So I realized that if Dr. Weird is alive, so is Carson. So Carson is alive. Yay! Everyone rejoice! Anyway, this is a short filler between this and the 'last' chapter. It's just meant to mess with you. Plus Rodney's mind tends to do weird crap when he is in stressful situations.

Disclaimer: Blah blah blah don't own anything blah blah blah

He could have cried with relief when he reached the Jumper, entering it with abandon. The machine immediately hummed back to life as he called to it urgently, bringing forth the various safety and defense measures in the programming.

It was once these programs were activated that he noticed that the others hadn't caught up. It also informed him that something was inside that wasn't supposed to be.

Rodney only had a moment to see one of those creatures daintily drop down from one of the crevices in the ceiling and stalk towards him menacingly. There was nothing after.

Chapter Eight

It was hot.

His clothes felt damp and heavy, his body flushed from the heat. He could feel himself slowly become aware of his body and aware of something holding him flat against a flat surface.

Panic set in as memories flooded back. He let out a shriek and started to thrash against his restraints, eyes closed tightly unwilling to view the scene before him.

His hand hit something solid and someone shouted at him. "Stop it Rodney! Jesus!"

Rodney immediately froze, slowly opening his eyes. "Sheppard?" The world was blurry but he could make out several fuzzy outlines standing over him. He flinched when a beam of light was forced into his line of sight.

"Are ye' alright?" The voice belonged to the fuzzy person with the pen light. Immediately, Rodney recognized it.

"Carson?" he asked, mouth open in wonderment.

"Ay', it's me lad." The light disappeared along with the fuzzy outline. "How are ye' feeling?"

"I um." Rodney blinked rapidly, rubbing his eyes furiously to try and see clearly. When the blurriness finally receded, he realized he was in the infirmary, immediately recognizing the stark white rooms and the uncomfortable bed. The white curtains were enclosing them, keeping them private from the other beds.

John was sitting on a stool to his right, hunched near him with a worried expression.

Rodney opened his mouth to speak, but his throat protested against such an action. He quickly cleared his throat and tried again. "We're back? What happened?" He looked at his friend confusedly.

"You don't remember?" John asked, watching him intently.

Frankly, all the intense staring was starting to freak Rodney out. "I wouldn't ask you if I didn't," Rodney snipped angrily. "What happened?"

John hesitated, eyes darting away for a moment. This instantly put Rodney at attention, fear gripping him. "Sheppard?"

"Ye had a heat stroke," Carson said, returning back to the bed with a nasty looking needle.

Rodney immediately backpedaled, pointing an accusing finger at him. "What do you think you're going to do with that needle?"

"A need to give ye some more vitamins to replenish ye system."

"I think I'm replenished enough," Rodney squeaked out, batting Carson's hand and subsequently the needle away. "There are more important things to do! Like what happened to the aliens!"

Carson paused, giving him a curious look. "The natives?"

"The natives? The natives?" he shrieked hysterically. "What about the creatures that ate them and the expedition and were making mince meat of us!"

A worried look overcame Carson and he thankfully put the needle away. He came over and put his hand on Rodney's forehead, despite the protests otherwise. "Are ye feeling alright? Headaches? Drowsiness?"

"Stop it!" Rodney swatted the hand away. "Sheppard! Tell him about the aliens!"

But John wasn't looking at him but rather purposely staring at a spot on the wall. He gave him a guilty look and opened his mouth to speak.

Carson beat him to the punch. "It's common to hallucinate or have wild dreams when having a heat stroke. As far as a know, ye encountered no problems on the mission."

Rodney felt as if the wind was taken from his sails and he slumped back down on the bed. "No problems?" he said weakly. He's eyes roamed back to John, but the man was already being hustled out of the room by Carson.

"Rodney obviously needs his rest," he was telling John, hand on his shoulders gently guiding him out. "Ye can see him when he's feeling a wee bit better."

