It's the End of the World ((au rp for arrow_of_apollo))

[number_eight]

OOC: Takes place after THIS THREAD

Two months. Well, almost two months. Far past the time that Sharon had expected to be away from Hera. Tensions were mounting on the Demetrius, and then all hell had broken loose.

She remembered grabbing Kara and putting her in a chokehold so the mutiny could continue. It wasn't even a question of if she should do it or not -- Sharon, as the only Cylon onboard was the strongest one and pretty much the only one who could physically take down Kara if need be. Nothing had been discussed, but Helo was about to take over command of the ship when Sam shot Felix and... and that was it.

Next thing she knew, she was flying Kara in a Raptor along with that damn Leoben.

She always did act before she really thought things through.

Which was why, she supposed, it shouldn't have surprised her that she had made the jump in the middle of the fleet without the Demetrius, only to have to listen alongside Kara as a Six spoke about uniting the Cylons and humans together. The world was going to hell, and it was just getting worse.

Then Hera was lost. Time was slipping from her mind, but those pictures... the ones Hera had made... she had to shoot the Cylon. It was the only way to save Hera.

She always did act before she really thought things through...

After the Old Man yelled at her, her thoughts turned to the one man she hadn't thought of in all that time she'd been away. Lee. Maybe... maybe Lee could help her, somehow.

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[arrow-of-apollo.livejournal.com]

Lee hadn't understood the message that had crossed his desk, not at all. Not even after he'd sat in silence, ignoring his aide and telling her to hold all calls, staring at the paper. It might not have been a clean break-- Gods, nothing about whatever it was he had had with Sharon Agathon could be called "clean"-- but it had definitely been a break. And now, she was reaching back out to him. Not out of affection or lust, but need. Real need.

Lt. Sharon Agathon placed under Colonial Fleet custody today after unauthorized discharge of service firearm and injury to enemy noncombatant under Fleet protection during a time of war. Lt. Agathon has requested Mr. Lee Adama to serve as legal advisor and, in case of court martial or other official inquiry, as legal counsel.

He cleared the rest of his schedule and was on the next Raptor the Galactica before he knew it. It was a long walk down those once-familiar corridors from the flight deck to the brig, especially with the Marine escort. Lee nodded to the two Corpsmen, who took a few steps back but did not leave the room.

She looked miserable, and he wasn't sure he could help her.

"I'm not a lawyer." It was the best he could think of at the moment.

[number-eight.livejournal.com]

"I know," she said as she stood up, grateful that he'd come at all. "But you were there at Baltar's trial. Your words helped get him off, Lee. I might not have been there to hear what you said, but everyone in the fleet knows that it wasn't Baltar's attorney that got him that 'not guilty' verdict."

She wrung her hands. Hera. The Old Man had said he was disappointed in her, that he'd expected more. That she'd betrayed him and lost his trust.

"Why?"

Hadn't he asked her that before, back on Kobol? Or was that Boomer, over her dead body? She didn't realize the tears were falling freely and that her voice had gone hoarse from singing Hera's favorite lullaby.

"I can't even see my daughter," she told him as she moved closer to embrace him, somehow. She didn't give a frak what anyone else thought right now. Helo was gone and Hera was gone, but Lee was right here.

"I don't know what to do..."

[arrow-of-apollo.livejournal.com]

"All I did was tell the truth, I--" Lee stopped himself. He wasn't here to talk about Gaius Baltar's trial or his abilities, real or imagined, as an attorney. It was the reasons behind Sharon's deciding to engage him as a lawyer or some other counsel that he was more interested in. Lee studied her more closely.

Sharon looked... smaller, somehow. Even when they'd been screaming at each other, and even when it seemed like she was so angry or lost that there was no turning back, he remembered a set to the woman's shoulders, and a straightness to her back that was missing now. Whatever had happened since the shooting, it was doing a damn good job of breaking her down.

That idea twisted his stomach a few degrees more than he had ever expected.

