We're still in season three here and I'm sorry to say that this is a tag to Sunday. Thanks to everyone for reviews. Warm Fuzzies all around!
The office was a mess. A complete and utter, total mess. Jen didn't think she could handle it. No, scratch that- she couldn't handle it. She didn't even know where to start cleaning. She didn't even know if she wanted to start cleaning. This was Dr. Beckett's office with his files that had his notes scribbled all over them. This was his mess, and they just expected her to clean it and claim it as her own? She didn't know if she could do that. No, she knew she couldn't do it.
She had been sitting in Dr. Beckett's office (her office? no, that didn't sound right, not yet, not ever) for a few hours now. She had just been staring at his desk, unsure about what to do about it. Despite the mess, it seemed so impersonal right now. All of his belongings had been sent back to earth with his body. All that was left on his desk was the mess of papers and files that Jen now had to sort through as she tried to make his office her own.
Jen hadn't wanted to become the new Head of Medicine for the Atlantis Expedition- ever. She wasn't an administrator, she was a doctor. She enjoyed being a doctor and she never had ambitions to be anything more than that. Since she didn't have ambitions, she didn't have a clue as to what Dr. Weir had wanted when she had called Jen into her office a couple hours ago.
"Dr. Keller," Dr. Weir greeted when she stepped into the office.
"Dr. Weir," she replied, settling down opposite Weir.
"I'm going to be frank with you," Dr. Weir said. "I know it may seem early to be talking about this, but I am desperate for a new head of medicine right now."
"Do you have anyone in mind?" Dr. Keller asked. "I could offer references for anyone who works in the infirmary. I know them all."
"I was actually looking through Dr. Beckett's staff reports. In each and every one, he's always spoken very highly of you." Dr. Weir gave her a very pointed look and Jen's eyes widened in surprise.
"Oh no," she said, shaking her head. "Nononono!"
Unfortunately, Jen Keller (doctor, not administrator) had found herself pitted against the greatest diplomat on Earth (in Atlantis too). She didn't stand a chance and soon found that she had agreed to be Acting Head of Medicine for the Atlantis expedition. Dr. Beckett's office was now her office until the IOA appointed a new Head of Medicine. Jen hoped that it was soon, because she couldn't do this.
"Don't touch me!" an all too familiar voice yelled. Jen sighed as she stood up and left Dr. Beckett's office. She wasn't at all surprised to see Ronon sitting on one of the medical beds. He probably had another sparring injury. Another doctor was trying to tend to his injury, but the poor doctor was shaking so badly that Ronon wasn't willing to have anything to do with it.
"I've got it, doctor," Jen said, coming up behind the poor fool who had tried to treat Ronon Dex. The doctor gave her a grateful look before rushing off to handle something else.
"Where were you?" Ronon asked as she started to get to work. "I asked for you when I came in, but that little creep kept insisting that you were busy and couldn't be bothered."
"I was in Dr. Beckett's office," she said as she started work on stitching him up. "I'm trying to get all of the medical files he made in order."
"They gave you that job," Ronon asked with disgust.
"Yeah," Jen agreed. "I'm the acting head of medicine right now."
Ronon's eyes widened. "Really? Congratulations. So, does that mean that you're going to dump me off on some other poor fool like Dr. Beckett did?"
"First I would have to find a fool who isn't scared of you," Jen muttered, blinking back the tears that had started to build in her eyes. She didn't want to think about Dr. Beckett now and she especially didn't want to think about how wonderful he had been to her during her first few days in Atlantis.
"Hey, are you alright?" Ronon asked. "I don't need you going all weepy on me right now."
"You know, would it have killed you to sit still for a couple days?" Jen snapped. "I mean really, Dr. Beckett just died, half of the infirmary was nearly blown to bits. What could posses you to go get yourself banged when we're in this shape. Couldn't you have just waited a couple days until we got over this?"
"Sorry," Ronon murmured. "But doesn't this help?"
"What help?"
"Working through it? Doesn't that help?"
"No, it doesn't help," Jen said. "It doesn't help when I haven't even had a chance to sit down and cry until my eyes dry out! It doesn't help when I keep thinking that I should have been here! It doesn't help when I think about all of the stupid things I had been doing that day instead of helping him! It doesn't help when I'm the one who has to run this department! It doesn't help when I am the one who has to clean up his office!"
"Sorry," Ronon said again. "But, for me, it helps. Fighting helps. It always has."
"Well good for you," Keller said softly.
"I keep thinking about that day," he continued. "I go over it in my head and I wonder if there was anything we could have done to save him. If we could have figured out what was going on sooner or dragged him out of that room or…"
"Yeah, me too," Jen agreed as she finished patching him up.
"Thanks Doc," he said, jumping off the bed.
"Hey, as a favor to me," Jen said, "the only doctor who will put up with you, take it easy for a few days."
Ronon nodded. "No problem."
"Thank you."
