly now against his pale skin. He did not seem like he was in imminent danger of dying, but McKay knew that even if he made contact right now, it would take more time for rescue to come, stranded as they were up here on the rocky slope. Time that Sheppard might not have.
His eyes scanned the green, wet, muddy landscape, and the skies beyond, but there was no sign of anything but rain and mist and the occasional flash of lightning far off in the distance. Sighing, he turned back towards the cave. But he hesitated before going back in, not knowing what to say to Sheppard anymore. He leaned back against the rock face, deciding to wait here for a while.
His mind was occupied with thoughts of how else to modify the equipment when a burst of static on the radio grabbed his attention. He listened closely, and a few moments later the static buzzed in his ear for a few seconds, in the middle of which he swore was a fragment of a word.
Smiling, but trying not to get his hopes up, he tapped the radio again. "This is McKay. Medical emergency! Do you copy?"
There was another burst of static, and this time he could make out actual words, in a voice that sounded like Major Lorne's. "... -lantis... jum--... McK --."
"This is McKay!" he said, raising his voice. "You're breaking up. Repeat transmission...!"
There was another burst of incomprehensible static, and as McKay repeated his own call, Teyla came out of the cave.
"What is it? Have you got something?"
"Yea, yea, I think so," he said, smiling, and she started to also. "This is McKay. We have a medical emergency, need evac now!"
There was another burst of static so loud he almost had to pull the receiver out of his ear. But then it stopped, and Lorne's voice came through loud and clear. "This is Major Lorne in Jumper 1. Doctor McKay, do you read? We are inbound to your location with Doctor Beckett. Do you copy?"
"Yes yes yes, I hear you!" he said happily. "Thank god, we've been calling for hours. Colonel Sheppard needs immediate medical attention -- hurry up!"
Teyla's smile was tempered with concern as she hugged him for a moment. "What about Ronon?"
"Good to hear your voice, Doctor," Lorne said, sounding very relieved also. "We'll be there in a few minutes -- we'll take care of the Colonel."
"Have you seen or heard from Ronon? He left hours ago to try to get help, and we haven't heard from him since."
Another voice came over the radio. "I'm on the jumper. Told you guys I'd take care of it."
His smile widened as he mouthed to Teyla. 'He made it.' "Yes, well, he's pissed at you, you know, for disobeying orders."
"I can live with that," Ronon said. "We'll be over your position in four minutes."
Beckett came on the line. "What's Colonel Sheppard's condition?"
"Bad. He's lost a lot of blood, but he's hanging in there. He's a stubborn bastard."
"Tell him help's on the way, Rodney."
"We will."
They both hurried back inside the cave, Teyla kneeling beside Sheppard.
"The hell is going on?" he demanded. "Did you make contact?"
"Yes, Major Lorne will be here in a couple minutes in a jumper. With Beckett," McKay said, a broad smile on his face.
"And Ronon," Teyla said.
Immense relief washed over Sheppard. "Thank god." He closed his eyes, letting out a long sigh.
"You are going to be fine, John," Teyla said, patting his hand.
"Yea." He smiled up at them both with weary eyes. "Looks like you're off the hook with the whole 'huddling for warmth' thing," he said to McKay.
"What…? Don't get all delusional on me now, Sheppard; we're getting out of here."
Teyla and Sheppard exchanged a smile over McKay's cluelessness as she got up again. "They'll be here in a few minutes -- we'll be back very soon."
"There's nowhere to land, so I'm not sure how they're going to get Beckett down here."
"John," Teyla said in an exasperated tone. "Let us worry about that. Wait here for us."
"It's not like I can go anywhere," he muttered as she and McKay went back outside.
By now, the whine of the engines could be heard over the light rain, and soon the puddle jumper came into sight, hovering overhead. It halted about 50 yards away, further up, over a relatively flat stretch of rock with no nearby trees, and the rear hatch opened. Ronon -- looking bedraggled, muddy and wet -- shimmied down a rope and onto the rocks. He secured the line, and a rope ladder, and a rather reluctant Beckett followed, then a couple of marines.
"Holy crap!" Beckett cursed as Ronon grabbed his arm to keep him from slipping on the rain-slickened rock. "You didn't tell me he was on top of a bloody mountain!"
Ronon and Teyla helped him climb down to the cave entrance.
"Hey, doc," Sheppard said as Beckett entered the cave, followed by the rest of the team. "Decided to make a house call, eh?"
Beckett tutted as he knelt beside him, opening his medical kit. "What have you done to yourself this time, Colonel? I'm going to have to permanently reserve a bed in the infirmary just for you if you keep this up."
The soothing sound of the physician's familiar Scottish brogue was a comfort to everyone, especially Sheppard, who finally felt that the worst was over and that he could stop white-knuckling it.
"I was just minding my own business, trying to find a nice dry spot to wait out the storm, when that thing decided it didn't want to share its home." Sheppard's voice was barely above a whisper as he pointed at the dead animal.
Beckett's eyes widened. "Good lord." He turned back to his patient. "We're going to get you out of here and back to Atlantis, but first let me check to see how you're doing."
