In the Infirmary at about the same time, Carson caught a nurse and led her to the curtained bed. "Violet, I need ye to look after this patient during Dr. Biro's shift."

"Yes, Dr. Beckett," she replied politely, obediently.

Carson pulled away the curtain and allowed her to see the patient they had concealed. She walked in and her first concern were monitors and machines around the patient. When she was sure she understood his condition, she let her eyes wander to the head of the bed to see who had been injured this badly.

Carson was watching her all that time, waiting for the right moment to disclose the identity of their patient. As soon as he noticed her scrutiny, he told her: "Don't panic, Violet, but, uhm, it's Doctor McKay."

She gasped for breath as soon as she recognised the man herself. She couldn't fathom how he could have ended up in such a terrible state of health. "What…what happened to him?" she asked silently with genuine concern. Although she considered him a jerk, he didn't deserve to be hurt like this.

"We still don't know," Carson answered truthfully. "We need him to wake up to tell us."

Violet sighed and asked: "Does Dr. Biro know? I mean…"

Carson interrupted her kindly, rubbing his hands together nervously: "Aye. She helped ma stabilise him." Then he gave Rodney a concerned look and added: "But she canna monitor him all the time. That's why I need ye."

Violet nodded and saw him hide a yawn. She smiled and gently pushed him out of the curtained area. "I'll take care of him, Doctor. You go get some sleep. Now."

"But I havenna told ye everythin'," Carson argued, his accent getting thicker with the knowledge that Rodney was in capable hands and he could rest. He yawned again, this time not even bothering to hide it.

"I know your password to documents about ICU patients," she informed him as if it was something completely normal that she could log in his files. "I'll find everything there or Dr. Biro can tell me. Now, off with you," she shooed him away with a hand on the small of his back.

Carson chuckled because this was the manoeuvre he had taught all nurses in case someone from the foremost team was injured and others wanted to stay. He prepared to leave the cubicle when the curtain was pulled aside and John slipped in carefully, watching the room around in case Carson was somewhere near. He hoped he would say hello to Rodney in private, maybe even hold his hand for a while to let him know that he cared and was glad he made it back, before facing Carson and confronting him with his findings.

"Major?" Carson asked, immediately alert because he worried he was needed due to another emergency.

John gave him a look of a deer caught in the headlights and cleared his throat. "Hey, Carson. Can I speak to you for a while?" When he noticed nurse Violet, he almost jumped and added quickly: "Privately, if that's okay?"

Carson nodded to Violet, who was watching John warily, and she bowed her head. "Just one more question, Doctor Beckett. How often should I check on him?" she queried just before she reached the curtain. That was a small important detail he hadn't told her, yet.

"About every two hours. If his breathing gets better, then more often," Carson answered deep in thought. "And inform ma as soon as that happens, okay?"

Violet nodded but knew better than himself that he needed rest. Whatever happened, she would tell him after six hours from now. She checked her watch and disappeared to continue with her other duties.

"What do ye need, Major?" Carson asked John impatiently. "I told ye he wasna up to visitors. Even if ye brought Teyla and Lt. Ford with ye and they were standing behind the curtain now."

John raised his arms in defence. "No, I knew that. I…" John stopped himself before his tongue could tangle up.

Carson began watching him patiently now, waiting for him to find his voice again. He thought there must have been something really important to learn. John took a deep breath and said shyly: "It concerns Rodney."

Carson blinked. He didn't know why John would want to speak to him about this now. Surely it couldn't have taken Radek such a short amount of time to determine what the device was.

John licked his lips and went on: "Radek has activated the device and made it work." John stopped himself and tried to put his jumbled thoughts together because, obviously, seeing a holo-Dart in the middle of the hall leading to Radek's lab was quite a shock. Add the suspicion that this was what Jorgenson's team shot at and that maybe Rodney hadn't been culled and there were many words that together would make sense to you but to no-one else. John tried to put everything into coherent sentences for Carson, who was watching him with a great deal of patience he wasn't feeling.

Therefore, John added: "I have a sneaking suspicion that Jorgenson didn't tell us everything and he may do something unexpected if he were to find out about Rodney surviving."

Carson frowned. "Unexpected as in…?" he wondered silently, his eyes briefly focusing on Rodney's fragile form. He was so severely injured that he would be unable to defend himself in any way for the next couple of days or maybe, if things turned out wrong, even longer.

John threw his hands in the air. "How am I supposed to know? He may hurt him somehow because almost no-one knows that he's here. It would be just convenient…"

Carson placed his left hand on John's shoulder. "Come on, Major, don't be paranoid. Nobody wants to hurt Rodney."

"But…" John tried to pass his point. His instincts shouted at him that the Dart was the key to the mission from hell and if Jorgenson found out, anything could happen.

"Ye need rest, John, to clear yer mind," Carson tried to reason with John as they both knew John didn't get much sleep over the past few days but only several uncomfortable naps. Carson couldn't believe such an overly fearful idea but, after all, he accepted that John's instincts were almost always right… "I'll do everything I can to protect him for ye until he wakes up and can tell us about the mission. Agreed?" Carson then gave John's shoulder an encouraging squeeze and gently pushed him out of the cubicle.

