Fic: Stone
.Title: Stone, Chapter Two
Author: corycides
Fandom: SGU
Characters: Nicholas Rush x Vanessa James
Rating: R
Spoilers: To the most recent
Summary: Sometimes it isn't possible to let sleeping dogs rest - even if it would be best after the events in 'Hurry'. An emergency on Destiny threatens the lives of everyone on board.
Disclaimer: I do not own SGU or the characters used in this fic
‘They just fell over’ turned out to be a deceptively innocuous diagnosis.
Volker had a frozen right arm: the shoulder, elbow and wrist locked into position. At the start of the hour he’d been able to wriggle his fingers but his thumb and knuckles were growing stiffer by the minute. The senator’s daughter had been paralysed down her right side: her face was frozen into half of a rictus grin and her leg and arm were twisted up mid-dance step. She was, to date, one of the most seriously affected victims. Eli hovered over her, face crinkled with worry.
He’d be useless until this was resolved.
Rush stood back against the wall of the makeshift infirmary with his arms crossed and watched Lieutenant Johansen go from bed to bed. A frustration he was all too familiar with set her face in grim lines as she touched hands and murmured comfort. With no idea what had caused the outbreak she couldn’t offer anything but palliative care, and with a third of Destiny’s inhabitants afflicted and their limited medical supplies dwindling by the hour even that was limited.
After they’d tried everything modern medicine recommended, after they’d exhausted the experimental procedures Rush’s academic connections had sourced, that had been the expression the doctors at the hospice wore as they made their rounds.
“Well?” Young asked from behind Rush.
“I’m not sure if I’ve made the distinction clear, but I’m not a medical doctor.”
“That’s never stopped you before.”
Did Young really think he could help, Rush wondered, or did the Colonel just want him to make him say ‘I don’t know’. Whichever it was, Lieutenant Johansen interrupted before Rush had to say anything, crossing the room in long, eager strides.
“Sir,” she said. “Doctor Rush.”
“What’s going on TJ?” Young asked, his voice softening.
She shook her head, running a hand over her tightly bound hair. “I don’t know,” she admitted, without the venom that Rush knew he’d have put into the words. “Certain muscle groups are paralyzed - there seems to be no pattern as to which. It’s progressive and it’s painful. I’ll need access to Destiny’s computer to run some tests before I can determine more.”
Part of Rush baulked at the idea of anything that detracted from his efforts to decipher Destiny’s secrets, but he made himself nod.
“I’ll divert control of some systems.”
“He’ll devote his systems and his time,” Young corrected him. “This is your priority, Rush. You want to get back to poking around in Destiny’s innards? Get my people back on their feet.”
Orders delivered he walked past them to start walking his own grid of the beds. Johansen rubbed the back of her neck.
“I’ll appreciate the help, Doctor Rush,” she said. “I’m not qualified for this.”
Rush unlocked his clenched jaw.
“Obviously not,” he said. “Otherwise you’d not be wasting our anaesthetic to buy an hour of comfort for people you don’t know if you can help or not.”
His irritation wasn’t her fault, but she was there.
Her chin went up and she glared at him.
“They’re suffering,” she said. Her voice stayed low out of respect for her patients, but the edge sliced. “What do you want me to do, Doctor Rush? Leave them in pain and save the anaesthetic for when you have a headache?”
He curled his lip.
“Triage,” he said, pushing himself off the wall. “And think about how much you are going to want that anaesthetic in three hours, when the progressive paralysis progresses some more. Send the blood samples when you have them.”
***
Young stood in front of the Stargate.
“We all have friends, colleagues, loved ones who are sick,” he said. “We all want to stay here with them. I understand that. But we can’t. It won’t help them. This will.”
Next to Vanessa, Spencer shifted and spat onto the ground between his boots.
“Or get us sick,” he growled under his breath. “Bet if it wasn’t the senator’s daughter laid up then we’d not be doing this.”
Vanessa tugged her helmet on, tucking her hair up under it, and tightened it under her chin.
“Laws is sick,” she murmured back. “Buchanan. Plenty of SGC in those beds, Spencer, and even if there weren’t it doesn’t matter. This is what we do. So stop whining and do it.”
Better she say it than Young or Scott - neither of them would be so kind.
