I do not own Stargate Atlantis, the dialogue from the show or the characters, they are owned by MGM. Dr. Alexa (Lexi) Carter is my own original character. I have tried to research the medical jargon as much as possible, so if any of it is incorrect, I apologize. It might help to have read The Colonel & Dr. Carter. Enjoy.

© Jennifer Dreyer, 2009-2010

Chap. 1:

The minute the Jumper landed on the Daedalus, Keller jumped out of her seat. Reaching the back of the Jumper, she feels everyone else's eyes on her but she doesn't pay them any attention as all she wants to do is get to the infirmary as soon as possible. Letting out a sigh of relief as the hatch starts to lower, she shouts to the medics waiting for the group, "transfer the Major to the infirmary and get a scan of his leg. Rodney, let them clean those cuts." as she bolts for the doors leading out of the flight bay.

Entering the infirmary, she takes in the scene, which not surprisingly is complete controlled chaos. Ronon is kneeling on the ground basically supporting John's upper body, as the onboard medics try to pry the gun out of his hand, maneuver him out of his TAC vest and get his vitals all at the same time. Scanning her eyes over him quickly, she realizes that even though he is on the verge of passing out, he has yet to let go of the gun and is still holding himself rigid.

Rushing to his left side, "make room!" she shouts, and as she kneels down next to him, her eyes lock with his half open ones, "Colonel, you can let go now, we've got you."

Nodding his head slightly, his body goes limp and as the gun falls out of his hand, his eyes slide shut all the way.

Reaching for his wrist, grimacing, "well he's, I wouldn't say fine. But, let's get him on the gurney."

Letting the onboard medics pick John up, but still hovering close by, "doc?"

Watching with a critical eye as John is transferred to the gurney, "he needs a lot of work, but he'll be okay." and hitting her radio, as she watches Ronon glaring at the nurse who is trying to get him to follow her, "Colonel Carter come in please."

"Go ahead doctor."

Walking towards John's side, "Colonel, I just wanted to tell you that Colonel Sheppard is grounded. He's going to be fine, but I've got to get him into surgery."

"Thank you Jennifer. Carter out." and as the radio shuts off, she smiles as she sees John's eyes fluttering open, "Colonel are you with us?"

Pushing the nurse who is still trying to get him to sit down out of the way, as he also sees John's eyes opeinging, "Sheppard?"

Slightly nodding his head, "yeah…I'm with you."

Smiling, "good." and looking over at Ronon, "let the nurse have a look at you, while I take care of him."

Nodding, Ronon finally lets the nurse guide him to the gurney next to John's but scowls at her again, as she forces him to stop watching John.

Smirking a little as he sees the scowl Ronon gives the nurse, John refocuses on Keller, who is rummaging around for what looks like a lot of supplies. His attention wavers for a moment and the next thing he knows, he's got an IV in his left arm, along with a blood pressure cuff wrapped around the same arm and Keller is standing next to him reaching for the hem of his shirt.

Keeping an eye on John while she was rummaging around for the supplies, Keller had not missed him fading in and out, it's a good thing Lexi's not here. and reaching for the hem of his shirt, she realizes that his eyes have focused on her.

Pulling the field dressing off and placing it on the nearby table, keeping her eyes on him, "I thought we'd lost you there." and grabbing a wet gauze pad, she reaches down to begin cleaning and inspecting the wound.

Looking at her, "yeah, well, for a second I thought we'd lost me." and as he looks away from her, his breathing hitching, "it's gonna be ok, though, right?"

"Yeah. You need some serious work but you should, you know, live to fight another day and all that."

"So, what's going on? I guess Michael showed up before the Daedalus, huh?"

Turning back to him, "yeah." and leaning over again, wiping away some more blood and debris with a new piece of gauze, "we had to lower the shields to beam you up here."

Grimacing and talking through some more shallow breaths, "sorry about that."

She looks him in the eyes and looking back down at what she is doing, "well, I'm sure McKay and Colonel Carter will be able to fix it."

His eyes lock on hers, shock evident on his face, "McKay's alive?'

She smiles a little, "yeah." and remembering the men that didn't make it out, her smile fades, "yeah, he and Lorne were the only two to make it out of the rubble."

Looking away from her, he starts to shift in the bed as if he thinks he's going to get out of it, "patch me up. I need to get back out there."

Placing her left hand on his shoulder, "what? No-no-no. Look, you will be fine, but you're far from it now. You've lost a lot of blood. You need surgery and a transfusion. I mean this can't wait."

Settling down and watching her pull her hand away from his shoulder, reaching for more gauze, "look, Doc, Michael's here...that means Teyla's probably on the ship. I'm too close to sit here and do nothing."

"You're not gonna be sitting around doing nothing. You're gonna be laying here in surgery."

Shifting on the gurney again, "look, there's gotta be..." he trails off as he's now trying to sit up, but having no luck, he sinks back down on the gurney and rolling his eyes, "there's gotta be a quick fix."

