Title: Indecision
Author: Azura Nyx
Characters: Radek Zelenka/Katie Brown
Length: ~1,400 words
Warnings/Author's Notes: These characters are property of MGM.
Rating: G
Summary: Katie Brown is back at home after resigning from the Atlantis expedition, and begins to wonder if that was the right decision. Can Radek persuade her to come back to the Pegasus galaxy? A one-shot.
Chapter 1
It had been a beautiful day in Springfield, Illinois, which is Dr. Katie Brown's hometown and where she currently resided. Katie left the Pegasus galaxy two months ago in order to get a better job… at least that is what she told Rodney and everybody else when they would confront her about her decision to leave. However, the real truth was: Katie left Atlantis because she couldn't help but to have felt humiliated after Rodney had broke up with her. Not that she was necessarily concerned about what the others thought of her after their relationship ended. Rather, Katie was more worried about how the end of their relationship would affect the events on Atlantis from now on. She surmised Rodney and her would begin to act awkward toward each other if she had stayed, and thought it best to leave before the circumstance became stranger.
For Katie, caring for plants has always been a way for her to relax and think about life and living. After all, plants never had to worry about where they were going in life. Neither did they concern themselves with indecisiveness and whether or not they had made the right choices. For that, Katie envied them. Although she had resigned from the Atlantis expedition and obtained another job in Springfield, she wondered if leaving the Pegasus galaxy was the right choice. Katie enjoyed it there and even missed it, especially the moments when she could put her knowledge of botany to use. Often times, she reminisced about the moments Rodney had been so kind and sweet to her. Dr. Brown had to admit that she missed the man.
The sun's rays illuminated against Katie's porch. So, she decided to go to the green house and water the plants. As a botanist, Dr. Brown had a lot of various plants; flowers, and a multitude of ferns mostly. Katie examined the red calla lilies and watered them.
"You have quite a beautiful collection of flowers here, Katie." The voice was unmistakable, and the Czech accent immediately gave him away: it was Dr. Radek Zelenka.
Katie turned around, smiled and cheerily said, "Thank-you! Well, it most certainly is a surprise to see you here."
"I thought I would stop by to see how you're feeling. This plant is a very nice color," said Zelenka as he touched the purple flower with bell-shaped pedals.
"Oh! Those are bluebells," Dr. Brown happily said. "I know- it seems contradicting they are purple when they're called 'bluebells.'"
Radek thought for a moment and then replied, "They're an interesting flower though. Where did they originate from?"
"Most generally they come from Great Britain. At least 70% of them are from there."
"Ah! I see!"
Katie finished watering the plants, turned off the faucet to her left, and sat the water hose down on the ground. "Something tells me you didn't come all this way to talk to me about plants," she said as she walked over to Radek.
Zelenka knew Katie was right. In reality, Radek was there on behalf of nearly the entire Atlantis expedition to convince Dr. Brown to return to the Pegasus galaxy. He was well aware this was not going to be an easy task.
"A lot of people miss you back on Atlantis, you know," he casually mentioned. "Especially Rodney... even though he won't admit it."
"Ah! I get it. You are here to convince me to go back to Atlantis," commented Dr. Brown. Radek didn't answer this because he knew it was the truth. Instead he peered down to the floor in apprehension of what Katie was going to say next. "Radek, I-I would love to, but… I just can't."
Radek looked up at Katie and curiously inquired, "Why?"
"I have a job on this planet. I can't just leave," she reasonably answered. "Besides, it pays me good money!"
"Somehow, I don't believe that you left Atlantis because of money."
"No? Then why would I leave, hmm?"
Now Zelenka was feeling uneasy. He honestly didn't know how to respond to that statement. If Radek mentioned what he honestly believed the answer to that question was; that Katie didn't want things to get too awkward between her and Rodney, then she could hate him forever. Yet, it was too late to just stop the conversation now.
"Rodney. You left because of Rodney," Radek answered at last.
Katie's eyes became wide in disbelief and she exclaimed, "What?! That's-"
"The truth," he interrupted. "After you and Rodney broke up, you no longer wanted to stay on Atlantis because you didn't want harsh feelings building up between you two in case you should end up going on a mission with him."
"How would you know what I want," Dr. Brown crossly said. "You have no idea, and for the record: you are way off in my reason for leaving. Not that it's any of your business, but I left because my parents need help financially at the moment and the amount I was being paid on Atlantis wasn't substantial enough to help."
"Oh. S-sorry. I didn't know," nervously replied Zelenka. Katie felt bad about being frustrated with Radek. She never viewed him as someone she could be truly angry at. After all, Radek was generally a sweet man and she never meant to offend him. So, Katie gathered Radek didn't come here to say what he did to hurt her either.
"Look. I'm sorry, Radek. It's just… there are many reasons why I left. What you had said is partially true. I used to really love Rodney, and I didn't want my emotions to get in the way of his work, or even mine for that matter. But now I'm over him, and I've fallen in love with someone else."
"Then would you come back to Atlantis? You could bring whoever that someone is along with you, I'm sure."
Katie giggled for a moment at the fact that Radek didn't know she was referring to him. But she didn't really want Radek to know how she felt about him either, so she responded, "No, no, no. I don't think Dr. Weir would approve of that. The security measures would be tricky to go through. Besides, I don't want my feelings for someone affecting my decision-making."
"I see," a discouraged Radek said. "Well, I should go. It's been nice talking to you, Katie. Perhaps I will see you around, yes?"
"I'm sure we will see each other again! Visit me anytime," Katie answered with a grin. Radek turned around to leave, and just when he was about to open the door Katie said, "R-Radek."
Zelenka stopped and turned around again to face Katie, and he answered, "Yes?"
Katie wanted to confess that she loved him right then because she didn't want to never tell him. After all, what if this was her only chance? Instead of Katie saying what she wanted to, however, she just said, "Take care, alright?"
"I will. You too," Radek said as he exited through the green house door.
At last, Katie gave a sigh of relief. She was practically shaking from the tension of nearly telling Radek about how she felt for him. The nervousness Katie felt wasn't based on a teenage-ish puppy crush either. Rather, it was the very idea of possibly causing Radek to become confused and worrisome about how to tell Rodney that he was dating his ex-girlfriend. Oh, boy! Wouldn't Rodney be surprised and perplexed over that one! Katie didn't want to cause that to happen. So, instead, she decided to wait it out until the time was right. Dr. Brown started to think, "Maybe there is something worth going back to the Pegasus galaxy for."