He scowled but yanked his helmet. Beneath it his face was all hollows and bulges of clenched muscles. Vanessa fiddled absently with her gear, safety checks so ingrained she hardly thought about what her fingers were doing. Spencer wasn’t dealing with Destiny. Every day cranked his nerves that bit tighter and Vanessa wasn’t sure how much give he had left in them.
Maybe getting to go to Earth, once the visits were reinstated, would make it easier for him.
Or worse.
Hard to predict. Spencer never talked about his life outside of SGC much.
“Rush will be coming with us,” Young said, giving a stiff nod to the scientist. He stared back with a bland expression, rocking back on his heels like he was at a boring talk. “Greer. James. Take care of him. We don’t want anything unfortunate happening to him.”
The order made Vanessa’s stomach lilt uncomfortably against her ribs. Did Young know? Not that she’d done anything wrong - not the brightest thing she’d ever done but not wrong - but the idea of her commanding officer taking an interest in her sex life wasn’t a pleasant one. It wasn’t one she could do anything about either though, so she gave Spencer an encouraging punch to the shoulder and headed over to Rush.
Greer reached him first and settled himself at Rush’s right shoulder. That left Vanessa the left. She fell into place and Young gave the order to dial the planet.
“Hey, James,” Greer said as they waited for everyone else to file through the gate. “I’m not into watching. So you know.”
Without even looking at Rush she felt him bristle and tapped her elbow against his.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “You can hold my coat.”
The corner of his mouth that she could see twitched into a short-lived smile.
“Kinky,” he said.
Everyone was through.
Greer jogged up the ramp and jumped through the glistening skin, disappearing. The minute his boot sole disappeared Vanessa checked the time and started to count down in her head. Ten. Nine. Eight...
“Don’t elbow me again, Lieutenant,” Rush said. If she had been wanting to repeat the other day, his tone would have frosted her undies.
Seven. Six...
“Greer was trying to get your goat.” Five. She started up the ramp, angling so Rush climbed ahead of her. “He wouldn’t care if I was doing Eli with a kino ball watching. You he doesn’t like.”
Three. Two...
“So it was for my benefit?”
“Nope. I just don’t want to get involved.”
One.
Author: corycides
Fandom: SGU
Characters: Nicholas Rush x Vanessa James
Rating: R
Spoilers: To the most recent
Summary: Sometimes it isn't possible to let sleeping dogs rest - even if it would be best after the events in 'Hurry'. An emergency on Destiny threatens the lives of everyone on board.
Disclaimer: I do not own SGU or the characters used in this fic
‘They just fell over’ turned out to be a deceptively innocuous diagnosis.
Volker had a frozen right arm: the shoulder, elbow and wrist locked into position. At the start of the hour he’d been able to wriggle his fingers but his thumb and knuckles were growing stiffer by the minute. The senator’s daughter had been paralysed down her right side: her face was frozen into half of a rictus grin and her leg and arm were twisted up mid-dance step. She was, to date, one of the most seriously affected victims. Eli hovered over her, face crinkled with worry.
He’d be useless until this was resolved.
Rush stood back against the wall of the makeshift infirmary with his arms crossed and watched Lieutenant Johansen go from bed to bed. A frustration he was all too familiar with set her face in grim lines as she touched hands and murmured comfort. With no idea what had caused the outbreak she couldn’t offer anything but palliative care, and with a third of Destiny’s inhabitants afflicted and their limited medical supplies dwindling by the hour even that was limited.
After they’d tried everything modern medicine recommended, after they’d exhausted the experimental procedures Rush’s academic connections had sourced, that had been the expression the doctors at the hospice wore as they made their rounds.
“Well?” Young asked from behind Rush.
“I’m not sure if I’ve made the distinction clear, but I’m not a medical doctor.”
“That’s never stopped you before.”
Did Young really think he could help, Rush wondered, or did the Colonel just want him to make him say ‘I don’t know’. Whichever it was, Lieutenant Johansen interrupted before Rush had to say anything, crossing the room in long, eager strides.
“Sir,” she said. “Doctor Rush.”
“What’s going on TJ?” Young asked, his voice softening.
