Ficlets: Loving Her & Surviving
These were written for the recent 12 colonies challenge. Enjoy!
Title: Loving Her
Author: Embolalia
Rating: PG-13 (references to canon character death)
Words: 370
Summary: Time heals everything but loving her.
I
The first time Lee Adama tells himself that he’ll stop loving Kara Thrace if he just stays away long enough, he almost believes it. For two years he walks and talks and flies and breathes, and there are days when he doesn’t stop more than once to think of her smirk, her laugh, the softness of her lips.
It lasts exactly until the minute he sees her again, and then he can’t look away. There are bars between them, and so much loss. But the ways she meets his eyes Lee knows he isn’t the only one that hasn’t forgotten.
II
The second time, Lee leaves her behind on New Caprica, and signs a piece of paper that says another woman is his wife, and tries to forget the heartbreak of loving Kara. During the days he pretends it’s worked, and at night he drinks himself to sleep. She’s in his dreams though, shouting her love to the stars and smiling at him like she’ll never stop.
All she has to do is step out of a Raptor and Lee learns his lesson a second time. He hasn’t forgiven her, doesn’t even want to, but he hasn’t stopped loving her either.
III
The third time Lee tells himself to forget, he has no other choice. He’s cried himself hoarse; he’s watched the footage of her Viper exploding more times than he can count. She’s gone, and he thinks he’ll go insane if he can’t forget her.
It’s no easier than it’s ever been, though. He expects every minute to see her rounding a corner or stepping out of the head, wants it so badly it’s a disappointment every time he returns to his quarters without her.
When Kara flies up beside him, Lee thinks he’s lost his mind -- and he’s glad.
*
At the end of everything, and the beginning, too, Lee Adama stands on Earth. She’s gone again, for good this time, but he knows better than to try to forget. As he sets out across the grasslands, heading toward the foothills and the mountains beyond, he takes solace knowing that his last promise is one he’ll always keep: he’ll never, never stop loving her.
(Art by ne_starhere!)
*****
Title: Surviving
Author: Embolalia
Rating: PG-13 (references to canon child abuse)
Words: 750
Summary: After a Dance, Kara patches Lee up. (for sci_fi_shipper’s prompt “Blood and Bandages”)
Kara stands at the edge of the ring, cheering, as Lee and Crashdown pummel each other. “Get him, Apollo!” she shouts, and whoops when Lee catches him in the chest.
It was the Commander’s idea to set up a monthly Dance. Apparently they’d been common during the first war, when deployments could last more than a year, and fell off in the decades since when people had regular leave to escape the tensions that built up on ships.
In the last month, everyone grieving and fighting and exhausted, that tension’s already reached a boiling point. Kara smirks through the ropes at Kat. She’s pretty sure that if her knee weren’t busted some of the nuggets would be throwing their tags in just for the chance to throw a punch at her.
Kara’s eyes dart back to the pair in the ring as Lee goes down hard, with a grunt of pain. “Apollo?” she calls sharply.
Tigh calls the fight and Kara bounces up and through the ropes, is at Lee’s side in a second, one arm under him as she helps him sit up.
Lee holds his glove out to her, his face twisted with pain, and Kara tugs the glove off, sees blood seeping through the wraps on his hand.
“Come on,” she says quickly, yanking off his other glove as well and helping Lee down from the platform.
“It’s okay, Kara,” Lee says, still wincing. “I can go to sickbay.”
She rolls her eyes. “It’s crowded down there on like, a daily basis. I know what to do.” Without waiting for a reply, she starts toward the head.
Inside Kara gets a few things from her locker and joins Lee at the sink. The wraps on his uninjured hand come off quickly, but with the other she’s gentle, easing it away and running his fingers under cold water to bring the swelling down. She feels lightly along his fingers, testing for breaks. Finally she looks up at Lee. “I think it’s just your third finger that’s broken. Want me to set it or the doc?”
Lee grits his teeth, pale with pain. “Just do it.”
