Sick Day
"Lee, be a good boy and I'll give you a lollipop." Lee/Kara, Battlestar Galactica
Summary: Lee's sick, and Kara won't leave him alone. Written for isis_uf, 1094 words.
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To say that Lee was having a bad day was overstating things somewhat. Everyone's definition of what a bad day entailed had been changed after the attack on the Colonies, the destruction of their home planets, almost a week of constant pursuit from the Cylons. Your father was shot by a Cylon and you got put in the brig? Sure, fine, that was a bad day. Having the flu and nearly throwing up in the ready room during the pre-flight briefing was nothing compared to other things he'd dealt with in the past six months. What he needed to do was suck it up and do his job. With a callsign like Apollo, sick days weren't exactly in the vocabulary.
It all sounded fine in theory, but Lee, huddled in his rack under a mountain of blankets, was too concerned with staring at the wall and trying to keep his breakfast down to worry much about theory.
"Ugh, frak off," he mumbled as the curtain was pulled back, flooding his dark rack with the harsh overhead light. He pulled a blanket over his eyes. "I don't care who you are, or what you want, but frak. OFF. And shut the curtain behind you."
"Boy, you're testy when you're sick," he heard Kara say cheerily. He groaned inwardly; his "I'll throw you out an airlock" threats worked on most of the pilots, the nuggets in particular, but there was no getting rid of Starbuck. Lee rolled over on his side, intent on ignoring her. Unfortunately, Kara seemed to take that as an invitation to sit on the edge of his bed.
"Move over, Captain," she said, nudging him with her hip.
He turned his head to glare over his shoulder at her. "Get away from me, Kara."
"Aww, Apollo, my feelings are almost possibly hurt." Her voice dropped to a teasing whisper. "Move over and I'll shut the curtain," she said. Unable to resist the prospect of blessed darkness, he turned over and shifted so his back was against the wall. She pulled her legs up onto the bed and drew the curtain closed, leaving them in semi-darkness.
"So, Adama, couldn't resist playing hooky—" her voice trailed off. "Why are you still in your flight suit?"
He shrugged and immediately regretted it, even the simplest motion made his head pound. "I was cold."
"You really are sick, aren't you," she said, and either he was imagining things or that was a hint of concern in her voice.
"No, I'm just playing. The nausea is just method acting," he said sarcastically.
She tugged a bit on his hand. "Here. Can you sit up for a second?"
"Ugh. No."
He could almost hear her roll her eyes. "Lee, be a good boy and I'll give you a lollipop. Just sit up for a second. Lying here in this flight suit isn't doing you any good. You might as well be comfortable."
"I was just fine before someone came poking around," he grumbled, but struggled to a sitting position nonetheless. Kara tugged the zipper down to his waist, and even though his arms felt like lead, he managed to free them from the flight suit. She pulled the suit down, her arms skimming the sides of the tank top he wore underneath. Her touch calmed him, comforted him somehow, but that fact (and all other thoughts of that nature) he'd long since trained himself to ignore. She pushed the blankets to the side as she worked the material off his legs.
"Always trying to get me out of my pants, Lieutenant. I could have you thrown in the brig for this," he joked feebly.
"Oh, good. Haven't been in a few months, been craving a little solitude. See, there's this pain in the ass CAG that will not stop yakking." She bundled the flight suit into a ball next to her.
"In other words, 'shut up, Lee?'" Now clad only in a tank top and pair of running shorts, he shuddered at the sudden cold.
"Always were a smart one," Kara replied as she helped him pull the blankets back over himself. "Now you can lie down." She waited until he was settled before leaning down and reaching her hand out of the curtain. "Fresh out of lollipops, but I swiped these from the galley," she said, holding a bottle of seltzer and a small package of crackers out to him.
Lee raised an eyebrow. "Swiped them?"
"Yeah, well, swiped them in the sense that I gave the guard ten cubits and he became more than accommodating."
"Kara," he said, amused and more touched than he'd care to admit.
"Don't go getting all big-headed," she chided. "I was on my way back from the gym and really, what's ten cubits these days? Nothing."
"Nothing," he agreed, unable to keep the laughter out of his voice.
She sighed, aggravated. "Just shut up and drink this." She unscrewed the cap and extended the bottle to him. He lifted his head up slightly, but couldn't find the energy to sit upright again. Carefully, Kara lowered the bottle to his lips, her other hand coming up to cradle his neck for support as he drank deeply. He made a noise in his throat when he was done; she pulled the bottle back and capped it with one hand. "Hungry?" she asked, her fingers lightly running through the hair at the nape of his neck.
He shook his head; he could already feel his eyelids drooping. Five minutes ago he'd wanted to murder her for barging in and, well, being Starbuck, but now he hated that this moment between them had to end. They spent so much of their lives flying, fighting, surviving; there wasn't much time left to simply be. Moments like these were of short supply for anyone these days. "I'll eat them later," he mumbled, feeling sleep starting to creep up on him. "Thanks, Starbuck."
"Just get back on your feet, Apollo," she said, retracting her hand from behind his head and pulling the blankets more securely around his shoulders. "You might be my superior officer, but you can consider that an order."
"Yes, sir," he said, succumbing to the temptation to shut his eyes. He felt the mattress shift as she slowly pulled the curtain open and slid out. "Night, Lee," she whispered, and just before he drifted to sleep he felt the light, warm touch of her mouth pressed to his.
Later, he would have a hard time deciding if that last bit was a dream.
end
Posted by Carrie on 05:27 PM