Wounded Wing: Chapter 112 Offshoots
Chapter 112 Offshoots - part 1 due to length
Coming slowly awake with Lee’s familiar scent tickling her nose, Kara unrepentantly snuggled her face deeper into his pillow and drew a complacent breath. She easily ignored the twinge of conscience at having ousted him from his berth and took a moment to just enjoy the sensual feeling of being in Lee’s bed.
But the respite from the previous day’s confrontations didn’t last long, and Kara sighed as she languidly stretched, surprised to find her muscles stiff. She must have barely moved the entire time she’d slept. With that thought, came the realization that she’d actually gone a complete sleep cycle without waking from some nightmare or another. Giving a mental shrug, she didn’t delve into the possible reasons why.
Rising, she padded barefoot over to the cabin’s double-sized locker and pulled it open. The worn hinge squeaked and she grinned at how irritating Lee must have found the sound. Her smile slipped, though, at this reminder of how limited the battlestar’s supplies must be if the obsessive Apollo hadn’t felt he could justify the use of lubricant for such a non-essential purpose.
Kara surveyed the locker’s contents. Evidenced by the folded clothes and personal items still stowed so neatly within, she knew that Lee hadn’t had time to clear out his things before she had taken over his cabin-glancing at the room’s clock-some six hours ago, she realized. Military etiquette dictated that she leave his things untouched, but the edge of something tucked into the lower shelf’s corner caught her eye and Kara bent forward to gently free the picture.
Three young people frozen in a moment of time.
Staring at Zac’s open smile, with herself clasped in his arms as Lee stood stiffly by, Kara searched her feelings for the familiar guilt and was startled to not find any. Knowing that Lee must have kept this when the rest of her things had been auctioned off, she carefully returned the photo to its original place and gently closed the door.
A quick exploration of the cabin revealed no evidence of a co-occupant, and Kara couldn’t deny the relief she felt at not finding any indication that Dee had moved back in. Instead, she gave her BDUs a quick sniff and decided they’d suffice for another day. Would definitely have to hit up the QM for a full kit sometime today, she decided as she laced her boots.
Half an hour later, Kara set her tray on a corner table in the mess and side-eyed Mathias as the woman settled onto the bench beside her. It looked like the Sergeant had also snagged some additional rack time when Kara had gone to Lee’s quarters to crash for a few hours. She supposed they both had needed it; she certainly felt better for the additional sleep, the nap in the brig hadn’t been nearly long enough, but she was anxious now to resume her push for a Raptor. And as much as she hated to admit it, Helo had been right to turn her away last night when she’d gone in search of the Admiral after leaving Laura in sickbay. She’d been pissed at first at Karl’s interference, but had then grudgingly accepted his argument that the Old Man was more likely to listen once he’d had a chance to sleep on her proposal.
Having been thwarted in both attempts to get support for her continued search for Earth, she finally had reluctantly retreated to the private cabin Lee had insisted on giving her-his own. There, the Sergeant had assigned another guard to stand watch at the hatch before heading off herself. Well, she didn’t begrudge the Marine the rest, but it still bothered Kara that Adama distrusted her enough to insist on a guard dog.
Now, probing at the green mass that vaguely resembled hash, Kara grimaced. It wasn’t the unappetizing food that darkened her thoughts, though, but the poorly disguised algae reminded her of Laura’s revelation that she had somehow lost over four days without the least idea of how.
“You get used to it…eventually,” a quiet voice said, and Kara looked up to see Sharon standing on the other side of the table. No, Athena, she reminded herself, feeling the slight disorientation that thoughts of the multiple copies of the Eight always caused her.
“May I?”
Realizing that the figure in dress blues was holding a tray and asking permission to sit, Kara gave a shrug of her shoulders and flatly said, “Suit yourself.”
“Hello, Sergeant.” Athena gave a small nod to the other woman at the otherwise empty table. Then Mathias’ “Sir” in acknowledgment was the last words for several minutes as the three women’s attention turned towards their meals.
