Chapter VIII
Carson watched John take off at a jog down to the bowels of Atlantis, smiling at the small joke he'd managed to play on the Colonel. He was sure he'd pay for it via another early wake-up call once the man discovered that Rodney was not in fact waiting for him at all, but for the moment he figured he'd stick with feeling content.
Once he was sure the Colonel was out of earshot, he turned his smile on the Doctor who had stopped pretending to be busy the moment John had left.
Like John, Carson had been told via Atlantis that there was a small problem with the mission, but unlike with the Colonel, she had actually told Carson what the problem was and it had nothing to do with the Doctor, but his ship. He could feel it in the atmosphere around him as well as the faint buzz in the back of his mind.
To be frank, Carson wasn't all too sure that he should be going along either. It wasn't a question of whether or not he was physically able to go – the main problem that would keep him behind was not a current worry. No, it was the bait that the Doctor was using him as. It settled like an ulcer in his stomach every time he thought of it and it made him literally nauseous to know just what the Doctor was proposing he do. The fact that, when he'd rejected the idea, Elizabeth had essentially ordered him to do it only made things worse. Had she really learned nothing from the past?
"Look," the Doctor's companion, Rose said when he'd turned to go. "I know that you don't like what we're plannin'. But it really is for the best."
Her attempts to soothe either him or his conscience made him sick.
"Aye," Carson said, unable to hide the growl of emotion in his voice. The young lass probably didn't know the full extent of the situation and so it wasn't fair to her to shunt a little of his anger onto her. Then again, it didn't seem like the Doctor hid much from the girl and so maybe she did know everything that was going on; somehow, he doubted it.
He turned around, wincing a wee bit when pain shot through his foot.
It had been over three years since the planet where everything had gone to hell in a handbasket for the Atlantis team. Those that survived the mission and Michael's wraith experiment had gotten over the whole ordeal pretty well, but there were a few of those that still carried scars and, unfortunately, Carson was one of them – literally. Throughout the years, he'd had several different surgeries – some from Earth, some via the Ancients – and while the doctors were able to fix a great deal of the damage that had been done by Major Leonard, there was some damage that could not be undone.
The damage that had been done to his heel, for instance, from the stray bullet that had originally been meant for his head had been repaired. It had been a grueling process filled with no little amount of pain and patience, not to mention a lot of coffee and snapping on Rodney's part since it had been the physicist to discover the Ancient device that had allowed them to, essentially, regrow and refuse the bone.
The damage that had been done by the linsfranc fracture in combination with the bullet, however, was less easily fixable and Carson and the surgeons had opted for the more general procedures to repair it.
For the most part, Carson was a very lucky man. The only times he had any real troubles with the foot was when he was stuck on his feet during the many emergencies that Atlantis seems to get throughout the months. Otherwise, his staff, and Grace more specifically, attempted to make him take care of himself and tried to allow him time to sit throughout the day.
Grace Porter, Carson discovered, was about as stubborn as he was when it came to patients. There had been many times during his recovery when he'd tried to pull rank, or used other threats in order to get his way, and still she hadn't budged. She had been determined that he would take the very best care of himself, and throughout it all, she'd stuck to it. By the end, Carson had had a new respect for his 2IC. Not only that, but they'd formed a rather close friendship for which he was thankful.
A soft hand on his arm drew Carson back to the present and he looked up into the warm brown eyes of Rose. She smiled encouragingly at him and so he finished his thought.
"An' do you have any idea of the history behind the decision that Doctor Weir has made?"
This question was aimed at both people in the room. While the Doctor gave a minute nod, Rose shook her head.
Somehow it didn't surprise Carson that the Doctor knew everything and yet was still willing to go through with his plan. Behind the warmth and childlike energy there was a bitterness and age that Carson saw developing among some of the veterans of Atlantis. The constant fight with those outside the city were beginning to wear on a lot of the military men and it seemed that each time they went through the gate, so did some of their humanity.
