We used to wait. (Chapter 23/?)
title: We used to wait. (Chapter 23/?)
author:
apodixis
spoilers: Through all seasons, though this takes place in an AU starting at the very end of season 2.
pairings: kara/lee, kara/sam
overall fic rating: R/NC-17
word count: 5,218
notes: See http://apodixis.livejournal.com/685.html for more information.
summary: If God isn't leading the fleet to Earth, can they ever find it?
Hopefully I haven't completely bored anyone and everyone still reading this. With the next few days free, I'll be updating this a lot since I want to finish it as soon as possible.
Kara tugged at Lee’s ankles, exposed to the deck while the rest of his body was hidden beneath the underside of her pristine Viper. With just the slightest bit of force, the wheels of the dolly beneath him had him rolling out, tools still in hand.
“Hey, I’m work-” He shouted angrily, but silenced himself when he saw her standing above him, smiling wider than he’d seen since long before she’d gone to her death, or what had at least looked like it. “I take it you got the news.” He returned her expression, though his was a bit more restrained and coy.
“No, the Admiral just sent me over to give you a goodbye frak before I go out the airlock and to download city,” she quipped, quickly lowering herself to straddle his hips, kneeling on the edges of the board he laid upon. “I told him I wouldn’t take too long,” Kara leaned over him, her hands pressing into the dirtied deck floor to support her body parallel above his own. “He wasn’t surprised to hear your record best is thirty seconds.”
Though he never would have thought it possible, she burned even brighter before him than she had only a second before. She was teasing him and it was like old times, before her death, the Final Five, and the mysteries that surrounded her, not that she hadn’t always been something of a mystery to him anyway. “I distinctly remember passing the fourty second mark last time,” he said, playing into her game. He dropped the tools from his hands, suddenly finding himself less than interested in wherever the ship had in fact come from.
“In your dreams, Leland.” His full first name rolled off her tongue in a cheap shot, since she knew full well how much he hated being reminded of the name that had been on his birth certificate on Caprica.
Grease coated hands palmed the seat of her fatigues, pulling her down into him as much as she would allow, which wasn’t much. Like always, Kara loved the sense of control she either had or pretended to have in most situations. Take that truly away from her and that was when she usually fell apart. Above him, she lowered herself down just enough to ghost her lips over his, not quite touching, but not more than a few millimeters apart either. He felt her warm breath on his skin and it gave him goosebumps to know he had been given a second chance to do things right by her. Since she’d returned, they’d kissed but it had been more of a relieved kind of release of tension than anything else. A way for Lee to stop mourning her and make her real. This right here was something else entirely, with a different goal in mind.
Her lips grinned even with how close their mouths were, unable to shake the remarkable sense of joy she felt at the recent developments. Adama had given her another chance. He’d made her a free woman, or as free as anyone else in the fleet could be. And Lee, well Lee was going to help her figure it all out. Her worries of Sam and his fate faded temporarily as well, suddenly feeling the worlds, or perhaps just Earth, at her fingertips. Having resisted long enough, her lips brushed against his for half a second, pulling away before he could have a chance to enjoy it. The inner groan that left him made her soar, even feeling the slight rumble of it where their bodies touched. Kara repeated her action again, this time lingering a second longer, separating them once he had a moment to react and part his own lips against hers.
“Kara…” Lee warned her verbally, though the smile he wore let her know he was anything but angry.
She silenced him with her mouth, aggressive and hot against his. It was a kiss that matched who she was, a perfect example of every part of who Kara Thrace was without a single word spoken. Her body lowered against his until she was practically lying atop him, one hand on the deck while the other pushed through his lengthening hair, gaining purchase on the strands. She bit his lip and he bit hers right back, eliciting a stream of giggles from them ten years younger than they actually were. Against her pelvis did she feel just how wrapped up in her he was getting, and in a typical Kara-like move, she rubbed down upon him as both reward and punishment.
His lips suddenly froze against her own, mouth opened as a primal moan left the back of his throat, passing into the chill of the air around them. He’d dreamt he would have this again nearly every night she was gone and Lee knew that her remarks about his stamina from earlier would more than likely be true when they were first together again. With some of his composure regained and the fabric of his pants straining a little tighter, Lee dove back in, his lips moving from her mouth to her jaw, following the sharp line of it to the patch of flesh just below her ear lobe. That was his spot, without question, and like the freckle at the apex of her thighs he particularly worshipped, the dark speck beneath her ear unquestionably belonged to him just as much as it did to her. Kara responded with a moan of her own, her breath panting irregularly as the tip of his tongue came in contact with her skin.
“Middle of this deck, Lee,” she breathed out. “I’m going to frak you right here.”
“Mmhmm,” he hummed against her skin, teeth nipping gently at the lobe before working down to her neck. Though the rational part of Lee Adama wouldn’t particularly agree with going all the way out in the open, his mouth was far too busy to protest.
“Oh frak me,” Kara moaned again, sweat already gathering over different points of her skin thanks to his attention to other seemingly innocent parts. Unable to take it any longer, she pushed herself up, her hand searching out his own to convince him to join her, not that Lee needed any persuasion.
She looked around to locate the best spot for such an encounter, seeking out a storage locker likely to have some empty space, when Lee took the initiative, leading the way. Kara complied with enthusiasm, her brows raising as he came to a halt behind a few stacked boxes. They’d just barely be hidden out of sight. “Getting brave, Apollo,” she said, nearly challenging him.
He said nothing, instead his hands jerked at the waistband of her green fatigues, undoing both the button and the zipper. Kara’s nimble fingers likewise began at his own, using just as much force as he’d shown her. She was used to taking charge, but it didn’t mean she didn’t thoroughly enjoy it when just as she often turned into Starbuck, Lee fell back into Apollo and made her his. She stepped out of her pants and briefs after toeing off her boots and immediately, he was there, pressing her up against the icy bulkhead. Her head smacked a little too hard into it and though she winced, she soon followed it up with a bit of laughter.
