Title: Spatial Perception

Theme: Five Rooms ( Infirmary | Gate Room | Balcony | Mess | Bedroom )

Summary: "The first time I met Carson Beckett, I was wearing a blood pressure cuff and had a thermometer sticking out of my mouth..."

A/N: Five ficlets in the Stages of Love challenge, with the 'five rooms' prompts. First three ficlets are tags for Season 2 episodes, so beware of spoilers; Infirmary for 'Seige Part III', Gate Room for 'Duet', and Balcony for 'Allies'. Mess and Bedroom are set at intervals afterwards. All blame still goes to chasingkerouac for talking me into doing this, heh.

ETA: First Place in the 2007 Isis Awards for Beckett/Cadman Series! *dances around happily*

I. Infirmary

The first time I met Carson Beckett, I was wearing a blood pressure cuff and had a thermometer sticking out of my mouth.

Very attractive, Laura.

The infirmary was a veritable madhouse, with nurses and medical staff running around in all directions, many of them still tending the wounded from the Wraith siege. I don't know whose bright idea it was to start bringing us in off the Daedalus that soon after a major defensive effort -- especially since we all had to pass medical quarantine and suffer through the standard physicals before we were cleared to wander around the city. Atlantis scuttlebutt said there'd even been a shooting in the infirmary itself not twenty-four hours before; a Marine officer taking a shot at the chief medic, of all things.

I'd waited my turn on the Daedalus with all the rest, and finally sat on a gurney, enduring the tedious round of tests for my physical, when the curtain was pulled aside to admit the doctor on duty.

Given the carefully controlled chaos around us, I'm surprised Carson bothered, really. There were a million other things on his mind at the time, every one of them more important than greeting the new recruits from the Daedalus, but he still took the time to introduce himself to each of us. I knew from the outset that this expedition was international, but it still surprised me when he said, "Lieutenant Cadman, then?" in a soft Scottish accent, and smiled at me, blue eyes warm and encouraging.

I'm pretty sure I nodded, but you never know.

The rest of the very brief interview was a bit of a blur -- I wasn't really paying attention, to be honest. I answered his questions, mostly about drug allergies and past medical history, and made a couple of jokes that were probably entirely inappropriate given recent circumstances in the city. It wasn't until Carson handed my chart back to the nurse and stood to leave that my brain actually started functioning coherently again.

"Hey, Doc?" I asked, stopping him before he could duck out past the curtain.

He paused. "Aye?"

"Is all this normal?" I asked, waving a hand around to indicate the insanity around us. "The Wraith, the last-second escapes, the crazy scientists faking nuclear annihilation?"

Carson grinned. "It happens -- you'll get used to it, eventually. Me? I'm not there yet." He chuckled, and shook his head slightly. "Welcome to Atlantis, love," he said wryly, and then he was gone, moving on to the next patient.

I sighed and tilted my head, still eyeing the curtain. "God bless the Pegasus galaxy," I muttered appreciatively, mostly to myself.

Hey, it made the nurse laugh, at least.