[SG1/Heroes] Your Long Lost Pal (2/?)
Nov. 19th, 2013 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dontwantmebackTitle: Your Long Lost Pal (2/?)
Fandom: Stargate: SG-1/Heroes
Pairing: None
Rating: PG
Warnings: Bodyguard AU
Length: 2142 words
Part One
Classes ended for Claire, summer vacation began, and Cameron followed her home to California. Despite her insistences that he didn’t need to, he said over and over that it was his job to follow her wherever she needed to go for as long as necessary, until she was safe. So he went along, finally met her father in person, met her mother and her brother, charmed them with every bit of country charm he could find in him, and sat by quietly as they did the sort of things family did. He followed her around town, a smaller town than before and he was able to give her a lot more space and still be able to keep an eye on her. Something Claire seemed to appreciate at first but it took only about a week before she sighed, stopped in her tracks right in the middle of town, and announced that it was weird having him so far back. Even if far was only about half a block. He should just walk with her, she said, and Cameron just laughed and caught up.
After one month, Claire declared Costa Verde to be boring. She was used to living in the city now, not the suburbs surrounded by nothing but houses that looked the same and strip malls with a dozen copies of the same shops, and nothing to do without driving an hour. And Cameron was pretty inclined to agree when she said she wanted to get out of there. As it turned out, Costa Verde had a Marine Corps Air Station not too far away, and taking the drive to see anything worth seeing, meant passing by Marines come off base, and they were exactly the kind of people Cameron didn’t want to have to see. Military pilots, adrenaline junkies who lived for their planes and the people who supported them. They were people he had known, one way or another. They were people like he had been.
And seeing them, even out of uniform, knowing who they were by the way they walked, the way they carried themselves, made Cameron miss his old life so much it was like he’d only just left it.
He was only too happy to pack up and leave again when Claire decided she was going back to school early. She was going to move out of the dorm, she announced, and dragged Cameron around town looking at apartments. She asked his advice on everything, saying she had no experience and he, being the older adult, should teach her. And she ignored his advice on everything. She didn’t need much of a kitchen if she didn’t cook, he told her, and she protested that she liked to bake when she had time. He told her she was a student, she was hardly there and didn’t need much space. She argued that if she didn’t have much space, he would have nowhere to sleep, and refused to look at any place that didn’t have two bedrooms.
Cameron objected, strenuously, that just because he was her bodyguard didn’t mean he was going to live with her. Protecting her didn’t mean he had to be at her side twenty-four-seven.
“Yes it does,” Claire insisted, and would hear no more of it. She found a place with a big kitchen and two tiny bedrooms. And after consulting his boss, who said that he was to use his judgement, and Mr. Bennet, who agreed that his daughter was probably safer with someone there constantly, Cameron moved in, too.
It was incredibly awkward for the first week. Cameron was certainly no stranger to living with people, he came from a big family and a crowded home, and had spend his entire adult life sharing quarters with people he’d never even met, but he’d never lived with someone like Claire. A young woman with whom he had the sort of relationship they did. And while he was familiar with her habits in the months he had been working for her, there was a difference between seeing her habits and letting her see his. There was a difference between being able to say goodbye after she was locked in her room at night and saying goodnight behind the same door.
And with Claire not yet in classes again meant most of her friends were at their own homes for the summer, and Cameron’s charge didn’t have much to do with her time. And so there was a lot of the same as they’d done in California, wandering around town while Claire window shopped, and a lot of sitting at home while she flipped through TV channels or danced in the kitchen while she baked despite the heat. A few nights they went out and every time they did Claire ended up calling him over to intimidate some drunk twenty-something away from her. A few were stupid enough to think they could take him on, but Cameron flashed his gun and they backed off. The only time that didn't work, a purposefully dark look and even tone saying the boy wouldn't be the first he'd shot had the kid running for his life pretty quickly.
"You're a trouble magnet, you know that?" he accused Claire as they walked home that same night. After a particularly hot early August day, he hadn't been in the mood for dealing with stupid kids, would have happily stayed home if going with her wasn't his job.
"I know," she answered, and at least sounded a little bit sorry about that. "Have you really killed guys his age?"
"Probably younger, too," Cameron answered. Claire didn't ask more, must've heard something he didn't know was there in his voice. She said goodnight as soon as they were home, touched his arm with a smile and disappeared into her room.
Cameron woke with a start in the small hours of the morning, the sun hadn't even begun to rise yet, sensing movement in his room. He started to reach for his gun on the side table, stopping short when it was Claire's voice whispering his name and the presence was there beside the bed.
"What's up?" he wondered, turning toward her and sitting up.
