FIC: Acceptance by Maidenjedi(XF, 1/1)
TITLE: Acceptance
AUTHOR: Maidenjedi
RATING: PG
PAIRING: None
SPOILERS: General series spoilers.
SUMMARY: She would not disappoint him, not Ahab. Pre-series.
NOTES: Weirdly enough, this came to me before we did our rewatch of 'Beyond the Sea,' but that episode definitely informs this.
She ran to the mailbox when she saw the truck pull up. It hadn’t come the day before, or the day before that, and this was the week, this was when she would hear whether or not she got into medical school.
The envelope was thinner than she expected. Maryland had sent her a huge package, one she’d had to go to the post office to collect after getting a little note in the mailbox. And that had been the first school, the one she’d wanted to get into, and she’d expected it.
Not that she expected an acceptance this time. No, she knew it could be a rejection; it could be a “no, but thank you for trying.” She’d struggled on her entrance exams, felt mixed up. In fact, she knew, she was positive, that the admissions board could tell she’d winged her way through the essays on biochemical theories, even if they had awarded her high marks.
Dana pictured the face of her exam proctor, as she’d turned in her last booklet just seconds shy of the time limit, and how his eyes had narrowed. It didn’t mean anything at the time, and now it meant….
Her heart sank.
She took it back inside, barely watching where she was going. She tried not to imagine her father’s face when he asked at dinner and she would respond, “No, Dad. I’ll have to try again.”
She was born to be a doctor, he always said, as she aced her biology classes in high school and showed compassion for the smallest creatures. Her mother tried to temper his enthusiasm for the idea. Any kid might have cried when her brother stepped on a frog and also happen to get straight As in school, it didn’t make them surgeons. But even Maggie would smile a little more with every report card, every honor in school. She was salutatorian of her class at Maryland, earned special honors for her undergraduate work in physics. It was inevitable she would achieve great things, really, or so her father’s joyful look had told her. It was expected.
Her feet hit the pavement with echoing thuds to her ears. She’d never brought home a disappointing grade, never handed over a letter rejecting her from her goals and her dreams (his goals, his dreams).
Bill had gotten into the Academy. Nothing else really counted where he was concerned. Melissa had never feared the disappointed sigh and shake of his head. For every A that Dana brought home, Melissa had a C, or a week’s suspension for Dana’s name on the Honor Roll. She excelled at everything their father saw as “nice and all, but.” But. Where’s the glory in art, he might have said, had he thought in such lofty terms as glory.
She stopped in the yard, and stared up at the house. What would she do now? No medical school, and a degree in a scientific field that absolutely demanded graduate work to be worth a damn. Graduate school it would be, then. Surely they’d let her stay, she could get a job for living expenses. She could go back to Maryland, right?
Dana felt her heart speed up, at the thought of doing something unexpected. Something she chose, not something she was “born to do.” What might it be like, to chase physics, become an engineer? Was that not a worthy goal, too? She tipped her head to the sky and thought about flight, about speed. She could even apply to schools back west; maybe leave the damp air of Maryland for the dry summers of California.
A different kind of doctor, that’s all, Dad.
She kept walking.
Physics challenged her, made her come alive. She loved the detective work, the hows and whys. The equations to solve problems that seemed otherwise unfathomable. She could do it. Of course she could.
She stood at the door, the letter now crumpled in her hand.
She had to at least know what it was that they said. He might ask. She tore the letter open, no thought of saving it or the postmark for her scrapbook. Who would want to remember such a day?
Her eyes widened as she read.
“Dear Miss Scully.”
“Happy to have you join the class of.”
“Enrollment information will be forthcoming.”
“We are excited to have you join.”
So she turned the knob, and could no longer hear her feet hit the ground.
She was going to be a medical doctor.
-
“So, Starbuck,” he says, grinning, as he cuts into the meatloaf her mother expertly made that afternoon. “I hear you had a letter.”
There it was, under her plate, ready to hand over. She did so happily.
Charlie sat across from her and grinned. She tried not to preen, though there was only pride at this table, and no condescension. Bill and Melissa were far away tonight.
Her mother smiled calmly as her father read the letter aloud.
“So, Starbuck,” he said again. He winked at her. “Next stop, the cure for cancer.”
Her heart was full of his faith in her, his confidence. She would not disappoint him, not Ahab.
