Nothing Against Vanilla
by A.j.

***

It's a beautiful day.

You forget those things happen when you spend most of your time buried seven 
floors underground.  Wonderful and amazing as old missile-silos can be, 
there's something to be said about a good shot of vitamin D once and awhile.

Plus, all those days, nights, and weekends sitting hunched over my worktable 
are starting to catch up with my back.  Not to mention eight or so years 
getting tossed around like a ragdoll in a typhoon.  No, that has *nothing* to 
do with why I'm going to the acupuncturist.  Really.

So.  The sun's shining - yay! - the birds are singing, and the air's warm, 
but not too.  And I'm sitting on the back porch of my former commanding 
officer's house watching my kinda-niece have a nervous breakdown.  Ahhh, 
wedding rehearsals.  Can't think of a better way to spend a Thursday 
afternoon.

Whoops.  Cassie's screaming at the caterer.  Bad sign.

I think this is maybe one of the reasons I never got married.  All the 
aggravation of having the perfect ceremony, and then dealing with this other 
person invading your space and becoming such a huge part of your life.  Such 
a pain.

Right.  Don't think about who's in the kitchen and you won't be lying to 
yourself.

I'm so screwed up.

No, I don't know why.  Yes, I'm aware of it.  No, I don't know how to fix it.

*sigh*

Oh, wow.  I didn’t know the caterer could turn that color.

Man, these last few weeks have been insane.  When Cassie invited everyone to 
dinner a few months ago, we all kind of knew what was coming.  She and Parker 
had been dating for almost six months, and despite repeated bodily threats by 
a rather hefty chunk of the employed male population of Cheyenne Mountain, 
the boy had stuck.

Made her happy even.

Okay, so the guys hadn’t taken the news the best.  They did okay in front of 
the happy couple (although, those two were so wrapped up in each other, the 
Cubs could have won the world’s series while wearing high heels and garters, 
and they wouldn’t have noticed), but once Cass and Parker had driven off, boy 
had I heard about it.

Teal’c even *growled*.

God, Janet would have laughed her ass off.

Yeah, Cassie’s a little young.  But she’s done with college, has a steady 
job, and pays her taxes.  Personally, I just think the guys were having a 
panic attack about getting old.  Lord knows I went home and inhaled enough 
chocolate to drop a small Pakistani village, but the sheer amount of 
posturing I had to put up with after Cassie’s little announcement pretty much 
constituted my engagement gift, a wedding present, and the shower gift for 
Cassie and Parker’s first born.


"Did *you* think it'd actually happen?"  I assume from the wavey motion he 
makes with his hand that he's talking about Cassandra and Parker.  Other 
thoughts/possibilities would be Bad.

"Yeah.  They're happy."

Sit.  Stare.

This is becoming too much of a habit with us. Over the last five minutes, 
anyway.





"I loved you, you know."

Past tense. Again.

"Yeah, I did."

Wow. What the hell am I supposed to say now? Ten years of build up and fffft. 
Just a quiet admission on a sunny porch. Wind blowing, dust motes floating 
and-holy shit!

Oh. My. God.

I forgot how good he smells.

Wow.

Nice tonsils there, Colonel.  No, I mean it.

Mmmmmm... Hold it, was he sneaking frosting?  Yeees.  Glad Cassie decided 
against the vanilla.



"Wow.  We're really stupid, aren't we?"

And the understatement of the year goes to...

"Colonel?"

"Jack."

"What?"

"Jack.  It's my name."

Did he just poke me on the nose?  I think he just poked me on the nose.

"Jack."

"Yes.  Don't wear it out."

"Jack, what are we supposed to do about this?"

STUPID voice of reason!  Shut up!  Shut up!

Can someone kick their own ass?  Because I really want to right now.

"Wanna hear my theory?"

Oh, he's smiling.  Like THAT.

"You have a theory?"

"Mmmhmm.  Goes like this."