Woah, so many reviews for one chapter. Thank you all. You made my day…again.

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Sheppard opened his eyes expecting to be in the infirmary but instead he found himself where he had last dropped, only Mckay was hovering over him like a moth to light.

"You're awake," he said with a sigh and looked back down the corridor, "Where's Beckett?"

Sheppard groaned, lifted his head off the floor, and paused when an initial spike of pain at the base of his skull reminded him of previous events, "I passed out?" he asked rubbing at his neck as he tried to get up.

"Yes you did, stay down," said Mckay and the force of his hand on Sheppard's shoulder sent him back down to the floor. His head connected with a thud and Sheppard let out a grimace. "Uh sorry," said Mckay.

Sheppard moved his hands off his shoulder and extricated himself from the floor, "I'm fine Mckay," he said reaching up and touching the blood which was escaping from his nose. He could feel it streaked across his cheek and it had already dried.

"You're going to the infirmary," said Mckay looking down the corridor as if he expected it to somehow produce the Scottish doctor.

"I'm not," said Sheppard trying to wipe the blood off his cheek.

"You are," said Mckay.

"Am not," said Sheppard leaning against the wall.

"You just collapsed," said Mckay, "Or has your possibly fried brain already forgotten that."

Sheppard sighed and closed his weary eyes, "You're giving me a headache."

"Ah see and you have a headache. This isn't good, where is Beckett?"

Sheppard slid one eye open, "He's probably lost." He found his P90 was still attached to his vest and he pointed it upwards and switched on its light, "Come on, lets go find him."

"We are staying here," said Mckay bounding up and down on his heels nervously.

"Mckay, I'm…" Sheppard was about to say he was fine, but the spike at the base of his skull had reached a new pinnacle of pain and instead he found himself crumpling to his knees. He watched as blood started to drop and pool onto the floor below him and he fought to stay awake against the tug of blessed unconsciousness.

"Sheppard," said Mckay getting down to his knees beside him and putting his hand on his back.

Sheppard swallowed hard. He could taste the blood as some of it travelled down his throat, "Just a little dizzy," he managed.

"Dizzy," said Mckay nervously. "Of course, you stood up too quickly."

Sheppard looked over to him, "I'm fine," he said.

"Would you stop saying that," said Mckay, "And keep your head down."

"I thought you were supposed to tilt your head back when you got a nosebleed," said Sheppard.

Mckay sighed, "No, its forward. Pinch the bridge of your nose."

Sheppard rolled his eyes, which hurt, and did as instructed. Mckay probably knew what he was talking about. After all, Sheppard figured that enough bullies at school must have given him a few.

He could hear the sounds of people coming down the hallway, feet hitting the concrete loudly. He looked up and Beckett was now kneeling beside him, "What happened?" he asked looking over to Mckay for an explanation.

Instead it was Sheppard who spoke, "Congratulations Doc, you rushed here to the medical emergency of……a nosebleed."

"We found a device, it had him locked into it somehow," said Mckay, "He got out of it, which I told him not to, ran down here and collapsed."

"Did he lose consciousness?" asked Beckett reaching into his pocket for a penlight.

"Yes," "No," Both men said simultaneously.

"Well which one is it?" asked Beckett reaching for Sheppard's chin and tilting his head upwards. Sheppard's eyes took a minute to follow him confirming to Beckett he was still pretty out of it.

"Yes," stated Mckay firmly.

Sheppard closed his eyes against the light and could feel the headache pain migrating to behind his pupils.

"Some light sensitivity," said Beckett.

Sheppard had his hand up to his nose in an attempt to cup the blood.

"Okay, lets get you to the infirmary and run some tests. Mckay I want you to show me this device too."

Mckay nodded and he helped Beckett get Sheppard into a standing position.

"Snitch," mumbled Sheppard as he was pulled up onto a waiting gurney.

"Well if you didn't lie about being injured then-"

"I was a bit disorientated, I admit," said Sheppard, "but this was nothing."
"What about what I saw on that screen?" Mckay put his hands over his chest and jutted his chin out.

Sheppard chewed on his lip thoughtfully and dragged his eyes over to Beckett's, "Take me to the infirmary."

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Sheppard opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling and he could recognise that Texas shaped stain there straight away.

"I'm in the infirmary," he said.

"Yes you are," Beckett's voice floated over his head and he turned towards the voice.

"I passed out again?" he asked.

Beckett nodded, "Aye, you did."

Sheppard groaned as Beckett moved the bed into a sitting position, "Whatever happened to you knocked you for six," he said.

Sheppard looked down to see that thankfully he was still in his clothes, minus vest and P90 and had yet to be subjected to scrubs, or worse than that, the bare ass gown of doom.

He swung his legs over the edge of the bed just as Elizabeth and Mckay walked into the infirmary.

"Ah you're awake," said Mckay.

Elizabeth walked straight over to him and touched his arm, "Are you okay?"

Sheppard nodded and looked over to Mckay where he was beaming. He knew he was thinking about what he had seen on the screen and Sheppard cleared his throat uncomfortably, "I'm fine."

