Ro was pacing. Sheppard sprawled in a chair massaging his right temple. Teyla and Jennifer shared glances as they watched everyone. McKay tapped a frenzied beat on the table as he pretended to read a file. Jennifer felt her leg bouncing in time with it under the table.

Finally the door opened and Lennah rushed in with Jack right behind her.

The room went silent and it seemed like all the air was sucked out in a sudden rush of wind. Then Ronon broke the stillness, rushing to her and hugging her so tightly her feet dangled in the air. Her arms were around him and she loved the pounding of her heart on his. Teyla joined the hug and Sheppard touched his head to hers. Lennah looked up to see McKay and Keller beside her. Rodney's hand patted her shoulder and Jennifer smoothed her hair.

"We were so worried about you!" Jennifer sniffled and wove her hand in Rodney's as he comforted her.

Ronon's voice was in her ear and she felt it in her gut. "Don't ever do that again." She cradled his face and rested her forehead on his. There was a bandage on his temple.

"What happened?" She asked him.

"Well, we caught up with him outside Francis and we think he was headed to—"

"What? Who?"

They all looked at her. "What do you mean 'who?' The guy that stuffed you in his trunk!" McKay breathed out.

She remembered a little of it then, the way one remembers a deja-vous. The dark that swallowed her and held her captive for hours. Ro put her back on the ground and Keller put a hand to her forehead.

"Sit her down." Someone poured her a cup of water. "Sip and breathe slowly."

"I'm good. I just—I just couldn't remember what happened. The last thing I remember was falling asleep during Jurassic Park."

"What's the first thing you remember?" Keller was looking through her medical file when Lennah looked up at her.

"I… 'woke up' standing in the woods." She recalled it like a bad dream. "I didn't even know I was on Earth until three and a half days later." They all shared quiet looks that said something beyond her. That disturbed her more than anything. "Please. I need to know what happened." She looked to Sheppard and implored him. "I think I killed someone."

Sheppard seemed to relax a little and he leaned back in his chair. "Damn near did." He smiled and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Do you remember getting leave?"

"Yeah."

"That was six days ago."

"But that was movie night…" Realization dawned.

"Exactly."

"I was taking Ro to see the farm. Mom was gonna be nutty."

"She doesn't know… about how you were missing. We didn't want to tell her you…"

"Good." Lennah looked at him sternly. "She doesn't need that again. She nearly lost it when Dad was MIA."

"So you and Dex went on leave and rented a car. You were driving south on the 25 when you stopped at a gas station. You went in to pay after you showed Ronon how to pump. After a little while he joined you inside and—" He struggled for a moment first gauging her then considering. "Someone tampered with your car. They knew what they were doing. You continued down the road for about ten minutes when Ronon lost control. It's likely the brake lines were cut but the steering column looks like it was messed with too.

"There was a turn in the road and he couldn't brake. You went off the road into the trees. Thankfully there was a rise off the road or your injuries would have been worse. Ronon was knocked out. A road crew saw the whole thing. A car pulled over shortly after the accident as you were wrenching the driver side door open. He came up behind you. He grabbed you and you fought like hell. But there was no way you could have over powered him."

"The road crew was on the median. They could not safely cross to assist you before he forced you into the trunk of his vehicle." Teyla nodded, taking comfort and hoping to give it in the attempt at intervention by strangers.

"We were an hour behind him. Ronon came around just before we arrived on the scene. His injuries were minor but there was a lot of blood on your side of the car."

"Head wounds." Keller shrugged as she gestured at Lennah's right temple. A two-inch laceration had needed 50 stitches. "Heavy bleeders. But we didn't know that and thought the worst."

Lennah looked to Ro at her side and hooked her foot around his under the table. He stroked her hair as she turned to Shep for him to continue.

"We don't know exactly how long you were in the trunk of his car."

"But it's probable it was between six and seven hours." McKay jumped in. "As soon as we realized you were missing I started the stopwatch on my wristwatch. The first 48 are crucial if we hoped to find you… well, at all."

Ronon smiled. "You should have heard him. He ticked off the seconds on that thing when he didn't like how we were doing things." He said it warmly as he highlighted McKay's regard and concern for her.

Rodney flinched. "Doesn't mean you didn't try to kill me with it."

"I may have threatened to choke him with it." Ro's eyes twinkled. No remnant of the soulless emptiness that swallowed him was left. After the time had run out, his worst fears loomed.

"We caught up with him in Duchesne. He evaded us and headed North toward Price when we caught up with him again on the 35 headed North out of Francis. He had some visible marks from a fight, we could tell that much in the following high-speed chase. But as you were presumed in the trunk, we couldn't drive him off the road or allow any damage to the vehicle. He led us on a wild goose chase for a while. We lost him in Nevada as there were some paperwork problems with our air support."

"I ended up coming out of the wilderness on Mill Hollow Rd. in the Uinta National Forest."

"From what you've said about walking for four days, it's possible he stopped the car on the 35 before we caught up with him again and opened the trunk only to get a gut full of wildcat." He paused, waiting to see if she found any of this familiar.

Lennah thought for a moment but she could discern nothing but the bile taste on her tongue. "Did you get him thought? Who was it? He obviously was following us. Did he know who we were or was it some random attacker?"

"No, you—we all thought we knew him." Sheppard looked carefully at the table and Jennifer cleared her throat. She gave an imperceptible shake of her head.

Just then, a man in black burst through the door with one finger on his ear receiver. "We've got him. He's here. Guy drove up and was walking down the hall when security recognized him. His clearance was still valid."

Sheppard and Ronon were hurrying out the door. Lennah shot up and followed. Jennifer grabbed her arm but Colare jerked out of it. Keller started to speak but Lennah barked at her. "I need to know."

She followed them up the stairs and around corners as they jogged with the MiBs. Up ahead as they slowed to a brisk walk, Lennah could hear a familiar voice above the rest. The hysterical tone made it hard to identify.

"I still don't understand what's going on. I will go quietly once you tell me what's happening. Is this some kind of drill? A random test for parasites? I'm clean. I'm clean! You can't take my blood! It's mine!"

Sheppard walked up the tangle of people and smiled easily. "What's going on here soldier?"

"Oh, hello, sir. I don't know what the deal is these guys seem to think I'm a hostile. I've been in too many foxholes with you to be treated like one of the—one of them." Lennah peaked around shoulders and eased her way deeper into the crowd of people that had gathered. She moved slowly so Ro and Shep wouldn't see her coming.

Sheppard smiled again and shook his head. "You and I never were in any foxholes together."

"But, sir, every time we go off-world we're surrounded. How many times have we been on missions together?"

Sheppard was loosing his cool. "A handful of times, Major, and the were all easy runs. We were surrounded by friendlies! THAT DOES NOT QUALIFY AS FOXHOLE!!"

"But still, you never—"

She stood out starkly in white pajamas against BDUs and black suits and tac. She was surrounded but it was as though no one else was there. It was odd looking around at all the people trying to put the voice to a face. She passed him by the first time but did a double take when he saw her.

He took one look at her and exploded as if in agony. He sprung forward toward her and fell back quickly in the retaliating surge on the part of her protectors.