Written for the Livejournal Community sg1_five_things.
Five Things Cameron did while separated from his team in Continuum
1. He looked up his mother. He knew Sam and Jackson would have asked him why, and he even found himself answering them in his head-he had a curiosity that could only be satisfied by finding out. In this timeline, his mother had married a businessman from Georgia, and they had three daughters. Cam was more disturbed than satisfied by the information. He saw the women who were biologically his half-sisters, and thought about how they didn't belong in his timeline, and how he didn't belong in this one, and lost all desire to find other relatives, as well as his appetite.
2. He took road trips. Most of them were short, only over long holiday weekends, because even in this messed up timeline he was too responsible to lose his job, but he did get one two week vacation, and he drove across the country in back. He'd joined the Air Force because he couldn't sit still and he loved to fly, and that love had taken second place only to stargate travel, and since he couldn't do any of those things, driving was about all that was left.
3. He attended a neighborhood barbecue. Two weeks after he moved in, the next door neighbors invited him to a July 4th barbecue. Nearly everyone in the entire block was there, and Cam found himself barraged by questions about his life. He answered truthfully but it all felt like lies-his brother had never been born, his parents weren't together because his father didn't exist, he hadn't chosen his job, and the only friends he did have he was permanently cut off from. Then again, he realized as he thought about Sam and Daniel, at least he could go by his real name.
4. He took apart a car engine and put it back together. He'd done this once before as a teenager with his brother on the farm, but life in the Air Force didn't afford enough time to do it again, but now that he had a nine to five job and nothing to do on the weekends but drive, he decided that one good thing should come out of this mess, and took his tools with him under the hood.
5. He watched The Simpsons. One day, without knowing why, he found himself at a Best Buy purchasing the first season on DVD. It was probably a waste of money-the first season wasn't very good, but then he bought seasons two and three and it started getting better. Despite the laughs, he missed his team, his family, his old life, and now that he understood all the Simpsons jokes General O'Neill always made, he even missed those, too. But it was important to keep those things fresh in his mind, in case the day ever came when he got the opportunity to fix the timeline, so he kept on watching.