Kara nods. “Bite this.” She hands him a washcloth. Once he’s got it in place, she sets his finger with a jerk, flinching as Lee grunts in pain. “All done,” she whispers, and pulls a splint out of her pile of dressings, then bandages his fingers together.
“You’re good at that,” Lee says when he catches his breath.
Kara freezes for an instant. “I broke a bunch of fingers when I was a kid.”
Lee raises an eyebrow. “What were you doing that was breaking fingers? Getting into fights?”
She doesn’t meet his eyes. “It was just once. A bunch at once. My hand got slammed in a door.”
He winces. “Zak and I would always race inside after school and whoever was ahead would try to slam the door in the other one’s face.” For a moment he looks sick in the way everyone looks sick now, sick knowing no one else alive remembers his childhood. “My mom would always yell at me and Zak about that, that if we weren’t careful we’d catch our fingers in the hinge.”
Kara’s silent for a long moment, her jaw clamped shut. Some things she wishes not even she remembered.
Lee frowns at the tension in her face. “Kara?”
“It was my mom that slammed it,” she says tightly, her tone refusing his sympathy. Her eyes meet his, wary, afraid of her own admission.
He stares at her, crestfallen, for a long minute, before nodding once. He knows better than to tell her he’s sorry, or that it kills him to know someone hurt her. “You survived,” he says instead.
Kara nods, and smiles, just a bit. “Yeah.” She gathers up her extra bandages and returns them to her locker. Silence lingers between them, but then Kara arches an eyebrow. “You know, there are some things you may have to learn to do left-handed until those fingers heal.”
“Are you offering to cut my food for me?” Lee jokes.
Kara stares him down a moment, biting her lip meaningfully. “Something like that.”
Lee stands, eyes darkening as he steps toward her.
The hatch clangs open. “You okay, Captain?” Crashdown asks as the pilots flood into the head, the Dance over.
Lee snorts, still holding Kara’s eyes as her leer fades to a smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll survive.”
(Art by kivryn here!)
Title: Loving Her
Author: Embolalia
Rating: PG-13 (references to canon character death)
Words: 370
Summary: Time heals everything but loving her.
I
The first time Lee Adama tells himself that he’ll stop loving Kara Thrace if he just stays away long enough, he almost believes it. For two years he walks and talks and flies and breathes, and there are days when he doesn’t stop more than once to think of her smirk, her laugh, the softness of her lips.
It lasts exactly until the minute he sees her again, and then he can’t look away. There are bars between them, and so much loss. But the ways she meets his eyes Lee knows he isn’t the only one that hasn’t forgotten.
II
The second time, Lee leaves her behind on New Caprica, and signs a piece of paper that says another woman is his wife, and tries to forget the heartbreak of loving Kara. During the days he pretends it’s worked, and at night he drinks himself to sleep. She’s in his dreams though, shouting her love to the stars and smiling at him like she’ll never stop.
All she has to do is step out of a Raptor and Lee learns his lesson a second time. He hasn’t forgiven her, doesn’t even want to, but he hasn’t stopped loving her either.
III
The third time Lee tells himself to forget, he has no other choice. He’s cried himself hoarse; he’s watched the footage of her Viper exploding more times than he can count. She’s gone, and he thinks he’ll go insane if he can’t forget her.
It’s no easier than it’s ever been, though. He expects every minute to see her rounding a corner or stepping out of the head, wants it so badly it’s a disappointment every time he returns to his quarters without her.
When Kara flies up beside him, Lee thinks he’s lost his mind -- and he’s glad.
*
At the end of everything, and the beginning, too, Lee Adama stands on Earth. She’s gone again, for good this time, but he knows better than to try to forget. As he sets out across the grasslands, heading toward the foothills and the mountains beyond, he takes solace knowing that his last promise is one he’ll always keep: he’ll never, never stop loving her.
(Art by ne_starhere!)
