Author's Note: Well, folks, here's the final chapter. I hope you've enjoyed this little "episode," as I see it in my mind. Again, thanks to pisces317 and GraceW for patiently beta-ing this one for me! And a special thanks to Gateworld for the use of their transcripts. Enjoy! ~lg

oOo

The torchlight drew closer to Sheppard and his team, and no one came up with an idea. Sheppard himself counted lights and knew that they couldn't take the number of people out there. Even armed with swords and bows, the numbers were overpowering. McKay stared wide-eyed at his life signs detector, and Jotham's breathing increased. Great, Sheppard thought. If we don't get him calmed down, he'll hyperventilate along with McKay!

A whine broke the silence. Sheppard blinked as he recognized it. Someone had powered up the Jumper. The oncoming crowd heard the whine, as well, and Sheppard recognized Cashel's red hair as the man whirled to the empty spot where the Jumper had been cloaked. The Ancient vessel rippled into view and took off.

"After it!" Cashel yelled. Men with bows took aim, their weapons bouncing harmlessly off of the hull of the Jumper. As Sheppard watched, the pilot flew toward one end of the valley, turned, and came back at a decent clip, buzzing the heads of the crowd. Torches were dropped, and men cowered in fear. The Jumper turned again and buzzed the group a second time. Men started running, not accustomed to having such a large machine flying within a foot over their heads. Sheppard thought about stories he'd heard of pilots barnstorming and couldn't help the grin that crossed his face. Even Cashel huddled like a coward.

Three more passes were enough to scatter the crowd and send Cashel packing. The Jumper returned and landed, no longer bothering to cloak as the back hatch was lowered. Sheppard shoved Jotham ahead of him and into the Jumper, where Baker sat at the controls. Cole welcomed the frightened man inside and pointed him to a seat.

As he stepped out of the cave, movement in the bright moonlight caught Sheppard's eye. A form—likely Dougal or Cashel—took off from where he'd been hiding against the craggy rock face of a nearby hill.

Ronon caught the movement. "Sheppard!"

"Yeah, I see him." He pointed at Baker as Ronon gave chase. "Get Jotham back to Atlantis. We'll catch up later. Hey, Chewy, wait up!"

As the Jumper rose slowly into the night sky, Sheppard raced after Ronon and the man who, in all likelihood, had headed straight for Carson and Reya's hut. He put as much speed into the chase as possible, hoping to catch the man before he did any further damage.

oOo

The door of their hut banged open and woke Carson from a relatively peaceful sleep. He jerked, the slouched position he'd been in suddenly changed when a hand grabbed the front of his shirt. Reya had already roused him once, and he'd thanked her before going back to sleep. Now, he blinked in surprise as Dougal dragged him out of the hut. He couldn't stop the cry of pain as his pounding head combined with the pulling on the wounds in his back. He was tossed into the dirt and unceremoniously kicked in the ribs. Carson doubled over, groaning and praying he didn't have a punctured lung or some other complication.

"You!" Dougal yelled, spittle flying as he yanked Carson from the dirt and slammed his back into the wall of the hut.

"No!" Reya's cry was still far from strong, but the panic in her voice told another story. She flew at her father, her small hands beating his shoulders and clawing at the hand closing around Carson's neck. "Let him go!"

Dougal swatted at her with a strong arm and sent her to the dirt. "Stay out of this, woman!" He glared at Carson, tightening the grip on his neck. "This man will pay for what he has done."

"Wha' I have done?" Carson's eyes bulged as the grip around his throat closed off his airways. His hands scrabbled against Dougal's, and his feet kicked at him. But the other man was too strong for him in his weakened state.

Reya climbed to her feet and charged her father again. But her fight was ineffective against his anger. Just as darkness started closing on Carson's vision, a single shot rang out. Dougal's hand abruptly loosened its grip, and Carson fell into a gasping heap on the ground. He knew he'd likely have a bruise, and he felt the swelling in his trachea that indicated some level of injury.