John finally met Rodney's eyes and gave him a crooked grin. "I'll see you when you get out. Get better quickly, alright?"

Despite the encouraging of Carson and his evil minions, Rodney refused to sleep. Whenever he closed his eyes, the walls seemed to close in on him and a primal fear would overtake him which generally led him to thrashing about and landing harshly on the ground.

In the end, Rodney only lasted a half-hour before demanding to read the report of the mission. He personally felt that he had been very patient, but Carson didn't seem to think so. So when Carson disappeared to do whatever voodoo magic he usually did, he started to sweet talk one of the nurses.

Okay, so it wasn't really sweet talking as much as demanding in a nicer tone. Okay, maybe not even a nice tone. But it worked! At least to some degree. He didn't get the report (much to his dismay) but apparently he made such a big fuss that Lorne came in to talk to him about the mission.

Lorne was surprisingly patient despite Rodney's harsh questions and irritated attitude and Rodney couldn't help but feel that Sheppard had something to do with that. Unfortunately, everything Lorne said indicated that it had indeed been a hallucination, much to his chagrin. His mind was something Rodney valued highly and considered to be pretty much his only weapon. He couldn't help but feel discomforted that it had tricked him so badly.

"I can't believe we got ourselves caught like that," Lorne laughed lightly. "I mean, it was bad enough that Dr. Galeia and most of his team got stuck in that stupid building. Colonel Sheppard is never going to let me live this down."

"And the other members of the expedition and the villagers were out in the forest in some kind of festival, right?" Rodney queried, still trying to understand the events that occurred on the planet.

"Yeah, apparently there was a lot of drinking involved, which is why they didn't contact us back when we tried earlier."

"And the building itself?"

"Some kind of remnant form the old civilization," came the quick reply. "It was pretty spooky in there with all those trap doors. It was like a maze! We were lucky you found us."

Rodney hummed lightly, leaning back in his bed, his mind attempting to process the information.

Lorne paused, his face still open and friendly. "I'm sure it'll all come back to you."

Rodney nodded, waving his hand at Lorne in dismissal. "Thank you for debriefing me. I've got to con Carson into getting me out of here now."

Lorne grinned. "Alright, see you later. By the way, John told me that you better show up for pizza night tonight." He jumped up and left the infirmary, leaving Rodney alone again with his thoughts.

It turned out convincing Carson wasn't as bad as he had thought it would be. He just needed to say he felt fine and stand up for five minutes without fainting. Easy. He took off down the hall, immediately heading towards his lab. If there was any way to ease his mind, he would find it in his projects.

However, he still felt ill despite what he had told Carson. His throat was sore and he constantly felt hot, sweating inappropriately even though he knew it was cool out. And the fear still lurked at the pit of his stomach, waiting to engulf him completely.

He knew he shouldn't be afraid or scared, and he couldn't help but feel a bit silly. Everything that Lorne had said made sense. A lot more sense than some evil aliens coming and eating everyone and being birthed from peoples chests.

He shuddered.

He himself had commented earlier on how Dr. Galeia was brash and prone to accidents. But damn. He hesitated. Perhaps he should talk to Sheppard.

Nodding to himself in satisfaction, he changed his direction to head towards where his friend usually trained.

The hand came out of nowhere, grabbing his shoulder and suddenly he was face to face with Radek. "Where have you been?" the scientist queried.

One of Rodney's' eyebrows rose. "Places. Why?"

"We need you down at the lab." Radek replied. "Dr. Kusanagi has discovered very interesting."

"Really?" Rodney asked, eyes lighting up. "What is it?" He allowed himself to be steered down the hallway. "Wait, Kusanagi?" He eyed his fellow scientist wearily. "Just what exactly is it?"

"You'll see," Radek said cryptically.

Rodney just shrugged and headed down to the labs, all thoughts of talking to Sheppard gone.

