2 months earlier
Tigh came to gradually, his senses coming back to him in stages. First he realised he was cold, the cold steel ground and wall he was laying against chilling him. A close second was pain, a thumping headache radiating out from the base of his skull that had been slammed into the van side though he noted his restraints were gone, as was the hood. Next was sound, silence greeted him, except for strained breathing he realised was not his own. He could only both hope it was Starbuck, and wonder at why it was so laboured. Last came vision. Behind his closed eyes he could tell it was brightly lit wherever they were. He slowly opened his eyes, hoping to figure out what was going on before they realised he was awake.
He saw nothing for a long time until his eyes adjusted. He took in the four metals walls and metal door opposite him in one glance. His eyes though were drawn to his right where Starbuck was knelt down facing the wall, wrists still cuffed tightly together behind her. As he looked closer he realised she wasn't just facing the wall, she was absolutely knee to nose pressed against it. The laboured breathing made sense as he realised a classic stress position when he saw it. It was unnatural to be flush to a wall like that, with arms bound it was damn near impossible, the strain on the thighs unbearable after only a few minutes. He wondered how long she'd been like that, and then he wondered why she stayed like that when evidently there was no-one else in the cell.
Sure they were alone he started to get to his knees, to shuffle over to her. As he got closer he saw the sweat running down her temples, her eyes scrunched closed in pain, obviously she'd been like this for a while.
"Starbuck, whats going on, let me help you." His hand gentle on her shoulder.
He saw her eyes pop open, her neck painfully whipping round to face him. "Damnit Colonel, lie back down, don't let them see you awake".
But it was too late, Boomer strode into the room, pulled Tigh away from Starbuck before grabbing a handful of her hair and forcing her face back against the wall, grinding her cheek into the metal. "I told you Kara, don't you frakking move until I say so."
"Leave her alone" Tigh wasn't foolish enough to make a move on the cylon but he wanted to divert attention away from Starbuck. "Its my fault she moved, come talk to me about it".
Boomer turned to him but didn't relent on the pressure on Kara. She smiled at him, the smile didn't reach her cold eyes. "You don't get it yet do you Colonel. This isnt about you, none of this is about you. You're here as a mistake. You'll come in handy no doubt" she looked down at Starbuck briefly "but you're not our primary concern. Don't make yourself one".
She turned her address to Kara. "You stay like that until I say so Kara, no second chances this time, you move, you know whats gonna happen. Now don't move." She glanced once more at Tigh. "And you, don't touch her, don't help her. You won't like the consequences".
Once Boomer had left the room again he heard a small whimper from Starbuck as she tried unsuccesfully to shift her weight to take pressure off her aching thighs.
"Gods damnit, whats going on here Starbuck."
"Seems I have a habit of pissing off the toasters Sir. Just don't give them an excuse ok Colonel. Do as they say". Her voice wavered with the strain of her position.
"This is wrong Starbuck. Damned wrong. You expect me to just sit here and watch you. Like that?" His frustration and anger clear.
"We have no choice Colonel. I'm fine, we've both had worse at boot camp and you know it. I need you to be thinking straight ok, find us a way out".
Under his breath he muttered "Frak this" before kneeling down next to her, carefully pressing his body from knee to nose against the wall and clasping his hands behind him. He saw her glance his way.
"Colonel, what the frak are you doing?" her voice somewhere between annoyance and humour.
"All for one Starbuck, I told the Chief, you're not having all the fun." He looked at her, saw the smile briefly cross her lips, knew he'd had the desired effect.
"Out of your frakking mind, Sir."
Present
He looked straight at Doc then.
"It seemed a good idea at the time. I mean I couldn't just sit back, relax and watch her like that. She was crazy to think I would. So we stayed like that for a while and I don't mind telling you it hurt more than I ever remembered, and I hadnt been like that for long. I tell you Doc I used to think she was just a glory seeker, a jock pilot with some luck, some skill, but no regard for teamwork, no loyalty to anyone or anything."
He shook his head, glanced back down at her bruised face as he composed his thoughts.
"Turns out she'd already saved my life by her actions and I didn't even know it. Didn't find out until much, much later. I couldn't figure out how they'd got her to stay in that position, I mean you know her, doesn't do a damned thing you tell her to. Yet here she was willingly staying in a stress position? Weirdest damned thing, at the time I thought she was scared of them. Didn't realise she was protecting me, scared for me."
Another tear wiped away in anger.
"They'd apprently decided to kill me you see, but she wouldn't let them. Caused herself a world of hurt after that when they realised they could control her by using me. I don't make a good damsel in distress Doc, not for anyone, and that's what hurts most of all now. I was, am, her superior officer, I should have been protecting her, instead shes saving me? The whole frakking world is upside down you know. I wish I'd known then, I would have done something about it, hell I would have let them kill me if I'd known to spare her from being held hostage like that. I didn't find out until last week."
He faded there, Doc realised something signifcant had indeed happened one week ago, previous mention of Kara's arm being broken at that time and Saul's haunted look. He needed to know, but he didn't want to know at the same time. He wanted to ask Saul but decided to let him tell the story, there was plenty of time.
