"You made this yourself?" Daniel asked, taking another sip of the coffee Mitchell had brewed as soon as they'd reached her quarters.

Melony nodded, walking over with a cup of hot coffee and sitting down on her bed as well. She winced slightly – she wasn't completely healed, after all – and smiled.

"Yup. I harvested this batch, and dried it, and roasted the beans and everything."

Daniel shook his head, looking down into his cup, almost as if he expected the coffee to change colors or start talking to him in a foreign language or something.

"It's good."

"Of course it's good."

Like she'd drink anything that wasn't.

Daniel smiled and then looked up at her, his eyes searching her expression for a long moment.

"You look good, Melony…"

It was a question more than a statement, although he meant it. Melony shrugged.

"Considering I crashed and burned half a day ago…"

"No," Daniel said, softly. "That's not what I mean."

When he'd last seen Mitchell, she'd been literally reeling, emotionally, from the sudden and tragic loss of Brad Anderson. Her eyes had been haunted and bleak and her expression had been one of someone who was simply going through the motions of life. Daniel had been certain that if not for Talon, Mitchell would have allowed her grief to consume her, and even with the symbiote it was obvious that she didn't know what to do with herself – and had nothing to focus on besides just how much she was hurting. Daniel had known that she'd volunteered to go to Atlantis because she had needed to put as much distance between her pain and herself as she could – and secretly wondered if she'd hoped to end up among the missing herself.

Now, however… she looked tired and battered – from the um… accident… but she didn't look at all as injured – emotionally and mentally – as she had.

"You look good…" he repeated, lamely, unsure how to ask her what had changed to make her put her hurt behind her and start living again.

Melony nodded.

"I'm feeling good, Daniel," she admitted. "It was… rough… for a while, but I-"

A knock on her door startled both of them, and Daniel cursed as he spilled his coffee. Mitchell grinned – mainly because she knew just how much he hated wasting good coffee – and got off the bed, heading for the door, while the archeologist sucked the coffee off his hand, ignoring the burn in favor of the flavor.

"What are you doing out of bed?"

Carson came through the door the moment she opened it, his eyes worried and a tad annoyed. He stopped cold when he saw Daniel, and Melony realized just how bad that it might look for her to have Daniel in her bed like that. Carson didn't have all that much confidence in their relationship as it was – although Melony knew that wasn't her fault – and she wondered if he was going to be jealous.

"Carson. You know Daniel Jackson?"

The Scottish doctor nodded, still surprised at finding Mitchell entertaining company, but he recovered quickly, scowling at her.

"You're not supposed to be out of bed."

"You didn't tell me I had to stay in bed…"

"You're hurt."

"I'm fine, Carson."

Daniel watched the two of them, realizing that Beckett was acting a lot more like a worried lover than he was a worried doctor – and who would know better than Daniel? Wasn't he dating a doctor himself? He knew how Janet acted when she was angry with him for worrying her health wise, and Doctor Beckett sure was acting a lot like that.

"You were asleep. I couldn't tell you to stay in bed, because I assumed you were going-"

"Carson. I'm fine. Talon and I needed to-"

"You bullied Lieutenant Br-"

"I did not."

"Um…"

They both turned when Daniel spoke up, amusement in his eyes but concern as well. Lover's spat?

"Should I leave you two alone?"

Mitchell scowled, now, becoming annoyed. She wasn't a child to be coddled and she certainly wasn't going to allow Carson to drive Daniel away when she'd only started catching up with him.

"No, Daniel," Melony said. "You're –"

"I'm sorry."

Carson had noticed the warning signs in Melony's expression quickly, and realized that he was in the wrong. He was well within his rights to be worried about her, of course. He was her doctor as well as her lover and both were reason enough to be concerned about her health. But he was crossing the line – Melony's own line – and he knew it. Could tell immediately. If she wasn't healthy enough to be out of bed, Talon would allow her out of bed, and Carson knew that, too.

"When I came in to check on you I was worried when I found you gone…" he added, lamely.

"I needed to get up," she told him, her cloudy expression fading with the apology and explanation. She wasn't completely over the irritation, but she was too happy to have Daniel and Jack in Atlantis to be too angry for long. "And then I ran into Daniel, who had misplaced his quarters, and couldn't resist the opportunity to catch up."

Carson wasn't surprised by this. He knew more about Melony than anyone in the Atlantis expedition, and knew the relationship she had with Daniel Jackson. Thanks to Melony, he also knew that Daniel Jackson was dating someone else and because of this, he didn't feel any of the jealousy that Melony had worried he might be.

"I can understand that," he said. "In your shoes I would have done the same, most likely."

"Do you want to join us?" Daniel invited. "I was just trying the new version of coffee that Melony found…"

Carson hesitated, wondering if she wanted to have some alone time with her friend, but Melony smiled and slid her hand around his waist, letting him know he was welcomed, and confirming without a single word what Daniel was already suspecting.

"Stay, Carson. Daniel's not going to bore you with a bunch of tech chatter, I promise."

Beckett smiled, and shrugged, but there was no way he would refuse if Melony wanted him to stay.

"I'd love a cup of coffee."