Those The Brokes: (3)
Another Cam 1st P story. Cam/Sam/Vala friendship, spoiles for the Quest part two.
simple measures for complicated people
I watch her watching the screen go through a diagnostic for the tenth time. It's filtering through gate addresses, again. She's looking for something I think she's not going to accept isn't there.
I'm not used to this. I'm used to complex, I'm used to shades of grey colouring every action I'm ordered to take or ordered not to take. I have enough skeletons in my closet to remake the Thriller video if that would cheer her up a bit, but I think that was zombies. I'm not used to friendships the way they have them, though. They, we, whatever. I realised on that planet, grabbing her by the straps of her vest and making her smell the coffee, that I count myself as one of them now. I guess I've helped save the world.
I'm still not used to what they don't say and learning when to keep my mouth shut's been a long time coming, so I think I get why she looks a little kept at a distance sometimes. More than that, Jackson hit the nail on the head when he said she had nothing like patience, never mind none, although I'll give her credit for persistence in the face of towering adversity and glares-over-glasses the way only Jackson can. The thing that makes her stand out among the rest of the team is that she's so desperate to find him, and soon, that she's barely staying within her skin and never in one place for more than a blink. I don't think Sam or Teal'c are any less desperate; they're all too used to waiting. Doesn't make it any easier on them - just makes it easier for them to keep coming back in the morning. Neither of us is used to that, and I can wait for the day we are.
She's slipped into some routines without so much as a hint of the joint showing; others she's stumbled into, steps unsteady like a calf that knocks over a barrel because it wants to be in the field. Not that I'll ever tell her she reminds me of a farm animal, even a 'cute' little one. See? Learning when to keep my mouth shut. I bet she wouldn't mind if I said 'kitten', though. Need to bear that in mind the next time I give her an excuse to glare at me until my blood could chill beers.
There's one thing she does the same way they do by habit. She and Jackson have that whole unspoken friendship thing, that whole 'too much history to get rid of you, can't be bothered training a new you' thing. Oh, they like each other well enough, even when they can't explain why and feeling the need to cross Rugrats with Jerry Springer and put on a stage show every now and again. Most of the bite's gone out of it lately. Something to do with most of the bite being knocked out of Vala for a little while there. It's not turned her soft - doubt much of anything, except maybe a kitten or a shopping voucher of truly scary proportions - could do that. I guess it's because we all know what's underneath it now, we all know it's a show and we let her have it. It's just that all the distance they've crammed into the couple of years they've known each other makes it that bit more complicated. SG-1, team motto: that bit more complicated. Should get it printed beneath the patches and yeah, General O'Neill didn't mention that one either.
"Hey," I say, sitting the coffee down next to the plate and tugging her sleeve to jerk her out of whatever staring match she's winning against the monitor.
"I just want to run this one more time," she automatically defends.
I raise an eyebrow and point to the plate. "You're a woman - you can do more than one thing at once."
She looks at the soup. "Tomato?"
"Carrot and corriander."
She grins and takes the plate a tiny bit too quickly, sharp reflexes only just avoiding spilling it. "Thanks."
I shrug. "Don't stay up too late."
I go to Sam's lab, dropping off her cup of coffee and curfew warning. She raises an eyebrow. "Vala still at it?"
I nod with a bit of an eye-roll.
"She eaten something yet?" Sam asks, concerned.
"I took her a plate of soup."
Sam nods, then looks at her coffee, then back at me.
"I made sure you had something at dinner," I answer just a little smugly.
Now she's rolling her eyes, before dropping her head and smiling.
"Thanks, Cam."
"For what?"
She shrugs. "Taking care of us."
I shake my head and run a hand through my hair before leaving.
For once I'm glad I'm not enirely one of them, or that the myth that they're something else beyond and above us all is empty. Or even that somehow me and Vala signing up's changed what it is to be one of them. I can still have simple friendships with complicated people.