Scars that Words have Carved- 4/?
Title: Scars that Words Have Carved
Fandom: BSG/Buffyverse
Chapter: 4/?
Words: ~4360
Pairings: Lee/Kara, Kara/Faith, Faith/Kat
Rating: PG-13 - NC-17 (PG-13 this chapter)
Setting: S2.5-S4
Summary: "You’re going to be a pain in my ass for a long time to come. No way I could ever be lucky enough to get rid of you."
Beta'd by the wonderful, wonderful taragel
Previous Chapters Here
Slayer gave a grunt when Helo’s padded fist hit her squarely in the solar plexus, she stumbled back for a moment before regaining her balance and returning the jab in full. “I get it,” she said. “Admiral’s little boy gets a bullet to the chest and gets bumped up to Major. Whatev.” She shook out her shoulders, bouncing up on the balls of her feet. She was watching him for a weak spot. “What pisses me off is that right after that, Adama turns around and hands him Pegasus.” She threw a punch towards Helo’s head and he stepped back, raising his arm to block it. “What the frak is that about?”
Helo’d never call their sparring matches friendly, but they’d gone beyond Faith wanting to hit something and him being the convenient option. They’d been meeting up every once in a while since Faith’s arrival on Galactica, but during the five days since Starbuck had been sent over to Pegasus Faith had come looking for a fight every day-the kitchen duty she’d been on the past six weeks was turning her into a time-bomb. “He saved the ship when Garner couldn’t,” Helo said, stepping forward with a quick series of jabs. “Apollo deserves the command.”
“All I’m sayin’ is if he can’t handle me, ain’t no way he’s cut out to be in charge of Pegasus.” Slayer stood back, holding her arms open wide as a shining example of being a pain in the ass.
Helo almost laughed as he reached for his towel. “Well, in all fairness to Apollo, you’re insane.” He dabbed at the sweat trickling down his face. “I know for a fact that there were at least three times he almost put you back on rotation, maybe more, and every single time you managed to do something to piss him off.”
“Not one of ‘em was my fault. The fight in the mess hall? Didn’t start it. Fire? Accident.” Slayer lowered herself down on the weight bench, stretching her arms over her head.
“Was running your fist into the CAG’s face also an accident?”
“No,” she admitted, sounding almost delighted. “That one was a plan.”
“A plan to what? Get sent to the brig? Because if it was, congratulations. It worked.”
She gave a brief shrug as though shaking off all responsibility. “He told me he wasn’t gonna let me back in the cockpit ‘til I saw a shrink.”
Helo stood there blinking at her. “And you thought punching him seemed like a good way to convince him you were sane?”
“Wasn’t really thinking. Besides, it was after he was up and about. Wouldn’t hit a guy lyin’ in sickbay.” Slayer pulled herself to her feet, pounding her padded fists together and looking like she was ready for round two. “C’mon.”
“You’re lucky.” Helo set his towel aside. “I know for a fact the only reason you got out of that one was because Starbuck talked Apollo out of pressing charges.”
Slayer’s hands fell to her sides. It was a blow she couldn’t have seen coming. “K did what?”
He gave a shrug. “I don’t know how and I don’t know why. Kara’s never really been the type to talk about what’s on her mind. But if I were you, I’d just be grateful.” He slipped off the padded gloves and tossed them in Slayer’s direction. They landed at her feet, match over. As he turned to leave the room, his amused smile hidden from his opponent, he called over his shoulder. “She’s coming back to Galactica, you know.”
---
“Commander Adama,” Kara mused, as she watched Lee open up his duffle on his rack and begin to pack his belongings, his life on Galactica, away. “Call me crazy but it sounds like it’s been done before.”
“Funny,” he said over his shoulder, a hint of tension in his voice. She decided to chalk it up to the pressure of his impending new duties. “Hilarious, actually. Do you write your own material?”
“I just work with what you give me.” She pushed herself up from where she sat on her own rack. “Good luck, you’re gonna need it. A lot of people over there aren’t exactly fans of ‘The Bucket.’”.She wrinkled her nose in annoyance. “Case in point, no one letting me know about the missing Raptors until Garner was rubbing it in my face.”
“I think you’re the one who’s going to need the help, Kara. Because along with my old job, you have all of Slayer’s fantastic attitude problems to deal with on your own.” Lee’s voice sounded strange, strangled almost, and he was focused intensely on his packing. In fact, he was nearly shoving the stuff in the bag now. “Though, some people have heard the two of you finding a way to work things out.”
