(no subject)
Title: Perspective
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: gen, Sam centric
Verse: Steal The Sky
Fandoms: Leverage, Firefly, Supernatural
Summary: In the two years since his life went up in flames Sam has managed to get some perspective. Mostly it's come since he boarded Leverage.
Notes: For the headaches square on my H/c Bingo card.
I'm finally writing a little about Sam and *gasp* no Eliot whatsoever.
Takes place during but is completely unrelated to The Things They Carried arc. This establishes that Supernatural is sometime around the end of their second season.
Blue light. Blue Fire. He could see her face. Screaming his name. She was screaming for him. music. Always screaming for him. "Scary monsters" Jess. He could hear her breathing. Glittering Bird her fingers could taste the memories. Red Chemicals dropped onto his face. Blood. A thousand voices inside of his head. All saying nothing. A diamond on his finger. The smell of gasoline. Everything was gonna be okay. He opened his eyes. Figures in white coats were distorted by the liquid and glass around him. He could feel her so close. If he could just break the glass.
Fire.
Sam sat up sharply, his hands automatically going to the controls for the ship, checking for danger before he was even fully awake. The pounding in his skull causing it to take an extra few moments for his vision to clear and the world beyond the controls to soak in.
"Impressive." A voice, Sophie's voice, said behind him. "If I didn't know better I'd think you could fly this in your sleep."
The door opening or closing must have woken him up. His nightmares normally didn't end so soon unless his mind perceived a potential threat. He turned, blinking owlishly at her as she offered him a plate of food. "I heated up the dinner Eliot left for us before he went planet side. Thought you might be hungry."
Mutely he took the plate from her. Now he remembered. Leverage was on her maiden voyage and stopping for supplies. The three former agents and Dean had headed planetside while he, Sophie, and Nate stayed on board.
"Thanks." He muttered belatedly, remembering his manners over the screaming in his head.
"Don't mention it." She responded, the honey smooth curl of her voice blessedly not adding to the pain. He wondered if companions were trained to speak like that or...
Well she was probably the only one he'd ever get near so it didn't really matter all that much.
She left and he settled back into his chair, poking idly at the food, the pain in his head making him feel nauseous.
Headaches, badly cushioned chairs, protien in every color of the rainbow, staring out at the black waiting for his brother to come home...
The more months that passed the more those years out of this life started to feel as brief and unsubstantial and surreal as his dreams. Nightmares.
Six years ago he'd taken a scholarship from Blue Sun and went to a core world university. He trained as a pilot and studied aerodynamics and engineering and before long was pushed and pulled into harder and more challenging curriculum. Every course of study from mathmatics and physics to biology and sociology were opened and offered to him with his meager scholarship going from barely enough to cover tuition to a flat out grant generous enough for him to rent a nice apartment with his girlfriend from the program.
He was weeks away from graduating with honors, had a verse wide range of choices for his graduate studies open, and endless high paying job opportunities avalible that would pay well enough that should he and Jessica ever break up questions about companions would have been relevant. Just like questions about his own luxury shuttles and actual houses and vacation destinations would have suddenly mattered to him.
And the only price so far had been studying hard and ignoring the way every few months one of the kids in his scholarship program would drop out and disappear. It was easy enough to do. He was only ever close to one of the ones to do so and Brady came from a family on a rim world. It was possible he just had no way of contacting anyone easily and wanted a clean break.
But then the headaches had started and Jessica had gotten paranoid and then Dean had shown up, demanding his help with a job. He'd gotten home and...
He'd arrived in time to witness alliance troops led by men with blue gloves and black eyes dragging Jessica from their home, setting the place on fire.
It didn't feel like nearly two years since he'd watched his future go up in smoke while the woman he loved was dragged off to some hell hole.
It felt longer, or shorter, some impossible stretch of time spent running and hiding and fighting only to wind up sharing a ship with three people who'd escaped the alliance. A different program than the one that had taken Jess but...
The door behind him opened again and he turned, surprised to see Sophie coming in carrying two steaming mugs. She handed him one with a smile. "It'll help your headache."
"Uh, thanks." He gave her a greatful smile and she returned it with a smile of her own and sat down on the other chair, looking out toward the black. She didn't seem intent to say anything and he wasn't really in a condition to start a conversation so he turned back to look outwards and sipped the tea she'd given him. The warmth slid down his throat and settled in his chest, radiating outwards and the pounding slowly began to ease.
It wasn't quite the same as with his brother, the sharing of space and silence with years of familiarity and the inate sense that he was safe while Dean was next to him.
But once the tea was gone and his body settled enough he could finish the food he settled back into the chair and into the silence and somehow the black out there...
He'd spent his childhood locked into this life. He'd thought he'd escaped only to find his new life was just a trap waiting to be sprung and fallen back into his old life.
And yeah, maybe along with hope that someday he might find and rescue Jessica the three agents were giving him some perspective on exactly how trapped you could be.
But when he looked out to the black, sharing the space with a member of the crew, a faint hint of tea in the air telling him that despite his suspicions Sophie had an agenda there was a possibility he and Dean were no longer as alone out here as they'd once been and he knew in his bones no matter what all had led him here and the messes he had no idea how to deal with they were still flying.
And so he checked the clock and counted down the hours in his head until the others returned and they headed out again and the last of his headache dissipated under the knowledge that he, that they, were still flying.
