Home
Author: JPBryant
Characters: Sharon/Helo
Rating: Mature, for descriptions of violence, language and sexual situations.
Spoilers: Through 'A Measure of Salvation", everything after that is AU.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: After rescuing Hera from the Cylons, Helo and Sharon try to start a new life. Set after "A Measure of Salvation", it goes completely AU after that.
A/N: The eigth of seventeen chapters to the story, I'll be posting them as I finish them. Thanks to wintergreen126, Lightn, and Jazmin22 - I can't thank them enough for all the time they put into helping me with this.

Chapter 8

"Where?" Sharon asked, peering through the cockpit glass.

"There," Helo replied, pointing out the window toward the starboard side.

The first light of dawn had begun to paint the edges of clouds in purple and orange, and the metallic body of the Cylon ship mirrored the brilliant sky. Skimming along the ridge, Helo had spotted the potential home he had found the day before. High up in the hills and invisible from the valley below, it had taken him five days of searching to find a suitable prospect.

Sharon saw it as well now, and guided their stolen craft down to the large clearing beside the house. Hera sat in his lap, and once again was eager to get out of it. He held her tight, trying to calm her, but still she struggled to free herself from the harness.

He looked over at Sharon, searching for some sign of approval of their new home, but flying the craft seemed to take all of the energy and focus she had this morning. Looking back outside, he watched as the two-story cabin grew larger in the windows as they approached. Set on the side of the mountain, the house itself was hidden from sight, though the large clearing beside it provided a clear view down into the town below. After nearly a week of searching, he hoped that the home looked as good to Sharon as it did to him.

He was looking forward to a night spent in a bed rather than on hard stone, and even more so, he was looking forward to Sharon getting some real rest. Each day he had left her, he had come back to find her looking sicker than before. This morning had been the worst yet, with Sharon barely able to rise from her knees after spilling the contents of her stomach on the floor of the temple.

Sharon set the ship down without grace, jarring the ship, and Helo quickly released the buckles to free an anxious Hera. Standing up, he moved over to Sharon and took her arm lightly.

"Take it easy," he said, supporting her as she stood.

Sharon laughed and looked up at him. "I must look really bad," she said with a wan smile.

"It's not that," he lied. "It's just-"

"It was the same way with Hera," she cut him off gently. "You just don't remember because you weren't there."

Helo's brow furrowed. "What?"

"You were with Kara, and I was following you," she said, keeping the smile as she reminded him of their brief separation. "It was exactly the same then as it is now, okay?"

Her words brought a mix of emotions, and none them made him feel any better.

"I want you to rest," he insisted.

"I will," she assured him, though he suspected her words were intended to end the discussion as much as they were to comfort him. Stepping away, she took his hand and headed towards the back of the ship.

When he opened the rear hatch, Hera was the first one out into the clearing. Walking down the metal ramp, he saw the morning sun was rising over the valley, coloring the town far below in golden hues. Sharon stepped out onto the grass, and made her way towards the cabin. He followed behind, while Hera found something interesting at her feet, picked it up, and then threw it away.

"Solar power?" Sharon asked, seeing the panels on the roof.

Helo shook his head. "They don't work, I don't know why."

Sharon stopped when she reached the front porch, her arms crossing over her chest as she turned to look back at their daughter. The girl had ambled behind them, but still paid them no heed.

"There's a stream coming down the side of the mountain," he said, pointing to the other side of the house. Glancing over at her, he watched, waiting for some sign that she approved, but her attention was still fixed firmly on Hera. He continued speaking, hoping to distract her. "It's only about a hundred meters away. There's a well back there too, but it doesn't work. Hopefully if we can get the solar cells working, that'll fix the problem. I'm thinking that if-"

"I love it," she said quietly. Her eyes drifted to the cabin, though he could see her focus was elsewhere. "It's great, babe."

"But..." He stopped and smiled as she leaned into him, resting her head against his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her and continued. "Sharon..." he protested softly.

"Does it have a bed?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied. "Two of them."

"Will you be next to me in one of them?"

"Yes," he said again, his smile growing.

