Title: Three Bags Full
Author: Rhea314
Fandom: SGA
Characters:Jeanie
Rating: G
Warnings:None
Words: 515
Summary: Jeanie contemplates hair of three generations. For Cliche Bingo prompt ‘Transformation’ as I undershot the required word count for the first one and totally missed that fact. Subtly I suppose this story is about transformation in the changes from one generation to the next.

When Jeanie was little she had long hair. All through elementary and middle school it was waist length, straight and blond, curls pulled out by the weight. Her mother had insisted Jeanie wear her hair pulled back from her face in a headband. No ponytails, no parts. Jeanie hated it. She rebelled, and all her school pictures show her hair pulled back straight held by a headband, and behind that a white line of part wavering triumphantly back. The pictures always looked ridiculous, her head a patchwork contrast of the political struggles of Jeanie's home life. When Jeanie went to high school she stopped coming home on time, had her own friends and her own life. Meredith had gone off to college and Jeanie too was striking out on her own in ever way she could. She cut her hair short. The curls sprang up over night and she pulled them back into little sprig pigtails at the base of her neck. It wasn't sheik but it was her own look and she liked it.

Jeanie's hair hasn't been long since she cut it. She went as Goldilocks to Maddie's school for Halloween. Jeanie likes it like that. Now Madison has her hair, but Maddie wants long hair "like a princess!” It's thick and blond and makes Maddie happy. She wears it however she likes, as long as she'll submit to have it brushed and combed.

They're riding the bus home from the zoo, Maddie with a stuffed panda bear clutched to her chest, dozing a little against Jeanie's side. They're almost to their stop when the woman across from them leans over and says to Maddie.
"I used to have hair like that." Maddie starts from drowsing and stares warily at the woman, her hand reaching to hold Jeanie's arm.
"When I was a young woman I had long blond hair. A woman's hair is her crowning glory. I was at a bus stop one day, I lived near a naval base, and a man asked me to donate my hair to the War effort. They needed long blond hair for the periscopes. Darker colors just didn't work; it needed to be long and straight. Well the next day I went in and I cut off my hair. I never did grow it back as long. But if figure my hair sunk a few U-boats so that's fair." The old woman smiles, nodding in recollection, her hair snow white, a green hand bag resting on her knees "So be sure to take care of your hair, it's very important." Maddie listened wide-eyed and nodded solemnly. Jeanie smiled and thanked the woman. The next stop was theirs. Jeanie helped Maddie up off the seat wishing the woman a good afternoon. She held Maddie's hand while Maddie climbed her careful way off the bus. Walking back to their house Jeanie felt her hand reach up to tug a short curl of her own hair. Her heart swelled with glad hope that Maddie wouldn't have to sacrifice her hair to a war of any kind.