Birthday Fic

[wyrdwritere]

Title: Promises

Shows: BSG

Characters:Felix Gaeta/ Gaius Baltar/Tom Zarek/others in cameo.

Pairing: Gaeta/Baltar

Spoilers: relies on knowledge of a few general points through the end of Season 2.

Rating: I strongly imply awesome homosexual interaction, and mention homophobic violence on New Caprica.

Word Count: 2349.

I wrote this story for millari

Comments

[millari]

Oh, I totally love this! It's such a lovely folding of tenderness and tragedy, a look at what Gaius Baltar could have been on New Caprica if he hadn't already been so morally weak and so broken. I think I feel as disappointed as Felix does by the end. But that is the frakked-up joy of being a Baltar/Gaeta shipper, and you captured it really well here.

Baltar was such a surprise here - so competent and to use Felix's word, inspiring, that I have to admit that for a good part of the fic, I began to suspect that maybe he was really Head!Baltar in some corporeal form, like Shelly Godfrey, maybe. I still maintain after reading it again that if you had wanted to do that (which clearly, you didn't), there is nothing that *actually refutes* it being Head!Baltar, a fact which I think just makes the story all the more awesome

[wyrdwritere]

It was a great pleasure to write this for you. I feel almost abashed at your praise--truly, it was no more than a matter of fitting together threads dangled by the creators of the show with a few elements you had identified as relevant to the possible sub rosa pairing.

I'm glad that you found it so satisfying.

[daybreak777]

Awww! I still enjoy this fic even though I'd seen it already. So sad at the end. Gaius almost lives up to his potential, but then no. And poor Felix, not singing again.

These are definitely M's boys, just like she writes them. How did you do that? I marvel because I can't manage writing the boys, they just escape me. I think my favorite parts of this story were Gaius sitting up straight and giving orders while Felix and Zarek gaped. And the morning after scene. So sweet. Aww, my boy Gaeta was happy for a moment. :-)

I love birthday fic. :-) Wish fulfillment. I feel this could have happened in canon just like this. I do still wonder what happened with the killings, but that's the Law & Order side of me. This was romantic and plotty and in-character. Nicely done!

[wyrdwritere]

Thanks for your encouragement. It was helpful to have some encouragement once the first draft was done.

I don't think the killings were ever solved, per se. I think there was a cycle of revenge for a while, and then the Occupation happened, and folks let a lot of it go. I suspect that a few final scores were settled during the craziness of the occupation and Tom Zarek's brief purge.

[daybreak777]

Yay, an epilogue! You know you've hooked your reader when they want to know more. Thanks! :-)

[wyrdwritere]

Thanks. I found your editorial notes extremely helpful, so take a bow, yourself.

[blue_crow]

This made me want to cry. I was so overcome with how sweet that seemed and how much I loved the idea of Gaius being a leader finally and then I just... I guess you couldn't actually give it that happy ending. The twist about the song was particularly brutal.

I think it was how hopeful it could have been that really made it so sad. I'm used to seeing 'Gaius fails on New Caprica' but nothing where he actually does anything good. D:

[wyrdwritere]

I'm actually proud of the insight that Gaius is quite competent when he isn't born down by his guilt, so all that I needed was a crisis that he could look at and think: 'this is completely not my fault, and utterly stupid, to boot', and the wunderkind emerged.

Sadly, he saw his shadow, and returned to his burrow for six more weeks of suck.

[safenthecity]

Oh, oh. Wow. I love this. I can't even...

This is just so Gaius, so Felix, so New Caprica. And the way Gaius thinks that one impassioned speech, one heartfelt gesture, is going to somehow make everything better, that rings so true, as does the way Felix believes it himself. And then when it doesn't work that way, Gaius just retreats again, not wanting to put the necessary effort into holding things together.

You have done an awesome job showing why Gaius makes an amazing public figure and a terrible politician, and how all of Felix's feelings for him are mixed up in whatever crazy mood has Gaius today. Excellent.