Carson accepted both situations with weary disgust. He knew that he, himself was slowly becoming one of those disillusioned by the charms of the Pegasus Galaxy. But unlike a great many, Carson still held onto hope for the humanity in this galaxy. It was only a sliver, but it was enough for Carson to keep a feeling of self that he'd long since worried he'd abandoned shortly after his capture by Michael.
He smiled at the girl, silently wondering if she would, in fact, worm the history of everything out of her friend.
"You both should get some rest. I have a feeling it will be a long day tomorrow." He gave Rose's hand a pat and then he turned around and exited the TARDIS, feeling the ship within his mind slowly withdraw. He echoed the ship's sigh – both of them relieved to know that not only did he have a conscience but that it was railing against what he was being told to do.
Rose watched the doctor as he left the ship, feeling a sudden wave of sadness as though it were rolling off the man himself.
The Doctor had told her, in detail, what his plan was and while she thought it odd for him to have a plan fully formed before he dove in, she was glad to be clued in for once. Still, something in the way the TARDIS and the Doctor and now Doctor Beckett were acting made her feel as though something very important was going on right under her nose and she didn't like.
"What was that about?" she asked her friend, watching as he pretended to peruse something on the scanner.
The Doctor looked at her sharply for a minute before replying, "Nothing. Just a bit of history." He typed something into the scanner and then went over to where the main controls were and began fiddling with them.
"No," Rose argued, knowing that the Time Lord was being evasive and getting angrier by the second about it. "No, that was more than nothing. Something is going on between the lot of you and so help me you had better tell me right now what it is or I'll sic my mum on you."
Anyone else listening to their conversation would have thought that her threat had been made to make the situation lighter but it was anything but that. Jackie Tyler was a fierce woman. She was a force to be reckoned with and no one that came up against her, including the Oncoming Storm, would last much longer than a few seconds before being completely derailed and flattened.
The Doctor turned around to face her, leaning against the console and eyeing her, weighing her threat for truth. "You wouldn't dare," he challenged.
"Try me," Rose challenged back.
Shall I tell her? the TARDIS interrupted impatiently, the toneless voice somehow managing to hold a threat. They both knew that the ship had been listening in on all of their conversations and, judging by the near-suffocating atmosphere within the ship, had grown tired of the Doctor beating around the bush.
"Please!" Rose answered at the same time the Doctor said, "No!"
The Doctor sighed. Just when Rose believed him to say something, he turned around and left, conceding to the fight in a way that felt like defeat. If she had to guess, she'd say that he wasn't entirely comfortable with how things had worked out either, but that he was willing to shoulder the responsibility if it meant coming to a peaceful solution.
My thief does not approve of the circumstances either, the TARDIS said, sounding a little mournful.
"And I suppose your arguing with him over things helped, did it?" Rose challenged, per protective nature in anything regarding the Doctor coming to the fore.
Probably not, the ship conceded without sense of remorse. But it is done and now there is nothing more to do other than for me to give you all of the details…
The morning of the rescue held no dawn at all. The first wave had to be up before the sun and for one Carson Beckett, that also included being up two hours before the rest of them.
Colonel Sheppard, Teyla, Ronon, Rodney, and Carson all filed into the gateroom, meeting Rose and the Doctor there. Half of them looked ready to begin while the others remained half awake, begrudging those that remained in their beds.
"Did we really have to start at this ungodly hour?" Rodney grumbled, glaring at Sheppard.
"Time on Gabhr is different to time on Atlantis," the Doctor answered, sounding his usual cheery self. He turned around and led the group into the TARDIS which waited to take them to the hive ship that orbited the planet they were visiting. "While we have been gone near three days, it has barely been one for them and since the wraith are basing their schedules on those of Gabhr, it is best to leave now when night is just beginning to settle on the planet than when the three suns are up and shining a spotlight on us all."
Rodney grumbled something unintelligible to those around him and the Doctor smiled brightly as he began to fire up the ship.
"Besides," he added, waiting for Doctor Beckett to close the doors before he flipped the lever. "It was Amara who set the time and not us."
