His head hurt. So did his side, but Evan’s head was pounding in time to the beat of his heart and then suddenly...it was gone.

For a few seconds he thought that he was dead, but there was only darkness.

Cold, never-ending darkness.

Stumbling blindly through the inky black he groped around wildly looking for something, someone to grab onto and give him the reassurance that he wasn’t dead.

Then suddenly there was a bright flash of light and Lorne felt a warm tingling in his hands and feet that suddenly spread to throughout the rest of his body.

“What the hell?” he thought to himself as the light faded away as suddenly as it had appeared. There was still the darkness but this time it wasn’t so cold and Lorne wasn’t as afraid of being alone in it.

Seconds later, Lorne realized that there was another light. This time it didn’t seem to be going away and Evan realized that he was staring at the infirmary lights.

The answer as to how he had gotten there escaping him, Evan blinked rapidly and tried to focus his eyes.

“Ah, you’re awake.”

It took a minute for Evan’s brain to register that it was Carson’s voice he was hearing and when it did, he looked over to see the man standing at the side of his bed with a smile on his face. “It was touch and go there for a wee bit, Major; almost lost you a couple of times.”

“How...long...” Lorne said, the words almost a labor to say.

“Short on three days. Martha an’ Captain Harkness were lucky ta find you when they did.” Carson said as he made a few notes on the Major’s chart. “But don’ worry ‘bout that, just focus on restin’.”

Satisfied that Lorne was out of the woods, Carson gave the man a wink and walked past the cloth partition; pulling it closed as he did.

Silence filled his ears and as Evan lay there, he tried to remember everything that had happened. The last thing he could remember was finding Piper and trying to get out of there. The rest was a blank.

Obviously the structure had collapsed and Carson said he was lucky to be alive. But what about Piper?

Beckett hadn’t said anything but at the same time he hadn’t asked and from the glance he had gotten past the partition he didn’t see her which only increased his curiosity.

Jack stood in the doorway, not wanting to go in but at the same time he knew he had to. Eventually he had to go in and see her, it wasn’t like he could just wish that this was all a dream and he’d wake up to find that she was next to him. That the fight hadn’t begun quite yet and there was still time to relish in the fact that he was content with someone and didn’t want to go running off at first light.

But he was deluding himself with these thoughts and Jack needed to press ahead, to think of what he was going to do when they went back.

The make-shift morgue was in a semi-used part of the city, one of the only places that there was enough room to lay out all the dead. They lay in neat rows, one after the other, that filled up the room and had a sheet over them so those who went by them didn’t have to look at the empty faces of their friends.

He had seen rows like those before, most likely would see them again and he tried to distance himself from the fact that someone he cared about was in there, waiting for him to take her back to the family she had left behind and try to explain what had happened.

But no matter how hard he tried, Jack could still feel the pain.

It wasn’t fair.

Knowing that if he didn’t go soon then he’d lose his nerve, Jack took a deep breath and stepped inside; his footsteps echoing in the silence.

Section five, row three, first one to the right.

It sounded so impersonal when he recalled the instructions on how to find her. She was more than a number, part of the body count.

They all were and it wasn’t fair that they had to die in order to save a city.

Finding her, Jack stopped and stood to the side of the body; trying to muster up the courage to gently pull back the sheet and look at her face. He shouldn’t find this so hard, he had done it countless times before working for Torchwood and would do it countless times after his time ended there, but this particular instance made him feel like a rookie again.

However, Jack knew it had to be done so he walked in-between the corpses and sat down. He sat there for awhile, wondering why everything played out like it had; there were so many questions swirling around his head that Jack didn’t know if he’d even get all, if any, of them answered.

Finally getting up the nerve and knowing that if he didn’t do it now then he’d never do it, reached with his shaking hands to pull back the sheet from her face.

It slipped easily from her head and Jack stared at the chalky white face.

She seemed so out of character, he was used to her skin being so filled with color and personality that it was a little unsettling to have it stripped of all signs of life.

But that’s what happened when someone died.

