Prize Winners - Lost - Daniel/Juliet
Title: Prize Winners
Pairing: Daniel/Juliet
Word Count: 584
Rating: PG
A/N: AU written for comment_fic and using for writing_rainbow's "gold" prompt.
Summary: Our two scientists win a Nobel Prize each - and meet each other at the ceremony.
She sits at the bar, staring down at the medal they'd awarded her with. It's nothing, really. Just a trinket - nothing compared to the grant she's just won or the prestige this award will bestow upon her shoulders. Now, finally, her work will be gaining recognition. It can go so much further. She can help so many more people.
But it's the medal that's holding her attention. The lights overhead catch on the gold and make it shine, bright enough to hurt her eyes as she stares down at it. It's been a long road here, hasn't it? So many mistakes and wrong turns and new beginnings, but she's made it. She finally feels like she's done something worthwhile.
Out of the corner of her eye she sees the bright white of someone's shirt and looks up: it's one of the other winners. He'd been awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, she thinks. Physics. That's a whole other ball game from her medicine. It's so much bigger, so much broader. The very secrets of the universe are at this man's fingertips.
Yet he doesn't look like anything at all. He's shorter than her, and probably thinner too she notices with a smile she can barely hide. His tie is long and black and his sleeves are rolled up. It ought to look a lot more professional than it does: shirt and tie. For some reason he looks underdressed, as if he's turned up in what he wears every day. Juliet shifts on her bar stool. The dress she's wearing was bought especially for this occasion. Winning a prize as prestigious as this one deserved a little spending splurge, she'd told herself.
"Congratulations," she says, once she's watched him for a few passing moments. She knows that he'd noticed, but he'd seemed too shy to say anything. She's not surprised; scientists aren't known for being overly sociable. That's a stereotype and a bad one - she'd proof of that - but it does have some foundation in truth. "You're the time travel guy, right?"
"Daniel Faraday," he confirms, with a twitching smile that's terribly endearing. "And it's not 'time travel' as such. More..." He trails off, frowns, thinks for a moment. "Consciousness-travel. Your mind goes elsewhere. You, though, you stay right where you are. Your body, I mean."
Juliet nods along with his words: she thinks she understands. Almost. "It's a little over my head."
"I doubt that," he says. "I know you. I mean, I think I do. Juliet Burke, right?"
"That's right."
"Male pregnancy. It's... fascinating."
"Very."
"Kinda scary." He looks down at his stomach and smiles sheepishly. "Really scary."
"Don't worry," she says. "I'm not going to force you to be my new lab-rat." That makes his eyes widen and he looks up at her sharply, afraid that maybe he's offended her. It's more endearing than anything else he's done tonight. She smiles, and before he can start to rush forth his apologies and mumble how he didn't mean to imply anything bad about her research, she waves towards the barkeeper. "Can I get you a drink?"
"I..." He seems more flustered than ever. Sweet. So sweet. "Yeah. I think - Yeah, I'd like that."
She tucks the medal into her handbag and orders a drink for them both - and when she takes him back to her hotel room that evening, Juliet thinks that maybe he's the real prize of the evening, with his gentle, blushing sweetness and unexpected passion.
Pairing: Daniel/Juliet
Word Count: 584
Rating: PG
A/N: AU written for comment_fic and using for writing_rainbow's "gold" prompt.
Summary: Our two scientists win a Nobel Prize each - and meet each other at the ceremony.
She sits at the bar, staring down at the medal they'd awarded her with. It's nothing, really. Just a trinket - nothing compared to the grant she's just won or the prestige this award will bestow upon her shoulders. Now, finally, her work will be gaining recognition. It can go so much further. She can help so many more people.
But it's the medal that's holding her attention. The lights overhead catch on the gold and make it shine, bright enough to hurt her eyes as she stares down at it. It's been a long road here, hasn't it? So many mistakes and wrong turns and new beginnings, but she's made it. She finally feels like she's done something worthwhile.
Out of the corner of her eye she sees the bright white of someone's shirt and looks up: it's one of the other winners. He'd been awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, she thinks. Physics. That's a whole other ball game from her medicine. It's so much bigger, so much broader. The very secrets of the universe are at this man's fingertips.
Yet he doesn't look like anything at all. He's shorter than her, and probably thinner too she notices with a smile she can barely hide. His tie is long and black and his sleeves are rolled up. It ought to look a lot more professional than it does: shirt and tie. For some reason he looks underdressed, as if he's turned up in what he wears every day. Juliet shifts on her bar stool. The dress she's wearing was bought especially for this occasion. Winning a prize as prestigious as this one deserved a little spending splurge, she'd told herself.
"Congratulations," she says, once she's watched him for a few passing moments. She knows that he'd noticed, but he'd seemed too shy to say anything. She's not surprised; scientists aren't known for being overly sociable. That's a stereotype and a bad one - she'd proof of that - but it does have some foundation in truth. "You're the time travel guy, right?"
"Daniel Faraday," he confirms, with a twitching smile that's terribly endearing. "And it's not 'time travel' as such. More..." He trails off, frowns, thinks for a moment. "Consciousness-travel. Your mind goes elsewhere. You, though, you stay right where you are. Your body, I mean."
Juliet nods along with his words: she thinks she understands. Almost. "It's a little over my head."
"I doubt that," he says. "I know you. I mean, I think I do. Juliet Burke, right?"
"That's right."
"Male pregnancy. It's... fascinating."
"Very."
"Kinda scary." He looks down at his stomach and smiles sheepishly. "Really scary."
"Don't worry," she says. "I'm not going to force you to be my new lab-rat." That makes his eyes widen and he looks up at her sharply, afraid that maybe he's offended her. It's more endearing than anything else he's done tonight. She smiles, and before he can start to rush forth his apologies and mumble how he didn't mean to imply anything bad about her research, she waves towards the barkeeper. "Can I get you a drink?"
"I..." He seems more flustered than ever. Sweet. So sweet. "Yeah. I think - Yeah, I'd like that."
She tucks the medal into her handbag and orders a drink for them both - and when she takes him back to her hotel room that evening, Juliet thinks that maybe he's the real prize of the evening, with his gentle, blushing sweetness and unexpected passion.