The TARDIS vroomped into action before harshly landing, sending those that were unprepared to the floor.
"What does that mean?" Rose asked, not understanding why that made the Doctor smile of all things. She offered a hand to Doctor Beckett who had been one of the few to have fallen and waited for an answer.
Amidst Rodney's grumbling about the Doctor not being able to fly his stupid ship, the sounds of Velcro straps being undone, and many vials clinking together, one voice rang through the crowd. Ronon managed to look and sound particularly feral as he placed a vial of mysterious liquid into his coat pocket and said, "It means that she has something planned as well and that we had better be on our guard for whatever it is."
The group was greeted by twenty wraith drones as they stepped out of the TARDIS. Without a word of explanation – not that any in the group had actually expected one from the drones – they were marched to a cell where they were stripped of their weapons, TAC vests, and coats before they were pushed inside and the door was locked.
Apparently the Lanteans were used to this as they all seemed to pull up a seat and get comfortable. Rose watched as Ronon took up a leaning stance against a wall near the sole bench while Rodney sat down on said bench and the Colonel and Teyla sat down on the floor. Doctor Beckett remained standing, staring out the bars as though he could stare the ship into opening them.
The Doctor chose to take a moment to pull out the sonic screwdriver from within his inside jacket pocket and began to scan their surroundings. Whatever readings he got, he kept to himself which Rose found not surprising as she doubted that he found much at all.
"Don't you want to sit down?" she asked Doctor Beckett as quietly as she could. The group itself, while quiet, was also pensive – sans the Doctor – and she somehow felt that if she spoke too loudly the tentative peace they found themselves surrounded by would be broken and all hell would break loose.
Doctor Beckett smiled kindly at her. It did little to hide the unease that reflected in his blue eyes but she appreciated the effort. "I'm alright, thank ye love." He went back to looking at the hallway and for a moment Rose thought that that was the end of the conversation. But then, he spoke again, forestalling her when she was about to begin heading to sit on the floor in the corner. "I suppose that Grace, Doctor Porter, told you, did she?"
Rose smiled, hoping that no blush appeared on her cheeks as she wasn't embarrassed at all for prying. If truth be told, it hadn't actually been her that had been nosy – it had been the Doctor but she supposed that since she listened in with rapt attention, it didn't really matter.
At first she had wondered whether or not Grace had been unnecessarily overprotective of Carson. The way she kept a sharp eye on him, made Rose think that the woman had intentions other than friendship towards the Scot. But while her assessment of Grace's feelings may be true, once she'd been told of the entire situation and of how taxing and how much pain it had caused Carson to get to how healthy he currently was, Rose understood things a little better. She did still think that it was a bit too much but she also couldn't imagine what the whole ordeal on the planet had done to Colonel Sheppard and his team.
Rose knew that if something like that had happened to the Doctor, she would have moved heaven and earth to get him back and she would have plowed over anyone that had tried to stop her. Thankfully, the Doctor heals a lot quicker than humans, but she would have also been just as overprotective of him as Grace was of Doctor Beckett until the time lord had been fully healed. Thus confirming her suspicions that Grace had a thing for the kind Scot.
"Yeah," Rose answered, refusing to lie for no reason. "The Doctor was curious about the secrecy and since you were going on this mission, Doctor Porter thought it best that we should know, just in case anything happened."
"Aye, I suppose she's right," Carson granted. "Though I wish the bloody Doctor would have waited and asked me."
Rose was about to point out that the Doctor had asked him and he'd brushed him off, but she kept quiet. There wasn't any reason to bring that up as Carson already knew that and she had an idea that that wasn't when he was talking about. The Doctor had asked to speak with Carson in private – maybe the Scot had known why and was referring to then?
Again, Carson smiled as he looked at her. It seemed to be a normal thing for him to do – smile that is – but there was something in this smile that somehow spoke of his forgiveness, though neither she nor the Doctor needed it.
"How did you like Atlantis?" he asked, turning so that his body was facing hers and thus taking his eyes off the same spot that he'd been staring at.
