Work Text:
***
Annette LaChance smiled as she listened to the ocean outside the mess hall.
The one thing she missed about Earth was live music.
In her restaurant, she always liked to have someone playing, or singing. Annette refocused her attention on the multiple platters of sweets that she’d been making for the Marines and their team night. The loss of the music wasn’t a big thing though. She’d spent far too many months before Atlantis, wondering how she could do something– her brother had been a Marine. Died in Afghanistan well before his time– but she knew he’d not want her to be sad, or angry. So instead she cooked.
LaChance’s was doing well on Earth, without her guiding hand, and with that she was satisfied. Tom would probably be proud of her veteran staff, and the charities that she’d founded in his name. But still, she wasn’t as satisfied with that.
And when she found out through her military contract about a possible job that they wanted a recommendation to fill; to take on the feeding of a base of both civilian and military personnel, including the possibility of using local ingredients that couldn’t be found anywhere on Earth… well. She did have the experience, and honestly– Tom would’ve probably loved to have her there to cook for them. Or at least write the recipes and menus and make sure that everyone was full and happy. She had staff for most of it, but she kept her hand in, serving with the rest.
These people deserved the best she could offer them. And if it was dangerous, so what– life was dangerous. Annette had seen the bad parts of the cities she’d grown up in, and could defend herself. Moving to another galaxy? Well that’s fine. Just as long as her proxies took care of her people back home, she was satisfied.
“...brunch.” a voice said from the line. And Annette couldn’t help but laugh. She hadn’t cooked brunch for anyone for a few years now, and yet the top science doc kept calling it that.
“It’s not that funny.” the man groused, and took a piece of cake.
“If you say so,” Annette beamed at him. “Might want to skip the cake, Dr. McKay. It’s a lemon poundcake. I have a tray of brownies with your name on it though.”
The face flickered between disappointment about the cake, and delight in the idea of brownies.
“Thank you, Ms. Annette.” He finally said, and put the cake back. “Have you seen Teyla today?”
“I have,” Annette told him, “She was with Ronon– good to see him back, by the way– and a new guy I haven’t seen before. He was…”
“Charming?”
“A bit grumpy. I think giving him some of the real coffee helped though. He was smiling by the time he left. Might have also been the promise of making a turkey dinner at some point this week.”
“You still have real coffee?” McKay’s eyes narrowed.
“I have a personal reserve, hon.” Annette told him, “And if you came in looking like he did, I’d think about offering you some of mine too. He’s got the look of a vet– something about the eyes. He needed that touch of home, especially when we all know he got smacked around yesterday saving the Colonel. Might want to talk to Dr. Angeles about laying off though. She was looking like she was ready to pounce– and he’s probably gonna be skittish.”
“She’s going to have to live with disappointment.” McKay leaned close to whisper, “Unless she can defeat Teyla at Bantos fighting.”
Annette laughed.
“So that’s how it lays, does it?” She shook her head. “Well, I’m trying to encourage my folks to just let him be, and get used to us. Should probably do the same with your folks. I feed ‘em, you learn ‘em.”
“And I’m hearing where the worst of it is now. Do you hear them– bad poetry. Save us from the English minors who think calling a man who’s been backhanded by a Wraith ‘Cruelly marred beauty’ is the height of a compliment!”
“The only marring there is the grumpy frown and maybe the skittish look in his eyes when a gal asks him a question.” Annette grinned. “It’ll pass, Dr. McKay. It took ‘em a while to get over Colonel Mitchell as well, and we all know he’s got no problem talking to a pretty girl.”
“So. Turkey dinner?”
“Near turkey. There’s some game birds on one of our partner worlds that tastes exactly the same. Cooks up like that too. We’re due for some in the next few days– I’ve already got it planned out.”
"Sounds fantastic. What would we do without you, Ms. Annette?"
"I'd say 'Starve', but with the supply of powerbars y'all have laid in, I'll have to revise it to 'eat poorly'"