Doctor Carson Beckett sat at his desk that morning, studying the latest information Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard had collected during their last mission, when Nurse Mary DeSantos came rushing into his room.

"What's wrong Mary?"

"We've got a minor emergency…its Doctor McKay," she spoke as though it were the most usual thing in the world. Sometimes, to Carson; it really felt like the most normal thing in the world now. Last week he had treated Rodney for a minor concussion due to a small explosion, two days ago Carson was forced to make the scientist eat to keep him from dying of his hypoglycemia.

As Carson quickly stood he wondered what it would be today, a flash burn, chemical spill, concussion, vomiting, broken bone… There Rodney sat, on one of the unoccupied beds, looking exhausted…as always. His shirt was off, and his left arm extended, revealing a nasty burn on his forearm.

"What happened Rodney?" Carson asked as he took the arm gently in his hands and examined it.

"One of the many projects backfired…I'm fine…"

"I'll determine that, you've got a second degree burn, I'm going to need to get some ointment for that, probably something for the pain right," Carson eyed his best friend.

There was no question that Rodney had changed quite a bit in the world of Atlantis. He was no longer just a geeky scientist that annoyed the hell out of every one on the damned planet. He was a solider now: when he had arrived nearly a year and a half ago he had been chubby from the lack of movement. What had been chubbiness had developed into trimmed muscle and a mental strength that no one thought he could actually have. He had become quite a man, and Carson had to admit he was proud of the man sitting in front of him. Rodney had sacrificed his life many times just to help those close to him.

"Ahh…that would be great," Rodney whispered.

"I'll be right back laddie," Carson stated simply, he gently patted the man's shoulder and headed off to one of the medicine cabinets. He found the ointment for the wound quickly, but the aspirin was no where to be seen, "Mary, where's the bloody pain killers?" it was obvious that Atlantis was beginning to run out of what Carson called standard medicine. It seemed like there was someone coming in every day with another common problem that require a simple dose of aspirin, Tylenol, Ibuprofen, penicillin and other common remedies to the usual ache or illness. And while Carson preferred the simple things over the large and life threatening injuries, he didn't like the idea of running out of a medication that was taken in large quantities of a community with over one hundred people. The Daedalus was supposed to return with painkillers in another week.

"Try in the storage room," came Nurse Mary DeSantos' reply from where she stood wrapping Sergeant Kevin Burns broken radius in the infirmary bed across the room.

Carson shivered slightly at the thought, he avoided their store room, it was small and simple, for a storage room, but it was creepy, it was like there should be more to it, but someone had just forgotten to turn the switch on. He headed back to the far end of the infirmary, where a door led to the storage room. The storage room was no bigger than a large walk in closet, where they stored all the medicines, IVs, and extra earth equipment. The shelves and cabinets were set up in rows of four by four, the furthest ones were pushed against the back wall, that was where the aspirin usually was. As he made his way towards the far back shelve cursing the dimwit who felt the need to put the world's most generic and used medication in the far back. He was surprised however when he looked down at the bottom shelf and saw a light filtering through what looked like a small crack, perhaps a door just behind the shelf.

He looked back at the occupants of the infirmary. Nothing new; the broken arm, a sprained ankle and one concussed scientist who had forgotten the correct setting to some new toy and blew himself across the room and one burned scientist that was now resting on the bed: Deciding he could risk a few moments to be the abnormal explorer he was, Carson pushed himself past the shelves and cabinets. There was a dim light on just over the door, almost like that of the door to the back of an alley behind a bar. He searched the wall for a light switch, and connected with something.

Seconds later the room was flooded with lights; it took Carson's breath away, the room had to be at least half a football field to an entire football field long, closer to him there were twenty perhaps thirty or forty at best, isolated rooms, not just a bed sitting in the middle of the room protected with a curtain, but small simple glass rooms, with gurneys in them.

In the middle of the room was a large desk, no doubt a nurses station of some sort, and perhaps a place to study cultures, to the further end there was a lab of sorts, also behind glass doors there were large machines Carson could only guess were probably the Ancient's version of x-ray machines, MRIs, Cat Scans and various other types of healing devices and equipment that would check or take stock of a patient's injury. All basked by the beautiful glow of windows surrounding the entire hall, making it look almost welcoming if not comfortable.

