Title: Head Check
Author: Rhea314
Fandoms: Stargate Atlantis
Rating: R
Pairing: McShep
Warnings: Fade-to-black implied sex. If you see issues of consent in Sex Pollen type scenarios you'll see them here. In my fannish brain these to characters are already interested in each other and on board, they just need a push in the right direction.
Summary: Atlantis deals with a new outbreak. Written for Cliche Bingo prompt "aphrodisiacs."
Words: 3,132

They don't catch it at first because they're not looking in the right places. John thinks of himself as observant, but part of him had wondered if it was just that time of year, spring and all. But Elizabeth at least clues in fairly quickly. John supposes she got a rather loud sign that something was not right after Laura and Carson's quite public display in the mess. They're all sitting in Elizabeth's office, John, Teyla, Rodney, Carson, and the team that went to P83139 who first reported...effects. Carson has given them all blood tests and they went through the normal medical barrage on return from their journey off world. Nothing had appeared weird then. Now though, Carson is sitting sheepishly in front of them and talking about brain chemistry. John finds it harder to pay attention to what he's saying with the way Carson keeps physically twitching. It's a little disturbing to say the least, a suppressed little movement that makes John very glad he's not suffering this affliction. That could be problematic. Of course the issue Elizabeth emphasizes, leaning forward on her elbows to look at them each individually in that piercing way she has, is that whatever this is, it's spreading. Carson scratches his head and nods, he hasn't figured out how the disease is transmitted. It can't be airborne because they'd all be exposed and the symptoms and those affected are currently contained, mainly within those that had contact with the offworld team. But there are anomalous people affected. John leans back in his chair, the one he tends to claim for long briefings in Elizabeth's office, with the most cushion directly across from her desk. Rodney always glares at him when he gets it first. John waits for Elizabeth's decision.
"Thank you Dr. I'd like you to keep working. Run them through the scanners again, see if you can come up with anything new. In the mean time we should institute a quarantine. Level 2, as the problem is fairly contained, but I'd like all staff to be tested. Maybe we'll find a pattern." Elizabeth folds her hands on the desk in front of her as Becket stands and hurries out of the room. Teyla remains behind to speak further with Elizabeth while John follows Rodney out of the office. His neck itches a little, probably from slouching against the somewhat abrasive upholstery of the chair. He stomps on the urge to scratch it and runs a few steps to catch up with Rodney.

Rodney pays little attention to him, besides waving for John to follow him as he heads to the lab already taping at his computer. They've an unfinished game of chess waiting on the metal folding table set up next to the simulations Rodney's running. The simulations take forever and John enjoys trouncing Rodney at chess, so it offers a fair distraction for them both. However said plan is somewhat derailed by walking into the science lab to see Zelenka pinned to a table by a rather less clad Miko. John doesn't think he's ever seen Rodney turn quite that color or look quite so much like a fish. There's an interminable moment where time hangs still before Rodney bellows at them. What are they doing in the lab! His voice rises in pitch and speed until John's not really concentrating on it but rather on his wildly waving hands. It's an almost surreal feeling, like being in molasses. Time slows and the world dulls around the edges and sharpens around McKay, coming into clear focus blustering and embarrassed and angry. Rodney is yelling at him now too. John shakes his head, the back of his neck is burning and there's a flush in his cheeks though John has never been a blushing man.
"What?"
"I asked if you were just going to stand there or are you going to help me take these two miscreants to Carson? They're clearly affected!" Rodney is exasperated and turns away to pry Miko from where she has a death grip on one of the folding chairs while Radek stands meekly, hair mussed and a rather large hickey blooming on his shoulder. John runs a hand over his face and shakes his head again. This is not good.

Carson is not happy to see them. John can tell by the way his smile is tight and forced at the edges. He takes blood from Miko and Zelenka. Then he ushers Rodney and John away, insisting that if he finds anything they'll be the first to know, after Elizabeth.
"But seriously Miko and Zelenka?" Rodney is ranting and John is having a really hard time concentrating. It's not that John hasn't found Rodney, well, distracting before, it's just it's not usually this much of a problem. John fervently hopes Carson comes up with something soon because John is beginning to understand the twitching.
"Hey, are you okay?" Rodney says concerned but completely normal. John hasn't even opened his mouth before Elizabeth's voice over the radio summons them to her office to help organize the next level of quarantine.

Carson Beckett has found no pattern. The new people affected don't seem to have any obvious cause. It's random with still no clear method of transmission. Elizabeth has requested everyone affected be quarantined. The issue is how to do it. They can't very well put everyone in the same room. Carson is working on a cure, having isolated the bacteria interfering with brain function. Until then there are about 130 people on Atlantis who need to be quarantined. And Carson's not at his best.
"It seems to come in waves, the....need will increase and decrease. The length of these fluctuations differ from person to person, but at the height of any fluctuation, while I'm surprised some of these people have maintained coherent function for this long." Carson worries his hands standing in the corner of the room a good four feet from the rest of them. John himself his hanging by the door. McKay got the chair first. John feels like he has too much restless energy to sit down.
Elizabeth smoothes a thumb over her brows, "Okay, do what you must. We've cleared some of the housing along the south pier to be occupied, use that." John nods and radios Lorne to start moving the affected people from the infirmary to the pier. One person per room, locked in. Lorne doesn't normally question orders but John can hear the briefest hesitation before he agrees. "There's nothing Carson can do for them now, they need to be isolated so they don't...do something they'd regret." Lorne's "yes sir!" is much more confident.

