hackaddict

FIC - Forgotten, [R], L/K, 1/1

Sat, 07 Oct 2006 00:34:36 GMT

Happy October 6th!

Title: Forgotten
Author: hackaddict
Date: 10/06/2006
Rating: R for violence and general dark-y-ness
Pairing: Kara/Lee
Spoilers: potential S3 one, but not really
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: The pain left over from a punch was a lot easier to forget than the lingering desire left over from a kiss.
Words: 5,082

The pain left over from a punch was a lot easier to forget than the lingering desire left over from a kiss.

___________________________

Kara found herself wandering the corridors of Pegasus even though she should be in briefings by now. The Old Man would be pissed if he knew she was shrugging her duties as CAG, but right now she didn’t care. Honestly, being yelled at by the Admiral sounded a lot better than subjecting herself to the stony silence of the Admiral’s son.

She and Lee left their relationship on pretty bad terms when she moved down to New Caprica, and now that that little portion of their lives was over, nothing had changed. They hadn’t fixed the tears yet.

Kara’s mind flashed back to the day she told Lee she was leaving the military behind to start a life with Sam. Her hand ran along her jaw even though the bruises had long since faded. Her fingers shifted to her lips. The pain left over from a punch was a lot easier to forget than the lingering desire left over from a kiss.

She hated how they left things.

Biting down on her lip, Kara decided that it was time to stop being stupid. It was time she and Lee started acting their age. Plus, with the way her marriage with Sam crumpled, she figured she might be the only person who could truly understand what Lee was going through right now. His divorce was turning out to be a lot messier than hers. At least that’s the tune to which her pilots kept gossiping.

She was halfway to the conference room where her first meeting was being held when the floor shook underneath her. She had barely a second to understand what was happening when the whole corridor lurched.

Then the screams started.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Lee felt himself lurch back into the memory of the moment the Blackbird exploded around him. He was floating in space all over again. He felt like he was on his own.

“Commander Adama!”

Hoshi’s voice made his eyes snap open, and Lee looked over at his newly re-appointed tactical officer. One look was all it took to let Lee know this was it. This was the end. “How bad is it?”

“Bad, sir.”

Lee let the words wash over him and tried to push down the immediate need to scream in anguish. Pegasus was the only thing he had to live for these days.

The gods were cruel.

“Sir?”

Lee looked up and realized that most of the CIC was staring at him. He silently chided himself. He was their Commander. They needed him to keep it together. “Sit rep?”

“We have reports from some of the crew who were in the gym, “ the comms officer said quickly. “They said the power is down and they‘re locked in.”

Lee shook his head. Whatever was happening, it was worse than a power shortage and a small bout of claustrophobia. “Something happened on that level.”

“Do you want me to send a unit of Marines down there?” Hoshi asked.

Someone cried out in surprise, cutting Lee’s response off completely. He followed everyone’s stares, and his eyes widened in horror. “Cross?” Lee stammered. He had never seen his top Viper pilot looking this disheveled. Showboat wiped the hair out of her face, and it was then that Lee saw the giant gash on the side of her head. “What’s going on?”

“We’ve been boarded, sir.” Showboat coughed, and it was only because Hoshi chose that moment to grab hold of her that she didn’t fall to the ground. “Centurions, sir,” she spit out, leaning on the tactical officer. “Everywhere.”

Lee could feel the sense of horror wash over him as he remembered the only day these past few years where he really thought the Fleet wasn’t going to make it to Earth. The fear started clogging his vision, and Lee had to hold onto the table in front of him to keep from losing it all together. He could hear them all calling his name, but it sounded like it was a million miles away.

Oh gods. They were all going to die.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Kara ran through the corridors, following the screams. She ordered every person she passed to either get into a fighter or get into one of the evacuation pods. She had no clue what was happening, but she knew it was bad. She knew that she couldn’t do this one on her own.

“Gunny!” Kara screamed, her eyes catching on her old friend as he ran past her. He had a few of his crew in tow and looked rather official.

“Thrace, what the frak are you doing here?”

“Following the trouble,” Kara yelled. She skidded to a stop in front of him, pausing a moment, and then grabbed his collar. “Come with me.”

The screams got closer. It only took a few more corridors to find the source, but it was enough time for Gunny to tell her that her gut instinct was correct. The Centurions were on board Pegasus. This was bad.

Kara ran through the hatch to the briefing room first, feeling the Marines close behind her. Her eyes immediately caught on the girl at the front of the room. She was crouched down in a ball, screaming her head off. It wasn’t until Kara got closer that she realized the girl was covered in blood. “What the frak is wrong with her?” Kara screamed to the crowd of people hovering around her.

“She was in the hallway with the rest of our squad when the ship punched through the hull. The Centurions ripped apart her wingman right in front of her face. It was all I could do to grab her hand and start running. We weren’t trained for this.”

“What’s your name?” Kara asked, trying to make her voice loud enough to drown out the commotion all around them.

“Wesley Stevenson, sir.”

“Well, Stevenson, you’ve done good so far. Running was the right thing to do,” Kara reassured him. She waited until she got a reluctant nod from him and then turned to the girl crouched on the floor.

To their credit, the group only flinched slightly as Kara punched the screaming girl in the face as hard as she could. The air was quiet for a few seconds as the girl collapsed onto the floor, unconscious. Then another explosion rocked the ship, and people started yelling out questions. Kara’s eyes swept across the faces of those around her. She didn’t recognize one of them. “What squad did you say you were on?”

“We’re not on a squad,” the girl next to Kara said. “We’re nuggets.”

Kara felt a little bit of confidence slip away. “How new are you?”

“We just started our training a week and a half ago.”

Kara bit down on her lip as she felt the sudden urge to start crying. The screams started ringing in her ears, and she knew that this time it wasn’t some nugget freaking out. There were people dying only yards away.

She jumped slightly as she felt a hand come around her arm and twisted to look at Gunny. “We need to move, Captain.”

Kara’s face steeled immediately. He was right.

She turned to one of the Marines. He was holding a radio and looked at least semi-competent. She hoped to the gods that little piece of technology was still working. “Let the CIC know we’re stuck down here and what we plan to do.” She twisted to look at the squad of nuggets but not before seeing Gunny lean over to the Marine she had just ordered to report in. She knew that Gunny was telling him to make sure he mentioned Starbuck was with them. Pushing her thoughts about why that would make a difference to the side, she straightened her back and tried to look official. “Listen up, nuggets. It’s your lucky day because you are now in the capable hands of Galactica’s CAG and some of the finest Marines the Fleet has to offer. We are going to exit the door on my right and keep running until we find an evacuation pod. Do not stop for any reason. Right now the only priority you have is getting your own ass off this ship.” Kara let her eyes drift across every innocent face staring back at her. “Welcome to the real world, kids.”

She took off at a sprint and didn’t bother to check to see if the nuggets were falling her. She had given the necessary inspirational speech. Now it was up to them. What she told them was true. In situations like this, all you could do was look out for yourself and hope that the others would do the same.

A small voice in the back of her head reminded her that wasn’t entirely true. Because as much as Kara knew it was a mistake and as much as she knew she was being hypocritical, she was not going to step onto that evacuation pod when they reached it.

No, Kara Thrace had one more person to look out for besides herself. It seemed like it had always been that way, and, gods be damned, she was not going to let Lee Adama die unless she was right there beside him.

They were halfway down the corridor outside the briefing room when Kara heard someone call her name. It sounded like that Stevenson kid. Going against her better judgment, she turned around to check, and that’s when a third explosion rocked the ship. She could feel the metal twisting around her, falling down on her, and then the world went black.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“Where are we on that report from Gunny’s team?” Lee screamed.

“The area they reported from a few minutes ago was cut off.”

“What does that mean?”

“Honestly, sir?”

Lee glared at the comms officer and waited for a reply. He didn’t have time to play this game. His people were dying.

“The explosions probably knocked out the comm they were using. The same thing happened on Level C near the mess hall. You had me send a few Marines down there to help with the evacuation.”

“Do the same for the area by the briefing room.”

“There’s no time,” Hoshi cut in. He walked over to Lee’s side and pointed at the projection on the screen in front of him. “The Centurions are already here… here… and here. A Marine team would have to cross them at least five or six times on the way to the briefing room.”

“So you’re telling me that whomever’s in that part of the ship is on their own?”

“Yes,” Hoshi said, the regret thick in his voice. He knew how much his Commander didn’t want to admit how dire these circumstances were. That was why it was his job to force the hard decisions.

Lee was about to argue when the comms officer interrupted. “Not necessarily. Sir,” he added hastily.

“Explain,” Lee demanded.

“Gunny was able to get off some of his report before the line went dead. He and four of his team were able to find that missing squad of nuggets.”

A little weight fell off of Lee’s shoulders. He had no clue he had even been worrying about those nuggets.

It only took a few seconds for his relief to fade away. “Why should the presence of five Marines reassure me that they’re going to get to an evacuation pod?”

