Title: High Stakes
Rating: G, or whatever that is now.
Category: Is there a category for silly foof? No? Well, let's go with humor, then.
Summary: Elizabeth knows all. Weir, Zelenka (Sheppard/Teyla implied)
Disclaimer: The characters of "Stargate: Atlantis" don't belong to me. Obviously.
Note: Thanks to Doxymom for sparking the plot bunny and for the beta. This is Z for Zelenka in my LJ letterlove challenge. Special thanks to SGA for having a character whose name starts with Z.
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"Relativity applies to physics, not ethics," Albert Einstein once said.
But Einstein never lived in the Pegasus Galaxy.
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Elizabeth moved her chair closer to her desk, closer to the scientist sitting across from her muttering at the stack of papers in front of him.
Dr. Zelenka was here to give her a report on the recent advances in energy efficiency his team members had discovered.
Or so he thought.
The truth was, Elizabeth thought as he began his report, that she didn't understand half of the scientific jargon coming out of his mouth. She faithfully read reports from all her team leaders, and then did what any self-respecting expedition leader would do. She handed them all off to Rodney, who had no qualms whatsoever in pointing out mistakes in other people's work. He also, surprisingly, had a gift for breaking concepts down to a level she could understand.
For the most part, Elizabeth continued meeting with team leaders so she could get to know them and get them to feel comfortable coming to her with issues and problems. The more they saw her as a human being and less as an authority figure without logic or feelings, the more comfortable they felt with her.
All of which was enough to bring her to her current dilemma.
"Radek," she interrupted. "It has come to my attention that you are gambling on the personal lives of Colonel Sheppard and Teyla."
The scientist stopped, dropping his papers on the desk and glancing around the room as though he might spot the person who had ratted him out.
There had been several, but Elizabeth saw no need to tell him so.
"Dr. Weir, ah, I ... the people, they need to have some kind of ..."
"Entertainment?" she supplied, smiling.
"Ah ... I would say more of a diversion? A distraction?"
She wanted to laugh out loud at the look on his face. Hand in the cookie jar, definitely. In a normal workplace, she would be right to discourage or discipline him for starting a betting pool about some of his co-workers, but Atlantis was literally in a world of its own.
And this betting pool not only offered a diversion for her overworked and underappreciated people, it also offered something very scarce in the Pegasus Galaxy: Chocolate.
With infrequent trips being made to Earth, cold, hard cash was barely worth the time and energy of a bet. But chocolate ... now that was worth more than gold.
Dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white. Truffles, caramels, candy bars, peanut butter cups, even the classic favorite, M&Ms, if Elizabeth's informants were right.
Radek twisted uncomfortably in his chair, waiting for her to say something. She thought about Sheppard in that same chair hours before, shifting in the same way as he finally told her what everyone at Atlantis already knew -- John was in love with Teyla Emmagen.
On earth, condoning a betting pool like this among your employees would be frowned upon. Participating in one would be worse. Participating in such a pool when you had inside information showed a distinct lack of personal and professional ethics.
But this was Pegasus, and there was chocolate involved. Lots and lots of chocolate, if her sources were correct.
"Off the record," Elizabeth said finally, sliding open a drawer and pulling out five bars of her favorite Godiva chocolate. She dropped the candy in front of a wide-eyed Zelenka. "I want in. He'll tell her this weekend."
When chocolate was involved, all bets were off.
The End