Title: The Woods (5/??)
Rating: PG 13
Fandom: BSG
P/C: Boomer/Gaeta, Doc Cottle, Layne Ishay, Howard Kim, Gaius Baltar
Summery: “Is she alright?”
Doc Cottle and Lane Ishay powered their way down the corridor with Gaius Baltar in tow. Cottle hated the arrogant prick, but for this specific case, he might need him. He wasn’t completely sure of how different the physiology of a humanoid Cylon would be from a human, but he wasn’t taking any chances with this.
Lieutenant Gaeta had come to him, nearly hysterical, saying that Boomer had fainted in her cell and had thrown up just before. Cottle wasn’t that concerned with the sickness he had described, so much as the fall. When the young woman had come into the infirmary the day before he had suspected that she was pregnant and it just appeared now that he was right.
He remembered the look Kim had shot at him while Gaeta had pleaded with him to come help the Cylon. I won’t help her. She’s not one of us, and if you help her, you’re one of them as far as I’m concerned the look had said. Cottle brushed this memory off. He had a job to do.
When the three of them arrived in the brig, the marine on guard was standing at her post, looking passively on at Sharon’s prostrate form. Cottle could have slapped the woman. He pushed past her, barking an order to open the cell.
He kneeled down beside Boomer, opening his bag and checking for a pulse. Gently, he turned her head to the side, noting that the injury didn’t appear too severe, just split skin and some bruising, no bone damage, but that was rarely an indicator of brain trauma. Gaeta and Baltar lingered back by the cell door, out of his way, just the way he liked. When he touched the open wound on her scalp she moaned in pain and Gaeta started forward. “Is she alright?”
Cottle shot him an irate look. “Back off. I need to get her to sickbay. Gods dammit, I shouldn’t have let her leave after the last time you brought her in. I’m going to need-“
He was immediately cut off when Sharon woke up. She sat up abruptly, her posture rigid. She jerked her head towards him and grabbed his throat. She bared her teeth at him and he was shocked at what he saw in her eyes, which was to say nothing. For a moment, John Cottle was sure that this was it, he was staring his death in the face. This definitely isn’t how I pictured dying heroically he thought hazily. Just as he felt her hands twitch, ready to snap his neck like a twig, he saw Gaeta pull her back by her hair. A snarl issued from her lips as she fell back. The lieutenant caught her before she hit the floor again. As she struggled, her face pressed into his chest.
As quickly as she had changed before, she changed again. She went limp and Gaeta held her up. She looked around, seeming almost drugged. She looked up at Gaeta and, as if realizing what had happened, she burst into tears.
______________
When Sharon had finally calmed down, they had gotten her to the med bay. Gaeta noticed one of the medics (Kim he thought, his name is Kim) had given him a dirty look as he passed by.
He ignored it. He had bigger fish to fry.
______________
Boomer’s eyes fluttered open as Doc Cottle pushed the curtain around her bed aside. He looked worried which immediately put her on edge.
“Well,” he said. “Do you want the good news or bad news first?”
Boomer smiled wryly. “Good.”
“Your blood work came back.” He looked down at his clipboard and flipped through it. “You’re not pregnant.” Boomer gave him a quizzical look. There had never been any doubt in her mind that-
“You thought I was pregnant?” She looked at him waiting for an answer. He shrugged. “Hey, your boyfriend suggested it first alright? So don’t look at me like I’ve been putting ideas in his head.”
She gave him a disbelieving look. “Gaeta thought I was pregnant? Why the hell would Gaeta think I was pregnant?”
Cottle looked at her, irritated. “Well smart-ass maybe it was because you were frakking him and throwing up and passing out. Those things combined usually indicate pregnency, especially an unhealthy one. And do you want to know what the bad news is?”
Sharon, slightly cowed, nodded. “Now that we know you’re not pregnant, I have no frakking clue what’s wrong with you. I’m going to have run more tests, a lot more, just to figure out what the hell it is that makes you people tick! And whatever it is you have, it seems like it's getting a hell of a lot worse by the damn day.” And with that, he turned on his heel and stormed away.
Boomer heard the voice again, echoing in her head sleep sleep sleep sleep and she tried to shut it out, thinking of Felix and their imaginary baby. Dark eyes and curly hair. She almost felt a pang of regret for it. She’d ask him about it when she saw him again.
All of a sudden her muscles rebelled against her, the tendons in her belly rippling painfully. She clenched her fists and wondered if she was going to live long enough to see him again.