"I couldn't sleep," was all she said before unceremoniously crawling onto the bed beside him.
"What do you want me to do about that?"
"Can I stay?" She seemed sure he was going to say yes, already crawling under the thin blanket.
"I don't think that's a good idea." She was just a kid, young and impressionable, and he didn't want to give her any ideas. More than that, she was his charge, his job. He’d heard stories of bodyguards who had gotten too close to their clients, had gotten involved in things they shouldn’t be involved in and ended up out of a job. Out of any chance at a job in the field again. And Cameron wasn’t about to sacrifice his job because this girl couldn’t sleep.
Claire wasn’t having any of it, though. She grumbled quietly and pulled as hard as she could to make him lie down again. She just wanted some company, felt safer beside him than on her own, she insisted, and curled up against his side. And Cameron was left without any real good option. He could tell her to leave, but that was sure to hurt her feelings and he definitely didn't want to do that. He could get up and leave himself, to the same undesirable end. Or he could accept it and let her sleep with him, probably give her some ideas that he'd never be able to take back. And while he didn't want that any more than he wanted to hurt her, he had to admit that he was fond of Claire. More than a bodyguard should be, but he was convinced it was just the feeling of wanting to protect someone close to him. Cameron had cousins he was positive he would feel the same about if the situation called for it.
It was still a bad idea to let Claire stay, and he said as much before reluctantly agreeing. For her safety and nothing more, he was sure to make clear. Claire huffed and called him an idiot, went to sleep. And Cameron, never good at sleeping with someone else there, too used to being alone, spent most of what little was left of the night staring at the ceiling.
The night after registering for classes, Claire slipped into his room again, a little earlier and a lot quieter, and Cameron had actually gotten his gun into his hand before realising it was her. He admonished her for sneaking up on him like that, said she couldn't keep coming into his room like she was, that it was inappropriate and a really bad idea, and she teased that it wasn't her problem if he couldn't handle a cute girl in his bed. Cameron had no answer to that.
They lay there in silence for an hour, before Claire piped up from around Cameron’s ribs, asking him why it was that guys always seemed to just want to get into her pants, never to get to know her first. Cameron just sighed, lied and said he didn’t know when he really thought it was because she was meeting guys at all the wrong places.
“Why can’t they just like me for me?” she lamented, and Cameron gave up resisting letting his arm fold around her, half-hugged her and patted her back.
“You’re young. You’ll find someone who will,” he promised.
“You think so?”
“Smart, pretty girl like you? I’m sure of it. Problem’s just that college boys, they’re not thinking about any of that.”
That seemed to satisfy her; she sat up and kissed his cheek before settling back down and going right to sleep. And Cameron just sighed and reminded himself that letting Claire do this was a terrible idea.
She never made any other sort of motion toward him otherwise, though. She chatted to him casually when they were out and alone, complained about school and her friends and the amount of assignments she had due all at once. Normal college girl stuff. The kind of stuff that didn’t make Cameron feel like he was breaking all the rules and not putting a stop to it because he cared about the girl. He’d been shadowing Claire for just more than a year; it would be unreasonable to say he hadn’t become attached. They were at least friends, he thought, maybe creeping up on something like family.
Sometime around midterms, Claire went from the girl who slipped into his bed at night for whatever comfort it was she needed, to a girl who tried to slip her bodyguard at every available opportunity. She would slip out back doors after class while Cameron waited by the front, or disappear into a bathroom and out a window. The kind of slips that Cameron couldn’t really prevent but he could rectify fairly quickly. She was never hard to find after he realised she was gone, but he took it as a sign that she wanted her space, started standing further back, just keeping her in sight without being right there beside her all the time. In all the time he’d been with her there’d been no sign that she was actually in danger, had been given no reason to think that a few extra feet or not keeping his eyes on her at all times would make a difference.
The first week of December, Claire kissed him in the kitchen. Stood up on her toes and pulled him by his shirt, and it was all so sudden that Cameron didn’t know what the right way to react was. He pushed her away gently.
“This can’t happen,” he told her, and Claire just apologised and went to her bedroom, locked the door and didn’t come out for the rest of the night.
They didn’t talk about it, but the next night she came to his room and curled up beside him again. She whispered another apology, the first thing she’d said to him since the first one, and sounded so painfully sincere that Cameron could only sigh and kissed her hair affectionately.
Two days later, she pulled one of her vanishing acts out the backdoor of a lecture hall. Except this time, Cameron couldn’t find her anywhere. She wasn’t that fast, that wiley, couldn’t have disappeared like that on her own. Not when he knew her trick. He tried calling, and found her cellphone lying beneath a table a few feet away, the screen cracked like it had been dropped and a few feet further her books and papers were dropped too.
