This is a missing scene for episode 3x12, and therefore, it contains SPOILERS! Please do NOT read further if you wish to remain unspoiled!
Ouch!
Whales – they'd always seemed cute enough, but as John's skull pounded out through his eardrums, he wasn't thinking they were cute anymore.
Deadly, lethal, painful…very, very painful; they'd definitely dropped a lot on John's cuteness scale when blood had started seeping from McKay's nose.
Crap.
He shot a worried look at Rodney, slumped on the console, blood now leaking from his ear.
If John could just get them out of the water…
Sound suddenly disappeared in time with a sharp pain that momentarily overrode the horrible headache. He felt a warm liquid dribbling from his ears, wet against his skin. Shit, with realization at what'd happened, he pressed his fingers to his ear, up against the skin, and brought them back, staring uneasily at the fresh, red blood on his fingertips.
Oh, yeah, they were screwed. He needed to get them the hell out of here, but every time he tried to aim up, a whale got in the way.
He couldn't hear anymore, heck, he could hardly think straight past the pressure building behind his eyes. His world had narrowed to the focus of getting them out of the water, even if that meant – there! an opening; John pulled the ship into a sharp, vertical ascent, so steep he was sure his head would burst from the added g's the inertial dampeners couldn't quite quell. 'Course, the whales' small talk with one another had probably already liquefied his brain.
Sure as hell felt like it.
It's just blood leaking from your ears, John.
Third-person reassurances always worked before. Besides, gray matter was more viscous and there were membranes to keep that stuff in, right? So, just blood. Not his brain. And not Rodney's brain, either.
With his thoughts and hands guiding the Jumper, it rolled and arced towards Atlantis. All he could do now was let them know that they were coming in. "We're out of the water, Rodney's in trouble, have a medical team ready," John reported, trusting that they were listening, because he couldn't hear a damn thing. John knew Radek had been tracking them, vaguely remembered Weir talking to him before he'd lost his hearing – so they'd be waiting. He just kept repeating it – they'll be there, John.
Which was really good, because the pain in John's head had risen to levels that made his vision double and his stomach clench. If he managed to keep the ship in the air, it'd be a miracle.
He wasn't really sure how long it took, but some kind of awareness was still hanging around when the Jumper settled to the floor of the bay. The pain in his head was so completely encompassing that he wasn't even sure why he lurched drunkenly from his chair, until his arm brushed against Rodney's sleeve.
Right…right, he needed to get Rodney help. Because Rodney was hurt. That's why he was standing up, even while the edges of his vision grayed and breakfast crept silently, painfully up his throat.
Okay, he could do this.
John aimed his body as straight as he could and stumbled down the aisle, got to the rear of the ship, and stared at the multiple control panels for the hatch. "Damn," he swore. Which one? Aw, hell -- "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe." He pushed his hand blindly forward, towards the center of the duplicate images.
Then he was falling forward.
--the hell?
Someone caught him. John tried to look, tried to figure out what was going on, and why everything was filling with black dots. His efforts must have done some good because whoever had him, set him on his feet, keeping a strong hold on John's arm. Blinking helped, and the dots retreated long enough for him to make out the familiar dreadlocks.
"Hi, Ronon," John said. Least, he was pretty sure he said it. Can't hear, remember, John! "Rodney needs Carson." He tried to thumb towards the cockpit, but he stumbled and decided they knew where McKay was. Wasn't like the Jumper was big enough for someone to get lost.
Ronon's mouth moved.
Huh?
He saw Carson coming back from the front of the Jumper, Rodney preceding him on a gurney. Then Doc was leaning towards John and saying something. John shook his head. "I can't hear you." His head spun sickeningly, lagging behind his actual movement in a way that made his stomach flip unpleasantly.
Carson pointed to another gurney, looking at John expectantly.
"What? No, I'm fine, Doc, just a little hearing problem," argued John. He could walk. A headache, a little blood from the ear, wasn't like he'd broken a leg or something. He started to move pointedly behind Rodney's gurney, relieved to see the nurses starting an IV and fussing over his buddy. Now that they were out of danger, he could feel the tension ebbing from his muscles in white-capped waves, long, blue and languorous.
Oh, yeah, his headache might be a twenty on a scale of one to ten, but relief had knocked off a point or two.
Ronon's grip tightened further, pulling him up short, and keeping him from walking away. Annoyed, John turned and gave him a 'what's up with that' look, only to find Carson frowning heavily. The doc stepped forward, motioned to a nurse, and after she handed Doc a gauze pad, he pushed it against John's nose and made more mouthing motions.
