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

[strangeumbrella.livejournal.com]

Oh, Sam, so jealous! But so clearly trying not to look like it! ♥ I like him not reading the rest of the file, though, and the fact that Gene actually did the paperwork, and, basically, hooray for you watching this/writing fic! (Also, as I can't tell which line it is that you thought might not be true, I assume that whatever it is is right anyway.)

(Meanwhile, episode three cut out again last night with twenty minutes to go, because, I don't know, the internets hate me? I've tried again, and it's claiming it'll be done in forty minutes, but, er, don't get your hopes up too much. Apologies for my highly ineffective LoM delivery methods.)

[moogle62.livejournal.com]

(It pleases me immensely that I guessed something and it doesn't seem wrong! I am now going to completely not say which bit it was, in order to try and retain some dignity.)

Thank you for the comment!

If episode three arses you about, that is okay. Sometimes the technology is a bastard, and there is nothing to be done! (Still, you do not know just how happy I am that you made me watch this show. A LOT, is the answer.)

I'm going to assume it's okay for me to ask you a random question (because otherwise I'd start with 'can I ask you something' and then it would all go wonky because you wouldn't immediately be answering and oh good god, I think things through far too much and I should stop talking now) and say: do you read speculation on programmes you like or not? My answer to this would be 'not', because sometimes I get so spoiler-phobic that if I read speculation and it happens, I get all mopey.

....that was completely pointless, and I apologise!

[strangeumbrella.livejournal.com]

Episode three! Finally! Ahahahaha, I own you, internets.

Do I read speculation? I suppose so, although I don't actively seek it out, really. I'm not as spoiler-phobic as a lot of people, though obviously I wouldn't want important things given away--so, say, I'll read things released in the press or watch trailers for a programme that's coming up, but I wouldn't read something that said "big spoilers for LoM series two, gives away ending!", or anything. And as for speculation... I don't know, I think I would read it, because it seems so unlikely that anyone would guess everything completely right, and because I suppose I'm speculating in my head anyway.

That's a rubbish answer, isn't it? I hope it makes some sense.