“Because they have more than five Marines on their side. They have Starbuck.”

“Ka-” Lee caught himself. “Captain Thrace?”

“She’ll get them to the evacuation pods, sir.”

Lee nodded, but he could already feel his thoughts drifting. According to the schematics in front of him, there were over two dozen Centurions in Kara’s way. He knew she was good, but he wasn’t sure she was that good.

“Sir, what’s our plan?”

Hoshi’s words brought him back to reality for the hundredth time since this whole crisis started. Lee’s mind switched to autopilot as he ran over the possible scenarios he could put into play. In the end, only one thing was clear. “We’ve lost.”

“Sir?” Hoshi said quietly, not sure he had heard his commanding officer correctly.

Lee’s face steeled, and he turned to look at the remnants of his CIC crew. “The fight is over, people. I want everyone to get to an evacuation pod now.” He turned to Hoshi. “Put out a call through the shipwide comms. Hopefully some of the speakers are still working. Tell those listening to make their way to the nearest evacuation pod. Anyone capable of flying a Viper or a Raptor needs to get down to hangar bay. We need to save as many ships as we can.”

“What about Pegasus?”

“Pegasus is gone.” It broke his heart to say those words out loud, but Lee knew he needed to be strong here. “We can’t dwell on that. I want you to put in a call to Galactica before you leave. Tell them that the evacuations will be complete in a little under an hour. They are to remain on guard.”

“What about when the hour’s up?”

“Tell them to open fire. My girl deserves to go down in a blaze of glory.”

Hoshi nodded and, without hesitation, started placing the call.

Lee started ushering people out into the hall, ordering them to do something he had never thought he would. It was time to abandon their posts.

A minute of yelling was all he had to waste to get most of the CIC moving. It had taken well over a year, but the people who served under him had finally learned to respect his authority. If he said evacuate, he meant evacuate.

Lee sprinted out into the corridors, following the stream of people on their way to the evacuation pods. He only made it a few steps.

No sound rang through his ears. No heat blasted his body. No large flare of white and yellow and blue blinded him.

Lee simply found himself in a heap halfway down the corridor, his head ringing from what felt like the beginnings of a concussion. Shaking his head clear, he registered people running frantically all around him. No one offered to help him, which was the first clue that something was drastically wrong.

The second clue was when Lee fought back the pain enough to look down the corridor where he was standing.

The CIC was gone.

It was buried underneath a pile of rubble and flames. There were a few people frantically trying to dig through the clutter towards the people Lee knew were trapped inside. A couple of officers were arguing over what to do. Still, others were simply standing, staring at the chaos around them, just like Lee.

Lee felt a coolness on his head. His fingers pressed against his forehead and came back wet and cold, bathed in a red that should not be there. The pounding got louder around him.

A scream pierced through the haze. As the fact that he was the Commander of this ship finally came back to him, Lee sprang into motion. He shrugged out of his jacket, pausing only to wipe the blood away from his eyes. The jacket was torn in too many places to be of any other use. He shouted at those who weren’t in shock to help dig out those they knew were still alive and began using his bare hands to move hunks of metal and plastic.

The effort only took a few minutes. Most of the people they found were too far gone to save.

Lee whispered a quick prayer to the gods for the crew he had just lost and then shouted at the survivors to follow him down to the evacuation pods. He slipped his hand underneath the shoulder of an injured strategic officer and started walking as quickly as he could. He hoped the others kept up.

All the way down to the hangar bay, Lee continued to yell at them to move. He told them they were almost there at every turn they made, and for some reason, no one pointed out that he was lying. He handed off the injured man he was supporting to the nearest deckhand and started making his way back through the hangar bay hatch.

“Commander Adama!”

Lee turned around to see the comms officer from before. The kid had made it. “Yes?”

“Sir, you need to get on an evacuation pod.”

Lee watched the young boy’s eyes hover on the wound that was still openly bleeding. “Don’t worry about me, kid. Get yourself off this ship. I’ll get on a ship when I know the rest of the crew is safe.”

“Sir, excuse me, but that’s stupid.”

Lee narrowed his eyes and walked back to stand in front of the comms officer. “What’s your name?”

“Petty Officer Grady Beck, sir.”

“Well, Petty Officer Grady Beck, you seem like a rather smart young man, but there are things you don’t understand. Now get on that evacuation pod before I make it an order.”

“Yes, sir,” Beck said, snapping off a salute.

Lee returned the gesture and started sprinting out into the corridor. He was glad that Beck was so young that he didn’t know the right questions to ask. It was better off for no one to know what he was doing. Then, when they realized the Commander had not gotten off the ship, no one would have to carry the guilt of knowing why.

Lee paused for a moment and tried to remember what that comms officer had said when he was relaying reports. The briefing room was only a few levels away.

As he turned the first corridor, Lee felt his ship start to shake again. This time he knew what it meant. He had lost another part of Pegasus, and there was no way to know if that part was the one he was running towards. A sense of urgency sunk in, and in response, his feet picked up the pace.

A loud bang filled the air behind him, and Lee fought back the uneasy feeling that those evacuation pods weren’t even going to make it far enough to launch. He had felt it the second the first Centurion dive bombed into the side of his ship. All would be lost.

His hands curled up into fists. If this was how it was supposed to be, he would kill every one of those metal mother frakers with his bare hands before he let them think they won… especially if they took her without giving him a chance to say goodbye.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Kara felt the light from the corridor beating against her head long before her eyes opened. After a second she realized the pounding was more likely due to the fact that she was moving. There was a strange pressure on her arms. Another second later, she realized she wasn’t moving at all. She was being moved. Gathering up all her strength, she opened her eyes and tried to focus through the pain.

There was a figure standing over her. The pressure on her arms suddenly made sense. “Wha-” Kara only got the one syllable out of her mouth before her vision went white. She slammed her eyes shut and prayed to the gods her knees held out as the pain engulfed her.

“Shh. Don’t talk, Kara.”

“Lee?” She hadn’t realized her voice was so raspy. Had it always been that way?

“I said don’t talk.”

She decided the voice sounded so pissed off it had to be Lee. His grip tightened around her. “We have to move right now,” he whispered. “They’re coming.”

Kara tried to move her legs, but nothing happened. Another explosion rocked the ship, and she felt Lee being thrown away. The desperation and fear kicked in the second his hands left her arm. Kara lashed out, and her hands hit something immediately. She forced her eyes open to see the large piece of debris sitting on her lap. The next thing she noticed was the bodies. All those nuggets…

A groan tore her gaze away, and she twisted to see Lee slumped against what used to be a corridor wall. A soft clicking echoed through the devastated corridors. “Lee,” she hissed, her hand coming to push on the chunk of debris. It moved an inch, and the throbbing in her legs multiplied by a hundred.

Lee’s head was spinning for the second time in under an hour, but he managed to quiet it down enough to hear her voice. He had been doing something before. He hated that he couldn’t remember what that was.

They’re coming. Lee’s words from before rang in her head, and Kara suddenly made the connection.

Centurions.

Instincts kicked in almost immediately. They needed to move. Kara bit down on her lip as hard as she could before shoving the debris with all her might. It slid completely off, and her vision went red.

There wasn’t time to dwell on the pain. She moved her legs slightly and was grateful to feel them despite the pain.

Kara crawled the few feet it took to make it to Lee. “The Centurions are coming,” she whispered.

Lee’s eyes snapped open as memory after memory cut through the haze in his head. “Kara.”

Thankfully, Kara knew that look so she had time to brace herself before Lee pulled her to her feet. “Frak!” she screamed as the blood rushed down to her legs. Her knee gave out completely, and she felt Lee’s hands tighten around her. “I’m fine. I’m fine,” she snarled.

Lee was about to tell her that she was definitely not fine when he heard the sound of moving metal. It was getting closer. “Hold on,” he said.

Kara did her best to do what he said as Lee started yanking them down the war-torn corridor. “How bad is it?”

Lee continued to stare straight ahead. “The CIC’s gone. I think that the port side hangar bay took, at the very least, a heavy hit. Worst case scenario, it’s completely gone. Communications are down, and all evacuation pods that are still in intact were probably jettisoned over ten minutes ago. The Admiral’s under orders to shoot us down within the next twenty minutes. I don’t want Pegasus taken.”

Kara nodded. She had figured it was that bad.

They almost made it to the stairs of the next level when she felt Lee stumble. Her body slammed into the wall, and her fingers reached out to find purchase. The sounds of the Centurions were even closer. “We’re not going to make it,” she said, her eyes locking with Lee’s for the first time.

Lee‘s eyes scanned the area around him, and Kara watched his jaw square. Then he was yanking both of them through the only hatch in the corridor that was still on its hinges. She barely had time to register that they were in an equipment locker before he was letting go and she was sliding to the floor. He fell down next to her.

