FIC: On a Broken Wing (2/3)
Chapter Two:
Laura woke boiling hot, the tee shirt pushed high up above her breasts, nearly chocking her. Bill was plastered behind her against the bulkhead, one hand was on her sweaty breast, the other on her lower belly. His morning erection was poking into her lower back. Maybe he wasn’t awake...”Laura,” he murmured.
She considered pretending that she was still asleep, but then just gave in. “Yes, Bill?”
“Good morning,” he said, pushing up the shirt even further with his nose, exposing her shoulder blade.
“Feeling better?”
“Uh huh,” he said, rubbing against her.
She just wouldn’t react...”That’s good,” she said, her voice somewhat shaky.
“I need to thank you,” he said.
“For what?”
“For coming by last night. Didn’t know that I didn’t want to be alone until you were there.”
“You’re welcome,” she said.
“I can do better than that,” he said, making the pattern of a tight circle with his tongue’s tip on her shoulder and tracing her navel with a finger; a suggestion.
She squeezed her thighs together to keep her body from betraying her; she had to be the tough guy. “First, we weren’t going to do this anymore--“
He was planting open mouthed kisses between her shoulder blades. “If I do something to you, we aren’t doing anything,” he said craftily.
She focused blearily on the alarm clock above her head, saying, “And second, you are due on the CIC in fifteen minutes,” while lifting the hand from her breast where it had been toying with her nipple until it was hard and sore with desire. “And I need to get back to Colonial One, like three hours ago.”
“I can be quick,” he promised.
“You make it sound so romantic,” she said dryly. “Now get in the shower.”
“Come shower with me,” he suggested. “We’ll be efficient.”
She rolled over and narrowed her eyes at him. He blinked innocently back at her. “I doubt that,” she said. “Get going.”
“Frak,” he grumbled, vaulting over her, pausing above. He raised an eyebrow as if this were her last chance to change her mind.
“Get,” she said, tugging the shirt back down.
“Frak,” he said again, swinging off the rack. He wandered to the head, his hair standing straight up from going to bed wet, his eyes barely open, his cheeks rough with stubble and his baggy boxers still tented. It took all her control not to call him back to the rack with her.
The head’s hatch clanked, and she heard the shower start. Getting up, Laura gathered up her clothes, wrinkling her nose at pulling on last night’s garments. Too bad she’d already cleaned out her underwear stash. She looked at the head’s door. Running her tongue around her fuzzy teeth, she wondered if she still had a toothbrush in there.
The comm rang. Over the sound of the shower, she could hear Bill singing sad sea shanties about going down in a storm. She hesitated, then told herself that she was the frakking president, and frak them all.
“Hello?” she said.
“I’m sorry, I was trying to reach the Admiral’s quarters,” said Gaeta.
“You have,” Laura said. “He’s not available. Can I pass on a message?”
The lieutenant remained silent for a long moment, and then said, “It’s Major Adama, Ma’am. He’s in the duty locker, and won’t let them clear away Captain Thrace’s things.”
“Thanks,” she said, giving him no real reply. Hanging up, she stared at the head’s hatch again.
Her guards found the officers’ duty locker for Laura. There was a knot of pilots outside, muttering among themselves. Helo was a head above them all, his slash of a mouth even tighter than usual.
Laura tipped her head to bring him over to her, but he came reluctantly. She started right off with, “Helo, this isn’t about us; it’s about Kara and Lee, okay?”
“Yes, Madam President,” he gritted out.
“So what the hell’s going on?” she asked.
“We clean out the lockers the day after...keeps the place from becoming one big memorial.”
Laura nodded, crossing her arms tightly as though cold. “And Lee’s in there?”
“Yeah, he says that he needs more time. But we gotta do it; gotta move another pilot in,” Helo said, his voice pain-filled.
She said, “Okay, I’m going in there; I’ll talk to him. When I call for you, bring in the boxes.”
“It’s just one box,” he said. “She traveled light.”
Laura stepped over the hatch lip and pulled the door almost closed behind her.
Lee was sitting on the rack by the open locker. He had been toying with something in his hands and glanced up. Confused, he said, “I thought they’d send my Dad. Did he send you instead?”
“No, I decided that he shouldn’t have to deal with this,” said Laura, suddenly very tired. She hadn’t gotten much sleep last night.
Sinking into a chair, she leaned forward, lacing her fingers and meeting Lee’s eyes frankly. “Somehow, with his amazing Adama blindness, he doesn’t realize the extent of your feelings for Kara. I’d rather he not at this time, don’t you agree?” she said.
Lee licked his lips and wouldn’t meet her questioning gaze.
Laura kept pushing. “Why don’t you go to the ready room before your wife hears about this too?”
Lee rolled his head back like a shying colt. “You know, you can be a real bitch sometimes--“
She chuckled--a light, inappropriate sound in the house of mourning. “Your father was just saying that to me.”
Lee blinked at her, uncomprehending, and she just smiled back. No, he wouldn’t understand that, would he?
He carefully placed the goddess figurine he’d been holding back in the locker. “Dad gave me the opportunity to ground her and I didn’t have the balls to do it; to piss her off.”
Great, thought Laura, another one taking on the guilt for everything. She said, “I saw Kara that last day...before it happened. I could tell something wasn’t right in her spirit. Should I have grounded her? It’s ultimately my responsibility.”
Lee furrowed his brow and shook his head. “It’s not your job.”
“Yes, it is,” she said firmly, getting up and going to the locker. “It’s all my job.”
Kara had become her job; Lee was her job. These kids had their problems, but humanity needed them in optimum working order to get their jobs done. She knew the girl hung on by a thread on the best day; Lee and Bill refused to see it, but she did. Took one to know one.
Picking up the Artemis figurine, she said, “Is there anything you want in here?”
Lee said, as though he didn't hear her, “She was picking out her place on the memorial wall and everything. She was--“
“Saying goodbye?” said Laura. “That’s more than most of them get.”
He thumped a cigar box beside him. “It shouldn’t have been goodbye.”
“No,” agreed Laura. “We need her skills--“
“Frak you,” said Lee violently.
“We isn’t you, Lee.”
He didn’t reply, flipping open the box and poked through the photographs inside.
“She’d put it away,” he said, pulling one out. “I guess that makes sense; wouldn’t want Sam to see it.”
Laura leaned over to look at it. Kara was younger still, with a handsome young man that she recognized from the pictures in Bill’s quarters as Zak.
She said, “Perhaps that should be the one that you put up on the memorial wall. So Zak can be here too.”
Lee flipped the bent side over, and she saw him standing there too, slightly apart, but there. She shook her head. No, that wouldn’t do. Another betrayal that Bill couldn’t know about.
“I’ll keep this.”
Laura couldn’t help herself; she said, “Got your own box that you keep hidden?”
“Frak you,” he said again, sounding as tired as she felt. He pushed himself off the rack and left the duty locker.
Helo slipped in, the storage box ready. Laura had been carefully pulling things out of the locker, placing them on the card table to be packed.
“I’ve got this, Ma’am,” Helo said.
Laura stepped back, folding her hands together. “Of course,” she breathed. “I’m sorry.”
She had turned to go when he said, “No, that’s okay. Do you want these?”
Laura looked back and he was holding out the figurines, Artemis and Apollo.
She reached for them. “Yes, thank you, Captain.” Holding them close, she said, “Please carry on.”
End (2/3) Chapter Three>>>>