"Been bleeding like a stuck pig is how I'm doing."
As Beckett examined him with a medical scanner and stethoscope, the marines came in with a stretcher, the heavy-duty kind used for airlifts, and laid it down close to Sheppard.
In the silence, Sheppard looked at Ronon. "Glad to see you made it, buddy... But don't ever do that again, or I'll kick your ass."
Ronon did not answer, just gave him a brief half-smile.
"So how am I, doc?" Sheppard asked after a couple of minutes.
"There's not much I can tell you now, lad. You've obviously lost a lot of blood. I'm going to wait until we get back to take a look at the actual wounds -- you'll just start hemorrhaging again if I try to take the bandages off out here."
He looked up at McKay and Teyla. "Looks like you've done a good job keeping the bleeding under control, especially in these conditions."
"We did the best we could. I only wish it hadn't taken so long to call for help," she said.
"They did great," Sheppard said. "Listen, doc, you got any happy pills in there for me?"
Beckett's eyes narrowed, knowing that the pain had to be severe in order for Sheppard to ask for relief from it, given the man's usual high tolerance.
He shook his head. "I'm sorry, lad. I need to get some fluids in you and get you stable first before I can give you anything for the pain." Sheppard frowned, and Beckett patted his hand reassuringly. "It won't be much longer, I promise. We'll have you back in Atlantis in no time."
He prepared a syringe. "But I will give you a broad spectrum antibiotic right now."
After starting an I.V. of saline and giving the injection, Beckett looked over at the carcass of the dead animal. "It's a good thing we know what attacked him You'll have to bring some samples back with us. It's too bloody big to take the whole animal -- but I need the claws and head at least."
"You have got to be kidding," McKay said, looking queasy.
"No, I most definitely am not. If we were back home and he was bitten by a stray dog, we'd need to find the dog and make sure it wasn't carrying rabies. Here, I have no bloody idea what diseases it might be carrying."
"Oh, no way," Sheppard moaned. "If I start to turn into a bug again, just shoot me now!"
"Nobody's shooting anybody. It's just a precaution, Colonel."
"I'll take care of it," Ronon said, drawing his sword from its sheath on his back.
"Oh, god. I think I'm going to be sick," McKay said, getting up and heading back into the fresh air.
Beckett repacked his medical kit. "We're going to move you now, Colonel." He gestured to Teyla, Ronon and the marines. "Easy now, everyone."
The five of them shifted Sheppard to the stretcher, taking great care not to jostle him too much. Sheppard winced a few times, his eyes squeezed shut, but did not make a sound.
"Right, let's go," Beckett said, and the marines picked him up. Teyla and McKay gathered their gear and started to follow them out.
"I'll be there in a minute," Ronon said, spreading out one of the discarded ponchos in order to carry Beckett's 'specimens'.
-
Doctor Weir was waiting in the jumper bay with the medical team when the Jumper 1 arrived. The sight that greeted her when the hatch opened was disconcerting at best. The rescued team was bloodied and disheveled -- Ronon was a mess, Teyla was missing a pants leg, and Sheppard himself was shockingly pale as he lay on the stretcher, covered with a heavy blanket and an I.V. of clear fluid in his arm.
"Is he going to be all right?" she asked Beckett as she and the rest of the team followed the gurney as Sheppard was wheeled hurriedly towards the infirmary.
"He'll live, but right now he's on the verge of hypovolemic shock. I'll most likely be taking him into surgery once I get more fluids into him and stabilize his vital signs. I'll know more about his prognosis after the surgery," Beckett said.
"Hi, Elizabeth." Sheppard's eyes opened in a half-slit.
She smiled reassuringly. "Hello, John. Glad to have you back."
"Glad to be back. Had a little disagreement with the local wildlife."
"So I see."
"Coming through!" one of the medics yelled as they neared a doorway, and Weir and the rest of the team fell back as Beckett and the medics rushed through with Sheppard.
As they all quickly followed, Weir asked, "Is everyone else all right?"
"We're fine," Teyla said. "The blood... it is all from the Colonel."
"Thank god no one else was hurt."
Weir looked at Ronon. He looked a bit like a drowned rat, clothing soaked through and muddied, with various scratches and bruises on his face and arms, and bits of foliage stuck in his hair. He had a bit of a limp as well, the pants leg on his right side torn below the knee. "I hear you're the one who went for help, went out in the storm. Are you ok?"
Ronon nodded. "I'm fine."
"He went out against Colonel Sheppard's orders," Teyla said.
"I had to. How much longer do you think he would have lasted up there if I hadn't?"
"He's too stubborn to die," McKay snarked.
-
When Sheppard was taken into surgery, none of the exhausted team left the infirmary, not even to change out of their wet, dirty clothes.
Weir waited with them in Beckett's office, using the time for an un-official debriefing, learning as much as she could about what had happened.
All of them gave her the facts. But none volunteered much more than that. Not the grim details of how Teyla and McKay had spent the time in the cave trying to keep Sheppard alive, nor how Ronon had survived the trek down the mountainside in such a terrible storm.
