Pray this can't be the way

[sgmitchell.livejournal.com]

He appreciated having a room to himself, even if it was clearly designed for a second party as well. For now, it was his alone. He appreciated that.

The room was about all he really appreciated since the attack of the crew-zombies. The idea was far more cool on paper than it was actually sitting on the roof of the Vatican, mowing down potential crewmates. Still, it was better than mowing down familiar ones. He appreciated that, too.

He appreciated the cute, glowy new look for Stacy, too.

He didn't appreciate the idea of his universe destroyed by something they'd never even gotten the chance to see--let alone fight. He didn't like the idea of being one of the last survivors of his own universe. Whether or not Ronon and Jackson counted as his own universe or another. He appreciated the cute voice. He didn't believe it. He wouldn't believe it, even if she showed him the destruction. None of this was necessarily real. He functioned within it as he needed to, but he wasn't about to fall for something SG-1 already fell for before. The zombies didn't exactly make the place more credible, either.

He frowned, studying the food goop in front of him.

His home-his family. Everyone and every thing he cared about was not gone. He wouldn't leave it to chance and hope that some of the people he cared about might have been alive--he wouldn't accept that their survival meant the deaths of an entire universe were acceptable losses. He wasn't about to accept a 'might' for saving all of them, if they did someone else's dirty work for them. That wasn't how he did things. He wouldn't be manipulated, and...he refused to believe that SG-1 failed. That Stargate Command, and all of their allies failed to protect not just their galaxy, but their universe.

He refused to believe he'd failed to do the one thing that mattered. He couldn't. Not now...not ever.

Comments

[sgmitchell.livejournal.com]

Like he hadn't heard that one before. Cam quirked an amused smile. "Here?"

[squintybonelady.livejournal.com]

It's sad, yet still true. She doesn't even own a TV. "What about here? Do you mean, do I watch TV here? The answer would be no."

[sgmitchell.livejournal.com]

He suspected scientists had to sacrifice their pop-culture knowledge to make room for all of the technical stuff they stored in their heads instead. Although, Sam did a decent job of maintaining both.

He shrugged. "You have better things to do?"

[squintybonelady.livejournal.com]

"Here?" She frowned. "Actually I've been reading up on different planets' take on forensic anthropology, so I've been busy with that. Besides, they wouldn't let me have one of the zombie bodies to study. I found that highly unsatisfactory."

[sgmitchell.livejournal.com]

"Weren't they all..." He waggled his fingers in an appropriately fiery mimic.

[squintybonelady.livejournal.com]

"Are you forgetting how to speak?" Tempe asked quite seriously. Without a word, she moved around the table to his side and reached out and began to run her fingers over the side of his head and then over the top.

"Hmmm doesn't feel as if there's any fractures. Did you happen to hit your head at any time in the last day or so?"

[sgmitchell.livejournal.com]

Cam was not unfamiliar with impulsive touching. Vala thrived on impulsive, generally inappropriate touching. He suspected it was somewhere between a deliberate attempt to get a reaction, and an uncontrollable impulse on her part.

That said, she generally didn't go around checking his skull for fractures (although he supposed she probably had once or twice, but he'd been unconscious at the time.). Obviously that was a doctorly impulse.

"...Roasted?" He blinked up at the woman in askance. "I'm pretty sure I don't have a concussion."

[squintybonelady.livejournal.com]

"Well that really didn't answer my question," Tempe pointed out, still concentrating as her fingers still gently feeling over his skull.

"Regardless, your skull has a nice shape," Tempe nodded. Yes Cam, that is a weird sort of Tempe compliment.

[sgmitchell.livejournal.com]

Have a blank stare.

Alone, the impromptu scalp inspection was manageable. Likewise, the strange compliment would have been par for the course of the conversation. Combined...it was just a really bizarre experience.

"...I try not to dent it." That's the best he could do just then.

[squintybonelady.livejournal.com]

"Well I should hope not," Tempe said before stopping her examination. "People forget how fragile a skull can be," she stated seriously. Really Cam, what are you expecting here? She is a bone lady.

[sgmitchell.livejournal.com]

Notice how he didn't mention how often he got smashed into walls despite this effort.

"So Doctor Lam often reminds me." He offered a slim smile, and immediately regretted reminding himself of home.

[squintybonelady.livejournal.com]

"Well you should be sure to take this Doctor Lam's advice," Tempe said with another nod of her head. She looked over at her discarded soup and sighed. "Well you can finish off the soup if you'd like," she offered, motioning toward it.

[sgmitchell.livejournal.com]

Doctor Lam would approve, but then he doubted she really believed him all of the time, when he would insist he didn't try to get himself concussions. Injuries were not the fun parts of the missions--they just happened to be a common one.

He frowned at the soup a moment. "You sure you don't want it? It was pretty...chowder-esque."

[bone1ady.livejournal.com]

"Perhaps you don't remember but you ruined the soup for me," Tempe pointed out with an audible sigh. "And since you ruined it, you should eat it. It'd be a shame to waste any sort of real food on the ship."

[sgmitchell.livejournal.com]

"Well...yeah...but you could always give it a second chance?" Of course, if she did that, he technically no longer needed to make her pie to make up for it. One could take that as they would.

[squintybonelady.livejournal.com]

"I could, but I don't want it anymore," Tempe explained. Reaching across the table, she grabbed the rim of the bowl and tugged it over to Cam. "I insist."

[sgmitchell.livejournal.com]

He blinked, and tilted his head, quirking a smile. "You gonna stand here and make sure I do?" It could have been construed as anything.

[squintybonelady.livejournal.com]

"If I have to, yes," Tempe said confidently. And she will! No budging unti lthe soup is all gone.

[sgmitchell.livejournal.com]

And that drew a grin. "Yeah? How so?" And that was definitely just teasing. Scientists could be frightening enough that he knew not to challenge them. Muscle was far from the most powerful might in the universe.

[squintybonelady.livejournal.com]

"Well I could try to force feed you, but that would be awfully juvenile wouldn't it?" Tempe thought for a moment. "Or I could just follow you around all day with it." She shrugged, not caring if the second option was just as bad as the first one.

[sgmitchell.livejournal.com]

Eyebrows, they are arching. "Really? What if I went and watched...stuff in the media room all day?" He wasn't sure an organic screen counted as a television. Frankly, he still wasn't all that comfortable with it. "Or spent the day in a Sensorium induced beach-haze?"

[squintybonelady.livejournal.com]

"Well then I suppose I'd have to suffer through both of them," Tempe said with a nod. Though she was looking at him oddly again. "And by stuff what exactly do you mean?"

[sgmitchell.livejournal.com]

He crossed his arms, and sat back in the chair again. "Zombie movies?"

[squintybonelady.livejournal.com]

"Is that suppose to scare me?" She asked, her eyebrow arching a little bit.

[sgmitchell.livejournal.com]

"It might. Could cut into your studying." He rolled his shoulders. "Y'know, since it'd be Night of the Living Dead. Maybe Dawn of the Dead."

No, Cam didn't think it was too soon. At least not for the target audience. In fact, he'd been tempted to watch them already--he didn't want his most recent memories of zombies to be so...

Zombie.