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Wing Men

Chapter 4 – This Sucks

As Rodney arrived in the gate room a flurry of activity was already in the works around him. Teyla was shouting for a medical team for the still unconscious Collins. Ronon was standing in front of the gate with the man in his arms as the medical team raced up and prompted him to lay the man on the gurney they had brought.

McKay thought he'd sneak off while everyone was still distracted, the thought of encountering Beckett wasn't at the top of his list of things he'd like to do. Before he'd gotten two steps toward the hallway that would allow him to escape to the depths of his lab Sheppard was at his side and steering him in the direction that the medical team had rushed off in with their charge, "Forgetting something Mckay? You're off to the infirmary too. I figured I give you the option of retaining your dignity and walking down there on your own. If you'd rather keep arguing though I can just call Carson up here."

"Fine, fine. May as well get this inquisition started," he huffed quietly. He was not looking forward to the conversation that awaited him when he got down there.

The rest of the trip went on in silence. Sheppard had dismissed Teyla and Ronon to go take a break. He'd told them he'd update them on Collins when he found out more. Rodney was acting so out of character. He was usually ready to put in a request to skip the obligatory department head meetings when he got a splinter. Now all of a sudden he had decided to keep a serious injury to himself. Truth be told he wanted to know what was going on and if anyone could badger the man into speaking his mind it was Carson. The man was relentless when it came to all of their health and he wouldn't let McKay win with the avoidance game.

As they walked into the infirmary they saw Carson walk out of a curtained off cubicle and quickly walk over to the supply closet. Sheppard and McKay walked up to the door to the closet. Sheppard threw a sideways glance at his teammate only to see him looking anywhere but at either Sheppard or Carson as he absentmindedly began rubbing at his injured arm again.

Carson spent another few seconds rifling through some full IV bags, pausing periodically to squint and read the tiny print on the labels. Sheppard finally figured he'd alert the man to their presence and knocked on the door. Carson's hands stopped pawing through the box as he turned to look at the pair.

"Oh, John. What can I do for ye? If ye came down to check on Collins he'll be fine. We're gettin' him started on some fluids but the lad'll be fine."

Sheppard dipped his head into a grateful nod, he was glad to know that one his marines was going to be ok. "We actually came down to see you. Rodney was hoping you'd look at his shoulder for him. Says it's been bothering him a bit."

Rodney was finally paying attention as Carson's eyes narrowed and began analyzing his appearance. McKay made an attempt to stand up a bit straighter and let his arm fall down to his side instead of holding it up against his chest but he didn't get too far before his shoulder let him know that it wasn't in the mood to be moved about like that.

"It's just sore; I've been working with some heavier equipment. Sheppard here is freaking out about nothing."

Carson's brow scrunched. It was normal for Rodney to play up an injury and for the Colonel to tell him to suck it up; he couldn't recall the reverse situation ever having occurred. Well, he'd get to the bottom of it. "Aye, we'll let me be the judge of that," he said, ushering the pair of friends into one of the cubicles and drawing the curtain closed around them.

"Alright lads, what seems to be the problem?"

McKay didn't move forward toward the exam bed that Carson had rolled up his trademark stool to. "I would say Sheppard's attitude."

Sheppard crossed his arms, "And I would say Mckay's nonchalance about having gone on an away mission through the gate with a serious injury."

Beckett frowned at this. Sheppard wasn't one to exaggerate an injury. If he thought it was bad, it probably was. "Alright Rodney, up here with ye," he said, patting the exam bed. "Let's look at this bum shoulder of yers."

McKay let out a huff but moved forward and complied, sitting stiffly on the edge of the bed. Beckett put on a pair of exam gloves and stood up to get a better look at the joint. The jacket was getting in the way though, he needed to get that off if he was going to do a proper exam of the shoulder. "Ye'll have to take yer jacket off Rodney; I can't see anything with that on."

