Fic: Five Times Dee Didn't Play Cards and One Time She Did
Title: Five Times Dee Didn’t Play Cards and One Time She Did
Author: kappamaki33
Rating: PG
Characters: Dee and Gaeta mostly, with appearances by a fairly large ensemble.
Pairings: It’s pretty gen, though there’s Dee/Billy, Dee/Lee, Gaeta/Skulls, and Gaeta/Hoshi sprinkled throughout; really, the heart of the story is about Dee and Gaeta’s friendship.
Summary: Families come in all different shapes, sizes, and packages. Dee found her family at the triad table.
Spoilers: Pre-miniseries through “Guess What’s Coming to Dinner”
Author's Note: This fic ate my day! If I flunk out of school, it’s Gaeta’s fault ;). In all seriousness, this was just a really fun, cathartic piece to write, and a nice break from what’s turning out to be a tough segment in my “Mathematics” series. It’s Dee’s perspective, but it’s both Dee's and Gaeta’s story, I think. Also, there is *a lot* of backstory in my mind on what is going on with one character being present in the last vignette--you'll know who I mean when you read it. Hopefully I'll be able to write that down sometime.
Five Times Dee Didn’t Play Cards and One Time She Did
“Hey Dee! Have a seat-I’ll deal you in.”
It was the tactical officer from CIC who’d said it, the nice one with warm brown eyes and short, curly black hair. That was the one who’d given her a juvenile prank call to make on her first day when she’d been so scared, just to make her laugh in spite of herself (“Is there a Hugh Jass there?”), and who’d warned her about Colonel Tigh’s flask so she wouldn’t be surprised.
“Thanks, but no thanks,” Dee said. Even though she could tell Galactica wasn’t nearly as strict about the separation between pilots and everybody else as she'd heard most ships were-bridge officers were playing cards with junior pilots and ECOs, after all-Dee didn’t feel secure enough in her position on Galactica yet to hang out in the rec room; in fact, she’d just come in to deliver a message to the CAG on her way from CIC to her bunk.
“No, come on!” the young officer pressed, smiling and waving her over to the table.
The big, tattooed pilot beside him elbowed the tactical officer-was it Mr. Gaeta?-in the ribs. “Quit it. She’s a Sagittaron, stupid.”
“Huh? What’s that got to do with-”
“Shouldn’t even let ‘em in the Fleet,” muttered another pilot at the card table. “Filthy Sagittaron pigs-hell, they’re worse than that, ‘cause at least you can eat a pig.”
The tattooed pilot was half-way out of his chair, but Gaeta beat him to the punch. He landed a surprisingly solid right hook to the cocky pilot’s jaw. The pilot sat stunned for a moment. Gaeta looked pretty stunned at what he’d done himself.
Then the pilot stood up, and Dee realized he was six feet tall and built like a gorilla.
There was a loud crack, and then Gaeta flew across the room, taking the table over with him. Blood spurted from Gaeta’s nose, ran down his uniform, and even got on some of the cards.
“Back off, Deadbolt!” said the tattooed pilot, putting himself between Gaeta and the other pilot. “You know you deserved it, and you proved you can beat up a bridge bunny, so drop it.”
Deadbolt started to walk off, and the tattooed pilot knelt down and tried to help Gaeta sit upright.
“Ugh, I’m pretty sure it’s broken,” the tattooed pilot said, taking a better look at Gaeta’s nose. “Better call Cottle.”
When the tattooed pilot got up to call down to the infirmary, Dee saw the other pilot wheel around and come charging at Gaeta again, who was still slowly pulling himself up off the ground. Gaeta looked up in time to experience a moment of sheer terror before-
-before Dee stuck out her foot at just the right moment and sent the apish pilot crashing headlong to the floor.
Gaeta shook his head in astonishment. “Wow. Y’know, I thing I’b going to let you fibt your own battles frob here on out,” he said the best he could with his blood-filled nose.
Dee smiled as she helped him stand. “Hey, we-what did they call us, bridge bunnies?-have to stick together. ‘Bridge bunny,’ ugh-we really need to come up with a new nickname.”
“How ‘bout bridge ninjas? We could bake tee-shirbts.”
~~*~~*~~
“I’m really sorry, about the cards,” Gaeta said to Dee as the two washed up together in the head after a long day in CIC.
“You’ve got nothing to be sorry about, Lieutenant.”
“Well no, I’m not sorry for asking you. I’m just sorry about pushing you on it. I knew Sagittaron religion had edicts against medicine and fornication and all that, but I didn’t know about cards.”
“Dancing is evil, too,” said Dee, wiping her face on a towel, “but that hasn't stopped me from doing it.”
“Ah, so you’re a lapsed Church of Sagittarian?”
“Well, I kind of have to be, to be in the military. Sharing a bunkroom with men, being in various states of undress around men in various states of undress…” She indicated her bra top and Gaeta’s lack of a shirt.
“Was it hard for you to give it up?” asked Gaeta, stopping his ablutions and looking genuinely interested, though a little ridiculous, since half his face was covered in shaving cream.
“The Church itself? Not really. I was never that attached to it. My parents, though…that’s still hard. Hard enough that I don’t really like to talk about it.”
“That sucks,” Gaeta said sympathetically. “My dad wasn’t too thrilled about me joining the military, either-politics more than religion-but you do what you have to do to get where you want to be in life, you know?”
