Roses in December by libitina (Earthside challenge)

[libitina]

Title: Roses in December
Author: libitina
Spoilers: The Defiant One (SGA, season 1) and New Ground (SG-1, season 3)
Primary Character: Dr. Gall
Rating: there might be shirtlessness
Wordcount: 343
Beta: z_rayne
Challenge: Earthside challenge

Summary: They say your whole life flashes before your eyes. Only it's not his life. It can't be.

Roses in December

They say your whole life flashes before your eyes. Only it's not his life. It can't be.

Gall remembers Teal'c, a man he's only read about through old mission reports. He remembers the wonder of seeing him open and vulnerable -- and so shockingly alien.

Teal'c's shirt was all rucked up around his neck, not even his arms through the sleeves. His face was pale, his eyes dark and burning in their blindness.

But what Gall remembers most is the way Teal'c's hand was stretched all the way down his belly. At first he thought it was inside Teal'c's pants...but then he realized it was inside his stomach. Stroking. Stroking something.

It was just one long day stretching toward night, but they couldn't rush the healing process, and Teal'c needed so much.

Gall remembers Doctor Jackson, who came to the Antarctic base -- but this was a younger Doctor Jackson. This Daniel put an arm around his shoulders and told him that he could be Daniel's assistant.

Daniel settled him in a workroom with his own computer terminal and responsibilities. He remembers Daniel coming in with tea and leaning forward on the desk between them, looking at him like he was the most fascinating person ever to exist.

And Gall remembers Daniel apologizing to him, calling him Nyan as he told Gall it was a good thing, an opportunity. An opportunity for which he felt the need to apologize.

Men in blue suits led him to an airplane. From the private landing strip, they went to a hospital. When he woke up, he was issued papers, a name, an identity, and a job. He always wondered what he had been doing at such a small, isolated technical college when the papers he published were getting him invited to conferences around the world.

He always wondered why his memories of his wife, dead years ago in a car accident, had stared back at him with dark, sightless eyes. He thought it was the horror of the memory -- instead, it was the truest part.

~~
Note the first: "God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December." -- J. M. Barrie

Note the second: seriously, lots of thanks to z_rayne, who twisted my arm a little into writing it and then put in the hard work of watching my tenses, pronouns, and other dangly bits. Also thanks to furina_1975 for telling me it made sense.

Comments

[zoerayne]

Yay! I'm glad you posted.

This is your first SGA fic, yes? *celebrates the popping of your cherry*

[libitina]

First one I have finished, yes. Wheee!!

I think I probably owed you a cherry.

[shusu.livejournal.com]

Oh now that is *cool*. There should be a whole slew of these fics for all the bit actors who've cross-gated. (Voice actors 4evah!) I mean, imagine, we were *this* close to having DH not playing McKay on Atlantis.

Creepy compelling images, especially that last one. Thanks for sharing.

[libitina]

thanks. Herein lie the perils of trying to learn SG-1 canon. :)

[nonniemous.livejournal.com]

Oooh, nice little twist on how Nyan wound up on Atlantis!

[libitina]

Thank you.

Yeah, it wasn't just the same actor - but the characters were also too similar not to poke at it a bit.

[smittywing.livejournal.com]

Yay! reccea and I were just talking about how the character could have so easily been the same guy, the way they carried over Lorne, and such a waste that he wasn't. This is an awesome fix, complete with creepy brainwashing!

[libitina]

Thanks - I am glad you liked it. And I got to perve over symbiote stroking.

Now I have started on the Methos episodes of SG-1