Word Count: 493
Rating: PG.
Category: Hurt/Comfort.
Story Status: Complete
Summary: Carter muses on being in charge while helping a hurt Chuck.

Written for the sgahcchallenges Last Fanfic Writer Stranding competition, Round One.

Prompt Details
Theme: No-dialogue Challenge
Word count: 500 max. Not one word over.
Characters: Choose any from the following – Teyla, Lorne, Radek, Woolsey, Chuck and Sam
Description: Choose from two to all characters from the list and write a story in which there is no dialogue at all. There must be social interaction, but you can’t write any dialogue. No other characters allowed, but can be mentioned.

Author's Note: I struggled with this challenge and don't think this is my best work.  Sorry.

Beta: Thank you to Jayne Perry for the beta-reading.



Not Chuck’s Day
By Leesa Perrie

When she’d taken command of Atlantis she’d known it was going to be a difficult task, but it was an honour to be considered for the job and a challenge she felt she was ready to take on, even with the potential problem of McKay.

It certainly was a heavy responsibility what with all the lives that relied on her leadership, but she coped and in time began to feel like she was home, though Earth would always be more of a home to her than here.  Something she knew wasn’t the case for many people on Atlantis, especially those who’d been here from the beginning.

Like Chuck, who was currently bleeding profusely from a wound in his leg.  She applied pressure, smiling at him reassuringly as she did so, telling him it wasn’t as bad as it looked and that the medical team would be there shortly so he wasn’t to worry.

He didn’t seem to be buying it, but then she could hardly blame him.  He was nothing if not smart and knew that with the transporters down, due to an unexpected glitch, it would take several minutes for the team to reach them out here on the North Pier. 

Damn.

She’d wandered down here looking for a few minutes peace and quiet, not expecting to run into anyone.  Chuck said he’d come down to check out a power fluctuation, but she knew better, and decided that it was about time she organised an official bar on Atlantis and put an end to the stills.  Not one of the expedition’s most successful secrets, and indeed it was quite clear that Elizabeth had known about them and turned a blind eye.  She had said as much in her notes, the ones she’d left on her computer for whoever took over should something happen to her. 

Sam had her own similar file.

So Chuck had come down to check on his stills and fallen over some debris onto a metal pipe.  She’d heard his cry and found him in a growing pool of blood, and that was when the technical glitch occurred, making Chuck’s day even worse.  And hers.

She sucked at the whole comfort thing, at least with people she didn’t know well, but she tried to keep him calm, distracting him with questions about his family and where in Canada did he grow up, joking about McKay breaking the friendly Canadian stereotype completely and giving them all a bad name.

The bleeding slowed, and then stopped.

Ten minutes later, the transporters were back online and a medical team arrived to take over.

She slumped down in relief, before following them back to the city hub and radioing Chuck’s partner in crime, Dr Mallozzi, to inform him that Chuck had been injured.  She had no doubt Mallozzi would be checking on the stills within the hour.

Maybe she’d try a glass of moonshine herself.  After all, she deserved it after this.

The End


Author's Notes:

1) Dr Mallozzi is mentioned in the Season 3 episode ‘Sunday’ by Radek, who wins Dr Mallozzi’s anime collection during the chess tournament. Whether he was an original member or not  is open for interpretation.

2) Not related to the story but of interest to fannish nerds like myself, in the SG1 Season 4 episode ‘Window of Opportunity’, the Latin book (see here for photo) that appears in it is written by Joseph Mallozzi, PhD.  Whether it is the same guy who is on Atlantis or not is, again, open for interpretation.

Added Note: It would seem (from reviews) that it's not clear from above that I do know who the real Joe Mallozzi is (Executive Producer of SGA for the last 2 seasons, writer etc, etc), so I'm clearing that up now. Of course, just because it's an in-joke between the writers etc doesn't alter the fact that this character (or characters) is now part of canon.


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