So I'm on a Stargate Atlantis kick. Who knows how long that will last? While I'm all obsessing on it, I've written some stuff so this will be a ficlet dump with little snippets that I don't need to turn into longer fics, mostly pulled over from my LJ. I really really don't.

Disclaimer: Do you see a Season 6? No? Then I don't own it.

"Uncle Mer?"

Rodney's hands paused over his keyboard, and he placed them on either side of his work station. His concentration lost, all of the aches of holding himself in the same hunched position for hours made themselves known. Tilting his head snapped several vertebrae in his neck, eliciting a relieved groan.

"Maddie, I told you to call me Rodney," he kneaded his brow then frowned, turning to look down at his young niece. "What are you doing down here?"

"I lost Chester," she said, voice tremulous, eyes wide and wet.

Chester was that horribly battered, stuff unicorn of her. As typical of those kinds of toys, it was incredibly pink and fluffy with a floppy white horn. Madison went nowhere, did nothing without it since the car crash six months ago. She'd come to Atlantis to live with him since then, and now that it was on Earth, it was significantly safer than if they were in the Pegasus Galaxy.

"Oh. Can't you just…be without it for once?"

Madison looked at him as if he just suggested she go sleep on top of the ocean.

"I mean…let's go find Chester," he sighed. "Where'd you see him last?"

Wordlessly, she slid her hand into his and led him out of the lab. The other scientists, mainly the females, sent him odd looks and smiling a little, but he paid them little attention. Madison's hand was soft and warm and so small in his, and this fuzzy feeling spread through him at her trust in him. Everyone always came to him when there was a problem, expecting him to save the day, but this was different. He'd noticed that Madison had seemed to prefer to play with Sheppard or even Ronon than accompany him, and mostly that was fine. He wasn't the physically play type uncle.

Sometimes, he had this…horrible thought that Madison liked them more than him. But this showed that when the chips were down, Maddie knew she could come to her Uncle Rodney to save the day, to be her hero. It was a nice feeling.

Madison led him up a flight of stairs, out onto a balcony, and pointed down. McKay looked over and saw the stuff animal bright pink in stark contrast to the gray arch it rested on several stories below.

"Uh. How 'bout we go find some rope. And Ronon."