''Leadership is a privilege to better the lives of others. It is not an opportunity to satisfy personal greed." - Mwai Kibaki

I thought this might be an appropriate way to introduce my fanfic "Burden of Command." Last night when I was having trouble getting to sleep I started thinking about Atlantis, which lead to my thinking about all the different "ships" of the show. This inevitably lead me to thinking about Sheppard/Weir. When my mind wandered to the topic of this pairing I started thinking about all the things they have in common, especially their command positions.

In the end it got me to thinking about what it would be like to go through the gate. What rituals would I have before going on a mission? How would those things change given a position in leadership? And what would my relationship be with those around me who relied on me or those carried a similar position ... In the end I decided to write it down in a short bit of fanfiction.

I started out calling it Rituals, but it took me in a whole other direction. I think it could, if I wanted to expand on it, end up being the start of a much larger story. Although, I think I'd tend to shy away from doing that and just leave it as it is. I'd definitely love to hear opinions and feedback on the story. (and as a sidnote, i apologize ahead of time for any grammar mistakes. i tired to pay close attention when i was writing today ... so hopefully it's not too bad)

Anyway, here it goes ...