Word Count: 1,776
Date: 3/05
Series: Season 1
Rating: T
Category: Relationship
Pairing/Focus: Helo/Boomer
Warnings: some angst
Summary: In the wake of Lt. Karl ‘Helo’ Agathon’s
learning that Jr. Lt. Sharon ‘Boomer’ Valerii is, in fact, a Cylon, is
there *any* hope for them to save their relationship, or is it truly over
between them? The Season One Finale will no doubt provide one answer to that
question. This is my attempt to provide another.
Spoilers/Disclaimers: Mild spoiler for the end of ‘Colonial
Day’; This story is based on the Sci-fi Channel Original Series ‘Battlestar
Galactica’, which is property of the Sci-fi Channel and Universal/MCA. No
copyright infringement is intended and no money has changed hands
Delphi Spaceport, on Cylon-occupied Caprica – now a heavily guarded Cylon military base. During the last few minutes, Sharon Valerii had watched as her and Helo’s attempt to get offworld – and, to all appearances, their relationship, as well – had foundered when Helo had seen an exact duplicate of Sharon take aim at him with a rocket gun, only for Sharon to shoot the duplicate first. Helo had then walked out on her, not even listening to anything she had to say, and for a moment, she had hung her head in despair.
But only for a moment. Then, she looks in Helo’s direction, to see him still in sight, if only just barely. Without thinking, she turns, and sets out in slow but steady pursuit.
‘Dammit, Helo, I’m NOT giving up on *you*! On us!’
This continues for over an hour, as both leave the vicinity of Delphi Spaceport. Finally, in a heavily wooded area several miles away, Helo’s stamina finally gives out, and he is forced to stop for a few moments to catch his breath. He knows that this is giving ‘that frakking Toaster’ time to catch him, but isn’t sure he cares any more.
In fact, as he does catch his breath, he also starts thinking over this whole mess. About the many times Sharon had saved his life over the past month and a half. How, after the night they first made love, she had become, if anything, even more protective of him. Correction: not ‘she’, but ‘it’.
Somehow, though, even now, thinking of Sharon Valerii as an ‘it’ somehow doesn’t ring true to him. Still, it doesn’t make sense. She’s a *Cylon*, and yet she had been there for him almost the whole time! Her behavior towards him the whole time had been the exact polar *opposite* of what he would have expected from the damn Toasters! What the frak is going *on* here?!
Just then, he hears a noise, coming from the very direction he would expect Sharon to approach from. In response, he goes for his gun, just in case.
Then, “Helo, *please*! I just want to talk to you!” It is quite clear from her tone of voice that she is on the verge of tears.
After a moment, he replies, in an angry, hostile tone of voice.
“Okay, come out in the open, where I can see you!”
Slowly, she does, making sure to keep her hands where she hopes he can see them. Meanwhile, he turns, to face her, weapon in hand.
Then, when she’s only about fifteen feet from him, the gun comes up, aimed straight at her chest.
“That’s close enough. Toaster!”
Even in this dim moonlight, he can see that her eyes are bright with unshed tears. Then she speaks, slowly, quietly, carefully.
“Helo, I have a pretty good idea what you’re going through right now. If our positions were reversed, I’d be going through the same thing.”
No response.
“Maybe you see me now as nothing more than just another murdering Toaster. But *this* Toaster knows one thing. I love you, and always will. If you do shoot, you’ll be shooting the only being on this frakking rock who does care about you. But I won’t die. My consciousness will simply move into another copy of me, who will then try again to straighten things out between us.”
After a moment, “You don’t ever give up, do you?”
“On you, Helo? Never. As I said, I love you, and always will.”
Tense moments pass.
Then, finally, Helo speaks. His voice reveals just how confused and conflicted he truly is.
“Talk about your ‘Romeo and Juliet’ situations!”
“Huh?”
“An old story amongst us Humans. A tragic love story.”, in a quieter, less hostile tone than before.
“Would you please tell me about it?”
“Two young people were deeply in love with each other. The problem was, their families hated each other with equal passion. Everyone and everything around them kept telling them that they should be mortal enemies, not lovers.”
“Kinda like us.”
“Yeah, Sharon. Kinda like us.”
“I take it from your use of the word ‘tragic’ that the story did not end well for them?”
“No. It didn’t.”, as he slowly lowers his weapon.
Another period of silence ensues, before Sharon speaks again.
“Helo, I’d like to rewrite how that story ends,… and I think we can do it, too. But, I’ll need your help. If you think you’re up to the challenge, that is.”
