Title: AGONY II
Author: JoleneB
Beta: nope, nada, living dangerously today -- again!
Date of Completion:
E-Mail: jbuttolph@hotmail.com or JoleneB1953@yahoo.com
Category: Your guess is as good as mine.
Warnings: not too bad, not as icky as the last
CONTENT
LEVEL: 13+
Summary: Ficlet inspired by MC -- Agony
Hosting: Yahoo!
File Size: 497 words
Disclaimer: I do profess to my profound regret that I have
no rights to Stargate SG-1 (except to enjoy). The concept and characters belong
to SciFi Channel, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, Gekko
Productions… ad infinitum.
Authors Notes: Well, not exactly a sequel to the first one,
but it explores the same theme. There’s agony and there’s agony. Life is lived
in varying degrees of pain. Some good. Some bad.
Dedication: To our military friends,
may they all come home after a job well done.
AGONY II
Coffee,
I needed coffee. The day wasn’t going well and I needed some distraction -- any
distraction. Stepping into the Commissary I almost smiled, there sat my
distraction, their backs to me.
My kids.
Sam
was bent over presenting one of those views I lived for, as she leaned over my
two boys, something in her hand. They all seemed very ‘distracted’ by what ever
it was. Just the ticket. Reluctantly I adverted my eyes from the view that I’d never admit to
having enjoyed, let alone noticed, and headed for them.
“Hey,
what’s up?” Lighten up. Your face won’t break. Show ‘em you’re as happy to see
them, as they seem to be to see you. Hey, not that much. You’re still their CO
ya know! I grin even wider. Today was getting better and better all the time.
“Here Sir, Happy Valentine’s Day.”
Oh.
In
my fingers lays this teeny, tiny envelope, with just a ghost of a red heart
showing. Damn, it’s so cute. I’m her valentine.
“Thanks
Carter. That time of the year again?” Slipping the card free I smirked for her.
Making sure the guys saw it too, such a small silly little thing to having
everyone grinning like idiots. Gratuitous grinning, now that’s a distraction.
“My
nephew helped me pick them out this year. They’re just like the ones he took to
school.”
Oh.
School.
Parties. Excited kids. Paper and candy hearts. Now I’m smiling, a big genuine
smile. Kids and valentines. Carter beams at me; her
smile a REAL valentine. Sigh.
“Sweet.
Just stopped for a cup of Joe and wanted to remind you of the briefing at 0900.
‘Kay? See ya later.”
Slipping
the little card back into its envelope I hurried though the line,
got coffee and retreated to my office leaving my smiling team behind, but
taking my own smile along like a doggie bag.
Abandoning
the cooling coffee next to my full in-basket, I carefully placed that little
white envelope in the center of the desktop. For long moments, I stared at it,
savoring the joy on Sam’s face. Finally, I turned and pulled out a book from
the shelf behind me. Inside were similar cards, each a treasured memory. One
was the card Carter gave me last year. Roses. There
were yellow roses on it. How'd she know I liked yellow roses? I don’t know.
There aren’t any in the garden.
Slowly
I laid all the cards out. Four. Four
very special memories. All but one dressed in pristine white. Fondly I
had touched each until the last one. The oldest. It
wore a dingy, soiled and stained barely-there envelope. This one didn’t say
Colonel, O’Neill, or Jack. Scrawled across it in green crayon was DADDY.
Anguished
love boiled up from my heart, overwhelming the recent joy, squeezing out a
single hot tear, adding another stain to that precious scrape of paper.
Every
time I see this card, it’s sweet agony.
The End?