Dougal had flown backwards when he was shot, his shoulder bleeding in the moonlight. He rolled onto his back as Sheppard walked forward, his jaw dangerously clenched as he aimed his side-arm at the man. Reya rushed to Carson's side, helping him to his feet as he drew in deep breaths of air. Using her shoulder to steady himself, he glared down at Dougal. His doctor's training told him he should try to help the man, but his emotions and temper left him unable to do so.

Dougal, however, was clearly too enraged to see the truth of his situation. He pushed to his feet and charged Sheppard, drawing a knife from behind his back in the process.

The fight ended quickly with both Sheppard and Ronon firing one final time.

oOo

Though it was approaching midnight on Reya's home world, the sun had barely begun to set on Atlantis. Carson and Reya limped through the gate, the two of them exhausted from their ordeal. Sheppard followed them, his face set against the inevitable questions. They'd spoken little on the walk from the prison hut to the Stargate, and Carson was grateful for the silence. Reya would likely need time to sort through her father's abuse and death, but he could not bring himself to feel any remorse for what had happened. Dougal had been a cruel monster, and he'd attacked one of Atlantis's own.

Elizabeth met them, her eyes softening when she saw the injured pair. "Carson, welcome home."

"Thank ye." He turned slowly. "Dr. Weir, this is Reya."

Elizabeth smiled. "Reya, it's a pleasure. I know Dr. Beckett wants you to head to the infirmary, so I hope we can find the time to speak later."

Reya simply nodded. Carson turned down the familiar corridor, shaking his head at Sheppard's offer to have a medical team bring a stretcher. If he hadn't been injured, he would have called for one for Reya. But he wanted to walk back into his infirmary, his pride taking hold and refusing to let go. It was foolish, he knew. But it was his decision.

As soon as the infirmary doors opened, he saw the other patient in a bed. Reya's quick gasp told him who the large blond man was. The newcomer pushed to his feet and gingerly gathered Reya into his arms when she rushed over to him. Carson stood unsteadily next to another bed and watched with a smile as Jotham held his young wife.

Cole quietly approached his side. "Carson?"

He glanced at her and saw the unspoken message in her eyes. "I'll be there in a moment. Right now, let me enjoy this."

She nodded and touched his arm as she left him alone. Carson leaned against the bed, watching as Reya dissolved into tears. Jotham gently smoothed her hair from her face and kissed the top of her head, his own tears falling as she mumbled out the truth about their child. Carson looked away, blinking as he felt the same compassion that had gotten him into this situation well up inside. Leaving the couple to their grief, he unsteadily walked over to Cole and allowed her to treat his wounds.

oOo

Four Weeks Later. . . .

Carson stepped back through the gate with Lieutenant Baker behind him, a smile firmly in place as he strode toward Elizabeth. He'd just come from another allied world, this one a bit more advanced than Reya's planet had been. Jotham and Reya were settling nicely into their new home, and they had been accepted into a society known for helping victims of Wraith attacks. Carson had suggested they be placed there as a result of their experiences on M48-217. Now, he allowed his grin to widen as Elizabeth approached him.

"Carson?"

"Elizabeth." He shrugged out of the pack he'd carried on his back, the still-healing wounds pulling in a familiar but not entirely comfortable way. Out of the bloody mess his back had been, only two wounds had been deep enough to scar. One of them stretched across his shoulder blades and would take some time for the residual pain to fade. Meeting Elizabeth's eyes, he nodded. "Reya and Jotham are doing well. She's healed from her injuries, though I can do little for the scarring from previous beatings." He lowered his voice. "She's also expectin' again."

"Isn't it a bit soon?"

"Aye," he agreed. "An' I explained the risks. Which means I'll be headin' back there—or they'll be comin' here—quite a lot in the comin' months."

Elizabeth nodded. "Well, I hate to do this, but we've received a request for you to join Colonel Sheppard. Apparently, they've found a feudal society who could use your help with their Lord Protector."

