Title: Life Itself Is the Proper Binge

Rating: T

Category: Het

Pairing: Cameron Mitchell/Carolyn Lam

Warnings: Minor spoilers for SG-1 S9

Word Count: 496

The first time they shared a meal together, it was what she ate and not what she said that he remembered most.

It wasn't really a date, just two coworkers getting together. The occasion was his escape from the infirmary after yet another concussion. It wasn't anything fancy either, just the cafeteria. Cameron took his chances with the meatloaf while Carolyn brought her own brown bag lunch. He couldn't get over how meticulously she ate her food. Her salad looked pretty boring, just iceberg lettuce, sliced carrots and vinaigrette with some bacon bits. She used two napkins, one spread across her lap while she used the other to pat her mouth lightly after every other bite. She finished every last morsel, every last bit of lettuce, every remaining piece of bacon, even scraping down the sides of her Tupperwear with a fork to get every last drop of dressing.

Her meal was so small that she was done well before him. Carolyn wrinkled her nose slightly as she watching him tear off a piece of his dinner roll and spread it liberally with butter before he reminded her that she could go back to the infirmary and check his cholesterol numbers for herself. Cam offered to get her some jello because he was worried that she was still hungry. She asked if it was sugar-free.

The next night, Cam showed up at her house with slabs of ribs slathered in barbecue sauce, French fries, coleslaw, and of course fresh baked rolls with real butter. Carolyn looked confused when she answered the door until he told her that he wanted to see her eat with her hands for once. She protested that the barbecue sauce was full of excess sugar, but she ate anyway. Just as he suspected, she was hungry. She got barbecue sauce all over her hands, her face, her hair, and even down the front of her shirt when one of the ribs got away from her. She looked pretty sheepish about the mess, but he just laughed and said he appreciated a woman with a good appetite.

As Cam got ready to leave, he watched Carolyn look down at her shirt and notice a trail of barbecue sauce starting just below her collarbone and continuing down past the neckline of her shirt. She looked awkward admitting that there was even barbecue sauce in her cleavage and that she really needed a shower. Without thinking, he offered to help, but quickly retreated when she turned beet red. He said his good-byes and left. On the way home and afterwards as he sipped his beer while watching ESPN, he imagined her in the shower, rinsing the barbecue sauce out of her hair and rubbing it off her breasts with a soapy sponge. For her part, as she stood under the running water, she imagined what it would feel like if he was standing behind her, washing her back, before reminding herself that could never happen.

Author's note: Did you see how many times Cam buttered his bread in "The Scourge," episode 9.17? He was in the background at the time while Daniel was trying to connect with the Chinese delegate, but it looked to me like Cam really likes bread and butter.

The title is a quotation attributed to Julia Child.