Two Roads Diverged : Chapter 9

[icedteainthebag]

Title: Two Roads Diverged (9/10)
Author: icedteainthebag
Word Count: 34,420
Rating: MA
Pairings: John Cavil/Ellen Tigh, Ellen Tigh/Saul Tigh, Laura Roslin/Bill Adama
Warnings: Dubcon, physical violence
Summary: Sometimes we make mistakes when we think we're doing the right thing.
Notes: See Chapter One, but specific thanks on this chapter go to meryl_edan and larsfarm77.
Artist: MrsDrJackson

Comments

[icedteainthebag]

Thank you... ♥

Finding someone else and FRAKKING someone else are two different things.
You hit the nail on the head.

Ouch - is it guilt? I’m curious as to what’s driving her here.
I think she's still facing a lot of denial, and minimizing her own suffering through focusing on Tigh's is a way of lessening the emotional impact of her pain so she can move forward. She's already compartmentalizing this experience. Guilt, maybe, though I see it more as a coping mechanism.

Laura’s generally been one to be fine being mental rather than physical combatant. It’s hard to imagine her getting to this place.
The place where she wants to kill Cylons? The place where she's beating herself up mentally?

And yeah, smooth move, Galen. Frakker.

Thanks again for reading and responding, this is so interesting and I love deconstructing these little scenes with you. ♥

[icedteainthebag]

I think what I'll say here is that Laura hasn't been put into a lot of situations in which her physical strength has been challenged. I think the beating affected her in a lot of ways, one of which was making her face one rare time that she was unable to protect herself adequately, because the assailant was using physical, and not verbal, means. And I think that she's more likely to blame herself for not being "strong enough" than acknowledge that she was in a losing fight from the beginning, against a machine.

Am I addressing your point now?

Is it realistic for someone who's been physically abused to then blame themselves for being physically weak, and therefore unable to protect herself? I think the mind goes there when trying to assign responsibility. Interested in your opinion if you want to keep going on this avenue of thought. :)

[samcasey]

Cavil chuckled. "You have no idea how much I'd enjoy that."
Oh how I want him to die a slow and painful death over and over. Ugh.

Yeah right Gaius you are a WHIMP. Gah I just want her to slap him across the face!
I do Like that he gave her guards... but still.

"Nobody has been tortured."
OHHH! Part of me wanted her to stand and show him her bruises saying "look at what youve done" but the other part of me knows that she wouldnt and that it would have derailed from canon...

I love that Ellen saw her... someone has to know, she cant take it all by herself.

He can't ever know.

Laura Roslin, ex-President, had been beaten and didn't fight back hard enough.

Obviously couldn't defend herself. Obviously needs to be taken care of.
Ohh Laura you dont have to be so strong all the time... I just want to hold her :( I want Bill to come back and hold her until it all just goes away!

LOVE that you had Ellen notice her name (it is her name right?) I know it is... I was always a little pissed that no one noticed she was on the list til she

[icedteainthebag]

I do Like that he gave her guards... but still.
That was me working some of what Mary said at Dragon*Con into my fanon, that she believed Gaius offered Laura protection, but Mary said nothing happened to Laura in detention... at the same time, I highly doubt she would have dropped a bomb like she thought Laura was abused, even if she thought she had been, because really, that kind of plot is RDM's deal and not hers. She looked so nervous when she was answering that question... I'll remember that for a long time, it really made an impression on me. It's amazing how deeply a character's experiences can affect an actor.

Random rant, sorry. :)

OHHH! Part of me wanted her to stand and show him her bruises saying "look at what youve done" but the other part of me knows that she wouldnt and that it would have derailed from canon...
I agree!! Very frustrating. At the same time, sometimes things left to the imagination are even more horrifying...

I love that Ellen saw her... someone has to know, she cant take it all by herself.The shower

[larsfarm77]

Uh huh. I like my torture with breakfast :P.

Seriously, I loved, as icedteainthebag said, how it levelled things for these two, and there's something about not having to suffer alone. Laura is SO private, so it was amazing to read the effect on her of Ellen seeing. You so ROCKED it, Tea!!

[sleepismyfriend]

I wish there had been one more moment of Ellen and Laura. I don't know why. Maybe because there needed to be that connection after the incident in the showers. *shrugs*

[icedteainthebag]

There eventually was a moment, though it was small. I think they were getting pulled away from each other too quickly. I can see what you mean, though... there is a feeling that they need some resolution. But sometimes things are left unresolved, even if it's not the best thing. If that makes any sense. :)

Thanks for reading... you are too sweet.

[lls_mutant]

Phew. There was an odd calm after the storm feeling to that chapter, and I needed it after the last one! But definitely not peace... just calm. That moment in the shower was just... oh, so much hurt, and although on some levels they understand each other, they aren't close and they are very different women. It's their humanity binding them together.

::heart keeps breaking. takes a deep breath, and clicks on chapter 10::

[icedteainthebag]

Phew. There was an odd calm after the storm feeling to that chapter, and I needed it after the last one!
I'm glad you felt that... it really needed to be that. But it's also the "Something Dark is Coming" moment. lol. :)

Thanks on the shower moment, it was something larsfarm77 suggested and as short as that scene is, I think it's one of my favorites between them. At that moment, more than any of the others, they're leveled, and it's a grounding moment before Ellen hits her downward spiral and Laura, physically (by leaving NC) and metaphorically, rises.

Of course, then Ellen pwns all, doesn't she? That was the best part. :)

Thanks for reading :)

[bsg_aussiegirl]

I probably like this chapter best. I love Laura thinking she couldn't tell Bill because she didn't want to let on she was weak. Silly girl. Loved Ellen in it and Cavil and Baltar. Just love.

[icedteainthebag]

Laura is silly. I think it also shows that well, she and Bill might know each other in a lot of ways, but she doesn't know him completely enough yet to realize that it would be okay to show him her weaknesses. To admit this happened.

I'm so happy you loved all my people. That means a lot to me ;) *HUGS* Thanks for reading. :)