A/N: Here's chapter nine.

Disclaimer: Blah blah blah.

Please review, I'm begging you.


It had been several hours since Rodney took off. All of Atlantis was looking for him. Nevertheless, the search was painfully slow; there was just too much ground to cover. They could be searching for days and never find him. Radek's modifications of the internal sensors went off without a hitch, they just weren't finding anyone in the unused parts of the city. He finally decided to try extending their zones out ward to cover the external parts of the city, hoping that this might expedite finding Rodney if he were on a balcony. Those changes required time but they were now about to try them.


"Colonel Sheppard the sensors are ready."

John responded on his comm.. "Thanks Radek, ready here."

All personnel except the search teams were confined to quarters or the mess hall, and control room. This was to keep other life signs screwing up the search.

In the hours following John's discussion with Woolsey, he had assembled Major Lorne and several marines to start a grid search of the city, they had found undiscovered living areas, and even some new labs but no Rodney McKay.

There was a crowd looking over Radek's shoulder at the sensor screen, everyone was holding their collective breath.

"Is coming on line now."

There it was, a faint life sign out on a balcony close to the outer pier. They would have never found him in time.

"Colonel Sheppard and Dr. Beckett we found him, you're the closest but you need to hurry he's outside and the temperature has dropped twenty degrees."

Mr. Woolsey's voice was full of concern, and Carson felt the hairs stand up on the back of his neck.

"Mr. Woolsey, please send the coordinates to Major Lorne and the corpsmen with him. I'll need the gurney, oxygen, blankets and warmed bags of normal saline."

"We're doing it now."

The whole time Carson had been talking he and John were rushing to Rodney. Luckily, there were enough transporters saving them a lot of time, but they had to walk the rest of the way and it felt agonizingly slow.

Lorne's corpsmen were fast on their heels they could hear them rolling the gurney down the hall behind them.

Several feet away they saw the doors to the balcony and John had them open well before they arrived. From the hall way they could see the white of the scrubs Rodney was wearing lying in a heap in the corner beside the rails of the balcony.

"Oh God Rodney what did you do?"

Carson ran to him, but John hesitated. He was too afraid that Rodney was dead. He didn't want to see, he couldn't bear it.

"John get over here I need help!"

Rodney was suffering from hypothermia. His lips were blue, and he was unconscious.

John ran to Carson's side and began assisting him. The corpsmen arrived a minute later with Jennifer in tow.

She thought she could be clinical and see him as a patient but the sight of him lying so still, his face blue, shattered any thought of being objective. Jennifer was just Jennifer, who loved the dying man fiercely.

"Rodney, don't leave me. Please."She cried.

"Jennifer, you need to get out of the way so we can work." Carson said as gently as possible given the circumstances.


It took a long time to get Rodney stable enough to move him and the way to the infirmary was a nightmare of stopping every few feet to keep him alive. When they finally got him to the ICU he was beginning to pink up. But he was still unresponsive.

The two hours it required to bring his core temperature up to a safe range were torturous. The medical staff was exhausted but there was a long way to go before Rodney was out of the woods.

Carson began tapping on Rodney's face.

"Rodney? We need you to wake up. Come on lad."

Nothing. He was breathing his heart rate was fine but he wouldn't wake up.

Rodney you idiot. How could you be so fucking stupid? It's not bad enough you'll be dead in a few months you have to go and speed things up. When you wake up, I'm going to kick your ass.

Though no one could hear John's interior monologue there were a lot of people who shared his sentiment.

"Okay it's on to the pins."

Ouch. Stop that dammit! Who the hell is doing that? When I figure out how to open my eyes I'm going to kick their ass.

"I think he's responding but it's not enough to wake him. So I'll have to try a sternal rub."

What the fuck are you doing to me? That hurts like hell! Holy crap ! Again? You have to do it twice? All right that's it I'm going to kick your ass. There's no way in hell you are doing that again.

Rodney's eyes flew open and they were filled with anger. He gasped and hollered just before Carson tried again.

"If you don't fucking stop doing that to me, I'm going to kick your sheep herding ass!"

The whole room burst out laughing even Richard Woolsey. It was the most normal Rodney had sounded in weeks.

"Well if you weren't so lazy I wouldna have to do it."

Jennifer ran over to him.

" You moron! What were you thinking?" She yelled.

"I was thinking I needed to get out of this damn infirmary and get some fresh air."

"Well mister smartest man in two galaxies your plan kind of backfired." John said sardonically.

He was happy to be able to tease his friend again. It was a little weird since they just pulled him from the brink of death. But, he would take it over the angst they had all been subject to lately.

"Oh ha haa, Colonel Mensa-Dropout." Rodney snarked.

