Disclaimer etc. in first chapter

Author's Note: Last chapter, then the epilogue!

As the room came slowly into focus, Elizabeth frowned. She didn't remember leaving the light on when she went to bed. For that matter, she didn't remember going to bed. She turned her head to one side. And come to think of it, she also didn't remember having another bed in her quarters, especially one that Rodney McKay would be using.

"Hey," a quiet voice caught her attention.

Turning her head the other way, she recognized John. Shortly after that, it finally came together that she was in the infirmary on Atlantis. Then it all came back – the hellish sojourn on Palim, the sickening crack of her bones, the excruciating pain and the horrible trip back to the gate.

"Guess that shot really knocked you for a loop," John remarked. Elizabeth cocked her head, thinking. She vaguely remembered Carson giving her some kind of painkiller after they reached Atlantis.

"Yeah," she said, hoarsely. John picked up a cup of water from the table beside her, and handed it to her

"Thanks," she said, taking a sip and handing it back. The movement jarred her broken arm slightly, but it only ached dully so she supposed the painkiller was still in effect. Nodding to her other side, she asked, "Rodney?"

A shadow flitted briefly across John's face. "It was touch and go for a little bit, but he'll pull through. Probably be begging to get back to his lab in no time." Seeing the worry on her face, he grinned slightly to lighten the mood and added, "Of course, as soon as he's healed I'll have to kill him."

"Why?" she asked, more out of form than any other concern. She knew John respected and at times even liked McKay, but that didn't stop him from threatening the other with untimely death on a weekly basis.

"If he'd listened to me the first time, you wouldn't have gone over there to get him," he replied seriously. "So in a way, it's his fault your arm's broken."

"John..." she said warningly. "You can't possibly blame Rodney for this. No one could have known what would happen."

He sighed. "I know. I don't really blame him – if anything I blame myself. We should have been out of there a lot sooner. I shouldn't have let us stay." Seeing that she was about to protest, he held up a hand. "You don't think I'm at fault, either. Well, tough. You don't get to talk me out of it until you're feeling better."

She seemed to accept that, but she was looking far too serious for his pleasure, so he added, "But can we not tell McKay that I don't blame him? At least not yet? I'm really looking forward to giving him hell!" He grinned boyishly again, and Elizabeth smiled back.

"You really are twelve sometimes, aren't you?"

He had no response to that, which was just as well since the painkillers seemed to be taking over again. As she drifted towards sleep, she felt the slight pressure of his hand on her good one, and heard him say softly, "I'm glad you're okay, Elizabeth."

She fell asleep with a smile on her face.

When Elizabeth awoke the second time, her head was clearer, for which she was grateful. However, the painkiller had obviously begun to wear off, and her arm was throbbing. She was feeling an uncomfortable pressure in her bladder as well.

She noticed that John was still by her bed, dozing in a chair with his feet propped on an empty bed, and she didn't want to disturb him. She looked around, hoping to flag down one of the doctors – she really needed to pee. There was no one in sight, but she turned a on her side hoping to see a little further. The movement jostled her arm again, and she whimpered slightly.

There was a muffled thud behind her as John's boots hit the floor, and a second later he was in her line of sight. "What's wrong?" he asked, his voice laced with concern.

"Nothing," she said. "Just bumped my arm."

He took note of her position. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to find Carson or one of the others."

Concern became outright worry. "Why? Is something wrong?"

Now Elizabeth felt slightly embarrassed. How did one tell one's military commander that one had to pee? "I just need one, John."

"Can I help?"

"No!" she said, more sharply than she intended.

He was taken aback. "Ooh-kay..."

The hurt expression on his face bothered her, and she felt compelled to explain somehow. "It's not that I don't appreciate... I just... John, I've been on a saline drip for a little while now, and all that liquid has to go somewhere."

Well, that wasn't so bad, and the expression on his face was priceless. "Oh," he replied. "I'll... ah... I'll just go get someone then." He hurried away.

When a nurse came her way a few moments later, Elizabeth was extremely grateful to see her. She removed the IV from Elizabeth's hand, and helped her from the bed. A few minutes later, she helped her back into it, and left, after promising Elizabeth she would go find Carson.

A few moments later the cheerful Scottish doctor entered the room. "Good morning, Dr. Weir!" he said. "How are you feeling today?"

"I'm fine, Carson. A little pain, but nothing I can't handle. How's Rodney?" It wasn't that she didn't believe John, but it would be nice to hear it from a real doctor.
Carson's expression didn't change. "I was worried for a bit, but he'll be fine. He'll be a long time recovering, though, so you won't be sending him offworld again anytime soon."

