Author: RowenaR
Rating: T
Category: Action/Adventure
Disclaimer: Stargate belongs to Gekko and… all those other people making money with it. Anyway, I don't. Honestly. So – I don't own, you don't sue. Deal?
Summary: Normal people celebrate Christmas at home with their families... but SG-10 isn't normal (even though the team would probably like to differ).
A/N: Okay, so I'd originally planned this to be a Christmas story but then a lot of things happened and also I had to finish posting Take Charge first and that kind of took longer than I though and writing this story here took a lot longer than I thought it would but I really didn't want to wait until next Christmas to post it so... um... here it is. Also... mac strongly advised me to slap a language warning on this one (the whole story, that is... apparently, they all thought having a potty mouth on Christmas is totally okay and goes with the Season...), so... language warning. Strong one (because mac said she's proud of me and that means I used a lot of profanities...). I mean it.
Anyway, as always: Not a native speaker, so please excuse any weird grammatical constructions, run-ons and typos. Feedback will earn you a cookie, flames will roast my marshmellows.
Minor Characters IV: Wish I Was At Home
"Wish I was at home for Christmas
Bang! That's another bomb on another town
While Luzar and Jim have tea
If I get home, live to tell the tale
I'll run for all presidencies
If I get elected I'll stop – I will stop the cavalry."
Jona Lewie, "Stop the Cavalry"
One
Moore
"Lorne would love this," I growl to no one in particular and pretend I just didn't see Laura roll her eyes. What? We wouldn't be in this if it hadn't been for him. Really.
For a few moments the rest of my team is silent, with Laura leaning against one of the cave's walls watching Dee who's trying his best to get a fire running with basically nothing – but I trust his super NCO abilities to MacGyver us something – and Reece sitting close to the cave's entrance, now and again staring out into the snow… that just won't stop falling. Yeah, we're snowed in. And unfortunately no one is really in the mood for body heat sharing jokes.
Then Dee remarks, "Beg pardon, sir… but why would he?" Huh, what kind of question is that?
A little unwilling, I grumble, "Because he's a back-stab…"
"A geology major. Didn't you want to say that?" Whoa, who just spit in your soup, Laura?
Suddenly in a mood to needle Laura a little further, I add, "No, I wanted to say that he's a…"
"Why do I always have to remind you two that you're actually friends?" Oh. Doesn't look like Laura's really in the mood to be needled. And yeah, she's basically right with reminding me of the fact that usually Evan Lorne and I are friends… and that it's also abysmal style to start bitching about a fellow officer in front of my subordinates.
But I have a reason for it, dammit. "Right now, I'm not so sure if we really are. I mean, if we were friends he wouldn't have foisted this mission on us." I was about to add "Just so he could go to sunny California," but after seeing Laura's face – she's dead serious about being angry at me, obviously – I decided to keep that to myself. Well, for now.
Laura, for her part, still doesn't look exactly happy. Hey, it's not my fault we're here. It's… "If you weren't friends you wouldn't have offered to do it for him. Without him even having to ask." Right. Okay. It is my fault we're here and I guess she's really pissed at me for volunteering without even really asking her or anyone else on the team before.
But I don't give up so easily. Not even when both Dee and Reece start to send me looks that aren't… uh… comforting, to say the least. "Still. He's not the only one with family." Alright… I didn't just sound like a pouting brat, did I?
Mh. Judging from the looks I get from my team… I did. Damn. "You mean not the only one who actually cares about their family, right?" That's really not fair, Laura. I do care about my family… well, my sister Clara, anyway. Mom… okay, I also care about my mother, granted. But our relationship works best when we don't see each other. Every year I try to do them a favor by trying to find something else to do than going home to York Cliffs, Maine for Christmas and every goddamn year Laura manages to drag my sorry ass back to Maine. Which always ends in a disaster, every fucking time.
But this is so not the right place and time to discuss my issues with my family and I try to tell her so, "Hey, I really don't think that this is the right time to…"
Laura rolls her eyes and is about to answer but surprisingly enough… Reece beats her to it, sounding not really happy either, "Guys… could you do me a favor, please? Just stop bickering for a while, okay?"
Oh, Little Miss Timid, we've come a long way, haven't we? Just a few months ago… you wouldn't have so much as bitten your lip and tried to become invisible. I think… we've created a monster. Oh crap. There's only one way to counter this, "Weren't you the one who hated Christmas anyway, Kid?" Or at least it seemed that way when you shrugged your shoulders and said you were on stand-by security detail over Christmas anyway when I told you that stand-by was canceled and you're on duty again.