Wary of the tension, that was suddenly in the room, Kara shrugged noncommittally, although Lee didn’t see it with his back turned to her. Lately, she felt like that’s all she ever saw of him (even if it was her own fault), and it was all she could do to not grab him by the shoulders and turn him to face her. This was probably the longest time they’d spent alone in the same room, let alone conversation held, since that frakup on Cloud 9 last month. The last time she’d even gone up to him was a week and a half before, when a right hook to Lee’s face had landed Slayer in the brig. It wasn’t like she was running to Faith’s defense, but Kara and Lee had had their share of fist fights in the past. She’d been shocked when he’d simply nodded at her reasoning and dropped the charges. But he hadn’t said a word to her about it. She figured it was fine, and she wasn’t sure why he seems so pissed off now. “Lee…”
“Word doesn’t get around to sickbay as fast as it gets around to other parts of the ship.” His words were clipped and furious, and Kara thought, Oh. She should have known this conversation was going to happen eventually. “I got a lot of visitors. My father, Roslin, Dee, Billy, but not you. Never you.”
“That has nothing to do with-”
“I didn’t believe it at first.” Lee shook his head, looking like he was in disbelief of his own idiocy. “Then right after I heard, there you are, looking to bail her out of the brig. Gods! Were you just so busy screwing around with Slayer that you couldn’t come and-”
“I shot you, Lee!” Kara’s hands dropped to her sides, fists clenched tight, knuckles white, and nails digging into her skin. “I put a frakking bullet in your chest!”
“I know! I’ve got the scar to prove it!” Lee shot back, finally turning around to face her. His eyes locked onto hers, and he wasn’t even trying to hide the pain that lingered there. And the worst part was that he was right.
“I could’ve killed you.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Well…” she shook her head as she searched for the right comeback, but she opened her mouth all she could shout was “Good!”
“Great!” Lee yelled back at her, his arms opening at his sides.
“I’m glad I didn’t kill you!” Kara screamed as she stepped towards him, watching the way his chest rose and fell until one seething breath of air turned into a short, sharp laugh.
“Well, so am I!” Lee’s voice sounded tight, like he was trying to stay angry, but there was a smile tugging away at the corner of his lips. He ducked his head as another laugh escaped his lips, and Kara couldn’t help but grin as well.
When Lee raised his head to look at her, she suddenly found herself with his arms around her shoulders. As she slipped her arms around his back, she leaned her chin against his shoulder and closed her eyes, feeling the beating of his heart against her chest. Good. It was a good feeling and it was going to stay that way.
“Lords,” she said, half-laughing herself, “we suck at this.”
She felt him lean his cheek against her forehead. “What part?”
“Want a list?” she smirked. “I was thinking mostly about us-speaking again right when you’re going away.”
“Well,” he said, pulling back but keeping his arms planted firmly on her shoulders. “Your timing does suck.” Her jaw dropped but before she could retort, he pressed on. “Besides. I think you’re going a little farther away than I am.”
Kara raised an eyebrow.
“My dad has something he wants to talk to you about.” Lee was grinning the grin of “I know something you don’t know” so brightly that Kara couldn’t resist giving him a firm swat on the arm.
“Why am I always the last to hear about these things?”
Lee shrugged as he went back to packing his belongings into the duffle bag. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s your bad timing?”
---
“Up and at ‘em, Slayer.” Faith would have rolled onto her side and reached to pull her pillow over her head, but before she could get a good grip on it, Starbuck snatched the pillow away. Apparently being in charge put Kara in a good mood, and she’d been lording that power over Faith ever since she’d stepped foot back on Galactica less than fourteen hours ago.
(“These yours, Slayer?” were the first words out of her mouth when she strode up to Faith in the rec room. Starbuck held out the pair of regulation briefs with the initials FML written in permanent marker across the inside of the waist. She laughed. “Found them in the pilots' duty locker on Pegasus. Some of the guys had practically built a shrine.”)
Faith groaned as she rolled over onto her side. How could Starbuck look dead serious and yet obnoxiously cheerful at the same time? “What time is it?”
“Five minutes before reveille,” Kara said like she’d been planning to wake her up at 0555 since the night before. “Come on, get a move on, lieutenant.”
