AN: Please be warned, there is a big spoiler for The Defiant One in this chapter! Thanks for the reviews, you all have created a monster, every time a review comes in I squeal like a three year old! Okay, maybe not quite that loud but hey, it's close.

Chapter Four

What's Going On?

"That's the last of them Sir." Ford and Teyla had cleared the immediate area of the last Wraith corpse.

Sheppard sighed, "Good. Now maybe we can concentrate on a solution." He studied his team, each one trying to act as inconspicuous as possible. "Anyone?"

Rodney stepped in front of the console, scanning the displays. "We need a miracle."

"We need you." Sheppard said, dropping into a sitting position. Everyone had pitched in with moving the bodies, and it had drained his reserves.

Rodney hadn't forgotten who had started this mess. "That's exactly what you don't need." He said with a touch of bitterness underlying the irony.

"Knock it off McKay. We all have our moments." Sheppard wouldn't be forgetting his recent screw-up that cost the lives of Gaul and Abrams.

McKay wasn't the insensitive geek he was painted to be. He frowned at the regret hidden in Sheppard's words. He turned back to his computer awkwardly and swallowed, "I'll see what I can do."

Sheppard adjusted a pack behind him, and slid down, resting his head against the lumpy standard issue. "You do that." He said, closing his eyes.

Teyla shared a worried look with Ford before setting herself down beside the Major. He didn't open his eyes but shuffled his frame to give her room. Ford decided to peer over McKay's shoulder.

It had only been a few minutes before Teyla sensed something was wrong. She felt the Major stiffen. "Major Sheppard?" She called softly, hoping it wasn't another episode. In seconds she realized it wasn't the typical pass out event he had been experiencing, but something much worse.

Sheppard's body began to convulse. "Doctor McKay!" Teyla called, panicked. She knelt beside him uncertain of what she should do. McKay had looked up from the computer with mild irritation, which changed to fear when he saw what was happening.

He ran the few steps and pulled the pack from behind his head, "Hold his legs!" He hollered at Teyla.

"What is happening to him?" She cried, trying in vain to hold them steady. Ford had arrived and was pushing the Major's shoulders down.

"Seizure." Rodney stated, praying he didn't hurt anything and hoping it would end soon.

The tremors began to subside. His legs trembled weakly and then lay still. Teyla sat back on her haunches, the episodemaking herfeel shaky. "What is causing this?" She asked, staring at him shell-shocked.

Rodney took a towel that Ford had pulled from the pack and wiped the fine sheen of sweat off the Major's forehead. "I don't know." He really didn't but he was beginning to believe it was tied to the events on the Wraith ship and that worried him, considering every wraith had been killed.

Ford was getting angry. "Why him, and not any of us?"

"Your guess is as good as mine Lieutenant, his ATA gene…his recent experience on the Ancient's outpost." Rodney tossed the towel to the side, "For all we know it could be something left over from that tic-wraith."

"Now?" Ford questioned, disbelief written across his face. "It's been, what…months?"

McKay eyed Ford, "Lieutenant, if we were to fill a bucket with what we know it'd be a mere drop."

"Will he be okay?" Teyla still had one hand on the Major's leg. The warmth of his body leeched through the fabric, reassuring her of his continued presence.

Rodney didn't reply. He didn't know and he was tired of trying to reassure everyone else when he really needed the Major to wake up and reassure him. He wasn't cut out for being in the position of leader. He didn't realize that his lack of a response was an answer. Wake up Major, he mentally pleaded.

John was cold again. He groaned as the implication of that cold nailed his body. He was wherever here was, another dimension, another reality…and always with the ghost wraith. He waited, turning at every noise. The air grew cooler. It was coming.

"I know you're here!" John shouted.

The face coalesced in front of him. "Yes." It answered, both irate and menacing.

"What, no flying through me this time?" Sheppard said flippantly. "I'm crushed."

The wraith merely approached him, walking to the side once it came within reaching distance. "I am dead. You killed me."

John backed up, his hands raised, trying to ward off the wraith if it changed its mind about going through him. "Now there you're wrong. I didn't do this."

The wraith seemed to consider his words. It snarled, "Then how am I here?"

"You tell me." John backed up another step. The wraith was getting too close for comfort.

"Why won't you release me?" It accused. Its face was inches away. If John stuck his tongue out he figured it'd touch.

Sheppard cleared his throat, backing up again. "I told you, I'm not the one doing this." John felt a wall against his back, stopping his retreat. Crap. "I don't want to be here anymore than you do."

The wraith's breath was hot and fetid against his skin. Sheppard had a brief flash of fear that it was going to plunge that hand against his chest and suck him dry. The wraith's face twisted into a satisfied smile. It knew. "You've been bitten."

Sheppard's mind reeled. Bitten? "What?"

The wraith grinned, baring its rotten teeth. It turned and walked away, disappearing into the shadows.

"Hey!" Sheppard hollered, "Bitten by what?"

He tried to follow the wraith but was overcome by dizziness. He felt himself falling and knew he was returning to his normal place, whatever normal was anymore. Blackness took over and his eyes rolled back as he fell unconscious.