“Exactly,” said Dee. They settled into a comfortable silence until Gaeta finished shaving.
“So, do you want me to ask you to join our triad game again, or do you not want to go there?”
“I’d love to join,” said Dee, “but since I grew up on Sagittaron, I don’t know how to play.”
Gaeta grinned. “Oh, we can fix that.”
Later that night, Dee giggled to herself a little at the thought that she was breaking the grave taboo of being in a man’s bed before she was married. Granted, she didn’t think the ancient prophets had had sitting with a fully-clothed man in his cramped bunk in the middle of the night while learning how to play triad in mind when they’d enumerated all the “thou shalt nots,” but it was still a thrilling thought.
“Now see, you’ve got prince blue high right now, which would beat my three on a run green,” said Felix, pointing at Dee’s cards as they played a practice game with both their hands showing.
“So I’d want to bet a lot on this hand, because all I need is a prince red and I’d have full colors?”
“Right. Unless you count cards like me, and then you know that two of the three prince reds have been played already, so your chances of full colors are slim, whereas no princess green has turned up yet, so I have a very good chance of making full greens, which beats prince blue high.”
“You count cards? Isn’t that cheating?”
“Wait a minute, I thought you didn’t know anything about cards.”
“Don’t change the subject,” Dee said, giggling. “Do the others know?”
“Of course not,” Felix said. “I joined the military to pay for college, just not in the traditional sense. Hell, if Helo would play with us more often, I could probably have paid for grad school by now.”
They both erupted in loud peals of laughter.
“What are you doing to Dee down there, Felix?” grumbled Skulls from the bunk directly above.
“Frakking her senseless, of course. What, are you jealous, Hamish?” Felix yelled back up at him. Dee dissolved into laughter again.
“Shut up, you guys,” said Dragon, hurling a pillow that bounced off the privacy curtain with a soft thump.
Dee paused in the middle of shuffling the deck. “I’m sorry, but I have to ask. Are you…seducing me, Felix? I’ve never been seduced before, so I don’t know what it looks like.”
Felix looked surprised, then just smiled. “Dee, you’re a lovely person, and a beautiful woman, but no, I am not seducing you. Actually,” he mouthed the next words, pointing at the top of the bunk, “I’m seducing him.”
“Oh. Oh, okay.”
“Not disappointed?”
“No offense, but not really,” said Dee. “I like whatever this is between us. I didn’t really want it to be more complicated.”
“Good, me too. Well, now that we’ve gotten that all straightened out, do you want to play a hand for real now?”
“Actually, I’m really tired, but I don’t want to go to my bunkroom all the way down on Deck D7,” Dee said, yawning. “Would you mind if I just stayed here?”
“Well, it’s not exactly roomy in here, but you’re small, so sure,” Felix said, reaching out under the privacy curtain and grabbing the pillow Dragon had thrown at them. “You’d better not snore,” he said, tossing the pillow at her, chuckling as he turned out the light.
~~*~~*~~
It was the first time Dee had brought Billy to the rec room. Billy was as nervous as if he were meeting her parents, though she’d told him he’d essentially already done that without knowing it: he’d already passed the litmus test with Felix. (“He’s nice, good-looking in that ‘aw, shucks,’ kind of way, has good taste in movies and cars from what I can tell, and he adores you. What more could you ask for? If it weren’t the end of the world, you might want to burn his floral shirts, but hey, we all have to make compromises now.”) Still, Billy understood that these people were always going to be a big part of Dee’s life, so it would be best if he meshed with them well if he wanted to be a part of her life, too.
“Good work, Dee, bringing us fresh blood,” Gaeta said, waggling his eyebrows at Billy and grinning in such a way that he could flash his teeth. She and Billy sat down, but Dee could hear Billy gulp nervously beside her. (“I also like that he hasn’t figured out my sense of humor yet. Dee, you are hereby not allowed to date anyone that I can’t scare a little bit. It’s just too much fun.”)
“Good, somebody else for Gaeta to clean out,” Racetrack said. “I’m about out of cubits. I was going to have to start throwing smokes and clothing in pretty soon.”
“Felix, are you...” Dee said, doing her best to look stern and not laugh.
“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about,” said Felix innocently, taking a drink of his ambrosia and winking at her over the glass.
“Hi guys. Can you deal me in, or do I have to wait for the next round?” said Lee, pulling up a chair between Racetrack and Helo.
Dee caught Lee’s eye, and she felt herself blush, even though she argued hard to herself that there was no reason for her to feel guilty, to feel anything, really. But something in Lee’s expression told her he was thinking the same thing. She lowered her eyes to the cards as Helo dealt.
“Oh, frak, Dee, we forgot!” Felix said, slamming down his drink. “The reports, for the….refueling-Admiral wants them on his desk by 0600.” Dee could tell from the look on Felix’s face that he’d seen that flash of awkward…something between her and Lee.
“Right, okay,” Dee stammered. “Billy, I’m so sorry, but I have to- You go ahead and have fun. Guys, show him a good time, but don’t get him too drunk or leave him naked and hog-tied in Starbuck’s bunk or anything, okay?”
“Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of him,” Racetrack said, flashing a mock-predatory leer at Billy that made Billy squirm.
