Title: Five times someone on the Destiny cried
Author: Shenandoah Risu
Rating: PG
Content Flags: tears
Spoilers: most of Season 1, early Season 2
Characters: Darren Becker, Everett Young, Jeremy Franklin, Vanessa James, Adam Brody, Kiva, Ginn, Eli Wallace
Word Count: 1,122
Summary: Five people, five tears, five reasons.
Author's Notes: Written for prompt set #145 at the LJ Comm sg1_five_things.
Disclaimer: I don't own SGU. I wouldn't know what to do with it. Now, Young... Young I'd know what to do with. ;-)
Thanks for reading! Feedback = Love. ;-)
oOo
Five times someone on the Destiny cried
Darren Becker hated cutting onions. As a simple Air Force cook on Icarus with ambitions to be a chef someday, cutting up onions was part of his daily routine. And usually tears would be streaming down his face while the others would rib him about his sensitivity to onions.
He'd been on Icarus for a few months when he was slaving away in the galley, cutting up onions for the evening meal when Colonel Young entered the kitchen, just returned from maneuvers and still in full battle gear. Darren snapped to attention, tears streaming down his face. "Becker, do you have one of those plas-" Young started, then noticed Becker's wet cheeks. His quizzical frown morphed into an amused grin, as he reached for the safety glasses dangling from his neck and wordlessly handed them to the young man. He patted him on the shoulder and left, never mentioning it again.
Darren used the glasses daily, and they solved his bawling problem, and he was infinitely grateful for having them on him when the evacuation was called. As it turned out he had a similar reaction to the ubiquitous purple sweet potatoes, and Young's safety glasses kept him from blubbering in the kitchen on a daily basis.
There was the one time, though, when he'd loaned them to Riley, and Camile spotted him bawling his eyes out over some sweet potato fries, and, not knowing the circumstances, gave him a long and solid hug, assuring him that everything would be all right.
He never had the heart to tell her, either, because Camile was a really fantastic hugger.
oOo
As an astrobiologist Franklin had made the hydroponics lab his pet project. Developing life support systems for otherworldly plants was his passion, and once the first few sprouts began to grow on Destiny he spent considerable time there (Brody claimed he would sing to the tiny plants to help them along). But Franklin was also invaluable with computer systems integration tasks which played well into his engineering-oriented scientific mind.
When the neural interface chair overloaded the synapses in his brain and he was unable to care for himself Vanessa James had stepped up to the challenge. Her prior caregiver experience with a severely disabled brother proved infinitely useful in dealing with a newly handicapped crewmember.
Vanessa knew how to look for the tiny signs of awareness in the catatonic man, and she quickly learned to read his body language – when he was hungry or thirsty, when he was about to soil himself, or when he was scared and simply needed some company.
One day she borrowed Eli's kino sled and pushed Franklin down to the hydroponics lab. Holding his hand out she carefully placed his fingertips on a grape tomato and helped him pick it off the vine. She guided his hand to his mouth and he ate the small fruit.
He wept, then, and Vanessa understood why.
oOo
Adam Brody's first batch of home-made hooch was celebrated like the major achievement it really was on the wayward travelers' ship. Having used Chloe and Vanessa as test subjects he soon invited the rest of the crew over to try his moonshine, and of course this meant joining everyone. In other words, Brody got rip-roaring drunk on that first day, passed out next to his still and slept off his self-induced intoxication.
When he woke up he thought he was about to die. Never in his life had he had a hangover of such magnitude. There was not only a blazing headache, but also severe vertigo and nausea, gut cramps, the runs and general malaise. Brody didn't know such profound misery was even possible, and so he made sure to work alone all day so nobody could hear him sob quietly and feeling woefully sorry for himself.
oOo
Kiva wasn't much for crying. Supreme self-control had always been her strongest character trait; debilitating emotions that could be construed as a sign of weakness had no place in her life.
And yet, on the Destiny, Kiva cried for the first time in – well, she couldn't even remember how long it had been. At first, she didn't even quite know what was happening. Her conquest of Destiny wasn't as easy as she'd thought, and the puny little refugees she had to fight truly had a spirit to match her own. She had never been so angry in her whole life, and the tears just came unbidden. She quickly wiped them off, but ironically the tiny moment of distraction proved to be her downfall – she noticed the suspicious shadow too late and as she fired her gun she felt Telford's bullet rip into her chest at the same time.
oOo
Every time Ginn looked at Eli her heart would do backflips in her chest. Oh, she'd been in love before and suffered through countless crushes while in the employ of the Lucian Alliance. Her mathematical skills and superior programming abilities had been the deciding factor for her being traded from squadron to squadron, whenever her unit was conquered by another. Ginn was lonely, and she knew that in order to stay alive she'd have to remain lonely, because any friendship she might develop could be ended with a gunshot or other violent act. Olan had been her trusted co-worker and something of a mentor, and she had watched in abject horror as he was strangled for allegedly inferior work. She knew it wasn't true – Olan had been a kind and brilliant man. But now he was gone.
Ginn was secretly delighted to be a captive on the Destiny. She was treated with respect and quickly figured out how to trade to improve her situation: information in exchange for trust.
And then she met Eli and she knew immediately that he was her soulmate, and suddenly nothing else mattered. To have her feelings returned, to know he saw her the same way she saw him – it was almost too much to bear. For the first time in her life she felt safe – safe to pursue her interests with a kindred spirit, without having to constantly look over her shoulder in fear for her life.
When they first made love she knew it was the first time for him, and his humble sweetness touched her deeply, and years and years of fear and loneliness simply melted away.
He kissed her tears and promised her he would always be there for her, and she believed him, because in that moment she also knew she felt the same way about him as well. And even later, trapped in a memory bank, she still loved him and was comforted by the fact that he loved her, too.
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