Ronon remained in the infirmary for almost another hour until all the children had been seen, including Rula, the little girl with the broken wrist. He checked Jen on his way out and found her sleeping fitfully. After asking Marie, nicely, to let him know if her condition changed, he gathered his charges and returned them to the hastily prepared childcare facilities, then went looking for his team leader. Bearing in mind the time, he decided the Mess Hall was the obvious starting place, correctly as it turned out. He collected a tray, strode over to the rest of his teams table and sat down with a sigh.

"Hey Big Guy" came Sheppard's usual greeting. "You slept yet?"

"I'll catch up in a while. Have you seen Carter already?"

"No, she was up to her neck requesting extra supplies from Earth. The arrival of this many injured has put a strain on resources. She doesn't want us running out of any drugs anytime soon, plus she thought she'd try and get clothes and toys for the kids we're not going to be able to send home. They could be with us for a while".

"Do you think there will be many of them?" Rodney asked, very quietly.

"I wish I knew Rodney. So many of the kids are traumatised, some of them can't even tell us where they're from. I think we're talking a fairly long process here".

"What about the 2 who claim to be Satedan?" Rodney asked, turning to Ronon.

"They haven't been tested yet. I was going to wait for Jennifer to do it, they seem to like her. But now..."

"When Kazy was brought through the Gate, she was given into my care", Teyla began. "She was clearly frightened but she did volunteer some information, though of course I have no way to verify if she was telling the truth or not. She told me that she was 5 years old, Penta was 7 and that they did not live on Sateda".

"I guessed that they were not old enough to have been on Sateda before the attack" interrupted Ronon.

"When the slavers took them, they were living with their parents on a planet called Castin in a small village. The adults were all rounded up and executed. Kazy said that they took her, Penta and 5 other children – one of those did not survive the camp".

"Penta has been a real help" added Sheppard. "He seems to be a natural leader. The other kids listen to him and he's managed to find out quite a few names and home planets".

Rodney stood up abruptly. "Got to go, City to run and all that. See you guys later" he said as he hurried away.

The 3 remaining diners watched him leave in silence. He spoke to no-one on his way out, brushing past Radek when his friend tried to stop him for a chat.

"You are worried about him" observed Teyla, looking at Sheppard.

"Yeah. I don't think I've ever seen him this quiet before. Thinking about it though, he's the one with a child relative, not us. He's probably thinking what if...? The best thing we can do, seeing as we're without a psychologist at the moment, is keep him busy and wait for the breakdown or explosion, whichever comes first. Now though, I've got to see Carter. Anybody coming?"

"Might as well" growled Ronon "Not much else to do".

"I am going to see the children, so I will talk to you later" answered Teyla.

The 3 of them left the Mess Hall, though John Sheppard stopped and whispered a few words to Radek on his way. Radek nodded before continuing with his meal, and Sheppard and Ronon headed off to Col. Carter's office.

When they got there, Sam looked frazzled – there was no other word for it.

"Have I ever told you just how much I hate having to deal with the IOA – that load of pompous, overbearing, penny pinching, idiotic...".

John cut her off before she really said something hat would, no doubt, find its way back to Earth. None of the senior staff were under any illusions – they certainly had IOA spies on Atlantis.



"So I take it that things went well with them" he smirked.

"Actually" she replied "it was no worse than usual. I just felt like venting and they were a convenient target". She motioned for the 2 men to sit and then continued, "Have you got any good news for me?"

"Okay, the final count for the rescued children was 162, that includes our 2 'Satedans'. Only a handful are not malnourished – they must have been captured very recently. More than half are suffering some kind of injury – whether it's broken bones, cuts and bruises, or lash marks like Keller. Of course there are also a lot of infections".

"We really aren't set up to deal with this many children".

"Should she have ignored them then, left them behind?" asked Ronon angrily.

"Of course not. I'm not angry at Jennifer or the decisions and promises she made. I'm angry at the slavers for creating this problem in the first place" Sam replied, just as angrily.

"On the upside" John said, trying to calm the situation, "Penta is compiling info and hopefully we might be able to start contacting families within the next few days. At least some will be able to go home. The rest, well we're working on that. The other good news is that the Doc woke up, if it was only for a short time. The bad news is that McKay is not handling this whole thing. We're going to have to watch him closely over the next few weeks".

"Okay, I'll make a point to do that. Maybe Radek can..."

"Already had a quiet word with him, but told him not to spread it around".

"Right. So did you speak to Dr Keller at all?"

"Gave her an update on the kids, don't know how much actually registered. She seemed a bit confused, suppose it's all the painkillers she's on".

Sam turned to Ronon. "Have you anything to add, Ronon? I understand you were there when she woke up".

Ronon took a moment to answer. Should he tell Carter that Jen didn't want to go back to Earth, or keep quiet for now and see what happened? In the end, all he said was "No".

"Dr Jenkins called me just before you arrived and updated me on her medical condition, which frankly could have been a lot worse. She's going to be out of commission for at least a couple of weeks. Under the circumstances, I've had no choice but to make Jenkins Acting CMO until she has recovered. It's not ideal, personally I can't stand the guy, but he is next in seniority".

"I wish we'd got there sooner" sighed Sheppard "She took one hell of a beating before she made a sound. Think she surprised a lot of people with her courage".

"Yeah" observed Ronon, as Sam just nodded in agreement.

After a few moments Sam spoke again. "Well, for now, she's in the best place possible and we've got work to do. Start getting Gate addresses, or at least planet names and I'll psych myself up to play diplomat".

As the 2 men left her office, Sheppard turned and grinned at her saying, "Rather you than me".

"Yeah. Well you can do it next time" laughed Sam.