"Tea will be ready in a bit," she said, turning around to face him.
"Cool," he said, sitting down across from Gaeta and lighting up a cigarette. Gaeta was plotting jumps. Dianna was reading a few chairs down from him. Sam gingerly pushed Pike skin mag away from him towards the edge of the table.
Hot Dog piped up suddenly from his bunk. "There is something seriously creepy about jerking off to dead chicks."
The whole room looked at him. Dianna glared at Sam and added, "Yeah, being hung up on dead chicks is weird."
Sam shifted but didn't say anything. Jean made a mental note to tell Dianna that when she said she wasn't crazy enough to go out with Sam, she'd been trying to make her feel better, not handing out tips.
"Yeah, that definitely makes the whole porn thing just a little weird," Sam said, apparently sticking to his plan of ignoring Seelix.
"There's a guy in the black market who has a whole set up with his hookers though, so there is new stuff being made," Hot Dog said.
"Yes, it's wonderful how with everything we've lost, porn still survives," Gaeta snarked.
"Creativity knows no bounds," Sam joked, leaning back in his chair.
Helo walked in and grabbed a cup of coffee. "How's Kara?" he asked Sam casually.
"Sleeping," Sam said. "Athena on patrol with Pike?"
"Yeah." Helo grinned slightly. "She was joking about tricking him into doing a space walk and then leaving him there when she left."
"She's got my vote," Jean said, throwing the tea bags into what she figured was hot enough water.
"Mine too," Seelix, Sam, and Hot dog added in unison.
"Well, if we get six votes, why don't we just throw him out the airlock and tell Adama it was a trial?" Gaeta said bitterly.
There was a loud thump as Sam leaned forward in his chair. Jean didn't like the look on his face when he said, "Do you like it when everybody is pissed off at you Felix?"
Helo looked sideways at Sam but didn't say anything. Jean wasn't sure if he was brilliant or massively stupid. It wasn't deliberate, but Sam had seemed to have taken on the role of second command to Helo's captain over the last few weeks. Tensions ran high on the ship. Jean knew Sam was more than capable of keeping everyone in line and that Helo seemed somewhat overwhelmed at the task. Galactica allowed some breathing room between officers and crew, but this kind of up close and personal assignment was new to Helo. For Sam, it was all he really knew.
Gaeta eye-balled Sam for a minute before answering, "Guilty conscience Ensign?"
Sam glared. "How about you cut the crap for five seconds Felix? We didn't assign you here. Making us miserable isn't going to improve the situation. We all went through hell on that rock, and we all did things we're not proud of. Maybe if you stopped playing the martyr for five minutes, you'd figure that out."
Jean felt her stomach clench. She knew Sam wasn't just talking about Gaeta here, but she doubted the rest of them realized that. Gaeta didn't say anything, but pretended to be interested in his charts again. Jean grabbed the pot of algae and dropped it on the table roughly. "Food's ready," she said, not caring that she might have woken the marines in their bunks. Sam grabbed two dishes and two mugs of tea and headed back up the stairs to Kara. Everyone else dished up and ate in silence.
