TM 269. Write about a time you were outsmarted.
OOC: This prompt reply contains spoilers for episode 4.14 "Blood on the Scales."
Of all the things that happened today, there was one thing that really annoyed me.
I don't mean to say that the strongest emotion I felt today was annoyance. There was too much emotion for any one of us to take in today, and I have a terrible feeling that we'll all be feeling the shockwaves for a good time to come. Felix Gaeta lost the battle with his own soul and Tom Zarek finally became the martyr he'd always wanted to be and we're all left wondering why.
I did a lot of outsmarting today and I like to think I did it under a good deal of pressure. Everytime Tory opened her mouth on that baseship, I was sorely tempted to simply slap her and have it over with. I know she's always been ruthless and calculating, but she's always had that same underlying humanity to her to soften those qualities. But now it's all calculation, all self-serving and selfishness, and I don't think it's finding out she was a Cylon that brought it all out. It's something that's been in her all this time and now she has an excuse, a reason, to let it all out. Which does a disservice to her Cylon brethren, particularly the Cylons who have been onboard Galactica.
But I knew there was a small chance that the more reasonable heads on that ship, the Twos and the Sixes, could be swayed if I could give them a good enough reason to stay and help us. Frankly, I didn't care who decided to stay as long as the outcome was secured. I knew that the Three they were most concerned over were over on Galactica and if they weren't fighting yet, they would be. Colonel Tigh and Chief Tyrol are loyal to Galactica and their Old Man and if I'd had the time to lay it out for our allies, I would have. Instead, I pinned my hopes on Bill and I made sure my hopes became some of their hopes as well.
If they had jumped away, they would have hammered Zarek and Gaeta's arguments into the civilian fleet far more effectively than either could ever hope to do for themselves. Yes, they would have been jumping away for their own safety and I can't blame them for it, but the alliance would have been over. Cavil's forces would eventually catch up with all of us and destroy us. All of us. Eventually, we all have to decide who we stand with and even if Bill would have forgiven this betrayal of confidence in him, I would never have. We made a pact with the rebel Cylons, against the wishes of many of our people, because we will drag them, every single one of them kicking and screaming if we have to, to a future. The only future Tom Zarek was interested in was a future in which everyone listened to him. It's not an unforgivable offense, but he has tested me time and time again, pushed just a little farther every time, until I finally had no choice. It was Zarek or the Fleet, or as I tried to communicate to the Twos and the Sixes, it's Zarek or Adama, and by running or doing nothing, you chose Zarek.
I did well, too. Right up until Zarek told me that he'd had Bill tried by a sham court and executed by firing squad. With the benefit of a few hours' hindsight, I cannot believe I was naive enough to fall for that. I, who knew better than most, that every word out of Zarek's mouth had been a lie, or a distortion of the truth to serve his own purposes. I can't believe I let him get to me like that. How the frak could I honestly believe that Bill was dead?
I'm afraid of what might come in the days ahead and by the time I boarded Galactica, I knew I was ready to fall apart. And it wasn't the mutiny, the fear, the anger, the gut-tearing anguish when I thought I'd lost Bill. It was what was going to happen to him when everything hit him. My gods, these were his people and half of them betrayed him and betrayed his ship. What would happen when he allowed himself to really look at the magnitude of what's been done to him?
But he outsmarted me. He knows me as well as I know myself, better even, and he knew I would retreat to have my bout of grief and anger. I did intend to. He didn't need the burden of my emotional stress to add to his own, but he took them. Without asking for permission, he was there waiting for me. I saw him. In every cheesy romance novel I've ever read, there was this exact same moment where the man and the woman find each other again and fly into each other's arms and kiss and cry out to the gods in thanks that they're both safe and reunited.
The reality is much more somber. I couldn't move because my legs were shaking so hard I honestly believed I'd fall if I tried to take one step. He was tired and worn out and I could see the anguish ebbing just below the surface in his eyes. I don't think I even kissed him. I was too busy touching him, making sure he truly was standing in front of me. And, dammit, I did not want to cry. I didn't. I swore to myself I wouldn't. But faced with that moment, I found I couldn't do anything else.
Bill knew that. And still he outsmarted me and my intentions.
The two men with whom I've been working closest since the escape from New Caprica and they both managed to outsmart me in the same eight-hour period.
President Laura Roslin
Battlestar Galactica
978 words