Disclaimer: I do not own the Stargate universe and its characters. It all belongs to MGM and Sci-Fi channel.

Sleepless

As one of Atlantis' most versatile gate technicians, Chuck had long since become accustomed to the role Cadman jokingly referred to as "Gate Keeper". His task was to keep watch on the stargate and the city, which was no small task by any means. The past had shown that any number of unpredictable troubles could occur. The fact that Colonel Carter trusted him enough to work the graveyard shift alone was a testament.

Alone at night meant Chuck could do practically anything. For his part, he enjoyed reading comics. It kept his mind occupied and time passed easier. Not that the thought of dancing around the gateroom hadn't crossed his mind…

A sudden light in the corner of his eye startled him. Chuck glanced above his console as Colonel Carter's glass office flickered to life. The woman herself stepped in from the office's back door and went straight for her desk.

Chuck's watch read 02:13, which made him frown. In the two years since Carter became the commander of the city, he'd only seen her pull late nights when they expected something bad to happen. That said, he had no idea what kept her up tonight. Only AR-1 was off world and they were on an extended stay with the Athosians. He could only presume she couldn't sleep.

The thought was a little strange to him. Sure, commanders were human too, but Carter had always seemed too solid for simple worries, if not a little more…scientifically interested…than Weir or Woolsey.

Chuck quickly shrugged it off, though. Who weren't sleepless once in a while? Besides, he thought it was kinda nice to know someone else was around. It could get lonely at night. Even he could admit to that.

When Colonel Carter returned again the next night, Chuck allowed his interest to be further piqued. The watch showed 01:47 and he'd barely gotten into his third comic of the night.

Carter hung her uniform jacket on the back of her chair and then settled down in front of the computer tablet.

Through the open blinds, Chuck could see she'd let her hair down. The civilian display suggested she either wasn't aware of his presence or simply didn't care. He assumed the former. It looked like she had a lot on her mind; her gaze seemed unfocused and she shifted in her seat several times.

Chuck felt almost like a peeping tom and quickly withdrew his eyes. Whatever the Colonel had on her mind, she was entitled to her privacy. He picked up his comic and continued to read.

As time ticked by, however, Chuck couldn't help skirt a glance in direction of the glass office. The lights were dimmed, with only the desk lamp lit. In its yellowish light, Carter's features seemed drawn and tired, but she didn't show any inclination to return to her quarters. Last night she'd hung around until after 04:00.

Chuck looked down on his control panel, where he'd set a cup and a thermos of coffee. His decision was made in an instant.

He refilled the cup and got to his feet. Step by step, he went across the small bridge between the operations centre and the commander's office, and finally knocked on the door.

Startled, Carter looked up and Chuck opened the door ajar. He held the cup up for her to see. "Would you like some coffee, ma'am?"

Probably aware of her stunned expression, Carter smoothed her features and smiled. "Thank you, Chuck. You're a godsend."

Chuck shrugged off the praise and gave her the cup. Carter sniffed in the aroma and it seemed to him like her shoulders sank a little. "I'll be out here if you need anything, ma'am," he said.

He retraced his steps to his spot by the control consoles. After he sat down, Chuck looked back at the glass office. Inside, Carter leaned back in her chair, cup in hand, and closed her eyes.

The Colonel still hadn't left until 03:25 the previous night, but Chuck felt a little confident that at least she wouldn't turn up today. He thought he'd figured out what might keep her up at night.

Amelia told him when he got on that during the weekly Earth call earlier today, Carter had been in a videoconference with the chief of the IOA for the full 38-minute mark. Apparently, she'd looked immensely relieved when the call was done and been in good spirits all day.

From what Chuck knew of the IOA – primarily due to Woolsey's brief interim command – any interaction with them could be a political headache. No wonder the Colonel must've been up at night. She really had expected something bad to happen.

So when Chuck settled back in his chair, comic in hand and feet on the console, he fully expected to be alone in the dimmed gateroom. That's why he almost jumped when the lights in the glass office were turned on.

Dressed in workout gear, Carter stood in the middle of the office, hands on her hips as she looked around. The blinds were half-shut from this morning, but Chuck could clearly see that she must've come straight from a strenuous workout. Her hair stuck to her scalp and even the dark shirt seemed darker in conspicuous places.

It was certainly not a sight he'd seen before. Whatever he'd told himself about the Colonel's humanity before, now he certainly struggled to see the invisible barriers following a difference in rank. Only Samantha Carter was inside that office, a rare moment to behold for one such as him.

