Author's Note: YEE-HAW!!!! Chapter number five is up and bein' broadcasted live to all you eager readers! ENJOY!!! :D
Disclaimer: I own…a guitar pick with a cylon eye doodled on it. It's gonna kill you! :P
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
There had to be close to a million thoughts and emotions zipping through my brain as I ran out of the brig and towards Uncle Helo like my ass was on fire.
"Dude, you are not gonna BELIEVE what just happened to me!" I gasped in an out-of-breath voice as I bent over to cut my lungs some slack in front of Uncle Helo.
"We'll get to that soon enough Jarhead. First though, are you okay? Did Lee do anything to hurt you?"
I shook my head. "Only the stuff you witnessed. I mean, excluding the bruise I got from him dragging me to mom, I'm fine." I straightened up, and looked Uncle Helo in the eye. "Now like I said before, you are not gonna believe what just happened to me. It's frakking CRAZY."
"Lee's your dad?" he said with an unsurprised shrug.
Okay, DEFINITELY not the reaction I was expecting.
"Wait, how the frak did you know?" I asked in an incredulous voice. "You didn't even know the guy before he came here!"
"Your mom did." Uncle Helo grinned lazily, reminding me of an iguana sun-tanning on a rock. "C'mon Jarhead, your mom wasn't TOTALLY tight-lipped about your dad. I'm the only other person that knows about Lee."
I scowled. "Dammit, why does it seem like I'm the only person here that's just finding out about this?"
Uncle Helo chuckled and ruffled my hair. "You aren't alone, kiddo. Your dad's a member of the club too." His head jerked to the side just as Lee walked out of hack as quickly as his own two legs could carry him. "Ain't that right, Apollo?" he called out as Lee started to head in the opposite direction, and towards the pilots quarters.
Lee stopped at Uncle Helo's words, and glanced over his broad shoulder with a question mark look on his face.
"You had no idea that this was coming, huh?"
"Obviously."
Lee, in an obvious rush to get to where he needed to be before I showed up and practically frakked up his entire life, turned his head back to look at the long stretch of the hallway in front of him. Just as he was about to leave though, I stopped him with a curt "Hey Lee!"
Annoyed, he again looked over his shoulder, and stared at me unhappily. "What do you want, kid?"
You're gonna have to do better than that, Lee.
"You heading off to get ready for the decommissioning right now?" I asked curiously.
He nodded.
"Well, you mind if I tag along?"
A shit-himself-scared look suddenly welled up on Lee's flawless face. His blue eyes darted from me to Uncle Helo, who shook his head and half-smiled at him. "Don't look at me, Apollo. You're the brand new daddy, so if I were you, I'd get really comfy with having your daughter trailing behind you 24/7."
Thank you, Uncle Helo.
Lee shot Uncle Helo a death glare. Then, he huffed dramatically and waved my over with an irritated "Come on, kid."
My heart did a happy little victory flip as soon as Lee said I could go with him. As I skipped over to him with a huge grin and a perky spring in my step, I felt like the happiest frakking teenager that was walking through Galactica's hallways at the moment.
"Shall we?"
Lee honestly looked like he'd rather eat dirt than deal with me for an hour or two, but he nonetheless grumbled, "Let's go."
Then, we both set out to get set for the decommissioning ceremony.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Lee's P.O.V.
Lee's head was buzzing as he headed to his quarters with his newly-introduced daughter following close behind him. The buzz was coming from the zillions of thoughts that passed through his mind; such thoughts included, How the hell does my life get so screwed up so quickly? and, What am I gonna do now? I've never taken care of kid - one that I've pitched in with making, anyway...oh GODS, what is wrong with my life?
He felt her tap him on the shoulder. "You okay?" she asked innocently.
Lee sighed. "Not really." He slowly scratched the back of his neck. "Gods, I can't believe Kara had you...she doesn't seem like the motherly type at all."
"You would know, Lee."
"Yeah, I would know, Sloane."
It was silent for a few minutes as Lee and Sloane walked through the maze of halls to the pilots quarters. Then, Sloane broke the awkward quiet by asking him, "Sooo...anything interesting about you that you'd like me to know right now?"
Hell, what was I thinking when I said she could come along?
"I'm a viper pilot, I'm the commander's son, I'm originally from Tauron. What more do you need to know?"
She huffed in agitation. "Did you note the part where I said interesting? Come on, Lee. I'm just a kid getting to know her father that she never knew existed for the last thirteen years. There's BOUND to be some weird fact about you that most people don't know."
