“John, its Carson here. Rodney tells me you think your femur is broken and you’ve self administered ten milligrams of morphine. You may need to inject another ten.”
“Negative on that, Doc. I’m hoping not to pass out here. Leg’s definitely broken. I tried to pull myself off the spike when it first happened. It’s through the bone. Not much bleeding.”
“Okay, avoid moving as much as possible. Do you have any water left? You need to keep hydrated.”
“No water.”
“Okay, son. It’s all right. We’ll be there as soon as is humanly possible.”
Beckett tapped his earpiece to disconnect. “Rodney, we need to get to Colonel Sheppard within the hour.”
“There’s a space gate above a neighboring planet …” Rodney waited for the final information to load. His stomach sank.
“Seven hours, best time,” he quietly informed.
Beckett’s head dropped.
Elizabeth said, “There must be something else we can do.” She pointed down at the activated gate. “He’s just there, a few seconds away!”
A couple of seconds, a couple of thousand light years. Rodney rolled his chair over to the live screen and tapped his radio. Sheppard was in much the same position as last time, only his pack was open and some of its contents were strewn in front of the gate.
“Sheppard. We’ll have to close down this wormhole to send a jumper through to M3X-199. It’s going to take a little while.”
“Define a little while, Rodney.” Sheppard didn’t lift his head up to speak, and he sounded even more breathless.
“We’ll be there before dawn.”
There was a good few seconds of silence before Sheppard responded. “Understood.”
Rodney was about to tell John that they’d keep the wormhole open while the jumper was readied. Then he thought of something.
“You carrying any C4?”
“Depends. You got a plan that doesn’t involve blowing me up?”
Rodney was repositioning the MALP again, reversing it to the opposite side of the gate. He lowered the camera till he was looking at the base of the last spike in the row. There was about a two centimeter gap where the rod rose out of the platform.
“A small blast over here might be enough to retract the device into its casing.”
“Yeah but I’m way over here, Rodney.”
Rodney smiled. “That’s why there’s a little claw thingy on the front of the MALP. We have nineteen minutes on the clock. Your call, Sheppard.”
Rodney repositioned the camera to face John. He was holding a section of C4 in his left hand.
“Do it Rodney.”
*********
As it was, the colonel got home with a whole two minutes to spare. Would’ve been longer, Rodney mused, except Sheppard had taken the time to scream and pass out when the spike pulled back down through his leg. And on top of that, he promptly vomited everywhere when he came to, before dragging himself ever so slowly through the mess and into the wormhole.
He’d refused to let Weir close down the gate and send a medical team through. Said he could get back under his own steam.
Always with the macho, that man.
Rodney had been busying himself with a shower and food while Sheppard was in surgery. Now he was waiting with Weir, Teyla and Ronan to hear the news.
It didn’t take much longer for Beckett to come out and announce that he’d saved Sheppard’s leg, but the colonel would have to have further surgery and of course, a long period of rehabilitation. Rodney left Beckett and Weir to discuss the merits of whether this should be done in Atlantis or back on Earth. He knew Sheppard would make sure he won that argument. Weir would have the leading military orthopedic specialist aboard Daedalus within a day.
He joined Teyla and Ronan beside Sheppard’s bed. All in all, John didn’t look too bad. His leg was heavily bandaged, splinted and elevated in a long sling. The plaster would come later, so Rodney had plenty of time to think of a suitable insult.
Teyla looked up from Sheppard to smile at him. “What would we do without you Rodney?”
“Die horribly?” Rodney offered.
Ronan snorted and clapped Rodney hard on the back. “Good job McKay.”
Smiling, Rodney placed a hand to lightly touch John’s shoulder, and the team settled in to wait.
THE END
Hope that fit the prompt criteria closely enough. John was just out of reach, technically speaking.
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chiming
Re: So Near, So Far PG Part 4
Date: 2011-01-09 12:33 am (UTC)From:“John, its Carson here. Rodney tells me you think your femur is broken and you’ve self administered ten milligrams of morphine. You may need to inject another ten.”
“Negative on that, Doc. I’m hoping not to pass out here. Leg’s definitely broken. I tried to pull myself off the spike when it first happened. It’s through the bone. Not much bleeding.”
“Okay, avoid moving as much as possible. Do you have any water left? You need to keep hydrated.”
“No water.”
“Okay, son. It’s all right. We’ll be there as soon as is humanly possible.”
Beckett tapped his earpiece to disconnect. “Rodney, we need to get to Colonel Sheppard within the hour.”
“There’s a space gate above a neighboring planet …” Rodney waited for the final information to load. His stomach sank.
“Seven hours, best time,” he quietly informed.
Beckett’s head dropped.
Elizabeth said, “There must be something else we can do.” She pointed down at the activated gate. “He’s just there, a few seconds away!”
A couple of seconds, a couple of thousand light years. Rodney rolled his chair over to the live screen and tapped his radio. Sheppard was in much the same position as last time, only his pack was open and some of its contents were strewn in front of the gate.
“Sheppard. We’ll have to close down this wormhole to send a jumper through to M3X-199. It’s going to take a little while.”
“Define a little while, Rodney.” Sheppard didn’t lift his head up to speak, and he sounded even more breathless.
“We’ll be there before dawn.”
There was a good few seconds of silence before Sheppard responded. “Understood.”
Rodney was about to tell John that they’d keep the wormhole open while the jumper was readied. Then he thought of something.
“You carrying any C4?”
“Depends. You got a plan that doesn’t involve blowing me up?”
Rodney was repositioning the MALP again, reversing it to the opposite side of the gate. He lowered the camera till he was looking at the base of the last spike in the row. There was about a two centimeter gap where the rod rose out of the platform.
“A small blast over here might be enough to retract the device into its casing.”
“Yeah but I’m way over here, Rodney.”
Rodney smiled. “That’s why there’s a little claw thingy on the front of the MALP. We have nineteen minutes on the clock. Your call, Sheppard.”
Rodney repositioned the camera to face John. He was holding a section of C4 in his left hand.
“Do it Rodney.”
*********
As it was, the colonel got home with a whole two minutes to spare. Would’ve been longer, Rodney mused, except Sheppard had taken the time to scream and pass out when the spike pulled back down through his leg. And on top of that, he promptly vomited everywhere when he came to, before dragging himself ever so slowly through the mess and into the wormhole.
He’d refused to let Weir close down the gate and send a medical team through. Said he could get back under his own steam.
Always with the macho, that man.
Rodney had been busying himself with a shower and food while Sheppard was in surgery. Now he was waiting with Weir, Teyla and Ronan to hear the news.
It didn’t take much longer for Beckett to come out and announce that he’d saved Sheppard’s leg, but the colonel would have to have further surgery and of course, a long period of rehabilitation. Rodney left Beckett and Weir to discuss the merits of whether this should be done in Atlantis or back on Earth. He knew Sheppard would make sure he won that argument. Weir would have the leading military orthopedic specialist aboard Daedalus within a day.
He joined Teyla and Ronan beside Sheppard’s bed. All in all, John didn’t look too bad. His leg was heavily bandaged, splinted and elevated in a long sling. The plaster would come later, so Rodney had plenty of time to think of a suitable insult.
Teyla looked up from Sheppard to smile at him. “What would we do without you Rodney?”
“Die horribly?” Rodney offered.
Ronan snorted and clapped Rodney hard on the back. “Good job McKay.”
Smiling, Rodney placed a hand to lightly touch John’s shoulder, and the team settled in to wait.
THE END
Hope that fit the prompt criteria closely enough. John was just out of reach, technically speaking.