It wasn't all that much of a surprise that nobody caught her. It wasn't as if she'd radioed them and said that she was coming through at that moment and that she was going to be just to the left of the center of the gate or anything. She did go through slightly sideways, figuring that if she did fall – and she expected to fall – that she'd at least land on her uninjured shoulder.

When she materialized on the other side of the Stargate, she had a glimpse of a large crowd of people right before she fell, landing with a grunt on her side. It was small consolation that she landed exactly as she'd planned. It still hurt, after all. But not as bad as the landing in the haystack had.

She closed her eyes for a minute, trying to force the sting to go away and biting back yet another curse as she felt gentle hands on her.

"Colonel Mitchell..."

She opened her eyes and saw Elizabeth Weir kneeling beside her, looking at her in concern.

"What happened?"

"You'll never believe it..." she said, trying to sit up.

"Easy..."

The voice behind her was just as concerned as Weir's look, and was in a lilting brogue that gave away the owner immediately – which also told her whose hands were holding her down.

"Wait until I have a chance to check you out," Carson Beckett said.

"I'm fine," she told him, turning her head slightly so she could see him. His eyes were worried and relieved at the same time. "Help me sit up, please?"

"You're sure?"

Of course she was. She had Talon, after all, and he'd have told her if something had been broken or injured that hadn't been before. She didn't say that, though.

"Yeah."

Weir and Beckett helped her sit up, and Melony winced when he accidentally jarred her shoulder.

"What's wrong with Major Sheppard and the others?" Weir asked.

"We can't get them to wake up, but I can't find anything wrong with them aside from a few bumps and cuts – except for the broken wrist you warned me about," Beckett added.

"They're drunk."

"Excuse me?" Weir said, incredulously.

"Drunk," Mitchell repeated, rubbing her forehead. "The farmers threw a party last night and they had this drink that was-"

"You can tell us all about that later," Beckett told her, waving over a couple of medics with a gurney. "I want to get you to the infirmary and get you checked out."

She was all for that. And so was Talon, who'd be able to do more to help her now that she was going to be still for a while.

The medics picked her up carefully and placed her on the gurney.

"Is that leg broken?" Beckett asked, running his hand carefully along the splinted leg.

Mitchell nodded.

"And the shoulder? Broken?"

"No, I was... um... stabbed. Sort of."

"How do you get sort of stabbed?" He asked her as the gurney started moving and they rolled her out of the embarkation area of the command center. Mitchell saw that there were bags of supplies everywhere – grain and meat that would be taken care of now that all the human elements of the team were back safely.

"A giant bird grabbed me and a talon missed my vest and went right through my shoulder."

She didn't need to see his face to know he was wearing a look of disbelief. She could tell by the sudden silence as he walked beside the gurney.

"A giant bird...?"

She nodded.

"You mean it landed on your shoulder and clawed you?"

"I mean it picked me up and carried me for-"

He reached out and touched her cheek, then her forehead, obviously checking for a fever. Mitchell couldn't be annoyed; she knew it was unbelievable. But she had witnesses – as soon as they woke up and backed her story.

"Are you feeling all right, Melony? They didn't give you anything to eat or drink that smelled funny? Or give you anything to smoke...?"

She smiled, pulling her head away from his touch and taking his hand.

"I know it sounds weird, Carson."

"Unbelievable, you mean."

"That, too." She nodded, squeezing his hand, lightly. "But it happened, and when the others wake up you can ask them. For now, though, I just want a chance to rest, and something for my shoulder."

"What about your leg?"

"That, too, but Ford set it already, and Talon deadened the nerves to it so I wouldn't be completely incapacitated."

"I'll still x-ray it, just to make sure the leg is straight. How did you break it?"

She gave him a wry smile, "The giant bird dropped me."

Carson shook his head, and let go of her hand long enough to check for a fever once more.

"I can't wait to hear this report..."

"I'll be happy to let you listen in on it. But first, I need a lot of aspirin and a big pot of coffee."