Disclaimer : I do not own SGA, or it would never have ended. Also, I don't own this scene, or some of the quotes. Dr. Brayton belongs to Debbie418uk2.

Note : This is a tag to Debbie418uk2's Rodney's Really Bad Days, chapter 10, 'Katie's Gift'.

Debbie418uk2 - A little closer and screw the arrow in the ass jokes. :S LOL Yeah, I loved the line about saving her dignity as she was trying to cut his off.

Jasminesmommy - I'm hoping to keep this series going for a while, so keep tuned. I'm glad you like it so far. :) Oh, trust me, I have yet another chapter where being stuck with Harmony ended up with John getting hurt. Don't you think the ancients tend to leave a lot of interesting machines behind? With so many uses, and so many ways for them to go wrong, we've got endless fuel for our stories!

As for 'cutting it close', I'd say that was too close for comfort. O.o

Thank you for your comments, and sticking with me. Tons yet to come :) Enjoy the next update.

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(John's POV)

I hadn't seen the others much all day. Ronon and Teyla were probably off doing their own things, but I'd expected to run into Rodney at least once. Nope. Nothing. He wasn't in the mess hall when I went to check, and I didn't dare enter his lab.

He seemed his usual irritable self, from what I was hearing, but today I just didn't feel like dealing with that. I had a touch of a headache, that seemed to refuse to go away, and I just wanted to lie down and relax.

You know, it's funny. I must have passed at least three people who all seemed to have headaches of their own, and I wondered if something was going around. Probably Kavanaugh with another one of his long-winded rants. I thought with a smirk.

Captain Merison was massaging her temples, as she walked by, and barely aknowledged me. Lieutenant Harold was frowning, a pained look on his face as he stood with Cadet Freeman, and the said Freeman brushed his hand across his forehead with a wince.

Wincing, myself, I sighed and carried on. Stopping by the lab, I spoke to Zelenka, wondering where Rodney was. I found out almost right away that he was in the infirmary, and for a brief moment, was worried. Rodney didn't usually go to the infirmary voluntarily, unless something was really wrong.

"He had a headache." Radek informed me with a shrug. "Went to Carson for something."

A headache sent Rodney to the infirmary?! Wow, must have been a bad one. "He really needs to learn the meaning of the word 'sleep'." I muttered with a frown.

Now Radek pointed at me. "Ah, but he said he did sleep last night."

"Wow, ok." Blinking a moment, I looked around. There was a little cactus with a pink flower sitting in the middle of the table. "Nice, uh, flower?"

Turning, Radek smiled and nodded. "Yes, it is. Katie brought a bunch by. I believe she was handing them out."

Nodding again, I walked over to it and checked it out. Tiny, spiney, with a cute little flower sitting squarely on top of it, and not even a bud anywhere else. "Cute." Sitting down, I rubbed my forehead and sighed again, laying my head down on the table. "I think I'll just wait here for Rodney. I'm tired of walking around, and he's gonna come back, anyways." It's a lab. It would have to be the end of the world to keep Rodney from coming back. Or, the end of Atlantis, anyways.

"Be my guest." Radek nodded and turned to the door. "Ah, do you need this light on?"

Lifting my head, I looked over to where he was gesturing before looking around the room. It was sparsely decorated, with only a table with laptops in the center, and not one obstacle between me and the door. There was no chance of me tripping over anything on my way out of the room. "Nope, you can go ahead and turn it off." I might as well try and get a little nap in.

With a final nod, Zelenka swiped his hand over the panel and turned out the lights before leaving the room.

Laying my head back down, I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, relaxing instantly.

Hm, four people, besides me, with a headache today. I think we're all just working too hard, maybe I should talk to Elizabeth about vacations or morale boosting off days. I probably just slept wrong, or didn't get enough sleep. I'll probably feel better after a nap.

Drifting off to sleep, I barely even registered the sweet smell that hit my nose.

(Gate Room)

Adjusting my tac vest, I thought that Elizabeth must have been sending us on this mission as a sort of revenge. I was tired, my headache was worse than before, and I was sure she had a camera in the room. Well, ok, that last one was obvious. Of course she had a camera in the room, but in this case, I was sure she spied on me, or something.

She saw me napping. That explained it all. 'John was lazing about, therefor John needs a mission', right? Yeah, trust me, I know my thoughts are a little...paranoid. Sleep deprivation does strange things to people.

Apparently a survey team had found something classified as 'too big to bring back through the gate' so instead of bringing the discovery to us, we were going to the discovery.

