A/N: If you've read the previous chapter, and the sensitive content warning in the first chapter, then you should have an idea of what's coming. So, consider yourself warned.
In this chapter: Carson has secrets, but he's not telling. Casey has a whole bunch of secrets, but they all belong to Major Lorne. Also, an Octopus and a Snickers bar.
Arbitrātus (Noun, [ar-bi-tra-tus]): a choice; decision; free will; option; right to judgement; jurisdiction.
Casey dislodges her hand from Sheppard's. He doesn't move away. Instead, he just stares at the floor, hands lying limply against his thighs. She's not sure if his catatonia is because of the news, or the fact that he had been right.
Pregnant.
The Xenobiologist in her is fascinated at the idea that she may be carrying an Iratus-human hybrid child, curious to know what it would look like and how it would behave, but she knows it shouldn't, wouldn't, and won't happen.
"Do you believe the... baby... will have both Human and Iratus DNA?" Her voice is surprisingly strong. Do you believe this child will be a form of wraith? That's how they evolved, right?
She won't say that out loud though. She doesn't have to. Beckett will understand.
Carson considers for a moment, then nods.
"The likelihood is extremely high. I could na' say in what proportions, though." He would have to do post-partum DNA analysis to confirm. That's too long to wait.
She doesn't ask if it is physically possible for a human to carry a hybrid child to term, because it doesn't matter. They've all agreed (except Sheppard, but he'll be sworn to secrecy momentarily) to never tell anyone the truth about what happened. The child would be both a security risk and a health risk, and can never be allowed to exist. Not to mention the kind of life the child would be subjected to as soon as the IOA or the NID found out about its existence.
More importantly, Casey thinks, is the socio-legal and political ramifications. Atlantis had just narrowly avoided losing Sheppard to the transformation. She's pretty sure they wouldn't want to lose him to rape charges under UCMJ, either. She had said it was important for Sheppard to have choice, for her to have choice. And now she had a choice, a decision to make for both of them. It's really a no-brainer. The best course of action for her, Atlantis, and for Sheppard, is to terminate. The room is quiet as they wait for her response.
"So, how do we safely induce without anybody finding out?" She jumps right to the crux of the matter. Miscarriages are serious business. They can be extremely risky, and she's pretty sure they don't include termination medication in the standard "Medical Supplies for another galaxy" first aid kit. She glances around at all of them in turn. Sure, Beckett is the doctor, but if this plan is going to work, they need to all be on board. Next to her, Sheppard looks like he might pass out with relief at her suggestion. She guesses Sheppard won't have to be sworn to secrecy after all - he seems to be perfectly happy with the idea of not telling anyone. Ever.
Lorne is grimacing, but he seems to be on board. When her gaze returns to the doctor, he blinks, and then clears his throat nervously.
"I can get what we need." Lorne and Sheppard both raise a brow at the doctor, who squirms slightly under their scrutiny. This is dangerous territory, for all of them.
Beckett clears his throat again, and then changes the topic.
"Yer feeling al'right, love?"
Casey nods. "Not much out of the ordinary, I suppose. Nothing specifically different."
"No morning sickness, tenderness, tiredness...?" Carson trails off as he realises he's asking her personal medical questions with two men in the room.
Casey shrugs.
"I felt a little... tingly... every now and then, the last few weeks, but that could have been anything." She gestures with her plastered arm. "Otherwise I feel completely normal."
Carson eyes her critically.
"I would run a scan, normally, but it'd be logged in the system and there's nae a chance it wouldn't pick up on the wee one." He wouldn't be able to delete it, or hide it.
Casey nods in agreement.
"You should be fine tae simply go about yer business, fer now. I'll send word via Major Lorne once all th' arrangements are made."
She nods yet again, and doesn't ask any more questions. Unfortunately, Lorne has one of his own.
"How did you know?"
Casey shifts her weight, and turns to look at Sheppard. He gives a pained sign. Still looking at Sheppard, she addresses Carson.
"I believe Colonel Sheppard has something of an olfactory nature he would like to discuss with you, Doctor Beckett." She turns back to the Scottish physician. "We'll leave you two alone."
Beckett's gaze flickers to Sheppard, who looks thoroughly unhappy with the world.
Casey jerks her head at Major Lorne, and swipes a hand over the door control to open it. Lorne grudgingly follows her out, casting one final curious glance back at where his CO is now sequestered in the CMO's office. The door slides shut, closed from the inside by the doctor in question, and then it's just the two of them as they head out of the infirmary.
"So, you were looking for me?" she asks lightly, once they're back in the corridors outside the medical wing.
Lorne clears his throat.
"Uhh, yeah... about that..."
Between Beckett and Lorne the arrangements are all done within two days. Lorne brings her lunch in the Level 4 lab the next day and gives her the brief and cover story. The plan is somewhat elaborate but Carson had been insistent that everything needed to appear to be above board. It's set for execution two days later - it's a designated Sunday for both her and the Major, but Beckett is on duty with the morning shift. It seems Lorne has decided not to ask too many questions either, so they both simply put their faith in Dr Beckett and his somewhat overly paranoid set-up. Sheppard won't be involved beyond knowing that it was going to be done. It's better this way.
