The bullet hit. There was no way it could possibly miss from the distance between Melony and Elizabeth. But even as it struck, Mitchell's momentum was carrying her into Weir, knocking them both to the floor. The impact sent the Beretta sliding across the room, and with Talon in control; Melony struck Elizabeth hard, knocking her unconscious.

She slumped to the floor, a fairly nasty welt already forming on her forehead.

You hit her pretty hard…

She'll be fine

Talon had centuries of experience with blows like that, after all. Weir would wake with a headache, but no loss of motor skills or memory.

Melony stood up, zat still out although the sounds of gunfire had stopped. Ford came rushing over with Murphy and the two of them caught her as she swayed.

"Colonel?"

"I'm all right, Lieutenant," she told him, pulling away. "Let's find Sheppard."

"He's in here," came Ronon's call from the other room, and the three of them hurried to join him.

Ronon was kneeling on the floor beside a very battered and bloodied John Sheppard, who was clearly unconscious – which was probably for the best. His face was a bruised, bloody mess and there was evidence of at least one gunshot wound, to judge by all the blood soaking one of his pant legs.

"Is he alive?" Mitchell asked, coming over and kneeling down as well, her own bloody hand reaching for Sheppard's neck to find a pulse.

Ronon nodded.

"Can we move him?"

You'd better, came Talon's reply. He's lost a lot of blood

Melony nodded her agreement, but the others hadn't heard the comment so they merely thought she was answering Ronon.

"Let's get him to the infirmary," she said, moving back so Ford and Ronon could heave Sheppard up, draping him over Ronon's powerful shoulders in a fireman carry. Sheppard didn't even grunt.

"You're hurt," Ronon said, noticing the splash of blood on the front of her uniform for the first time.

"Talon can handle it."

Oh sure… Talon can handle it…

Can't you?

Well, yeah…

She keyed her communications.

"Rodney?"

"McKay here… did you get him?"

She looked over just in time to see Ronon heading out the door, leaving the cleanup to the rest of them while he delivered Sheppard to the infirmary.

"Yeah, we got him."

There was a slight pause, which Mitchell knew was relief, and then it was Grodin's voice that came over the city's communications, his voice muffled by the gas mask he wore.

"Colonel, we can read life forms from here, but not individuals…"

"Then we'll track down our people and see about getting them into restraints while Beckett finds a cure."

"We don't have the manpower to do that," McKay protested.

"We can't bring in anyone else until we're sure there's no danger of them getting infected," Melony pointed out. "Have someone come up here and take over the control room, and the rest of us can meet at the infirmary and start collecting people."

She wanted a chance to check on John before they started.

You'll need to get something to stop the bleeding, too, Talon told her. He was already numbing her pain, and luckily the bullet wound wasn't very deep, so she wasn't going to be too hampered by the injury. Which was just as well, since they were going to need all available hands.

She turned off the radio before he could argue anymore – although he was almost definitely grumbling on his end – and looked over at Ford.

"I want you to guard the control room, Lieutenant. Just in case someone managed to slip past the gas."

Ford nodded, raising his weapon a little.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Murphy, you're with me."

Leaving the control room with its little army of slumped over scientists and military officers to Ford, she headed down to the infirmary to check on Sheppard and Duck.

OOOOOOOOO

When Ronon arrived at the infirmary, Beckett was just finishing up with Sergeant Sanchez. Carson and the others were all wearing gas masks, too, now, since Ford had called down to them to warn them about Sheppard's injuries and they absolutely had to unseal the infirmary to allow Ronon in with him.

"Bring him over here," Carson ordered, gesturing to a clean table with surgical equipment all around it.

As Ronon complied, the doctor was already assessing Sheppard's condition. He looked bad, but it might not be as terrible as it seemed. Rodney had mentioned that Sheppard had been shot twice, but as the clothing started coming off, Carson could only see one gunshot wound – and it was in the upper thigh. Bloody messy, but not life threatening as long as he hadn't lost too much blood. The lacerations on his face were nasty, too, and there would be considerable bruising by the time things had run their course, but bruises weren't life threatening, either. Usually.

"How did it go?" he asked as he started clearing away the blood to get a better look at the injuries on Sheppard's face.

Ronon shrugged.

"Better than I expected."

"No other injuries?"

"Mitchell took a bullet."

"What?"

"Weir shot her. She's okay, though. Said Talon could handle it."

"Elizabeth shot her?" Carson echoed, amazed. Sure, he knew that they were all acting erratically, but it was inconceivable that Elizabeth would actually shoot anyone.

"She's okay," Ronon repeated, assuming the doctor was worried about Mitchell. "Should be here any minute."

"What about Elizabeth?"

"We just left everyone where they were," came the answer – this time from Melony who had just arrived. "We'll go collect them as soon as everyone gets here – and we have some gurneys to put them on since I don't feel like toting them all over the city."

"You will have a cure?" Ronon asked pointedly.

Carson nodded, looking over at Melony even while he worked on Sheppard. It was easy to see where she'd been shot – lower side – but it was just as apparent that Talon had things well in hand (metaphorically speaking). She definitely wasn't in much pain.

"I'll start in on it as soon as I'm done here…"

"We'll keep everyone tied down until then," Melony told him. "Just to be on the safe side."

Which was fine with Beckett.