Fic: The Buzzing of Bees

[lizardbeth]

BSG Vignette

Pairing: Helo/Sharon

For the stagesoflove "Exploration of a Relationship through the Five Senses", Prompt 2: Hearing

Spoilers: LDYB2
Rating: PG

Summary: Sharon won't listen.

Disclaimer: Battlestar Galactica is copyright to people who are not me. This was written only because there's a big 'ol gap just begging to be filled, and I certainly didn't make any money from it. The first line is poached from the ep.

WC: 560 words

A/N: I had to cut quite a lot to get this remotely close to the challenge word limit. Hopefully I didn't gut the emotion right out of it. crosses fingers

Back to Part 1




"I'm not giving up so frakkin' easy!"

To Sharon, it's nothing but sound. Helo's voice, the hum of the circulation system, and the drone of the engines is all one noise.

He comes back the next day.

"Sharon, talk to me, please..."

She remembers bees. Even after nuclear holocaust, they were searching for flowers, and one of them kept buzzing near her ear.

Day after day, Helo comes to visit her and she ignores him. She wants to tell him to give up, let her go. But she's too numb to speak. Blank. Like an empty channel on the wireless.

Helo's tactics change, turning chatty about President Baltar and the new planet they're apparently going to settle (confirming her belief in the general stupidity of humans). She doesn't care about the Fleet or Baltar.

She thinks she doesn't care about Helo either.

Until the day he doesn't come.

Kara Thrace does. Sharon stares upward.

Kara knocks on the glass. "Give it up, Sharon. I've been in hack often enough to know you can hear me."

Sharon can hear, but that doesn't mean she has to listen. There are three hundred and fifty-two rivets in the ceiling.

"Fine," Kara says. "I'm gonna talk anyway. I'm sorry about your baby; I am. I understand that it's tough for you. But it's tough for Karl too, and what you're doing to him is unforgivable."

Hearing "Karl" attracts her attention. Sharon never thinks of it as his name. It sounds strange.

Kara's voice turns low and biting. "You're killing him, do you care about that at all? I can barely get him to eat. I had to pull him off CAP because he's such a frakkin' mess. So you know what? I'm going down to New Caprica and I'm going to take him with me. Because if you won't help him -- I will."

Suddenly she's looking at Kara. It's Kara's game face -- Sharon has no idea if she's bluffing or not. Probably not.

Kara bares her teeth a little, satisfied. "Sam and I will teach him to play decent Pyramid. And he'll meet some nice girl from Aeliron. The memories of his Cylon girlfriend will get buried and good riddance."

"No," Sharon whispers. The word takes her by surprise, but she means it. She stands up. "No. You can't take him away."

Kara feigns surprise. "Why not? You certainly don't give a frak. I don't think you ever really did. It was all about the baby -- get the human to get you pregnant. But now there's no baby, so the human's irrelevant trash -- "

"No!" Sharon shouts. Kara's words are sharp, cutting through the muffling insulation and exposing her pain again. "That's not true!"

"Prove it."

The words seem to echo long after Kara's gone.

Helo comes the next day. He looks terrible, too small, and hangs his head.

"I can't do this alone," he murmurs. "Tell me what else I can do. Please, Sharon..." his voice trails off in defeated misery, and he rests his head against the cell wall, one large hand flat against the glass.

All through his words she's moving toward him. He doesn't hear her movement, staying slumped and still.

"Helo." Her voice cracks. But he hears. Their eyes meet, and she remembers their promise: together.

"Helo," she says again. "Don't go."

She raises her hand and matches his, almost touching.

Suddenly, tears slide down their faces, as they press their hands together.

In silence.


to Part 3: Lack of Perfection

Comments

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

This is good stuff. I like how Starbuck is all about the tough love, and the detail of her being the one person who calls him Karl.

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

thanks! you're quite on top of things, I barely posted it.:D

And, yes, I had to throw in that Karl bit, because it took me a moment to figure out who she was talking about when she said karl back in LDYB. "Who's Karl? Oh, yeah, that's his name, isn't it?" lol.

[repr0b8.livejournal.com]

Lizardbeth, you are just plain amazing. This is so wonderful, I love every sentence. The "imagery" of sounds is beautiful, and it's obvious that you've spent time looking and listening through both sets of eyes. :)

I have to admit I have a special place in my heart for the counting of the rivets...I always imagine that she's memorized every detail of her small world, counting every object countless times. :)

Thanks for sharing lizardbeth, I'll be back to read this one many times.

