Storybook Childhood, by Sam Willow (PG)
Jun. 17th, 2010 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
figs_sg1_recRec Category: Sam and Daniel friendship
Categories: episode related, angst, character study, pre-series
Warnings: none
Author on LJ: unknown
Author's Website: Sam Walker's Fanficton at the Grove
Link: A Storybook Childhood
Why This Must Be Read: In the wake of Crystal Skull, Sam and Daniel share a quiet conversation about Nick, the nature of Daniel's childhood, and how his experiences helped shape him into the man he would become. Sam is the perfect friend here, offering acceptance and acknowledgment rather than judgment or unwanted sympathy.
I like the way Daniel's old social service records serve as the backdrop for the slow recounting of the different foster homes he knew and his mostly-good memories of the families that raised him. The fic is more bittersweet poignancy than happy fluff, but it does feel right to me. Besides, any pre-series Daniel story that doesn't immediately leap onto the abused childhood trope is definitely worth a second read! :)
Daniel smiled at her, and suddenly Sam understood. Daniel couldn't tell the Colonel because he would tease and be offended on Daniel's behalf for all the things Daniel had missed that the Colonel thought were integral to having any kind of childhood at all. He couldn't tell Teal'c because Teal'c wouldn't understand. He told Sam because he knew she would listen. He wanted her to know what his childhood had been like, all of it, and he wanted to know that he hadn't had it that bad, not really, that it was okay Nick left him behind because he'd done well for himself on his own.
She turned another page. "I bet that helped, moving around that much," she said, and Daniel gave her a quizzical look. "If you'd stayed in the same kind of place for your whole life, you probably wouldn't be as tolerant of people's differences. You wouldn't be as good an anthropologist." She didn't mention his instinctive ability to roll with the punches, which spoke of an adaptability far beyond what most people ever had to know.
Categories: episode related, angst, character study, pre-series
Warnings: none
Author on LJ: unknown
Author's Website: Sam Walker's Fanficton at the Grove
Link: A Storybook Childhood
Why This Must Be Read: In the wake of Crystal Skull, Sam and Daniel share a quiet conversation about Nick, the nature of Daniel's childhood, and how his experiences helped shape him into the man he would become. Sam is the perfect friend here, offering acceptance and acknowledgment rather than judgment or unwanted sympathy.
I like the way Daniel's old social service records serve as the backdrop for the slow recounting of the different foster homes he knew and his mostly-good memories of the families that raised him. The fic is more bittersweet poignancy than happy fluff, but it does feel right to me. Besides, any pre-series Daniel story that doesn't immediately leap onto the abused childhood trope is definitely worth a second read! :)
Daniel smiled at her, and suddenly Sam understood. Daniel couldn't tell the Colonel because he would tease and be offended on Daniel's behalf for all the things Daniel had missed that the Colonel thought were integral to having any kind of childhood at all. He couldn't tell Teal'c because Teal'c wouldn't understand. He told Sam because he knew she would listen. He wanted her to know what his childhood had been like, all of it, and he wanted to know that he hadn't had it that bad, not really, that it was okay Nick left him behind because he'd done well for himself on his own.
She turned another page. "I bet that helped, moving around that much," she said, and Daniel gave her a quizzical look. "If you'd stayed in the same kind of place for your whole life, you probably wouldn't be as tolerant of people's differences. You wouldn't be as good an anthropologist." She didn't mention his instinctive ability to roll with the punches, which spoke of an adaptability far beyond what most people ever had to know.