“’Night, Billy,” Dee said, giving him a quick kiss and following Felix out of the room.
“Feel like telling me anything?” Felix said as they walked.
“No.”
“Feel like telling Billy anything?”
“Nothing to tell.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, I trust you, then,” Felix sighed. “Just remember, so does Billy.”
~~*~~*~~
Even though it was bizarre to be in the Galactica rec room when it was this quiet, it still felt like coming home to Dee. The Pegasus may have been newer and brighter, everything sleek and efficient, but it had none of Galactica’s rickety, endearing warmth.
Only one table was occupied. Kat, Racetrack, Skulls, Hotdog and Dragon huddled together around the table, hunched over their cards, barely muttering their bets as they tossed cubits and other worthless bits of metal into the pot. Kat’s eyes drifted up from her cards, and she caught sight of Dee.
Kat’s face lit up. “Dee! So they let you out of the belly of the Beast for awhile, huh?”
Dee smiled in return. “Yeah, Lee sent me to courier some documents over to the Old Man. I couldn’t leave without dropping in to say hi.”
It felt so good to be back among friends, Dee thought. Most of the Pegasus crew weren’t the monsters they’d been made out to be, and some of them she even considered friends by now, but it wasn’t like Galactica, certainly not for her. Lee didn’t understand what Dee meant when she complained about feeling like an interloper in the Pegasus CIC. They’d had more time to adjust to Lee, and he’d had the opportunity to prove his worth to the crew under fire. And if the Pegasus crew had been leery of Lee because his father was the Admiral, they weren’t exactly less likely to suspect nepotism when the Admiral’s daughter-in-law was promoted from Communications Officer to XO over several Pegasus officers.
“C’mon, Dee, pull up a chair,” Racetrack said. “They can’t need you back in that big of a hurry.”
Five friendly faces looked up at her expectantly. She really wanted to sit down among them and feel the warmth of family again. But now that the room was so empty for a change, she could see all the pictures lining the walls that she’d never noticed before. There were photos of viper jocks and knuckle-draggers and engine monkeys, and of lots of good card players she knew that weren’t there: Duck, Nora, Felix. She knew she couldn’t let herself feel at home yet, not until they were back home, too.
“Thanks guys, I wish I could,” Dee said. “But I’m afraid I can’t stay.”
~~*~~*~~
Dee walked into the mess to get a to-go tray so Lee could have a meal in their quarters when he finished flying CAP and instead found what was quite possibly the most awkward, painful game of triad ever.
From the way each person was acting, Dee guessed that the odd assortment of players was primarily Anders’s doing. Felix had told Dee that he’d forgiven the Circle as best he could but that he wasn’t going to pretend to be friends with them, and he certainly wasn’t going to try to wedge himself back in with the old gang. Anders had told her that he felt he owed Gaeta an apology, even though he quit the Circle before they abducted Felix and nearly tossed him out an airlock.
Apparently, inviting Felix to play triad with half the Circle was Anders’s idea of an apology, a way to show they’d accepted him back into the fold. Dee knew he meant well, as did Felix, or Felix wouldn’t be sitting there, doing his best not to cringe and cower every time Anders clapped Felix on the back or threw an arm around his shoulders with an enthusiasm that betrayed that these good-natured shows of camaraderie were a little forced.
Beside Gaeta was an empty chair, then Kara, who slouched in her seat and seemed a bit put-out that Anders was lavishing so much attention on somebody else. Even with the chair in between them, a casual observer could tell there was no love lost between Felix and Kara, either.
To Kara’s right was Seelix, who was visibly angry, likely at Kara and quite possibly at anybody with wings. Dee had heard about how Seelix had gotten passed over for pilot training despite getting the top score on the written exams. She didn’t seem terribly thrilled with the plan to include Gaeta, either, though Dee knew Seelix wouldn’t ever turn down an invitation from Anders. Perhaps Kara was sensing that, and that’s what inspired her to try to “accidentally” knock Seelix’s drink into her lap, though she miscalculated and ended up drenching some of the cards with perfectly good hooch.
Chief Tyrol glowered next to Seelix, angry at the world on Seelix’s behalf and on his own. Dee had gathered from the comm chatter that the men in the brig from the Hitei Kan were some of the key players in Chief’s labor union on New Caprica.
Surprisingly, even Hotdog, who always seemed blissfully and sometimes almost stupidly oblivious to interpersonal tensions, was visibly nervous, constantly shifting in his chair and rearranging the cards in his hand.
And then there was Hoshi. Poor Hoshi was livid, staring daggers at Anders every time Anders touched Felix. Hoshi had confided in Dee that he was finally going to ask Felix if he wanted to meet at Joe’s for drinks that night. Dee could imagine Hoshi waiting all the way through dinner to build up his nerve, and then just as he made his way over to Felix and sat down at his table, the Adonis that was Sam Anders pulled up a chair between them.
Perhaps they should have played this game in the brig so they could have invited Baltar and the Six, just to round out the discomfort, Dee mused.
“Dee!” Felix said, calling out to her as desperately as if he was drowning. “Join us, please.”
