FIC: A Healer's Touch

[dr-dredd.livejournal.com]

Title: A Healer's Touch
Author: Dr. Dredd
Genre: Slash (not very much, though.)
Pairing: Sheppard/Beckett (It's all Waldo's fault...) ;-)
Spoilers: Second season, up to Michael
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Stargate Atlantis, characters, concept, etc, aren't mine. Bloody heck.
Words: ~300
Summary: He always wanted to be able to heal with a touch.



He’d always dreamed about being able to heal with a touch. In fact, he wasn’t sure which came first: that or the decision to go to medical school. At times he even imagined he could feel the ability pulse beneath his fingertips, ready to use if only he could make the final mental leap. Some days he felt very very close.

Unfortunately he never did develop his wished-for talent. He had to settle for doing things the old-fashioned way. So he threw himself into his studies, working long, hard hours to learn both the art and science of medicine. And if he sometimes bent the rules to follow leaps of intuition, nobody said anything. For his results were often nothing short of miraculous; many patients benefited both from his compassionate care and his genetic research. Once again he felt close to developing the true healer’s touch.

Then the opportunity of a lifetime presented itself and he stepped through the Stargate to the lost city of Atlantis. It was there that he saw the first stirrings of failure. Almost half of the Hoffan civilization wiped out because of a drug he helped develop. An elderly woman that he wanted to keep alive against her will. And his crowning achievement: a retrovirus that tried to transform the very nature of a sentient being, a tool that H.G. Wells’ Dr. Moreau would have loved.

It was when this virus almost took the life of the man he loved that Carson Beckett realized what truly distinguished a healer’s touch from that of a mere technician. The difference lay in knowing when to leave well enough alone.

Comments

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

oooh that's good!
Beckett is such an interesting character and so few people try to portray it.

[dr-dredd.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Love your icon, by the way... :-)

Icon question

[geeky-ginger.livejournal.com]

Hey...was just wondering where you got your icon....and if it's up for grabs?

Re: Icon question

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

It's made by slodwick and to be honest I gakked it from the icaw comm. Someone over there asked and so I assumed I could take it. *shrugs*

Re: Icon question

[geeky-ginger.livejournal.com]

Thankee! I'll credit...hopefully they won't mind. :-)

[thefannishwaldo.livejournal.com]

Eee! Fabulous.

And not that I mind taking the blame for more Sheppard/Beckett fic (it seem to be the 'in vogue' thing to blame me lately), but what did I do that made you want to write this?

You have a really good point though - when will Carson stop medling in things beyond him? Because it hasn't gone so well for him thus far.

[dr-dredd.livejournal.com]

What did you do? Nothing, really. You just keep writing those fabulous "Human Body" stories... ;-)

Seriously, though, you're one of the few people who make that pairing believable.

Something tells me we haven't heard the last of the retrovirus. The good doctor really did stir up trouble with that one, didn't he...

[amokeh.livejournal.com]

You have a really good point though - when will Carson stop medling in things beyond him? Because it hasn't gone so well for him thus far.

I think Geneticists have a god-complex. Not because they're power-hungry or bad people, mind you, but once DNA was discovered, it was a matter of time, really. You know that old saying, you only fear that with you do not know - it really applies to modern scientists. Despite the fact that DNA is basically the very essence of who we are as individuals becomes lost as the people who study it stop looking at it as that essence, but rather look at it as another puzzle to solve. The subjects (people) are forgotten as they're broken down to their most basic parts. I absolutely believe that Carson is a good person who wants to do the right thing, he just continues to lose himself in his science.

[kuna-yashmaa.livejournal.com]

That is exactly what drives me crazy about SGA - portraying the scientist that way. We are not like that! That is a lie. No scientist would think like Beckett, not because of the morals - it is just not interesting to think that way. People who think like Beckett don't 'go science'. I asked every person in my department, including my boss and Deputy Director, and the first question they asked me - 'what exactly those bloody Wraith eat? Do those doctors/scientists in Atlantis trying to find out what do they eat?' That's how your regular scientist thinks.

[amokeh.livejournal.com]

That is exactly what drives me crazy about SGA - portraying the scientist that way. We are not like that!

Hearing you say that makes me feel better about the scientific community. It's actually comforting to know that that attitude is a fictional plot point rather than a true representation. But, if that *is* the case, then the writers need to clean up their act and stop portraying the scientific community as such focused, blinders-on-can't-see-the-forest-for-the-trees, type of individuals.

Do those doctors/scientists in Atlantis trying to find out what do they eat?'

Good point - what is it about the human life force that sustains them? What exactly are the wraith consuming? I don't know if that would make for good television, sadly enough.

