chase_csf (chase_csf) wrote in bsg_avalon, @ 2010-11-11 18:37:00 |
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Current location: | Avalon |
Entry tags: | elihu ramai, james chase |
Mess(y)
WHO: James Chase & Elihu Ramai
WHERE: Mess Galley, Battlestar Avalon
WHEN: Evening 04 Dec Y02
Dinner plans with his wife was cancelled at the last minute. Pierce and Burk went over to the Battlestar Pacifica for a dinner meeting and Jilleen had to go with them. It left James alone to go grab a bite to eat at the mess. His crew already had dinner earlier.
James wearing the blue service uniform of an officer walked away from the chow line with a dinner tray. Nothing fancy, a cheese burger, sweet potato fries, a little salad, and lemonade. He paused for a second to find an open seat among the officers and enlisted. He noticed open seat next to a guy with the same unit patch as his wife from Headquarters of the 1st Expeditionary Force.
He walked over. “Excuse me, is this seat taken?” He asked him.
"All yours." Elihu leaned back in his own chair, the front feet raising off the ground slightly. An officer. It didn't make as much difference to him as it should have.
He picked at the food somewhat aimlessly. At home on Caprica, his family had taken care to preserve the traditions, even where cuisine was involved. The fresh smell of mint, a light taste of cardamom--these were flavors that burst against the tongue and felt like life itself. What he ate on the ship was not. Without thinking about it, he reached out for a nearby bottle of sauce, pooling it on the side and coating a fry in it simply to feel as if he'd done something to improve the taste.
It hadn't. The look on his face made that very, very clear.
James sat himself down with his food, and then reached for the pepper shaker to spice up his fries. He then bowed his head for a moment to say a brief silent prayer of thanks. In the years since his last tour on Sagittaron he had become more religious. It was coming so close to losing his life and losing everything he known changed him. It was at least what his wife tried to tell him earlier today.
He caught Elihu’s expression after eating a fry. “It’s not exactly a Donald fry, huh?”
"Not exactly," Eli agreed. He noted the other man's prayer and thought to himself that he ought to have matched it. There was nothing in him of late, however, that ached for gods.
He turned his thoughts from the serious and said instead, "Don't think I've seen you around." He extended an arm. "Elihu Ramai." He didn't affix the name of his ship, not certain what the man next to him might or might not have known.
“Chase, James Chase,” he did not shake his hand. Picans don’t shake hands at the dinner table. “I noticed your unit patch. You must know Captain Jilleen Simmons.”
Awkward. He withdrew his hand and wondered whether James knew more than he'd believed. Elihu hadn't been around many Picans.
"Yeah," he said, reverting back to an accent even he could hear the dirt in. "I do."
“I’m sure,” he grabbed his fork. “She works for the Admiral.” There was a hint of disappointment in his voice. After all she stood up her own husband this evening to be with her boss. “What about you? What do you do?” He poked his fork into his salad.
Frak your wife.
Thankfully, he didn't say that and he hated the impulse that even brought it to mind.
"I'm a pilot," Eli answered, taking another bite of a fry and chewing it slowly. "Maybe she's mentioned me." He couldn't help it, even though it was like sticking a knife in an open wound. He waited for James to twist it.
“Right,” he finished chewing on the leaves of his salad in his mouth before continuing. “She told me. You must have been the one she went to the surface with yesterday. Now I remember the last name.“ It made sense that she would have taken a Tauran pilot with her to the ceremonies. Jill was always good at the image thing. It would give her more credibility among the Taurans.
“How was she?” he asked.
"Perfect," Eli spoke before he thought. There was a soft note in his voice when he pictured Jill that never quite made it into the rest of his speech but he was unaware of it. "She always is, however. Never mistake her for a knuckle dragger, that's for damn sure." And he grinned at the very idea.
James laughed in agreement. “That’s for frak sure. Jill always makes sure of that. ” He pointed a finger back and forth between them. “Between you and me, she knows how to play dirty, and more than one way. Trust me.” Part of him missed that about her. Even if their relationship was not on its best terms at the moment, she was still pleasant. Back when it was in complete turmoil, Jill was out right cruel, but making up was the best part of those rocky times. He really missed that passion.
"What do you mean by that?" His blood was rising, just slightly, at the implication.
James was surprised by his reaction. “Excuse me? What did you think I meant by it?” At that moment he was a little suspicious. He probably went too far. It was not like the old days when they had an open marriage, he should not have been thinking about it. This guy was one of Jill’s coworkers and a Tauran who were usually very loyal to those that belong to their unit, but he sensed something else.
He waited for an answer.
There was enough of the old Tauron values left in Elihu to answer, "I think that's a little disrespectful."