His nose was bleeding? When'd that happen?
John took a step back, raising his hand to take over holding the gauze, but Carson stepped forward with him, and then Ronon shifted till John's back bumped into Ronon's chest. Trapped, hurting and getting a little pissed, it was probably a good thing everything grayed and swayed, because collapsing saved him from saying something he shouldn't.
Course, it also guaranteed him a ride to the infirmary on the gurney. Damn shame he couldn't remember it.
OoO
He really would've thought waking up would feel better then this. Rodney turned his head, not all that surprised to see the familiar walls of the infirmary. He was surprised to see the occupant of the bed next to him. Sheppard.
Rodney squinted at the sleeping figure, noted the IV line trailing from Sheppard's hand to a bag hanging on a hook above the bed, then looked at his own hand and realized, huh, he had the same thing. Wait a minute, wait…the ship…they'd been in the Jumper, looking at whales. Looking at…son of a bitch –
"Carson!"
What?
"Carson!" Rodney tried again.
Okay, what the hell was going on? He knew he'd just called, twice, for Carson, but all he'd heard was some kind of cottony muffled sounds that were far away and bogged down in cubits of water.
"I can't hear." Rodney looked around, lifting his head and shoulders enough to search for Carson. Oh, God, his head hurt. Abominably. Headache…that's right, Sheppard had gotten a headache, then he'd… "The…the echolocation…something the whales did, it's affecting us," he rattled off, running it through as quickly as the thoughts solidified.
Someone laid a hand on his arm, and pushed against his chest, moving him down, back against the bed. Rodney jerked. His eyes had been drilled on Sheppard, worry pinpointing his attention, but now it darted to find Carson there. "Oh, Carson, good, you're here."
Carson winced, pulling his head back slightly. "Rodney, you're going to be fine!"
"What?"
"I said you're going to be fine!"
Rodney felt like poking fingers in his ears. He'd managed to hear some of that, but everything seemed to be super-muted, dampened, quiet and yet, painful.
Movement on the edges of his peripheral vision skirted along the lines of Rodney's consciousness, and he turned in time to see Sheppard blinking unsteadily up towards the ceiling. The colonel frowned, looked down and lifted his hand with the IV.
Carson moved around the beds until he was standing between them. "You're in the infirmary, Colonel Sheppard! You both suffered perforated eardrums from the whales, but with a little rest, you'll be fine!"
Sheppard rolled his head carefully to the side and stared at Carson, confusion etched into the bunched wrinkles on his forehead. "What?"
Was it possible to feel any worse? Seriously, this was like… Okay, the time with the arrow in the ass, that'd hurt more, but overall, right now he felt a lot crappier, and judging from the pained lines around Sheppard's eyes and mouth, Rodney wasn't suffering alone. Jesus, Sam hadn't caused this kind of trouble before, had he?
Although, to be fair, Rodney had been suffering from a head injury, hypothermia, and he'd already been hallucinating and mostly teetering on the brink of losing it, so…
A nurse was taking his hand and grasping it firmly, pulling at the tape holding the IV port in place. What was she doing that for? Without that, he couldn't get the really good stuff… God, his head hurt. "Carson! I need to talk to Radek, the echolocation --"
Sheppard's movements distracted him. Because he couldn't hear, everything that moved yanked his attention towards it, his eyes darting to find the source, and what it was doing. A nurse had removed Sheppard's IV and the colonel was lifting the wad of cotton from his skin, checking for blood, while still lying mostly flat on his back and looking like crap.
"Elizabeth is just outside, waiting with Radek… lie back, Rodney. I'll bring them in for a short visit, but you need to stay in bed!"
"Good, good …" This was incredible! Rodney needed his tablet, so he could do more research into the whales…
"Colonel, if you hold your nose and blow, it'll alleviate some of the discomfort!" Carson had paused by the foot of John's bed before leaving, and Rodney could make out enough of what Carson was saying to give it a shot himself.
He pinched his nose and tried to blow, but ow! "That hurts, Carson!"
Sheppard looked across at him, puzzled. "What?"
Rodney glared. See if he'd trust that witch doctor anytime soon… He dropped his hand and tried to puff his mouth full of air without being noticeable. It'd always worked when he was a kid and had an earache.
He stopped blowing when he saw Radek and Elizabeth threading their way across the infirmary towards them. Yes, finally! Now he could tell someone his theories on the whales, and get Radek to find his tablet, and then they could study what the whales were saying!
Incredible, Sam might just be smarter then the average small-brained mammal!
scene insert over
(now go watch Echoes again! It'll be like an echo of Echoes…grin)