"Oh, Melony, I'm so sorry..."

She ignored him for a second; looking over at the direction her quarry had been coming from, and pointed. Carson looked the same direction just in time to see McKay coming around the corner, alerted by the voices, but looking in the other direction since it was an intersection in the hallway.

Carson already had his 'gun' up, and his adrenaline was still flowing so hard that he didn't even think. He just fired his gun again, and was rewarded by another loud piercing howl – this time from the device on Rodney's vest. McKay started, looking down at his vest and then towards Mitchell and Beckett, both of whom were standing in plain sight now that he was looking that way.

"Crap."

With a look of disgust on his face, he lowered his gun, and now Melony looked at Carson, who had lowered his gun as well and was looking at her, his face troubled – probably wondering if she was going to chew him out for killing her and ruining her ambush.

"What now?" He asked, when it was obvious she wasn't going to say anything.

At least smile so he doesn't think you're pissed off with him, Hot Shot

She did as she was told – she wasn't mad, after all it was her own fault she'd been 'killed'. Not his.

"I can't tell you what to do, Carson," she told him. "I'm dead."

You pointed for him, Talon pointed out.

I would have been able to do that before I 'died'.

She had Talon, after all, and there was no way she wouldn't have pointed out the danger if not tried to take out McKay herself. Of course, in this instance, she never would have 'shot' McKay once she was 'dead' because that wouldn't have been fair. But pointing wasn't out of the question.

"What do I do?" Beckett asked, as McKay came over and stood next to Mitchell, fiddling with his vest device with a speculative look on his face.

"Major Sheppard's still alive. Go find him and kill him."

With a pained look Carson swallowed hard, but he didn't argue. He just headed down the hall, his weapon up and ready, although he wasn't being very quiet.

"You realize he's going to get slaughtered, right?" McKay told her once he was out of sight – and earshot.

She nodded, and sat down on the floor leaning back against the wall. She was dead, after all, so she might as well sit and wait.

"Yeah, probably," she told him as he sat down beside her, pulling off his vest and fiddling with it. "But I don't expect him to kill Sheppard, I just wanted him to go out and try."

Which he had without trying to get out of it – and that proved he had guts. Not that she had any doubts, since you didn't just go through a gate to the middle of nowhere without knowing what was waiting for you without having your share of intestinal fortitude. She looked at McKay.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm thinking that if I alter the spectrum of the devices it'll keep members of the same team from killing each other," McKay told her without looking up.

"Why would you do that?"

"So he doesn't kill you next time..." Duh.

"Why?"

He rolled his eyes. She was a lot smarter than that, and he knew it! Why was she acting so dense?

"Because if he hadn't killed you, you would be able to go looking for Major Sheppard yourself, which would-"

"You've never heard of friendly fire casualties?" Mitchell asked.

"Of course I have, but-"

"I want it as realistic as possible," Melony told him, shrugging. "The vests and guns are great. They work great. But I want them to be able to work on anyone, because guns will work on anyone, and the sooner everyone realizes that they can kill their friends if they're not careful, the better."

McKay shrugged as well, and stopped fiddling with his device – although he did pick up his gun and look at it.

"You like them, then?"

Fishing for compliments wasn't something Rodney normally did, but he was a great admirer of Mitchell's, and if there was one person whose approval he wanted – at least here in Atlantis – it was probably hers.

She nodded, looking at her own.

"Yup. You might make them rigged to make noise when they fire, though – to simulate a gunshot. That way the person firing knows they can't just stand in one spot and fire away without giving away their position. Can you do that?"

"Of course." Duh.

She smiled. She'd been pretty sure he could – she probably could have, after all. Except she didn't want to take the time to try and figure the guns out if she didn't need to. Besides, it was his project, and he was intimately familiar with it – and should be allowed to take the credit for it – because the guns and vest were very well made considering he only had what was available in Atlantis to use to create them. No Radio Shack around here.

"How long until you have enough of these done so that we can have full sized teams?"

He shrugged.

"A few days if I don't have any distractions. A week or so if I do. I'll make the new ones sound like guns – I can probably use some kind of percussion inside the trigger section that will-"

"Whatever works," Mitchell said, cutting him off as politely as she could. She might be dead, but she really didn't want to sit through a technical lecture... even if she did understand it.