“Frak, Sorry,” Lee grunted, laughing along with her.
“Don’t get distracted,” she reprimanded him, her eyes on the prize again as her hands forced his open slacks and briefs down just enough until he was exposed and free.
His hands gripped at the back of her thighs, hoisting her up with the help of the wall at her back, and Kara guided him inside of her. She was wet and searing with heat, even warmer than her lips had been when they’d initially met his. Lee let himself go, moaning against the crook of her neck, Kara’s arms around his own neck to help support herself as best she could. He’d nearly lost himself immediately at feeling her tight and constricting around him, but when even an ounce of control was restored to him, the process of his hips pressing in and sliding away from her body began.
The pace grew frantic almost right away and Kara enjoyed the feel of her back pressing against the cool wall with each thrust of his body into hers. She was close, though not quite there yet, but felt the signs of Lee’s own release on the immediate horizon. Kara kissed his brow, her lips salty with his sweat, before moving back to his mouth. She was just as rough as she had been when they started, however, her fingers gently stroked his scalp, a juxtaposition to the rest of their actions. “Mm,” Kara moaned against his ear. “It’s okay, Lee. Let go.” He’d always been a giving lover, at least what she had experienced from him, and she knew she needed to give him permission to find his own moment of ecstasy without her finding hers first. Oh, she’d wanted hers like nothing else, but Kara knew she was too far off and would never beat him there, even with extra manual stimulation.
On cue, Lee groaned loudly as she kissed him again, feeling himself tighten and release inside of her. His final thrusts were slow and shallow, only echoes of what they had been a second earlier before his body gave in to temptation and succumbed to the fatigue brought along with it. Afterward, Lee’s arms finally gently released her, lowering her feet back to the ground to give the lactic acid in his muscles a chance to be reabsorbed by his body.
Kara’s arms slipped back around him once they were no longer joined together, drawing his weak body to hers so his head rested against her shoulder and neck. Her own head rested upon the identical spot on him, this time her mouth leaving meek kisses in contrast to the ferocity of the ones before. She had wanted this since she’d stepped off her Viper, although it would have mostly been a mix of the high she felt with news of Earth and something of an apology for the way they’d left things between them. For him, it was entirely different, and the feel of moisture against her neck told her just how much so.
“Lee,” she whispered, completely doubting her ability to comfort another human being. He’d expressed some of this when they met on the hangar deck days previously and she’d felt that relief in him then. They’d talked, Gods how they’d talked since then, and she could only begin to understand the pain he went through. Even in that Life Station room, they’d comforted one another. It had all been fresh though, their minds and bodies overwhelmed at her return to them. Now, hidden just behind a few stacks of boxes and ship parts, they’d had days together to come to terms with it all. And while in sickbay they’d kissed and said their hellos that way, not until this moment did they make each other theirs again.
He kept quiet, arms tight around her as his tears fell no matter how hard he tried to not let them. It wasn’t just grief he was letting out, but happiness as well. Anger at her having left him behind. Disbelief that she had somehow come back. Every emotion that anyone had ever felt in the whole of human history, he felt at that moment.
“Oh, Lee,” Kara spoke and her own tears came. “You know I’m safe, I’m here.” She’d reassured him repeatedly of that fact, though she understood why it wasn’t getting through to him. “We’re going to go to Earth, Lee,” she said, trying out a new tactic. Her fingers stroked over the back of his neck as she continued on. “You and me. We never thought we’d get there to see it, but we will. You just need to let this all go, so you can make time to start dreaming about where we’re going to live. Together. I promise you, we’ll be there together. You know I stopped running a long time ago.”
Lee knew that this was all Kara talking to him now, her alter ego having hidden herself away. He sniffled and listened to her nearly silent words. The volume didn’t surprise him, since he was sure Kara was barely allowing herself to admit to these things in the first place. He would take what he could get with her, though she managed to shock him time and time again. He lifted his head to look at her, her digits continuing to brush along the skin at the nape of his neck. “Sorry.”
She shook her head rapidly, leaning in to kiss his wet cheeks. When she pulled back, she winked as she spoke. “You can owe me one later.” Both knew she wasn’t referring to the comforting, but rather the orgasm she’d missed out on while he’d quickly given in to his.
“I’ll owe you a few,” he responded in time, his own wink given as he quickly buttoned and refastened his pants, then bent down to help her step back into her own. He drew the briefs and slacks up for her, kissing her bare thighs along the way until she took over and secured them back at her waist. He stayed kneeling at her feet to help her with her boots, undoing the laces and tying them at the ankle.
Kara watched from above, remembering all the reasons why she felt the way she did about him. “I love you,” she offered and it was a rarity that she said it first.
“I love you,” Lee said as he pulled tight the last knot. He rose and his hand sought out hers, tugging her out from where they’d hidden away, much like he’d brought her there minutes earlier. “But if you’re going to make promises about Earth, you need to find your way back to it first.”
Together this time, both of their bodies slid beneath the Viper and began to take it apart.
-
When Sam arrived in the private conference room with his set of marine guards, only Roslin and Adama were seated and waiting. The fact that the two most important people in the entire fleet trusted him enough, or at least were acting the part, to be left alone with the supposed cylon was not lost to Sam Anders. Behind him, his cuffs were unlocked and released and with a nod of the Admiral’s head, the guards stepped out to stand watch behind the sealed door. Sam rubbed at his wrists, soothing the light ache out of them after being so tightly held within the gripping metal on the walk over. He gave a dip of his head in quiet greeting before he sat down across from them, unsure of how to begin.
The Admiral started first. “When you give us the names of the others, we’re going to ask you to take your oath to the fleet again, Anders.”
“You’re going to let me stay on?” Though he hoped to at least not be airlocked for coming forward, he never expected that manner of trust.
“If you’ll swear your loyalty to the fleet again, knowing who you are now.”
Sam nodded. “What about the others?”
Something closed to a frustrated sigh left the Admiral and Roslin took the moment to speak up. “Should they also choose to swear their loyalty, I’m prepared to give them amnesty and a pardon here. But that’s only if they cooperate.”