Sheppard groaned as awareness washed over him. Every muscle in his body ached. God. He opened his eyes and found Teyla staring at him. "Hi Teyla." He croaked.

"How do you feel?" She asked. She grabbed some water and the Tylenol McKay had told her to give to Sheppard when he woke up.

"Like I've gone a few rounds with a wraith." He pushed himself upward, surprised at the level of weakness. "Where's McKay?"

"Here." McKay called from the console. He had been studying the controls and with each minute his frustration grew. It was like trying to read a foreign language. The irony of it being as foreign as one could get wasn't lost on him.

Sheppard craned his neck to look at Rodney, "Any progress?"

McKay's lip curled in annoyance, "No."

"Give a guy false hope occasionally."

"Sorry." McKay took a second to look at the Major closely. He looked like hell. His eyes focused on something he hadn't seen before.

Sheppard shot McKay a concerned look, "What are you staring at?" He knew what McKay was staring at and it made him feel like a car wreck on display.

"Your neck. Does it hurt?" McKay could make out the inflamed area. It was where he had been bitten by the tic-wraith.

Sheppard's hand flew to the spot in question, surprised to find it hot to the touch. "No."

Rodney waved at Ford, "Lieutenant get over here."

Ford joined the group clustered around Sheppard. McKay indicated the spot, "That is where the bug…"

"…bit the Major." Ford finished for him.

Sheppard squirmed under the stares, "The wraith…he said I'd been bitten."

"You talked to it?" McKay said surprised.

"It's either that or let it use me as it's personal flight path!" Sheppard said defensively. "I wanted answers." Sheppard winced at the pain moving his arm caused. "Isn't it a little late for side effects?"

Teyla noticed his discomfort and realized the pill and water remained untouched in her hands. "Take this Major." She handed him the Tylenol and helped keep him upright to drink it down.

He fought to swallow the pill, the lump going down painfully. He choked on the last sip of water, pushing the canteen back as water spilled down his face. Teyla pulled the water away and helped him wipe the moisture off his chin.

"I wish Beckett was here." He muttered. He really did feel like crap, more so than before.

The room went silent. He found his team staring at him. "Did I say that out loud?"

"Yes Sir." Ford confirmed. No one was used to seeing the Major at this level of fragility. The only previous experience had been when that bug had gotten a hold of him, and even then everything had happened so fast it had been over before the ramifications of almost losing him had hit home.

"You'll be fine." McKay assured him. "I'm just…going to try and unlock the systems."

"Do that." Sheppard ordered, trying to regain some level of command. "Ford, keep watch, now isn't the time to get sloppy."

Sheppard was going to get up whether it killed him or not. He grasped for Teyla's arm and pulled, almost toppling the Athosian in the process.

"Is this wise Major?" Teyla struggled to right both herself and Sheppard.

John smiled ruefully, "No, but I need to do it anyway."

Teyla remained quiet but Sheppard could tell she didn't agree. "I'll be fine. I promise."

"What are you going to do?"

"Help McKay, I want to go home and if we don't get out of here soon Atlantis will come looking for us. With Wraith on the way, it's turning into a dangerous situation." Sheppard didn't want to think of reinforcements arriving just in time to get attacked by wraiths coming to investigate the distress call. With the beacon they'd left behind, he was beginning to think that's exactly what was going to happen.

He managed to stay on his feet better than he thought he would. He made his way to McKay's location, muscles stiff and complaining the whole way, but making it there nonetheless.

"Any progress?"

"Since the last time you asked?" McKay snapped, "No."

"Relax McKay, you'll figure it out."

"Not with you hovering Major."

Sheppard grimaced, "Someone needs an energy bar."

"Someone needs to be left alone."

"Someone needs help." Sheppard retorted, "I can help."

"This isn't Ancient technology Major." McKay stressed, "Hell, I can't understand any of this." He hit the console with frustration.

"No, but it is a ship." Sheppard studied the console and hit a button, "All ship's have commonalities."

The ship shuddered. McKay's eyes widened, "What did you do?"

"Who knows, it looked promising."

McKay lifted the laptop's screen and couldn't hide the dismay once he interpreted the information. "You've activated the engines."

Sheppard grinned, "That's a good thing, right?"

"Not unless you count a trajectory toward this ship's last location as a good thing."

"Towards what killed them?" Teyla asked, not pleased with the implication.

"Exactly." McKay confirmed.

Sheppard backed away from the console. "I'll just…head to the Jumper." He pointed back towards the door, "See if I can figure something out from that end."

"Good idea." McKay said, trying to keep his voice level.

"Ford, stay with McKay. Teyla, with me." He instructed. He could only hope they found an answer soon because he had a sneaking suspicion that whatever killed the wraith wasn't going to welcome them with open arms. He didn't think it was going to be one of those 'enemy of my enemy' situations. "Keep in radio contact every five."

"Good luck Major." Ford called.

"Yeah, you too." Sheppard figured they'd need more than luck to get out of this, but it wouldn't hurt.