Rodney awoke in the stiff computer chair, slumped forward onto the desk with a dull, but painful, kink in his neck. He looked around the laboratory but couldn't see Nakira slinking around the machinery, though he did notice Carson staring at him. Biting his lip, the Scottish doctor approached the scientist. "Rodney, I think there's some things you ought to know about Nakira…" He began uncertainly, Rodney stared up at him, his brow creasing. "I've looked over some the test results, Rodney, Nakira is addicted to a benzodiazepine, a very strong dose of something like valium." he paused to let the information sink in. "Whatever they were slipping him, suppressed his normal growth patterns, I don't even know what else it might've done to him. Are you listening Rodney, Nakira could be in real trouble" Rodney groaned and stood, shaking his head.

"He's fine, just leave him alone" The scientist stumbled to the permanent fixture of the coffee machine, caffeine, his body screamed, need caffeine. He couldn't even think of what the Doctor was tip-toeing around, at least, not until he drank something warm and packed with energy.

"And it isn't just that Rodney, I was talking to him and it turns out, he's just a kid, I mean, they did all that to a kid" The Doctor felt sick just saying it out loud, the scientist blanched violently and put down the mug of dark coffee.

"What?!" He rounded on Carson and immediately realised how loud he'd shouted in the empty lab, his booming voice echoing around the machinery. He sighed and massaged the area around his eyes. What a mess he thought to himself and sat back down to the terminal where he'd spent the night. Rodney swivelled on the seat to face Carson and said gruffly "Sorry, I've had a rough night" But saying that reminded him of the fact that it had definitely not been a rough night at all, the last thing he remembered was falling asleep under Nakira's expert, (juvenile, his mind whispered) hands. The Doctor nodded sympathetically and smiled, before asking, in a tentative manner

"Do you know where he is now? I really need to run some more tests" Rodney swivelled back to the computer and consulted the scanner, searching the immediate area for the distinctive red haze of a wraith body present in the city.

"There he is" Rodney announced, and then realised that the red haze hovered directly above where they both sat. The scientist looked up, hesitant, and breathed a sigh of relief and snorted.

Nakira lay on his back on a catwalk way above them, his face turned upwards to the smooth unyielding, rising ceiling, his silhouette dark as the light filtered through the gaps in the metal grid floor, but not him.

Rodney walked briskly up the stairs situated at the side of the room, his feet pounding the steps mercilessly, and all of a sudden he was at the top, completely breathless and bathed in natural light from the high up windows. Standing at one end of the metal walkway he could appreciate the beauty of the high structured towered ceiling and the light that bounced through the windows. Nakira didn't react to his noisy arrival and as Rodney approached, he noticed that the wraith held something in his outstretched hand. A small, thin metal cylindrical container with a black lid. The scientist walked over, his shoes clanking against the metal. "Nakira?" He probed the air with the question, hoping fervently for an answer. But none came, he reached the wraith and stared down at him. His blue hue skin was pasty and slicked with sweat, his eyes were glassy and distant and a faint, bemused smile adorned his face. Rodney yelled to the Doctor below, who quickly called a medic team.

The scientist gently prised the capsule from Nakira's grip and popped the lid, inside was half-filled with a soft white powder, the same powder that dusted around the wraith's nose, Rodney groaned and took Nakira's hand in his own. "You are an idiot" he said fiercely, "a complete moron". And to his surprise the wraith squeezed his hand, his grip was faint, barely even there. His feline eyes swivelled to stare in a solemn daze in his direction.

"Yeah, you're right, but at least I'm not like the others…not dead…just broken…need fixing" Nakira replied, his words were slurred and slow but so haunted, he closed his eyes and his hand went limp. The medic team arrived and carried him off in a stretcher, leaving Rodney feeling even more confused inside for the concern and fear he could feel brimming for the wraith. Carson stood behind him, hurriedly put his hand on the man's shoulder, a quick gesture of sympathy, before he too ran down the corridor. Rodney rose and stared after them, unable to think of a reason to join them, before remembering the small tube in his hand. He put it in his pocket and sprinted after the fast disappearing stretcher.

Three hours later and Nakira was stable and semi-conscious, lying on the same bed he had that last week on his arrival. Rodney sat with him, as did Dr Kate Heightmeyer. She sat with her clipboard and a patient smile, gently probing and dissecting his past with her questions. Nakira didn't seem to mind at all, and it was that apathetic depression that most unnerved Rodney.

"Now Nakira, can you remember why you took the powder?" She enquired, pushing a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. The wraith looked at her but did not meet her gaze, choosing instead to stare lifelessly at a spot just below her eyes. "This is all in the strictest confidence, I won't repeat anything and neither will Dr McKay". She disapproved of the scientist being there, partly because these meetings were supposed to be one on one, but also because she was all too aware of how he saw her and her work. The wraith looked away from the psychiatrist to Rodney and back, moving his head in a slow swerving motion, his eyes worryingly stoned.

"No, not really…gets all hazy…after a while" He murmured, half to himself and he paused to pull out a cigarette and after some co-ordination trouble, he lit it and dragged heavily on it, swallowing the smoke. Kate sighed quietly and only Rodney was there to hear the sympathy in the exhale.

"Now Nakira, I can only help you if you tell me everything…" Dr Heightmeyer said, her tone becoming layered with equal measures of authority and pity. Nakira laughed, a strained sarcastic giggle that put Rodney even more on edge, there was something in the wraith's dazed eyes that wasn't quite altogether there. An uncharacteristic harshness entered his voice but the delivery was still fractured and sluggish.

"In this…business, darling, there is no everything…You see, hear and speak no evil. But by hell, if it were up to them I'd have felt everything. Every…Single…" He trailed off, his tone softening and his eyes distant once more. Just before he slipped into another daydream, he looked up at Rodney and in that slightest second when their eyes met, before he lost his nerve and looked away, Nakira said to him "Don't tell…them I'm here. I'd be…very…grateful for that…" The scientist nodded quickly, about to speak, but the wraith had nodded off, his shorn, white-haired head slumped down onto his hairless turquoise chest.

A/N Lots of thanks and cookies go to Wraithlover, Amaruk, Lujana and Lymbis for the awesome praising reviews on chapter 6, sorry to keep you guys waiting!

Steve the Plushie: 'inspects nails, picking out invisible particles of dirt when time seems appropriate'