BSG fic - First Impressions 4 / 11
First Impressions 4 / 11
Author : suffolkgirl
Spoilers: Set pre-mini series, so none.
Pairings: Kara/Lee, Kara/Zak
Disclaimer: This world isn't mine, I just borrow it.
Zak takes Kara home for the holidays to meet his family....my take on how Lee and Kara first met.
First Impressions 4
Chapter Four
Kara stirred in Zak’s arms and wondered for a moment where she was. The room seemed darker than normal, and Zak was squashing her against the wall. Her bed wasn’t against a wall.
She opened her eyes and blinked to see that the wall was covered with vipers. She blinked again, but they were still there. She was just thinking she must have had more to drink than usual, when memory seeped back. She was in Zak’s family house, in his old bedroom. Somehow she had never quite made it to her own room last night.
A knock sounded at the door and Kara came fully awake.
She elbowed Zak in the ribs. “Wake up!”
He turned, wincing, eyes heavy with sleep. “What?”
“Wake up!” The knock sounded again, and Kara had no intention of answering it. Especially when the knock was followed by Caroline’s voice calling her son’s name. She wasn’t about to ruin Caroline’s opinion of her by opening her son’s bedroom door half naked.
“Answer her!” She pushed Zak out of the bed and ducked under the covers.
She heard him stumble to the door and open it. “Morning, Mum. Why are you waking me at the crack of dawn?”
“It’s not dawn, it’s ten o’clock.” Caroline sounded amused. “Lee’s busy cooking breakfast and I didn’t think you’d want to miss out.”
“Thanks, Mum. I’ll be down in a minute.”
“Good. Oh - you might want to look in on Kara on your way down. She must be fast asleep - she didn’t answer my knock and I don’t want to disturb her.” Caroline sounded as if she was trying not to laugh.
“Sure, Mum.” Zak hurriedly closed the door.
Kara rolled out from under the crumpled duvet, face red. “Frak! She knew I was here, didn’t she?”
“Sure did.” Zak grinned ruefully. “My mum’s no fool.”
“Damn it!” Kara started hunting around for her clothes. “Breakfast is going to be embarrassing.”
Zak crouched down beside her and gently turned her to face him. “Kara, don’t worry. She isn’t going to hold it against you. She may have offered you the spare room, but I doubt she expected you to actually sleep there.”
Kara stared down at the carpet. “I just want your mum to like me, Zak.”
“She does.” Zak caught her chin and forced her to look at him. His blue eyes were wide and sincere. “Trust me, she does.” He smiled coaxingly. “If she didn’t, she’d have let us sleep through breakfast.”
----
After breakfast - which was unsurprisingly eggs again - Lee headed off to the supermarket with a long list, an intent expression, and Caroline in tow to push the trolley.
“Don’t forget the sausages,” Kara called as they left, and Lee roused from his abstraction.
“Don’t worry,” he said, smiling. “I always pay my debts.”
“You finished eating?” Zak asked her as the front door closed. “We should get down to the park before the sunshine disappears.”
Kara gave him her plate to wash, frowning. “It seems a bit unfair that your brother has to trail down to the supermarket while we wander round the park.”
“Oh, don’t worry about Lee,” said Zak dismissively. “He positively enjoys boring chores like food shopping. Besides, if I offered to go instead, he’d just turn me down. I wouldn’t do it properly.”
“Well, you wouldn’t,” grinned Kara. “Your idea of food shopping is to ring for a takeaway.”
“And what’s wrong with that?” Zak raised a dripping hand, grinning, and smeared bubbles over her face.
“You bastard!” gasped Kara, laughing. She reached into the sink and grabbed some bubbles to retaliate.
----
By the time they had finished the bubble fight, cleaned up the kitchen - and kissed and made up - the morning was well advanced. It was nearly noon by the time they got to the park.
It wasn’t a particularly large park, but they made the most of what it had to offer. They fed the ducks, and climbed to the top of the steepest hill just for the pleasure of running down it again at full tilt, screaming at the tops of their lungs. They invaded the children’s playground and took possession of the swings. They pushed them as high as they could go, shaking the rusty metal frame so violently that Zak said they were going to pull it out of the ground.
They might have done if a park keeper hadn’t arrived to inform them that the playground was only for children under the age of twelve, and would they please move along.
“I have a mental age of twelve,” said Kara, with her most innocent smile. “Doesn’t that count?”
