lee - october 6th 2015

[ofthingstocome]

Out of all the gods-damned things she expected getting out of that hospital room, this wasn't even on the list. The scrape of metal on metal happened every single time she moved and it was getting on her nerves. The handcuff was too tight for her to dislocate her thumb to get out of it, and the welds on the bedframe were solid enough that there was no way it was coming off that way.

It's a small miracle that she hasn't been drugged again. The pain's still eating away at her, and what's worse than that's the exhaustion. When she'd punched the orderly, she'd managed to frak up her hand and open her stitches, but a oh-so-helpful nurse had patched her up once she was cuffed and left behind. She's got new bandages on her wounds, one where she'd pulled out her IV, and one on her hand, and not of it makes a single bit of sense.

She's pretty sure that there's a guard on the door, and what Kara doesn't know is that there's a quasi-procedure in place for this. When people come from other places, and are hurt, and moreover if they're behaving erratically. Hold them in custody, they get a public defender, a psych consult, and then the determination is made if they should press charges.

Rattling the cuff again, Kara stares up at the ceiling, her jaw clenched in anger and fear. This place is impossible. It's impossible, and she's been trying to figure out if she's seeing things like Roslin, if she'd up and died-- and that's what finally gets her to speak, her voice low in the hospital room where they'd taken away anything that could be within reach and used as a weapon. "Lords, I don't know if this is supposed to be some kind of test, but I'm running on empty on how to take this. If there was some kind of, I don't know, directions or something... Just figured I'd ask."

A split second after the last word dies in her throat, there's a knock on the door. Blinking in surprise, Kara mutters, "Thanks," before she pushes herself up a little with a wince, and speaks up. "Come in."

Comments

[adifferentpath]

It's a normal day of reviewing cases, visiting clients, defending charged criminals in court. Of course, they're not actually Lee's cases, but they're Toby Spitzer's and Lee's just shadowing him for the day. There's been a lot of that since he started working part time at the public defender's office. A lot of being shown the ropes, a lot of paperwork, and every once in a while, he'd actually get to put in his two cubits when it came to the cases they had on their plate.

It's a long way from what Lee got to do for the short time that he was helping with the emerging legal system in the Fleet, but he figures that eventually, he'll get his own caseload. In about two years, that is. But for now, he's barely a paralegal, filling in the days he doesn't have lectures by going from courtroom to courtroom, or between rooms at the city's jail.

Today's a little different, though. Spitzer's gotten a case for someone in custody at the hospital, who claims they've just gotten to the city, who assaulted an orderly.

It's one that Lee insists on tagging along for, even though he's supposed to be reading through about a dozen case files. But he knows that it's more likely than not that this person who claims to have just arrived in the city actually has. And they're probably really frakking confused. While Spitzer isn't as anti-immigrant as a lot of Darrow locals Lee has met, he knows that this whole thing will probably go better with him there.

So he's on Spitzer's tail as they walk through the hospital, as they're lead back to the room where they're keeping this new, rowdy arrival who needs representation.

Lee can't quite see when the curtain's pulled back, when Spitzer steps forward to introduce himself to the person handcuffed to the bed, but figures it's best if he keeps his distance for now. He's just supposed to be shadowing, after all. He's the one holding the case file.

"I'm Toby Spitzer, and I'm your court appointed defender, Ms..." he starts, then reaches back for the folder that Lee's holding in his hands. He hands it over, watching as it's opened and as Spitzer looks for the name on the arrest report. "Thrace? Am I pronouncing that right?"

There's a moment, where it feels almost as if the air's been sucked out of the room. Because it's been a long time now, nearly two years, since he's seen Kara Thrace. There was always a part of him convinced that she'd be back eventually, because somehow, Kara always finds a way back. She made it back from Caprica, she fought like hell to get off of New Caprica, she somehow came back from that nebula, even after Lee watched her viper explode with his own eyes.

But despite all that, despite always knowing, somehow, that he'd see her again, Lee isn't prepared for it when he sidesteps the other man in the room and sees her face.

"Gods... Kara?"

[ofthingstocome]

She doesn't really expect to be met with a lawyer. Her cuff rattles as she shakes her hand, like an unspoken way of saying Let me the frak out of here. "Great," she says thickly. "Good to know that I've got a court defender-" Her voice is dripping with sarcasm with a side of anger.

"Yeah. Thrace. It's not that hard-" She's interrupted by Lee.

She's interrupted by Lee, and it's got her leaning sideways enough she can see him, even though it hurts. "Lee?" Her voice is raw with emotion, and she yanks at her hand where it's cuffed, hard enough that it bites into her wrist. He looks... different. He looks so different, and she can't even make sense of it. There are things she should think right now - that he's a Cylon, maybe, or that she's hallucinating or that yeah, she'd really died. Instead, all that she's got is intense relief. She's overwhelmed, and Kara honestly never thought she'd see him again.

