"Through the Looking Glass" (Chapters 1-2)
Title: "Through the Looking Glass"
Author: addictd2fiction
Summary: What really happened when Kara's viper disappeared? All she knew was that when she woke up, it was definitely Leoben, but he had a giant gold pocketwatch hanging around his neck. He looked completely frenzied, his eyes wide. But the most striking difference, Kara noticed, were the two snow-white bunny ears rising up from his head.
Rating: T
Warnings: Crack!
Pairing: K/L
A/N: Hi guys! Some of you don't know me (though I had the pleasure of meeting some of you at Dragoncon!), but I'm koolaidmom11's daughter, Keely. I decided to write this thanks to the encouragement I received down in Atlanta - thanks ladies!
Beta Credit goes to my friend Kathleen (or sassafras1989), who some of you met at Dragoncon.
Disclaimer: I don't own "Battlestar Galactica," because if I did, Lee and Kara would have fought every episode and had hot make-up sex. I also don't own "Alice in Wonderland."
Chapter 1
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
And in her freefalling Viper, light years away from her old apartment and her dying mother, Kara Thrace regained consciousness. Opening her eyes slowly, she noticed the flashing lights, that grating beeping, and the loud rush of air being sucked through the front windshield. Distantly, as her mind began to focus, she heard Lee over her comm system.
“Starbuck, Apollo. We lost you on DRADIS. I’m trying to get a fix on you.” A pause. She blinked, shaking her head a little, as if to clear it. “Kara!”
Lee, she thought. Instinctively she reached down to grasp that lever that would allow her to eject from the cockpit. What was happening? Taking in the state of her viper, which was now rushing in downward spiral through the thickening atmosphere, Kara remembered chasing the cylon fighter; she remembered Leoben and his claim about the next step of her journey. She was free.
Kara took her hand off the ejection lever. “Lee,” she said, “I’m not afraid anymore.”
A moment’s pause before she heard, “Say again?” Another long pause before Lee tried again, sounding slightly more urgent this time. “All right Kara, listen to me. Forget the damn toaster. Climb now, or you’re dead!”
Well that’s kind of the frakking point, isn’t it? Kara thought to herself as she followed the enemy fighter lower and lower. Was it her, or was it getting brighter? She was shaken from her musings as Lee shouted, “Kara!” once more.
Another few seconds passed before Lee spoke again, sounding a little more hopeful. “Visual, visual. Okay, Kara, I’m coming to get you.”
It’s too late, she thought. For an instant, she wished, desperately, that it wasn’t. “Lee, I’ll see you on the other side.”
“Kara, please. Just listen to me. Come back,” he pleaded. Desperate.
Kara’s heart twisted in her chest. I’m sorry, she wanted to say, for so many things. There wasn’t time, though, or maybe she still couldn’t. Instead, she whispered, “Just let me go.”
Lee was yelling at this point, his words laced with anger, worry, and fear. “Gods damnit, Kara! You come back! Come back!”
The light was getting brighter, Kara thought. She knew what she had to do. She was free, and this was her path. She knew that now. She could hear Lee yelling at her, telling her to stop, to pull up. “It’s okay,” she cut through his words, “Just let me go. They’re waiting for me.”
Completely bathed in light, Kara squeezed her eyes shut. Through her eyelids, she could sense a blinding brightness all around her, and she heard a loud bang. As she began to lose consciousness for the second time, she distantly heard Lee screaming No! No!, and everything faded as the beeping finally stopped.
* * *
Kara felt like she was falling. Not just through the air in a spiraling viper - she actually felt the wind rush up all around her. Something billowed around her waist. She opened her eyes and realized that she was indeed in a free-fall. The last thing she remembered was following Leoben’s fighter, and then… Nothing. Where was she?
Looking down, Kara noticed that she was not only falling through the air, but as she had suspected, her viper was gone. Where was Leoben? Glancing down at herself again, she was startled to find she was no longer in her pilot uniform, but she was instead in what looked to be a blue dress with a white smock. Her hair had somehow grown out again as well, to her annoyance. Her legs were covered by long white stockings, and on her feet were the most impractical-looking shoes she had ever seen.