Zak hurriedly pulled her away, and she moaned at him for spoiling her fun for the next ten minutes, until they came across an ice-cream stand. Then she insisted that he bought her an ice-cream to make it up to her.
“How can you want an ice-cream?” asked Zak incredulously. “It’s freezing!”
“It’s never too cold for ice-cream,” said Kara firmly. “Now go get me a cone. A large one. And I want one of those chocolate sticks in it.”
Zak went off grumbling about insane women, but he bought himself an ice-cream too. They sat on a bench to eat them, picking one that was out of the wind.
“So, what do you think of the Adamas so far?” Zak asked. “Think you can stand a whole week with us?”
“Only with a lot of alcohol.”
Zak stuck his tongue out at her. “Seriously.”
“Seriously? Do I have to?” He pulled another face, and Kara laughed and relented. “Seriously, they both seem very nice. Especially your brother. He’s a lot less stuffy than you led me to believe.”
Zak looked surprised. “He is?”
“From the way you were describing him, I expected him to be awkward and difficult to talk to, but he’s certainly not. We had a good time playing triad while we were waiting for you to come back from the spaceport.”
Zak shrugged. “Well, he’s always much more relaxed at home. To be honest, though, I was fairly sure he’d get on with you. I thought you’d know how to deal with him.”
“You did? How exactly am I dealing with him?”
“Well, knowing you, you probably jumped straight in and started chatting to him like you’d known him your whole life,” said Zak with a knowing look.
Kara flushed slightly. “And what’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing. I’ve always liked that about you.” Zak finished the last bit of his cone. “And it’s just the way to deal with Lee. He always gets on better with outgoing people. They don’t give him time to get his defences up.”
“Defences?” Kara was puzzled. Lee had been nothing but open and friendly so far. “I didn’t see any.”
“You wait till we go to visit Dad.” Zak grimaced. “You’ll see what I mean then about Lee being uptight and awkward.”
“So they don’t get on?” Kara looked at him curiously.
“Not really.” Zak smiled his usual careless smile, but Kara could see it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Trouble is, they’re too alike, not that either of them would ever admit it. Too stubborn to give each other an inch of leeway.”
He turned away from Kara slightly, staring down towards the pond. “I’m glad you’re coming this year, actually. It might lessen the tension.”
“Really?” Kara watched him closely. It wasn’t often that she saw anything dampen Zak’s cheerful outlook on life. He didn’t usually allow it to. But this obviously did. “What’s it usually like, then?”
Zak sighed, still staring into the distance. “Usually we all sit round the table while Dad tries to find out what’s going on in Lee’s life and Lee stonewalls him by saying as little as possible. Then I ask Dad what he’s been doing, and he tells me while Lee makes sarcastic comments wherever he possibly can. Eventually Dad’s patience snaps and they have a sharp argument which ends with Lee stalking out to wait for me in the car.”
“And then?”
“Then Dad and I have a great afternoon together.” Zak smiled properly. “He doesn’t get a lot of shore leave, so we don’t get to spend time together very often.” His smile dimmed again. “Although then of course I have to travel back with Lee glaring at me for even giving Dad the time of day.”
“But why shouldn’t you want to spend time with him?” Kara was puzzled. “He’s your father.”
Zak’s mouth twisted. “As far as Lee is concerned, he stopped being our father when he walked out on Mum and left us all behind.”
“But you don’t feel like that?” Kara felt rather touched that he was telling her all this.
“Do I wish he hadn’t left?” Zak shrugged. “Of course I do. But - well, shit happens. It wasn’t all his fault, whatever Lee likes to make out. And he’s done his best to make it up to me since.” He smiled at her, face clearing. “I guess I just think that life’s too short for holding grudges.”
Kara stared at him for a moment, and then leaned forward and kissed him. Thoroughly.
When she finally sat back, Zak was looking a little bewildered. “What was that for?”
“For being you.” Kara grinned, trying to lighten the mood. “Now how about another ice-cream?”
----
Lee was as good as his word, and they had sausage and mash for dinner, complete with onion gravy. Kara had to admit it was pretty good, though she wasn’t about to tell him so. Instead she ate slowly, making a big show of considering each mouthful, and eventually told him it wasn’t bad.
He didn’t rise to the bait. “In that case, you won’t want a second helping,” he said smoothly, and refilled his own plate.
