Something Borrowed by Rachael Sabotini (Personal item challenge)
Challenge: Personal item challenge
Title: Something Borrowed
Author: Rachael Sabotini
Summary: It wasn't his personal item.
Gen, Sheppard, 270 words
Many thanks to z_rayne, who did an amazingly fast beta on this.
Something Borrowed
It wasn't his personal item.
John's personal item had been a sharp leather portfolio, the kind he'd used when he had pulled desk duty at the pentagon, before they shipped him to McMurdo. He'd been able to stuff a lot of flat things in it, including the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated and its accompanying free "great moments in football" DVD. The fact that it contained the best football game ever had been a good enough reason for including it all on its own.
He'd added a few other things: pictures that were important to him, mostly landscapes and planes rather than people; an agate he found on the beach when he was ten; his mother's gold cross.
He'd never thought to bring a poster. But Colonel Sumner had.
Sumner had brought art supplies with him, all wrapped up in a fancy black tube. In with the papers and ink had been a poster of Johnny Cash, the Man in Black in perfect condition; Sumner hadn't lived long enough to even unpack it, let alone put it up on his wall.
So John put it up for him, right over his bed. He had the man's job; it was only fair he take the poster too. As he slid his hands over it, smoothing it out and making sure there were no crinkles, his hand seemed to bunch into a fist of its own accord; John leaned his head down against it, not seeing anything, breathing hard. He stayed like that a moment, then pulled back and stepped off the bed, making sure it was straight.
Hell of a way to get a poster.
Title: Something Borrowed
Author: Rachael Sabotini
Summary: It wasn't his personal item.
Gen, Sheppard, 270 words
Many thanks to z_rayne, who did an amazingly fast beta on this.
Something Borrowed
It wasn't his personal item.
John's personal item had been a sharp leather portfolio, the kind he'd used when he had pulled desk duty at the pentagon, before they shipped him to McMurdo. He'd been able to stuff a lot of flat things in it, including the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated and its accompanying free "great moments in football" DVD. The fact that it contained the best football game ever had been a good enough reason for including it all on its own.
He'd added a few other things: pictures that were important to him, mostly landscapes and planes rather than people; an agate he found on the beach when he was ten; his mother's gold cross.
He'd never thought to bring a poster. But Colonel Sumner had.
Sumner had brought art supplies with him, all wrapped up in a fancy black tube. In with the papers and ink had been a poster of Johnny Cash, the Man in Black in perfect condition; Sumner hadn't lived long enough to even unpack it, let alone put it up on his wall.
So John put it up for him, right over his bed. He had the man's job; it was only fair he take the poster too. As he slid his hands over it, smoothing it out and making sure there were no crinkles, his hand seemed to bunch into a fist of its own accord; John leaned his head down against it, not seeing anything, breathing hard. He stayed like that a moment, then pulled back and stepped off the bed, making sure it was straight.
Hell of a way to get a poster.