Nobody Dies Tonight, by Isawet (PG)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Show: SG-1

Rec Category: Cassandra Frasier
Characters: Janet Frasier, Samantha Carter, Teal'c
Categories: gen, friendship, angst, character study, episode related
Warnings: references to canon character deaths
Author on LJ: unknown
Author's Website: Isawet on AO3
Link: nobody dies tonight

Why This Must Be Read: This is a simply gorgeous exploration of Cassie over the years, with her acknowledgment of love and loss and inevitable change. It's tender and powerful all at once, with fantastic interactions with Janet, with Sam, and (my personal favorite exchanges) with Teal'c. Read this one and savor.

reccer's note: yes, the last few paragraphs suggest a bit of Sam/Jack in Cassie's eyes, but it's years in the future and solely from her perspective, so my gen glasses can remain firmly in place. YMMV.


On Hanka, you never say the names of the dead. Cassie likes to think like that, like Hanka as a culture exists somewhere outside her faded childhood memories. She remembers her mother lighting candles of remembrance and explaining it to her, the dead are called back from the spirit world if you call their names, and they might not be as loving as they were alive. Her mother’s face is blurred out, like a fuzzy picture, like when she wears Daniel’s glasses and can’t focus properly. The first time she wakes up and realizes she can’t remember her mother’s face she cries for an hour, locked in the bathroom, until Janet finds her and smooths her hair, calls in sick and sits on the couch with her, watching cartoons and teaching her how to french braid.

Later that week Sam takes her for ice cream, even though it’s raining, and tells her to think of things she can remember, that her mother smelled like cooking spices, how her mother taught her how to bank a fire. Sam says that’s what matters, and Cassie almost believes her, takes every little bit of memory she has left and holds it close to her heart. Then she takes Cassie to a big store and buys plastic umbrellas and bright colored rainboots, enough that Janet sighs big and clucks at them when they return.

When Janet dies she leaves behind hundreds of pictures, dozens of videos, smiling and laughing and hugging Cassie from behind, and she realizes Sam was right.