Fic: "With Crime Comes Punishment"
Title: with crime comes punishment
Characters: Hot Dog & Helo, talk of Gaeta, Baltar, Sharon
Pairings: Hot Dog/Gaeta
Wordcount: ~2500 words
Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Rating: Teen.
Spoilers: for "How to live and love..." but not for canon
Beta: ebuchala, thank you very much!
Summary: "Mind telling me what the hell you were thinking? Couldn’t you have waited until his frakking sermon was over? Nobody would have cared if you hadn’t punched him in public."
Author’s note: Missing scene from “How to live and love as an amputee, by Brendan Costanza”.
Brendan looked up when the hatch was unlocked. Helo walked in, telling the guard to wait outside. Nervously, Brendan got up. Helo was entering the cell, and he didn’t look pleased. This warranted standing at attention. “Sir,” Brendan said smartly.
Helo looked him up and down. “Captain Costanza,” he said. “I hope I don’t have to tell you how shocked the Admiral and I were to hear what you did. There is a difference between a bar fight amongst pilots and assaulting a civilian. Every officer has a duty to act in a way fit to represent the fleet, and this,” he smirked at Brendan, “this was not it. As the public is being informed just now, the incident will be marked down in your file permanently, and you can expect an according amount of brig time.”
Brendan shifted his weight. “I see, sir,” he said, tilting his head to look past Helo. The hatch was just closing behind the marine. He waited until it was fully shut, then turned back to Helo, who’d apparently been listening for the sound as well. “How long’s that mean exactly?”
Helo dropped the façade. “Give it a day or two to blow over.” He grimaced, sitting down on the rack. “You’re lucky it’s just Baltar. Mind telling me what the hell you were thinking? Why did you even... no, wait, more importantly, couldn’t you have waited until his frakking sermon was over? Nobody would have cared if you hadn’t punched him in public.”
Brendan shrugged, crossing his arms in front of his chest in discomfort. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“Well, your good idea prompted the frakking press to start a debate about military privilege. As if we haven’t got enough to deal with.” Helo rubbed the brink of his nose tiredly. “What’d he do to him, Brendan?”
“To who?”
Helo gave him a look. “Gaeta, of course. That guy who’s been the center of your universe for half a year.” He sprawled on the rack, closing his eyes for a moment. He looked exhausted. Helo always looked exhausted these days. Promotions were a bitch. “I just hope it was worth it. It’s bad enough that I had to clean up after Kara from her last stunt. She says congratulations by the way. But I’ll have you know that I’ve got better things to do with my time. One of those women filed a complaint, and the President had to get involved on her behalf. Lucky you, he can’t stand Baltar either.”
Brendan snorted a laugh. “Kara says congratulations?”
“Yeah, and Narcho says he wants a sparring match as soon as you’re back, seeing as how you’re working out so enthusiastically.” Helo blinked his eyes open. “Sharon wants to drop by later to get the juicy bits. You did a good one for the rumor mill.”
Brendan grinned. Now that Helo had said it, it wasn’t that hard to imagine. He wondered what everybody thought. It was fine with him if people thought he’d punched Baltar for being enemy of the state, although in actuality Brendan had a rule that said it was best not to have an opinion about politics. He wasn’t that good a person like Felix, who had an opinion on everything even when he couldn’t do anything about it, and although it just ended up making him sad. That was the right word for it - sad. There were too many things that made Felix sad, and seeing Felix sad made Brendan hurt.
The pilot frowned. Some days, he worried about Felix more than he worried about getting killed on patrol, and that was an awful lot already. He knew it was better not to show it too much, but some days, he was still afraid he’d enter Felix quarters and find him dead. It set him on edge constantly, and it had been good to direct his anger at a person for a change. If Baltar had had anything to do with making Felix be like this, he deserved to lose a hell of a lot more than just a couple of teeth.
If he had lost teeth. Brendan wasn’t sure but he was positive that he’d felt something give before people dragged him away.
“How is he, anyway?” he asked in distraction, rubbing a mark that one of Baltar’s chicks had left on his neck. Fingernails were nasty weapons.
Helo raised his eyebrows. “Narcho?”
“What? No, Felix.”
