Jennifer stood in the doorway of Woolsey's office.

"Excuse me, sir?"

Woolsey looked up from his paperwork. "Come in doctor." He motioned to a chair. "What can I do for you?"

She sat with a sigh, looking down at her lap for a moment then straight at Woolsey.

"I'm worried, sir."

"About?" he leaned back in his chair.

"Colonel Sheppard's team. No one has heard from Ronon in weeks and Teyla has been practicing with her Bantos rods to the point of obsession. So far, she's put 5 marines in the infirmary and she doesn't show any signs of stopping.

As for Rodney, he barely speaks to anyone anymore besides Teyla and Dr. Zelenka; who has told me that Rodney is barely sleeping and hasn't yelled at him or anyone in a very long time."

Woolsey raised his eyebrows. "Hmm…McKay not yelling…"

"Exactly."

"I'll speak with them; and I'll have Major Lorne's team see if they can track down Ronon."

"Thank you."

Jennifer stood to leave. "How are you doing, sir?" she asked, noticing the dark circles under Woolsey's eyes.

He sighed, taking off his glasses and squeezed the bridge of his nose.

"I'm as fine as we all are, which isn't saying much. We have search teams waiting for any new intel on Sheppard and Beckett's whereabouts…but….the trail has gone cold. I don't want to call off the search completely, but we're going to need a miracle if we're going to find them."

Jennifer nodded. "I should get back to work."

She stopped at the door and turned her head slightly. "I'm not much on praying, sir; but I'll pray for that miracle." she said softly then turned and left the room.

"So will I doctor, so will I…" Woolsey replied.

Lucius stood in a corner of his son's room watching the healer take care of Nahkhan.

"Arex, can he be fixed?"

Carson had hesitated, his mouth open. With a glare from Lucius he blinked, slowly nodding his head. "With time….an' rest." he whispered, the words struggling past his lips.

Lucius nodded, anger and frustration warring within him. After a session in the room with his pet, the subject's mind would be torn wide, a sponge, ready and open to Lucius' coercive words of encouragement, of persuasion; a method he had used on many of the manor's servants, but he had no time to encourage his son. John had been removed from the dark room, body limp, eyes glazed and fixed on nothing.

Four days had passed and the foreign healer had barely moved from Nahkhan's side.

Lucius had frowned at the look on the man's face every day when he would come to check on his son; it was a look of abject longing that was annoying and not appropriate.

He wanted to smack the look of misery off the healer's face, to send him away from his son and have Odalia take his place; but he was the healer and his son had yet to awaken, so he allowed the vexing vigil and kept quiet. He would soon find a way to fix this undesirable "friendship" his son and the healer seemed to have.

John stood in the middle of a forest, the sun low in the sky, a cool breeze wafting through the air.

"John?

…John?"

He turned around; a woman stood with her back to him, her voice sad as she called out. He reached out to touch her shoulder, his heart aching in sympathy over the sound of loss in her voice; he wanted to ease her pain. When his hand connected, she slowly started to turn and he caught a glimpse of smooth bronze skin and her name suddenly came to him...

"Tey…"

"Son, open your eyes."

John inhaled, his eyes opening on their own accord.

It was the evening of the fifth day when Lucius noticed his son was starting to wake up, so he finally sent Arex away and had sat by the bed to wait.

John blinked then frowned; an image in his mind seeping away before he could grab hold of it. Had he been dreaming? He blinked again trying to focus, but the image was gone and with it came a sense of frustration and a hint of sadness.

"Nahkhan."

John exhaled, noticing for the first time that he wasn't alone; he sat up, his eyes moving to find Lucius sitting by his bed.

Lucius didn't like the look on his son's face.

He gripped John's wrist. "What is it, son?"

At Lucius' touch, John's heart clenched and he gasped, pulling away as a thunderous fear enveloped him clouding his mind.

The feeling of Lucius' hand on his skin drew him back to a dark invading pain, a heaviness on his chest he couldn't comprehend.

"Don't…d-don't …." John muttered, getting to his knees and slowly shuffling away from him.

"Nahkhan?" Lucius had leaned over the bed and grabbed John's shoulder as he saw his son, eyes wide and unseeing, was seconds from falling off the other side of the bed.

"Son!" he shouted, shaking him.

John's eyes flitted back and forth, lost to the darkness of the room that he had no memory of and every memory of.

"No…no, don't touch me…don't touch…don't…don't..!"

His increasingly panicked petitions fell on deaf ears as Lucius climbed on the bed, tightening his hold, then with one his other hand he slapped John hard across the face.

"Stop it!" the older man ordered, and John froze, as if a switch had turned off in his brain; his eyes lasered in on Lucius whose glare slowly turned into a smile at the look on his son's face. When John's eyes darkened, Lucius' smile widened, he knew what was about to happen.

With a growl, John knocked Lucius' hands away and launched himself at the older man who grabbed him as they both tumbled off the bed, John landing on top of him, his fists clenched in Lucius' shirt.

They glared at each other for a moment, then Lucius closed his eyes, took a deep breath and then opened his eyes that were now brewing with an amusement simmering just below the grey.

"Who are you?" he quietly asked a trembling John whose rage radiated off him in waves.

John blinked, "What?" he asked; the surge of emotions flying from him in an instant.

Lucius slowly bought his hand up and clasped John by the nape of his neck.

"Who. Are. You?" his words stung the air causing John to flinch.

"I'm…" he hesitated for a moment his mind trying to click back into place.

Lucius moved his other hand to rest against John's cheek.

"Tell me." his voice cutting through John's confusion.

"I'm...Nahkhan Daravilus…" John frowned. "I'm…your son."

Lucius smirked, then slowly sat up easily pushing John off of him and to the side of the bed moving to sit next to him.

"Yes, you are."

John pressed his palms against his eyes and shuddered, then lowered his hands.

"What…what happened?" he asked, a heavy tiredness settling over him.

Lucius stared at him. "You had a set-back. Arex should have caught it before it got this bad."

"Arex?" John was incredulous. "But...he gave me a clean bill of health!"

"Well you've been out of it for days, and Arex hasn't done much to heal you; only time has done that."

John frowned, trying to remember what had happened. "But…I was okay."

Lucius shrugged and got to his feet, "And maybe Arex wasn't okay with that."

He extended a hand pulling John up. "Come, let's get you cleaned up."

-tbc-