"Hey you weren't supposed to tell anyone that!"

Sheppard sounded genuinely upset.

"Well I'm dying so I can do whatever I want."

He was as petulant as ever, yet that statement brought the mood down to the basement.

"That's enough you two. All of you get out of here I have to do a neuro check."

Carson started shooing Rodney's team mates away from the bed.

"W-wait a minute, I'm not f-f-finished yelling at the w-walking…"

He threw his head back and his eyes rolled back into his head. His arms and legs began flailing about and his back contorted convexly off the bed. This was a seizure of epic proportions.

All of the non-medical staff were stunned by Rodney's thrashing about and the painful way his back arched up off the bed. It was so shocking they couldn't move. They wanted to tear their eyes away but the sheer violence of it held them in place.

Meanwhile, the nurses and corpsmen were holding him down trying to keep Rodney from hitting the rails and breaking a limb or injuring his head. Jennifer was keeping him from swallowing his tongue, and Carson was throwing whatever meds he could into Rodney's IV to stop the freight train going through his body.

Once again Carson called out.

"How long?"

" Five minutes." Jennifer replied flatly.

Damn it's in his brain. We are on borrowed time. I'm so sorry my friend, no one should have to go through this.

All the medical people understood what was going on, and what it meant. As Rodney's body began to relax, they exchanged knowing looks with one another, avoiding Jennifer's eyes. However, the other people in the room while disturbed beyond belief, assumed the seizure was related to his hypothermia.

Everyone that is, but Richard Woolsey, the horrific scene triggered in him a memory, and in seconds he was overcome with a flashback of Sarah suffering a similar seizure. Only her seizure didn't happen in the hospital, it happened while they were in Georgetown celebrating their tenth anniversary.

In the suddenly quiet room, Richard's gasp was very loud. All eyes turned to him but he didn't see them, he saw Sarah suffering on the floor of a French restaurant, and no one would help them.

"Call 911, someone please…Help us, please."

His voice was full of fear, tears running down his face, and his hands trembling, he began to hyperventilate. He fell to his knees, and his glasses fell off. He started begging unseen people to help Sarah. To help him…

"Richard!" Carson yelled.

The doctor ran over, but John was already there. He knew exactly what was happening to Richard Woolsey.

"Hey Richard, open your eyes for me. Come on, yeah that's good, now I want you to try to slow down your breathing. Good, you're doing great buddy… You're in Atlantis, and you're safe. Sarah's not here Richard, she's not hurting anymore. It's okay, you're okay."

John's voice was tender and kind. He understood all too well, what Richard was going through. He'd experienced more than his share of flashbacks of his time in Afghanistan. He felt nothing but compassion and empathy for the man.

Carla brought Carson a syringe with Klonipin in it, and went back to finish putting the EEG on Rodney. Jennifer was handling Rodney's care; her medical training took over when Carson went to help Woolsey.

Richard started to leave his nightmare behind, only to wake up in another one.

The whole of Atlantis seemed to be watching him fall apart, for dozens of eyes were staring at him full of shock. Richard became overwhelmed with shame, but before he could run away and hide the drug began to work and he was overcome with lassitude.

"Alright Richard, Carson and I are going to move you to a bed so you can rest."

When they settled him in, just as he fell asleep he looked at John, his eyes full of gratitude.

"Please don't leave me."

"I won't buddy, I'll be here when you wake up."

Carson strode over to the crowd assembled in the infirmary and the hallway, and lambasted them for their voyeurism.

"Get out of here all of you. This is an infirmary not a theatre! And let me tell you what, if I hear so much as one hint of gossip about these two men and what they've gone through today, I will find you, and beat the hell out of you! Do I make myself clear?"

Most of them had never seen Carson lose his temper; they all assumed he was just a big teddy bear. The man before them bore no resemblance to a cuddly toy. He looked downright scary. Suddenly they all became very aware of his size, and knew he could make good on his promise.

"Why are you still standing here gaping at me? Do you want me to start the beatings now?"

It was like Moses parting the Red Sea. Where once there was a crowd, was now an empty room.

John watched the fuming doctor with great appreciation and newfound respect. When Carson calmed down a bit, he decided to comment.

"Hey Carson?"

"What John?" He replied tersely.

"Remind me never to piss you off."

Ronon was standing in a corner out of the way watching the drama unfold.

"Yeah me too." Ronon rumbled.

"Yes, Carson I would not like to be the object of your displeasure either." Teyla said with all seriousness.

That did it, Carson laughed. They all did. He was thankful for the joking around; it eased the suffocating tension in the room.

However, that moment of mirth didn't last, because Jennifer called for him.

"A little help here he's seizing again!"