My first fanfic for Racetrack/Skulls
“Oh my gods, full colors!” Hamish laughed as he jubilantly showed his hand to Maggie’s look of dismay, “I can’t wait to get back to Galactica to tell everyone just how much I won from you today.” Hamish began building small towers of coins in front of him. The brilliant architecture was lost on the raptor pilot.
“I don’t know how you’re cheating…”
“Winning…”
“…but I’m going to make it very painful for you when I find out.” Maggie rested her chin in her hand as she softly threatened her ECO. Hamish had hardly ever been a good card player, he couldn’t lie, he couldn’t contain his excitement when he got a good hand, and he couldn’t bear to part with his goods when it came to betting. Today that was all changing.
“You know you owe me all that money in front of you for the triad lesson I’m giving you,” Maggie rose up and re-evaluated her hand and financial standings in one glance at her cards.
“Just a minute ago you said I was cheating; now I’m your protégé? You’re such a sore loser…”
“Ethics lesson later, deal now,” Hamish laughed in his enjoyment while even Maggie had to crack a smug grin at the unusual situation. “We should make sure to check our jump coordinates, you know make sure we don’t hit Baltar while he’s floating away when we jump back,” the raptor filled with laughter as the two friends shared a smile.
“So did you hear Apollo’s having some sort of…”
“Yeah, I heard,” Maggie’s tone dropped as she flipped over and peered at a card.
“Who do you think will be our next CAG?”
“Helo.”
“He’s XO now.”
“Oh,” she shook her head with indifference, “I don’t know, Narcho, Showboat, Pegasus louts I guess,”
“The whole systems been trashed since we got back from New Caprica, Tigh, Starbuck, now Apollo,” Maggie’s face became more serious and contemplative. It almost broke Hamish’s heart to see his little buddy like that. New Caprica had always been a rough spot in her life. “Hey, you know…”
“I’m going to be an admiral one day just so you know,” she said in a rather abrupt and sterile tone.
“I didn’t know your name was Adama, skipper,” Skulls half laughed in slight discomfort trying not to upset his volatile counterpart.
“Oh frak Baltar and those stupid little rantings, I’m fraking being serious,” she lifted her head and dropped her shoulders giving a stern look at her ECO. Hamish had been patrolling with Maggie long enough to know when to talk and when to avoid confrontation. He also knew when it was time to start reaching for his helmet in case things got tough. “I’m going to do great things, keep people from being let down. Keep people from having to suffer from others stupid mistakes. Keep people from having to suffer from my stupid mistakes.”
“I guess I need to shift from stand-up comedian to psychiatrist now,”
“Comedian? That’s the funniest thing you’ve said all day,” she was feeling the discomfort in the small compartment and felt disappointed that Skulls always did this to her when she wanted to talk about something substantial.
“Now, now, no need to get, well when you’re not around we call it acting Racetracky,” he said with a cheerful undertone.
“Funny,” she flatly spoke.
“Oh come on, I’m just trying to…”
“Okay check the DRADIS, see if we have any intelligent life coming to keep me company,” the little figure rose to her feet and started to her cockpit. Hamish sighed to himself and looked over to his station. Racetrack had always had a cynical attitude and always had this death wish about her. It was almost as if not dying was killing her. Ironic.
“You know what I wanted to be when I was little?” Skulls relaxed against the ECO station and lowered his playing cards. His large back cushioned his frame as he laid his head against the station chuckling out loud. Meg turned back towards the hold and kneeled back down picking up her cards.
“This isn’t something I want to be, it’s something I’m going to be.”
“Yeah, I know, I know,” he brought his head back to meet the stone gaze of the small basilisk across from him, “I always wanted to be a fireman. You know, put out fires, climb ladders, save people…”
“Well I guess that explains how well you can handle your hose,” she gave Skulls a smug smirk all the while rearranging the cards in her hand.
“Yeah, like you frakking know…” and with that Hamish brought Meg back from her own black hole.