Part 8 – Creeping Around
In the dimly lit corridor, a lone figure prowled his way towards the laundry room. His ultimate goal was Sheppard's darn sleeping bag that he still hadn't been able to retrieve. Sabotaging the naquadah generator had been easy and the delay should mean that Kavanagh would have time to remove the Turaka before it ended up in the wash. Although, he could imagine that the thing was dead by now, just as its victim would soon be.
A sickly smile adorned Kavanagh's face as he neared his goal. However, it was quickly wiped off when he rounded the last corner to come face to face with Rodney McKay.
"Hey…what the hell are you doing around here at this time of night?" McKay questioned him, angrily.
Kavanagh stuttered and stumbled over his words. "I…err…I'm looking for some…err…missing socks." He felt like an idiot once the words were out of his mouth.
Rodney looked at him suspiciously. "Bloody likely story."
"You've been hanging around Dr. Beckett for far too long, McKay. Anyway, I could say the same thing about you. What are you doing here?" Kavanagh flung back at the head scientist.
Rodney looked totally pissed off by his words. "I've just made myself useful by reinstalling the naquadah generator so that we can all have some clean socks."
"Oh, I didn't know it was broken." Kavanagh stated, innocently.
McKay narrowed his eyes and looked at him with distrust. "Yes, it was broken but yours truly fixed it," he finished, pointing to himself. There was no reason to tell this creep that Radek had done most of the work or that someone had tampered with the generator. "So you're worrying about some missing socks when most of the city is worried about our dying Colonel."
Kavanagh couldn't keep the sarcasm out of his tone as he said. "Oh, that's terrible isn't it?"
"What!"
"I mean it's terrible that poor Colonel Sheppard is at deaths door, again. He never seems to get a break."
McKay looked at him coldly. "Yes, it is. Now I suggest you go back to your quarters and do some praying to whatever god will listen to your selfish mind because your socks won't be clean anyway until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest."
"You really don't like me do you, McKay?"
"No, I don't like you, at all." Rodney answered truthfully before giving his fellow scientist some hard advice. "Get out of here right now or I call security and have you thrown into the Wraith holding cell."
Kavanagh stared down at McKay for a long moment. For a minute, he contemplated attacking the shorter man but if it went wrong, it could make matters worse. So turning on his heel, he departed without another word.
McKay watched him go wondering what was going on in his egoistical deceitful head. For some strange reason, Rodney sensed that it was imperative to keep Kavanagh out of the laundry but he couldn't say why he felt that way. Therefore not trusting the man not to come back, he decided to call security anyway and request a guard to keep an eye on the room. Security found his request a little strange but a guard turned up ten minutes later, allowing Rodney to go to the infirmary to sit with Sheppard.
McKay entered the darkened room to find Ronon quietly dozing by John's bed. Before waking the big fella, he glanced over at Sheppard and was shocked to see how white and waxy his face looked even in the room's soft lighting.
A light tap on Ronon's shoulder soon got the Satedan up and without a word, Ronon left to go to his own room as Rodney settled down into the warm chair Ronon had vacated.
John whimpered in his sleep for minute and Rodney held his breath wondering if he would wake but thankfully, he fell silent again. Rodney looked at him once more, and although he wasn't a religious man, he decided to say a prayer anyway. Just for extra insurance, he told himself.
-SGA-
Laundry supervisor, Alison Gibson, arrived early the next morning to start work after receiving a message that the power was back up from Dr. McKay. Rounding the last corner, she was surprised to find one of Colonel Sheppard's men posted by the laundry room door. "Is there a problem?" she asked the man.
"Not really, ma'am," the soldier replied. "Dr. McKay requested a guard to keep Dr. Kavanagh out of the laundry."
"Has that slime pot been around here again?"
"It would appear so, ma'am. Dr. McKay caught him snooping around late last night or I should say, early this morning. I think it was about 2.00 a.m."
"My goodness, what in heavens name would he want at that time?" Gibson pondered. The soldier looked perplexed and shook his head as she continued. "Oh well, I'd better get on and catch up with some of the backlog. You can go for now, I'll make sure that Kavanagh stays away."
"If you're sure, ma'am?"
Just as she was about to answer, her young assistant arrived. "Yes, I think between the two us we can handle that jerk." The soldier nodded his head and started to move off but the supervisor called to him. "Oh, have you heard how the Colonel is this morning."
The marine turned to reply. "No, I haven't ma'am. The last I heard was he's still very ill and they suspect that he may have been bitten by something nasty. I just hope they find out what it was."
"Me too, he's a good man," she answered before entering the main laundry room.
Thinking about the workload, Gibson turned to her helper. "Mary could you prepare the sleeping bags that came in from Jumper 1, I think we'll get them out of the way first."
