Part 28: In Decision
Caroline was alternately relieved and dismayed at the condition her children presented themselves in that morning. Zak had stumbled in late and awoken early; thankfully his furlough ended that same day and she'd been more than happy to send him off. She loved her younger son dearly and he'd never been one to find trouble, but there was only so much one person could deal with at one time. Keeping Zak from unintentionally antagonizing things would have proven a bit too much; just look at how badly he'd startled Kara yesterday.
Lee wasn't much better. His hand might be healed, but it was clear his head was still far from intact. Between his barely-there expression and tendency of staring off at the walls, Caroline had to wonder what had passed between him and Kara during the night. She hadn't gotten that much sleep herself, too afraid she'd hear screaming or worse issue from her son's room at any moment, and had nearly burst into relieved tears when Kara presented herself in the kitchen.
At least this time she hadn't needed to order Kara to sit and eat. Her doing so allowed Caroline time and space to give Kara a critical once-over as she worked over her skillet. There were no blemishes or bruises visible on her, and she seemed a bit less pale than in past days. Her eyes were wandering around as well, though not guardedly or suspiciously as she might have. Caroline was careful that she wasn't caught watching, suspecting Kara would immediately close down again.
Instead, she fixed her daughter a plate of food and set it before her, hoping her own movements appeared casual enough that Kara wouldn't take notice. The scrape of her fork on the plate was the happiest sound Caroline could remember hearing. Even having to direct Lee and Kara in taking the simplest actions, and subsequently hearing Kara completely distort whatever accord the two of them had reached during the night, didn't immediately dampen her spirits.
Once they had finished eating, Caroline sent Lee off to get dressed for the day and had quietly directed Kara back to the library. The latter lingered a bit and but ultimately went there. Caroline followed her, not to reach out, but instead watching to ensure Kara ensconced herself there. Satisfied, Caroline hurried upstairs and sought out Lee. Finding the correct room, she found she nearly had to shout to be heard over the shower spray. Her admonishing Lee to take his time was answered with a laugh that left her puzzled; what could he possibly find funny here? Probably something to do with this silliness about who was "in charge" of things.
She made a mental note to personally thank Major Lyceus for ensuring Lee was planet bound for a while; it was sure to take both herself and Lee to pull Kara out of the mental pit she'd fallen into. This was only right as they both played some role in letting her slide away as she had. All that was missing was an actual plan.
These ruminations were distracting enough that she almost missed Kara heading upstairs, passing her like a wraith. Caroline stared after her, debating hard whether letting her out of sight for even a few minutes was a sensible idea, ultimately deciding that trust had to come from somewhere sometime. Besides, Kara had been reasonably well behaved so far.
The worst that could happen was that she'd try to run off, not that she'd likely get far in just a nightshirt, or so Caroline hoped. She was pretty sure she'd hidden any dangerous implements well enough not to worry there.
Except of course she did worry, the anxiety compounding with each long minute Kara was up there. It only got worse when she heard Lee cutting the water off, and very nearly had her racing back up the stairs. Kara came back downstairs barely five minutes later, now wearing one of Lee's old robes and quickly went into the library.
The wall phone buzzing interrupted those thoughts. Caroline immediately recognized the comm.-code and rolled her eyes. She began running the water in the sink and opened the channel with her elbow, declining to face the screen directly as the face of Bill Adama came into focus.
"Caroline?" the image voiced, the actual sound coming a few seconds after.
"Bill," she rejoined with icy politeness; pretending to actively hate him made it somewhat easier to deal with, well, him.
"Is everything all right?"
Caroline suppressed a laugh. It was either that, or scream her head off. "Oh, just fine here. Why? What have you heard?" The second the words were out of her mouth, Caroline developed a very clear idea about what had Bill calling like this.
She needed to stall, and so asked, "Where are you calling from?"
"Scorpia Shipyards." Bill Adama was anything but stupid, and so knew perfectly well that she knew where he was. "Caroline, what's happening down there?"
"Again, Bill, what have you heard and from who?" She started scrubbing the skillet, giving the image at her shoulder the briefest of glances. "Aren't you always saying 'context matters'?"
The image of Bill Adama grimaced and sighed, the loud exhale again time delayed. "Fine. I've heard Lee has been seconded to the JAD."
"And who told you that?"
"It came from Commander Tobin --" Caroline gave a vocal snort. "-- and Admiral Nagala confirmed it."
Now it was her turn to grimace and sigh. Duras Nagala was both a family friend and Zak's godfather; he was also scrupulously honest in his dealings with them, no matter the topic. It made the man endearing and impossible in the same breath.
Unable, and frankly unwilling, to call Duras an outright liar, Caroline resumed her scrubbing and stated, "I can't talk about it, Bill."
The transmission lag must have gotten slightly worse, as she saw her ex-husband's reaction nearly half a minute before she heard it. "This is Lee we're talking about, Caroline."
Out of the corner of her eye, she spied Lee coming back into the kitchen. Raising her voice needlessly, she stated, "I'm not talking about it over the phone, Bill. Quit asking me about it." She threw a look at the screen, surreptitiously catching Lee's eyes and equally subtly directing him to the library. He got the message and went there, leaving her to deal with his father.
Strange how easily she demarcated her relationship with Bill Adama now: father to their sons, versus her husband, the two strands running parallel but never overlapping.
Caroline turned her attention back to the vid-screen. "Was there anything else, Bill?"
