A week passed before Mina even saw her husband again. He had been spending most of his time in his room or gone from their home. When she did see him again, she was given the silent treatment. There was no discussion about what had happened the night he ransacked their home or the fact that he had cleaned things up afterwards. Mina decided that if he was going to continue to give her the silent treatment, she would give it right back. She spent more time at the infirmary, trying to stay far away from home as long as she could. The silence was driving her crazy. It almost made her miss the yelling.

One day while she was working in the infirmary, her husband came in to see Corric. Mina glanced up from the records work she was doing at her desk for only a second to register who had walked through the door. She briefly met eyes with Kolya before looking back down to her work. Luckily for her, Corric noticed him enter as well and called him over. Mina kept her head down, but watched him walk across the room with slightly lifted eyes. Corric examined Kolya's shoulder and seemed satisfied with the healing that had taken place.

"Well Commander, it's time for you to be out of your sling. You aren't done healing though so I will have to say you cannot return to duty quite yet. I do recommend that you get some exercise to prevent any stiffness."

Kolya nodded in acceptance and moved his left arm around to loosen it up. Mina saw him wince slightly but he seemed glad to be out of the sling. She hoped that would improve his attitude a bit. She looked back down to her work and tried to concentrate. Her attention was grabbed again when Corric called her name.

"Mina could you come here please?"

Mina stood from her desk and walked over to him, keeping her eyes averted from her husband. Corric handed her some kind of salve and a gauze patch. He gestured to the man she was avoiding.

"I'm afraid that I have somewhere to be. I need you to help your husband by applying this to his healing wound and bandaging it up. It will help with the scarring."

Mina said nothing but moved to follow Corric's orders as he left the room. With Corric gone, the room was still with silence. Mina applied the salve to her husband's scarring shoulder and placed the bandage over it. After doing this on both the front and back, she began to walk away but was stopped by him grabbing her wrist. Mina's eyes widened in surprise and she finally looked at his face.

"Commander? Is something wrong?"

Kolya looked torn between embarrassment and hurt. He didn't release her wrist, but looked away from her.

"I'm sorry Mina."

Mina wasn't sure what he was apologizing for. His behavior for the past two months? His destruction of their home in search of the alcohol? She attempted to pull her wrist away and was surprised when he let go. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to say.

"You are free to go Commander."

She walked away from him to wash her hands. She wanted him out of here so she could think straight. He didn't say anything else to her. He pulled his shirt back on and walked out of the infirmary. Mina glanced over her shoulder to see him go through the door. She internally scolded herself for what had just happened. He had apologized for something, saying the only pleasant thing to her in months, and she had brushed him off.

When Corric returned to the infirmary, Mina ignored his presence. She knew that he had left her to deal with her husband on purpose. Even though he never said anything directly, she knew he wanted things to get better for her. A number of times, the woman she had seen before had come into the infirmary and left upset after talking to Corric. Mina imagined that he was having his own relationship problems, and instead of fixing his own, he was trying to fix hers.

Instead of going home when she was done for the day, Mina headed for her old home. She didn't want to return to awkward silence so soon after the botched apology earlier today. Thali was glad to see her when she arrived and invited her in. They sat together in the living room, sipping on some tea. Mina disclosed what had happened that day and the week of silence before to her sister. Thali listened intently and then an expression of guilt spread across her face.

"That might be because of me."

Mina was confused by what her sister said.

"You? What do you have to do with it?"

Thali bit her lip nervously and looked away from Mina.

"I may have yelled at him…"

Mina nearly choked on her tea and coughed to clear her throat.

"You what?!"

Thali shrunk away at the loudness of Mina's question.

"The day after he destroyed your house, I went over there and yelled at him. I said he didn't deserve you. I thought it would help him get his head out of whatever hole it has been lodged in for the past few months."

Mina groaned and leaned forward, burying her head in her hands.

"That is the opposite of helpful Thali."

Thali looked down at her hands in shame and fiddled with the material of her skirt.

"I know. I'm sorry Mina. When Caleb told me what happened, I just got so angry. I want you to be happy."

Mina lifted her head and gave her distressed sister a half-smile.

"I appreciate that. I don't know if what you said made things better or worse. I almost prefer the yelling to the silent treatment."

Mina and Thali finished their tea, moving onto more pleasant conversation topics. When it started to get late, Mina accepted the inevitable and left for home. She walked down the path in the dark, wrapping her arms around herself for warmth. When she reached her home, it was dark inside. Either her husband wasn't home, or he was holed up in his room again. There was no light coming from under his door, but that didn't mean anything. Mina went into her own room and closed the door. If he was home, she didn't want to interact with him. One awkward moment per day was enough for her.