At the end of week five, Lorne shows up at her room at 0700 to join her on a morning run. They jog for fifteen minutes, just enough to work up a visible flush and enough sweat to sell it, before they double back down one of the quieter corridors towards the central tower. As they get close to the transporter station, they stop and Lorne 'helps' her to the infirmary where she is checked in under the story that she had slipped and fallen down a few stairs during their run. Beckett pretends to run a brief hand-held scan, before strapping up her ankle and handing her some "pain medication" that they both know isn't. Lorne returns to his run alone. Casey is held for observation for a while and then released back to her quarters to "rest".
Eight hours later Casey finds herself breathing through some nasty stomach cramps on the floor of her bathroom. Per the plan, she radios Major Lorne on the common channel, and apologises for not being able to join him at movie night because of instructions to stay off her ankle from Doctor Beckett. It's their code phrase, and Lorne heads off to find and notify Beckett that he's needed. They independently make their way to her quarters, Lorne arriving last. He waits in the room while Beckett sits with her in the bathroom. It feels like forever, but probably isn't more than an hour before it's all over.
As they clean up, Beckett informs her that the blastocyst is three times larger than a normal human embryo would be at five weeks. The wonder in his voice triggers the scientist in her, and she asks him if he would like to study it. Even she's curious to know. He looks at it ponderously for a few moments before shaking his head and sealing it up in the biohazard waste container he procured specifically for the event. Too risky, he says, and she sadly agrees. Someone else in the medical research labs might spot it, and then they would have explaining to do. She wants to ask Carson what his plan is for disposing of a biohazard container while he's not on duty, but she decides to rather not dig too deeply. Carson clearly has his own secrets, and she's content to let him keep them.
Carson gives her a muscle relaxant and painkiller concoction before he heads out, leaving her in the Major's capable hands. Lorne escorts her to bed, and takes a seat on the chair by her desk. He makes light conversation, telling her about the fit McKay threw when he found out about the indestructible metal-eating waterbugs, and the resulting dramatics between the Head of Science and the Xenobiology department. Ellingson had apparently threatened to name them "Meridigrades" which had, for some incomprehensible reason, shut McKay up instantly and made him far more willing to negotiate reasonable protocols for further study. The Major is pretty sure that nobody else in Xeno is aware that he ratted them out, and Casey has to grin at having yet another Lorne secret to add to her collection. The medication kicks in not long after and she falls asleep without realising it. Lorne lets himself out.
When she wakes up the next morning, there's a Snickers bar on her bedside table. Lorne has an odd sense of humour, she thinks wryly, but it makes her smile anyway. She gets up, gets dressed, and heads back to her lab, back to work, and back to normal life.
Lorne still drops in occasionally to check on her, and she joins him and his team at the next movie night. Even Beckett stops by to say hello in the mess hall and to remind her that the cast can come off in a few days. She sees Teyla at a Girls Poker Night, and ends up trying to explain the various (now somewhat smudged) dirty jokes and pictures on her cast to the Athosian. There's a carefully drawn cross-hatch Octopus on the underside. Everyone assumes it's a Xeno thing, so she doesn't correct them. She doesn't tell them that it actually came from Major Lorne, who turned out to be surprisingly talented with a Sharpie. That's another secret in her Lorne stash.
Sheppard has taken to completely avoiding her.
She's not exactly looking for him. As far as she's concerned, everything has been sorted out, and if he wants to deal by pretending she doesn't exist, it really isn't her problem. They didn't really know each other or socialise before The Incident, so why would they now? Being around him is occasionally unavoidable, and it's pretty awkward every time. Everyone believes it's because Sheppard feels really bad because he "beat her up" while he was blue, and it's a convenient explanation so they simply go with it.
Honestly though, Casey is fine. This is Pegasus, and although what happened was highly unpleasant, there are newer things to focus on. Problems to solve, challenges to overcome, species to study and knowledge to discover. Everyone on the Atlantis expedition is a little insane to begin with, and weird stuff happens so often that there's no more baseline for "normal". She's just fine. It was just another weird alien creature encounter.
This is what she tells herself to get through the day, and it seems to be working just fine, so she ignores the weird sensation she gets whenever she sees Sheppard and just pushes onwards. It wasn't him. It wasn't Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard.
Her life goes on as normal.
Sleeping.
Eating.
Working.
Socialising.
The cast comes off, and Exercise is added to the list to regain strength in her arm.
All totally normal.
Everything is perfectly fine.
Her doorbell chimes again, insistently, and Casey flails an arm over the light controls beside her. She grudgingly drags herself upright. A quick glance at her watch has her groaning. Seriously? It's 3am. Who in their right mind would be at her door in the middle of the night? The door chimes again. Whoever it is, they're not going anywhere, and clearly don't care that they've woken her up.
"Yeah, I'm coming!" she grumps at her visitor as she pulls herself into a pair of sweatpants and stumbles across the room to wave a hand over the door sensor.
It whooshes open to reveal an apologetic-looking Major Lorne.
"Major?"
"I need your help."
She blinks at him, uncomprehendingly.
"I need your help," he repeats, and looks hesitant. "... to find Sheppard."