Author's Note: Okay, this is an AU, remember.... Which means my version of the Atlantis story is going to be a little different than the TV version. (Mainly because there is no Goa'uld threat, obviously) so no correcting me!

OOOOOoOOOOOO

"Atlantis?"

Jack and Mitchell both looked at Daniel with varying expressions. Jack's was skeptical. Mitchell's was curious.

"Yeah."

"You mean you actually did it?" Mitchell asked, her eyes actually showing an interest in something for the first time since she'd come home for Brad's funeral. "You sent a group there?"

Jack nodded.

"We did, but we don't know how they're doing. We haven't heard back from them. For all we know, they're dead."

"Or they're running out of food and waiting for us to send them more."

"Or they're dead."

"I'm sure they're alive, Jack. But we won't know for sure until we send someone."

"Yeah? And say we send Melony? How is she going to get home?" He scowled. "For that matter, how is she going to get there? We don't have any more of those ZPM things, remember?"

"What are you guys talking about?" Mitchell asked.

Jack took a sip of his coffee.

"We figured out – well, not me, of course, but everyone else did – the address to what they think is Atlantis."

"Yeah, I remember you mentioning that to me... You weren't sure about a power source to get there, though, right?"

"Or to get back. We didn't want it to be a one-way trip, after all."

"So you found a power source?"

This was all news to her. She'd been so busy with her own consolidating that she'd only had time to barely listen to what had been going on in the SGC – except what Brad had been doing, of course.

"We did. But all we had was enough energy to get it to dial the gate once, and we didn't have another one to let them use to dial themselves home. We were hoping they'd find more of the ZPMs on the other side."

"And they haven't?"

"We don't know," Daniel said, speaking up for the first time. "We haven't heard from them, yet, so we have to assume they haven't."

"Or that they're dead," Jack said. "We know the room they gated to was safe enough for them – viable atmosphere and all that – we just don't know what else was there..."

"You sent scientists?"

"We sent scientists, Military and put them all under the command of Doctor Elizabeth Weir."

Mitchell didn't know the name, but that wasn't a big shock to her.

"A civilian?"

"Yeah."

"How long have they been missing?"

"We sent them a week before... the accident."

Melony felt that oh-so familiar ache, and she bowed her head under the weight of her grief for a long moment.

"So if they're alive, they probably need resupplied..."

"If they're alive." Jack said.

"And we're not sure how to dial there without another ZPM. The one we have is pretty close to being depleted." Daniel added.

"I could go check on them... and take supplies to them..." It was perfect, as far as Melony was concerned. How much further could she get from Earth than that?

"We're not going to keep sending team after team," Jack told her. "I'm not going to keep risking people on –"

"I don't need you to send a team with me, Jack."

"If they're dead – or they've moved on to someplace else for some reason – you're going to need backup."

"No. I have Talon. I don't need anything."

"It's too dangerous."

"And ambushing the entire Goa'uld system lord contingent wasn't?"

Jack scowled.

"I didn't want to let you do that, remember?"

"But it worked." She countered. "And I lived, and Daniel lived, and now we don't have any more Goa'uld to worry about, do we?"

"It's not the same."

"Sure it is." She was actually getting excited about this, although she wasn't letting it show too much.

"We can't gate you there, Melony," Daniel said. "We don't have enough power left in the ZPM."

"I bet Talon and I could rig something up with our remaining crystals. Something to enhance what little power is left in the thing."

Jack wouldn't take that bet. He was sure they could, too. He hadn't even thought to ask them.

"It's too dangerous..."

"I want to go."

"You might never come back."

"I'll come back. And I'll bring them back, too."

Jack frowned, and Melony watched him as he tried to make a decision that he'd probably end up regretting.

"Can you keep in touch with us through the wrist things?" Jack asked.

Daniel already knew that answer, even as Melony shook her head.

"Probably not. It's pretty far, right?" She asked Daniel.

"Pegasus," he confirmed.

Melony shook her head. "No."

"So we wouldn't be able to check on you..."

"You sent that other group, knowing you wouldn't be able to check on them."

"That's different. They weren't going alone."

"Neither am I."

"Talon's not backup, Melony. He's just health insurance."

"Which is more than they have, right?" She asked.

He nodded, grudgingly.

"So send me, with a ton of supplies to replace what they've already used. If all else fails, at least they'll have one more person helping them try to find a way home."

"Or you'll be stuck there all alone..."

"With a ton of supplies, and as much chance of figuring out a way home as anyone." She told him. "I can get home. You just have to send me there."

"You don't even want to see Atlantis," Jack said, exasperated.

"No. I just want to be anywhere but here." She wasn't going to lie to him. She never lied to him.

"We don't even know if we can send her, Jack," Daniel said. "Why don't we see what she and Talon can do? If all else fails, maybe we can at least get hold of them through an open gate to find out of they're okay?"

Jack shrugged.

"Fine. We'll see if you can rig something up. But no promises."

"Fine."

If they could rig something up, Melony was going to go through it – whether Jack wanted her to, or not.