“I have five more minutes to sleep,” she growled, covering her head with her arms. “I’m takin’ ‘em.”
Kara leaned her elbows on the edge of Faith’s rack, enough pressure to jostle the mattress and direct the lieutenant’s half-asleep attention towards her. “I have a proposition for you.”
“Well,” Faith said dryly as she cracked one eye open, “if you wanted an early mornin’ frak, that’s all you had to say.” There was one lone snicker that could be heard; apparently their chat had woken up Hotdog who seemed to be getting a real kick out of it.
Kara rolled her eyes, tossing Faith’s covers aside. “C’mon, cupcake.” Slayer gave a reluctant groan but swung her legs over the side of her rack and slid to the floor, trailing Kara out into the corridor.
“You know about the SAR mission to Caprica.” Straight to business. Not a question, it didn’t need to be. Their great new CAG hadn’t given the actual briefing on the mission yet, but that’s what the rumor mill was for.
“Yeah,” Faith said, unable to shake the sleep out of her voice. “I also know it’s Two Alpha, and I ain’t plannin’ on volunteerin’. That what you woke me up to talk about?” She gave a quick shake of her head and turned to crawl back into her rack until Gaeta’s whiny voice gave the official wake up call, but before Faith could take a step, Kara grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her back around.
“And we’re back to why you got bumped off of flight status in the first place.”
“Cause I shot you?”
“Because you’re out for yourself, Faith.” Kara’s voice was firm and her nails on Faith’s shoulder were even firmer. “And frak anyone who gets in your way. I’ve got news for you. That’s over. No more of this you versus me, Pegasus versus Galactica crap. Here’s the deal. You come on the mission and show me you can actually be part of a team, part of my team, then you’re back.”
A flicker of a smile tugged at Faith’s lips but quickly turned into a sardonic smirk. “I can’t just sleep with the CAG?”
“Get dressed.” Kara released her shoulder. “You got a head start on everyone else, so move your ass. I expect to see you in the ready room first.”
Faith shook out her shoulder, craning her head to see the little marks left by Starbucks’s nails on the bare skin. Running her hand over the marks, she caught Kara’s gaze. Her lips pursed together, trying to look like she was mulling over the offer when really she was still fighting the smile. Faith gave a terse nod before she could no longer fight her grin. “Sir, yes sir.”
---
Of course with Faith’s luck she ended up stuck in the Raptor with Starbuck, the cylon frakker, and the cylon itself.
She’s here to help us. She's gonna lay out our navigational markers and update our jump coordinates. Does anyone have a problem with that?
Of course Faith’d had a problem with that, in theory. Now that she was sitting less than three feet away from it, watching as it drove a fiber optics cable into its own arm, she really, really had a problem with it. Not like she could actually say anything, had to play by Starbuck’s frakking rules now. She sat back, closing her eyes folding her arms over her chest, planning on trying to sleep out as much of the trip to Caprica as she could manage.
“I still can’t believe you talked me into this.” It sounded human, annoyed and sad; then again, Gina’d sounded human too.
“It's important. And I'll be with you there and back. It's you and me from now on, no matter what. Just like we agreed.”
“I know. I know. I really appreciate it, Helo, I really do. I just can't get her out of my head. Our little girl.”
Faith cracked one eye open, not wanting them to know she was now staring at them. Since her arrival on Galactica she’d never really had any respect for Agathon, but getting to know him a bit more in the gym lately, she had to admit the man wasn’t an idiot. The cylon must’ve put up a pretty convincing act to get him to go all mushy like this. Then again, what human didn’t put up a good show to get whatever the frak they wanted too?
So Faith was gonna put on her own show. Keep her frakking mouth shut til they got to Caprica and she could get back in the cockpit.
---
“Hey. Rescue mission, remember,” Kara snapped. “Not a shoot first scenario.” Of course at the first sign of anything Slayer had raised her rifle to fire into the woods.
Ducking into the brush with the rest of the rescue crew, Faith rolled her eyes. “I kill… that’s what I do.”
“Right,” Kara said flatly. Trigger-happy frakker, she thought as she turned towards Helo. “Friendlies?”
“Only one way to find out,” he replied. He pushed back some dying foliage and called out across the clearing. “Got a Samuel T. Anders there?”
