The Human Body VIII: Getting Under Your Skin, Part 2
Title: The Human Body VIII: Getting Under Your Skin, Part 2
Author: smallwaldo
Rating: R
Pairing: Sheppard/Beckett
Words: 3339 (this part)
A/N: This is both the "Instinct" and "Conversion" chapter of the series. They theoretically run one to the next, but if you actually watch the end of one and then the beginning of another... not so much. I ended up having to do some *serious* tap dancing later to make things scan between the two. This part beta'd by victoriaely and kyrdwyn. Thanks! :)
Summary: "He turned me into a [bug]! ... I got better."
Previous Parts: Part 1 is here.
Ronon met them at the gate, which was fortunate, because Carson had packed enough equipment to start an entire lab on the planet.
Carson thanked him as Ronon picked up two of the larger cases and set off into the woods with them. John and Carson followed behind.
“He’s not quite sure what to make of this whole not-evil-Wraith thing,” John whispered to Carson.
“Neither are you,” Carson answered with a raised eyebrow.
“Not yet. I’m just a little more willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.” They walked for another half a mile in silence. When they got to the stream, John said to them both, “Look Zadek seems pretty sure that Elia’s not the one killing people, which means there’s another Wraith out there. Why don’t you head back to Zadek’s cave… house, whatever. I’ll check in with the townsfolks and let them know that we’re still working on solving their problem.”
Ronon shrugged indifferently, but Carson made a face, not liking the idea of John heading off on his own into Wraith-infested woods. John gave him a reassuring smile. “I’ll catch up with you in a little bit. It’ll be fine.”
Carson frowned at him again anyway, not in the least mollified by his words, but not arguing.
John hit his headset and brought Teyla up to speed and then handed over the case he was carrying to Ronon. He patted Carson’s chest as he passed as a final reassurance and then let Ronon take him off to meet Ellia.
***~~~***~~~***
Ronon stalked off to the back corner of the room as soon as Zadek let them in. Teyla at least had the presence of mind to make introductions.
Carson couldn’t help but think of the pictures he’d seen of nineteenth century chemistry labs with beakers and Bunson burners and corkscrew tubing. He was trying to take in as much as he could about Zadek’s set up as quickly as possible as Zadek cleared a place for him to set up his things. He knew his computers and microscopes and analyzers would completely baffle the man. He wasn’t sure how he’d explain microprocessors and chemical analyzers and all of his other advanced technology.
He was unpacking his laptop from the case when Ellia came in with tea and biscuits for everyone. That drew Carson up short. A Wraith offering him food and not making even the slightest intimation that she wanted to eat him? The trepidation he’d felt about the legitimacy of his work evaporated at that point. She clearly wanted to be human and was adopting as many human mannerisms as she could. And where there was one Wraith who wanted to co-exist with humans, perhaps there would be others. This really could be a good idea after all.
He passed on the tea, wanting to get straight to work, but the very idea of getting food from a Wraith still bogged his mind.
She came around with the biscuits next and that seemed to be the last straw for Ronon who was barely concealing his loathing as it was. Carson tried to understand that for Ronon the Wraith had been a real and constant threat for seven years. But when he’d pulled his gun on a child who was being as non-threatening as possible, Carson had been stunned.
Fortunately Teyla had stepped in, because Carson wasn’t entirely sure that Ronon wouldn’t have shot him if he’d tried to interfere. And he wasn’t sure he had enough of a handle on Wraith physiology that he would have been able to do anything for Ellia, had Ronon shot her.
He sighed as he watched Zadek chase the distraught child down the tunnel. It was almost a blessing in disguise that he was going to have to wait a while to get started. Ellia was turning out to be much more fascinating than he’d suspected or even hoped. She was so human-like, child-like in her demeanor. Somehow, he realized, he’d expected a young Wraith to be as cold and aloof as the adult Wraith he’d met. He hadn’t expected the adolescent approval-seeking of a girl who’d made tea and biscuits for her father’s guests. So much like his own sisters when they’d been twelve or so.
