Shaping Our Lives On Atlantis 3

Why Do You Season This, Your Love, With So Much Salt Water?

by Bethany

URL: http://www.stargateslash.com/asb/bethany6/shapin03.php
Summary: Evan Lorne gets ill, and everyone rallies around to save him
Info: Levi Paris is modelled, slightly, on the character of Lt.Tom Paris from Voyager (He looks like him anyway) And, the title and quote come from Oscar Wilde's The Canterville Ghost!

Why Do You Season This, Your Love, With So Much Salt Water..?

"When is his team in??" Evan Lorne asked. "When?" He looked at Carson.

"I believe them to be due in around eleven hundred hours, Evan..." Carson stated. "You just have to stay strong, please, lad..."

"I'm trying..." Lorne said, and he drifted back to sleep.

Carson double checked him for the thousandth time, and said a silent prayer... You had to still try and have faith out here. Often, it was all a man had; Carson knew that.

***

"Ah, Levi, thank Heaven!" Carson looked up, as Levi Paris, nicknamed 'Hilton' by his team-mates, walked in...

"I just heard! It's that bad then?" Levi asked, moving to Evan's bedside.

"It's not good, son..." Carson said. He was fatherly with all his patients, and their visitors. He couldn't help it. He'd wanted a father's compassion, when he was hurting, all his life, and never received it. He had to be sure he always gave it to his patients now. He knew that many people, grown ups even, still asked for their parents in their hour of need, or, at worst, their final moment. We all returned to the cradle.

"What is it?!" Levi asked.

"A virus, we think..." Carson replied.

"Nothing can be done, obviously..?" Levi couldn't take his eyes off Evan.

"Well, we've had other teams, suited up, and doing research, out there... And the biochemistry, and other such Labs, are going through the Ancient's Records..." Carson answered calmly, though he didn't feel calm inside.

"It was nothing you came across while Michael held you captive, nothing like anything at all?" Levi asked.

"No. Sorry, lad... But Doctor Jackson has been translating some records, anything he can find, in the Medical History and Research the Ancients left... He's halted from looking into his research pertaining to General O'Neill's illness, to help Evan instead... He's the best at what he does, and he's put his full concentration on this. We all have." Carson said.

"Yeah, sorry, Doc, I know...." Levi said absentmindedly.

Carson put his hand on Levi's shoulder. "He's been asking after you..." He said, quietly.

***

"Is it too late..?" Daniel Jackson came running into the Infirmary...

Carson's head whipped around to see Doctor Jackson. "What did you guys find??"

"They're working on it now!" Daniel replied. "No guarantees; because we're cutting it fine, but..."

"How did you find something?" Levi looked up from his seat by Evan's bedside.

"It was a formula... I read it a bit different, when Doctor Leslie asked me to take a look at the information. She was the one who found it!" Daniel answered.

"Do we have to do anything to prepare him?" Carson turned to Daniel.

"Leslie and her team say they'll be in touch any moment now..." Daniel replied.

***

"L.P?" Evan opened his eyes, and saw his secret lover. "You got home safe..."

"Sure did..!" Levi smiled down, touching Evan's hand briefly.

"What happened?" Evan asked.

"You caught a virus, Evan..." Carson replied.

"But I was going to die, wasn't I?" Lorne's voice croaked.

"Doctor Leslie, her team, and Doctor Jackson, put a stop to that!" Carson smiled. He monitored all the machines Evan was hooked up to, and looked over to see Evan smiling up at Levi, so, when he was sure Evan was progressing well, he walked away discreetly.

"Thanks for staying with me..." Evan told Levi. He meant, of course, that they had to be discreet. He could just about remember asking after Levi, to Doctor Beckett, but he figured Carson could be discreet because of the Doctor-Patient Confidentiality clause, AND his relationship with Dr. Rodney McKay...

"You have my loyalty..." Levi replied.

"You just wanted to make sure I hadn't asked any of the Doctors to play Twister with me..." Evan whispered good humouredly.

Levi grinned. "Like I said, you've got this Long-Player's loyalty, Helena..." He mouthed the last word.

Evan knew what he was getting at – The other famous Paris, historically speaking, was Paris, who fought a war for Helen of Troy... He swatted Levi's hand with as much strength as he could muster.

They both laughed...

***

Daniel got up from his sofa, as the door chime went. He clicked a button, and the door slid back, to reveal Evan Lorne in a wheelchair, with Levi Paris in charge of the chair. "Should you be out of the Infirmary yet..? It's only been a few days..!"

"That's what I said..." Levi told Daniel.

"And what Doctor Beckett said..." Evan replied. "But I've got to go straight back there after this visit..."

"I could have come in to see you..!" Daniel said, worriedly, as he invited Evan and Levi into the living room...

"I had to come and say thank you..." Evan stated, as Levi parked his chair next to the end of Daniel's sofa.

Daniel came around the furniture, and sat down opposite Evan and Levi. "You'd do the same for me... You've been trying to do the same for Jack..."

"I will still, when I'm back on duty..." Lorne promised. "We'll be out there keeping our eyes, ears, and noses, out for a cure..."

"Thanks..." Daniel said.

"Carson actually says I'm okay now... Why else would he let me out with just Levi here for help? I've got to have a tonne of physio apparently, but still..." Thank God Levi and I live to play Twister another day, he thought...

***

Daniel walked into the room, looking up at Jack sleeping face... For a moment, he was scared Jack had already died in his sleep, but he knew that wasn't true...

Daniel tried not to cry. "Sorry..." He spoke to Jack. "You're not dying! That's not what this is all about...! It just seems I can cure everyone before you..!" Daniel said, frustrated. He looked at Jack, keeping his hands on the glass panel. "When you're out of here, this is one time we're all going to let you retire..." He sniffed back a tear. "Why do you Season this, your love, with so much salt water..?" He quoted a line from The Canterville Ghost, appropriately by Oscar Wilde. "Let's just hope we turn out like Francis and Virginia, not Sir Simon and Eleanor..!" He cried, not moving his hands from the glass that separated himself and Jack.

The End

Next: Jack's Back