DRABBLE CHALLENGE-BATCH 2
Prompts by, igotnothing0, leigh57, and cybertoothtiger
The meme: The Challenger provides the fandom, two characters and the first line. I do the rest, to the tune of at least 100 words.
Thanks as always to cybertoothtiger for the beta.
WORST DAY EVER
Title: Worst Day Ever
Challenge by:igotnothing0
Fandom: 24
Rating: PG
Characters: Jack/Renee
Spoilers: To the end of Day 7
Disclaimer: 24 belonged to Fox.
A/N: Ah, I’ll think I’ll hang out in my favorite part of the canon: Sick!Jack chasing down Evil!Zombie!Tony in between seizures. Those were good times.
Worst. Day. Ever.
Or one of then. Most probably in the top ten of his worst days ever.
Jack’s awakening brain came to that conclusion before he was even partially conscious. The day he remembered seemed like a disjointed dream. There was the Senate hearing. There was an explosion in the White House, an event that had claimed Bill’s life, as Bill stole the heroic death Jack had wanted for himself.
He remembered that Tony was now alive, but the Tony who had been his friend was gone.
Jack also remembered a woman. An FBI agent. She had red hair. She was important. Very important.
She was here now. Standing by his bed.
He struggled for her name. He looked at her, trying to associate her lovely face to a dozen events he only remembered in fragments.
Her name came to him.
“Agent Walker?” Jack asked, his voice a dry croak.
“Yes. I’m Renee. We’ve worked together.” Her voice somehow sounded distant, tight, as if she was forcing the words out through a too-narrow throat while trying not to cry.
Jack noticed that he was in a hospital room. How had that happened?
“What am I doing here? Was I shot?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“You were exposed to a bioweapon.”
Bioweapon? Shit. No wonder he felt like hell. This day he half-remembered must have been one of his worst days ever.
He had dozens of questions. He knew Renee had most of the answers. He just needed to ask.
That wasn’t going to happen.
“I’m…sorry…” Renee said. “I thought I could do this.”
“Do what?”
“Be here. Talk to you. I…can’t. I’m sorry.”
Renee left the room, taking the remnants of her composure with her.
Jack would have gone after her. But he seemed to be composed of a collection of weak and spastic muscles. He barely had the strength to turn his head and watch her leave.
She’s just upset about something. She’ll come back, Jack concluded as he drifted back to sleep.
The next time he awoke Renee was still gone.
Jack knew she wasn’t coming back.
THE END.
ESCAPE
Title: Escape
Challenge by: leigh57
Fandom: 24
Rating: PG
Characters: Karen/Jack
Disclaimer: 24 was/is the property of Fox
Spoilers: Oh back third of Day 8, how I hate you.
A/N: Did I mention that I hate the back third of Day 8? Because I do.
She held the screen door open, scanning the dark driveway as she muttered, “You're not even supposed to be in the country, Jack.”
“I’ll leave as soon as I can.” The connection over the cell phone was breaking up.
“Why are you even calling me, Jack? Every law-enforcement agency in the country is after you. My god Jack, please tell me what I’ve heard about the Novanovich and his staff is wrong.”
“I’m afraid not. Look, I know just by talking to me you are aiding a fugitive”
“Just tell me what you need.”
“I have to get out of the country. Now.”
Karen could tell that something was wrong with Jack. His voice held more than a hint of barely controlled pain.
“Okay. I won’t call the authorities until I hear your version of events.” Karen knew from bitter experience that Jack being pursued by the authorities didn’t mean he was guilty.
“Fine.”
“We need to be a careful. I’ll get the papers ready. And I’ll bring you some cash. Can you make it to the Vermont border?”
“I…I think so. Yeah.”
“Okay. We’ll meet at the usual place.”
“Thank you."
After closing the phone Karen made another survey of the yard of her Vermont home. Everybody important knew about her connection to Jack. They would come looking for her. Homeland Security wouldn’t call first. They would just arrive with their arrest warrants.
Karen knew that protocol because that’s what she would have done.
She needed to see Jack privately. To give him the chance to explain.
Then she would help him get out of the country.
Or turn him in.
Jack knew that.
It only took a few minutes for Karen to grab the forged papers, the cash, her unlisted cell phone, and her laptop. As she got in her car and drove down the narrow country road, she could see the headlights of the black SUVs headed in the direction of her house.
THE END.
