Title: Making Memories
Fandom: Spooks (MI5)
Rating: G
Length: 284
Summary: Adam's innocent question sends Lucas back to his childhood
Also written for inspiring_tables Ultimate trope table 'Flashback'

"Lucas," Adam Carter called.  “What sort of jam do you want on your toast?”

Lucas, who had just walked into the kitchen, was suddenly hit by the memory of his mother asking a similar question.  Although then it had more simply been ‘Do you want jam on your toast?’  There wasn’t usually a choice, since it was normally mixed fruit, which was the cheapest.  And very thinly spread.  Even as he’d grown older, he’d not been allowed to spread the jam in case he took too much.

Sometimes, in the summer, there would be strawberry jam sandwiches when they had a picnic.  Those, naturally, attracted all the wasps for miles, which normally led to the picnic being abandoned far sooner than Lucas would have liked.

Raspberry jam was reserved for his auntie’s jam tarts.  A small spoonful of jam in the middle of some very leathery pastry.  This was one occasion when he was happy to obey his father’s strictures of ‘Only take one.  We must remember there are other people too.’

Which was also why he was only ever allowed a small slice of his nan’s Victoria sponge.  He’d have happily eaten a large slice, if he’d been given the chance; her sponges were always very light, and she used her own homemade jam in the middle.  He smiled slightly.

“Lucas, are you receiving me?” Adam interrupted Lucas’ train of thought.

“What, sorry?”

“I asked you what sort of jam you wanted on your toast.”

“Oh, one slice apricot and one slice blackcurrant, please.”  They never had either flavour when he was growing up.

“Thickly spread?”

“Of course!”  Because now was the time for replacing bad old memories with some good new ones.