Wow! No one reviewed the last chapter. Was it really that bad? Well, I hope I do better with this one. Please review and let me know.

Disclaimer- I DO NOT OWN STARGATE ANYTHING! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY THAT?

For awhile all he knew were the lights that were shining above him. For a time that's all that consisted of his now minuscule world.

He wasn't really thinking about anything. Mostly because he couldn't remember anything to think about. The only scrap of information that he had, that he could cling to, were his feelings. Which were as jumbled and tangled to him as old Christmas tree lights.

Then slowly, like when one remembers a dream, things, people, images started to come back to him. At first he wasn't sure if what he was remembering was real or if it had been a dream. It was like being in a thick fog and having a thousand parts to a Lego set. He felt like he had all the pieces, but no instructions on how to put it all together.

"Carson." Rodney winced as his voice sounded scratchy and hoarse coming out of his dry, parched mouth.

After waiting a few moments with no reply Rodney began to wonder if he had actually spoken or if it had all been in his mind.

"Okay," thought Rodney, "I just need to focus on remembering anything that would explain why I'm….here. Okay…I remember feeling sick. Now, was that last week? Or was it yesterday? Or maybe it was today. What's today? Oh, God how long have I been out? Days? Months? Years?

Rodney panicked. He started darting his eyes all over the room. Looking for something, anything to make sense.

Just then, within his tiny world of thick fog and blinding lights, he heard a beeping sound. He could tell by the proximity of the sound that it was quite close to him.. Beep…Beep...beep...beep, beep…beep, beep rapidly the beeps became closer and more frequent.

"What is that?"

Beep…beep…beep, they slowed back down to the slow rate that they had been at before.

Rodney flinched when an unfamiliar face of a man suddenly blocked the light above him.

The man had short, light, blond hair atop his long face and his eyebrows were such a light color that they nearly blended in with his pale skin. His eyes were a piercing blue. Which stood out against his otherwise colorless features. With a friendly smile that his eyes mimicked Rodney found comfort in this strange man.

"Aw yes, the prodigal scientist returns!" smiled the man with a thick English accent.

"What? Who are you?"

"Oh, right. Sorry old chap I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Charles, Charles Bettany." he said grabbing one of Rodney's limp hands and shaking it.

"Umm am I supposed to know you?"

"Probably not, considering I just got here."

"Uh huh, and where would here be?"

"Well, here would be the infirmary. You had some kind of accident from what I hear."

"Really?"

"Yes, don't you remember?"

"Of course I remember……maybe." Rodney added quietly to himself.

"Well then, good for you." said Charles sounding genuinely pleased "So, tell me…what happened?"

"Well, I was…in a city." Rodney strained to remember. "It was…dusty and…windy."

"Dusty and windy." Charles echoed, "You don't say. "

"You know what, I'm not even going to tell you anymore because its obvious that your not going to listen."

"Fine with me. Your decision." said Charles getting up out of the chair that he had been sitting in.

Seeing Charles standing up for the first time Rodney took into account that Charles was quite a tall man. If he had been standing up next to Rodney he would be at least an inch and half above him. While observing this fact Rodney then became aware that he was also rather skinny. And to add to the look of being thin he had very long limbs which made him look even taller then he already was. He also noticed that he wasn't wearing the typical Atlantean attire. He was in fact wearing what one would think a college professor back in the late 1940's would wear. He had on, a striped crème, blue and black sweater with a white button up shirt underneath. And to finish the ensemble, over this he wore a, 1940's style, brown over coat to match.

"I guess I'll be seeing you then." Charles made a move to leave when Rodney stopped him.

"Where are you going?"

"Well I do have work to do you know. I only stopped by to do my deeds of giving food to the weak and the hungry."

"Food?"

"Yes. Food. You know, you eat it, gives you strength, makes you feel warm and fuzzy. You know…food."

Rodney rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes. I know what food is. You don't need to explain it to me."

"Of course I don't. I just thought I would explain it seeing how well you remembered what had happened to you so well." Charles smiled mockingly

"Oh, ha ha. Very funny."

"Awe yes. I know." Charles laughed.

Rodney was about to give him a snide remark when he heard the footsteps of one of the nurses approaching to checkup on him.

Charles turned towards Rodney and smiled. "Well, it was great meeting you but, I really must be leaving. You get your rest and all that." he said over his shoulder as he picked up a few empty trays and walked out of the room.

"Why is it that I always attract the crazy people?" Rodney thought, "It's like I have a big neon sign above my head flashing All those crazy and insane gather here."

Shaking his head Rodney decided to just close his eyes and wait for the nurse to come in but by the time the nurse came, which wasn't very long at all, he had already fallen back to sleep.

"Still asleep." the nurse mumbled to herself as she came towards Rodney's bed. Quickly she checked his vitals and marked them on her clip board. Sighing to herself she went to see if he would wake. "Dr. McKay.."

0o0o0

John had been talking to the two techs for nearly twenty minutes and he felt like he had gotten nowhere. They just kept talking in circles blaming it on each other. The only kind information that John had gotten out of the techs so far was that their names were Greg and Archie.

"Alright!" shouted John to quite the two bickering techs. "Now, that's enough. At this point I don't care who's fault it is. I just want to know if there's any way I can get anything off those tapes."

"No, I don't think so. For some reason the feed from the camera didn't record." explained Archie

"Yeah, but the really weird thing is" Greg pointed out, " that it all seems to be in working order. The camera was doing its job and the record drive, that's supposed to store all the data, is perfectly fine. It's almost like something blocked the circuit that links the camera to the drive."

"Something blocked the circuit. I wouldn't exactly call that perfect working order."

"Yes sir," Archie tried to explain once again, "I know that it sounds all wrong but it's not."

"Uh huh, care to explain your analogy with the rest of the class?"

"Well, if you look right here. "Greg pointed to a little blue computer chip, "You'll see the problem."

"Oh yeah, That's a…..very obvious problem "Sheppard said sarcastically

The techs gave an annoyed sigh. "If you'll just look in the left hand corner you'll see a small discolored spot." Archie tried to point out, "Do you see it?"

"Yeah, yeah I see it. What is it?"

"It's a burn out."

"What's a burn out?"

"It's what we like to call a circuit that over loads. It burns out." explained Greg

"So that's what happened? It just burnt out?"

"That's what appears to have happened, yes."

"Mind telling me how?"

The two techs exchanged a look. "We aren't sure" They said in unison.

"Of course."

"That's what's so weird about it. Normally the cause of a burn out is very obvious." Archie said while he carefully put the chip in its case,

"Okay, how long until you guys do know?"

"I don't know…a few hours at least."

"Alright, just.."

"Colonel Sheppard, this is Doctor Weir could you and Teyla join me in lab three? Dr. Zelenka and Dr. Ryan just showed me something I think you should see." Cut in Dr. Weir's voice over the radio.

"Sure thing. We're on our way." Sheppard clicked off his radio. "You boys keep me informed."

"Do you think the technicians will find anything of any use?" Asked Teyla walking besides John

"I sure hope so because at this point…we've got nothing."

"Hopefully what Dr. Zelenka has found will be helpful."

"Yeah, hopefully."

John and Teyla quickly left thecontrol room and headed for the nearest transporter to go and hear, what they hoped will be, good news from Zelenka.

A/N-What do you think of the character Charles? It's really hard writing a new character. Let me know if I'm doing good or not. It's really important that I know whether you guys can connect, on some level, with this guy because he might be sticking around for awhile.
So any ways I hope this chapter was better then the last one. Please review!