A Walk in the Woods
This was done as a backup to an unfulfilled November 2007 Ficathon Request by spikeyboots for:
Something pre-Galactica days. Perhaps something to do with flying (but not essential). Nothing schmoopy please - (I like the fact that Kara and Lee can't ever quite get along, either as psuedo brother and sister, as friends, or as lovers.) .
I had thought I might get some flying in this but it got going elsewhere so hopefully the last paragraph at least makes the connection. Thank you to my beta justascrewup2 and the people at writingfeedback for their assistance.
It will also be crossposted to Scifi_muses for the week 18 pormpt: No wonder you're upset. She's lovely. And a darling figure... supple, pouting breasts... firm thighs. It's a shame you two don't get along....Lady
Title: A Walk in the Woods
Author: leeadamamusings aka anastashial
Rating: G
Character/Pairing: Lee/Kara
Genre: Pre-mini
Word Count: 2,646
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: They're not mine but Ron said we could play with them.
Summary: How they met and why sparks started flying right from the start.
Author's Note: I've posted in several places why I don't think Kara and Lee attended a military academy. This story sets the environment accordingly.
She wasn't even in his major, which was Astronautical Engineering with a minor in Law, but the girl somehow caught his attention. She was a Fine Arts major for fraks sake but could she play Pyramid. When she'd knocked him down the first day in practice he'd almost hit her back but he was saved by the coach immediately jumping on her. He was just recovering from an injury and he was red-shirted, not to mention the fact that he had been in the neutral zone. What was she thinking?
He barely, but successfully, managed to avoid a confrontation with her through the rest of summer practice. Then during the week before regular classes were starting, he was in ROTC orientation...and there she was too. Gods was there nowhere to get away from this girl? What was a Fine Arts major doing in ROTC anyway? Now there was a question. Then he saw her snicker. It was clear he wasn’t going to get away from her soon so he decided to go for the upper hand and stuck out his tongue at her. Maybe the demerits were worth it but he'd find a way to make her pay for them all the same. Somehow it didn't surprise him that they were assigned to the same squad.
Getting her as his partner for the orienteering exercise he could have done without though. They were dropped from a Raptor in a remote area in the woods with an unmarked map, a compass, water purification tablets, and just enough water to last them half a day. He guessed the first part of their task was to figure out where they were supposed to go. It wasn't like anyone had told them.
He laid the map out on a flat rock, put the compass down in the lower right hand corner and squatted down for a closer look. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to figure out which way is north."
"You don't even know where we are!"
He scowled at her. "Well I'm thinking they put us here," he touched the map, "in the middle".
She snorted at him. "And why would you think that?" He raised his eyebrow at her. She snorted again.
He made no further non-verbal response to her obvious attempts to annoy him. "Well for one thing it means we have to consider every direction around us as the way we need to go. Besides do you have a better idea?"
She nodded but continued to smirk at him. “So how do you figure out which way is north from staring at the map?"
He finally sighed letting his exasperation show again. "One, I memorize the relative locations of some of the key points on the map. For example this," he touched an area that showed a steep contour, "could be that ridge over there," he pointed to the ridge to their right. Then he readjusted the map so that the contour was in the correct position relative to the north tending compass point.
"That's upside down." she said as the contoured area was on the opposite side of him from the actual ridge. He sighed, gave her another exasperated look and moved so that he was now on the opposite side of the map. She stuck her tongue out at him with a laugh.
He decided to continue; otherwise they would still be here when nightfall came. "Ok so now we've got to find at least two more of the landmarks. There should be a stream possibly in that direction," he pointed in the direction opposite of the ridge, "and maybe a swampy area back that way. Which one would you rather check out?" He tried to hand her the compass.
She glared at him with her hands on her hips and her head cocked. "Who put you in charge?"
"Do you have a better idea?” he challenged. She was making him repeat himself. This was starting to get more than just annoying. He closed his eyes and blew out a hopefully calming breath.
