A/N: Sorry this has taken so long. Between school, vacation, and being out of touch with the real world I haven't had much of a chance to even stare at this. Don't worry though there is more coming very soon, probably within the next couple days. So keep a look out. And in the mean time enjoy!

The last six hours had been a flurry of activity. Rodney had been so busy with the aftermath of the explosion all thoughts of Shep had been shoved to the back of his mind. Ordering around the science staff, arguing with Jennifer that he was fine, assessing the extent of the damage… But as he sat in the cushioned chair and allowed his muscles to relax the adrenaline began to ebb from his body. His senses, which had been numbed from the powerful hormone, were returning in full force. The dull ache of betrayal was manifesting itself as a sharp stab in the back. And the sting of Abbot's death was finally hitting him. He couldn't get the image of Jennifer wheeling her stiff body out of the science lab out of his head.

Carter arrived in the briefing room breaking Rodney from his train of thought. Without preamble she sat down next to Teyla and began, "I was just having a chat with out visitor." What wasn't showing on her face emerged in the sharp edge to her voice.

Glancing over at Sheppard, Rodney knew that the colonel was as drained as he was, but he wasn't letting it show. The recent events had kindled the familiar fire behind his eyes when Atlantis was in danger. "Did he admit to causing the lab explosion?"

Sam shook her head, "No, he actually seems genuinely confused. He kept asking whether anyone was hurt."

"Well, we know he's a good actor. He's been putting on a show for us since he got here." John said bitterly.

Rodney remained silent. He knew that it was his fault that Shep had been able to sabotage the lab. He should have been watching him more closely, should have known Sheppard was right, as he so often was in these situations.

"What are we going to do with him?" Ronon asked. His fingers were drumming on the table as if anxious to snap into action.

Sam responded, "We need more information about what happened so we can discern how Shep was able to sneak an explosive right under our noses."

"I'm on it." Rodney stood, eager to get back to the lab, even though he'd just left from there.

For a moment Colonel Carter looked like she was about to stop him and suggest he take a break, but clearly she decided against it and waved a hand to show that he was dismissed.

As he was leaving, Rodney heard Sheppard say that he would like a chance to interrogate the prisoner. It was hard for him to ignore the fact that his new best friend was now being confined in the holding cell as a belligerent enemy.

And for the millionth time since the incident Rodney had the urge to go visit Shep. Demand an explanation for what had happened. Maybe he could somehow find a way to reassure himself that it wasn't Shep's fault at all, but a terrible accident. But, he shook his head; he'd seen the readings for himself. It had been the power stabilizer that had caused the accident, the very stabilizer that Shep had designed and built all alone.

"Wait." Rodney voiced entirely to himself. A passing airman looked at him inquisitively but the scientist took no noticed. Quickening his pace, Rodney headed for the lab. He'd just remembered something.

XXXX

Sam's eyes were burning from staring so long at her computer screen. Her desk was a pile of unread reports and supply requests, a half empty mug of coffee precariously perched on the only uncluttered corner. It was a little past 0200 and she knew she wasn't likely to make a dent in any of work that she still had left before she passed out on her keyboard.

Reaching for a piece of paper on the other side of the desk she had the momentary feeling that she wasn't alone before Rodney McKay swooped into her office and knocked a stack of files off her desk.

"Oh, sorry about that." He mumbled, not bothering to pick them back up. His manner completely belied the late hour as he practically bounced on his heels.

"What is it Rodney?" Her voice came out rather raspier than she expected, making her wonder when the last time she'd had something to drink was.

"I'm glad you're still up. I thought maybe because of the time you'd -"

"Yes, Rodney. Did you find something?"

"I was just going back over the data from the Jumper right before we plugged in Shep's power stabilizer. You know it was a remarkable idea, if we could get it -"

Carter held up an irritated hand, forcing the blabbering scientist to stop mid-sentence. "I'm sure you'll figure it out at some point. But what do you want to tell me right now?"

"You're not going to believe this. The data I collected proves without a doubt that -"

"Ma'am?" A technician had just stuck her head into the office.

"Yes Cutler?"

"The Daedalus has just dropped out of hyperspace. It looks like they've been in some sort of battle. Their propulsion and communications are down."

"What?" Rodney asked, mirroring Sam's own thoughts.

All three of them proceeded into the main part of the control tower. McKay immediately started pushing buttons on one of the consoles. "She's right. We're not getting any response from them." He affirmed craning his neck to look back at Sam.