John wonders if he should go lock himself in his room. Elizabeth has disbanded their meeting. Carson is now the only one in the infirmary. Unaffected injured personnel and doctors have been moved to a clean back up facility while the possibly contaminated infirmary is now Carson's staging grounds for vaccine creation. John holds his arms in tight to his sides and takes long strides eating up the corridor back to his room. He can lock his door and read War and Peace and wait for Beckett to have a flash of insight. Only, Rodney's following him and that's kind of a problem. John walks a little faster and pretends not to notice, maybe he'll go away.
"Sheppard!" John turns. He's almost at his door but Rodney's still following, running a bit to keep up.
"What?!" It's probably harsher than he intends but John's grip is fraying and judging by how tense his muscles are, coiled to spring, and the increasing feeling that he is in fact a star about to go Supernova, this does not indicate inspiring control over the situation. "Yes Rodney?"
"Um...well, we never finished the chess game because of Zelenka and I figured, while we're waiting for Beckett to-" Rodney's mouth is moving and it's like a lodestone to John's eyes. He really needs to get in his room and shut the door right now. John has never been intentionally rude in the way Rodney is but there's a first time for everything. He tears himself away and sprints the few steps to his door, practically diving through it and willing it to slam behind him as much as a door on Atlantis ever could. His room is quiet and empty. John breathes deep, resting his back against the door and closing his eyes. Only apparently his brain, or Atlantis, isn't operating properly because the door slides open behind him and he might have tumbled out into the corridor if he hadn't been pushed forward, almost slamming face first into the floor and catching himself painfully on his hands and probably bruising his knees.
"Hey! wha-" except he doesn't get to speak more than that as Rodney is hauling him up and backing him against the now apparently truly locked door. John is thinking that this is a bad, bad, bad idea, only really if tasting Rodney's mouth is this much better than just watching it, and Rodney's still talking only John has no clue what he's saying nor does he really care what with the immense craving to get at skin raging in his blood.

John doesn't have that many morning afters, probably because he doesn't have a lot of night-befores, however this really wasn't something he needed in his life. Waking up to Rodney McKay drooling on his pillow is not a horrible or scaring experience. Almost immediately there after getting a radio from Elizabeth to be in her office for a meeting five minutes ago and scrambling almost silently around the room in a domestic tango with McKay so they can both get their teeth brushed and a shower before tearing down the corridor to the control room is not what he wanted the morning to look like. Though John isn't really sure what he'd actually hoped for. Only that upon waking the feeling, whatever it was, in his gut wasn't gone.

Carson is hollow eyed, standing by Elizabeth's desk, but his smile is whole and full.
"Good morning." Elizabeth smiles. She too looks tired, but no more than usual.
John looks at his watch and grimaces back, "If you can call 5 am a reasonable morning." Elizabeth tips her head in aquiesence, continuing, "I called you because we have a culprit." John blinks, he wasn't aware this was an attack, culprit implies... Elizabeth is holding up a small plastic ziplock back in which is a small black thing with little spider like legs.
"Oh my god, what is that?" Rodney asks, edging closer to John.
"This is an insect rather akin to a louse." Carson explains, "it carries the bacteria, somewhat like fleas spread the bubonic plague. When it bites it's host the host becomes infected. I've found a treatment for the bacteria but we're going to need to clean the entire city. Anything cloth or that people rest their heads against will need to be sanitized. Once we neutralize the bacteria people should be fine, though I'd wager they'd rather not have bugs crawling on their heads. So we'll probably have to do head checks. I'm going to order some anti-louse shampoo from earth so I can tweak it to this particular bug." Carson and Elizabeth continue discussing how it would be most effective to administer the treatment. John suppresses the very strong need to itch his scalp. Rodney has apparently failed against the same impulse and is scratching away at his own head. It makes John shiver.
"We're going to have to figure out which areas of the city are infested and cordon them off until we know how to kill the suckers. Once people are bug free they can move back into the clean zones. I need you two to help us administer the treatment, then choose treated people to be the first wave of head checkers. The supplies should be here in a few days. In the mean time we'll use what the infirmary has on hand." Elizabeth instructs. John nods and he and Rodney mutely follow Beckett to the infirmary, Rodney scratching his head the whole way. John has Carson give him and Rodney the treatment before they go to help those in quarantine. "Because we're going to be exposed" John feels bad not saying anything but, he sort of feels bad about the whole situation right now, vaguely sick to his stomach and really hoping Rodney's going to....he's not sure, say something, not say something. Helping administer medicine and organize anti-nit-and-louse protocols keeps him fairly busy. The lice-out spray smells like licorice and the combs invariably pull everyones hair, occasionally causing howls of pain, but watching the little black bugs washing out into a quarantined water tank is highly satisfying. John himself signs up for a head check and Carson only looks at him vaguely with curiosity before being called away to help the next person. In fact the entire bug clean up operation is far more taxing than John would have guessed. They have to haul furniture into a secure room to be gassed and make sure everyone's getting the right medicine and head checks. They used an entire quart of a sweet smelling oil from the Athosians which had great returns on killing the little buggers. By the end of the week Carson had come up with a targeted head wash, the quarantined parts of Atlantis were sparkling and cleaner than they'd probably ever been and John was extremely tired and just wanted to go home. He'd borrowed supplies to do his own room when he probably should have been sleeping, only adding to his exhaustion, but at least it too should be bug free.