They stayed that way, side by side, both silently trying to regain their breath, for what felt like an eternity. The pain was fading in Kara’s legs, but she was no longer sure that was a good thing.

She watched Lee’s head dip silently and reality set back in. “You’re hurt.”

Lee raised his chin to look at her, and something familiar flashed in his eyes. Without a word, he got to his feet and walked to the other side of the equipment locker.

Kara watched him silently pace for a few minutes. She couldn’t help but notice the slight limp he was now walking with. He was hurt.

He stopped pacing and leaned against a counter, his eyes coming to rest on her. She knew he was waiting for her to ask him a question, but none came to mind. She already knew what he was doing here. After all, she had been preparing to do the same thing before that explosion took her out. She didn’t want to ask him why the gods were doing this because she knew that he didn’t the answer.

She took in the dirt and blood caked to his body, and suddenly everything they had done in the past came rushing back to her. Of all the mistakes they had made, she knew she had made the biggest one. She knew he loved her. He had been rather vocal with his feelings at least a few times, but she wouldn’t hear anything of it.

Who the hell did she think she was to make him wait?

They had been so stupid for so long, and now it was too late to fix it.

“And your legs?”

Lee’s voice cut through her thoughts, pulling her back into the situation. “I’m fine,” she reassured him. “It hurt like a bitch at first, but it’s getting better.”

Concern flashed across his face before he could hide it. Kara was about to say something when a loud bang filled the corridor. The Centurions were here. She turned back to Lee and saw realization in his eyes. This was it. This was the end. In a few seconds, it would be over.

They only had one chance left.

She only had one chance.

“I’m sorry.”

Lee watched her for a moment and then pushed off the counter he was leaning on. He limped his way over to where she sat and crouched down, holding his hand out to her. “Up for one last dance, Captain?”

She wasn’t giving up this time. Kara nodded and let him help her to her feet.

Lee rattled through the cabinets and, after a minute, tossed two guns to her. He grabbed two of his own and checked the clips. The weight of the situation pressed down on them as they heard the sound of metal stop outside the hatch to the equipment locker.

The noises dropped out around her, and suddenly all Kara could hear was the sound of her breath mixing in with Lee’s. Time slowed down as she held his gaze. There was a million things she needed to say right now.

Yet Lee was the one to speak first. “I forgive you, and even though it‘s not worth much, I‘m sorry, too.”

“It’s worth a hell of a lot,” Kara whispered. Shaking away the tears, she turned away from Lee and did her best to steel herself for what was ahead. She felt Lee settle in beside her as the pounding on the hatch began.

“Ready?”

“Ready.”

The hatch exploded.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“And that’s all you’re getting for tonight,” Kara insisted, getting to her feet.

“But Mommy!”

Kara smiled at the angry look on her daughter’s face. “Don’t ‘but Mommy’ me, Aliya. It’s over twenty minutes past your bedtime.”

“But I have to know,” the little girl insisted, practically hopping out of the covers surrounding her body. “What happened to the Fleet’s two best pilots? Did they kick the toasters’ butts? How’d they get back to Galactica? What happened to the Pegasus?”

Kara shook her head. “Tomorrow night. Mommy’s tired.”

Aliya looked like she was going to protest but then stopped. “You do look tired.”

“Mommys don’t lie,” Kara said, leaning in to kiss the top of her daughter’s head. “Now go to bed.”

Kara made it to the hatch before her daughter called out again. “Is Daddy going to come in and say goodnight?” She gave Aliya a small nod. Satisfied, her daughter burrowed herself into her covers again and shut her eyes. Kara let herself linger for just a second before shutting the hatch.

For some reason, she wasn’t surprised to see Lee waiting for her in the middle of the room. She could feel him watching her and knew, despite the dim lighting, he could see the trail of tears on her cheeks. He crossed the room to stand in front of her, and Kara reached her hand out to cup his cheek. Her fingers traced the jagged scar that was there, marring a once perfect face, and she felt him lean into her touch.

Lee pulled his wife’s hand away from his face and traced the faded lines on her palm, the only visible evidence of the dozen operations she went through to restore feeling after the Centurions ripped a line across one whole side of her body. He could still remember the feeling of watching her slowly bleed to death. He had never felt so helpless in his life.

To this day, he still had no idea how they managed to fight their way to the starboard side of the battlestar to find that abandoned Raptor in the hangar bay.

“She asked for her favorite bedtime story again, didn’t she?” Lee whispered, moving his arms around Kara’s body and pulling her close to him.

She nodded. “Do you think she’ll ever put it together?”

Lee wished he could lie and say no, but he had made a vow a long time ago to stop lying when it came to Kara. “She will when she’s old enough.”

Kara tightened her hold on him, and Lee shifted to bury his face in her hair. He breathed her in and smiled. “She’s waiting for me, isn’t she?”

“You got it,” Kara said, pulling back.

Lee gave her a quick kiss before letting go and turning towards their daughter’s room. He was about to open the hatch when Kara’s voice cut through the silence. “Lee?”

He turned to look back at his wife and saw something flash across her face. “What is it?”

She watched him for a second before shaking her head with a smile. “It’s nothing.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.”

Whatever had been on her mind a few seconds earlier disappeared completely as she watched her husband sit down on the edge of their daughter’s bed. He whispered something and then leaned in to kiss her cheek.

Kara wiped the tears off her cheeks and turned to get herself ready for bed.

FIC - Cold, [PG], L/K, Z, 1/1

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 01:43:57 GMT

This one’s for me!!! Yay!

Title: Cold
Author: hackaddict
Date: 10/05/2006
Rating: PG
Pairing: Kara/Lee, Zak
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: “The cold of space can be extremely discomforting the first time you feel it, but you will find a creative way to warm up when your bird touches the ground, ” Kara told the class of nuggets, and she did her best not to wink at the man in the back of the briefing room who knew firsthand of the creative way she had snuggled in next to him ten minutes after she landed a Viper for the first time.
Words: 1,198

“The cold of space can be extremely discomforting the first time you feel it, but you will find a creative way to warm up when your bird touches the ground, ” Kara told the class of nuggets, and she did her best not to wink at the man in the back of the briefing room who knew firsthand of the creative way she had snuggled in next to him ten minutes after she landed a Viper for the first time.

________________________

Kara slammed her stack of papers down onto the front table and turned to smirk at the class in front of her. “Kellerman is out sick so I’m teaching her class today. Most people call me Starbuck, but you can call me God.”

There were a few snickers which Kara killed with one particularly well-aimed look. “We are going to go over the basics unless someone wants to tell me that you’ve already mastered them.”

“What if we have?”

Kara’s eyes snapped up to look at the nugget sitting in the front row. He actually had the nerve to look relaxed. “Well then, I’ll take you down to the simulators and prove you wrong.” Kara pointed to the plaque on the wall behind her. Each classroom had one of these as all the nuggets knew. “See that? Those are the flight records for the Academy. If you look closely, there are only a handful of names on there. Mine is one of them. Until one of you frakers gets your call sign up there, you shut up and listen. Got it?”

That little tirade earned her a roomful of nods, and Kara sighed in relief. She really didn’t want to waste class time on pointless simulator runs, not that she didn’t love the sims. Hell, she had even named her favorite machine.

Kara realized everyone was staring at her and started rifling through her notes. “Says here that you were about to cover the reality of flying in space. Does anyone have any stupid questions before we start?”

“What does it feel like?”

Kara’s eyes scanned the room, but instead of landing on the person who asked the question, she settled on the man leaning in the doorway behind all the nuggets. She smiled and gave a small nod before turning her attentions back to her job. “Ah yes… a truly stupid question. It’s space. Hopefully you will never have to experience its feel.”

The young girl in the back turned bright red, but to her credit, she straightened up and tried again. “I meant what does being in the cockpit in space feel like?”

Lee nodded and motioned he would be out in the hall when she was done.

The rest of the lecture flew by once the nuggets got their stupid questions out of the way. Kara did her best to put the fear of the gods in them while also preparing them for their inevitable first launch. The class of nuggets left with two very distinct feelings. Half the class looked incredibly worried that they were going to die the second they left gravity behind. The other half looked like they were going to combust with excitement. That was the half that would make it in this program. That was the half that would know the joy of being weightless and in control.

The nuggets filtered out quickly, and Kara started gathering up her things. Kellerman hated when Kara left her classroom a mess.

“Excuse me, sir?”

Kara looked up to see the man who had asked her the question about what she would do if they had already mastered basic flight. He was still sitting in his seat. “What is it, nugget?”

“You’re Kara, aren’t you?”

Kara’s hand froze in the air, and she turned to take a better look at this kid. No one called her Kara at the Academy. It undermined her authority as a mean son of a bitch. “What?”

“I knew it the second you made that joke about warming up after your first flight out.”

“How?”

“I was worried about how it would feel like most of the class, so I asked my brother to tell me about it.” The nugget could see Kara’s mouth open to tell him to get to the fraking point, and he held his hand up. “Just humor me, sir.”