Seeing Rodney walk over with a stronger frown than usual, I raised an eyebrow, wondering what was eating him. He approached with no greeting, and we set off through the gate.

Dr. Brayton met us on the other side, and immediately joined us, chattering away about the new discovery. I nodded every now and then, fully aware he was talking to Rodney, and listened half heartedly as he described a locked door, he was sure held some sort of important object or information behind it. I also noticed that Rodney didn't really seem to be paying attention, and figured it was because it was dealing with archaeology, and Rodney was more into science, like technology science. Stuff that deals with machines and stuff.

"Don't you agree?" Brayton finally asked, practically hovering in mid air, through all of his excitement.

Rodney finally turned to him and I couldn't hide my smile, seeing the utter irritation in his eyes. "Doctor..." I was a little taken back by how unusually cold his voice was, but thought he was just in a bad mood.

I even noticed Rono nand Teyla raising their eyebrows in surprise.

"I regard archaeology with the same level of enthusiasm as I have for cleaning out the cat litter box" Brayton's face showed shock and disappointment, and I bit the insides of my lips to keep my smirk from reforming. "And usually with the same result."

Losing the battle, I walked on ahead, keeping my back to the others as the broad smirk covered my face. I heard them talking more, but it pushed to the back of my mind as I realized that I was feeling even worse than before. Now, added to the headache-turned-migraine, I was also feeling slightly sick to my stomach. It was probably something I ate, or some sort of flu.

Finally we made it to where an obelisk stood next to a large door, and I stood back as Dr Brayton tried to explain it to Rodney, only to be cut off. Seeing McKay's scientistic mode kick in, I sighed and looked around, locating a rock to sit on. I had a feeling this was going to take a while.

With my back resting against a tree, I relaxed in the cool shade. The others were engrossed in their works, and I was left to at least some peace and quiet. I was just drifting off to sleep when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"John?"

Opening my eyes, I squinted a little, almost cursing the migrain I had. Turning my head, I saw Teyla looking at me in worry, and holding out a small, clean cloth. Frowning for a moment, I just looked at it and almost jumped when she reached forward, placing it just under my nose.

"You are bleeding."

Feeling my eyes widen, I put my hand in place of hers and slowly pulled the cloth back to see a large red stain on it. Placing it back, my eyes narrowed. "I didn't even notice. Thanks." A migrain, sick stomach and now a nose bleed? Something was definitely going on and I made a mental note to talk to Carson about it when we got back.

Not surprisingly, it took Rodney about two hours to figure out the locking mechanism, and I sighed when he exited the room with a fully disappointed look on his face. He muttered about scrolls and what a waste of time this all was, as he led us all back to the gate.

Once we got back to Atlantis, I bid the others farewell and headed straight to the infirmary. My nose bleed had stopped, and I was feeling slightly better, but I wanted to have Carson check me out, just to be safe.

"Aye, lad. What can I do for you?"

Seeing Carson just outside the doors to the infirmary, I shrugged. "I haven't been feeling too good. Thought I'd come see if there was anything you could do."

Nodding, he walked over and stuck his hands under my chin, tilting my head back. "What are your symptoms?"

"Headache, nausea and nose bleed."

He frowned and stepped back. "I've had several complaints about the same symptoms today." Turning back to the infirmary, he gestured for me to follow him. "At least three people have come in, complaining about headaches, and two of them came back a few hours after I treated them, complaining about nose bleed and nausea. Have you eaten anything unusual? Drank?"

"Just the usual cafeteria stuff." I replied with a shrug. "Doc, I've actually been feeling better, since about an hour ago."

Grabbing some pills from his desk, he turned back to me. "Well, it all seems to be symptoms of some sort of allergine, that I can tell. Here. Take these. They'll make you sleepy, so go grab a nap while you're at it."

Nodding, I took the pills, thanked him, and went to my quarters. Once there, I took off my shirt, took the pills, and laid down in my bed, relaxing as the warm sun filtered through my window. Before I even knew it, I was out like a light.

(Mess Hall)

When I woke up, I felt a lot better. The only symptom left was the headache, and it was very minor and happily tolerable to what I was feeling before. My stomach grumbled, and I sat up, grabbing my shirt and pulling it back on as I got out of bed. Checking the clock, I noticed it was about lunch time and I made my way to the mess hall for lunch.

Walking into the room, I noticed Rodney sitting at a table. He was slumped over with his head in his hands, and a full tray of food sitting in front of him, along with an obviously untouched cup of coffee. For Rodney, that was really weird.

Worried, I went over and sat down next to him, noticing how pale he was as he slowly lifted his head and gave me a weak half smile in greeting. Trying to act cheerful, I nodded to him. "Hey."

