The Others Stories
Disclaimer: most of the things in here are not my creations and it should stay that way.
A/N : OK. Since it's seem that my grammar didn't improve and neither it's good, I now ask anyone who are interested in beta this story. Just let me know. Thanks!
Chapter 3: Like Good Ole Time
Lee knew that Starbuck was a good fighter, but knowing it and actually experiencing it was a whole different story. The sheer force of her punch had sent him almost flying backward. The fact that Lee didn't expected to be punched by Starbuck and the force of her flying fist had combined into a disastrous result for Lee's own good. Lee's back hit the balcony's railing hard and caused it to make a very disturbing, almost cracking sound. If she had push a little more force to her fist, it might enough to make him fall from the balcony because of it. But alas, Starbuck was a tough woman, and now Lee got to experienced it by his own head as he was sliding down to the floor and leaned to the railing, unable to support himself. His head went spinning, his face ached beyond belief, and he felt like his nose and teeth were dangerously hanging loose from his head, ready to drop to the floor at any moment.
As he looked up, he saw that Anders was holding Starbuck, surly preventing her from further damaging his face. Starbuck's face was look too familiarly raged. Not a good sign if he was on the receiving end of it.
"Kara!" Anders yelled at her, almost screaming into her ears. "What the frak you think you're doing! Stop!" His hands were on her arms, trying to restraint her as best as he could against the force of the raged woman. Starbuck seemed oblivious to that though, as she was trying her best to get her fist where she want it to be. And every time she tried to pull away from him, Lee could see that Anders was getting angrier and angrier by her attempt.
Looking at the scene displayed before him, something in Lee snapped. Starbuck was Starbuck alright, but he was bloody damn sure that he didn't have to put up with this. She could punch the Colonel because he was an asshole. But this was too far! If she thought she could run away with this, playing with his guilt of turning his back on them for trying to make a life, Lee Adama would make sure she will regret it for the rest of her life. He didn't do anything wrong! He wasn't the only one that turn his back!
Bouncing back on his feet, he glared at her with angry face that matched her own, his fists clenched, ready to retaliate if he want to. To hell with not punching a woman. To hell with them if that what he would receive from his own brethrens. If she want a fight, he would make her see hell. But he couldn't. He knew if he did that, everything he had been fought and won for will be lost. He won't let them destroying his new life he tried so hard to make. He won't let one second to destroy his entire life.
He took a deep breath, a very deep breath. "What the fuck you think you're doing! Punching peoples around like this!"
Kara's face turned into a nasty sneer. "Oh. What's happened to the good ole frak? Are we no longer good enough for you, Apollo?"
"Don't call me that!" Lee's jaw clenched. "I'm no longer Apollo. Don't. Ever. Call. Me. That"
"I will call you whichever name I want"
"Shut up!" Anders's voice entered their battle. For a moment of that, Lee almost forgot that Anders's was still there. He was maybe the only one that could prevent this from bad to worse. "Shut up! Both of you!"
Ander's face showed anger. And Lee thought for a moment that Anders would join the fray. For gods' sake, he didn't. Instead, he turned around and released Kara. "Go back inside" He said to her simply and seriously.
Then Kara did something he was never thought that she would do. Her fist swung back and flying to Anders's face. Fortunately for the man, he was more aware of that than Lee. Anders grabbed her fist halfway through its cause. And Lee saw every muscle of his arm flexed, and his face…….
"I mean it. Go back inside" Anders said again. His face showed a very seriousness of the old leader of human resistant. And maybe Kara saw it too, and realized that he meant real. She looked up to his face for a moment, and then pulled her hands from his grip. She turned to Lee and pointed at him.
"He can't go in" She said simply. Why, Lee had no idea. But that was the first time that he noticed it. The smell of her was very strong. A far too familiar smell of Terrans cheap beers. It's in her breath, on her cloth. It was like that smell that stank to high heaven had ingrained itself into her. Looking at Anders, he saw that he too was breathing in a strange way. It was a series of very short breaths so that he wouldn't smell in the odor. And Lee was realized that he was starting to do the same.
Kara just turned her back and walking to her house, brushing Anders aside. Lee was about to walk to the door but Anders stop him.
"Don't" He said. "You heard her" He continued, and when he saw that Lee wasn't about to change his mind, he added in a whisper. "Please"
Lee looked at Anders. He was about to went inside, despite of what Kara's words earlier. But when he heard Anders's whisper, and his almost pleading tone, he stopped. He looked at Anders, and saw that he was really pleading him not to go inside. Lee looked pass him into the room, and saw a glimpse of pile of bottles. He looked at Anders again, then backed off and started sitting down, leaning to the railing. Anders sighed with relief, and then walked inside before closing the wooden door.