“What the frak?!” she screamed, confused and angry and just a little embarrassed. If Lee were to see this, he’d…
Lee. Kara suddenly remembered how agonized he’d sounded at the end. He’ll have to move on, I guess. He said things with Dee were better than ever. He’ll be fine. She nodded as if to reassure herself.
Glancing around her, Kara noticed that there were shelves on the sides of the tunnel she seemed to be traveling down. There were random assorted objects and foods on each of them, and some things she had neither seen nor heard of before. Content to just study the shelves, she remained relaxed in her free-falling position except for one desperate lunge when she spotted a bottle of “Whiskey” on the shelf. Luckily, when she made a grab for it, she was able to snag it pretty easily. Tucking the bottle into her petticoat (because, after all, if she had to wear the damn thing, at least she’d make use of it), she decided to save it for later. That is, if she didn’t die in this random tunnel.
Growing bored after a while, Kara growled, “Leoben. Where the frak are you?”
The ground sloped up quite suddenly, and Kara suddenly found herself in a sunny field, completely uninjured and completely confused. She tugged at her outfit before sitting down and ripping off her stockings. If she was stuck here without any sensible clothing, so be it, but there was no gods-damned way she was going to wear some frakkin’ pantyhose.
Just as she was finishing up her enthusiastic tearing of the dreadful white garments, Kara heard a deep voice to her left. She looked up quickly and noticed a figure hurrying along between some trees. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was Leoben.
Finally!, she thought. “Leoben!” She rushed after him as he ran on, oblivious to her calls.
As Kara caught up with him, she heard him exclaiming, “Oh, my fur and whiskers! I’m late, I’m late I’m late!”
Tired of the nonsense and completely annoyed that she had no idea where under the frakking Lords of Kobol she was, especially because she couldn’t see any stars, she reached out and tugged Leoben by the shoulder. Grabbing hard, she spun him around and gasped.
It was definitely Leoben, but he had a giant gold pocketwatch hanging around his neck. He looked completely frenzied, his eyes wide. But the most striking difference, Kara noticed, were the two snow-white bunny ears rising up from his head.
Chapter 2
Was she going insane? Kara couldn’t understand what was happening. Here she was, thinking she had some special destiny or something, and she was stuck in a wooded area, wearing a ridiculous outfit, and looking at a cylon with bunny ears. Was he some new model?
“You’re trying to look like rabbits now? Why the frak would you do that?” she yelled at him, still gripping his shoulder tightly.
With her other hand, she rubbed her temple, trying to stave off the impending headache. At least I still have that whiskey, she thought to herself.
Leoben looked like he wanted to bolt. His wide eyes darted left and right, and he clutched at the huge golden pocket-watch hanging from his neck. He looked down at it, and then promptly jumped, jarring Kara and causing her to release him.
“I’m late!” he exclaimed. “I’m late for a very important date!”
He bolted. Shocked into standing still for only a brief second, Kara dashed after him through the forest. “Get back here! I swear to Gods, when I catch you, I am gonna beat you harder than I beat on Lee at the dance!”
* * *
She’d lost him. She was the best frakking pilot in the fleet and the scrappiest fighter around, but somehow she’d still managed to lose him. And where the frak was she?
Kara slowed down to a walking pace. Wherever Leoben was, running in circles and getting lost wasn’t going to help matters. She took a moment to examine her surroundings. There were wildflowers all around her, blowing slightly in the breeze. She could swear she heard tittering coming from them, but that was impossible… Right?
She paused for a moment and leaned down closer to the flowers. A whispered chorus of Alice? Is it Alice? reached her ears, but where was it coming from?