When Sharon stepped up to him, Lee did glance over his shoulder at the guards. Sharon's Cylon origins aside, she was still a Colonial officer in custody and he was still the Caprican delegate to the Quorum. She was married. So was he, at least legally, and he still wore his ring. But all that didn't keep him from putting his hands on her arms, letting her feel the gesture.

"Tell me everything about what happened. I may not have any influence around here anymore, but maybe I can at least give you some advice."

[number-eight.livejournal.com]

The feel of his hands on her arms helped her to breathe a little better, almost as if he was clearing her head through the warm touch, however small it might have been. She nodded at him in thanks before she went on.

"Everything? You want to know everything?"

So she told him. He knew already about the shared vision, but she told him about the drawing, about Hera running away, about the Six kneeling... how Tigh had told them all to stand down and how she asked Tyrol to take Hera away from it all before shooting the Six twice.

"And then your father brought me to his quarters," she said, licking her lips as she looked down. "I thought... I thought I was protecting my daughter. No, I know I was protecting her, and then he told me I committed murder." A rueful laugh escaped her lips. "Can you imagine that? Your father actually said shooting a Cylon was murder. Wish I had a frakking tape recorder..."

Sharon shook her head. "I couldn't believe how angry he was at me... no. No, disappointed." She looked Lee straight in the eyes, knowing he would understand that feeling all too well. It was one thing she'd learned about Lee in the time they'd spent together.

"And then he took Hera away from me after I asked him not to," she finished quietly.

[arrow-of-apollo.livejournal.com]

He took in everything she told him, sitting down on the edge of the simple cot when the visions first started being mentioned.

Lee had never been much of one for black humor, but when Sharon laughed so bitterly over his father's words, he couldn't help himself. If she was surprised that Admiral Adama would now refer to the shooting of a Cylon agent as murder, Lee thought to himself, then Sharon sort of had herself to blame. In the years since Boomer had been shot on Galactica, Lee's father had come to trust and care for Sharon Agathon in the way the Old Man so often took his young female officers under his wing. It wasn't as if Lee had ever missed when he got a new "sister".

Wisely, he didn't mention the thought of Sharon's influencing the change in attitude she was now viewing so angrily out loud.

Sharon looked to him when she mentioned disappointing the Admiral. Lee was familiar with that particular situation intimately, and Sharon knew it. She was looking for sympathy. The resigned smile he returned told her she had it.

Finally, he tried to understand his father's actions with Sharon's daughter. "He's not thinking like a father right now. He's thinking like an Admiral who's just lost the President of the Colonies." Lee tilted his head slightly, a thought occurring to him. "Or he might be thinking of having just lost Laura Roslin..."

[number-eight.livejournal.com]

"Losing Laura Roslin?" She frowned at what Lee was trying to say, then her eyes widened slightly. "Oh."

It wasn't as if they had all been blind to any sort of feelings that were not exactly professional in terms of Admiral Adama and President Roslin. She supposed it was the idea of simply hearing the words spoken aloud was what got to her, though.

"I just... I lost Helo, too. You don't see me acting irrationally towards crewmen." Which was a lie and they both knew it, but it made Sharon feel better to say it.

She finally sat down on the cot in her cell, defeated. "If he's not thinking like a father, then he'll never understand how I'm feeling right now or why I did what I did." Sharon paused.

"But it's not my frakking fault that President Roslin isn't here. I didn't make the baseship jump." She shook her head. "Lee, what am I going to do?"

[arrow-of-apollo.livejournal.com]

"I'm not sure," Lee answered, "I..."

His voice trailed off, no real idea at all what to tell Sharon. In the back of his mind, a voice was nagging Lee, telling him that he didn't have time to be here. Romo Lampkin was waiting for him back on Colonial One and there was more work to do than Lee wanted to imagine. The next President of the Colonies was waiting somewhere out in that fleet and they needed to find him or her as quickly as possible. This was a distraction, the voice told him, and it wasn't as if, even with all the time in the world, that Lee could really help her.

