Sleeping With the Enemy – Part II
"Sweet child." The heavy hand descended onto Nya's cheek. The pale flesh of her skin contrasted with his heavily wrinkled fingers. Her eyes fluttered and opened. Tears welled up immediately as she saw him.
"Brother Cavil…" She whispered. "What has happened?"
"I came as soon as I could, Nya." He spoke solemnly and tears poured forth from her eyes.
"It was my fault."
"No," his tone was meant to soothe, but brought little comfort. So he sat next to her and took her hands in his. "There is a great deal of stress in our lives. That is a lot to swim upstream against. The little one never had a chance."
"I did not sacrifice to her!" Nya shrieked suddenly. "But the gods be damned, it was not yet time!"
"Sacrifice to whom?" Cavil asked in confusion.
Her answer was a bitter hiss. "The sharp sorrow of pain descends on a woman in labour, the bitterness that hard Eileithyiai brings on. Hera's daughter, who hold power over the unborn. But it was not yet time."
"The gods did not do this to you." He leaned forward to embrace her. "Man did."
And the tears dried up in her eyes. Nya suddenly saw clarity in the events of the past few days. The pills in Baltar's hand. The way he gave them to her cautiously. And she, being stupid enough to trust the man who'd tried to kill her and Leoben.
"He's the one who killed my baby." She says softly.
"Who?"
But she doesn't answer.
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"Why won't you believe me?"
"Nya." Tom's voice is soft and cajoling, as though he's speaking to a child instead of the woman in front of him. "This has been hard on both of us."
"Why won't you believe me?" She asks again, more forcefully this time. Her figure looks gaunt and frail, three weeks of bed rest have only served to emphasize her trauma not heal it.
"Because…" He takes a moment to pick and choose his words carefully. A small nagging part of himself wants to blame Nya for losing the baby. But the rest of him, the rational part, reminds him that it was not her fault. She almost died on the operating table before Cottle managed to pump enough blood back into her. And that she wanted the baby as much as he did, she would not have jeopardized it on purpose. But that small part of him whispers its angry accusations despite his best efforts to ignore it.
"Because it's crazy. Baltar is an ass. Lords of Kobol, I doubt he knows where he is most of the time. He wouldn't…" He can't even bear to say it outloud. "Nya, I know you're upset."
She bites back with words guaranteed to drive a split between them. "Leoben would have believed me."
"Leoben's not here! I am!"
Her hair swings over her face and for a moment it looks like she will weep. But then, some of the steel cuts back through her spine and she looks up at him slowly. There are tears in her eyes but angry ones, born of distrust and loneliness.
"He killed our baby."
"No, Nya. Stress did. This war did. The Cylons did. You can't blame others for what has happened. We have to learn to accept it and move on."
"Move on." She whispers. "Yes, Tom, move on. Maybe this will get you the sympathy votes you've been needing. But we should move on." She reaches the door in two quick steps.
"Where are you going?"
"Back to Galactica."
"You can't leave. Not until you're healed."
"Frak off."
"Nya!"
But she slips out of the door too quickly for him to follow. Tom Zarek just stares at the closed door for a long time. He didn't have the heart to tell her that even the sympathy votes for the miscarriage wouldn't put him ahead in the Fleet. They'd already run the numbers. And that realization chills a part of him. He should be mourning the loss of a life, of his child. The first and only one he'd ever created. Instead he had let Danny Black run the numbers on whether it would put him ahead.
The choices ran around and around in his mind. He'd let his fascination, his attention, his….he wasn't ready to say it yet…he hadn't said it to her, even when she'd been dying. In the end, it was that thought that hardened his heart again. He'd had a goal and even lost his best friend to it. It was time to return to what was important and forget that Nya Reece had ever darkened his doorstep.
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One month later….
"She knows." Six hissed to Gaius as they caught a glimpse of Nya in Galactica. She was dressed in pilot silver as she walked next to her recon officer, Hazard. The two women were deep in conversation and didn't notice his, or Six's, attention.
"It doesn't matter. Cottle doesn't, and who would believe the ramblings of that trollop over me?" He struts his chest out cockily. "She's nothing."
"Over confidence? Be careful of where that takes you."
"Hush." He snaps at her. "He's not here to see her. I checked the flight logs. She's on patrol in ten minutes. In fact, no one has seen them together since she lost the baby. It's over."
"And what do you think Zarek wants to talk about?"
"I haven't the slightest idea." A smile curves his lips as her hands run down the front of his chest and press hard into his trousers. "That's enough or the esteemed Representative will wonder what I've been doing."
With a moue of disappointment she disengaged her hands and then disappeared as Gaius poured himself a drink. When the knock came he answered it and then lounged back across his sofa.
"So what brings you here, Mr. Zarek?" Gaius didn't bother with pleasantries, neither man needed to waste his time on frivilous musing.
"Many things, some great and some smaller than deserve our time. Did you take the oath, Doctor?"
"The oath?" The question sets Gaius back a little bit. "What oath?"
"Opichus' oath."
"Oh that." Gaius waves at the air with one hand, barely caring about the question. "Of course I did. We all did, everyone at university, you don't get the appellation Doctor without it."
The answer seems to set Zarek at ease although he is still burdened by something. "You asked what brought me here. The Presidency brought me here."
"Ah," Gaius was expecting this sooner or later. Six had promised him that he could lead and she was always right, sooner or later. "The Presidency. You want my support for your bid."
"No." Zarek spat the word out. "Not exactly." He turned to the mirror in the room and spoke to it as though he was looking for someone else. "Am I capable of leading this Fleet? Absolutely. And for a time I almost had a chance. Until Laura Roslin ascended from politician to prophet. The truth is…I can't win. But you could."
"You flatter me, Mr. Zarek, really. But I'm not sure I'm cut out for politics as I find the Vice Presidency and everything to do with it rather tedious." Gaius drank deeply from the glass and didn't even flinch at the biting liquor.
"I would imagine that carrying water for Roslin would get old after a time. But it's the office that makes you the perfect candidate, Doctor. You're presold.
"Really? To whom?"
"You'd be surprised how many people crave the assurances of cold science as opposed to the superstitious ravings of the Geminese. Or the empty prayers of the Sagittarons. As a scientist you offer hope. Real hope, not the vagaries of the gods."
"And you, Tom. You're going to step aside?"
The answer took a moment to come as it had to wait for Zarek to swallow his pride and push the memory of Nya away. "I'm just happy to back a man of true conviction." He pauses. "A man who remembers his friends."
"And how does Lieutenant Reece feel about all this?"
"The Lieutenant and I have parted ways."
As Zarek walked out of the room, Six's mocking laughter followed him, evident only to Baltar who watched silently and slippery. More serpent than man.
Preview of Ch. 10, 11, and 12. Will Nya forgive him when Zarek learns the truth about Baltar? What really happened to Leoben on Kobol? And will any of them survive the first day of the new invasion?
Nya quoted Homer about the goddess of childbirth. I used the actual dialog from "The Captains Hand" for Balter and Zarek's talk.