Title: Flowers Wilt

Author: Geonn

Email: neil_j_miser@yahoo.com

Characters: Samantha Carter, Janet Fraiser

Pairings: Sam/Janet

Rating: Older Kids


On their first date, Sam had gotten nervous fifteen minutes before she was supposed to pick Janet up. She'd stopped, in a panic, at a flower shop and asked what kind of flowers were appropriate for a first date if the person you were going out with was already a friend. After explaining to three different people that, no, she was not going out with a man, and after their eyes widened with realization, did she end up with three calla lilies on the authority of the store's lone homosexual clerk.

Gay knows gay was the reasoning, Sam supposed. She didn't care, because the flowers were pretty and Janet liked pretty flowers.

Sam arrived just three minutes late, getting out of her car and smoothing her slacks as she headed up onto the porch. She took a deep breath and looked down at her left hand, ordering it to be still. "This is Janet's house," she muttered to herself. "You've been here hundreds of times. This is Janet's house. No reason to be nervous."

She rang the doorbell and chewed her bottom lip, taking a step back and waiting for an answer. The lights in the front hall were burning brightly, waiting for her arrival no doubt. After a moment, the door opened. Janet was wearing a beige dress, thin straps baggy around her hips and clinging everywhere else.

"Calla lilies," Sam said, blinking and immediately cursing herself for being so stupid.

Janet laughed, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. God, what a sexy gesture that was... "What, these?" Janet said, taking the three flowers from Sam. She inhaled them, the universe response to being presented with flowers. "Thank you."

Sam's smile faded. "You don't like them."

"What?" Janet said. "Of course I do! I'm just going to go get a vase. Come in." She held the door open a little wider, allowing Sam into the house. Sam worked her hands together nervously.

"I know you, Janet. I know you're disappointed with them or... something. I just didn't know what to bring. Are they... um..."

Janet tilted her head to one side.

"Are they too gay?" Sam asked under her voice.

Janet laughed out loud. "Are the flowers too gay?"

Sam felt a flush rising from her collar, shrugging and trying to save herself. "I don't know, it's... well, the guy at the store. He was... really, really gay. Like studying interior decorating in kindergarten. He picked them out. Are they too... gay for a first date?"

Janet laughed again, a beautiful sound. Sam was willing to be an idiot for the rest of her life for that laugh, that smile. Janet shook her head. "No, Sam, they're not gay at all. In fact, they're quite lovely. It's just... a thing I have with flowers."

"Allergies," Sam suggested.

"No," Janet said. "I love the growing kind. Gardens, getting my hands dirty in the soil, stuff like that. But flowers bought from a shop, cut and given... they die too soon. I don't like watching them wilt and then having to throw them away." She sniffed them again. "It's the throwing away I really hate. Putting a gift from a loved one in the garbage..." She shrugged.

Sam took one of the flowers from Janet's hand, pulling a petal from it. The calla lily seemed to unravel and she held the white, small, delicate flower skin out to Janet. "Put it in a book. Between two pages. Remember us and now and... remember what I'm about to do."

She took a step forward and kissed Janet's lips softly. It was their first kiss, their only kiss so far, a searing declaration that this truly was happening and it was happening to them, between them. Janet's eyes closed, her right hand dropping the other two flowers. Her left hand came up, closing around Sam's fingers, holding the delicate lily petal tightly.

When they parted, they looked at their hand. The petal was pinched between Sam's fingers, which were wrapped in Janet's hand. They smiled and Janet took the petal, carrying it across the room. She pulled a book off her shelf, opening it to the middle, and placing it in the center of the page.

Replacing the book on the shelf, Janet walked back to Sam and took her hand. "Ready for dinner now?" she asked, her voice a little raspy.

"Yeah. Let's go to dinner."


Geonn

New Stories

Author & Genre

Main Index