Standing Still, for sabaceanbabe
Title: Standing Still
Author: sunshine_queen
Characters: Julia Brynn, Kacey Brynn, Kara Thrace
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Summary: Julia wants to know the depth of Kara’s influence on her daughter.
Original story: Running by sabaceanbabe
Beta Thanks: nicole_anell
Kacey had been an easy baby. Happy, healthy and beautiful, she had been the delight to all that knew her. People would actually remark on that to Julia-- “I’ve never seen such a sweet baby,” said the woman who stayed three cots down from them on the first ship; “She’s so companionable,” said the mother who had two teenagers and the heartbreak of losing her two younger children and husband.
She’s still easy now, Julia thought, even if she is silent. After the weeks she spent gods only knew where, Kacey laughed and pointed and smiled and hugs, but there was none of her bright chatter, no nonsense chants or curious queries, just empty air. “She plays well with others,” the daycare workers tell her, “And the other children like her. She’s just... reserved.”
Julia felt rotten whenever she wished for Kacey to speak. How often had she prayed to get Kacey back? How hard had she wished for her daughter to come back to her? How many people had lost their family on the Colonies, on New Caprica, and here she had her daughter, alive and well, and she dared to push? “What do we say to Mama?” she would try, holding Kacey’s breakfast in hand. When Kacey reached for it, she’d hold it up higher. “Please,,” she would coax, waiting desperately to hear the sweet chime of her daughter’s voice. “We say please, Kacey, remember?”
The child therapist, who talked at Kacey while she colored, said that there seemed to be no lasting damage. Julia wasn’t sure how the therapist gleaned that from a picture with three blobs-- two yellowish blobs together, one big, one small, one grey blob above them, another yellow blob off to the side alone, some pink dashed in for color. After studying the picture for a while, Kacey had added a ring of blue, surrounded by red and more yellow, and looked up happily. Julia took the picture back to their tiny area in dogtown and stuck it to the flimsy barrier between their room and Mrs Quevedo, and Kacey would sometimes point at it insistently. “What is it, Kacey?” Julia asked over and over again, and Kacey would just point, and smile, and sometimes sigh, like she couldn’t believe her mama didn’t get it.
She was on her way to pick up Kacey from daycare after an eight-hour rotation in the laundry room when she saw her daughter, being held by the woman who had rescued her on New Caprica. Kacey was, for the first time, chattering away animatedly, using her hands. The woman, who was wearing a military uniform, looks entranced and uncomfortable at once.
Julia was so relieved to hear her daughter’s voice-- the sweet, precious sound she had missed dearly-- and also uneasy. Who was this woman that had found her daughter?
“Kacey?” Julia had ventured, not wanting to interrupt her daughter, but desperate to reclaim her.
“Mama!” Kacey turned to look at her, and her face was aglow. “Kara!”
“She was, um, running around,” The woman said. Kara said. “With other kids. It was a game, or something, I guess. She ran into me.”
Kacey patted Kara’s shoulder as though she had been missing her desperately. “Thank you for finding her, again,” Julia replied, and she was ashamed at how tight her voice was. How dare she be ungrateful. How dare she be jealous and suspicious.
It would take time, the therapist had told her. She would one day stop worrying that she’d wake up to find her daughter vanished. Kara handed Kacey over, and Julia relaxed once her daughter was in her arms.
“No problem,” Kara replied, and she looked away. “See you around, Kace.”
Kacey strained upwards to watch the back of Kara’s head disappear into the crowd of people filling in Galactica’s halls. “Kara,” she whispered as she watched, one arm around Julia’s neck, sounding for all the worlds like she adored her, and Julia wondered again what role that woman had played in her daughter’s life.
Author: sunshine_queen
Characters: Julia Brynn, Kacey Brynn, Kara Thrace
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Summary: Julia wants to know the depth of Kara’s influence on her daughter.
Original story: Running by sabaceanbabe
Beta Thanks: nicole_anell
Kacey had been an easy baby. Happy, healthy and beautiful, she had been the delight to all that knew her. People would actually remark on that to Julia-- “I’ve never seen such a sweet baby,” said the woman who stayed three cots down from them on the first ship; “She’s so companionable,” said the mother who had two teenagers and the heartbreak of losing her two younger children and husband.
She’s still easy now, Julia thought, even if she is silent. After the weeks she spent gods only knew where, Kacey laughed and pointed and smiled and hugs, but there was none of her bright chatter, no nonsense chants or curious queries, just empty air. “She plays well with others,” the daycare workers tell her, “And the other children like her. She’s just... reserved.”
Julia felt rotten whenever she wished for Kacey to speak. How often had she prayed to get Kacey back? How hard had she wished for her daughter to come back to her? How many people had lost their family on the Colonies, on New Caprica, and here she had her daughter, alive and well, and she dared to push? “What do we say to Mama?” she would try, holding Kacey’s breakfast in hand. When Kacey reached for it, she’d hold it up higher. “Please,,” she would coax, waiting desperately to hear the sweet chime of her daughter’s voice. “We say please, Kacey, remember?”
The child therapist, who talked at Kacey while she colored, said that there seemed to be no lasting damage. Julia wasn’t sure how the therapist gleaned that from a picture with three blobs-- two yellowish blobs together, one big, one small, one grey blob above them, another yellow blob off to the side alone, some pink dashed in for color. After studying the picture for a while, Kacey had added a ring of blue, surrounded by red and more yellow, and looked up happily. Julia took the picture back to their tiny area in dogtown and stuck it to the flimsy barrier between their room and Mrs Quevedo, and Kacey would sometimes point at it insistently. “What is it, Kacey?” Julia asked over and over again, and Kacey would just point, and smile, and sometimes sigh, like she couldn’t believe her mama didn’t get it.
She was on her way to pick up Kacey from daycare after an eight-hour rotation in the laundry room when she saw her daughter, being held by the woman who had rescued her on New Caprica. Kacey was, for the first time, chattering away animatedly, using her hands. The woman, who was wearing a military uniform, looks entranced and uncomfortable at once.
Julia was so relieved to hear her daughter’s voice-- the sweet, precious sound she had missed dearly-- and also uneasy. Who was this woman that had found her daughter?
“Kacey?” Julia had ventured, not wanting to interrupt her daughter, but desperate to reclaim her.
“Mama!” Kacey turned to look at her, and her face was aglow. “Kara!”
“She was, um, running around,” The woman said. Kara said. “With other kids. It was a game, or something, I guess. She ran into me.”
Kacey patted Kara’s shoulder as though she had been missing her desperately. “Thank you for finding her, again,” Julia replied, and she was ashamed at how tight her voice was. How dare she be ungrateful. How dare she be jealous and suspicious.
It would take time, the therapist had told her. She would one day stop worrying that she’d wake up to find her daughter vanished. Kara handed Kacey over, and Julia relaxed once her daughter was in her arms.
“No problem,” Kara replied, and she looked away. “See you around, Kace.”
Kacey strained upwards to watch the back of Kara’s head disappear into the crowd of people filling in Galactica’s halls. “Kara,” she whispered as she watched, one arm around Julia’s neck, sounding for all the worlds like she adored her, and Julia wondered again what role that woman had played in her daughter’s life.