FIVE

It was two days since the Colonel and his team had stepped through the gate, there had been no contact since then and Sam was slowly losing hope in seeing them again. McKay had been giving her the cold shoulder since their last talk, he was working restlessly trying to find away to find a way to get in contact with them. Sam knew she should not give up but with the reports about the course the weather was taking on the planet, there was not a big chance Colonel Sheppard, Major Lorne and the rest would get out of it alive.

She was in such deep thoughts that she did not notice McKay storming into her office, before he had flung the door open with a bang, shouting at her.

"They're alive! They're alive!"

"W-what?"

"Major Lorne sent his IDC, and quite frankly they're the only ones on a mission right now, hurry!"

Making a mad dash for the door, Sam flung herself down the stairs and to the gate room, McKay hot on her heals. She was just on time, seeing as six freezing, huddled together bowed as to keep as much of the small warmth they could out, covered in snow figures stumbled through the gate.

When Evan came through the gate he was more unconscious than conscious, stumbling through the gate away from the mind numbing cold and into the warmth. It was such a change that he almost felt his body go into shock, Cadman was still gripping his jacket.

A team of doctors with Beckett leading was hurrying to help them and a somewhat muted shriek was heard and a cracking sound behind him and then he did not feel Cadman's hand on his back anymore. Her hand must have frozen in the cold weather, Evan shuddered at the pain she must have felt when they pretty much wrenched her hand free.

John was breathing heavily; his whole body was shaking from exhaustion. He felt a bit dizzy, scarcely taking notice of Carson who was standing beside him trying to get him to the infirmary before everything went black.

STARGATE: ATLANTIS

Carson was so worried, riding on adrenaline by the night that he was barely able to slow down when things had gotten steadier. Falling through the ice, major injuries like frozen fingers and noses were serious injuries, especially as no one of the wounded would be able to continue serving on Atlantis, if a part of them were amputated, Carson was thankful he did not have to amputate anyone.

They had had to lower the temperature in the infirmary a bit, so they would not go into shock as Private Keegan had done in the gate room because of the change in the temperature. Sitting down on a chair, Carson rubbed his face with a tired sigh. He prayed there would be no complications, why had he let Sheppard and major Lorne go on a mission together? They were both trouble magnets in their own ways, something odd or dangerous always happened. Either one of them always getting kidnapped forcing the other one to go on a rescue mission, Carson swore that together those two spend the most time in the infirmary, almost more than he himself did and he was the doctor. For some time now he had known of their relationship, but as a civilian and a supporter of minorities, was glad for them.
Carson liked both John and Evan, counting both the men as his friends, and also they deserved each other, it was kind of cute to watch them. Not that he would ever admit that out loud, it was not as if he was spying on them, he had just seen them once or twice showing a bit more emotions in the infirmary when no sane person would be up and wandering. He had only seen them because he had been looking through some files and forgot the time, and had seen them on his way to his own quarters.

Checking that no one had woken, and that they were sleeping peacefully in their beds, Carson headed out of the infirmary, if he was lucky then he would catch a few hours of sleep before he would be needed again. There was not a big chance than anyone of them would wake up before the next day, they had been exhausted, tired and hungry fighting for their lives whilst walking through a snow storm.

Switching off the lights, Carson slipped out of the empty infirmary, except for its patients.

John was groggy and disoriented when he woke up, his body felt as if it was made of stone, heavy and unresponsive. He had almost worked himself into panic when he felt his body respond to the messages his brain was sending it.

Blinking, his eyes swept over the room, he was in the infirmary. It was warm but he still felt chilly, as if he had taken that damned wind back with him to Atlantis. Moving around on the bed, John pulled up the extra blanket lying by his feet on the bed all the way over his head.

Groaning when he felt his body relax a bit.

"Colonel?" asked a voice but it was obvious who it was, there was only one person on Atlantis speaking with that Scottish accent. "Colonel? John? How're you feeling?"

"Beckett… I'm fine," said John reemerging from underneath the blanket. His hair sticking out even more so than usual.

"Let me be the judge of that lad," said Beckett, giving John a skeptical look.

Like the rest John suffered mostly from fatigue, frostbite and fever. A cold, heavy fever and flu was something none on the team would be able to dodge, what the long term effect would be of this small stunt Carson did not know yet. Most of them had not yet woken up from after they had been sedated the evening before. Right now it was only John and Gilson who had woken up.

"Well considering how you usually are when you come back from a mission and how bad it could be, Colonel I dare say you are ok, not good and certainly not well enough to leave the infirmary but ok," said Carson, watching the small glimmer of hope, that had started to shine in John's eyes at the thought of getting out of there, stopped to shine and disappeared.