“That’s it. I’m going insane. I must have accidentally taken some of that camalla Doc Cottle keeps in the med bay at some point.” Roslin had had hallucinations on the stuff, right? Maybe when she was looking for more stims, she had accidentally swiped some. And then inhaled it, right? That could happen. “Flowers can’t talk.” Kara shook her head.
“Excuse me.” Kara spun around, and seeing nothing, she looked down. It almost seemed like… that flower was looking at her?
“We can talk,” said the Tiger-lily, “when there’s anybody worth talking to.”
Kara started. Just as suddenly, she slumped to the ground, pulled out her bottle of whiskey, and tore off the cap. “I need a stiff drink,” she said, appraising the bottle. “This will have to do.”
As soon as she took a sip, Kara suddenly felt very strange. Thinking nothing of it, she took another swig of the fiery liquid, loving how it burned all the way down her throat and left a warm feeling in her belly. Kara closed her eyes to revel in the sensation for a moment. She felt like she was being compressed, and she blew a big breath out of her nose to calm herself.
When Kara opened her eyes, she was face-to-face with the flower, which strangely enough looked suspiciously like Dualla. “What the frak?!” she squeaked, dropping the whiskey bottle.
Dee - err, the flower - gave her a blank stare as she hastily bent down to scoop up the bottle and salvage what was left of the alcohol. “Did you grow?” Kara demanded, looking at Dee once again.
The flower seemed to roll her eyes, and then purse her thin lips. “I’m always growing. I’m a flower. That’s what we do.”
“Always a smart-ass, aren’t ya, Dualla?” Kara said wryly, glancing around at her surroundings. She must have shrunk down to about two feet, if she had to hazard a guess. What in the Gods’ names was this place?
The flower appeared startled for a moment before she regained her composure. “Are you… Alice?”
“Alice? Who the frak is Alice? My name is Kara Thrace.”
“Kara… Thrace.” The flower seemed to think carefully for a minute before looking straight into Kara’s eyes. “I don’t think I like you very much. However - ”
“Well, Dualla, I’m not too fond of you either. Even if you’re just a stupid flower and I’m so frakked up in the head that I actually think I’m talking to you.” Kara huffed a small laugh. “Your hubby would have a ball with this one.”
“You didn’t let me finish,” the flower stated coldly. Interested, Kara closed her mouth and stared back at Dee. “I don’t know why, but for some reason I feel like I have an important message for you, Thrace.”
“Spit it out then.”
“All we can do is make plans for the future. We have to survive. We have to find Earth… That is our charge to keep.”
The flower abruptly shut up. Kara’s eyes narrowed. “What are you spouting off now, huh? What about Earth? Tell me, you stupid weed, or I’ll rip you out by the roots!”
But by now Dee’s face had faded, and Kara was left staring into the blank petals of the tiger-lily.
* * *
Kara had been walking for such a long time. She was surprised that she wasn’t starving, or that some strange predator hadn’t picked her off by now. After all, she was still very miniature, and as much as she wanted to drain the entire bottle of whiskey, she was worried she would disappear if she had so much as another drop.
Although disappearing from this place wouldn’t actually be all that bad, she thought. Where did Leoben get to?
As she was walking, she suddenly noticed an enticing and earthy aroma wafting towards her. Sniffing the air, she veered to her right, making her way through the undergrowth until she came upon the strangest sight she had ever seen.
There, seated atop a gigantic mushroom, was Colonel Saul Tigh, smoking a giant hookah, a black patch covering one eye.
And he was a caterpillar. A blue caterpillar.
There was no other way to describe him. Undoubtedly that was Tigh; there was his squinty eye, there was his bald head with the sparse white hair, and there was the ever-present sour frown.
“Well, sir, I didn’t think that mug could get any uglier, but I guess even the best of us are wrong sometimes,” Kara teased, walking up to the mushroom. “What’d you do - start emulating Doc Cottle? I didn’t know you were a big smoker, Tigh.”
Tigh puffed out a blue smoke ring, and then a pink smoke ring. He lowered the mouth of the hookah as he glanced at Kara.
