A/N: OK so finally I have the next chapter done. Sorry for the delay. Again. Thanks again to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter. And I hope you enjoy.

"Rodney?!" John sat bolt upright in the bed, eyes wide open as though staring at some invisible horror that only he could see.

"John?" All thoughts of the reports she'd been filling out while keeping vigil at Sheppard's bedside forgotten, Elizabeth took a cautious step forward into John's line of sight so as not to startle him, before placing a hand on his arm. "John?" She waited for his clearly disoriented gaze to fall on her, before adding, "Are you okay?"

He felt like his heart, beating impossibly fast was going to pound out of his chest as he recalled the all too vivid details of his, dream? Not a dream, it had felt far to real. Atlantis. She had been calling out to him. Rodney was in trouble, and Atlantis was trying to get his attention. "I have to help him." he managed to grind the few words out between gasping for breaths. He began to pull the covers back before he felt a strong hand pushing him, all too easily, back into the pillow.

"What the bloody hell is going on here?"

"Rodney, he's in trouble." John was extremely disconcerted at how little energy Beckett seemed to be using to keep in the bed. Carson glanced over at the squealing heart monitor that had alerted him to the Majors current state before looking back down at his patient.

"Major, it was just a nightmare. Everything's fine. Rodney's fine."

Realising that struggling against Beckett's unrelenting grip was getting him nowhere, and expending precious energy that he couldn't afford to waste, John stopped. "No! It wasn't just a dream. She told me. She told me that Rodney was in trouble." John looked frantically from Carson to Elizabeth, silently willing them to believe him, and not just write him off as crazy. He didn't fully understand it himself, but he knew that it was real, that it was more than just a dream.

"John!" He recognised that tone, that was Elizabeth's diplomatic tone. "You just woke up, and I've been your only visitor all day."

John wasn't sure whether he wanted to laugh, or cry. They really did think he was crazy. "Atlantis. Atlantis told me Rodney's in trouble, and he needs me." The look on Elizabeth's face said it all. Yep, way to go John, that really convinced them that you're not crazy.

"Atlantis?" Elizabeth raised an eyebrow sceptically.

"Yes. I need to help him." Elizabeth couldn't help but stand and stare at how thin and fragile John looked as he pushed the blankets covering him to one side, and began manoeuvring himself to get out of bed. She knew she had to do something to stop him, but was afraid that if she touched him, he might just break.

John focused solely on the enormous task of getting out of bed didn't see Beckett approach, didn't see the needle that glinted in his hand. Didn't see the look of regret on the doctors face, as the darkness overcame him.

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This was new. It was like watching CCTV, through night vision goggles. John could just make out the greenish tinge of a body, huddled in the corner of the dark room. As if reading his mind the imagine zoomed in, and John could clearly make out the figure of Rodney McKay. John couldn't help but notice the glassy, disoriented look in McKay's eyes. He would have put it down to the fact that for McKay the room was pitch black, had it not been for the fine tremors that ran throughout his body. John had seen this in the scientist before, the beginnings of a hypoglycaemic reaction, on those days when Rodney had been too preoccupied with saving their collective asses, to remember the basic survival techniques, such as eating.

Directing the 'camera' away from Rodney, John scanned the room. A console, much like any of the other consoles in Atlantis, stood in the centre of the room. The only thing noticeable about this one, was that someone, namely Rodney, had clearly been fiddling with it, because there were wires and crystals littering the floor around it. Panning around the room, John discovered why Rodney was sitting on the floor, in a pitch black lab. The door control crystal was completely fried. Tools hung from the protruding wires, obviously abandoned by the physicist.

John had always felt a connection to Atlantis, from the very first moment he had set foot in the city, it had been like a constant reassuring presence in the back of his mind. But now it was as if Atlantis was reaching out to him, able to read his mind, as he began running scenarios as to how he was going to help his friend. He was moving through the corridors, faster then he ever would have though possible. And before he knew it , Atlantis was presenting him with his answer, and of course wasn't it ironic. That the one, and only way of freeing McKay, was to use the control chair. He'd said once to Teyla, that he would do anything for any one of his team, and now one of his team was in trouble. For anyone else the situation would have been inconvenient, they would have days to figure out a way of getting the door open, but for Rodney, it really was life and death. John flashed back to all the times that Rodney had reminded him, that if he didn't eat regularly, he could slip into a coma and die.

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John woke to a darkened, seemingly abandoned infirmary. As much as the thought of going anywhere near the chair again terrified him, he knew that he had no choice. Even if he could get anyone else to listen to him about how he knew Rodney was in trouble, because Atlantis had shown it to him in a dream. He really needed to work on the whole not sounding crazy thing. Atlantis had connected to him, no one else, and he wasn't sure that anyone else would be able to do what was necessary to save Rodney in time.

Glancing around the infirmary to confirm, that he was in fact alone John began to make his painfully slow way out of bed. He hadn't realised just how weak he had become. The sheer effort that it took just to get his legs over the side of the bed, was alarming. Even more disconcerting was the fact that he hadn't registered the fact that he was attached to what seem an infinite numbed of machines, before said machines were squealing on him, as he attempted, and failed to stand up. "Damn it!" he cursed as his legs gave way, and he found himself falling towards the infirmary floor.