Dee stared at the open chair. Sitting down beside Kara Thrace would be beyond awkward-it would leapfrog over awkward and land squarely in the realm of unbearable-but she could tell Felix needed a friendly face beside him, badly. Dee shrugged. It wouldn’t be fun, but she’d done it once before, sitting beside Kara in a downed Raptor. If they hadn’t killed each other then, they likely wouldn’t now.
“Ambrosia with a whiskey chaser for the lady,” said Lee, brushing Kara’s shoulder with his as he slid into the empty chair, Kara’s fingertips grazing his as she took the glasses from his hands.
“So this is what having to pull an extra shift on CAP looks like,” Dee said, pressing the anger down inside her so it stayed out of her voice but unable to keep the hurt from shining in her eyes.
The color drained from Lee’s face. “Dee-”
“Sorry, Felix,” Dee said on her way out the door. “I don’t feel like playing games.”
~~*~~*~~
The bottom dropped out of Dee’s stomach when Cottle appeared at the CIC hatchway and asked Lieutenants Dualla and Hoshi to step outside for a moment.
“They’re on duty,” Tigh grumbled. “Fine. You’ve got five minutes, Doc.”
Dee swallowed back tears, and Hoshi put a comforting hand on her back as they walked across the CIC to Cottle, though Hoshi’s face was white and his hand was shaking.
“No, Doc,” Dee barely whispered. “No. Don’t you dare-”
“Stop right there, Dee,” Cottle said evenly. “I have bad news, but not that bad.”
Dee heard Hoshi exhale beside her.
Cottle continued, “He’s still alive, but I don’t like the turn things have taken. He’s sung himself hoarse, and he’s not eating or drinking. He can’t afford to get dehydrated at this point, so I recommended nasal intubation, to get some fluids and nutrients into him. He…wasn’t too enthused with that idea. Now, I’m willing to chalk his response up to the pain, shock, and morpha, but I really can’t go against his wishes without an okay from his next of kin. The current state of the human race has kind of changed what ‘next of kin’ means. So…”
Dee and Hoshi looked at each other, then nodded.
“All right then,” said Cottle. “I’ll start him on the feeding tube right away. Tubes are not fun, though. It would be a big help if Gaeta could have someone there with him…” Cottle looked over Hoshi’s shoulder at Colonel Tigh, who had apparently been eavesdropping from just inside the open hatch.
“All right, but I can only spare one of ‘em for now.”
Hoshi and Dee looked at each other again and decided without speaking. Dee went back into CIC as Hoshi jogged down the hall to catch up with Cottle.
Tigh finally relieved Dee of duty two hours later, and when Doc Cottle ushered her into Felix’s curtained-off cubicle, she found what was quite possibly the strangest tableau she could have imagined.
Felix, gray-skinned, red-eyed, and with his nose taped up almost as much as the time Deadbolt had broken it, was propped up in bed, dealing cards to Hoshi on his left and President Roslin on his right.
“So Tigh finally set you free!” Hoshi said, breaking into a wide smile. Even Felix brightened a little when he saw her.
“How are you doing?” Dee said, sitting down at the foot of his bed.
Felix grabbed a notepad from the bedside table and scribbled something down. He held it up.
Stupid question, D.
Hoshi leaned in to read the message, then took the pad from Felix’s hands and gave him a stern look. “It’s been a rough day,” Hoshi said. “The tube didn’t exactly go down easy, but we’re doing better now, right?”
Felix rolled his eyes.
Roslin snorted. “Just wait until you get to take it out,” she said. “Lieutenant Hoshi, you make sure he gets Nurse Ishay to do it. Marin’s okay, if Ishay’s off-duty, but Sashon is absolutely horrible at it. Don’t let her give you an IV, either, Mr. Gaeta-your arm will look like a pincushion before you’re done.”
Dee looked at Roslin. “I don’t mean to be rude, Madame President, but-”
“But what the frak am I doing here?” Roslin said, smiling. “Well, I was in the neighborhood,” she pointed to the diloxin drip hooked to her arm, “and Mr. Gaeta and I had a nice chat about…music, before his voice gave out. Not too long after that, Mr. Hoshi came in and had the idea of striking up a card game, and-”
“Wait, so the notepad, that’s not because of the tube?” Dee said.
“Nope, it goes down your esophagus, not your windpipe. The notepad is because Mr. Gaeta’s voice, though angelic, is not imperishable.” Felix and Roslin gave each other a look that suggested there was a story behind this that neither of them felt like sharing. “As I was saying, then Mr. Hoshi found us a pack of cards, and here we are.”
Hoshi said, “Since he can’t sing, I thought it might help distract him from the tube and…everything. Felix may be really good at counting cards, but he still has to concentrate to do it, and-what?”
Felix tugged on Hoshi’s uniform jacket and scribbled something on the pad again.
Quit talking about me in 3rd person, L. I’m in the room, you know.
“Sorry, Baby,” Hoshi said, looking a bit hurt and squeezing Felix’s hand.
Felix wrote again.
Also, quit snitching on my strategy. Might not get Prez to play w/ me again if she knows I cheat.
Both men smiled, and Hoshi chuckled and kissed Felix on the forehead. Roslin turned the notepad in Felix’s hand to read the message, then giggled, too.
Felix wrote on the pad and showed it to Dee.
Deal you in?
Dee smiled. This was going to be hard on Felix, and he wasn’t always going to take things with perfect grace, but he was family. Of course Dee was going all in. “Yeah, deal me in. I may be a bit rusty, but I learned from the best.”
