Author's note: This chapter might be a little short.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

The medics stripped Mitchell out of her uniform and put her into bed; hooking her up to two separate monitors so that they could track Talon and Melony both. Beckett couldn't find anything wrong with Talon – not that he could have done anything to help the symbiote anyways – but Melony was another matter.

She was completely unresponsive to his touch, and appeared to be almost catatonic. He didn't have much experience dealing with someone who'd been attacked physically by the Wraith like she had been, and someone who had actually been touched and who knew how long the Wraith had fed on her? He didn't know how that would affect her mind – but he could see the damage done to her body, and he had to be content with just dealing with that and hoping that her symbiote would be able to take care of the rest.

He gave her a hefty painkiller, knowing that the wound to her side was going to really hurt if she woke up any time soon, and then coated it heavily with an antibiotic before putting a loose dressing on it. The wound was raw and red and he could only hope their antibiotics were enough to hold back any alien infection – or that it would do the trick until Talon could step in and take care of the injury himself.

They started IVs to keep her fluid intake level, and then put her in one of the small rooms off to the side of the infirmary that they had mapped out for an isolation room but had never had to use yet, covered her warmly and continued to monitor her progress.

OOOOOOOOOO

"How is she?"

Sheppard had been the one to ask the question, but everyone in the small group gathered outside the infirmary was obviously wondering the same thing.

Beckett shrugged.

"I'm not sure, yet. Talon seems to be fine – and I hope to God he is, because Melony's not going to recover without some help." He looked at Sheppard. "How long did the Wraith have her?"

John shrugged and shook his head.

"A few minutes – maybe five."

"How long do you think it takes to do irreparable damage?" McKay asked.

"I don't know."

"Is she going to be all right?" Weir asked.

"I don't know."

"Can I see her?"

"No. She's going to need rest – and I don't want anyone close to her until I have a chance to see if Talon's going to be able to heal her."

"How long will that take?" McKay asked him.

Beckett shrugged. He didn't know enough about the symbiote – or about how it was doing. That made it impossible to even make a guess.

"I don't know."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"There isn't even anything I can do, Major," he said, showing his own very real frustration, although he hid his fear well. Doctors were good at that, after all. "I'll keep you informed."

That was clearly a dismissal, and they all knew it. Beckett went back into the infirmary, closing the door behind him, leaving them all in the hallway.

"What happened, Major?" Weir asked. "Did the technology she was trying to use fail?"

Sheppard shook his head.

"We got there while it was happening, but it looked like she was holding her own against the Wraith form what I could see. She definitely knocked him backwards a couple times, and she didn't look like she was having any trouble."

"Right up until the shielding device turned off and the Wraith got hold of her," Rodney corrected.

"Yeah."

"It just turned off?"

"Yes."

"I wonder if the Wraith was able to control it?"

"The Wraith don't have the ability to control the Ancient's technology," Rodney said, confidently as they all started walking away from the infirmary. "If they did, then the Jumpers would be falling from the sky. Mitchell turned the thing off herself – she had to."

"Why would she do something like that?"

"Well, that's the million dollar question, isn't it? And not one we'll be able to ask her until she wakes up."

"So the Goa'uld technology works?" Weir asked. If it did, then that was a weakness they'd found that they might be able to exploit. Of course, they didn't have a lot of Goa'uld technology, but any little advantage was that much more than they had now.

"The zat certainly did," Sheppard said. "There were two of them and they both vanished."

"We don't know if the second shot kills, though. And the first shot definitely knocked them back, but not for long."

"Well, I'm not going back to find out," John said.

"Me, either." Ford nodded his agreement.

"We'll wait and see what Colonel Mitchell can tell us when she wakes up," Weir told them as they reached the command center.

"If she wakes up."

Leave it to McKay to voice the thing they were all thinking.