Disclaimer: I do not own Battlestar Galactica, or any of the characters of Galactica. All I own are my ideas and theories.
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2.
He rushed into sickbay, and looked in horror at his best friend. Bandages were tied in place over his stomach, but blood was already seeping through it.
"Doc!" He looked over at Cottle, who shook his head.
"Gut shot. Nothing I could do even if I had the best damn facilities in Caprica City. We got the bullet out, but it's just gotten worse. Internal damage." Cottle took a long drag on his ever-present cigarette, and sighed. "'Bout the only thing I can do is give him something for the pain. And if he keeps being so stubborn about holding on, I'm gonna run out of that real soon." With that he injected the drugs into the IV, and left, closing the curtains to give the two men some privacy.
Bill sank down in the chair next to his best friend's bed, and took his hand. The hand jerked, and Saul's eyes flew open.
"Bill…" he rasped, eyes wide. "Why are you here? You've got to get away from me!"
"I'll take my chances."
"You don't understand!" Saul's voice lowered. "I'm a cylon! A frakking skinjob! I could go off any minute!" Bill felt his stomach clench but his body didn't betray any reaction. In truth he had noticed when his best friend had started acting strange. Had noticed how he seemed suddenly fascinated by the Six that was being held on Galactica; the only known cylon onboard now that Athena was off with Kara on the Demetrius. Had noticed that Saul seemed distracted and easily startled. But he hadn't let himself put the pieces together. He had been afraid to face what it could mean. And then he thought about something his son had asked him right after Kara's miraculous return.
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"Dad, what if Zak had come back to us in that viper? If my brother had climbed out of that cockpit. Would it matter if he were a cylon? If he always had been? When all's said and done, would that change how we really feel about him?
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He had known that Lee was talking about Kara – about the woman he loved – when he had said that, but the question still applied. Did being a cylon make Saul a different person than the man he had always known?
"I know." Saul looked at him, stunned. "Little things. Couple of comment you made. I doubt anyone else knows."
"I didn't know what I was gonna do Bill. I could have vented all the air in the frakkin ship without even knowing! I wasn't even sure who I was anymore!" Looking at his friend's slightly panicked face, he felt the need to reassure him.
"No matter what you may be, I know who you are. You are Saul Tigh. That is who you are to me. And that's who you will always be." He felt his eyes tearing up, and tried to hide it from his friend, to no avail. But Saul chose not to comment on it, opting for something to relieve the tension instead.
"These drugs the doc hooked me up to are pretty good, but I could sure use a drink right about now."
"I had a feeling." He smiled slightly as he drew the small flask out of his boot and took a swing before handing it to his friend
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A/N: Okay guys, 190 hits, and no comments. I would really appreciate either a "good job" or a "this is horrible" one or the other. A good chunk of you on this site are authors yourselves and you know how nice getting comments is. It doesn't take that long. On other notes, this chapter was impossible to write. Tigh is incredibly hard to kill without it seeming too contrived, or too out of character. I hope I did it decently, but I personally like the previous chapter much better. Thanks again to Alex for being a sounding board for the 10 odd death scenarios I wrote up. Hopefully I'll get the next chapter posted in a few days.