Alrighty! On with the show as they say. I will be returning to work tomorrow. I work night shift and have two shifts in a row. I don't want to go back. I want to live in this holiday life forever! But, reality, must. So there will be probably no update until at least Thursday until my head is screwed back on correctly. But, ideas are moving, the story is progressing and I will continue :D I'll need all the cookies you can give me to keep me going for the next few days... ;)

Chapter 16

"Oh thank God," Rodney muttered when he saw Carson. "Maybe now we'll get somewhere."

Carson hurried to John's bedside and kneeled. "Are you saying this happened over the course of only a few hours?" he asked and pulled something from his pocket.

"Yes, though Primus assures us they are no longer feeding," Rodney replied.

Carson shook his head as he moved a handheld medical scanner over John's body. "There are hundreds of them throughout his entire system. I can't even begin to imagine how much damage they've caused."

"Unintentionally," Teyla reminded him.

"Unintentional or not, I doubt even the colonel can survive this. I'm reading malnutrition of irreversible levels. Impending, multiple organ failure. How he's even alive is beyond me."

His words numbed Rodney. The fleeting hope on seeing his doctor friend arrive disappeared like smoke. Panic set in, and insidious despair permeated his mind and conjured within Rodney a fit of anger which made his blood pressure rocket.

Behind him, Teyla sighed. "He is still alive because those within him are trying to save him, giving him time to heal," she said patiently.

"Save him?" Carson said incredulously. "If they intended to save him, they might have stopped consuming him a little earlier! From what I can see, there's not enough left to regenerate. Healing is impossible! Look!" he said, pointing to the small bulges in John's neck. "Look at the size of the things!"

"Carson!" Rodney snapped, his eyes blazing. "Can you think of a way to help him or not? We're running out of time and your doom and gloom aren't helping."

"Eh, pot, kettle, Rodney," Carson snapped back. "We all know you're the doom and gloom merchant around here."

Rodney shook with rage. He dropped the tablet in his hands to the ground as his anger consumed him. He threw Carson a withering look and his hands clenched by his sides. "Do you think we don't know how grave this situation is? I can assure you, we understand oh-too-clearly that our friend is being eaten from the inside out and that we will soon lose him!"

Carson lowered his gaze as his face reddened. "Aye, I guess you are. I'm sorry. It's just a shock to see something like this."

Rodney sighed wearily, his sudden anger dissipating. "Believe me, I know."

They sat silently for a moment, allowing their heightened emotions to calm. Rodney wasn't really angry at Carson. He knew the man had reacted the way he had through shock and pessimism over which he had no control. But Rodney knew there was no time for such thinking. According to Primus, time was running out as John's system headed towards permanent shutdown which would kill John and all who resided within him.

"I was thinking stasis pod," Rodney said after a while. "It might keep John going until we come up with a way to save him. But I've no idea how to get the Goh out of him safely."

"How would they normally get out?" Carson asked.

Rodney was unable to tell him, the words lodged in his throat. He was relieved when Ronon's gruff voice joined the conversation.

"By eating, doc. By the time they are ready to leave, the host has fulfilled its function so they just eat their way out."

Rodney watched Carson's face pale, and he swallowed hard as he looked around the barn. He looked lost and unsure, something he'd never seen in the man before.

"We can't very well open his veins to let these things out, that would just kill him," Rodney said quietly. "If the Daedalus was here, we might have been able to transport them out or… or something," he finished lamely.

"Hold on…" Carson said. "Okay." he clapped his hands together. "Ask Prime… Primer, whatever. Ask it if it could escape the bloodstream if I set up a non-return valve in one of Colonel Sheppard's major vessels."

Though he raised an eyebrow at the doctor, Rodney lifted his tablet and rapidly typed the question.

Explain non-return valve, Primus responded.

Rodney typed in the answer and they all waited on a reply.

"What good will that do?" Teyla asked the doctor. "He will die whether or not they leave his body unless the effects of the Goh are treated."

"One thing at a time, lass, one thing at a time," Carson replied with a smile that inspired some confidence in Rodney.

Yes, we could exit Sheppard's body in such a way if the valve led to water and could accommodate our bodies.