“So…how are you feeling?” the words were neutrally spoken, but Kara bristled defensively as her eyes met the brown ones opposite her.
“Just peachy. Yourself?” she sardonically replied, then lifted her fork as if bored and studied the congealing piece on the end. The sigh she heard in response gave her a petty gratification that Kara didn’t bother to question.
“It’s like that, huh?”
Not bothering to meet Athena’s gaze again, “Just sitting here trying to eat in peace,” she said, and didn’t bother to question her uneasy anger at the Eight.
“Thought we were past this, Kara.”
This time she did look up and the frustration in the other woman’s expression was clear to read. Instead of satisfaction this time though, Kara felt a twinge of remorse and put the uneaten bite aside to cross her arms as she leaned back in her chair.
“You got something to say, then spit it out, Lieutenant,” she said, her tone sullen.
“You never make things easy, do you, Starbuck,” replied Athena, her eyes looking sad. Again the sigh. “Look, just wanted to know how you’re doing. That’s all.” She lifted her hands in a sign of surrender and reached for her tray, obviously intending to leave. Her motioned halted though as the third woman at the table spoke up.
“Stay, Sir,” said Erin Mathias, her polite words somehow sounding more like an command than a request. “I’m sure that Captain Thrace would like the company,” she added, giving Kara a look that held both reprimand and understanding at once.
Kara’s first instinct was to tell the Sergeant to keep to her own frakkin’ business, but then a quiver of humor stilled the impulse. Instead she said, “By all means, stay,” with a magnanimous wave at the table. “If I have to choke down this slop, least you can do is share the indigestion.”
“It grows on you.” Athena took a bite then and chewed with an expression of mock enjoyment. “Yummmmmm,” she said, drawing out the sound to a ridiculous length.
“Right,” pointing her fork at the other woman, “there’s no frakkin’ way this stuff’ll grow on me...unless I’m wearing it,” Kara scoffed.
“I hear it’s good for the complexion,” offered Athena. “Who knows, might even improve your pasty-white face, Starbuck.” At her quip, Kara gave Athena a mock-hurt scowl.
“Ha! Haven’t you heard?” Kara leaned forward then, voice lowering as if to divulge a secret. “Green’s out of style,” she whispered, and then promptly smeared a line of algae along Athena’s cheek.
“Oh, that’s mature, Starbuck. Thanks.”
With luxuries like napkins long gone, Athena had to use the back of her hand to wipe at her face as Kara settled back with a grin. The darker woman have her a severe look before licking the mess from her hand. She didn’t bother to hide the grimace at the taste this time, and Kara’s smirk grew.
“You were saying?”
“You’re such a child sometimes,” Athena grumbled as she wiped again at her face to be sure she’d gotten it all off. When she looked up, her eyes widened at the change in the blonde across from her. The smirk was gone and loss dilated the pupils of Kara’s eyes. Without a word, Kara rose, abandoning her barely touched tray to move towards the door. A worried glance between Sharon and Mathias was all that was needed for both women to quickly rise to follow her out.
Kara was already halfway down the empty corridor with her strides lengthening even as they tried to catch up.
“I didn’t know you were such a coward,” Athena called out.
The accusation pulled Kara to a halt. Her hands clenched as the familiar anger came rushing forward again.
“You can’t keep running, Kara,” the voice grew softer even as it moved closer.
The flame of her rage was snuffed as quickly as it had come. She bent her head as she realized that it was less than a shift ago that she’d vowed to face whatever came…and yet, here she was fleeing from the truth of her weakness as if nothing had changed.
You’ve always been weak.
The whisper in her mother’s voice whispered.
A quitter and a coward.
No, momma, not anymore, she thought.
With hands shifting to her hips, Kara lifted her chin and turned to face the two women. She forced herself to hold steady beneath their scrutiny.
“What happened back there?” Athena finally asked.
Before Kara could figure out how to explain, she heard footsteps behind her and automatically moved to one side of the hall. Her gaze met the curious one of the crewman as he passed. A scowl was enough to send him hurrying along.