“I rest my case,” Helo muttered. He hauled himself up with a sigh. “I don’t know how Gaeta is doing, Brendan,” he said as if talking to a child. “Nobody would know how Gaeta is doing, or that he even has a life apart from duty, if you weren’t talking about him all day. I’ve hardly seen him since he lost his leg. He doesn’t talk.”
“I thought you worked together in the CIC.”
“Right.” Helo shrugged. “It’s Gaeta being Gaeta. He’s got that thing going where you know he likes you from the way he says ‘yes, sir’ and ‘no, sir’ and at the end of the day, you think you get him but you’re wrong. I think I remember that he giggled some with Dee today. That’s pretty much all I can tell you.”
There was a loose tile in the center of the cell. Idly, Brendan focused on kicking it with the tip of his boot. “He isn’t exactly honest with me, either,” he admitted bitterly. “You want to know why I punched Baltar? Because apparently,” his voice colored with spite, “Baltar is sending those women after Felix to make him apologize to Baltar. And you know what he said? Told me he’s handling it. He looked like he was about to frakking faint, and he told me he was handling it.” It made him so angry, he didn’t have words to express it. He couldn’t even decide who he was more angry with- Baltar for not caring, or Felix for defending him.
Brendan was sort of incapable of staying mad at Felix for long though, so it looked like he’d have to stick with Baltar.
“You could have dealt with that using the proper channels,” Helo pointed out mildly.
“Wanted to. He wouldn’t let me.” Brendan waved it off. So he’d be in the brig for awhile. So what. He didn’t care about the finer points, he just wanted the problem gone. It reminded him of when he’d punched his sister’s boyfriend because that asshole had dared tell her he loved her despite being frakked-up when clearly she’d been perfect, no “despite” involved. That’s how Brendan had learned about the value of knocking out teeth. What with supplies being short, Cottle would probably do frak to reattach them.
Brendan smirked. It didn’t hurt that much to think of Tanya nowadays but it still made him smirk thinking of Tanya and Felix in one breath. He’d first thought he had an understanding of Felix because of what his sister had gone through but, not so much. Tanya had cried, all frakking day long, and lamented about everything that was on her mind. Brendan hadn’t minded comforting her and waiting it out, if that was what it took. It had been puzzling, the things she’d had on her mind, but Brendan had been able to handle it pretty well. Felix though, he was all hard edges and meaningful silences, like a book that made sense only as long as you ignored that you didn’t know most words. Also, there was the fact that Tanya had been Brendan’s kid sister, and Felix... Felix was a very attractive man his age who thought the notion of Brendan being stupid was ridiculous, and who’d made Brendan figure out he was a bisexual.
That last bit was still new enough to be uncomfortable, making Brendan feel unsure about where he should store it away. It made him feel awkward. The way his chest grew all warm whenever he thought of Felix, however, did not.
In the corner of his eye, Helo was giving him a thoughtful look. Brendan had a feeling that it was pretty apparent who he was thinking of. It was true, he did talk of Felix a lot because that was where he spent most of his time. Everybody asked him how Felix was doing, if the stump had healed up, why he never was around anymore. Brendan had a bad feeling that people took that as an excuse not to go check on Felix himself, but it probably wouldn’t do much good, anyway, because Felix would just make them leave. He’d done that with Dualla, Brendan was pretty sure.
However, Helo was always overworked nowadays, and for a moment, Brendan felt guilty that he’d produced even more work for him. About Tigh and the Admiral he didn’t really care but Helo was his friend. Still, he relaxed when Helo visibly shifted gears, like he’d just decided it didn’t matter they were in the brig, and that a marine was waiting outside.
“You know, Brendan,” Helo said carefully, “Maybe you’re just expecting too much too soon. Gaeta, I think he needs a friend but he won’t let anybody get close until it’s too late. I thought we were pretty close before but the only real conversation we ever had was after Anders shot him, and he was high on morpha then.” He hesitated. “I’m not sure but I think he was asking me to help him overdose.” That earned him a sharp look from Brendan because that one was news. Not unexpected but still news. He grimaced, unhappy, while Helo talked on. “But it’s different in your case. It’s a vote of confidence that he lets you in like that in the first place. Sharon and me, we’re glad he has you. We were worried about him after Demetrius. Dee, too. We have no clue how you do it.”
