It took Melony nearly two hours to find Kale. Walking around barefoot through the corridors of Atlantis wasn't all that enjoyable, since the floors were cold, and by the time she'd checked pretty much everywhere and had decided the Light One wasn't wandering Atlantis with Weir or Sheppard or one of the others, her feet were cold and she was just a little exasperated.

You might try his quarters, Talon told her.

She scowled, and turned in the hall. That was a good idea.

Why didn't you say something earlier?

I thought you needed the time to calm down a little – and assumed you'd figure it out on your own…

His amusement was plain to feel, and Melony shook her head.

Never assume, smart ass…

Especially when she was distracted like she was just then,

When she knocked on the door of his borrowed quarters, he answered almost immediately, his larger frame filling the doorway as he looked down on her. He smiled when he saw who it was, and stepped aside so she could enter.

"Colonel Mitchell, it's good to see you."

"Thanks, Kale," she said, giving him as genuine a smile as she could. She was still fairly off balance from her encounter with Carson, though, and it showed in her expression. Add to it the cold feet, and she wasn't at her best. "I was just coming to check and see if you were ready to go?"

He frowned, noticing that she looked off-kilter.

"I am ready whenever you are. Are you all right? You seem upset…"

"I'm fine," she said, shrugging. "Just a little-"

"Where are your shoes?" He asked, looking down.

"In my quarters. I'll have to stop and get them." And her guns. And the shielding device. "I just left my room in a hurry…"

"Ah…" He knew there was more to it than that, but he also knew that she didn't want to discuss it – otherwise she would have. He smiled. "I am ready whenever you are. And perhaps we should take a look at this planet A-08 to see if it is daylight there at a different time than it is here… like it is at times on my own world."

"McKay actually looked into that for me," Melony told him, feeling a little more at ease now that they were talking about their mission and not her personal life. "The days there are longer than they are here – and easily twice as long as they are on your world – so we'd have a large window of opportunity. I had planned on going in the morning – our time – when both of us were rested, but I just woke up and I'm as rested as I'm going to get, so I thought I'd come see if you were up to leaving now, or if you needed to wait?"

That's not the whole truth

It's pretty close, though. I am as awake as I'm going to be.

But fairly distracted

It's not going to be any better in the morning, Talon.

Since they both knew that was true, the symbiote didn't say anything else.

"I'm ready to go whenever you are, Melony," Kale told her. "When would you like to leave?"

"The sooner the better. I'll go get supplied and meet you in the control center in half an hour?"

He nodded.

"I'll be there."

She smiled and left his quarters and headed back to her own. Carson would almost definitely be gone by now.

If he isn't, I'll toss him out a window

Since there weren't any windows in her quarters, this wasn't a real concern, but Melony appreciated the sentiment anyways. And when they reached her room, they were empty.

OOOOOOOOO

Carson couldn't remember the last time he'd ever felt as bad as he did just then. Probably he never had. He'd never felt so much self-loathing, and self-pity, and it was about as depressing as anything he'd ever heard of. He couldn't even be angry that Talon had manhandled him, because as far as he was concerned, he'd deserved it. He'd treated her as badly as he could have, and worse, he'd done the one thing that he'd known would hurt her the worst.

He knew she wasn't ready for physical intimacy – knew it – and he'd forced her into it. And worse than that, he'd been rough with her in his urgency. The stitches in her side – and who knew where else – had to have ripped open, because it was the only way he could have ended up with blood on himself, and the more he thought about it the more he knew what he'd done hadn't been loving her, it'd been using her. And he was ashamed, and miserable about it. And couldn't even apologize, because Talon wouldn't let him near her.

Depressed and unsure what to do next, he made his way to the commissary, figuring he'd make his plans over a cup of tea.

The room was completely empty, except for Elizabeth Weir, who was sitting by herself at one of the long tables. He didn't want company; he wanted to mope all alone and wallow in his self-loathing, but despite that he found himself coming over to stand next to her once he'd made his tea. She looked easily as distracted and introspective as he felt, and she flinched when he spoke, making him feel even lower.

"Do you mind if I sit with you?"

She shook her head, gesturing to the spot beside her and Carson sat down with a exhausted sigh. Elizabeth looked over at him, knowing that she should at least try to make conversation. He looked as distracted as she felt.

"Want to talk about it?"

"No." He looked over at her. "How about you?"

She shook her head again.

"I'd rather not…"

He nodded, respecting her privacy like she was respecting his, and the two of them sat side by side, neither talking and both looking down in their cups but not drinking.

Half an hour later, Ford came into the commissary, fresh off a training patrol with one of the scientists they were teaching to be soldiers – sort of – and hungry, despite the odd hour of day. It was after lunch but too early for dinner, after all. He looked over at the two sitting off by themselves as he dished himself a plate of the food that was warming in the buffet style warmers, and poured himself a cup of coffee, and then walked over to stand across from them.

They both looked up at him, and he smiled cheerfully.

"Can I sit here?"

They both nodded, and watched as he sat down and began wolfing his food down with typical youthful exuberance. Finally, though, he slowed down and looked up at them. The depression in the room was palatable, even to someone as jovial as he was feeling just then.

"What's with you two?" He asked around a mouthful of bread. "You look like you lost your best friend."

"I betrayed my best friend," Weir said, miserably.

Carson sighed.

"I betrayed the one I love most…"

Ford looked at one, and then the other.

"On purpose?"

"Not exactly," Weir said. Carson just shook his head.

"So go apologize."

"I can't."

"Me, either…"

They both sighed.

Ford shook his head, almost feeling the cheer drain out of the room around him. He was fairly sure he knew what Beckett was talking about – who he was talking about, anyways – since Melony Mitchell looked about as miserable as he'd ever seen her, and he even had a faint idea what was going on with Weir as well. He was, after all, very observant, even if he didn't speak up all that often.

"You know… love's a funny thing…"

"It doesn't seem funny at all to me," Beckett said, looking down at his tea.

"People can think that whatever they've done is unforgivable," Ford said, ignoring the doctor and looking at Weir, instead. "But if the person you hurt loves you, then there's really nothing you can do to take that love away. You don't control how others feel about you, after all… and there's nothing that can't be forgiven."

"This is pretty serious…" Weir said. Beckett nodded his agreement, but Ford just smiled and shook his head.

"I'm telling you true… if you could forgive that person for doing it to you, then they can forgive you for doing it to them… It's all about-"

He was interrupted when Sheppard came over and stood beside him, looking down at the group.

"Doctor Weir, you're needed in the control room."

Weir looked up at him curiously.

"Why?"

"Colonel Mitchell and Kale have decided that they need to gate to A-08 now, in order to have as much daylight as possible, and they need your authorization."

Since she couldn't think of any reason not to allow them to leave, Weir nodded and stood up. She smiled down at Ford – the young Lieutenant had given her food for thought for later.

"Thanks for the talk, Lieutenant."

"My pleasure, Ma'am."

She left and Ford stood up as well, intending to go join them and see Mitchell off, but Beckett looked up at him.

"Do you really believe all that?"

Ford smiled and leaned over.

"When I was training to join the SGC, I got into the biggest fight with my girlfriend – I don't even remember what it was about, but it was bad. I came to a training session depressed, and almost ready to go crazy with guilt and instead of chewing me out for not being able to pay attention, my training officer pulled me aside and asked me what was going on. When I finally admitted what it was, that's the advice I was given – and I found it made sense. It still does, today, you know."

"He was pretty smart, huh?" Carson asked.

"She," Ford corrected. "It was Colonel Mitchell who gave me that advice."

He nodded goodbye, and headed for the door, leaving Carson staring at his back.