"Hi." He replied surprisingly softly.

Frowning, I was getting even more worried. "You look like crap."

He raised an eyebrow. "Thank you."

Smart ass to the end. Resisting the urge to grin, I sighed. "Seriously. You need to go to the infirmary, and get some rest."

"I've been sleeping." He shook his head. "Hasn't helped."

Shaking my head, I got up and took his arm. "Come on. I'm taking you to Carson."

Quietly, we headed to the infirmary, and as we entered, I was taken back by how many people were in there. Before, there were three people in the room, and two of them were Carson and his nurse. Now, there were at least half a dozen people in the room, all patients. Some were gagging into bins, some holding their heads, and one had two puffs of kleenex stuffed up his nostrils.

"Oh god." Carson rushed over, looking harried. "Not you, too." He glanced at me, and I shrugged, letting him know silently that I felt better. Then, frowning at his choice of words, I raised an eyebrow. "'Too'?"

He explained about the headaches and other symptoms being displayed by many other people, and it had become a small epidemic. There was no way to know for sure what was causing it, and Rodney mentioned it was probably some sort of alien allergine. Carson gave him some medication, the same thing he'd given me before, and told Rodney to get some rest.

It was up to me to get him back to his room, and beside the tired little comments Rodney made now and then, it was a fairly simple task.

Unfortunately, not long after getting him off to sleep, I got a call from Elizabeth, informing me of the death of Brianna Perkins, one of the botanists that worked with Katie. Frowning, I discussed the situation with her, and found out it was linked to the illness that had been spreading around Atlantis.

It was me who ended up telling Rodney about it. I found him a few hours later, in the mess hall, actually eating this time, and informed him of what happened. Neither of us had known her, but to hear about a death...

How long had this illness been going around? A few days, at least. How many people were infect? At least a dozen. How many dead? One, so far. What was the cause? It took Carson until later that evening to figure it out.

(Conference Room)

Carson met myself, Elizabeth and Katie in the conference room, carrying a small cactus in a bell jar. It was tiny, spiney and had a cute little bright red flower on top. Frowning for a moment, I recognized it as the same type of cactus that was in the lab, where I'd taken my nap. By the way he was carrying it, I knew it had to be the culprit of this weird illness, and realized it was the reason I'd felt like crap.

I was already feeling like crap, probably because I'd fallen asleep waiting for Lieutenant Karen Murdoch in the greenhouse, which the lights had gone out shortly after I dozed off, the other day. There was one of those there. Then, I slept in the lab, with the light out, and one of those there.

Katie was obviously confused. The spines were harmless, she'd said. They'd tested them. Carson informed her that, in the dark, the flower itself was the weapon, giving off a toxic pollen into the air that was making people sick.

Katie's eyes had widened as she looked at all of us. "I gave Rodney one of those!"

Carson followed suit. "I gave him a sedative!"

Rushing out of the room, I made my way to Rodney's room and hit the chime. There was no response. Fearing the worst, I swiped my hand over the sensor and opened the door before rushing inside and turning on the light. "Rodney?" He was laid sprawled out on his bed. He looked to be sleeping, but he didn't wake up as I shook him. "Rodney!"

Carson appeared next to me and placed his fingers along the side of Rodney's neck. He seemed to concentrate a moment before sighing heavily. "He's breathing."

I was relieved. Standing back, I watched as a medical team rushed in, probably called on our run here, and helped Carson get Rodney onto a gurney, before rushing out. I barely even heard Carson's orders as he went with them, except for the last one, to get rid of that damned flower.

Turning to it, I saw the small cactus with the innocent looking bright blue flower on top.

(Infirmary)

"Well, Katie feels pretty bad about it, of course."

I nodded a little, sympathetically. I figured she would. Teyla mentioned she'd handed out about a dozen of them, so that's why so many people had been infected. Also, with some staying in public places, when the lights were turned out, multiple people ended up infected.

And one dead. I reminded myself grimly, as I watched the others chatting. I mentioned the memorial service, Elizabeth was going to hold for Brianna, and Rodney mentioned Katie asked him to go. "We'll come, too."

He nodded and looked at me. "Thanks. Katie will appreciate that."

After bidding Rodney farewell, we left the infirmary and headed to our rooms for some hopefuly uninterrupted rest. On the way, I found myself thinking about what happened. Several really sick, one dead. I'll never look at allergies and simple plants again. It was close, but luckily Carson figured out the problem in time and got to Rodney.

Imagine, one little plant caused all this...

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Tenshi