She shrugged her shoulders and grabbed for the compass. Keeping him off balance had been part of her game from the beginning; making it look like taking the compass was her idea could add to his confusion. He stood with a frown on his face for a brief moment. "Keep a mental picture of whatever you see on the way and shoot for being back here when the sun is about half way to its zenith. That should be about two hours give or take."
She turned away from him quickly so that he didn't see the uncertainty on her face or hear her mutter "Back here?" with a small indication of doubt. So she was supposed to find her way back here. He obviously expected she could do that with the compass but she’d never used one before. Not that she would admit that to him. "Right," she said carefully keeping the slight uneasiness out of her voice. At least she knew what zenith was, and the compass? Well she would figure that out too. She was smarter than him after all. She’d make sure he figured that out eventually.
As he turned away from her he set out in the probable direction of the swamp gathering small sticks and stones as he went. Without the compass he would need to mark the return trail as he moved. The woods around them were very quiet. He wondered how large an area they had been brought to. There were twenty teams out here. Surely the instructors didn't mean for them to come upon each other as they pursued their goal. They had to be in a rather large wilderness. He racked his mind for possibilities as he moved through the quiet woods.
As he stopped to put down his first marker he pondered on that. Even once they got oriented to the compass they still needed to figure out where they should be going. That would be harder. As he moved to stand back up again he noticed the berries around him. He knew these and they made an excellent treat. It occurred to him that for today they might very well need to be more than a treat and he filled one of the pockets of his vest before he moved on.
He reached the edge of the swampy area in about half of the time he'd allotted himself and, glancing at his map, moved in what he was now fairly certain was a westward direction to check the perimeter of the swamp. Some other berries were added to the bonanza using his second pocket before he turned to follow his markers and retrace his steps.
__________________________
She on the other hand had hurried away from their starting point. She’d not had an overabundance of experience in the woods but she was convinced that her time on the streets would hold her in good stead. She'd held the compass out in front of her noting that the needle was stubbornly pointing to her right. What did that mean? She wasn’t certain but was smart enough to realize that if she wanted to return to where she had started all she had to do was walk in whatever direction made it point to the left. In any case she kept looking in the direction he'd pointed her. Landmarks, ok there was a very big tree and some unusually shaped rocks. She'd remember what those looked like.
Keeping the needle at her three o'clock she proceeded in the direction he had indicated. What she'd forgotten to do, she eventually realized with a start, was keep track of the sun. When she'd broken out into a clearing and discovered it's location she'd turned back and foolishly had started to run. She should have remembered the fallen trunk she tripped over. Instead she focused on the sharp crack as the compass was shattered against a large rock. When she moved to stand up her focus moved elsewhere again as she collapsed in a heap and cradled her re-injured knee to her, "frak!"
Looking up in the direction she had come she almost panicked when she couldn't find the last landmark she had chosen. How was she supposed to find her way back now? It took several more moments before she remembered that things looked different from the other side. Laughing at herself she quickly spied the other side of her landmark. With nothing to lose she glanced around again and noticed a branch that would be sturdy enough to support her. Dragging it to her she stood and started to move carefully in what was hopefully the right direction.
_________________________
He meanwhile had returned to their starting point. Glancing around he didn't see her, but his gage of the time was at best approximate so he didn't worry. As the sun slipped noticeably higher than the midpoint from the horizon though he began to worry and he finally started calling out to her. When, after several more tense minutes, there was no answer he became worried. He started moving in the direction he'd sent her, mumbling in anger each time he stopped to set up a trail marker.
After almost an hour and a half of repetitive calling and rising concern he finally heard a response. When he reached her she was sitting on the ground in front of him a look of some discomfort on her face. "Are you alright?" It was out of his mouth before he even thought.
She gave him a scathing look. "Of course I’m alright I was just enjoying the sunshine."
If she could be sarcastic at least she wasn't on her deathbed he reasoned. “Oh yeah you look fine. What's the deal with not getting back on time then?"
She surprised him with a look of dismay that had him relenting and he squatted down next to her. "What's wrong?"
"I fell," She wasn't about to tell him how she fell, "and re-injured my knee."