After a long pause, “You’re right, I’m an ass.” What was he thinking, he asked himself. Jill did say he was not himself at times. He was too busy trying to recapture lost time from when he was disabled. “I was supposed to have dinner with Jill this evening before she was called away. We haven’t spent much time together since she arrived. ” He picked up his cheese burger. “That’s life in the military.”
This felt wrong. James wasn't what he'd allowed himself to believe, not if he was sitting here missing his wife. Jealously, Eli wondered why she wasn't with either of them and he didn't stop the nasty little impulse that led him to ask, "What was she called away for?"
“A social,” he then chewed a piece off his cheese burger. He thought about all this extra effort she made to come early to spend some time with him, and when they had a chance she stood him up to attend a so call dinner meeting with the brass. He was a little hard on her about it, but she was an Admiral’s aide-de-camp.
“I wonder if the rumors are true about Pierce considering a run for the Presidency of the Colonies. What do you know?” he asked. Jill did not like to speak about it, and she would claim it was her job to make the Admiral look good. His wife’s brother was the governor of Aerilon, and she grew up in the Governor’s mansion when her father was the governor. Politics was in her blood.
"I heard about as much as you," Or at least that was what he was going to say. Still, Elihu liked the idea although he privately wondered if Jill would find herself involved. "What do you think about the idea?"
He drank some of his lemonade first. “I don’t know, I can’t see him as President. Jill seems to think he would make a great president. It’s funny though, she didn’t campaign for her own brother running for the governorship when she could have done it.” He shook his head. “The difference I think is that he’s her boss, and she will do her very best to carry out his orders. “ He looked at Elihu, “I don’t think he is going run, he’s using politics to get the troubles in Sagittaron resolved once and for all. Enough blood had been spilled.”
"Too bad. I'm with Jill on that one." He paused, then asked, "Any reason she didn't campaign for her own brother?" They never talked about her family much. Elihu wasn't comfortable with politics and it had been bad enough he was sleeping with another man's wife. That was politics enough.
It was made worse by the fact that he was growing to like the man.
“Believe it or not, she doesn’t like the publicity.” He chuckled. “Jill’s complicated.” James after all these years could not figure out his own wife. He did not think it was possible.
"I know," he said in much the same tone he might have used with a fellow pilot. You're doing this to torture yourself, Eli, he thought. With a shrug, he grinned, then said, "Do you blame her? Frakkin' politics. Not my thing, that's for damn sure."
Elihu wondered if it held more interest for James.
For a single second, his left eye twitched, like it always did when something did not seem right. Elihu seemed to ask a lot about Jill. “No,” he simply replied. He ate a fry and drank of his lemonade while he thought about Jill’s odd behavior since she had been back.
“You see a lot of her, don’t you?” This raptor pilot probably saw more of his wife than he had in the last few months.
"Yeah. I guess." He shrugged. "We're on the same crew." It was a broad way of looking at it. Suddenly, Elihu wanted to cut and run--there was something about this whole encounter that wasn't right.
It was more than simply sitting across from a man whose woman you were involved with--no, it was that he kept returning to the fact that he liked James. That the other man didn't deserve this.
He especially didn't deserve Eli's mouth which seemed incapable of calculating a believable lie at the moment. His hand dropped to his lap, balling up his napkin to avoid making a fist. He wasn't sure, however, who he wanted to hit.
James nodded. Of course, Elihu did work with her. He was jealous, for maybe the first time in a long time. Knowing Jill, the raptor pilot sitting next to him was her type. He was tall, dark haired, and a raptor pilot! He grinned inwardly; at least he could claim himself a raptor pilot too.
“Have you let Jill drive your machine, yet?” he asked. He meant the raptor.
Eli choked at that, then simply shook his head. "She's... ah... no." He stood up. "You know, it's been great to meet you but I think I ought to get back, speaking of raptors. My bird hasn't had a decent mechanic under her since I don't fraking know when." It wasn't true--like most pilots, Ramai put the Raptor's needs before his own.
James found Elihu’s answer and reaction curious. He always referred to his raptor as a machine, but he could see how it might be interpreted another way. No frakking way he thought to himself. He got up too. Remain cool. You might be wrong.
Standing next to other guy, he turned to him. “Seriously dude, you‘re flying a flag officer, and my WIFE in your machine -- Raptor. Don’t BS me about being behind on routine maintenance. What’s going on?” He stopped himself from grabbing the man’s arm. Inside he didn’t want to know, but … How could Jill do this?
"Calm down." was all Eli said. He didn't trust himself to say more. His eyes flickered over James, strangely filled with pity.
James did his best to remain composed and knew others were watching now. He did not get this far in his career starting fights in the middle of the mess. He did not like the look in the other man’s eyes, but a fist to the face would not make it better. Inside he knew and it hurt.
He stepped back, and then lifted a finger toward Eli. “I’m going to find out,” James then walked away leaving his tray on the table for someone else to clean up before he did something stupid. Those near them were whispering questions about what just happened.