She shook her head, running a hand over her tightly bound hair. “I don’t know,” she admitted, without the venom that Rush knew he’d have put into the words. “Certain muscle groups are paralyzed - there seems to be no pattern as to which. It’s progressive and it’s painful. I’ll need access to Destiny’s computer to run some tests before I can determine more.”
Part of Rush baulked at the idea of anything that detracted from his efforts to decipher Destiny’s secrets, but he made himself nod.
“I’ll divert control of some systems.”
“He’ll devote his systems and his time,” Young corrected him. “This is your priority, Rush. You want to get back to poking around in Destiny’s innards? Get my people back on their feet.”
Orders delivered he walked past them to start walking his own grid of the beds. Johansen rubbed the back of her neck.
“I’ll appreciate the help, Doctor Rush,” she said. “I’m not qualified for this.”
Rush unlocked his clenched jaw.
“Obviously not,” he said. “Otherwise you’d not be wasting our anaesthetic to buy an hour of comfort for people you don’t know if you can help or not.”
His irritation wasn’t her fault, but she was there.
Her chin went up and she glared at him.
“They’re suffering,” she said. Her voice stayed low out of respect for her patients, but the edge sliced. “What do you want me to do, Doctor Rush? Leave them in pain and save the anaesthetic for when you have a headache?”
He curled his lip.
“Triage,” he said, pushing himself off the wall. “And think about how much you are going to want that anaesthetic in three hours, when the progressive paralysis progresses some more. Send the blood samples when you have them.”
***
Young stood in front of the Stargate.
“We all have friends, colleagues, loved ones who are sick,” he said. “We all want to stay here with them. I understand that. But we can’t. It won’t help them. This will.”
Next to Vanessa, Spencer shifted and spat onto the ground between his boots.
“Or get us sick,” he growled under his breath. “Bet if it wasn’t the senator’s daughter laid up then we’d not be doing this.”
Vanessa tugged her helmet on, tucking her hair up under it, and tightened it under her chin.
“Laws is sick,” she murmured back. “Buchanan. Plenty of SGC in those beds, Spencer, and even if there weren’t it doesn’t matter. This is what we do. So stop whining and do it.”
Better she say it than Young or Scott - neither of them would be so kind.
He scowled but yanked his helmet. Beneath it his face was all hollows and bulges of clenched muscles. Vanessa fiddled absently with her gear, safety checks so ingrained she hardly thought about what her fingers were doing. Spencer wasn’t dealing with Destiny. Every day cranked his nerves that bit tighter and Vanessa wasn’t sure how much give he had left in them.
Maybe getting to go to Earth, once the visits were reinstated, would make it easier for him.
Or worse.
Hard to predict. Spencer never talked about his life outside of SGC much.
“Rush will be coming with us,” Young said, giving a stiff nod to the scientist. He stared back with a bland expression, rocking back on his heels like he was at a boring talk. “Greer. James. Take care of him. We don’t want anything unfortunate happening to him.”
The order made Vanessa’s stomach lilt uncomfortably against her ribs. Did Young know? Not that she’d done anything wrong - not the brightest thing she’d ever done but not wrong - but the idea of her commanding officer taking an interest in her sex life wasn’t a pleasant one. It wasn’t one she could do anything about either though, so she gave Spencer an encouraging punch to the shoulder and headed over to Rush.
Greer reached him first and settled himself at Rush’s right shoulder. That left Vanessa the left. She fell into place and Young gave the order to dial the planet.
“Hey, James,” Greer said as they waited for everyone else to file through the gate. “I’m not into watching. So you know.”
Without even looking at Rush she felt him bristle and tapped her elbow against his.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “You can hold my coat.”
The corner of his mouth that she could see twitched into a short-lived smile.
“Kinky,” he said.
Everyone was through.
Greer jogged up the ramp and jumped through the glistening skin, disappearing. The minute his boot sole disappeared Vanessa checked the time and started to count down in her head. Ten. Nine. Eight...
“Don’t elbow me again, Lieutenant,” Rush said. If she had been wanting to repeat the other day, his tone would have frosted her undies.
Seven. Six...
“Greer was trying to get your goat.” Five. She started up the ramp, angling so Rush climbed ahead of her. “He wouldn’t care if I was doing Eli with a kino ball watching. You he doesn’t like.”
Three. Two...
“So it was for my benefit?”
“Nope. I just don’t want to get involved.”
One.