Carson's eyes slid shut at that news. He'd had enough of feudal societies to last a lifetime. "What seems to be the problem?"

"I don't know. Apparently, the Lord Protector fell ill."

"An' Colonel Sheppard wants to build some good will." Carson nodded. "Right. Let me restock with some supplies, an' I'll head out."

By that evening, he wished he hadn't agreed to go. The Ancient scanner he'd brought had told him that the Lord Protector was anemic and that his liver and kidneys had failed. Still, it took a few more hours to conclude that the Lord Protector had been poisoned. He couldn't identify the exact poison, but he delivered the news to Sheppard as the two of them stared down on the gateroom/throneroom of this twisted palace. He was exhausted and had a patient on the verge of death, and he could do nothing. Beyond frustrating him, it angered him.

After Sheppard pulled Otho, the chamberlain, aside, Carson returned to the Lord Protector's side to wait for the inevitable. He made the man comfortable and documented the moment he took his final breath. Even though he didn't know the Lord Protector, he still felt the sting of having lost a patient. As a doctor, he wanted to save the man. As a human being, he wanted to berate these people for their government and the injustice of it. At least the Lord Protector had seemed to be reasonable from what Sheppard had said.

The situation turned bad, however, and Carson tried to convince Sheppard to leave. The colonel had other ideas, and Carson was caught trying to escape the tower. With a knife held to his throat, he stared at Sheppard while the former chamberlain, now Lord Protector, arrested them. The pair were escorted to another cell, this one much nicer than the hut he'd occupied with Reya, and shoved inside. Sheppard managed to keep his feet under him, but Carson tripped and slid across the floor. The scars on his back pulled painfully, and he climbed to his feet while hiding a grimace. Tavius had sprawled on a settee.

Otho, the new Lord Protector, glanced at the guards. "Wait outside."

The arrogant little man on the plush couch in the room didn't even glance over. "I'll have your head for this, Chamberlain."

Otho glared at him. "You are in no position to make threats."

Tavius sneered at Sheppard and Carson. "Is it really necessary to insult me further by imprisoning me with these people?"

Carson glared, fed up with feudal societies, feudal arrogance, and feudal everything. "We're not the ones who committed murder."

Tavius sat up. "True." He pushed to his feet. "There is only one murderer in this room. Isn't that right, Otho?" He turned to Sheppard and Carson. "Oh, let me guess. He told you I did it. Do I look like the sort of person who knows anything about poisons and chemicals? Otho, on the other hand, is always making elaborate studies of things—topics you and I might find boring, but which sometimes can turn out to be quite useful."

Carson frowned. "You're sayin' he's the one that poisoned the Lord Protector?"

"I had no choice." Otho gestured to Tavius as he spoke. "I offered to guarantee him the succession. In return, he would spare Mara's life."

Carson resisted the urge to close his eyes and rub at the headache threatening to form. These things seemed to always come back around to a woman in the center. The only difference between this situation and Reya's was that Reya had done nothing wrong by marrying Jotham. Mara, Tavius's sister, had been indirectly complicit in this entire affair.

"Ah, but you're leaving out the best part," Tavius continued. "Once I assumed the throne, Mara was to be given to Otho as his wife. All she had to do was bat her eyes at him a couple of times, and the fool was hooked."

Otho slapped Tavius, likely a higher degree of insult than a manly punch would have been. "Guards!" He glanced at Carson and Sheppard. "It's true we were to be married, and so we will." He made to leave and then turned around as if he'd had a new thought. "Only now she won't be marrying a lowly servant, but the Lord Protector himself."

Carson watched the arrogant chamberlain-turned-ruler strut away and let out a deep breath. All of this happened because he'd discovered the truth about the Lord Protector's health. His mind went back over his ordeal with Reya, as well, and he let out a deep sigh. "I really need to stop makin' house calls."

~The End~