He proceeded to set up the rest of his equipment as Teyla jumped on Ronon for his temper. He was glad someone said something, and that he hadn’t had to. He didn’t really know the girl, but he was finding himself quite enamored of her.
Then John called to say that another Wraith victim had been found and his worry was split between a Wraith who longed to be anything other than what she was and his lover who was out in the woods alone with a Wraith who was perfectly pleased to be what he was and who clearly didn’t think twice about taking human life.
He puttered with the fine focus on his microscope so no one would see the worry on his face.
~~~***~~~***~~~
He had been analyzing the contents of the drug and trying to compare them with what he knew of the Wraith enzyme and the process of Wraith feeding when John came back. He’d tried not to be rude, but he’d eventually had to ask Zadek to step aside and let him work. He simply couldn’t work with the man buzzing around him asking how everything worked and what everything did. He promised to take him step by step through the final process that yielded results, but for the time being he really needed to concentrate in order to arrive at the solution that much faster.
John became Zadek’s next target as soon as he walked in. Verifying that there was another Wraith and that something would be done about that seemed to excite him. When John announced that his team would be going after it, Zadek seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, even as Carson became more nervous.
It wasn’t that he would ever have told John not to go on the hunt; he knew that that was what John did. And with Ronon and Teyla at his back, he was confident that John would make it back. It would remain to be seen whether or not he’d need Carson’s services when he did.
He had to smile when John told Rodney to stay back, not that Rodney was seriously going to be of any real assistance to him. But it was fun to watch the double-take as Rodney realized that his choices were helping with the ‘voodoo’ or hunting a Wraith.
He should have known that Rodney’s own anxiety for his teammates would result in the nonstop articulating of every thought that went through his head.
“I never really could get into biology. Just too much information about the human body.”
Against his eyepieces, Carson rolled his eyes. He was tempted to ask exactly what Rodney had expected from biology, but he didn’t actually want to perpetuate the conversation, so he let it go.
“One time as an undergrad, I diagnosed myself with half-a-dozen different separate medical conditions before I had to drop the class,” Rodney continued.
“Really?” Carson asked, unable to mask his exasperation.
“Yeah, believe it or not, back then I was a bit of a hypochondriac,” Rodney answered.
After losing track of his culture count for the fifth time Carson snapped, “You know this does require some concentration.” He didn’t add the “Back then?” to Rodney’s comment about having been a hypochondriac in the past. Though it was good to know that it wasn’t himself that brought out the whiner in the man.
“What? Am I bothering you?” Rodney mocked.
Rodney was crouching down in Carson’s personal space now.
Carson took in a deep breath and mentally counted back from ten. He could honestly say that Rodney was one of his best friends on the expedition, but that didn’t mean that the man didn’t drive him absolutely daft some days.
Before Carson could say what was on his mind, Rodney was heading for the door, “I think I’ll get some air.”
Carson let his breath out, the stern scolding he had planned dismissed as Rodney disappeared out the door. Zadek shot him a look and Carson gave him a tight smile. Explaining that most of Atlantis had learned to deal with Rodney’s overbearing personality by ignoring it would have taken longer to than it was worth. If Zadek decided to try and have a conversion with the man, he’d figure it out for himself soon enough.
He hunched over his microscope again, counting the cell clusters on the slide for the sixth time.
“Let me ask you something,” Zadek said solemnly. Carson could tell that it wasn’t about Rodney’s blustering. “If you can prove to everyone that I’m telling the truth, that Ellia no longer needs to feed, do you think the villagers will accept her?”
He wanted to say ‘yes’, that they’d show them that she ate tea and biscuits and that she’d co-existed with her foster father for ten years. He wanted to say that they’d make the serum available to them in dart guns or some such so that any other Wraith who tried to cull their village would be rendered non-threatening. But he knew that people who lived and died in the shadow of the next Wraith culling wouldn’t accept one of the enemy living among them. Even one they could prove was no longer a danger.
Zadek read the answer in his face. “That’s what I’m afraid of. No matter how hard we try to convince them, they’ll always see her as a monster.”