She turned into his arms and slid deeper into his embrace. "Then I love it," she whispered.

Closing his eyes, he pulled her close and laughed to himself as he thought about all the deliberation he had put into finding the home.

She squeezed him tightly and then stepped away, smiling softly. But the smile faded as Hera came up the porch steps, steadying herself with a hand on the ground as she worked her way to the top. He saw the look of rejection on Sharon's face that had become familiar in the last few days, and sought to quickly banish it.

"Let's go inside," he said, hopping up the stairs and opening the door. Hera was the first through, moving in to explore before Sharon had even reached the top of the steps. He looked back at Sharon, and saw his wife's eyes sadden as Hera wandered away. "Come on, Sharon," he urged. "I want to show you something."

Sharon paused at the doorway, hugging herself lightly. The small spark and fire she had shown just moments before was caught up and washed away with her daughter's continued indifference.

"Sharon," he called quietly, reaching out and taking her hand. "Come on."

"She hates me," Sharon said, then shook her head. "No, it's worse than that."

"Sharon-"

"She doesn't care," she continued, cutting him off. "I'm just another Eight to her."

"Stop," he said. "It's too soon, okay? It's too soon, Sharon."

She didn't reply, staring absently into the cabin. Still holding her hand, he gently pulled her inside.

"I want to show you something," he said again. "Remember that feather bed you wanted?"

---

Wiping the sweat from his brow, he cursed at the shovel and jammed it into the dirt. After another hour of effort, he only had ten meters of progress to show for his effort, and he knew the fleet issue entrenching tool wasn't up to the task at hand, even if he was.

Glancing over his shoulder, he found that Hera had wandered too far away yet again and headed after her.

"Hera," he said as he picked her up and carried her back to his work site. "Stay close, okay?"

After two weeks he no longer expected any reply or reaction from the little girl, having grown used to her silence. It made every question a rhetorical one, but it didn't stop him from talking to his daughter.

"You have stay here with me while your mom rests, alright?" he said, setting her down a few meters from the shallow trench he was digging.

Turning back to his work, he didn't want to guess how much longer it would take him to divert the stream closer to the house. When they first arrived the hundred meter walk to fresh water had seemed trivial. He hadn't realized how taxing the walk up and down the steep path could be when you had to haul twenty-five kilos of water with you each time.

But looking at the blisters on his hands and feeling the ache in his back, he was beginning to think that walking might not be that bad after all. He stared down at the shovel, debating whether or not he wanted to pick it up again, and then looked over to Hera.

"I guess it's good thing I've got plenty of time," he said.

Hera had moved a few steps away and was crouching in the short grass, running her hand curiously over the tips of the green blades. The white nightgown was gone, replaced with a set of baby blue clothes he had scrounged up back on Galactica. Sharon had cut the sleeves and legs to fit Hera better, and already the edges of had begun to unravel.

As he watched her playing, she found something in the dirt and dug it out with her tiny fingers. When she lifted it to her mouth, he was beside her in a flash, reaching down to wrest the stone from her hand.

"That's not food," he laughed, taking the rock from her hand and tossing it away. He picked her up again and carried her over to where he had left his pack. "Let me get you something better, okay?"

Sitting down in the grass, he kept her in has lap as reached into his pack and pulled out a bag of dried fruit. She tried to wiggle away until she realized that food was involved, then sat patiently waiting for Helo to hand it to her. He had come to enjoy meal time with her more than anything else; it was the only time she seemed to acknowledge his and Sharon's presence.

He opened the bag and handed her a piece, watching as she eagerly took a large bite out of it and then chewed with vigor. Smiling at his daughter's reaction, he grabbed another piece, ready to hand it to her when she finished the first.

"Good, huh?" he asked, holding out the second piece for her.

She reached out and took the dried apple slice from him before she had finished the first, but he didn't object, enjoying the interaction, as minimal as it was. Sharon too had relished the moments at first, but as the days wore on and Hera's ambivalence continued, she herself had begun to withdraw, unable to manage the rejection. Each day he saw it take a toll on Sharon in ways her physical illness never could.

