Fic - " The Situation part 1" PG Roslin/Gaeta
Title - The Situation Characters - Gaeta/Roslin Word count - 973 Rating - PG currently Summary - Laura and Felix have a secret. Spoilers - none, set after "Water" Warnings - implied incest. multiparted, may have full on incest Disclosure - I own nothing, I want no funds... BSG does not belong to me.
“Lt. Gaeta, I wonder if you could stay for a moment, to go over these reports?” Laura Roslin asked it pleasantly, but inside, her stomach was rolling. Which, she supposed, was ironic considering all that had happened within the last three weeks. The Twelve Colonies destroyed, a week of nonstop FTL jumps, a cancer diagnosis, and now the water tanks on the last remaining battlestar blowing up….
And she was worried about speaking to Felix Gaeta. Of course, it had been ten, no eleven years since she had seen him. And he hadn’t been a military officer, or even a full grown man. His name hadn’t even been Gaeta although she wasn’t shocked he had changed it. Not after everything that had happened.
Gaeta didn’t react in the slightest. He merely stood patiently by the door as the others attending the briefing filed out. His eyes widened slightly when she sent Billy out. Billy was surprised but only too glad to leave, no doubt to search out his new girlfriend. Gaeta stepped to the hatch door and latched it. Then he turned to her.
“ I assume you don’t particularly care about the reports,” he said. His tone was ice cold. But underneath… she saw faint signs of … something more. Be careful, she warned herself.
There were reasons beyond the niceties of high society that they hadn’t seen each other. Shame had stopped her from writing more than once. Shame and other reasons…. She assumed it was the same for him. She had been startled to see him standing in the CIC of the Galactica when she had arrived. “I thought we should discuss the… situation.”
For just a moment, he looked hurt, but he covered it quickly. “ There’s no situation to discuss. My records were altered by the hall, and the originals are in a safe on Libra. I’ve checked the survivor lists for anyone I might have known. I assume you did the same.” He paused. “ I don’t plan to discuss the past, if that was your concern.”
She almost smiled, but stopped herself just in time. Smiling would imply something, that they did have a past, and worse, he might ask for an explanation. And how to explain that the sight of him in a military uniform looking cool and stern made her think of a child playing dress up?
It would offend him. Particularly since he seemed to be well respected. “ No, I didn’t plan to discuss it either. It could only harm us both.”
“ You have more to lose,” he said coldly. “ But then, you always did. Ironic, isn’t it? How you never manage to entirely erase your mistakes? Thirty billion people are dead, and you still have to worry. It’s almost funny.” He crossed his arms. “ But then I remind myself that as usual, you’re the one with the power. I’m surprised I wasn’t left on Ragnar. That would have solved your problem quite nicely.”
“ Do you think I’m a monster?” It wasn’t going how she had planned at all. She expected it to be awkward, but they had to speak to each other, to clear the air. And to set new ground rules. The fugitive fleet was small, and she was the civilian leader, and he was the tactical officer under the last remaining military commander. There was no place for either of them to go.
“ Consider our history,” Gaeta said simply. “ How many times have I been cast aside?” Anger rolled through his words, but after a moment, she could see it fade away to weariness. “ Is this all you wanted?”
“No…” Laura took a deep breath. “ I’m glad you’re alive, Felix. That you weren’t killed.” She realized after saying it, that it was true. And the sudden softness in his expression told her that he felt the same. “ This should be the last time we acknowledge... this.”
He shrugged. “ You’re the one with the power. I’m well aware of my place in your life. After all, I was trained to serve, and be discreet. The hall altered my records, but that was to protect you, not me.”
“ Why did you leave the hall?” It puzzled her. It had ended badly, and she knew her patron at the time had taken great pains to insulate her, but she knew the guild hall master had been angry and horrified at… the mistake that had occurred. No blame would have fallen on Felix. And he had been excellent at his trade. She had always assumed he had gone on to obtain his mastery in the Soliciator’s Hall.
It was as though she had hit him. He recoiled. “ Do you think they wanted me back? I was a laughingstock, and worse, I was damaged goods. You walked away and went back to Caprica. The apprenticeship is considered sacred, and I was a spoiled candidate. If I had stayed at the hall, I would never have been allowed out of the lowest ranks. I wouldn’t have been anything more than a jumped up brothel whore, sent out to customers who didn’t have the taste or sophistication to understand that they were buying a whore who wasn’t allowed to graduate and not a soliciator.” He glared at her. “ I won’t discuss your secrets. Laura. You can drop the concerned act now.”
He unlatched the door and walked out. Laura Roslin sighed. She hadn’t expected it to go well, but it had been better than she expected. He was angry, and he argued which she hadn’t expected, but he wasn’t going to discuss it. Which was for the best. For both of them.
But he had a point. One mistake kept coming back no matter what she did, in the form of Felix Gaeta.