New Chapters: Earth Rain - Book III, 36-37/?, BSG, K/L, NC-17
Title: Earth Rain
Author: Alice J. Foster (a.k.a. shipperfey)
Book III
| For Books I, II, and previous chapters, go here |
| Chapter 28 | Chapter 29 | Chapter 30 | Chapter 31 | Chapter 32 |
| Chapter 33 | Chapter 34 | Chapter 35 | Chapter 36 |
| Chapter 37 | Chapter 38 | Chapter 39 | Chapter 40 | Epilogue |
Summary: In the present, Kara, Lee and Aria spend the holidays with Bill, Laura and the Agathons. In the future, we get to see the Adama children struggle with their legacies.
Spoilers: Anything up to Season 3 is fair game.
Category/Warnings:Smut. Angst. Romance. Fluff.
Pairing/Characters: Kara/Lee, Helo/Athena, Hera, Bill Adama/Laura Roslin, OC.
Rating: NC-17/M for overall angsty smut, mature themes, and bad language.
♥
Chapter 36
“Helo, Dad,” Lee greeted as he found the two men in the kitchen.
“Morning,” Helo said with a teasing smile. “Guess you and Kara made up, huh?”
Lee frowned. “Sort of… more like a temporary truce.”
“Talk less, peel more, son,” Bill offered as he threw a potato at Lee.
“What’s this?” Lee asked, confused.
“Never seen a potato before?” Bill asked, handing Lee a peeler. “We gotta get things ready for tomorrow’s dinner,” he explained.
Lee stared at the potato, the peeler and the mountain of food that the men seemed to be working on. “Where is Sharon? And Laura?”
“Sharon's complaining of back pain,” Helo replied. “Something about the baby kicking her kidneys every time she stands up.”
Lee involuntarily winced, because he was not looking forward to a heavily pregnant and cranky Kara. It was a recipe for disaster, and he would surely take the blame for it.
“I don’t trust Laura’s cooking,” Bill added dryly.
“She was the president of the Colonial Fleet,” Lee reminded to his father.
“But not of my kitchen… if we need someone to negotiate a casserole into giving away its political secrets, I’ll get her. But otherwise, we gentlemen, are handling this.”
Lee didn’t argue as he began peeling.
♥
[Three Years and Nine Months Later]
“Aria, put it back,” Kara ordered.
“But mom!” Aria whined as she clutched a box of cookies.
“When you hit your brother in the car, what did I say?” Kara asked, hands on her waist like she was asking a nugget why they’d just pulled a maneuver that was the complete opposite of what she’d instructed.
“It’s just cookies,” Aria pointed out.
“I said no,” Kara stood her ground, retrieving the box from the seven-year-old and placing it back on the shelf.
“Momma,” Hermes pulled on her pantleg, pointing to a box of fruit snacks. “Can I?” the three-year-old asked.
“Sure, baby,” Kara conceded as she threw the box into the cart.
“That’s not fair!” Aria announced.
“He’s not the one with the attitude problem,” Kara pointed out.
“Daddy said you had an attitude problem,” Aria replied with a triumphant air.
Kara squeezed the metal bar of the shopping cart with both hands. On cold days, the healed fractures of her fingers hurt. She remembered Socrata and her discipline techniques, and it terrified her that on a day like this, the pain would be too much and Aria would push her too hard; but even now, she felt no urge to hit Aria. Ground her? Certainly. Yell at Lee? Probably. But never hurt her daughter.
Rationally, Kara knew Lee wouldn’t have said anything of the kind to their daughter-- but they were quickly learning that seven-year-olds tended to have bionic hearing whenever something was being said around them that they shouldn’t hear. And the fact that Lee was right didn’t help matters any.
“Well, Daddy can do the grocery shopping next time,” Kara retorted. “You’re still not getting cookies.”
Aria pouted, but didn’t continue to argue.
Kara felt relief at the knowledge she'd grown up to be her own kind of mother.
♥
♥
Chapter 37
“Aren’t you cold out here?”
Kara turned to see Helo at the front door of the condo. She shook her head, “Nah… it’s nice out here,” she said, pointing out the beautiful view.
Helo moved to her side, watching the landscape with her. “What bridge is that?”
Kara shrugged. “Don’t know, they seem to have a bunch.”
“It reminds me of that bridge by the Academy in Gemenon.”
Kara nodded, “It kinda does.”
“So, you gonna tell me why you’re out here by yourself?” Karl asked.
Kara sighed, “Just thinking.”
“That’s a first,” Helo teased.
Kara rolled her eyes. “Shut up.”
Helo smiled, and then raised his eyebrows. “Thinking about Lee?”
“Yeah, he wants me to marry him.”
“I kind of figured that out, with the ring and all,” Helo teased.
Kara looked at her finger, where the ring still sat in empty promise. “I don’t want to hurt him,” her voice was barely audible.
“So don’t,” Helo deadpanned.
“It’s not that easy,” Kara tried to explain.
“Yeah, it is,” Helo added softly.
“I’ve hurt him so much already… Zak’s death, New Caprica, hiding Aria from him-how could he have forgiven me? How can he forgive me enough to want to marry me?”
“Look around us,” Helo suggested. “Look at me; I’m married to a Cylon. We’re at the house of the woman who hid our daughter from us for two years. When people go through what we went through, there’s no telling what we can forgive. This is Lee Adama we’re talking about-the guy worships the ground you walk on, always has, even when you were his problematic hot-shot pilot. He’s already forgiven you for every single thing; you’re the one who has to forgive yourself.”
Kara bit her lower lip at Helo's words. Could he be right?
Frak Karl, and his godlike insight.
♥
[One Year and Seven Months Later]
Lee had had such high hopes for his day with the kids. His job took him out of town one week per month normally, but in the summers his assignments tended to be longer, and he’d just gotten back after six weeks away.
He’d only been trying to help when he suggested that Kara take a day off with Mary as the two prepared for a horse show. He figured he’d take the kids to the pond and maybe teach them how to swim-they’d spend hours just floating around under the water sun.
Of course, those plans had gone down the drain when Hermes had found a button that had fallen off one of Lee's shirts, and eaten it.
“Mr. Adama?”
Lee got up as he was called, picking up a dozing Hermes and a pouting Aria. The nurse showed them to an exam room and within thirty-five minutes, Lee was trying to calm a frantic Hermes down for an X-Ray.
“Herm, it’s okay,” Lee tried to reassure. “They have to take pictures of your belly.”
“Nooooo!” Hermes screamed, one of the few times Lee had heard his son say the word.
A brief memory of having to pressure Kara into taking her stims popped into his mind; he hoped he wasn’t about to enter a shouting match with Hermes. “Do you wanna play?” Lee asked with as much excitement in his voice as he could muster.
Hermes nodded.
“’kay, great, let’s play. You ever play ‘surrender’?”
The boy shook his head.
“You just raise your arms high, and stick your belly out,” Lee improvised. “And you-- you have to keep doing it until I get back here, okay?”
Hermes raised his hand and stuck his belly towards the x-ray film plate. “Cold, daddy! Cold!” he whined.
“I know it is, it’s part of the game,” Lee said, heart breaking as he saw his son pout, lower lip quivering.
After the film was developed, the ER doctor assured Lee the pearl-shaped button had safely made it through Hermes' stomach and it looked like it would pass with no problems.
Two hours later, they were having ice cream as Lee briefed the kids on what not to tell Kara about their day.
♥
Chapter 38