Curtain Call - chapter 10
The Sharon/Cottle chapter
Curtain Call
Chapter 10
Clutching her daughter tightly in her arms, Sharon approached him. “There are rumors going around the ship.”
“There always are.” Sherman commented as he let out a puff of smoke.
“People are saying that the Admiral was seen carrying the President through the corridors. That she - that she's dead.”
Taking another drag on his cigarette, he gestured to a curtained off area across the way.
Crossing the room, Sharon pulled back the curtain. As she did, she turned Hera to shield her from seeing - or was it from being seen? Cottle wasn't sure which? Having operated unsuccessfully on the woman that Sharon had shot without the slightest provocation, Cottle was aware of just how squirrelly she had become lately and he doubted the recent mutiny had done much to improve her disposition.
Over her shoulder, Cottle could see Lee turn and rise from his seat next to the bed holding the merely sleeping President. Sharon had only a moment to stare before Lee ended the show by reclosing the privacy curtain, but it was long enough to see that the monitors were working.
A bit lacking in the compassion department for someone who had spent about as much time in the brig for murdering an unarmed woman as he had spent in the operating room trying to save the life of that same woman, as Sharon turned back to face him, Cottle dryly offered. “As you can see, rumors of her demise have been slightly exaggerated.”
Looking unhappy, but determined, Sharon set Hera down on the gurney before Cottle. Gesturing with her head toward the girl, she spoke through gritted teeth. “Do it.”
Her gaze crossed back to the closed curtain. “Do it! Take Hera's blood. Use it to cure her again, but I'm not doing this for her. Helo and I don't owe her a thing. But the Old Man -” Sharon broke off. “-The Old Man has stood by us every step of the way. I'm doing this for him and only him. I don't care if she dies.”
Grinding out the stub in his hand, he reached for another. “Sharon, I'm sure the Admiral would appreciate the gesture, but I'm not going to take Hera's blood.”
“You have to.” Despite her words to the contrary, Sharon didn't look as if she didn't care.
“Sharon, no -”
“Something is coming. I know it. I can feel it.” Panic seemed to be rising in her the more she spoke. “I've seen bits of it - and so has she. Something is going to happen to Hera.”
Cigarette still in his hand unlit, Cottle listened to the desperation in the girl's voice - useless to actually do anything about it.
“She plays a part in it and I don't know what part she plays, but I do know that she wouldn't hurt Hera.”
“No, she wouldn't.” Cottle agreed.
“She could have killed Hera when she was first born. It would have been cleaner and easier than trying to hide her, but she didn't.”
“No, she didn't.”
“She had Hera right there with her on New Caprica when the cylons first landed. She could have killed her right then. It would have been the smart thing to do.”
“Yes, it would have.” Cottle agreed readily, letting Sharon get out all the things she needed to say.
“But she didn't.” Sharon continued. “She could have used Hera on New Caprica to save herself, but she didn't.”
Sherman eyed her silently. He wondered if Sharon knew the exact extent to which her words were true, but mindful of the little girl still present, he didn't ask.
“I don't know how to stop what's coming.” Sharon admitted with a quiet desperation. “But whatever is going to happen I know that she needs to be there.
Not entirely unmoved by her outburst, he tried to let her down as gently as he could. “Sharon, Hera's blood, it wouldn't help now.”
“ - It would.” She interrupted before he could fully explain. “Her cancer was far more advanced last time. I know! I was there! I saw her!”
“It's not a matter of how advanced the cancer is. Before she was born, Hera's blood lacked a blood type. It has one now and it's not the same as the President's.”
“Can't you isolate -”
“- No.”
“How do you know if -”
“ - I've already tried it!” Cottle finally admitted. “It didn't work. The cancer came back because it's grown resistant to whatever it was in Hera's blood that got rid of it in the first place.”
“What about the blood of a full cylon?”
He shook his head.
Her eyes darting across his face as if in search of the answer, Sharon asked. “What now?”
Meeting her gaze head on, Cottle admitted. “Nothing.”
“I meant what else can you do?”
“Nothing.” he repeated.
“You have to do something! If you don't do anything she'll - ” Sharon stopped abruptly as if not saying the word would make it any less true.
Sherman wondered what it was about this particular woman that made them all fight so hard against that which was so clearly inevitable, but the truth was he was guilty of it too.
He said it for her. “She is going to die.”
tbc