vain_glorious

Word Count: 741

1. He pined.

After his father’s accident, he never joined the military. Cameron wanted to, mind you. Wanted to so badly that he still pretends his car is a fighter jet, every evening when he’s driving home during the rush hour commute. He just couldn’t do that to his mother.

So, instead, he went to college in North Carolina and majored in Accounting. He played intramural basketball and the only flying he ever did was on the way up to pretty God damn good white boy dunks.

Cameron got his MBA and moved back to Kansas with his new bride, Annie. He lives near the air force base, because the price was right. He likes that he can hear the jets taking off, but mostly the price was right. Annie hates the noise, says it wakes the baby up all night. Cameron takes his babies…all four of them in turn over the years…outside to see the jets taking off. They eventually stop fearing the sonic booms, stop noticing the way the house rattles, but they’re never as interested in what kind of plane is passing overhead the way their father is.

2. He died.

Cameron’s job was so, so much safer than the soldiers on the ground. There were no IED’s in the sky, no insurgents hiding in the clouds, nothing except wee little anti-aircraft guns that couldn’t aim that high.

That’s what he told his Momma, but she had a husband without any legs and she knew better.

She has the flag, now, and the Purple Heart he got post-mortem. Her son is somewhere in Iraq, his body scattered in the desert with the pieces of his plane.

The only thing that gives Mrs. Mitchell comfort is the belief – the absolute certainty – that Cameron’s soul is still flying.

3. He married.

Cameron thought the fraternization rule was there for a reason. He’d seen couples sneak around before, and it never, ever, ended well. He’d also seen unrequited love between officers and enlisted, officers and officers, and Don’t Ask and Don’t Tell. That sucked.

So he didn’t sneak, and he told.

He told Sam Carter that he loved her, and somehow tricked her into liking him back. Never got SG-1 the way he planned, the way O’Neill promised. Never even got to go through the Gate.
That’s Sam’s job, and he likes to think that the comparatively simple things he does in the sky over Colorado are, in their own way, equally important.

4. He raged.

Cameron decided God existed and was an asshole the day he woke up in Walter Reed Hospital without any legs.

Colonel O’Neill still visited, still promised him the stars, said they owed him the moon.

What that amounts to now, though, is an honorable discharge and lifelong VA care. He can’t walk, can’t fly, and can’t lift his arm to hurl the medals they gave him against the wall.

Quadriplegics can’t lead SG-1. Can’t do anything at the SGC except get physical therapy, and that’s just agonizing for more than the usual reasons.

On his darkest days, he wishes he hadn’t saved the planet.

5. He served.

Ba’al handpicked Cameron to be one of the main palace slaves. Didn’t snake him, though – too paranoid about a rival getting that close. Cameron’s big and strong, and apparently he matches the aesthetic Ba’al’s interior designer was going for with the general appearance of the palace servants.

Cam’s job is to keep the torches in the rear hall lit. Yeah, the place has electricity. Central air and heat – the Goa’uld think certain human inventions are useful. But the torches give the palace character, give the lowly human slaves something to do other than pick dumb fights with the Jaffa or think up rebellions. Keep the place in spotless, shiny condition; avoid a more unpleasant life in the dungeons.

Cam doesn’t know what goes on outside the palace, but he can guess it’s both less boring and less safe that keeping the decorative torches lit.

He wants out, though. He’s going to be smart about it, not going to get caught. Cameron lights the torches outside the dungeon every morning, right about the time Ba’al sends for a favorite prisoner. He hears the poor guy screaming, and it makes him check and re-check the little plan in his head. Cameron doesn’t want to end up like the prisoner named Jack.