A/N: It's Stargate Sunday! Casey's out, somewhere in the city, and Lorne is on a mission to find her. Also, actual conversation! I wrote words for people to say out loud to each other!

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, liked and followed so far! It makes me super happy to see that there are people out there enjoying the story.

Dēsum (Verb, [de-sum]): To be away; absent; missing; to miss; to feel the absence of someone or something.

Lorne isn't even five steps away from the control room when his radio chirps in his ear.

"Major Lorne?" It's Fricks, and his tone says that something is up, so Lorne stops.

"Go ahead, Gunny", Lorne sends back, keeping his tone neutral.

"I found Dr Ellingson, Sir. Transporter atrium, Level 11, Sector 8 Science Tower. He's fairly agitated." Fricks is succinct in his report, but Lorne simply waits. There's more coming.

"..We need a new plan, Sir. He found a bag in the atrium that he insists belongs to Dr Cartwright, and he says the Aquaculture lab is securely locked in accordance with the protocol." The gunny's voice is low and tinted with concern. "I took the liberty of checking the immediate vicinity, Sir, and I found what appears to be blood."

Lorne sighs internally. Things are going downhill fast. The fact that the Aquaculture lab is securely locked, combined with the bag and the blood all point to Cartwright having left the lab but never making it to the safe zone. He spins and heads back to the console in the control room.

"Copy that. Hold your position, Gunny. I'm sending reinforcements, and I'll be there shortly." The technician looks up as Lorne flips back to the security channel. "Mackie, Roux, report to Gunny Fricks in the Transporter Atrium, Level 11, Sector 8 Science Tower immediately."

He turns back to the control room technician who has been paying attention to his end of the conversation, and within seconds a targeted LSD sweep of the tower in question is up on the display. There's two life signs, still holding in the transporter atrium three levels below the Aquaculture lab, and as they watch two more pop up to join them. Nothing new, nothing else. They're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way, then.

"On site and holding, Sir." Roux's voice echoes in his ear two seconds later.

"Copy that, I'll be there shortly." Lorne acknowledges. He turns to the technician seated beside him. "Please keep an eye on that sector and radio me if any individual signals pop up. Channel 11." The technician gives him a brisk nod and turns back to his work.

Lorne heads out, swinging by the ready room to grab a couple of extra LSDs as well as flashlights and a med kit. A few steps, two taps in the transporter, and in a flash he's at the atrium where his three marines are hovering around a very upset Dr Ellingson sitting on the floor.

Ellingson jumps to his feet the moment Lorne arrives, thrusting a bag in his direction.

"It's Casey's, Major, definitely!" he insists, pointing to a corner behind a bubbling water pillar where he had clearly found it lying. "It was behind the ballast pillar, tossed into the corner there!"

Lorne carefully takes the bag from the distraught scientist, immediately noting the partial rip on the long strap. Fricks jerks his head and Lorne follows him a little way down the corridor nearer the entrance to the stairwell. The blood smear on the wall is unmistakeable. They head back to where Dr Ellingson is nervously waiting with Mackie and Roux.

"...sneak out of a lock down again, Doc." Lorne catches the end of Mackie's soft sentence to the fidgeting scientist. The man in question looks up at Lorne's approach, a guilty look on his face. He clearly has something he wants to say, and Lorne, expecting an apology for contravening the security protocol, simply raises an eyebrow at him.

"Uhm..." The xenobiologist swallows, "..Colonel Sheppard was here. Earlier, I mean... about 20 minutes ago. In the transporter atrium, six levels up. He... left... as I arrived."

Lorne narrows his eyes at the Doctor.

"He.. uhh... tossed me out the transporter." Ellingson grimaces, and looks away. The fidgeting has stopped, and Lorne knows there's no more.

Lorne ponders the unexpected information. The news of Ellingson's little run-in with Sheppard six levels up at the transporter is… actually useful. The timing, specifically, helps. Since the blood in the corridor has definitely been there for a little while (it's pretty thoroughly dried out and darkened), it means that whatever had happened to Cartwright in this building, likely also a run in with Sheppard, had probably happened at around the start of the lock down several hours before… but Ellingson's encounter with Sheppard had not been that long before. Sheppard had transported away from this particular tower again just before his recent capture. By Ellingson's own admission, that had been roughly 20 minutes before.

