Carson took a second when he stepped out of the Gate to take in the scene before him, he then entered full doctor mode. Carson motioned his team forward into the aftermath of the explosion as he headed to treat his patients.
The first person he came to was Laura Cadman; she was lying on the ground with Rodney at her side. His jacket pressed against her shoulder, wrapped around what Carson assumed was a metal pole of some kind. Carson pushed down the automatic feelings when he saw her pale face, Laura was obviously in pain and he had to force himself to remember that here he was not a friend, not an ex-boyfriend but her doctor. As he moved to Rodney’s side, Carson saw that Rodney’s face was almost as pale as the woman whose blood he was holding back.
“Rodney?” Carson asked, “Are you hurt?”
Rodney shook his head, “It’s all Cadman’s blood.”
Carson frowned, hoping that his friend wasn’t going into shock. He had a lot of wounded to see to.
“Danson, Ellis,” Carson called over, “Danson, take over from Rodney for a moment.”
As the nurse pressed his hands onto Rodney’s makeshift bandage, Carson moved the scientist to a rock.
“Rodney, I need you to do something for me,” he said, knowing that there were very rare moments in time when Rodney was both this quiet and obedient, “Laura is stable for the moment but I need you to keep pressure on her wound and keep her warm.”
Rodney nodded.
“Sit against the rock,” Carson ordered, amazed that Rodney didn’t question him at all, “We’re going to sit Laura against you, I need you to keep her awake but don’t antagonise her too much.”
Rodney nodded again, sliding down to sit where Carson had told him. The nurses helped Carson move the injured woman to rest against the scientist. Rodney wrapped one arm around her waist, the other pressing the pad of material against her wound.
Carson placed a tag on Rodney’s jacket, thankful he’d spent all that time creating a system for this kind of emergency, “The Daedalus will be here soon.”
“Rodney?” Laura’s voice shook.
“Just hold on, Cadman,” Rodney told her, “You’re going to be fine.”
“Cold,” she gasped.
Rodney hugged her closer to him, “Don’t worry. We’ll be beamed aboard the Daedalus soon, then back in Atlantis and then Carson will fix this.”
She nodded and Rodney took a moment to catch his breath. This shouldn’t be happening; they’d been here to look at an Ancient lab.
Rodney grimaced as he thought back a few hours when everything had looked as though it was going to be a good day. The lab was filled with a load of things that were going to help them, especially what could be instructions to make their own ZPM.
Rodney had left the team with strict instructions not to touch anything until he got back while he, John and Teyla went to check out what was possibly a cache of ZPMs.
The call from Ronan sent them sprinting across the fields, the lab had been booby-trapped. A sudden explosion rocked the ground beneath their feet, sending them sprawling. The moment they could move again, Rodney and John headed back to the lab while Teyla called for Carson and his team.
Laura was the first person they’d seen and Rodney didn’t remember how he’d gotten to her side, all he knew was one moment he saw her from a distance, the next he was pressing his jacket against a pool of blood coming from her shoulder. He’d only glanced around once but he could see parts of what had been scientists and soldiers. That was why he kept his eyes down, focussing on the woman who was now resting against him.
*********************************************
“Okay, Cadman,” Rodney said, reaching for a topic, “What about your family?”
“I thought you didn’t care about things like that,” she murmured.
Rodney frowned, “I wouldn’t be asking if I didn’t want to know,” he told her, hoping Carson would get to them soon.
They’d been back in Atlantis for a while now; Carson had stopped for a few minutes to check on Laura. Her shoulder had been dislocated when she slammed against the wall before the spike had impaled her through the shoulder. It had been pure luck, because with the force the spike had been slammed through her would have shattered the bone if it had been in its proper place.
“I have a sister,” Laura told him.
“Younger? Older?” Rodney demanded, “Come on, Cadman. Details please.”
Laura sighed, “She’s older.”
“Since when did you do one or two word sentences?” Rodney demanded, “Cadman, until Carson gets here to fix your shoulder, you have to talk. So tell me everything.”
Laura gave a soft sigh, “Okay.”
John leaned against the wall in the infirmary, he was exhausted. They’d lost fifteen people today, so far, during the explosion and afterwards from injuries too severe. Carson had been working non-stop for hours and still had Laura Cadman’s surgery to do. Thinking of her, John glanced over to where the lieutenant was sitting with her back against Rodney’s chest and her head resting against his shoulder. The scientist had not moved, not complained about staying with the woman he claimed to despise.
As he looked over at them, John noted that their fingers were entwined, it made him almost laugh. Rodney and Laura had the most intimate, distant relationship he’d ever witnessed. They avoided one another as much as possible but they would always be there if the other was in trouble. He knew that Rodney would destroy anyone who dared hurt her, and he also knew the reverse were true.
As he watched them, it occurred to John this had to be the longest they’d ever spent together without it dissolving into a fight. This was also the most they’d ever touched one another. John just hoped that she would be fine by the end of this because he didn’t know how Rodney would handle it.
Rodney eased his way out from under Laura as the anaesthetic took hold of her. He took one last look at the pale face of the injured woman before he turned and left.
Rodney staggered across the room, ignoring John and headed out of the infirmary as fast he could. John followed on to make sure his friend was alright. When Rodney entered his quarters, John followed watching as Rodney headed straight to the bathroom where he promptly vomited.
“You okay?” John asked, from the doorway.
“Smell of blood,” Rodney muttered, “Just need to get rid of it.”
John nodded, he hadn’t seen, until this moment, how caked in Laura’s blood Rodney was.
“She’s going to be fine,” John reminded him, “Carson’s the best surgeon we have.”
Rodney shrugged, “I know. I’m not worried.”
John hid his smile, Rodney had reverted back to form quickly but not unexpectedly.
“I’m going to take a shower,” Rodney told him, “I promised Laura I’d be there when she woke up.”
John stopped for a second, amazed by what he’d just heard. Especially at the use of her first name, something he was sure Rodney had never done before.
“Sure,” John replied, “We should be able to get something to eat before she’s out of surgery.”
Rodney nodded, disappearing once more into the bathroom leaving John to wait.
*********************************************
“Hey,” Laura grinned sleepily at up at the man sitting there.
Rodney looked up from his laptop as she spoke; he had been sitting here for about an hour waiting to keep his promise to her. She was still pale but her shoulder had been fixed back into place and it was bandaged, a clean white bandage, completely free of blood.
Rodney pulled his seat slightly closer to the bed, “How’d you feel?”
“Good,” she continued to smile, slightly inanely.
Rodney laughed, “That must be some amount of morphine Carson gave you.”
Laura grinned up at him, “Yeah, it’s nice.”
He smiled again, his eyes flicking to her damaged shoulder. Rodney looked around, making sure that no one was watching before he gently rested his hand on hers.
“I was worried about you,” he whispered, pretty sure she wouldn’t remember this once the drug wore off and if she did, she’d shrug it off as a weird dream.
“Nice to know,” Laura continued to smile, “It’s nice that you’re here.”
Rodney rolled his eyes, “You asked me to be here when you woke up.”
“Did I?” wide eyes stared at him before she squeezed his hand tightly, “And you did.”
“Yeah, I did,” Rodney replied gruffly, “Now I see you’re fine, I have work to do.”
“‘Kay,” Laura sighed, her eyes closing.
Rodney watched her eyes close. He leaned over her, gently brushing a stray lock of hair from her face.
“Don’t you dare do that to me again,” Rodney whispered, he softly brushed his lips to hers.
As he left the infirmary, he missed the self-satisfied smile Laura wore as she slept.
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