if not surgery then...
[[Music inspired by: Bear McCreary's Violence & Variations]]
She was restless to the point where it was getting on her nerves and making her jittery as hell. When she woke, Lam packed herself a lunch, put on a swim suit, tossed on a cover-up, and went walking. She hadn’t worn sandals since she was about five, but they were simple and the box had finally stopped trying to dress her as a doctor twenty-four-seven, so she was going to use them. She had to admit, she looked nothing like she used to back at the SGC. Teal’c’s training had put a little more muscle on her, toned up the softer part of her anatomy, flattened her stomach, and...well. She hadn’t been out of shape before, but this was a new sort of in shape.
It made her feel more in control in a place that told her she wasn’t at all in control of anything. Lam wasn’t really in the mood to care where she was going, but eventually she found herself standing on a cliff overlooking a deep section of water. It reminded her of when she was more of a thrill seeker as a teen. Going off to cliff dive with about ten other students at Vilinus’ medical program had been the closest thing to flying she’d ever gotten. There was just you and the air right before gravity sucked you down. Then it was a race and the world spun as you pointed toes and hands and cut the water on entry.
Mexico, too, when she got that CDC appointment affiliated with the Stargate program in California. A bunch of her co-workers decided to go to Acapulco for a three day weekend and they kept teasing the holy hell out of her about how quiet and reserved she was. Determined to shut them up, she joined a few local cliff divers (who grinned and cheered her on) and the touristas who’d come to boggle, and dove without a shred of fear in her body. There was a freedom in it, a way for her to make a choice and release, abandoning her body to the thrill of the wind and the water. Her fellow scientists left her alone about her ‘reserved’ nature after that.
And Carolyn spent most of her time, not on the beach, but diving and exploring the caves with the boys who’d been cliff jumping with her. She couldn’t remember having that much fun in her entire life. It was almost as good as a trauma surgery, almost as good as beating a disease.
She worked her way down to the jump point, grinning as she clung to the rock with her hair whipping in the breeze. The outcropping was perfect, the weathered stone was wedge shaped and jutted out far enough over the rocks that there’d be no problem. It was high enough, too, that the wind would whistle. High enough to fall and get rid of the nervous energy that had been building since she’d arrived. Lam untied her sandals and shrugged out of her cover up, letting the straps fall away and the fabric puddle at her feet, her eyes fixed and measuring the distances, calculating how she’d angle her body.
She jumped in three quick strides, arching into it, and disappeared.
There was wind and the smell of salt, the feeling of sheer freedom, that almost-weightlessness. And then gravity caught her and tore her down.
She was restless to the point where it was getting on her nerves and making her jittery as hell. When she woke, Lam packed herself a lunch, put on a swim suit, tossed on a cover-up, and went walking. She hadn’t worn sandals since she was about five, but they were simple and the box had finally stopped trying to dress her as a doctor twenty-four-seven, so she was going to use them. She had to admit, she looked nothing like she used to back at the SGC. Teal’c’s training had put a little more muscle on her, toned up the softer part of her anatomy, flattened her stomach, and...well. She hadn’t been out of shape before, but this was a new sort of in shape.
It made her feel more in control in a place that told her she wasn’t at all in control of anything. Lam wasn’t really in the mood to care where she was going, but eventually she found herself standing on a cliff overlooking a deep section of water. It reminded her of when she was more of a thrill seeker as a teen. Going off to cliff dive with about ten other students at Vilinus’ medical program had been the closest thing to flying she’d ever gotten. There was just you and the air right before gravity sucked you down. Then it was a race and the world spun as you pointed toes and hands and cut the water on entry.
Mexico, too, when she got that CDC appointment affiliated with the Stargate program in California. A bunch of her co-workers decided to go to Acapulco for a three day weekend and they kept teasing the holy hell out of her about how quiet and reserved she was. Determined to shut them up, she joined a few local cliff divers (who grinned and cheered her on) and the touristas who’d come to boggle, and dove without a shred of fear in her body. There was a freedom in it, a way for her to make a choice and release, abandoning her body to the thrill of the wind and the water. Her fellow scientists left her alone about her ‘reserved’ nature after that.
And Carolyn spent most of her time, not on the beach, but diving and exploring the caves with the boys who’d been cliff jumping with her. She couldn’t remember having that much fun in her entire life. It was almost as good as a trauma surgery, almost as good as beating a disease.
She worked her way down to the jump point, grinning as she clung to the rock with her hair whipping in the breeze. The outcropping was perfect, the weathered stone was wedge shaped and jutted out far enough over the rocks that there’d be no problem. It was high enough, too, that the wind would whistle. High enough to fall and get rid of the nervous energy that had been building since she’d arrived. Lam untied her sandals and shrugged out of her cover up, letting the straps fall away and the fabric puddle at her feet, her eyes fixed and measuring the distances, calculating how she’d angle her body.
She jumped in three quick strides, arching into it, and disappeared.
There was wind and the smell of salt, the feeling of sheer freedom, that almost-weightlessness. And then gravity caught her and tore her down.