I have no idea where this came from. It's silly really, so try not to take it seriously. It's based a little on hockey (I am Canadian after all), so if your favorite sport is shunned or demonized in this fic, please don't take it personally.

I don't own Stargate Atlantis or any of its characters…MGM does.

I would appreciate any and all feedback, be it positive, negative or ambivalent. Really, it doesn't take too much of your time to say a little something does it?

Has not been run through a beta, so I take full responsibility for any typos, errors, etc.

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"Anything else?" asked Sam, as she did at the end of every morning staff meeting.

"Yes there is, actually."

Colonel Samantha Carter looked over to Dr. Jennifer Keller and suppressed a grimace. She'd been doing a lot of hiding her feelings since taking over command of Atlantis, especially negative feelings, and even now she wasn't sure of how good a job she was doing at it. The mixture of apology and sympathy easily evident on Keller's face only added to her uncertainty in that regard.

"Go ahead, Jennifer."

Jennifer leaned forward in her chair and folded her hands together on the table. "We need to do something to help some of Atlantis' personnel to get into better shape."

"Come on, Doc," said Sheppard from two seats to her right. He leaned back in his chair and smiled, "Most of our people are in great shape. They have to be to even get here." He glanced slyly to Rodney at the opposite end of the table as he added, "Granted some of us are a little pudgy but…"

"Why did you look at me when you said that?" demanded Rodney loudly from his seat. "I'll have you know that my BMI is well within the acceptable range for a man my age."

"Whatever you say, Rodney," Sheppard said. His playfully taunting tone of voice said he didn't believe it for a second.

"The point is," Jennifer interrupted loudly to get their attention, "is that with the nature of this base and the work that goes on here," she looked to Sheppard, "it wouldn't hurt to have something that can motivate people to stay in shape or get into better shape."

"Do we not already have programs available to help people if they want it?" asked Teyla from her seat between Sheppard and Keller.

"Exercise programs, yes," answered Jennifer as she turned to Teyla. "There's a group of scientists that does yoga; there's a group Marines that does Tae Bo and other groups that do similar programs. The thing is the people that are most likely to avail themselves of those programs have used similar programs before. It seems to me that most of the people in the city who might want to try or need to try to get fit might not feel comfortable in those programs. They might be inclined to exercise more if it were done in a sports setting as opposed to a regimented exercise program setting." She smiled and looked to Sam. "It's all in the fun and competition. It could also be a great relief valve for the pressure we're constantly under."

Sam smiled back at Jennifer and glanced around the table. Ronon seemed to be mostly ambivalent about the whole idea. Rodney seemed to be in a place somewhere between disgust and mortification. Teyla didn't seem to be interested, but appeared to favor the idea if it would help. Sheppard looked positively gleeful, and Jennifer looked hopeful and somewhat expectant.

"I can't see why we couldn't," Sam announced after considering it for a moment. "Any suggestions as to which sports we could consider?"

"Football," announced Sheppard immediately, eliciting a groan from Rodney who then asked weakly, "I don't suppose you'd consider chess a sport worthy of consideration?"

"No and no," answered Sam which drew instant and nearly identical groans of protest from Rodney and John. "I don't imagine there's a room big enough for a football field," explained Sam to John, "and chess is hardly something that would give you any amount of exercise Rodney."

"It's exercise for the mind," said a defiant Rodney.

"First of all chess is not a sport, and second it's not your mind that needs to lose a couple of pounds," said Sheppard with a grin.

"I told you my BMI…"

"Any other suggestions?" interrupted Sam as she gave warning glances to Sheppard and McKay.

"I guess baseball is out," thought Sheppard out loud. "What about basketball? A basketball court is smaller than a football or baseball field."

"What's basketball?" asked Ronon.

Sheppard looked to the big man sitting next to Rodney and explained. "Basketball is a sport where you try to shoot," he regretted the word immediately when Ronon's eyes lit up like beacons and clarified, "toss a ball into a rim that isn't much bigger on the round than the ball and is ten feet up in the air."

"How's that exercise?" asked Ronon with a frown.

"Well, there's lots of running involved between two baskets situated at either end of a twenty-eight meter court," said Sheppard.

"Any physical contact?"

"There is some…incidental…contact but it's not technically permitted, no," replied Sheppard who ignored Ronon's disappointed look. "Too much contact is a foul, which could give you a free shot at the basket."

"What about hockey?" suggested McKay suddenly.

"Figures you'd bring that up?" said Sheppard.

"Oh come on," said McKay incredulously. "Please tell me that isn't some sort of stereotype you're perpetuating over there, because that would be rich coming from someone whose first, second and third suggestions were football, baseball and basketball."

Sheppard took the rebuke in stride by nodding the point to Rodney as Ronon asked, "What's hockey?"

"A game played on ice," said Sheppard before Rodney could explain. "You wear skates, which are shoes with blades on the bottom of them to go up and down a sheet of ice and try to put a little round piece of rubber into a net with a stick."

"Well we obviously wouldn't be playing ice hockey now would we?" asked Rodney. "It could be floor hockey, either with a floor hockey puck or a ball." Rodney thought for a moment before snapping his fingers wildly at no one in particular and said, "Of course it wouldn't be that difficult to set up some ice! It would only take…"

"Rodney," Sam said with an amazing amount of patience, "no."

"Stick?" asked Ronon, showing his first sign of real interest in the discussion.

"Easy big fella," said Sheppard with a smile. "You're not allowed to hit anyone with the stick."

"Sounds as bad as basketball," said a deflated Ronon as he folded his arms across his chest.

"There's more skill involved," said Rodney instantly. He turned to Keller and pointed to her excitedly, "It involves a fair amount of hand eye coordination as well as cardio."

Keller graced Rodney with a genuine smile. It wasn't often she saw that type of enthusiasm from him, and when she had seen it before it was almost exclusively related to work. Almost. Besides that, if she had bet beforehand on whether or not Rodney McKay would get excited about a sport, she apparently would have lost. "I don't see anything wrong with basketball, and hockey would be okay I suppose," she agreed, "though for safety sake I'd have to insist on very limited checking if any at all."

At the strange looks she got from Rodney and John she shrugged and said with a smile that made them both feel like idiots, "I'm from Wisconsin…I know what hockey is."

"Checking?" asked Ronon.

"You can use your body to hit someone else to remove them from the play or gain position, with some restrictions, of course," explained Rodney. "There are only certain times you can check someone and certain ways to do it."

"Sounds better than basketball," Ronon said and Rodney smiled in triumph while Sheppard sighed.

Sam looked at everyone and shrugged her shoulders. "All right, see how much interest there is in the idea of starting recreational basketball and floor hockey leagues. Actually, see what interest there'd be in any other sports as well. If there's enough interest we'll see what we can do." She turned to Jennifer. "It's your department, Doctor."

Keller nodded as everyone else stood up. She gathered her things together and stood up as well only to find Rodney standing beside her chair looking at her with a look of what she thought was an air of delight.

"So," he said as they began to walk out of the conference room together, "what else do you know about hockey?"

Tbc?