AN: Hope you'll enjoy this part, even if it's different from what some of you might expect.

Many thanks to lorellipsis, who's working so hard for the betaing.

Two weeks later, Carson was still in the infirmary, unable to understand why Schwartz was keeping him there. He'd quit arguing with the man two days before, realizing it was an already lost battle.

His hand was still well wrapped in bandages, and he never got a chance to see what was going on for himself. Everybody kept telling him hewas gonna have all the time in the world to see it. He realized it was just him, over-thinking matters, but there was so little for him to do. He couldn't handle papers or the laptop with his right hand useless.

At times he wished Sheppard was in the infirmary. Not with a serious injury, of course, just enough for him to be there and make the infirmary feel less like a deserted place.

But Sheppard wasn't there. His recovery after the gunshot wounds had been quite rapid and he'd been released a few days after Carson woke up. He hadn't seen the man since. He hadn't seen anybody but his staff, and they seemed to have had enough of him.

"Angie!" he tried to keep his voice low, but the room was so big, he could almost hear an echo.

"Yes, Dr. Beckett?"

"Do y' think you could bring me my laptop… please?"

"I can't do that, Sir. I was -"

"Please! There's naught for me t' do and I'm bored beyond belief!"

"Dr. Schwartz ordered it. I'm sorry."

"He ordered? Really? And when I ask you t' do something, it goes right by you. Perhaps I should start with th' ordering." He muttered. When he looked at the young nurse, he saw she was confused and embarrassed. It wasn't normal for the CMO to be begging for his laptop.

"Sorry, don't take it t' heart - I'll be fine. But please, tell Schwartz that I need t' speak to him."

He didn't care what Schwartz said. He had to get out of this bed and back into the world. He felt so lost and abandoned. John had been on that planet for six months. He must have felt so abandoned, but his friends hadn't been three rooms away, working and enjoying themselves. This wasn't normal. He hadn't done anything wrong, not enough to deserve something like this, anyway.

"Yes, Dr. Beckett?" Schwartz approached his bed.

Everyone called him by his last name – as if he was a stranger. He realized he was over-reacting, but he couldn't help it.

"I want to be released!"

"Really?" Schwartz smiled. "I'm the doctor and I -"

"You seem t' be forgetting that I'm a doctor as well. It's just a bloody burn! It's absurd to keep me here like this."

"Dr. Beckett… Carson… you don't know what's going on."

"Where? Here?" He gestured toward his right arm "Of course I don't, y' keep hidin' it from me! Like I would'ne be able to understand it."

"I'm sorry for that, but you are our patient and we can't stop in the middle of the treatment to let you take a look."

"Schwartz, I'm fine, but I need t' get out o' this place. I'll rest for a few days and then I'll come back and start working. Light duty. I have to start working again."

Schwartz couldn't stop a sigh.

"It's not that easy. Things are… different now."

"What things?" Carson was getting restless and he was glad the monitors were gone, otherwise some alarm would've started beeping.

"Colonel Sheppard is… upset."

"But he told me that -"

"Not with you. He's not upset with anybody in particular –he's just upset. He's judging everything, twisting every word. He and McKay had some loud arguments that led to nothing but silence and avoidance." Seeing Carson's worried face, he added: "McKay doesn't know about Sheppard's injuries and nobody told him, not even Sheppard."

"This seems to be affecting everyone, no' just me."

"You and McKay had some…"

"We always do –but we always get over it. Rodney can be difficult."

"Your injury was -"

"Listen! I don' blame Rodney for that! It's a technology that we only partly understand. It was an accident. I don' blame him!"

"But he blames you." Schwartz's words were barely whispered.

"What did y' say?"

"He blames you."

"What? How could he blame me?" Carson was speechless for a while. He'd always tried to make things better, to end arguments and calm people. But this was just too much for him to take.

"How dare he?" He was pale and his left hand was closed into a fist. "How dare he blame me!Rodney and I are going t' have a very long talk about this! You have t' release me!"

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"You… you'd be sent back to Earth."

"What? Why? For one wee accident… It was'ne my fault, Schwartz!"

"That's not the reason. Your arm… the burn was very severe. It's… permanent damage."

Carson froze. He remembered all the times he signed papers for soldiers that were being sent home. Any injury that would impede them was considered "permanent damage". All personnel that had such a medical problem were sent back to Earth.

"Can't you… I mean, maybe if it's given some more time… maybe…"

"We don't know how this happened, Carson. Don't know how to treat it. We did everything we would have done in normal conditions, but this is… different. We need for the Daedalus to leave before we can release you."

"Does anybody else know?"

"No."

"Thank you."