have a time force jen/wes fic :) i hope you like it!
big yellow taxi - ~900 words
"Wes told me about a song," Jen tells Katie.
Katie looks at her without turning her head, focused on the tablet in her hands, her messages with Time Force higher-ups.
Her team's choice of their fates had not been without controversy in their time; Jen has faced the brunt of it, all the subtle judgement from officials spoken under their breath about how she sacrificed their safety all for a man who lived a thousand years ago.
In the moment, Jen had wished she was more like Katie; snappier, angrier, quicker to react. Instead, Jen grit her teeth and bowed her head, walked past.
But she had told Katie, and the woman immediately reacted on her behalf, and filed the complaint that Jen couldn't bring herself to do herself.
It had been hard for all of them. Perhaps Katie's ability to adapt and react is her strong suit, given how stuck Jen finds herself now.
"What song?" Katie asks, head tipped forward, eyes focused back on the tablet, but still listening and open; her exchange with the organization's officials is important, but Jen has found herself bigger than them in Katie's eyes... maybe bigger than the whole organization in her team's eyes.
The position of leader is one of sacrifice; Jen knows this all too well, as the song echoes back in her head, the one Wes had played for her on his timeline's technology, a sort of physical magnetic tape in a casing put inside a player.
Jen had watched as he fiddled with the buttons on it, telling her about how they had to be rewound to the beginning, that they weren't precise; one had to estimate a song's placement, unlike the technology Jen is used to, the instant playback granted by the technology of her time. He even told her of how the tape inside the casing sometimes comes out, and indeed, it happened while he was fiddling with the player, trying to find that one track.
"Stupid thing," he had grumbled, and then asked Jen for a pencil.
"Why would you need a pencil for this?" she had asked, as a smile grew on her face. Kind, loving; to watch Wes at work and focused like this was something for her to treasure, then, the both of them awaiting her scheduled return to her present.
"Just watch," he said, and Jen did watch with rapt curiosity, as he took the cassette out, manually rewound the mangled tape back inside its casing with a pencil to a component of the case.
Eventually, he found the song he was looking for; bright strums of an acoustic guitar, a soulful soprano voice singing in tandem with the guitar.
In the present, Jen looks back to Katie.
"An artist from his time," she says quietly.
"Well, duh," Katie jokes. "What, would he have known the kind of music we have now? I bet we could blow his mind with the hologram concerts."
"You know what I mean," Jen smiles softly, looking to the floor. Katie's joy and jokes are infectious; even when they had boarded the ship back to their present, she joked the whole way through, until she couldn't anymore, jostled by the force of time travel.
Jen finds herself choked up. She clears her throat.
"Joni Mitchell was the name."
"Never heard of them," Katie says without missing a beat.
"Of course you haven't!" Jen exclaims. She looks back to Katie, who looks at her with a grin.
But the casual joking turns back to silence turns to something awkward, and Jen is left in the quiet as Katie focuses back on the exchange on her tablet.
Jen clears her throat again; something to break the stretching silence.
"He played the song for me. Told me to try to find it when we got back," she says quietly.
"How'd it go?" Katie asks innocently.
Jen thinks about those bright guitar strums again; thinks about the cassette in its player, the way it rattled when Wes held it up and wound the tape back inside so carefully, delicately. Thinks about how he wished he took guitar classes instead of piano classes as a child so he could play it for her.
"How romantic," Jen had said wryly, but it was with love, with appreciation. Only Wes would wish that for her, wish the past was different just for her.
They may be in control of their fates but they cannot change what is already done. Wes had taken her by the hand as the song played, looked her in the eye as the final chorus came on through the speakers.
"This song," he started, "it's us. But you'll never be gone to me."
Jen looks back to Katie, hears those words in her ears again at the same time as the song. She's choked up again, and maybe in the past she would've forced them to stay put, to not come out, but she's a changed person after meeting Wes, knows it's okay to let herself crack in front of her teammates— her friends.
You don't know what you've got till it's gone.
"It was kind of sad," Jen starts, "but it was nice. Hopeful, I think."
"That's sweet," Katie says. "Reminds me of you two."