“Hey!” Kara protested. “Those are my second helpings! I won this meal fair and square.” She reached for Lee’s plate and he pulled it back, laughing.
The phone rang.
“I’ll get that,” said Zak, standing up. “Leave the two of you to fight it out.”
He answered the phone, and his whole face beamed. “Hi, Dad! How are you?” His voice was warm with pleasure.
Kara looked back at Lee and saw the smile fade from his face.
“Here, it’s all yours,” he said, and started scraping the mashed potato onto her plate.
“It’ll be great to see you tomorrow,” Zak was saying. “I’ve got so much to tell you about Academy - and you can meet Kara. You’ll like her, she loves vipers as much as you do-”
He broke off suddenly. Looking up, Kara saw his face change. The smile died out of his eyes and he looked suddenly tired.
“You can’t? But that’s so - well, if it’s like that, I suppose it can’t be helped.” Kara could hear the disappointment in his voice despite his efforts to mask it. “Dad, don’t worry about it, it’s fine - I understand, really.”
He put the phone down and turned to Caroline. “Dad wants to speak to you.”
He sat back next to Kara, unconsciously holding out his hand. She took it and squeezed it hard.
“What’s wrong?”
“Dad can’t make it,” he said flatly. “He’s had to cancel his shore leave - there’s a few problems on Galactica and he really needs to be there at the moment-”
“Oh, I’m sure he does,” said Lee sarcastically.
Kara looked at him, surprised by the acid edge to his tone. His face was set hard, and his eyes were flat and cold. She remembered suddenly what Zak had said this afternoon, about Lee having another side to him.
“Lee, you know he wouldn’t cancel unless it was important-”
“And you’re not?” Lee shot back.
“Lee.” That was Caroline, holding out the receiver. “Lee, your father wants to talk to you.”
“Does he?” Lee folded his arms. “Well, you can tell him I’m busy.”
Caroline’s face tightened. “Lee. Just come and talk to him.”
Lee pushed his chair around to face her. “I said I’m busy.” His voice rose, loud enough to be heard through the receiver. “You can tell him I’ve got more important things to do.”
Caroline stared at him for several moments, her mouth set in an exasperated line. Kara had not imagined she could look quite so grim. Finally she brought the receiver back to her mouth and said, “He’ll ring you back, Bill.” Then she hung up.
The tension in the kitchen was palpable. Kara shifted uncomfortably, wondering if she should slip out. Unfortunately, Zak was still holding her hand.
Lee stood to face his mother, defiant. “I’m not calling him back.”
“Yes, you are,” said Caroline icily. “And you will apologise for your rudeness.”
“Oh, that’s right, defend him as usual!” Lee laughed harshly. “Typical. He rings to say he can’t be bothered to spend time with his own family over Solstice, and you want me to apologise to him!”
“He didn’t do it on purpose, Lee.” Zak sounded weary, as if he had been through this a hundred times before. “Something very important came up-”
“Of course it did,” said Lee viciously. “Something important always comes up. Always has and always will.”
“He’s a commander in the fleet. It means he can’t always do as he’d like-”
“Oh for frak’s sake!” Lee’s eyes were blazing now. “When are you going to open your eyes, Zak? He doesn’t care about any of us, he never has. His damn ship is always going to come first, and you need to grow up and realise that!”
Zak jumped to his feet, glaring at his brother. “And when are you going to grow up, Lee? When are you going to get that chip off your shoulder and stop treating Dad as if he’s the big bad villain in all this?”
“Zak’s right.” Caroline jumped in. “You need to stop being so childish. The way you behave to him - sulking, refusing to speak - anyone would think you were still a teenager!”
“I’m childish?” Lee's voice cracked angrily. “That’s rich, coming from you! You didn’t think I was childish when Dad walked out and you left me to deal with everything because you were so upset you couldn’t get out of bed-”
“Lee!” Caroline went suddenly pale and Zak moved quickly to her side.
“Do you think I don’t remember that?” Lee’s voice was thick with emotion. “Do you think I don’t remember how devastated you were? How Zak used to cry himself to sleep?”
“Lee, that was all a long time ago-” Caroline was pleading now.
“It doesn’t matter,” said Lee fiercely. “It happened, and I can’t forget it. It happened, and it was all his fault. If you two want to pretend it didn’t, want to brush it all away and forgive him, you go ahead. I can’t.” He jerked open the back door and stalked through it, slamming it shut behind him.