Just a Little Pocket Change, by Thothmes (PG)
Show: SG-1
Rec Category: Jack O'Neill
Characters: Jack O'Neill, Teal'c
Categories: gen, time travel, angst, character study, Jack and Teal'c friendship
Warnings: none
Author on LJ: thothmes
Author's Website: fic tag
Link: Just a Little Pocket Change
Why This Must Be Read: This is Jack, in the year 1969, struggling with what he can't do. Powerfully and ouchingly good.
Somewhere in Minnesota, his sixteen year old self was sleeping. It wouldn't be long, Jack knew, before he would drag himself, reluctantly, out of bed to run his paper route. Then he would grab some breakfast and head out in time for his job at the grocery. Idiot work at minimum wage, but opportunities in small towns were limited, and if he wanted the money it would take to fix up his uncle's old Hog he had to earn it. So young. So unaware of the monsters hiding in the dark. So sure he knew where life was taking him. So wrong.
So many mistakes. So many challenges. So many adventures. Would a ten cent postcard, and a five cent stamp change it all? Would his younger self listen? Would that young idiot, so cocksure, so secure, remember when it counted? Would it change the world? And if it did, who would pay the cost?
Jack would give anything, all he had, all he was, to save Charlie. The universe could ask any price he could pay, and he would pay it gladly. But he could not ask another to pay for his most mortal sin.
Rec Category: Jack O'Neill
Characters: Jack O'Neill, Teal'c
Categories: gen, time travel, angst, character study, Jack and Teal'c friendship
Warnings: none
Author on LJ: thothmes
Author's Website: fic tag
Link: Just a Little Pocket Change
Why This Must Be Read: This is Jack, in the year 1969, struggling with what he can't do. Powerfully and ouchingly good.
Somewhere in Minnesota, his sixteen year old self was sleeping. It wouldn't be long, Jack knew, before he would drag himself, reluctantly, out of bed to run his paper route. Then he would grab some breakfast and head out in time for his job at the grocery. Idiot work at minimum wage, but opportunities in small towns were limited, and if he wanted the money it would take to fix up his uncle's old Hog he had to earn it. So young. So unaware of the monsters hiding in the dark. So sure he knew where life was taking him. So wrong.
So many mistakes. So many challenges. So many adventures. Would a ten cent postcard, and a five cent stamp change it all? Would his younger self listen? Would that young idiot, so cocksure, so secure, remember when it counted? Would it change the world? And if it did, who would pay the cost?
Jack would give anything, all he had, all he was, to save Charlie. The universe could ask any price he could pay, and he would pay it gladly. But he could not ask another to pay for his most mortal sin.