Chapter Thirty-Four
Kara hated the Prometheus. It brought back memories of her darker days and nights spent trying to forget her love for Lee Adama. Drunken and sleeping her way into oblivion, the Kara she was then…the Starbuck she was then was not the woman who was reaching for Lee's hand now. Her fingers tightened around his almost unconsciously.
Lee looked down in a beat of surprise, but gave her a tiny smile and squeezed her fingers back.
The noise was an irritating buzz in her brain as they pushed through the crowded corridors. Kara felt a sudden tug on her pants and when she looked down a boy, about 4 or 5 years old, was looking up at her with wide brown eyes. His face was streaked with dirt and…blood? Kara wondered, peering down at him to get a closer look. He lifted his hand to his mouth in an unmistakable plea. "Mamma?"
Kara blinked, her heart tightening in her chest. Again his fingers went to his mouth. "Mamma?"
"Frak," Lee swore in disgust, taking in the child whose clothes literally hung off of his tiny bony frame.
Kara crouched down so she was eye level with the little boy. "Where are your parents, kiddo?"
"Frakking bat. No good bat," he answered pointing at himself. Then again, he made the sign for food.
"What's he say-" Lee asked before the words became clear in his brain. Lee met his wife's gaze in mutual shock. He was suddenly rather glad the kids parents weren't here cause he would have likely shot both of them. No good brat. Gods! He dug into his back pocket, pulling out his wallet and handing the little boy a bill and getting ready to point him towards a stall selling some food.
The child took the money, looking it over in confusion for a second before promptly putting it in his mouth.
"No!" Lee, Kara, Helo and Molly all said at the same time.
The boy jerked, panicked, and tears filled his eyes before he turned to run away. Lee reached out and quickly grabbed him, grimacing as his fingers closed around nothing but skin and bones. "It's okay. It's all right." He cupped the boy's head gently.
Kara spotted a man making his way through the crowd, a bottle of beer in one hand and a thick sandwich in the other. His uneven step made it clear he'd already had a few bottles and the belly that hung over the belt of his pants showed that he wasn't exactly starving so without so much as a 'how do you do?' Kara snatched the sandwich out of his hand.
" 'ey Wasserpoblem?" the man grunted.
"I want your sandwich. This kid's hungry. Got a problem with that?" Kara asked, hand near the gun at her waist.
The man looked down at her hand and then narrowed his eyes but stepped away grumbling about how people just had no respect for others anymore.
Kara resisted the urge to shoot him on principle and instead turned back to the little boy who was pulling Lee's money out of his mouth and giving it back to him. His eyes widened at the sandwich. Kara sniffed it just to be sure the asshole hadn't doused it in beer and that it wasn't gonna make the little boy sick.
"Mamma!" he shouted, breaking Kara's heart. When he got his hands on the cheesy dripping sandwich he attacked it with relish.
"Easy, kid. Slow down'" Helo warned placing a hand on the emaciated shoulder.
"Fakking bat," the kid repeated through a mouth full of meat and cheese.
Helo ran his hand across his face and Kara could see the heartbreak on his face. This could be Hera. This could be the life she was living if the people who adopted her treated her like this child was obviously treated…or mistreated would be a better word. Molly sniffled behind the little boy before quickly reaching out to a passing guard, who was chugging back from a small silver flask and looked at her through a bleary alcoholic haze.
Kara coughed at the acrid liquor scent that emanated from him.
"Wachoo want?"
"Where are this kid's parents for God's sake?" Molly asked.
He gave the little boy a brief dimissive glance and snorted. "Beats me." He seemed to find this funny and snorted. "Nevah seenim 'efore"
Molly shook her head in disgust. "Right. Well, aren't you a credit to your uniform."
Helo stepped forward. "We're looking for a couple, Jaden and Hetty Carmen. They adopted a child a few years ago. A little girl.
"Carmen…Carmen…" he blinked and rubbed the back of his neck.
Kara and Molly both rolled their eyes in unison. Fully expecting his next words to be 'Nevah heard of them' but he surprised them by lifting his head and nodding. 'Yeah, yeah. Carmen, we brought him in for drunk and disorderly. We're holding him in the brig."
"We need to see him," Kara insisted.
"No can do. Visiting hours over. Come back tomorrow," he replied curtly getting ready to leave.
"Right, cause I'm gonna spend the night in this cesspool," Kara snapped.
Lee blocked the guard's path. "This is a military matter. My name is Captain Lee Adama." Lee stressed the Adama and that seemed to penetrate through the lush's drunken stupor.
He groaned in annoyance but acquiesced. "Fine. But just you and make it short."
"Hey, I'm Lieutenant Kara Adama," she objected, putting the same emphasis on her last name.
The guard blinked at her, narrowing his eyes as he studied her face. His gaze roamed over her body and he smiled. "Starbuck?"
"That's right." A brief flash of memory struggled to surface in Kara's mind but she just couldn't get a handle on it. He obviously could though and apparently, it wasn't a good memory.
His gaze grew steely. "You stay here."
"Why you little frakking-" Kara said.
"Fakking bat!" the little boy repeated, still enjoying his sandwich, slowing down now to make it last.
"I'll be back soon," Lee promised, squeezing her forearm.
"Yeah, we'll be…somewhere less putrid hopefully," Kara grimaced. She turned and lowered herself next to the little boy. "Hey kiddo. Up for a game of Triad?"
"Mamma?" he asked holding his hand out for more food.