Too High a Cost
By: Mariel
Chapter 29
Outside
Pacing the floor, Cottle looked across the room and frowned. "So where the frak are they?" he demanded in a sharp tone. A stream of smoke trailed behind him as he walked, creating movement in the blue-grey cloud of cigarette smoke already hanging in the air around his head.
Communications receiver in hand, Meyes held it out to him and said, "Captain Agathon is on the line. You'd better ask him yourself."
Cottle walked over. His movements quick with irritation, he took the phone and held it up to his ear."This is Major Cottle," he barked. "What the hell have you done with the Admiral and President Roslin? And why am I just finding out they've been onboard for over an hour? You and her security clowns were supposed to bring the two of them straight back to Life Station!"
He fell silent as he listened to the captain's response.
Meyes watched with interest as his face quickly turned an intriguing shade of purple.
"What?" he roared into the receiver.
She could hear Agathon trying to explain further, but Cottle soon overrode his words, shouting, "When?...They've what?... Holy frakking Lethe! Does no one listen to anything I tell them? You get their sorry asses back here, stat! That's an order!"
Again she heard the tinny sound of the captain's voice respond, and Cottle fell silent. As he listened, she could see his anger continue to boil.
"I don't care what the frakking medic said and I don't care where they've gone!" he finally roared. "Listen to me! You get the two of them back here before I come after them myself! I'm going to frakking kill them! And you! And anyone else I can get my hands on who let this happen! What the hell were-"
Agathon's voice continued to spill from the receiver. To her surprise, she didn't get the impression the doctor's threats were making much headway with young officer. In Agathon's game, Admiral trumped Major Doctor every time.
There were a few more moments of back and forth between the two men and then Cottle slammed the receiver down. Glaring at Meyes as if it were all her fault, he rasped, "Gods. Roslin stopped the meeting and called in the medic to have a look at the Admiral. Apparently he checked out okay, but now, instead of being here like any two sane people would be, the two of them have frakking waltzed off to Adama's quarters! Frak. I should never have let them out of my damned sight. Stupid frakking-" He stopped abruptly and looked around. "And where the hell is the medic?! Smithers should have reported here as soon as he got back, with or without his patients!" He jabbed his cigarette into a nearby ashtray and swore. "I should have damned well gone myself. Can't trust anyone to do anything."
With random bits of cursing inserted here and there, Cottle continued to fill her in on the details that Agathon had relayed to him. Meyes stepped back and listened quietly. This was the angriest she'd seen him in a while, and that was saying something.
When he had finished one particularly colourful description of what he was going to do to the medic when he finally showed up, she assumed her most reasonable tone and said, "If Smithers has any sense at all, he's taken cover and will stay there until you calm down. You know very well he had no say in what the Admiral and the President decided to do. My guess is this detour was planned before they even left. They probably had someone tell Smithers to go for lunch and promised that someone else would take care of giving you the update."
Cottle snorted. "If that's what happened, it'll be the last meal he ever eats!"
"Jack," she cautioned gently, "it's not him you're really angry at." What Cottle was angry at, she thought, was not having control over the situation.
"Oh, I'm angry at him, all right," he growled. Against his will, however, his anger against Smithers was weakening as the rational side of his brain began to kick in. How many people could stand up to either Roslin or Adama once their minds were made up about doing something? And deep down, he knew damned well that if there'd been anything to indicate that the Admiral was at risk, Smithers would have protested the detour and then contacted Life Station immediately. Determined to make a point, however, he continued, "I'm pissed at just about everyone else, too. How am I supposed to know what's going on if no one thinks it's necessary to tell me? What if that episode of his on the Gideon is something that I should be assessing? Has anyone frakking considered that?" He looked around, hesitated, then waved his hands in the air and said, "That's it. I'm going after them myself."
Dana Meyes watched as he gathered up his stethoscope and looked for his medical bag. Cottle had good cause to go seek them out, but a mental picture of the scene outside the Admiral's quarters - and the coronary the doctor would likely give himself while he created that scene - made her suggest, "The results for the blood tests you've been running should be ready soon. You'll want to be here for that. Why don't you call them instead?"
