Thank you to all my lovely reviewers. Here we go - John in jeopardy. The symptoms of the poison are accurate medically.
The infirmary was lit with the eerie blue light that is reserved for night time, as Cat watched her husband fight for his life. Although comatose, he would occasionally twitch and his face would grimace with pain. It tore her heart out to see him suffering so much, but he couldn't take any pain relief until they knew what was poisoning him. In those periods of activity, the alarm on the heart monitor would go off and the nursing staff would swarm around his bed, desperately trying to keep him alive. What everyone knew was that John Sheppard would fight for his life and never give up but the night was punctuated by moments of sheer panic when it looked as though they might lose him. Throughout it all, Cat sat by his side, gently stroking his arm and murmuring encouraging words, telling him how much she loved him. Rodney, Ronon and Teyla were all gathered around his bed, Mckay hovering between exhausted sleep and manic activity. Occasionally, Teyla would approach the bed, put her arm around Cat's shoulders and gently speak to John, whispering encouragement. Ronon was stoically silent, still as a pike rod, anger and worry written all over his features.
He had just gone through one of his twitchy episodes, when things became much worse, very suddenly. The monitors went mad, as his convulsed violently on the bed, frothy blood erupted from his mouth and then he flat-lined, the shaking suddenly stopping to be replaced by a frightening stillness. The nursing team were by the bed in seconds, and Cat was gently but forcibly pulled away by strong hands, which turned out to be Ronon's. All she could see as she left, unable to take her eyes away from his bed, was the medical team desperately trying to resuscitate him, and then she was in the waiting room, shuddering in Ronon's arms. Rodney and Teyla were standing by the door to the infirmary, now closed and John's bed out of sight. The team were deadly silent, unable to take in the horror of what they had just witnessed, and numbly awaited news.
It could have been ten minutes, it could have been an hour, before Jennifer Keller came into the waiting room and four anxious faces looked to her for re-assurance that the man who was so important to them all was still alive. 'We got him back,' she said, 'but that was a close-call. He bit his tongue while he was convulsing and that's where all the blood came from and he is as stable as we can make him until we know what's happening.' She looked at Cat, comforting her with a soft touch on her arm, and said, 'He's alive, Cat, that's all that matters for now. We should know more in the morning. You really need to get some rest.'
'No, I need to be here.' She couldn't let herself voice her thoughts, 'In case this is the last time I can be with him.' She knew that John would have remained positive with his team if one of them were hurt, never a man willing to accept the possibility of defeat: that was what had kept him alive all these years. In private, he might admit to fighting so hard for fear of facing his own death, but he would never let his friends and colleagues see it. He needed to fight hard now, harder than ever before, if he were to get through this, and she needed to be with him to give him encouragement, believing that he must be aware of her presence. Several times in the night, his heart beat had slowed when she spoke quietly to him and caressed his arm. No, there was no way she was leaving his side.
Cat had no idea how much time had passed before Jennifer arrived with the results. John had been poisoned by strychnine, which explained his convulsions and the way he had stopped breathing. 'Of all the poisons, this causes the most pain and causes the breathing tracts to dilate. There is no specific cure, but the longer he fights, the more chance he has to survive. I can give him a muscle relaxant and an anticonvulsant, which should make him easier, but the rest is down to Colonel Sheppard's stubbornness and time. We can begin to relax once 24 hours is up. Most patients recover if they survive for the first day.'
'I don't understand. How could he have taken the poison? Could it have been accidental?' They all knew this was a stupid question, but Rodney had asked what they were all thinking. Deliberate poisoning meant that a killer was on the loose in the city.
Jennifer paused. 'In my opinion, it had to be deliberate. Strychnine is easily ingested, and was probably in his food or drink. There is any number of ways it could have been brought into the city: common rat poison contains it for example. What we need to do is try to trace back what the Colonel ate and drank today. It is possible that it could have happened on the planet, although I think that unlikely.'
Her listeners paused to take in what she had said. The first thing Cat had done was check out her watch. Twenty four hours meant about two that afternoon and she knew she would be clock watching until that point, though it at least gave her something to focus upon. Rodney, Teyla and Ronon exchanged glances. Normally John would head up the investigation, but the task would now fall to Lorne. They knew that he would be anxiously waiting for news of his CO, as would much of the city.
