Cooking / Dreaming to Remember / Bittersweet
A selection of mini-fics, from prompts in PriWriMo daily threads:
Prompt: Connor/Lester; "Cooking"
Prompted by: deinonychus_1
Characters: Connor/Lester
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Words: 310
Disclaimer: Not mine, as nice as it would be
Spoilers: End of season 3
Lester tossed the long, finger-width stick to the ground in frustration. He had watched Connor use the bow-drill every time they had needed a fire for the past few days, and it hadn't looked complicated when he did it.
Connor laughed.
"It's okay, you know. I was completely rubbish at all the survival stuff when Abby and I first got stranded in the cretaceous. This time 'round I just have some experience. You'll get the hang of it soon."
Lester glared. He hadn't realised he had an audience. "I'm glad my incompetence amuses you."
"Oh, don't be like that. You've got loads of skills, they wouldn't have made you 'Sir James' if you were actually incompetent."
He raised an eyebrow. "And the next time we accidentally get trapped in a geological period where we have to flee from ravenous bureaucrats, I'm sure those skills will come as a great comfort to both of us."
"You're right," Connor smirked, "you'll be great once we get back home."
Lester did not look placated.
After a few minutes, and much to Lester's chagrin, Connor had once again successfully started a fire, with the spoils from Connor's snares slowly blackening in the flame. Lester stared pensievely at the flickering light, while Connor alternated between watching Lester and watching their dinner cooking.
"You know, it took us a while, me and Abs, but we got back home in the end. And you and I will get home too. We just need to keep going until that happens."
Lester showed no signs of responding for several seconds, long enough for Connor to give up on an answer and turn to the skewered rodent-like thing resting atop the fire. Lester picked up the drill piece from Connor's hand made fire-starter and held it out towards Connor.
"Since we have the time then, perhaps you would teach me?"
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Prompt: Becker; "Dreaming to Remember"
Prompted by: morrigans_eve
Characters: Becker, Lester
Rating: G
Warnings: Angsty Becker
Words: 215
Disclaimer: Not mine, as nice as it would be
Spoilers: Set between seasons 3 and 4
His nightmares didn't play out like they did in the movies. He never woke up screaming or sitting bolt upright in bed, looking around wildly for the monsters which haunted his sleep. Mostly he would just flick his eyes open, body locked and tense while he forced himself to breathe normally until his heart slowed.
He almost never went back to sleep afterwards.
These weren't like childen's nightmares. They weren't filled with irrational and unlikely monsters, the kind which could be dismissed as nonsense. These nightmares had a very real sense to them, because they were memories. Memories played out in perfect sensory detail every night between two and four a.m.
"Obviously finding therapists with a sufficiently high clearance level would be a hassle," Lester mentioned after everyone else had left the morning briefing, "but I expect Lorraine could find someone appropriate, if you thought it might see an improvement in productivity."
Becker had politely and respectfully disagreed with Lester's proposal.
"In that case, perhaps you could speak with someone on the medical staff about procuring a mild sedative. I don't want this to become a problem, Captain."
Becker had politely and respectfully disagreed with that too. Because Becker knew full well that he didn't deserve a dreamless sleep.
It was his responsibility to remember.
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Prompt: Stephen; "Bittersweet"
Prompted by: morrigans_eve
Characters: Stephen, Abby, Connor
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Words: 225
Disclaimer: Not mine, as nice as it would be
Spoilers: Major events up to mid-season 3
They hadn't expected it. They hadn't even considered the possibility, aside from a few hazy nights long since past, filled at the time with shared grief, alcohol and wishful thinking.
Given their time-twisted lives, that lack of consideration was probably an oversight.
Not normally one for gratuitous displays of affection, Abby had run at the stranger and thrown her arms around him. She was joined by Connor a moment later, almost toppling all three of them to the ground with his enthusiasm. The soldiers exchanged confused looks, their various weapons still pointed at the tall stranger, who was much more human than the threats normally disgorged by the anomalies.
"You were dead." Abby's voice was muffled by Stephen's shirt. Stephen gave a laugh, weighed heavy with fatigue and relief.
"Not as much as you'd expect, given the circumstances."
"We thought, and they said, and you..." Connor said, trying to start three conversations at once and failing at all of them. Stephen wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pulling him close and patting a hand on his back reassuringly.
"Where's Cutter? There's some things he and I really need to talk about."
The two youngest team members both grew suddenly still in the shared embrace, breath catching in their throats.
"Abby? Connor?" Stephen asked, a terrible silence filling the air around them. "What's wrong? Where's Cutter?"
