no_takebacks | DPP: Fill In The Gap

Hello everyone, and welcome to today's post! Yesterday's DPP yielded us two lovely fics, Buzzing The Beast by

word_vomity - if you haven't read them yet, please show them some love! (we have such a talented fandom, don't we?)

Continuing with the speculation about canon blanks in the story of pilots, today I'd like to ask y'all what exactly you think happened in the time that elapsed between the end of Unfinished Business and beginning of The Eye of Jupiter, a.k.a. between the most heart-wrenching reunion/reconciliation in the history of storytelling (and this is not really hyperbole, we are talking about pilots after all) and the time when we finally found out that they'd stopped fighting their feelings and were outmaking like two people who couldn't get enough of each other.

Visual aids this way (just look at their faces, poor bbs):

And this (slightly happier sight to look at, at least in this still):

We never, ever get any idea from canon about how the affair began, other than that our favourite CAG and ace have been at it for a while by the time we see them, since they've spent at least a week on the algae planet with Kara flying donut runs to the surface every chance she gets.

But going by the fact that in The Passage, neither of our pilots has so much as a mark on them from their knock-down, drag-out fight in UB (and for all its other faults, BSG didn't make injuries sustained in one episode just vanish in the next, the scraped cheek and battered knee Lee and Kara sustained in early Season 1 stay scraped and injured for several episodes), some time did pass - Lee's black eye, Kara's potentially broken nose, and the cuts on both their faces wouldn't have healed without a trace in anything under two weeks, I'm guessing (if anyone knows how fast facial injuries heal, please feel free to correct me).

Anyway, I didn't mean to turn this into a boring medical discussion, because the real question is, what do you think happened during that time, Shipper Nation? How did Lee and Kara finally stop fighting themselves, at least for a little while, and give in to what they really wanted? It's a pilots landmark in so many ways, and we do not get to see nearly enough of them before the angst set in. All discussion, fic and fic recs are highly welcome, and wanted - and here are a few recs (some of which are fandom classics) to get started with:

Gold To Iron by

fahye and

stars_like_dust
Deadly by

fahye
Lift Me Up by

shah_of_blah

Threaded | Flat

From:

callmeonetrack.livejournal.com

Lol, just this morning I was reccing a bunch of Affair! fics to someone. So I might as well copy them here too:

Limits (http://elly427.livejournal.com/160536.html) by

elly427 -- They set limits during the affair.

Hades in a Handcart (http://elzed.livejournal.com/108257.html) by

elzed -- Can't get off this ride.

And some of my affair fic:

On the Line (http://taragel.livejournal.com/90111.html#cutid1) -- Kara and Lee negotiate limits in the raptor on the algae planet.

Needful Things (http://taragel.livejournal.com/127033.html) -- It's not what Lee wants, but it's what he needs.

No Takebacks also had an entire Role play of this arc between UB and Rapture actually once, though it goes definitively AU. I played Lee, Rayruz played Kara, and everyone else joined in on the fun too. Here's a link to the last part (http://no-takebacks.livejournal.com/127066.html) of it, though I think Ray made a post with the threads in chronological order somewhere....

From:

workerbee73.livejournal.com

Also-- I think somebody recently did a drabble last week or the week before at the DPP. Where Kara and Lee were sparring after the dance. Soooo good. I'll see if I can find.

From:

cosetteferaud.livejournal.com

I'll be brief because I don't have much time, but in the canon in my head the affair starts right after Kat's death. I must admit that this period always fascinated me (mostly because I have such a kink for infidelity :P). Anyway, here are some recs!

Fallacy (http://foxrayne.livejournal.com/3271.html) by

foxrayne. Set during Kara and Lee's affair...a scene dealing with close calls. Smut. Hot.

”Almost Lucky” (http://elly427.livejournal.com/159943.html) by

elly427. More infideliciousness.

”One or the Other Emptiness” (http://marenfic.livejournal.com/108010.html) by

marenfic. From LDYB.2 through TABFAYW. A betrayal in three acts.

”Anatomy of a Triangle” (http://daphnaea.livejournal.com/7329.html) by

daphnaea. I’m sorry, but we have to end this, he thinks for the thousandth time.

”After the Dance” (http://ninety6tears.livejournal.com/19539.html) by

ninety6tears. “You don’t lose control,” his father says to him. “That’s why you don’t win."

”The Chandrasekhar Limit” (http://littledust-fic.livejournal.com/24420.html#cutid1) by

littledust_fic. Post-Unfinished Business, with elements of Maelstrom thrown in.

”Hush” (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4018406/Hush). In five minutes they can fill a room with what they're not saying, until she can't tell which are the words they have said and which are the ones they haven't.

From:

word-vomity.livejournal.com

It's angst people. Seriously. My apologies, but it's straight up angst.

There's a limit, she thinks, to what human beings can endure. A threshold. A barrier, that if crossed, becomes unendurable. She looks back fondly now at the dozens of times she'd thought she'd hit that mark, only to be proven just how wrong she'd been by those fickle fates that dashed her broken spirit on the waves and jagged rocks again . . . and again, for sport. It seems that threshold is still further out, dangling, mocking her, waiting to break her for good. How she moves through her days now, she isn't certain. By ripping off the broken pieces that hurt too much to carry, she supposes. She feels lighter without them, but less too.