"Re-injured?" he said with a raised eyebrow.
"Pyramid game."
"Ah." He reached down and helped her to her feet wrapping her arm around his shoulders and his arm around her waist. She tried to pull away from him put it only resulted in him tightening his grip, "We don’t have time for this,” he hissed at her. “We still have to find the stream." The implication in his voice that he now considered her incapable of making that objective caused her to scowl at him again. "Of course I knew you didn’t find it," he said with a smirk as he turned them in the direction of the third landmark.
Another mark went on her mental tally list. She was so going to make him pay. For right now though she did what for her was a rarity and kept her mouth shut.
It was slow going and by the time they made it to the body of water it was well past mid-afternoon. As they broke out of the woods he realized this was much more than a stream. What they had reached was indeed a fairly large river. He wanted to search further but he realized that would be stupid. With her injured they'd need to set up camp for the night. He lowered her carefully to the ground and began to gather what they'd need to be sheltered.
It was only when he had everything arranged that he realized how intensely she was watching him and how hungry he was. "What?" he said in response to her challenging stare.
"Never figured someone with such a pretty face for a ranger boy." she said derisively.
That did it for him. He dropped the last of the wood he had gathered for the fire. Plopping down to the ground just out of her comfortable reach he proceeded to enjoy the berries from his pockets making suitable noises in reaction to their lusciousness. She remained stubbornly silent for a while but finally cleared her throat.
"Oh did you need something?" he said without looking at her as he licked the remains of some juice from his fingers. Her eyes grew large in anger as she stared at him. Careful not to touch them with his sticky fingers he dumped the other half of the berries on a clean spot in front of her and raised his eyebrow inquisitively. She ignored him as she proceeded to consume her meal in silence.
When she'd finished he moved to her side to help her up. "You're welcome," he said sarcastically before settling her into the most protected portion of the lean-to shelter he had built. It was not long before they were both asleep.
The next morning dawned cold and rainy and he groaned when he came awake. "How's your knee?" he asked when she came awake beside him.
"Just peachy!"
'Well at least sleep hadn't improved her mood either,' he reflected. He realized he was going to have to leave her and go for help. After he quickly gathered some more berries for them both he began to heap the pine needles and leaves that had covered him over her. "What are you doing?" Her voice was no less aggravated than the first thing she had said to him.
"Making you as warm as possible. I'd try to get more but it's probably all wet. I'm going to go for help."
"You don’t have to leave me! I can walk."
He sighed, barely containing his temper. "Like you’re ready for another hike," he challenged. She glared at him but laid her head back down. "You'll be fine here," he said as he started away from her.
He was going to head down river but then something occurred to him. Pulling out the map he studied it intently for a moment thinking, 'Most people would go downstream.' Following his intuition he turned and headed upstream. He had quite a hike through the woods and it was almost dark when he was rewarded with reaching a dam. It took him another hour to climb the side of the gorge, slipping and sliding on the rain slicked surface, before reaching the top. He found the radio there and quickly called in his location and her need for medical assistance.
____________________________
She’d laid there for a while after he left but she wasn’t about to play the helpless one. Besides as the day wore on she was getting hungry again and he’d thoughtlessly left her without any food not to mention a fire. Pushing the covering of dry foliage to the back of the lean-to she sat up and watched the falling rain for a few minutes. There was nothing for it though if she wanted to eat. She pulled herself up and hobbled out into the lightly falling rain. She was at least able to find some of the berries close by, now that she knew what they were. She managed to capture some water for herself also.
Crawling back into the lean-to she curled up to try to get warm again. She didn’t realize she had fallen asleep until he was shaking her awake. By the time the litter reached the Raptor she was asleep again, but at least she was warm now too.
____________________________
She ended up in the school infirmary. He was told she would be there for two weeks. He never went to see her though. He did hear that someone else in their squad made sure she had her class work and necessary study materials delivered.
For his part he was only glad they had received a passing grade in the exercise. After all he had found the dam. When she showed up beside the training aircraft he was assigned to he cringed. It was going to be a long four years.