"I need to ask a favor, Hera," he said, watching as she crushed the apple slice in her small fist. She stared over his shoulder now, having, as always, found something more interesting than him to look at. "You know I'm okay with the whole quiet thing," he continued. "But mom doesn't really get it, you know?"

He stared at his mute daughter and hoped that he was right, that this would pass, that her silence was simply a defense against a reality that had been turned upside down too many times. But at the edge of his mind other thoughts had begun to take hold. Maybe this was who she was, this was who she would always be. She was literally one of a kind, alone in a universe that had only known humans and Cylons before she was born. There was no way of knowing what her mixed blood had blessed and cursed her with, or to which of the two her silence could be attributed.

"It doesn't matter to me," he told her, pushing back his worries even as he acknowledged their validity. "But your mom needs you to know her. She needs you to know who she is."

Her eyes wandered from the trees to the house, then back to the grass at her feet. He handed her another piece of fruit, and she took the opportunity to slide out of his lap and take a few awkward steps away; the one-sided conversation was apparently over.

"Okay," he said, rising up from the grass. In the back of his mind he had always hoped that despite her silence, she understood what was being said. But it was becoming harder and harder to hold on to that belief each day. "Don't wander away too far," he said, walking back to his shovel and picking it up.

He looked over the work before him, but his heart was no longer in it, and his mind had returned to Sharon. Physically she wasn't getting worse, but she wasn't getting any better either. Some days were good, some days were bad, but she told him everyday that it would pass and everyday it returned

He took a step towards the trench and shook his head; there was nothing more he could do to help Sharon feel better, and there was nothing he could do to make Hera acknowledge her mother.

Give it time.

They were words he had spoken to Sharon countless times in the past two weeks. Now he found he needed them himself, both for Sharon and Hera.

"Give it time," he whispered.

Just as he spoke, he felt a small tug on his slacks. Turning around, he saw that Hera stood beside him, looking directly up into his eyes while keeping a hold on a handful of his pant leg. He stared down in shock, and the shock only grew as her eyes searched his. Attentive and alert, the little girl was looking for something there.

"Look at you!" he exclaimed, barely able to keep from shouting with joy. "Hello, Hera!"

The little girl continued to look up at him, showing no signs that she heard anything he was saying. Instead, she lifted her free hand and held it up to him. She opened it slowly, to reveal the tiny rock he had thrown away earlier. He couldn't find any words as she waited patiently for him to take it, pushing her arm higher into the air to encourage him.

Kneeling down beside her, he took the quartz stone from her hand. "Thank you," he said quietly. "It's beautiful, Hera."

She watched him silently for a few moments, still reading him. He saw something flash for a moment in her eyes, but before he could make anything of it, it was gone, and a moment later so was she. Turning around, she stepped away and returned to her aimless wandering.

He looked down at the stone she had given him, and stared into the clear white veins that ran across its rose colored surface. It was a thing of beauty, and she had given it to him.

But as he slipped it into his pocket, his mind returned to Sharon lying sick inside the house, and wished Hera's gift had been for her mother, not her father.

---

Opening his eyes, he stared up into the wooden beams of the ceiling and was lost for a moment, his mind still expecting to wake to the sight of Galactica's grey metal walls. There were no air filters humming in the background, no footsteps echoing outside his quarters, only the sound of his daughter's light breathing coming from the other bed. Outside the window, he saw grey overcast skies dulling the morning light.

Stretching his muscles, he spread his arms across the feather bed. Sharon had smiled and hugged him when he showed her the down mattress, and he promised that one day he would finish the job and find her the silk comforter she had wished for during their last stay on the planet. At the moment though, he was simply wondering where his wife was.

"Sharon?" he said, but got no reply.

He stood up, and grabbed his slacks off the foot of the bed. Throwing them on, he stepped out of the room and headed down to the main floor, the wooden staircase squeaking as his weight compressed each step in turn.

