Tarnished Heroes
A Daniel Jackson
Stargate SG-1
Adult FanFiction Series
By
Moon Mistress
a/k/a Lisa Beth Darling

Chapter Thirty

The pitcher glances over, winds up, and it bunted, bunted down the third base line, the Suicide Squeeze is on!
Here he comes, squeeze play, it’s gonna be close!
Here’s the throw, here’s the play at the plate!
Holy cow, I think he’s gonna make it!
Paradise by the Dashboard Light
MeatLoaf
(words & music by Jim Steinham)

“What’s wrong, Nick?” Annie asked as she sat up in the back seat. “Don’t you want to anymore?” Her pretty slate blue Prom Dress was crumpled into a ball in his front seat along with his tuxedo jacket and button-up shirt. “I know I’ve made you wait, I’m sorry.”

“Annie stop.” Nick said gruffly and pulled away from her. “I want to. Not here in the backseat of my car.”

“Not enough room for my Gentle Giant?” She asked with a smile and held her arms out to him.

God she looked so good laying there on his backseat just waiting for him to lean and take what he wanted. Prom gown off, she was quietly lying there in white thigh high stockings with matching white lace bra and panties. He’d never been this close with her before and he couldn’t get Tammy off his mind and what a shit he’d been, just as bad as Sandy in his own way. “I cheated on you.” There it was out and he felt a little better.

“What?”

Five seconds. That was all it took to bring her from the height of desire to tears welling up in her eyes.

“Oh, God, Annie, I’m sorry.” Nick mumbled in the dark car. Aw, Jesus! What a shit I am! I’m no better than Sandy.

“Who?” Annie sat up and wrapped her arms around her half-naked body.

“Does it matter? You don’t know her.”

“Who!?”

“A girl in mom’s class. When we went to New York.” He admitted.

A girl in his mother’s class who went on the trip to New York that made her a college senior. Whoever she was she was probably beautiful and outgoing and artistic and sophisticated and….experienced. All the things Annie wasn’t. Nick deserved a woman like that; she never understood what he was doing with her to begin with.

She’d always been one of the Outcasts at school, the girl whose holey clothes were hopelessly out of date and whose shoes didn’t quite fit. You remember her, we all knew her and we all laughed at her no matter what school we went to, she was the skinny weird girl who was always hungry and who would sometimes ask if you wanted that apple or last bite of sandwich. The one who never fit in anywhere no matter how hard she tried. The girl no one hung out with but everyone talked about—whether or not what was said about her was true never mattered much, when it comes to gossip truth never matters.

Nick met her almost ten years ago, when they were in third grade and he didn’t give a shit about any of that, not when it came to his little Annie Wilkes. As far as he was concerned, she was perfect. Moreover, she always had been.

When he picked her up tonight, there was no one to take their photographs. Annie didn’t have any family, her dad split before she was born and her mother wasn’t any better. All Annie’s life her drug-addicted mother was always off somewhere doing god knew what with god knew who and didn’t have the time or inclination to check on her daughter. The bitch almost never left Annie in anyone’s care, not even when Annie was small and couldn’t fend for herself. Anything could have happened to Annie and her mother wouldn’t have given a rats’ ass over it, except, well, maybe she’d miss that extra Dependant Pay in her welfare check—that was something else Annie never saw.

Like Nick, Annie was almost 18 and she lived alone in a trailer park on the outskirts of town. If DCF ever showed up—which they probably should have done years ago—they’d take her away and put her in a foster home until she turned 18. It was too late for foster homes, parents and DCF because Annie had done a fine job of raising herself. She didn’t drink, smoke, or do any type of drugs, she got good grades and was accepted to several Universities but she couldn’t afford the tuition cost. More than anything Annie wanted to be a veterinarian. She’d probably spend the rest of her life in this town going through one dead end job after another.

Annie had a part-time job at a donut shop she worked 25 hours a week along with going to high school. Her meager paycheck was all the money she had and she used it to keep her little trailer going. Hell, the gown she wore to prom tonight she’d picked up a thrift store then mended and altered to fit. Annie thought it looked nice enough and she’d saved her pennies to buy the lingerie and white high heels. She’d been looking so forward to actually going to the prom, it was the very first dance she’d been too since starting her academic career, not only was she going to go to the prom but she got to walk around on the arm of the best looking guy in class. Annie wanted to look pretty for Nick tonight but now there didn’t seem to be a point to it all. Annie couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen her mother, maybe it was around Christmas or New Years when she’d shown up at the door demanding a warm place to sleep. The woman disappeared as quickly as she reappeared. For the last four months Nick was all Annie had in the whole world and now he was walking away. Annie’s lower lip was quivering and she was trying to so hard to hold back her tears. “You don’t want me anymore.” Feeling suddenly vulnerable and afraid as they sat in the back seat, Annie reached across for the gown. “I don’t know why you ever did, Nick. I’m sure she’s much more suited to you than I am.”

Nick’s big hand fell on her wrist. “Don’t Annie.” He said softly. “I am so sorry I did this to you.”

“You love her?”