The evidence was clear. After all that time, something had actually happened to Claire.
Fandom: Stargate: SG-1/Heroes
Pairing: None
Rating: PG
Warnings: Bodyguard AU
Length: 2142 words
Part One
Classes ended for Claire, summer vacation began, and Cameron followed her home to California. Despite her insistences that he didn’t need to, he said over and over that it was his job to follow her wherever she needed to go for as long as necessary, until she was safe. So he went along, finally met her father in person, met her mother and her brother, charmed them with every bit of country charm he could find in him, and sat by quietly as they did the sort of things family did. He followed her around town, a smaller town than before and he was able to give her a lot more space and still be able to keep an eye on her. Something Claire seemed to appreciate at first but it took only about a week before she sighed, stopped in her tracks right in the middle of town, and announced that it was weird having him so far back. Even if far was only about half a block. He should just walk with her, she said, and Cameron just laughed and caught up.
After one month, Claire declared Costa Verde to be boring. She was used to living in the city now, not the suburbs surrounded by nothing but houses that looked the same and strip malls with a dozen copies of the same shops, and nothing to do without driving an hour. And Cameron was pretty inclined to agree when she said she wanted to get out of there. As it turned out, Costa Verde had a Marine Corps Air Station not too far away, and taking the drive to see anything worth seeing, meant passing by Marines come off base, and they were exactly the kind of people Cameron didn’t want to have to see. Military pilots, adrenaline junkies who lived for their planes and the people who supported them. They were people he had known, one way or another. They were people like he had been.
And seeing them, even out of uniform, knowing who they were by the way they walked, the way they carried themselves, made Cameron miss his old life so much it was like he’d only just left it.
He was only too happy to pack up and leave again when Claire decided she was going back to school early. She was going to move out of the dorm, she announced, and dragged Cameron around town looking at apartments. She asked his advice on everything, saying she had no experience and he, being the older adult, should teach her. And she ignored his advice on everything. She didn’t need much of a kitchen if she didn’t cook, he told her, and she protested that she liked to bake when she had time. He told her she was a student, she was hardly there and didn’t need much space. She argued that if she didn’t have much space, he would have nowhere to sleep, and refused to look at any place that didn’t have two bedrooms.
Cameron objected, strenuously, that just because he was her bodyguard didn’t mean he was going to live with her. Protecting her didn’t mean he had to be at her side twenty-four-seven.
“Yes it does,” Claire insisted, and would hear no more of it. She found a place with a big kitchen and two tiny bedrooms. And after consulting his boss, who said that he was to use his judgement, and Mr. Bennet, who agreed that his daughter was probably safer with someone there constantly, Cameron moved in, too.
It was incredibly awkward for the first week. Cameron was certainly no stranger to living with people, he came from a big family and a crowded home, and had spend his entire adult life sharing quarters with people he’d never even met, but he’d never lived with someone like Claire. A young woman with whom he had the sort of relationship they did. And while he was familiar with her habits in the months he had been working for her, there was a difference between seeing her habits and letting her see his. There was a difference between being able to say goodbye after she was locked in her room at night and saying goodnight behind the same door.
And with Claire not yet in classes again meant most of her friends were at their own homes for the summer, and Cameron’s charge didn’t have much to do with her time. And so there was a lot of the same as they’d done in California, wandering around town while Claire window shopped, and a lot of sitting at home while she flipped through TV channels or danced in the kitchen while she baked despite the heat. A few nights they went out and every time they did Claire ended up calling him over to intimidate some drunk twenty-something away from her. A few were stupid enough to think they could take him on, but Cameron flashed his gun and they backed off. The only time that didn't work, a purposefully dark look and even tone saying the boy wouldn't be the first he'd shot had the kid running for his life pretty quickly.
"You're a trouble magnet, you know that?" he accused Claire as they walked home that same night. After a particularly hot early August day, he hadn't been in the mood for dealing with stupid kids, would have happily stayed home if going with her wasn't his job.
"I know," she answered, and at least sounded a little bit sorry about that. "Have you really killed guys his age?"
"Probably younger, too," Cameron answered. Claire didn't ask more, must've heard something he didn't know was there in his voice. She said goodnight as soon as they were home, touched his arm with a smile and disappeared into her room.
Cameron woke with a start in the small hours of the morning, the sun hadn't even begun to rise yet, sensing movement in his room. He started to reach for his gun on the side table, stopping short when it was Claire's voice whispering his name and the presence was there beside the bed.
"What's up?" he wondered, turning toward her and sitting up.
"I couldn't sleep," was all she said before unceremoniously crawling onto the bed beside him.
"What do you want me to do about that?"