An uneasy silence filled the landscape, and Kara could see Faith gearing up to raise her weapon again. “Want me to take that thing away from you?” She snapped under her breath.
“You got a Kara Thrace there?” Another voice called over from behind the trees and bushes across the way, female and slightly familiar. It was followed quickly by an even more familiar male voice. “If there is, tell her she took long enough!”
Kara burst out into a grin. Alive. They were alive. She rose to her feet making her way out into the clearing as a few excited whoops were heard from both the crowds in the woods. “Yeah, well I’m here!” she shouted. “Quit your whining!” The rustle of leaves and snapping twigs picked up as her crew flooded out into the clearing to meet the members of the resistance who approached from the other side, Anders of course in the lead.
“That him?” She heard Faith whisper at her shoulder, before giving an appreciative mutter. “Not too bad.”
Kara shook her head, “You ever think about anything else?” She strode up to the resistance leader, a wide smile across her face. “Happy to see me?”
“You have no idea,” Anders replied, pulling her against his chest, his arms around her shoulders, and more gratitude in the embrace than she’d ever expected. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Slayer watching them with a mischievous glint in her eyes. Kara was sure she could feel the very beginnings of a pounding headache forming behind her eyes.
Back to business. She pulled out of his hold and looked up at him, ready to get the rest of the refugees and move out. “Where’s everyone else?”
Anders turned his head, surveying the crush of people filling the clearing. She could see his jaw clench slightly before he drew in a steeling breath. “This is it.” His gaze fell back on her. “Toasters hit the high school this morning.”
Kara stepped back to survey the survivors, easily distinguished from her own team in their black gear. Couldn’t have been twenty-five people, that was less than half. Less than half of the resistance remained and she’d missed it by a few hours. Her stomach clenched at the thought, but she pushed it away. Too frakking late now. “Right. We’ve got 17 Raptors waiting, we’re gonna get you out of-”
“We’ve got company!”
Kara barely registered Sharon’s call before the bullets started hailing down. A few missiles fell in the area sending out flames, shrapnel, and shockwaves. Frak if it didn’t look like hell itself was breaking loose. High ground. They needed to get the high ground or they were screwed and frak it if she was letting anyone else die today. Turning her head to her left she saw a rock formation towards the top of a hill, enough to provide sufficient cover. “Everyone, fall back!” She shouted over the rising commotion, and saw that Anders was already waving the others up towards the position she’d spotted. “Move, move, move!”
---
“Can’t signal the Raptors; they jammed the freqs,” Helo shouted over the roar of another hail of gunfire. He dropped down beside Kara once they’d fallen behind the rock formation. She barely registered the words, she was too busy trying to make a decent head count, made all the more difficult by the scramble over limited medical supplies for the wounded; but despite the frenzy it looked like they had everyone.
The sound of gunfire dying down was what startled Kara back into reality. “What the frak…” She could hear the dull clank of toasters walking, but why the hell weren’t they firing? “They’re still out there,” she growled before turning her gaze towards Sharon. “Why the hell aren’t they firing?”
Sharon shifted uncomfortably under Starbuck’s gaze. “They don’t want us dead. If they did they would’ve done it already. They’re looking for prisoners, they’ll send for non-lethal weapons… gas,” she clarified. “Those they don’t take for interrogation will get sent to--”
“Hold up,” Kara cut her off, glancing around now that the crush of people had come to a relative standstill. “We’re missing… where’s Slayer?” She glanced around, but those who met her gaze only shook their heads.
“I could’ve sworn she was right behind us.” Helo’s face pulled into a frown. Kara’d been sure of it too. Slowly, she edged closer to a small opening in the rock face, allowing a view out into the clearing. Not thirty feet from them, she could see Slayer on the ground, propped up on one elbow. She was down but was drawing on all the strength she could. She watched as Slayer struggled to bring up her rifle firing off enough rounds to take out the two centurions that stood over her, before she finally fell limp against the ground.
“Frak.”
“Starbuck, where are you going?” Sharon’s hand caught her wrist as she moved for another opening.
Not bothering with an explanation, Kara shoved an automatic rifle into Sharon’s hands. “Cover me.” And without another word she was sprinting down the hill, skidding to a stop in the dirt beside Faith, and while she couldn’t quite make out what the damage was, her chest was rising. Alive. Good. The sound of clanking metal drew her attention and she fired off several rounds into the encroaching centurions. At the very least, it bought her enough time to get Faith’s arm around her shoulders and pull her to her feet.
