Timeloop Thread #1

[knowthyexits]

Out of all the things she's ever expected of her life, being torn away from a surgical table and brought to an Island isn't one of them. Another thing she doesn't expect is to close her eyes in sleep one day and wake up in a familiar alleyway with a gun in her hands and John being held hostage.

It all goes the same, it all progresses exactly the same. Derek is there and the child is whimpering and then the man pretending to be Sarkissian is shot and John is in her arms. It's different, though, it's different because she hasn't seen John in too long and she remembers the last time they were separated this long.

She won't let go, she refuses, even when out of the corner of her eye she sees faces that, by all rights, shouldn't be there. "John," she says, holding him closer than before. "John, I love you," she says like it's a command, like he needs to respond. "Are you okay?"

Comments

[rewarded-by-god.livejournal.com]

He was dreaming.

Standing in an alley with no recollection how he'd come to be there, no recollection of the events leading up to this moment, only a blank space in his mind and a vague memory of collapsing into bed the night before. He was dreaming, but they felt like memories. Memories that weren't his own.

There was a gun in her hand and a boy he didn't know, a boy she was talking to, holding like a son, and Gaius frowned. Murmured, "Well, this is odd."

[knowthyexits]

Sarah stiffens up, her body turning into ice, ramrod straight and she glares over John's shoulder, suddenly keenly aware that there are more people than just Derek and John in this alleyway. She's reluctant to let go of John, but she sends him with Cameron and exchanges one long look with Derek, wondering if he knows anything about this.

"Sarah?"

"Go, protect him," she says curtly, crossing the distance and keeping the gun held tightly in her hands, not sure yet if she wants to raise it up and press it to Gaius' face. "What are you doing here?"

[rewarded-by-god.livejournal.com]

"Your guess is as good as mine," he said, as calmly as he could manage with her staring him down as if he were the enemy. It seemed that all he could hope for, at the moment, was that she had control over her trigger finger.

"Keeping in mind I have no idea where the bloody hell I am."

[knowthyexits]

She looks him over curtly and quickly, seeing that he hasn't skipped time, not unless he's managed to steal clothes off of someone else very quickly. She keeps the gun raised high, Derek and Cameron gone, but she's not aware if John went with them and she doesn't want to take her eyes off him to check. "How did you get here?"

[rewarded-by-god.livejournal.com]

"In case it isn't glaringly obvious, I'm a bit in the dark, at the moment. The same way I came to be on the island, presumably. I was there one moment, and then I was here," he said, raising his hands slowly between them, a show of submission, "Now, if you don't mind lowering your gun. I'm beginning to feel a bit insulted."

[knowthyexits]

"I'm having a very trying night, Gaius," she snaps, still confused and at least grateful to have firepower back with her. After a long moment, she lowers her gun, but keeps her gaze on him sharply. "We need to get out of here. It's not safe."

[rewarded-by-god.livejournal.com]

"Well then, lead the way," he said to her, feeling absolutely no need to argue. If there was one thing Gaius had in surplus, it was a the drive toward self-preservation.

His eyes flickering over the weapon with an arched brow, he added, "You seem quite good with that. For a waitress."

[knowthyexits]

She wants to go home, but she knows that Sarkissian is aware of where that is. The safehouse is destroyed and she can't go anywhere that will rouse suspicion. Sarkissian is a human threat, but Cromartie is still somewhere out there, at this point in time. She can't chance that danger. "I never said waitressing was all I did. It's just my job."

[rewarded-by-god.livejournal.com]

"No, I suppose you didn't," he conceded, watching her with open wariness. It felt a bit like meeting a stranger with the face of an old friend. Though, in reality, he supposed they'd never known each other that well.

[knowthyexits]

She feels safer with a weapon, though she's not entirely sure she feels right letting him stay at the other end of the gun. She's taken from this reverie by a familiar voice. "Sarah?" calls Derek, sharp and brusque and so impatient, so very impatient and she's missed him. "What's the holdup?"

"Nothing," is all she says, curtly. "I'm coming." She eyes Gaius up and down, not sure what she's meant to do with him. "How resourceful are you?"

[rewarded-by-god.livejournal.com]

"I'm a scientist. I'm not a frakking... soldier. I have quite a bit of experience in not getting myself shot, and if it comes down to it, I have a general knowledge of firearms. Enough not to shoot off my own foot. Does that answer your question?" he asked, a thread of exasperation tinging his voice. Was he resourceful? Gaius Baltar was a rat in the bowels of a ship. He survived, through the harshest of conditions, through pure luck and a willingness to throw all integrity out the window.

[knowthyexits]

"Right now, there are two threats hunting us," she says, already moving out of the alley and tucking her gun away as she tries to think about what they can do to avoid history repeating, but the safehouse is gone and the house is the best place to go. Maybe anticipating Sarkissian will make it different. "There's a very bad man and then there are...other things," she adds after a hesitant pause, knowing she can't say 'the machines' without sounding insane.

[rewarded-by-god.livejournal.com]

"Well, now that you've gone and explained it all as if I were a five year old, the whole situation makes perfect sense," he said, bitingly cheerful and following along behind her with a barely hidden roll of his eyes. He understood the gravity of the situation, of course, but it wasn't beyond him to be a bit immature when the occasion called for it.

A very bad man, indeed.

[knowthyexits]

Sarah's irritation and her panic were edging out her calm and she's ready to bite out words at him. "What do you want me to say?" she demands, easing right into his personal space, her body language as threatening as she can make it.