"Lee-" This time his name is a strangled sound as her eyes well up, and everything she can see is blurry as she yanks again at the handcuff, completely ignoring the 'court appointed defender' in the room. She can't let herself think that he's not actually there. Not after all of this. Just for a minute, she's got to let herself believe that he's real.

[adifferentpath]

Spitzer looks from Kara to Lee, confused, and even though Lee knows he's going to have to explain himself and how the hell he knows Kara, he doesn't think he quite knows how to put it into words. He remembers watching her viper blow up at the gas giant, he remembers seeing her Viper at the nebula, and he remembers her turning up in Darrow. There's not a lot about it that Lee thinks he can explain without sounding frakking crazy. As it is, he doesn't get into his past much with people who aren't from Darrow. He thinks that Molly might be one of very few people who know the extent of it, and he's not really looking to change that.

"Lee, do you know this woman?" he asks.

"Yeah, she's... she's a friend," Lee says, though he knows it's an understatement. The truth is, he's kind of at a loss for words.

Maybe he's feeling the general energy of the room, or maybe it's a sign that Lee should start believing in the Gods, but Spitzer almost seems to read Lee's mind, as annoyed as he seems by the entire situation.

"I'll give you two a minute," he says, and walks out of the room, closing the privacy curtain behind him.

[ofthingstocome]

Kara stares at him for what seems like forever, and her eyes are burning with unshed tears. She doesn't say his name again, but there's no helping the way her eyes dart to the windows, because she's hurting and she's never been good at talking about it. "You're about the last person I expected to see," she says after the extended silence. "Can't decide if this is one of Roslin's hallucinations or if I just bit it back there, but it's good to see you, Lee."

That when her eyes flick back to his for a second, and there's so much pain there that it's overwhelming. Everything in her eyes is screaming for help, that she needs him, but her gaze slides right past him to the door, then back to him, then gone again, like it's afraid to settle on him and show what she's hiding. "Either way, your hair's frakking ridiculous," the levity's forced, and the short bark of a laugh is followed by her coughing, and it's all she can do to not half twist up on herself because it hurts. It hurts to laugh, and when she sucks in her next breath it's a little better.

[adifferentpath]

He almost wants to laugh. Out of relief, because it's actually Kara— the comment sealed it— or because there was a part of him that actually thought he might not ever see her again. As convinced as he was that she'd turn up again someday, either something like this or with the Fleet at the heels of her Viper, he'd doubted.

"No, it's pretty goddamned real," Lee says, the end of his sentence punctuated by a laugh he can't help but let out, because it's so frakking good to see her. But he still has a lot of questions, and he knows she's got a long day ahead of her.

"Gods... when did you get here? What happened?"

[ofthingstocome]

She tries to smile, her eyes still damp as she looks up at Lee, trying to seem like she's got her shit pulled together for all that she's handcuffed to a hospital bed. "Oh, you know. Come to Caprica, get the Arrow, get shot, end up in a- Probably in a Cylon hospital? And now I'm here." She blows past so many things; Sharon, Helo, the extra surgery - because she doesn't know how to even tell him.

She pulls in a deep breath, and the smile's a little wider. "So, what? There's no barbers here? I really didn't think I'd hallucinate you looking like that."

[adifferentpath]

Lee stopped cutting his hair short right around the time he agreed to work on Baltar's trial. There hadn't been any time for it to grow out before he crash-landed in Darrow, though. By now, it's definitely longer than Kara probably remembers, and he hadn't considered it.

"Not a hallucination," he repeats, and self-consciously, he runs one hand through his hair, "Unless we're both frakking crazy."

Maybe they both are, but that's unrelated to what's going on right now.

"What's the last thing you remember from Galactica?" Lee goes on to ask, trying to get his bearings here.

[ofthingstocome]

"I wasn't on the Galactica," she says thickly.

It takes her a second, and she won't look at him, her eyes darting everywhere but to him, and gods she feels alone. He's here, but he's too far away for her to reach, dressed like a civilian. Her gaze bounces everywhere except to meet his, skittering across his face and to the windows, to the curtain, the door, her handcuff.

There's fear on her face; fear that this is all a hallucination, that he's not real, that this is some sort of trick. Fear that she's just lost it, and pain from the memories, both physical and emotional. "But I guess if you want to know the last thing from the Galactica it would be when I split to get the Arrow." Forcing a smile that's too tight, that's trying to paint herself as Kara Thrace, requisite fuck-up because that's so much easier than the way she's tied in knots because of where she was from.