Reaching the bottom, he glanced around and still found no sign of Sharon. The small living area to his right was a room they had barely even stepped into, though the worn couch and chairs set around the fireplace looked perfect for a winter night. The office to his left was no bigger, with a single desk and chair that faced out the window. For the moment, however, Helo was using it as a staging area, with most of their supplies stacked in random piles alongside the silver crates that had held them. Carefully stepping around the clutter, he made his way though the room towards the doorway that connected the kitchen.

"Sharon," he called out again.

The kitchen had gotten as little use as the front room. With no real food to cook, an oven without electricity, and a sink without running water, the room had little to offer besides the large table that sat in the center. Packs of rations were stacked on the surface of the table, and they reminded him that it wouldn't be long till he would need make a trip down into the town to find more provisions. But his thoughts quickly returned to Sharon's absence.

The hinges on the back door protested as Helo pushed it open and stepped outside into the morning light.

"Sharon," he shouted.

"Here," her voice replied, coming from up above him.

He turned to look up, and he saw her inching her way down the roof on her rear. He moved quickly to position himself beneath her, and reached up to catch her as she came off the lip of the roof and fell the last meter into his arms.

"Hey," she greeted him.

Her color was only slightly better than usual, her complexion still too pallid for his comfort. She needed to rest, but the past few days he had been unable to convince her to stay inside with Hera. Her contact with her daughter had been reduced to nothing more than longing looks, though he made his best effort to keep them in the same room as often as possible.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I found it," she said, holding up a piece of electronic gear. Taking it from her hand, he looked up to where she had been on the roof, and guessed it had come from the solar panels there.

"What is it?" he asked, turning the part over in his hands.

"It's a timer. It's the reason the panels aren't working," she replied. "A two cubit part. Know any good hardware stores?"

"None that are open today," he said. Flipping the timer over once more, he spotted a scorch mark on the bottom where it had burnt out. Sharon watched with her hands on her hips as he examined it.

"We could jump the circuit," she said after a moment. "But I don't think the system is designed to run twenty-fours a day. It would probably fail under the stress."

He looked up from the hardware in his hand. "Do you think this is a standard part?"

She shrugged. "I would guess so. Why?"

"I know where I can get one."

---

It took him six hours to return to the cabin he had found on their first day back on Caprica. He hadn't found the cabin as much as he had the found the stream that led to it, following the water for half a mile before the abandoned building revealed itself to him. It had been two weeks since his first visit, and the wire cable that had nearly sent him to the ground had managed to hide beneath the leaves once more, but the silver panels of the solar array still hung in plain sight twenty meters above him.

He pulled his rifle off his shoulder and pointed it into the sky, taking aim at the first wire that anchored the panels to the tree tops. With a slow even breath, he steadied himself, pushing the air out of his lungs calmly before squeezing the trigger. He saw the wire snap in two as the shot rang loudly in his ears, filling the silence that surrounded him. The solar panels swung down from the wire and crashed into the tree that still held them, while the sound of his shot echoed off the valley walls, hanging in air for long seconds before finally fading.

Dropping his rifle to the ground, he set his bag beside it and pulled out his knife. The solar panels now dangled from a single cable, hidden from view by the branches and leaves. Walking over to the tree, he tugged once on the cable to see if it would support his weight, and finding that it did, began to climb.

The insulated cable dug into his skin as he pulled himself up to the lowest limb. He lunged out to take it into his hands, catching it and hoisting himself up. Slowly, he made his way upwards, climbing five, then ten, then twenty meters into the air, until he had reached the panels dangling there. The tree limbs had grown thinner as he had climbed higher, and he found himself balancing precariously on one as he searched for the replacement timer. Unable to turn the array without risking a fall from the branch, he placed his knife against the last supporting wire.

"Frak it."

The array fell to forest floor as he cut the cable in two. He followed the panels with his eyes as they impacted with the ground, shattering the reflected halcyon sky into a dozen flashes of silver.

Finished with the task, and exhausted from the climb, he took a moment to recover. The timer would be waiting for him when he got back down, and it was already too late to get home before nightfall.

Resting high in the air, the wind passed through the leaves and over him as he made a mental list of things he would need to salvage from the ghost town. From up here he could see out onto the town below, the thin canopy offering little obstruction to his view. Soon, he knew he would need to go back down there, maybe tomorrow, or the day after. Food was the highest priority, along with water purification tablets and another flashlight to replace the one that died.