“Perhaps this isn’t the place,” Mathias suggested.
“We can go back to my quarters,” offered Athena, “Karl’s in CIC and Hera’s at the daycare.” Kara couldn’t stop an instinctive flinch at mention of the little girl and saw the Cylon’s look turn speculative. The urge to escape both of the women’s presence and find some place where she wasn’t being constantly reminded of what she’d lost hammered at her resolve to stop running.
Forcing her jaw to unclench, “Lead the way, Lieutenant,” she managed.
Kara avoided Athena’s gaze as the smaller woman moved past her. She fell in behind Sharon and felt Mathias at her own back.
On entering the Agathon’s quarters, Kara’s gaze was immediately pulled to the cot they used for Hera. A few toys lay atop the bed, waiting the child’s return. She turned away, arms automatically crossing as she watched Athena pick up a pair of mismatched tiny socks and toss them onto a pile of discarded clothes in one corner of the cabin. Then the woman gave a wave towards the folding table and three chairs Karl had scrounged up from somewhere. Taking the indicated seat, she glanced over her shoulder and wasn’t surprised to see Mathias taking her usual place by the hatch instead of joining them.
The scrape of metal-on-metal brought her head around.
As Athena settled into the chair across from her, Kara uneasily shifted in her own.
“How’s Cally taking it,” she abruptly asked, wondering how the petite Specialist was handling the revelation that her husband was a skinjob and, as a result, her little boy a hybrid. She couldn’t tell if the grimace that twisted Sharon’s expression was from dislike of the woman who had made her hate of the Eights abundantly clear or if it was an indication of how badly Cally was dealing with the situation.
“She’s not left her cabin,” Athena finally replied.
“Anyone checked on her…and the kid?” At the other woman’s shrug, “Someone needs to,” Kara said.
“Certainly not me. I’m the last person she’d want to see.”
“Someone should.”
“Then you do it, Kara.”
Silence but for the background murmur of Galactica’s engines fell between them as thoughts of Cally and Galen inevitably led to ones of Sam. Kara didn’t have to imagine how Cally felt: she’d had nearly a week now to come to terms with her own realization of what Anders was, and yet the knowledge still tasted sour on her tongue.
And then there was Nikki…
Her gaze strayed again to the cot.
“You know, Karl told me about Kacey.” At Athena’s words, Kara’s head snapped around and her breath caught. The smaller woman gave a nod of satisfaction, and Kara realized that her reaction had undoubtedly confirmed her suspicions. Shame-and anger, its quick companion-flushed Kara’s body with heat; it was all she could do to stay seated.
Denied escape, she instinctively struck out. “Helo needs keep his fat mouth shut.”
“Hey, he’s just concerned.” Then at Kara’s glare, “Quit with the hysterics, Starbuck. No one’s buying them here,” said Athena, her tone making it clear that she wasn’t about to be intimidated or so easily distracted.
It was Kara’s eyes that dropped first as she let out a slow breath with a hiss of frustration. They didn’t understand. It wasn’t like she could just change a lifetime of conditioned responses. All of them just expected her to open up-to talk.
And she frakkin’ hated it!
“I know he cares,” Kara grudgingly said. “I know, it’s just…” trailing off, her gaze slid again to Hera’s bed.
When it became clear that Kara wasn’t going to continue, “Kacey’s important to you,” Athena prompted. At Kara’s noncommittal shrug, Sharon’s lips thinned, then she insisted, “Tell me why, Kara.”
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Author’s Notes: Sorry it’s taken so long to get this chapter done. It just kept twisting on me. Delaying things further, my computer crashed. Fortunately, I had backed up most everything and didn’t lose any of the story. I still had to wait for a new computer before I could finish this chapter and get it posted. My hope is to get the next one posted within a couple of weeks. It’s likely to be shorter, and I’d originally planned on it being part of this chapter, but that’s not how things worked out. Thanks again for those of you that have continued to follow along. And comments are always welcome!