Previously: Since Radek is visiting Atlantis from a couple of weeks offworld (chapters 43-46), they're trying to catch up on their awkward relationship.

Chapter 48. Kill Count.

Radek used to think he wouldn't be caught dead in the gym. Now he might be.

What was he worried about? It wasn't as though he was going to challenge Ronon to a duel. He stepped into the gym to find Ronon sitting on the bench under the window. He was sharpening a knife. Or was it a sword?

No matter.

"Ronon." He tried to sound like he belonged there. But, of course, they both knew he didn't. In absence of that, he hoped he sounded like he had a purpose here, even if he didn't belong.

He glanced up. "Yeah?"

"Ah…" What was he going to say? "I don't know if you—you were going to teach my daughter some hand-to-hand defense things." They stared at each other. For a split second, Radek wondered if he had the wrong Ronon. "Anna, my daughter?"

"Yeah, what about her?"

"Right. She has a bit of a crush on you." He put his hands together and tried to figure out where he was going from there.

Ronon looked just as interested in the answer to that question. "And?"

"I didn't want you to—I thought she might—" He was really pathetic, wasn't he? He waited long enough to distinguish his last mangled words from his next and finished. "Please, be careful." He didn't know what he meant by it and Ronon most definitely didn't know what he meant by it.

Still, a grin teased the corners of Ronon's mouth as Radek backed away. "Okay," he said, Radek couldn't decide if his tone was obliging or patronizing. "Anything else?"

"No."

"Okay." He went back to his sword.

Radek wished to retreat deep into the recesses of his lab and never emerge again. It wasn't that he was embarrassed. Though Ronon wasn't known for his eloquence, Radek figured he was a tier or two below even that.

No—that was nothing. Ronon didn't have any interest at all.

What in Pegasus was he going to do when some boy out there did?

Radek hurried through the halls until he realized he was lost. He was supposed to meet Anna at the shooting range, but he'd only been there twice. Once at the beginning of the expedition and once a few months ago. He always went with a gaggle of scientists and never paid any attention to where he was going.

He needed the firing range almost as much as he needed the gym. Except Anna was intent on showing him how well she could shoot a gun now. If he wasn't so terrified, he'd be proud.

After asking a lieutenant for directions, even though he'd almost found it on his own, he turned into the doorway of the firing range. It was oddly quiet. Anna and Colonel Sheppard were in there, setting out some nine millimeters.

Sheppard looked up, grinned. "Get lost?"

"No." Radek wondered if he'd heard the lie as clearly as Radek had. Judging by his stuck grin, probably. "I had to talk to—um, someone before coming. Why so many guns?"

"Don't you want to shoot, too?" Anna picked up one and then slid one on the table toward Radek.

"I, um, no. Not really." He pressed his lips together. Finally, setting his lab coat aside, he picked up one of the Berettas. They were supposed to be heading back to the Ancient outpost almost thirty minutes ago…

It was impossible for him to be late. The pilot was here, too, wasting time on a misdirected shooting demonstration.

"Shouldn't I be wearing a vest or something?" Radek wondered quietly. He hadn't meant to say that out loud. He didn't wear a bulletproof vest at the Ancient outpost. Things were far more likely to go wrong there than here. On the other hand, if things went wrong there, a bulletproof vest wouldn't help anything.

"Don't be silly," Anna scolded. "You aren't going to shoot yourself or anything."

"I was only joking," Radek said. He held the Beretta up, looking at both sides of it. He squinted at the round target on the far wall. "I have passed my certifications, you know."

"I know," Anna said. She snapped the clip into the weapon and joined him at the line. "But this is for fun."

"Oh. Is that what this is?"

He grinned when she giggled. They each took aim at their targets. Hers was in the silhouette of a human. Radek was better than Rodney, and almost all other science team members, at hitting his target whenever recertification came up. He liked to think of himself as gun-shy. His two year's compulsory military service was waived when he was eighteen in favor of his education. He never had to change his mind about it. Some days, he couldn't stomach the irony of his working on energy weapons and railguns with impunity, yet being uncomfortable with a Beretta in his own hands. Still, he was thankful for his miracle of consistently getting better marks than Rodney.