Elizabeth nodded, "Mckay showed me the chair," she looked back to Mckay who straightened his face in time, "He told me it projects thought."

Sheppard swallowed and nodded.

She smiled and quirked an eyebrow, "He told me he saw some interesting images on it."

Sheppard nodded again, unable to find any words.

"Yes well it needs to be looked at more closely," said Mckay.

"I'm not sure I want it to have a human test subject again, not yet anyway" said Elizabeth.

"So are we done?" asked Sheppard hopefully. He wanted to get out of here before Mckay, if he hadn't already, let slip about…well Elizabeth in a slip…..or even worse before Mckay started to ask about what he had seen.

Beckett was looking over Sheppard's chart, "Well your vitals are good."

"Yep I'm alive."

Beckett flashed him an irritated look before continuing, "Your blood pressure was slightly elevated when you came in but that's settled, pupil reaction is better, heart rate steady." He paused, "Id like to keep you in overnight and place you on an EEG machine."

"EEG?" asked Elizabeth.

"EEG is short for electroencephalogram, it measures brainwaves," stated Beckett.

Sheppard looked to Elizabeth for support, "I feel good and we have that mission tomorrow."

"You'll be able to go on your mission," said Beckett, "I just want to make sure it wasn't an event within your brain that caused you to black out."

"You do this and you're good to go tomorrow," said Elizabeth patting him on the arm.

"Yes and who knows what damage might have been caused by you interrupting the data flow between you and the chair." Said Mckay, "What was that by the way. It kind of reminded me of Iraq or-"

Sheppard cleared his throat loudly and settled himself back on the bed, "You can do this EEG Doc, as long as you don't mind me sleeping through it."

"You can sleep later," said Beckett tapping him on the shoulder to open his eyes, "I need you to be awake for a while so I don't get Theta waves when I need alpha or gammas."

Sheppard sighed, "I have no idea what you just said but fine."

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Sheppard woke up at 0600 hours. He wasn't sure if that was earth time, Atlantis time or his time, but either way he was going to get up.

The infirmary was quiet and he sat up slowly to look around the ear empty room. He hadn't slept very well and that was unsurprising to him. His mind couldn't stop thinking about what had happened the day before with that strange chair device. What was more frustrating was the topic and he couldn't quite seem to put back away where he felt it belonged.

He reached up and tore off one of the leads to the EEG machine.

"What are you doing?" he heard the voice before he saw him.

"You said I could go Doc," said Sheppard.

"Aye I did, if the EEG showed us nothing."

Sheppard looked to the machine beside him and at the long readout it had printed. He plucked it of the machine and held it out to Beckett, "Well look at it so I can go."

Beckett looked taken aback by Sheppard's curt tone but took the read out from him nonetheless. He spent a few minutes analysing the data.

"Well?" asked Sheppard already getting off the bed.

"It all looks…clear," said Beckett.

"Which is good?" asked Sheppard finding the necessary resources to make him feel a bit brighter.

Beckett rubbed at his chin and looked up briefly before answering, "Of course this wouldn't show a past event……."

Sheppard grabbed his uniform jacket from the side of the bed and slapped the Doctor on the back, "So I'm good to go?"

"Yes," said Beckett, "But if anything happens again like before I want you to come here."

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The planet they were visiting was hot and Sheppard had felt himself start to sweat as soon as they had started the long walk up to the ruins.

This particular mission had been scheduled for a long time, Sheppard had tried to put it off, since as Mckay put it, it didn't involve blowing things up or fighting bad guys. Sheppard just didn't want to come on this mission because he knew he would be sitting around whilst Mckay worked, and that's exactly what he was doing.

Mckay and Teyla had ventured into one of the ruins and she was keeping him company whilst he worked on some translations.

Sheppard was sitting on a large rock that jutted from the grass, P90 resting across his knees, his elbows resting on them and his hands clasped under his chin. His headache had started an hour ago and the searing heat wasn't helping it any.

"How's it going down there?" he tapped his earpiece, whilst scanning the tree line for any life.

"There's a big chunk of text down here that's going to take a while to translate."

"Oh goody," muttered Sheppard.

"Are you bored?" asked Mckay and he knew despite not being able to see the man that he would be smirking.

"No," snapped Sheppard. The force of which he said the word made his head pound further and reaffirmed more quietly, "No, I'm fine."

Mckay disappeared off the line and he was left to the silence again and unfortunately his own thoughts.

He rubbed at his face wearily.

Sheppard.

He removed his hands and looked up, swivelling his head to see where the elusive voice had come from. Seeing nothing he leant forwards and covered his eyes again.

The sound of an explosion, had his heart racing.

Sheppard stood this time on full alert, his P90 pointing forward in readiness for attack.

"Mckay everything okay down there?" he asked activating the radio.

There was static and then Mckays voice came through clear and irritated, "Its fine, I just told you that."

"You're sure?"

"You'd be the first to know if it wasn't," said Mckay.

"Major, are you okay?" he heard Teyla's voice come over the radio.