[sabaceanbabe.livejournal.com]

I love this, the silence and the noise, the pain and the not-giving-upness. I love that Kara finally breaks Sharon out of it so that she and Helo can heal.

Can't wait for the next installment. :D

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

Thank you! This series is a rather different style to my usual, (not to mention a whole lot more restrictive in word count!) so it's encouraging that it still works. :)

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

Thanks muchly. Yes, when you need someone to give another character a kick in the pants, Kara's always a good choice. Though she did try to take over the story, the wench! :)

not-giving-upness? Is that a word? :P

[(Anonymous)]

Lizardbeth_J,

I was so moved by this story. After LDYB2, this is like seeing some candle light at the end of the tunnel. There is hope. You found a solution to save our favorite character without getting into Hera's fate. That leaves the door open for future confrontation between Sharon/Helo and Adama/Roslin.

You did such a great job on articulating their emotions. I am looking forward to reading more of your work.

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much (whoever you are! :))

There'll be three more in this series, so you'll have a chance to see if I can continue to carry it through. Thanks for reading!

Nicely done!

[(Anonymous)]

Excellent work! This piece does a terrific job of underscoring each character's emotions and bringing them to the forefront, particularly where Sharon is concerned. Moreover, I enjoyed seeing Kara intervene on Helo's behalf(and possibly Sharon's to an extent); this is well in character for Starbuck, and her taking action, in my opinion, comes across as an effective way to right the wrong Sharon commits by turning her back on Helo. (As an aside, I admit that I had a bit less sympathy for her after the way she treated him in LDYB 2.) Though she does indeed have her own pain to deal with, she needed to be broken out of her self-imposed shell and forced to acknowledge his suffering along with the fact that he needs her--as she does him, as little as she is able to admit it, at first. All in all, wonderful job. :)

-heather

Re: Nicely done!

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

thanks, Heather. obviously I agree that Sharon needed someone to help her see outside herself and her own pain. Kara was really the only character willing and able to do it. And, well, she insisted! (She's pesky that way)

thanks for reading. I hope you enoy the others to come.

[weissman.livejournal.com]

I agree that was totally amazing, I could see it in my mind. It was great to have Kara break Sharon out of her self imposed bleakness,'

Bob

[weissman.livejournal.com]

Lizardbeth_J, Bob Crys a tear of Hope! What else are Sharon and Helo about if not hope, hope and love.
I absoluty loved this, It is so Sharon and Helo. Helo would never give up on Sharon until he dies. I loved it being Kara, as the one to finally bring Sharon out of her shell. This was great. I think Sharon forgets Helo's pain when Hera dies.

I will be back to read this and look forward to more.

Bob-Hooah!

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

hey Bob, Thanks!

It had to be Kara, really. There's no one else that Sharon would listen to, and probably no one willing to talk to her.

But yeah, my read on Sharon is that she's basically overwhelmed. Grief is isolating enough as it is, but when you add to it that Sharon is still learning how to be an individual, it must be that much worse.

It's not going to be easy for them, but I firmly agree with you that Sharon and Helo are hope. So, rest assured, no sad death!fic from me. :)

btw, friended you. I didn't know until I looked at your lj that your wife's Chinese. I'm the white half of a mixed couple, too. (see icon for our rugrat) Probably one reason Helo/Sharon speak to us so strongly, eh? :D

[weissman.livejournal.com]

I think you hit that right on the nose, My I friend you also. It a pleasure to met you by the way! You son looks amazing!!!

Is your name Beth

Bob

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

Thanks, yes, he's our little cutie. :)

Friend away!
Beth

[weissman.livejournal.com]

Hooah!

Bob

[betareject.livejournal.com]

Oh wow! this was utterly amazing! *still crying* I'm so glad this does have a good ending of sorts. I want these two to work things out so bad and I was just crushed when she tossed him away like that in the show ;.;

[agathons-fan.livejournal.com]

i read this awhile ago and never got around to posting, so i want to start by saying sorry.

secondly i love this fic. i think that this is my favorite out of the five senses.i love hoe helo and sharon finally come back together. its sharons fear of actually losing him that brings her closer to him.and kara helped.you describe the sense well.

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

thanks!

Kara tends to stick her nose into my stuff - she's very pushy that way! And she wasn't bluffing about taking Helo down to New Cap.