John nodded miserably. He thought Carson was just too stubborn to get his point. Or maybe he was just tired after what he had accomplished since taking Elizabeth to her quarters. "Carson," John looked him right in the eye and couldn't believe himself that he was about to beg, "please, don't let anyone know about Rodney till he's with us again. I know I might sound foolish but I feel there are pieces, very important pieces, of the puzzle from the mission that are still missing and if Rodney doesn't wake up to tell us…" He shook his head ruefully. "Just, just hide him as best as you can. For his safety."

Carson rubbed John's shoulder in support and told him calmly: "Don't worry, John. Violet's the toughest nurse here. Nobody can hoax her to get to her patients."

Corners of John's mouth quirked slightly. "I guess that's why you've chosen her to know, right?"

Carson smiled knowingly and they both left the Infirmary feeling somewhat better than a few moments ago. John then accompanied Carson to his quarters, surprising him quite a bit.

"Is there somethin' more ye need from ma, John?" Carson asked him before opening the door leading to his room.

John bit his lower lip and admitted: "Teyla and Ford need to see him. Need to know that he is really here."

Carson rubbed his eyes. "Major, ye know it would do more harm than good now. I dinna want to put more stress on them when I saw yer and Elizabeth's reaction to his state." Carson sighed and yawned gently. "Mind waiting until the evening? I'm sure the tube will be out by then."

John nodded helplessly. "Do I have any other chance?" he asked rhetorically, shrugging.

Carson shook his head and John said: "See. So in the evening? Say, at about eight?"

"Aye," Carson told him nodding, walked into his quarters and closed the door. He was exhausted, his eyelids falling over his eyes like a theatre curtain. He went to his bed on autopilot, undressed and fell on his pillow face-first. The strain had finally taken its prize from him.

John watched Carson's door for a while more and then left for the makeshift gym to beat his strains in a punching bag. He hoped to avoid his teammates because he felt as though he had let them down when he couldn't persuade Carson to let them see Rodney.

– – – – – – – – – –

Elizabeth went to the control room as soon as Peter beckoned her to. She did not mind the interruption at all because her thoughts kept drifting to a specific bed in the Infirmary. She reached his console and was ready to ask what was going on when he reminded her of the schedule. "Capt. Jorgenson's team is about to dial out, Dr. Weir," he said gently.

"Sure," she replied, "I completely forgot."

She moved away from the consoles and looked over the railing to the Gateroom where the team was checking that they had everything for their mission. Allan was helping Sarah, who was fidgeting nervously, strap her backpack more tightly, Carlos was checking his P-90 and Maria's eyes were wandering around. She looked up to see Elizabeth and gave her a quick salute with two fingers, after which Elizabeth nodded and turned back to Peter. "Dial the Gate," she told him and left for her office. She had fulfilled her duty to see the team off, although only Sgt. Vysockaja saw her, and that was enough. She really wasn't up to a long goodbye for them.

The Stargate engaged and Allan looked at his team to give them the final instructions. "So, don't forget to behave. The natives are used to Sgt. Stackhouse and his team and it's our first encounter. We'll take it quick, help with what is needed and return."

Everybody smiled and Maria shook her head in disbelief. They were going to help with the reparation of houses after an earthquake to get some local foodstuffs. Nothing could possibly go wrong when they were on their own.

Allan winked at her and moved towards the open event horizon. "Let's go then," he said and stepped through first, others following quickly.

Elizabeth saw the Stargate disengage and sighed. She had allowed them to switch with Stackhouse because Marvin was down with a cold and Jorgenson had asked her for a possibility to mend his team's cooperation in the field. This was a great opportunity for Dr. Ginger to get a hold of herself again before they all learnt that Rodney had made it back. She was one of the few scientists willing to go off-world and they needed people like her in the field. Elizabeth remembered Rodney wanting to quit John's team due to a gory mission when he wasn't able to react properly like a soldier and defend injured Aiden from a Wraith attack. It had been his second mission off-world and had scared the hell out of him. She understood his point that civilians didn't belong on missions like these but at that time she believed these missions were rare.

She remembered it took his whole team and herself to persuade him to return, in spite of Kate doing her best as their psychologist. At that time, Rodney was wandering around Atlantis restlessly, searching for any way to escape his terrifying nightmares about the small girl who died on the altar in the centre of the village. He was moving constantly until he crashed at her place and they agreed that he would give the missions one more chance.

And now Elizabeth couldn't rid herself of the image of his helpless form lying still in the Infirmary bed with all the tubes stuck in his arms and other parts of his body. She hoped she would be able to go to the Infirmary and tell him how important he was to her on all levels but she was worried it would be rather inappropriate of her to show their closeness when Carson could come to him any time or listen behind the thin white curtain without her noticing!

She shook her head, knowing there was nothing she could do about it, and tried to lose herself in the paperwork. So far it had always worked. And Carson had promised that once he began to breathe on his own, he'd inform her. Then she would run to the Infirmary asap using her shortcut. She knew that she needed to wait only a bit more…