Bite by irishamber
Title: Bite
Characters: Ronon, Beckett, Sheppard
Word Count: ~700
Rating: PG
A/N: Hi all, I just discovered this community the other day, got me a live journal account and figured out how to use it (I think). If I've messed up posting this please let me know so I can correct.
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Ronon Dex knew fear. But when he woke in the Atlantis infirmary with the metallic scent of blood heavy in the air and his arms and legs restrained, it took every bit of courage he'd ever had to swallow that fear.
"Hey." Sheppard pushed himself up from the chair in the corner to stand next to the bed. "Relax." He nodded at Ronon's bandaged right arm. "The restraints were to protect you from yourself. You were trying to gnaw your arm off."
Ronon seriously doubted that. He already felt the deep itch of the healing wound. Worse, he felt the contrast of the cut on his opposite shoulder seeping blood. He had to escape.
"Release me."
"Uh, if it were up to me, I'd have you out of here in a minute, but Beckett made me promise to get him first." With that Sheppard activated his comm and let Dr. Beckett know that "his patient was awake."
Knowing it was futile, Ronon jerked at his restraints in panic, rocking and sliding the bed with his struggles. Then he saw Dr. Beckett and fought harder. Not that it did any good. Sheppard held him down while Dr. Beckett slid a needle under his skin.
Fighting the weight of his eye lids, he watched as they removed the bindings holding his injured arm to the bed and Dr. Beckett loosened the bandage.
With a force of will driven by fear, he backhanded Dr. Beckett with his newly freed arm, knocking the man off the stool he'd been perched on. Too slow. He was too slow. Sheppard was holding him down again before he could even think to reach across to free his other arm. It was the drugs. Knowing it was futile, he fought both the drugs and Shepperd's hold. He couldn't live like this.
"Ronon. Ronon!" Sheppard yelled for his attention but Ronon couldn't afford to look away from Dr. Beckett.
The man stood and worked his jaw, giving Ronon that deceptive sad eyed look. "Why'd you go and do that, lad? I just wanted to see how you were healing." Beckett's eyes dropped to Ronon's now bare arm, the bandage lost in the abbreviated battle. "Holy Mary --" He cut himself off and hurried over to the other side of the bed to lift the bandage from Ronon's still bleeding shoulder. His eyes darted back and forth between the two as comprehension dawned. "You can...your saliva...I'll need to run some tests."
Ronon let out a battle cry, renewed his fight against the drug, and lurched up against Sheppard. When that didn't succeed he lay still and once again commanded, "Release me."
"Ronon, buddy. Calm down." Ronon didn't even bother to glare at Sheppard for the use of that buddy word.
"Lad, I just want to find out why you were able to heal yourself. This could be an amazing breakthrough in medicine." Dr. Beckett gave him his patented I'm-a-doctor-and-I-just-want-to-help look. The man might have saved Ronon's life by removing the chip from his back, but Ronon didn't intend to let Beckett prey upon him any more than he'd let the wraith.
"Okay, doc. That's it." Sheppard reached down and loosened the bindings from Ronon's legs. "It isn't doing him any good to be here. You'll have to get your samples another time." He freed Ronon's other arm, swung it around his neck and helped him to stand. Ronon, gratefully accepted the help, ignoring the blood dripping down his side.
Sheppard walked him to door and said, "We'll get you to your own bed and in the morning you can tell me why you won't let Beckett look at you."
Ronon, eyed Sheppard in disbelief. Surely the man wasn't that obtuse. "I won't let him do to me what he did to the wraith."
A gasp drew Ronon's attention to Dr Beckett, sitting on the edge of the bed Ronon had just vacated, his back to them.
Sheppard sighed and said, "That went well." Then Sheppard took a breath, adjusted his grip on Ronon and hurried him out the door. Ronon smiled. Maybe Sheppard really was his buddy.