Title- Aftermath
Work In Progress
Author- PTBvisiongrrl
Part- 1?
Date- 8-7-06
Rating – R
Pairings/Characters- Lee/Kara
Word Count-
Category- Short Story
Genre- Angst
Archiving- The Fallout Shelter, Apollo/Starbuck Fan Fic, All others please ask!
Warnings- Not really- just language…
Spoilers- Season 1 through the rumors of Season 3
Disclaimers- Unfortunately, I don't own any of these characters, and make absolutely no profit from taking them out to play…
Summary- How do Kara and Lee reconnect after both losing spouses in the Battle for New Caprica? Can they?
I admit it, I am a review/comment whore. Please feel free to comment, even if it is to criticize.
Prologue
Many of the colonists on the planet of New Caprica never made it off. Their bodies were unretrievable, the survivors who mourned them forced to rely on hazy memories during the memorial service. Most of the military losses had been recovered; those were the caskets draped in the colors of the deceased's Colony of origin. Those of the military unrecoverable were represented by his/her Colony's flag and an emblem of his or her rank, arrayed across the make-shift alter; the pilots also had helmets, scarred, scored, and burned in battle.
The mourners were segregated by affiliation as well as the mourned. The military and civilian authorities- those alive and not imprisoned in the Galactica's brig- stood at the front of the congregated. Behind that group stood those brave civilians and ex-military who had become the backbone of the Resistance. Finally, taking up the rear, were the civilians currently billeted to the Galactica, as the fleet suffered through the sudden re-integration of almost ten thousand homeless souls.
As she arrived, leaning heavily against Helo, Kara reconsidered her decision to attend against Cottle's orders. Her soul absolutely ached with the need of it, but her body equally throbbed with the need of rest and medication in sick bay. Sighing, Kara observed the split in the audience, and considered where she fit. Clothed in loaned BDUs, her civilian togs ruined in the course of the battle she had survived, she realized how she would stand out if she took a spot near the back. And, with Helo as her human crutch, she had to consider where he would be comfortable. The Admiral no doubt would want him up with the officers, all in dress blues, where she no longer belonged.
She brought this dilemma on her self. She had willingly given up her wings and career for a man who had tried to sell her out to the toasters-
Shaking her head, she tried to calm herself. Motioning to Helo over the hushed din of the crowd, she made her way to the end of the Resistance group, settling between Cally and the Chief, who became her new crutch. As Helo nodded and moved away to the officers, Kara's eyes swept over the group. There were so many she didn't recognize- holdovers from the Pegasus, she assumed- and so many missing. The one face she wanted most to see- and most to avoid- was easier to spot than expected. His profile, stony, leapt out at her from the sea of unfamiliar blues. She watched him carefully, so closely that she could only mumble bland and neutral responses to questions sent her way.
As the priestess stepped up to the podium and intoned those first formal words of the requiem service, Kara noted with a knot in her stomach that Lee stood alone, and yet he still wore a wedding ring.
She wasn't the only one to suffer loss in this battle.