He took in the words, suddenly fearing as if he’d made a mistake in coming forward. Since revealing who he was, he’d felt a weight lifted at no longer carrying the secret burden on his own, but that didn’t ease his fears that the entire thing would end up worse than he could even imagine. Just because he had a clue of who he was, by no means meant the others had any idea of their true nature, nor did he know if they’d choose to stick by the men and women they’d lived with for years when given the choice and knowledge of the truth.
“Some of these names…” Sam started. “They’re going to be hard to hear.”
That was what both the Admiral and President had been incredibly afraid of. Best case scenario, the people would have turned out to be absolute nobodies. Civilians buried away on a ship somewhere. Since D’Anna had confessed that she could feel them nearby, however, Roslin had begin to fear that it would mean some, if not all of them, were specifically associated with Galactica. That would have dire consequences.
“I told you who I was because I wanted to help. I’m not here for any other reason other than the people I care about are here. Even if I am a-” He swallowed hard, gathering the strength to say it aloud. “A cylon, they aren’t my people. I don’t condone what they did, you know more than anyone I can’t stand them for the things they’ve done.” His eyes read of every death he witnessed at the hands of the cylons on Caprica.
“Let’s hear them,” Bill prompted.
His hands rubbing over his face, Sam nodded with great reluctance. He looked to Roslin first. “Tory Foster.”
Laura’s mouth opened in complete horror, her hand rising to cover it. She looked from Sam to Bill, her mind quickly reeling over everything she trusted the woman with. Then she recalled just how strongly Tory had fought in the resistance on New Caprica and kept Roslin, herself, safe. “My Gods.”
“I know,” Sam said. “I’m sorry.” And he was, though not as sorry as he was going to feel about who he revealed to the Admiral. “Galen Tyrol.”
Bill stiffened at his words.
“He was called to that temple too, I just got there first,” Anders added in, as if to solidify his argument. “Everything he felt about that place, I felt it too.”
Laura reached across to set her hand against Bill’s arm in a sign of reassurance. “Who’s next?”
“Ellen Tigh.”
Though neither of the other two verbalized it, there was a hint of humor on both of their expressions at the thought. Of course, Ellen Tigh.
“And the last?” The Admiral asked.
This was the hardest one to say aloud, and though the others had come out hesitantly, Sam wasn’t sure if he could ever admit it because of the betrayal it would bring to the Admiral. He breathed in deep, chest expanding and contracting.
“Admiral… it’s Colonel Tigh.”
While the meeting had gone relatively peacefully, though what they shared was rather heavy, all of the calm in the room left once Sam gave away the fifth identity. Bill stood, hands slamming down into the table. “You’re lying!” He shouted and Sam sat back in his seat, never before having been so afraid of the Admiral and the deadly look he now wore just for Sam. “Now I know this has all been a game to you. I’ve known Saul for over thirty years! He was in the first cylon war, a Viper pilot like me. Cylons don’t age, he used to have hair for Gods’ sake.”
Sam shook his head, trying to reassure himself that he had in fact been telling the truth and this hadn’t been some elaborate dream he’d made up. No, he was sure of it all. It was a fact. To himself, at least. “I remember being a kid. I remember growing up and I know I can’t because I’m a frakking cylon. Were you there when Colonel Tigh fought in the first war? Did you meet him back then? Because unless you did, then it’s not true!”
His words sank into Bill. No, he hadn’t known Tigh fourty years ago. He’d gotten to know him ten years after the war and had simply believed all that the man had shared. But, he thought to himself, hadn’t there been records? He was able to bring Tigh back into the service twenty years ago. That wouldn’t have been possible if it had all been a lie, right? Unless information about him had been planted into all the necessary systems to make him seem legitimate.
Adama’s heart pounded and for a moment he was sure he was having a heart attack. Laura’s hand at his back was the only thing that brought him a modicum of calm. He felt betrayed, perhaps even more so than when Kara had returned and he’d presumed her to be a cylon copy rather than the flesh and blood he now believed her to be. This was Tigh. His lifelong friend that had been his right hand man. The second in command of Galactica, who had for a brief time, taken over command when Bill himself was nearly dying. He was all of these things and more, and yet, Samuel Anders was sitting there, telling him he was a cylon.
Bill shook his head roughly, unable to cope with it, and eventually sat back down. He still seethed with anger of both what Sam had said and what it actually meant if true. “Get him out of here,” he ordered to Roslin, and despite her weakening state and the fact that she had no obligation to follow him, she obeyed, rising to head to the door.
The marines came back in and quickly cuffed Sam. Though part of him had hoped to be released freely after he held up his end of the bargain, he understood why he’d be going back to that cell. The Admiral was suffering at the names he’d given and to expect any rational decisions or thinking was out of the question, even Sam knew that much. So he’d go back to his cell, awaiting news of what would come to the others, hoping they would be able to cope with the revelations.
Alone, Laura returned to Bill’s side, tears now coasting down his cheeks. “How could it be Tigh,” he muttered to himself. “It can’t be true.”
“Bill,” she said softly, though she was still trying to come to terms with the fact that her own aide was one of them. At least she hadn’t known Tory very long. “Let’s get back to your room, all right?”
-
After trying to locate Lee and Kara for most of the afternoon, Roslin finally found them on a tip from Karl Agathon. Though the logical idea would have been to have CIC send out a page for them, given the nature of the information revealed by Samuel Anders, she’d thought better of attracting even more attention and questions than already existed. By now, word of Sam’s confession about himself had spread through the ship, most likely through loose lips of the marines that worked on guard rotations. The fact that he’d also said he knew the names of the other four remaining cylons hadn’t been lost in translation either, which had set something of a panic throughout Galactica.
Soon, Laura knew, the information would reach all of the other ships of the fleet. There would be chaos and damage control to be done. Tory would be busy- although now she realized keeping Tory on as her aide once word got out about her would probably lead to much panic amongst the Quorom. Gods, the four names Sam had revealed couldn’t have been worse, unless her name had been included among them, she thought.