“WHO… are YOU?” he rumbled in a distinctly Tigh-like manner. Kara almost grinned from his delivery, but she felt a bit offended that the XO wouldn’t remember her after all they’d been through.
“Don’t tell me you don’t remember me, Tigh? You gave me the most valuable piece of advice I’ve ever received.” When the Catepillar continued to frown at her, she trudged on. “You told me the secret to avoid hangovers: don’t stop drinking.”
She grinned at him, tilting her head as she waited for his reaction.
And waited.
And waited.
Finally he opened his mouth. Kara was sure he’d remember her, and then maybe he could her figure out -
“WHO are YOU?”
Well never mind then. Frak this, she thought, frowning, and her eyebrows drew together as she glared at him. “I’m Kara Thrace, you frakker!”
Kara turned to stomp off, but halted when she heard Tigh say, “Wait.” Turning back around to face him, Kara waited.
And waited.
And waited.
“What do you want?” she practically screamed at him, tired of these games. She was small, tired, and annoyed at this random turn of events.
“Keep your temper,” the Caterpillar told her.
“What?”
“Keep your temper. And when it comes time to make a choice, make your decision, and stick with it.”
Kara froze. This was oddly reminiscent of the conversation she’d had with Tigh on New Caprica after the groundbreaking ceremony, wasn’t it? That time the choice had been between the two men in her life; between safety and love. And because she was a royal frak-up, down to her damn core, Kara Thrace had chosen wrongly, just because she refused to let herself be happy.
“What choice?”
The Catepillar released his hold on the hookah and crawled off the mushroom. As he dropped to the ground below, Kara noticed they were roughly the same size.
“Sometimes the hardest path and the right one are the same,” he growled at her before turning around and beginning to crawl away. After a few seconds, he turned back around to stare her in the eye. He added, almost as an afterthought, “One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.”
“One side of WHAT? The other side of WHAT?”
He shot her a look that suggested he’d need a lot of alcohol to deal with her stupidity. “The mushroom,” he rumbled, and then he turned away and crawled into the brushwood.
Author: addictd2fiction
Summary: What really happened when Kara's viper disappeared? All she knew was that when she woke up, it was definitely Leoben, but he had a giant gold pocketwatch hanging around his neck. He looked completely frenzied, his eyes wide. But the most striking difference, Kara noticed, were the two snow-white bunny ears rising up from his head.
Rating: T
Warnings: Crack!
Pairing: K/L
A/N: Hi guys! Some of you don't know me (though I had the pleasure of meeting some of you at Dragoncon!), but I'm koolaidmom11's daughter, Keely. I decided to write this thanks to the encouragement I received down in Atlanta - thanks ladies!
Beta Credit goes to my friend Kathleen (or sassafras1989), who some of you met at Dragoncon.
Disclaimer: I don't own "Battlestar Galactica," because if I did, Lee and Kara would have fought every episode and had hot make-up sex. I also don't own "Alice in Wonderland."
Chapter 1
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
And in her freefalling Viper, light years away from her old apartment and her dying mother, Kara Thrace regained consciousness. Opening her eyes slowly, she noticed the flashing lights, that grating beeping, and the loud rush of air being sucked through the front windshield. Distantly, as her mind began to focus, she heard Lee over her comm system.
“Starbuck, Apollo. We lost you on DRADIS. I’m trying to get a fix on you.” A pause. She blinked, shaking her head a little, as if to clear it. “Kara!”
Lee, she thought. Instinctively she reached down to grasp that lever that would allow her to eject from the cockpit. What was happening? Taking in the state of her viper, which was now rushing in downward spiral through the thickening atmosphere, Kara remembered chasing the cylon fighter; she remembered Leoben and his claim about the next step of her journey. She was free.
Kara took her hand off the ejection lever. “Lee,” she said, “I’m not afraid anymore.”
A moment’s pause before she heard, “Say again?” Another long pause before Lee tried again, sounding slightly more urgent this time. “All right Kara, listen to me. Forget the damn toaster. Climb now, or you’re dead!”