I keep trying, that’s what I do. I just make a frakking effort, Brendan thought viciously, refusing to answer Helo’s crooked smile. Either it’s important to you or it’s not. If it is, you should just frakking go and act on it instead of talking about how it’s a pity that you can’t. Helo and Sharon and Marge, they were Brendan’s friends, and Dualla was an okay woman obviously, but that didn’t mean they didn’t make him mad. Felix made him mad, too, because he acted like it was okay. If you’d bothered visiting him at the beginning, maybe I wouldn’t have had to tell Cottle to do shots instead of pills, so he couldn’t overdose. Maybe he wouldn’t almost have gotten addicted. Maybe I wouldn’t have to keep his service pistol in my locker. I wouldn’t have to worry that the Cylons might board the ship, and he’ll die because he’s short a gun.
His thoughts ran in a circle like that all the time. One minute he was worried, the next he was angry, and then he was looking at Felix and hurting so damn much because Felix had made it clear that he couldn’t touch, wasn’t even allowed to stand close right now. Brendan felt attracted to guys alright but he felt attracted to Felix more, and he felt bad about lying in his rack and thinking about Felix like that, when Felix clearly didn’t want anything sexual in his life at all.
He sat down on the rack next to Helo, morosely glaring at the tiles. “I’m bi, you know,” he said after a moment.
“Duh,” Helo said.
A moment of silence passed. Brendan wondered what Helo was worrying about right now because clearly he had a lot on his mind, too. He was acting XO more often than Tigh, these days. Brendan and Marge had been speculating that he and Sharon were trying for another child. But Helo and Sharon were quite as private as Felix sometimes, so Marge and he knew not to ask about it much. Concerning Felix though, he'd run out of steam, and out of ideas.
Eventually, Helo reached out to pat his back, shaking him out of his reverie. “I’m sure he just needs more time,” he said. “It’s going to be fine.”
Brendan smirked. “You promise?”
Helo’s nod was firm and solemn. “I promise.”
Feeling strangely comforted, Brendan released a breath that transformed into a chuckle. He wasn’t one to talk emotions much, either, preferring to allow for things to work themselves out on their own time. He didn’t get why other people overcomplicated everything. But it was still nice to hear it said aloud, like it was real and not just in his mind. It could be true. It could be that Felix and he would be okay again after this. It made him nervous not to know what Felix was thinking about the incident, but it was a good kind of nervous, like when you hoped that somebody you loved would like your present. It had been a present, hitting Baltar, in a way.
Brendan had another rule, one about not imagining what it would feel like to kiss Felix, because it made him superstitious, afraid that it wouldn’t ever happen if he did. Now he did, anyway, reliving the warm shudder that came from being close to Felix, warm and comfortable and just right. It made him smile, thinking of Felix. It made him smile thinking how Tanya would have snickered at him if she’d ever seen him smile like that, but how she would have hugged him, too, and told him she was happy for him. He’d always miss his family but he was thinking, maybe it was time to make a new life, beyond being viper pilot and passing his time with the card games. Maybe it was time to move forward. Felix made him want to move forward.
“The President got involved, really?” he asked.
Helo nodded. “He told the press he was shocked and dismayed,” he agreed. “Then said to the Old Man, ‘I know you won’t punish a pilot anyway, so all I’m asking is to make it look impressive. I’ll try not to care. Again.’”
Brendan chuckled. People had kept saying they were doomed, when Roslin died, but Brendan wasn’t too sure about that anymore. Roslin had led them to Earth alright; it wasn’t the scriptures fault that Earth had been a blank. But just because the Gods hadn’t wanted them to settle didn’t mean they couldn’t still go on. Brendan was just fine with President Zarek. He was fine with flying back home and attacking, for a change, instead of running. The fleet was moving forward, too. And Felix... maybe wasn’t moving forward much but at least he was still firmly there, right at Brendan’s side.
So only one question remained unanswered, looked like. “Tell me,” he said, glancing at Helo. “Do you know if Baltar lost any teeth?”
