Title: Fighting for a Life
Author: kodiak bear
Rating: PG
Category: gen
Summary: A short fic about the stress Carson faces, inspired by that delicious vid! How to save a life. Thanks Linzi for the fast beta!

Fighting for a Life

"Medical emergency in the 'gate room!"

Carson knows the announcement is only the beginning, the first step in what he knows as the fight for a life.

He jumps from his chair, joins his med techs, rushing with the equipment they'd thrown on the gurney, out the door and towards the emergency. While they run, he tries to remember what teams are out. Lorne and his men, Sheppard's team –

His answer comes in snapshots as they round the corner and into the room. Ronon stands slightly off to the right, his shirt bloody and his face angry. Teyla is down, kneeling next to Sheppard's still body. She is holding her hands against a large white compression bandage – except it's not white anymore, it's red. Rodney is sitting a little to the left, shock in his posture, and there's more blood. There's more blood than Carson can bear to see, and if it came from one body, the odds are already stacked against him.

His team moves in a fluid dance.

Colonel Sheppard's been shot with another alien weapon, first glance, it did a great deal of trauma, and Carson worries if this will be the one that claims the man's life. Once they get a new pressure bandage on his belly, an IV started, because in wounds like this, moments count, Carson sends Sheppard ahead of him to the infirmary. His med techs will have Sheppard ready when he gets there. Now, he moves to Rodney.

"Are you hurt?"

"What kind of question is that?"

Carson knows it was meant to be harsh, but instead, it comes out whispered and lost. "Rodney, I've got to go try and save Sheppard's life, but first, you need to tell me if you're hurt – is any of this blood yours?"

Instead of answering, Rodney slumps to the side, and Carson barely catches him. Bloody hell, he's passed out. "Get another gurney down here," Carson snaps.

He wants to keep holding his friend until the gurney arrives, but Carson has already assessed that even if Rodney is injured, it's not immediately life threatening. His pulse is steady, his color not gray. Someone else needs him more, and so Carson hands him over to Teyla.

Her hands shake, but she slides over and supports Rodney. "Go," she whispers. "Save John." Her brown eyes are glassy, her hands covered in his blood. "I will stay with Rodney until the next team arrives."

Carson nods, and runs.

He spends the next nine hours repairing Sheppard's insides, and when he leaves the OR, bloody and exhausted, he has to face another ordeal. They don't rush Carson, but they wait, their body language screaming how much they don't want to hear bad news. Blinking tiredly, Carson runs a hand through his hair, trying to scrub away his own worry and fear. He's held Sheppard's guts in his hands.

Before he says anything, Carson sees Rodney is in an infirmary bed, a bandage swathing his shoulder and upper chest. He's awake, in pain.

Carson manages a brief smile. "Maybe you should sit," he says to the others standing.

Later, when he's chased everyone out except Rodney, because Rodney's a patient in the bed not far away, Carson sits by Sheppard's side. The chair is hard beneath him, his back aches like there's no tomorrow. The monitors beep the song that Carson won, again.

The colonel's face is pale, under a shock of dark, unruly hair. The oxygen mask covers his face, and the IV runs into the central line, delivering life-saving fluids and medications. It was close. Closer than he'll ever say, because those other people that care for Sheppard, they need to have faith that no matter what happens, that Carson can fix him, and them.

The law of averages, though, is that sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose.

And Carson knows he's overdue for losing.

In the darkened privacy of night in the infirmary, Carson's hands tremble. He clasps Sheppard's hand and holds on.

The End