"Okay," Carson turned to Rella. "Do you have such a thing here?"

Rella regarded him with clear hostility. "Of course we have. I'm sure we also have water on this planet for the tank you'll need for the Goh."

Rodney knew there was some history between the two, though couldn't exactly remember the details. "While your petty exchanges can be entertaining, this is not the time!" he hissed.

"No, it isn't," Carson admitted.

Rella huffed and relented. "I guess not."

Though the two doctors continued to eye each other venomously, they quietly compiled a list of items necessary for John and the Goh. Rodney tried to keep up but quickly lost the meaning of the conversation as it became more medically intense.

As the two doctors moved away to discuss arrangements with other Caronaa medical staff, Major Lorne took Carson's place next to John's bed, standing while gazing down at John's sleeping form.

"He doesn't look too good," he whispered.

"No," Rodney replied and picked up his tablet. "He doesn't."

Lorne lowered himself down to hunker beside the bed and looked to Rodney. "Doc, I gotta ask. What good is getting him into a stasis pod? You heard Doctor Beckett, there will be no coming back from this."

Though his words were harsh, his voice was soft and Rodney knew Lorne trying his best to make him feel better while highlighting the part of the plan no one had yet discussed. What exactly were they to do once John was in stasis? He couldn't very well stay in such a state forever. Therefore, all the pod would do was prolong their already fading hope. Lorne seemed to sense his despairing and reached to lay a hand on Rodney's shoulder.

"Sorry, doc, I'm just musing aloud."

"No, no, you are quite right, Major. I've no idea if we can do anything for him, but at least stasis gives him a chance of survival."

"What about the thing inside him, has it got a plan?"

Rodney shook his head with dismay. "No, not yet." He looked to the tablet, only to find that Primus had been trying to attract his attention.

McKay.

McKay?

Sheppard is failing.

McKay, Sheppard is failing.

I may have a plan for our survival.

To clarify, I may have a plan to save Sheppard.

McKay?

McKay?

System shutdown is imminent.

"McKay here! How long do we have?" he said as he typed.

"What's going on, Doc?"

Rodney held up his hand to silence Lorne. "Primus? Are you there?"

Long, heart-stopping moments of waiting with held breath seemed to stretch on for eternity as Rodney stared at the screen, willing Primus to reply to his query. The cursor blinked, maddeningly static. The longer the silence, the more Rodney believed something catastrophic had happened. He looked to the screen by the side of John's head that monitored his health signs, grabbed his wrist and held his finger to the pulse point.

"What is it, doc?" Lorne asked concerned.

Rodney watched both screens for any change. John's heart rate increased to dangerous levels, spiking on the screen while pounding rapidly beneath his finger.

"Doctor McKay, what the hell is going on?"

A shudder ran through John's body, barely a tremor that lasted a few seconds before abating. Then his heart rate returned to its now-usual thready state, pulsing weakly beneath Rodney's finger while also slowing on the screen.

Then the cursor on the tablet moved.

I am here.

I apologize.

I had to eat again in order to maintain this communication.

Rodney grimaced at the confession and swiftly removed his hand from John's wrist.

"Are you able to continue?" he asked Primus.

I am sufficiently sated to keep conversing for a while longer.

"Oh, good. So long as you're sated," Rodney mumbled without typing his words. Seeing Lorne's confused expression he added, "Primus had to eat to keep talking with us."

"Eat? You mean…?"

"Yes, that was Colonel Sheppard screaming silently with pain," Rodney said sharply. Only he regretted the words as soon as he said them as Lorne flinched back and stared at John. While Rodney had been dealing with it for hours now and grown somewhat accustomed to what was happening within John, Lorne had no real appreciation until right then. Rodney was sure the horrified expression on Lorne's face was the same one he'd been wearing himself since this entire debacle had begun.

A message on the tablet drew Rodney's attention away from Lorne and back to Primus.

There may be a slim chance for Sheppard's survival.

"I don't believe it, there's a chance!" he said to Lorne who leaned over to read the tablet.

"What chance?" they said in unison as Rodney typed the words into the tablet.

The birthing valleys of our home seas could be John Sheppard's salvation.

.

Oooh to be continued...