Rodney stared out at the sea as he leaned against the railing, allowing the cool wind to caress his face. The darkened sea raged against the side of Atlantis, spraying Rodney's face with droplets of its' water. Stars gleamed from above in the pitch black sky, creating a haunting contrast that became aglow upon the sea like fire.

He felt monumentally better since this morning. Kusanagi did indeed find something rather interesting and he had spent a better portion of the day working on it. The pizza party had been a bit of a letdown mostly because had to force himself away from his work and he didn't even to get to speak to Sheppard. At least the pizza was good.

Rodney closed his eyes, allowing the fresh air to hit his face and take away his worries momentarily. He should probably get back to work, he reasoned.

The door behind him opened and he slowly opened his eyes. Light poured in from the hallway behind him, a shadow gleaming onto the space beside him.

"Sheppard," he said, turning around to face the owner of the shadow. It had been pretty easy to deduce who it was as the shadow had rather spiky hair. "What are you doing here?"

John was giving him that look again that made his stomach curl and tense. Shadows danced along his face and his eyes were filled with sorrow. "I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry."

The railing suddenly seemed cold to the touch and the spray of the sea no longer friendly and inviting but sharp and painful. Rodney frowned, ignoring his pounding heart that had been trying to tell him the entire day that something was terribly wrong. Instead, he gave a nervous smile. "For the pizza, right? I could have sworn I asked for Canadian bacon last pizza party."

Johns' face was unchanging, like as statue. "I'm sorry," he repeated. He walked forward briskly and pulled Rodney into a tight embrace, arms wrapped protectively around him. "I promise you Rodney. I promise that I'll find you."

Rodney froze. "What? What are you talking about? I'm right here!"

John pulled out of the hug, but did not release his friend. His hand still gripped Rodney's shoulders tightly, unwilling to let go. "You're going to have to wake up now."

Thunder roared in the background indicating a storm brewing. Coldness seeped into Rodney, his body starting to shake as the fear that had been curled up all day started to uncoil. "I don't understand what you're talking about. I am awake!"

John looked sadly down at him. "No, you aren't. This is your subconscious. You created it in response to what was happening in the real world. I've been trying to find you, but you're a hard man to locate, even in your mind." He gave a crooked grin.

Rodney felt his knees go weak and slowly started his decent towards the hard, unforgiving ground. "This isn't real? But then, what is?" He looked up into Johns' eyes and immediately knew. The expedition, the deaths, the aliens. He choked. "But why am I dreaming? What happened?"

All around him the structures started to melt. The walls turned a dull color and turned into a gooey mass, slowly trailing down to the ground which had suddenly turned black like an infinite abyss. The sky outside collapsed into the sea, the stars falling like meteors no longer held up in the sky by his mind.

It wasn't real.

"Those creatures got you," John replied softly, kneeling down in the puddle of goo. "They took you back to the hatchery."

Rodney gasped as memories flooded him. His stomach did another flip, and he had the sudden sick realization that maybe it wasn't just his nerves but something else entirely. "Oh God." He couldn't stop the sob from bubbling forth as he clung to Johns' jacket for all his life. "There's one of those things inside me, isn't there?"

Silence met his query. But he knew the answer already.

"I saw what happened to the expedition!" Rodney cried out, eyes frantically looking into his friends' imaginary ones. "One of those things is going to come out of me! I don't want to die that way!"

John grabbed Rodney's head and forced him to look into his eyes. They stared at one another for several seconds, Rodney trying to get a hold of himself. "I'm going to find you. I promise."

"How can you find me if you are just a part of my subconscious?" Rodney asked hoarsely.

"Because imaginary or not, John Sheppard would never stop looking for his friends. You know that. We are going to find you. I promise. And we are going to get that thing out of you. Everything is going to be okay. Just don't give up."

Rodney swallowed thickly, allowing himself to nod slightly.

John responded back with his own nod and a soft, grim smile. "You just have to do one thing for me."

"Wake up."

Rodney's eyes flung open and he screamed.