Mercifully, it was Talon who pointed out to Melony what she was doing long before she would have wakened up to notice herself. Once he told her, though, she was immediately aware of Carson's reaction, and wondered how she'd missed it. Of course, the answer was that she'd been more asleep than awake, but it wasn't an excuse for teasing him, and she stopped what she was doing, holding her hand still as she opened her eyes and looked at him.

"I'm sorry..."

"I'm not." He told her, honestly. It was true, after all. He'd let her do that all day if she wanted, and never expect a thing from her. It was the pleasure and joy of the touch he was after when it came to Melony, after all, not necessarily the completion.

She smiled, grateful that he was so forgiving, and cuddled close for a long moment while he relaxed a bit and she finished waking up enough to want a cup of coffee. Eventually, when his heart stopped racing quite so fast, he kissed her softly.

"I'm glad you came back last night."

"Me too."

"How did you do?"

Meaning, how did she handle it.

"It was scary at first..." she admitted, candidly. "But..." she ran her hand along his side. "I'm getting better at it."

He chuckled, and caught her hand.

"If you keep that up, I'm going to end up breaking my promise to you," he chided her, gently. "Are you awake enough to start your day?"

She nodded. More or less.

"Are you?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm definitely awake." If he hadn't been originally, he definitely was, now.

"Hungry?"

"I could eat. How about you?"

She nodded.

"I'm going to go back to my quarters and get changed. How about I meet you for breakfast in half an hour?"

"Sounds good."

He caught her face in his hands and kissed her – a deep, lingering kiss that took her breath away – one she returned willingly.

"I'll see you soon, okay?"

She nodded, and he slipped out from under the blankets and headed for the door. Melony kept her eyes open just long enough to see him out, then closed them and dozed off again, holding her pillow since he wasn't there to cuddle with her. She had a half an hour and an internal alarm clock that would make sure she was up in twenty-five minutes.

Talon muttered something about lazy humans, but she was already asleep, and didn't hear him.

OOOOOOOOOO

Thirty-five minutes later, she was in the commissary, sitting alone at a table with a cup of coffee in front of her and her head in her hands as she tried to wake up.

"Long night?"

She looked up and saw John Sheppard just sitting down across from her, an amused grin on his face.

"Long enough," she agreed.

"You look tired."

"I just need to wake up."

"Have a piece of toast." He handed her a slice of his toast, and Melony took it, nibbling on it because she knew that eventually it would help wake her up.

"What do you have planned to-"

"Good morning!"

Rodney McKay came over and sat down beside Mitchell, a plate loaded with food a bright cheerful smile on his face.

Melony scowled, but he didn't even notice.

"I finished a prototype of those laser guns you wanted, Colonel," he told her, smugly, as he took a bite of his breakfast.

"Already?"

He shrugged, trying to look modest, and failing.

"The mechanics of the devices are fairly simple and any moron can make a laser do what they want it to, it's just a matter of-"

"So you have a prototype done?" Sheppard asked, interrupting him before Melony could.

"Actually, I have four done. Four guns, and four receivers. I thought you might want to try them out and see if it's what you wanted before I bothered to make enough for a couple of groups to use all at once."

"Try them out...?"

"A little skirmish," Rodney said. "You know... you against Major Sheppard, or something like that?"

"Or her against you?" Sheppard asked.

McKay rolled his eyes, "She'd kill me in an instant, and I know it."

"One on one isn't effective for a real test," Melony said, beginning to wake up a bit now that there was an actual conversation going on around her. "How about..." she looked around and saw that Carson was just entering the commissary. "You and Major Sheppard, and me and Doctor Becker?"

John frowned.

"Hey, I shared my toast with you. How about you and me, against McKay and Becker – Beckett?"

She smiled.

"That wouldn't be fair."

"But it'd be fun..."