"So what happened next Saul?"
He could see Tigh cast his mind back again, to the horror of the beginning of their captivity.
2 months earlier
Three days had passed by slowly since Saul first awoke, punctuated by visits from Boomer or Leobon, sometimes both. They were doing everything they could to mentally break down Kara, and by default Saul. Stress positions were interspersed with bouts of utter darkness, followed by freezing cold, sometimes periods of unberable heat in the cell, and occasional hours of high pitched alarm sirens, continuous noise.
Through it all they kept Kara in some form of restraint. Metal cuffs behind her back, roped wrists suspended from the ceiling, occasionally leather cuffs around her ankles followed by upside down suspension.
Saul had done his best to match her discomfort, the stress positions easy to replicate, if not easy to endure. He had particularly hated the standing flat backed against the wall, arms outstretched horizontally infront of him. And that while the heat was unbearable in the cell. However, he was more than aware that he still had it relatively easy as he finally broke the position for a second to wipe the trickle of sweat that had been making his nose itch for the past hour or so. As he moved his arm painfully back out front he glanced across to Starbuck, eyes closed, lost in concentration, evidently finding it much tougher with wrists chained together and an inhumanely heavy weight attached to them.
During the three days the only physical contact from the cylons had been to hold Saul at bay in a corned as they re-positioned Starbuck into their next torturous position. Not once did she resist and as time passed he grew more and more frustrated with her, her lack of fight angering him beyond belief. He called her on it now as he watched her strain against the heat and the position, his own arms dropping to his sides, his fists clenching.
"OK, that's enough now Starbuck, you have got to fight this. I never thought you were a coward before this, but you've given up. What the hell's the matter with you? Where's the fight gone?"
He saw her arms waver, her eyes spring open at the 'coward' jibe. Her look was one of hurt, one of pain, but also one of resignation.
Her voice was low, rough. "I'm no coward, Sir. Think what you like, but don't call me that."
He snorted. "Show me then Starbuck, stop doing this, stop giving in to them. Fight damnit". He'd moved up infront of her and placed his hands on hers lightly. "This isn't gonna stop. We have to make a move now, get out of here while we still can. There isn't gonna be any rescue, you know that. The Old Man, Apollo, they're long gone Kara, there's just us. Please, promise me you'll fight with me next time they come in."
She shook her head, her arms trembling underneath his touch, her breathing ragged with the strain. "I can't".
He spun away from her, stalking over to his side of the cell, and he sat down, no longer mirroring her position. He couldn't even look at her as he spoke.
"Then you're on your own now Starbuck. I wont do this anymore. You wanna hurt then go ahead, let them string you up like some puppet, you act the martyr all you like. I'm not playing anymore."
He saw her eyes close again, and a lone tear track over her bruised cheek, so un-Starbuck-like it shocked him. But, he remained firm to his belief in her cowardice, he worked on his own plan for escape, with or without her.
From then on he ate and drank what they gave him, no longer refusing because they didn't offer her the same. Each time she would close her eyes, unable to watch. Each time he would push down the guilt with the weight of his anger.
A further three days passed, and on the sixth day she could take no more. Unable to remain in the last position, feet spread, standing, leaning on outstreched arms towards the wall. With a soft cry she collapsed to the ground, whimpering miserably as she curled up around her aching arms. Saul watched her fall, heard her cries and finally moved past his anger to recognise her anguish. He shuffled over to her to check on her.
Just as Tigh had lent over to check her pulse Leobon burst into the room, grabbed Tigh by the back of the neck and launched him into the wall across the cell. Dazed and unable to move Tigh could only watch as the cylon unleashed a battering onto him rendering him unconcious.
Present day
Doc winced as he imagined the scene. He could see the guilt pouring off Saul as he relived calling her a coward, only now realising she had been saving him all along.
"Not to be too blunt, but one thing Saul, if he beat you up when she collapsed, how come you didn't realise that you were the anvil round her neck?"
As Saul opened his mouth to speak, another weary voice piped up.
"Because by the time the Colonel woke up, I was black and blue aswell. Seems the toasters didn't want to give up the leverage at that point". Her sarcasm was painful to hear.
Both men snapped their gaze to deep chocolate eyes as Kara spoke. She gave Saul's hand a tired squeeze, all of a sudden shy.
"Hey Saul, guess we got rescued after all?".
He'd never grinned harder in his entire life.
"Yup, guess I was wrong."
"Again."
Doc chuckled, amazed she was awake so soon.
"So how long have you been eavesdropping Starbuck?"
Her smile disappeared, "Long enough Doc. Think its about time I helped with story time, fill in the blanks."
Saul maintained his hold on her hand, his gaze trying to hold hers, but she dropped her eyes first. "You don't have to do this Kara, let me tell him."
Quietly, but firmly. "No, one for all remember. Where were we?".
Saul gave her a sad look. Obviously finding it harder now she was awake to talk about it.
"Just getting to the chair. You sure you want to to do this now?"
She visibly recoiled as her memory went back to that time, but once more she proved her lack of cowardice. "The chair, sure, you were out for most of it anyway. You start, I'll pick it up from where they knocked you out."