Two "Awesome Women" ficlets
Title: What Remains
Author: geonncannon
Fandom: Simpsons/Supernatural
Word Count: 563
Category: Crossover crack, definitely.
Disclaimer: They do not belong to me and would not approve of the things I do.
Rating: PG
Warnings: Dark, dark, dark
Author's Notes: Written for a prompt on the Awesome Women Ficathon, which nearly broke my brain in the WTFness of it: The Simpsons/Supernatural, Lisa and Bart and Maggie, the AU fusion where they save people and hunt things
Summary: Lisa Simpson reminisces.
She remembers the simple times, the times when her worst fear was getting a B on a test. She sits on the curb outside the hotel room and looks at their car. Their latest car, she should say. The station wagon is long gone. Something from a candy-colored fantasy. She has a cigarette between two fingers, but she hasn't bothered taking a drag since that first, sweet inhale. She flicks the end and ash fell to the pavement.
Sometimes it feels like they lived inside of a bubble for those few years. It felt like a lifetime passed at 742 Evergreen Terrace. Sure bad things happened from time to time, but they made it through. As a family.
Lisa sees Bart crossing the parking lot with a plastic bag of Styrofoam containers. When he's close enough she asks, "What did you get?"
"Barbeque."
"Gross." She wrinkles her nose, but she knows she'll eat it. She can't afford to be a vegetarian when she isn't sure where their next meal is coming from. He walks past her, and she hears the hotel room door open. The TV is playing loud, filling the silence that Maggie can't fill herself. Lisa still remembers breaking down that door, seeing the Harken perched on top of her little sister. The rock salt killed it, but not before the damage was done. Maggie would never speak again. Because Lisa had been a little late, a little slow on the uptake.
Lisa finally takes another drag off her cigarette. She closes her eyes and imagines she was sitting on the stairs again, watching her father sit with Mr. Flanders in the living room. She remembers her father's anger. "What happened to Marge, the thing that killed her! You won't find that in some book!"
And then he was gone. He changed that day. A change so sudden and terrifying that it threatened to erase all the good memories she had of him. That was the day the training started. He took Bart with him on the road, but Lisa and Maggie had to stay home. Out of danger. Lisa came up with their attack plans, and she kept them alive. And then one day Bart woke her up, muddy and dripping blood onto the carpet.
"Homer's on a hunting trip and I haven't heard from him in a few days."
And so began the new phase of their life. Lisa said goodbye to college, to a normal life, and climbed into the car. They left Springfield behind. She doesn't even know if it would feel like home or not if they ever actually go back.
"Lis," Bart says from the doorway. "We're not saving you any unless you get your butt in here."
"I'm coming," Lisa says. She drops the cigarette and smashes it with her shoe. Once she was a little blonde girl in a cute red dress. Now her hair is stringy and dirty, her blouse still red but her jeans torn at the knee. Her Mary Janes were now surplus army boots. The better to kick down doors with. She looks up into the sky and wonders what their next job will be. She wonders if it will be the one they don't win.
She's not going to waste time worrying about it. She turns and goes back into the hotel room where her family is waiting.
Title: One Last Memory from the Sun
Author: geonncannon
Fandom: Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
Pairing: Alex/Olivia
Word Count: 518
Category: Missing scene, romance
Spoilers: Loss, Ghost
Disclaimer: Not mine a'tall. Can you imagine what 11 years of Benson would have been like if I had control?
Rating: R
Warnings: Sad, sad, sad.
Author's Notes: Written for a prompt at the Awesome Women Ficathon, asking for the last touch of sunset at the end of the world. Title is from "Beautiful Night" by Josh Ritter.
Summary: Alex watches the sun set one last time before she becomes someone else.