Well that’s kind of the frakking point, isn’t it? Kara thought to herself as she followed the enemy fighter lower and lower. Was it her, or was it getting brighter? She was shaken from her musings as Lee shouted, “Kara!” once more.
Another few seconds passed before Lee spoke again, sounding a little more hopeful. “Visual, visual. Okay, Kara, I’m coming to get you.”
It’s too late, she thought. For an instant, she wished, desperately, that it wasn’t. “Lee, I’ll see you on the other side.”
“Kara, please. Just listen to me. Come back,” he pleaded. Desperate.
Kara’s heart twisted in her chest. I’m sorry, she wanted to say, for so many things. There wasn’t time, though, or maybe she still couldn’t. Instead, she whispered, “Just let me go.”
Lee was yelling at this point, his words laced with anger, worry, and fear. “Gods damnit, Kara! You come back! Come back!”
The light was getting brighter, Kara thought. She knew what she had to do. She was free, and this was her path. She knew that now. She could hear Lee yelling at her, telling her to stop, to pull up. “It’s okay,” she cut through his words, “Just let me go. They’re waiting for me.”
Completely bathed in light, Kara squeezed her eyes shut. Through her eyelids, she could sense a blinding brightness all around her, and she heard a loud bang. As she began to lose consciousness for the second time, she distantly heard Lee screaming No! No!, and everything faded as the beeping finally stopped.
* * *
Kara felt like she was falling. Not just through the air in a spiraling viper - she actually felt the wind rush up all around her. Something billowed around her waist. She opened her eyes and realized that she was indeed in a free-fall. The last thing she remembered was following Leoben’s fighter, and then… Nothing. Where was she?
Looking down, Kara noticed that she was not only falling through the air, but as she had suspected, her viper was gone. Where was Leoben? Glancing down at herself again, she was startled to find she was no longer in her pilot uniform, but she was instead in what looked to be a blue dress with a white smock. Her hair had somehow grown out again as well, to her annoyance. Her legs were covered by long white stockings, and on her feet were the most impractical-looking shoes she had ever seen.
“What the frak?!” she screamed, confused and angry and just a little embarrassed. If Lee were to see this, he’d…
Lee. Kara suddenly remembered how agonized he’d sounded at the end. He’ll have to move on, I guess. He said things with Dee were better than ever. He’ll be fine. She nodded as if to reassure herself.
Glancing around her, Kara noticed that there were shelves on the sides of the tunnel she seemed to be traveling down. There were random assorted objects and foods on each of them, and some things she had neither seen nor heard of before. Content to just study the shelves, she remained relaxed in her free-falling position except for one desperate lunge when she spotted a bottle of “Whiskey” on the shelf. Luckily, when she made a grab for it, she was able to snag it pretty easily. Tucking the bottle into her petticoat (because, after all, if she had to wear the damn thing, at least she’d make use of it), she decided to save it for later. That is, if she didn’t die in this random tunnel.
Growing bored after a while, Kara growled, “Leoben. Where the frak are you?”
The ground sloped up quite suddenly, and Kara suddenly found herself in a sunny field, completely uninjured and completely confused. She tugged at her outfit before sitting down and ripping off her stockings. If she was stuck here without any sensible clothing, so be it, but there was no gods-damned way she was going to wear some frakkin’ pantyhose.
Just as she was finishing up her enthusiastic tearing of the dreadful white garments, Kara heard a deep voice to her left. She looked up quickly and noticed a figure hurrying along between some trees. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was Leoben.
Finally!, she thought. “Leoben!” She rushed after him as he ran on, oblivious to her calls.
As Kara caught up with him, she heard him exclaiming, “Oh, my fur and whiskers! I’m late, I’m late I’m late!”
Tired of the nonsense and completely annoyed that she had no idea where under the frakking Lords of Kobol she was, especially because she couldn’t see any stars, she reached out and tugged Leoben by the shoulder. Grabbing hard, she spun him around and gasped.