Carson had a hard time imagining anyone who’d met that girl thinking of her as monster. He had an eight-year-old niece who fit that description far more than Ellia did. But he knew that the villagers weren’t going to line up to shake her hand and have a little chat with her.
“I’m getting old, Doctor,” Zadek told him.
“Oh, you’ve got lots of time,” Carson answered automatically. Even as he was saying it, he realized that someone in their late fifties or early sixties, as he supposed Zadek to be, would have a lot of time in front of them, barring disease or accident on Earth. He realized that on planets that were culled roughly every fifty years, living to be sixty was a rare thing indeed.
“We never have as much as we think we have. And when I’m gone, she’ll be alone. I’ve tried to teach her about love and human companionship. And that’s exactly what she’ll never have.” Zadek’s voice broke at the end. Carson never would have thought he’d see someone cry over the fate of a Wraith. This young girl was changing his perspective on many things radically and rapidly.
He wondered if Zadek were trying to ask him to take care of Ellia in the event that something should happen to him. He was flattered that Zadek thought so highly of him so soon, but he knew that he could never take a Wraith back to Atlantis. He waged a silent war with himself in a matter of seconds. He didn’t want to get the man’s hopes up, but at the same time, he did want his - and ultimately Ellia’s - help. He doubted he’d get a better opportunity to bring up the retrovirus and explain what it was for. “Zadek, there’s something I want to show you.”
Carson moved to the smaller black case and opened it. “I didn’t want to say anything at first because I didn’t want to get your hopes up.” He pulled a small silver cylinder out of the case. “This is a retrovirus. Something I’ve been working on.”
“I… I don’t understand.”
Carson rolled his eyes at himself. Of course Zadek didn’t know what a retrovirus was. It was doubtful he knew what a regular virus or a bacterium was. “Oh god, how am I going to explain this?” He backed up to the beginning. “Part of Ellia is human. Part of her is what we call the Iratus bug. It’s the part that makes her look the way she does and where her desire to feed comes from. Now it’s possible that by means of this retrovirus, we can strip out those parts and leave only the human parts behind.” He hoped he was breaking it down in simple enough terms.
“You mean she’d be like you and me?”
The hopeful look in Zadek’s eyes worried Carson. “Yes… Now I must warn you, the retrovirus is still experimental. In fact it’s only been tested on cell cultures in a laboratory and so far without much success. I’m hoping that what we can learn from your daughter will help me perfect it.”
Before he could finish his warning and explanation, Rodney burst back into the lab. “We’ve got a problem!”
Carson looked up at him flabbergasted. Leave it to Rodney to run all the way back from wherever he’d gone to tell Carson to come with him back to wherever he started from.
“Why didn’t you just radio me?” he asked as he hurried out the door after the panicked man, his equipment forgotten.
Rondey’s immediate answer was lost in the footsteps and heavy breathing of the three of them running out the door. As they ran Rodney explained that the villagers were on the hunt. Carson and Zadek knew that if Ellia was discovered she’d be killed on sight, no questions asked, no explanations accepted.
Carson watched the large group move through the woods from their vantage point on a cliff behind a log. Rodney radioed John, but he didn’t have any suggestions, so Carson suggested they go back to the cave and get her hidden as best they could.
The door was open as they’d left it, but as soon as they stepped in, Carson knew something was wrong. The room was unnaturally still and something was… off. Then he saw it.
“Oh my god…” he picked up the tube of what should have been one of the retrovirus samples. It was almost empty.
“What’s wrong?” Zaked asked, searching for Ellia.
“She’s taken the retrovirus,” Carson told him as calmly as he could, while his thoughts raced. Some of the results he’d seen in the test tubes had been catastrophic. He couldn’t imagine what they’d do to a fully developed macro-organism. The havoc some of the trials had caused on simple cell cultures would have unbelievably unpredictable effects on Ellia. He looked at the syringe… there was no way her body would absorb that much of the retrovirus without having some sort of systemic reaction.
He reached for his radio, hand shaking. “Colonel Sheppard, come in.”
“Go ahead.”
“We’ve got another problem. Ellia’s gone and she’s injected herself with the retrovirus.”
