Rumblings

[cpo_galen_tyrol]

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"I thought you'd like to know what's going on, Chief."

I looked up into the face of someone I trust implicitly and find that I have no words, just a hurricane of emotions. Volcanic fury being chief among them. "You're sure about this? This isn't the run of the mill scuttlebutt rumor gone wrong, is it?"

"No, Chief

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[cpo_galen_tyrol]

"The walls have what?" I demanded, watching as Cally tried calming Nicky down. "What the hell are you talking about? Are you completely unaware of what's being said about you? The officers... okay, we've all got our different cliques, we're all guilty of that, but who is it Admiral Adama's more likely to believe? One of his trusted senior officers, or a deckhand with a history of less than stable reactions?"

I hated myself for even thinking it, but it was instantly forgotten in the wake of her next words. "Physical... who threatened you, Cal? I want names." The very idea of someone touching my wife in any way without her express consent... it's probably even worse for given how we even started. I'm sure my blood pressure rose substantially. "Cal, give me a name and I'll make sure it's taken care. I don't care who it is, or how high up the chain they are. You can file charges, hon, take steps to make sure it doesn't happen again, but this?"

"It was Athena, wasn't it?" All the pieces clicked into place. Obviously, either no one knew of this incident or they simply didn't care. This was beyond my worst nightmares. "Gods, Cal." I took Nicky from her, settling him in the crook of my arm and drew her into my other arm. "Tell me what happened, hon."

[dirty_cally]

"Galen, it's no big deal." I replied, settling into his embrace. "We just had a misunderstanding, I wrote something down about to get it out of my system, and I wasn't careful enough about where I put it. A few people read it. More than a few people."

I didn't want my husband to be disappointed in me. Gods, I was already disgusted enough with myself for letting this get this far. But did I really deserve that? If Galen was right, most of the officers seemed to think so. And what would Admiral Adama say?

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the offending document. "Here." I stuck it in his hand ( http://dirty-cally.livejournal.com/648.html#cutid1 ) and moved away from his embrace. Wrapping my arms around myself, I waited as he read it in silence.

[cpo_galen_tyrol]

This was bad. I knew it before I even looked at the piece of paper Cally had handed to me. But as I read silently, it got so much worse. After seeing only the first paragraph, I could understand why Cally was so terrified. Then, as I went on, I could see why Athena had gotten so pissed, if the rumors were true and she was really that pissed. I folded the paper back up and sighed. If Seelix was right, they'd need a copy of the original for whatever disciplinary hearing they might conjure up for Cally. Destroying it would only make matters worse, especially since the situation indicated there was more than one copy.

"Cal," I started carefully, "This was a stupid thing to do. You know they've been watching us since that whole union thing, waiting for the first wrong move. It won't matter to them what Athena did or didn't do to provoke this."

A choked sob was all the answer I got from her. Praying that Nick was happy enough to keep quiet for a few minutes, I put him back in his crib, my mind racing. "Cal, those bruises you had on your shoulders. Did she leave those marks on you?"

[dirty_cally]

"She shoved her gun in my hands and told me I didn't have the guts to shoot her," I informed him, clenching my hands to keep them from shaking at the recollection. "And she was right. I didn't have the guts. Because she has a little girl. Just like I have a little boy who needs me and how can I take care of him when all I see when I close my eyes is her staring at me, telling she'll kill me herself?"

Now that the words were coming, they weren't stopping. Maybe this was what I should have done in the first place, instead of keeping it all inside, and then having the stupidity to write it down and leave it somewhere anyone could just pick it up.

"What'm I supposed to do here, Galen?" I demanded, evading his attempts to calm me. "Because I have no idea how the frak everything got so out of control here! We don't even need the Cylons- the ones out there, I mean, not Athena- we don't even need them to destroy us! We're doing a great job of it all on our own!"