The couple arrived not long after she’d sent Karl Agathon to fetch them, though she hadn’t indicated a reason for him to give along with the request, other than that it was urgent. Given that both Kara and Lee knew of what conversation was to happen that day between the Admiral and Sam, neither of the two took long in quitting the private quarters they’d taken up to sharing upon her release from hack. Though they weren’t married, no one had yet to put up an argument about the situation. Kara had been medically cleared as not being a cylon, but that didn’t mean some of the crew didn’t feel otherwise towards her, and perhaps not sharing their head or living quarters wasn’t a particularly bad idea.
“What’s happened?” Lee said, even before the hatch closed behind them.
Laura emerged from the bathroom with a quickness she hadn’t felt in months. “It’s your father,” she said, head shaking as her hand rose slightly to indicate towards from where she came. “Tigh. Tigh’s one of them.”
Lee didn’t hesitate to move towards the bathroom with the news still ringing in his ears, Kara hot on his heels. Bill lay slumped against the wall in the absolute definition of a man in a breakdown. Lee quietly wondered if this was similar to how he’d been after Kara’s death, recalling just how his father had taken care of him. It wasn’t about owing Adama or simply returning the favor, though. This was his father and Lee would have done anything to help him in such a state, even years ago when the pair hadn’t been talking. To see a person this broken was absolutely devastating.
“Dad,” Lee started, crouching down beside him. Kara handed him a freshly rinsed cool was cloth and Lee pressed it to his father’s forehead and cheeks, hoping to calm him further.
Kara stepped around the father and son combination to Adama’s other side, though the fit was rather tight with their three bodies crammed in around the pieces of plumbing and belongings. She kneeled beside him and took over Lee’s duty with the cloth.
Adama groaned in sorrow, face cringing as if in physical pain though it was emotional and mental, nothing else. “Why him?”
“It had to be someone,” Kara said, although she knew they weren’t the right words by the sound he emitted from deep within. She smelled the alcohol on his breath and raised her eyes to Lee’s to confirm he’d sensed it as well.
“Dad, if I were a cylon, would it change how you felt about me?” Lee turned his father’s head towards himself though Adama’s eyes were kept closed. He didn’t respond, so Lee did for him. “No, it wouldn’t. I’m your son. Tigh’s your friend, it won’t change what he is to you and what you are to him.” Lee had only known about Tigh for a minute or two, but he was stunned by it all the same. Saul had been around his entire life. They weren’t close, even after they both became two of fifty thousand people fleeing the Twelve Colonies, but it didn’t matter. This man, this cylon, had been with him his whole life. It was a hard concept to begin to imagine.
“I trusted him with the fleet!” Adama ground out.
“And he still should be trusted,” Kara said. Though she’d been cleared of cylon attachments, part of her felt as though she was irrevocably changed by what had happened over her first few days back. Her missing two months were a mystery and yet, he still trusted her. Tigh had proven his loyalties, especially down on New Caprica. He deserved the chance to stay at their side.
Adama gave a low cry out again in misery and Lee and Kara worked together to haul him up under his arms, maneuvering their three bodies out of the small bathroom and into the bedroom quarters. Laura kept back, letting his children take care of him for the time being. With Bill seated on the bed beside Lee, his son’s arm still around him for support, Kara returned to the bathroom to fill a cup of water. She brought it to his lips to help him drink, hoping to help his system by adding something to it other than just alcohol. The cup emptied, Kara sat beside him. Just removing him from the confines of the bathroom seemed to have calmed him down considerably, but she knew that was only for outward appearances. Inside, he was still a mess, and rightfully so. She wrapped her arm around him, holding herself close to him just as Lee did on the other side.
“The fleet’s going to need you more than ever, Dad,” said Lee. “To make them understand that we can work through this.” If the Admiral fell apart, so would Galactica and all the civilians scattered across the tens of ships that followed the battlestar to the ends of the universe.
“We need you,” Kara insisted, trying to call upon how much he’d always risen to that in the past. When he was needed, Bill Adama was always there in the end. Even on Kobol, recovering from gunshots to the chest, he’d trekked through that forest with the rest of them because it was simply where he knew he needed to be.
Lee slipped away from his father’s side once he was sure Kara had hold of him and began to undo his father’s boots. Once removed, he helped in laying Bill down on the bed, his father quickly giving in to the pull of sleep. Kara took his hand as they stood a few feet off, watching the regular rise and fall of his father’s chest, eventually pulling herself against him. They both drew comfort from the other, individually coming to terms with seeing the man they knew as their father having his a bottom so incredibly low.
-
Though Bill took the rest of the night off, as he was in no shape to begin serving a shift, he returned to duty the following morning. Tigh stared at him from across the plotting table in the middle of the aging ampitheatre style CIC. Adama steeled himself for the interaction, trying not to look at the XO as anything else but the person he’d seen for the previous thirty years.
“Feeling better, Bill?” Tigh asked as he sipped his morning coffee, or whatever passed for it these days.
“Yes,” he said with a nod of his head, tilting back to look up at the DRADIS screens. “Quiet night on DRADIS?”
“Absolutely nothing out there. Almost makes me wish for the cylons to show up so long as I get to stop listening to Hot Dog talk about his newest rash.”
Bill smiled, forgetting momentarily about the situation that existed beyond that very room. When his eyes came back to settle on Saul, however, it all flooded back in. “Do you think you and Ellen can stop by my quarters later tonight? Around eighteen hundred?”
Tigh raised his brow. It had been a long time since both he and Ellen had been invited to dine with the Admiral or even share drinks. It wasn’t that their friendship had changed, just that things had gotten in the way since then. Even the last few months and New Caprica had changed Ellen into something of a more restrained woman than she had been. Truthfully, Saul had worried for her, because almost nothing seemed to ever phase her, but he’d let it go out of cowardice of starting a fight. “Sure, Bill. Will Roslin be joining us?”