Author: kappamaki33
Rating: PG
Characters: Dee and Gaeta mostly, with appearances by a fairly large ensemble.
Pairings: It’s pretty gen, though there’s Dee/Billy, Dee/Lee, Gaeta/Skulls, and Gaeta/Hoshi sprinkled throughout; really, the heart of the story is about Dee and Gaeta’s friendship.
Summary: Families come in all different shapes, sizes, and packages. Dee found her family at the triad table.
Spoilers: Pre-miniseries through “Guess What’s Coming to Dinner”
Author's Note: This fic ate my day! If I flunk out of school, it’s Gaeta’s fault ;). In all seriousness, this was just a really fun, cathartic piece to write, and a nice break from what’s turning out to be a tough segment in my “Mathematics” series. It’s Dee’s perspective, but it’s both Dee's and Gaeta’s story, I think. Also, there is *a lot* of backstory in my mind on what is going on with one character being present in the last vignette--you'll know who I mean when you read it. Hopefully I'll be able to write that down sometime.
Five Times Dee Didn’t Play Cards and One Time She Did
“Hey Dee! Have a seat-I’ll deal you in.”
It was the tactical officer from CIC who’d said it, the nice one with warm brown eyes and short, curly black hair. That was the one who’d given her a juvenile prank call to make on her first day when she’d been so scared, just to make her laugh in spite of herself (“Is there a Hugh Jass there?”), and who’d warned her about Colonel Tigh’s flask so she wouldn’t be surprised.
“Thanks, but no thanks,” Dee said. Even though she could tell Galactica wasn’t nearly as strict about the separation between pilots and everybody else as she'd heard most ships were-bridge officers were playing cards with junior pilots and ECOs, after all-Dee didn’t feel secure enough in her position on Galactica yet to hang out in the rec room; in fact, she’d just come in to deliver a message to the CAG on her way from CIC to her bunk.
“No, come on!” the young officer pressed, smiling and waving her over to the table.
The big, tattooed pilot beside him elbowed the tactical officer-was it Mr. Gaeta?-in the ribs. “Quit it. She’s a Sagittaron, stupid.”
“Huh? What’s that got to do with-”
“Shouldn’t even let ‘em in the Fleet,” muttered another pilot at the card table. “Filthy Sagittaron pigs-hell, they’re worse than that, ‘cause at least you can eat a pig.”
The tattooed pilot was half-way out of his chair, but Gaeta beat him to the punch. He landed a surprisingly solid right hook to the cocky pilot’s jaw. The pilot sat stunned for a moment. Gaeta looked pretty stunned at what he’d done himself.
Then the pilot stood up, and Dee realized he was six feet tall and built like a gorilla.
There was a loud crack, and then Gaeta flew across the room, taking the table over with him. Blood spurted from Gaeta’s nose, ran down his uniform, and even got on some of the cards.
“Back off, Deadbolt!” said the tattooed pilot, putting himself between Gaeta and the other pilot. “You know you deserved it, and you proved you can beat up a bridge bunny, so drop it.”
Deadbolt started to walk off, and the tattooed pilot knelt down and tried to help Gaeta sit upright.
“Ugh, I’m pretty sure it’s broken,” the tattooed pilot said, taking a better look at Gaeta’s nose. “Better call Cottle.”
When the tattooed pilot got up to call down to the infirmary, Dee saw the other pilot wheel around and come charging at Gaeta again, who was still slowly pulling himself up off the ground. Gaeta looked up in time to experience a moment of sheer terror before-
-before Dee stuck out her foot at just the right moment and sent the apish pilot crashing headlong to the floor.
Gaeta shook his head in astonishment. “Wow. Y’know, I thing I’b going to let you fibt your own battles frob here on out,” he said the best he could with his blood-filled nose.
Dee smiled as she helped him stand. “Hey, we-what did they call us, bridge bunnies?-have to stick together. ‘Bridge bunny,’ ugh-we really need to come up with a new nickname.”
“How ‘bout bridge ninjas? We could bake tee-shirbts.”
~~*~~*~~
“I’m really sorry, about the cards,” Gaeta said to Dee as the two washed up together in the head after a long day in CIC.
“You’ve got nothing to be sorry about, Lieutenant.”
“Well no, I’m not sorry for asking you. I’m just sorry about pushing you on it. I knew Sagittaron religion had edicts against medicine and fornication and all that, but I didn’t know about cards.”
“Dancing is evil, too,” said Dee, wiping her face on a towel, “but that hasn't stopped me from doing it.”
“Ah, so you’re a lapsed Church of Sagittarian?”
“Well, I kind of have to be, to be in the military. Sharing a bunkroom with men, being in various states of undress around men in various states of undress…” She indicated her bra top and Gaeta’s lack of a shirt.
“Was it hard for you to give it up?” asked Gaeta, stopping his ablutions and looking genuinely interested, though a little ridiculous, since half his face was covered in shaving cream.
“The Church itself? Not really. I was never that attached to it. My parents, though…that’s still hard. Hard enough that I don’t really like to talk about it.”
“That sucks,” Gaeta said sympathetically. “My dad wasn’t too thrilled about me joining the military, either-politics more than religion-but you do what you have to do to get where you want to be in life, you know?”