“Your brother’s a pilot?” Kara asked after a few seconds, agreeing to his plea to listen. She leaned back against the table and waited.

“He is. He told me a story, sir, about his closet friend in Academy and her first flight. She came knocking on his room, interrupting his studying, and pushed him onto his bed. Before he knew it, she had shed her flight suit, crawled in next to him, and pulled the covers up around their bodies. Lee told me that was the only time he ever let you pull him completely and totally away from his studies.”

“Lee?” The other words she wanted to say caught in her throat. All she could managed was his name.

The nugget stood up and smiled at her. “I’m Zak Adama, sir, and I have to say I’m really sorry that I didn’t get placed in your normal class. You’re as good as Lee always said you were.”

Kara was left gaping at the chair this cocky nugget had just vacated. Lee told her his little brother was going to start flight school soon, but she hadn’t realized that soon meant this year. Gods damn Lee and his cryptic way of giving her information.

She slammed the rest of her papers into her bag and stomped out of the room. Lee pushed off the wall he was leaning on the second he saw her. He had barely adjusted to her presence before her fists started beating on his chest. “What the frak? Kara. Stop it. Stop it.”

Kara threw one last punch that hit him squarely in the jaw, and she saw him recoil. She had really made contact on that one. “Fraking hell, Lee. You could have told me your little brother was a nugget before he threw an embarrassing story in my face and undermined the little amount of authority I may have had.” She whacked him on the arm again. “Bastard.”

Lee smiled and slung his now bruised arm across her shoulders, ignoring the pain. “Let’s go get lunch, Kara, and then you can tell me which story Zak embarrassed you with.”

Kara made it a few steps before his words sunk in. “Just how many stories did you tell your brother?”

Lee chuckled and tightened his hold on her, dropping a quick kiss on the top of her head.

FIC - Lock, [G], L/K, 1/1

Thu, 05 Oct 2006 03:58:32 GMT

For w3ndz.

Title: Lock
Author: hackaddict
Date: 10/05/2006
Rating: G
Pairing: Kara/Lee
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: Every now and then, Kara would find her eyes locking with Lee’s from across the hanger bay, and she would wonder why something as simple as a small wink could make her heart stop.
Words: 891

Every now and then, Kara would find her eyes locking with Lee’s from across the hanger bay, and she would wonder why something as simple as a small wink could make her heart stop.

_________________________

Every now and then, Kara would find her eyes locking with Lee’s from across the hanger bay, and she would wonder why something as simple as a small wink could make her heart stop.

She gave Lee a smile and went back to looking at the clipboard in her hand.

Helo had been the first person to make her aware of how their relationship looked to an outsider. She could still remember the day he crouched down by the head of her bunk and asked if she was planning on telling her best friend that she was in love with the Commander’s son.

Kara had been half asleep at the time, but she still knew he wasn’t talking about Zak. Helo knew about Zak, but he also knew that Kara had loved the youngest Adama. He wouldn’t feel the need to have her confirm that which he already knew. That meant he was talking about Lee. That was a whole other problem in itself, but it added up to the same thing.

She liked to torture herself with these relationships that could never be.

She turned to Helo and smiled before explaining that history wasn’t on her side when it came to Lee Adama. Helo promptly grinned back at her and asked when was Starbuck ever one to let a stupid thing like history get in her way.

Kara had chewed on that little comment for weeks.

Her attention drifted away from the clipboard again. Lee was doing his best to work with Seelix on the repair of her Viper. Kara had fraked up rather good during the last encounter she had with the Cylons, and until it was fixed, she was stuck sharing Lee’s Mark VII. He had assured her he didn’t mind, but she couldn’t ignore the fact that he had spent his last couple off-shifts down in this maintenance bay with her bird.

Kara heard a large clunk and managed to turn in time to see something that looked suspiciously like her main engine fall from the bottom of the whole plane. By the time she processed what she was seeing, Lee had begun to start viciously kicking the bottom panels of the Mark II. Everyone stared in shock as the CAG finally lost it, and Kara couldn’t help but laugh.

Her laughter must have through the rafters because Lee straightened up immediately and looked her way. He gave her a small shrug and started barking out orders to Seelix about the parts they would need.

Kara’s attentions were called away from her new hobby of CAG watching by a little altercation between some deckhands who couldn’t understand the concept of following their superior officer’s orders without question. When she turned back, Lee was talking casually to Kat.

Kara’s eyes narrowed.

Kat had been asking about Lee a lot lately. She wanted to know what the CAG’s story was, who he was before the attacks and why he seemed so distant most of the time.

Kara had no urge to give Kat the answers she wanted. It had taken Kara years to finally understand Lee. She wasn’t going to just hand that kind of information out on a whim. You had to earn it.

Her attention came back to the present as she heard Kat… was that actually a giggle? Kat was giggling. She was giggling and she was resting her hand on Lee’s arm.

Kara watched Lee stiffen and knew she was probably the only one to notice the change. She focused back on the clipboard in her hand and did her best to hold back the laugh. Nothing was funnier than watching women flirt with Lee. It happened all the time, and regardless of how attractive he knew he was, it freaked Lee out.

She forced herself to finish the checklist in front of her before chancing another glance at Lee, but when Kat brushed past her workstation with a none-too-pleased look on her face, she couldn’t help it. The look of relief on Lee’s face was downright comical, and as their eyes locked, Kara got the feeling it was just for her that his lips turned up in a smile.

They held each other’s gaze for a second before Lee motioned for her to come over.

Kara handed the clipboard to the nearest deckhand with the instructions of giving it to the Chief and slowly made her way to Lee’s side. “Something you need, Captain?”

Lee nodded and pointed to the torn apart Viper. “Help.”

“I’m sure Seelix and Kat could have offered you a hand.”

“Seelix is working on three other birds in addition to this one.”

“And Kat?”

Lee looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “Is fraking annoying.”

“I see,” Kara said, giving a small nod. “Well then, I guess you have no other option but me.”

“Obviously,” Lee agreed.

Kara moved to lie underneath her Mark II, and it was only a few seconds before Lee joined her. Together, they spent the afternoon and their mutual off-shifts laughing and joking as they did the impossible and brought Starbuck’s bird back from the dead.

FIC - Whiskey and Rum, [G], L/K, 1/1

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 02:07:34 GMT

This is for Archer on the ASF list.

Title: Whiskey and Rum
Author: hackaddict
Date: 10/03/2006
Rating: G
Pairing: Kara/Lee, Kara/Anders
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: Kara could taste the whiskey on Lee’s mouth as they celebrated the discovery of the thirteenth colony, and when his lips moved to tickle her neck, she wondered if he could taste the rum that had been sprayed on her in the chaos of their success.
Words: 940

Kara could taste the whiskey on Lee’s mouth as they celebrated the discovery of the thirteenth colony, and when his lips moved to tickle her neck, she wondered if he could taste the rum that had been sprayed on her in the chaos of their success.

___________________

The celebration was pure chaos as years of tension finally faded away. The weight of the world was no longer on her shoulders, and Kara let herself breathe for the first time in so long.

Lee pulled away from her, and Kara let out a loud scream of joy at the familiar sight of his smile. She had missed this.

In the beginning, she didn’t even realize it was fading. They still joked and laughed those first few months, but then the novelty of being alive wore off. In its place stood the knowledge that the responsibility of being alive was on their shoulders. No one else could save humanity. No one else could keep them worthy of saving.

She didn’t see Lee smile a lot after the day she voiced that horrible thought.

Her eyes scanned the hangar bay as Lee pulled her into another hug. She knew she should be the one slapping everyone on the back and congratulating them. It was probably in the official job description of CAG somewhere between what to do in the event of a holocaust and how to handle being in love with your commanding officer’s son.

How to act in the event that you found salvation from extinction. Kara would love to know what that entry would sound like.

Her eyes caught with Sam’s. He was standing on the other end of the hangar, enjoying a drink with a few of the Marines and deckhands. His hand came up in a small wave, and Kara gave him a smile. It had taken a long time to repair things between herself and Samuel Anders.

She had once thought nothing could be more painful than when she lost Zak. She was wrong. Somehow she had ignored the blissful closure that the death of her fiance had given her. Dealing with Anders, knowing what they had once had and not knowing how it had gone wrong, was the most gut-wrenchingly painful act she had ever had to do.

That little wave was a product of years of hard work.

A spray of something wet hit her back, pulling her attentions away from Sam. She jumped away on instinct, out of the reach of Lee’s arms. The stickiness of the alcohol was already causing her tanks to stick to her. A soft chuckle filled the air. She wasn’t surprised to hear it. She knew it was Karl long before she turned around to face him.

Helo was braced for a vicious right hook, which was why he was caught by surprise when she flung herself into his arms. His shoulders relaxed as his arms tensed, and Kara felt her feet leave the ground as he crushed her against him. “I really didn’t think we’d both make it,” he admitted after a moment.