Elizabeth grimaced. "I'm tempted not to let anyone offworld again anytime soon. Did we learn anything from the...samples?" Her voice trailed off slightly as she remembered what one of those samples consisted of.

"Oh, aye, a fair bit. We learned more when we went back to the planet, though." Carson knew it was a mistake as soon as he said it.

"When we what?"

"Uh, perhaps Colonel Sheppard should explain that bit."

"Yes," she said, narrowing her eyes. "Perhaps he should. Why don't you go find him, and I'll meet him in my office."

Carson had to smile at how she'd slipped that last bit in. "No need to find him. He'll be right outside the door. And you can talk to him here."

"Carson, I can hardly be expected to debrief him in the middle of the infirmary," she said, trying to be reasonable.

For some reason, Carson was finding this extremely funny now that he knew he wouldn't be the one in trouble, so he risked picking up on her unintentional double entendre. "Well, Elizabeth, I can safely say that we would all prefer you didn't debrief him in the infirmary."

She blushed slightly, but shook her head. "Twelve year olds. All of you. Seriously, Carson, I need to leave."

"And leave you may, so long as it's only to go to your quarters and rest. I don't want to see you in that office of yours for at least another two days."

Knowing it was the best she'd get, Elizabeth agreed. "Then go get John, and tell him to meet me at my room. Tell him he'd better be prepared with some answers."

"Aye," Carson said, leaving the room. He stopped just outside the door where John hovered, shamelessly eavesdropping.

"You know she'll be back in her office tomorrow," John told him.

"I know. That's why I said two days. If I'd said one, she'd be there this afternoon. Promise me you'll keep her in her room for the rest of today, at least."

John raised his eyebrows. "Doctor's orders?" he said, grinning.

Carson rolled his eyes. "Go. She'll be halfway to the door by now."

Elizabeth was, indeed, making her way slowly from the bed to the infirmary door. John easily inserted himself on her uninjured side, placing his hand on her back to guide and support her. He instantly snatched it back when he came in contact with bare skin – stupid backless hospital gowns. Unable to help himself he dropped his gaze. She was wearing pants, he noticed with relief (and a bit of disappointment). The nurse must have helped her with that.

Well, as interesting as all this was, she couldn't exactly wander the halls in a hospital gown. Stripping off his own jacket, he draped it over her shoulders, then returned his hand to her back.

"I can walk on my own, you know," she said irritably. Touching the hem of his jacket with her good hand, she belatedly added, "Thanks."

"Your welcome," he replied, leaving his hand where it was. She sighed and gave up the fight. Her arm was hurting and all she really wanted to do was sit on her nice, comfy bed and wrap herself in the fuzzy blanket she'd snuck on board the Daedalus last time. But she needed to know what had happened while she was out.

When they reached her room, she realized something else. She'd been dying to change out of the hospital gown and into a real shirt, but she didn't really feel up to managing pullovers with her arm yet. She had a few button up shirts, but she was pretty sure she couldn't handle buttonholes either. And bras were probably completely beyond her – she was going to have to get someone to help her dress for a little while.

She eyed the oversized t-shirt lying on her bed. It usually served as a nightshirt, and she'd carelessly left it out before leaving for Palim. Now it looked like the best bit of clothing she could ever imagine. But how was she supposed to get it on?

John watched the internal struggle as it played out on her face. He could guess at what she was thinking. "Tell you what," he said. "I'll help you get it on, and then I can untie the neck of the gown and you can pull it off from underneath."

His plan worked, although they bumped her arm several times in the process, and by the end she was near to tears. Finally feeling better attired, if still uncomfortably braless, Elizabeth settled back on her bed, leaning against her pillows. John grabbed the armchair on one side of the room and dragged it to the bedside, dumping his discarded jacket in to the floor beside him.
"So," she began, giving him a stern look. "What's this I hear about you going back to the planet?"

He winced slightly. He'd known she wouldn't be happy about that – hell, he hadn't really wanted to go back. "It'll be easier if I start at the beginning," he said.

She nodded. "Just don't think we're forgetting about it."

"Yeah," he muttered. "Well, after Carson got Rodney stabilized and your arm was taken care of, he started analysis of the... stuff. The botanists were already working on the plant samples. Best we can figure is the plant released some kind of pollen or something, I didn't really get that part, and drugged a bunch of the Palimins. We still don't know why they decided to pack everything up neatly, or how it caused selective amnesia among some of them, but the rest of the people were just drawn into the cave-place and..." he trailed off momentarily.

