FIC: Never Ask About the Flip Side

[ficwize]

Title: Never Ask About the Flip Side
Author: wizefics
Fandom: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Prompt: 104 - cuisine at tamingthemuse
Rating: Gen.
Warnings: None.
Summary: The quickest way to the heart is through the stomach.
Disclaimer: I don't own Terminator, but I am so so excited for the next movie! Also, I don't make money doing this. Also, the title is from a line from the movie "Diner."
A/N: Thanks to dramady for the beta!

As always, feedback is welcome and appreciated!

***************



Derek threw his bag on the kitchen table and opened the refrigerator and grabbed a beer. Sitting down, he popped the top and took a drink, marveling in the clean, slightly bitter taste. He didn’t know if he’d ever get used to the easy availability of luxuries again, but he was certainly not going to turn his nose up at cold beer.

Sighing, he shoved the chair back with a screech on the floor and crossed his legs.

“Comfortable?” Sarah’s voice broke the silence and Derek titled his head to look at her standing in the door.

He grunted in response. “John?”

“Asleep.” Sarah crossed the room and pulled out one of the other chairs.

“Typical.” Derek snorted. “The future Savior of Mankind is snoozing while you and I were out busting our butts.”

“That’s because you want the future Savior of Mankind to be able to pass trigonometry.” Sarah’s retort was immediate and dry. “And he’s not going to do that if he doesn’t start getting more than four hours of sleep a night. He’s a good kid, but he’s still a kid.”

Derek grunted again, but he didn’t argue.

Sarah eyed his beer skeptically. “I thought you were going to get something to eat.”

“The only thing in the fridge is left over pizza,” Derek shrugged, his expression wry. “I’d forgotten how obsessed teenagers are with pizza.”

Sarah smiled. “It’s his favorite.”

“It was mine at one time, too.” Derek smiled back. “Kyle’s, too. We used to beg to order it every weekend. Pepperoni and extra cheese.” He chuckled. “Kyle always wanted to add mushrooms, but I never let him. I don’t approve of fungus on food.”

Sarah blinked in surprise at the casual easy comment about Derek and Kyle’s life pre-Judgment Day, but she didn’t say anything. Derek never spoke about his life before and she respected his privacy enough not to pry. “I can make something.”

“Nah.” Derek stopped her. ‘No offense, but your cooking kind of sucks.”

The comment made Sarah laugh aloud and Derek took another slow drink, his fingers holding the beer bottle gently by its neck and he smiled as he said, “John’s better at it.”

“I know.” Sarah went to the fridge to grab a beer of her own. “He spent a lot of time in kitchens in his life. I waited tables when he was young and he would stay with me in the diners.” She paused long enough to grab a bag of chips before she came back to the table.

“Hmm, that explains a lot.” Derek paused. “John always waxed poetic about diners. He said they were his favorite place. Before.” He reached out and snagged the chips while Sarah stared at him in astonishment.

“He did?”

“Yeah.” Derek spoke around a mouthful of Doritos, but swallowed before he continued. “He said that he used to sit at the counter and read comics.”

The memory of John, all blonde hair and toothy grins, sipping chocolate milk and laughing at the adventures of Garfield and Snoopy caught Sarah by surprise and she blinked back tears.

“He even spent three days one time redoing a juke box.” Derek finished his beer. “He said the music would lift our spirits. Kyle thought he was crazy…” Derek trailed of, then shook himself. “He was right. We used to sit around that damn machine every night.”

Sarah reached out and grabbed a chip, which she munched thoughtfully. “It’s nice to know that pizza isn’t the one thing he’ll miss the most.”

Derek grinned. “None of us missed pizza the most. And it wasn’t Chinese food, French food, or Italian food, either.”

“So what was it?”

Derek lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “John was right about one thing.”

Sarah waited for Derek to fish out another Dorito.

“You do make damn good pancakes.” He left her sitting at the table in silence, throwing his beer bottle in the trash and heading back to the shower.

Sarah glanced at the clock. John would be getting up for school in about an hour. That left her plenty of time to make pancakes.

Comments

[worlddescending.livejournal.com]

hee! awww-- that last line is perfect!

This is a really nice, quiet little moment. I really like it.

[ficwize.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm really glad you enjoyed it. :)

[metroid13.livejournal.com]

A nice one-shot. You struck all the right chords, and the only real complaint (more of a general one, really) is the fact that most people tend to underestimate how harsh Sarah's parentage of John was. It wasn't, by any indications, as poignant and happy as a lot of writers tend to paint it.

That's a very minor complaint, though. This was very good, overall. The beginning paragraph was a tad weak in terms of prose and description, but everything else was fine. Nice job.

[ficwize.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the feedback and compliments. I'm not sure if I totally understand your comment about Sarah's parenting of John in relation to this particular story. Looking over it, I'm not sure that I painted it as "poignant and happy" over all.

But everyone loves their mother's cooking. It's sort of a given. Even if the only good thing your mother makes is pancakes. *amused*

Regardless, I really appreciate the comments!

