Stepping Over The Line

Title: Stepping Over the Line
Fandom: Caprica
Characters: Sam Adama/Larry Adama, OMC, Joseph Adama
Rating: Slash – NC17
Word Count: 4,194
Feedback: Yes, all type of feedback is welcome here.
Summary: Being married to a mobster is bad enough, but when Joseph asked Sam to “Balance it Out,” the strain in Sam and Larry’s marriage deepens.  This is a post-story to the episode, “Rein of the Waterfalls.”

Disclaimer: Caprica, Sam and Larry, Joseph, the Graystones, all belong to RDM and crew, and Syfy.  No infringement intended.  Story written for pure entertainment purposes.

Stepping Over the Line
By Niciasus

He pushed down on the button when the green light flashed at him.

The passenger sitting on his left side glanced over once and returned to reading the book in her hand. A young girl, a few years younger than himself, he thought. He marveled at her choice of reading device. These days, the younger generation preferred the message pad. This girl actually had a paperback book, which was easily becoming obsolete in Caprica’s technological progression. But he felt bad because he’d been rude to her and had remained silent at her quiet and unintrusive entreaties. Small talk really, the kind one had when travelling with strangers.

As the shutter slid upward, it revealed gray shadows crawling over the sun glare. The sight made him hitch his breath at the startling beauty of the changing sky. Whenever he could arrange it, he timed his arrival here at the same time just to experience this scenery. What was the number of times he’d talked to Sam about moving here. 50 times, 100 times, he tried to convince Sam only to have his pleadings fall on deaf ears. Sam had said he would never move away from Caprica City. He knew why and didn’t like it much. The reason a strain on their marriage, but it wasn’t the cause for him to be traveling alone now.

The hoverbus glided downward into the docking station. Larry leaned back in his seat and waited until the last person had departed the vehicle.

~~~

“Hey, little brother.” Saul yelled and waved a hand at Larry, looking rather silly. Saul, a big man stood bouncing on his toes.

Larry stepped inside his brother’s arms and gripped him about his shoulders. “Hey back at you,” he said, holding on a longer than usual.

“Glad to see you, too.” Saul pulled back and ran his eyes up and down Larry. “Thought you’d changed your mind.”

“No. Just the last one off.”

“Where’s Sam?” Saul asked as they started walking toward the parking garage.

“Home,” Larry said. And to avoid a million questions about Sam, he asked, “How’re you doing?”

“I’m fine. Could’ve flown to Caprica to pick you up.”

“Wasn’t worth the expense or time,” Larry said, nodding. “Too much trouble. Besides the hoverbus was just fine. Kept me from racing down highways.”

Saul’s eyebrows twisted up. He gave Larry a “get real” look. Larry smiled, couldn’t keep the smirk off his face. “A turtle could drive faster than you, little brother.”

“You haven’t been in a car with me lately. I can speed with the best of them.”

“Yeah and Sam’s been teaching you his badassed ways, again.”

Larry stopped walking and tried his best to choke down the irritation. Saul turned and shrugged his shoulders. “What,” he said.

“I’m not in a mood for a round of Sam’s bashing. You think we can have a good visit?”

“Okay, okay. Relax. I get to see you every 8 months or so. You would think you lived on Tauron.”

“So, we’ve eight months to catch up, so be good, okay.” Larry patted his brother’s shoulders before he walked around the car to the passenger’s side.

Saul looked over the hood of the car and fixed his eyes on Larry. Larry squirmed under those sharp eyes probing him, remembering how well his brother knew him. Larry glared back him. Then Saul smiled, one of those goofy smiles that used to make Larry laughed at his silly brother, the kind that reminded Larry of their childhood. The tension fell away. Saul always there for Larry even when Saul didn’t know he was needed.

~~~

“Gods. This place is gorgeous.” Larry stood in front of a large window that ran the length and width of the wall. The sun had set deeper in orangey tones slowly giving up the struggle to keep the night from seizing control. There was enough light as he looked down the sloping hill to see the far reach of trees, flowers, the rising mountains off in the beyond. For all of Caprica’s tall and beautiful buildings, the scenery at his brother’s home was incomparable. It brought Larry a sense of peace he knew was fragile.

“I keep telling you to move out here. You want a beer?”

“You know I can’t, Saul,” Larry said, exhaling deeply. “Yeah, I can use one.”

