Chapter Six
Late that night Lorne woke alone in the little room. From what little he could recall of his last hour of consciousness, he and Beckett had agreed on…something. And Sheppard had come up with a cover story. But, for the life of him, at the moment he couldn't remember what that had been. Then there had been something about Lieutenant Shingleton. For that matter, most of what had transpired yesterday now felt days ago.
Feeling the dull throbbing all over his back, he was glad to note that the burning sensation had essentially gone away by this point. Carefully sitting up, he took stock of his surroundings. His head wasn't spinning anymore, so that was a plus. He scrubbed his face trying to focus. On the table beside him was his watch and a note. It was just a little after two in the morning. Great, he would normally be getting out of bed in two hours. If he had any hope of covering his ass, he was going to have to figure out something quick.
Twisted ankle, he recalled vaguely from the gate room yesterday. Well, that would at least cover up his lack of a morning jog; because that definitely wasn't happening today. Turning his attention to the note, he read Carson's instructions, found the set of clothes on the chair, and just now realized his IV was gone. Lorne very nearly chuckled. Beckett, knowing he wasn't going to convince the Major to stay put for the entire night and preferably part of the next day, had instead made arrangements for his quiet escape. If all went well, he'd make it back to his quarters unnoticed; including instructions for a back way out of this ward Beckett had left.
Making a mental note to get the doctor something really nice for his next birthday, Lorne carefully dressed himself in the jeans and loose flannel that had been left for him. Not seeing his boots anywhere, he just hoped he didn't pass anyone in the halls at this time of night that would know he usually didn't go around barefoot. His thoughts still somewhat fuzzy, he followed Carson's instructions to a door at the back of the ward. This led to a narrow corridor that emptied out into the main corridor a ways away from the infirmary. Now all he had to do was make it back to his own bed and some sleep.
~o~o~o~
With a groan Lorne silently cursed his internal alarm clock. He'd deliberately set his actual alarm back to four-thirty to give himself another half hour of sleep, since he wasn't up for a jog today. And, of course, five minutes after his alarm normally would go off, he found himself lying in bed awake. Not wanting to get up, yet. He rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.
It didn't take long for the burning in his back to remind him why he was trying to sleep in, in the first place. Knowing he wasn't going to be getting anymore sleep, he carefully maneuvered himself out of bed. The face that greeted him in the mirror very nearly had him groaning all over again. The one thing he hadn't taken into consideration was his pallor. Not to mention the fact that he looked like something three days dead already. Hoping to pass it off as a sniffle or some other such thing he slowly got himself together for the day.