[Moments of Adoration]

300 words for Liv. Because she is lovely. Happy birthday! And many thanks to Jara and Tammy.

The sharp crack of the impact made her stomach turn, and she held her breath as she knelt, awkward and stiff. Wine soaked the hem of her dress as she picked up fragments of glass.

"Carter?"

Jack stood in the doorway, framed by soft light and the muted sounds of conversation from the living room, and she closed her fingers around the sharp edges and clenched. "It broke."

"What the hell are you doing?" He crouched next to her, prying open her hand and pulling the shards of glass now imbedded in her palm.

"I can't put it back together." Sam picked up a large smooth curve of glass with her good hand, turning it over and over before flinging it across the room. "The numbers don't work!"

And they should. The equations that predicted the behavior of wine and broken glass also predicted how a bullet could shatter bone and lodge so deep inside her that they couldn't take it out, and so gave her pills and made her sign papers about honorable discharge.

Jack yanked a dishtowel from the handle of the refrigerator door and mopped at the blood. "You'll need stitches."

She nodded. Cause and effect. "But that won't fix... it."

Swearing under his breath, Jack grasped her under the arms, lifting her to her feet. "You're not broken, Carter." His fingertips were warm on her cheek, and his thumb pressed against her lips, stilling any protest when he pulled her into his arms.