Coming back from the kitchen with beer and junk food, Saul plunked himself down on the sofa next to Larry. “Do we have to?” he whined.

“I want to see what Graystone has to say,” Larry said, pressing hard to keep the tremor from his voice. When he’d left home, he turned off his phone to avoid hearing any news about the Graystones. Nothing now could pull him away from watching the Sarno’s show on the television, not even death.

“Sorry for your troubles. I liked Shannon and Tamara. How’re the kid and Joseph doing? Saul handed a beer over to Larry.

“Not good, brother. Not good at all. Joseph’s completely withdrawn from the living. Sam and I take care of the kid when Tsattie is too busy. We make sure he’s fed, go to school, and keep him company while his father mourns. It’s really tough.” Joseph had turned into a frakking lunatic, but Larry didn’t tell that to Saul.

“That’s too bad. Has to be hard on Willie not having his father to help him. Remember when I lost Diane? I built this house for her.”

“I remember.”

“I wanted to tear it down stone by stone when she died.”

For a while, Larry had concerns for Saul’s mental stability. He reached over and hugged his brother. Diane had been too young to die. For all the advancement in medicine, it did little for Diane. No one knew she had been sick, not even Saul. Left alone, while Saul flew off world doing his job. Her death broke Saul’s heart. For years, he’d blamed himself for not being there for his wife.

“We have no control over things we cannot control,” Larry said, trying to console his brother. It sounded like a lame excuse, but there was no other explanation to offer Saul then or now.

“I know, brother. I have come to accept it,” Saul said, running a hand over a face filled with pain.. “Joseph and I can relate. No offense.”

“None taken. It just that people internalize tragedy in difference ways. Some aren’t so good.”

“Willie will be fine. He’ll get his father back. Just takes time. Hey, the show is coming on,” Saul said.

Larry pulled himself up straight. He didn’t much like Sarno, thought the man a pompous ass. He popped the tab off the beer can as Sarno introduced Daniel Graystone to the audience.

“Oh the gods,” Saul uttered sometime later. “This has to be a joke. They recreate dead people. What the frak. What did he call it?”

“Avatar,” Larry responded. The existence held little interest to him. His eyes glued to the television, watching for signs of disturbance. Because Amanda Graystone sat there next to her husband, alive and well. Where was Sam? Was he in close proximity of his target?

He saw Amanda Graystone rushing onstage to defend her husband. A puff of air blew out of Larry’s mouth. She was alive. A thought hit Larry square in the eye. Sam still had the time, but maybe he could… “Where’s my duffel bag?” he yelled at Saul.

“In the bedroom. Quiet. These people are crazy.”

Larry jumped up and ran to the bedroom. Seeing his bag on the bed, he reached for it and yanked on the snaps, dumped the contents on the bed. He found the shiny black cell phone. He dialed the number, praying to the gods Sam would answer. Berated himself for giving in and turning off his phone. But Larry couldn’t take the constant ringing, refused Sam’s calls, although he really, really wanted to click the talk button. He did what thought was best thing to remove the temptation. He threw his phone in a bag after shutting it off.

Which now Larry conceded was a mistake because Sam was not answering his call.

Seeing the flashing red LED, he clicked over to voice mail and listened to the messages. As the words poured out of the electronic device, Larry bent down falling to his knees. His stomach balled up as if attacked by a bout of viral bacteria. Joseph Adama was pleading for Larry to get in touched with Sam. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why Joseph had called. It was the point of Larry’s argument with Sam, why they’ve been screaming at each other for days. Or rather, Larry had done the yelling while the frown lines on Sam’s face grew deeper.

Larry whipped out a text message to Sam and decided he needed to get the frak back to Caprica.

He ran back to the living area and demanded, “Saul, take me home now. Please, please. No questions, just get me home.”

“Okay, okay. Calm down,” Saul said, his eyes growing wide with worry. He reached for his phone and made a call. Larry started pacing the floor.

“Grab your stuff. About the time we arrived at the station, my plane should be ready to go.”

Larry tore back to the bedroom to gather up his duffel bag. Thank the gods, Saul was in the business of flying, his plane always ready for emergencies.

~~~

Flying back to Caprica, Larry twitched in his seat, besieged by the thoughts of Sam, Joseph, Sam and their marriage running through his mind. On top of the list of his pondering sat “regret” the one cycling the most, remorse for leaving his husband to his own artifice.

“You going to tell me what this is about?” Saul asked, giving Larry an odd look.

“Maybe. One day. I don’t know.”

“Fine, I guess I’ll have to wait. I hope everything is okay with Willie.”

“This has nothing to do with Willie.”

“Sam,” Saul uttered with a hint of disgust.

All Larry could do was let his head hang down.