Sitting in the branches, he was reminded of what a far cry this life was from the one on Galactica. On Galactica, everything had been provided, and if it wasn't provided, it was because it wasn't available. Here on Caprica, everything was available, and nothing was provided; their life, their existence, would be whatever they made of it.

As his thoughts drifted, his mind screamed.

Movement.

He stiffened as it registered in his conscience.

There. Again. Movement.

Something down in the town below was moving. It had been the most minuscule of changes, but he had seen it; a dark spot darting between two buildings once, then twice. And as he watched it appeared again, moving down the main street before vanishing into one of the buildings.

Into the building.

The clouds shifted above the town, displacing the shadows and making everything move. Helo waited for the object to appear again, focusing tightly through the leaves and sunlight, but it never did. He held his breath as he waited, gripping the tree limb tightly.

Cylon or human?

The answer didn't matter, he knew.

Or just a cloud? An optical illusion?

Climbing quickly down the tree, the need to be back with Sharon and Hera overwhelmed him. Cutting the timer loose from the wreckage of the solar panels, he threw it in his bag and started on his way home. Walking at first, his pace slowly increased, growing faster and faster as his mind replayed the image he had seen down in the town below.

If he ran the whole way, he could make it home before dark.

---

The sun had set thirty minutes earlier, but he kept his pace as he jogged up to the house. His lungs burned, leaving a metallic taste in his mouth each time he exhaled. The radio had quit half-way home, and that had only pushed him harder.

A lantern inside the house spilled its light out the doorway, illuminating Sharon who sat perched on the top step of the porch. He didn't see Hera at first, but then spotted her shadow moving just inside the house.

He slowed to a walk as he closed the last ten meters, struggling to steady his ragged breathing. Despite his condition, he smiled as he approached, filled with relief at the sight of her. After running for four hours he still wasn't sure exactly what he had seen from the trees, but the image had driven him mercilessly.

"Hey," she greeted him, standing as he stepped onto the porch.

Without replying, he pulled her into his arms. The sudden embrace brought a laugh from her, a laugh of surprise and delight. It was a sound that had all but disappeared in the wake of Hera's silence.

"I missed you too," she said, still laughing. She returned his embrace, paying no mind to the sweat that slicked his arms and face.

He pulled back so he could look at her, cradling her face in his hands. She smiled back at him, still pleasantly confused by his reaction to seeing her.

"What's up, babe?" she asked with quiet concern.

He wasn't sure what, if anything, he should say. He still wasn't even sure he had seen anything at all. Looking into his wife's eyes, he saw through the smile to the burdens she carried. Between the child growing inside her and the pain of Hera's silence, she had enough to worry about without his over-active imagination. Still staring into her eyes, he decided to keep this burden from her.

"I got it," he said, reaching into his bag and pulling out the replacement part. Her smile grew as she took it and examined it. "Will that work?" he asked.

"You did good," she said, nodding approvingly. Leaning in, she got up on her toes to give him a small kiss, and then another. "Real good," she whispered as she took his hand. "Now sit down before you fall over."

She guided him down to the stairs, and sat beside him. As his rear hit the ground, he felt his exhaustion overtake him and collapsed onto his back. Every muscle in his body ached and it still hurt to breathe. His trip down to the town would have to wait a few days.

"Tired," he said, unable to come up with anything more coherent.

Sharon lay down beside him, moving one of his arms so she could get close. Staring into the rafters, he knew if he closed his eyes he might fall asleep right there on the porch. He felt Sharon's breath on his neck as she turned into him and placed an arm across his chest. Lying there with her, he realized that the fear and worry that had tormented him during his run back was nowhere to be found.

As his mind hovered at the edge of sleep, he turned to look at the woman who had shaped his life so dramatically.

She was beautiful, he thought. More beautiful than the day he had first seen her aboard Galactica; more beautiful then when he had fallen in love with her. There were untold thousands of her people that looked just like her, but none of them shared her beauty. None of them were her.