Right by the door there was an office off to the left, which Carson instantly decided was larger and more person and he planned to claim it as his own new office. Off to the left was a smaller lab. Unable to resist, Carson took a step towards the smaller lab. The glass doors were opened, so he stepped inside.

There were vials everywhere, which contained only god knew what. Carson couldn't help but be thrilled, excited, this was quite possibly the largest discovery in medicine they had come across so far on Atlantis. It looked like a hundred different blood cultures could be done at once, if not more. He stepped towards one, not seeing the small test tube already sitting on the floor, untouched by the world.

The crunch was enough to make anyone wince, as Carson looked down and prayed that he hadn't just broken some important specimen he could intensely study, perhaps an Ancient's blood…did Ancients have blood?

However as he looked down he watched in horror, his eyes becoming wide in sheer terror as a large cloud of smoke quickly ascended upon him, he didn't have time to stop it, as it filled his mouth nose and eyes. Carson coughed and sputtered, trying to catch his breath. He quickly turned and made his way out of the small lab.

He looked around, rapidly blinking his eyes as he tried to clear the fuzzy images from his vision, things becoming foggy and confusing. It was as though a large film had just settled over his brain. He staggered, reaching for one of the beds, stars began to dance in front of his eyes, he looked up and around, trying to clear his head, shaking it. However soon blackness completely over took his mind; Carson dropped to the floor, sprawled out, no one any the wiser to where the missing doctor had disappeared to.

"…just collapsed?" the voices were floating around his head, as he slowly was pulled back from the blackness within. It was as though someone or something was holding him down, making him feel like he was suffocating and couldn't pull himself back to reality.

"…found him on the floor of some…" they were fading in and out; he felt like he was listening to a bad radio station that was loosing its signal. He slowly pried an eye open, searching to see who in the hell would be talking above him. The lights immediately attacked his senses as he blinked his eyes continuously trying to clear the blurred image above him.

"Dr. Beckett?" a voice called, causing Carson to realize he had to open his eyes, otherwise he'd be sitting like this for the rest of his life. He slowly opened his eyes, he pushed aside the uncomfortable burning sensation he felt in his nose and throat. He looked up to see Nurse DeSantos standing above him, looking worried and perhaps a little put out; beside her was Dr. Rodney McKay, John Sheppard and Dr. Weir. They all held concerned looks on their faces as they seemingly studied him.

"Wha' happened?" he questioned instantly as he began to sit up, he had to latch onto the nearest bed rail, as his world began to topple again. He felt John and Rodney gently push him back down to the bed

"Slow down Doc, you had a little bit of a spill, Rodney here found you in the new infirmary you found," explained John.

"Infirmary?" he spoke, in confusion. Why was his head so foggy, he hadn't felt like this since the day he got really drunk in college and woke up the next morning with his head in the toilet…and a girl in his bed that he couldn't remember ever meeting.

"Yeah, you don't remember? Apparently you went back to look for some aspirin and you found some type of door in the back, led you into the beautiful new infirmary. Nurse DeSantos said you collapsed from exhaustion. You've gotta stop running yourself ragged Carson," Rodney said smiling mimicking the same stern tone that Carson often took with him when Rodney had collapsed from exhaustion.

"I'm fine…I feel fine anyway," explained Carson.

"Yes, well just the same, I'd like to keep you for another couple hours," Mary said pulling rank on her boss with a soft caring smile. She was a stern nurse, with a bad sense of humor but an amazing work ethic. He had made her head nurse for a reason and as he looked at her, he realized why he had given her such a high position.

"Aye…that sounds wonderful…Rodney your arm?" Carson said suddenly remembering his friend.

"DeSantos took a look at it here, says I'll be just fine in a couple days…"

"Good…" he leaned his head back against the pillow and closed his eyes, trying to fend off the aching in the back of his skull and at the bridge of his nose, spreading behind his eyes and across to his temples.