In truth, she is perpetually surprised to find herself still here at all, in spite of the suffering and regardless of her belief that she had fallen through the deepest cracks in the worlds, still moving through this semblance of her life. A shadow of a distant life and her, a memory of its former owner. Even her shadows have shadows these days, she thinks darkly as she catches sight of herself in the mirror. Bruises on top of bruises. Haunted circles beneath swollen eyes betraying her otherwise stoic pretense. But she doesn't back down from the looks she gets now. If a curious glance falls upon her on the flight deck, she seeks it out. Holds it angrily. Screaming silently with piercing bloodshot eyes for them to take in their fill of her damaged body and to guess just how deeply that damage has seeped into her bruised bones, poisoning her from the inside out. They always break away first. She considers it a victory these days, there are so few victories now. She smiles wolfishly as they scatter.

She hasn't thought about Lee since that night. Not since she rolled off him and they lay panting and exhausted upon the mat, wet with their sweat and blood, their limbs burning with acid, unmanageable and foreign. They had lain there in that ring for a long time, long after everyone else had surrendered the night for the comfort of their racks. Their spent bodies didn't move. Only their heads turned, in accord, inwards to meet and they held in that moment, eyes to eyes. They didn't speak, but they said everything to one another, just staring. Pleading and forgiving. She didn't remember falling asleep, but she knew that she must have because eventually her eyes opened, tight and painful, and he was gone. Every part of her ached. Beside her, she found a glass of water and two pills. She felt like yesterday's road kill as she dragged herself from the sticky surface of the mat. She lifted shakily onto unsteady legs and swallowed his peace offering, smiling at his small gesture. The barely mended cut on her lip burst from the movement but she didn't mind, at least it was something.

She can't bring herself to believe that their fight, cathartic though it had been, had truly solved anything between them, can't bring herself to hope. She sees him a few times afterwards. On the flight deck, in briefings and once in the CIC. He doesn't look away like the others do. She isn't surprised, he wears the same defiant look that she does. Daring her, daring everyone to comment. For once, no one does.

Days fade into weeks and vivid purple and black begin to dull into sluggish yellows and greens. As they diminish, she feels a weight going with them. It catches her off guard. The day that her eye goes down enough to see clearly through it again, she nearly catches herself smiling at the Chief on the deck. When she can shower without reopening any wounds, she comes out of the spray feeling almost real again, almost like a person and when Helo calls her name across the mess, she answers to her name which finally feels like hers again in a way that it hasn't since New Caprica. Eventually, as ribs knit and muscles bind, she begins to wonder just what their fist might be capable of after all.

From:

useyourlove.livejournal.com

Fics from this blank are some of my absolute favorite. I may pop back around later with something if I get a chance. For now, I have to watch "Daybreak" with my parents (who I got into the show about a month ago, and this is their first watch). They would save the finale for when I come home. I think they just want to see me turn into a mess. This will end badly.

From:

useyourlove.livejournal.com

This was wrong. It was completely and utterly wrong. She was bad. She was sinful. She was wicked. When she wrapped herself in that, it was all right.

Because the raw, naked, heated longing in his eyes was just too much to go up against without a blast shield. So she ran her hand up her arm, reminding herself there is a mark there. Reminding herself that she could wrap herself in Sam to face down Lee like putting on a flight suit to step into empty space.

It was flight briefing--nothing special happening today. The same routine, usual, blah blah. The tenor drone of his voice cut straight through her, her chest ready to burst from it like he'd lit a fire. She shifted in her seat and rolled her shoulder, trying to work out the kinks. Her nose still throbbed. Cottle had cleaned it up where it busted, but she had heavy bruises beneath both of her eyes. She was trying not to look at him. Trying and failing miserably. Her eyes wanted him.

She lifted her heavy lids and her gaze pierced him, peering out at him from above the dark black circles. He was just as bad--moving gingerly all day around the tender bruises she had laid into his ribs and stomach. They discovered when they arrived that morning that neither of them were on rotation today. Their shifts had been mysteriously and silently picked up before they even hit the ready room.

He still tasted her lips on his. The salt tang of her sweat. Still felt her skin beneath his fingers, her body against his. The way she took his punches, her eyes begging for the anger. Punish me, I've done wrong even as her words goaded him further. He took a breath and looked down, clearing his throat.

They wore their bruises defiantly, daring anyone to comment. Daring someone to say something. To rib them. Starbuck may have sprained her wrist in the ring but she certainly wasn't beyond throwing another punch. They all knew it.

No one said anything. No one had to. There was a line of fire connecting them. When they were dismissed, everyone avoided stepping between them on their way out.

Kara had her foot propped up on the seat, one arm wrapped around her tucked up knee. She wasn't looking at him any longer, watching the pen she was wiggling back and forth through the air from sheer nervous energy. They were alone.

He cleared his throat and her eyes shot to his. She stilled.

"How's your nose?"

She raised an eyebrow. The two deep bruises beneath her eyes frightened him. They made him uneasy. Like maybe he should apologize. Or fix it. Or explain how he hurt her--why he hurt her. That every broken bone and drop of blood and blossoming bruise said I love you, I hate you, I love you. But she knew that already. She knew. And so he didn't know what to say.

She licked her lips briefly--the tip of her tongue darting out quickly before disappearing once more.

"S'fine." Her voice cracked.

He was standing beside the podium, watching her, his whole body strung tight. She dropped her foot to the ground and sat up straighter, clearing her throat.

"Kara," he was moving towards her, eyes so open and wanting that she couldn't do anything but move towards him as well, trap him in the cage of her arms, never let him go. If she could just hold him here, their hearts pounding against each other, then maybe she could breathe again without wanting to maim everyone she saw.