Something pre-Galactica days. Perhaps something to do with flying (but not essential). Nothing schmoopy please - (I like the fact that Kara and Lee can't ever quite get along, either as psuedo brother and sister, as friends, or as lovers.) .
I had thought I might get some flying in this but it got going elsewhere so hopefully the last paragraph at least makes the connection. Thank you to my beta justascrewup2 and the people at writingfeedback for their assistance.
It will also be crossposted to Scifi_muses for the week 18 pormpt: No wonder you're upset. She's lovely. And a darling figure... supple, pouting breasts... firm thighs. It's a shame you two don't get along....Lady
Title: A Walk in the Woods
Author: leeadamamusings aka anastashial
Rating: G
Character/Pairing: Lee/Kara
Genre: Pre-mini
Word Count: 2,646
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: They're not mine but Ron said we could play with them.
Summary: How they met and why sparks started flying right from the start.
Author's Note: I've posted in several places why I don't think Kara and Lee attended a military academy. This story sets the environment accordingly.
She wasn't even in his major, which was Astronautical Engineering with a minor in Law, but the girl somehow caught his attention. She was a Fine Arts major for fraks sake but could she play Pyramid. When she'd knocked him down the first day in practice he'd almost hit her back but he was saved by the coach immediately jumping on her. He was just recovering from an injury and he was red-shirted, not to mention the fact that he had been in the neutral zone. What was she thinking?
He barely, but successfully, managed to avoid a confrontation with her through the rest of summer practice. Then during the week before regular classes were starting, he was in ROTC orientation...and there she was too. Gods was there nowhere to get away from this girl? What was a Fine Arts major doing in ROTC anyway? Now there was a question. Then he saw her snicker. It was clear he wasn’t going to get away from her soon so he decided to go for the upper hand and stuck out his tongue at her. Maybe the demerits were worth it but he'd find a way to make her pay for them all the same. Somehow it didn't surprise him that they were assigned to the same squad.
Getting her as his partner for the orienteering exercise he could have done without though. They were dropped from a Raptor in a remote area in the woods with an unmarked map, a compass, water purification tablets, and just enough water to last them half a day. He guessed the first part of their task was to figure out where they were supposed to go. It wasn't like anyone had told them.
He laid the map out on a flat rock, put the compass down in the lower right hand corner and squatted down for a closer look. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to figure out which way is north."
"You don't even know where we are!"
He scowled at her. "Well I'm thinking they put us here," he touched the map, "in the middle".
She snorted at him. "And why would you think that?" He raised his eyebrow at her. She snorted again.
He made no further non-verbal response to her obvious attempts to annoy him. "Well for one thing it means we have to consider every direction around us as the way we need to go. Besides do you have a better idea?"
She nodded but continued to smirk at him. “So how do you figure out which way is north from staring at the map?"
He finally sighed letting his exasperation show again. "One, I memorize the relative locations of some of the key points on the map. For example this," he touched an area that showed a steep contour, "could be that ridge over there," he pointed to the ridge to their right. Then he readjusted the map so that the contour was in the correct position relative to the north tending compass point.
"That's upside down." she said as the contoured area was on the opposite side of him from the actual ridge. He sighed, gave her another exasperated look and moved so that he was now on the opposite side of the map. She stuck her tongue out at him with a laugh.
He decided to continue; otherwise they would still be here when nightfall came. "Ok so now we've got to find at least two more of the landmarks. There should be a stream possibly in that direction," he pointed in the direction opposite of the ridge, "and maybe a swampy area back that way. Which one would you rather check out?" He tried to hand her the compass.
She glared at him with her hands on her hips and her head cocked. "Who put you in charge?"
"Do you have a better idea?” he challenged. She was making him repeat himself. This was starting to get more than just annoying. He closed his eyes and blew out a hopefully calming breath.
