Title: Cutting Room Floor: Tattle Tale
Author: Twin Goddess (1999) (athena13@geocities.com)
Rating: PG
Classification: A, SBAtR
Summary: Lost scene from "Murder on the Rising Star."

Disclaimer: This is a fiction story based on the series Battlestar
Galactica and its characters created and owned by Glen A. Larson. This 
story is not being sold for profit and no infringement of any copyright 
rights is intended. All unrecognized characters and plot lines are mine 
and any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely 
coincidental.

~~~~~~

Athena stood around the corner in the launch bay. Her hands were 
trembling and tears were dotting her lashes. She had to do it, even 
though he would probably hate her even more than he already did. She 
had to tell Apollo that he had gone.

Athena's heart had threatened to explode in her chest when she had seen 
Starbuck fly out of his holding cell, laser in hand, and run for the 
landing bay. She had been waiting around the corner for Cassiopeia's 
visit to end and had wanted to wait for Starbuck to regain his 
composure before arriving. The next thing she knew she had heard the 
guards shouts and had seen Starbuck escaping.

She knew what that meant. She knew what he intended. He was going to 
grab a viper and leave, never to be seen again. Athena couldn't let 
that happen. She also knew that she wasn't the person to try and 
intervene. So she had called Apollo.

She knew that Starbuck was innocent. He was hotheaded and emotional, 
but there was no way he could ever take a life. He had to stay, even if 
it was just to see his innocence proven.

She wasn't listening to the words, but she could tell that her brother 
had stopped talking and was turning away.

"Thank God," she murmured to herself. When she had heard the viper 
power up she had thought Apollo had failed. She would never have 
forgiven herself if he had left. After all, if she had been paying 
better attention she might have been able to stop his escape. Stopped 
his need to run.

Starbuck was always running. He had begun to run in that forest in 
Umbra and hadn't stopped since. He ran as if his life depended on it, 
no matter the circumstance. Having known him long enough and well 
enough she knew that he was trying to run to something, but he always 
ended up running away to spite himself. Just as he was trying to do 
now.

Athena saw her brother pass by. He didn't seem to notice her presence, 
although he had known very well that she was there. Starbuck, however, 
noticed her.

He froze when he spotted her and he stared at her accusingly.

"Athena, could you take him back, I need to find Boomer and take care 
of some things," Apollo put his hand on his friend's shoulder and 
walked away, the stolen laser in hand.

Leaving them alone.

Athena watched as Apollo's body disappeared from view in the rising 
lift. When he was gone she looked at Starbuck and waited.

"I suppose you're the one who tattled on me to big brother?" he said 
coldly.

Athena nodded.

"You're always telling on me," Starbuck shook his head and gave a 
rueful grin.

A look that helped Athena relax. "Not always," she reminded him. "I 
seem to remember quite a few things I never ratted you out for."

Starbuck moved forward and placed his hand on her cheeks. "Guess you 
save it for my own good," he placed a kiss on her forehead.

Athena clasped his hand to her face before he could move it away. "It 
is for your own good. You didn't do this Starbuck and we're going to 
prove it."

Starbuck closed his eyes and his head dropped down. "You don't think I 
did it?" he mumbled.

"No Starbuck! I could never believe that. Never!" she insisted.

"So you're not going to advise me to plead self-defense for my own 
good?" he looked back up and pierced her with his gaze.

Athena took his hand from her face and held it between their bodies. 
"You could never kill someone unless it was self-defense. If that had 
been what had happened you would have said so. You wouldn't have just 
left and pretended that nothing happened," Athena shook her head 
emphatically. "I could never doubt you Starbuck. Not about something 
like this."

"Thank you," Starbuck whispered brokenly. "Thank you for believing me."

Her heart broke at the sight. So many people doubted him, no wonder he 
had run. She moved forward and gathered him in her arms. He sobbed in 
her embrace as she stroked his hair and back.

She held onto him as long as she could, conscious of every micron that 
she had to bring him back to the Brig before Security came looking for 
them.

"We'd better get me back," Starbuck finally said and pulled away.

Athena briefly mourned the loss of him before straightening her own 
back and nodding. She hated doing this. He was innocent! Didn't they 
see that?

"It'll be okay Athena," Starbuck told her as the lift rose to the brig 
level above.

"Aren't I supposed to be comforting you?" she asked him with a smile.

Starbuck shrugged and the grin faded from his face as they reached 
their destination.

"Starbuck," Athena pulled him back by his arm before he could leave the 
lift. "Let me do the talking."

"Yes, Ma'am."