It was definitely Leoben, but he had a giant gold pocketwatch hanging around his neck. He looked completely frenzied, his eyes wide. But the most striking difference, Kara noticed, were the two snow-white bunny ears rising up from his head.
Chapter 2
Was she going insane? Kara couldn’t understand what was happening. Here she was, thinking she had some special destiny or something, and she was stuck in a wooded area, wearing a ridiculous outfit, and looking at a cylon with bunny ears. Was he some new model?
“You’re trying to look like rabbits now? Why the frak would you do that?” she yelled at him, still gripping his shoulder tightly.
With her other hand, she rubbed her temple, trying to stave off the impending headache. At least I still have that whiskey, she thought to herself.
Leoben looked like he wanted to bolt. His wide eyes darted left and right, and he clutched at the huge golden pocket-watch hanging from his neck. He looked down at it, and then promptly jumped, jarring Kara and causing her to release him.
“I’m late!” he exclaimed. “I’m late for a very important date!”
He bolted. Shocked into standing still for only a brief second, Kara dashed after him through the forest. “Get back here! I swear to Gods, when I catch you, I am gonna beat you harder than I beat on Lee at the dance!”
* * *
She’d lost him. She was the best frakking pilot in the fleet and the scrappiest fighter around, but somehow she’d still managed to lose him. And where the frak was she?
Kara slowed down to a walking pace. Wherever Leoben was, running in circles and getting lost wasn’t going to help matters. She took a moment to examine her surroundings. There were wildflowers all around her, blowing slightly in the breeze. She could swear she heard tittering coming from them, but that was impossible… Right?
She paused for a moment and leaned down closer to the flowers. A whispered chorus of Alice? Is it Alice? reached her ears, but where was it coming from?
“That’s it. I’m going insane. I must have accidentally taken some of that camalla Doc Cottle keeps in the med bay at some point.” Roslin had had hallucinations on the stuff, right? Maybe when she was looking for more stims, she had accidentally swiped some. And then inhaled it, right? That could happen. “Flowers can’t talk.” Kara shook her head.
“Excuse me.” Kara spun around, and seeing nothing, she looked down. It almost seemed like… that flower was looking at her?
“We can talk,” said the Tiger-lily, “when there’s anybody worth talking to.”
Kara started. Just as suddenly, she slumped to the ground, pulled out her bottle of whiskey, and tore off the cap. “I need a stiff drink,” she said, appraising the bottle. “This will have to do.”
As soon as she took a sip, Kara suddenly felt very strange. Thinking nothing of it, she took another swig of the fiery liquid, loving how it burned all the way down her throat and left a warm feeling in her belly. Kara closed her eyes to revel in the sensation for a moment. She felt like she was being compressed, and she blew a big breath out of her nose to calm herself.
When Kara opened her eyes, she was face-to-face with the flower, which strangely enough looked suspiciously like Dualla. “What the frak?!” she squeaked, dropping the whiskey bottle.
Dee - err, the flower - gave her a blank stare as she hastily bent down to scoop up the bottle and salvage what was left of the alcohol. “Did you grow?” Kara demanded, looking at Dee once again.
The flower seemed to roll her eyes, and then purse her thin lips. “I’m always growing. I’m a flower. That’s what we do.”
“Always a smart-ass, aren’t ya, Dualla?” Kara said wryly, glancing around at her surroundings. She must have shrunk down to about two feet, if she had to hazard a guess. What in the Gods’ names was this place?
The flower appeared startled for a moment before she regained her composure. “Are you… Alice?”
“Alice? Who the frak is Alice? My name is Kara Thrace.”
“Kara… Thrace.” The flower seemed to think carefully for a minute before looking straight into Kara’s eyes. “I don’t think I like you very much. However - ”
“Well, Dualla, I’m not too fond of you either. Even if you’re just a stupid flower and I’m so frakked up in the head that I actually think I’m talking to you.” Kara huffed a small laugh. “Your hubby would have a ball with this one.”
