"Drabble: Like Boiling a Frog" By Shane Vansen

TITLE: Like Boiling a Frog

AUTHOR: Shane Vansen

STATUS: Complete

CATEGORY: Drabble, angst, sorta UST/romance. And here's where it gets complicated: Sam/Jack & Sam/Other for SG; Trip/T'Pol & T'Pol/Other for Enterprise

SPOILERS: Affinity and its possible aftermath for SG; Home for Ent

SEASON: 8 or 9 for SG; 4 for Ent

RATING: G

CONTENT WARNINGS: In my universe, the "/Other" warrants a warning. Otherwise...

FEEDBACK: Welcomed. My muse has been pretty stingy lately and I'm trying to bribe her back into musing. (Can you use the word in that context? Ah well, you know what I mean)

SUMMARY: It's like drowning.

DISCLAIMER: Stargate: Jack belongs to Sam and Sam belongs to Jack. I'll take Jonas since no one else seems to want him. As for the rest: Stargate SG-1 and its characters belong to MGM, Gekko Film Corp and Double Secret Productions.

Enterprise: I'm not as up on all the players for Ent. Enterprise belongs to the Star Trek franchise, which is probably a deity unto itself. It also belongs to Paramount, and possibly others. Not quite sure. I just know it doesn't belong to me.

This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment purposes and no money exchanged hands. No copyright or trademark infringement was intended. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. It would also be really, really cool.

ARCHIVE: SJA and Heliopolis; my site, naturally; anyone else just ask and ye shall be granted

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I originally conceived of it for one fandom, but then I thought, Hey! If I only use pronouns instead of names, it works quite well for two! And so it was done.

***

If he had to describe what it feels like, he would have to say it's like drowning.

As he watches her face the man who will be her husband in a matter of minutes, he can't help but wonder what he could have done to prevent this from happening. Maybe if he'd realized -- or admitted -- early on that there was an attraction, he could have gotten it out of his system years ago and moved on, making this whole thing less painful for them both.

Instead, it had happened so slowly that he'd barely noticed--

--until it was too late

--end--

A.N.#2: The title comes from the supposed fact that if you place a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will jump right out. ("Well, *duh*!" I can hear you say. "Wouldn't you?"). However, if you put a frog in a cold pot of water and heat it slowly to a boil, the frog's environment changes so slowly that it doesn't notice and it lets itself be boiled alive.

I don't know if it's true, and I certainly hate to think of how many times this experiment may have been performed. Don't you dare try it at home or I'll send the PETA-type people after you.

Hopefully, no animals were harmed in the making of this fanfic.