Title: Five totally platonic kisses for Colonel Young
Author: Shenandoah Risu
Rating: PG-13
Content Flags: hanky warning
Spoilers: Up to "Epilogue"
Characters: Everett Young, Vanessa James, Hunter Riley, Chloe Armstrong, Lisa Park, Camile Wray
Word Count: 1,373
Summary: Young gets five kisses.
Author's Notes: Written for a prompt in set #139 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 totally platonic kisses for Colonel Young

Vanessa is angry.

Matt has dumped her for the pretty young senator's daughter, and she's mad at the whole world, and the male portion of it especially. She would really really like to go on a cock-hacking rampage, but alas, she's stuck on an Ancient spaceship billions of light years from Earth, with Matt, and everyone on board is needed for their survival. So, no rampage. She's angry and she's frightened. This is not what she signed up for, this is not what she wants to do with her life. And to top it all off her CO is gravely wounded, putting Matt in charge as her de facto boss.

She's stomping down the hallway, breaking into a run, trying to release some of her pent-up frustrations, her rage, her fear. Rounding a corner in the darkened corridors she catches a glimpse of Colonel Young. She almost didn't see him at a run, as he's leaning heavily against one of the metal girders. She stops, turns around.

"Sir? You okay?"

Young looks up at her, and his pain-distorted face gives her pause.

"I'm good, Lieutenant," he growls, clearly not being truthful.

"What's wrong?"

Young tilts his head back, blows out a breath. "Leg seized up."

"Come on, Sir, let me help you."

And she's stunned that he lets her put her arm around his waist and hands her his rifle, and she slowly walks him down the hallway to the empty mess hall where she settles him on a bench as he groans in agony.

"Can I get you anything, Sir?"

"No, thanks. I just… need to rest for a second."

"All right." She places his rifle on the table. And then, on impulse, she bends down and kisses him on the cheek.

He looks at her, startled.

She blushes. "I'm sorry, Sir."

His features soften and crease into a tiny smile. He nods.

She leaves, and her anger has dissipated, having been replaced with a resolution to pull her weight and help. Help all of them.

oOo

Hunter Riley is a Gate Tech. He knows the DHDs inside out, he can take a Gate apart for maintenance and put it back together with no leftover parts, and it will still work. He doesn't know the first thing about spacesuits.

Except that they look horribly uncomfortable and heavy and bulky. And while everybody hovers around Matt who almost died when he ripped a hole in his suit on the Ice Planet, somehow he ends up next to Colonel Young.

He's seen his CO exhausted and dirty and wounded before, but right now Young looks positively murderous, glaring in Rush's direction. Hunter quickly holds up his water bottle and Young nods, and Hunter brings the bottle to his lips and gives him a few sips of water. Young nearly spills it all, too exhausted to even swallow. He quickly grabs him by the arm, trying to steady him, then tilts the bottle up again as Young drinks.

"Rush," Young says, his voice trembling with anger.

"Let's get you out of that suit, Sir," Hunter interjects. "Come on, I'll give you a hand."

And he drags his CO out of the Gate Room to an adjacent storage room and eases him down on a crate.

"I need to see how Matt's doing," Young protests.

"No, you don't, Sir," Hunter says gently but firmly. "TJ's taking care of him. He'll be fine. Now, hold still."

And he's glad he helped him into the suit in the first place because taking it off is not nearly as difficult as putting it on.

"There, all done," he says, and quickly gives him a peck on the forehead.

Young smiles with amusement.

"Younger siblings, Sergeant?"

"Yes, Sir," Hunter nods. "Six. Every one of them stubborn as a mule. Sir."

And Young chuckles as he helps him up and takes another gulp from his bottle.

oOo

Chloe Armstrong doesn't really want to go back to the alien ship. But the alien within her does, and it's getting stronger by the minute, now that they're so close; she can feel the vibrations in the marrow of her bones, the strong pull that urges her to destroy everything in her path so she can get back aboard.

Chloe is scared to death.

And when they open the door to her cell she knows it's time. The alien within rejoices and cheers, and she feels like crying. She sees the look on Colonel Young 's face, and suddenly she understands it's far harder for him to send her over there than it is for her to just go. Despite her fears she can also understand the alien's excitement. Never, never, in her whole life has she ever imagined doing what she is about to do – to go back to the alien ship in order to save everyone aboard Destiny. For him it's possibly sentencing someone to death, and she's glad she's not in his position.

Suddenly, an inexplicable calm envelops her, and maybe it's the alien within, now at peace with the prospect of going home.

Home.

Chloe understands that, and she's okay with it. And just before she's about to step into the compartment where the alien shuttle has docked she turns to Young and kisses him gently on the cheek.

She knows he will grieve for her for the rest of his life if she doesn't make it back. And with a simple touch of her lips she absolves him of all responsibility.

"Thank you," she whispers, tears in her eyes, smiling at him, holding his tortured gaze as the hatch slides shut between them.

oOo

Lisa Park has never been one to give up easily. Losing her eyesight has certainly been the biggest challenge of her life, and she's still struggling with it every day. Dale and Ronald, her two partners, are always with her to guide her and interpret things for her, but little by little she learns to get around by herself, using sound as her guide: the echo of her footsteps in the corridors, the quiet hum of the ship that seems to gently show her the way. At first she thinks she's imagining it, when she says "Destiny, I need to go to the bathroom," and all she has to do is to follow the buzz which will inevitably lead her to where she wants to go. She loves being able to get around again on her own.

"Dr. Park?" Colonel Young's voice. "Can I help you get somewhere?"

She smiles and shakes her head.

"No, thanks," she replies and holds up a hand. "Listen."

It's quiet for a moment, and she imagines how he squints at the ceiling, scrunching up his face, trying to hear what she does.

"There," she says and points down the hall.

"What?"

"Destiny says it's this way to Vanessa's quarters."

He clears his throat. "That's right. I'll come with you."

She reaches out and feels his hand touch hers. She wraps her fingers around his.

"It's okay," she whispers. "I can hear it. I know where to go. The ship's taking care of me."

"It is?"

She nods, pulls him towards her and kisses him on his ear.

"Thanks, Colonel."

She feels him touch her shoulder, knows he's not following her when she leaves. It makes her smile.

oOo

Young is eighty-three years old when he dies. Camile has been living with him for decades as roommates on Novus, to save valuable living space. Both had lost their soul mates. Both were lonely.

When he's growing weaker she helps to carry him to his daughter's house, the house he built for himself and TJ so many years ago. She can't bear to see him go – it's like losing Sharon all over again. Chloe, Sara and Steven sit with him as he passes on quietly in the early evening light.

But it's Camile who gets his body ready for the funeral, who washes and dresses him, who tucks the little woodcarving of the Destiny that TJ had whittled for him into his hand.

And it's Camile who kisses him gently on his forehead before they close the casket and lower him into the ground, so that he may finally rest.

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Thanks for reading! A comment or feedback would be much appreciated.

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