A/N: no, I didn't die. Finally here is chapter 10 and the following chapters, though not going to be everyday, will be coming regularly.

Thanks for the reviews and interest so far… I hope that you keep reviewing and continue to enjoy it.

Awakenings

"Alright, McKay, Beckett, your going to check out that first body," O'Neill said as they walked into the hotel. "Sheppard, you're with me to check out the new one."

"How come Sheppard goes with you?" McKay asked. He didn't very much like the idea of going off without at least one of the trained military officers.

"Relax McKay. That body has been up there for hours and when have you heard of a Wraith coming back to someone they have already killed?" Sheppard said.

"Which means there's no reason for both of you to go together," McKay argued.

"Just do what I say, huh?" O'Neill said as he made his way towards the elevators.

"Is there anyone with the first body?" Beckett asked.

"Yes, Sara Sidle. She's one of the CSI's who knows about everything so don't worry about cover stories. I want you two to make sure it is a Wraith we're dealing with and anything else you might be able to figure out." O'Neill answered as he hit the down arrow on the elevator. Sheppard reached over to the one next to them and hit the up arrow for the other two.

A moment later, O'Neill and Sheppard's lift arrived. "And try not to get into trouble, ok?" O'Neill said as the door slid shut on them.

"And what are we supposed to find out?" McKay asked. "We already know that it's a Wraith, we saw the pictures. What more are we supposed to do?"

"Maybe the CSI's have figured something out about who it might be," Beckett suggested as the elevator arrived for them. They waited as several people exited before they got on.

"Right, like a couple of criminalists are going to be much help in tracking down a Wraith. This is completely pointless," McKay complained.

"Rodney, I know it's hard for you, but please could you shut up?" a very irritated Beckett said. "There is a Wraith loose on Earth and it's partly my fault. If I hadn't come up with that retro-virus, then it never would have been able to make it to here, let alone be able to blend in."

McKay looked hurt at Beckett's outburst. Beckett was normally a very quiet and tolerant person, but clearly he was rather upset about this whole thing. "You… you're not responsible for this," McKay said awkwardly. "That virus had the possibility to wipe out the Wraith threat. You couldn't have been able to predict what would happen."

Beckett smiled slightly. "Thanks Rodney, but I think that I like it better when you're being annoying rather than attempting to be nice. It doesn't suite you."

Just then they arrived at their floor and exited the elevator. Stepping out, it was easy to see which room it was that they needed to go to by the crime scene tape that was around the door. They strode over and slowly opened the door.

"Hello?" McKay said as he poked his head through.

"May I help you?" Sara asked, quickly coming over to the door to block their entrance if they turned out to be people who shouldn't be there.

McKay just looked at her for second, obviously ogling; Beckett picked it up from there. "You must be Sara Sidle. We're here with General O'Neill, he asked us to come up and check out the body while he went to see the other one."

Sara glared at McKay briefly before opening the door the rest of the way and gave Beckett a smile. "Of course. I'm glad you're here. It's been kind of creepy hanging out with this guy. I've seen a lot of dead bodies, but this is the first one that had its life sucked out of it," she said as she led them over to where the body was.

"Aye, it is a bit of a shock the first time you see it," Beckett said, remembering the first time that he saw a body that had been fed on. He knelt beside the body and pulled back the sheet that was once again covering it.

"If that's not a Wraith attack, then I don't know what is," McKay said.

"So what exactly is a Wraith?" Sara asked.

"An Alien we have encountered in the Pegasus galaxy that feeds upon humanoids to survive," Beckett explained.

"That's what Grissom said, but what are they? What do they look like?" she pressed.

"Well, normally they have a bluish coloring with yellow eyes. Long, angular faces, white hair, sunken eyes. Not very pretty. But the one that did this probably looks completely human," McKay said

"Why?"

"That would be my fault," Beckett said. "I designed a retro-virus to bring out their human DNA as a type of defense weapon against them."

"Huh, that sounds pretty difficult," Sara said, rather impressed with this doctor.

McKay wanted to add something about all of the advancements that he had made with Atlantis, but he was interrupted by Sheppard's voice on his radio.

"McKay, Beckett?" he said.

"Yeah Sheppard," McKay answered.

"We're gonna need you guys down here." There was a moment of silence then, "Bring Sara with you. Turns out that we might have been wrong about a Wraith not returning to the body."

"Are you sure that we should be going to the conference now? I mean, we're not entirely sure that she's going to be getting better," Chase asked House as they and Cameron walked back towards the Tangiers.

"Even if you're right, she still might have a reaction to the medication," Cameron put in.

"If she does, there's nothing we can do for her. It's too advanced to go with something weaker and if the strong stuff doesn't work, then she's dead anyway," House informed them without so much as a pause.

By now they had reached the casino/hotel and were walking in. Cameron was going to argue when she was cut off by a new person approaching them. "Dr. House, it's good to see you again," Brass said as he approached with a smile, flanked by two officers.