[kuna-yashmaa.livejournal.com]

I wonder what military community would say, seeing themselves portrayed as Mr. Sheppard (Mr. False Ranks). Fortunately enough, men (human males) do not watch Stargate.
;-)

As for the Wraith... Wraith body is a perfect device worth awe (and study). Wraith are magnificent population caught in biological trap. It is difficult for me to watch this movie, for every time I watch it I think - what a waste! They're capable for so much more than hunting stinky humans. They're immortal, telepathic, god knows what else! Think what must be their DNA reparation system (or fidelity of DNA synthesis), if they can synthesize milligrams, if not grams of DNA in matter of seconds, and not get cancer. Quality control must be brutal. Think how the gene therapy based on such system could benefit humans.
And an alternative food source was the only way of solving this problem I could come up with.

We can't make writers to do the right thing - unfortunately. But when viewers of the show start to talk about the writers and not the characters - it means something really stinky is going on. Sometimes I think that the purpose of that show is to check how far you can push your fans, before they realize that they were fed with a dead dog (3.01-.02 stirred some murmurs among the fans - finally).

[(Anonymous)]

That is exactly what drives me crazy about SGA - portraying the scientist that way. We are not like that!

Yes! Atlantis makes me absolutely crazy with the writers' "we heroes, they villains, kill or be killed" idiocy. Not to mention the oft-spouted variations on "You can't negotiate with them." Bull!

You've mentioned the hard science angle. Don't forget the soft science--the psychology and diplomacy: All those Wraith and not enough food. Yet none of them have any drive to find alternatives? Even Atlantis writers would agree the survival drive is very powerful. Yet they write the Wraith like...well, badfic characters. In real life even animals try alternatives when faced with starvation, and do so quite quickly. Ask anyone foolish enough to leave their dog alone for two days.

There were tons of interesting things the likes of Weir, Beckett, and Heightmeyer could have done. But by now the writers' way of doing things has gone so far I don't think there's any way back. The viewers would have a very hard time swallowing a sudden shift to characters and groups acting intelligently.

I'm almost tempted to propose an "Alternate Atlantis" writer's project. Start the series over as the characters should have behaved, and *would* have behaved if they really were what the premise claimed.

[kuna-yashmaa.livejournal.com]

"kill or be killed" idiocy Yes, damn it. You know what I've been told: "Oh you will never find an alternative food source for them. Or if you find it they will not accept it." With all my scientific fondness for that population, our toothy friends are dumb and lazy. Give them enough food and they'd stop moving altogether.


What made me laugh (and sick) in the first season that there were only two characters with normal moral code in the entire movie. And both of them were Wraith.

By season three writers figured out that 'villains' are more moral than 'heroes' and decided to make trashy Wraith. Like it would make 'heroes' look any better.

Heroes?
Military with false rank? Pardon me for saying it - but in those hundreds books I read I never saw a military character (not even a bad guy) with false ranks.
Professional Negotiator who doesn't have a clue what argumentum ad hominem is and how it works?
Doctor who spits on Hippocratic Oath and Geneva convention? (Granny Moses, hillbilly woman, knows that only intelligent subject you can experiment on is yourself!)

I don't know how you can undo that gang without actually killing them. *shrugs*

[dr-dredd.livejournal.com]

And how exactly is it that a Wraith drains life force? Sure, we know it has something to do with the enzyme, but we don't know the actual mechanics. Beckett and company should be trying to figure that out. Then maybe they could engineer an alternate, non-sentient food source. No need for genocide, just change the menu! :-)

[dr-dredd.livejournal.com]

To be fair, Rodney does the same thing at times.

Speaking as both a scientist and a "voodoo practitioner", I think the issue is one of clinical detachment. Looking at people as "another problem to solve" allows Carson to temporarily forget the fact that the people he is trying to help and save are his friends and extended family. Earth-based physicians don't treat their loved ones for a reason; Carson doesn't have that luxury.

This doesn't excuse the dabbling in biological warfare, but it does explain it somewhat.

[nonniemous.livejournal.com]

Poor Carson, with his road to hell and his good intentions. He's really lost in a morass, isn't he? Nice glimpse into his psyche and oh, longing for a superpower that he doesn't have, only to realize he *shouldn't* have it.

[dr-dredd.livejournal.com]

Such a superpower can't be entirely benign. The flip side of being able to heal with a touch is being able to kill with a touch. Even if Carson wasn't acting in such a morally questionable fashion, he shouldn't be trusted with that ability. (Neither should anyone else!)

[geeky-ginger.livejournal.com]

Ooo, loved this!

[kuna-yashmaa.livejournal.com]

Thank you - that was very sweet. I hope movie Beckett will follow your advice and stop. Or those bloody SGA writers would stop monkey with things they have no capacity to monkey with - with morals. Sateda is a perfect episode, I think they should stick with blasters-shmassers - they do it very good.

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

Excellent concept.

[jalabert.livejournal.com]

This was a moving little piece and all the comments here struck a chord with me as well. You share my frustration with SGA. I, too, am almost tempted to organize a rewrite of the series. Almost.

But stories like this make me keep reading SGA, if not watching the show. Thank you thefannishwaldo for whatever magic you used to inspire it.