Adama forced a smile and he nodded. “She will.”
author:
apodixis
spoilers: Through all seasons, though this takes place in an AU starting at the very end of season 2.
pairings: kara/lee, kara/sam
overall fic rating: R/NC-17
word count: 5,218
notes: See http://apodixis.livejournal.com/685.html for more information.
summary: If God isn't leading the fleet to Earth, can they ever find it?
Hopefully I haven't completely bored anyone and everyone still reading this. With the next few days free, I'll be updating this a lot since I want to finish it as soon as possible.
Kara tugged at Lee’s ankles, exposed to the deck while the rest of his body was hidden beneath the underside of her pristine Viper. With just the slightest bit of force, the wheels of the dolly beneath him had him rolling out, tools still in hand.
“Hey, I’m work-” He shouted angrily, but silenced himself when he saw her standing above him, smiling wider than he’d seen since long before she’d gone to her death, or what had at least looked like it. “I take it you got the news.” He returned her expression, though his was a bit more restrained and coy.
“No, the Admiral just sent me over to give you a goodbye frak before I go out the airlock and to download city,” she quipped, quickly lowering herself to straddle his hips, kneeling on the edges of the board he laid upon. “I told him I wouldn’t take too long,” Kara leaned over him, her hands pressing into the dirtied deck floor to support her body parallel above his own. “He wasn’t surprised to hear your record best is thirty seconds.”
Though he never would have thought it possible, she burned even brighter before him than she had only a second before. She was teasing him and it was like old times, before her death, the Final Five, and the mysteries that surrounded her, not that she hadn’t always been something of a mystery to him anyway. “I distinctly remember passing the fourty second mark last time,” he said, playing into her game. He dropped the tools from his hands, suddenly finding himself less than interested in wherever the ship had in fact come from.
“In your dreams, Leland.” His full first name rolled off her tongue in a cheap shot, since she knew full well how much he hated being reminded of the name that had been on his birth certificate on Caprica.
Grease coated hands palmed the seat of her fatigues, pulling her down into him as much as she would allow, which wasn’t much. Like always, Kara loved the sense of control she either had or pretended to have in most situations. Take that truly away from her and that was when she usually fell apart. Above him, she lowered herself down just enough to ghost her lips over his, not quite touching, but not more than a few millimeters apart either. He felt her warm breath on his skin and it gave him goosebumps to know he had been given a second chance to do things right by her. Since she’d returned, they’d kissed but it had been more of a relieved kind of release of tension than anything else. A way for Lee to stop mourning her and make her real. This right here was something else entirely, with a different goal in mind.
Her lips grinned even with how close their mouths were, unable to shake the remarkable sense of joy she felt at the recent developments. Adama had given her another chance. He’d made her a free woman, or as free as anyone else in the fleet could be. And Lee, well Lee was going to help her figure it all out. Her worries of Sam and his fate faded temporarily as well, suddenly feeling the worlds, or perhaps just Earth, at her fingertips. Having resisted long enough, her lips brushed against his for half a second, pulling away before he could have a chance to enjoy it. The inner groan that left him made her soar, even feeling the slight rumble of it where their bodies touched. Kara repeated her action again, this time lingering a second longer, separating them once he had a moment to react and part his own lips against hers.
“Kara…” Lee warned her verbally, though the smile he wore let her know he was anything but angry.
She silenced him with her mouth, aggressive and hot against his. It was a kiss that matched who she was, a perfect example of every part of who Kara Thrace was without a single word spoken. Her body lowered against his until she was practically lying atop him, one hand on the deck while the other pushed through his lengthening hair, gaining purchase on the strands. She bit his lip and he bit hers right back, eliciting a stream of giggles from them ten years younger than they actually were. Against her pelvis did she feel just how wrapped up in her he was getting, and in a typical Kara-like move, she rubbed down upon him as both reward and punishment.
His lips suddenly froze against her own, mouth opened as a primal moan left the back of his throat, passing into the chill of the air around them. He’d dreamt he would have this again nearly every night she was gone and Lee knew that her remarks about his stamina from earlier would more than likely be true when they were first together again. With some of his composure regained and the fabric of his pants straining a little tighter, Lee dove back in, his lips moving from her mouth to her jaw, following the sharp line of it to the patch of flesh just below her ear lobe. That was his spot, without question, and like the freckle at the apex of her thighs he particularly worshipped, the dark speck beneath her ear unquestionably belonged to him just as much as it did to her. Kara responded with a moan of her own, her breath panting irregularly as the tip of his tongue came in contact with her skin.
“Middle of this deck, Lee,” she breathed out. “I’m going to frak you right here.”
“Mmhmm,” he hummed against her skin, teeth nipping gently at the lobe before working down to her neck. Though the rational part of Lee Adama wouldn’t particularly agree with going all the way out in the open, his mouth was far too busy to protest.
“Oh frak me,” Kara moaned again, sweat already gathering over different points of her skin thanks to his attention to other seemingly innocent parts. Unable to take it any longer, she pushed herself up, her hand searching out his own to convince him to join her, not that Lee needed any persuasion.
She looked around to locate the best spot for such an encounter, seeking out a storage locker likely to have some empty space, when Lee took the initiative, leading the way. Kara complied with enthusiasm, her brows raising as he came to a halt behind a few stacked boxes. They’d just barely be hidden out of sight. “Getting brave, Apollo,” she said, nearly challenging him.
He said nothing, instead his hands jerked at the waistband of her green fatigues, undoing both the button and the zipper. Kara’s nimble fingers likewise began at his own, using just as much force as he’d shown her. She was used to taking charge, but it didn’t mean she didn’t thoroughly enjoy it when just as she often turned into Starbuck, Lee fell back into Apollo and made her his. She stepped out of her pants and briefs after toeing off her boots and immediately, he was there, pressing her up against the icy bulkhead. Her head smacked a little too hard into it and though she winced, she soon followed it up with a bit of laughter.
“Frak, Sorry,” Lee grunted, laughing along with her.
