"Are you all right?" Ian asked the boy, checking him carefully for any sign that he might have been hurt even as he asked the question.

"Yes."

He was dirty, had a number of scratches and his shirt and pants were ripped in a few places, but he didn't seem to be injured. At least not where it could be noticed. His gaze was older, however, and no longer as childish as Ian was sure it had been only a couple of months before. There wasn't much he could do about that, though. He could heal a body, but had very little to add when it came to healing the soul. What the boy needed most were his loved ones, not his namesake.

"We need to get you back to your folks," he said, resting his hand on his shoulder as they continued walking behind the Sub Commander and Andrew. He turned to Mitchell. "I'd like you to see personally that every one of the Corain are off this planet in an hour."

Cam nodded.

"I'll have Cassandra help us with that."

They could round up anyone who might have escaped detection the first time – although it was doubtful anyone had.

"Good. I'm going to have them beam the villagers back to their villages as soon as we get them checked over."

"There are probably going to be some injured that we'll need to take care of," Andrew added.

"We'll make sure they're all healthy before we go – and take the most serious of the injured back to the SGC if we need to."

"Unless they don't want to go," Ian reminded them.

"Of course."

The people of this planet had been forced to endure enough; they certainly didn't need to add to their ordeal.

While Mitchell separated himself from the others to call Cassandra and get them up to date on what was going on, Ian found Richard and walked with the old man, talking to the various men who were gathered together and dividing them all by which village they were from and whether or not they were injured too badly to return immediately.

Of the injured, most were simply dehydrated, underfed, and carried festering sores that came from being injured in the cave and not having proper medical treatment for those cuts and scrapes. The medics that joined Ian and Andrew administered antibiotics and canteens filled with good, fresh water. Coupled with Power bars and granola bars, these did wonders for the immediate health of many of the men, and no one was willing to be left behind when they started beaming people back to their homes.

A small group of soldiers went with each group; mainly to make an assessment of what kind of assistance each village would need so they could start requesting supplies from the SGC, but also to make sure that there were no lingering traps of any sort that might injure one of the indigenous people. The Corain were a vicious people, that was for sure, and Cam and Ian weren't going to take any chances with what might be.

Once Richard vanished, with an assurance from Ian that he'd be by shortly to check on the people of his village, Ian looked down at the boy, and at the small group of men who were left.

"Ready?"

The youngster nodded eagerly, even though the thought of vanishing into mid-air had to be a daunting one to someone so young and inexperienced with such things.

"Yes."

He'd mentioned that his mother had been hurt when he'd come looking for help, so Ian was going along with him to make sure Sabrina wasn't so badly injured that she wouldn't be able to look after her son. Ian had told Andrew it was because he didn't want to have the responsibility of looking after the boy himself, but Andrew had given him a knowing grin and had simply nodded. Seven Marines were assigned to join them, and the eighteen men from Allen's village all looked around nervously, waiting to vanish as so many of the others already had.

"Cassandra? This is Brooks. We're ready."

"Roger, Colonel Brooks. We're beaming you… now."

They didn't have time to feel anything before the scenery in front of them changed from the clearing they'd been in to the center of a fair-sized village. A large group of people were gathered around the edge of what was almost certainly some kind of outdoor market, and there were shouts of alarm as the men appeared from out of nowhere it seemed.

The shouts turned to excited murmuring and yelling when they were recognized, but one high-pitched call drew the attention of both man and boy.

"Ian!"

Both of them turned just in time to see a woman in a tattered dress scrambling towards them at an odd, fast limp. Her beautiful face was dirty and far more lined than it once had been, but Ian had no trouble recognizing the woman he'd met more than ten years ago. She reached them and dropped down to the ground in front of them, catching her son in a hard embrace that he returned just as fiercely.

"Mother…"

Ian suddenly had to clear his throat as he turned to the Marines he'd brought with him.

"Lieutenant? Set up a triage area. Have all the villagers come here if they need assistance, and if they have anyone missing."

"Aye, aye, sir."

He turned to round up his men and get things started, and Ian heard a low cry of dismay coming from behind him and turned back to the boy and his mother. It was hard to distinguish happy tears from sad tears, but there was no mistaking the shock in the boy's expression.

"What is it?" he asked, more to Sabrina than to her son.

"My father's dead," Ian told him, tears streaming down his dirty cheeks.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"Did they find all of them?"

"As far as we can tell they did."

McKay scowled.

"Well, make sure, okay? We don't want anyone hanging back and being left behind."

Jennifer Hailey's scowl was an easy match for McKay's.

"I assure you, doctor, I know what I'm doing."

"You're not the one doing the scanning, though," McKay pointed out, reasonably – at least, he thought he was being reasonable. "Your people are – and they're probably missing a boatload of bad guys."

"We're not missing anyone," Hailey told him, her expression clearly warning him not to continue the present line of conversation. McKay, of course, ignored the warning completely – and probably hadn't even seen it.

"I could help," he offered, ignoring the looks that her crew was sending his way. He'd been ignoring them ever since he'd insisted on coming to the bridge in the first place. "I've been slogging around on that planet for days. I know it like the back of my hand."

"We appreciate that, doctor," Hailey said, trying very hard to rein in her annoyance. "But-"

"Do you want the job done right?" McKay asked. "Because if you're willing to settle for half-assed, then you're welcomed to do it yourself. I, on the other hand, can-"

"Will someone please help Doctor McKay to the infirmary?" she asked, interrupting before he could really build up a head of steam.

There was a mad scramble as everyone in the area rushed to volunteer.