Chapter 70

Morning saw a relaxed looking Elizabeth Weir showing up at her office to see the flowers and the two twists with the note from Felix to start her day. She opened the note, smiled as she read it, and then started eating a twist with her morning tea.

Felix had gotten up after a nightmare free sleep, did some callisthenic to help wake up and loosen his muscles for the day's planned activities. After a light breakfast he met with his Marines for some detailed First Aid training, which was planned for all morning - with some groans from the troops of course.

He ran his Marines through as many scenarios as he could think of that he had encountered, and definitely throwing in small items like ... extracting under fire while protecting the patient with their own body. When they broke for lunch, all four of the team was sweating profusely from the effort and exertion they had put into the training.

As they split off, Felix told them, "Good work, people – nice improvements," and then got a call from Dr. Beckett to report to the infirmary.

He figured it was just another post-injury check-up, so as he walked into the infirmary he was surprised to hear just how loud it was there.

He was greeted with a loud series of conversations from the obviously excited group of Weir, McKay, Beckett, and Sheppard.

He stayed back from the conversation, content to listen and watch but not fully understanding what had them excited, and why he was called there. Carson was the one who finally noticed him and said, "Ah good, Felix is here – now we can confirm this with a blood sample."

Felix held up his hands defensively and started backing out of the infirmary while saying, "Oh no – no way – not getting my blood – no needles."

Elizabeth Weir was the only one who picked up immediately that Felix was very rapidly approaching fight or flight as a look of dread was now on his face. She motioned for the talking to stop while she slowly approached him calmly saying, "Felix – it is okay. Carson wishes just a pinprick of blood – nothing more than that. Rodney and Carson discovered what your blood anomaly could be, so they just wish to confirm their theory with a pinprick of your blood. Okay?"

Felix was having a very difficult time at that moment as all he saw were people wanting to torture him with the needles again, so he had to get out of there, but his body wasn't cooperating at that moment. Then he noticed Elizabeth in front of him with a concerned look on her face – he blinked his eyes and shook his head to clear away the bad memory. He then registered what she had been saying and replied softly, "Um ... yeah, I guess," and walked over to Dr. Beckett.

While Carson was asking Felix if he was okay with this, Sheppard gave Elizabeth an equally concerned look as she had given Felix – they seemed to have the same thought about what should happen next.

It was also apparent that Carson was quite concerned for Felix's mental health and psychological state of mind, as he had picked up certain indicators like Sheppard and Elizabeth had. Carson watched for a reaction from Felix as he gently poked the thumb and then placed the blood on the slide for comparative analysis.

Felix turned and walked away slowly – Elizabeth walked after him and gently pulled his arm so he faced her as she asked, "What just happened there, Felix? You seemed like you just had another minor episode. What is going on with you?"

He muttered, "I'm fine – forget about it," and then as he was about to walk away he was stopped by the insistent hand belonging to Elizabeth Weir as she then placed her self firmly in front of him.

She spoke to him softly, "Felix – that isn't exactly something you or I can't forget about. I would like you to report to Dr. Heightmeyer after lunch to work with her on these ... episodes of yours. We need you healthy – I want you healthy – so please – work with Kate - all right?" She lifted his chin to se his eyes firmly closed and tears rolling down his cheeks; she added, "We care – that's why I want you to get better – okay?"

Felix just nodded his head and left the infirmary to the doctors; Carson turned the microscope over to Rodney, as he wanted to talk with Elizabeth and voice a couple of concerns about Felix. Plus after what he saw a moment ago with how she treated Felix with a bit more than just casual care – he was curious about her relationship with him since their dinner date.

She had seemed more ... caring and almost intimate at one point. He was happy for her, as he believed like Teyla did: Elizabeth had needed a break from work for quite a long time, and a dinner date with Felix was good for both of them.

Carson went and stood next to Elizabeth and asked, "Is he going to be all right? He seemed a wee bit out of sorts – more than usual."