“Don’t get distracted,” she reprimanded him, her eyes on the prize again as her hands forced his open slacks and briefs down just enough until he was exposed and free.
His hands gripped at the back of her thighs, hoisting her up with the help of the wall at her back, and Kara guided him inside of her. She was wet and searing with heat, even warmer than her lips had been when they’d initially met his. Lee let himself go, moaning against the crook of her neck, Kara’s arms around his own neck to help support herself as best she could. He’d nearly lost himself immediately at feeling her tight and constricting around him, but when even an ounce of control was restored to him, the process of his hips pressing in and sliding away from her body began.
The pace grew frantic almost right away and Kara enjoyed the feel of her back pressing against the cool wall with each thrust of his body into hers. She was close, though not quite there yet, but felt the signs of Lee’s own release on the immediate horizon. Kara kissed his brow, her lips salty with his sweat, before moving back to his mouth. She was just as rough as she had been when they started, however, her fingers gently stroked his scalp, a juxtaposition to the rest of their actions. “Mm,” Kara moaned against his ear. “It’s okay, Lee. Let go.” He’d always been a giving lover, at least what she had experienced from him, and she knew she needed to give him permission to find his own moment of ecstasy without her finding hers first. Oh, she’d wanted hers like nothing else, but Kara knew she was too far off and would never beat him there, even with extra manual stimulation.
On cue, Lee groaned loudly as she kissed him again, feeling himself tighten and release inside of her. His final thrusts were slow and shallow, only echoes of what they had been a second earlier before his body gave in to temptation and succumbed to the fatigue brought along with it. Afterward, Lee’s arms finally gently released her, lowering her feet back to the ground to give the lactic acid in his muscles a chance to be reabsorbed by his body.
Kara’s arms slipped back around him once they were no longer joined together, drawing his weak body to hers so his head rested against her shoulder and neck. Her own head rested upon the identical spot on him, this time her mouth leaving meek kisses in contrast to the ferocity of the ones before. She had wanted this since she’d stepped off her Viper, although it would have mostly been a mix of the high she felt with news of Earth and something of an apology for the way they’d left things between them. For him, it was entirely different, and the feel of moisture against her neck told her just how much so.
“Lee,” she whispered, completely doubting her ability to comfort another human being. He’d expressed some of this when they met on the hangar deck days previously and she’d felt that relief in him then. They’d talked, Gods how they’d talked since then, and she could only begin to understand the pain he went through. Even in that Life Station room, they’d comforted one another. It had all been fresh though, their minds and bodies overwhelmed at her return to them. Now, hidden just behind a few stacks of boxes and ship parts, they’d had days together to come to terms with it all. And while in sickbay they’d kissed and said their hellos that way, not until this moment did they make each other theirs again.
He kept quiet, arms tight around her as his tears fell no matter how hard he tried to not let them. It wasn’t just grief he was letting out, but happiness as well. Anger at her having left him behind. Disbelief that she had somehow come back. Every emotion that anyone had ever felt in the whole of human history, he felt at that moment.
“Oh, Lee,” Kara spoke and her own tears came. “You know I’m safe, I’m here.” She’d reassured him repeatedly of that fact, though she understood why it wasn’t getting through to him. “We’re going to go to Earth, Lee,” she said, trying out a new tactic. Her fingers stroked over the back of his neck as she continued on. “You and me. We never thought we’d get there to see it, but we will. You just need to let this all go, so you can make time to start dreaming about where we’re going to live. Together. I promise you, we’ll be there together. You know I stopped running a long time ago.”
Lee knew that this was all Kara talking to him now, her alter ego having hidden herself away. He sniffled and listened to her nearly silent words. The volume didn’t surprise him, since he was sure Kara was barely allowing herself to admit to these things in the first place. He would take what he could get with her, though she managed to shock him time and time again. He lifted his head to look at her, her digits continuing to brush along the skin at the nape of his neck. “Sorry.”
She shook her head rapidly, leaning in to kiss his wet cheeks. When she pulled back, she winked as she spoke. “You can owe me one later.” Both knew she wasn’t referring to the comforting, but rather the orgasm she’d missed out on while he’d quickly given in to his.
“I’ll owe you a few,” he responded in time, his own wink given as he quickly buttoned and refastened his pants, then bent down to help her step back into her own. He drew the briefs and slacks up for her, kissing her bare thighs along the way until she took over and secured them back at her waist. He stayed kneeling at her feet to help her with her boots, undoing the laces and tying them at the ankle.
Kara watched from above, remembering all the reasons why she felt the way she did about him. “I love you,” she offered and it was a rarity that she said it first.
“I love you,” Lee said as he pulled tight the last knot. He rose and his hand sought out hers, tugging her out from where they’d hidden away, much like he’d brought her there minutes earlier. “But if you’re going to make promises about Earth, you need to find your way back to it first.”
Together this time, both of their bodies slid beneath the Viper and began to take it apart.
-
When Sam arrived in the private conference room with his set of marine guards, only Roslin and Adama were seated and waiting. The fact that the two most important people in the entire fleet trusted him enough, or at least were acting the part, to be left alone with the supposed cylon was not lost to Sam Anders. Behind him, his cuffs were unlocked and released and with a nod of the Admiral’s head, the guards stepped out to stand watch behind the sealed door. Sam rubbed at his wrists, soothing the light ache out of them after being so tightly held within the gripping metal on the walk over. He gave a dip of his head in quiet greeting before he sat down across from them, unsure of how to begin.
The Admiral started first. “When you give us the names of the others, we’re going to ask you to take your oath to the fleet again, Anders.”
“You’re going to let me stay on?” Though he hoped to at least not be airlocked for coming forward, he never expected that manner of trust.
“If you’ll swear your loyalty to the fleet again, knowing who you are now.”
Sam nodded. “What about the others?”
Something closed to a frustrated sigh left the Admiral and Roslin took the moment to speak up. “Should they also choose to swear their loyalty, I’m prepared to give them amnesty and a pardon here. But that’s only if they cooperate.”
