Work Text:
Title: In The Dark Where No One Will Ever Know or See
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica
Characters: Doc Cottle and Admiral Adama
Prompt: 074 Dark
Word Count: 544
Rating: G
Summary: Cottle and Adama console each other
Author's Notes: I am presuming that Admiral Adama knows that Isis is still alive. Bonus points if you know where the quote in the title comes from.
Author: major_cottle aka deepforestowl
Jack Cottle sat in his quarters in the dark. It was long past the hour when he should have been asleep, but something was keeping him awake, something that his subconscious was chewing on. He sat in the dark, the glow of a lit cigarette the only light besides his computer monitor and a small light on above his rack. He took a pull on the cigarette, the glow lighting his eyes. It was then that Admiral Adama stepped into Jack's quarters. The glow of the cigarette barely lighting the features hidden in shadow.
In silence, Adama crossed the room and settled himself into a chair in the dark next to Cottle. They had been friends for a long time, longer than Adama had been Jack's superior officer. Like most old soldiers, there was a sixth sense that one developed about when a comrade needed another who understood, without words, the pain that they were in.
Adama took one of the cigarettes from the pack on the table, put it to his lips, and leaned close to Jack. Jack, the cigarette still between his lips, leaned forward. Adama lit the cigarette off Jack in a motion that was almost like a kiss. "She'll never forgive you, nor will she forgive me." Jack nodded in the still half light. "No, she won't. She'll go to her grave thinking that I killed her baby and she'll never ever forget it." Adama's blue eyes never left Jack's face. "I know it hurts you." Jack's eyes flashed in anger, "Damn right it does! I am a doctor. I am supposed to save lives and bring my patients back to health." Jack cut off Bill before he could say something comforting and asinine, "Mental and physical health Bill. I may have healed Sharon's body, but her soul hurts from the loss of her child and the same goes for Helo." Bill took a long drag off his cigarette, "You know it was the right thing to do." "It may have been the right thing to do, but that doesn't make it right Old Man." Bill chuckled darkly, bleakly, "I know."
Bill leaned back into his chair and took another drag from the cigarette, the glow lighting his own haunted eyes. "We've always been men of action, of deeds and few words and yet here we are, our deeds making liars out of us. Liars of our hearts." Jack looked at Bill, really looked at him, and saw the haggard exhaustion that lay there. "You love her don't you." "Who?" "Both of them in their own way." "Yes." Bill paused and in a flash of insight, "Just as you love them." Jack didn't say anything but he reached down for the bottle that was next to his chair and offered it to Bill. Bill took it. Bringing it to his lips, he took a hard swallow and nearly had a coronary. "The Chief's rotgut." "Good for whatever ails the soul," Jack said, a wry grin gracing his features. "Damn straight," Bill rasped and took another swing.
They finished their cigarettes in the dark silence. Each soothed by the other's company, the dark no longer oppressive but comforting. Each knew that the other would say nothing come the light of day.