seldear | fic: SG-1 - Second Best

FANDOM: Stargate SG-1
TITLE: Second Best
AUTHOR: Sel
SUMMARY: It's all about what you'll accept and what you won't.
CATEGORY: Angst, Romance, Drabble.
RATING: PG-13
SPOILERS: 'Threads'
NOTES: Four drabbles, each 100 words, a series. Spoilers for 'Threads' and I'm going to kill the muse for doing this to me. See entry on being afraid of TV shows.
FEEDBACK: It's always a pleasure to get feedback.

Second Best

Bitter

He kisses her before she leaves. She can taste his reticence on his lips, bitter, like soured wine.

Keeping them secret had everything and nothing to do with professionalism. Everything, because she's not the one he struggles to remain professional with. Nothing, because he can work with her at arm's length without so much as batting an eyelash.

The woman he really wants - the first woman in his life - is unavailable in more ways than one. Kerry's no fool. She can see what's before her eyes, and she won't live with being second best.

So she speaks, because he won't.

--

Terrible

She is left sitting outside the house where they won't live, where the kitchen won't be painted yellow, where the dog won't run in the backyard.

Marrying him was more about what she hoped to find, not what she wanted. He wanted to believe she could love him, but he never thought she truly did. In the end, hope is a precious and terrible thing.

The man she really loves - the first man in her life - has her loyalty, whole and unfettered. Pete honestly thought he could live with that.

But something in him knew he'd always be second best.

--

Always

He knew the truth of it long before he took up with Kerry.

The truth is that he isn't whole. It wasn't fair to pretend otherwise. Still, he hoped. She'd found someone else, why couldn't he?

Jack only wants her to be happy. His relationship with someone else was a fragment of that. No grudges held, no hard feelings, I won't pine for what I can't have, see?

Second best is all he has to offer any woman after her.

In the end, it doesn't matter whose ring she wears. He'll be there for her when she needs him.

Always.

--

Promise

Sam can't marry him. She thought she could, but the truth is that she can't.

Second best was all Pete would have of her. And she won't live with that on her conscience.

Especially not when another man pledged her his vow in one word.

It wasn't romantic or flowery. Her heart didn't leap in her chest with his words. He was just there; his presence offered as shelter and strength as her father died - all the comfort she needed.

And his hand in hers was like a brand, marking her cheek with the warmth of his promise.

Always.

- fin -