She turned and faced Carson and replied, "I don't know if he will ever be 'all right' again Carson. How can one person take the amount of abuse he has and still care to give all he has for people that barely know him? I'm sorry Carson – I'm venting again."

Beckett told her, "Ah, don't worry about that – you've been under stress since we got here. But today you looked quite relaxed and very radiant, if you'll pardon my saying so. And I think it has to do with a certain person that you care about a lot more than you care to admit."

Elizabeth blushed a bit as she looked down and then back at Carson as she replied, "That obvious, was it?"

Beckett asked further, "I take it that dinner went well, then?"

She answered, "Oh Carson – he made a very delicious lasagne and garlic bread and twists. I jokingly told him I might put him in the kitchen if he kept feeding me that well," and definitely had a fond smile as she remembered after the dinner.

Carson saw the look of contentment on her face as he added, "I agree there would be a lot of happy people if Felix worked the kitchen, but could you really do that to him? It would be like ... putting him in a cage, Elizabeth."

She put her head down for a moment as she replied softly, "No, I couldn't do that to him."

Just then an exultant "Yes!" was heard from Rodney over at the microscopes – so they went to see what had been discovered. He started with, "As usual I was right. The blood sample from Captain Chaos does show the same basic genetic make-up of the Atlantean healing elixir we found in the database. I knew that gene was the same as I had seen – now as to how him of all people got the gene in his body – I won't venture a guess."

Rodney then turned his full attention for a change to the assembled audience, and as Sheppard rolled his eyes McKay added, "I believe that Carson – with his people working under my expert tutelage of course – that we can replicate and synthesize this in the same way we did the Atlantean gene therapy when we first got here."

Sheppard was the first one to ask, "Are you sure this can be done successfully, Rodney? The last time you tried something like that – I got turned into a bug – which I really didn't like."

McKay was briefly crestfallen as he remembered and then replied, "Yes, well – that was an unfortunate time for all of us. But I'm confident we can make this gene therapy for the Atlantean healing elixir work for us. Maybe we could trade with some of the needy worlds."

Sheppard cut him off by asking, "Rodney - how long until it will be ready?"

There was the usual weak protests from McKay as he replied, "I can't say for certain – these tests can take hours or days. This isn't something you can just throw together overnight, you know."

Elizabeth spoke up, "Okay – get to it then – keep us advised," and then waved Sheppard to follow her out. They had a quick talk about Felix as they walked towards her office, and shared their concerns on the wee man. Sheppard concluded that they would just keep a distant eye to make sure he stayed healthy and happy.

The afternoon saw Felix sitting down with Kate after giving his troops some studying to do while he talked away the time; Kate ended up doing the majority of the talking again. Felix had gotten her to open up a bit about her past just like he had done with Elizabeth the night before – and it took a while before she caught her self before she got too personal.

After Felix left her office for dinner, Kate contacted Elizabeth to give her a quick summary, which turned into a full blown venting session that she suddenly recognized what she had been doing. Elizabeth was trying very hard to muffle her laughter, as she had gone through very similar with Felix the night before – the talking they had done with him had come across as comfortable around him.Kate heard the muffled laughter and asked, "Why are you laughing at me, Elizabeth? I'm serious about this."

Elizabeth managed to reply, "The reason I'm laughing is because he did almost the same to me last night. I had already planned to ask certain questions of his past, and then the next thing I'm pouring out my life story to him ... and it felt ... I don't know ... right or comfortable."

There was a pause from Kate as she replied, "Yes! That's almost exactly what happened and it seemed so natural to talk with him. Oh! That is so aggravating of him!"

Elizabeth rebutted with, "It's ironic, don't you find Kate? You're the psychiatrist – and you let him get inside you. You should know he has done the same with Laura Cadman when she was here, and she got as aggravated as you and I have. I don't know how to explain it Kate – but he is quite adept at turning away questions."

There was an exasperated sigh from Kate as she said, "Yes, he is quite adept at turning away certain questions, I will give him that. It's just so ... disconcerting how easy he does it."