By now, Lee and Sloane were standing in front of the pilots quarters, and Lee was growing considerably aggravated by this thirteen-year old's badgering. Really, he just wanted to be left alone - he could get ready without any distractions, he could get this ceremony over with, then he could go back home to Caprica and forget that all of this happened. Sadly, his daughter was standing in the way of this, and it seemed like she wasn't getting out of it for a good long time.
With an exasperated groan, Lee turned to face Sloane. "Look kid-"
"Would it absolutely kill you to call me Sloane?"
"Whatever. Can you do me a favor, and just let me be for the moment? I really need to get ready for this ceremony, and you're being a major-league distraction. So, be a good girl, and run along now."
A flabbergasted look welled up on Sloane's pale face a second after Lee had practically told her off. Then, flabbergasted violently changed to frakking pissed as hell as she angrily smacked the palm of her small hand upside Lee's head. It took most of Lee's self-control not to smack her in retaliation.
"What the hell was that for?"
"You know DAMN WELL what that was for," Sloane hissed venomously. "You're acting like a bona fide JACKASS, Lee. What the hell was that for, huh? I'm being a major-league distraction to you? I should run along? While you do what, Lee? Try to get my existance out of your head and shove me to the side? NO! I'm not frakking leaving because you just don't want to deal with me! You're permanently stuck with me as your daughter, so I'd get friendly with the situation and start acting like a good father right frakking NOW."
What is frakking going on? I DON'T NEED THIS!
"Listen to me, young lady, I don't need you to be calling me a bona fide jackass. I'm your father, and I'm not going to listen to you talk and cuss like a damn marine!"
Sloane glared at Lee in pure disgust. "Get this through your head, Apollo. I don't give a rat's ass if you're my father - it's gonna be a while before I listen to you and your suggestions. Just because you're my parent doesn't mean that you can start preaching to me what I can and can't do...especially when I've just MET YOU. GOT IT?"
Lee noticed that his daughter's hands had balled up into fists - a clear indication that she did this when she got enormously angry. He realized that this was yet another thing that she and Kara shared; it wasn't necessarily a good thing to share with a child, but it was still there in her.
She's got spunk and she's tough as frakking nails. Just like her mother, Lee thought absent-mindedly.
"You know what, Lee? Forget it - forget that any of this happened, forget that I'm here, forget about my mom; FORGET EVERYTHING!" she shouted in frustration before she took off down the hall they'd just walked up, her long, dark-brown hair lashing out behind her like a fluid and whip-like wave. "You don't wanna deal with me or anything related to it, so I'll frakking leave you alone now! Are you happy now?!"
She's as stubborn as her mother, too.
"That's not what I meant, Sloane! Get back here!"
Lee realized that trying to get Sloane to come back was no use now - his stick-in-his-ass behavior had really frakked things up. At the moment, Lee was almost certain that she didn't want anything to do with him - not now, not for a while...hell, maybe not ever. All because things didn't go as planned for him.
Officially angry with himself, Lee decided that it was time for him to stop being an idiot. So, as he stripped his tanks and cargos off to change into his dress uniform for photos, he began to think of ways to set things straight with this lionhearted teenager that was his own daughter...and possibly Kara, whenever he'd get the chance to. He'd been absent from his kid's life for far too long; Lee Adama wasn't about to let it go on this way any longer.
Satisfied with his quickly-formed plan, Lee grabbed his flight suit and helmet out of his locker to change into after the photos were taken, and proceeded to go down to the meeting and conference room.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Sloane's P.O.V.
I didn't want to believe that what Lee had said to me before I verbally degraded him was true. If I had my head on straight, maybe I'd believe myself; but that wasn't the current situation right now. The current situation was that my hormones had suddenly kicked in and spiked my emotions and irrational thinking through the frakking roof, and it was making me think stuff that wouldn't normally run through the crazy pink blob I call my brain. Normally, I would've figured that he didn't really mean what he'd said; with my mood swings on a spectrum that could be as colorful as a damn mood ring though, it sounded like he meant it all.
How the hell could he do something like this?
The 'whys' and the messed-up assumptions that ran through my head made me want to hit something, and HARD. It felt like the only way that I could let off steam and release all the pent-up anger I'd bottled up in the last few minutes.
So, I ran down to the one place where hitting things was never refused - the gym. There was always a free-standing punching bag in the gym - just resting in a corner, waiting for somebody to come along and beat the frakking stuffing right out of the seams. Just waiting for somebody like me to come along and absolutely pummel it.