Fin.
Characters: Hot Dog & Helo, talk of Gaeta, Baltar, Sharon
Pairings: Hot Dog/Gaeta
Wordcount: ~2500 words
Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Rating: Teen.
Spoilers: for "How to live and love..." but not for canon
Beta: ebuchala, thank you very much!
Summary: "Mind telling me what the hell you were thinking? Couldn’t you have waited until his frakking sermon was over? Nobody would have cared if you hadn’t punched him in public."
Author’s note: Missing scene from “How to live and love as an amputee, by Brendan Costanza”.
Brendan looked up when the hatch was unlocked. Helo walked in, telling the guard to wait outside. Nervously, Brendan got up. Helo was entering the cell, and he didn’t look pleased. This warranted standing at attention. “Sir,” Brendan said smartly.
Helo looked him up and down. “Captain Costanza,” he said. “I hope I don’t have to tell you how shocked the Admiral and I were to hear what you did. There is a difference between a bar fight amongst pilots and assaulting a civilian. Every officer has a duty to act in a way fit to represent the fleet, and this,” he smirked at Brendan, “this was not it. As the public is being informed just now, the incident will be marked down in your file permanently, and you can expect an according amount of brig time.”
Brendan shifted his weight. “I see, sir,” he said, tilting his head to look past Helo. The hatch was just closing behind the marine. He waited until it was fully shut, then turned back to Helo, who’d apparently been listening for the sound as well. “How long’s that mean exactly?”
Helo dropped the façade. “Give it a day or two to blow over.” He grimaced, sitting down on the rack. “You’re lucky it’s just Baltar. Mind telling me what the hell you were thinking? Why did you even... no, wait, more importantly, couldn’t you have waited until his frakking sermon was over? Nobody would have cared if you hadn’t punched him in public.”
Brendan shrugged, crossing his arms in front of his chest in discomfort. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“Well, your good idea prompted the frakking press to start a debate about military privilege. As if we haven’t got enough to deal with.” Helo rubbed the brink of his nose tiredly. “What’d he do to him, Brendan?”
“To who?”
Helo gave him a look. “Gaeta, of course. That guy who’s been the center of your universe for half a year.” He sprawled on the rack, closing his eyes for a moment. He looked exhausted. Helo always looked exhausted these days. Promotions were a bitch. “I just hope it was worth it. It’s bad enough that I had to clean up after Kara from her last stunt. She says congratulations by the way. But I’ll have you know that I’ve got better things to do with my time. One of those women filed a complaint, and the President had to get involved on her behalf. Lucky you, he can’t stand Baltar either.”
Brendan snorted a laugh. “Kara says congratulations?”
“Yeah, and Narcho says he wants a sparring match as soon as you’re back, seeing as how you’re working out so enthusiastically.” Helo blinked his eyes open. “Sharon wants to drop by later to get the juicy bits. You did a good one for the rumor mill.”
Brendan grinned. Now that Helo had said it, it wasn’t that hard to imagine. He wondered what everybody thought. It was fine with him if people thought he’d punched Baltar for being enemy of the state, although in actuality Brendan had a rule that said it was best not to have an opinion about politics. He wasn’t that good a person like Felix, who had an opinion on everything even when he couldn’t do anything about it, and although it just ended up making him sad. That was the right word for it - sad. There were too many things that made Felix sad, and seeing Felix sad made Brendan hurt.
The pilot frowned. Some days, he worried about Felix more than he worried about getting killed on patrol, and that was an awful lot already. He knew it was better not to show it too much, but some days, he was still afraid he’d enter Felix quarters and find him dead. It set him on edge constantly, and it had been good to direct his anger at a person for a change. If Baltar had had anything to do with making Felix be like this, he deserved to lose a hell of a lot more than just a couple of teeth.
If he had lost teeth. Brendan wasn’t sure but he was positive that he’d felt something give before people dragged him away.
“How is he, anyway?” he asked in distraction, rubbing a mark that one of Baltar’s chicks had left on his neck. Fingernails were nasty weapons.
Helo raised his eyebrows. “Narcho?”
“What? No, Felix.”
