"I'm fine."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"So let me up."

The corpsman shook his head.

"Not a chance."

Weir scowled.

"I'm fine, Lieutenant. Let me up."

"Not until Doctor Beckett tells me to, Ma'am."

The lieutenant was the soul of courtesy, but the staff in the infirmary was drastically depleted and he didn't have a lot of time to debate the issue with Weir – and every other person they had in the room. The only two people who weren't telling him they were fine were Sheppard and Sanchez.

"I'm sure he'd say it was okay, Lieutenant. I'm fine…"

"I'm sure he would, Ma'am. But he's not here, and I'm not letting you up."

Elizabeth Weir knew patronization when she heard it, and she wasn't amused.

"This is ridiculous! I have things that need to be done! Let me up, Lieutenant, and that's an order."

The corpsman couldn't help it. He smirked. Two full days of listening to everyone under the sun starting to get better – and promptly starting to order him around and demand to be let up – was wearing on him.

"With all due respect, Ma'am, you're not my commanding officer. I don't have to let you up and I won't until Doctor Beckett says I can. If you have a problem with that, feel free to bring it up with him. Until then, you will stay where you are, and I have plenty of assistants who are willing to enforce that if need be."

He glanced over at the main entrance to the infirmary where two Jaffa were standing guard, watching over the room and making sure that no one caused any trouble for the medical staff while they took care of their increasingly annoyed patients.

Weir followed his gaze and scowled again.

"I never should have let Mitchell bring the Jaffa to Atlantis…"

The medic snorted, and turned his attention to her wrists, checking for chafing from the restraints that kept her in her bed.

"I'm glad you did."

OOOOOOOOOOO

Completely unaware that she was being discussed, Melony Mitchell looked over Carson Beckett's shoulder as he studied his most recent lab results.

"So what do you think?" she asked, knowing that she'd already asked that question several times and was probably annoying him. She just couldn't help herself.

Luckily, Beckett understood completely and wasn't annoyed.

"This latest batch is promising." He gestured to the stack of papers on his right. "Doctor Weir's brain patterns and chemistry appear to be well within normal ranges, now."

McKay, who had been standing close by as well, sighed in relief.

"So we can let them up?"

"I didn't say that, Rodney."

"You said they were normal," Melony replied before McKay could. "Doesn't that mean that they're okay, now?"

Beckett shrugged.

"Probably. But I want to give it one more day – just to make sure."

McKay made an exasperated noise.

"There's such a thing as being too cautious, Carson."

"No, Rodney, there isn't. Not in my line of work. With a new bacterium involved, I want to make sure that there isn't the chance of a reinfection – and with Ronon still on the treatment; I don't want any cross contamination issues. I can avoid that by keeping everyone right where they are for another day."

Melony nodded.

"Makes sense."

Of course, in her line of work there was no such thing as too cautious, either, so she understood completely.

Rodney rolled his eyes, but he didn't object. Not that it would have made a difference anyways, since he had no authority in Carson's domain.

Beckett looked relieved that he wasn't going to have to argue with anyone.

"You'll keep the Jaffa in the infirmary?" he asked her.

"As long as you need them."

"So we'll let them up tomorrow?" McKay asked.

Carson frowned.

"What's the hurry, Rodney? Got a hot date with one of them?"

McKay flushed, suddenly uncomfortable.

"No. Of course not. I mean, not that I don't date… I could, you know. I just… well… I have something else-"

"It wouldn't have anything to do with wanting to go back and finish your visit with the Light Ones, would it?" Carson asked, enjoying the flustered stammering.

Rodney shrugged.

"It might."

While it was obvious that Beckett was assuming that McKay was eager to get back to cash in on the open nature of the Light Ones – at least, the females – Melony had a feeling it wasn't that simple. Or physical.

"You want to get back and see the kids, don't you?"

"What? No."

"Oh really?"

"Yes, really. I just want to get back and… let them know everything's okay here."

Carson smiled, amused to see a different side of McKay than the usual self-centered and egotistical one he usually presented – and surprised that it really did exist.

"You do want to see the kids, don't you?"

"You know, I don't have to put up with this," McKay told them, annoyed. "I just thought-"

"You old softie, you…" Melony said, grinning. "Who'd have thought you had so much-"

"Shouldn't you be going to get Jinto?" he asked, interrupting.

"What?"

"You know? The boy you left on-"

"Oh, crap."

She'd forgotten all about Jinto.

McKay's expression was as smug as Melony had ever seen it.

"Guess I won't being going back alone, will I?"

Bah.