~~~

The Adama home harbored so much tension one of Sam’s knives couldn’t carve through the stoic resolve of Sam Adama and the stubborn determination of Larry Adama. Neither one was willing to compromise. Not that Larry thought he should, and Sam unlikely to reconsider his decision.

He was a Tauron. Raised on Caprica like many other displaced immigrants. He understood the Tauron’s ways and the underlying threat of “blood for blood.” He also understood the kind of life he would have with Sam. He loved the tough guy, just didn’t appreciate his work ethics.

Larry allowed himself some illusions. Ha’La’tha said kill, Sam did it. In his mind, he justified the murders with the idea these people somehow set out to harm their community. He also knew he wasn’t always completely successful at tricking his mind. Case in point, Joseph’s demand to Sam to assassinate Amanda Graystone. Whatever pretensions Larry conjured for appeasements, they all came tumbling down.

Earlier that morning after days of arguing, Sam had casually walked into the kitchen as Larry sat at the table drinking coffee and reading the morning paper. He refused to look up as he still fumed from the heated exchange of last night. They’d gone to bed angry, sleeping apart, which had never happened before. The distance between them as far as Caprica from Tauron.

“Is there enough coffee for me?” Sam asked as if blinded from the sunlight invading the window.

“Sure,” Larry said, mumbling at the newspaper. The sound of a thump caught his attention. He looked. Larry’s heartbeat began racing. A chill settled over his body, stalling the motion of Larry reaching for his coffee cup.

His hand dropped, landing on the side of the knife sheathed in its leather pouch. Larry jerked his hand back burnt by the appearance of the knife on the table. It captivated Larry as it repulsed him with its horror. How many people had died by this cold beauty. Sharp enough to slice through soft, vulnerable skin. Amanda Graystone’s chin held tightly in his husband’s grasp. The knife splayed across her pale throat, thrusted up in sacrifice to the gods.

“I’m going to visit Saul for a couple days,” Larry said, jumping up from his chair. He’d lost his appetite for breakfast. There was nothing more he could do to convince Sam not to assassinate Amanda Graystone. And there was the promise, a broken one, which spoke volumes without verbalizing the words. A promise made when they’d married.

Larry stiffened at the crash of a cup or glass, he didn’t know which one. He let his eyes lifted up to see Sam. Seeing the fragmented pieces scattered on the countertop, Larry opened his mouth to offer cleanup. But it was the look on Sam’s face that halted Larry from speaking.

“You’re leaving me,” Sam stated. Eyes frigid, piercing Larry with the depth of their lack of emotion.

What? “No.” And then maybe, Larry lied to himself.

“Don’t let this be the thing that divide us, Larry.”

Stunned, Larry watched the departing back of his husband.

In the years they’d been together, not once had Sam turned those eyes on him. He’d heard rumors about Sam. Cold, methodical, got the job done, a devoted son to the Ha’La’tha. It was a side of Sam rarely crossed the door of their home. But now, Larry shook his head plopping back down in the kitchen chair. The irony of it, it wasn’t even the Ha’La’tha causing the problem. The full blame for the catastrophe laid squarely on the shoulders of Joseph Adama.

~~~

They entered Caprica City’s air space twenty minutes later.

Larry convinced Saul to go home, he would be fine, and he would call him later. Told him not to worry.

“If Sam tries to harm you…”

“He isn’t like that. I know you don’t like him. Saul, trust me, alright,” Larry said in frustration, gripping Saul by his large shoulders.

Saul rubbed fingers across his brows. The worries were there. Larry wished he could ease his brother’s concerns. “You’re all the family I have now. If you need me, call me,” Saul said, unwilling to leave.

“You know I will.”

~~~

The old elevator came to a halt. Larry pushed the grated door opened with a vengeance. Glad he was alone, he started pacing the small space.

Instinct told Larry to stop by Joseph’s apartment before going home. Sam still ignored his phone calls. The worry was making him lose his mind.

First he rang the doorbell. Gave up the minute his finger lifted off the button. He began banging on the door, hard enough the shock of the impact shot down to his elbow.

“Larry. What the frak?”