He took in the words, suddenly fearing as if he’d made a mistake in coming forward. Since revealing who he was, he’d felt a weight lifted at no longer carrying the secret burden on his own, but that didn’t ease his fears that the entire thing would end up worse than he could even imagine. Just because he had a clue of who he was, by no means meant the others had any idea of their true nature, nor did he know if they’d choose to stick by the men and women they’d lived with for years when given the choice and knowledge of the truth.
“Some of these names…” Sam started. “They’re going to be hard to hear.”
That was what both the Admiral and President had been incredibly afraid of. Best case scenario, the people would have turned out to be absolute nobodies. Civilians buried away on a ship somewhere. Since D’Anna had confessed that she could feel them nearby, however, Roslin had begin to fear that it would mean some, if not all of them, were specifically associated with Galactica. That would have dire consequences.
“I told you who I was because I wanted to help. I’m not here for any other reason other than the people I care about are here. Even if I am a-” He swallowed hard, gathering the strength to say it aloud. “A cylon, they aren’t my people. I don’t condone what they did, you know more than anyone I can’t stand them for the things they’ve done.” His eyes read of every death he witnessed at the hands of the cylons on Caprica.
“Let’s hear them,” Bill prompted.
His hands rubbing over his face, Sam nodded with great reluctance. He looked to Roslin first. “Tory Foster.”
Laura’s mouth opened in complete horror, her hand rising to cover it. She looked from Sam to Bill, her mind quickly reeling over everything she trusted the woman with. Then she recalled just how strongly Tory had fought in the resistance on New Caprica and kept Roslin, herself, safe. “My Gods.”
“I know,” Sam said. “I’m sorry.” And he was, though not as sorry as he was going to feel about who he revealed to the Admiral. “Galen Tyrol.”
Bill stiffened at his words.
“He was called to that temple too, I just got there first,” Anders added in, as if to solidify his argument. “Everything he felt about that place, I felt it too.”
Laura reached across to set her hand against Bill’s arm in a sign of reassurance. “Who’s next?”
“Ellen Tigh.”
Though neither of the other two verbalized it, there was a hint of humor on both of their expressions at the thought. Of course, Ellen Tigh.
“And the last?” The Admiral asked.
This was the hardest one to say aloud, and though the others had come out hesitantly, Sam wasn’t sure if he could ever admit it because of the betrayal it would bring to the Admiral. He breathed in deep, chest expanding and contracting.
“Admiral… it’s Colonel Tigh.”
While the meeting had gone relatively peacefully, though what they shared was rather heavy, all of the calm in the room left once Sam gave away the fifth identity. Bill stood, hands slamming down into the table. “You’re lying!” He shouted and Sam sat back in his seat, never before having been so afraid of the Admiral and the deadly look he now wore just for Sam. “Now I know this has all been a game to you. I’ve known Saul for over thirty years! He was in the first cylon war, a Viper pilot like me. Cylons don’t age, he used to have hair for Gods’ sake.”
Sam shook his head, trying to reassure himself that he had in fact been telling the truth and this hadn’t been some elaborate dream he’d made up. No, he was sure of it all. It was a fact. To himself, at least. “I remember being a kid. I remember growing up and I know I can’t because I’m a frakking cylon. Were you there when Colonel Tigh fought in the first war? Did you meet him back then? Because unless you did, then it’s not true!”
His words sank into Bill. No, he hadn’t known Tigh fourty years ago. He’d gotten to know him ten years after the war and had simply believed all that the man had shared. But, he thought to himself, hadn’t there been records? He was able to bring Tigh back into the service twenty years ago. That wouldn’t have been possible if it had all been a lie, right? Unless information about him had been planted into all the necessary systems to make him seem legitimate.
Adama’s heart pounded and for a moment he was sure he was having a heart attack. Laura’s hand at his back was the only thing that brought him a modicum of calm. He felt betrayed, perhaps even more so than when Kara had returned and he’d presumed her to be a cylon copy rather than the flesh and blood he now believed her to be. This was Tigh. His lifelong friend that had been his right hand man. The second in command of Galactica, who had for a brief time, taken over command when Bill himself was nearly dying. He was all of these things and more, and yet, Samuel Anders was sitting there, telling him he was a cylon.
Bill shook his head roughly, unable to cope with it, and eventually sat back down. He still seethed with anger of both what Sam had said and what it actually meant if true. “Get him out of here,” he ordered to Roslin, and despite her weakening state and the fact that she had no obligation to follow him, she obeyed, rising to head to the door.
The marines came back in and quickly cuffed Sam. Though part of him had hoped to be released freely after he held up his end of the bargain, he understood why he’d be going back to that cell. The Admiral was suffering at the names he’d given and to expect any rational decisions or thinking was out of the question, even Sam knew that much. So he’d go back to his cell, awaiting news of what would come to the others, hoping they would be able to cope with the revelations.
Alone, Laura returned to Bill’s side, tears now coasting down his cheeks. “How could it be Tigh,” he muttered to himself. “It can’t be true.”
“Bill,” she said softly, though she was still trying to come to terms with the fact that her own aide was one of them. At least she hadn’t known Tory very long. “Let’s get back to your room, all right?”
-
After trying to locate Lee and Kara for most of the afternoon, Roslin finally found them on a tip from Karl Agathon. Though the logical idea would have been to have CIC send out a page for them, given the nature of the information revealed by Samuel Anders, she’d thought better of attracting even more attention and questions than already existed. By now, word of Sam’s confession about himself had spread through the ship, most likely through loose lips of the marines that worked on guard rotations. The fact that he’d also said he knew the names of the other four remaining cylons hadn’t been lost in translation either, which had set something of a panic throughout Galactica.
Soon, Laura knew, the information would reach all of the other ships of the fleet. There would be chaos and damage control to be done. Tory would be busy- although now she realized keeping Tory on as her aide once word got out about her would probably lead to much panic amongst the Quorom. Gods, the four names Sam had revealed couldn’t have been worse, unless her name had been included among them, she thought.