"We need to get up there." Carter tapped her earpiece. "Colonel Sheppard." She paused and then said louder. "Colonel!"

A groggy "Sheppard here" came over the radio.

"Assemble your team Colonel. The Daedalus had just arrived."

"What happened?" was the much more alert response.

"They're in bad shape. Their communications are down. It looks like they were on the losing end of a dog fight." Rodney answered, his voice exhibiting the same anxiety that Sam was now feeling.

"I'll be right there." Sheppard said before the connection was terminated.

Sam turned back to the scientist, her voice a mix of worry and anger, "Rodney, figure out what the hell happened up there."

He returned her blue eyed gaze, "We'll do everything we can."

It was some moments after he left that Sam remembered the reason Rodney had come to her office in the first place. What had he wanted to tell her?

XXXX

The rest of the team was ready and waiting in Jumper Four as Rodney hustled about checking and cross-checking data readouts. Sheppard didn't know exactly what they were for, something about overloads and decompression. He hadn't really been paying attention, he was far too anxious to get up to the Daedalus and discover what was keeping the crew from responding to their hails. As Rodney paced the length of the ship one more time, John let his mind replay the events of last night.

Walking into the holding room, he was greeted with the disconcerting sight of himself pressed up against the bars. It took him a second to realize that he was only looking at Shep. The look on the other man's face was too close to the type of expression John knew he had on his face every time he got captured by the enemy.

The look took Sheppard aback only momentarily. He carefully rearranged his features into the customary 'I'll make you confess' glare he wore so often to interrogations.

He'd planned on yelling first, expecting Shep to deny everything, maybe sob a little as he tried to beg and pronounce his innocence. Shep apparently had different plans.

"Is anyone seriously injured? I tried to ask the guards but they won't answer me."

John let the question hang in the air as he considered what Shep's motives were for asking. Most likely Shep was trying to seem compassionate to further his I-wouldn't-hurt-a-fly defense.

"Susan Abbot died." He managed to grit out. He felt oddly satisfied by Shep's cringe.

"I'm sorry." The prisoner's eyes swept the room, landing on everything except John. "I'm so sorry."

So he's feeling guilty.

"I don't know if you knew her well. But for the few days that I've been here she showed me extreme kindness. Have you informed her family yet?" Shep asked; his expression mournful.

John ignored the question. "How did you manage it? Provide false calculations so that Rodney wouldn't know what you were up to. You'd have to be pretty clever to get around McKay."

"John, I don't know what went wrong. You have to believe me. Why would I want to hurt you? Any of you?"

"Blowing up the room you were in was a risky move." Sheppard leaned back, relaxing into a slouch against the far wall. "Were you that confident in your calculations or was the blast premature?"

Raising his hands in another shockingly familiar gesture, Shep started pleading again. "I'm no threat to you. I don't have any reason to hurt you, besides Atlantis and her people are my best chance for returning to my reality. Why would I risk that?"

"Don't for a minute delude yourself into thinking that I believe one word that you've said since the moment you got here." He leaned forward unconsciously. "You show up and tell us about a super weapon that no one is this reality has ever heard about. Tell us a sob story about you're supposed best friend so that we feel bad for you and it makes it all the harder to not trust you. You've got Rodney so convinced that you're his friend that he lets you do whatever the hell you want. Then you get an idea for a device even McKay hasn't though of and boom someone is dead. And don't think I've forgotten the Jumper crash." Now that's a damn long string of coincidences if you haven't had a hand in any of it.

Shep's jaw hardened as if he was grinding his teeth. "I don't know how many times I have to tell you that I wouldn't hurt anyone here on purpose." A glint of understanding and grief washed over his bearded face before he dropped his head as if ashamed. "Damn it. Why didn't I think… it is so obvious. I can't believe…"

The sudden babbling aggravated John's anger even further. "What?" It was a growl rather than a word.

Shep met his glare, identical brown eyes staring into one another. "It was the power stabilizer. I'd designed it for a normal Jumper and we tested it in the overloaded Jumper. We don't even know yet what exactly happened to the Jumper there could have been all sorts of unknown variables. I told Rodney we test a different Jumper but he was in a hurry and that one was already in the lab. It was convenient and Rodney was insistent-"

"Don't you dare blame Rodney for this." John interrupted. "You don't know any of us and yet, you walk in and act like you belong here. You act like you… like you care…"

There was a sharp intake of breath. Shep was hunched forward, his shoulders slumped and his long hair that was normally tied back was hanging in his face so that John couldn't read his expression. "I do care."

