Carson woke to a soft beeping near his head. He lay with his eyes closed for a moment, comforted by the sound he knew as well as his mother's voice – a heart in normal sinus rhythm. His nose twitched at the telltale tickle of forced oxygen even as he registered the prongs of a cannula in his nostrils. Slowly he opened his eyes, blinking as he tried to focus. A woman was leaning over him, stroking his head as though he were a great sheepdog. "Mum?" The hair was wrong, though, and after a moment he had the right name. "Lizbeth."

Weir smiled. "Welcome back. How are you feeling?"

He became aware of pain, vibrating along his spine and up and down his legs, but it was muted and distant. "Hurts. What happened?" Another face moved into his field of vision, softer, duskier and older than Elizabeth's. Carson felt himself relax a bit, knowing his second-in-command would have everything under control.

"Well, it's about time you woke up," Carmen smiled. "Ready to answer some questions for me?"

"Aye, then you can return the favor." He cooperated patiently with the neuro check, telling her his name, who the president was and when Rodney was due for his next round of allergy injections. When Carmen flipped the blanket back from his feet, he started getting nervous again. "Carmen, love, I think it's time you tell me what happened."

"One moment," she replied. Taking a penlight from her pocket, she ran it along the bottom of his left foot. The foot twitched, the movement sending a frisson of pain up his leg. Carmen ignored his soft swearing and repeated her test with the other foot with the same results. "Okay," she said, straightening the blanket. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Carson frowned. "Scotland," he blurted, then shook his head. "No, I dreamed that…Um, dinner, with Victor and Maryann. I remember they were talking about their mold spore experiment."

Weir grinned. "Lovely dinner conversation."

"That's what I get for eating with botanists. Afterwards, I stopped by the lab and checked on a protein marker study I'm running, then I went to bed."

"Did anything unusual happen, anything out of the ordinary?"

"Elizabeth, you're beginning to worry me. What the hell happened to me?"

The women exchanged glances, neither of them wanting the task of relating last night's events. Weir rested a hand on Carson's arm and put on her best supportive smile. "Last night Rodney found you standing on the railing of a balcony on the east side of the city. He thinks you were sleepwalking. Carson, you jumped. Rodney had the Daedalus beam you to their sickbay. Once you were stabilized, we brought you back here."

"I…what?" Shocked disbelief was writ large over Carson's face. "No! Elizabeth, I would never…" His heartbeat increased until the monitor screamed in complaint. His chest heaved as he took in air in great heaving gulps.

Carmen frowned and stepped to his side. "Easy," she murmured. "I need you to slow your breathing, you're hyperventilating. Carson, I know this is a shock, but you need to calm down." Beckett, however, didn't seem capable of complying. His eyes widened in panic. An alarm began to shrill.

Carmen called the nurse and silenced the alarm. Pulling the oxygen cannula away from Carson's nose, she leaned down and took his face in both hands. "Carson, I'm giving you a benzodiazepine. You're going to be fine."

Within moments the medication had been injected and Beckett's heartbeat and respirations had returned to normal. Just before he succumbed to sleep, his fingers found Elizabeth's where they rested on the bed. "I didn't," he whispered as his eyes slid shut. "I didn't."

She squeezed his hand and swallowed hard around the lump in her throat. "I believe you."