embolalia

Title: Like a Sister
Rating: PG
Genre: Friendship
Characters: Kara & Boomer
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Summary: Pre-miniseries, moments in Kara and Sharon's friendship

Author's Note: Do things ever spring, fully-formed, from your mind after festering there in the background for a while? By which I mean: I wrote this all this afternoon, please forgive my typos! This was inspired in part by yesterday’s discussion on BSG_Epics about things we’d like to see written. There will probably be more later.

Trivial thought: Sir is a funny word if you type it too many times. Or think about it. It’s from sire, which means father, which means they all call him dad all the time. My brain is a messy place today. I blame the 98 degree heat.

Story time!

***********

The first time Kara Thrace hears the name Sharon Valerii, she’s speed-walking down a corridor on Galactica.

“She’s just adorable,” Helo continues, grinning foolishly.

Kara breaks into an all-out run.

“Starbuck?” He starts to jog next to her. “She just got in from Troy. Did you hear what--”

She makes a sharp turn through the hatch of the head and slams to her knees in front of a toilet just as the projectile-vomiting begins.

“Gods,” Helo says, standing over her and cringing. “Kara, what--”

Kara spits and sits back, panting. “Got something to eat planetside while you were picking up the newbies. Frakking--” she interrupts herself to wretch again for another minute. When she looks up again, Helo is holding out a cup of water. “Thanks,” she says after she rinses out her mouth. “Frakking seafood.”

Helo is clearly trying not to laugh.

Starbuck raises an eyebrow in a silent dare.

“You’ve used food poisoning as an excuse so many times since I’ve known you, Buck. The Gods owed you one.”

She grins, shrugging off the words. “Yeah, well, they can do their worst.” On cue she twists and empties her stomach again.

Helo crouches down, stroking her hair in sympathy as she leans over the toilet. It’s not a new position for them. Then he turns, his eye caught by someone else entering the head. “Sharon!” he calls, lifting his hand off Kara’s head to wave her over.

The young lieutenant heads toward him, putting on the best smile she can manage. She stops short, eyes widening, as she simultaneously sees and smells what’s going on in the stall. “Are you alright?” she asks nervously.

Kara spits and drinks down the rest of the water, wipes her eyes with her sleeve. “Yeah,” she gasps, panting. “Pretty much.” Blinking, she looks up at the girl standing over her. “Hang on,” she adds, flushing the toilet and reaching for Helo’s hand to pull herself up. “Let me just brush my teeth first.”

Sharon winces and steps back, looking nervously at Helo, who grins reassuringly.

“This magnificent specimen of a Viper pilot,” he chuckles at Kara’s glare, “is Kara Thrace, call-sign Starbuck. Don’t try to out-drink her or beat her at triad and you’ll do fine.”

Kara finishes cleaning herself up and opens her mouth to retort when a page shuts them up.

Lieutenant Thace to Admiral’s quarters, please pass the word.

The message repeats in Dualla’s clipped, clear soprano, and Kara shrugs to the other pilots. “I’m off,” she says, looking longingly back at the toilet as her stomach rumbles in distress. “Don’t listen to anything Helo tells you.”

***

“Sir?” Kara asks queasily as she ducks past the marines and through the hatch.

“Kara!” He smiles warmly and sets down his tumbler of bourbon, holds up the bottle to offer her one, too.

She flinches at the thought and shakes her head no. “I seem to have eaten something bad planetside,” she mumbles.

Adama raises an eyebrow at her. “Don’t you usually?”

Kara laughs. “Yes, sir.”

He smiles at her, then sits back against his desk and lifts a folder off it. Kara frowns slightly, wondering if there’s some new disciplinary action against her she hasn’t heard about. She’s pretty sure she made it off Aquaria without hitting anyone.

“We got a few new personnel, today,” Adama cuts into her thoughts.

Kara nods. “Yeah, I met one of them. Briefly.”

“Lieutenant Valerii?”

She nods again.

Adama looks down at the file he’s holding between his two hands. “This is a favor I want to ask you Kara, not an order.”

“Anything,” she says at once, frowning at his sudden seriousness.

“I’m asking you this because I know you’ve had a hard year, grieving for Zak.”

Her face shuts down, betraying none of her surprise or pain at the unexpected reminder.

“You may or may not have heard, but the domes on Troy ruptured two days ago. Everyone who lived there died.”

Kara swallows hard at the news. “That’s awful,” she murmurs.

“Sharon Valerii had just left her entire family there.”

She closes her eyes tightly, trying not to imagine.

Adama nods at the horror of it. “I was hoping you could help her get settled here. She could use a friend while she’s still new. Someone who understands what it’s like to lose family and friends.” He waits for Kara to meet his eyes. “Can you do that for me?”

“Of course.” She smiles tightly. She owes him so much more than this.

“Good.” Adama frowns at Kara slightly as she squirms with queasiness. “Dismissed.”

***

It’s a few hours later before Kara sees the lieutenant again, this time in the bunkroom. After a year on board Kara’s the most senior officer in the junior officers’ barracks, but she doesn’t mind. Stinger makes the senior officers go to sleep on time.

“Sharon?” she asks gently.

The younger woman turns from her unpacking and smiles shakily. “Hi! Starbuck, right?”

Kara nods. “We didn’t really get to meet before.” She waits, but she can’t think of anything else to say. Usually she just uses sarcasm and scorn on new crew until she gets used to them.

“Are you feeling better?” the younger woman offers.

“Yeah.” Silence drags out a moment longer. “Want a tour?” Kara finally asks.

Sharon nods hesitantly. “Sure.”

Kara leads the way toward the hangar deck, waving in the general direction of the galley and the rec room as they pass. Finally they step out onto the catwalk overlooking their birds. She grins. “This is where it all happens.” Sharon barely manages a smile, though her gaze does drag a moment as she notices Tyrol crossing the deck.

“Listen,” Kara says quietly. “The Admiral told me about what happened to your family. On Troy.”

“Oh--” Sharon’s eyes go wide, and her voice cuts off.

“I know it’s not the same,” Kara says, looking out over the ships so she doesn’t have to see Sharon’s reaction, “but I lost my mother a couple years ago, and my--my fiance last year. So I know what I’m talking about when I say I’m sorry.” The other woman doesn’t speak, and Kara finally turns, sees her standing stock-still, tears streaking her flushed cheeks. She opens her mouth, then closes it. Finally she steps close, hugs Sharon gently, then harder. “I know,” she whispers softly, and lets Sharon cling to her as long as she needs.

A while passes before Sharon pulls away, sheepishly drying her cheeks with the backs of her hands. “Thanks,” she says quietly.

Kara nods, stepping back. “So did you learn to play triad at the Academy?” she asks, starting to lead Sharon back through the ship.

“A little,” the girl says, her voice throat still frogged with tears. “I’m not very good.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” Kara answers cheerfully. “Come on. By the time I’m done with you, Helo won’t have a sucker to his name!” She gets only a half-hearted sigh from Sharon, but she doesn’t push. She remembers what it’s like. They move through the corridors in silence again, but this time without awkwardness.

As they make their way into the rec room, Helo pulls the lollipop out of his mouth to call them over, and Kara hears Sharon laugh genuinely. She grins. It’s a start.

***********

(Chapter 2)