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

Lovely. :) And I respectfully disagree w/ the above commenter. I thought the opening paragraph was a perfectly clear scene setter, with a smoothly established who-what-where, a little introspection and a dash of sensory input w/ the beer. There are plenty of ways to do it differently, of course, but I don't see anything wrong with it.

[metroid13.livejournal.com]

I was speaking purely in terms of prose and competence at descriptions, not what it actually did.

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

I saw no problem with the competence of the prose or description, I'd love to hear if there's a specific problem that I missed. I saw clearly what he was doing, and the sense detail of the beer taste seemed accurate.

[metroid13.livejournal.com]

Ah, wasn't really the beer description at all. That was alright. Mostly the first sentence, which was slightly repetitive. The entire paragraph doesn't flow all that well in my eyes, although I'm guilty of the same thing constantly in my own writings.

That's what betas are for, though. And as I said, it's still good, but it's not without its problems. No story is without em'.

[worlddescending.livejournal.com]

I agree with svilleficrecs, actually and that's why I didn't ask wizefics to change anything. It was effective in painting a picture and giving us a sense of Derek's state of mind.

[metroid13.livejournal.com]

Alrighty then. We agree to disagree. Good story, anyway.

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

The clunkiness felt, to me, more like a style choice/echo of Derek's voice, but to each his own. :)

[ficwize.livejournal.com]

I did note that I used the word "again" twice in a short space of time. I removed it one of those times and I hope that cleaned up the structure...

Thanks!

[ficwize.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the feedback and comment! I'm glad that the opening scene worked for you. To be honest, I haven't spent this much time thinking about opening paragraphs in a long time. It's given me a lot to ponder.

Thanks a lot!

[strangevisitor7.livejournal.com]

Wonderful scene - I like the first paragraph where Derek is musing on the ease of luxuries - it captures the before and after feel of the story right from the beginning.

[ficwize.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

I'm glad you enjoyed it. And I wasn't going for anything particularly deep with this ficlet, just a "moment" where everyone was mostly relaxed.

As relaxed as these people get, anyway. ;)

[roxybisquaint.livejournal.com]

That was sweet. I enjoyed it :)

[ficwize.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

[miconic.livejournal.com]

I like this segue of what was past and present. The change in setting is not jarring, and I like the easiness this piece invokes. Thanks for sharing the fic. Lovely one-shot.

[ficwize.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I love playing with the timeline in this fandom. It's addictive, but it can be hard to manage it without making it one giant muddled mess. I'm really glad it seems to have worked!

[devra-01.livejournal.com]

A wonderful, warmhearted little slice of life. A little peek forward. A little glimpse of the here and now. Thanks for sharing.

[ficwize.livejournal.com]

Thank you! That was exactly what I was going for!

[amilyn.livejournal.com]

This is lovely.

[ficwize.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

[flighty-dreams.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed this quick scene. Liked the discussion of what actually stays with you over time and what doesn't.

And reading this brought to mind something. Does Derek know Sarah eventually dies of cancer? I would figure something like that would be common knowledge in the future. Of course she knows about this already, but I wonder if he's thought to warn her about it. Hmm...

Anyways, I enjoyed this quiet moment between Sarah and Derek. Thanks for writing this. :)

[ficwize.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I know when I get homesick, I always crave my mother's cooking. And I spent an awful lot of time at Waffle Houses as a child and still associate that with my dad. *lol*

I don't know if Derek would know about Sarah's cancer. It doesn't seem like the sort of thing John would talk about much - but Cameron knew and mentioned it to Sarah at the beginning of the series. You raise an interesting question. *ponders*

[indiefic.livejournal.com]

Kyle always wanted to add mushrooms, but I never let him. I don’t approve of fungus on food.”

LOL! So damn Derek. And yet so heartbreaking all at the same time.

“None of us missed pizza the most. And it wasn’t Chinese food, French food, or Italian food, either.”

Damn. *sniffle*

I love that Derek is the one to make these revelations to Sarah about the things that Future!John will eventually reminisce publicly about. Makes you wonder if John said them in front of Derek knowing he'd relay it to Sarah one day as a sort of thank you. And yet it's so damn universal. And that's so sweet. Because I think Sarah's mom-ness often falls by the wayside. And yet, even for Sarah who is a terrible cook and not the most cuddly mom, her cooking is still her kid's favorite because mom's cooking is always your favorite.

Lovely.

[ficwize.livejournal.com]

Pizza is the single most universal theme of teenager-hood I could think of. I'm glad it worked for you!

And yet, even for Sarah who is a terrible cook and not the most cuddly mom, her cooking is still her kid's favorite because mom's cooking is always your favorite.

Precisely what I was going for! Thank you so much for your comment and feedback. I really appreciate it! :)

[dharkapparition.livejournal.com]

*loves the Derek

Pancakes make everything okay.

[dipti44.livejournal.com]

I know you wrote this a while ago but I just found this, and I love it. You portray Derek and Sarah really realistically, and I think you did a great job of letting Derek open up about the past/future without him breaking character. I simply loved this and I am now going to read the rest of your TSCC fic.

And I also loved the comment about the pancakes.