Author's Note:
I promised myself that I would never do this. Although, at one point I also promised myself that I would never stoop to writing fanfic. But I did, and I enjoy it, and so now, I'm going to inflict a songfic on all of you...
And here's hoping that at least some of you who read this will actually enjoy it.
Warnings: songfic
And it's sappy. How sappy? Enough to make a couple of gallons of syrup, I bet.
Spoilers: through Season 5. I set this up to be between Ascension and Rite of Passage.
Disclaimer: I'm just playing in the sandbox. None of the toys are mine. The song is "King of Broken Hearts" by George Strait. If you've never heard it, you can listen to it at: youtube(dot)com(slash)watch?v=0Uj21z-Rs2c&feature=related
On formatting: Bold is song lyrics.
Italics are people's thoughts.
Who's the King of Broken Hearts?
Cassie waved off the airman who had escorted her down to the infirmary. "I'll be fine, now, thanks. I'm sure Janet's just around the corner."
The airman hesitated, then decided to leave her. After all, it's not like she doesn't know the score. She is an alien, after all.
Not seeing Janet anywhere, Cassie decided to step into her office to wait for her. Wonder why Mom forgot to pick me up today? It doesn't even look all that busy around here.
Suddenly, the klaxons went off and Sergeant Harriman's voice came over the intercom, announcing yet another "Unscheduled off-world activation! Unscheduled off-world activation!" and then a few seconds later, calling for a "Medical Team to the Gate Room!"
Knowing that meant her mother would probably be busy patching someone up for a while yet, Cassie decided she might as well sit down and finish what small bit of her homework she had left. She ignored the nurses and orderlies heading out to the gate room with several gurneys.
However, when the gurneys came rushing back into the room a few minutes later, she looked up in idle curiosity, to see if she even knew the team coming back, and gasped. Whoever was on the first gurney had their shirt torn nearly to shreds and was covered in blood. She couldn't see who it was due to the nurse in the way, but when she heard the colonel's voice cut through the cacophony, bellowing, "Leave me, go help the doc!" she suddenly felt like her heart was going to stop again.
Because she knew who it had to be on the gurney. Process of elimination. It wasn't the colonel, but he was upset and worried. It was a man, so it couldn't be Sam. And the skin was far too pale to be Teal'c's. Therefore, it had to be- Oh, Daniel. Why does the bad stuff always have to happen to you?
Managing to get past the desire to throw up or pass out, Cassie moved to the doorway of Janet's office, hoping to see a little better but not wanting to get in the way as the medical staff rushed around. It was clear that Daniel's gurney was headed elsewhere- probably to the X-ray room- and fast, but when Cassie looked out, she was horrified to see that the rest of SG-1 was also in bad shape. A nurse was valiantly putting up with Jack's complaints and attempts to swat her away as she pressed a towel against his head, which had apparently been bleeding profusely for some time, as the blood trails had managed to work their way from the top left side of his head, down his neck and chest and nearly to his stomach. Sam had one arm in a makeshift sling made from someone's jacket and nasty bruise that covered most of the right side of her face. Teal'c looked better off than both of them, but like the others, he appeared to have numerous scrapes and bruises under the torn remnants of his uniform.
Cassie herself felt torn between the desire to go to her friends and try to reassure herself that they would be alright, and the desire to hide somewhere, so that she wouldn't have to see all the pain they were in, both mentally and physically. And she could tell that there was a great deal of mental anguish going on just by looking at the various team members' faces. Teal'c was scowling even more fiercely than usual, but his eyes could not stop darting from the direction that her mom had taken Daniel to where the colonel was getting his head bandaged to the curtains around the bed Sam had been taken to and back to the direction Daniel had gone, and so on. Before they had pulled the curtains around Sam's bed, Cassie had seen the gray shade of her face, the worry-lines in her forehead, the tight set of her lips, and the glistening in her eyes that said she was holding back tears. And the colonel, who had quieted down quite a bit and seemed to have accepted that the doctor and nurse attending him were not going to leave him alone, was very pale and had pulled out what Daniel called his 'hard-ass face'. She'd seen it a few times now- always when things looked worst. She ended up not moving at all, just watching from the office doorway as the members of SG-1 were examined and bandaged. Although not close enough to hear everything,
Looking at the team, Cassie couldn't help but think of a country song that'd been on the radio frequently lately. Wonder who'd win the contest for the King of Broken Hearts in this group?
The King of Broken Hearts doesn't ask much from his friends
And he has quite a few of them
That fits Daniel perfectly. He'd do anything for anybody, and he never asks for anything in return. And he seems completely unaware of how much everybody likes him. It's like he expects them not to care.
They know he will understand The
That's just the way it goes
He's tryin' to forget other things
Like some old ship at sea
He's walkin' through life alone
That fits Colonel Jack like a glove. I asked him once about the picture of his son, and he didn't talk the rest of the day- to anybody. Daniel told me not to take it personally, that Jack could never forgive himself when his son died, and that the only way he could live with the pain was to try not to think about it. And then I found out he'd been in a war and been a prisoner when Mom made a comment about his nightmares.And I guess I could understand how he wouldn't want to remember something like that. He talks to angels
And the stars start to spin
He thinks of troubles that he's gotten in
He recalls how his heart got broken
And how it's still that way
Back to Daniel now. He can talk to anybody. And the bit about the stars starting to spin? That makes me think of the symbols on the gate going around and around as it dials. Sam told me once that without Daniel, there would be no Stargate program, because he was the only one who could figure out the symbols. She said he did in two weeks what whole teams of people couldn't do in years, decades even. But unlike Jack, he always seems to remember his pain- Sha're being stolen, dying. It just gives him empathy.
The King of Broken Hearts is so sad and wise
He can smile while he's cryin' inside
We know he'll be brave tonight
Cause he's the King of Broken Hearts
And back to Jack. Mom says he's always telling jokes when somebody's hurt, whether it's to make them feel better or make people who are worried about them feel better. And Daniel once said, "Jokes are Jack's defense mechanism. Whenever he's hurting, whenever he's worried, whenever he feels like this time we might not make it out of whatever Goa'uld prison we've been thrown in, that's when he jokes." He talks to angels
And the stars start to spin
He thinks of the troubles that he's gotten in
He recalls how his heart got broken
And how it's still that way
Or maybe that's Sam. Mom says she dated somebody who was dead once, so that means she talked to angels, right? And she's the one everybody always asks when there's something wrong with the gate. Daniel might be the one who figured out the writing, but Sam's the one who made the dialing computer. And I think she loves Jack, but just can't say it. Mom says there's a military rule that you can't date somebody on your team, but I think that's stupid. I mean, just because she can't act on it doesn't mean she cares any less. It's just gonna break her heart because she'll never get together with him.
The King of Broken Hearts thinks that he's no fool
He's a little like me and you
So what's a King like that supposed to do
With all that blue time
That might even be Teal'c. I know how much it hurt when my family died, but at least I knew.
Poor Teal'c, I can't imagine how hard it must be for him to leave his family, to know they might be in danger, and to constantly live with all the not knowing what's happening to them.
And what does he do with his downtime between missions, anyway?
We know he'll be brave tonight
Cause he's the King of Broken Hearts
He's the King of Broken Hearts
Well, that's all of them. They all put on a brave act- a game face, Jack calls it- even when they're hurting. But they've all been put through the wringer and had more than their fair share of heart-breaking experiences.
I guess I'd have to say, do like in those Narnia books and set up four thrones; They're all kings of broken hearts.