Lee didn't have to wait long though. As he was sitting there, he could hear the sound coming out from the apartment. It was getting louder and louder as the two peoples inside the apartment started shouting at each other. He couldn't make of what exactly they were saying, but it was getting nasty. Then the door swung open and Anders rush out from the apartment in rage.
"Yeah! I keep coming back to you. But you know what? I did that out of pity for you! You're pathetic!" He yelled before slammed the door shut and Lee heard the sound of glass shattered against it.
Anders then threw something at Lee. "Let's get back to the ranch" He said and turned to went down the stair without looking at Lee. Lee realized from the coldness against his hand that Anders had thrown a bag of ices to him. He got up, put the bag to his face and started followed him down to the car.
"Thanks" Lee mumbled through the bag. It sound strange, but he was sure that Anders could understand it. Anders said nothing though, he just started the car's engine and started to drove away.
"Is that why they don't want to talk about her?" Lee asked. Anders just kept silent. "They don't want me to see her like this?" Anders looked at him for the first time since they left Kara's place.
"You don't change as much as you think you are" Anders stated simply. "If you miss the news. The Universe doesn't evolve around you" He snickered.
Lee looked at Anders, annoyed. "Then what happened?"
Anders looked at the road, like he was thinking if he should tell Lee or not. At last, he spoke. "She said something she shouldn't" Then he stopped. "You have to ask them yourselves if you want the detail. But I don't blame them if they don't want to have anything to do with her"
"She's changed" Lee said to no one in particular.
"Everyone changed" Anders looked at Lee. "Everyone. You two love each other and now she punch you in the face"
Lee looked at Anders, his eyes wide. Anders just looked at the road. "I'm not a fool. I can put two and two together" He paused then shouted to the sky.
"Lee Adama Love Kara Thrace!" Anders smiled bitterly after that. "She does it well when she's drunk. It was fun at first, but too much of it make me annoyed. Did you really say that?"
"I don't love her!" Lee shot back at Anders, then added. "Not any longer" Lee then turned to look at the scenery.
"You're only speaking with anger" Anders spoke simply then turned to look at Lee. When he saw Lee's face, his eyes softened. "Aren't you?"
Lee put every force in his body to make the words leaving his mouth sound genuine. "I don't love her anymore" He said. "Peoples change. You said it yourself. I'm changed"
Anders just looked straight at the road ahead. "Yes, you are" He said simply as the car approaching the house. No words were exchanged after that. Lee was deep in his thought. He didn't know what he was supposed to say to Anders. Maybe he wasn't the one running to married Anders just after declaring his love to a different person, but he was also the one who sleep with his girlfriend in the first place. The whole mess created by he and Starbuck's actions had hurt many peoples, maybe far too more peoples that shouldn't get hurt in the first place. His life had been a mess, a part of life that he's now trying to leave it behind and move on. It was hard though, and he never expected it to be easy.
And now he was going to repair his relationship with the Agathons, and hopefully building something new between them. And for that, he might have to leave Starbuck behind. He asked himself if he could do it. He and Starbuck had been so close. She had been Zak's fiancé, his fellow Viper Pilot. They had been there for each other, when Zak'd died, when they were still on the run. And that had tightened their bond, making it grew from friendship into something else. Leaving her behind would like leaving a part of him, a part of his life. He asked himself; could he do it? Could I leave her behind?
Lee looked at Anders who was walking to the house beside him, seeing his still bitter expression. He remembered Dee's words and face, asking him if he was going to Starbuck when he asked her for a divorce. He was still feeling the ache on his face. And then, he saw Karl. He was lying on the chair on the porch, playing with his kids. Such simple scenery stopped him. Karl and Sharon had to fight hard to have this moment. They knew that it would be hard, but they fought for it nonetheless. And they never give up. Seeing them, Lee decided that he could do it. It might be for a different result for him and Starbuck. Seeing and remembering all of them, Lee knew that it was time to let go.
And the test had come earlier than he was expected. AS he and Anders were stepped on to the porch, for an unknown reason, Hera left the safety of her father to look at their visitors. The little girl walked toward them when Karl got up from the chair, Liam in his arm. Hera just stopped in front of Lee, looking up at him with her eyes. For a moment, Lee didn't know what to do. He looked at Karl and Anders, their face were like they were expecting him to break the little girl's neck. To their relief, Lee didn't do such thing, instead, he picked Hera up and holding her, their eyes met. The little girl grabbed Lee's face with her hands. Lee winced when she touched his nose. That made Karl noticed Lee's bloody face.
