Reminder:
"This is spoken English."
"This is spoken Czech."
This is a thought.

Last time: Rodney and Cadman are safely in their own bodies. Radek probably died of exhaustion. Anna probably thought he died of embarrassment.

Chapter 31. Coordination.

Radek seemed to be eating his hot soup—a strange breakfast choice to Anna's view—very slowly. He shaded his eyes from outside. They were also speaking Czech in public. Speaking English seemed too complicated for him today.

"You don't look very well," Anna said quietly.

"I'm fine," Radek answered. Of course, he would say that. Still, it was obviously not true. He looked more like a member of the walking dead than the Atlantis science team. "I will just go to bed very early tonight."

"So you can get up very early tomorrow morning?" Anna asked. He didn't respond, which didn't exactly inspire her confidence. "Just tell Doctor McKay that you're sick and you can't make it today."

He actually laughed. It would have given her some hope that sleep was actually all he needed, except he coughed violently in the middle of it. "No. I will be fine. Thank you for your concern, though."

Anna shook her head and shrugged. He was at everyone else's beck and call around here, but when Anna suggested that he take a day off for his own health, he shrugged her off. That was fine. She didn't really care anyway.

"Alright, fine," she said. "I meet with Colonel Sheppard and Ronon today to learn how to use a handgun."

That got his attention. "You what today?"

"I think it's called a Beretta?"

"No, you will not."

"It's like gym."

"Except it is very much not gym." He looked around and then back at her as though he was worried someone was listening to them. "You actually want to learn how to… shoot guns?"

Anna shrugged. It wasn't so much about the guns at this point. "Sure."

He leaned back in his chair and sighed. It seemed to be sinking in. Anna couldn't believe it would be a very big deal in Atlantis. There were guns everywhere on Atlantis. None of them available to her without an escort like Colonel Sheppard.

"If that's what you want…" he said finally.

She nodded. She wasn't convinced she wanted. But she'd already agreed. Maybe she should wait to mention that Ronon had offered knife-throwing lessons. It would be a lot to mention in the span of five minutes. Especially if she'd been talking about Ronon a lot lately. Had she? She couldn't remember. She felt like she might be...

"I am excited. It'll be different."

"Different, yes."

"Doctor McKay carries a gun," she offered. Sometimes he did.

"Don't remind me."

She laughed a little. Maybe he wasn't the best comparison. Besides, it wasn't like she would be shooting a Beretta today, going through the Stargate tomorrow. It was just fun. She didn't feel like she had a lot of that these days. No friends, and no fun. Maybe she should have voted to stay in Colorado. Who cared what Doctor McKay wanted? Radek might get an actual chance at being a dad, then.

"Just be safe, mála." He paused, closed his eyes. "Anna."

Anna went back to her breakfast. He would remember eventually not to call her that...

"I have to go." Radek stood up. He squinted at her. "I will see you at dinner. If Rodney lets us have dinner."

Anna shook her head. "He's hypoglycemic."

"The rest of us aren't."

Anna frowned. "I'm sure he's breaking many labor laws."

Radek smirked. "Probably." He walked off.

Anna watched him leave. She couldn't help a small smile. She finished up her breakfast and went to join Colonel Sheppard and Ronon. They had been here the whole time that she and Radek had been, but they hadn't eaten. They were both probably already up and done before Anna realized it was daylight. Colonel Sheppard struck her as the type to rise early, anyway.

"Colonel Sheppard!" she called.

Colonel Sheppard looked up at her with a smile when she approached their table. "Ready?"

Anna nodded. At least… she hoped she was.

"What did your dad say?"

"He was fine with it." In the sense he wasn't one-hundred percent against it, anyway.

Colonel Sheppard grinned. "Great."

#

Colonel Sheppard finally let go of the handgun, leaving it solely in her hands. He showed her how to hold it. It felt heavy, but like it fit perfectly. She didn't know how to prepare for the "kickback" he told her about.

She peered through her combination of glasses and goggles toward the target. It was at the end of the range, a huge blue room deep in Atlantis with the only windows high up on the walls. The only doors were at the back of the long, rectangular room. Colonel Sheppard speculated that they built ships in here, or maybe they stored some type of vehicle because there were large doors on the roof and at the back of the room that led out to the plaza.

The Atlantis team had transformed the place into a firing range a long time ago, complete with cabinets along the back to hold weapons and ammo, and twelve stalls to accommodate three practicing 'gate teams at once. A mechanism like a garage door chain hooked to targets to send them to the other end of the range without having to venture out and risk death or bodily harm from stray bullets. The military personnel never missed, of course. It was the recertifying science team members they had to worry about.

And Anna, probably. Time would tell.

She squinted at her target on the far side of the room. It was a round shape, though Ronon and Sheppard set up human silhouettes next to hers. Anna imagined Radek wouldn't be very pleased if she nailed a headshot her first time out.

Anna would be pleased. She bet that Ronon and Colonel Sheppard would be, too.

"Whenever you're ready," Colonel Sheppard said.