John drops into the cushy chair in front of Elizabeth's desk, but he doesn't rest against it. Elizabeth smiles and shakes her head.
"We had it cleaned, Beckett sat there at some point, the entire office has been taken care of actually." John nods, relieved and slouches a bit more, but still not fully relaxed. Elizabeth raises an eyebrow but says nothing. Carson and Heightmeyer arrived shortly thereafter, followed by Teyla, and then finally Rodney.
"Well it looks as if the infestation is fully under control. Just a few more people we're finishing up on, all public areas are reopened." Elizabeth states as they all settle down.
Carson nods. "Aye, we've got a fair amount of the head wash left and we're adding all this to the data base."
"None of the Athosian's were infected, and head checks on the mainland have turned up with nothing. I believe it is safe." Teyla adds.
"Any more issues in the labs Rodney?" Elizabeth asks.
Red faced Rodney shakes his head, "No, I believe we're also clear Elizabeth, though I do think someone should talk to Radek about proper behavior." Elizabeth shakes her head with a placating and somewhat amused smile.
"Rodney no one was in full control of what they were doing, thus the need for individual quarantine. I have spoken with Radek and he was highly apologetic. He has spoken with Miko and the two of them have worked things out." Elizabeth answers.
"I'm going to be offering a new support time for those affected to meet with me as a group, or individually. I'm sure there are many relationships, both working and personal, that will be tested by this." Heightmeyer adds.
Elizabeth nods agreement, "I expect both of you to refer your people if you see problems. They may not seek to speak with Heightmeyer after all this experience was embarrassing for some people, but if it is affecting their work we need to know." John nods mutely and Rodney waves affirmative, squirming in his seat a little. John averts his eyes. The rest of the meeting is tense but not unbearably so. When it's over they disband quickly.

John is walking back to his quarters, but again he has a shadow set of footsteps. After a hall or two, just enough to be away from main thoroughfares and the control room he spins on his heel.
"What?!" Rodney startles, stops, doesn't say anything. John waits but for once it seems like McKay's not going to speak first, only it's not like John as anything to say. John turns and continues walking, silence around him. But when he's almost gotten to his door there's pounding behind him, running feet and Rodney grabs his arm and wrenches him around. He's breathing hard and bare inches away. John's throat isn't working.
"My room's clean." Rodney says. John stares. "My room, we weren't there so there're no bugs. It's clean you could. I mean, while you wait for your room to get cleaned, I assume you'll have to do it stealth because you haven't told anyone that you were, and I mean I get it because, hey, flyboy military and I know all about the-" John hasn't registered that he's moving before he has both arms full of McKay, hand's tight around his back, face pressed into his neck breathing deep and rocking a little on his feet from the impact of the movement. Rodney's hands seem to flutter a moment before firmly landing on his back.
"John, hey John, does this mean yes? Do you need a room. I mean, uh, if you don't want mine I'm sure Teyla will."
"Shut up Rodney." John can feel the swallow of Rodney's throat against his face.
"O-Okay." Rodney's hand's move up and down John's back reassuringly, and John grips hard for a moment before pulling away. Rodney's arms tense a moment, reluctant to let him go. Then Rodney steps back, smoothing over his bluster, redirecting attention. "Well, we could always finish that chess game, or there's the mess. I'm hungry, are you hungry?"
"Rodney, my room is clean."
"Because I think they're serving -what? How did you? Oh, of course you did it yourself because that's what you do. You could have asked I would have...well no I was never much of one for cleaning. So are you hungry?"
"No."
"Oh, well then I guess I'll." Rodney hooks a thumb over his shoulder gesturing an escape. John can't really read his face but he knows Rodney.
"You could come inside."
"Really?" Rodney's voice seems to have gained an extra octave and he clears it asking again, more calmly "Really, you want me to..."
"Yeah. I've got, ah, a chess board, and stuff, and well."
"Yes. Yes of course." Rodney bustles past him, opening the door, almost bouncing a little on his feet and John can't help but grin because Yes! and Rodney's answering smile is a little crooked, but that's completely perfect.