The First Intern
Intro: Secrets & Whispers. The fourth in a series of Baltar/Gaeta missing scenes fics. These stories may be read together or as stand-alone oneshots.
Chapters: 1. Devotion to Good, 2. Return from Kobol, 3. After the Election, 4. The First Intern, 5. Judgement Day, 6. A Walk at Midnight, 7. Awaiting the Verdict, 8. Voices in the Mind. 9. Last Confessions.
Synopsis: Felix arrives at the Colonial One to find President Baltar in bed with one of his staff.
Characters: Baltar/Gaeta, with mentions of Gina.
Rating: PG-13 for mild sexual references.
Disclaimer: I don't own BSG and Romo Lampkin will be my lawyer if anyone tries to sue.
Author's Note: Yes, I am finally returning to my Baltar/Gaeta series after what feels like a ten year absence. My apologies to the readers who were eagerly following this story before it stopped dead. I promise that I'll be continuing to the end now. It has been easier to shape the conclusion now my ship has its canon resolve. For any of my newer flisters who are not familiar with this saga; feel free to either catch up or just read this entry (or not!). Each chapter is fairly self-contained.
Many thanks to lls_mutant who betaed this for me!
4. The First Intern
Gaius woke to a fierce banging in his head.
He moaned, tucking his pillow around his ears and curling his body into the fetal position. He was a bratty infant of a President at this time in the morning. He refused to open his eyes until the pounding ceased. It felt like there was a Raider volleying inside his skull. Gaius decided there must be something very wrong with his brain. He would have to see a doctor about these headaches. It was only after the tenth bang that he realised the sound was not coming from inside his mind. Someone was knocking at the entrance to his bed chamber.
“Mr President…” said a terse impatient voice.
Gaius raised himself onto his elbows, cursing and forcing his eyelids to open. Felix Gaeta stood in the doorway of his private rooms, rapping his knuckles against the wall of the passage that joined his quarters to his office. Once his vision had cleared, Gaius saw that Felix was not looking at him. His eyes were fixed on the girl lying beside him on the mattress. Her rust red hair was spread over his pillows; her large milky breasts were exposed above the covers. She was one of the interns that worked for his administration; the first intern Gaius had taken to his bed.
Felix took a breath. He was careful to keep his expression officious, but there was no hiding the betrayal in his eyes. For one giddy moment Gaius thought he was going to cry. He realised he wanted to see it happen. But to his disappointment, Felix tightened his jaw and managed to hold himself together.
“The morning report is waiting on your desk, sir,” he said.
With that, Felix turned his back and exited his chamber. Gaius let out a snort and slumped back on the mattress; defeated. It hardly seemed worth it now. He had been hoping for a better reaction out of Felix than that.
It was over a month now since they had last slept together. The memory was not a pleasant one. Gaius had been pushy, frustrated and drunk out of his skull. Felix had been tense and distracted; made frigid by the pressures of his duties. The following morning Gaius had woken up with a raging hangover and found Felix sitting up in bed, his arms folded over his chest, complaining that their sex had been rushed and uncomfortable for him. Gaius had muttered a weak apology and then handed him a suppository from his bedside drawer. Felix had shot him one last disdainful look before climbing back into his clothes and storming out of his room in a simmering fury.
“You had better get dressed,” Gaius groaned, nudging the girl at his side.
The intern pouted and clung to the bedclothes. Gaius supposed the only reason she had slept with him was for this chance of lounging in this soft bed in the warm. He had forgotten her name already. It was something like Jessica or Clarissa or Vanessa; some cheap little tease of a name like that. Her name didn’t matter. She held no significance. This wasn’t the first time he had cheated on Felix. No indeed; it had only been a matter of hours after their first time that Gaius had taken the shuttle over to the Cloud Nine and proceeded in bedding Gina. Well, he could hardly pass up the opportunity. He never imagined the abused cylon woman would give him the chance. And since Gaius was severing ties with Gina for his settlement on New Caprica, Felix would never know. He hadn’t seen the harm in it.
Gaius had felt on top of the world that morning when he had arrived on the Colonial One to be sworn into the presidency. He had been on a roll. He had succeeded three of his most triumphant conquests; one over Felix Gaeta, one over Gina Inviere, and the last and sweetest of all over Laura Roslin.
It had all come crashing down with the destruction of the Cloud Nine.
