Fic: Life On Mars, Gene/Woolf, PG

[mooging]

I did not mean to write this. Also, I'm not sure whether I like it or not. I wrote it for rionaleonhart, who requested it in a roundabout way, and so I found myself writing this instead of revising for a test on the Aeneid.

Not that I minded! Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine, I make no money from any of this and, um, don't sue me, please.

Title: Paper Cuts and Ponderings
Rating: PG
Fandom: Life On Mars
Pairing: Gene/Woolf (if you read it like that) and I suppose you could read Sam/Gene in there.
Word Count: 503
Summary: An aftermath, and Sam tries to work through it. Spoilers for 2x02

There are things Sam still doesn't understand about 1973. The wallpaper, for one, is atrocious. The test card girl doesn't seem to unnerve anyone else, even as she stares out at them, grinning and frozen and ominously cheerful. Brown and orange seem to be well-liked colour schemes.

He gets used to these things. He is used to Gene, now, used to his harsh, brash, bold, loud, violent, macho, coarse abrupt ways but he can still throw Sam off with the littlest things.

Not that beating in a suspect's hand with the telephone receiver is a little thing.

But when Superintendent Woolf arrives, things are different. This is the first time Sam's seen Gene genuinely trying to impress someone rather than distress them. The bluster is still there, the demanding barks still issued but Sam has to wonder: why this man, why him?

And after the end, after the guns and shots and revelations, Sam watches Gene through the slats of the office blinds, watches from half-in-half-out of the precinct door. Gene is phoning for an ambulance and maybe his head is a little too down, maybe his shoulders are a little too slumped, or maybe Sam is seeing things. It wouldn't be the first time.

They pick themselves up, everyone does, and no-one talks about it. Sam can't help keeping half an eye on Gene and he's still acting like he's got something to prove, only this vitriol isn't being fired at Sam. Sam doesn't quite understand; doesn't quite like it.

A few days later, a couple of weeks, and Sam is rummaging in Gene's filing cabinet for that file Gene keeps not letting him read, casting furtive glances over his shoulder and buzzing from too much coffee.

He sits on the edge of the desk, clutches the file in his hands and waits as should-I-shouldn't-I battle out the duel. He runs his thumb over the corners. The paper is rough, rough...smooth?

Sam is taken aback and his thumb is bleeding, caught on the slant of the paper. He puts the cut to his mouth and fumbles the file, clumsy, half a second behind. The file falls to the floor.

When Sam picks it up, the front has fallen open and the picture of Malcolm Allison is staring at him, just in front of the paperwork. Gene did the paperwork.

Gene kept the photograph too, saved the man that could get away with anything and kept it in the file of the man he foiled.

Sam doesn't read any further. He puts everything back, shuts the file cabinet, goes home.

The next day, Sam is driven to some new crime in some new chase, and Gene is taking the corners too fast and cursing at everyone in their way. Sam still can't quite understand why.

He'll get used to it though.

He's got used to everything else.

*

There's a line in there that might not actually be true...um, I excuse this by saying I haven't actually seen the first series. If nothing jars when you read it though, I am okay! There is no problem!

Comments

[rionaleonhart]

Hee, I love Sam not understanding why the test card girl has to be so horrendously creepy. I've always wondered that. And then there's his sort-of-obsessing over Gene's relationship with Woolf and wondering why him? and the possible implications of jealousy, which I adore.

And Sam is just watching Gene and Gene is so devastated and oh my heart. (I can really see that image, too.)

Sam is rummaging in Gene's filing cabinet for that file Gene keeps not letting him read

That is wonderful. And I love way ideas about the relationship between Hunt and Woolf are always sort of hovering at the corners of his mind, but he doesn't seem to be letting himself think about them.

[moogle62.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you, um, didn't hate this!

Little Sam is clearly ridiculously jealous, hence the watching of Gene and the slight file stalking and the blunt denial of anything Gene/Woolf related.

Also, I've seen up to episode 2 of the first series and dear God, the test card girl freaked the hell out of me. *cowers in a corner*

Whyyy is there twooo whole weeeeks before more Life On Mars?! Whyyyy?!