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~
Evan was nervous. He had that feeling in his bones that he couldn't shake, even though the sun was shining, the natives were friendly, and the jumper was loaded with weird-looking vegetables and nuts that Parrish assured him were perfectly safe to eat.
Something felt wrong, and Evan had no idea what it was.
“Hey! Major!” Parrish's excited voice caught his ear, and he walked over to where the botanist was in discussion with a couple of the locals.
“Major, you should see this! They're going to give us one of these.”
Evan peered into the wooden box that Pyand, son of the local chief, was holding. A purple, pulsating, fleshy plant was steaming gently in the bottom of the box. It stank.
“Err,” said Evan.
“It's fast growing, high in nutrients, and easy to split.” Parrish grinned at him, and Evan couldn't help but smile back, though he wasn't entirely sure he understood that last part.
The botanist loved his job more than was humanly normal, and he was always in a good mood. It made a refreshing change, otherwise surrounded by suspicious marines who bitched about everything and their sore feet.
“That's great, Doc. Why don't you load it up and we'll hit the road? I want to get back through the gate soon.” Feeling like this, he didn't want to hang around any longer than necessary. He'd learned to trust his gut.
Parrish nodded enthusiastically, and reached into the box. The next few moments were a blur, as Pyand yelled out, yanking the box away from Parrish, but it was too late. Before Evan could do anything, his botanist was staggering backwards, a wild expression on his face.
“I... help me.” Parrish blinked, looking straight at Evan. His hands lifted to his neck.
“Doc?” Evan took a step forward, aware that Pyand and the other guy were babbling anxiously. “What the fuck is wrong with him?” He put his arm around Parrish, who promptly collapsed.
“He touch the Sapko!” Pyand hovered jitteringly. “No must touch the Sapko with bare skin!”
Evan was on his knees, looking down at Parrish who was gasping for breath. “Doc?”
“Evan,” whispered Parrish, panic in his voice, “I... can't... breathe.” His wide eyes suddenly fluttered closed and he went limp in Evan's arms.
Evan's heart flipped – Parrish had never called him by his first name before, so this was damn serious, and he could see that David's face was looking puffy, a little red, and his lips were beginning to grey... “David!”
He got no response, and fuck, but he'd never felt so frightened in his whole life. He keyed his radio. “Stackhouse! Get the fuck back here with a medkit, and fast. Parrish is having some kind of allergic reaction. And let Atlantis know, now!”
Calmly, carefully, he laid David down on his back and lifted his chin, checked in his mouth. Jesus, he'd never been this close to the guy before, and shoved all the times he'd stared at this mouth out of his head. David's lips and tongue and inside his mouth were all red and swollen and fuck, he could hardly see the back of his throat.
“Come on, David,” he said sharply, gripping his shoulders but knowing, really? This was happening. He leaned down and placed his mouth over David's, using the technique he fucking hated having to know, and blowing firmly into the botanist's mouth.
David's chest rose and fell a little, and Evan closed his eyes momentarily in relief. If he could just keep him going until Stacks got here...
David was nearly grey by the time Stackhouse reached him, running up to him with the medkit in hand.
“What the hell happened?” He knelt by Evan's side and flipped the lid open.
Evan was light-headed, tired from breathing for David and him, struggling against the narrowed windpipe. “Touched a fucking plant. Just hit him with as much epinephrine as we've got.” He leaned down and breathed again into David's mouth, thanking anything that was listening that his heart hadn't stopped.
Stackhouse fiddled quickly in the kit and stabbed the injection into David's thigh. “Come on, Doc.”
Evan missed a breath, coughing, hiccuped, and rested his forehead against David's neck. “Please...” he whispered.
“Want me to take over?” Stackhouse asked.
A sudden fierceness washed through Evan, and he lifted his head, shaking it. “I got it.” He breathed into David's mouth again. His heart sank as he saw that David's chest was no longer rising and falling. This should not be happening.
“Major...” Stackhouse's voice was urgent, but like a distant memory. “Fuck. We're losing him.”
The epinephrine wasn't working, or not fast enough. David's lips were blue. His heart was going to stop and then...
“Give me your pen.” Evan held his hand out. “And your knife.”
Stackhouse fumbled quickly. “Please don't tell me you're going to...”
Evan snatched the knife out of his hands and flipped it open. “Just take the pen apart and wish me luck.” With trembling hands, he held David's neck and made a small incision below his Adam's apple. Blood oozed out of the cut. Evan grabbed the pen case and poked it into the hole. “Please, David, don't die, don't die on me.”
Evan placed his lips over the tube and sucked, then put his head to one side and spat the blood onto the dirt. Pyand jumped back with a whimper. Then Evan breathed down into the tube and nearly sobbed as he saw David's chest rise and fall.
“Oh fuck, yeah,” breathed Stackhouse almost reverently. “It worked, Major.”
Evan heard the click of a radio and Stackhouse was relaying everything to Atlantis, but all he could focus on was breathing for David, keeping David alive, his head getting lighter and lighter.
The last thing he remembered was Carson crooning in his ear and moving him aside, and then he fell into Stackhouse's arms and passed out.
~
Evan opened his eyes and knew he was in the infirmary. Before the panic could surface, he forced himself to look around, and there he was. David. Lying peacefully in the next bed, his chest rising and falling rythmically, his cheeks and lips rosy and pink, and Evan wasn't sure he'd ever seen anything so wonderful. The botanist had a bandage over his neck, and he had no mask or anything. Evan closed his eyes for a second and just let himself calm the hell down.
He sat up groggily and cursed Carson for giving him a sedative. Bastard. Hanging his legs off the side of the bed, he hopped down, and adjusted the dumb scrubs. The green cotton hung off him, made him feel vulnerable.
He walked over to David's bed and stared down at the botanist. Here was something else that made him feel vulnerable. A man he cared about too much, wanted more than he cared to admit. Something inside him actually hurt, just thinking about it. He couldn't ever have David, but he sure as hell couldn't lose him, either.
He was a little startled to see that David's eyes were now open, big blue eyes with a twinkle in them. David blinked, and coughed, and Evan moved in quickly to help him sit up, handing him the glass of water by the bed.
David sipped the water, his eyes still on him, then put the glass back down. “Thank you,” he whispered, scratchy and thin. His hand reached for Evan's where it rested on the side of the bed.
Evan don't know why he did it, he shouldn't have done it. He took David's hand and squeezed, let a smile slide over his lips, and he shrugged.
“Will you be okay?” he asked David. “Sorry about the...” He waved his hand at his own neck.
David smiled shyly, and nodded carefully, squeezing Evan's hand back.
Evan suddenly couldn't find his off switch. “I thought you were going to die. I couldn't lose you, not over a dumb plant. I just kept breathing into your mouth and then it didn't work anymore and I didn't know if it was going to work but I had to try, I couldn't let you die, I just couldn't...”
David pulled his hand, pulled him closer, lifted his other hand to Evan's cheek. There was a look of understanding in his eyes that made Evan's stomach flutter. And when he leaned in to meet David, when he kissed his lips and rested his head against David's forehead, he finally shut the hell up and just let himself breathe.
~