-
End
AUTHOR: Maidenjedi
RATING: PG
PAIRING: None
SPOILERS: General series spoilers.
SUMMARY: She would not disappoint him, not Ahab. Pre-series.
NOTES: Weirdly enough, this came to me before we did our rewatch of 'Beyond the Sea,' but that episode definitely informs this.
She ran to the mailbox when she saw the truck pull up. It hadn’t come the day before, or the day before that, and this was the week, this was when she would hear whether or not she got into medical school.
The envelope was thinner than she expected. Maryland had sent her a huge package, one she’d had to go to the post office to collect after getting a little note in the mailbox. And that had been the first school, the one she’d wanted to get into, and she’d expected it.
Not that she expected an acceptance this time. No, she knew it could be a rejection; it could be a “no, but thank you for trying.” She’d struggled on her entrance exams, felt mixed up. In fact, she knew, she was positive, that the admissions board could tell she’d winged her way through the essays on biochemical theories, even if they had awarded her high marks.
Dana pictured the face of her exam proctor, as she’d turned in her last booklet just seconds shy of the time limit, and how his eyes had narrowed. It didn’t mean anything at the time, and now it meant….
Her heart sank.
She took it back inside, barely watching where she was going. She tried not to imagine her father’s face when he asked at dinner and she would respond, “No, Dad. I’ll have to try again.”
She was born to be a doctor, he always said, as she aced her biology classes in high school and showed compassion for the smallest creatures. Her mother tried to temper his enthusiasm for the idea. Any kid might have cried when her brother stepped on a frog and also happen to get straight As in school, it didn’t make them surgeons. But even Maggie would smile a little more with every report card, every honor in school. She was salutatorian of her class at Maryland, earned special honors for her undergraduate work in physics. It was inevitable she would achieve great things, really, or so her father’s joyful look had told her. It was expected.
Her feet hit the pavement with echoing thuds to her ears. She’d never brought home a disappointing grade, never handed over a letter rejecting her from her goals and her dreams (his goals, his dreams).
Bill had gotten into the Academy. Nothing else really counted where he was concerned. Melissa had never feared the disappointed sigh and shake of his head. For every A that Dana brought home, Melissa had a C, or a week’s suspension for Dana’s name on the Honor Roll. She excelled at everything their father saw as “nice and all, but.” But. Where’s the glory in art, he might have said, had he thought in such lofty terms as glory.
She stopped in the yard, and stared up at the house. What would she do now? No medical school, and a degree in a scientific field that absolutely demanded graduate work to be worth a damn. Graduate school it would be, then. Surely they’d let her stay, she could get a job for living expenses. She could go back to Maryland, right?
Dana felt her heart speed up, at the thought of doing something unexpected. Something she chose, not something she was “born to do.” What might it be like, to chase physics, become an engineer? Was that not a worthy goal, too? She tipped her head to the sky and thought about flight, about speed. She could even apply to schools back west; maybe leave the damp air of Maryland for the dry summers of California.
A different kind of doctor, that’s all, Dad.
She kept walking.
Physics challenged her, made her come alive. She loved the detective work, the hows and whys. The equations to solve problems that seemed otherwise unfathomable. She could do it. Of course she could.
She stood at the door, the letter now crumpled in her hand.
She had to at least know what it was that they said. He might ask. She tore the letter open, no thought of saving it or the postmark for her scrapbook. Who would want to remember such a day?
Her eyes widened as she read.
“Dear Miss Scully.”
“Happy to have you join the class of.”
“Enrollment information will be forthcoming.”
“We are excited to have you join.”
So she turned the knob, and could no longer hear her feet hit the ground.
She was going to be a medical doctor.
-
“So, Starbuck,” he says, grinning, as he cuts into the meatloaf her mother expertly made that afternoon. “I hear you had a letter.”
There it was, under her plate, ready to hand over. She did so happily.
Charlie sat across from her and grinned. She tried not to preen, though there was only pride at this table, and no condescension. Bill and Melissa were far away tonight.
Her mother smiled calmly as her father read the letter aloud.
“So, Starbuck,” he said again. He winked at her. “Next stop, the cure for cancer.”
Her heart was full of his faith in her, his confidence. She would not disappoint him, not Ahab.
-
End