“Exactly,” said Dee. They settled into a comfortable silence until Gaeta finished shaving.
“So, do you want me to ask you to join our triad game again, or do you not want to go there?”
“I’d love to join,” said Dee, “but since I grew up on Sagittaron, I don’t know how to play.”
Gaeta grinned. “Oh, we can fix that.”
Later that night, Dee giggled to herself a little at the thought that she was breaking the grave taboo of being in a man’s bed before she was married. Granted, she didn’t think the ancient prophets had had sitting with a fully-clothed man in his cramped bunk in the middle of the night while learning how to play triad in mind when they’d enumerated all the “thou shalt nots,” but it was still a thrilling thought.
“Now see, you’ve got prince blue high right now, which would beat my three on a run green,” said Felix, pointing at Dee’s cards as they played a practice game with both their hands showing.
“So I’d want to bet a lot on this hand, because all I need is a prince red and I’d have full colors?”
“Right. Unless you count cards like me, and then you know that two of the three prince reds have been played already, so your chances of full colors are slim, whereas no princess green has turned up yet, so I have a very good chance of making full greens, which beats prince blue high.”
“You count cards? Isn’t that cheating?”
“Wait a minute, I thought you didn’t know anything about cards.”
“Don’t change the subject,” Dee said, giggling. “Do the others know?”
“Of course not,” Felix said. “I joined the military to pay for college, just not in the traditional sense. Hell, if Helo would play with us more often, I could probably have paid for grad school by now.”
They both erupted in loud peals of laughter.
“What are you doing to Dee down there, Felix?” grumbled Skulls from the bunk directly above.
“Frakking her senseless, of course. What, are you jealous, Hamish?” Felix yelled back up at him. Dee dissolved into laughter again.
“Shut up, you guys,” said Dragon, hurling a pillow that bounced off the privacy curtain with a soft thump.
Dee paused in the middle of shuffling the deck. “I’m sorry, but I have to ask. Are you…seducing me, Felix? I’ve never been seduced before, so I don’t know what it looks like.”
Felix looked surprised, then just smiled. “Dee, you’re a lovely person, and a beautiful woman, but no, I am not seducing you. Actually,” he mouthed the next words, pointing at the top of the bunk, “I’m seducing him.”
“Oh. Oh, okay.”
“Not disappointed?”
“No offense, but not really,” said Dee. “I like whatever this is between us. I didn’t really want it to be more complicated.”
“Good, me too. Well, now that we’ve gotten that all straightened out, do you want to play a hand for real now?”
“Actually, I’m really tired, but I don’t want to go to my bunkroom all the way down on Deck D7,” Dee said, yawning. “Would you mind if I just stayed here?”
“Well, it’s not exactly roomy in here, but you’re small, so sure,” Felix said, reaching out under the privacy curtain and grabbing the pillow Dragon had thrown at them. “You’d better not snore,” he said, tossing the pillow at her, chuckling as he turned out the light.
~~*~~*~~
It was the first time Dee had brought Billy to the rec room. Billy was as nervous as if he were meeting her parents, though she’d told him he’d essentially already done that without knowing it: he’d already passed the litmus test with Felix. (“He’s nice, good-looking in that ‘aw, shucks,’ kind of way, has good taste in movies and cars from what I can tell, and he adores you. What more could you ask for? If it weren’t the end of the world, you might want to burn his floral shirts, but hey, we all have to make compromises now.”) Still, Billy understood that these people were always going to be a big part of Dee’s life, so it would be best if he meshed with them well if he wanted to be a part of her life, too.
“Good work, Dee, bringing us fresh blood,” Gaeta said, waggling his eyebrows at Billy and grinning in such a way that he could flash his teeth. She and Billy sat down, but Dee could hear Billy gulp nervously beside her. (“I also like that he hasn’t figured out my sense of humor yet. Dee, you are hereby not allowed to date anyone that I can’t scare a little bit. It’s just too much fun.”)
“Good, somebody else for Gaeta to clean out,” Racetrack said. “I’m about out of cubits. I was going to have to start throwing smokes and clothing in pretty soon.”
“Felix, are you...” Dee said, doing her best to look stern and not laugh.
“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about,” said Felix innocently, taking a drink of his ambrosia and winking at her over the glass.
“Hi guys. Can you deal me in, or do I have to wait for the next round?” said Lee, pulling up a chair between Racetrack and Helo.
Dee caught Lee’s eye, and she felt herself blush, even though she argued hard to herself that there was no reason for her to feel guilty, to feel anything, really. But something in Lee’s expression told her he was thinking the same thing. She lowered her eyes to the cards as Helo dealt.
“Oh, frak, Dee, we forgot!” Felix said, slamming down his drink. “The reports, for the….refueling-Admiral wants them on his desk by 0600.” Dee could tell from the look on Felix’s face that he’d seen that flash of awkward…something between her and Lee.
“Right, okay,” Dee stammered. “Billy, I’m so sorry, but I have to- You go ahead and have fun. Guys, show him a good time, but don’t get him too drunk or leave him naked and hog-tied in Starbuck’s bunk or anything, okay?”
“Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of him,” Racetrack said, flashing a mock-predatory leer at Billy that made Billy squirm.
“’Night, Billy,” Dee said, giving him a quick kiss and following Felix out of the room.