“Where is he?” Larry asked, rushing passed Joseph, who almost fell against the wall behind him.

“He’s in the dining area. What’s the matter?”

Larry glared back at Joseph. How about you ordering a hit on an innocent woman, he wanted to yell. Forget it. He needed to see Sam now. He ran to the dining area, straight into a man relaxing in a chair drinking a beer. Calm just as Larry was a jumble of nerves.

“Did you do it?”

“Did you leave me for greener pastures?”

“Answer my question. Joseph stopped you in time.” By now, Larry practically stood on top of Sam. Looking down at his face, Larry demanded truth to his questions.

Sam sipped from the beer can. He bent his head to the side so he could look around Larry. “Yoseef. On our ceremony day, I told you I was marrying a Tauron, right. You two could be brothers.” Sam raised his beer can in a salute.

Heat flooded Larry’s face. It took his will and a little bit of fear not to punch Sam in the nose. “Funny. Ha ha. See me laughing.”

Sam turned his head up at Larry. His legs stretched out which made his body slump further in the chair. Unlike earlier, the expression on his face cool, focused, uncaring. Was it a warning to tread carefully? Larry had no words, which was unusual. He normally had plenty to say. They both stared at each other.

In the low glow coming from light, Larry thought Sam was the most beautiful man he’d ever seen. Square jaw, heart shaped lips, blue eyes that could go dark in passion, icy with anger. Larry was in love. He was doomed.

“Stop messing around. Tell him, Sam,” Joseph said.

Sam sat up straighter. Leaning on the dining table, he put down the beer can. His head tilted toward Larry, his mannerism, cunning.

“Sam,” Larry said, begging.

“She’s okay. But I did scare her a little.”

Everything in Larry, the worry, the fear, the tension evaporated leaving him drained. He flopped down onto his husband’s lap, didn’t care how he landed or how hard, alternately wanted to kill him and kiss him. Arms tightened around Larry as he buried his face in Sam’s neck. Shuddering from the tremendous stress, he found himself breathing deeply, giving himself up to the relief flooding his entire body. In his ear, he heard. “It’s okay, baby.” And felt the hand stroking him, up and down his back.

“I’m sorry, Larry.” Joseph patted Larry on the back. “Sam, take your husband home.”

“Yes, Sam. Take me home.”

~~~

Larry turned off the lights in the bathroom, walked into the bedroom, and he smiled. Lying stretched out in their bed with an arm supporting his head, Sam, naked and beautiful, just waiting. The need was strong just to climb on top of Sam and stayed right there, and never move, like forever.

Larry glad making a decision was no longer paramount in his mind. What would he’d done, anyway, if Sam had carried out Joseph’s order. Could he cope with the knowledge? Would the quality of their marriage change? How long was Larry’s tolerance for the darkside of Sam. Larry felt he’d received a reprieve and gave himself a prize by climbing aboard, straddling himself on hips, feeling Sam’s cock thickening underneath him. He bent and kissed the tattoos spreading on Sam’s chest.

Sam groaned, pressing up into Larry’s body. He reached out with a hand. Larry obliged him by leaning over and letting his head drop low. So good to have those fingers stroking through his hair. Of course, Sam knew all of Larry’s erotic points, what would make him hard and hot. “Talk?” Sam said.

Larry peeped up at Sam’s face and shook his head. “No.” He moaned at the sensations as Sam continued the massage. “Keep doing that.”

Sam chuckled, causing Larry to bounce a little. “My husband does not want to talk.”

Larry came out of his haze long enough to think how odd it was that Sam wanted to talk. He pushed the thought away and let his body flop down full force on Sam. Larry kissed his mouth. “I want something else,” he said.

“Really.” Sam rubbed his shoulders, down the sides of his chest.

“Frak me.” A pool of heat rushed down to his groin. Growing hard and hot, Larry desperately wanted his husband.

They rolled on the bed with arms wrapped around each other. Sam stretched out covering Larry’s body. So, so good, Larry thought, as he cradled Sam between his legs. He opened up wider, and brought his legs up to wrap around his husband’s hips. Kissed all the bare skin he could within reach, as Sam set about rocking into him.

“I miss you, baby,” Sam said. This was his Sam, the one that walked through door leaving behind the other, the enforcer. The one who wasn’t afraid of showing his feelings. The one who fixed meals and helped cleaned the house.

“I missed you, too,” Larry said, reigning control over his body, forcing himself not to let go until he had Sam where he belonged.

It was a homecoming. It was powerful. It was a – I am never going to leave you again. That was how Larry felt feeling the powerful body thrusting inside of him. He held on, tightening muscles as Sam gasped, growled, and rocked in, rocked out. The motion stripping Larry down to his essence, to who he was with Sam. Forget Ha’La’tha, the Graystones, the sometimes scary life they led. Forget that Larry had ran away from Sam.

Overwhelmed by the closeness, precious because of their recent separation, when they’d denied themselves the pleasure of each other while they tried to establish some point.

“Don’t.”

Larry’s eyes flew open. “What?” And moaned for Sam grazed against the spot that sent shivers up his spine.

“Don’t leave me again.” The pain on Sam’s face made Larry slid a hand down the side of his face. He pulled up holding Sam as closed as he could in the position they were in.

“I won’t,” he said and didn’t know the truth of his word.

Sam bent down capturing his mouth, taking him. Larry losing himself in the taste, the smell, the sweaty skin sliding against his. Fingers gripped him on his hips. Sam rose up perched on a tightrope. He said, “Come.”

At the command, a floodgate open.

