"Tell me that's not all your blood…"
Melony shook her head, looping her arm through Carson's.
"None of it is."
"Thank God. I've been worried sick about you."
"You shouldn't have," she told him, feeling just a little burst of pleasure at knowing that he cared that much for her – but still annoyed at another level because he didn't trust her to keep herself in one piece.
You've come back several times beaten up or battered, Talon reminded her. He has a right to worry
I know.
"Why didn't you change into a cleaner uniform?" he asked, still relieve that she was safe, but annoyed that she'd be wearing something that she had to have known would make him worry.
"This is the cleanest one I have…" she replied.
Which meant, of course, that the others she'd taken had even more blood on them – and hopefully none of it hers, either.
"How did Doctor Cain handle himself?" Carson asked, changing the subject and watching the young doctor walking well ahead of them in the corridor. The young man was obviously in the middle of telling one of the nurses a story about one of the cat attacks, and was clearly making it into an epic tale – and probably one where he had a much larger role than he actually had.
"He did good. Aside from the bitching and moaning about being somewhere without having volunteered to be there in the first place, he came through when he needed to."
"He fought the cats?"
"Good Lord, no. I buried him under a Jaffa security team every time we camped." She smiled. "But when he was needed for small injuries – we didn't take any serious ones – he was there."
"Good."
"But you still wish you could have come…"
"Aye."
She tightened her arm on his, giving it a little hug.
"I wish you had been there, Carson – just for the company – but I'm glad you weren't, because it was pretty hairy out there, and I needed to be able to concentrate on what was going on around us."
His annoyance faded, and he smiled softly.
"I distract you that much?"
Now it was her turn to smile.
"Sometimes."
Most of the timeHush.
OOOOOOOOOO
Despite all the blood – and the scratched and battered armor – Melony was right. There weren't any serious injuries. Carson and his staff checked out all of the returning team – Jaffa included, despite the fact they said they were fine – and aside from the nasty slash on Char's forearm and Sheppard's bruised head they really were fine.
The entire group was released without hesitation, and while the Jaffa headed off to tell the other Jaffa of their adventures (and to go mend their armor), the rest of them joined Weir and the others in the conference room.
"You didn't bring any back with you?" Weir asked.
Mitchell shook her head, but it was Sheppard who answered.
"Not a chance. The bastards were way too dangerous to even try to catch, much less bring back here and hope they didn't get loose."
"Not to mention trying to get one of them back to the Stargate…" Ronon added.
Teyla nodded her agreement.
"It would have been difficult at best, and suicide at worst."
Weir's eyebrows rose.
"Really? They're that dangerous?"
"Oh, yeah," John said, nodding. "They're insanely fast."
"Are you certain you got all of them?" she asked the room in general.
"Yes," Mitchell said. "We got 'em all. The first two days we were attacked three times. The next day we were attacked once, and the last day we didn't see anything that was more dangerous than Sheppard's haircut."
John smirked.
"All total we counted 38 kills, and we walked all over the place those last two days, basically using the Jaffa and Colonel Mitchell here to try and lure out another attack."
"When none came, we were pretty sure that we'd found them all."
"But we're going to go back and make sure later," Melony added. "Just to double-check with the villagers to make sure they haven't been losing people or anything."
"And you think they're really going to go back into the forest?" Weir asked, skeptically.
"They already were," Teyla said.
"By the time we left, they were heading in to make up for lost time," Sheppard added.
"Trap lines, hunting and all kinds of wood gathering," Mitchell said, smiling. "Only the men, for now – just to make sure – but if they don't see anything in the next few weeks, they'll have trouble keeping the women and kids out."
"Good."
"Did you find a place for us to trap Wraith?" Ronon asked, predictably being the one to change the subject to the Wraith.
Rodney nodded.
"We think so. We'll want to go check it out, but Teal'c and I have pretty much decided on a nice little moon-like planet that seems to be perfect for what we want to do."
Melony looked at Teal'c for confirmation, and her First Prime nodded his agreement.
"It appears to be more than suitable for our purposes."
"Great. We'll take a few days off, relax and get some rest, and then go check it out."
"Will you require our assistance with this?" Kale asked from his position in the chair beside Weir.
Melony shook her head, knowing that the Light Ones wanted to get home – and not blaming them a bit. Of course, he was pretty sure that Kale wasn't in a complete hurry to leave…
"Stay and unwind while Char's arm heals – we'd like the company, of course – but there aren't that many Wraith left, and I don't think we'll need the back up this time."
The Light Ones all smiled and nodded their agreement. Atlantis was a fine place to spend time – and Char wouldn't be able to fly very well until the gash in his arm healed – so they had reason enough to stick around. And Kale had more reason than the others.
"Anything else?" Weir asked the others in the room.
They all shook their heads.
"Then take some time off. We'll meet later once you've all managed to get some sleep and a hot meal."
There were murmurs of agreement and everyone stood up and headed for the door – and Weir wasn't surprised to see some of them were already pairing off. Obviously, not everyone had sleeping on their minds – or rest.
She smiled, looking over at Kale.
Nothing wrong with that, right?