“How am I going to explain to Lorne that you died saving his life but it wasn’t you who did it?” Slightly chuckling Jack continued, “Here you are on Atlantis before you’ve ever been here, dead even though you’re alive.”

“What am I going to tell them?” He asked as a single tear fell. Jack then fell silent and knew that they had to leave soon; there was nothing more for them to accomplish here. Gently smiling, he leaned in to kiss her one last time and as he felt his lips touch hers he felt something change.

The Doctor stood silently on the balcony and watched the moon that had started to rise.

So many here wouldn’t see it again.

He felt bad for all those who had died fighting the Dalek’s, he always did whenever there was a fight; no matter how many times he tried to find a peaceful way to solve things.

But there was one death that he felt especially guilty over.

Max hadn’t even wanted to come along on the trip but both him and Jack had convinced her to. If he had just remembered her last words to him then maybe none of this wouldn’t of happened.

Elizabeth spotted the Doctor as she walked past and decided to join him, he had been sobered by the death of his friend as had Doctor Jones and Captain Harkness. She knew from Carson how lucky the Major was to be alive and wondered how it was considered fair that one man live while the other died. Stepping out, she walked up beside him while saying, “Lovely view isn’t it?”

“That it is.” The Doctor replied as he kept his gaze on the horizon.

They were silent for awhile until Elizabeth spoke up, “Plan on leaving soon?”

“Maybe in a few; I think that we should help with assessing the damage to the city. After all we did help cause it.”

“If you’d like. Most of it occurred in un-used sections of the city, nothing that was vital to the Expedition was damaged beyond repair.”

The Doctor didn’t respond to her comment and Elizabeth knew that he was trying but at the same time she needed to know if he could help them repair the fail-safe; it had been destroyed during the battle and so far Rodney wasn’t having any luck in figuring out how to start the repairs.

It was time to stop dancing around the issue and ask the question directly, “Doctor I-”

“Sorry but I can’t help you.” He replied, interrupting her.

“Can’t or won’t?”

The Doctor turned to look at her, “They’re gone so there’s no need to fix it; the temptation to use it again would be to great. It was only meant as a last resort when everything else had failed.”

“Yet before we could set the auto-destruct it-they took over.” Elizabeth replied a bit more sharply then she had intended. But it was true, before they could have used every last resource Captain Harkness and Miss Halliwell had taken matters into their own hands.

She looked into his eyes and saw that they burned with desire but were frigid with scorn. “You’re a man of many contradictions, Doctor.”

The Doctor gave Weir a smile, one that didn’t reach his eyes, and opened his mouth to reply when he stopped and looked towards the other side of the city.

Elizabeth followed his gaze while wondering what was happing now. Couldn’t they get at least a night’s rest before the next emergency? Then she heard movement beside her and turned in time to see the Doctor bolt inside, running down the hallway.

Standing there for a few seconds, she shook her head and slowly walked inside; there was plenty to do for now.

With each step the Doctor’s mind told him to go the opposite way, that he needed to run away from the morgue; not towards it. But at the same time he needed to see for himself that it was happening and not just some cruel mind game. His Converse’s slapped against the smooth floor of Atlantis as he weaved in and out of the people who were busy repairing the city.

Reaching a transporter, he stepped inside and pressed the area where he wanted to go, slightly bouncing up and down as he did. The journey took less then twenty seconds but to him it felt like years. Hardly waiting for the doors to open, he slithered through them and ran down the hall; skidding around the corners.

Arriving at the make-shift morgue, he skittered to a stop in the doorway and hesitated for a second; there was still time to grab Martha as well as Jack and get away from here. But he had made up his mind and once that was done the Doctor was hard pressed to change it.

Slowly stepping in, he looked towards the middle of the room and stopped just past the threshold; staring.

Jack was standing up and carrying Max, who was wrapped in the Captain’s coat.

She was alive.

As Jack stood he heard someone come in and looked up to see the Doctor enter. They exchanged looks, each speaking volumes without saying anything.

She was alive after being dead for two days.