Rodney mumbled something under his breath and unzipped the jacket. With a good amount of wiggling he was able to get his left arm out of its sleeve and then he paused. Sheppard raised an eyebrow questioningly. Rodney cast his gaze at the ground, "Carson, could you, um, help me? I don't think I can get it off my other arm," he muttered quietly. It was better that than try to do it himself just to prove he could. He'd be in a world of pain after a failed attempt and he was already in the infirmary, there'd be no getting out of this anyway.

Beckett was attentive enough to notice that McKay wasn't keen on having had to ask for help and he didn't comment. But it did spike his fear that this might be bad. If McKay couldn't maneuver out of a jacket then it certainly wasn't ok like he had tried to claim, "Aye, let me get a feel on the joint before I go jostling it though. I don't want to further stress the injury."He slid a hand beneath the jacket and toward McKay's back as he gently pressed against a few different spots around the shoulder. He didn't miss McKay flinch when he began his administrations or his patient's sharply inhaled breath. Ach, the joint was grossly swollen.

"Rodney, yer shoulder's badly swollen. I don't want to try to take yer jacket or ye shirt off, there'd be too much strain on the joint and I don't want to be movin' it about until I can get a proper exam and a scan of it. I'm going to have to cut them off."

"Can't we try at least? This has my Canadian flag on it! Shirts are replaceable, but this is the only piece of clothing I have that is personalized with something from home…"

Carson shook his head as he pulled a pair of scissors from a drawer and turned back around, "I'm afraid that won't do lad. This shoulder doesn't look good."

Beckett threw a glance over at Sheppard who was still standing completely rigid. His hands were curled into fists, the man was obviously furious with Rodney for hiding this. Hell, he was angry as well. But he knew enough to assess his patient, alleviate the pain, and then berate him for his stupidity when he knew the extent of the damage and Rodney had been settled. It wasn't fair to yell at a patient in pain, even if that was really what he wanted to do right about now. That or knock some sense into the man, Hippocratic Oath be damned. This looked serious.

Sheppard took a deep breath though and uncurled his fists; perhaps the man had more patience than Beckett gave him credit for. It looked like he was willing to put the scientist's throttling on the backburner for a bit at least, "Let him do it McKay. I'll take your patch off the jacket and make sure we get it on a new one for you. That one's getting a bit rough around the edges anyways."

McKay mulled it over for a moment and nodded. Beckett went to work splitting the jacket and shirt all the way down the back before gently peeling them off. He let out a silent wince as he saw Mckay's back. There was a solid stripe of purple and green bruising down the shoulder blade. He walked back around to Rodney's front.

"Rodney, this shoulder's been dislocated recently although it seems to be aligned alright now. And this bruising is in a very irregular pattern. What happened lad?"

"I don't want the surgery Carson. I know that's what you're thinking."

"Rodney, I don't even know what ye did to it yet. Let's get a solid look at what we're dealing with before we make any decisions."

"I'm not having the surgery," he said, looking Carson in the eyes. When Carson didn't make the expected rebuttal McKay finally relented, "I went over a railing yesterday and caught myself by grabbing the railing with my right hand. I stopped, but the force jerked my arm out."

"Aye, that'd do it. And how'd it get back in place? Did it slide back into place with ye playing with it?"

McKay tapped his fingers on the bed railing; he knew that neither of them was going to be happy about this bit, "I programmed the doors to close on it."

Carson's chin stuck out at this and he whispered in a very low voice, "Ye…closed a door on it. Instead of coming down here to let me do it properly ye slammed a door on it," he spoke, his voice gaining in volume. He could only take so much of McKay's idiocy in one go, "Are ye daft man! Ye have any idea what ye may have done to this arm?"

"It…it was numb all the way down the arm. I just wanted to fix it," he rebutted weakly.

Carson went a bit rigid at this; there shouldn't have been prolonged numbness with a typical dislocation. He held out his hand to where Rodney's hand was still rested across his chest. "I want ye to grab my hand as strongly as ye can."

