I don't own Stargate Atlantis or any of it's characters. Except for the few that I have made up myself.
Hey there folks. It's been awhile. Sorry for the long wait between chapters. I'm back from my vacation and I had an awesome time. Feels weird being back at work. And now I've been able type out another chapter. Hope you like this one. I didn't get to write a whole lot while I was away, traveling too much, but that's okay because I still have a bunch written that I can post. Have fun reading folks. I look forward to the reviews.
Chapter Seven
When the gate activated in Atlantis, Dr. Weir made her way as fast as she could to the Control Room. She had been waiting for word from Colonel Sheppard's team. They were overdue and she had no idea why. She knew that something had gone wrong. That was the only reason why there would have been no contact from SGA-1. "Is there any IDC?" she asked the technician at the main console.
"It's coming through now Dr. Weir." He said. "It's Teyla's."
"Deactivate the shield and get Dr. Becket here immediately." She said hurriedly. He did as he was told and they waited to see their number one team come through the gate.
Less than two minutes later they saw Ronan pass through the event horizon and then Rodney. They were carrying something between them. Everyone was shocked to see that it was Colonel Sheppard. Less than a minute later Teyla come through and she turned to face the gate. She watched as the wormhole disengaged and then moved towards the rest of her team.
They were all bent down beside John when Weir came running down the stairs and Dr. Becket entered with a couple of nurses on his heal with a gurney. Dr. Weir looked at the state of her team and crouched down beside them. "What happened?" All four of them looked quite dirty and exhausted. John was unconscious and had several cuts on his face. But none looked too deep.
"There is an Ancient device on that planet." Rodney spoke up first. "It felt Sheppard when he arrived on the planet and took control of him. It made him wake it up and then it completely took him over. We had to restrain him so that he wouldn't go back and feed it more power."
"How were you able to get him back here if this thing took him over?" she asked.
"It was McKay." Ronan said. "He got so mad at it that he told it we would blow it up if it didn't let Sheppard go. That we would bring back people from Atlantis and kill it."
"Is that a hint of admiration I hear in your voice Ronan?" Rodney asked with a smirk. Ronan grunted and turned his attention back to Elizabeth.
"Lotan, the leader of the village where we were, helped us get Sheppard back to the gate. I think that we have a new ally with these people."
"That's great news." Weir said as she stood when Becket and Ronan put John on the stretcher. They began to wheel him to the infirmary with Teyla, Ronan, Rodney and Elizabeth close on their heels.
Arriving at the infirmary they got the Colonel onto a bed and stripped him down to his black boxer shorts so they could examine him. The nurses checked the rest of the team out to see if they had received any injuries. They did a complete examination of John and found that he was extremely dehydrated. He also had bruises and welts on his wrists from the restraints that he had pulled on. He had minor cuts on his face and hands. And he seemed to have a low grade fever due to exhaustion. From what Becket had heard from Rodney, Ronan and Teyla he was probably going to have some mental issues as well from what the Ancient device had done to him. It was going to be a long road back. Becket hoped that they could all help him get back to his care free, sarcastic self. Back to the Colonel Sheppard that they all respected and cared for. Because if that didn't happen then their little corner of the Pagasus Galaxy was going to be a lot less interesting to be in.
Becket finished the examination and pulled the blanket up over John's bare chest to keep him warm. Then he attached the IV line on his hand and checked the heart monitor before heading to check on the others to see what the verdict was. Then maybe he would get more answers about what this device was doing to Colonel Sheppard. And was the Colonel truly free of its influence?
As the night progressed Carson kept a close eye on Colonel Sheppard. The man was not doing very well. The dehydration and the fever were beginning to wreak havoc on his body. What had started off as a low grade fever had slowly been up graded as the night moved on. He could not figure it out. John's symptoms just seemed to get worse. It was beginning to scare him a little. The dehydration did not help matters either. The higher the fever got it seemed to compound the amount of dehydration. He was going through a lot of IV fluid just to counteract what he was losing in body fluid.
At three o'clock in the morning Carson found himself sitting at the pilot's bedside watching the man sleep. Watching him shiver with fever. There was only the night lighting in the infirmary and every time that John moved shadows would bounce around the room.
Carson was caught off guard when he felt a hand rest on his right shoulder. He jumped and turned around to see who it was. He was surprised to see that it was Rodney. The man had seemed to become a very close friend of the Colonel's. Any outsider would think that Rodney and John hated each other. They were constantly throwing insults and sarcasm back and forth at each other and they would yell a lot. But the crew of Atlantis, they knew that Rodney and John respected one another and were very good friends. One doesn't have to act like a friend to be one. Rodney cared for his friends and it was easy to see that he was quite worried about the health of the pilot. In fact, scared was more like it. Scared that he might die.
"Hey there Becket. I was going crazy in my lab so I thought I'd come by and see how
Sheppard was doing." Rodney said as he moved in on the other side of the bed.
"His fever is getting worse Rodney." Came Becket's Scottish lilt which seemed to be getting thicker the more stressed out he was getting.
