Thanks for all the great reviews. You have to know I love them all and that's what sends me back to the computer to write.

Emrys1 - I want you to know, for about thirty seconds, you scared the daylights out of me. At the beginning of your review, I thought I had seriously done something wrong and was in trouble. I think you have avenged the whole cliffhanger thing. LOL. You would have loved it. Audible sigh of relief as I realized you were joking (you were, right?)

Chapter 2

Beckett arrived with the medical team a few minutes later, although it seemed like an eternity to McKay. McKay was almost in full panic mode when he saw them round the corner and rush his way. Several people watched curiously from the door of the mess hall.

"Where have you been? What took so long? Help him, Carson!"

"Calm down Rodney and tell me what happened. I can't do anything for him until I know what's goin' on." Beckett's calm, soothing voice seemed to ease McKay a little. He took a deep breath.

"We were eating and his hands started shaking...like...really bad shaking. I was trying to bring him to you...but we had to stop for him to vomit...then we took a few steps down the hall...and he just...collapsed. He said something about cramps. Carson, he's in so much pain and I don't even know if hecan hearme talking to him any more. He was fine just a few minutes ago...and then...You've got to help him..."

"Aye, that's the plan Rodney." Beckett looked down at his patient, studying him as he knelt beside him. Sheppard was curled up on his side, but his arms and legs were in constant motion, shifting position against the pain that seemed to encompass him. His face was contorted with agony, his eyes squeezed shut. He suddenly arched his back off the floor and threw his arms out, moaning loudly as the shard of pain coursing through his back muscles caught him off guard. His eyes flickered open a moment and Beckett seized it, leaning over close to his face.

"Major, it's Dr. Beckett. We're here to help ya son. Can you tell me what's happenin'?"

Sheppard's eyes were so glazed that Beckett wasn't sure he'd get a response. Slowly, though, the eyes seemed to be trying to focus on him as the soldier continued to shift positions on the cold, hard floor. "Musssssscle...cra...amps...bad..." Sheppard suddenly clutched his stomach and curled back up as tightly as he could, gasping and moaning in pain.

"Where are the muscle cramps?" asked Beckett.

Sheppard let out a low moan as he tried to gain a foothold against the burning, tightening muscles. He was trying so hard to concentrate on what Beckett was saying, he kept letting the pain catch him by suprise. He so desperately wanted Beckett to help him, that he was doing everything he could to answer his questions. It was so hard to focus on controlling the pain and listen to someone talk at the same time.

"Ev...ry...wh..where..."

A pain shot through his chest with such force, it took his breath away. He opened his mouth, struggling to bring in air against the tightly clamped muscles in his torso. Beckett and McKay could tell he was struggling to breath.

"Oxygen!" yelled Beckett. A few seconds later, they had an oxygen mask clamped to his face and Beckett was listening for breath sounds with his stethoscope. Sheppard was not consciously aware of any of these actions. As the pain in his chest flowed out and he was once again able to breathe, sweet oxygen filled his lungs and he relaxed for a second. He felt himself fading from consciousness and he welcomed the coming darkness with open arms. But it wasn't to be. Another wave of cramps hit him in the arms and shoulders like a bolt of lightning, causing his almost limp body to tense up so fast it looked briefly like a convulsion. He groaned with the suddent impact of the intense wave of pain.

"No...o...o...o...o," they heard from under the mask.

Beckett looked up at his team. his brows knit with worry. "Let's get him back to the infirmary. I can't do much for him here."

They carefully lifted him onto the gurney, still curled up on his side. There was no way any of them were going to try to straighten his pain-wracked body. As they headed down the hall, Beckett put his hand on Sheppard's trembling shoulder, noticing that Sheppard's whole body was shaking. "Take it easy, lad. We'll have ya to the infirmary in just a minute and we'll figure out what's goin' on."

"Carson, is he going to be okay?" asked McKay, his eyes pleading for Beckett to say 'yes'.

Beckett turned to face Rodney. He knew Rodney was afraid for his friend and he really wanted to reassure him. He just wasn't sure that was possible right now. "Rodney, I'd love to be able to say yes to that, but it's too early to tell. I have no idea what's wrong at this point. I need you to come with us so I can ask you some questions."

McKay just nodded his head and ran one hand nervously through his hair. The pair began walking quickly down the hall, trying to catch up to the medical team and the shaking, folded figure on the gurney.

Elizabeth Weir reached the door to the infirmary just as they wheeled Sheppard into the trauma area to begin evaluating his condition. She joined McKay in the waiting area, where they watched the activity on the other end of the room.

"Rodney, I heard you call for the medical team. What happened? How is John?"

McKay looked into the worried face of the expedition leader, certain that he didn't look much better than she did. He replayed the events of the last few minutes for her, including what Carson had told him in the hallway.