Anna nodded slowly and took aim carefully. Yep, if this were a real situation, the Wraith would have eaten her a long time ago. Of course, with Wraith it didn't seem to matter if they were shot accurately. They just kept coming. It was better to put as many bullets in them as possible, not necessarily to hit them any specific place.

She took a deep breath. Pulled the trigger.

She didn't realize she'd blinked until she opened her eyes and tried to figure out if she'd hit the target or not. Colonel Sheppard leaned over to look at her target. He nodded. "Not bad."

"Where is it?" Anna asked. She didn't see the bullet hole where she'd aimed, that was for sure…

"Top left corner." Colonel Sheppard motioned in that direction.

When Anna searched there she found her hole in the fourth ring, above and left of the center. She frowned and shook her head. That wasn't where she'd aimed at all. And it wasn't "not bad" either. It was pretty awful.

"You hit the target," Colonel Sheppard said. "That's better than a lot of the scientists in your dad's team could do their first time."

Anna smiled a little, trying to imagine Radek with a gun.

It was hard to imagine.

"You're not scared of it," Ronon put in. "That's good." He picked up a handgun of his own and looked at it. He unloaded the clip into the silhouette's head. Anna smirked. Maybe someday she could do that, too.

"Not scared of it," Colonel Sheppard agreed. "But you do respect it."

Anna certainly respected it. It didn't help that she was imagining herself taking aim at a Wraith while actually aiming at a paper target.

"Give it another shot," Colonel Sheppard said. "We'll have you in the center before the end of the hour." He glanced at his watch and nodded.

Anna raised the gun again. It was difficult, since Colonel Sheppard had given her a field vest, loaded with a few more clips. Anna thought she saw a fruit and nut bar in one of the pockets. It was heavy and too big for her.

But this was apparently what everyone wore when they went offworld. Anna figured that if she wanted to go offworld for something more exciting than an empty field after a culling, she'd have to learn how to do this, too. Of course… she wasn't sure she wanted to go offworld.

While Anna squinted at the target, trying to figure out how to keep her hands steady while she pulled the trigger, he looked at Ronon. "Ready for your first mission?" he asked.

Ronon shrugged. "Sounds fun."

He wasn't sarcastic, but he wasn't exactly sincere, either.

Anna closed one eye. Switched eyes.

"It helps if you keep both eyes open," Colonel Sheppard offered.

"Yes, thank you." Anna snapped both of her eyes open. The target blurred in front of the sight. She glanced over to see Ronon grinning in amusement. She moved her eyes to Colonel Sheppard. He looked a bit more serious, but he was obviously enjoying himself, too.

Anna took a deep breath. Trigger.

"Better."

How did he see so quickly? Anna was the one aiming and she didn't really know where her bullet was going. But he was right, this time was better. The hole was just one ring away from the center, but so close to the center that Anna figured it might as well be. She smiled in spite of herself.

"Where did you get your hand-eye coordination? It didn't come from Zelenka," Colonel Sheppard chuckled.

Anna smiled and shrugged. "My mom danced a lot, so…"

"Wait a second." Colonel Sheppard's eyebrows arched in interest. "Your dad and a dancer." He seemed to consider that for a moment. He looked at Ronon, who just had a smirk to betray any thoughts. Colonel Sheppard must have decided it was too hard to believe, so he shook his head.

"It wasn't her job. She was just very good at it. She loved dancing," Anna said. But she didn't inherit any of that, the love or the very good. "She was a teacher."

"Of course. Science?" Colonel Sheppard asked.

"Math." She didn't bother saying what kind of math. He looked like the kind of guy who would be impressed by any kind of math. But, then, she'd been surprised by him before. He knew a few phrases in Czech and he said them really well. Maybe he was smarter than he looked. Most people around here were...

"That makes more sense. I mean, dancing…" He stopped.

Anna didn't know why that made more sense. "Well, we all did," Anna said quietly. Her fondest memories of them as a family. Her mother would take them to community celebrations with folk dancing... or maybe they'd only done that once. It was hard to remember things like that. Anna was too young to have much coordination—and she didn't have much when she was older, either—but she loved watching everyone else. And, even if she wasn't good at it, she loved participating.

She blinked away the memory and looked at the target. This time she'd hit it.

"I still think she should try this," Ronon said while she was busy lining up the sights. She saw him pull his own handgun out of his belt in her periphery.

"That thing kicks back like a horse," Sheppard said. "It'll hit her in the face."

Ronon almost laughed—as close as he got, anyway. He didn't say anything. Instead, he blew the head off the silhouette with his weapon.

Colonel Sheppard shook his head in disgust… or admiration. Anna wasn't sure which.

She pulled the trigger.

Finally. "There!"

Sheppard nodded his approval. "Nice." He looked down at his watch. "Five minutes. See? That didn't take long." He went to the next stall and took aim, fired, and tilted his head at the target. Dead-center in the silhouette's torso.

Anna sighed. Sheppard could line up a dozen shots in the time it took her to do one. She raised her gun again and took aim. She'd get better. She had all day.

A/N: Merry Christmas, everyone! Veselé Vánoce!

Next time: I guess you can do boring stuff if you want to...