However… she has an answer to that as well, "Actually… right now, sir, I'm mostly the one who needs quiet to hear any hostiles approaching." Uh… I swallow. Do I detect a certain kind of gleeful glint in Laura's eyes? And did Dee just snort in amusement?
"Oh. Right." Now Laura and Reece share a look and… like I said. I should never have let Kid move in with Laura. I clearly lost the argument… maybe even ever since starting it.
Reece even dares to add, "And for the record, sir… I don't hate Christmas. I just don't care about it. Big difference." Yeah, right, leave it to the resident linguist to go splitting hairs about words.
Man. I can't believe they managed to shut me up again. Between those two… nothing seems impossible and each day they pass in the same place, Reece grows more confident. And… was that not only a tiny amused grin on Dee's face but also… an appreciative raising of his eyebrows?
But it has vanished so fast that I'm not sure if it's just the sparse light in the cave that's playing tricks on my eyes and I decide to let it go. Most of all because Dee has just managed to get a fire up and running. One day I really have to ask him how his mojo works because seriously… my survival skills are above average but his… put mine to shame and that really should count for something.
To save at least the pathetic little bit of my dignity and authority that's still there, I take care not to get up too fast and saunter over to the fire as if there's nothing to it to be sitting in a cave, on the day of Christmas Eve, with the snow outside now falling so thick that even the rather uncharitable inhabitants of this planet have decided to leave us alone for the time being and the cold starting to seep through the winter BDUs.
Greenspan
Yeah, that's right, mister. Try to appear like you're oh so very cool about freezing your ass off in this godforsaken cave. I'm amazed there weren't any body heat sharing jokes from you by now. Instead you tried to put the blame for our current predicament on Evan and that finally put me into a very uncharitable and not at all Christmas-y mood. Seriously, how could you volunteer for a mission on Christmas Eve?
"Hey, it'll be a cake walk… we'll be back right in time to catch the plane home," my ass. Remind me to give you hell next time you decide to kill two birds with one stone. The only reasons you offered Evan to take over from him were that it practically guaranteed you a perfect excuse for having to pass as little time as possible with your mother and sister and that you could help out a friend. Well, maybe not your sister but definitely your mother.
Having finally decided that he stayed away from the fire to keep The Cool intact, Tom sits down by the fire and I catch Dee's eyes. There's just a minute moving that could also be a trick of the flickering firelight but I'm pretty sure he was just that close to rolling his eyes at the Major. Yeah, I'm sure he's just as overjoyed as I am to have to spend Christmas in this cave. I just bet he'd been hoping for a nice, quiet evening in the SGC with most of the staff away for the holidays and a lot less hullaballoo than usual.
The only one that doesn't look too fazed by this whole thing seems to be Maureen. She'd been the only one on duty when Tom had discovered his noble heart and had taken over from Evan and to me she hadn't seemed that put off by having to go to some planet no one of us knew or was interested in on Christmas Eve and that had struck me as odd.
I'd asked her to come with Tom and me to Maine but she had politely declined and I had put that down to the fact that she'd just not wanted to intrude on a family Christmas or maybe didn't want any memories of her own deceased parents resurface and hadn't pried much further – with Maureen even I still have to be careful about these things. But obviously it hadn't been about the family thing but rather the Christmas thing.
But yeah, I should have known right in the moment she frowned at me when I put up the – very tasteful and discreet, mind you – Christmas decorations. She didn't say anything but she sure as hell didn't look happy about it. I didn't want to ask and simply finished decorating. After that… there was not much more talk of Christmas and I left it at that because I had the feeling she wouldn't tell me anyway.
And why the hell won't she come over to the fire, huh? She must be freezing her ass off at the entrance of that cave. Looking over to the two guys, I manage to catch Tom's eyes and give him a small jerk of my head in Maureen's direction. He turns around and rolls his eyes, obviously trying to tell me that it's no use asking her to come here. I give him a look indicating nasty torture next time he has to go through a physical… which catches Dee's attention and elicits a barely suppressed amused grin from him. God, I love it when he does that…
"Guys… I wouldn't get too comfy around that fire if I were you." Uh… what?
Tom seems to have thought about the same thing so he raises his eyebrows inquisitively when he looks at Maureen. "Lieutenant?"
Was that a slightly unnerved sigh? Aw, no, must be imagining it. She wouldn't do that in plain sight of her superior. Right? "We're about to get company, sir. Uninvited company."