“Feel like telling me anything?” Felix said as they walked.
“No.”
“Feel like telling Billy anything?”
“Nothing to tell.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, I trust you, then,” Felix sighed. “Just remember, so does Billy.”
~~*~~*~~
Even though it was bizarre to be in the Galactica rec room when it was this quiet, it still felt like coming home to Dee. The Pegasus may have been newer and brighter, everything sleek and efficient, but it had none of Galactica’s rickety, endearing warmth.
Only one table was occupied. Kat, Racetrack, Skulls, Hotdog and Dragon huddled together around the table, hunched over their cards, barely muttering their bets as they tossed cubits and other worthless bits of metal into the pot. Kat’s eyes drifted up from her cards, and she caught sight of Dee.
Kat’s face lit up. “Dee! So they let you out of the belly of the Beast for awhile, huh?”
Dee smiled in return. “Yeah, Lee sent me to courier some documents over to the Old Man. I couldn’t leave without dropping in to say hi.”
It felt so good to be back among friends, Dee thought. Most of the Pegasus crew weren’t the monsters they’d been made out to be, and some of them she even considered friends by now, but it wasn’t like Galactica, certainly not for her. Lee didn’t understand what Dee meant when she complained about feeling like an interloper in the Pegasus CIC. They’d had more time to adjust to Lee, and he’d had the opportunity to prove his worth to the crew under fire. And if the Pegasus crew had been leery of Lee because his father was the Admiral, they weren’t exactly less likely to suspect nepotism when the Admiral’s daughter-in-law was promoted from Communications Officer to XO over several Pegasus officers.
“C’mon, Dee, pull up a chair,” Racetrack said. “They can’t need you back in that big of a hurry.”
Five friendly faces looked up at her expectantly. She really wanted to sit down among them and feel the warmth of family again. But now that the room was so empty for a change, she could see all the pictures lining the walls that she’d never noticed before. There were photos of viper jocks and knuckle-draggers and engine monkeys, and of lots of good card players she knew that weren’t there: Duck, Nora, Felix. She knew she couldn’t let herself feel at home yet, not until they were back home, too.
“Thanks guys, I wish I could,” Dee said. “But I’m afraid I can’t stay.”
~~*~~*~~
Dee walked into the mess to get a to-go tray so Lee could have a meal in their quarters when he finished flying CAP and instead found what was quite possibly the most awkward, painful game of triad ever.
From the way each person was acting, Dee guessed that the odd assortment of players was primarily Anders’s doing. Felix had told Dee that he’d forgiven the Circle as best he could but that he wasn’t going to pretend to be friends with them, and he certainly wasn’t going to try to wedge himself back in with the old gang. Anders had told her that he felt he owed Gaeta an apology, even though he quit the Circle before they abducted Felix and nearly tossed him out an airlock.
Apparently, inviting Felix to play triad with half the Circle was Anders’s idea of an apology, a way to show they’d accepted him back into the fold. Dee knew he meant well, as did Felix, or Felix wouldn’t be sitting there, doing his best not to cringe and cower every time Anders clapped Felix on the back or threw an arm around his shoulders with an enthusiasm that betrayed that these good-natured shows of camaraderie were a little forced.
Beside Gaeta was an empty chair, then Kara, who slouched in her seat and seemed a bit put-out that Anders was lavishing so much attention on somebody else. Even with the chair in between them, a casual observer could tell there was no love lost between Felix and Kara, either.
To Kara’s right was Seelix, who was visibly angry, likely at Kara and quite possibly at anybody with wings. Dee had heard about how Seelix had gotten passed over for pilot training despite getting the top score on the written exams. She didn’t seem terribly thrilled with the plan to include Gaeta, either, though Dee knew Seelix wouldn’t ever turn down an invitation from Anders. Perhaps Kara was sensing that, and that’s what inspired her to try to “accidentally” knock Seelix’s drink into her lap, though she miscalculated and ended up drenching some of the cards with perfectly good hooch.
Chief Tyrol glowered next to Seelix, angry at the world on Seelix’s behalf and on his own. Dee had gathered from the comm chatter that the men in the brig from the Hitei Kan were some of the key players in Chief’s labor union on New Caprica.
Surprisingly, even Hotdog, who always seemed blissfully and sometimes almost stupidly oblivious to interpersonal tensions, was visibly nervous, constantly shifting in his chair and rearranging the cards in his hand.
And then there was Hoshi. Poor Hoshi was livid, staring daggers at Anders every time Anders touched Felix. Hoshi had confided in Dee that he was finally going to ask Felix if he wanted to meet at Joe’s for drinks that night. Dee could imagine Hoshi waiting all the way through dinner to build up his nerve, and then just as he made his way over to Felix and sat down at his table, the Adonis that was Sam Anders pulled up a chair between them.
Perhaps they should have played this game in the brig so they could have invited Baltar and the Six, just to round out the discomfort, Dee mused.
“Dee!” Felix said, calling out to her as desperately as if he was drowning. “Join us, please.”
Dee stared at the open chair. Sitting down beside Kara Thrace would be beyond awkward-it would leapfrog over awkward and land squarely in the realm of unbearable-but she could tell Felix needed a friendly face beside him, badly. Dee shrugged. It wouldn’t be fun, but she’d done it once before, sitting beside Kara in a downed Raptor. If they hadn’t killed each other then, they likely wouldn’t now.