The couple arrived not long after she’d sent Karl Agathon to fetch them, though she hadn’t indicated a reason for him to give along with the request, other than that it was urgent. Given that both Kara and Lee knew of what conversation was to happen that day between the Admiral and Sam, neither of the two took long in quitting the private quarters they’d taken up to sharing upon her release from hack. Though they weren’t married, no one had yet to put up an argument about the situation. Kara had been medically cleared as not being a cylon, but that didn’t mean some of the crew didn’t feel otherwise towards her, and perhaps not sharing their head or living quarters wasn’t a particularly bad idea.
“What’s happened?” Lee said, even before the hatch closed behind them.
Laura emerged from the bathroom with a quickness she hadn’t felt in months. “It’s your father,” she said, head shaking as her hand rose slightly to indicate towards from where she came. “Tigh. Tigh’s one of them.”
Lee didn’t hesitate to move towards the bathroom with the news still ringing in his ears, Kara hot on his heels. Bill lay slumped against the wall in the absolute definition of a man in a breakdown. Lee quietly wondered if this was similar to how he’d been after Kara’s death, recalling just how his father had taken care of him. It wasn’t about owing Adama or simply returning the favor, though. This was his father and Lee would have done anything to help him in such a state, even years ago when the pair hadn’t been talking. To see a person this broken was absolutely devastating.
“Dad,” Lee started, crouching down beside him. Kara handed him a freshly rinsed cool was cloth and Lee pressed it to his father’s forehead and cheeks, hoping to calm him further.
Kara stepped around the father and son combination to Adama’s other side, though the fit was rather tight with their three bodies crammed in around the pieces of plumbing and belongings. She kneeled beside him and took over Lee’s duty with the cloth.
Adama groaned in sorrow, face cringing as if in physical pain though it was emotional and mental, nothing else. “Why him?”
“It had to be someone,” Kara said, although she knew they weren’t the right words by the sound he emitted from deep within. She smelled the alcohol on his breath and raised her eyes to Lee’s to confirm he’d sensed it as well.
“Dad, if I were a cylon, would it change how you felt about me?” Lee turned his father’s head towards himself though Adama’s eyes were kept closed. He didn’t respond, so Lee did for him. “No, it wouldn’t. I’m your son. Tigh’s your friend, it won’t change what he is to you and what you are to him.” Lee had only known about Tigh for a minute or two, but he was stunned by it all the same. Saul had been around his entire life. They weren’t close, even after they both became two of fifty thousand people fleeing the Twelve Colonies, but it didn’t matter. This man, this cylon, had been with him his whole life. It was a hard concept to begin to imagine.
“I trusted him with the fleet!” Adama ground out.
“And he still should be trusted,” Kara said. Though she’d been cleared of cylon attachments, part of her felt as though she was irrevocably changed by what had happened over her first few days back. Her missing two months were a mystery and yet, he still trusted her. Tigh had proven his loyalties, especially down on New Caprica. He deserved the chance to stay at their side.
Adama gave a low cry out again in misery and Lee and Kara worked together to haul him up under his arms, maneuvering their three bodies out of the small bathroom and into the bedroom quarters. Laura kept back, letting his children take care of him for the time being. With Bill seated on the bed beside Lee, his son’s arm still around him for support, Kara returned to the bathroom to fill a cup of water. She brought it to his lips to help him drink, hoping to help his system by adding something to it other than just alcohol. The cup emptied, Kara sat beside him. Just removing him from the confines of the bathroom seemed to have calmed him down considerably, but she knew that was only for outward appearances. Inside, he was still a mess, and rightfully so. She wrapped her arm around him, holding herself close to him just as Lee did on the other side.
“The fleet’s going to need you more than ever, Dad,” said Lee. “To make them understand that we can work through this.” If the Admiral fell apart, so would Galactica and all the civilians scattered across the tens of ships that followed the battlestar to the ends of the universe.
“We need you,” Kara insisted, trying to call upon how much he’d always risen to that in the past. When he was needed, Bill Adama was always there in the end. Even on Kobol, recovering from gunshots to the chest, he’d trekked through that forest with the rest of them because it was simply where he knew he needed to be.
Lee slipped away from his father’s side once he was sure Kara had hold of him and began to undo his father’s boots. Once removed, he helped in laying Bill down on the bed, his father quickly giving in to the pull of sleep. Kara took his hand as they stood a few feet off, watching the regular rise and fall of his father’s chest, eventually pulling herself against him. They both drew comfort from the other, individually coming to terms with seeing the man they knew as their father having his a bottom so incredibly low.
-
Though Bill took the rest of the night off, as he was in no shape to begin serving a shift, he returned to duty the following morning. Tigh stared at him from across the plotting table in the middle of the aging ampitheatre style CIC. Adama steeled himself for the interaction, trying not to look at the XO as anything else but the person he’d seen for the previous thirty years.
“Feeling better, Bill?” Tigh asked as he sipped his morning coffee, or whatever passed for it these days.
“Yes,” he said with a nod of his head, tilting back to look up at the DRADIS screens. “Quiet night on DRADIS?”
“Absolutely nothing out there. Almost makes me wish for the cylons to show up so long as I get to stop listening to Hot Dog talk about his newest rash.”
Bill smiled, forgetting momentarily about the situation that existed beyond that very room. When his eyes came back to settle on Saul, however, it all flooded back in. “Do you think you and Ellen can stop by my quarters later tonight? Around eighteen hundred?”
Tigh raised his brow. It had been a long time since both he and Ellen had been invited to dine with the Admiral or even share drinks. It wasn’t that their friendship had changed, just that things had gotten in the way since then. Even the last few months and New Caprica had changed Ellen into something of a more restrained woman than she had been. Truthfully, Saul had worried for her, because almost nothing seemed to ever phase her, but he’d let it go out of cowardice of starting a fight. “Sure, Bill. Will Roslin be joining us?”
Adama forced a smile and he nodded. “She will.”