It was so quiet John had to strain to hear the admission. There was something in the man's voice that restarted the nagging feeling he'd been feeling for days, except now it was more like a biting, thrashing doubt.

Shep raised his head slowly. There was wetness in the corner of his eyes. "Can't you understand what this is like for me? My best friend died less than three months ago and suddenly I get dragged to an alternate reality where he's alive and safe. Every time I look at him I'm looking at a ghost… but he's real. Actually real."

Sheppard studied his double. The outward differences in their appearance had allowed him to pretend that there was no connection between himself and the man in front of him. The long hair and the glasses had provided the evidence he needed to push away the possibility that he may have something in common with this bushy, sensitive, geek. But as he stared into his own eyes, he couldn't pretend anymore. Hadn't he had this argument with Rodney when Rod had arrived? He hadn't been able to understand why Rodney wouldn't want to spend time with his double. He'd said they were the same. Rodney had answered flustered, 'He's not me. I'm me, the real me.' And Rodney had been partly right, but even as different as the two were they'd still had their similarities. How could he have thought that he and Shep, even originating from alternate realities, not have at least one thing in common?

But when Shep had appeared in the lab he'd found out exactly Rodney had been feeling for those few days that Rod had been around. And from the start, as soon as he'd learned how nerdy and awkward his double was, Sheppard had pushed him away. No, he reminded himself, it hadn't been from the start. It had been right after the scene in the commissary.

Was it possible that he so afraid that he may actually have something in common with Shep that he couldn't believe that the man could care as much about the people of Atlantis as he did?

"There's more isn't there?" The anger was melting away as John began to put the pieces into place. He knew that Shep was hiding something, but for the first time he considered that maybe that secret had nothing to do with the Jumper crash or the destroyed lab. That's when Shep had admitted the one thing that could change everything.

"Alright, we're good to go." McKay's voice was loud, breaking Sheppard from his reverie.

Shaking off the memory, the Colonel snapped back into command mode, reminding himself what they had to do. He mentally powered up the Jumper and had them maneuvering out of the Atlantis control tower in record time.

As the Daedalus came into view Sheppard knew that there was something wrong immediately. Though there was no damage visible from this distance, the lack of the normal pinpoint lights mirroring the shine of the stars proveded that the ship was lifeless.

"Daedalus this is Colonel Sheppard. Please respond." John requested, distress coloring his voice. There was no answer. "Damn it. Rodney what do you got?"

"The life pods haven't been jettisoned. Internal systems are functioning; life support, artificial gravity…" He trailed off as they rounded to the other side of the ship. A giant scorched tear ran nearly from stem to stern, leaving corridors and rooms open to the vacuum of space.

Teyla made a startled noise behind Sheppard. He couldn't blame her. By the look of the hull, he couldn't help the horrible thought that there may not be anyone left to rescue.

"What could have done that?" Ronon asked awestruck.

Sheppard shook his head, "I don't know, but let's hope we don't run into it."

Docking in the bay was no problem as the bay doors had been shorn off. What took a considerable longer amount of time was McKay patching into the Daedalus' systems so that he could reactivate the force shield and pressurize the docking bay. But being that it was Rodney who was working, the considerable amount of time was still only a few minutes.

"Teyla grab the med kit." Sheppard ordered before he opened the Jumper's rear hatch.

A quick look around confirmed that they were alone. Not that it was too likely someone had survived the depressurization of the bay in the first place.

John turned, not surprised to find Rodney absorbed in the life signs detector. "I'm picking up something in the holding bay on this level."

"Our people?" Teyla asked concern evident in her voice.

McKay shook his head, "Not likely, there's only one life sign. There's a group of readings on the bridge."

"Well that's a good sign." John said, trying to buoy his own hopes as well as those of his team. He motioned Ronon toward the door to the hallway and drew his gun just as Ronon drew his own. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but he knew that if the Daedalus was attacked there was always the chance they had been boarded. Nevertheless there was no one, friendly or hostile, in the corridor.

"Rodney, you and Teyla head to engineering, see if you can't get the communications back online. Ronon and I will go to the bridge."

"Right, after you." McKay pointed off to the left and waited for Teyla to take the lead, her P90 ready.

Sheppard aimed a quick, "Be careful" at their retreating backs then led Ronon in the opposite direction.