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: gen, Sam centric
Verse: Steal The Sky
Fandoms: Leverage, Firefly, Supernatural
Summary: In the two years since his life went up in flames Sam has managed to get some perspective. Mostly it's come since he boarded Leverage.
Notes: For the headaches square on my H/c Bingo card.
I'm finally writing a little about Sam and *gasp* no Eliot whatsoever.
Takes place during but is completely unrelated to The Things They Carried arc. This establishes that Supernatural is sometime around the end of their second season.
Blue light. Blue Fire. He could see her face. Screaming his name. She was screaming for him. music. Always screaming for him. "Scary monsters" Jess. He could hear her breathing. Glittering Bird her fingers could taste the memories. Red Chemicals dropped onto his face. Blood. A thousand voices inside of his head. All saying nothing. A diamond on his finger. The smell of gasoline. Everything was gonna be okay. He opened his eyes. Figures in white coats were distorted by the liquid and glass around him. He could feel her so close. If he could just break the glass.
Fire.
Sam sat up sharply, his hands automatically going to the controls for the ship, checking for danger before he was even fully awake. The pounding in his skull causing it to take an extra few moments for his vision to clear and the world beyond the controls to soak in.
"Impressive." A voice, Sophie's voice, said behind him. "If I didn't know better I'd think you could fly this in your sleep."
The door opening or closing must have woken him up. His nightmares normally didn't end so soon unless his mind perceived a potential threat. He turned, blinking owlishly at her as she offered him a plate of food. "I heated up the dinner Eliot left for us before he went planet side. Thought you might be hungry."
Mutely he took the plate from her. Now he remembered. Leverage was on her maiden voyage and stopping for supplies. The three former agents and Dean had headed planetside while he, Sophie, and Nate stayed on board.
"Thanks." He muttered belatedly, remembering his manners over the screaming in his head.
"Don't mention it." She responded, the honey smooth curl of her voice blessedly not adding to the pain. He wondered if companions were trained to speak like that or...
Well she was probably the only one he'd ever get near so it didn't really matter all that much.
She left and he settled back into his chair, poking idly at the food, the pain in his head making him feel nauseous.
Headaches, badly cushioned chairs, protien in every color of the rainbow, staring out at the black waiting for his brother to come home...
The more months that passed the more those years out of this life started to feel as brief and unsubstantial and surreal as his dreams. Nightmares.
Six years ago he'd taken a scholarship from Blue Sun and went to a core world university. He trained as a pilot and studied aerodynamics and engineering and before long was pushed and pulled into harder and more challenging curriculum. Every course of study from mathmatics and physics to biology and sociology were opened and offered to him with his meager scholarship going from barely enough to cover tuition to a flat out grant generous enough for him to rent a nice apartment with his girlfriend from the program.
He was weeks away from graduating with honors, had a verse wide range of choices for his graduate studies open, and endless high paying job opportunities avalible that would pay well enough that should he and Jessica ever break up questions about companions would have been relevant. Just like questions about his own luxury shuttles and actual houses and vacation destinations would have suddenly mattered to him.
And the only price so far had been studying hard and ignoring the way every few months one of the kids in his scholarship program would drop out and disappear. It was easy enough to do. He was only ever close to one of the ones to do so and Brady came from a family on a rim world. It was possible he just had no way of contacting anyone easily and wanted a clean break.
But then the headaches had started and Jessica had gotten paranoid and then Dean had shown up, demanding his help with a job. He'd gotten home and...
He'd arrived in time to witness alliance troops led by men with blue gloves and black eyes dragging Jessica from their home, setting the place on fire.
It didn't feel like nearly two years since he'd watched his future go up in smoke while the woman he loved was dragged off to some hell hole.
It felt longer, or shorter, some impossible stretch of time spent running and hiding and fighting only to wind up sharing a ship with three people who'd escaped the alliance. A different program than the one that had taken Jess but...
The door behind him opened again and he turned, surprised to see Sophie coming in carrying two steaming mugs. She handed him one with a smile. "It'll help your headache."
"Uh, thanks." He gave her a greatful smile and she returned it with a smile of her own and sat down on the other chair, looking out toward the black. She didn't seem intent to say anything and he wasn't really in a condition to start a conversation so he turned back to look outwards and sipped the tea she'd given him. The warmth slid down his throat and settled in his chest, radiating outwards and the pounding slowly began to ease.
It wasn't quite the same as with his brother, the sharing of space and silence with years of familiarity and the inate sense that he was safe while Dean was next to him.
But once the tea was gone and his body settled enough he could finish the food he settled back into the chair and into the silence and somehow the black out there...
He'd spent his childhood locked into this life. He'd thought he'd escaped only to find his new life was just a trap waiting to be sprung and fallen back into his old life.
And yeah, maybe along with hope that someday he might find and rescue Jessica the three agents were giving him some perspective on exactly how trapped you could be.
But when he looked out to the black, sharing the space with a member of the crew, a faint hint of tea in the air telling him that despite his suspicions Sophie had an agenda there was a possibility he and Dean were no longer as alone out here as they'd once been and he knew in his bones no matter what all had led him here and the messes he had no idea how to deal with they were still flying.
And so he checked the clock and counted down the hours in his head until the others returned and they headed out again and the last of his headache dissipated under the knowledge that he, that they, were still flying.