“Me, too. The Fleet frak-up and the toaster lover, that’s an unlikely pair of survivors.”

Helo set her down on the ground. He paused for a second before leaning in to sniff her hair. Kara tried not to laugh at the phony look of disgust plastered across his face. “Kara, you haven’t smelled this drunk since Scar.” He smirked. “It suits you.”

Kara smiled and leaned in to kiss his cheek. “Karl, I haven’t been this happy since… well… ever.”

Another round of cheers rang through the hangar, and Kara felt a familiar pair of hands wrap around her waist. Before she could turn, she felt her feet leave the ground again, only this time she was being picked up completely. She let out a laugh as a few pilots nearby started catcalling and pulled Lee’s lips down to hers.

The kiss was gentle but firm, his quiet way of telling her that everything was going to change now, no matter if she wanted it to or not. She couldn’t help but sigh at the feeling of having him so close. He made her feel protected.

“We did it,” Lee whispered, resting his forehead against hers.

She felt her smile widen. “Yes, we did.”

What she had with Lee was nothing like what she had had with Sam. Sam gave her stability, something to look forward to. He was a potential future, a way to make her life better than what she always thought it could be. Sam was a desire, a need to fight. He had filled her thoughts from the second she left him on Caprica to the moment she returned to find him alive. She had learned to love him through the distance of space. He was the smart decision, the man who was ready to offer her anything she wanted. There was nothing he did that reminded her of Lee.

Samuel Anders and Lee Adama were the opposite in every way, and in the end, that was what the most painful decision of her life was based on.

Sam was a glimmer of hope in the back of her mind.

Lee… Lee was in her blood.

Kara smiled and pulled her XO into another kiss, this time making it worthy of the catcalls they were receiving.

FIC - Horizon, [PG], L/K, 1/1

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 02:57:07 GMT

This is for ez_as_pi

Title: Horizon
Author: hackaddict
Date: 10/02/2006
Rating: PG
Pairing: Kara/Lee
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: The horizon of New Picon lit up with explosions, and Lee turned to Kara, “I guess the third time isn’t the charm.”
Words: 821

The horizon of New Picon lit up with explosions, and Lee turned to Kara, “I guess the third time isn’t the charm.”

_______________________________

They had been fighting so long that it felt like second nature to wake up to the sound of explosions all around. Kara felt her husband stir beside her, and within seconds, they were scrambling for their clothes.

As soon as her pants were zipped, she dropped to her knees and started sweeping her arm under the bed. She hit a familiar metal box and yanked it out with all her strength. The dust caught in her throat, but she only gave herself the luxury of coughing once. There wasn’t time.

Blinking her now stinging eyes, she recalled the dust that clogged up everything on New Kobol. It had been the Fleet’s second attempt to make a new start sixteen months after the tragedy on New Caprica. That planet had torn them in two during the occupation and through all the damages when Pegasus and Galactica returned. The wounds had just healed when they came up on the desert planet.

The plan had been just to pick up any available supplies and move on. No one was stupid enough to suggest they stay, no matter how nice the planet looked. Burdens were meant to be carried; otherwise they wouldn’t be burdens. It would have worked if it wasn’t for the dust.

Pegasus’s engines became clogged along with half the ships in the Fleet within seconds of entering the atmosphere. It was quickly apparent that they’re weren’t going anywhere until the Chief came up with a way to flush the engines and prevent re-clogging. They settled in and after a few months, people did start wondering if maybe this was it. The Cylons didn’t show up even though there was nothing keeping them away. They weren’t masked by a nebula this time.

A lot of mistakes… stupid, foolish choices… had been made on New Kobol, and it took years to repair that damage. Kara knew that firsthand. Although she was one of loudest protesters settling down on the planet, she was also one of the ones who made the worst mistakes. The Fleet almost didn’t make it out of this one alive because of her.

A large bang pulled her away from the memories. She wasn’t on New Kobol anymore. Those mistakes had been long forgiven. She took the dogtags being held out to her and smiled as the familiar weight settled around her neck. It had been a long time.

Kara flipped the latch on the dusty box and almost giggled as it snapped off completely. She guessed they could have picked a less-used box for this, but it was too late to go back now. This one was sturdy, secure enough to last decades without harm. Its insides looked barely touched.

The weight of the gun in her hand was as familiar as the tags around her neck, and Kara bit back a smile. She slid the weapon into the waistband of her pants before reaching down to grab another to join it.

The final two guns in the case weren’t loaded which meant they hadn‘t been when he handed them to her to be packed this box five months earlier. Her husband was a more trusting man than she was. Kara snapped in clips and then tossed them into his waiting hands.

“Reminds you of the old days, right?” she teased.

He gave her an annoyed look and shook his head. “Things were a lot different when it was you, me, and the resistance running from those Cylons.” He paused before pointing out. “Every single one of these fraking ‘lay down your burdens’ planets is different.”

“At least we were ready this time.” Kara could already hear the sounds of the Fleet ships being powered up. The evacuation was in progress.

“Barolay, Sharon, and Helo are probably waiting for us in the square.”

Kara nodded and grabbed her old jacket, the one she had worn for so many cold months on New Caprica. The weight felt familiar, though not quite as comforting as the guns. She was pretty sure that said something important about the way she chose to live her life, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it.

Together they jogged across the tent and through the flaps. Outside was a surprisingly quiet chaos. Everyone knew the jobs that needed to be done by this point.

The horizon of New Picon lit up with explosions, and Lee turned to Kara, “I guess the third time isn’t the charm.”

Kara rolled her eyes. If he honestly thought she believed the prospect of fighting the Cylons again didn’t excite him, then he was an idiot. Lee was a man who needed a war, which in the end was why their marriage worked. He needed a handful like her in his life. “Let’s go be heroes.”

FIC - God, [PG-13], L/K, 1/1

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 00:29:52 GMT

This is for Ashley on the ASF list.

Title: God
Author: hackaddict
Date: 10/01/2006
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Kara/Lee
Spoilers: The Captain’s Hand
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: God had a plan for Kara Thrace and Lee Adama, but there were only so many of his children he could sacrifice to give them what they wanted.
Words: 940

God had a plan for Kara Thrace and Lee Adama, but there were only so many of his children he could sacrifice to give them what they wanted.

______________________

God had a plan for Kara Thrace and Lee Adama, but there were only so many of his children he could sacrifice to give them what they wanted.

The first sacrifice made was a small one. A lonely Raider for the opportunity to give the children of Zeus a taste of what it was like to fly alone. And it worked. He pushed himself harder than ever before, and she came up with a plan that was so out of the box that it had to work. God didn’t help her pilot the Raider.

And so the Fleet regained its precious daughter at the expense of one small enemy ship. The sacrifice would come back to hurt them later.

The second mistake was made by simply letting the Fleet take one of their tylium mines. Humanity needed to keep running. God’s plan was not in place yet. Letting him take the lead while she was so physically weak helped even the playing field. Artemis learned to have respect for her Apollo, but tragically, it didn’t last.

God’s plan almost came to fruition during humanity’s silly memorial holiday. The work done during the loss of the tylium mine set events in motion that no one could stop.

Yet when it came down to it, the truth was staring God in the face. It was too much, too soon. He wasn’t ready to admit his feelings, still finding them inappropriate and ill-timed. She wasn’t ready to face the consequences of what was lurking inside of her.

The largest sacrifice was made when she left him behind with the taste of his blood on his lip and an apology ringing in his ears. God had sent one of his followers to punish her. She needed to learn that the will of God was not to be trifled with.

Kara Thrace proved tougher than at first glance. She killed the Six model without a second thought. For that action, she was punished. God did not like being proven a fool.

After reevalutation, it became evident that God was going to have to push a little harder. It was time to get just a bit more clever and a lot less subtle.

The virus wreaked havoc through the battlestar, and in the end, it took almost killing both of the children of Zeus to get them to face one another. Together they stayed alive, but the metaphor was lost in the fallout.

It was the renegade Cylon that kept the virus from following its true purpose. God decided that, baby or no baby, Sharon would pay.

Then, it was time to make the final sacrifice for one of the followers of God. Gina was a good disciple, taking the punishment of being unmasked weeks before she was needed simply to put herself into place. She managed to place the dormant FTL coordinates in the CIC’s system before letting herself be taken. When the time came, Pegasus jumped right to its brother.

And the children learned what it was like to be taken from the father.

The next sacrifice was hard to make. So many innocent lives were lost to break down Apollo’s ability to fly. His wings were taken right along with his pride.

The point was to drag him down so she could pick him up. It had happened perfectly when it was the daughter down on the planet and the son in the air, but for some reason, the opposite only pushed them apart. He struggled for a reason to keep fighting, and she let herself get caught up in inconsequential details.

God was not scared. His will would be done. To prove his lack of fear, he prepared to sacrifice one of his best.

Scar.