"Why do I get the feeling that I shouldn't be glad to see you again?" House said as he eyed the situation.

"Who is this?" Cameron asked.

"I'm detective Brass, Las Vegas Police Department. I'm afraid I have an arrest warrant for your friend here," he said as he pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and waved it at House.

"Arrest?!" Chase said, "For what?"

"For the murders of Dr. Manuel Harris and Harriet Rutgrass," Brass informed them as the officers approached and flanked House. One of them pulled out a set of hand cuffs while the other began to recite the Miranda rights.

"Murders? I thought there was just the man?" House said, ignoring the recitation as his hands were being pulled behind his back and cuffed together. One of the officers handed the cane to Brass. "And isn't this cruel and unusual punishment, taking a cane away from the cripple? What happened to innocent until proven guilty?" he demanded.

"Sorry, can't let you have a weapon, especially after already committing two murders. Wouldn't want you to have to another to that list," Brass said with another smile. "Just looking out for you."

The officers began to propel House back towards the exit following Brass with Chase and Cameron dazedly wandering behind. House was limping heavily without the aid of his cane and was making the going very slow. He turned his head and looked at his two ducklings.

"Cameron, get to that conference and Chase, go tell the Doctor what's going on," he demanded.

They both stopped and watched as House was taken out and placed into the back of a waiting police cruiser. Today certainly was shaping out to be a very interesting day.

"You alright?" O'Neill asked Grissom as he began to come around again.

Blinking, Grissom nodded as he tried to sit up. O'Neill reached down and helped him to sit.

"Thanks," Grissom said as he put a hand to his head. He had a killer headache. "So that's what those things do," he said.

"Yeah, sorry about that," O'Neill said.

"Not your fault. I'm just glad that those things just stun on the first shot."

"Trust me, it's something that we have all been glad of at one point or other," O'Neill said as Sheppard walked back over. "Find anything?" he asked him.

"There's an exit hidden back there behind one of the dryers. He must have slipped out that way," he answered.

"That must be how he got back in here after the officer cleared the area. At least, I would like to think that he cleared it before leaving me alone in here," Grissom said.

"Well, at least now we know who we're dealing with and what he looks like," Sheppard said.

"Who's Michael?" Grissom asked as he was started to remember what it was that Sheppard had said when he had blacked out.

Sheppard shook his head as he answered. "Someone who was supposed to be dead. I watched the Wraith ship fire on the surface where he was supposed to have been."

"Yeah, why is it that our arch enemies always seem to be able to get away?" O'Neill asked.

"Probably the same reason that they are never able to kill us," Sheppard answered.

"Ah, right," O'Neill nodded.

Just then they heard more people enter the room. "What happened?" Sara asked as she saw Grissom still sitting on the floor, hand still pressed to his throbbing head. She quickly crossed the room to kneel beside him.

"The Wraith returned and nearly got Grissom here. Accidentally zatted him while trying to get the Wraith," O'Neill explained.

"Oh and guess what?" Sheppard said as McKay and Beckett entered. "Our Wraith… it's Michael."

"Of course it is," McKay exclaimed as he threw up his hands.

"Michael?" Sara asked.

"Aye, he was the first Wraith that we tested my retro-virus on," Beckett explained.

"He's been popping up ever since and always giving us a world of trouble," Sheppard continued.

"Retro-Virus?" Grissom asked.

"The Wraith are not human, don't even look like it. But since the have been feeding from humans for so long, they began to incorporate human DNA into their own. I developed a retro-virus that was designed to eradicate the other strands of DNA and leave just the human."

"So that's why he looked mostly human than," Grissom started.

"Mostly?" McKay asked.

"He had a slight bluish tint in his skin and his eyes were yellowish."

The three Atlantis members exchanged a look before Beckett said. "That shouldn't happen. Either he's developed an immunity to the virus, or he's run out of it."

"Run out?" Sara asked.

"Aye, once the retro-virus is used it requires regular treatments to continue to work," Beckett explained.

"So this is good," McKay said. "It's going to be a lot harder for him to hide."

"But he's also going to have even more of the Wraith abilities, such as fast regeneration, able to affect the mind, and telepathy. What he losses in disguise, he gains in arsenal," Beckett said.

"Alright, you guys work on how we might track him down, I'm going to contact Carter and see if they have made any progress in contacting the Asgard," O'Neill said as he left the room.

"We'll before we do that, how about we introduce ourselves?" Sara said.

"Right, sorry. I'm Dr. Carson Beckett, and this is Dr. Rodney McKay." Beckett said.

"Colonel John Sheppard," he said shaking first Sara and then Grissom's hand.

"Gil Grissom and this is Sara Sidle," Grissom answered as he shook Sheppard's hand.

"Alright. Now let's see if we can track down our Wraith… again," Sheppard said.

"What do you mean, arrested?!" the Doctor yelled at Chase.

