Sorry for the delay in posting this Chapter. RL and RSI both played their part. I've been very busy and have been having problems with both wrists and elbows. Hope you enjoy it even so.

oOoOoOo

The following morning, Elizabeth went to check up on Carson again. For some reason, despite the Scot's reassurances, Elizabeth was still worried about the doctor.

His room was empty, although it was obvious that Carson had been there in the fairly recent past. The mug of tea that sat beside his computer was still warm.

Elizabeth next headed for the Mess Hall where it seemed half of Atlantis was lingering over breakfast. It was one of those rare days when there was no emergency and few missions, and so her people were making the most of those few extra minutes of leisure.

But Carson was not one of them. She searched the area twice with her eyes, before she turned and left. She knew if she stayed any longer she'd be accosted by someone who had some earth-shattering problem for her to solve – well, earth-shattering in their eyes.

Eventually, she found him. It was the first place she would have normally looked for him, but it was the last place she expected to find him in the circumstances – he was in his lab.

He didn't look up from his microscope when she entered the room.

"Just put the samples over on the bench, lass."

"Carson, what are you doing?"

He started at the sound of her voice. He looked up, managing to combine a look of guilt with a look of defiance.

"Dr Cole has one of her migraines and someone needed to check some samples from the Athosians. Their children have been hit by a sickness bug. I couldn't let the wee bairns suffer when I could help them, now could I, Elizabeth?"

She knew he was doing it deliberately, trying to appeal to her heartstrings. But she couldn't help herself – she smiled.

"At this moment, it's your suffering that concerns me, Carson."

"Och, I'm doing fine."

She looked at him, the worried look still in her eyes.

"No, really, Elizabeth. Trust me, I'm a doctor."

Before Elizabeth could reply, a frantic voice sounded in their ears.

"Dr Beckett, you're needed urgently in the Infirmary."

Without looking at Elizabeth, in case she tried to stop him, Carson hurried towards the door. Elizabeth was only a step behind him, following his impatient dash to the Infirmary. The sight that met their eyes when they arrived was a cross between a war zone and a nursery.

All the beds were filled with children, Athosian children, who were alternately crying or emptying the contents of their stomachs into the basins held for them by nursing staff. In the middle of the organised chaos, Carson saw Jenny Martin. She still managed to retain her composure and somehow looked as pristine as she'd done first thing that morning when she'd reported for duty.

"Jenny, lass, what happened?"

"They all took a sudden turn for the worse."

"All of them?" Elizabeth looked shocked.

"Yes, I'm afraid so." Jenny's eyebrows quirked with a mixture of amusement and frustration. "Welcome to the frustrating world of paediatric medicine, Dr Weir. Where one goes, the rest are sure to follow."

A laugh escaped Elizabeth's lips while Carson rewarded the nurse with a twinkled look.

"And what did you do with the rest of the kiddies?"

"We had to leave them at the camp." Frustration edged the nurse's voice. "We brought back the worst ones, and I left as many nurses with the others as possible."

Almost before Jenny had finished speaking, Carson was heading towards his office.

"Carson! Where are you going?"

"I need to get my equipment."

The two women exchanged an exasperated look.

"Carson," Elizabeth didn't manage to keep the exasperation out of her voice. "You can't go off-world. You don't have medical clearance."

"And who gives that clearance?" The Scot gave her a pointed look.

"You normally do, but this isn't a normal situation."

"Well, I feel as fit as a fiddle, and there's no-one else who can go."

Elizabeth turned a questioning gaze on the nurse who was still standing beside her.

"He's right, I'm afraid." Her face betrayed her reluctance.

"Come on, Elizabeth. We can't leave those poor wee kiddies all alone, and ill."

Before Elizabeth could respond, Chuck's voice came through their ear-pieces.

"Dr Weir, Dr Beckett. I've just had Lieutenant Callas contact us. She says they need further medical assistance ASAP."

"I'm on my way," Carson responded, meeting Elizabeth's eyes as he did so.

She gave him a faint nod as he disappeared out the door.

"I hope that was the right decision."

Jenny didn't reply.

oOoOoOo

Elizabeth was still pondering her decision two hours later when Rodney and John burst into her office.

"Where's Carson?"

Elizabeth stood, affected by the urgency in Rodney's voice.

"He's with the Athosian children."

"Right!" The scientist turned and started to march out of her office again.

"Rodney, where are you going?"

"To the Infirmary." His eyes held a faintly puzzled air. "You said Carson was with the Athosian children. The Athosian kids are in the Infirmary. So I'm going to the Infirmary." He spoke slowly, and clearly, as if he was speaking to a child.

"Carson's not in the Infirmary."

"Then where the hell is he?" John couldn't keep the impatience out of his voice. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at him. He shrugged an apology.

"He's gone to the Athosian camp to care for the children there."

"Damn!" John's fist thumped into her desk.

"Are you going to tell me what the problem is, or do you just plan to wreck my desk?"

"Someone used Carson's login details to access the computer again." Rodney held out his laptop for Elizabeth to study. "They were accessing mission records from various planets we've visited."

"They used Carson's security clearance to get access some sealed records." John's face looked sombre.

"What records did they check?" Elizabeth wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer to that. John's face already told her as much.

"Everything on the retrovirus right from the Hoffians, to Ellia and everything about our experiments on Michael."

"Damn!"

"He's already said that," Rodney pointed out helpfully. "Several times."

"How long ago were the records accessed?"

Rodney consulted his laptop. "At 10:17 precisely. They were accessed from Carson's lab."

"Elizabeth, what's wrong?" John's concern echoed in his voice. Elizabeth's reaction to Rodney's information wasn't what he'd expected.

"Carson was in his lab at that time. I went looking for him at around 10:20 and I found him in his lab about 10 minutes later."

"Are you sure?"

"Very sure."

"Damn!" The two leaders turned to look at Rodney. He just shrugged.

"Dr Weir!" Chuck came running into Elizabeth's office. "We've just heard from the Athosians. There's a problem."

"With Carson?"

"How did you know?" The Gate technician looked puzzled, and slightly in awe of the leader.

She smiled at him, but her eyes showed her concern. "Just a wild guess."

"There's been an accident at the ward where the children were being treated."

"What happened?"

"Halling said there was some sort of explosion. They are investigating its cause."

"And Carson?" If Chuck hadn't heard the anxiety in Rodney's voice, he'd have seen it in the way the scientist's hands were wringing together.

"He was caught by the blast, and the part of the building he was in collapsed. They're trying to mount a rescue operation at the moment, and they asked if we could help."

"I'm on my way," John said, before Elizabeth could say anything. Although she nodded her agreement, neither John nor Rodney noticed. They were too busy running towards the Jumper Bay.