Another hail of gunfire rained down on them, two explosions blocking them off from the high ground. If going back up the hill was out of the question, they were going to need cover and fast. Two more advancing toasters were taken out by a barrage of bullets from up the hill. At least they had someone at their back. A quick survey of the surrounding landscape revealed a small outcropping. It didn’t give nearly the same cover that the hill provided, but it was going to have to do. As she steadied Lehane’s body against her own, the lieutenant’s eyes flickered open for a moment, a groan escaping her lips. “Come on,” Kara said, heading for the outcropping. “You’re going to be a pain in my ass for a long time to come. No way I could ever be lucky enough to get rid of you.”
And Faith was out again.
---
The first thing Faith was aware of was a sharp, throbbing pain that had settled in her left leg. The awareness of aches everywhere soon followed, but nothing quite compared to the pain in that limb. Darkness had settled in but when she did finally ease her eyes open, she could see her legs stretched out in front of her; she was propped up in a sitting position against what felt like rocks, and she could see a makeshift bandage wrapped around her leg. She leaned her head back against the rock trying to pick details out of the haze that filled her head, but there weren’t any. Just noise and pain and a flash of blonde hair. No… it couldn’t have been.
“I was wondering when you’d wake up.”
Maybe she hadn’t been dreaming it after all. Turning her head, she could see Kara just to her side, keeping their hiding place covered, her rifle pointed out towards wherever. “How long was I out?”
She watched as Starbuck scanned the landscape beyond the outcropping before pulling herself back to sit down next to her. Must have been either really confident that they would be alright, or just really tired of staring out there. “Not sure. Five hours, give or take.”
“What’s going on out there?”
“Right now?” Kara asked, craning her head for once last glance. “A lot of toasters standing around doing nothing. Can’t get back to the others with them standing guard, though.”
“Maybe it’s a new tactic,” Faith managed before a feeble cough escaped her. “Trying to bore us to death.”
A slight smirk settled on Kara’s lips. “Well, they get points for originality.” Faith watched as she scooted forward, trying to get a glimpse of the bandage in the dark. “How’s the leg feeling?”
“Hurts like hell,” she laughed. “But it’s a hell of a lot better than bein’ dead.” Kara gave a brief laugh in reply, but when she leaned back against the rock, a silence settled between them. Hell if it wasn’t for the distant clank of cylons not too far off, it could almost pass for a nice night under the stars. Almost peaceful. When Faith spoke again, her voice was low, almost like she didn’t want to ruin the night. “Hey, K.”
“Yeah?” she replied, her voice revealing her fatigue more than anything else in her body.
“You came back for me.” It wasn’t a question, and not really a statement either, more like she was trying to think out loud, trying to wrap her mind around the concept.
Kara didn’t look at her, didn’t do much of anything really. “I know what they do to women here,” she said. Faith could see Kara’s hand resting on her own hip. “I wasn’t going to let that happen. Not to you. Not to anyone.”
Faith groaned as she forced herself to her knees, reaching over to take the rifle that now rested at Kara’s side.
“What are you doing?”
“Sleep,” Faith said sharply. “I’ll keep watch.”
---
When Kara opened her eyes, Faith was out again, propped against the outcropping fast asleep. She should’ve known better than to let the injured woman be the lookout, and she’d only meant to rest her eyes for a minute. On the other hand, daylight had settled in and they were still alive. She was counting that as a minor victory. She pulled herself to her knees to peer out into the clearing again and she could not have been prepared for what she saw.
Nothing.
There was nothing.
She nudged Faith’s shoulder and the lieutenant muttered something about pancakes as she finally came too. Kara pulled Faith’s arm around her shoulder and helped her out into the clearing, where the others were already starting to file in from down the hill, Helo and Anders leading the front, the former skidding to a stop as he reached the pair emerging from the woods.
Kara glanced around the abandoned clearing, almost afraid to say the words out loud. Like it would bring them back. “They’re just… gone.” Her brow furrowed. “It’s over.”
“Thank the gods!” A voice rang out. Kara turned to see a man she’d never seen before. Short, skin sagging with age, and wearing a ridiculous hat. Must’ve been one of Anders’. “It’s a miracle,” he continued. “Let us pray.”