He stopped and glared at her.
"Call them?"
She nodded. Knowing the fact he had stopped moving was a good sign, she quickly told him, "Your chances of talking to them are probably better if you do. I expect the Admiral's got a pretty thick door. Impossible to get through and just as hard to hear through, right? So have a call routed to him instead." Betting that the Admiral was unlikely to ignore a ringing phone, she said, "When he answers, you can ask him to come back so you can have a look at him here in Life Station. Politely, of course."
"Ask him?" Cottle exploded, "I'll damned well order his ass back here! What the hell was he thinking? Of all the stupid, foolhardy, frakking half-arsed-"
"You go off on him like that, and he'll hang up," Meyes warned him calmly.
Cottle stopped abruptly and glared at her. She was right. He knew she was right because it was exactly what he'd do if the roles were reversed: hang up on the sorry sonofabitch and let him stew in his own bile...
Ignoring his glare, Meyes continued, "You catch more flies with honey, so it might do better to at least pretend to be nice. Tell him you've heard what happened and you need to take a look at him. Tell him you'd like to see him immediately. He'll say no, but you can at least ask how he's feeling and get a description of what happened. If you want, you can ask to talk to the President, too, and get her take on things." She looked Cottle straight in the eyes. "If nothing else, it might reassure you," she told him. "Once you're reassured, you can curse at him and he can hang up on you." Her lips curved and she arched one eyebrow. "Then you'll both feel better."
He glared at her, hating that she was so calm and had just come up with a decent idea. As CMO, he could order the Admiral's door broken down, if he wanted to, but he knew better than to go that route unless absolutely necessary. Whatever he did, he'd have to live with Bill Adama afterwards, and no matter how crazy-ass mad he was at the moment, he wasn't so crazy he couldn't see that a simple call might avoid a whole lot of messiness down the road.
"Dana, you piss me off, you know that?" he growled.
She nodded and tried to keep her smile small. "Of course I do. Now call them. But remember: nice first, nasty later."
-xxx-
After a quick look at the mess the nugget had made of part of the landing bay, Lee was heading toward CIC when he turned a corner and was surprised to see Karl and Sharon Agathon walking in the corridor in front of him.
Projecting his voice enough to be heard, he said, "Hey, Helo."
Both of the Agathons stopped and turned.
"You two are back! I didn't hear the landing announcement."
"There wasn't one," Helo said as he watched Lee approach. "We got back an hour or so ago. The Admiral asked us to go to CIC and let you and Colonel Tigh know personally, but we had to take care of a few other things he ordered first, so we're just getting to CIC now," he apologised.
Lee frowned at the change in protocol. As he came to a stop beside them, he said, "I don't understand."
Helo shifted uncomfortably and looked at Sharon. She in turn shrugged and said, "He decided not to go straight back to Life Station - he and the President wanted to stop by his quarters for a while."
"His quarters?" Lee asked.
"Yeah," Helo said, "I think there were some issues raised during their meeting this morning that needed to be discussed further."
At first, Lee didn't feel unduly concerned. His father and Roslin had both looked well earlier that morning. If there were items of business they needed to review, heading for his father's quarters was perfectly natural - they often chose to go there, rather than sit in an uncomfortable meeting room, and when the alternative was going to Life Station, it made sense they'd take a detour. Looking at Karl Agathon's face, however, he saw an unease that set off alarm bells in his mind.
"Something happened, didn't it?" he said.
Agathon nodded. "During the meeting, Roslin had to call for the medic. The Admiral didn't look too good by the time we got into the room." Remembering the scene he had come in upon, he continued, "The President looked panicked. She was on her knees beside him when we got there. She was keeping it together okay, but you could tell she was really worried. Your father kept telling her he was fine, but she wasn't having any of it and made the medic examine him anyway. I think she was probably right to; the Old Man must have been pretty out of it, because he didn't put up any fight at all when the medic started poking and prodding. You know what he's usually like."
Lee did know. And for his father to allow a display of weakness in front of not only the President but Valerant as well...