~~~

Larry awoke to a restless body stirring beside him. “Sam?” he said, rising up onto elbows, fingers rubbing sleep from the eyes.

“Hey.” Sam smiled down on him.

“You can’t sleep?” Larry twisted his body and flopped his head on Sam’s bare lap, close enough to kiss the stomach near his mouth. Larry did just that.

Muscles tightened over Larry’s face as Sam leaned over to grab a cigarette from the night table. He lit up and blew out. Smoke began curling through the air. Larry swatted at the smoke, playing a game of how many smoke curls he could disrupt. Sam just shook his head at Larry’s silliness. Yeah, they were back to normal. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“I’m sorry, baby.”

“For what?” Larry said, staring up at Sam, confused. After all they’ve gone through, he didn’t figure they had energy for more debates. In fact, Larry would rather forget about the last one and move on. Joseph and Willie needed them, they needed a family united to get them through the unbearable grief.

But Larry took note of Sam’s apology. Sam didn’t do apology. Not verbally, anyway. He brought home gifts, he cooked dinner, he cleaned house, and he was extra nice to Larry. That how Sam did apologies and Larry had no problem taking advantage of all the goodness. So, yes, Sam had Larry confused with the change in his MO.

“I broke a promise.”

Huh. What promise? Then he remembered. “Oh,” Larry said, and moved off Sam to lay on the bed. He knew now what this was about.

“You know you can be a pain in the ass.”

The comment made Larry smiled.

“Sure, I knew Joseph couldn’t go through with it. I was testing him, wanted to see how far he would go.”

Oh, no. “Try again, Sam. Because that isn’t working well.”

The frown on Sam’s face almost made Larry laugh.

“Frak. So, okay, I wanted to hurt the Graystones for what they did to our family. The more you argued against it, the angrier I became. I couldn’t get you to see my way. Gods. I never meant to bring the knife into the kitchen.”

“You sure about that, Sam?”

“I was angry. At Joseph for putting me in the position, knowing well he was going to change his mind. At you for riding my back.”

Larry decided he needed to jump Sam. He sprung up and straddled Sam’s lap, closed the distance between them. “You wanted to take back the control.” Larry said and kissed Sam so hard he felt Sam’s teeth pressing down on his lips.

“Yes. But I don’t want to lose you,” Sam admitted, breathing the words over Larry’s skin.

Because it hurt having Sam break a promise he’d made at their wedding ceremony. A condition of marriage to keep his outside life as far away from their home life as possible. No tools of the trade taking up obvious resident in their home. And maybe Sam had wanted to control Larry, and Larry had wanted to limit his exposure to the Ha’La’tha and, perhaps they were fooling themselves.

Larry grabbed Sam’s face in his hands. Pushed their foreheads together. He said just inches away from Sam’s mouth, “Don’t do it again. I know who you are. I know who you can be. I would rather have my husband in our home than the enforcer of the Ha’La’tha.”

“I won’t,” and captured Larry’s mouth for another round of kissing.

The line was there, drawn in the sand. Larry knew the day would come when one of them might step over that line. The thought terrified him. He had so much to lose. But for now, his man loved him desperately. Larry hoped the love would be enough and hoped Sam would not be put in the position again that would threatened what they had together.

End.

04/05/2010

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