McKay looked at him a little skeptically, "What sort of test is this?"

Sheppard jumped in, "McKay, Beckett's trying to fix your arm. The least you could is make the man's job a bit easier."

Rodney didn't reply, just held out his hand and commanded it to close around Carson's. Beckett looked at him a bit quizzically, "Ye ready to give it a shot Rodney?"

"…I am."

Carson looked down at Rodney's hand which was just barely closed into a partial fist; there was no strength at all in the grip. That wasn't a good sign. He let Mckay's hand go and gave him a pat on the leg before running a hand through his hair.

"Alright lad, I'm going to send a nurse in to give ye a painkiller while I go prepare the scanner," he said, standing up and moving toward the closed curtain. "Colonel, why don't ye come with me and tell me what happened off world?"

Sheppard nodded and moved to follow him, McKay watching them leave. Beckett led the way to the other side of the infirmary where he activated the Ancient scanner, the machine making a low whirring noise as it started to warm up. Sheppard let him key in a few sequences on the keyboard before speaking, "You saw something you didn't like in there but you didn't tell McKay. What is it?"

Carson took a deep breath and looked at him, "When he grabbed my hand, it was so weak. He could hardly move the hand. That means there are nerves involved. I am going to have Jenna sedate him and I am going to run a few more tests. They'll take awhile and I doubt McKay would be able to sit still that long."

Sheppard's frown deepened at this, "Is it permanent?"

Carson shook his head, "I don't even know what it is yet. That's what the additional tests are for."

"Why didn't you tell McKay this?"

"How would ye feel if I told ye that I think there may be nerve damage? It's never good news Colonel. Best case scenario he will need a surgery and a lengthy recovery. He's not likely to want to that again."

"Again?"

"Aye, back on earth, when I was his physician up on the Antarctic base, he got caught in an explosion that threw his shoulder out then too. He was recovering ok, but I was maybe a bit cautious with his treatment and we moved slow on the physical therapy. He got something called a 'frozen shoulder' about three weeks into his recovery. The shoulder remains immobile too long…I won't get into the mechanics, but the fix for it was sedating him, manually manipulating the shoulder to break up the scar tissue and starting his recovery over from scratch. It doubled the length of time he would've normally been off duty. Suffice to say I suspect that's why he didn't come down here with that injury. He thought it was bad being off for six weeks back on earth. Now we're in Atlantis, there's so much more to keep his attention, he's not going to want to take the time off that this injury will probably require."

Sheppard creased his brow at this, "What was the surgery McKay was talking about?"

"He should've had it back after the Antarctic injury; normally after two dislocations we'll do a surgery to tighten the ligaments around the joint to stabilize it so it doesn't happen again. Likely him refusing that surgery is what has him in here now. He'd be more prone to re-dislocation without it."

"Oh…"

"Aye. The lad's not thrilled at the prospect of another lengthy recovery. I can tell ye that's what he's heading for if there are nerves involved."

Sheppard leaned back against a column, "So what happens now?"

"I run my tests, ye go back to work and we'll make a treatment plan."

Sheppard pushed back off the column, "This sucks. A lot."

Carson smiled a bit, the colonel did have a way with bluntness, "Aye, now off with ye. I need to send a nurse in to get Rodney prepped. I'll let ye come back and visit later on."

Sheppard nodded and turned to go but paused midstride to turn around to Carson for one last word, "Thanks Carson. I know we don't say that enough and I certainly know McKay enjoys making you out to be a prison warden. But you keep putting us together no matter how broken we come in. So I'm saying thanks for this, for everything, McKay may not say it but I can and I will."

A genuine smile creased the doctor's lips. "Aye, the lot of ye need to be locked up in a padded room where even ye couldn't figure out a way to injure yourself. Now step frettin' and off with ye!"

Sheppard let out a soft chuckle and turned to go update the rest of his teammates on Rodney's status.

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