It was Teyla who took charge of the situation, Ronon too angry and Rodney too visibly shaken. She tapped on her earpiece. 'Mr Woolsey. Please can we meet you in your office? We have some important news about Colonel Sheppard, and it would be a good idea if Major Lorne were there too. Also, it is vital that there is some armed protection down here.' She paused as Woolsey began to question why this was needed.' Can we discuss this off radio? '
To give him his due, Richard Woolsey trusted the people under his command, especially the members of the premier team, and he ordered two marines to the infirmary immediately. By the time the worried group were heading off to meet him, they were already in place. However, Teyla secretly thought that, with Cat by his side, there wasn't a chance of anyone getting near to her husband. Lorne was already in Woolsey's office when the team arrived, having been apprised of the situation. The look on his face matched the feelings of the rest of the team: anger, upset and determination written all over his features. None of them could imagine why anyone on Atlantis would want to murder John: he was so much respected and admired by everybody and most would do anything for him.
'We need to trace what and where he ate yesterday.' Lorne was saying to Woolsey as the team entered the room. 'It shouldn't be too difficult. I mean The Colonel doesn't exactly eat very much, unlike some I could mention.' He aimed an ironic look at Mckay, who snorted back derisively. 'I'm assuming that he had his usual 'Maria Johnson' special this morning in the canteen. She is going to be devastated if it turns out to be her food that was tampered with.' They all knew about the Chief's little 'crush' on John, but none of them would have dreamed of teasing her about it, because in truth it was more of a full-blown one-sided love affair, and they respected her too much.
Lorne was right. Chief Johnson was distraught. As usual, her beloved man had not eaten enough that day, and her breakfast was all he had consumed, except maybe for the water from the bottle he took with him for his run. He hadn't even had a power bar on the planet; confirmed by Rodney who admitted to wheedling it out of his friend, not an uncommon event in their many off-world experiences. He even remembered grumbling about the flavour: he hated apricot which was a step too close to citrus for his liking. Thankfully, the water bottle had been left John's running kit in his quarters, and it tested negative.
Maria Johnson recalled the strange feeling she had a couple of nights previously; nothing she could put her finger on, just a sense of someone in the shadows and of something being moved. She had no evidence, she had said, but she was certain something wasn't right. It was fairly evident that John's breakfast had been poisoned and Maria was as upset as they had feared. She vowed to personally serve him all this breakfasts from now on, not allowing the tray from her sight and the big woman was in so much distress at the thought of what her loved one was going through, blaming herself for it, that she had to be taken back to her quarters by Teyla and sedated. In the meantime, Lorne needed to try to find out who would have reason to kill his CO. His first task would be to question all the section heads about their staff and find out if there was anyone bearing the kind of grudge that would make them a killer. Doctor Harrison, the new Psychiatrist, also suggested that they look for someone with a history of mental illness, especially someone with an obsessive compulsive personality. She began to investigate her records while Lorne and his team undertook the interviews and Rodney attempted to find a way to unblock Atlantis' security files. They had all been amazed, when they first arrived in the city, to discover no obvious system of security cameras or other observational equipment. The Ancients had the life-signs detector but clearly trusted each other enough not to need to spy on their actions.
Ronon was with Rodney in the Science labs. Not obvious candidates for friends, they had developed a strong bond and Ronon trusted nobody as much as McKay with ingenious ways to 'save the day'. In any case, what he really wanted to be doing was beating the crap out of whoever did this to John, and he needed to keep himself occupied. Listening to Rodney's incessant chatter was as good a distraction as anything and at least he felt that they were doing something.
'Okay, I think I have something. I've adjusted the city's life-signs detector to give us a historical view of movement around the base in the last 48 hours. It's not easy to isolate a time-frame, so I'll have to guesstimate a bit, and we won't necessarily know who we are watching, but if we can trace comings and goings we might be able to make some logical assumptions, if that isn't a paradox, and come up with some possible suspects. It'll take a little time.' At that, Rodney stopped talking, entirely focussed on the task, a rare occurrence and something he only did when he was really concentrating and Ronon left him to do what Rodney does best: that is, find ever more ingenious ways to save the day.
***
The infirmary was quiet. John was the only patient and the guards on the door stopped any other visitors, especially Doctor Keller's regular resident hypochondriacs who would often drop by for their dose of paracetemol or the odd sleeping tablet. Over the last hour, John seemed calmer and Cat was sure that his colour was improving; he also grimaced less in his sleep. It was just gone midday when she heard gentle footfall behind her and jumping, turned round to see Andrew Alexander standing behind her.
'Oh, you made me jump, Andrew! Doctor Keller is in her office at the moment if you want her.' She turned back to the bed, expecting the young man to leave. For a moment, she was puzzled to find him there, but dismissed her concerns when she realised that he was a member of the medical team and as much right to be there as her.
'No, I heard about the Colonel and came to see if you were okay and if there is anything I can do. How is he?' She thought she glimpsed a strange expression flash through the bright blue eyes, but it was gone before she could try to read what it mean t.