The moment was quickly interrupted. Chuck's eyes met Carter's and her reaction was swift. The blinds were closed and he found himself once more surrounded by darkness.

The experience was incredibly uncomfortable. Now he definitely felt like a peeping tom.

Chuck swung his chair around so its back faced the office, and then he pointedly delved into his comic. This would be a long night.

As the fourth night and Chuck's last graveyard shift came about, his eyes couldn't help but skirt towards the darkened office. The clock ticked towards 04:18 and so far Colonel Carter hadn't showed up.

Maybe the experience last night had affected her as it had done him. Commanders rarely showed their personal sides, and Carter's nightly excursions lately seemed to fall into that category. Chuck had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Sergeant." Carter's voice made him jump in his seat. He swung towards it and saw her step off the staircase leading up to the Jumper Bay. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you." She smiled.

Chuck got to his feet, quick to say, "It's-it's okay, ma'am."

Carter raised an eyebrow, her lips twitching. "At ease, Sergeant. This isn't an inspection." Chuck felt heat in his cheeks and tried to comply.

He flopped back into his chair, and then began to clear away the things he'd strewn across the control panels. Carter, however, didn't seem to have noticed. She walked towards the small balcony overlooking the stargate and leaned on the rail.

To Chuck, an awkward silence ensued. He shifted in his seat and distracted himself from the Colonel's presence by running the nightly systems check. Power levels were in the green, no fluctuations of any kind, and no error messages popped up. Just a regular night. Nothing special about it, he told himself.

When the Colonel didn't move from her perch, however, Chuck began to doubt. For four nights in a row, the woman had been awake at night. Besides the IOA call yesterday, he couldn't think of any reason why the commander of Atlantis was sleepless. Not that it was any of his business, but Chuck had a penchant for pondering.

Any further thought was interrupted by the beep of his control panel. Chuck frowned and picked up the connected computer tablet. A red light blinked on the screen.

"Problems?" Colonel Carter appeared on the other side of his console.

"I don't know yet, ma'am. It looks like the long-range sensors picked up a signal of some kind." He transferred the image feed to the large screen on the wall. Carter turned to look at it as he continued. "It's coming from M3X-734."

"New Athos," Carter stated, and her voice smoothed. "Can you identify it?"

Chuck quickly ran his fingers over the keyboard and started an ID check. He froze as words popped up on his screen. "Um…Colonel?"

"I see it," Carter responded immediately. She turned on her heel. "Call up New Athos."

Chuck didn't waste time. He pushed his chair towards the neighbouring console and input the necessary sequence.

Down in the gateroom, the stargate groaned into life.

"Major Lorne, please report to the gateroom ASAP." Carter was on the radio, having moved to Chuck's first console. She leaned over the computer tablet, an air of command around her.

Chuck pushed the last symbol and the wormhole vortex burst into the gateroom. A blue shimmer lit up the room. "We've got a connection. I'm boosting the communication relay."

Carter flicked a button and spoke into her radio. "Colonel Sheppard, this is Carter. Please come in."

No reply. Chuck's pulse rose slight as the silence stretched on, only broken by the low rumble from the stargate.

"Sheppard, please respond," Carter repeated. Her tone rose in intensity. "Sheppard—"

"This is Sheppard," a man's gruff voice mumbled. Relief shone in Carter's eyes for a brief second. "What's with the noise, Sam? Can't a guy sleep?"

"You've got a Wraith hive ship in orbit, John. It just arrived."

"Oh." The gruffness in Sheppard's voice disappeared swiftly. "Well, that's not good."

Carter rose to her feet just as Major Lorne ran into the operations centre. It seemed he'd just jumped into his BDUs and was still in the process of pulling on his jacket.

"I'm sending AR-2 as back-up," she said quickly and gestured Lorne to get to it. He ran back the same way he'd arrived, one hand on his radio.

"Appreciate it," Sheppard replied, now wide awake. "I'll sound the alarm here. Let you know what happens."

"Take care of them, John," Carter said. "Atlantis out."

Sheppard logged off too and Chuck shut down the stargate. As the blue light disappeared and they were cast in shadows, he glanced at the Colonel. She still leaned over the console, her eyes on the stargate.

Maybe the sleeplessness was her kind of sixth sense? After all, Chuck reasoned, a Wraith threat was as bad as it got.

"Let's sound the bell," Carter told him as she straightened up. She smiled tightly. "Looks like it'll be an early morning."

