Can't get over it
WHO: James Chase & Elihu Ramai WHERE: Battlestar Avalon WHEN: Shortly after Jill departed.
He wondered if he should accept the new job offer on Picon. He knew there were better qualified officers to take the position. It was because of his seniority that his name was on the list. He may have overcome his injuries, but at what price? His narrow focus on achieving his goal caused him to not see the truth about his relationship with his wife. He felt like an idiot. There were more important things in life than rank and title. He achieved both today, but it was meaningless.
Jill had already left Avalon with Admiral Pierce. He would have to try to see her again, and … He didn’t know what. He didn’t think his wife loved this other man. Could he accept it if she did? When he learned that the fourth raptor of Admiral Pierce’s entourage was still aboard and the pilot was Lt. Ramai. He thought maybe he should have a little talk with the man and get a sense what kind of man he was. James headed to where he thought he could find Lt. Ramai.
Elihu was doing a last-minute check of his raptor, preparing the bird for flight. He’d had enough missions go bad in his day that he no longer left that duty only to the deck crew. His fingers trailed the “Torch” written across her nose thoughtfully, interrupted by someone else’s footsteps in the distance.
He wasn’t sure why but he had a feeling.
He walked over to the doors slowly, no sense of urgency in the interception. When he saw the man standing there, Eli wasn’t sure what to think. He simply raised an arm in greeting and said, “Hello.” He had no grievance with the man--if anything, it was he who had wronged.
James did not return the greeting. “May I have a word with you Lieutenant? In private.” There was an empty launch tube station near by where they can have a conversation without the worry of someone overhearing them. He still did not know exactly what he would say to Eli, but a had a few ideas.
“Certainly.” He didn’t hesitate. Whatever the words were, Eli wanted to hear them. Even if James, like so many men that he had known, spoke only with his fists.
“In here,” he pointed toward the launch station. After the two were inside, he closed the hatch, and faced the raptor pilot. He really wanted to put his fist into the man’s face, and if it was not for his uniform and rank, he might have. “I want to talk to you about Jill. She told me about you and her, and I don’t approve, but she made her choice. So what kind of man are you?”
“What do you mean, what kind of man am I?” Eli kept his voice level. He could ask the same of James but he wouldn’t. He was the one at fault. It had never been his intention that the other man discover it.
“What kind of man sleeps with another man’s wife? I just want to know what makes you tick.” He felt himself getting angry at this moment confronting Eli. James thought he could keep his emotions in check and calmly handle this situation. The muscles in his face tighten.
“One who thinks the relationship is over.” His eyes met James. “Is it?”
James had kept all his emotions bottled up since he first learned of his wife’s infidelity. Those words were all it took to break down his self-control. Military discipline be damn. James lunged at Elihu and grabbed his flight suit to shove the pilot into the wall behind him. “Frak you dirt-eater.”
Eli shoved back, his palms flat on the other man’s chest as he threw his weight into it. Damn, that wall had hurt. He was out of breath, gasping a little as he said, “Tell me you’re what she wants and I’ll walk. I don’t think it’s about me.”
James let go when Eli shoved back and was ready to strike. What the other man said made him pause. He reconsidered his options. While beating the pilot’s face in would make him feel better in the short term, the long term consequences would not be satisfactory. “You bet its not about you.”
“I don’t know what Jill wants anymore, but she’s having an affair with you.” He lifted and pointed his finger at the pilot. “You better not do anything to harm her. I swear to the gods if you do, I won’t just shove against a wall. You fly straight and true. Get my drift?”
“Look. I didn’t get in this to hurt anybody.” And Eli damn well wasn’t going to be lectured by a man who seemed to hurt Jill just as much as he did, if not more. “And she’s an adult. She can handle it.”
Jill’s affair with Eli was driving James crazy with overlapping emotions. Anger, despair, worry, and relief? The last one did not make sense, but a part of him was relieved. Perhaps it would make sense later, but now he just felt like an mad fool. “I know she can, she’s not stupid.”
James backed away as he realized this was not going anywhere. He paused for a moment as if he was going to make a request or even offer a warning, but instead looked directly into the eyes of the other man. He finally blinked, gave a little nod and turned left face to walk out of the room. He was not going to win Jill back by being a fool, and that is if he wanted to win her back. It would take a while to figure that one out. The whole situation was tearing away at him more than he had realized.