Chapter Nine

Lee lay in bed in the dark listening to the frightening rattle of Jessica's lungs. The virus had scarred her lungs badly. Cottle pretended that she would heal good as new, but he was nervous and Jess knew it.

"Ah crap, so you're the hocus pocus gal everyone's talking about?" Cottle had remarked. Then he leaned in close and whispered something that Lee couldn't hear but had made Jessica laugh out loud.

Lee himself was suffering from some pretty nasty head aches that Cottle was good enough to drug him into oblivion for. His father had come in for about an hour. William hadn't said much, just stared at his son with relief and pride in his eyes.

"You helped Salik through this nightmare. You helped us all through this, son." He then leaned down and kissed his son's forehead. Lee had to fight back the tears because they made his head hurt worse.

Kara had already been, in her words, 'sprung' from sick bay and was getting herself back into shape to get back out there in the sky.

Gods, Lee was dying to get back out there. But Cottle told him it would be at least a month before he could even think of getting back in a viper.

He even missed being a CAG, not so much the paperwork; he didn't mind if he never saw another rotation schedule in his life. He missed the community of pilots, having them come to him for advice; sharing their triumphs and failures and seeing their faces light up when he told them he was proud of them and knowing that his approval mattered to them.

Here in sickbay, he was lucky if he was able to get Cottle to give him an extra helping of jello.

In the mean time he lay in bed exercising his upper body during the day and stretching his legs when he was able to master his dizziness.

When the rattling stopped, Lee guessed that Jessica had woken up.

"Lee? You asleep?"

He watched her silhouette turn towards him. His eyes traced the curve of her face and her hip through the curtain separating their beds. "You should know if I am or aren't." Lee joked.

"Cute. I wanted to ask you something about...well, what you said." Her voice was shy and hesitant and, that alone, told Lee exactly what she was talking about.

Nervousness tightened his body and if he'd been a little boy, he'd of clamped his hands over his ears and screamed.

"Jess, I--You were really sick. I was worried. I just..." Alarm bells were going off in every nerve ending and for a selfish second, Lee wished she would go back to sleep and shut up.

"I wish I didn't know you were lying," she said softly, her voice breaking ever so slightly. "Pretty stupid, huh? I should be happy enough that you feel it. But it matters and it hurts."

Lee squeezed his eyes shut, hating himself with a passion. He lifted his hand to the curtain, about to pull it to the side and try to...what? Make her feel better? How? She was asking him for things he wasn't capable of giving her, no matter how much he wanted to. His feelings were not the issue, but the man he was. She was like this blazing fire that everything in him recoiled from even as he yearned to be warmed by her.

"Don't. Please," Jessica pleaded when the sound of the metal hoops moving across the bar above broke the brief silence between them.

Lee dropped his hand with a sigh. "I'm sor--"

"Goodnight, Lee."

It was at least an hour until Lee heard the uneasy rattling of her lungs that told him she was asleep.

Lee felt safer when he was in a coma.

Elosha came to see Lee a few days later. There was going to be a service for the people who died from the virus. She wanted to know if Lee wished to say a few words about the pilots he had lost.

"I'll work on something, though I'm not all that great with the speeches," he admitted.

"I know," the priestess said with an amused smile.

Lee raised his eyebrows.

"Your ready room rambles are the stuff of legend, Captain," she explained.

Lee gave her an embarrassed grin.

"There's something else I wanted to ask you about. I meant to bring this up earlier but the virus pushed everything aside."

Because of the virus, even the Colonial Day celebrations were pushed to a later date. President Roslin had set the date for the first day of the coming month.

"The numbers on Jessica's arm, before she got ill, we tried matching them to their corresponding letters. We came up with the name 'Gabe'."

Lee felt a fist of heavy dread steal the breath from his lungs and he had to swallow a quick gulp of air to regain his composure. What the hell? He hadn't thought of the imaginary friend of his childhood in years, and certainly never with this uneasy panic that filled him now.

"Since the two of you are connected in the prophecy and Jessica doesn't remember the name having any meaning for her, I was wondering if it meant anything to you."

Lee was torn between finding out what this panicky feeling inside of him meant and the embarrassment of admitting he had an imaginary friend as a toddler. Could it be just a coincidence that Jessica had those specific numbers that would spell those specific letters on her arm? Since having met Jess, Lee wasn't sure he believed in coincidences anymore. Curiosity won out.

"When I was a kid, I had this...well, you know how kids are, they sometimes like to pretend..." Lee cleared his throat and he could feel his face getting hot, certain he sounded like a moron. "I had a sort of...imaginary friend." Lee shifted his eyes and concentrated on the I.V. drip next to his bed.

"Named Gabe?" Elosha asked.

When Lee dared a look at her, he saw that she wasn't mocking him. In fact, she looked quite serious.

"Right." He admitted. "I was about four or five."

"I wonder what that means. Perhaps it could just be something to cement your connection to each other, you and Jessica, but maybe it means more." Elosha asked.

"Like what?" Lee asked uneasily.

"I'll try and find out," Elosha promised him.

"I think I dreamt about him when I was sick." Lee said, an icy shiver creeping down his back.

"Do you remember it?" She asked, brown eyes wide with fascination.

"No, but it makes me feel...scared, worried when I think about it. Why would I be afraid of him? It was a really happy time in my life. I was a kid for frak's sake. What the heck was I worried about at four? How to reach the cookie jar?" Lee asked shaking his head.

"I'll consult the scriptures and see what they say." Elosha reached over and placed a hand over his.

"You're telling me my imaginary friend is in the scriptures?" Lee raised an amused eyebrow.

Elosha patted his hand. "You stick to the rambly speeches, Captain. Leave the scriptures to me."

A.N:

JAT.NJ: (huggies) Glad you enjoyed! Hope you like this one too.

darkfinder: Thanks. I'm pretty much trying to keep Cottle as snarky and rude as he is on the show. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

Silwyna: Remember Gabe. Gabe is very important. (laughs) Thanks a lot for your feedback. I hope you like this chapter too!