Sharon knows where she'll find him. He's tucked into a corner in Joe's Bar, slowly drowning himself in Virgon beer. He can't afford anything harder then that at the moment.
She was surprised to find him with only one half empty bottle. The cigarette between his lips wasn't even lit. He was just sort of staring into space, unmoving, his position one of perpetually reaching for the unlit cig in his mouth. When she approached him, he gave her the slightest of acknowledgements, thinking, perhaps, that she would leave.
He can't stand to be around her right now. Tigh had been flapping his lips in the CIC about how Athena had turned around on Boomer when "that turncoat Cylon bitch" had tried to come back onto the Galactica. Gaeta had not gotten up to leave, he had just shot Tigh about his millionth filthy look. And now, it feels like the Gods have sent Athena to just rub it in further.
"Hey Felix. What's up?"
"Frak yourself." He didn't look at her. He just continued to stare off into the distance. He was waiting for her to leave, she could tell. She didn't leave. She just sat, waiting. "Felix…I couldn't have let her-"
"Couldn't have let her what? See the only family she's ever had again? See me? Oh, wait, she's evil now. I forgot. She was obviously going to try to kill us all." He spat it at her in an accusatory tone. For a moment Athena lost her composure. "She tried to ikill/i my child iGaeta/i!"
"Only after you threw her out of here like a used rag." He looked down at this practically untouched beer bottle.
"So it's perfectly fine for her to try and kill my daughter? Turnabouts fair play?"
Felix narrowed his eyes at her. "Frak you Sharon. You stole her whole life."
"And I had to pay for iher/i mistakes! I had to iearn/i her frakking life back. So don't you give me any of this "stealing" shit."
They fell into silence, Athena glaring at him, still standing and Gaeta hunched over his nursed beer, cigarette between two fingers, propped up like some noir-ish figure in a cheap novel.
Gaeta finally broke eye contact with her and whispered, "Please leave."
"Felix, I –"
"iPlease/i. Just go."
He stared down at the stainless steel surface of the table trying to will her away. She opened her mouth again, to say something more. "I can ismell/i her on you." He practically whispered it. He stood up from the table, pushing past her to leave. She caught him by the wrist.
"Athena." He looked at her coldly. She drew her hand away. He stalked off, trying to make an exit, but stumbling on the step between the bar and the deck.
iAthena…/i
The way he'd said her name was almost as if he was pointing it out. Not-Sharon.
She cornered him again, in the causeway near the officer's bunk. "Gaeta."
He tried to walk away from her. She grabbed his arm, He tried to shove her off, knocking himself into the wall. Athena took this opportunity to grab him by both arms and hold him still. He kept struggling, trying to knock her away. But she continued to hold him.
She put a hand to the side of his face and he felt the cold metal of her wedding band against his cheek. "Frak off," he hissed. He tried to shake her off again, not wanting to feel that metal on his face, the metal that symbolized, to him anyway, the difference between Sharon and this cheap copy.
Athena leaned in, putting both hands on either side of his face. Her lips just brushed his. And against his better judgment, he jerked forward, trying to catch them again. They kissed roughly, sloppily. Athena hooked her index finger in Felix's belt and pulled him towards in the direction of her old cell, now deserted.