"Yes, of course but haven't we got more important things to do? It's not like Colonel Sheppard's team will want them anytime soon."
Alison sighed. "I know but I think the Colonel's may have been soiled, so we really should wash it soon."
Mary screwed up her face slightly. "Okay, I'm on to it."
-SGA-
Off in the jumper bay, Dr. Kavanagh sat patiently in the back of a jumper while waiting for his ride to the mainland.
As he waited for the start clearance, he nervously chewed on some loose skin on his index finger as he let his thoughts drift. Things had gone well so far with the main goal of slowly killing Sheppard before Weir's eyes begin a reality and not just a dream. The only down side was the missing bug and Davon. What am I going to do about him? Kavanagh pondered. The main reason for his trip was to meet with Davon and inform him of their progress. Kavanagh decided to gage his reaction and take it from there.
Deep in thought, Kavanagh didn't realize that the pilot was talking to him. "Dr. Kavanagh, I'm sorry but you'll have to leave the jumper."
"What?"
The pilot looked at him as if he was talking to an idiot. "I said Dr. Weir has just postponed the trip for a couple of hours."
"Why's that?" Kavanagh asked in annoyance.
"I'm not sure but I think Teyla Emmagan wants to come with us but she's still sitting with the Colonel at the moment."
Kavanagh sighed angrily and got up to leave. "Let me know when the trips on again."
The pilot would have preferred not to, but he answered. "Yes, of course."
-SGA-
Teyla tried to eat the toasted sandwich that Rodney had brought her but the bread stuck in her throat as she listened to John's whimpering as he became more restless. It disturbed her, as she had never heard the colonel whimper before even in his greatest distress. She wondered what kind of pain he was enduring to produce such a reaction. Dr. Beckett had informed her that the morphine was helping but he now had to administer higher dozes just to manage the pain.
John had slept through the night without any further seizures, which was one blessing but the swelling on his ankle was getting worse and he was becoming decidedly feverish.
Dr. Weir was due to relieve her in a couple of hours and then Teyla planned to go the see her people and ask if anyone knew about an insect or the like that could produce such symptoms. The creatures Major Lorne had brought back from Sovia had proven a dead end.
With an effort, Teyla managed to swallow a small piece of toast after washing it down with a gulp of water. Looking up, she suddenly realized that John was staring at her with glassy unfocused eyes. For a minute, her heart raced and thudded loudly in her chest thinking that he was – gone - but a small groan passed through his dry, cracked lips and she breathed a sigh of relief. Moving over to him, she brushed a lock of damp hair away of his eyes.
"Teyla?" he whispered.
"Yes, John," she answered her friend dropping all formality. "Do you want an ice chip?"
He heard her through the roaring of his ears and not wanting to cause more pain if he nodded, he murmured. "Yes."
The ice eased the dryness but did nothing to ease how terrible he felt. Pain had become his constant and relentless companion. It constricted his head and invaded every corner of his being. He felt dozy from the meds that helped him but the pain wanted to come back with full force. He could feel its strength building and he was afraid.
Teyla must have seen this and she asked. "Is the pain getting bad again?"
He managed to murmur, "Yes," and watched as Teyla's blurry figure moved off. A defiant and willful tentacle of agony shot through his back and John cried out unable to ride it. The pain twisted his gut and reached up towards his chest and John yelled. "Please make it stop! Please! Please…" He panted as his breathing became more difficult, and although he couldn't find the air to scream, he did so anyway.
Carson rushed to his side and quickly administered yet more morphine as Teyla held John as he cried and trembled in her arms. She wiped away her own tears as he slowly calmed down until he lay peacefully against her. "Thank you," she heard him whisper faintly as he lost the fight to stay conscious.
Carson watched as Teyla carefully eased him back onto the pillow before saying anything. "I can't give him a much higher dose without causing other problems. He's nearly on the maximum now."
Teyla slowly nodded. "He will die if we do not find a cure soon, will he not?"
"Aye, lass, it's an extremely complex and slow progress but it looks that way. We've determined that the toxin is slowly building up and that it seems to fire the pain receptors until I guess the victim dies of shock. I'm telling ya, it's certainly a cruel and callous fluke of nature."
She nodded. "Yes, I have never heard of such a thing before but I intend to ask others." Teyla checked to make sure that John was fast asleep before asking a question she didn't want to know. "What will you do if the pain gets too much and the medication no longer works?"
"To tell ya the truth, lass, I don't really know. It could be that he'll slip into a coma before that time comes but we'll have to face whatever happens. I don't generally believe in euthanasia but sometimes it's necessary. I'm just hoping this isn't one of those times because I for one would find it extremely difficult to end John Sheppard's life."
Teyla felt a tear form. "Yes," she whispered.
tbc