"No!" she says, the annoyance turning to exasperation.

Resting his head against the pillow, obviously exhausted, "I need a few hours."

Staring at him, she sees the pain in his eyes and not being able to handle it, she turns to go get the ball rolling on setting up the surgery, "I'm sorry I can't."

Quickly sitting forward, grasping her arm and locking eyes with her again, "I have had a chance to rescue a teammate before and it slipped through my hands. I am not letting that happen again." he says, slumping against the pillow, the burst of energy having taken quite a lot out of him.

Looking down at his blood stained hand still wrapped tightly around her arm, she can feel the tremors running through his body. Her eyes drift from him to the monitors and inwardly sighing, as the readings are nowhere near where she would like them to be, on the one hand, he's right. Teyla is on that ship and if anyone can get her back it's him. and focusing on him again, yeah, but he's in no shape to go off and try to rescue her. You should sedate the hell out of him and get him into surgery now!

Gently pulling his hand off her arm, coming to her decision, "okay, Colonel. I'll compromise with you."

Smiling at her with a glint of hope in his eyes, "what're you offering?"

Returning the smile, "you can go, but before you do, you will let me replace some of the blood and fluids you lost." and watching him, waiting for a protest, she continues on as he stays quiet, "I'm also going to give you some antibiotics and pain meds."

"Will the pain meds make me fuzzy?" he asks, concern etched across his forehead.

Shaking her head, "no they won't. But, Colonel, I."

"Okay. Deal."

Realizing that she is not going to talk him out of this, she nods and heads over to the nearest cabinet to grab a suture kit, bandages and a syringe of local anesthetic. She heads back over to the bed and as she hooks her foot around the stool that is behind her so she can sit on it, she catches a medics eye, "I need 5 mg of Tramdol, Vancomycin, and a liter of O neg."

Focusing on John's side, she doesn't miss the fact that he is in the middle of a conversation with Ronon. Blocking it out, as she injects the local anesthetic into his side, she grimaces to herself at the flinch of his body, as she pricks him with the needle. Swabbing the wound one more time and picking up the needle and thread, she sees out of the corner of her eye that the medic is hooking up the liter of blood to his left arm, as well as injecting the Tramdol and the Vancomycin into his IV.

xxxx

An hour later, as she is finishing up the stitches and bandaging the site, she looks up to see Ronon sitting on the bed next to John's with a smirk on his face.

Looking from him to John, she sees why he is smirking. John is asleep. Shifting her gaze back to Ronon, "Ronon, do me a favor."

"What?" he asks, as he comes up to the other side of the gurney.

"Can you go scrounge up a new t-shirt and over shirt for him."

Nodding, he turns on his heel and disappears from her sight. Refocusing on John, she smiles a little at the fact that some of his color is coming back and he is not breathing as shallow as he was, earlier. But as her gaze moves to the monitors, her smile fades, as his pulse and temp are still not anywhere close to normal and she knows that all she has done by patching him up is delay the inevitable.

Sighing, she stands up and cleans up the mess that she made, as she was suturing up the wound. Taking a seat again, she lets her eyes settle on him and she feels a smile spread across her lips as she watches him sleeping, "you really are something else, John Sheppard." she says under her breath.

She looks up from him as Ronon comes to a stop at the foot of the bed. Seeing the look on his face, "what's wrong."

"The battle's not going well. If we're gonna do this, we've gotta do it now."

Understanding that time is of the essence, she stands up and as she gently shakes John, "Colonel, you need to wake up now."

Bleary hazel eyes open at her voice and noticing that he's having a hard time focusing on her, "John, look at me. I need you to focus." she says, placing her left hand on his shoulder.

"Mmm..up" he slurs and then his eyes focus sharply on Ronon, "hey buddy, those for me?" he asks, the slurring almost completely gone.

"Yeah...here. We've got to go find McKay."

Sitting up and pulling the pulse ox monitor off his finger, "hey doc, help me here, please."

Watching him sitting up, she reaches for the IV and takes it out. She then reaches for the buttons of his over shirt and unbuttons it. Helping him shift out of it, she reaches for the hem of the t-shirt and as she pulls it over his head, she doesn't miss the hiss that comes out of his mouth. Catching the look in his eyes, as the shirt finally comes off though, she simply helps him into the new ones.

Stepping back to let him swing his legs over the side of the bed, she doesn't miss the color draining from his face as he stands and grabbing him by the elbow, until he gets his feet under him, "John, this really isn't a good idea."

Glaring at her, "Doc, I let you do your part. Now I've got to do mine."

Letting go of his elbow, "fine. But be careful and bring her home."

Taking a deep breath and placing a hand protectively over his side as he follows Ronon out of the med bay, "will do. Thanks Jennifer."

"What've I just done." she asks herself as she watches them leave and sighing, she heads over to check on Major Lorne.