"How is she doing?"

Carson looked over at the sound of Weir's voice, surprised by her sudden appearance. He'd been so intent on the monitors that he hadn't heard her enter the infirmary.

"She's sleeping."

"And the symbiote?"

The medics had told her that most of the concern was centered around the symbiote – which had apparently been the target of the beam, as McKay had suggested.

Beckett pointed to one of the monitors.

"It's doing a lot better than it was when they were admitted, but I'm not sure if the readings I have now are normal for a symbiote or not, so I'm just going to have to wait until she wakes up again, and hopefully she'll be able to tell me."

"Again?" Weir asked, looking down at the sleeping woman. She was probably a bit younger than herself – she certainly looked younger – but who knew? "She woke up?"

"Only for a minute. She was in a lot of pain."

"Did she say anything?"

Beckett shook his head.

"Nothing worth writing to mother about. Just asked where she was, and who I was..."

"I see. Any clue when she'll wake?"

He shook his head.

"Did you give her anything to make her sleep?"

"I haven't given her anything. I don't know what she can, and what she can't, have. When she wakes up next I'll find out." He sighed in frustration. "I didn't even think of doing any research on taking care of Goa'uld, you know? I should have, but I didn't. I was too busy with-"

"There was no reason you'd ever think you'd have needed it, Carson," Weir told him. "The Tok'ra on Earth aren't on Earth often, and they never need doctors – that's the whole point of the symbiote, right? And it's not like you could just ask one to let you study him or her. They're almost definitely not in the modern journal of medical research, are they?"

He shook his head.

Weir patted his shoulder.

"I'm sure you're doing fine. Just let me know when she wakes, please?"

"I will."

Elizabeth turned and walked out of the infirmary, leaving the Doctor to his vigil.

OOOOOOOO

"How is she? Can I see her now?"

She frowned.

"Rodney, she's not awake yet, so no, you can't see her."

The Astrophysicist made an impatient noise, and turned his back on her, but he only moved about three steps down the hall before turning and once more leaning against the wall, obviously planning on waiting right there.

"Have you figured out the beam?"

"What?" he looked up at her, and made another impatient noise. "Of course I have. It's just what I thought it was. Some kind of anti-Goa'uld device, used to keep them from forcing their way into the city using the Stargate."

"Did you disable it?"

"No, Elizabeth. I thought it'd be entertaining to see Colonel Mitchell get zapped every time she walked into a new room."

Weir scowled. If it weren't for the fact that she needed him, she'd have shot him out a torpedo tube weeks ago. Of course, they hadn't found any torpedo tubes, but that was beside the point, wasn't it?

"Did Beckett say when she might wake up?" Sheppard asked. The Major had walked to the infirmary with Weir, but hadn't gone in since he hadn't wanted to be in the way. Besides, the whole snake inside the Colonel thing was kind of weird and he wasn't sure what he would have said if Mitchell had been awake. 'How's the snake'?

Weir shook her head.

"He's not sure, but he did say she was awake for a couple of minutes, so that's probably a good sign."

"Probably."

"I'm going to go check on the supplies. It looks like there's a whole stack of stuff that belongs to Colonel Mitchell, so you can help me decide where to put her when she gets out of the infirmary."

"Well, that should be difficult..." Sheppard said, sarcastically. There were tons of rooms open, still.

Weir smiled, and the two of them turned to go.

"Rodney?"

"What?"

"Don't pester Doctor Beckett."

McKay gave her an annoyed look, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I wasn't planning on it, Elizabeth."

"Well... don't."

She and Sheppard headed down the hall, and McKay snorted.

"Pester..." He stepped a little closer, and leaned against the wall, trying to peek into the door, and mumbling to himself. "I don't pester people..."

OOOOOOOO

She felt him stirring, and it pulled her from her sleep.

Talon?

Here

How are you?

I feel like shit he complained

Mitchell couldn't help the mirth that bubbled up inside her, despite the fact that he was still aching enough to make her ache, too. He'd spent entirely too long with her, that was for sure. She was corrupting him. She felt annoyance from him for a moment, then he, too, found the humor in his statement, and the two were quiet for a moment, silently giggling like a couple of children.

What happened?

I'm not sure. Something attacked you when we came through the gate.

She gave him a moment to sort through her own memories, knowing it'd be easier for him to learn what she knew if he took it from her mind. She couldn't really remember all that much that had happened, anyways, and it was almost like she was reliving the events as he went through them. The pain was remembered as agonizing, then her awakening and short conversation with the doctor, and then Melony's own inner explorations into the link the two of them shared, and her subsequent healing of his injuries.

How did you figure that out? He asked her, genuinely impressed with his host. As far as he knew, a host had never healed the symbiote before.

I don't know. It just made sense when I thought about it.

You did good, Hot Shot

You're going to be all right?

Yup

Then how about doing something about my headache?

There was a flash of amusement.

Give me a bit, okay? I'm not quite at one hundred percent, yet.

Slacker.