A/n: The flow of this chapter bugged me for a long time. I think I rewrote it like five times, and I'm not completely happy with it. Thank you so much for the reviews, the third chapter is in progress and should be up soon. Happy reading!
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" Carson, please? It won't hurt I promise," Colonel Sheppard's voice pleaded for the umpteenth time. But again Carson shook his head defiantly; clinging to the Colonel's side with an iron grip.
"It'll just take a second, and then we'll be done." Dr. Apollo was begging now. For the past minute or so, they'd been trying to get Carson to cooperate with them. All they wanted was to remove the oversized, bloodied shirt that was draped very loosely over his tiny frame. It wasn't going to well and, Susanne was beginning to lose her patience. " Carson, either be cooperative and let us look at where you're hurt or we'll do it anyway. You won't like the second way." There was a menacing, motherly tone to her voice now.
Carson shrank back, only his eyes and the top of his head were visible from behind John. There was fear in those eyes, either from Dr. Apollo or from what they wanted from him, she wasn't sure. Either way, he was staying firmly put. John took a new approach. Prying the little finger's from his shirt, he moved to stand next to Susanne, leaving Carson exposed and at a loss of what to do next.
"We can wait all day, Carson, but we do need to look at that cut, just to make sure you're ok. You don't want it to get worse, do you?" The boy frantically shook his head. Sheppard put his hands in his pockets and tilted his head, "Then can we look?" Silently, Carson nodded. Then he scooted to the edge of the bed, slipped to the floor and tottered over to John. Sheppard squatted down eye-level with him.
"Am s'ry," his voice was so little and soft that John barely caught it, but the hug that followed conveyed the message just as well. With that, Sheppard picked him back off the floor and set him on the edge of the cot so his feet dangled. He stood off to the side and let Susanne take his place in front of Carson. Tugging gently at the hem of the shirt, she slid it up and over his head. There were four gashes on his chest, just barely off center. Scabs were already starting to form over them, but both Doctor and Colonel noted that they couldn't be anything less that painful for such a little guy. She tenderly touched them, apologizing soothingly as he winced. He really wouldn't like it when they had to be cleaned and dressed properly. She looked to John and motioned with her head towards the curtains.
Once outside the curtains, they spoke in a hushed tone. Susanne started, "You know he's going to be very unhappy when we starting rubbing Hydrogen Peroxide on those cuts. Plus, I don't know how to bandage them with out limiting his movement, and he's unsteady enough as it is," she chuckled dryly, "and the last thing he needs is some other injury."
Sheppard nodded, "Maybe if you just do, like, a surface bandage instead of wrapping it all the way around him. And maybe if I sit with him, he'll be ok while you clean him up," he shrugged. Susanne nodded vaguely, and then finally made eye contact with the Colonel and agreed.
"Yes, I think you're right. But if we don't use a wrap, he'll have to have the bandage changed at least once before it heals. That won't be too pleasant."
"Yeah." Sheppard didn't know what to say, after all he wasn't a Doctor. Susanne turned and went back through the curtains, Sheppard followed soon after. Carson was lying on the bed, absentmindedly staring at the ceiling and wiggling around like little kids tend to do. He sat up when he saw them appear through the privacy curtain, looking expectantly from one to the other. Susanne's voice was very soft while she tried to explain what they were going to do to his cuts.
"See this?" she held out a brown bottle with a white label, "This is Magic Water." Sheppard grinned at her ingenuity and Carson's bamboozled look. Hydrogen Peroxide sounded a lot scarier than 'magic water'. Susanne kept explaining, "We're going to use this to wash those scrapes, ok?" Carson nodded a little, both curious and apprehensive as to what this stuff was going to do to him. Susanne pulled up a little stool to the edge of the bed. Sheppard moved around to the other side, sitting down with one leg bent towards his thigh and the other hanging off the edge. Immediately, Carson was in his lap, leaning back against him like a chair. John just smiled. Dr. Apollo instructed him to lie back, so he scooted down the bed a little so his head rested on Sheppard's leg. He looked around nervously as he watched Apollo wet a cotton ball with the Peroxide. "This might sting a little Carson, but that's how we know its working."