She shrugged her shoulders and grabbed for the compass. Keeping him off balance had been part of her game from the beginning; making it look like taking the compass was her idea could add to his confusion. He stood with a frown on his face for a brief moment. "Keep a mental picture of whatever you see on the way and shoot for being back here when the sun is about half way to its zenith. That should be about two hours give or take."
She turned away from him quickly so that he didn't see the uncertainty on her face or hear her mutter "Back here?" with a small indication of doubt. So she was supposed to find her way back here. He obviously expected she could do that with the compass but she’d never used one before. Not that she would admit that to him. "Right," she said carefully keeping the slight uneasiness out of her voice. At least she knew what zenith was, and the compass? Well she would figure that out too. She was smarter than him after all. She’d make sure he figured that out eventually.
As he turned away from her he set out in the probable direction of the swamp gathering small sticks and stones as he went. Without the compass he would need to mark the return trail as he moved. The woods around them were very quiet. He wondered how large an area they had been brought to. There were twenty teams out here. Surely the instructors didn't mean for them to come upon each other as they pursued their goal. They had to be in a rather large wilderness. He racked his mind for possibilities as he moved through the quiet woods.
As he stopped to put down his first marker he pondered on that. Even once they got oriented to the compass they still needed to figure out where they should be going. That would be harder. As he moved to stand back up again he noticed the berries around him. He knew these and they made an excellent treat. It occurred to him that for today they might very well need to be more than a treat and he filled one of the pockets of his vest before he moved on.
He reached the edge of the swampy area in about half of the time he'd allotted himself and, glancing at his map, moved in what he was now fairly certain was a westward direction to check the perimeter of the swamp. Some other berries were added to the bonanza using his second pocket before he turned to follow his markers and retrace his steps.
__________________________
She on the other hand had hurried away from their starting point. She’d not had an overabundance of experience in the woods but she was convinced that her time on the streets would hold her in good stead. She'd held the compass out in front of her noting that the needle was stubbornly pointing to her right. What did that mean? She wasn’t certain but was smart enough to realize that if she wanted to return to where she had started all she had to do was walk in whatever direction made it point to the left. In any case she kept looking in the direction he'd pointed her. Landmarks, ok there was a very big tree and some unusually shaped rocks. She'd remember what those looked like.
Keeping the needle at her three o'clock she proceeded in the direction he had indicated. What she'd forgotten to do, she eventually realized with a start, was keep track of the sun. When she'd broken out into a clearing and discovered it's location she'd turned back and foolishly had started to run. She should have remembered the fallen trunk she tripped over. Instead she focused on the sharp crack as the compass was shattered against a large rock. When she moved to stand up her focus moved elsewhere again as she collapsed in a heap and cradled her re-injured knee to her, "frak!"
Looking up in the direction she had come she almost panicked when she couldn't find the last landmark she had chosen. How was she supposed to find her way back now? It took several more moments before she remembered that things looked different from the other side. Laughing at herself she quickly spied the other side of her landmark. With nothing to lose she glanced around again and noticed a branch that would be sturdy enough to support her. Dragging it to her she stood and started to move carefully in what was hopefully the right direction.
_________________________
He meanwhile had returned to their starting point. Glancing around he didn't see her, but his gage of the time was at best approximate so he didn't worry. As the sun slipped noticeably higher than the midpoint from the horizon though he began to worry and he finally started calling out to her. When, after several more tense minutes, there was no answer he became worried. He started moving in the direction he'd sent her, mumbling in anger each time he stopped to set up a trail marker.
After almost an hour and a half of repetitive calling and rising concern he finally heard a response. When he reached her she was sitting on the ground in front of him a look of some discomfort on her face. "Are you alright?" It was out of his mouth before he even thought.
She gave him a scathing look. "Of course I’m alright I was just enjoying the sunshine."
If she could be sarcastic at least she wasn't on her deathbed he reasoned. “Oh yeah you look fine. What's the deal with not getting back on time then?"
She surprised him with a look of dismay that had him relenting and he squatted down next to her. "What's wrong?"
"I fell," She wasn't about to tell him how she fell, "and re-injured my knee."
"Re-injured?" he said with a raised eyebrow.