"Get some rest doctor, I'll wake you in a few hours shortly before lunch," Mary said softly as she patted Carson's shoulder. He settled further into the bed and allowed the dreams to take over his world.

John looked over at Rodney and smiled softly, "come on science boy, let's get you to your quarters, I'm sure you could use a little rest, and none of this two hour crap. You're going to get some real sleep. We're going on a mission tomorrow and I want you at your best," John said as he led his closest friend out of the infirmary.

Elizabeth smiled as she watched the two go, nodding to Mary she headed out of the infirmary as well, ready to tell Colonel Caldwell about the new found infirmary and inquire to the possibility of expanding the infirmary to the larger room. Perhaps even making the old infirmary a larger surgical room, there were so many options and Elizabeth planned to explore them all with her Chief of Medicine as soon as he was feeling up to it again.

It was mid afternoon when DeSantos along with one of the other on call doctors discharged him from their care. Carson had every intention to do as Elizabeth had instructed and take the rest of the day off.

The havoc began to be wreaked the next day. It was as though their sweet, kind and gentle Carson Beckett began to disappear. At least John had noticed this when he stepped into the infirmary and heard an unusually annoyed doctor yelling at a group of younger nurses and doctors.

"Ye can't get anything bloody right!" Carson yelled to one younger doctor.

"Hey, hey Doctor Kill-joy, what's going on here?" John asked as he stepped or to his friend's side.

"These bloody fools aren't even trying," growled Carson as he glared at the Colonel.

"Okay…what's your problem?" John asked in confusion.

"There's nothing wrong with me aside from the splitting headache. Now if you'll excuse me I've got work to do…"

"I was just coming to tell you that we've got a mission in a few hours, and you're coming with us."

"Excuse me?" Carson asked raising his eyes brow at his friend.

"Look doc, it was Elizabeth's decision, she wants you out in the field not wasting away in this damned infirmary all the time…"

"Excuse me? Waste away? What the bloody hell does she think I'm doing here?" growled Carson angrily.

"Okay…look I'm not in charge. All I know is that Elizabeth would like you and periodically some of the other staff members to go off world a little more often. So suit up we leave in three hours," it was harsh, but John wasn't going to pussyfoot around it with his friend.

"Fine," muttered Carson as he turned his back on the Colonel.

John turned and left the infirmary, hoping his friend would be back to normal soon…

By the time they were ready to leave for the mission Carson's attitude didn't seem to improve much, although he was more quiet now than before. John was starting to worry about his dear friend's annoyed stated, what was going on that would change such a good guy into…well Mr. Hyde so quickly.

Choosing to ignore the doctor's not so pleasant attitude, Weir gave the command to go, and seconds later Teyla, Ronan, John, Carson and Rodney stepped through the wormhole.

"Okay guys, it's a nice simple mission," stated John, and it was. They were to go there, let Rodney look at a few ancient writings Major's Lorne's team had found. While Carson and Rodney hung around for that, Ronan would keep a look out and Teyla would go with John to scout out the area.

"All right, Ronan watch their backs, we'll be back in half an hour," John spoke as he and Teyla made their way from the small site.

"They're all bloody insane," came Carson's voice as he scowled at Rodney.

"You okay?" Rodney asked with concern, he was just as worried about his friend as John was. Something was wrong with Carson and they needed to find out what.

"I'm fine! Ye' just make sure ye' don't blow anything up I can't fix!" growled the doctor.

Rodney glowered back at his friend, it wasn't like he was habitually reckless. "I'll be fine…"

"You feel there is something wrong?" Teyla questioned as she and John headed back towards the gate nearly forty-five minutes later. They had found nothing, no people, no water there wasn't much to say about this planet.

"Carson's been acting a little weird today…"

"Perhaps something is bothering him?"

"Yeah, that's what I thought…I tried to talk to him about it this morning but…well not much to say there. He just kinda yelled at me and then made me leave."

"Maybe Rodney can talk to him."

"Mayb…"

"You're not even smart enough to know when to stop!" came Carson's yell of heated anger.

John's eyes grew wide as he saw Ronan Dex standing in between Rodney and Carson. Carson looked absolutely livid, and Rodney was somewhere between hot and feeling ashamed that his friend really thought such things.