Following the terrorist attack, Gaius had spent a long night crying in Felix’s arms while the younger man had held him gently and attempted to console him with loving reassurances; The bombing wasn’t your fault, Gaius. You’ve been so busy with the election campaign. The military should have put better security on the doors of your lab... Yes, Felix had even blamed himself for not suggesting these precautions. He was still so innocent and trusting back then. He had smoothed the hair back from Gaius’s brow and stopped his tears by promptly accepting the position of Chief of Staff in his administration; We can put this tragedy behind us, Gaius. We can build up the dream of New Caprica together... For a brief moment Felix had become his hero. Gaius had wanted so desperately to believe him.
He still wanted Felix as his security blanket; as something safe and reliable to cling to. Their relationship had been troubling for him in the months that followed. Gaius knew he preferred women and these homosexual inclinations were forced on him by circumstance. But Gina had made an intriguing confession on the night of their liaison. She had told him that she had once been the lover of Admiral Cain; a woman who had later ordered her to be raped and tortured by the men under her command. I know it was the men who did it to me, Gina had said, but it was worse…far worse….to be betrayed by Helena. Part of me had really thought we were in love. But after what she did…I somehow feel safer in the arms of a man. Gaius understood only to well. After the shock of Gina’s own betrayal and abuse of his trust, Gaius felt safer in the arms of a man too. Women were cruel and merciless; none more so than the Sixes.
It had been months since Gaius had slept with a woman, probably the longest period of his adulthood. But as this previous evening had proved, he couldn’t break the habit of a lifetime. Gaius sighed, glancing back to his lazing intern.
“Listen, if you’re not up and out of that bed in the next ten minutes I’m going to have to call for security,” Gaius snapped impatiently. He was busily pulling himself into his suit, his head still throbbing in time with his movements. “This is the Colonial One; the President’s ship. It’s not a frakking hotel...”
The girl rolled her eyes. She sat upright and began to dress; slipping her blouse over her head and tugging on her knee-high boots. She had only been hired two days ago. Playa had found her for Gaius, assuring him the girl would be willing and that she wouldn’t leak this little scandal in the press. In fact she had promised she could employ more interns of this nature in exchange for the supplies and favours she enjoyed as part of the President’s inner circle.
Gaius was already groaning as he stepped out of his chamber and into his office. There was a stack of documents waiting for him on the desk and Felix was standing close by, casting his shadow over them.
“Good morning, Mr President,” he said.
Gaius frowned at the greeting. These days Felix had a cultivated a way of saying Mr President so that it rhymed with you bastard.
“Yes, morning…where are my pills?”
Gaius sank into his chair and rummaged his drawers for anything that might alleviate his headache which was now swelling into a migraine. He spotted one of the cheap yellow pharmaceuticals that Cottle had given him lying near his ashtray. He scooped it up and swallowed it dry. Gaius was going to have to demand a stronger prescription. Maybe he would even have to take a trip to the Galactica for another brain scan. It really felt like there was tumour growing up there.
“Just a few items, sir,” said Felix, ignoring his mood. “I’ve scheduled a meeting this afternoon to discuss the candidates for the union presidency. Galen Tyrol seems to be gaining public support after his protest rally on…”
“Gods, not that oafish windbag…” Gaius interrupted.
Felix didn’t pause or bat an eyelid at his remark. “We may, of course, discuss your reservations over Mr Tyrol’s nomination at the meeting, sir…though the union leader will still be chosen by a democratic vote...”
Gaius narrowed his eyes. He might almost call it impressive how much snide and derision Felix managed to slip into these little customary speeches.
Before he could continue the intern came slinking out of his chamber; her blouse only half-fastened, her boots unlaced. Gaius threw a sly glance at Felix. He reached out and hooked a finger through the belt loop of her skirt.
“I’m so sorry about my temper just now,” he cooed, pulling the girl onto his lap and kissing her neck. “The pressures of leadership, you know...”
The intern smiled, leaning into his caresses. She took a cigarette from his desk and sparked it up. Then she wandered over to the couch and flopped down on its cushions, making herself at home in their opulent surroundings. Gaius winked at her and then turned his attention back to Felix. He still wasn’t reacting. His face was stony and impassive. He was just like the Six he had lived with on Caprica who had refused to lose her composure over Gaius’s many affairs.
“I also have the new draft of the census for your inspection,” Felix went on. “It’s in this folder here, sir. It requires your signature.”
“A census?! Is that what you’ve been wasting your time on?”
