He walked up and settled himself on the edge of her bed, looking down at her. Melony smiled, reaching out with her uninjured hand and taking his.

"He's mad at me..."

Jack shook his head, knowing immediately who she was talking about.

"He's worried, that's all." He squeezed her hand, gently. "How do you feel?"

"Sore, but it's fading."

"Talon's taking care of it?"

She nodded.

"He's wearing out, though. There was a lot to fix, I guess, and he needs a break, so it'll be a while before I'm up and about."

"A while just being a few days?" Jack asked.

She nodded again.

"A definite advantage to having him. I wouldn't have survived this time."

"He got you into it in the first place," Jack said. "It's only fair he get you out."

"He didn't force me to do anything, Jack," She told him, smiling. "He could, I suppose, but there's no need to. We have the same agenda."

"To become a system lord?"

"Nah..." She shrugged, and winced. "I don't want to be a system lord, Jack. I want to be a regular person. But I will become one – at least for a while – to get rid of the rest of them."

"Are you going to be able to do that?" Jack asked. "It seems to me the surviving Goa'uld are going to let everyone know about that exploding weapon."

She shook her head, and he could tell that it hurt.

"I'm not sure. We'll have to think about it. Might need a new plan." But not just then. She couldn't focus her thoughts coherently just then.

"Well, we'll think about it," Jack said, standing up, and pulling her blankets up over her, and tucking them around her carefully. "You get some rest, okay? I'm going to go before Doctor Fraiser can come and kick me out."

She nodded and closed her eyes. "I always knew you were smarter than you looked, Jack."

"Yeah, well... don't spread it around."

He turned and left the room, smiling. It was good to have her back.

.........................

"So she's going to make a full recovery?" Hammond asked.

The group was sitting around the briefing table, and Fraiser had just given a report on Melony's condition.

"Yes, Sir. She just needs a little recovery time." Janet said. "A day, maybe two. Talon's done a lot."

"He always has had extremely effective healing abilities," Jacob said, although they were fairly certain the information was coming from Selmak.

Hammond nodded. The faster the better as far as he was concerned.

"What did she say about the ambush?"

"Nothing much, Sir," Jack said. "We weren't allowed to stay and chat. She did mention that she might need a new plan, but I don't think she has one."

"I'll bet they do," Jacob disagreed.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"Talon's the real brains behind this." Jacob said, shrugging. "The original plan was his, and the technology is his. While she's resting and sleeping off the hurt, he's going to be considering all this. By the time she's awake and ready to get on her feet, he'll have had a chance to consider things through, and probably will know what he thinks they should do."

"Then we'll wait and see what he comes up with," Hammond decided. "And hopefully this time, we'll have a chance to have a bigger role in this one."

"Yeah, let's hope," Jack said. He, for one, had every intention of being part of whatever plan that came up.

"Jacob?" Hammond turned to his friend. "Are you going to be here?"

The Tok'ra nodded.

"I'm going to wait around until we can find out what – if anything – Talon and Mitchell come up with. That way I can make sure if we need to pass on any information, I'll be handy to do it." Besides, it'd give him a chance to spend time with Sam. Something he didn't do enough of.

"We'll set up quarters for you," Hammond promised, standing up. "We'll meet back here when we have more to discuss," He told them.

"Thanks, George."

Hammond left, effectively ending the briefing, and Jack looked over at Sam.

"How did you know Fugly was booby trapped?"

She gave him a questioning look. "Fugly?"

"Melony's ship."

Sam smiled, remembering what that stood for. Apparently Jack had named Colonel Mitchell's little ship, even if Melony hadn't.

"I read it in the information she sent home with me. It has an energy shield on it that is exactly what she told you it is. Something like a giant bug zapper. If you touch it, it can kill you, or it can just knock you out. Depending on how much you can take. It's somewhat linked to the same technology as a zat gun, only there isn't the whole one shot stuns, two kills, and three disintegrates you thing."

"Impressive."

"And very necessary when dealing with a race that loves to steal technology and make it their own. No one's going to steal that little ship, and use it against her."

"True."

While they'd been discussing that, Anderson turned to Fraiser.

"Can I go visit Colonel Mitchell?"

"Not until she's had a chance to rest, Major." Fraiser said, shaking her head. "After she wakes up, depending on how she feels, we'll try to let you spend a little time with her." It was really no secret that Anderson and Mitchell were an item, after all.

"Anderson? Why don't you go let your team know she's here?" Jack said. "I'm sure they'll want a chance to say hi and do some gossiping."

"Yes, Sir." He smiled, because he knew Simmons and Williams would definitely want to know she was in the infirmary. Anderson stood up and left the room, and the rest of the group did the same thing only moments later. Sam wanted to get back to looking at the notes she had, Jacob was going to go get settled and maybe get a bite to eat or go do some gossiping of his own with Hammond, ad the others had things they could be doing as well, besides sitting around. Fraiser, especially, wanted to go back to the infirmary and check on her newest patient.