The situations spun out of control, too fast for even God to intervene. They were speaking, being honest for the first time in a long while, and then they were being more than honest. Victory was within reach, but she pushed him away. Humanity’s drug mixed with the feelings inside her, and it exploded.

This time, when he almost died, it was no one’s fault but her own.

God did the only thing he could, making sure the criminals’ lives ended as soon as possible. Lee Adama was not supposed to die. Destinies would be clouded to the point of no return. He could not be lost, not yet.

The pain from his shoulder faded, but the pain in his heart did not. This time he did not drown in his thoughts. Instead, he simmered in his anger until he had the opportunity to take a chunk out of her heart as compensation.

A small glimmer of hope shining between them was all God needed. The truth was becoming painfully obvious. The children of Zeus could not be pushed into anything, but given time, they would naturally drift to their destiny.

You could not run from destiny.

The two children of Zeus needed to be with one another. They needed to have a child. They would show the Cylons the true way to create new life, and with that new life, the son of Zeus would never grow to take control from his father’s aging hand. He would never feel the pain that would push him to the edge of sanity. With the daughter of Zeus by his side, the dying leader of humanity would never be.

Yes, God had a plan.

And all he needed was time.

FIC - Sordid, [PG], L/K, K/An, 1/1

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 23:12:23 GMT

This is for Ashley on ASF.

Title: Sordid
Author: hackaddict
Date: 09/28/2006
Rating: PG
Pairing: Kara/Lee, Kara/Anders
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: Their affair had always had a hint of sordidness to it, but it was only when Lee whispered how much he loved her that Kara truly understood the sin they were committing.
Words: 1,691

Their affair had always had a hint of sordidness to it, but it was only when Lee whispered how much he loved her that Kara truly understood the sin they were committing.

_______________________________

Kara felt her thoughts drifting away from the flight schedules in front of her. The CAPs were just a formality these days so it wasn’t like it mattered if they were balanced and fair.

A lot of things no longer mattered. Life had changed with the appearance of New Caprica. Kara found herself hesitating to follow the crowds down to the surface. There was a wariness to trusting the Cylons wouldn’t find them, and that nagging feeling just wouldn’t go away. So she continued on, doing the only thing she knew, here in the skies. The only shift was she began expanding her duties to include both Galactica and Pegasus. She took on the workload of CAG for both ships, and yet she still found herself with too much time on her hands. The skies became lonelier than ever.

Kara let out a deep sigh. She had never thought her life would come to something so exhaustingly boring.

“Is something wrong, Captain?”

Kara looked up from her report at the man sitting across from her. Lee looked just as bored as she did. “Nothing,” she lied.

They both returned to their work for a few minutes, but Kara couldn’t say she was surprised when Lee started talking again. Just recently she found herself realizing how much he hated silence.

“My father said that you asked for an off-shift tonight.”

Kara nodded and kept her eyes firmly locked on the papers in front of her.

“Are you going down to the surface?”

Kara nodded again and tried to wait out the silence, hoping he would get uncomfortable and move on to another topic. She wasn’t that lucky.

“How are things down on New Caprica?”

“Good. The construction of the city is coming along nicely,” Kara offered.

Lee nodded and let his eyes hold hers until it was too much. His gaze shifted down to his papers, and Kara found herself openly staring at him for the first time in a long while. He looked exhausted and yet full of impatience. Kara couldn’t help but notice that Lee looked like a soldier who had had his war taken away from him. He had no purpose these days, just like the rest of us.

Lee shifted to look at her again, and Kara felt her heart freeze at the notion that the topic of her off-shift had still not been dropped. “What are you going to do down on the surface?”

“I’m… I’m going to visit some of the retired pilots. Racetrack, Showboat, Duck. They miss their queen of triad.” Kara hoped the teasing tone of her words hid the fact that they were a complete lie. Both she and Lee knew why she was going down to the surface, and it had nothing to do with her old friends.

Kara had no clue why she felt the need to hide her relationship with Anders from Lee. When she had first brought the ex-pyramid player to the Fleet, they did anything but hide how enamored they were of each other.

But the captivation wore off. The relationship stayed, yet Kara found herself flaunting it a little less. She was happy, but so were many others. With the discovery of New Caprica, everyone was making the push of settling down to a happy life. People were getting married at every turn, finding joy in places they had long given up.

“Say…” Lee cleared his throat as the words caught in his throat. “Say hello to them from me.”

Kara lowered her eyes with a nod. He knew.

It wasn’t like Lee was going to hate her for what she was trying to do. She had been searching for what was right for so long. Really, she figured it went back to when she was little, trying to survive under her mother’s “watchful” eye. She wanted to find that niche were everything just clicked together.

It kept avoiding her.

She was happy with Anders to the point of knowing it was love. She was settled in her job even if it had shifted into something so different than what she thought it would be. She had family and friends to finally support her, people whose respect she had earned with blood and tears and a common bond of survival.

Yet there was a hint of wrong to the situation. Something wasn’t right. She was hiding how often she was meeting Anders. Every time she had to sneak away for a night, she told Lee a lie.

More often, those lies were spreading to the Old Man, too, which was absurd. William Adama had never condemned her for wanting to be happy with Anders. He had even told her he approved. Granted, it was a reluctant approval and took a few months for him to give, but it was an approval in the end.

She knew neither the Old Man nor Lee would hate her for being with Anders, and yet she lied.

Kara looked up at the man sitting across from her, and for just a brief second, she felt the urge to apologize for being unfaithful. Lee’s eyes met hers, and he nodded, completely oblivious to how dangerous her thoughts were right now. Kara felt the need to apologize sweep away. It was ridiculous. They weren’t in a relationship like she and Anders were. She wasn’t cheating on Lee by going to see her boyfriend.

She pushed the thoughts from her head and worked on the last few lines of the flight schedule. It was due to be signed by both Lee and his father before she could go on her trip to New Caprica. Anders would be mad if she fed him the same excuse about flight schedules that she always used when she was late. It was odd how mostly Sam understood her so well, but sometimes, usually when it had something to do with Lee or her job as CAG, he didn’t understand her at all.

They were still working out the kinks in their relationship even after all this time. It was one of the things that told Kara she might be doing this right for once. Nothing that was good in her life came easy.

Kara shut the folder on the completed flight schedule and took a deep breath. She just might make it down to the city on time.

“You’ll be back tomorrow, right?”

Lee’s voice reminded her of when she was five and would ask her father if he was going to come home after his tour of shows were over. Every time, she had to say goodbye, she was afraid it would be the last time she saw her father. She was afraid he would wake up and realize she was a horrible little girl just like her mother always said. He wouldn’t want to put up with her anymore, and he would leave her alone.

Lee’s voice shook with that open fear, and Kara felt her heart clench with the knowledge that she had put that there.

“Yeah, I’ll be back.” Kara stood up and walked around the table. She let herself give into the urge to run her hand along Lee’s back as she passed him. They barely touched these days.

Lee would run those words of promise through his head for weeks when he found himself creating flight schedules and fielding complaints of personality problems between pilots. He would remember how he believed she was telling the truth as his father tried to explain why it had happened. Those four words were all he had as one day stretched into seven which stretched into thirty which was when he lost count.

Kara never returned.

She got married.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Kara felt his arms reaching around to hold her body close. The sheets were warm beneath them. The stubble on his chin scratched her shoulder as he shifted in his sleep, and Kara shut her eyes.

This was more than love. It was her whole reason of being. It was what got her up in the morning after she remembered what her life had become.

Every morning, she got out of bed and had to look the man she loved in the face, knowing that she was happy and yet not. She was tired of doing this, tired of lying, of looking for reasons why this was neither right nor wrong. She was tired of searching for what was right and finding the answer when it was too late.

This was killing her.

Their affair had always had a hint of sordidness to it, but it was only when Lee whispered how much he loved her that Kara truly understood the sin they were committing.

This was both right and wrong, and it killed Kara a little more each day.

It had taken her so long to realize she had been mistaken all those years she was searching for love. Since she was little, all she wanted was to love and be loved in return. She had finally found it only to realize she needed more.

She needed something more than love.

And that was why she knew she was not going to give up the man whose arms she was currently curled up in, a man with a wedding ring similar to hers but different in the most important way.

Let the gods damn them for the pain this would cause one day. She was done trying to please anyone but herself.

FIC - Sojourn, [PG], L/K, K/Z, 1/1

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 00:39:45 GMT

Last one for futurobrillante

Title: Sojourn
Author: hackaddict
Date: 09/27/2006
Rating: PG
Pairing: Kara/Lee, Kara/Zak
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: Kara and Lee promised to never tell anyone about the few days she spent living in Lee's apartment on Picon after the funeral.
Words: 1,698

Kara and Lee promised to never tell anyone about the few days she spent living in Lee's apartment on Picon after the funeral.

______________________

Kara and Lee promised to never tell anyone about the few days she spent living in Lee's apartment on Picon after the funeral.

