Variation
by Charis
Disclaimer: None of this is mine.
Notes: A drabble in response to Ilana asking for SG-1 fic. Janet is one of my favourite characters, so it should be unsurprising I picked her. Pared down as close to 100 words as possible for one of the stargate100 community on LJ.
It's nights like this, when the infirmary is quiet except for the scattered beeps of machinery, that she finds it very hard to remember why it's worth it. Today wasn't about saving the world, nor about dramatic, earth-shattering discoveries. Today was just about the stupidity of it all, the sacrifices that mean nothing.
The paperwork blurs together, names and dates and events and injuries, a heartless catalogue of all this program has cost. All they have to show, in exchange for those broken bones and broken lives, is the fact that the earth still exists.
On nights like this, when she is left to wonder what she can do while lives slip through her fingers and the melancholy encroaches, it's very hard to remember why it's worth it.