There was going to be an air strike. It was all Sheppard could think about. It had happened before….when he thought he'd escaped. Maybe it wouldn't happen again. Maybe he was still sitting in that cell and hallucinating again.

His delusion was following him out into the field. He'd have expected his freedom to have some benefits. As he was keeping low and pressing himself up against the sides of buildings, McKay was strolling along beside him.

"Would you get down!" Sheppard called out instinctively.

He hadn't known where that had come from, only that it felt natural.

"I'm invulnerable!" McKay called out as bullets rained passed him.

Sheppard remembered McKay saying that once before. He shook his head and clamped his eyes shut for a second. McKay wasn't real. McKay wasn't real. McKay wasn't real. McKay wasn't –

Something splintered next to his head and he realised that someone was shooting at him now. He ducked behind a pile of crates and fired over the top at the Taliban soldiers advancing on him.

"Why haven't we woken up yet?" McKay was blathering, "We got out of the cell…well you did I mean, so we should be waking up by now….."

"Would you shut up!" Sheppard snapped, "I can't think." And then. "Why are you still following me?"

"Maybe you can't leave here. Maybe I'm just stuck here and I'm going to have to haunt you for the rest of my-"

"Rodney, please. Stow it!"

Sheppard sighed, fired off a few shots and then made a run for it across the medina.

"Where are you going?" he heard the Scientist call out behind him but he ignored him.

For some reason he felt like he knew this place. He knew where to run to evade the soldiers, he knew that the structure over the dusty track was a school and that if he ducked right he would be safe behind a large building. Everyone running around, shouting and crying, were civilians. All of them. There only seemed to be a handful of Taliban soldiers. This wasn't a base of operations. No attacks were being planned from here. It was just a heavily populated settlement.

He moved quickly and stealthily. He knew all of this because he'd been here before; only….he had been unconscious when he was dragged through here. He'd woken up in the cell. How could have known this place if he had never even seen it?

"Where are you going?"

"I'm trying to find a way out of here. What did you think I was doing? Sight-seeing Rodney."

"Well…..I just hope you're not taking a short cut because we all know how they work out."

"Oh come on, that happened once-"

"Five times actually. One of those times was on Atlantis. Remember the storage closet you thought was a room?"

"So I got turned around."

More screams and gunfire.

"The Genii home world?"

"We found that nuclear facility didn't we?" Sheppard smiled at the memory but just as quickly dispelled it, "That…..that didn't happen."

But it felt so real. It felt as if it had happened.

"You're distracting me!" he snapped and McKay clamped his mouth shut.

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"You're distracting me!" Sheppard had snapped at him and then took off again without checking that he was following. It was rude really. He'd spent all of that time looking after him and making sure he held onto his sanity and he was being really quite ungrateful.

There was another explosion; it was confusing and loud and McKay was beginning to get tired chasing after Sheppard as he ran on ahead. Tired. That was odd. He had never really felt that before, other than when he left the game.

Through the bullets; some civilians were now firing weapons and there were other soldiers running around as well, McKay spied the child standing in the centre, crying, at the same exact moment that Sheppard did.

"Oh no no," McKay shouted, "You need to get out of here so we can wake up and drown!"

Sheppard gave him an aggrieved look but still took off anyway, scooping the child up in his arms and carrying her to safety.

"You're okay," Sheppard was saying, holding the kid tightly as she wailed away.

Then there was an old lady with few teeth screaming at him and snatching her child out of his arms. She spoke to him loudly in her foreign tongue.

"Well she was grateful!"

"I'm the enemy," Sheppard said.

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Somebody grabbed Sheppard by his arm and hauled him into an alleyway. Sheppard instinctively slammed whoever it was against the wall and pressed his gun into their neck.

"American?" they asked him as McKay came up behind him.

Sheppard let go slowly and looked the guy up and down. Captain Harridge; a man he had only ever dreamed of rescuing him. He'd never met the man before that day, but he knew so much about him.

"Lt. Colonel-" he stopped and McKay made a 'ha!' noise, "Major Sheppard. United States Air Force."

"You're a little far from home aren't you Major?" the guy said reloading his weapon in quick practiced moves, "I'm Captain-"

"Harrdige?"

"Uh yeah…..have we met?"

"Never!" Sheppard said turning to look at McKay.

"Where did you come from Sir?" Harridge asked, taking in his appearance.

Sheppard gave him a sideways glance and yes, Sir, because he out-ranked this guy.

"I was captured….managed to escape." Then he licked his lips and followed up with, "You have three kids."

Harridge looked up from his map, "Yeah……how do you-"

"Your wife is pregnant with her fourth."

Harridge looked disturbed, "Now…how in the hell do you know that? I haven't told anyone about the baby yet…"

Sheppard walked away from the soldier and into the coolness of the alleyway. What the hell? How did he know all of that? He pushed himself against the wall, "How did I know that?"

Maybe he had heard about it before, back at the base. One of those subconscious things that you don't pick up at the time. Maybe? Either that or he was psychic. Or worse, McKay was right.

"Who's your friend?"

Sheppard turned to the soldier, "What?"

Harridge pointed directly at McKay.

"You …see him?"

"Yeah….." Harridge said with a shit eating grin.

McKay suddenly realised what had been said and started to pat himself down. And then he stalked over to Sheppard and hit him in the arm.

"Ow!"

And then a beat.

"Rodney?"

"What….?" McKay said in a panicky high pitched voice, "You can see me? And…..I can touch you and-oh my god, I've been solid for how long? I just walked through that square at a leisurely stroll! I could have been killed!"