Chuck stifled a yawn. The corridors were dim around him, but he barely noticed. He dragged his feet in the general direction of the mess hall, hoping for some hot milk to make him sleep. If that didn't work, he'd ask Dr Keller about some sleeping pills. It'd be his last hope to turn the day around after the row of graveyard shifts he'd pulled.

He'd thought that pulling the extra hours this morning and postponing sleep would help him tonight, but that hadn't happened. Still, at least AR-1 had gotten home in one piece and the Athosians were safe. That took a lot of weight off his mind. If something had gone wrong on his shift…well, he'd definitely have lost sleep.

As he turned a corner, Chuck pondered the penchant AR-1 had for trouble and if maybe Colonel Carter had had that in mind these past few nights. A Wraith-attracter, Cadman had called them, and he supposed they were. How many times hadn't he been up in the gateroom when AR-1 came in hot from a Wraith attack of some sort? It was a miracle they were still alive.

Up ahead, Chuck saw the open door to the mess hall and shrugged off the thoughts of AR-1 and Wraith. Hot milk, that's what he needed to cure this sleeplessness. He hurried up and bustled through the doorway.

The mess hall had been dimmed as evening set it, but a small light shone from the kitchen. He snuck behind the counter and went inside, immediately locating the fridge.

After five minutes he exited, hot milk in hand and very pleased with himself. Sweet sleep awaited him, he was sure.

Then a chuckle sounded in the darkness. Chuck froze. He darted his eyes around and saw nothing beyond empty tables and chairs.

Definitely sleep-deprived, Chuck reasoned. He must've imagined it.

He prepared to leave when another chuckle sounded, this time closer and accompanied by footsteps. Chuck stood still by the counter, eyes on the doorway.

Suddenly, two people he definitely hadn't expected to see entered the mess hall. Colonel Carter and Lt Colonel Sheppard didn't seem to have noticed him as they went straight for one of the tables by the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the South Pier. Their smiles were lit by the two full moons outside.

Chuck shrank into the background, quickly hiding the contraband milk in his hand. He stared fascinatedly as Carter pulled out a chessboard and began to line up the pieces. He couldn't hear what they said, but conversation seemed to flow freely. None of them looked like they were out of place. Carter even stifled a chuckle and that's when Chuck noticed.

All traces of these last few nights of sleeplessness were gone from her face. In fact, she looked younger and at ease. As if the bad things she'd expected had passed.

Awkward, Chuck began to edge sideways towards the doorway, but halted when Sheppard got to his feet. He panicked as the man faced the kitchen. With no way out, he just stood there and was subsequently spotted.

"Who's there?" Sheppard's eyes narrowed.

"It's-it's Sergeant Campbell, sir," Chuck responded, the glass of milk behind his back. He stepped into the stream of light spilling from the corridor. "I'm, uh, was just getting a glass of milk." He showed them the glass. "Sir, ma'am."

Sheppard waved him off, "At ease, Sergeant." He continued towards the kitchen, his shoulders relaxed. "It's no crime to be thirsty."

"Yes sir." Chuck shifted on his feet, wishing he could sink through the floor. "I'll return the glass in the morning."

"It's okay, Chuck," Carter said from her spot on the table. She smiled.

Chuck nodded. "I'll—I'll just leave you to it, ma'am. Sir," he added to Sheppard, who fiddled with the coffee machine on the counter. Sheppard waved absently and Chuck quickly turned on his heel.

Only when he'd gotten far, far away did he stop and let out the breath he'd held in. Chuck leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.

Besides the fact that he'd somehow gotten out of there with what some people considered contraband, seeing Carter and Sheppard there had felt… weird. Sure, he supposed commanding officers could hang out together, but at this hour?

Chuck shuddered and pushed off the wall. It wasn't any of his business. For all he knew, they were having a late meeting. Today had been busy and, to be honest, it was barely past 22.00. The lights in the city weren't dimmed completely until 23.00 and most people were still up.

Turning a corner, Chuck sighed. There was one thing he could admit to: life in the Pegasus galaxy never got old. Peaceful missions could go sour, and something as mundane as sleeplessness could turn high and mighty commanders to simple humans.

At least it looked like Colonel Carter was easier at mind. That, he hoped, meant he could enjoy his solitude on his next graveyard shift. Whether she'd cured her insomnia, however…well, maybe Lt Colonel Sheppard could keep her company. It didn't look like he'd mind.

"If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep." ~Dale Carnegie

Fin.