(Untitled)

[mr_gaeta]

Do your frakking job, was all Gaeta could think through the events rocking the Fleet: their jump to the Ionian Nebula, the fleet-wide power outage, the Raiders zeroing in like a swarm of insects, their inexplicable departure ten minutes later

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[wheatencrown]

There's a chill to the air in Milliways and Demeter's blonde hair is beginning to have a few silver glints as she watches him run.

When it looks like he's not going to stop, she stands in the middle of his path and says, "Felix, stop before I must carry you."

[mr_gaeta]

Gaeta has too much momentum going to stop -- not in front of Demeter, anyway. With a gasped, "Frak," he slews to the side and dodges around her, finally coming to a stumbling halt a few paces beyond.

He doesn't turn around to acknowledge her yet. Instead, he bends over his knees, sucking down air that feels more like fire scorching up his lungs.

[wheatencrown]

And so she is simply in front of him and then kneeling to his level and offering a cup of water,

"Drink, rest."

[mr_gaeta]

He shakes his head, still heaving in gulps of air: oxygen takes priority right now, not water.

But, without his say, his knees fold up to drop him the rest of the way to the ground, putting him eye to eye with Demeter.

(It would be eye to eye if he could meet her gaze, anyway.)

[faithful_lt]

Word had come over the wireless almost immediately, the shockwave of news reaching CIC at the same time that it broke over the rest of the fleet.

There's been a cold knot lying in the pit of his stomach since he heard.

Not guilty. Gods.

Of all the possibilities, he'd never anticipated that one...

... and he knows Felix won't have, either.

Hoshi has a pretty good idea where Felix might go in light of this, but it still takes him a while to search first around Galactica and then through the bar before moving outside.

He stops in his tracks when he sees him.

[mr_gaeta]

One more lap.

He completes the latest circuit, passing by the side of the lake closest to Milliways' back door, and keeps pushing. His breath comes in short, sharp gasps that make him think, for a brief and dizzy moment, Maybe I should quit smoking after all.

Gaeta thinks he catches sight of someone familiar from the corner of his eye. Half a second later, he's dismissed it, tuning back in to the thump of his feet.

[faithful_lt]

"Felix! Felix, wait--"

He's never been a very good runner, even when not in duty blues, but Hoshi doesn't let that stop him now. He breaks into a jog of his own, trying to catch up.

[mr_gaeta]

Gaeta almost stumbles, concentration wrenched sideways like a twisted ankle. He glances over his shoulder; oh, frak, he thinks, embarrassment flushing his face even more when he gets a good look at Louis -- the sort of good look he should have gotten the first time around.

Immediately, he slows, giving the other man time to catch up.

[i_candozat]

There's another runner who's catching up to Gaeta, a thin-limbed boy in workout clothes that manages to keep pace with the man; such is what comes from being a runner your whole life, even if that life is not yet two decades in span.

Pavel doesn't say anything for a long while, but when he does it's a very curious: "You do this often?"

[mr_gaeta]

It takes a while for Gaeta to notice he's picked up a running partner. In the silence, he sizes Pavel up in quick sideways glances, wondering how long he plans to run with him, how much longer Gaeta himself can run.

At the question, he shakes his head. "Not too much," he manages to gasp in between breaths. "Sometimes."

[i_candozat]

For reference, Pavel has run--and won--a forty-kilometer race, and has the certificate to prove it: it's a fairly difficult accomplishment given he's only just seventeen. He's always been that kid, the overachiever and the slightly-too-exuberant one in classes.

"You should slow down."

[mr_gaeta]

Again, that quick headshake. "Not yet. Haven't been out that long."

Gaeta may have lied with a straight face to Baltar's lawyers, but he couldn't hope to manage it now, when he's nearly run himself into the ground.

(Baltar's lawyers. Not guilty. Gods.)

As if to prove it, he forces himself to speed up a little.