A chunk of wood fractured by his face and he crouched down, crying out as a piece stung his cheek. When he looked up he had a cut on his face.

"I'm bleeding. Ow!"

"Probably shouldn't stand in the line of fire like that, "Harridge said.

"This is all your fault!" McKay shouted, pressing himself against the wall next to Sheppard.

"I don't……I don't understand," Sheppard said shaking his head, "I just don't get it. Rodney!" and he knew he'd said that name with disgust.

"Yes Rodney……do you believe that I'm real now?"

"No," he said pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes, "No."

"Ah, yes….I was right and you were wrong. That never gets old."

Sheppard had a glazed look in his eyes and a smile curled his lips, "I'm not crazy. You're…..it was real?"

Harridge was looking between the two of them.

"Sorry to interrupt but-"

They ignored him.

"Yes……."

"And I…..I did touch that stupid device."

"Yes. I told you to think it on not activate it."

"You bring that up now?"

"Well it's important. The others are blaming me."

"You're real."

"Yes."

"Atlantis and-"

Sheppard couldn't believe it. The relief was almost overwhelming. He wasn't really here.

Harridge interrupted their special moment.

"My unit is doing a scout of the city, we've got a Med Evac unit on route so they can pick you up and take you back to base," Harridge was saying.

Sheppard continued to stare at the ground and he vaguely heard McKay telling him to snap out of it.

"Sorry," he said to Harridge, "Shock."

"Like I said Med Evac will get you out of here."

"Uh…" Sheppard stepped forwards, "And there's going to be an air strike right?"

Harridge looked confused, "Not to my knowledge."

Sheppard and McKay shared a look, "They didn't know either."

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McKay shifted the weight of the very solid gun from one hand to another as he followed Sheppard and Harridge through the streets. He wasn't cut out for this. Really. The whole life in peril, bullets, screaming, shouting….usually he deferred this type of thing to Sheppard, Ronon and Teyla. He was the back-up. The very last resort, every member of his team is dead, type of back-up.

"We need to get to that Evac unit," Sheppard said as he weaved between buildings, "That has to be the way out."

McKay looked over his shoulder nervously again and reacted when Harridge fired on someone up ahead. Sheppard ignored the gunfire behind him.

"Do you have a death wish Colonel?"

"You said I couldn't die…not really."

"Well that was before when I was invincible. Now I'm not, I think we should be careful."

"So you just told me to get myself killed earlier because?" Sheppard waited and didn't get an answer.

McKay didn't have one. He felt vulnerable and he wanted to finish this game alive.

"I can't believe I'm stuck here," McKay noted grimly, "And my cheek stings."

Sheppard turned and fired on two people that rounded the corner, "Your cheek stings? Have you seen the state of me? Not real huh?" he whacked McKay on the arm, "Hurts doesn't it?"

"I didn't know," McKay said retracting his arm.

"So where is this chopper?" Sheppard called out to Harridge.

Harridge looked the Colonel up and down, "You not staying to fight? Thought you just wanted to send him home."

"Him?" McKay repeated.

"We're hoping to have this place secured by nightfall. Could be fun."

McKay saw Sheppard cringe. He knew that he hated that kind of attitude in his Soldiers. If he was on Atlantis he would never have stood for it.

"This is a civilian settlement," Sheppard informed the soldier.

"There are still Taliban here……"

Sheppard looked angry, "The chopper Captain?"

"It'll be to the East side….." he pulled out his map and showed Sheppard, "Right there. ETA two zero minutes."

"Right," Sheppard patted the Captain on the back, "We'll make sure you get to your unit and then we'll make a break for it."

"What are you doing?" McKay asked, grabbing at Sheppard's arm, "He's not real. It doesn't matter if he's collateral damage."

Sheppard just shook his head, "This game's far too real. Trust me."

"Still…..there's a valuable brain freezing back on that planet."

"Captain! You should get your men out of here."

"We have our orders Sir. Search and secure."

"You're going to die if you stay here," Sheppard said pushing the Captain aside, "Do you have a radio?"

Harridge nodded and handed it over, "What are you doing?"

"Saving your life Captain….which frequency?"

Harridge made the necessary adjustments and handed the radio back.

Sheppard grabbed McKay and pulled him out of the way; McKay just seemed to find the worst places to stand.

"This is Colonel…..dammit! This is Major John Sheppard, USAF; put me on to whoever's in charge."

There was a burst of static from the radio and then someone with a belting voice answered, "This is a secure line Major. Continue to maintain radio silence and keep this channel open."

"What are you doing?" McKay looked around. It would just his luck if he got shot because of Sheppard.

"Sir? I need you to recall all units. We have an incoming air strike."

"Who told you that?"

"It's complicated."

"I'm afraid I can't do that on the basis of 'it's complicated' Major. Put me onto Harridge."

"Sir, listen you-"

"No you listen to me son. You're not in charge here. I am. Put me on to Captain Harridge."

Sheppard handed the radio over to Harridge and then there were hushed voices as he turned his back. McKay thought he caught some of it. Something about Sheppard being in shock and not to be entirely trusted as he had been captured, potentially tortured. Sheppard just paced angrily; gun hand trembling. He was beginning to look a little peaky; his face was pale and covered in sweat and only now in the daylight had McKay noticed all of the blood and bruises.

Harridge was still talking on the radio when Sheppard finally grabbed McKay, "Come on, let's get out here. We're going to miss that Med Evac."

"I thought you wanted to try and save him?"

"Didn't save him the first time round," Sheppard said darkly.

TBC