"What happened?" He asked. Before Lee or Anders could answer though, he guessed it on his own. Karl just shook his head. "Don't tell me. I don't want to know about that" For some reason, Lee thought that it was also meant that he didn't want to hear about the person who did it.
Suddenly, Lee's stomach growled, which made him remembered that he didn't eat anything since he left Elbe for New Caprica. Anders just snickered at that.
Karl looked amused and said the mercy word. "Lucky for you. It's dinner time already" With that, he turned and walked inside the house. Lee was about to followed him in when Anders's voice cut in.
"Well, I think I should go back to the bunkhouse" He said while pointing his thumb back at the little shed faraway that Lee just realized that it was there. Karl didn't allow that though.
"Nonsense, Sam. You just come back. Eat with us tonight, or I will have Sharon go after you"
Anders just laughed at that. The atmosphere of tension and bitterness that surrounded him moment ago seemed to be gone. Anders just walked pass Lee and went inside the house alongside Karl with Lee trailing behind them.
When Lee was inside the house, he was shocked. Despite the very simple design outside, the interior was a whole different territory. While still kept the country house atmosphere, everything inside the house were screaming of money. He saw the living room, and knew that it would cost a fortune with its surly imported carpet, the sofas and that big screen T.V. hanging on the wall. But what caught his eyes was a big portrait on the wall. It was a portrait of the Agathons; Karl, Sharon, Hera and Liam. They looked happy, very happy.
Lee's eyes darted back from the portrait to see Anders standing before him.
"They're rich?"
Anders just snickered. "He didn't tell you that?" Anders just turned back and walking along the hallway. "Come on, they're waiting"
Dumbfounded, Lee followed. In the kitchen, he was greeted with the smell of foods. Lots of foods.
"Lee" Sharon walked from her chair toward him and stretched her arms out. Lee gave Hera to her. The little girl was very eager to get out from his arm to be in her mother's. "Sharon" He said, then added. "It's good to see you"
She nodded and returned to her chair and put Hera on the baby-chair beside Liam. They didn't talk a thing about the afternoon so he kept quiet about that. If they didn't want to talk about it, then he wouldn't. He just sat down and started eating.
"Don't you think it's weird?" Anders's talking brought Lee up from his plate. He was talking to Karl. "I mean, you and Sharon, me and" He looked at Lee "Lee. Sitting here together, eating dinner" He finished it by putting a piece of grilled chicken into his mouth.
Lee agreed with Anders on that. Before all of this, he would never imagine that the four of them would sit together and shared a meal. Anders maybe, but Karl and Sharon, he sure he wouldn't.
Karl sipped some Ambrosia before he answered. "Well, I admit that I had never imagined this. But hey! We have something in common" He raised his glass into a mocking toast. "We are all working with the Terrans. Cheer for them! Because we wouldn't be here together without them"
Lee looked at Anders. "You work with the Terrans?"
A fork full of salad hung in mid air by his question. "In a way" He answered, looking strangely uncomfortable with his question. Lee was about to ask him what he mean by that, but Karl came to Anders's rescue.
"He's working for me. So in a way, he's working with the Terrans" Lee didn't satisfied by that. He knew that Karl was telling him the truth, but not all of it.
Sharon then interjected. Perhaps because she was feeling that the conversation was heading toward an uncomfortable territory. It's work though, because her question made him forget all of it.
"What about the ceremony tomorrow?"
Now, that question made him feel uncomfortable. He was almost forgot about the reason he was here in the first place. The decommissioning ceremony of the Galactica was the reason why he was sent here, to participate in the ceremony, partly as a representative from the Terran's military and partly as a symbol of a new era for the colonials, or so they said when he was receiving the order.
Instead of flying the Viper like the first ceremony, he was to give a speech. He didn't feel uncomfortable because of it. He had already worked out the speech, and then relayed it to the New Caprica Advisory Council for screening before he left Elbe as he was ordered to.
But it was the idea that the colonials, his people, will fully see him in the Terran uniform that startled him, and he was sure that the speech wouldn't endear him to them. And then there was his father……
"He didn't mean what he said" Lee heard Sharon said. He looked at her then answered her question. "I know" Sharon just smiled, but he could see that she felt sorry for him.
When Karl saw that the question had changed the subject away from Anders, he changed the subject again, asking about the Academy and the planet, Elbe, that it was located in. And Lee gave in, forgetting about tomorrow, and today.
The conversation went on, with the sound of laughing, glasses clicking, and the familiar taste of Ambrosia. It was like when pilots were having a good time with their colleagues when their shifts were over.
Like in the good old time.
And for them, maybe better.
End Chapter.