Over the next two weeks, Mina and Kolya actively avoided each other. Occasionally they would bump into each other in the evening, but they would both move away from each other and go about their business. Mina desperately wanted to say something to him, but she felt that it wouldn't make things any better. He had returned to duty, overseeing the training of military members. She spent all day in the infirmary. Every so often, men would show up with injuries that were inflicted by her husband. It seemed that his injury hadn't slowed him down much.

Mina was exposed to another awkward moment when he came in for another exam on his shoulder. Corric wanted to be sure that he was healing properly. This time, he didn't ask her to do anything as his previous meddling hadn't done anything to help.

Mina was soon busy when Ladon came into the infirmary holding a towel to his head. Since Corric was busy with her husband, Mina rushed over to help Ladon. She reached up and moved the towel to reveal a large gash.

"Ladon what happened to you now?" she asked as she led him to an exam table.

Ladon winced as she cleaned the wound with a cloth. Mina looked closely at the wound to make sure that nothing was inside it. Sure enough, there were small metal fragments embedded in the wound. She grabbed some tweezers and started pulling the fragments out.

"This time it wasn't my fault. Someone else's work wasn't constructed properly and came apart, hitting me in the process."

Mina shook her head as she cleaned the wound again after being sure all the metal was gone. She got to work stitching the wound up, Ladon wincing every time she did anything.

"You really should be more careful Ladon. One of these days, you are going to get seriously hurt."

Ladon glanced up at Mina with a small smirk on his face.

"Oh now you are concerned about my well-being. I don't remember that concern being there when we were younger and you gave me a good crack on the head. How things have changed."

Mina was suddenly aware that he was attempting to flirt with her. That was usually how he ended up with the cracks on the head that he was talking about. He would say something flirtatious and she would hit him.

Mina glanced over to the other side of the room where Corric was still speaking with her husband. She wondered if he had heard Ladon's attempt at flirting. When her eyes met up with his across the room, she got her answer. He was looking right at them but didn't seem to be expressing any emotion. Mina got the sense that he simply didn't care. Another man was flirting with her right in front of him and he did nothing.

Mina could almost hear her heart break inside her chest. Her mind went back to what Kolya had said to her months ago when he offered her an out. He didn't want her. Their moments that they had shared had meant nothing, simply him being caught up in the moment. She could have sworn that he wanted her when he had returned her goodbye kiss. It seemed that she thought wrong. With tears welling up in her eyes, she finished her work on Ladon's forehead and indicated he was free to go.

When she turned back around, Mina was glad to see that Kolya was gone. She cleaned up the mess from treating Ladon and returned to her desk. She crossed her arms in front of her and buried her head in them, letting the tears flow. She sat like that for several minutes, quietly crying into her arms. A hand on her shoulder startled her and she sat up quickly. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and looked up at Corric, who had touched her.

"Mina? Are you alright?"

Mina nodded weakly and tried to pull herself together. By the look on his face, Mina could tell that Corric didn't believe her. He reached behind her and pulled her jacket from the back on her chair and handed it to her.

"You can go home for the day Mina. Unless some disaster strikes, I don't foresee us being terribly busy for the rest of the night."

Mina took her jacket from his hand and gave him a grateful look. She walked slowly home, her mind reeling with what she had learned that day. When she reached her home, she looked around. This place had begun to feel like home before the failed Atlantis mission. After they had returned, the warmth of the place had disappeared. This was no longer a place for her. Her husband didn't want her here.

Mina went to her bedroom and pulled her pack out from under her bed. She began pulling her clothing out of the drawers and placing it in her pack. When she had nearly everything of hers packed away, she came to her wedding dress. She held it in her hands, looking down at it with disappointment. It was her mother's, but looking at it broke her heart. It reminded her of what she almost had and lost. She carefully laid it out on her bed and closed up her pack. Mina walked out into the hall and grabbed some paper and a pen from the desk and began to write a letter to her husband. When she finished, she folded it up and placed it on the kitchen table. Returning to her room, she grabbed her pack and hoisted it onto her back.

When she reached the front door, Mina glanced down at her left hand and noticed her wedding ring. She walked back over to the table, removing the ring from her finger. She placed the ring on top of her letter and left the house, not looking back.

A/N: Uh oh! Things are not looking good! I will be updating again either today or tomorrow so stay tuned! Please review and let me know what you think!