For someone trying to avoid capture, it was rather suspicious that Sheppard would return to the same approximate location twice. It's either that, or, more likely, he had never really left. There's definitely got to be something around here, then, that had kept him in the area. But Lorne also knows (and another check on his LSD confirms it yet again) that there are only five life signs showing up in the tower. Ellingson, Mackie, Roux, Fricks and himself.

If Cartwright is still around, she's likely to be in a damaged lower section, then, where the sensors don't work and out of range of the LSD in his hand. He refuses to consider the alternative. They'll begin by the blood and do a point-by-point short-vicinity search, and hopefully find something. If not, they'll work their way downwards into the damaged sections. It's a plan, but he's going to need extra bodies to pull it off, not to mention he still has to officially clear the lock down.

A quick tap on his radio, and less than two minutes later he has another three marines headed his way, having officially lifted the security lock down and ordered the remaining teams to dismantle the safe zones and assist everyone in returning to normal operations. He also radios Colonel Caldwell to advise of the end of the lock down and that he is taking a team to track down a missing scientist. The Colonel simply authorises the search and requests that Lorne keep him informed before curtly signing off. Lorne slowly lets out a breath. He's used to dealing with Sheppard, who actually appreciates being informed, cares when people are missing, and doesn't act as though every little move his underlings make requires his authorisation and approval.

He hands off the three extra LSDs to Parris, Roux and, to the marines' surprise, to Ellingson. He keeps the last one for himself. He pairs them up, placing Ellingson with Mackie. The scientist gives him a grateful look at being included in the search, while the big burly marine gives him a sage nod. He's good at handling panicked scientists, and he knows it. He doesn't begrudge being assigned to the Doc, and Lorne knows he'll take good care of Ellingson. They've worked together off-world before, and Ellingson got along surprisingly well with the Sergeant. Mackie will keep him calm, bringing out his scientific and analytical side while keep the panicked human side in check. Groups established, he runs them all through a short sitrep, and issues brief instructions for the search. His guys are good; he doesn't have to micromanage them.

They split up into two teams and quickly check the full length of the corridor, as well as partway up and down the stairs for more blood or other indicators. Parris reports back from Level 13 with a waterproof yellow flashlight that Ellingson identifies as also belonging to Cartwright; moments later Roux calls out to Lorne and points out a few droplets of blood at the far end of the Level 11 hall near the next staircase over. Dr Cartwright's sealed Aquaculture lab is on Level 14; her flashlight was on Level 13; and the bag, blood smear, and droplets were on Level 11. Lorne surmises that the blood trail begins by the large smudge Fricks found, so the droplets are their best indicator of direction. They regroup by the smear on 11 and as one they head off down the corridor, 8 pairs of eyes scanning for blood or anything else out of the ordinary.

At the end of the corridor just beyond the droplets is another stairwell and they split up again. Half go up, half down, checking the immediate area around alternating landings until Mackie radios from the fifth floor down that they have something. More blood droplets, heading along the corridor. The trail seems to be leading them downwards. The lower levels beneath the Sector 8 Science Tower are amongst those with sodden tunnels and non-working sensors. Some of it is still unexplored, most of it is uninhabitable due to the flooding. The team regroups, following the trail along several twisting corridors; they repeat their short-vicinity point search pattern at the next stairwell.

The path is taking them steadily downwards until they find themselves several levels beneath the waterline, following diminishing splatters of red down damp green corridors. They reach another intersection and split up again, Mackie and Ellingson staying behind while the other 3 pairs scout down separate corridors. When all three teams reach their next intersection without finding any new clues, Lorne pulls out his LSD again to scan the area, as they all had been intermittently doing since the beginning of the exercise. Nothing. He and Roux turn around to head back towards the intersection where Mackie and Ellingson are waiting, re-scanning in case they missed something, and hoping for the radio to chirp with news of a discovery by one of the others.

Lorne's LSD chirps instead.