"Can I stay?" She seemed sure he was going to say yes, already crawling under the thin blanket.
"I don't think that's a good idea." She was just a kid, young and impressionable, and he didn't want to give her any ideas. More than that, she was his charge, his job. He’d heard stories of bodyguards who had gotten too close to their clients, had gotten involved in things they shouldn’t be involved in and ended up out of a job. Out of any chance at a job in the field again. And Cameron wasn’t about to sacrifice his job because this girl couldn’t sleep.
Claire wasn’t having any of it, though. She grumbled quietly and pulled as hard as she could to make him lie down again. She just wanted some company, felt safer beside him than on her own, she insisted, and curled up against his side. And Cameron was left without any real good option. He could tell her to leave, but that was sure to hurt her feelings and he definitely didn't want to do that. He could get up and leave himself, to the same undesirable end. Or he could accept it and let her sleep with him, probably give her some ideas that he'd never be able to take back. And while he didn't want that any more than he wanted to hurt her, he had to admit that he was fond of Claire. More than a bodyguard should be, but he was convinced it was just the feeling of wanting to protect someone close to him. Cameron had cousins he was positive he would feel the same about if the situation called for it.
It was still a bad idea to let Claire stay, and he said as much before reluctantly agreeing. For her safety and nothing more, he was sure to make clear. Claire huffed and called him an idiot, went to sleep. And Cameron, never good at sleeping with someone else there, too used to being alone, spent most of what little was left of the night staring at the ceiling.
The night after registering for classes, Claire slipped into his room again, a little earlier and a lot quieter, and Cameron had actually gotten his gun into his hand before realising it was her. He admonished her for sneaking up on him like that, said she couldn't keep coming into his room like she was, that it was inappropriate and a really bad idea, and she teased that it wasn't her problem if he couldn't handle a cute girl in his bed. Cameron had no answer to that.
They lay there in silence for an hour, before Claire piped up from around Cameron’s ribs, asking him why it was that guys always seemed to just want to get into her pants, never to get to know her first. Cameron just sighed, lied and said he didn’t know when he really thought it was because she was meeting guys at all the wrong places.
“Why can’t they just like me for me?” she lamented, and Cameron gave up resisting letting his arm fold around her, half-hugged her and patted her back.
“You’re young. You’ll find someone who will,” he promised.
“You think so?”
“Smart, pretty girl like you? I’m sure of it. Problem’s just that college boys, they’re not thinking about any of that.”
That seemed to satisfy her; she sat up and kissed his cheek before settling back down and going right to sleep. And Cameron just sighed and reminded himself that letting Claire do this was a terrible idea.
She never made any other sort of motion toward him otherwise, though. She chatted to him casually when they were out and alone, complained about school and her friends and the amount of assignments she had due all at once. Normal college girl stuff. The kind of stuff that didn’t make Cameron feel like he was breaking all the rules and not putting a stop to it because he cared about the girl. He’d been shadowing Claire for just more than a year; it would be unreasonable to say he hadn’t become attached. They were at least friends, he thought, maybe creeping up on something like family.
Sometime around midterms, Claire went from the girl who slipped into his bed at night for whatever comfort it was she needed, to a girl who tried to slip her bodyguard at every available opportunity. She would slip out back doors after class while Cameron waited by the front, or disappear into a bathroom and out a window. The kind of slips that Cameron couldn’t really prevent but he could rectify fairly quickly. She was never hard to find after he realised she was gone, but he took it as a sign that she wanted her space, started standing further back, just keeping her in sight without being right there beside her all the time. In all the time he’d been with her there’d been no sign that she was actually in danger, had been given no reason to think that a few extra feet or not keeping his eyes on her at all times would make a difference.
The first week of December, Claire kissed him in the kitchen. Stood up on her toes and pulled him by his shirt, and it was all so sudden that Cameron didn’t know what the right way to react was. He pushed her away gently.
“This can’t happen,” he told her, and Claire just apologised and went to her bedroom, locked the door and didn’t come out for the rest of the night.
They didn’t talk about it, but the next night she came to his room and curled up beside him again. She whispered another apology, the first thing she’d said to him since the first one, and sounded so painfully sincere that Cameron could only sigh and kissed her hair affectionately.
Two days later, she pulled one of her vanishing acts out the backdoor of a lecture hall. Except this time, Cameron couldn’t find her anywhere. She wasn’t that fast, that wiley, couldn’t have disappeared like that on her own. Not when he knew her trick. He tried calling, and found her cellphone lying beneath a table a few feet away, the screen cracked like it had been dropped and a few feet further her books and papers were dropped too.
The evidence was clear. After all that time, something had actually happened to Claire.