Before Ian had finished eating the Power bars he'd pulled out of his pack, Teal'c was done splinting Taylor's leg. The Cadet stood by munching as Jack and Daniel started questioning the boy, who was obviously not in anywhere near as much pain as he had been – and didn't understand why.

"Where's your family?" Daniel asked. "Are they close by?"

Taylor's eyes were wary, and he cast a sidelong glance at Teal'c.

"No."

"We're not going to hurt them," Jack said, catching the lie immediately – and understanding the reason behind it. "We just want to get you back where you belong."

"You can't make it on your own," Daniel said, reasonably. "Your leg isn't going to support your weight – not without hurting it again…"

Taylor was silent, obviously thinking that through, and the others waited, giving him a chance to decide whether to trust them – or to try and crawl his way home on his own. Which was assuming they weren't going to just hold him as hostage until he told them anyways. Brave as he was trying to be, he was still only a boy – and a young one at that – injured and in the middle of terrifying strangers. Ian was surprised he hadn't just gone crazy on them.

"They're around…" Taylor said, finally, wincing as he shifted his position on the ground.

"We'd like to talk to them," Daniel said, oozing sincerity. "To meet them."

Ian stuffed the last of the energy bar in his mouth, already tired of dealing with the kid.

"If we're taking a vote, I say we just leave him here."

Everyone looked over at him, including Taylor, who paled a little.

"We can't leave him here," Daniel said. "He'll die."

Ian shrugged.

"Someone will probably find him – if he yells loud enough."

"Or something," Daniel said, frowning. "He's not going-"

"We have things to do, Daniel," Ian said. "He's not going to tell us anything – and he obviously doesn't want to get back with his folks. Let's just get going."

"But-"

"Don't leave me alone…"

Taylor had heard enough, and definitely didn't want to be left alone – not even when the alternative was to go with these strangers.

"We won't leave you alone," Daniel said, scowling at Ian, who shrugged, completely unconcerned that Daniel was mad at him.

"Let's go," Jack said, motioning for Daniel to help the kid to his feet. "Can you walk? Or do you want us to carry-"

"I can walk."

He paled, though; when the foot of his broken leg touched the ground, and it was plain he would have brought it off the ground if not for the fact that it was splinted and awkward. Daniel brought his arm around the boy to take a bit of his weight, and Jack prudently relieved the archeologist of his P90, unwilling to keep the weapon that close to a stranger.

"Which direction?" Jack asked, handing Daniel's gun to Ian, who attached it to the pack he'd slung over his shoulder.

Taylor looked around to get his bearings, and then pointed toward the sun.

"That way. We'll find scouts…"

"Scouts?" Daniel asked.

"They guard our village."

"I thought you were hunter/gatherers," Jack said as he gestured for Teal'c to take point with Jack (the dog).

"What's a hunter/gatherer?"

"It's a group of people who don't settle in any one place," Daniel answered as they started walking, the boy limping painfully on his leg, even with Daniel's support. "Instead they gather what they need from the land, and hunt for food."

"We do all that," Taylor said. "We just do it from the village…"

"So much for them being nomads…" Ian said, softly as he and Jack fell back to take rear guard.

Jack nodded, and looked over at Ian.

"Good job, by the way."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean threatening to leave him in order to get him to bring us with him."

Ian looked at him blankly, and Jack frowned.

"You were serious about leaving him?"

Oh, he wanted to say that, yes, he had been, but Ian sighed, and shrugged.

"I don't know. I just didn't feel like putting up with the suspicious looks any more. Besides, we didn't really have to bring him along. We probably could have found these people on our own, right?" Especially with help from Jaffer and Jack (the dog).

"But now they owe us for bringing their boy home," Jack said. "So they might open up a bit and be willing to tell us about Daniel's rocks instead of being automatically wary of us."

"Oh."

"Besides, now we don't have to hunt for them. And that'll save us time."

Ian nodded, but didn't say anything. He knew Jack wanted to get done and get back home as quickly and safely as possible, and he didn't blame him.

Jack looked at the boy and then back at Ian.

"This little kid will probably get our foot in the door."

"Yippee."

Jack smiled.

"You don't like him."

"I didn't say that."

"You healed him."

"To shut Daniel up."

"No other reason?"

"Nope."

But Jack could tell he was lying, now.

"Why don't you go give them a hand? He looks like he's not going to make it much further if he has to try and hobble on that leg…"

Ian scowled, but he didn't argue about it – although he wanted to. Instead, he stepped up and put a hand under the boy's right armpit, supporting most of the weight on the right side – hardly a chore since Taylor weighed very little. The boy glanced at Ian, and started to say something, but fell silent when he saw the annoyed look in the Cadet's expression, and Jack just grinned.

They'd have to work on Ian's people skills – and maybe they could start with how he related to children. It was something to think about, anyways.