It wasn’t the guilt or some misguided sense of having made a mistake that kept them silent.

Sometimes there were things simply too private to share.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

The knock on his door came at two in the morning. Lee ignored it as he poured himself another glass of whiskey. The liquid burned his throat, but it didn’t stop the pounding. Growling, he slammed down the glass and got to his feet. He staggered slightly on his way across the room and only cursed a few times before ripping the door open. The sight waiting for him on the other side made his heart drop out.

Kara looked a mess. She had a bag clutched tightly in her hand. Her dress blue jacket was completely unbuttoned, its fabric so wrinkled it was barely recognizable. Her hair was half in her face, and her eyes were red and puffy. She had been crying.

“I…” Kara bit down on her lip as her voice cut out. She had no clue why she was here. She had been in the spaceport, prepared to go back to Delphi where she would hole up in her flat and drink away this latest heartache, and then she was on a shuttle to Picon. All she had was the sweatshirt and shorts she had changed out of that morning before the funeral. Her feet had taken her to his doorstep even before her mind realized that was her destination. “I don’t know why I’m here.”

Lee watched her for a moment before pushing the door open. “Come in.”

Kara’s head went down, and she stepped past him, pausing only to drop her bag. Lee shut the door and leaned against the wall, watching her attention slowly sweep across his home. Her eyes came to rest on him for only a few moments and then went back to staring at her surrounding. Lee knew he should probably feel self-conscious, standing here in only a pair of sweatpants with his brother’s fiancee, but he was too drunk to care.

She felt Lee’s eyes on her as she stepped up to the table in the middle of the room and rang a finger along the almost empty bottle of alcohol. For some reason, she didn’t think this was how Lee would cope with his brother’s death. Then again, he was always the best at closing off, and alcohol would only make it easier.

Reality hit him like a brick wall as he watched her brush her tears away with the back of her hand. He had only known Kara for a year and a half, but he was ready to do anything to keep her from ever looking this lost again. “You can stay as long as you want.”

Kara’s eyes flicked up to meet his. “The last shuttle for Caprica leaves in an hour.”

Lee pushed off the wall and walked over to her side. “You can stay as long as you want.”

Kara gave a small nod, and the next thing she knew she was reaching out for him and his arms were holding her up and she was finally losing it. That last little bit of strength was gone.

Lee wasn’t sure what came over him. He and Kara had been friends since the first moment Zak introduced them, but never once had he let his heart factor into the way he treated her. He had known for a few months now that he was in love with his brother’s girl. He hadn’t let it show.

But there was something about having her chose to be with him when she was so broken and bruised. Lee had never been the kind of man who was insecure about the choices he made or the world he chose to live in. His resolve didn’t break easily and he had enough pride for a dozen pilots, but there was something about Kara Thrace that made that null and void.

Which was why when she looked up at him, tears in her eyes and on her cheeks, he knew he didn’t have a prayer. The kiss was gentle at first. Then he felt her fingers thread themselves through his hair, tightening her hold on him.

He didn’t have very far left to fall, but in that moment, he hit rock bottom. He was lost.

Nothing mattered. The rational thought that this was the woman who had desperately loved his brother only days earlier didn’t penetrate his mind.

Kara was kissing him.

He had sworn to himself that he wouldn’t do this. She wasn’t ever supposed to find out what he felt for her. He made a decision, and he wasn’t going to compromise.

Her lips were convincing him that he was wrong.

Right now, in this moment, Lee knew he would do anything and everything she asked him.

Kara was the one left confused when they finally broke apart, the desperate need for oxygen overruling everything else. Lee had an excuse for kissing her. He was drunk. What she couldn’t figure out was why she had kissed him back. Sure, she could blame it on the guilt and the pain, but that was the easy way out. Because if an easy lay was what she was looking for to block out the ache, she could have had that with over five dozen men she passed on her way to this point.

Never in her life had Kara met something she couldn’t resist. There wasn’t a man she couldn’t turn down if that’s what she decided she wanted to do. It was that way with Zak. He was one of her students. She knew that the rules said she couldn’t let him take her out for a drink, but she was infamous for breaking the rules. She could have said no to him in a second and not regret it one bit.

She said yes because she didn’t see a reason to say no.

Kara knew that at any moment in their relationship, she could have walked away. If things got too heavy to fast, she could walk away. If Zak turned out to not care for her like he kept insisting, she could walk away. If the fire fizzled out or threatened to consume her completely, she could walk away. If her ability to fly was threatened, if they wanted to take away her lifeline, she could walk away.

It would hurt… but she could walk away. She would walk away.

Yet she currently had Zak’s brother leaning against her. She was effectively pinned against a wall, and his head was resting on her shoulder as he fought to get his breath back.

She had spent years of her life walking away from the things that scared her yet here, in this moment, she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t walk away from Lee.

She felt Lee shift a few inches and then he was kissing that familiar sweet spot on her neck, the one it took most guys weeks to figure out. She wanted to push him away, to tell him that they couldn’t, but there wasn’t one part of her body willing to cooperate.

Nothing had ever had this much control over her. She had worked too hard to let that happen. Being able to call her life her own was something she fought for since the moment she left her mother and her childhood behind. This world she lived in had worked so perfectly for years. Up until this moment, she had never realized how much she had been hiding, though. She had never had this much to lose, and she had never cared less about losing it.

Lee felt her tremble against the soft touch of his lips, and he knew he should pull back and apologize. They should not be doing this.

He knew what pulling back would mean. He was a strong man so he knew he could do it. He could apologize, admit that he was wrong, knowing what would come of it. He would lose her. He would sever the last ties he had to her, and she would walk straight out that door and out of his life.

He had lost many things that way over the years ranging from his relationship with his father, the Commander, to his own passion for flying. Nothing he had ever lost was missed, at least not before this moment. The answer why that was made him pause in his gentle caressing of her skin.

It would hurt to lose her because he had never in his life been this much in love. He had never wanted something as much as he wanted Kara.

She pulled his chin up so that she could kiss him again, and Lee let his thoughts fade away. It was out of his hands.

For the first time in years, he didn’t want the control. Smiling, Lee let everything go.

Kara pushed off the wall and started backing their bodies towards the couch. She was a fool to be doing this, but she couldn’t stop.

With one taste, she had become addicted.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

For three days and three nights, they stayed in that bubble, not talking, just feeling. And then on the fourth morning, Lee woke up to feel the bed empty next to him.

It wasn’t a surprise. He had known in the beginning that she was never going to stay. There was just too much pressure on their shoulders.

Lee let out a long sigh and stared up at the ceiling. Maybe someday when they were both stronger, more sure of what was going on inside of them, they would figure out what had just happened. Someday they would find the meaning behind the actions.

Until then, he was determined to feel no shame.

FIC - Never, [PG], L/K, L/D, 1/1

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:00:01 GMT

For futurobrillante.

Title: Never
Author: hackaddict
Date: 09/26/2006
Rating: PG
Pairing: Kara/Lee, Lee/Dee
Spoilers: The Captain’s Hand
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: “Never is a promise,” Lee reminded Kara as he settled into his Viper, “and I like to keep my promises.”
Words: 2,723

“Never is a promise,” Lee reminded Kara as he settled into his Viper, “and I like to keep my promises.”

____________________________________

The look of hurt in Lee’s eyes mingled with the look of guilt on her face. Kara sighed and turned to face her locker. Her eyes slid shut as she remembered the conversation she had had with Dee before coming over to the Pegasus.

She had been sitting on the table in the middle of the CIC senior officers’ bunkroom for well over an hour before Dee finally showed up.

“Starbuck,” she squeaked in surprise but quickly recovered. “Lieutenant Thrace, what can I do for you?”

Kara watched her with narrowed eyes. She and Dee had never been on great terms, but the past few weeks they found it hard to be even amicable to one another. Both of them knew it had everything to do with Lee and his new relationship with the petty officer, but neither one was willing to admit it out loud. Dee saw Kara as some sort of competition for Lee’s affections, and Kara saw Dee as a woman who had readily given up her chance at happiness after the world end’s in order to have a little fun with the Admiral’s son.

“I don’t have time to play your games,” Dee hissed, rolling her eyes as she passed Kara on her way to her duty locker.

Kara hopped off the table and strode over to Dee‘s side. “I came to talk about Lee.”

Dee’s hands faltered in their rattling through the locker, and she turned to stare at Kara. “Really?”

Kara crossed her arms in front of her and steeled her gaze. She reminded herself that she was only going through this bullshit because she loved Lee so much. “Lee’s been slipping away ever since the Blackbird blew up. He’d never admit it, but he is.”

Dee leaned against her locker. “Agreed.”

“He’s lost his sense of duty, his faith in both his father and in President Roslin, his ability to fly-”

“Because of you,” Dee cut in.

Kara dug her nails into her arms to keep from lashing out. “I’m not pretending I don’t have a part in this.” Kara sighed. “Listen. I just want to fix this before it’s too late.”