A long, tense eternity passes. Then, holstering his weapon, Helo walks up to Sharon, takes her hand in his, and looks her in the eye.
“Okay, Sharon, you have a deal. On one condition.”
“And what’s that?”
“I don’t *ever* want to hear you call yourself a ‘Toaster’, or any other such demeaning or demonizing term, ever again. Nor will I ever do so again. And if I ever do, you will be within your rights to slap the shit out of me, right there on the spot.” A moment later, “Just as you would be right now, for the way I acted earlier tonight.”
Sharon raises her hand, slowly, to gently stroke the side of his face. Now, the tears do flow, but a warm smile crosses her face, as well. Then, she raises her lips to his, to kiss him with a warm, tender passion which he soon returns with equal measure. Her hands now clasp around the back of his neck, as he takes her in his arms.
After what seems like a blissful eternity, they finally break the kiss. They do not end their embrace, however. Instead, Sharon moves her arms down to around Helo’s waist, and lays her head on his shoulder, as he begins stroking her hair. They remain thus, in silence, for some time, just holding each other, before Sharon finally speaks again.
“Do you have any idea how much I’ve missed this?”
“It’s been less than two hours since our misunderstanding began.”
“Those two hours felt like an eternity in Hell to me. My God, but this feels sooo good.”
“For both of us, Sharon. For both of us.”
Finally, after one last fierce hug, Human and Cylon pull apart, but only to arms length.
“Sharon, I do love you. There can’t be any question of that now, for either of us. Or that since our relationship survived this, it can survive *anything*.” Then, “So, what now? After all, you know as well as I do that when they find your counterpart’s dead body, with the bullets in it that you put there, the other Cylons will *at least* double security on and around Delphi – and keep it that way for the Lords of Kobol only know how long.”
“Tell me about it!” Then, “Helo, some weeks ago, right after we first made love, I was supposed to take you to a cabin the other Cylons were fixing up for us, and convince you to set up housekeeping there with me. They said they were going to fix it up with all the comforts we could possibly ask for – food, clean running water, electricity, everything.”
After a moment’s thought, Helo speaks again.
“Do you think it’s still there, like they said?”
“I… don’t know. After all, I turned my back on them whey they told me that if you wouldn’t move in with me, I was to kill you right then and there. So, I’m not exactly on their good side myself any more. As if I give a flying frak about that, compared to you!”
Helo can tell that the very thought of the other Cylons telling Sharon to kill him, for whatever reason, still angers her immensely. In fact, he’s coming to realize that, if Sharon Valerii is a typical example of a Human-form Cylon, then Human-form Cylons are indeed capable of the full range of Human emotions. That she was right about that part, at least. She might be right about them having been simply misguided, too.
After a moment, Helo speaks again.
“Well, since it’s a done deal that we’re not getting off this rock any time soon, that cabin sounds like as good an idea as any.”
“Are you nuts, Helo?! If we go there, they’ll know right where to find us!”
“Do you have any better ideas?”
“Right now,… no. But we can’t stay there for any length of time at all.”
“Okay. But right now, we’d best get some rest. You hungry?”
‘Starving!”, as they both are seated, and break out some MREs from their backpacks.
“By the way, Sharon, my real name is Karl Agathon.”
She reaches out, to take his hand, a mischievous smile on her face.
“Please to meet you, Karl. I’m Sharon Valerii… Agathon.”
Some time later, they are sound asleep, in each other’s arms.
********************
Some distance away, two other humanoid figures had been watching them: a tall, slender blonde woman, in a red dress, and high heel shoes, and a shorter male who is dressed like a businessman or bureaucrat. Standing with them are some dozen metallic Cylon Centurians.
The male speaks first.
“So, do we move in and kill them now?”
“No. Their love for one another has not only allowed them to reconcile with one another even after he found out that she’s one of us, but has thereby also redeemed them both.” A moment later, “They’ll take a few days to get back to the vicinity of the cabin. That will give us time to get everything ready for them there.”
The blonde then turns to one of the Centurians.
“You and your team are to return to the cabin at grid coordinates 21 by 58 by 164, and resume your work of readying it for it’s intended occupants. You will most likely have no more than a week in which to complete your work, and then make yourselves scarce, but do your best in that time frame to make the place nice enough for them to want to stay longer than they currently plan to.”
“By. Your. Command.”
The Centurians depart, back towards the cabin, some miles away. Then, the two Human-form Cylons turn and leave, to return to the Cylon military base at Delphi.
A NEW BEGINNING