“You didn’t let me finish,” the flower stated coldly. Interested, Kara closed her mouth and stared back at Dee. “I don’t know why, but for some reason I feel like I have an important message for you, Thrace.”
“Spit it out then.”
“All we can do is make plans for the future. We have to survive. We have to find Earth… That is our charge to keep.”
The flower abruptly shut up. Kara’s eyes narrowed. “What are you spouting off now, huh? What about Earth? Tell me, you stupid weed, or I’ll rip you out by the roots!”
But by now Dee’s face had faded, and Kara was left staring into the blank petals of the tiger-lily.
* * *
Kara had been walking for such a long time. She was surprised that she wasn’t starving, or that some strange predator hadn’t picked her off by now. After all, she was still very miniature, and as much as she wanted to drain the entire bottle of whiskey, she was worried she would disappear if she had so much as another drop.
Although disappearing from this place wouldn’t actually be all that bad, she thought. Where did Leoben get to?
As she was walking, she suddenly noticed an enticing and earthy aroma wafting towards her. Sniffing the air, she veered to her right, making her way through the undergrowth until she came upon the strangest sight she had ever seen.
There, seated atop a gigantic mushroom, was Colonel Saul Tigh, smoking a giant hookah, a black patch covering one eye.
And he was a caterpillar. A blue caterpillar.
There was no other way to describe him. Undoubtedly that was Tigh; there was his squinty eye, there was his bald head with the sparse white hair, and there was the ever-present sour frown.
“Well, sir, I didn’t think that mug could get any uglier, but I guess even the best of us are wrong sometimes,” Kara teased, walking up to the mushroom. “What’d you do - start emulating Doc Cottle? I didn’t know you were a big smoker, Tigh.”
Tigh puffed out a blue smoke ring, and then a pink smoke ring. He lowered the mouth of the hookah as he glanced at Kara.
“WHO… are YOU?” he rumbled in a distinctly Tigh-like manner. Kara almost grinned from his delivery, but she felt a bit offended that the XO wouldn’t remember her after all they’d been through.
“Don’t tell me you don’t remember me, Tigh? You gave me the most valuable piece of advice I’ve ever received.” When the Catepillar continued to frown at her, she trudged on. “You told me the secret to avoid hangovers: don’t stop drinking.”
She grinned at him, tilting her head as she waited for his reaction.
And waited.
And waited.
Finally he opened his mouth. Kara was sure he’d remember her, and then maybe he could her figure out -
“WHO are YOU?”
Well never mind then. Frak this, she thought, frowning, and her eyebrows drew together as she glared at him. “I’m Kara Thrace, you frakker!”
Kara turned to stomp off, but halted when she heard Tigh say, “Wait.” Turning back around to face him, Kara waited.
And waited.
And waited.
“What do you want?” she practically screamed at him, tired of these games. She was small, tired, and annoyed at this random turn of events.
“Keep your temper,” the Caterpillar told her.
“What?”
“Keep your temper. And when it comes time to make a choice, make your decision, and stick with it.”
Kara froze. This was oddly reminiscent of the conversation she’d had with Tigh on New Caprica after the groundbreaking ceremony, wasn’t it? That time the choice had been between the two men in her life; between safety and love. And because she was a royal frak-up, down to her damn core, Kara Thrace had chosen wrongly, just because she refused to let herself be happy.
“What choice?”
The Catepillar released his hold on the hookah and crawled off the mushroom. As he dropped to the ground below, Kara noticed they were roughly the same size.
“Sometimes the hardest path and the right one are the same,” he growled at her before turning around and beginning to crawl away. After a few seconds, he turned back around to stare her in the eye. He added, almost as an afterthought, “One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.”
“One side of WHAT? The other side of WHAT?”
He shot her a look that suggested he’d need a lot of alcohol to deal with her stupidity. “The mushroom,” he rumbled, and then he turned away and crawled into the brushwood.