~~~~~~

It had taken a few centons for her to smooth the ruffled feathers of 
the incompetent Security force "guarding" the great escaped criminal, 
but she had managed it. She had also managed to stop them from roughing 
up their prisoner. 

Sometimes being the Commander's daughter was useful.

"Nice work, maybe I should bring you along to some of my more tense 
pyramid games," Starbuck quipped when she managed to appease the guards 
who then allowed her to stay and visit with him in his cell.

"I'll hold you to that," she told him, relieved that he was thinking 
about a free future. "Do you really want to watch that?" Athena winced 
when she saw that he was watching the IFB reports on his case.

"I need to know what's going on," he told her, not turning his gaze 
away from the screen.

"They don't have the facts we do Starbuck. They don't say that you're 
innocent, Apollo will be bringing those facts to the tribunal," she 
told him.

Starbuck's shoulders slumped and he switched off the monitor and turned 
back to her. "Why are you so certain?"

"Why am I so certain that my big brother will prove your innocence? How 
many times has Apollo told me he's omnipotent, this chance to prove it. 
No way he's gonna mess that up," Athena sat down.

Starbuck followed suit, sitting across from her, his knees centimeters 
from her own. "No, why are you so certain about my innocence when so 
many others doubt it?"

"Who doubts it? Council Security?" Athena asked.

Starbuck looked down at his palms. "Cassiopeia doubts me. She wants me 
to plead self-defense to avoid the lovely Prison Barge accommodations."

'That's why he ran,' she bit back a sharp comment. "She's just trying 
to protect you, I'm sure she doesn't think you did it. She's just 
scared," she said out loud.

"I asked her if she thought I did it, she couldn't answer me," Starbuck 
admitted quietly, still studying his hands.

Athena felt her heart shatter at those words. Starbuck had given his 
heart to this woman, even after she left him to run to Cain just a few 
sectons before, and she had the audacity to doubt his innocence of a 
heinous crime.

'I bet she uses sex as a weapon too!' she thought disgustedly, 
unknowing of the manipulations the other woman had used to get Starbuck 
to rush through his post-game ministrations which caused him to be 
careless with his weapon in the first place.

"She doesn't know you as well I as I do," Athena said confidently.

Starbuck looked up at Athena at her words. "She claims to love me. I 
claim to love her. And she thinks that I could be guilty. She asked me 
to walk away and admit I did something I didn't."

Athena grabbed his wrists. "These hands did not commit murder. I know 
that with my entire being. I...know...that! If she doesn't...," Athena 
trailed off, not wanting to say more.

"Do you love me Athena?" Starbuck asked in a childlike voice as his 
palms curled around her hands.

Athena's heart began to pound at the question. For a micron she had 
wished she hadn't convinced the guards to let her have an unlimited 
visit in order to "keep the prisoner calm" before Tribunal.

"In what way?" she copped out.

"In any way. Do you love me?"

Athena looked at their joined hands. Unconsciously, their hands had 
turned so that their fingers were entwined. The sight of his strong 
hands holding her more delicate-looking ones was surreal. Something she 
hadn't seen in a long time.

Did she love him?

As a friend, yes.

As a family member, yes.

That was just what she needed to tell him.

"Yes. I love you as my brother's best friend. I love you as my 
brother's wingmate. I love you as my friend. I love you as a member of 
my family. So, yes, I love you," she told him.

"As a woman, Athena. Do you love me, still?" Starbuck asked in a husky 
voice.

"That's not a fair question," Athena tried to pull her hands away.

As a woman? How could she answer that? He admitted that he was in love 
with Cassi. He had told her not too long ago to put all those thoughts 
about him out of her mind. 

"Why, because I may spend the rest of my life on the Prison Barge?" he 
asked angrily, bruising her fingers with his grasp.

"Because you may spend the rest of your life with someone else, someone 
that you 'claim' to love!" Athena said angrily, tears smarting her eyes 
from the pain in her fingers and in her heart.

At her words Starbuck let go of her hands and let out a frustrated 
breath. "I asked you to commit to me, you said no!"

"I asked you to give me some time to catch my breath before having the 
conversation and you said no!" Athena shot back. "The next day we make 
dinner plans and I find you in a launch tube with another woman. The 
same woman you are in fact committed to when you ask me how I feel."

Before she could move away from him, Starbuck grabbed her face with his 
hands and kissed her. Angrily and boldly, he captured her lips and 
thrust his tongue into her mouth.

And so help her, she couldn't resist.

END