"Sharon," he whispered, looking into her dark eyes as he searched for the words.

But she didn't give him the chance to find them.

"I love you, Helo," she said, tucking her head into his shoulder and pulling him closer.

She had seen the words in his eyes and stolen them, the way she stole everything from him.

He turned to his side to wrap an arm around her and closed his eyes. Sleep was seconds away, his mind and heart eased by the warmth of her body. A small breeze carried the night air over them, and he remembered their first time on Caprica, the nights they had spent sleeping outside, trying to stay warm, comforting each other as the rain fell.

He opened his eyes once more to make sure it was all real, then closed them and let sleep take him.

"Helo."

His eyes snapped open. The word had not come from Sharon, the voice was not one he had heard before.

Sharon pulled away from him, sitting up and turning to the source of the sound. He did the same, pushing his body off the porch and turning to look into the doorway.

"Hera?" he said, unsure as he looked at his daughter. He looked over at Sharon to make sure he hadn't imagined the sound of his name being spoken, and saw his own shock mirrored in her expression. "What did you say, Hera?"

Hera seemed to think about the question for a moment, and then looked squarely at him.

"Helo," she said again.

"My god," Sharon whispered. "She said your name."

Helo turned on his knees and made his way over to his daughter, stopping before her and taking her hand. Her eyes stayed fixed on his, watching him calmly. He heard Sharon come up beside him, and now she was kneeling in front of Hera as well. Sharon stared wide-eyed at Hera, her mouth agape at the sound of her daughter's voice speaking her husband's name.

"Yeah, that's right, you can call me Helo," he said, running a hand over his daughter's curly locks. He looked over at Sharon and then back to Hera. "Who is this, Hera?" he prompted her, nodding towards Sharon.

Hera's eyes stayed locked on him, and with a definitive gesture, she pointed at him and spoke again.

"Helo," she insisted.

He laughed loudly, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. Sharon's look of shock melted into a joyous smile of disbelief.

"No, no," Helo said, and then pointed at Sharon. "Who is this?" he asked again.

And for the first time in her life, Hera looked at Sharon. A tear rolled down Sharon's cheek, and he wasn't sure if she was still breathing. Mother and daughter gazed at one another through identical brown eyes, and Sharon reached out slowly to take Hera's hand.

"Can you say Sharon?" she asked quietly, her voice trembling with hope.

"No," Helo interrupted softly, shaking his head. Sharon looked over at him in confusion as Hera's eyes moved between the two of them. "Can you say mommy?" he asked.

Hera turned back to her mother, studying her carefully. He heard Sharon take a wavering breath as the little girl stared silently at her.

"Mommy," Helo urged quietly, reaching over to place a hand on Sharon's shoulder.

Hera seemed to think about the word itself, tilting her head as she stared at the woman who had carried her in her womb and brought her into the universe.

"Mommy," Hera said, pointing at Sharon.

"My god," Sharon cried as she closed her eyes on the tears that flowed down her cheeks. Pulling her daughter into her arms, she sobbed loudly, making no effort to hide her tears of joy. "Thank you," she said, the words almost unintelligible through her sobs.

Helo placed his hand on Sharon's back, rubbing gently as she cried, holding back his own tears as his heart nearly burst from his chest. Hera looked at her mother calmly, and Helo wondered if she even understood the meaning of what she had said. The answer didn't matter though; she had healed her mother's soul with that single word.

Smiling through her tears, Sharon looked back to Helo. He watched as she tried to collect herself, finally managing to speak. "Can you say daddy?" she asked, her voice breaking on the words.

Hera looked over at him, and he knew in that moment that she understood. She understood the meaning of the words that they spoke, even if she had chosen not to use them herself.

"Helo," she said with confidence, looking straight at her father.

Helo saw Sharon's expression sadden for a moment, but all he could do was laugh. "She's your daughter in every way, isn't she?" he asked, running a hand through Hera's hair and smiling at Sharon. His smile brought Sharon's back, and he looked back to Hera. "Helo is fine, kiddo. Helo is fine."

--- End Chapter 8 ---