"Pyramid game."
"Ah." He reached down and helped her to her feet wrapping her arm around his shoulders and his arm around her waist. She tried to pull away from him put it only resulted in him tightening his grip, "We don’t have time for this,” he hissed at her. “We still have to find the stream." The implication in his voice that he now considered her incapable of making that objective caused her to scowl at him again. "Of course I knew you didn’t find it," he said with a smirk as he turned them in the direction of the third landmark.
Another mark went on her mental tally list. She was so going to make him pay. For right now though she did what for her was a rarity and kept her mouth shut.
It was slow going and by the time they made it to the body of water it was well past mid-afternoon. As they broke out of the woods he realized this was much more than a stream. What they had reached was indeed a fairly large river. He wanted to search further but he realized that would be stupid. With her injured they'd need to set up camp for the night. He lowered her carefully to the ground and began to gather what they'd need to be sheltered.
It was only when he had everything arranged that he realized how intensely she was watching him and how hungry he was. "What?" he said in response to her challenging stare.
"Never figured someone with such a pretty face for a ranger boy." she said derisively.
That did it for him. He dropped the last of the wood he had gathered for the fire. Plopping down to the ground just out of her comfortable reach he proceeded to enjoy the berries from his pockets making suitable noises in reaction to their lusciousness. She remained stubbornly silent for a while but finally cleared her throat.
"Oh did you need something?" he said without looking at her as he licked the remains of some juice from his fingers. Her eyes grew large in anger as she stared at him. Careful not to touch them with his sticky fingers he dumped the other half of the berries on a clean spot in front of her and raised his eyebrow inquisitively. She ignored him as she proceeded to consume her meal in silence.
When she'd finished he moved to her side to help her up. "You're welcome," he said sarcastically before settling her into the most protected portion of the lean-to shelter he had built. It was not long before they were both asleep.
The next morning dawned cold and rainy and he groaned when he came awake. "How's your knee?" he asked when she came awake beside him.
"Just peachy!"
'Well at least sleep hadn't improved her mood either,' he reflected. He realized he was going to have to leave her and go for help. After he quickly gathered some more berries for them both he began to heap the pine needles and leaves that had covered him over her. "What are you doing?" Her voice was no less aggravated than the first thing she had said to him.
"Making you as warm as possible. I'd try to get more but it's probably all wet. I'm going to go for help."
"You don’t have to leave me! I can walk."
He sighed, barely containing his temper. "Like you’re ready for another hike," he challenged. She glared at him but laid her head back down. "You'll be fine here," he said as he started away from her.
He was going to head down river but then something occurred to him. Pulling out the map he studied it intently for a moment thinking, 'Most people would go downstream.' Following his intuition he turned and headed upstream. He had quite a hike through the woods and it was almost dark when he was rewarded with reaching a dam. It took him another hour to climb the side of the gorge, slipping and sliding on the rain slicked surface, before reaching the top. He found the radio there and quickly called in his location and her need for medical assistance.
____________________________
She’d laid there for a while after he left but she wasn’t about to play the helpless one. Besides as the day wore on she was getting hungry again and he’d thoughtlessly left her without any food not to mention a fire. Pushing the covering of dry foliage to the back of the lean-to she sat up and watched the falling rain for a few minutes. There was nothing for it though if she wanted to eat. She pulled herself up and hobbled out into the lightly falling rain. She was at least able to find some of the berries close by, now that she knew what they were. She managed to capture some water for herself also.
Crawling back into the lean-to she curled up to try to get warm again. She didn’t realize she had fallen asleep until he was shaking her awake. By the time the litter reached the Raptor she was asleep again, but at least she was warm now too.
____________________________
She ended up in the school infirmary. He was told she would be there for two weeks. He never went to see her though. He did hear that someone else in their squad made sure she had her class work and necessary study materials delivered.
For his part he was only glad they had received a passing grade in the exercise. After all he had found the dam. When she showed up beside the training aircraft he was assigned to he cringed. It was going to be a long four years.