I got to the gym, and slid through the hatch, growling when my eyes fell on the punching bag. I immediately grabbed a pair of kickboxing gloves from a nearby locker, wrapped them around my hands, then proceeded to jab, kick, roundhouse, and punch the damn thing into oblivion.
"Don't wanna deal with me, Lee? Don't wanna deal with a thirteen-year old?" I muttered through clenched teeth. "That's fine. 'Cause I DON'T-WANNA-DEAL-WITH-YOU-EITHER!" On those last few words, I smashed my fists and bare feet into the bag as hard as could between the pauses.
I kept this up for a few more minutes (hitting the bag as hard as possible), then stopped for a bit to catch my breath. Sweat trickled down my face, neck, and back as I sat down on a nearby bench, and my heart thudded against my ribcage loudly. It was the same feeling I had when I ran four miles with mom earlier this morning. This feeling though, was somewhat different; the sweat and the fatigue I had from kicking and hitting that bag felt good - it was a sign to me that my anger had been spent during that time. Unless somebody were to come along right at this moment and piss me off, I didn't have to worry about wanting to kick some random person's ass.
Suddenly, there was a rustle of fabric as somebody adjusted their position. My head jerked up, and I saw an older-looking woman with short brown hair staring at me. An amused look was playing across her slightly-aged face, and it seemed like she was interested in seeing me with my entire upper body drenched in sweat and strands of my hair practically glued to my temples.
"Those kickboxing moves you just pulled off were pretty impressive and powerful," the woman said in a surprisingly young voice. "Who taught you how to fight like that?"
I find it a little creepy that this lady was watching me the entire time. And how the hell did she know that was kickboxing?
"My Uncle Helo taught me. Well, he taught me most of the moves - my mom taught me the rest of my stuff with some kicks and jabs she knew." I wiped the sweat off my forehead, and sucked some air into my lungs. "I use it to help get my mind off of certain things."
The lady walked over to me, and sat down on the bench that was opposite from mine. "I could see that. You seemed like you were fueling some emotion into your hooks and jabs and other whatnot. What's got a teenager like yourself whalloping that bag like there's no tomorrow?"
Is this woman a kickboxing expert or what?
I was also wondering if she was a psychic, too - she knew right away that I was a teenager. I usually have to tell people that I'm an emotional middie on the age scale; so it surprised me that she could tell what age group I was stuck in.
"It's a long story..."
"I understand if it's something that you'd rather keep private, honey. I'm just a curious old woman, that's all."
I smiled. "And an apparent kickboxing expert. How do you know all the moves?"
"My father was a hand-to-hand fighting fan. He loved it all - boxing, kickboxing, martial arts, you name it. He'd take me to a couple matches as a kid...at one point, I guess I developed a thing for the sports."
Gods, I don't even know who this lady is, and I already like her.
"Righteous," I said with a chuckle. "What's your name?"
"My name's Laura Roslin," she replied with warmth in her voice.
I was wowed now. I've been talking with Laura Roslin? HOLY FRAK!
"You're the..."
"Secretary of Education, yes," she finished for me. "Normally, most people wouldn't know me unless I told them. You're actually the first person that knows who I am." She laughed at this realization, then looked at me with a smile on her face. "So, what's your name?"
"Name's Sloane Thrace." I stuck my hand out for Laura to shake it. "Nice to meet you."
She gladly took my hand, and shook it. "Nice to meet you too, Sloane."
I quickly glanced at the clock tacked on the far wall to check the time, and gasped. It was 10:10 - that meant that I had five minutes to take a quick shower and get in my dress blues before the decommissioning ceremony started. With an air of urgency, I excused myself from the bench, and unwrapped the gloves from my warm and sweaty hands.
"What's the rush, Sloane?" Laura asked me, totally unaware that I had a short amount of time to make myself look decent before going to this ceremony.
I pointed to the clock as I tossed the gloves back into the locker. "Decommissioning starts in five minutes. I really hate to be rude at the moment, but I've gotta jump in a shower and get set for this ceremony."
"Oh no, I'm not offended! I should actually be getting ready too - I've gotta read a speech during the ceremony." She gave me a quick smile, and started to walk towards the hatch. "It was nice meeting you, Sloane. I hope to see you around."
Then, we both went our separate ways, and got ready to do what we were gonna do for the ceremony.
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Well, this has officially become the longest chapter I've written thus far for this story. IT WAS FUN TO WRITE IT, THOUGH! :) R&R, PEOPLE!!!! And stay tuned for chapter six!!! :D