"Went to New Caprica. I found Helo, and--" She hesitates as everything comes crashing back. "Lee, Sharon's a Cylon." Her voice drops, and she's actually willing to look at him, the way it had torn her apart so incredibly clear with the way her eyes shine. "She's a frakking toaster." Her voice was raw with hatred, with betrayal, with the hurt that their friend was a gods-damned robot.

[adifferentpath]

"Gods, that was over two years ago," Lee says, and he knows that people in Darrow show up from different times and places, and that the last time Kara was in Darrow, she was from just a little while after he was, but it still takes him by surprise. There's so much she doesn't know that he doesn't know where to start.

With Sharon... Boomer, he supposes. She doesn't even know about he shooting his dad.

"Time... it works differently here. I promise I'm not crazy but that was years ago. The cylons look like us now, and Sharon... she's one of them. We found out on Galactica when she shot the Admiral."

[ofthingstocome]

"Wait, what?" She's reeling from everything that he's said, and Kara yanks at the handcuff, even though getting up out of bed isn't going to help. "Hold on. Start- Admiral. You mean your dad?" The look on Kara's face is almost pleading. She wants it to be someone else. Anyone else, because Sharon shot him.

Adama's not an Admiral. He's a Commander, and the fact that he's been shot... it's gutting. It's clear that she thinks he's dead; the pure panic on her face, and it's like she's been punched in the gut. The two years, the fact that it's Sharon-- that's all by the wayside, right now. It's just Lee, his dad, and that he's apparently been shot.

[adifferentpath]

"It's okay, Doc Cottle managed to save him," Lee says, forgetting that Kara hasn't been through all that. Gods, this is going to take some getting used to. He's glad she's here, as much as he knows she's going to hate it, but they definitely have more than a little catching up to do.

"And not long after that, Cally shot Boomer while she was being transported through Galactica. Though, I guess that didn't matter much. The cylons resurrect. Kill one, and they wake up in an identical body."

It's frakking crazy, he knows, and he remembers when he first heard about it, how much it was to take in. He can't imagine how it must be, dealing with all this and Darrow at the same time.

[ofthingstocome]

What Lee's telling her has the little color that Kara's got in her face draining away, and she stares at him like he's lost his frakking mind, or that she has.

"What?" That's all she's got to start with, when he says that they're unkillable.

And Sharon's dead.

But she's not.

And she shot Admiral Adama.

Who is apparently fine.

And Kara's handcuffed to a bed after being shot and she's 90% sure that there's a part of her that's now in a Cylon cryobank or something now and he's just talking about this like it makes sense.

"I-"

There's a lack of words, and she's just staring at Lee in horror, until finally she grinds out the words, "Get the cuffs off me, Lee." The way she says it is rough, but her eyes skip everywhere but him because she's holding herself together by her frakking fingernails because she's lost her gods-damned mind and she just has to get the cuff off. He's got to get the cuff off, and before he can even answer her, her voice rises. "Get the cuff off, Lee!"

[adifferentpath]

"Kara, wait," Lee says, because she's pulling at her cuff like he's got the key, or like he can actually do anything about the fact that she's being held in the first place. If he could, he'd pull strings and get her released, and as much as he wishes it was like that in Darrow, it's not. He's not the Admiral's son here, hell, he's not even an actual lawyer here. Lee's sure he's only getting this moment to talk to Kara because Spitzer decided to be accommodating for once.

"Kara, there's a procedure. We'll talk to the DA, probably get you off with a warning, but we can't just uncuff you yet."

[ofthingstocome]

"I don't give a frak about procedure!" Each word is more high-pitched than the last, and it's clear that she's not remotely alright. "Get me out of here! Gods-damn it, Lee--" She's yanked hard enough on the cuff that the metal's scraped her wrist and it's oozing blood, but she does have to stop.

Mostly because she's popped stitches straining to get herself out of it, and suddenly it hurts like she's been punched in the gut on top of her recent surgeries. "Get me the frak out of here." The words are lower, and she's staring out the window because she feels like a rat in a trap, like there's so much more going on here and she doesn't even know if Lee's real, given what he's told her. Kara may have just lost her gods-damned mind somewhere along the way-- she's not even sure of that much.

[adifferentpath]

"Kara. Kara, stop!" Lee says, and he walks in close enough to grab Kara's wrist, and at least try and stop her from hurting herself.

"I'm going to get you out of here. I promise. You just... you just have to be patient, okay?"

Gods. He's asking Kara Thrace to be patient. He knows how frakking stubborn she is, but there's really no way around it right now, as much as he wishes there was.

[ofthingstocome]

"Just get me out." She's barely blinking as she stares out of the window, trying to breathe as shallowly as she can because frak it hurts. Eyes flicking to Lee, she swallows hard.

"That's it. Just get me the frak out of here."

Looking back at the window, she just waits. Eventually, somebody'll come back here with keys. She knows they will, if Lee's even real. If he's real, they'll come back with keys.