"I feel fine, Doc," said John giving Carson his best puppy eye look.

"John… you have just walked at least 20 kilometers through a snow storm which you probably don't even find on Antarctica, even if you felt wonderful I'd keep you here for a day or two to make sure that you're absolutely fine," lectured Carson.

For a second Carson thought John would argue or try to wriggle his way out of the infirmary like he usually did, sitting quietly on his bed looking like he was thinking hard. Not that he would ever find out what the Colonel was thinking at that moment, because just as he was about to tell John to lie back on the bed, a groan rose from the bed beside John's.

It was Major Lorne.

Carson had not even registered the groan before John had jumped off his own bed and hurried over to the Major's side, stroking the Major's hair talking softly under his breath to the other man.

"J-John?"

"Evan, oh god," muttered John a sound of relief escaping him, "I thought…. I thought…"

He had never seen John act the way he did, showing so much raw emotion, not hidden behind a mask or kept back. Carson felt bad but he had to make sure that Major Lorne was okay and he knew neither of them would want to be apprehended in such a position.

"Colonel, if you'd give me some space?" asked Carson tapping the Colonel gently on the shoulder, "I need to make sure the Major is okay."

A muted nod was the only answer he got. Doing a swift but throughout examination, Carson was happy that Lorne was alive; after all falling into a lake was not something to be joked about. It was a very effective way of catching hypothermia and die. Major Lorne was lucky to only catch the start of hypothermia, worst case scenario was that he would be bedridden for a few weeks, feeling cold with a fever and everything witch accompanied a flu, but at least he would be alive.

With his teeth chattering Evan felt tired and his brain foggy, it was good if he could catch every third word coming out of Dr Beckett's mouth. He had a hard time concentrating; it felt as if he would never be warm again.

"How do you feel, Major?"

"C-cold," stuttered Evan his voice raspy, "a… and tired."

Carson nodded. He was not surprised at the answer. Letting his eyes wander Carson watched John out of the corner of his eye, the man was not even trying to hide his feelings then again maybe he should cut them some slack after all they had gone through in the past few days. Watching John shiver where he stood to stubborn to go back to his own warm bed but on the same time worried enough about his lover not to care about his own needs.

He could not say that he ever had had felt the need to scream eureka, but for once if it were not for the fact that he was standing in the infirmary he would have done it, a small smile crept onto his face. He knew there was a reason to why he always placed the Major in one of the corners of the infirmary where it was a bit warmer and with curtains for privacy, it could not have been more fitting than now. And if someone would get the need to ask why, then that person sure was stupid, after all, everyone knew that body heat was the best way to keep warm.

"Colonel," said Carson in his best doctor voice, "if you're not going to use your own bed then you can help keep the Major warm."

"What?" asked John, the surprise clear in his voice.

"To make it simple, lie down beside him, he needs warmth and you don't have anything better to do, it's not as if there's any difference to you in which bed you sleep in," said Carson, congratulating himself on being sneaky.

Stepping away from the bed, Carson took the extra blankets from John's bed, gave one to the Colonel whilst folding the other one neatly laying it back onto the bed. When he was done with that, he took one last look at the now two sleeping men in the somewhat small hospital bed. John was lying with his back towards the rest of the infirmary with Evan safely lying in his arms, stuck between John and the wall.

Closing the curtains around the bed, creating a tiny corner room, Carson moved on to his other patients. Markham seemed to have waked up, rubbing his eyes no even trying to sit up. His nose had gotten quite the bad frostbite but it would get better after a while. Stackhouse was sitting on a chair beside the bed, acting like the concerned friend that he was but Carson knew better, not many secrets could be kept from him especially if something happened in the infirmary.

Feeling generous Carson cleared his throat, as not to scare the man, shooing Stackhouse off the chair so that he could make sure Markham was well.

"Well lad, I'll keep you here for a few days and then we'll see how things have progressed but as it's now I'd say you'll make a full recovery," said Carson, patting Markham on the shoulder. "Are you cold?"

Markham nodded but did not say anything; he had not said a word under the whole time Carson was prodding and poking him.

"Get out of your clothes and get into the bed," ordered Carson, pointing first at a bewildered Stackhouse before he pointed at the bed Markham was lying in.

"Excuse me?" spluttered Stackhouse, looking wildly around himself, making sure the infirmary was empty.

"Oh come on lad," said Carson with a sigh, "Markham is cold, you're worried, body heat is the best way to stay warm. You don't have to worry about any rules here, right now he only needs to concentrate on getting better and you can help him by keeping him warm."

