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[mr_gaeta]

It's been a long day.

A long week, actually.

(Gaeta won't even talk about what the past month's been like.)

Not having something to occupy his hands and mind -- a report, a stack of notes, even just a pen and paper -- feels awkward enough that Gaeta's taken to folding a small fleet of paper airplanes at his table. Being made out of napkins, all of them are too wobbly to fly, but that's not exactly the point; the point is to stay alert, stay awake, and do anything but sit around doing nothing.

...Even if it's much more likely that any alertness Gaeta currently possesses comes more from the three empty mugs rimmed with coffee stains, not the slowly massing collection of floppy aircraft.

Comments

[mr_gaeta]

"No, that can't be it," mumbles Gaeta. (Were he not so lost in his thoughts, he would have phrased that more respectfully.) "Everybody left during the exodus from Kobol, there's even a passage about blood being claimed if anyone tries to return."

Unless --

There's history there, sure, but when exactly did Pythia write her book? The historical sections might not overlap with the stories of the Exodus after all.

Frak, he used to know this. Why is he having such a hard time remembering?

[wheatencrown]

"Now that sounds like a curse and a strong one. What started the exodus?"

[mr_gaeta]

"I don't know," he admits. "It might have been a disagreement with the gods -- that was the hallmark of Kobol," he adds, a bit more quickly. "It's where humans lived together with the gods. But I'm just speculating, I don't...think there's ever a reason stated."

Gaeta wishes the last bit didn't have to sound so hesitant.

[wheatencrown]

"That's rather strange actually, usually when we curse people, its made quite clear so that they know. Otherwise it doesn't mean as much in terms of a threat."

[mr_gaeta]

Slower, "Maybe they didn't leave because of the curse."

His gaze drifts up to the citrus hanging heavy above them, and just beyond the tree branches, the light of an unfamiliar sun.

"Maybe the gods cursed Kobol because we left."

[wheatencrown]

She reaches a hand out and squeezes his shoulder tightly,

"We need you, your memories, your belief, your love, your hatred. I've been forgotten and misinterpreted but I'm still remembered."

[mr_gaeta]

He's given his belief so freely before. He gave it to Baltar, and to New Caprica.

(They still have the smallest shreds of it. Every day, Gaeta walks into Colonial One hoping that today might be the day Gaius stands up to the Cylons.)

It shouldn't be so hard to give it to someone who actually deserves it, for once: someone as real and present as anything else he knows. And she's said before -- for all she's given him, all she asks in return is that she knows her for what she is.

He throat constricts. All Gaeta can do, as he reaches up to touch her hand, is nod.

[wheatencrown]

His hand is held tightly as she just doesn't let go.

In time the sun moves behind the leaves and an orange drops from a tree.

With her other hand she catches it and adds it to the basket.

[mr_gaeta]

Gaeta manages a smile.

"Guess that's our cue to keep going?"

[wheatencrown]

"Or to pick oranges. How many do you want?"

She gives him a quick hug around the waist before grinning upwards.

[mr_gaeta]

Even with everything he's thinking, there is no other response to that than to grin, fleeting but utterly genuine.

"As many as I can carry," he declares.

[wheatencrown]

"Then we'll need another basket."

She leans over and pulls one from behind a tree, its a good size and takes the one with the tomatoes from him.

[mr_gaeta]

That certainly does make it easier. As soon as the basket's in his arms, and he's offered a soft "thank you" in return, Gaeta reaches up to start pulling down handfuls of the fruit. They keep pace through the garden, the basket slowly growing heavier until it's nearly overflowing and all Gaeta can smell is citrus.

The quiet and the peace are just as welcomed as the food.

(And there will be more waiting for him later, too: vegetables to go with the tomatoes and oranges, more fruit, several loaves of bread. Enough that it will take two trips to get the full sum back to New Caprica -- and a little bit of logistical wrangling to see it fairly distributed without catching the Cylons' attention.

But for now, it's just Gaeta and Demeter, and a garden in full bloom.)