"HEY!" yelled John.

"At least I don't lose patients!"

"No? What do ye call blowing up the entire solar system?"

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?" John growled again as he grabbed Carson's arm.

He was stunned when Carson ripped his arm from John's grasp, and slammed it into John's chest.

"Carson!" Ronan yelled grabbing the man by both arms.

"Enough," came Teyla's voice. "I do not know what has occurred here, but I think it best if we all just go back to Atlantis. It is obvious that no work is getting down at this moment, and we will only succeed in hurting one another."

"He started it," mumbled Rodney as though he were a small child.

"Enough Rodney," Teyla said gently placing a hand to his shoulder.

The creature was furious, livid, and angry at the scientist. As he looked through Carson's ocean blue eyes he could feel the weakness the scientist had, and he seemed to have it by the waves.

He would find a way to get rid of this man, for in the creature's opinion he was not worthy to live on such a place as Atlantis. He watched through tainted eyes as they stepped back into Atlantis.

The creature could feel Carson fighting it, trying to regain control of his body. He would not have it, he was curious about the world around him. The Ancients had ripped him from his world, now he would rip the ancients from theirs. Starting with the chubby scientist in front of him.

'Stay away from them,' came the Scottish voice.

'I didn't ask for your input doctor, and when I feel it's worth listening to, perhaps then I'll take it.'

The creature knew Carson would find a way to alert his people to his problems, however until then, he had full reign of the fine doctor, an ability he was not likely to soon give up.

'What's this doctor…' the creature grinned at the information he had just been given. A solution on how to get rid of their annoying scientist once and for all.

"Elizabeth…I think I have a solution," Rodney said as he hurried into her office.

"Okay… a solution to what?" she questioned.

"Carson…I walked into the new infirmary Carson found. There was information about all the systems as well as some research they were working on. They had captured a creature that was very similar to the mysterious entity we discovered early on in Atlantis…only it was further developed. Some of the ancients felt that this creature possessed an amazing ability to take over one's mind."

"This is a little far fetched…" Elizabeth began.

"Elizabeth, you saw how angry the entity got when we let it out, what if we could do the same thing, some how extract this creature from Carson and send him back through the gate far away from here."

"How do you propose to do that?" Elizabeth questioned.

"Offer it something even better…offer it the chance to really go free."

"What makes you think it'll take this bait?"

"Because we could send it to another world where we know it will be comfortable…we send it to the same planet we sent the other entity, then we tell the creature there are hundreds more people there."

"All right…" Elizabeth agreed, "but we have to be careful, if something is really wrong with Carson, there's a very good chance this creature could decide to attack us."

"So we attack it first."

John looked at Rodney, as if waiting for his brother to confirm this idea was both a safe one and a sane one. They had called Carson down to the gate room ten minutes ago. The man had been gruff and rude; a normal Carson would have been more than willing.

"What do you want?" Carson came by.

The creature never saw it coming. One second Carson was standing in the middle of the gate room and the next second he was surrounded by guns aimed right at him. The creature looked around in an almost panicked state.

John took a step closer to him, his hands raised calmly, "Carson, I don't know if you can hear me…but we want to help you…we know there's something or someone inside trying to take control. We want to help you," John called.

The rest was slow motion, John came a step closer…too close, the creature reached out before John knew what was happening and ripped the gun from his side holster. Seconds later it was pointed right between John's eyes.

"Sir?" Lorne yelled.

"Don't shoot!" John yelled, trying to remain calm, "The Carson I know wouldn't do this, now put the gun down," John said turning back to his friend.

"Sir, I have a clear shot!" Lorne yelled again.

"I SAID DON'T FIRE!" yelled John. "Carson listen to me, it's John, we just want to help you, we're willing to send the creature to another highly populated world.

"You wouldn't do that…Carson knows it!" growled the creature in a strange distorted voice not far from the Gou'uld.

"Carson also knows I'd do anything to save him." John said calmly.

He jumped when the safety was taken off, he looked around. Suddenly a loud shot rang out, John hit the floor, a terrible scream was ripped from Carson's body as the creature rose from the bleeding form of the Doctor into the air.

