LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT II
This is a continuation of a story that I posted almost a full year ago, Letter to the President. I've been mulling/sitting on this since I wrote the initial story. I'm not posting this as an additional chapter to Letter to the President for two reasons:
1) I think the initial story stands alone quite well,
2) I'm not sure if this is quite as good a caliber of a story to be posted with that.
I feel very proud of the first installment, I really like how it turned out. And this... Well it's okay and I've been feeling very compelled to get this out in the open in lieu of what has been happening in Season Four thus far. In lieu of that, I don't think I'll have any spoilers for the fourth season or the bombshell that was seen in the last episode of Season Three, but I reserve the right to throw some things in... So consider yourselves warned.
If you have not read Letter to the President, READ IT BEFORE YOU START THIS STORY!! Otherwise you won't know what is going on.
Disclaimer: I am clearly not Ron Moore nor any of the other people who own, produce, direct, write, act, broadcast, etc. the wonderful show that is Battlestar Galactica. I am just borrowing them for some creative expressions.
Letter to the President II: Betrayal
(Have you read Letter to the President yet? Last Warning...)
"Sharon!"
She turned around at the call of her name and was surprised to see Lee Adama jogging to catch up with her. It was a strange sight seeing him in civilian attire. She paused as she waited for him to catch up with her.
When he was a few steps away from her he slowed down and began speaking, "Are you doing a transport run now?"
"Yeah," she replied wondering how he knew that.
He noticed the wariness on her face and explained, "I overheard Racetrack saying she was heading out on CAP, I figured you were geared up for a transport run." He shifted the box he was carrying in his hands.
She nodded her head in acceptance as she continued on her way to the flight deck.
"Can I ask a favor of you?"
Sharon stopped in her tracks and slowly turned to face Lee. "Excuse me?" To say she was surprised was an understatement.
"Can I hitch a ride with you? I don't care where you're going," he told her anticipating a question from her.
"Why?"
He hesitated before answering. She could detect the regret in his voice, "I don't belong here anymore."
Sharon studied him carefully. The man had given up his commission to defend Gaius Baltar in a move she couldn't quite understand. She saw in his eyes though that he just wanted to get away. A feeling that she completely understood after spending over a year locked up.
She nodded her head as she continued on, "Okay."
"Thanks," he told her as he walked alongside her in silence.
As they continued on the three minute walk to the flight deck she noticed that they were getting angry looks from some of the crewmembers. They were halfway to the deck when she realized that they were all directed at her companion. She looked over at Lee and began to study his reaction to the looks he was receiving.
Through her shared memories with the Sharon Valerii that had previously served on the Galactica, she knew what it was like to be accepted and respected by your workers to being hated by them.
Just before they entered the flight deck she turned to him, "Do you want me to load up your box on the ship so you can join me just before the hatch is closed?"
He hesitated momentarily before relinquishing the box to the pilot of his exodus. "Thanks."
She nodded as she accepted the box of treasures he was hesitant to part with. She entered the flight deck and proceeded to her raptor and loaded up the box.
"What you got there?" Tyrol asked as he walked up to go through her pre-flight with her.
Sharon turned and answered non-chalantly, "Some of Lampkin's stuff he wanted sent over."
Tyrol looked down at his transport checklist, "That's not on the list."
"I know," she added as she came down from the raptor and began inspecting her bird. "He asked me to take some files for him to the Rising Star since I was heading over there anyways. The box is packed up with some confidential files," she added hoping that he would stop asking her about the box.
Fifteen minutes later Sharon and her undocumented passenger were leaving the Galactica. Once they had cleared the flight deck Lee asked permission to join her up in the copilot's seat.
"What are you going to do?" she asked him as he stared back at the Galactica.
Lee tore his gaze away from the Galactica and looked forward. He had to he realized, that part of his life had been taken from him. By his father of all people. A father who wouldn't listen to him and didn't trust him.
"I don't know," he answered her truthfully.
They were coming up on the Rising Star when he broke the silence that had settled between them. "Sharon, I'm sorry for the way I treated you and lumping you in with the other Cylons."
She looked over at him, "Don't worry about it, I got used to it."
He looked at her compassionately, "Still doesn't make it right." He paused momentarily before looking away. "My father was able to distinguish you from the one who shot him and trust you." He laughed in disbelief when he spoke again, "I don't think he ever trusted me as much as he trusted you."
"That's not true," she told him as she landed her bird.
He shrugged his shoulders as he stood up and headed to the hatch and opened it, "I was his son... I was held to a standard that I could never live up to. All I did was disappoint him." He picked up his box and turned to the opened hatch.
"Will we ever see you again?" she called back.
He paused as he looked out to the hangar deck before looking back to Sharon and responding, "Tell Helo I said good-bye."
And with that he walked down the raptor wing and disappeared into the Rising Star.
"He's right... I lost sight of what it means to survive." She had stopped herself from using 'we', she didn't know what he thought.
William looked up from the letter in his lap, "There are other ways of trying a case-"
She looked at him. "No there wasn't, not from where they were sitting. Most everyone in the fleet, including myself, had already convicted Baltar and you know it. He did what he had to do."
"Lee didn't have to attack you," he told her.
"It hurt because he knew us... Because he's your son... You didn't see the fear in his eyes when I told him to continue with his line of questioning. He was hurt just as much as we were by what was revealed during the trial. It hurt him even more because he had to ask the hard questions to make sure the system worked... He rolled the hard six... And he still lost."
She looked at him meaningfully for several moments before she offered her final thoughts. "Despite what he did, he still couldn't betray the one person who means the most to him. He refused to indict you for pre-trial prejudices... That was the one line he could not and would not cross."
Adama looked away from the President and to the letter in his lap. His son's words jumped out at him, This trial destroyed me. I have lost everyone that is important to me, I have lost my family.
Without another word he returned the letter to Roslin and excused himself from her presence. Roslin watched him leave wondering what he would do now.
When she could no longer see him her gaze returned to the letter's last few lines. "You never forgot who you were... It was me who lost sight of what we were fighting for," she whispered to herself as she recalled how she had told Lee how disappointed she was in how his behavior had changed. "I was the one who changed."
She stood up from the makeshift desk and reached for the phone. "CIC... Captain Agathon, can you please locate Lee Adama for me?"
William Adama was walking towards his quarters mulling Roslin's words and recalling his sons actions. Unexpectedly he found himself in the memorial hallway. He found Anders there standing in front of the picture of Kara.
He looked on at the picture and thought of his children who had died. A father wasn't supposed to outlive his children.
He looked around the multitude of pictures in the hallway representing a miniscule fraction of all those who had perished since the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies. A picture of Ellen Tigh caught his attention.
"Were you there when Ellen Tigh died?"
Sam looked up startled by the question, he hadn't noticed his arrival. "Excuse me?"
The Admiral walked over to the picture of his best friend's wife, "Were you there when Ellen Tigh died?"
Sam looked from the admiral to the picture, "Uh... Yeah."
"Was anyone else there?"
"Uh... Charlie Connors, sir. Why?"
He didn't answer the question posed, but rather asked another one of his own. "Did you ever tell anyone about it?"
Sam was slow to respond as he tried to find the right words, "You don't share with anyone when someone is forced to kill their wife... He suffered enough in what he had to do, knowing how she betrayed him and the rest of the resistance... We told him what she had done... And what he had to do... That's a burden that we have to carry in silence."
The Admiral closed his eyes as the words sunk in. His son had told him the truth about not knowing about Ellen's demise.
Sam could hardly hear the Admiral's words when he spoke, but he didn't ask him to repeat them knowing that they weren't meant for his ears.
"I betrayed my son"
TBC
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