Radek never even went through the Stargate. Never even tried to do any better.

Anna's gun sounded. She lowered her gun and looked at the silhouette. Radek didn't know whether to be proud or concerned that she'd hit the silhouette in the dead center of the torso.

Radek took more careful aim with his weapon and fired. His was a bit off-center, but not too much. "There, you see? I am not so incompetent."

"No one ever said you were," Colonel Sheppard spoke up behind a chuckle.

"But watch this." Anna turned toward the target and fired twice in quick succession. She lowered the weapon and smiled at the silhouette.

Radek was certainly concerned this time. One clean shot to the forehead, another to the paper's supposed center of mass. "That is… impressive."

"Colonel Sheppard is a good teacher," Anna offered. She smiled at him.

"Thank you." Colonel Sheppard looked pleased with the compliment.

Radek didn't doubt he had to be a good teacher, if Anna inherited even a smidgen of his hand-eye coordination. Or lack thereof. On the other hand, he could keep up with Eliška. Still, his dexterity was more suited to fine-tuning circuits.

"Don't you think we had better get to the Puddle Jumper?"

Colonel Sheppard sighed. "Do you know what a buzzkill is, Radek?"

Radek shrugged. It was one obviously colloquial phrase he could almost guess at the meaning. He didn't mean to kill anything. Killing things was among his least favorite activities. Even killing insects or arachnids fell into the realm of unfortunate necessities. Contrary to public opinion, conversation was among those things he wished he didn't kill.

His conversation kill-count was probably very high.

"You're probably right," Colonel Sheppard went on. He looked at Anna and tapped her shoulder. "We'll practice more tomorrow. I should be back tonight."

"Okay." Anna sighed and looked at Radek. "You won't be back for a few weeks now, right?"

"Yes." Radek nodded, feeling immediately guilty. "I will try to come back a few times, though. I promise." Damnit—what was he saying? He didn't really think he would get off of the planet alive while Rodney and the others were still working. There was no way.

He promised, though.

She'd forget. He'd forget, actually, so he hoped that she might forget, too.

What was he talking about? She wouldn't forget.

"Okay," she said. "I hope everything goes well."

He forced a smile for her as he picked up his lab coat. He followed Sheppard down the hall toward the Puddle Jumper.

Sheppard put his hands in his pockets as he walked ahead of Radek. "You might be happy to know that she's a far better shot than Rodney will ever be."

"Is that supposed to be praise?" Radek laughed, and grinned.

"I guess not." Sheppard hesitated before walking into the Jumper Bay. He chuckled. "She's better than you. That's a little bit more a compliment, right?"

Radek sighed and shrugged. Probably not according to Rodney. Probably not according to most people. "It depends on who you ask."

#

"And you sort of… flick your wrist. Like so." Doctor Beckett gave an empty-handed demonstration before picking up his fishing rod. "You've really never been fishing, Anna?"

Anna shook her head and turned the reel a little. "Never." Not that it was among the things she wanted to have done in her life. "I guess this is the year of trying new things." This wasn't exactly the "New thing" she had in mind when she was in another galaxy, though.

"That's the spirit," Doctor Beckett said.

"So you just stand here?" Ronon mumbled. His line was already in the water, a bobber sometimes visible as it hopped over the waves.

"Right." Doctor Beckett leaned around Ronon to look at Teyla, as if he didn't take the fact that Ronon was less than thrilled with this idea. "How are you doing, Teyla?"

"The Athosians do not catch fish in this way…" Teyla said quietly. "It seems rather… inefficient. Though the sea air and calm atmosphere is very nice." She smiled a little at Doctor Beckett.

"Aye, it is." Doctor Beckett took a deep breath and smiled. "But, you know, it's more a sport, this sort of fishing. I guess if we wanted to feed a village like yours we'd use nets."

"Wait." Ronon flicked his wrist, pulling the line a little bit closer to the pier. "A sport? You mean like football?"

Doctor Beckett considered that. "Um. Yes, I suppose. A little like football."