“Hell no!” Her question surprised him almost as much as the pitch of his voice surprised her.

“So she was what? Convenient?”

Nick knew immediately that was a loaded question and whatever he said he was damned. If he said ‘yes’ he was just like all those guys who sniffed around the trailer when her mom was home—sometimes when she wasn’t. (Those guys pissed him off they had a lot of nerve to think that she was like that cunt mother of hers. In four months he’d chased five or six of them away from her trailer but he’d never to tell the same man twice.) If he said ‘no’ then he ran the risk of Annie thinking there was more to it than there actually was. “Something like that, I guess.” Nick admitted. “Aren’t you gonna scream at me? Hit me? Tell I’m a no good son of a bitch? Something?” When it came to girlfriends, Nicholas had gone out and found himself one just like dear old Mom. “Come on, Annie, get mad. I deserve it.”

“I’m just sad, Nicky.” Annie let go of the second-hand dress and let it fall back to the front seat. “If you want to be with her instead of me…”

Be with her? With Tammy? That wasn’t what he was trying to tell her and he didn’t want to hear any more nonsense about it. Nick didn’t know how to shut her up so he kissed her. Annie’s little arms pushed him away at first but it wasn’t long before she was kissing back. “I love you, Annie. I don’t want anything to do with her anymore. That’s what I’m trying to tell you; I’m sorry and I won’t do it again.”

“Promise?”

“Cross my heart.”

“There aren’t any more are there?”

“No!” Nick picked up her hands and kissed her fingertips. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to lose you over this. It was stupid and cheap, god it was so damn cheap.” He rolled his eyes and shook his head in the dark backseat. “I don’t ever want things to be like that with you, with us.”

Annie didn’t want to lose him either. “If you just fucked her…” Annie stopped as she saw Nick cringe. His big body seemed to roll up into a little tiny ball at the ‘f’ word, Annie laid her head against his arm and went forward, “then you still don’t know what it’s like to make love, do you?” She asked quietly.

“I guess not.” Nick confessed.

“Me either.” Annie did an absolutely amazing thing. She lay back down on the seat and held her arms out to him. “We can still find out together. I love you, Nicky.”

“I don’t deserve you.” He’d fucked Tammy and thought about screwing his own Mother for cryin’ out loud. There was no way in hell he deserved this little girl. Still here she was. It seemed, when it came to women, both Jackson Men were born under a Lucky Star. Nicholas was more like his Father than his Grandfather in several respects one of them being that he was an old-fashioned Romantic at that great big heart of his. “I wanna make love with you more than anything but not here,” Nick pushed the folding front seat forward reached over and opened the door, he let himself out of the backseat.

“Nicky?”

Nick reached across the seat, slid into his shirt and tossed her the pretty blue gown. He didn’t care where she’d gotten the dress or who owned it before her, nope; Nick thought she looked an angel in that dress. There wasn’t a prettier girl at the Prom or anywhere else tonight. He’d been a real shit and this Little Angel still wanted him. The way she was looking up at him he’d be an even bigger shit to walk away now. “I don’t want your first time to be in the backseat of my car, ok? Maybe that’s stupid or somethin’ but I just don’t want that for you.” Buttoning up the shirt, he felt the bills in the pocket and fished them out. Inside the neatly folded paper were two condoms, just as Calla had given Colleen before she left. The ones she’d given Colleen were different colors but knowing her son the way she did, Calla had slipped Magnums into his US tender and they didn’t come in festive colors. “Mom,” he muttered and shook his dark head. Be good to Annie. That was what she said to him before he drove off still angry over Hartley and Sandy. “Put your dress on.”

“Where are we going? Are you taking me home?” She didn’t want to go home it was dark and lonely there. Annie couldn’t pay the electric bill until the middle of next week when she got her paycheck and until then she had to live by candle light and on cold canned food. She didn’t want Nick to know that and feel sorry for her so she didn’t tell him and she hadn’t let him come in when he picked her up tonight. Nick had enough problems even without her and Tammy. “Please Nicky I just want to stay with you, I’ll do whatever you want.”

“Don’t ever say that to any guy, not ever.” Nicholas warned. “We’re gonna go some place nice, away from these idiots.” He looked around at all the familiar cars with the steamed over windows around them. “You’re better than them, Annie. Way better.” There was no way he was taking her back to that shitty little trailer either. She slipped the doctored up second-hand store dress over her head and he helped her out of the back of the Fast Back Mustang.

“Where are we going?” She asked and tried to smooth out the dress with her hands. It was late and the dress was wrinkled. Oh well, it wasn’t as if her mother was waiting up for her or anything. Nick opened the passenger door for her and Annie slid onto the seat she looked up at him with wide eyes.

“I told you, some place nice, away from them and their big mouths.” He grumbled. “What we do isn’t any of their business.” Nick slid in behind the wheel. “Do you really wanna spend the night with me, Annie?” He asked and quickly added, “You don’t have to it’s all right if you don’t want to, I won’t be mad.”

“I want to, more than anything.”

