BSG ficlet: Sharon/Helo, PG
Clearly I fail at life. I really thought I wanted to write simple, fluffy things. But the muse, especially the BSG muse, keeps taking fluffy prompts and turning them into slightly emo things.
alissabobissa, this is not exactly what you asked for. Hera's not born yet. But it is about Helo being a father. Of course, you have no obligation to read it.
Title: Fatherhood
Pairing: Sharon/Helo
Rating: PG
Summary: Sharon thinks back on her pregnancy and Helo. 550 words.
Fatherhood
She'd always thought about the baby in terms of her being a mother, how it was strange and incongruous for her, how she wanted it not to be, how she wanted people to know she was capable. First had been the mission, then the pregnancy.
Separate and apart from that had been this feeling, warm and like a heavy balloon in the pit of her stomach, that she knew precisely what love was, because of Helo. She hadn't thought to put the two together at first, even if that love was what made the coming child possible. She thought those things were separate for him, too. He kept her alive, but not as Sharon, only as a woman carrying around a life that he wasn't willing to destroy.
But one day, when he came to visit her in the brig, he stared at her stomach for the longest time, and she could see that something had shifted. His gaze was careful, unsure, still a little resentful, but his hand on her stomach-the first gesture he'd made of the kind-was different. Still unsure, but only because he was overwhelmed. She could see it flash into his consciousness: he was going to be a father.
She cried, then, ashamed that she hadn't understood it before that moment she felt it in her gut: Helo was going to be her child's father-not an impersonal fact, cold like all the lies and days and distance that had lain between them, but a reality, as warm and confusing and wonderful as the hand on her stomach.
"How long has the baby been kicking?"
"A week or two?" she replied, her voice breaking.
He finally noticed she was crying.
"Hey," he said. He swept a thumb over each cheek almost unconsciously, but he seemed quite aware of what he was saying: "You know I'm not going to leave you to deal with this all by yourself, right?"
"That's not why I'm crying." She had wanted to say I know, but she didn't know if he'd want to hear how she'd known what kind of man he was before she went to him, and how she hadn't really felt what that meant until now.
She said, "I'm picturing you holding our little girl."
His whole face scrunched up tight against it, but she saw it anyway: amazement and…gratefulness?
"I'm going to have to get real comfortable with stuffed animals, aren't I?" he said, smiling, but wistfully. A hint of confusion and doubt there-the same doubt she often felt, wondering if they'd ever get to see this life they'd helped create-but genuine hope, too.
His fatherhood and her motherhood. She could see in her mind's eye Helo holding a pink stuffed rabbit, passing it into her own hands. It made her know the two of them would always be one, somehow. He would learn not to hate her. He might even learn to trust her. He already loved her, whether he liked it or not.
The baby wiggled up against her ribs. She cried until she couldn't breathe anymore, with Helo just watching, a tentative hand on her stomach and a steady one on the back of her neck.
He would be a good father.
~
alissabobissa, this is not exactly what you asked for. Hera's not born yet. But it is about Helo being a father. Of course, you have no obligation to read it.
Title: Fatherhood
Pairing: Sharon/Helo
Rating: PG
Summary: Sharon thinks back on her pregnancy and Helo. 550 words.
Fatherhood
She'd always thought about the baby in terms of her being a mother, how it was strange and incongruous for her, how she wanted it not to be, how she wanted people to know she was capable. First had been the mission, then the pregnancy.
Separate and apart from that had been this feeling, warm and like a heavy balloon in the pit of her stomach, that she knew precisely what love was, because of Helo. She hadn't thought to put the two together at first, even if that love was what made the coming child possible. She thought those things were separate for him, too. He kept her alive, but not as Sharon, only as a woman carrying around a life that he wasn't willing to destroy.
But one day, when he came to visit her in the brig, he stared at her stomach for the longest time, and she could see that something had shifted. His gaze was careful, unsure, still a little resentful, but his hand on her stomach-the first gesture he'd made of the kind-was different. Still unsure, but only because he was overwhelmed. She could see it flash into his consciousness: he was going to be a father.
She cried, then, ashamed that she hadn't understood it before that moment she felt it in her gut: Helo was going to be her child's father-not an impersonal fact, cold like all the lies and days and distance that had lain between them, but a reality, as warm and confusing and wonderful as the hand on her stomach.
"How long has the baby been kicking?"
"A week or two?" she replied, her voice breaking.
He finally noticed she was crying.
"Hey," he said. He swept a thumb over each cheek almost unconsciously, but he seemed quite aware of what he was saying: "You know I'm not going to leave you to deal with this all by yourself, right?"
"That's not why I'm crying." She had wanted to say I know, but she didn't know if he'd want to hear how she'd known what kind of man he was before she went to him, and how she hadn't really felt what that meant until now.
She said, "I'm picturing you holding our little girl."
His whole face scrunched up tight against it, but she saw it anyway: amazement and…gratefulness?
"I'm going to have to get real comfortable with stuffed animals, aren't I?" he said, smiling, but wistfully. A hint of confusion and doubt there-the same doubt she often felt, wondering if they'd ever get to see this life they'd helped create-but genuine hope, too.
His fatherhood and her motherhood. She could see in her mind's eye Helo holding a pink stuffed rabbit, passing it into her own hands. It made her know the two of them would always be one, somehow. He would learn not to hate her. He might even learn to trust her. He already loved her, whether he liked it or not.
The baby wiggled up against her ribs. She cried until she couldn't breathe anymore, with Helo just watching, a tentative hand on her stomach and a steady one on the back of her neck.
He would be a good father.
~