Texture of Memory

Title: Texture of Memory
Author: Rowan Darkstar (rowandarkstar@gmail.com)
Fandom: Stargate: SG-1
Rating: Older Kids
Character: Sam Carter
Pairing: Sam/Daniel friendship
Spoilers: Through "New Order II"
Warnings: None
Prompt Number: List 1, Prompt 5 "Floor"
Disclaimer: Not mine, not gettin' paid.


"Texture of Memory"
by
Rowan Darkstar
Copyright (c) 2006



Sam Carter runs her hand over the smooth countertop in her laboratory, traces the lines of marble pattern with her fingernail. She can't recall the last time she tended to her own nails, isn't sure she owns any polish that hasn't thickened into sluggish paste.

The countertop turns from marble to the silver-grey lip of a sink and she snatches her hand away. She harbors an aversion to metals. The sensation crawls over her skin like mechanical spiders. She remembers enjoying the sleek shine of the fenders on her Indy, gravitating to the cool planes against her shoulder blades when she leaned against the security doors of the SGC. She can't fathom these things, now.

Daniel asks her to join him for a movie on Friday night. She says yes, goes to the theatre, pays for the tickets, then walks out of the multiplex half an hour into the film -- when the heroine gets strapped to a robotic cargo lifter and drowns in grey ice.

Daniel finds her at the car and is kind and patient and she thanks him with her hand in his--warm and soft and flesh-coloured--but she doesn't tell him why she's shaking.

He suggests iced cappuccinos and she accepts and tries to forget.

The cappuccinos taste sweet and tingly. She thinks she's done nothing but try to forget since she hit the floor (hit the ground) in a metal prison a million light years from everything warm.

She tells herself Daniel's fingers brushing the hair from her eyebrow feel nothing like Fifth's.

She slips on her leather gloves before she touches the keychain to open her door.


*****