She wrapped the sweater around herself and walked out onto the porch. The house was an "undisclosed location," a secret cottage right on the edge of the country in the middle of nowhere. The way the ground fell away at the end of the lawn made it look as if the entire world had been torn away to leave only this small island for her. Time and the rest of the world stopped, waiting for her to rejoin it. Without her contacts in, the sharp lines were blurred just enough to make everything look like a painting. That definitely fit with the way she was feeling at the moment. She only wore a pair of borrowed boxer shorts under her sweater, and she clutched the two halves together as she padded barefoot to the railing.
For a life so orderly, the past few years had been unimaginable. She lost her name and her history, something she never thought possible. Something she never thought she would willingly allow to happen. Her glasses were gone, replaced by the contacts she swore she would never use. Her job was gone. The woman she loved more than she had ever loved anyone...
The woman who would have once responded to the name Alex turned and looked toward the front of the house. She could only see the back end of the car, but she knew both the chaperones were still there. Federal Marshals, assigned to babysit her for the duration of the trip. Fortunately they were quiet and easily ignored.
Nothing in her life felt real, but she knew that would change. She would settle into her new life. She would make new friends and create a new history. She would be Gretchen, and she would learn to live with that. As long as she was allowed one small stipulation to the terms of her agreement.
"Hey." The voice was rough from sleep. She turned to see Olivia Benson standing against the doorway, the sheet wrapped around her torso to leave her shoulders bare. Her hair was mussed, and her eyes half-closed. She licked her lips and tore her eyes away from Alex's bare legs. "I woke up and you weren't there. We only get two days every nine weeks. I'm not wasting a minute."
Olivia held her hand out, and Alex moved to take it. "I'll just be a minute."
"Okay," Olivia said. "Don't keep me waiting."
Alex looked out over the water. The sun was just beginning to disappear into the water, spreading reds and pinks and purples out over the water. She inhaled the last breeze of the day and let it out when the last bit of sun vanished and the night was complete.
Right now, in the purgatory between who she was and who she had to become, everything came together. Her past and her present and her future didn't matter. This was the only place where she didn't have to pretend. She was going to take advantage of that. She dropped the sweater, turned her back on the sea, and followed Olivia back into the house.
Author: geonncannon
Fandom: Simpsons/Supernatural
Word Count: 563
Category: Crossover crack, definitely.
Disclaimer: They do not belong to me and would not approve of the things I do.
Rating: PG
Warnings: Dark, dark, dark
Author's Notes: Written for a prompt on the Awesome Women Ficathon, which nearly broke my brain in the WTFness of it: The Simpsons/Supernatural, Lisa and Bart and Maggie, the AU fusion where they save people and hunt things
Summary: Lisa Simpson reminisces.
She remembers the simple times, the times when her worst fear was getting a B on a test. She sits on the curb outside the hotel room and looks at their car. Their latest car, she should say. The station wagon is long gone. Something from a candy-colored fantasy. She has a cigarette between two fingers, but she hasn't bothered taking a drag since that first, sweet inhale. She flicks the end and ash fell to the pavement.
Sometimes it feels like they lived inside of a bubble for those few years. It felt like a lifetime passed at 742 Evergreen Terrace. Sure bad things happened from time to time, but they made it through. As a family.
Lisa sees Bart crossing the parking lot with a plastic bag of Styrofoam containers. When he's close enough she asks, "What did you get?"
"Barbeque."
"Gross." She wrinkles her nose, but she knows she'll eat it. She can't afford to be a vegetarian when she isn't sure where their next meal is coming from. He walks past her, and she hears the hotel room door open. The TV is playing loud, filling the silence that Maggie can't fill herself. Lisa still remembers breaking down that door, seeing the Harken perched on top of her little sister. The rock salt killed it, but not before the damage was done. Maggie would never speak again. Because Lisa had been a little late, a little slow on the uptake.
Lisa finally takes another drag off her cigarette. She closes her eyes and imagines she was sitting on the stairs again, watching her father sit with Mr. Flanders in the living room. She remembers her father's anger. "What happened to Marge, the thing that killed her! You won't find that in some book!"