CRAZY
Title: Crazy
Challenge by: cybertoothtiger
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica
Rating: PG
Characters: Adama/Roslin
Spoilers: Let’s say Season 4
Disclaimer: BSG is the property of Syfy, which used to be call the Sci-Fi Channel. Way to alienate your fanbase, Syfy executives.
A/N: This fandom intimidates me to no end. The show has been off the air for well over a year, and there is still some superb fanfic being produced. (This isn’t one of them.)
This was the part where everything he did drove her crazy.
Bill Adama had invited Laura Roslin to stay in his quarters. Laura knew how significant this was. Privacy was a luxury aboard the Galactica. It was a luxury throughout the whole godsdamn fleet. It was something Bill had given up willingly, just so that they could spend time together.
As much time as she had left.
It drove her crazy when Bill stared at her as she got dressed in the morning. (Morning being defined as part of a day. A day was part of a year, a year the time it took Caprica to rotate it’s star. They kept this system of timekeeping. Even though the planet that formed it was irradiated and abandoned.)
Laura missed her hair. Every morning she had to choose between the wig, a headscarf or her perfectly smooth head. She usually went for option number one. It was one of the last nice wigs left in the fleet, and therefore the entire universe.
“Just decide already,” Bill would mutter under his breath.
Sometimes Laura felt so sick she could barely get out of the too-small bed they shared. Even though it was her job to be President of the Colonies. The colonies that no longer existed.
“Move your fat lazy ass,” Bill would whisper.
The first time he said that Laura had giggled. Now the joke was wearing very thin.
Bill’s morning ritual consisted of shaving with a rusty razor and no shaving cream, just thrice-recycled water. She had no hair and Bill had too much.
That drove her crazy.
Laura sometimes took a shuttle back to Colonial One to spend the night there. That ship now felt claustrophobic. It still felt soiled and dirty from the year it had spent parked in the mud on New Caprica. Colonial One had been Gaius Balter’s home, his harem.
Yuck.
So she returned to the Galactica, to Bill Adama’s quarters, to Bill’s bed. To Bill.
Bill threw things. He had meltdowns. Sometimes he punched holes in the wall. He railed against the gods he never prayed to.
Bill Adama was a drama queen.
That drove her crazy.
But she stayed in Bill’s quarters anyway.
Everything he did drove her crazy. But it was a better kind of crazy than the insanity of dying alone.
THE END.
The meme: The Challenger provides the fandom, two characters and the first line. I do the rest, to the tune of at least 100 words.
Thanks as always to cybertoothtiger for the beta.
WORST DAY EVER
Title: Worst Day Ever
Challenge by:igotnothing0
Fandom: 24
Rating: PG
Characters: Jack/Renee
Spoilers: To the end of Day 7
Disclaimer: 24 belonged to Fox.
A/N: Ah, I’ll think I’ll hang out in my favorite part of the canon: Sick!Jack chasing down Evil!Zombie!Tony in between seizures. Those were good times.
Worst. Day. Ever.
Or one of then. Most probably in the top ten of his worst days ever.
Jack’s awakening brain came to that conclusion before he was even partially conscious. The day he remembered seemed like a disjointed dream. There was the Senate hearing. There was an explosion in the White House, an event that had claimed Bill’s life, as Bill stole the heroic death Jack had wanted for himself.
He remembered that Tony was now alive, but the Tony who had been his friend was gone.
Jack also remembered a woman. An FBI agent. She had red hair. She was important. Very important.
She was here now. Standing by his bed.
He struggled for her name. He looked at her, trying to associate her lovely face to a dozen events he only remembered in fragments.
Her name came to him.
“Agent Walker?” Jack asked, his voice a dry croak.
“Yes. I’m Renee. We’ve worked together.” Her voice somehow sounded distant, tight, as if she was forcing the words out through a too-narrow throat while trying not to cry.
Jack noticed that he was in a hospital room. How had that happened?
“What am I doing here? Was I shot?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“You were exposed to a bioweapon.”
Bioweapon? Shit. No wonder he felt like hell. This day he half-remembered must have been one of his worst days ever.
He had dozens of questions. He knew Renee had most of the answers. He just needed to ask.
That wasn’t going to happen.
“I’m…sorry…” Renee said. “I thought I could do this.”
“Do what?”
“Be here. Talk to you. I…can’t. I’m sorry.”
Renee left the room, taking the remnants of her composure with her.
Jack would have gone after her. But he seemed to be composed of a collection of weak and spastic muscles. He barely had the strength to turn his head and watch her leave.
