#happy tuesday people! enjoy some stateside holiday fluff

[haltandcatchfiretothemax]

In which Cameron, much to Donna’s elation, is actually in the mood to celebrate on a holiday

[CN: spoilers for s4 of Halt and Catch Fire - major character death]

[CN: food/prep/dessert mentions; alcohol and social drinking mention]

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It was late in the evening on Labor Day of 1995, the sun had already gone down, and Cameron was sitting in what was becoming her regular spot in Donna’s backyard: the second lounge chair from the door. She sat with her legs crossed underneath her, her dessert plate and fork in front of her, and can of ginger ale in hand.

Donna stepped out into the yard with her own dessert plate, overloaded with pecan pie, peach cobbler, and vanilla ice cream (Donna hadn’t been able to choose between which to bake or eat) and half of one of the churros Bos had made, and sat on the lounge chair next to Cameron’s. Thickly, Donna asked, “Hey. How’s your stomach doing?”

Cameron shrugged. “It’s not so bad. There are worse problems to have than ‘I ate too much again,’ right?” She glanced over at Donna, who was spooning a final mouthful of pie into her mouth, and then surveyed the rest of the party. Bos and Diane were already starting to say their goodbyes, they were talking to Tanya Reese, her sister, and some other Symphonic people that Cameron didn’t know over by the grill. Risa was in the pool, floating on Donna’s inflatable recliner and her partner was taking ~glamor shots~ of her, and Haley and Vanessa were playing hackey sack with a tipsy Lev and his partner on the other side of the pool, Yo-yo and his wife were chatting with Donna’s neighbors from across the street. All of it was illuminated with outdoor lights and torches that Cameron had helped put up that morning, after arriving promptly at 11:30 to help. (“Wait, but what about your whole, ‘Sorry I’m late, I didn’t actually want to have to come to this thing’ thing?!” Donna had cried as Cameron pushed past her and into the house. Ignoring her, Cameron had said, “I brought pineapples and mangoes, where should I put them?” Donna had been delighted, if shocked.)

“My business partner, she is once again lost in thought!” Donna said. “What? What are you thinking?”

“We didn’t do anything for Labor Day last year,” Cameron said. “We were working overtime on the Comet relaunch, and even if we hadn’t been, who was in the mood to celebrate? It’s just weird. I kinda really thought I’d never do anything like this ever again.”

Donna put her spoon down on her now only half-full plate and sighed. “We both know that websites and start ups come and go, they don’t usually last forever. But for Comet to shutter so soon after Gordon’s passing? I don’t think that I’ll ever be able to fully forgive that.”

“Seriously,” Cameron nodded. Then, she admitted, “I was miserable at Comet. And it wasn’t just because we all missed Gordon, though that was part of it. I guilt tripped myself into working with J0e and I was so annoyed at myself. There was no working with him, I was working for him. And the worst part of it was that he wasn’t even trying to be like that, it’s just, how it was.” When Donna didn’t say anything, Cameron said, “I was jealous of his partnership with Gordon. It really worked even with all of their baggage. It was special.”

Thoughtfully, Donna said, “Baggage is one thing. A former or current deep, romantic relationship where one partner has more power, and has betrayed you somehow, that’s something else.” When Cameron turned to look at her, Donna said, “It’s just different, with a man, and a woman! It’s like you said, he didn’t even mean to take advantage of you, but, like, history is nothing but men taking credit for their women colleague’s work and taking their wives’ labor for granted! How do we escape that?”

Cameron had no answer for this, so she took a sip of her ginger ale, and then she said, “I don’t completely regret writing the Rover algorithm. I mean I know I shouldn’t have, but…it was a way to work with you. Sort of. It wasn’t just about that, but it was a little bit about that.”

Donna grinned over at her. “I’m pretty sure that the reason I got so mad at you was because I wasn’t that mad, because I was excited to see your code again.”

Cameron grinned over at the sight of Haley and Lev laughing as they struggled to keep the hackey sack in the air, and then turned to Donna. “You still think it’s like a piece of music then?”

Donna’s face turned pink. “Yes. And I feel lucky, because I get to work with you again. We’re all lucky, everyone here has been ridiculously fortunate professionally.”

Cameron leaned forward to rest her elbow on her knee, and rested her chin in her hand. “That’s how it should be,” she murmured. “Everyone should be as lucky as we are. Everyone should get to make a good living from doing something that matters to them, with people that respect them.”

Swallowing down a last mouthful of cobbler and ice cream, Donna raised her spoon. With a little flourish, she agreed, “Hear, hear!”