"How is that?" McKay asked. "I thought it was a low grade fever. Why is it getting worse instead of better?"
"I don't know why. But the combination of the dehydration and the fever is making things a lot worse for him. I've just been sitting here for the last twenty minutes trying to come up with a way to help him. I just don't know."
Rodney reached out a hand and placed it on Sheppard's forehead. He could feel the heat radiating from John. The man was really sick. Carson saw the worried look on Rodney's face and stood up. "I'll let you talk to him alone Rodney. He can probably hear you." Becket turned and left Rodney to watch over John for a while.
Rodney moved around and sat down in the chair that Carson had been sitting in. He just sat and looked at his friend for a while, unsure of what to say to the man. Then after ten minutes of watching John sweat and shiver, he reached a hand out and placed it on the pilot's shoulder. "Hey there buddy, it's me Rodney." He stopped and sighed. "Of course it's Rodney, who else would it be." He sighed again and put his hand through his hair. "Come on man. You have to get better. Atlantis just won't be the same if you're not here. And I need your sarcasm and your hero complex to keep me going. Who else am I going to tease if you're not here?"
John twitched and rolled onto his side, facing Rodney. He saw the bandages on his wrists from the damage done by the restraints they had him in. Then he saw the haggard look on John's face and reached his hand out again and then paused before it reached his face. He brought his hand back and placed it in his lap. He watched the man sleep and then fell asleep himself. His arm on the bed and his head resting on his arm.
Around four in the morning John's eyes flickered slowly open and he found himself staring into the sleeping head of Rodney McKay. He reached out his shaking hand and placed it on Rodney's head. He smiled faintly and then began to shake uncontrollably.
Rodney woke when he felt something trembling on his head. When he lifted his head John's hand fell limply onto the bed and continued to shake.
"Sheppard? Are you awake?" Rodney asked as he looked at his eyes and saw that they were open. When he saw that John was trembling quite heavily he yelled for Becket.
Carson came running in looking like he had just woken up. When he saw John having what looked like a seizure he ran to the man's side.
"Rodney! Help me out man! We need to stop the seizure."
Rodney jumped up and grabbed hold of John's shoulder. Becket looked into John's open eyes and took hold of his head. "John! John! Look at me. I'm going to help you. Okay?" the doctor said. John's eyes were wide open and there was a slight nod that Becket could see. "Okay then. Let's get going Rodney. Help me stop the seizure."
It took them ten minutes but they were finally able to stop John from shaking. He lay spent on the bed breathing heavily. The sheets were crumpled around his feet. He was sweating all over and his skin was glistening. His hair was half matted to his face and half standing up on end. He looked like hell. He was staring off into space looking somewhat dazed.
"John, can you hear me son?" Carson asked as he leaned over to check on the Colonel's eyes.
The Colonel slowly blinked and then looked at Becket, then at Rodney. He coughed slightly when he tried to speak. "What happened?" he asked in a raspy, quiet voice.
"You had a seizure Colonel. I'll have to do an examination to find out why."
"You were sleeping when I woke up Rodney. How long have you been here?" John asked as he looked at the man.
"Um…" Rodney did not know what to say. "Just for a couple of hours and I fell asleep."
John looked at him and smiled that crooked grin of his.
"I think we should let him sleep Rodney. Come on." Becket said as he pulled the sheets up to John's chest. Rodney nodded, took one last look at John and left the infirmary. Becket gave John a sedative and then left him to sleep for the rest of the night.
When John next woke up it was almost eight in the morning. He didn't know that at the time but he looked around at the darkened room. It was empty and quiet. He decided that he needed to use the washroom so he slowly pulled the sheets down and slid his legs over the side of the bed. He sat for a moment, dizziness starting to subside. He pushed himself off of the bed and winced when he felt the pain in his wrists.
When he got to his feet they almost gave out from under him. He held himself steady for a moment by holding onto the IV pole and then began to walk towards the bathroom.
As he stood in the bathroom looking into the mirror he tried to fix his screwed up hair with water and it didn't seem to work the way that he wanted it to. He sighed with frustration and then suddenly grabbed his head. It felt like someone was sticking a hot poker into his brain. He ended up on his knees trying to make the pain go away. It was so intense that it almost knocked him unconscious. Then he began to hear what he thought was a voice inside of his head. He tried to shake it off but it just wasn't working. He felt like he was going crazy.
He tried to stand up by pulling himself up the side of the sink. He fell back onto the floor and grabbed his head again. Then quite suddenly the pain was gone and he was up on his feet in a trance. He left the bathroom and then the infirmary wearing burgundy scrubs. He walked down the hall with Atlantis members staring at him as he went. It was like he had a destination in mind because he didn't say a single thing as he went.
He walked to the Jumper Bay and went directly to Jumper One. When he went inside everything lit up and he sat down at the console. He started up Jumper One and then hit the address for P3J-448.
TBC in Chapter Eight…
A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chapter guys. And yes, I am leaving you in a bit of a cliff hanger. Sorry about that. Hmmm, I wonder what could be happening to Sheppard? I guess you'll have to tune in to the next chapter to find out. Ta for now.