"Brilliantly," Rose answered, a smile coming to her face at the thought of the city. "She is beautiful and so big. She's easily the biggest city I've ever been to and that's saying something when you travel with him." She nodded her head to where the Doctor was now excitedly scanning the entire cell as though he'd found something useful.
"So what's that like, if you don't mind my asking?" Carson asked, his interest piqued at the mention of her travels with the Doctor.
"It's magnificent," Rose answered, thinking that that wasn't an accurate enough word to describe it. "I mean, it's dangerous most of the time and that one always seems to find himself in a bit of trouble, but it's worth it, you know?"
"Oh, aye, I know." Carson looked fondly at the rest of his team, his eyes briefly sweeping the expanse of the cell they were in as though to say that he knew exactly how she felt. And she supposed he did.
"So," Colonel Sheppard intoned, bringing any further small talk to a halt. He looked over at the Doctor who had ceased his scanning and was now semi-pacing the cell. "Any idea what to expect here?"
The Doctor stopped and stared down at the Colonel, his expression filled with vacant wonder. "I dunno. You lot have been captured more than I have by these beings, shouldn't you know?"
"Yeah, we have," The Colonel answered. "But we've never been invited to a hive ship by a queen so this is a bit new for us."
Colonel Sheppard shifted and, though he tried to hide it, Rose saw him wince. With just listening to the man, you wouldn't know that just a few days ago, he'd been mercilessly beaten by a being that was ten times stronger than him. It appeared that his personality persisted no matter what the situation was.
The swelling from his cut lip had disappeared entirely, though the cut obviously remained, and while the bruises on his face were still there, they had been reduced to rapidly fading from angry reds to ugly yellows. Rose briefly remembered his pre-mission examination the day before and that he'd somehow injured his side while fighting with Ronon, and it made her wonder if the man really should be on this mission at all. Then again, should Doctor Beckett? Things could easily go wrong and neither man is truly fit enough for that and yet here they are.
"Colonel," Teyla said, drawing attention from the two leaders to herself. Her gaze remained fixed on the hall outside their cell as she said, "They are coming."
No sooner had she said this then they heard the sounds of heavy footfalls. Ten drones were marching their way with another wraith – this one with long hair and a black leather trench-length coat – leading them. The different one, the leader more than likely, hissed at them, showing his disdain for their presence. The Doctor returned his hiss with a wide grin, almost as though just to make the other wraith mad.
The door to the cell opened and the drones immediately surrounded the exit. Their weapons were pointed at each and every member with two extra pointed at Ronon for good measure. The big man bared his teeth at them but stayed where he was, knowing better than to charge without a way of getting out of it.
"You will come with us," the lead wraith commanded.
"Certainly," the Doctor granted brightly. The group as a whole began to go through the door but were soon stopped by the wraith drones and their guns.
"Just you two," the lead wraith amended, pointing at both Doctors.
The Atlanteans started forward to surround the two men, their instincts calling for them to protect them. As one, the drones fired their weapons, each blast hitting the Atlanteans. Rose made sure to stand off to the side, not drawing attention to herself or acting to stop the Doctor from leaving. It turns out that was a good idea since the drones, apparently deeming her not to be a threat, left her conscious.
Without another word, the lead wraith turned around and left. Both Doctors offered her smiles – Carson's less assuring than he obviously meant it to be – and followed.
Rose watched as the drones surrounded the two men with trepidation. Her instincts were screaming at her to protect the Doctor and Carson but she knew that, against this enemy, she was useless – apparently she was even food – and so she did her best to fight it. It wasn't easy, but the more distance that separated them and her, the better it became.
With a heavy sigh, she began to organize that Atlanteans so that they did not wake up in awkward positions and then sat down and waited for them to wake up.
Her eyes closed of their own volition but she did not sleep. Her mind and heart were with the two men that were on their way to meet with the wraith queen, Amara. She only hoped that things went as smoothly as the Doctor seemed to believe they would.
TBC