"Good morning." Woolsey greeted, clearly surprised, as he briskly walked into the briefing room. As the reciprocal greetings occurred he took his seat.
"I was not expecting your team for another ten minutes." He said looking round the table.
"We wanted to be here when you contact the doc, so we can see how she's doing." Sheppard said.
"Very well. But I do have an agenda to cover with Dr Keller so please can you keep the normal irrelevant chatter to a minimum." Woolsey agreed.
"What irrelevant chatter?" McKay questioned. "Everything I say is important. If you think it is irrelevant then I think you need to reassess your priorities."
"So when you got drunk and talked about that time you lost your clothes, that was important?" Sheppard asked.
"Cos you told us to forget about it." Ronon added.
"Gentleman!" Woolsey exclaimed. "This is exactly what I was talking about." He sighed. "Perhaps you should take a leaf out of Teyla's book." He added before reaching his radio and asking Chuck to dial, whilst Sheppard whispered to Teyla.
"Teacher's pet."
A few minutes later Jennifer's very weary face appeared on the screens in the briefing room.
"Dr Keller." Woolsey said. "How is it going?"
"I think I am making progress. Some of the patients are beginning to show strong signs of recovery."
"Any more fatalities?"
"Five." Jennifer said, her eyes betraying her guilt and sense of failure.
"How are our people?" Sheppard asked.
"They are showing signs of improvement." Jennifer replied.
"And you?" Woolsey asked.
"What ever it is, is still only attacking males."
"You sure?" McKay asked. "Cos you look like crap." He added causing Teyla to chastise him.
"Are you sure you don't want us to send anyone else through?" Woolsey questioned ignoring McKay.
"I'm sure. Atlantis is short staffed as it is." Jennifer replied.
"Well try to get some rest. We will send through the supplies you asked for."
"Thanks." Jennifer replied as the signal terminated.
"Should we not send help?" Teyla pressed.
"Dr Keller keeps refusing. She is all too aware that the infirmary is short staffed. To send others through would not only be detrimental to Atlantis, but it would jeopardise their safety as well. I agree that Dr Keller is strained, but we must defer to her decision." He replied as he flipped open a folder. "But this does tie in with what I wanted to talk to you about."
"The mission?" Sheppard asked confused.
"No, we will come to that later." Woolsey said.
"Later? This sounds ominous." McKay muttered.
"You have been back on base for two weeks?" Woolsey asked Sheppard.
"Just over." Sheppard confirmed.
"And during that time you are aware that the Chief Medical Officer of the expedition is quarantined off-world?"
"Yes."
"And her absence along with the recent exodus of personal does leave the infirmary short staffed?" Woolsey pressed.
"Not sure how I can help there." Sheppard commented.
"Fortunately I am."
"You are?" Sheppard asked.
"Yes Colonel. You need to actively persuade Ronon to stop injuring marines."
"I do?" Sheppard queried, uncertain of how he was meant to achieve this. Even more uncertain when he looked at Ronon.
"Yes you do." Woolsey said, picking up a piece of paper and holding it out to Sheppard. "This is a graph of patients seen in the infirmary. You notice the minimal activity when you were on Earth compared with the much higher activity on the right."
"But there are two troughs on the right." Sheppard said, feeling that Ronon was being unfairly singled out.
"Yes, yes there are. I am glad you pointed them out. They correspond to the two missions you have been on since you got back." Woolsey said. "So clearly the evidence points to either you or Ronon being responsible."
"With his skill, not Sheppard." Ronon shrugged.
"I assumed it was you Ronon. However, this can not go on. I need you to ease up on the marines until we are fully staffed again." Woolsey said looking straight at Ronon. "I believe there are two options. Firstly I trust you to ease up, secondly we increase your off-world time."
"Sounds good to me." Ronon said.
"Just him?" McKay asked, almost pleading.
"Your whole team." Woolsey said.
"But my work." McKay began to protest.
"Fear not Dr McKay I have already thought about that. I have planned your next five missions and all involve going to planets of scientific interest. In fact they have been hand picked by you. If I remember correctly you picked them for Dr Zelenka's missions, so for you they should be a breeze."
"But." McKay started knowing full well he had picked those missions for Zelenka for a reason.
"I am glad that is settled." Woolsey said swiftly. "Your next mission then is to MX-321."