"Caroline, please --"
"Things are okay here, Bill. If you want to know more, feel free to drop by sometime." With that, Caroline cut the connection and turned her attention fully back to washing the breakfast dishes, scrubbing them hard enough to nearly break one of the plates. Only William Eugene Adama could get her that -- that --
Gods, why couldn't she cut completely loose of that man?
Lee spent entirely too much time in the library, prompting Caroline to head there herself, which nearly caused a collision with her eldest. "Ten-hundred, Lee," she observed tartly.
"So I'm told," was his growled reply.
"Get moving." Caroline folded her arms so to not give in to the urge to shove him out the door. Kara and I will be here all day, so don't feel you need to hurry back."
"Got it," Lee nodded.
"Get moving," she repeated, unexpectedly anxious.
"I'm moving," he confirmed, giving her a quick kiss good-bye and departed. She watched to be sure he was gone, and then shook her head in an effort to clear it. As an added effort on that score, Caroline took an extra minute to put the dishes in the drying rack. This small chore did have the benefit of helping order her thoughts.
Lee was now out of the house and somewhere presumably safe, so there was just herself and Kara, and so there was just the small matter of keeping Kara busy for the day.
Checking the library, Caroline realized this would be easier said than done as the girl had left the room again. She kept herself from panicking again only because she reasoned that Kara literally couldn't have gotten far at all. If worse came to worse, she could always just lock her in the gym downstairs until she could knock some sense into her.
To her relief, Kara had not gone any further than the front room. To the front window specifically, where she stood like a sentinel with one hand held up as if bidding farewell, presumably to Lee. Something in the set of her shoulders had Caroline unaccountably nervous, leading her to approach the girl with great care. "Kara?" she called quietly. "What's wrong?"
Kara appeared disinclined to answer. Rather she hugged herself tightly and fought to steady herself against some inner turmoil. "Kara?" Caroline tried again, stopping short when she heard Kara's weak voice.
"He's gone for good, isn't he?"
Caroline managed to hold herself still as she tried to process this bizarre question. "What -- what gave that idea?" She immediately realized her mistake and added, "He'll be back later today, I promise."
"Right," Kara snorted shortly.
"He's -- the officers we spoke to at the hospital just want to speak to him about -- well --"
"About what?"
"You, I suppose." Kara's shoulders slumped sharply, causing Caroline to add, "He's not in any trouble, Kara. Neither are you."
"Right."
Caroline resisted the urge to sigh in frustration. It wasn't that she didn't understand Kara's fears, but damned if having to constantly batter against them like this was proving more nerve wracking than she'd anticipated. She had originally planned to give Kara an additional day to settle in before calling in a priest to speak with them; Caroline had actually hoped to have the chance to do some actual research and find one who was also a licensed counselor as well as ordained.
Now she was seriously considering calling the Reform Temple, or the Orthodox Seminary, or anywhere that had someone who had taken vows just so she had some moral support to draw on.
It didn't prove as difficult to draw Kara away from the front window and back to the library as Caroline had initially feared. She actually seemed anxious to occupy herself with something, anything actually. She held her protests until after Caroline had them past the door.
"Do you mind --?" Kara began, only to quiet immediately.
"What?" Caroline prompted patiently.
"Can we do -- something else for awhile?"
Caroline held back any sign of the elation that shot through her. "Like what, dear?"
"I don't know. Draw?"
"You'd like to -- draw?"
"That's okay, right?"
What she said aloud was "That would be -- just fine, Kara." In fact, it was all Caroline could do to keep from breaking into joyous dance. "I actually have just the place for you." She reached out and took Kara's hand, not wanting to give her time to reconsider the idea, leading her out of the library entirely and back upstairs.
She led them to the room immediately adjoining the spare bedroom she had originally intended Lee to ready for her. Like the bedroom, it faced the back of the property and enjoyed natural lighting via a wide skylight as well as a bay window that took up the entire outer wall. Unlike the bedroom, this one was essentially bare of furniture and the walls were a unadorned. The ceiling was painted a relaxing shade of light blue, while the walls and carpet presented in a still lighter tan.
"What's this?" Kara asked, feeling mildly foolish as she did.
"Well," Caroline drawled. "It was going to be a study-slash-office for me at some point. But luckily that never materialized."
"So?"
"So, now it will be your studio."
Kara nearly shook completely out of Caroline's hold, trying to spin about so they were eye-to-eye for a change. Caroline allowed this, only because she was now sure Kara was sufficiently off-balance that flight wasn't likely to occur to her.
"Studio?" Kara sounded well and truly puzzled, as if she'd never encountered the word before that moment.
"Yes, Kara," Caroline stated calmly. "Your studio. Where you can draw or paint or whatever you wish." Kara's head snapped around, prompting Caroline to add, "Within reason, mind you."
Kara giggled, nearly bringing Caroline to tears. It was a beautiful sound; one she'd feared would never grace the air.
To cover this, Caroline took Kara's hand and led her away. "Come along. I'm sure I have some easels and parchment downstairs you can use."
"Paints, too?" Kara actually sounded excited at the prospect..
"We'll see," Caroline smiled, feeling genuine hope for the first time since she had first seen Kara in her hospital bed.
Now it was just a question of nurturing that hope, and making damned sure her ex-husband, family friends, social rivals, the President - and above all her eldest son - did not undo it all with their well- or ill-intentioned interference.
Caroline frowned at the thought. Her earlier assurances to Kara notwithstanding, she couldn't help but worry about what Lee might have been facing at the North Wing. Hopefully, Lyceus hadn't been leading her on regarding her children not being under charges.
TBC...
