MandC: Hug
Title: Hug
Author: thedeepeekay
Fandom: MandC
Pairing, Characters: Jack, Stephen
Rating: G
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: Not mine, never has been, never will be.
Length: 401 words
Status: One-shot
Summary: The sea offers everything a sailor could possibly want.
Author's Note: Once again, for tootsiemuppet, who asked for a hug. As always, not beta'd.
Now with Gilly!art! Thank you, Gilly!
Crossposted to: With almost two months delay crossposted to perfect_duet, here.
Written: March 2009
Hug
Everything a man could want was found at sea. Well, the occasional shore leave was needed to tend to certain... urges, but shipboard life was so much more peaceful for not having any women in it. Everything one could wish for was found between the blue of the sky and the blue of the sea. Perfect happiness.
Land had a lot to offer, but most of it was not wanted by those living at sea, and surely not needed. Proof of that was the atmosphere of excitement, expectation, of possibilities, found on a ship setting out for a cruise. Every man on the ship laughing, singing, looking forward to what was to come.
Well, aside from the freshly pressed men. He'd seen it often enough, how the light faded in their eyes the farther from their homes they were carried, how deep lines creased their faces, how the hunches in their shoulders became more and more pronounced, until they seemed to carry the weight of the world on them. Then, he'd put it down to the unfamiliarity of this life, to them not having found their sea legs yet, to being parted from all they knew, to leaving their old life behind. But they adapted. Learned the trade, found a new family on board, settled into this new life. Realized that everything they needed to be happy was to be found on the ship.
Which is why, when the doctor stood at the window of the great cabin, looking back at the speck of green long vanished from sight, yearning for insignificant-seeming, incomprehensible joys, the captain did not know what to offer him. He knew he found no fulfillment in the service, no peace in the serenity of empty skies, the camaraderie of the ship. He despised the service, longed for the bustle of land, and was, on and offshore, a most solitary creature. The doctor was as different from the captain as night was to day, and were the latter found naught but joy, the first only heaved sigh after sigh.
So he consoled him the only way he had.
He closed his arms around the lone, lost figure, engulfing him in a comforting, reassuring hug.
The doctor leaned back against the solid warmth, and the next sigh to leave his mouth didn't sound quite so desolate as its predecessors.
Maybe the sea had something to offer him, after all.
Author: thedeepeekay
Fandom: MandC
Pairing, Characters: Jack, Stephen
Rating: G
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: Not mine, never has been, never will be.
Length: 401 words
Status: One-shot
Summary: The sea offers everything a sailor could possibly want.
Author's Note: Once again, for tootsiemuppet, who asked for a hug. As always, not beta'd.
Now with Gilly!art! Thank you, Gilly!
Crossposted to: With almost two months delay crossposted to perfect_duet, here.
Written: March 2009
Hug
Everything a man could want was found at sea. Well, the occasional shore leave was needed to tend to certain... urges, but shipboard life was so much more peaceful for not having any women in it. Everything one could wish for was found between the blue of the sky and the blue of the sea. Perfect happiness.
Land had a lot to offer, but most of it was not wanted by those living at sea, and surely not needed. Proof of that was the atmosphere of excitement, expectation, of possibilities, found on a ship setting out for a cruise. Every man on the ship laughing, singing, looking forward to what was to come.
Well, aside from the freshly pressed men. He'd seen it often enough, how the light faded in their eyes the farther from their homes they were carried, how deep lines creased their faces, how the hunches in their shoulders became more and more pronounced, until they seemed to carry the weight of the world on them. Then, he'd put it down to the unfamiliarity of this life, to them not having found their sea legs yet, to being parted from all they knew, to leaving their old life behind. But they adapted. Learned the trade, found a new family on board, settled into this new life. Realized that everything they needed to be happy was to be found on the ship.
Which is why, when the doctor stood at the window of the great cabin, looking back at the speck of green long vanished from sight, yearning for insignificant-seeming, incomprehensible joys, the captain did not know what to offer him. He knew he found no fulfillment in the service, no peace in the serenity of empty skies, the camaraderie of the ship. He despised the service, longed for the bustle of land, and was, on and offshore, a most solitary creature. The doctor was as different from the captain as night was to day, and were the latter found naught but joy, the first only heaved sigh after sigh.
So he consoled him the only way he had.
He closed his arms around the lone, lost figure, engulfing him in a comforting, reassuring hug.
The doctor leaned back against the solid warmth, and the next sigh to leave his mouth didn't sound quite so desolate as its predecessors.
Maybe the sea had something to offer him, after all.