"I have no idea what's going on. All I know is that some detective came with an arrest warrant and took House away. He told me to go and tell you."

"What the bloody hell does he want me to do about it?"

"How am I supposed to know? I'm just a doctor who is unfortunate enough to work for a psychopath that managed to get himself tangled up in some type of B sci-fi situation. I don't know what he was thinking when he told me to tell you. I've just been programmed over the last several years to ask how high whenever he says jump!" Chase fumed.

The Doctor was about to say something back when Foreman interrupted him. "Sorry to break this up, but she's awake," he announced with a smile.

Glancing at Chase and then back to Foreman, the Doctor froze for a moment before it dawned on him exactly what Foreman had just told him. He quickly moved past the two and rushed back into the med bay where Rose was now sitting up in her bed.

"Rose?" he asked as he quickly crossed over to her.

"Hello," she said, smiling at him.

"You… you alright then?" he asked, feeling incredibly awkward all of a sudden.

"Yeah, much better. You?"

"Fantastic!" he said as he covered the last few steps in flurry and caught her in a huge hug.

She was laughing as she said, "I fine, really."

"Oh Rose, I was so scared," he admitted to her.

"I was too. I knew you were nearby, but I couldn't wake up," she said, returning his embrace weakly.

"What happened?" she asked as he finally pulled away.

"Believe it or not, you had a perfectly normal, non-alien disease," he answered with a grin.

"You mean I got sick and it wasn't because of some megalomania alien or something?" she asked, returning his grin.

"It was a fungal infection," Foreman said as he came up beside her, reaching for her wrist to begin checking her vitals again.

"And who are they?" she ask the Doctor, eyeing both Chase and Foreman.

"They work for Dr. House," the Doctor explained. "I asked him to help."

"Dr. House? The guy who helped us with the Glerth a while back?"

"Yup."

"I'm Dr. Eric Foreman, this is Dr. Robert Chase," Foreman said.

"Ok, I think there are way too many doctors around here," Rose said shaking her head.

"I hate to break up the happy reunion but what about House?" Chase said.

"What about him?" the Doctor said.

"He's been arrested for something he didn't do. I know that you felt like he owed you already for this, but the man just saved her life. Don't you think you could at least pretend to care?"

"Arrested?" Rose asked.

"Yeah, the great and wonderful Dr. House got himself arrested for murder. And I'm not sure exactly what he wants me to do about it."

"You could start by finding out who the real murderer is," Rose said strongly. "After all, he did just save my life and he saved both mine and yours a while back."

The Doctor rolled his eyes at the reminder. He knew that he was going to have to help, but he hated how he had to leave Rose again now that she was finally getting better.

"Fine, I'll go poke around," he relented. "Do you know where these murders were supposed to have happened?" he asked Chase.

"I know that there were police sealing off one of the floors in our hotel. I would bet that would be a good place to start."

"Alright. Rose, you going to be alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. You go and help House."

He nodded and reached for her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze before turning back to Chase. "Alright you stay here with Dr. Foreman and look after Rose. I'll go and check things out."

"You don't want some help?" Foreman asked.

"No," he said flatly as he walked out of the room.

"Look, if you want an alibi just go ask my team. I've been with them all morning," House said. He was getting rather frustrated about this whole interrogation thing.

"Oh, I will," Brass said. "But first I'd like to know why you lied?"

"Everyone lies…" House said automatically. "But what was it I was supposed to have lied about this time?"

"You told Grissom that you had never met the deceased, Dr. Harris. But I did some checking. Turns out that Dr. Harris worked at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital about a year ago. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that where you work?"

"Just because we worked in the same building, doesn't mean that we ever met." House answered. "Besides, ask anyone there, I'm a jerk. I don't attempt to socialize with my so called collogues. I barely even see my patients."

"And you don't find it odd that you never met a man who was the surgeon in for several of your patients operations. And that suddenly the same man turns up dead in Vegas at the same time as you?"

"No, it just sounds like my luck," House grumbled.

"Dr. House, I don't think you seem to realize what position you're in here. You're facing a double homicide and you're sitting there cracking jokes."

"Hey, you're the one who's wasting time with someone who didn't have anything to do with these murders while the real killer is still out there. I didn't do it. That's all you're going to get out of me."

"So you can't explain how it is that you got here four hours before your flight?"

"No, that I definitely can't explain," he said. He really didn't have a clue how that worked other than he got in an alien ship and was practically instantaneously transported across the country.

"So no go then?" O'Neill asked over the phone to Carter.

"Afraid not sir. The Asgard just can't come out here right now. We're on our own for this one."

"Yeah, well it was worth a shot. I think I want you and the rest of SG-1 out here after all. We're gonna need as much help as we can get on this one I think. We'll worry about a cover later. Right now we just need to capture this damned thing."

"Yes sir. We'll head out right away."

"See ya soon," he said as he hung up the phone.