Disclaimer: MGM owns SGA; KOI does NOT
Summary: A response to the latest flash fiction challenge posed by Ladygris: In no less than 300 and no more than 500 words, write a flash of your favorite SGA character(s) making and keeping a New Year's Resolution. The character I've chosen is not my favorite nor even in the running, but I'm comfortable skirting the edge of the rules.
Word Count: 470
Stargate: Atlantis
By Any Other Name
by koinekid
Ten minutes before midnight Katie Brown managed a discrete exit. Music and the din of conversation followed her down halls that a week ago had been decked with red and green reminders of a holiday that, for her, held no joy. She entered her office and deliberately eased the door shut so she wouldn't slam it.
She'd been trying to escape the party for an hour, since that lout of an ex-boyfriend showed up, fresh squeeze on his arm. All eyes turned to Katie, or so it seemed. Fleeing would have meant he won, so she plastered on a smile, dialed up the vivaciousness, and drank far too much.
The Blackberry in her purse trilled to announce the arrival of a new email. A brief smile broke through her gloom as she read the contents. In the Sonoran desert her team had discovered what she suspected was a previously undocumented species of cactus. And she was right. The email confirmed it.
As she cycled through the attached series of high-res photos, her mind wandered to another prickly plant, the Rodneyana Villosa, that she and another team had discovered. She'd named it after her then-boyfriend, yet another lout who teased her with promises of marriage, only to snatch them away and force her to leave a job she adored to avoid the embarrassment.
Worse, after her transfer to Earth, researchers on Atlantis discovered that oils from the Rodneyana could be used to treat inflammation around the joints. The plant was being hailed as the key to defeating arthritis. And forevermore her name would be linked to its discovery, and by extension to the man who dumped her.
Never again, she resolved.
Following her discovery of the cactus, she returned to base, eager to tell her sweetie the news. But when she walked into Peter's office with the specimen tucked beneath her arm, Katie made another discovery: what Peter had been doing with his lab assistant while she was in the field. It took all Katie's strength not to hurl what she had intended to call the Petra Villosa at the preoccupied couple.
Never again. She opened the Word document containing her unsubmitted report on the plant. A few commands later, every instance of "Petra" had disappeared into the ether. Now, what to call it?
The revelers' countdown chant echoed down the hall, and through her office door, Katie could hear, "Ten, nine, eight..."
She looked up and saw a familiar Airman strolling down the hall. Maybe it was the booze, or the fact that he too was eschewing the party for solitude, but for the first time it occurred to her that he was kind of cute.
Returning to the report that still demanded a name, she mused, "I wonder...what's the Latin for 'Walter'?" Then she shook her head and laughed.
The End