Gaius rose to his feet and rounded the desk. There were mornings when he didn’t care for Felix standing over him like an interrogator. Gaius stood by his side and shook his head over the long list of names that Felix had collected. His aide was obsessed with names on lists, just like Roslin had once been obsessed by the numbers on her white board. Gaius imagined Felix had memorised the name of every person in their colony by now. He still persisted with these compulsive little lists.
“Mr Gaeta, I thought we agreed that the census was to be annual,” he complained. “We’ve been down on this planet only a matter of months. There have been no cylon attacks, no major civil catastrophes, so I don’t see why you…”
“I think it’s important that we keep records of our people, sir. We have a population of 39, 197 souls in New Caprica City. We have sworn an oath to protect them. That starts with knowing who these people are; how many we have, how many we’ve lost. In the cold weather spells we have been losing many of our elderly citizens to pneumonia and influenza. Medicines are limited so there’s only so much we can do. The least we can do is keep them in our records…”
“Yes, but…it’s not really that bad, is it?!” Gaius protested. “It can’t be as bad as those months we spent being hunted across the galaxy, fleeing for our lives. It’s been much better since I took office and we started this settlement, hasn’t it? What about the babies, Felix? You told me there have been five babies born in...”
“Four babies, Mr President,” Felix corrected him, still not meeting his eyes. “One of them died of meningitis…just last week.”
Gaius rubbed his temples. His headache was unbearable now.
“Dear Gods, why must this job be so depressing?”
Felix finally turned his head, scowling openly now. “You think that your job is depressing? Gaius…you aren’t living out there! You do nothing for those people. You don’t even seem to care. So why don’t you just sign these papers and I’ll get on with doing your frakking job for you…”
Gaius's hand whipped up and struck Felix across the face, his knuckles cracking against his chin.
Felix took a step back, his eyes wide and appalled. His President had just hit him. Gaius could not believe it either. He stared down at his trembling hand in revulsion. It felt like a cylon device must have controlled his actions. He wasn’t a violent man by nature. There was something very wrong with him. Could Felix not see he was becoming unwell?
The intern sitting on the couch spluttered a laugh, enjoying the show. Gaius shot her a beseeching look, silently begging her not to make things worse. Felix turned his back, crossing the room to the cabin windows. He stood gazing out over the planet; over the windy shanty town that they called a city. For the first time, Gaius realised that this was his planet. This was Felix Gaeta’s broken dream of New Caprica. It was becoming all too clear who was the real leader and who was the assistant of this government. Felix had the look of a sea captain; standing on the deck of his ship that has sprung leaks and is sinking fast. He knew his civilisation was failing. He looked close to admitting that his idealism and his ambition had outstretched him; that he had taken on more responsibilities than he could handle…
No, Gaius didn’t want Felix to give up on his dream just yet. He turned back to his desk, snatching up a pen and scribbling his name down on all the dotted lines. He didn’t care what the documents were. If they were important to Felix then he would sign them and trust that it was the right thing to do.
“Felix…here, I’ve signed them…” Gaius slipped the papers neatly back inside their folder and carried them over to him, holding them out like a cringing servant. “Look…I signed them just like you wanted me to…”
Felix glanced down at the documents, his eyes narrowing on his signature. To think this same man had once hoped to have Gaius Baltar autograph his science manuals. Now he looked at his name like it was a stain on the paper.
“Thank you…” Felix said tonelessly. He tucked the folder under his arm and then leaned close to whisper to Gaius. “You might want to offer your little friend a bribe. You don’t want her to talk. After all we know how much you value your reputation.”
Gaius winced at the sarcasm. He knew what Felix was implying. He recalled his insistence that their own relationship had to remain secret. Gaius tried to appear oblivious. He shared a conspiratorial nod with Felix and then scowled at the young intern who was still lounging on his cushions and taking her sweet time to lace up her boots. Gaius looked back just in time to see Felix rolling his eyes and turning towards the exit. Gaius raised his knuckles to his mouth, chewing his skin. Gods, it had finally happened. Felix could see right through him.
“Mr Gaeta…” he called out in desperation.
Felix halted in the doorway, glancing over his shoulder.
“Will there be anything else, sir?”
Gaius swallowed and nodded, wringing his hands. “Please…please tell the family of the baby who died...that the President is very sorry for their loss.”
Felix held his stare for a moment. Gaius caught the smallest flicker in his eyes; a light that dwindled ever so faintly, yet it was enough to tell Gaius that Felix still believed in him. Or at least, he was still a man who wanted to believe.
“I’ll tell them, Mr President…” he said.
5. Judgement Day