Prompt: Connor/Lester; "Cooking"
Prompted by: deinonychus_1
Characters: Connor/Lester
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Words: 310
Disclaimer: Not mine, as nice as it would be
Spoilers: End of season 3
Lester tossed the long, finger-width stick to the ground in frustration. He had watched Connor use the bow-drill every time they had needed a fire for the past few days, and it hadn't looked complicated when he did it.
Connor laughed.
"It's okay, you know. I was completely rubbish at all the survival stuff when Abby and I first got stranded in the cretaceous. This time 'round I just have some experience. You'll get the hang of it soon."
Lester glared. He hadn't realised he had an audience. "I'm glad my incompetence amuses you."
"Oh, don't be like that. You've got loads of skills, they wouldn't have made you 'Sir James' if you were actually incompetent."
He raised an eyebrow. "And the next time we accidentally get trapped in a geological period where we have to flee from ravenous bureaucrats, I'm sure those skills will come as a great comfort to both of us."
"You're right," Connor smirked, "you'll be great once we get back home."
Lester did not look placated.
After a few minutes, and much to Lester's chagrin, Connor had once again successfully started a fire, with the spoils from Connor's snares slowly blackening in the flame. Lester stared pensievely at the flickering light, while Connor alternated between watching Lester and watching their dinner cooking.
"You know, it took us a while, me and Abs, but we got back home in the end. And you and I will get home too. We just need to keep going until that happens."
Lester showed no signs of responding for several seconds, long enough for Connor to give up on an answer and turn to the skewered rodent-like thing resting atop the fire. Lester picked up the drill piece from Connor's hand made fire-starter and held it out towards Connor.
"Since we have the time then, perhaps you would teach me?"
------------------------------------------
Prompt: Becker; "Dreaming to Remember"
Prompted by: morrigans_eve
Characters: Becker, Lester
Rating: G
Warnings: Angsty Becker
Words: 215
Disclaimer: Not mine, as nice as it would be
Spoilers: Set between seasons 3 and 4
His nightmares didn't play out like they did in the movies. He never woke up screaming or sitting bolt upright in bed, looking around wildly for the monsters which haunted his sleep. Mostly he would just flick his eyes open, body locked and tense while he forced himself to breathe normally until his heart slowed.
He almost never went back to sleep afterwards.
These weren't like childen's nightmares. They weren't filled with irrational and unlikely monsters, the kind which could be dismissed as nonsense. These nightmares had a very real sense to them, because they were memories. Memories played out in perfect sensory detail every night between two and four a.m.
"Obviously finding therapists with a sufficiently high clearance level would be a hassle," Lester mentioned after everyone else had left the morning briefing, "but I expect Lorraine could find someone appropriate, if you thought it might see an improvement in productivity."
Becker had politely and respectfully disagreed with Lester's proposal.
"In that case, perhaps you could speak with someone on the medical staff about procuring a mild sedative. I don't want this to become a problem, Captain."
Becker had politely and respectfully disagreed with that too. Because Becker knew full well that he didn't deserve a dreamless sleep.
It was his responsibility to remember.
------------------------------------------
Prompt: Stephen; "Bittersweet"
Prompted by: morrigans_eve
Characters: Stephen, Abby, Connor
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Words: 225
Disclaimer: Not mine, as nice as it would be
Spoilers: Major events up to mid-season 3
They hadn't expected it. They hadn't even considered the possibility, aside from a few hazy nights long since past, filled at the time with shared grief, alcohol and wishful thinking.
Given their time-twisted lives, that lack of consideration was probably an oversight.
Not normally one for gratuitous displays of affection, Abby had run at the stranger and thrown her arms around him. She was joined by Connor a moment later, almost toppling all three of them to the ground with his enthusiasm. The soldiers exchanged confused looks, their various weapons still pointed at the tall stranger, who was much more human than the threats normally disgorged by the anomalies.
"You were dead." Abby's voice was muffled by Stephen's shirt. Stephen gave a laugh, weighed heavy with fatigue and relief.
"Not as much as you'd expect, given the circumstances."
"We thought, and they said, and you..." Connor said, trying to start three conversations at once and failing at all of them. Stephen wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pulling him close and patting a hand on his back reassuringly.
"Where's Cutter? There's some things he and I really need to talk about."
The two youngest team members both grew suddenly still in the shared embrace, breath catching in their throats.
"Abby? Connor?" Stephen asked, a terrible silence filling the air around them. "What's wrong? Where's Cutter?"