“Me too.” Nick started the engine and took off away from Inspiration Point. With the $100.00 his Mother had given him in one pocket and $40.00 left over from dinner in the other Nick drove them through Greenbrier and hoped the Queen Anne Bed & Breakfast was still open for guests.

A Few Cars Down on Inspiration Point

“Oh you have GOT to be kidding me!” Colleen cried. “Get off of me!” She shoved Sandy away so hard the back of his already sore head crashed into the driver’s side window. Colleen folded her arms across her breasts, stuck her face high in the air and turned away from him. “You got a lot of nerve.”

“Sorry,” Sandy muttered. “I guess I got a lot to make up for.”

“You bet your ass you do!”

“I got a coupla joints.” Sandy invited. “And a coupla beers.”

“Better light one quick.” Colleen smoothed out her dress and let out a sigh. “I shouldn’t even be here with you.”

“I know,” Sandy said shyly and pulled a cigarette pack from the center console of the old T-bird. He shook out a joint, popped in the cars lighter and waited for a moment before holding the red end to the tip of the paper. “Here. Smoke the Peace Pipe with me, huh?” Sandy handed over to her. “I thought we had a good time tonight.”

Colleen took the joint and drew deeply from it. “I did…we did.” She corrected and handed the smoking stick back to him. “It’s just that I don’t….”

“Trust me,” he finished for her and took his own hit. “Yeah, I got it. I’m an ass. Let’s just sit here and watch the water for a while.” Sandy scooted a little closer and put his arm around her, Colleen didn’t back away as they passed the joint back and forth.

Nicholas and Annie took room 5 at the Queen Anne Bed & Breakfast, which, as it turned out, was across the hall from room 6 where Andrew Hartley was currently staying. The phone by the bed kept staring at Nick. Annie didn’t have anyone to call but he did. Nicholas picked up the phone and dialed his home number. One, two, three, four rings and the machine picked up. “Where the fuck is she?” he muttered under his breath. Hartley. Just about to hang up because he didn’t want to leave ‘I’m not coming home’ on the answering machine the line connected again.

“Hello, wait please,” Calla mumbled and Nick waited while she shut the machine off. “Hello, are you still there?”

“Mom?”

“Nick-o-las?” Trying to find Mom Gear Calla looked into the kitchen at the clock. She’d stumbled down here earlier for something to drink—this stuff was wonderful other than being terribly thirsty she didn’t feel anything at all—not making it back up the stairs just yet, she and Andy had been having a little session on the couch when the phone began to ring. Realizing the lateness of the hour and that it might be something important, she finally wiggled out from under Andy when Daniels’ voice came through the speaker with their greeting message. She listened to the whole thing before picking it up just to hear his voice. Calla often played the greeting when Daniel was gone and the last two weeks were no exception. Now she heard her sons’ voice. “Something wrong? You haven’t been arrested or anything have you?”

“Thanks Mom. No, I’m all right.” He twirled the chord between his fingers while he looked over at Annie who was patiently waiting for him to finish. “Annie and I got a room I’m not coming home tonight.” It all came out in one big rush of air all the words running together.

“Did you find the…”

“Yes,” he hissed, “I found them.”

“A..all right, don’t get huf-f-fy.” She chided. “D…did… you see your sister?”

Nicholas didn’t want to tell her Colleen was with Sandy back at Inspiration Point, his sister just couldn’t possibly be that fucking stupid! “She went to the after party.” He lied and rolled his eyes while crossing his fingers behind his back. “I’m sure she’ll be home by four.”

“Be good to Annie.” The way she said it, it wasn’t a statement, order, question or comment it was more like a soft plea.

Nicholas didn’t need the tone of her voice or the wicked image of Naganti Kanan that suddenly popped into his head from nowhere. “I will, Mom.” He said in a soft voice as he glanced over at his girlfriend. “You all right?” Nicholas didn’t want to come right and ask if Hartley was there, not in front of Annie. Not tonight. If Mom wanted to find solace in Hartley’s arms, he couldn’t stop her and probably didn’t even have the right to try. Nicholas didn’t really have to ask any way, her breathing was hard and if he listened close enough there was someone else breathing next to her, making her heart race as she talked so calmly on the phone. (Women—mother and daughter had a lot in common in that area.) Since Dad wasn’t home….

“Fine. I love you, Nicholas.”

“Love you too, Mom. See you tomorrow.”

“Be…”

“I will!” Shaking his head Nicholas put the phone back in the cradle. Be good to Annie, that’s what she was going to say. Again. It seemed awfully important to her and she hadn’t been worried about it with Tammy at all. Mom knew Annie was different she wasn’t like Tammy or some of the other girls he hung around with. In a very strange way, he was almost grateful for his experience with Tammy maybe he’d learned something there, something that would help make things easier on Annie tonight. “You sure about this? We could just watch TV or somethin’ if you want.”

Annie didn’t say anything she walked over to her, put her arms around his waist and nuzzled her face into his chest.

The night was wonderful but morning came too quickly and brought very bad news.

End of Chapter Thirty of
Tarnished Heroes
An Adult Stargate FanFiction Novel
By
Moon Mistress
Continue to
Chapter Thirty-One