Sheppard scanned the trees and strained to hear for the noise again. All he heard was the wind in the trees and nothing else. He was trying to put straight in his own mind if he was okay. "I think its time to finish up for the day," he said keeping his eyes forward.

"I have more work to do," whined Mckay.

Sheppard dropped the weapons aim and turned towards the ruins, "Tomorrow Mckay."

He was too hot, pissed off and tired. He wanted to get back to the relative safety of Atlantis and the cocoon that were his quarters. Maybe crawling under the covers for a few hours would release the tension in his head and he would be allowed some sleep.

They walked back to the gate in silence and Sheppard knew that he was been anti social. He didn't care.

Mckay had noticed Sheppard's deflated demeanour and as he dialled the gate he could see that he was beginning to flag. He wanted desperately to ask him about what he had seen and why it so obviously effected Sheppard, but knew it would ultimately be met with the blanket response of 'I'm good,' or 'I'm fine'.

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On the other side of the gate Elizabeth was waiting for them.

"How did it go?" she asked as Sheppard walked over to her. She couldn't help but notice the dark rings under his eyes.

"We found some ancient writing that needs extensive translation, but the Major got bored so he hauled us all back," said Mckay crossing his arms and jutting his chin out.

Elizabeth looked at her watch, "You're an hour overdue Rodney."

Mckay looked flustered and fought with the sleeve of his jacket to confirm the time.

Sheppard just simply looked over to him and raised a crooked eyebrow.

Mckay was about to retort when blood started to trickle out of Sheppard's nose. It took him a second to realise what was happening and cursing he bought a hand up to stop the blood.

"Are you okay?" asked Teyla touching his shoulder.

Elizabeth was also stepping forward and Sheppard felt crowded by all of them.

It was just a damn nosebleed.

"It'll stop in a minute," he said holding his hand over his nose. It made his voice come out more nasal than he intended, "I'll go deal with this," he said and he started out of the gateroom.

As Teyla and Elizabeth were talking, Mckay looked over to watch the Major leave. He saw a slight unsteadiness in his pace and then as he reached the steps that led down to a transporter he saw Sheppard lose his balance, hold onto a wall for support and look around to see if anyone had noticed.

Mckay had seen him but he hadn't seen Mckay.

"If you'll excuse me," said Mckay turning to Elizabeth.

"I want that debrief in an hour Rodney," she said.

Mckay nodded, "I'll be there." And hurried off after Sheppard.

He found him in one of the nearest bathrooms, if you could call it that, standing over a sink and pinching his nose.

"See you listened to me," said Mckay walking up beside him.

Sheppard snorted, "Yeah well, you sometimes have useful advice."

Mckay watched as his blood spotted the sink and was silent for too long. It made Sheppard suspicious, "What's up?"

"The debriefing is in an hour," stuttered Mckay.

Sheppard ran some water and started washing his nose and face with it, "I don't need to be there," he said reaching for tissue to put over his nose, "My debrief would consist of, I sat around. The end."

Mckay watched as Sheppard took tissue away from his nose to see if it had stopped bleeding.

"I'm going to head down to the chair later, run some diagnostics-" he waited to see if Sheppard would take the bait.

"Good luck," said Sheppard reaching for his P90 and vest he had taken off.

"You don't want to help?" asked Mckay as he followed him out of the bathroom and out into the corridor.

Sheppard threw him a look over his shoulder, "Not really."

Mckay finally felt himself snap and he grabbed Sheppard by the arm and turned him around. He didn't miss Sheppard's wince as his head jarred, "What was on that screen that has you so damn affected by it?"

Sheppard looked him up and down and shrugged out of his grip, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Since the chair, you've been quiet."

Sheppard leant against the wall and acknowledge two marines as they passed before answering, "I haven't been sleeping well."

"What was it?" he asked.

"Mckay I want to forget about the damn chair, so leave it."

"You dove out of the thing like it was on fire when you saw what you did," said Mckay, his voice rising in tone.

Sheppard looked incredulous and narrowed his eyes, "Forget about it Mckay. Its not….important," he forced out the words but the lie of it nearly made him choke.

His head was screaming at him, and the spring that was so tightly wound in his gut was ready to uncoil.

"It looked like Iraq or Iran, or.."

Sheppard gritted his teeth and took a step forward, "It was Afghanistan."

Mckay was silent.

"Now don't ask me about it again," said Sheppard, "Its bad enough seeing it play out on a screen in front of me, I don't want to have to talk about it as well."

Mckay couldn't leave there and he knew it.

"There's something else,"

Sheppard leant against the wall heavily as everything around him seemed to swirl and squirm. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly and felt Mckays hand on his shoulder. His voice sounded garbled.

"Leave it," he managed to force out and stalked away leaving Mckay stood there looking hurt and confused.

Two transporters later and he was thankfully in his room. As the door closed behind him, he found himself shaking and sweating.

The raw emotion which surged through him made him feel as though he was losing it. He slammed a balled up fist into the wall, felt the initial numbness and then the pain of it. He looked at his knuckles in the light and watched as blood glistened from the graze.

He leant against the wall, slid down onto the floor and rested his head on his knees.

"Shit."

TBC