*****
Title: Surviving
Author: Embolalia
Rating: PG-13 (references to canon child abuse)
Words: 750
Summary: After a Dance, Kara patches Lee up. (for sci_fi_shipper’s prompt “Blood and Bandages”)
Kara stands at the edge of the ring, cheering, as Lee and Crashdown pummel each other. “Get him, Apollo!” she shouts, and whoops when Lee catches him in the chest.
It was the Commander’s idea to set up a monthly Dance. Apparently they’d been common during the first war, when deployments could last more than a year, and fell off in the decades since when people had regular leave to escape the tensions that built up on ships.
In the last month, everyone grieving and fighting and exhausted, that tension’s already reached a boiling point. Kara smirks through the ropes at Kat. She’s pretty sure that if her knee weren’t busted some of the nuggets would be throwing their tags in just for the chance to throw a punch at her.
Kara’s eyes dart back to the pair in the ring as Lee goes down hard, with a grunt of pain. “Apollo?” she calls sharply.
Tigh calls the fight and Kara bounces up and through the ropes, is at Lee’s side in a second, one arm under him as she helps him sit up.
Lee holds his glove out to her, his face twisted with pain, and Kara tugs the glove off, sees blood seeping through the wraps on his hand.
“Come on,” she says quickly, yanking off his other glove as well and helping Lee down from the platform.
“It’s okay, Kara,” Lee says, still wincing. “I can go to sickbay.”
She rolls her eyes. “It’s crowded down there on like, a daily basis. I know what to do.” Without waiting for a reply, she starts toward the head.
Inside Kara gets a few things from her locker and joins Lee at the sink. The wraps on his uninjured hand come off quickly, but with the other she’s gentle, easing it away and running his fingers under cold water to bring the swelling down. She feels lightly along his fingers, testing for breaks. Finally she looks up at Lee. “I think it’s just your third finger that’s broken. Want me to set it or the doc?”
Lee grits his teeth, pale with pain. “Just do it.”
Kara nods. “Bite this.” She hands him a washcloth. Once he’s got it in place, she sets his finger with a jerk, flinching as Lee grunts in pain. “All done,” she whispers, and pulls a splint out of her pile of dressings, then bandages his fingers together.
“You’re good at that,” Lee says when he catches his breath.
Kara freezes for an instant. “I broke a bunch of fingers when I was a kid.”
Lee raises an eyebrow. “What were you doing that was breaking fingers? Getting into fights?”
She doesn’t meet his eyes. “It was just once. A bunch at once. My hand got slammed in a door.”
He winces. “Zak and I would always race inside after school and whoever was ahead would try to slam the door in the other one’s face.” For a moment he looks sick in the way everyone looks sick now, sick knowing no one else alive remembers his childhood. “My mom would always yell at me and Zak about that, that if we weren’t careful we’d catch our fingers in the hinge.”
Kara’s silent for a long moment, her jaw clamped shut. Some things she wishes not even she remembered.
Lee frowns at the tension in her face. “Kara?”
“It was my mom that slammed it,” she says tightly, her tone refusing his sympathy. Her eyes meet his, wary, afraid of her own admission.
He stares at her, crestfallen, for a long minute, before nodding once. He knows better than to tell her he’s sorry, or that it kills him to know someone hurt her. “You survived,” he says instead.
Kara nods, and smiles, just a bit. “Yeah.” She gathers up her extra bandages and returns them to her locker. Silence lingers between them, but then Kara arches an eyebrow. “You know, there are some things you may have to learn to do left-handed until those fingers heal.”
“Are you offering to cut my food for me?” Lee jokes.
Kara stares him down a moment, biting her lip meaningfully. “Something like that.”
Lee stands, eyes darkening as he steps toward her.
The hatch clangs open. “You okay, Captain?” Crashdown asks as the pilots flood into the head, the Dance over.
Lee snorts, still holding Kara’s eyes as her leer fades to a smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll survive.”
(Art by kivryn here!)
