A/N: This one is being a real pain, especially since another story unrelated to my others won't leave me alone. So... I'm going to try working on both! Thanks so much to my readers, especially those of you who leave a review! It's because of you that I keep writing, and oh what fun it is!

Chapter 3: Headaches Always Come in Twos Rodney's POV

"Rodney!"

I sat up with a gasp, jerking away from whoever held my shoulder- and promptly landed on my ass on the floor of my lab. Not my recommended way of waking up. Atlantis better be about to explode or somebody was going to wish they'd never heard of the Pegasus Galaxy! For a long moment, I just laid there, trying to decide what I'd broken.

I wonder if someone really can be scared to death?

"McKay. You seen Sheppard since yesterday morning?" The question came from behind me, though the Satedan's meaning didn't exactly register as Teyla gave me a hand up.

"I am sorry, Rodney. I had not realized you would startle so badly." Teyla actually looked contrite about it, which was better then the amused grin I received from Ronon.

"Great. What did you think would happen, waking someone from a sound sleep!" Normally, I really like Teyla, and go out of my way to be passingly nice to her. I don't do polite well at the best of times, however, and now definitely didn't qualify. "What the hell time is it, anyway? Don't you people ever sleep?"

Stupid question when I was the one who had fallen asleep at his work station, but hey, why should I pass up a good gripe? Especially when Sheppard isn't around to shoot back. Come to think of it, where was he? It was usually the colonel bugging me about now, not his two sidekicks.

"0730." Ronon grunted, scowling at me. I'd noticed over the months that he'd been with us that a sour gaze was his habitual continence.

I blinked again, forcing my sluggish mind to convert the military terminology into something that would make sense to the ordinary human. Those of us who don't feel the need to blow things up all the time. It was a little disconcerting how quickly this very alien man had picked up on so many of Sheppard's little expressions, especially the military ones. Aliens were supposed to be... well, alien. Then my brain decided to work again.

"7:30 in the morning! What could you possibly want at such an atrocious hour? Go bother Sheppard, he's actually functional this early!"

With a disgusted grunt, I waved them off, turning back to my computer, only to be stopped by a very large, very strong hand on my shoulder. I was spun forcibly around to once again face my team mates, and Ronon was almost treated to a review of my late night snack. I really wasn't awake, or the seriousness of his tone, and that the two of them came to me, would have registered. Despite my occasional snide comments, I really had a great deal of respect for my team mates. With just these two alone, there wasn't much short of an army that they couldn't handle. Add Sheppard's military genius and my brilliance... well, I think Dr. Biro would classify ticking us off as 'suicide' on the death certificate. To have Teyla and Ronon here, without Sheppard, meant that something was seriously off kilter.

"Please focus, Rodney." Teyla's large eyes met mine, filled with a mixture of irritation and deep concern, almost fear. "Have you seen Colonel Sheppard since yesterday morning?"

Uh Oh. Not good.

The last time that Sheppard had vanished while on base resulted in the injuries he was still recovering from. Not to mention giving me an anxiety attack trying to figure out what had happened to him and the others with him. And all the damage to Atlantis.

"Not since he left here, before I talked to all of you. I thought Carson said he was resting in his quarters. Didn't anybody think to actually check! Of all the stupid-!"

I couldn't believe that mother hen Beckett wouldn't have looked in on his most frequent patient! I mean, I tease the guy unmercifully about getting his medical degree treating sheep, but the truth is the man is a damn good doctor. What the hell was falling apart now?

"Doctor Beckett was in emergency surgery for a young marine for many hours. He was exhausted, and did not think to ensure that one of the others had checked on the colonel as he instructed them." Teyla sounded disgusted.

No doubt of how Carson would feel about that little slip-up on the part of his staff. The man was probably doing an exceptional imitation of a volcano at the moment.

"John is not answering his door, and it is locked. Doctor Beckett and Major Lorne are currently checking the colonel's normal 'haunts'. Can you not open his door for us in some way?"

It was more of a statement then a request. The tone of Teyla's voice said she knew very well that I could open anything I wanted to around here, given enough time.

"Wait a minute! Why didn't you just ask that pint-sized trouble maker? It would have been faster than scaring the hell outta me!"

Despite how it sounded, I really was concerned only with getting Sheppard's door open at the moment. The brat really would be faster. With a grimace for that thought, I led them out the door at a fast trot. Ronon's scowl deepened, if that were possible, the lanky former Runner easily keeping pace beside me. His eyes flashed in anger.

"The small one had spoken to no one since you ran your mouth off yesterday, McKay."

Sooo not good.

Now I was almost running. If Allie had withdrawn, John could be in serious trouble and no one would even know about it until it was too late. Damn that girl! Why couldn't she just- What? Not do exactly what I myself had been doing since yesterday morning by burying myself in my work? Once again, the child had actually done what I told her to, and this time it was myself I could clobber across the galaxy. If anything happened to John as a result, I'd never forgive myself.

Precious minutes later, I skidded to a halt in front of his quarters, taking less than another minute to have the thing open, half afraid of what we might find inside. Unfortunately, it was nothing. The quarters were vacant, as neat as John always left them, with only a book laying open on his made bed looking the least bit out of place. Absently, I noted that it was not the one he'd been slowly working his way through in the last two years. Instead, this one was about child psychology. Shit. No doubt why he had that... and whose fault it was. Suspicions or not, I had some apologies to make. If we could find either one of them. As for that...

"Allie! If you can hear me, please respond! I won't yell, I promise. John's missing, and we don't have internal sensors back on line yet. I..." Just say it and get it over with, Rodney. "I need... your...well, help."

Relax the jaw muscle, unclench the teeth, don't bite the tongue... Good job, Rodney. She was still a brat, especially since the screen of Sheppard's laptop, sitting open on the desk, remained stubbornly blank.

"Perhaps she did not hear you. Allie, it is Teyla. Colonel Sheppard is missing and we need your help. Will you not answer me?"

Good try, but no twerp. Maybe it wasn't just me this time.

"Is there still no sign o' either of them, then?" A huffing and puffing voice sounded just behind me, and I was once again attempting to get acquainted with the rafters. Or what passed as rafters on Atlantis.

"Carson!" I hissed, pinning the physician with a murderous glare. Which he returned full measure. Oops.

"This is partly your bloody fault, ya daft idiot! What possessed ya, yellin' at the wee one an' upsettin' the colonel when he's barely out of the infirmary!"

Some piping hot lava was definitely left over from what he'd spat at his staff. I couldn't argue with him, either, as I felt guiltier by the moment. My head dropped in silent answer, and he sighed, resting one hand reassuringly on my shoulder for a moment.

"We'll find him, don't you worry."

I sank down onto his bed. "Hope your right, Carson. I don't think he even slept here last night. We should probably-"

This was not my day for completing sentences. This time I was interrupted by the hasty entrance of Elizabeth, looking about as frantic as I felt.

"Good, you're all here. Major Lorne is breaking out the life signs detectors and dividing the sections of the city for the search parties. I told him that we would form one of them." At the immediate nods from all of us, she waved us out of the room. "A marine will be stationed here in case he returns. We're to meet and divide after everyone grabs gear in the Control Tower."

All I knew was that Sheppard better be alive when we found him or I would kill him myself! And as for the little squirt... My head throbbed at that.

Why do headaches always come in twos?

TBC...