The first time the doused cotton ball touched his skin, Carson cried out and flinched away. He tried to sit up, but John's big hand stopped him, "You're alright Carson, it just scared you. Lie back down, you'll be ok." He obliged, and this time when she rubbed over the scabs he fidgeted, but he did his best to stay put. It took less than ten minutes to clean the wound and put what was similar to an oversized Band-Aid on it. By that time Carson was pressed close against Sheppard. He kept rubbing his glassy eyes and every now and then would sniffle; but he did not cry.
Dr. Apollo tossed the forgotten Pjs up to Sheppard, who reached up and caught them out of reflex. "You should put those on him before we do the last of this, he probably won't be awake for long afterwards." With a nod, John nudged Carson gently.
"You wanna put these on?" He held up the green pajamas. The little fellow looked at them for a second before pointing to one of the toon-ish dogs.
"T's a d'gy." He sounded proud of his observation and it was then that John could tell how tired Carson really was. With a laugh he helped him stand on the bed and step into the little footies, then pulled it up and over his arms, pulling the zipper up the front and gently ticking his stomach.
"There we go, pajamas," John smiled at the little boy, who smiled back before plopping down onto the bedcovers and giggling with amusement at his covered feet. Sheppard reached out and tickled his foot and Carson pulled away and giggled more. It went back and forth for a minute or two, John would tickle the back of his legs or goose his stomach and Carson would scramble around and laugh. Their little game was cut off when Susanne came back, shaking her head at the two of them.
She was wearing new rubber gloves, and Sheppard could see the tourniquet hanging from her lab coat pocket. He could only guess there was a needle and syringe in the other. He and Apollo both glanced at the little giggling toddler, then to each other with apologetic looks. Sheppard turned to Carson, his voice was still playful, "Hey, Carson, we still gotta do one more little thing before we can get out of here. 'k buddy?"
Carson nodded, still expecting something fun. " Tay," he agreed while he crawled his way back into John's lap. Sheppard wrapped his arms around him, making sure that his grip wasn't too tight, but so that he couldn't wriggle away. Susanne pulled her little stool around and sat within reach of Carson. She held his wrist gently, pushing the elastic cuff of his sleeve up to his shoulder. She took the tourniquet and tied it loosely right below the sleeve.
"See this string?" Carson nodded and Susanne continued, "I need to make it real tight, so it's safe." The little guy nodded again, letting his head lean back on Sheppard's arm. Susanne pulled the knot in the tourniquet tight, making Carson shift uncomfortably. She took his wrist back into her hand, using a pre-packaged alcohol wipe to scrub his arm clean, just at the top of the bend opposite his elbow. By this time Carson had it just about figured out and was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. It wasn't until Susanne popped the needle out of its blister pack to put into the syringe that his fear was confirmed.
Instantly, he pulled his arm back, huddling against Sheppard and trembling. Dr. Apollo sighed, she had sympathy for him, but if they ever wanted to find out what exactly went wrong today, it needed to be done.
John had tightened his hold on him, rubbing his back and making comforting sounds. Carson was downright terrified, and had the circumstances been different, John would have found hypocritical irony in the situation. Using his eyes and tilting his head towards the shivering wreck, Sheppard conveyed the message of 'just get it over with' to Susanne. So, with a firm yet gentle grip, she pulled his arm away from him and held it straight. Apollo had barely touched him with the needle when he lost it; bursting into tears and struggling to get away, it took all of Apollo's concentration not to jostle the syringe. Quickly as she could, Susanne collected her sample, withdrew the needle and put a Band-Aid over the tiny puncture. She removed the tourniquet and pulled his sleeve down, apologizing as she went.
"It'll probably take a day to a day and a half to run these samples, I'll message you and Weir when it's been finished. Take him home, let him rest, maybe see if he'll eat something," she pulled out a pad of paper and started scribbling on it, "I don't know if you're keeping him or what, but he really shouldn't be left alone, who knows what kinda weird-o side effects this could have on his body." Susanne tore the top paper off the pad and handed it to him. It was a prescription. "Give this to Nurse Micha upfront, she'll give you a bottle of Amoxicillin." And with that, she bustled off towards the lab with her samples, waving over her shoulder as she went.