She’s just upset about something. She’ll come back, Jack concluded as he drifted back to sleep.
The next time he awoke Renee was still gone.
Jack knew she wasn’t coming back.
THE END.
ESCAPE
Title: Escape
Challenge by: leigh57
Fandom: 24
Rating: PG
Characters: Karen/Jack
Disclaimer: 24 was/is the property of Fox
Spoilers: Oh back third of Day 8, how I hate you.
A/N: Did I mention that I hate the back third of Day 8? Because I do.
She held the screen door open, scanning the dark driveway as she muttered, “You're not even supposed to be in the country, Jack.”
“I’ll leave as soon as I can.” The connection over the cell phone was breaking up.
“Why are you even calling me, Jack? Every law-enforcement agency in the country is after you. My god Jack, please tell me what I’ve heard about the Novanovich and his staff is wrong.”
“I’m afraid not. Look, I know just by talking to me you are aiding a fugitive”
“Just tell me what you need.”
“I have to get out of the country. Now.”
Karen could tell that something was wrong with Jack. His voice held more than a hint of barely controlled pain.
“Okay. I won’t call the authorities until I hear your version of events.” Karen knew from bitter experience that Jack being pursued by the authorities didn’t mean he was guilty.
“Fine.”
“We need to be a careful. I’ll get the papers ready. And I’ll bring you some cash. Can you make it to the Vermont border?”
“I…I think so. Yeah.”
“Okay. We’ll meet at the usual place.”
“Thank you."
After closing the phone Karen made another survey of the yard of her Vermont home. Everybody important knew about her connection to Jack. They would come looking for her. Homeland Security wouldn’t call first. They would just arrive with their arrest warrants.
Karen knew that protocol because that’s what she would have done.
She needed to see Jack privately. To give him the chance to explain.
Then she would help him get out of the country.
Or turn him in.
Jack knew that.
It only took a few minutes for Karen to grab the forged papers, the cash, her unlisted cell phone, and her laptop. As she got in her car and drove down the narrow country road, she could see the headlights of the black SUVs headed in the direction of her house.
THE END.
CRAZY
Title: Crazy
Challenge by: cybertoothtiger
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica
Rating: PG
Characters: Adama/Roslin
Spoilers: Let’s say Season 4
Disclaimer: BSG is the property of Syfy, which used to be call the Sci-Fi Channel. Way to alienate your fanbase, Syfy executives.
A/N: This fandom intimidates me to no end. The show has been off the air for well over a year, and there is still some superb fanfic being produced. (This isn’t one of them.)
This was the part where everything he did drove her crazy.
Bill Adama had invited Laura Roslin to stay in his quarters. Laura knew how significant this was. Privacy was a luxury aboard the Galactica. It was a luxury throughout the whole godsdamn fleet. It was something Bill had given up willingly, just so that they could spend time together.
As much time as she had left.
It drove her crazy when Bill stared at her as she got dressed in the morning. (Morning being defined as part of a day. A day was part of a year, a year the time it took Caprica to rotate it’s star. They kept this system of timekeeping. Even though the planet that formed it was irradiated and abandoned.)
Laura missed her hair. Every morning she had to choose between the wig, a headscarf or her perfectly smooth head. She usually went for option number one. It was one of the last nice wigs left in the fleet, and therefore the entire universe.
“Just decide already,” Bill would mutter under his breath.
Sometimes Laura felt so sick she could barely get out of the too-small bed they shared. Even though it was her job to be President of the Colonies. The colonies that no longer existed.
“Move your fat lazy ass,” Bill would whisper.
The first time he said that Laura had giggled. Now the joke was wearing very thin.
Bill’s morning ritual consisted of shaving with a rusty razor and no shaving cream, just thrice-recycled water. She had no hair and Bill had too much.
That drove her crazy.
Laura sometimes took a shuttle back to Colonial One to spend the night there. That ship now felt claustrophobic. It still felt soiled and dirty from the year it had spent parked in the mud on New Caprica. Colonial One had been Gaius Balter’s home, his harem.
Yuck.
So she returned to the Galactica, to Bill Adama’s quarters, to Bill’s bed. To Bill.
Bill threw things. He had meltdowns. Sometimes he punched holes in the wall. He railed against the gods he never prayed to.
Bill Adama was a drama queen.
That drove her crazy.
But she stayed in Bill’s quarters anyway.
Everything he did drove her crazy. But it was a better kind of crazy than the insanity of dying alone.
THE END.