"But he's okay now?"
Helo shrugged. "He looked okay to me. He seemed to be having trouble focussing when we first entered the room, but that didn't last long, and the medic did end up giving him an all clear. I think all he said was that there was a slight elevation in his blood pressure. By the time we got back here, he was pretty much back to being himself. Tired, I think, but that's understandable. He was walking okay and was pretty clear about what he planned to do. The President didn't argue about going to his quarters, so she must think he's okay, too." He hesitated, then offered, "It'll be okay. She won't let anything happen to him."
Lee looked at him in surprise. It was the first even remotely positive thing he'd heard Agathon say about the President since the Hera incident. Without thinking, he blurted, "You trust her for that?"
Helo nodded. The naked anxiety he'd seen on Roslin's face when they'd entered the meeting room on the Gideon had shocked and surprised him.
But in the best possible way.
For the first time, he'd seen the President display something he'd never expected to see in her: total concern for another individual. For those few brief moments, she'd had no other focus but the Admiral and his well being. For those few moments, he'd seen panic and fear and a complete disregard for how her actions and reactions would be perceived. In those few moments, he'd seen true solicitude for another.
He had seen another emotion, too, and seeing it had taken him aback, because he hadn't thought her capable.
His eyes steady, Helo found his voice and responded firmly, "Yeah, for this, I do."
Taken off stride by Helo's shift in attitude towards the President, Lee took a moment to process the change, then nodded. Knowing how protective Roslin had been of his father lately, he had no problem with her being the one in charge of keeping an eye on him.
"And they're still in his quarters?" he asked.
The Agathons both nodded.
"They'll be fine," Sharon said confidently. Hoping the two would be left alone long enough to sort out whatever they needed to sort out, she said, "They've been trapped in Life Station for a long time. You can't blame them for not wanting to go back there any sooner than they have to."
Lee didn't blame them at all, but he still felt compelled to say, "I'm surprised Cottle okay'd their going."
Karl looked uncomfortable. "Doctor Cottle didn't know until a few minutes ago. My conversation with him after he found out is one of the reasons I'm so late notifying you and Colonel Tigh about our return. He's not very happy about the situation."
Lee looked at him sharply. Suddenly realising what his father had done, he said, "Dad put you in charge of divert and delay, didn't he! And that's why there was no landing announcement - he didn't want Cottle to know he was back!"
"That's right," Helo said. "He even had me send the medic to the museum bay to check up on Jason DeCourt. Told me to tell him he appreciated the care he'd been given on the Gideon, and that it would set his mind at ease if the medic would personally check up on one of his marines for him. After seeing DeCourt, he was to contact the information desk the President set up so that his report was there for when his family called. He figured that would take the medic a couple hours, at least."
Lee blinked. His father was obviously well enough to cover all his bases and take care of business too. He was also well enough to have a healthy fear of Cottle finding out he was back before he was safely locked in his quarters. He felt himself relax and stifled a smile. "Cottle's going to be mad at my father for this, but he's going to blame you for letting him do it." He shook his head. Cottle wasn't a pleasant man to have angry at you. His lips curved upward. "If I were you, I'd avoid getting sick for the next while."
Helo grunted knowingly. "I have every intention of staying healthy for a long time to come. Better safe than sorry."
Lee chuckled. "Good plan, my friend. I'm told he's one sonofabitch with a needle when he's in a mood."
Realising they'd been standing still for some time, he said, "We should get to CIC. Colonel Tigh is going to have questions when he hears what happened at the meeting. It'll be best if you're there to answer them."
The Agathons nodded, and the three set out again. Their thoughts, however, were not on where they were going, but on the two who were already where they wanted to be.
End
Chapter 29
Sorry for the long delay. All sorts of thoughts and rethoughts and rearranging going on here. I've cut scenes, added scenes, and driven myself crazy - and have an extra chapter to show for it that I'm not sure what to do with. Sorry about no Roslin/Adama this time around, but they show up in the next chapter, I promise.
Thanks for still reading.
Mariel