'He's doing alright. We've about another two hours before we can begin to relax, but Jennifer thinks he should be okay. Thanks for asking.' Cat turned all her attention back to her husband. Suddenly, she had the strangest feeling, as though the young nurse were about to say or do something else; the sensation of a body closing in on her personal space, but as soon as she turned round again, he was on his way out of the room. Shrugging her shoulders, suspecting that she was over-tired and over-sensitive, she focussed her attention entirely on the man in the bed again, willing him to open his eyes.
A slight flicker of a dark eye-lash was the first sign that her husband was coming back to her. She almost missed it at first, but the second flutter showed a rather blood-shot and dazed hazel eye, and at the third his eyes flew open in panic and fear, looking around the room in a kind of manic daze. At least this time there was no ventilator tube, but he tried to pull off the oxygen mask and the various tubes and wires that were attached to his arm and chest. Cat leant forward and took his heart-shaped chin in her hands, trying to make eye-contact and with a calming voice said, 'It's alright, my love, you're in the infirmary but you are okay. Take some deep breaths into the mask and when Jennifer gets here she can let you know when you can take it off.'
She could see the effort it took him to calm down and focus on her, then he quietly nodded his head and put his hand on hers, seeing for the first time the tears of joy that she was shedding for him. It was so typical of John to comfort those around him, rather than worry for himself. Within seconds, the nursing team and Jennifer were at his bedside, checking his readings and soothing him with comforting words, but all the time he kept his eyes on Cat. When Jennifer explained what had happened, his eyes widened with surprise and shock, and he tried to speak, grimacing with discomfort when the words would not come out.
'Stay calm, Colonel,' she said. 'I'll give you some ice-chips. You're bound to have a sore throat and mouth for a while. Apart from dehydration, you bit your tongue quite hard when you had one of your convulsions and it will be a little painful for a bit.' Jennifer gave him some cooling ice and he began to quieten, then she nodded smilingly at Cat, leaving her to fill him on all the details of the last 24 hours. Jennifer's first task was to radio John's team, Woolsey and Lorne, and of course Chief Maria Johnson, all desperate for news and she didn't suppose the infirmary would be so peaceful for long. The city had been on hold for the last day, every member (or at least every member but one thought Keller ruefully) finding it incredibly difficult to go about their normal routines knowing that their respected Military Commander was at death's door.
For a while John drifted in and out of sleep and, for the first time in a few hours, Cat was able to sleep too, albeit on the bed next to him. At various points, Teyla, Rodney and Ronon came to visit, keeping Cat informed of the progress they were making. Yes, said Rodney, he had managed to trace at least five life-signs in the kitchens that night at about the right time. It seemed that there was more than one secret midnight binger and Chief Johnson wasn't at all happy about it either. It was one thing asking her for the food she always had out for the midnight munchers, as she called them, it was quite another to steel from under her nose. Lorne was busy trying to trace who the illicit visitors were, by following back their footsteps and they had at least three likely candidates. One turned out to be Rodney himself and he rather awkwardly had to apologise to Chief Johnson and promise 'never ever ever' to do it again. That left one unidentified person, and Rodney had only stayed for the briefest time, to concentrate on the investigation.
Finally, after about three hours, Cat was alone with John again. He was looking a lot better and even managed to raise one of his brilliant smiles, even if it was a little weak. She marvelled at how, even in this condition, he could still remain so handsome and how the nurses fluttered around him, competing for who would take the next shift. She was so exhausted that, though sitting upright, her head kept lolling forward and finally she felt a little tap on her hand and jumped awake to see a much clearer pair of hazel eyes looking up at her.
'Go and get some sleep, my angel,' he said. 'I'm not going anywhere and I need you fit and rested for when I am up and about!' At this he winked and pulled her forward for a luxurious kiss, one which she had feared not to feel again, his lips warm and soft against hers. The promise in his mouth and his eyes was quite clear, and she nodded blearily, kissed him on his forehead and left the infirmary for a more comfortable sleep, probably dreaming of the next night or two, when she would be able to have him in her bed again.
The corridor was quiet, unusually so, even for late evening. Unnervingly, Cat could hear her own footfall echoing off the walls of the city, although once she thought she heard the slight scrape of another shoe behind her, but when she glanced round there was nothing there. Atlantis was not a place of threat or danger normally, so she was not expecting the violence of a strong arm around her neck, so powerful that he began to lose consciousness, struggling for breath. She tried to fight her unseen attacker, but he or she had caught her by surprise and in less than a minute she felt her knees buckle beneath her.
In his lab, Rodney was working over the life-signs trace. The fourth person had been bothering him: there was something about the movements that didn't quite make sense. Then, he got it. 'Major Lorne. I know who we're looking for, but I don't know why.'
TBC
Please R and R. You know you want too!!!! Who is the attacker?