But there were little things that told her far more than words ever could.
Their uniforms had looked almost black when wet, but as they dried the dark stains and smears of blood became more apparent against the dark blue fabric. They were all over McKay's jacket, as well as the front of his pants, as if he had kept wiping his hands on his uniform. There was more on Teyla's sleeves and the front of her uniform, which was consistent with the fact that she had spent the majority of the time tending to Sheppard's injuries while McKay worked with the radio.
But it wasn't just on their clothes. There were traces of darkened blood elsewhere. It was underneath their fingernails, and McKay had a streaks of it on the back of his neck, as if he'd had it on his hands while he rubbed his neck. Teyla even had a bit of it in her hair, a small amount smeared into the matted strands near her ear.
There was too much mud on Ronon's clothes to be able to tell if there was blood beneath, but Weir suspected that was the case.
All three seemed oblivious to how they appeared, however, not even noticing the startled looks they got from other Atlantis personnel who came by to enquire about Sheppard's health.
Elizabeth herself had not seen the extent of his wounds when the jumper arrived, so she could only guess at how terrible it must have been for them after John had been attacked, and they'd had to work together to control the hemorrhaging. Not to mention struggling for hours to keep him alive, with minimal medical supplies, until rescue came.
And so she did not push for more information, leaving them to their thoughts as they waited for news. It was hardly a surprise that Ronon was taciturn and silent. But even McKay was relatively quiet -- if you could ever actually say that Rodney McKay was 'quiet' -- as he alternated between pacing around and sitting hunched over behind Beckett's desk, eyes glancing back and forth between the clock and the door, his computer data pad lying mostly unused in front of him.
At one point, however, she did observe him uploading what looked like a first aid manual into his pad.
After more than an hour and a half -- and what seemed like an eternity -- Beckett emerged from surgery and came to talk to them.
"Colonel Sheppard is going to be ok," he assured them, and there were sighs of relief all around. "He's out of surgery and in recovery. Within a half hour he should be awake again."
Ronon hugged Teyla, smiling at her, and gave McKay a congratulatory whack on the back that nearly knocked him off his feet.
"What's his condition, Doctor?" Weir asked. "Is he going to recover fully from this?"
"Most definitely. There will be a period of rest, recovery and rehabilitation, but I see no reason he will not be able to resume his regular duties. I had to do a wee bit of surgery since a few of the lacerations were rather deep -- they needed some vascular and nerve repair. But that's taken care of now, and I've stitched him up. I gave him two units of blood plasma to restore what was lost, so he should be right as rain, in time."
"That is wonderful," Teyla beamed. "May we see him when he wakes up?"
"I don't think that's a good idea. He needs to rest, and he'll be a bit loopy when he comes out of the anesthetic anyway. I'm going to keep him sedated for a while -- I don't want him tearing the stitches. But I'll be sure to let you know when you can see him," Beckett assured them.
"I want to see him now," Ronon said in a tone that did not allow for much argument.
"Ronon -- " Teyla began.
"I'm not going to bother him. But I'm not leaving until I see for myself that he's all right."
A long glance passed between Ronon, Teyla and McKay. "I think Ronon speaks for all of us," Teyla said quietly.
"Yea," McKay muttered, still rubbing the back of his shoulder where Ronon had hit him..
Beckett's face softened in understanding. "All right then. But just a few minutes."
As Ronon started to step away, Beckett touched his arm. "Hold on a minute, lad. Has anyone seen to you since you got back? You wouldn't let me do a proper exam on the jumper."
"I'm fine," he said, trying to move past the doctor.
Beckett's eyes took in the bruises on his body. "I'd like to confirm that for myself." He looked at Teyla and McKay. "That goes for all of you. I'll have Dr. Cole give you your post-mission checks."
"Fine, Carson, whatever," a subdued McKay said. "Just let us in there now."
"Aye," he said and stepped aside.
Weir followed them into a curtained-off section of the infirmary, lingering in the doorway, observing Sheppard as he slept. His shoulder and thigh were heavily bandaged, and his face had lost much of its deathly pallor, the color returning to his cheeks. He looked smaller somehow, and vulnerable, lying on the large bed surrounded by an array of medical equipment, hooked up to I.V.s, oxygen and various monitors.
One by one, his team approached. Ronon first, who stood at Sheppard's side for a minute, looking down at him before briefly laying a hand on his uninjured shoulder. He left, and Teyla took his place, gently taking Sheppard's hand. She bent her head and closed her eyes, apparently praying over him. That left McKay to pause uneasily at the bedside. He muttered something Weir could not hear, then left also.
Beckett went over to him, checking his vital signs, then looked at Weir, beckoning her forward.
She stopped at the foot of the bed. "Good work, Carson," she whispered, watching the steady rise and fall of the Colonel's chest.
"It helps when my patients are as strong as this one," he said. "He's a fighter."
"That he is," she said with a relieved smile. "Keep me posted on his condition."
"Aye, of course," he said as she left too.
TBC