“I rest my case,” Helo muttered. He hauled himself up with a sigh. “I don’t know how Gaeta is doing, Brendan,” he said as if talking to a child. “Nobody would know how Gaeta is doing, or that he even has a life apart from duty, if you weren’t talking about him all day. I’ve hardly seen him since he lost his leg. He doesn’t talk.”
“I thought you worked together in the CIC.”
“Right.” Helo shrugged. “It’s Gaeta being Gaeta. He’s got that thing going where you know he likes you from the way he says ‘yes, sir’ and ‘no, sir’ and at the end of the day, you think you get him but you’re wrong. I think I remember that he giggled some with Dee today. That’s pretty much all I can tell you.”
There was a loose tile in the center of the cell. Idly, Brendan focused on kicking it with the tip of his boot. “He isn’t exactly honest with me, either,” he admitted bitterly. “You want to know why I punched Baltar? Because apparently,” his voice colored with spite, “Baltar is sending those women after Felix to make him apologize to Baltar. And you know what he said? Told me he’s handling it. He looked like he was about to frakking faint, and he told me he was handling it.” It made him so angry, he didn’t have words to express it. He couldn’t even decide who he was more angry with- Baltar for not caring, or Felix for defending him.
Brendan was sort of incapable of staying mad at Felix for long though, so it looked like he’d have to stick with Baltar.
“You could have dealt with that using the proper channels,” Helo pointed out mildly.
“Wanted to. He wouldn’t let me.” Brendan waved it off. So he’d be in the brig for awhile. So what. He didn’t care about the finer points, he just wanted the problem gone. It reminded him of when he’d punched his sister’s boyfriend because that asshole had dared tell her he loved her despite being frakked-up when clearly she’d been perfect, no “despite” involved. That’s how Brendan had learned about the value of knocking out teeth. What with supplies being short, Cottle would probably do frak to reattach them.
Brendan smirked. It didn’t hurt that much to think of Tanya nowadays but it still made him smirk thinking of Tanya and Felix in one breath. He’d first thought he had an understanding of Felix because of what his sister had gone through but, not so much. Tanya had cried, all frakking day long, and lamented about everything that was on her mind. Brendan hadn’t minded comforting her and waiting it out, if that was what it took. It had been puzzling, the things she’d had on her mind, but Brendan had been able to handle it pretty well. Felix though, he was all hard edges and meaningful silences, like a book that made sense only as long as you ignored that you didn’t know most words. Also, there was the fact that Tanya had been Brendan’s kid sister, and Felix... Felix was a very attractive man his age who thought the notion of Brendan being stupid was ridiculous, and who’d made Brendan figure out he was a bisexual.
That last bit was still new enough to be uncomfortable, making Brendan feel unsure about where he should store it away. It made him feel awkward. The way his chest grew all warm whenever he thought of Felix, however, did not.
In the corner of his eye, Helo was giving him a thoughtful look. Brendan had a feeling that it was pretty apparent who he was thinking of. It was true, he did talk of Felix a lot because that was where he spent most of his time. Everybody asked him how Felix was doing, if the stump had healed up, why he never was around anymore. Brendan had a bad feeling that people took that as an excuse not to go check on Felix himself, but it probably wouldn’t do much good, anyway, because Felix would just make them leave. He’d done that with Dualla, Brendan was pretty sure.
However, Helo was always overworked nowadays, and for a moment, Brendan felt guilty that he’d produced even more work for him. About Tigh and the Admiral he didn’t really care but Helo was his friend. Still, he relaxed when Helo visibly shifted gears, like he’d just decided it didn’t matter they were in the brig, and that a marine was waiting outside.
“You know, Brendan,” Helo said carefully, “Maybe you’re just expecting too much too soon. Gaeta, I think he needs a friend but he won’t let anybody get close until it’s too late. I thought we were pretty close before but the only real conversation we ever had was after Anders shot him, and he was high on morpha then.” He hesitated. “I’m not sure but I think he was asking me to help him overdose.” That earned him a sharp look from Brendan because that one was news. Not unexpected but still news. He grimaced, unhappy, while Helo talked on. “But it’s different in your case. It’s a vote of confidence that he lets you in like that in the first place. Sharon and me, we’re glad he has you. We were worried about him after Demetrius. Dee, too. We have no clue how you do it.”