And then he was gone. He changed that day. A change so sudden and terrifying that it threatened to erase all the good memories she had of him. That was the day the training started. He took Bart with him on the road, but Lisa and Maggie had to stay home. Out of danger. Lisa came up with their attack plans, and she kept them alive. And then one day Bart woke her up, muddy and dripping blood onto the carpet.
"Homer's on a hunting trip and I haven't heard from him in a few days."
And so began the new phase of their life. Lisa said goodbye to college, to a normal life, and climbed into the car. They left Springfield behind. She doesn't even know if it would feel like home or not if they ever actually go back.
"Lis," Bart says from the doorway. "We're not saving you any unless you get your butt in here."
"I'm coming," Lisa says. She drops the cigarette and smashes it with her shoe. Once she was a little blonde girl in a cute red dress. Now her hair is stringy and dirty, her blouse still red but her jeans torn at the knee. Her Mary Janes were now surplus army boots. The better to kick down doors with. She looks up into the sky and wonders what their next job will be. She wonders if it will be the one they don't win.
She's not going to waste time worrying about it. She turns and goes back into the hotel room where her family is waiting.
Title: One Last Memory from the Sun
Author: geonncannon
Fandom: Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
Pairing: Alex/Olivia
Word Count: 518
Category: Missing scene, romance
Spoilers: Loss, Ghost
Disclaimer: Not mine a'tall. Can you imagine what 11 years of Benson would have been like if I had control?
Rating: R
Warnings: Sad, sad, sad.
Author's Notes: Written for a prompt at the Awesome Women Ficathon, asking for the last touch of sunset at the end of the world. Title is from "Beautiful Night" by Josh Ritter.
Summary: Alex watches the sun set one last time before she becomes someone else.
She wrapped the sweater around herself and walked out onto the porch. The house was an "undisclosed location," a secret cottage right on the edge of the country in the middle of nowhere. The way the ground fell away at the end of the lawn made it look as if the entire world had been torn away to leave only this small island for her. Time and the rest of the world stopped, waiting for her to rejoin it. Without her contacts in, the sharp lines were blurred just enough to make everything look like a painting. That definitely fit with the way she was feeling at the moment. She only wore a pair of borrowed boxer shorts under her sweater, and she clutched the two halves together as she padded barefoot to the railing.
For a life so orderly, the past few years had been unimaginable. She lost her name and her history, something she never thought possible. Something she never thought she would willingly allow to happen. Her glasses were gone, replaced by the contacts she swore she would never use. Her job was gone. The woman she loved more than she had ever loved anyone...
The woman who would have once responded to the name Alex turned and looked toward the front of the house. She could only see the back end of the car, but she knew both the chaperones were still there. Federal Marshals, assigned to babysit her for the duration of the trip. Fortunately they were quiet and easily ignored.
Nothing in her life felt real, but she knew that would change. She would settle into her new life. She would make new friends and create a new history. She would be Gretchen, and she would learn to live with that. As long as she was allowed one small stipulation to the terms of her agreement.
"Hey." The voice was rough from sleep. She turned to see Olivia Benson standing against the doorway, the sheet wrapped around her torso to leave her shoulders bare. Her hair was mussed, and her eyes half-closed. She licked her lips and tore her eyes away from Alex's bare legs. "I woke up and you weren't there. We only get two days every nine weeks. I'm not wasting a minute."
Olivia held her hand out, and Alex moved to take it. "I'll just be a minute."
"Okay," Olivia said. "Don't keep me waiting."
Alex looked out over the water. The sun was just beginning to disappear into the water, spreading reds and pinks and purples out over the water. She inhaled the last breeze of the day and let it out when the last bit of sun vanished and the night was complete.
Right now, in the purgatory between who she was and who she had to become, everything came together. Her past and her present and her future didn't matter. This was the only place where she didn't have to pretend. She was going to take advantage of that. She dropped the sweater, turned her back on the sea, and followed Olivia back into the house.