Carson left when Stackhouse started to strip, he would need to find another screen or curtain. Next in the row was Cadman. She was almost worse off, if you did not count the Major. Her fingers had taken a hard hit, when they had had to wrench them lose from Major Lorne's jacket; he had been worried they would brake completely but they did not. Right now, it looked as if she would get to keep all her fingers but if they did not get better then they would have to amputate them. She was still asleep, her chest moving up and down in a steady pattern. He would let her sleep a bit longer before he would make sure that she was okay, instead Carson continued to the next bed.

Gilson had been the first to wake not long before John, and was now resting in his bed. Two heavy blankets covering him almost completely from head to toe.

"Still feeling okay?"

"Yes sir," said Gilson sitting up on the bed, "a bit cold but I expect that is normal after something like that…"

"I'm afraid you're right," said Carson smiling a bit at the marine, "but don't worry it'll pass, has Keegan stirred yet?"

"He moved but he hasn't opened his eyes yet," said Gilson looking over at the bed beside his own. His face was blank but Carson could see the worry in Gilson's eyes.

In a way people would think that Carson would be surprised at how many same sex couples there really were on Atlantis, or to be more specific gay people but he was not. Not long after they had arrived on Atlantis and already before that he had started some serious research on the ATA gene, and it showed that people with the gene were more probable to be gay or bisexual. Carson had never found out why, and because he had been forced to stop his research he had never found out why, but he suspected that there was some biological explanation to it. Even though the ancients were a lot alike people, there were still many differences that separated the ancients from everyone else.

Carson knew there was not a big chance that he would ever get an opportunity to continue his research and find out why things were as they were, but he could always hope. It was such a fascinating study, after all if there turned out to be some biological reason why the people are gay/bisexual then maybe the army would reconsider the DADT. Because at the moment the rule was doing more harm than good.

"Keegan? Are you awake, lad?" asked Carson.

A quiet murmur was the only answer he got but he took it as a good sign when Keegan's eyelashes fluttered and the sleeping man stirred. Not quite awake but not asleep either.

Carson motioned for Gilson to move over to Keegan's bed, the man looked oddly at him first but complied without a second thought.

"Call me when he wakes fully," said Carson before he continued to look for those curtains to keep out unwanted eyes and attention. It was not good trying to force a recovery and having some privacy from prying eyes was always a plus. He had promised himself he would not be chasing any patients around half of Atlantis just because they did not feel as if they could rest in the infirmary or because of any other ridiculous reason people came up with. Colonel Sheppard, being one who was extremely good at sneaking out and avoiding the medical staff, whether it was about a simple after mission check up or some life threatening illness, was one of these people.

When John had been ordered by Carson to lie down beside Evan he had been a bit tense at first, the DADT screaming in his head and the fact that anyone could see them did not make him feel better. But when the curtain closed and it was only him and Evan left in the small space, John felt his body relax and his eyes shutting. It was warm and much more comfortable than in the cave, feeling Evan's body beside him always helped him loosen up and feel good.

Not long after he had lied down, the shivers stopped and he started to feel normal again. Body heat really was the best way to stay warm. Hugging Evan tightly, holding the sleeping man close, John fell into a light slumber. It was quiet in the infirmary, for once there were almost no nurses around, only person who was walking around was Carson, the rest were either asleep or still not enough awake to have any noise. Not that anyone probably would have been making noise, there was a, no loud noises policy in the infirmary enforced by Carson and not many were crazy enough to piss off the man who wielded the needle and knife when one's life was in danger.

John nuzzled Evan's neck unconsciously in his sleep, and because of that missed the content purr coming from Evan. Carson on the other hand who came by to check on them did not miss it, and had to stifle a small snort, grinning at the sight the military commander and his SIC sleeping together on the infirmary bed.

A few hours later John woke up when Evan was trying to wriggle out of his death grip.

"Ev?" murmured John automatically tightening his hold around Evan's waist.

Evan struggled for a short time before he gave up with a small huff, snuggling up as close as he could get to John. Somehow Evan wriggled himself around so that he was facing John, meaning his face was just about on the same level as John's upper chest and collarbones.

"Cold," muttered Evan.

"I know," said John with a sigh. "I thought I had lost you…"

"Sorry," whispered Evan burying his face in John's chest. "I love you John."

At first John had thought that he had heard wrong, usually Evan though much more emotional than John, kept his feelings tightly under wraps when in public and it made John happy to hear Evan say those words to him where anyone could hear them. It showed that Evan trusted him.

"I love you too Ev," whispered John, grinning like an idiot. Pressing his lips to Evan's temple.

"Good, 'casue I'm not letting you go."

"Likewise Major, Likewise."

There was a light atmosphere in their tiny makeshift room, lying awake, John and Evan talked softly, enjoying the feeling of lying there beside each other, exchanging a kiss here and there. They had survived the walk through hell, and were ready to move on in their lives together.

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