I keep trying, that’s what I do. I just make a frakking effort, Brendan thought viciously, refusing to answer Helo’s crooked smile. Either it’s important to you or it’s not. If it is, you should just frakking go and act on it instead of talking about how it’s a pity that you can’t. Helo and Sharon and Marge, they were Brendan’s friends, and Dualla was an okay woman obviously, but that didn’t mean they didn’t make him mad. Felix made him mad, too, because he acted like it was okay. If you’d bothered visiting him at the beginning, maybe I wouldn’t have had to tell Cottle to do shots instead of pills, so he couldn’t overdose. Maybe he wouldn’t almost have gotten addicted. Maybe I wouldn’t have to keep his service pistol in my locker. I wouldn’t have to worry that the Cylons might board the ship, and he’ll die because he’s short a gun.
His thoughts ran in a circle like that all the time. One minute he was worried, the next he was angry, and then he was looking at Felix and hurting so damn much because Felix had made it clear that he couldn’t touch, wasn’t even allowed to stand close right now. Brendan felt attracted to guys alright but he felt attracted to Felix more, and he felt bad about lying in his rack and thinking about Felix like that, when Felix clearly didn’t want anything sexual in his life at all.
He sat down on the rack next to Helo, morosely glaring at the tiles. “I’m bi, you know,” he said after a moment.
“Duh,” Helo said.
A moment of silence passed. Brendan wondered what Helo was worrying about right now because clearly he had a lot on his mind, too. He was acting XO more often than Tigh, these days. Brendan and Marge had been speculating that he and Sharon were trying for another child. But Helo and Sharon were quite as private as Felix sometimes, so Marge and he knew not to ask about it much. Concerning Felix though, he'd run out of steam, and out of ideas.
Eventually, Helo reached out to pat his back, shaking him out of his reverie. “I’m sure he just needs more time,” he said. “It’s going to be fine.”
Brendan smirked. “You promise?”
Helo’s nod was firm and solemn. “I promise.”
Feeling strangely comforted, Brendan released a breath that transformed into a chuckle. He wasn’t one to talk emotions much, either, preferring to allow for things to work themselves out on their own time. He didn’t get why other people overcomplicated everything. But it was still nice to hear it said aloud, like it was real and not just in his mind. It could be true. It could be that Felix and he would be okay again after this. It made him nervous not to know what Felix was thinking about the incident, but it was a good kind of nervous, like when you hoped that somebody you loved would like your present. It had been a present, hitting Baltar, in a way.
Brendan had another rule, one about not imagining what it would feel like to kiss Felix, because it made him superstitious, afraid that it wouldn’t ever happen if he did. Now he did, anyway, reliving the warm shudder that came from being close to Felix, warm and comfortable and just right. It made him smile, thinking of Felix. It made him smile thinking how Tanya would have snickered at him if she’d ever seen him smile like that, but how she would have hugged him, too, and told him she was happy for him. He’d always miss his family but he was thinking, maybe it was time to make a new life, beyond being viper pilot and passing his time with the card games. Maybe it was time to move forward. Felix made him want to move forward.
“The President got involved, really?” he asked.
Helo nodded. “He told the press he was shocked and dismayed,” he agreed. “Then said to the Old Man, ‘I know you won’t punish a pilot anyway, so all I’m asking is to make it look impressive. I’ll try not to care. Again.’”
Brendan chuckled. People had kept saying they were doomed, when Roslin died, but Brendan wasn’t too sure about that anymore. Roslin had led them to Earth alright; it wasn’t the scriptures fault that Earth had been a blank. But just because the Gods hadn’t wanted them to settle didn’t mean they couldn’t still go on. Brendan was just fine with President Zarek. He was fine with flying back home and attacking, for a change, instead of running. The fleet was moving forward, too. And Felix... maybe wasn’t moving forward much but at least he was still firmly there, right at Brendan’s side.
So only one question remained unanswered, looked like. “Tell me,” he said, glancing at Helo. “Do you know if Baltar lost any teeth?”
Fin.