He must have zoned out for a few seconds because the next thing he knew, he was being skilfully manoeuvred back into bed by Carson and one of his nurses. And John had seen that look on the Scot before, Carson was pissed.

"Major, what the bloody hell do you think you're doing? Do we have to restrain you to keep you in bed? Or would you care to explain to me why you decided to try and go for a wander in the middle of the night?" And Carson must seen something in John's eyes. "This isn't still about Rodney is it?"

"Look Carson. Just hear me out before you write me off as crazy, and sedate me again." And at least Carson had the decency to look slightly regretful of his earlier actions. "I know that this sounds crazy, and if it was the other way around then I'm sure that I would be thinking the same thing. But I am not crazy. Rodney is in trouble, and I need to save him. Atlantis showed me him, showed me how to save him." Seeing the sceptical look on Carson's face John continued. "Look I don't fully understand it myself, but ever since I set foot in the city, I've felt this connection. Like a constant presence in the back of my mind. When we first came here, and we were exploring, it was like someone was guiding me to all the places I wanted to go. I'd think about something, like the control chair, (he hoped that Carson had missed the shudder that just ran through him) and it would be like I just instinctively knew where it was. I haven't really thought about it before now, but I think that was Atlantis. Rodney's in trouble, he's trapped in one of the uninhabited parts of the city, and I'm the only one who can save him."

"OK" Carson began, slowly, as if trying to process everything that John had just said. "So you're saying that, what, Atlantis is sentient? She can sense your thoughts?" Carson looked even more sceptical now, then he had before.

John shook his head, "No, not exactly. It's like how I can control the puddle jumpers. The first time I set foot in one, we were using it to find Colonel Sumner, and the rest of our people on board the hive ship. I thought about getting in undetected, and it cloaked. I thought about how we were going to find our people on the hive, and it gave me a life signs detector." John looked pleading up at Carson, "Please tell me that this is making sense to you, because really I don't think that we have that much time. We need to help Rodney. Now!"

There was no way that Carson could have missed the urgency in the Majors voice, or the pleading look that he was now giving him. And the more that he thought about it, the more that the idea seemed to make sense to him. John did have the strongest form of the ATA gene, and therefore the strongest connection to Atlantis. And he couldn't say that he himself hadn't felt some kind of connection to the city. Nothing like what the Major was describing, but then again, he had learnt from his time on Atlantis, that anything was possible.

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Once John had persuaded Carson, he had then had to run through the whole thing again with Elizabeth. This time though it was a little easier, because he had Carson to back him up, when Elizabeth had started looking sceptical. After what seemed an eternity they had finally managed to persuade her that he wasn't going nuts, and that what he was saying was perfectly plausible.

That was how he now found himself being wheeled through the all too familiar hallways, to the chair room. Carson at the helm, with a full kit full of medical supplies, of course, and Elizabeth at his side. After convincing them that Rodney was in trouble, he'd had an even harder time convincing them to take him down to the chair room. And who could blame them after his last visit.

He was aware, as the made their way silently through the corridors of Elizabeth's glances in his direction. As if she was anticipating him having another breakdown. And the old John Sheppard would have been quick to brush of her concern with an, I'm fine. But he wasn't the old John Sheppard, and he was about as far away from fine as he thought it was possible to be. Even now, as they drew nearer their destination, he could feel his heart jack hammering in his chest, going way to fast. And he was finding it harder and harder to breath. And if Carson, or Elizabeth noticed any of this they didn't say anything.

Before he knew it, they were stopping. Why were they stopping? Oh! He'd been too preoccupied with trying to keep a well practiced outward appearance of calm, that he had completely missed the fact that they had arrived at their destination. John looked up at the doors in front of him, and suddenly it wasn't just hard to breath, it was impossible. His throat felt like it was swollen shut, and no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't seem to pull in any air. Beginning to feel light headed, and his vision greying, he was startled by the presence of an oxygen mask, and the comforting, unmistakeable voice of Carson telling him to take deep breaths. Easier said then done. Focused solely on the task of pulling oxygen into his burning lungs, he felt nothing but pure relief when the burning began to subside, and his vision began to return.

"John?" He hated the look of pity that he saw in her eyes, the look that told him that he was weak.

"I'm fine" And yeah, that had been convincing, said between pants for breath, and half lidded eyes, as the sheer exertion of breathing was beginning to take its toll on his weakened body. He didn't even need to look at her face to know that there wasn't a chance of her believing him. "Ok. I'm not fine. But do we really have a choice here. Rodney is going to die if I don't sit in that chair (and there it was again, the involuntary shudder.) Lets just get in there, and get this over with. Ok."

Elizabeth looked like she wanted to protest, but John looked up at her with pleading eyes.

"OK" As if she really had a choice in the matter.

John took one last deep breath, before turning to face Carson. "OK doc, I'm ready." He wanted to laugh. Ready. He'd never be ready for this. He had fully intended to return to Earth and never have to touch anything Ancient again. But one of his friends, his family was in trouble, and damn these people for working their way through his carefully constructed defences.

A/N: I think that there are only going to be another couple of chapters to this, but then again I said that a couple of chapters back, and I'm still going. We're definately near the end, I promise.