"Running" is a short story - almost a vignette - that is told from the all too rare perspective of Jacob Carter. It is set a good twenty years in the past and is apparently inspired by the scene in "The Devil You Know", in which Jacob has to tell Sam that her mother is dead. Not heavy on action, "Running" on builds the anxiety level of the reader by following Jacob's emotional reactions as he leaves the house to pick up his wife from the airport and stumbles across an his wife's accident scene. Written with simple imagery and with real depth of emotion, I couldn't help but be drawn into the story. At times I felt like I was standing beside Jacob as he went through the emotional events of this story, especially at the moment when he learned of his wife's death. I could feel his initial shock and horror at the scene, and then his dread as he came home and heard his daughter humming: "Sam was humming. Sam was happy, and in a few minutes she wasn't going to be." The author gives us insight into Jacob's life before the advent of the SGC, not just as the father that he was when Sam was a child, but alook at how he became the man we first meet in "Secrets". It explores the dichotomy faced by a reserved family man in a closed-mouthed and violent occupation: the love he feels for his family warring with the detachment necessary for his job. Reading this, I could fully understand how the rift portrayed on the show between Jacob and his children came to exist. Definitely not a feel good fic, "Running" is still a very good read and something that should be enjoyed by anyone who likes the character of Jacob Carter. |
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