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have a time force jen/wes fic :) i hope you like it!
big yellow taxi - ~900 words
"Wes told me about a song," Jen tells Katie.
Katie looks at her without turning her head, focused on the tablet in her hands, her messages with Time Force higher-ups.
Her team's choice of their fates had not been without controversy in their time; Jen has faced the brunt of it, all the subtle judgement from officials spoken under their breath about how she sacrificed their safety all for a man who lived a thousand years ago.
In the moment, Jen had wished she was more like Katie; snappier, angrier, quicker to react. Instead, Jen grit her teeth and bowed her head, walked past.
But she had told Katie, and the woman immediately reacted on her behalf, and filed the complaint that Jen couldn't bring herself to do herself.
It had been hard for all of them. Perhaps Katie's ability to adapt and react is her strong suit, given how stuck Jen finds herself now.
"What song?" Katie asks, head tipped forward, eyes focused back on the tablet, but still listening and open; her exchange with the organization's officials is important, but Jen has found herself bigger than them in Katie's eyes... maybe bigger than the whole organization in her team's eyes.
The position of leader is one of sacrifice; Jen knows this all too well, as the song echoes back in her head, the one Wes had played for her on his timeline's technology, a sort of physical magnetic tape in a casing put inside a player.
Jen had watched as he fiddled with the buttons on it, telling her about how they had to be rewound to the beginning, that they weren't precise; one had to estimate a song's placement, unlike the technology Jen is used to, the instant playback granted by the technology of her time. He even told her of how the tape inside the casing sometimes comes out, and indeed, it happened while he was fiddling with the player, trying to find that one track.
"Stupid thing," he had grumbled, and then asked Jen for a pencil.
"Why would you need a pencil for this?" she had asked, as a smile grew on her face. Kind, loving; to watch Wes at work and focused like this was something for her to treasure, then, the both of them awaiting her scheduled return to her present.
"Just watch," he said, and Jen did watch with rapt curiosity, as he took the cassette out, manually rewound the mangled tape back inside its casing with a pencil to a component of the case.
Eventually, he found the song he was looking for; bright strums of an acoustic guitar, a soulful soprano voice singing in tandem with the guitar.
In the present, Jen looks back to Katie.
"An artist from his time," she says quietly.
"Well, duh," Katie jokes. "What, would he have known the kind of music we have now? I bet we could blow his mind with the hologram concerts."
"You know what I mean," Jen smiles softly, looking to the floor. Katie's joy and jokes are infectious; even when they had boarded the ship back to their present, she joked the whole way through, until she couldn't anymore, jostled by the force of time travel.
Jen finds herself choked up. She clears her throat.
"Joni Mitchell was the name."
"Never heard of them," Katie says without missing a beat.
"Of course you haven't!" Jen exclaims. She looks back to Katie, who looks at her with a grin.
But the casual joking turns back to silence turns to something awkward, and Jen is left in the quiet as Katie focuses back on the exchange on her tablet.
Jen clears her throat again; something to break the stretching silence.
"He played the song for me. Told me to try to find it when we got back," she says quietly.
"How'd it go?" Katie asks innocently.
Jen thinks about those bright guitar strums again; thinks about the cassette in its player, the way it rattled when Wes held it up and wound the tape back inside so carefully, delicately. Thinks about how he wished he took guitar classes instead of piano classes as a child so he could play it for her.
"How romantic," Jen had said wryly, but it was with love, with appreciation. Only Wes would wish that for her, wish the past was different just for her.
They may be in control of their fates but they cannot change what is already done. Wes had taken her by the hand as the song played, looked her in the eye as the final chorus came on through the speakers.
"This song," he started, "it's us. But you'll never be gone to me."
Jen looks back to Katie, hears those words in her ears again at the same time as the song. She's choked up again, and maybe in the past she would've forced them to stay put, to not come out, but she's a changed person after meeting Wes, knows it's okay to let herself crack in front of her teammates— her friends.
You don't know what you've got till it's gone.
"It was kind of sad," Jen starts, "but it was nice. Hopeful, I think."
"That's sweet," Katie says. "Reminds me of you two."
Jen smiles.
"Yeah," she says, "I think so too."