Ronon sighed and flicked his wrist again. "Your planet's weird."

Doctor Beckett chuckled. "I suppose that's true. Alright, Anna." He turned back to her and caught the hook of her line between his fingers. "Are you ready? Remember, flick of the wrist." With that, he drew his arm back and hurled the line out to sea. Line reeled off the spool. Anna soon lost his line, since it didn't have a bobber like Ronon's.

"Alright. Everyone watch out." Anna sidestepped away from the rest of the group to cast her line. She was surprised when her bobber flew far out into the ocean, though considerably less far away than Ronon's or Teyla's.

"Výborně!" * Doctor Beckett exulted.

Anna smiled in spite of herself. He'd said that for everyone. Except it was usually in English.

"Did you see that, Teyla?" Doctor Beckett glanced at Teyla, but not long enough to see her nod obligingly. "Just perfect."

"And now we just wait for some fish to swim into the hooks…" Ronon said.

"Right." Doctor Beckett backed up to one of the chairs he'd brought and sat down.

Anna went to sit next to him, thinking she should have brought a book or something.

"How long does it take?" Ronon sat in his chair. He might have been thinking the same thing that Anna was thinking. But Ronon didn't seem to read…

Doctor Beckett shrugged. "Sometimes hours. It's all patience, Ronon. Patience and skill of knowing where best to put your hook."

Ronon looked out at the waves. "It's the ocean."

Anna giggled a little. The ocean did seem to be the best place to put the hooks.

"It's not just the ocean," Doctor Beckett said. "This pier happens to be where one of the filters is located. Harmless organic material from Atlantis's waste is returned to the ocean in one of the processing facilities right below us. You can't see it, but hundreds of thousands of fish are just below the surface."

Ronon grunted and tugged on his line a little again.

They sat in silence for a little while until Doctor Beckett turned to Anna. "How have you been, Anna? It's been a few days since I've seen you last."

"I'm fine," Anna answered. "I'm finishing up Doctor McKay's scenario… But he won't be back anytime soon. I thought it would be harder because he's supposed to be gone so long."

Doctor Beckett nodded. "Oh, well, they've only been gone a week, right? Since they came back to give the report, I mean."

Anna nodded. A week. A week of a single scenario that had been driving her insane until last night. She'd been in the mess hall with Elizabeth. She'd almost jumped out of her chair in excitement when she'd figured it out. Then she realized she'd figured it out and there was nothing else for her to do for weeks.

Nothing except for whatever fun and excitement Elizabeth had planned.

"Doctor Beckett!" Teyla said suddenly. "I believe I have a fish."

"Oh, good, good." Doctor Beckett hooked his fishing rod into a clip on his chair and went to Teyla's side, giving step-by-step instructions on how to pull back on the rod and then reel in the line. He ran his fingers along the bending rod. "Looks like you've got a big one, Teyla." He grinned in excitement.

Anna had to admit she was pretty excited, too. She'd never seen an alien fish before. Of course, she could count the number of Earth fish she'd seen on one hand. Anna sidestepped along the pier until she was standing right next to Ronon.

Teyla drew up a fish. Like Doctor Beckett guessed, it was big. It shimmered under the sun, slick with seawater. It looked more-or-less like an Earth fish. But there was something a little odd about it. It looked like a trout or a bass, but it had whiskers, blue eyes, and white-pink scales like a pearl.

"That's a nice looking fish. I don't think I've seen one of these caught before. I'm sure the marine biologists will be happy to have this specimen." Doctor Beckett dragged the flopping fish out on the deck.

Anna felt a pang of guilt. She wasn't squeamish about eating meat or anything, but all this fish wanted to do was have breakfast. Sort of like the Wraith. All they wanted to do was eat, right? But they also seemed to enjoy killing.

At the end of the day, it made them have to research big weapons, dangerous ways of powering their shields, and other new and improved ways of killing their enemies. It was to stay alive. But sometimes the things that kept them alive only ended up killing them.

Czech Things

* Výborně = very good/great/good job

Next time: I guess that makes me the lucky one, huh?