“Ambrosia with a whiskey chaser for the lady,” said Lee, brushing Kara’s shoulder with his as he slid into the empty chair, Kara’s fingertips grazing his as she took the glasses from his hands.
“So this is what having to pull an extra shift on CAP looks like,” Dee said, pressing the anger down inside her so it stayed out of her voice but unable to keep the hurt from shining in her eyes.
The color drained from Lee’s face. “Dee-”
“Sorry, Felix,” Dee said on her way out the door. “I don’t feel like playing games.”
~~*~~*~~
The bottom dropped out of Dee’s stomach when Cottle appeared at the CIC hatchway and asked Lieutenants Dualla and Hoshi to step outside for a moment.
“They’re on duty,” Tigh grumbled. “Fine. You’ve got five minutes, Doc.”
Dee swallowed back tears, and Hoshi put a comforting hand on her back as they walked across the CIC to Cottle, though Hoshi’s face was white and his hand was shaking.
“No, Doc,” Dee barely whispered. “No. Don’t you dare-”
“Stop right there, Dee,” Cottle said evenly. “I have bad news, but not that bad.”
Dee heard Hoshi exhale beside her.
Cottle continued, “He’s still alive, but I don’t like the turn things have taken. He’s sung himself hoarse, and he’s not eating or drinking. He can’t afford to get dehydrated at this point, so I recommended nasal intubation, to get some fluids and nutrients into him. He…wasn’t too enthused with that idea. Now, I’m willing to chalk his response up to the pain, shock, and morpha, but I really can’t go against his wishes without an okay from his next of kin. The current state of the human race has kind of changed what ‘next of kin’ means. So…”
Dee and Hoshi looked at each other, then nodded.
“All right then,” said Cottle. “I’ll start him on the feeding tube right away. Tubes are not fun, though. It would be a big help if Gaeta could have someone there with him…” Cottle looked over Hoshi’s shoulder at Colonel Tigh, who had apparently been eavesdropping from just inside the open hatch.
“All right, but I can only spare one of ‘em for now.”
Hoshi and Dee looked at each other again and decided without speaking. Dee went back into CIC as Hoshi jogged down the hall to catch up with Cottle.
Tigh finally relieved Dee of duty two hours later, and when Doc Cottle ushered her into Felix’s curtained-off cubicle, she found what was quite possibly the strangest tableau she could have imagined.
Felix, gray-skinned, red-eyed, and with his nose taped up almost as much as the time Deadbolt had broken it, was propped up in bed, dealing cards to Hoshi on his left and President Roslin on his right.
“So Tigh finally set you free!” Hoshi said, breaking into a wide smile. Even Felix brightened a little when he saw her.
“How are you doing?” Dee said, sitting down at the foot of his bed.
Felix grabbed a notepad from the bedside table and scribbled something down. He held it up.
Stupid question, D.
Hoshi leaned in to read the message, then took the pad from Felix’s hands and gave him a stern look. “It’s been a rough day,” Hoshi said. “The tube didn’t exactly go down easy, but we’re doing better now, right?”
Felix rolled his eyes.
Roslin snorted. “Just wait until you get to take it out,” she said. “Lieutenant Hoshi, you make sure he gets Nurse Ishay to do it. Marin’s okay, if Ishay’s off-duty, but Sashon is absolutely horrible at it. Don’t let her give you an IV, either, Mr. Gaeta-your arm will look like a pincushion before you’re done.”
Dee looked at Roslin. “I don’t mean to be rude, Madame President, but-”
“But what the frak am I doing here?” Roslin said, smiling. “Well, I was in the neighborhood,” she pointed to the diloxin drip hooked to her arm, “and Mr. Gaeta and I had a nice chat about…music, before his voice gave out. Not too long after that, Mr. Hoshi came in and had the idea of striking up a card game, and-”
“Wait, so the notepad, that’s not because of the tube?” Dee said.
“Nope, it goes down your esophagus, not your windpipe. The notepad is because Mr. Gaeta’s voice, though angelic, is not imperishable.” Felix and Roslin gave each other a look that suggested there was a story behind this that neither of them felt like sharing. “As I was saying, then Mr. Hoshi found us a pack of cards, and here we are.”
Hoshi said, “Since he can’t sing, I thought it might help distract him from the tube and…everything. Felix may be really good at counting cards, but he still has to concentrate to do it, and-what?”
Felix tugged on Hoshi’s uniform jacket and scribbled something on the pad again.
Quit talking about me in 3rd person, L. I’m in the room, you know.
“Sorry, Baby,” Hoshi said, looking a bit hurt and squeezing Felix’s hand.
Felix wrote again.
Also, quit snitching on my strategy. Might not get Prez to play w/ me again if she knows I cheat.
Both men smiled, and Hoshi chuckled and kissed Felix on the forehead. Roslin turned the notepad in Felix’s hand to read the message, then giggled, too.
Felix wrote on the pad and showed it to Dee.
Deal you in?
Dee smiled. This was going to be hard on Felix, and he wasn’t always going to take things with perfect grace, but he was family. Of course Dee was going all in. “Yeah, deal me in. I may be a bit rusty, but I learned from the best.”