But he couldn't walk out on Sharon like this. Even when it had been the foremost thing on Lee's mind, he'd never been able to quite figure out what their connection really was, or had become. It wasn't like anything Lee had ever experienced, and he couldn't deny that it was still there, at least for him, when they got this close.

"I think he'll remember who he is," said Lee, sitting down next to Sharon. "I think my father will remember the kind of leader he is. You know, I hear that he's sending out every bird the Galactica has on constant recon to find that baseship. There're even rumors on the civvie ships that the Admiral is going to start commandeering them for the search." He reached out and put a hand on her knee-- a gesture meant in support. "I think he'll realize that's the same kind of reaction you had to believing your daughter was in danger."

[number-eight.livejournal.com]

She nodded, hearing but not really listening to what Lee was saying, as she hugged herself as much as possible. "Yeah."

She looked up at Lee and realized then, finally. "Oh, you shouldn't be here. Without President Roslin, I guess Vice President Zarek will be taking over the presidency." Until she comes back, was the unspoken thought, but she didn't say it because it might not be true.

"He'll probably need you, right?" As a delegate, she wasn't really sure what exactly Lee did these days. "I... could you just check on Hera for me, please? Make sure she's okay before you go back to Colonial One?"

Sharon wanted more, of course, but he'd been the one to end it and their lives were on two different paths now.

[arrow-of-apollo.livejournal.com]

"Not for long," Lee told her. Lee himself had come to at least some kind of accord with Tom Zarek, but there was no way that Admiral Adama was ever going to stand for the former convict serving as President, even pro tem. "My father wouldn't stand for it. We need to find someone to serve that both the civilian population and the military will be able to accept."

They'd never find another Laura Roslin out there in the fleet, he was sure, but maybe there was someone good enough.

Lee reached out and squeezed Sharon's hand. "Of course I will. And if I get a chance to speak to the Admiral, I'll try to mention your daughter. Maybe seeing me will help." He turned toward Sharon, wanting more than ever to order the Marines out of sight of the cell and press his mouth against hers. But he didn't have the authority for that anymore.

"I wish there was more I could do, Sharon. But I'll come back to check on you, if you want."

[number-eight.livejournal.com]

She was more than a little surprised at that. True, Vice President Zarek wasn't exactly loved by everyone due to his fairly checkered past, but he was still Vice President. As an off-hand remark, she smirked, "Too bad you can't be the one to take charge. You've always been a great leader, no matter what the circumstance."

Sharon squeezed his hand back and nodded. "Thank you. I'd really appreciate it." That went for Hera and for checking on her later, too, and she hoped he realized it.

She shut her eyes. She was, quite literally, alone. Helo was gone, Hera wasn't here, Admiral Adama had cut ties with her basically, and Lee? She blew out a deep breath. "I miss you," she told him, before letting go of his hand.

"You'd better go."

[arrow-of-apollo.livejournal.com]

It was a rueful kind of smile that he gave her. "I don't think so. I've been watching Roslin do the job for weeks now, and, uh," Lee rubbed at his chin, "I may not agree with how she's done it, I'm not sure I want the job myself." He sighed. "Besides, there's plenty of people out in the fleet more qualified."

"Of course," he told Sharon. "The day care unit is on the way back to the flight deck."

He held her hand, feeling the warmth and strength in Sharon's body and knowing that at least in this moment, she was looking for more of the same from him instead of some kind of escape. Lee squeezed back. "You, too," he answered, voice just above a whisper.

"I'll be back," Lee told her, standing. "Hopefully, to let you know you've been released."

[number-eight.livejournal.com]

She nodded. "Hopefully."

As she watched him go, though, she was warmed by the fact that he'd said he'd look in on Hera. Knowing that she would be fine meant more to her than anything else right now.

Although she would have been lying to herself if she didn't also admit that knowing Lee missed her wasn't a bad thing. Sharon curled up on the cot alone when he was gone, but for the first time since being tossed in hack, she smiled.