John’s reply was measured and calm, Carson wondered if they weren’t closing in on their quarry. For so many reasons he wished he could avoid disturbing them. They were hunting a Wraith, they couldn’t afford to be caught off guard. But if they found Ellia - or she found them - and they weren’t warned about what she’d done he’d never forgive himself. He took a deep breath. Ellia could be curled up next to a tree somewhere miserably ill and unable to swat a fly; there was a chance she was less threatening than ever before. But one of the samples had resulted in extremely rapid cell growth, not unlike a cancer, causing the mutation of normal cells and increasing the mitosis rate unbelievably. So it was just as likely that she was a bigger threat.
“Why would she do that?” John asked, still controlled, but with a measure of incredulity now.
Carson rolled his eyes as he realized why she would have done something like that. “She must have overheard us talking about it. I told Zadek that it might be the key to making her human.” He felt his hands still shaking. What had he done?
Zadek looked as apprehensive as any parent Carson had ever seen with a poor prognosis or anyone who’d ever had a family member go missing. He wanted to find it odd that someone cared about a Wraith like that, but he realized fully now, that Zadek had never seen a Wraith in her. Just a child. “Please, you’ve got to find her before the villagers do,” Zadek pleaded.
“Look, Ronon says we’re close. If we lose the trail now, we may never catch the Wraith,” John told him. Carson found it interesting that John called the creature they were hunting a Wraith, but clearly didn’t see Ellia as the same or even a similar creature.
Carson squeezed his eyes closed as he debated what could be done. “Rodney and I will find her,” he finally announced after debating the wisdom of having only Rodney at his back while he tried to track a child who was in god only knew what condition. Neither of them were trained for tracking anyone and would likely only stumble around and destroy whatever clues a real tracker like Ronon might be able to use to find the girl, but he couldn’t sit around and do nothing.
“Be careful,” John warned earnestly through his headset. He suspected that maybe now John had just an inkling of the fear and worry Carson felt every time John set off on a difficult or dangerous mission.
But he didn’t have time to think of that now. “Understood.” He headed for the door.
Zadek wanted to go with them, but Carson had already put enough people in danger for one day, so he told him stay back in case Ellia returned to the house.
“Is there anywhere she’d like to go? Any favorite hiding spots? Favorite places?” Rodney asked. Carson shook his head to clear it; something was very wrong when Rodney McKay was being more level headed and thinking more clearly than he was about hunting a Wraith child, very possibly high on a retrovirus that either wanted to kill her or mutate her. In most circumstances Rodney was the first to say, “I’ll be in the car.” Or under spectacularly frightening circumstances, “I’ll be under the car.” Not that Rodney couldn’t be counted on in a crisis within his domain, but when large life-sucking aliens were involved, Rodney had a highly evolved sense of self-preservation.
Zadek told them of a place up in the hills that Ellia liked to frequent, even though Zadek disapproved. Ellia was clearly a child who thrived on her father’s praise and approval, so for her to go up to this place against his wishes, there had to be a strong force calling her to it.
“It’s a start,” Carson told him as he and Rodney headed off.
They’d been on the chase for about twenty minutes before Rodney said, “I thought it was pretty nuts when Ronon was trying to track a Wraith through this forest.”
“Now that it’s just us do you feel any better?” Carson bit back sharply. He was well aware of how crazy it was for two scientists to be tracking a Wraith through the woods. He really was. And yes, he had gone and volunteered Rodney for this mission, but this was the same guy who’d initially volunteered to accompany his team on the search for the adult Wraith they had suspected was in the woods, so Carson didn’t feel quite so bad about it.
“Oh yes, supremely confident,” Rodney snarked back.
Rodney gripped his sidearm. Carson kept his hands free, praying that he’d only need to shoot Ellia with a hypodermic or two - not that he had the slightest idea what he’d need to load them with. And while Rodney running around with a gun in his hand wasn’t something that made Carson feel inherently better, he understood the caution the other man was exercising. He just had to hope that Rodney wouldn’t just start firing wildly when they finally found Ellia.