"Yes?" Elizabeth prompted.

"This plant – it's kind of like some of the carnivorous plants on Earth, only lots bigger, so it needed more food. Basically it drugs the people and then lures them in to be dinner. It seems to lure in all the animals and bugs, too. Carson found some enzymes or acids or something in the stuff that told him that."

"I see," she said, looking mildly disgusted. "But why did that occasion your going back to the planet."

"Well, the botanists wanted to know how big this thing was, that it needed so many people and animals. So we went back in a puddle jumper, with some kind of scan-thingy on board." His face was grim, and Elizabeth knew she wouldn't like what came next.

"Scan-thingy?" she interrupted, desperate to insert some levity into the gruesome description. "And you thought letting Ford name things was bad." She knew instantly that her attempt had failed, when the mention of the missing lieutenant's name only made him look sadder. "What then?" she asked, bringing them back on topic.

"It's bad, Elizabeth. This plant thing covers a lot of the planet. A lot. Maybe three quarters of the total landmass, and as far as we can figure, it's all one system. Pretty much every plant we saw on Palim is somehow part of this one. The scientists are guessing that it spends a lot of the time dormant, and then every couple of millennia it needs to feed. We found a couple other villages, but from what we could tell they were at half occupancy. There were some pockets of animals, too, but it seems like this thing eats half the animals and people on the planet every couple thousand years."

The time frame caught her attention. "Every couple thousand years? So that's why all their stories started at that time?"

"Yeah. Looks like that was the last time it fed. And God only knows how long it's been doing this. The botanists were even wondering if it has some kind of rudimentary sentience, which is why it attacked you and Rodney, but we still don't really know enough to guess. Once we figured the feeding part out, we tried landing at a couple of the villages. We thought we'd try to evacuate the people to another planet, then maybe give Rodney a shot at destroying this one." That earned a weak smile from her.

"They didn't seem to want to listen – a couple of places they even attacked us," John continued. "So we had to just leave them there. And we don't know if we can kill the plant, or what it would do to the planet if we did. This whole thing's gonna happen again."

Elizabeth could see the guilt eating at him. She leaned forward, staring into his eyes. "John, you can't blame yourself for this. Those people had a choice. They chose not to listen, not to believe you, and there's nothing you can do about it. You have to stop blaming yourself – "

John cut her off. "Not now."

She wasn't surprised. As much as they enjoyed talking to each other, flirting with each other, and as close as they had grown in their time on Atlantis, there were times when things got too personal, too intense, and one or the other would put a halt to it. Someday, she knew, they'd revisit all those "not nows," but she was happy to put it off. She had a feeling when that day came they'd either end up destroying their friendship or becoming lovers, and she didn't know which possibility scared her more.

The silence stretched for a bit before John shook off the moment. "It sounds like a bad science fiction movie," he said. "Killer plant takes over the planet."

Elizabeth grinned at that. "John, have you looked around yourself? We're in a 10,000 year old city in a distant galaxy, hiding from life-sucking aliens. We're living in a science fiction movie."

To her relief he laughed at that, and she knew the crisis moments were truly past. She couldn't help feeling a little bit of a need to reassure him though. Placing her good hand on his where it rested on her bed, she said, "Don't worry about the Palimins, John. As disgusting as all this is, it isn't exactly as immediately life and death as some of our other situations. We've got two thousand years to figure something out, after all."

This time the silence was comfortable, and she knew John appreciated her words. Finally he settled back in his chair and propped his feet on her bed. "So. That's the long and short of it. Now you're supposed to be resting, so get to sleep, Dr. Weir."

"I'm not sleeping with you sitting there," she said.

"Carson told me to make sure you stay in your room." When she raised an eyebrow, he added, "Doctor's orders."

"I have no intention of leaving my room right now, but until I'm back in my office I need to know someone's looking after this place. I need you to be out there, John."

He could appreciate the logic of her words, and as much as he wanted to stay and look after her, he really did have work to do. "Fine," he agreed, standing up to leave. "But you are staying here for the rest of the day at least."

She said nothing, but he took her silence as assent and left the room. A few seconds later he stuck his head back around the door. "Oh, and Elizabeth? I'm stationing Major Lorne outside your room, just in case."

From the fleeting look of disappointment on her face, he knew he'd guessed right. She'd said she had no intention of leaving her room right now, but that didn't mean she wouldn't try in ten minutes or half an hour. He grinned at her and she smiled wryly in defeat.