When Melony checked on him the next morning, he was sound asleep and snoring lightly. She knew he was taking painkillers – nothing too potent, but painkillers would always put you to sleep – so she didn't try to wake him, figuring it would be better to let him sleep himself out. She simply tucked his blanket back up around him, making sure he was warmly covered, kissed his cheek lightly, and left his room. She'd come back later.

When she went to breakfast, she met up with Rodney McKay, who was anxious to talk to her about the lava base, as everyone was calling it, much to Talon's annoyance. He was still fond of 'Talonopolis' – although there would be a population of all of two – and only one body.

She sat with McKay over breakfast, sipping coffee and hashing out details of who was going to go on the first trip over. McKay was anxious to get the base up and running, but he was also interested in harvesting as many of the berries from the coffee plants as they could and getting them separated, dried and roasted before they ran out of coffee. Since the coffee situation on Atlantis wasn't quite that desperate, Mitchell wasn't as panicked to get it done as he was – although she was no less interested.

Weir came over and joined them, but Melony didn't stay much longer. She knew that Sheppard and his team had an off-world assignment later that morning, and she knew that she was distracting McKay from it by being near by. And that wasn't acceptable. It wasn't fair to McKay and it wasn't fair to Sheppard. She told them she'd be in her quarters if she was needed, grabbed another cup of coffee and then headed to her room. And her laptop.

OOOOOO

It was only when there was a knock at her door that she looked up from the mission files she was studying. From the stiffness in her neck, she realized she'd been lost in her research for far longer than she thought, and she was rubbing the back of her neck as she went to the door and opened it.

It was Beckett.

Melony moved out of the way so he could walk in the room, making sure to give him plenty of room for his crutches as he hobbled past.

"I thought you were going to come check on me this morning?" He said as he came in.

She smiled, picking her laptop up off the bed and gesturing for him to sit down.

"I did."

"I didn't see you."

"Because you were asleep."

He frowned, dropping his crutches on the floor by the bed.

"You could have woken me."

"You were looking pretty comfortable." She told him. "And snoring."

"I was not."

She nodded.

"You were."

"I don't snore."

"You were."

"I-"

"Want to ask Talon?"

Carson frowned, knowing that if she was willing to let him ask, then chances were, he probably had been.

"It was probably the medication."

Mitchell grinned. She'd won.

"Probably."

More than ready to change the subject, Beckett looked at the laptop in her hand.

"Still looking for a Wraith planet?"

She nodded, and sat down beside him, taking the laptop and moving it over to the stand by her bed.

"It can wait, though."

"Have you found one, yet?"

She shrugged, and nodded.

"A couple that might have what I'm looking for."

He was quiet for a moment, as if he was uncertain if he should say what he wanted to say, and then he sighed.

"What you're planning to do scares me."

She nodded.

"It scares me, too."

"But you're still going to do it…"

"Yes."

"I don't want to lose you."

She leaned sideways against him, resting her cheek against his shoulder, and Carson put his arm around her, holding her in a one-arms embrace.

"It's no more dangerous than Sheppard and the others going off-world," she said. "At least I know what I'm going to find when I get there. Plus, I have Talon in case something happens."

It was easy to be brave when there was someone there to heal you if you were hurt.

There's a lot more to your courage than that, Hot Shot, Talon chided her. And you know it

She didn't answer him, but a gentle surge of love passed silently between them.

"Talon can't heal everything."

"He can heal a lot, though. And I don't plan on taking on more than a couple of them – and with the Ancient shielding devices and the Goa'uld technology I have… they shouldn't pose that much of a danger."

"But they will," he argued, his concern obvious in his blue eyes. "They-"

She pressed her fingers against his lips, and then when he didn't finish what he was going to say, she moved her fingers and moved slightly so she could brush his lips with her own.

"Don't worry about it, Carson," she told him, pulling back just enough that she could speak. Her lips were still close to his – so close that he could feel her breath on them while she spoke. "It's still a ways off, and worrying about it isn't going to help…"

"I know… but I can't help it. All I can think of is how bad it was the last time you and Talon went Wraith hunting."

That had been bad. Even Talon agreed.

"We were caught off guard," she told him, moving out of his embrace and getting to her feet so she could walk around the bed and stretch out on it a little bit without getting in his way. "We know what they can do, now. And what they can't. They won't get close enough to feed again."

"But-"

Talon asked for and received permission to take over, and a deep voice interrupted Beckett. He knew immediately who was speaking. He'd heard the voice before, after all.

"The Wraith can'tfeed onMelony, Doctor Beckett. Even if one somehow managed to get past the defenses of the Goa'uld shielding device, and the Ancient's shielding device and started to feed, I know how to counter it, now, and I will. She won't be harmed in that manner."

"But you can't promise that she won't be harmed at all…"

"Of course not. They do have other weapons."

"I –"

"There isn't a lot of time," Talon interrupted. "Once Talonopolis is up and running, we will be busy seeking out the Wraith. There are better things you two could be doing with the little time you have than worrying about something that you have no control over…"

Talon drew back from control.

"Talonopolis?"

She shook her head, smiling.

"Don't ask…"

"Can he really keep the Wraith from feeding…?"

She nodded.

"Want me to explain it to you?"

"Can I hold you while you do?"

As Talon had said, there were better things to be doing than worrying – or at least he could do both at the same time, this way.

Mitchell patted the bed beside her, and watched as he shifted so he was stretched out beside her. His arms came around her and she melted against him, putting her head on his chest. She'd already explained this once – to him and the others – but if it made him feel better, then she'd do it again.

As she started speaking, Carson rested his head against the headboard of her bed, his eyes closing although he was paying close attention to what she was telling him. Hopefully, somewhere in the information he was getting would also be the method of healing her if something happened to her and the symbiote both, and he didn't want to miss it.