Rodney suddenly hit the dialing device and screamed for everyone to duck, he raced down the stairs and sent the generator through the gate. Instantly the wailing creature followed.

"CARSON!" yelled John as he hurried over to his best friend. "Get a medical team down here now! Carson, can you hear me?"

Two warm friendly but pain-filled blue eyes looked up at him, "I've been shot," he whispered.

"In the shoulder, you'll be just fine Carson."

"Rodn…" he mumbled as he lost consciousness.

Rodney sat quietly in his lab, he was trying to focus on the work before him. The doctors had already announced that Carson would be fine as soon as he woke up.

Sighing as he rubbed his temples Rodney reached out and grabbed the MRE that was sitting next to him. As he looked down at he grimaced…chicken, how did this amount to chicken. Shrugging he stabbed a piece with a fork he had sitting near by and took a bite.

He didn't even have a chance to think about what he was eating before he started noticing the itchy feeling in his throat, the sudden rush of blood to his head as his breathing became labored.

"Rod…" the voice stopped as John entered the room.

Rodney looked at his brother in an horrified look of panic, "What's wrong?" John asked as he rushed over to his side.

Rodney pointed to his food as he struggled to breath, his hands clasping his throat.

"Let's get you to the infirmary!" John grabbed his brother's arm and quickly helped him out of the lab.

John sat by his brother, watching as air was forced into his blocked lungs, they had caught the reaction just in time, but not nearly quick enough. Rodney was unconscious and still having trouble breathing.

"What happened John?" Elizabeth questioned.

"He had an allergic reaction to the grilled chicken he was eating…it had lemon all over it," whispered John.

"How is he?"

"He's dehydrated his body's already started rebelling, he's very sick…" John whispered.

"John is there any chance that Cars…"

"The creature did this Elizabeth, not Carson, you can't blame this on him. He's going to feel guilty about this as it is, and if we run in there making acusations…"

"I just need to know what to put on the report John," Elizabeth whispered.

"Put that the chicken was lemon, and the outside of the carton was labeled wrong, I don't care what you find to say, but we will not put blame on either man for this."

"I know…" she whispered. Reaching out Elizabeth pushed a strand of hair from Rodney's sweaty forehead.

"John…" came Mary DeSantos' voice. "Carson's awake and he'd like to see you."

"Thanks Mary…Elizabeth would you…"

"You don't even have to ask," Elizabeth said taking up the seat John had just vacated.

"I'll be back."

John hurried across the room to see Carson lying in bed, looking exhausted and sick, "how do you feel?"

"Like I've been shot? John…the creature it…"

"We know, Rodney's in a few beds over, but he'll be fine in no time."

"I'm sorry," whispered Carson.

"Hey," John spoke firmly, "this isn't your fault, so don't go blaming yourself. You had no control, nobody blames you."

"I blame me," mumbled Carson.

Four days later, John stood with his hands over his best friend's eyes as he led him to the infirmary. Teyla and Ronan by his side as well; Rodney and Elizabeth had been working hard at their surprise for nearly two days now, and while Rodney was supposed to be resting, he couldn't help but stay away.

"Okay Doc," John said grinning as he stood him in place. John smiled, it was amazing what ninety-five strong willed, good people could do. "Open your eyes."

It was beautiful stunning, they had knocked out the two walls between the two infirmaries. Carson was stunned, the new infirmary had been cleaned, it was beautiful, everything was set up perfectly, and they placed all the extra equipment down at another end of the infirmary.

All the members of Atlantis, new and old stood surrounding it, a large banner was draped from the ceiling reading in bright blue letters WELCOME HOME CARSON. Carson smiled at the thoughtfulness of his friends.

"Carson," Rodney said as he slowly made his way towards his friend, handing him a glass of punch, "how do you like the new infirmary?"

"It's beautiful…did ye do all this?" Carson questioned.

"Elizabeth and I planned it, she wouldn't let me do any of the major work, but it didn't take much to do it…" Rodney said gently.

"Thank you Rodney, thank you all of you," Carson said smiling.