Beckett and his staff had their hands full, trying to take the vital signs of Sheppard as he squirmed around on the exam table they had moved him to, trying desperately to work through the pain. Even though his eyes were closed tightly, Beckett knew he was not unconscious. He rather wished he were. It was hard to watch the ranking military officer, who had also become something of a friend, in so much pain that he absolutely could not lay still a minute. Sheppard had straightened out somewhat in an apparent attempt to alleviate pain in his back and neck. He pushed his head back into the matress, his jaw clenched tightly as he once again struggled to get his breath. Just when Beckett thought he was going to have to intervene somehow, Sheppard shifted positions and sucked in a lungfull of air. Beckett let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

Suddenly, Sheppard cried out and lurched onto his right side, almost throwing himself off the table. Beckett caught him just as he began to slide off, holding onto Sheppard with his left hand and the table with his right. A nurse stepped up to help him edge the major back onto the table. Still hanging off the side, Sheppard began to gag and then to vomit, clutching his stomach in agony. Since he had just emptied his stomach a short while ago, there was very little to bring up and he mostly just had a running case of the dry heaves. They finally ended with a strangled groan and Beckett was able to push his shaking form back onto the bed.

"Let's get an IV going and I want blood drawn. Put a rush on the bloodwork. We need to know what we're dealin' with and we need it an hour ago." Expecting the bloodwork request, a nurse already had the tubes ready.

"Doctor, how are we going to draw blood with him...curled up like that?"

"Just wait a minute and be ready." They watched Sheppard and a couple of minutes later, he rolled over onto his back and straightened his arms somewhat. Beckett took a firm hold on his wrist and pulled his arm straight. "Do it now and do it quick." As she drew the blood, he noticed a small stream of blood beginning to run down Sheppard's arm from his hand. Beckett followed the stream up to its source and sighed deeply at what he saw. Sheppard had his fist clenched so tightly, that his fingernails were cutting into the palms of his hands and drawing their own blood. A quick glance at the other hand revealed the same thing. As Sheppard shifted positions, a small trail of blood smeared across the white sheets. Beckett barely managed to get a band-aid on the site where they had taken blood before Sheppard pulled the arm back and rolled over on his left side and drew his legs up to his chest, his hands digging at the muscles in his legs. His whole body shuddered violently as he moaned again, oblivious to everything but the pain that coarsed through his body.

Beckett walked quickly over to where McKay and Weir stood, looking somewhat shell-shocked. They had undoubtedly heard Sheppard cry out in pain, and their attention was riveted to the exam table where he lay thrashing around as the medical staff tried to care for him.

"Rodney?" Beckett said. Rodney just continued to watch the major, his face drained of color. "Rodney!" he said, somewhat more forcefully.

McKay turned and looked at him. "What? Carson..."

"I still don't know, Rodney. I think it must be some sort of toxin...or poison. Do you know what he's had to eat or drink today?"

Giving McKay specific questions to answer that could be important seemed to help him focus. "Uhhhh, let's see...I know he said he didn't have time for breakfast...He drank coffee in my lab. Then we went to the cafeteria. We both had the meatloaf and mashed potatoes...those nasty dehydrated things. But we got the same thing and I ate more than he did and I'm not sick, so that couldn't be it..." He trailed off as if trying to think.

"What about the coffee in the lab?"

"No...I had a lot at breakfast, so I didn't drink any. The major had ...three or four cups." He looked up suddenly. "He was the only one that drank any. Do you thing someone tried to poison him?...Oh my God, that was my lab...that means they were probably trying to poison me. Someone's trying to kill me!"

Weir stepped in. "Calm down, Rodney. We don't know that. I'll send someone to get the coffee pot and grounds so we can test them. Is there anything else you can think of?"

Rodney ran his hand nervously across his forehead. "I don't know if it's important...He said he ran further this morning that he usually does. That almost certainly means he was running in the unoccupied and probably unexplored parts of Atlantis. He's told me before he likes to run there because no one's there. Some kind of a brooding solitude thing. Maybe he came into contact with something there. Don't forget the virus lab we found. I can just see him touching stuff to watch it light up. For someone who's relatively intelligent, he sometimes doesn't show a lot of common sense."

He looked up to see both Weir and Beckett looking at him. "What?" They looked at each other and shook their heads silently. McKay thought he heard Elizabeth mumble something about the pot calling the kettle black.

"Okay," said Beckett. "Elizabeth, get me those coffee samples as soon as you can. I'm havin' his bloodwork rushed so maybe we can see if he's got something in his system. I can compare that to anything we find in the coffee pot. Rodney, why don't you check with the night guards and see if anyone saw Major Sheppard running this morning. If the coffee angle doesn't work out, we may need to see if we can retrace his steps. Is there anything else?"

"Not really. We were working on an ancient device, but it just displayed some text. He made some kind of a rock get warm for Kavanagh. That's about it."

Beckett shook his head. "I don't think the ancient device is it. I'm leaning toward something he ingested, but there's no way to tell for sure. We'll just have to keep investigating leads until we figure this out."

Sheppard moaned loudly and changed positions rather forcefully again. All three looked toward the bed. "Carson, can't you give him something for the pain?" McKay asked softly.

"Ya know I can't until I know what we're dealin' with. It could kill him. He'll just have to ride it out a while until we get a handle on what's causin' this. I have to admit, I've never seen anythin' even remotely like this. I wish I could do more."

McKay and Weir left the infirmary, each with a job to do that would hopefully lead to information that could help Sheppard. Beckett went back to his patient. He stood looking for a minute, feeling very helpless, before taking charge and ordering his team to get Sheppard undressed and start running every test he could think of that might possible lead to an answer. He hoped they found it fast. He wasn't sure how long anyone could hold up under the kind of pain Sheppard was obviously in.

TBC