“I’m not sure anything’s really broken,” Dee insisted.

“Then you’re blind. Because from what I see, Lee’s still floating out there in space, waiting for his friends and family to come rescue him, and he’s losing his grip more and more each day.” Kara shut her eyes for a moment to remember why she was doing this and then forged ahead. “You’ve got to give him something to live for, Dee. I don’t know what that is or how you can do it, but if you feel anything for Lee, you’ll figure it out.” Kara held her gaze for a second to push her point across and then made her way to the open hatch. She hoped to the gods Dee checked her ego and listened to what she was trying to say. Lee’s life depended on it.

Kara’s eyes caught in the mirror on the temporary locker she was given on Pegasus, and she pulled herself back into the present. The look of complete defeat was right there on Lee’s face. Dee had fraking blown it. Kara sighed. Well, the petty officer was just going to have deal with the consequences.

“You know I really tried to be like you in the beginning, Lee.” She watched his face in the mirror as it lit up in confusion and summed up the bravery to face him. “As much as I teased you, you were a good CAG. I have no idea how you managed to watch your pilots slowly dwindle away and still stay strong enough to lead. It was like you turned yourself off, and I fraking admired that. I wish I could feel it a little less.”

She watched the confusion fade from his face to be replaced by concern, and she felt her heart tighten. He wasn’t quite that lost if she could still stir up worry in his heart. “Something shifted, though. Something pushed you over the edge when you almost died on the resurrection mission. You became cold. Both your father and I were too wrapped up in our own issues to noticed until it was too late.”

Kara took a hesitant step toward him and when he didn’t warn her to stay back, she kept moving. “Then you almost died on the Prometheus, and although I still don’t know a lot about what happened those few weeks, I know that you were different when you came back.”

“I don’t know how you could notice something like that. If I remember correctly, you were pretty drunk most days.”

Kara stopped a few feet away and nodded. She hadn’t expected this to be easy. “It would take a lot more alcohol than what’s left in the Fleet for me not to see that you were faltering just as much as I was.”

“But for different reasons, right?”

“Yes and no,” Kara admitted. “We’re not talking about me, Lee, at least not at the moment. We’re talking about you.”

“You’re talking about me,” Lee corrected.

Kara nodded. He was right. At this point she had been doing most of the talking, but that was normal. Whenever one of them confronted the other, it was more monologue, less conversation. “I guess now would be the time to apologize for what I did to you when we were hunting Scar.”

“Scaring the frak out of me by going completely suicidal?”

Kara’s eyes went wide. She hadn’t expect that little admission, but she would take it. “Were you really scared?”

“You’re my best pilot,” Lee rattled off.

Kara nodded. He was back to the same old defenses, but she wasn’t going to forget that he had slipped for just a second. She would simply have to save it for later. “I’ll apologize for that, too, but I was talking about what I did to you in that bunkroom. I’m sorry for jerking you around until you didn’t know which way was up. I knew what I was doing, and looking back I hate that I let myself do it.”

The silence filled the air between them as Kara waited for him to respond. “All right. So we’ve been though the resurrection mission, my work with the black market, the way you fraked me up during the Scar fiasco. I guess that brings us to you shooting me.”

Kara felt her face go pale with the memory of that day, but she wasn’t going to let it get to her. “I know you won’t believe me, but I came to check on you every day you were in sickbay. I didn’t stay because I figured I was the last person you wanted to see.”

“That was a good assumption.”

Kara shook her head. “No, I really don’t think it was. We haven’t been the same for months, but I swear to the gods I could hear us fracture in two the day you got out of sickbay. In that moment when you looked at me and I saw no emotion at all in your eyes, I knew it was my fault. You weren’t mad because I shot you. You didn’t resent me for an accident that could have happened to any one of us. You resented me because I wasn’t strong enough to face what we had become. I couldn’t live up to my mistakes and deal with the one person in my life who I kept hurting over and over again.”

“I don’t think-”

Kara held up her hand, cutting him off. “No, Lee. Let me finish. The way you’ve been treating me since the Old Man sent you over here has been killing me. The man I knew, the one who ended up with this Fleet by some miracle of the gods, the man who stepped in to save my ass when I was standing in the middle of the pilots’ break room stumbling over the names of all the pilots that have gone on to the next life… he lost himself somewhere along the way, and more than that, I lost you, Lee.”

Figuring she had laid everything on the line already, Kara took the last step. She reached out her hand to cup his cheek and smiled. “I can save you if you’d just give me a chance.”

“And I need saved?”

The question didn’t have the bitter edge Kara had been expecting so it gave her the courage to nod. “We both do.”

Lee stayed frozen as she leaned in to brush a kiss softly across his lips. Kara hadn’t expected a reaction. She tightened her fingers in his hair and deepened the kiss.

His hand tightened on her forearms, and Kara felt her body being pushed back. “You need to stop this, Kara, before you do something you regret.”

“I have already done a million things I regret,” she whispered, keeping her hands firmly in place. “This is me deciding that I’m going to do something that I will never regret.”

“Why?”

His question was so raw and unguarded Kara felt the confident words she had been spouting this whole time catch in her throat. She had him where she wanted him. She just needed to prove she could go to that same vulnerable place. “Because as much as I want to save you, I need you to save me, too. Since this whole mess with the Cylons started, you have been the only thing that’s kept me hanging on. So you see, if you’re lost, so am I.”

“Are you asking me to save you?”

Kara couldn’t help but smile at the teasing tone of his voice. It was so familiar and yet lately it had been so foreign that she almost couldn’t believe it. “I’m hoping, Lee.” Kara pushed up onto her tiptoes and gave Lee another kiss. This time, he responded just a little bit, and so she plunged forward, running her tongue along the edge of his lip until he opened his mouth to her. His arms tightened around her body for a brief second before he pulled back. Kara felt a secret pleasure at seeing him shake his head slightly as he tried to focus.

“What about Dee?”

Kara shook her head and pulled Lee out of the open hatchway. “I gave Dee her chance. She blew it. Now it’s my turn.”

Lee shot her a look and got a smile in return that he found extremely familiar. “I thought… well, you implied that you were focused on saving this Anders guy.”

“I was. I am.” Kara sat down on her temporary bunk and pulled Lee down with her. She shifted her body to straddle his waist and smiled. “Things are different, though. Anders isn’t the one who needs me right now.”

“And later?” Lee asked. “What if he needs you then?”

“Then I’ll help him as much as I can.” Kara let her hands roam Lee’s chest before slowly unbuttoning his jacket. “I mean, I have a lot of connections in this place. The Old Man loves me, and I happen to be fraking his son.”

Lee‘s eyebrows shot up. “Fraking?”

“Well, I will be if you ever shut up,” she teased. She pushed the jacket off his shoulders. She had almost leaned down to start kissing him again when Lee’s hands shot up to grip her wrists. His grip was firm, and it made her straighten up in the bunk. “Lee?”

“I want something to be clear here. You’re still going to save Anders. From what Helo’s told me, you made him a promise, and I’m not going to let you go back on that just because you feel some sort of responsibility to me.”

“What I feel for you is so much more than responsibility,” Kara whispered. She leaned down to kiss the small scar on his shoulder.

Lee moved his hands up to cup her face and smiled. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Her voice was hesitant. She wasn’t aware she had asked him a question.

“I’m pretty damn lost right now, Kara, and you’re right. I do need help figuring out how to fix that.”

Kara didn’t try to fight the grin that spread across her face, and she moved down to kiss him with a vengeance.

“Major Adama, please report to Hangar Bay B. Major Adama, Hangar Bay B.”

“Frak me,” Lee hissed as Kara’s kisses traveled down his neck. “Kara…”

“Ignore it. It’s just fraking Garner trying to assert his authority.”

Kara found that Lee was very easily persuaded in his current lost state, especially when she let her lips and hands do most of the persuading. His fingers were just starting to tease her tanks up over her head when the second page came through.

“I have to answer that, Kara,” Lee whispered, slowly pushing her to the side of the bunk. As he got to his feet, he leaned down to pick up his jacket. He could feel Kara’s eyes on him as he fixed the last few buttons and did his best to calm himself.

He made his way over to the comm set on the wall and dialed in the number to the hangar bay. It appeared like his father had a pressing matter for him to attend to back on Galactica, so pressing that he was being cleared to fly a Pegasus Viper over so that he didn’t have to wait until the next Raptor shuttle. It seemed like his father was going to need his input even more now that he was a Major.

Lee suddenly remembered his father speaking of some breakthrough they were on the edge of. It was something to do with the identity of another Cylon model. That had to be it if the Old Man wanted to speak with him in person and it couldn’t wait until his job on the Pegasus was complete.

“You‘re not going to pretend like this didn‘t happen when you get back, are you?”

The question was so quiet Lee barely heard her. When the words finally found their way to the heart of him, Lee turned to look at her. She had a familiar look of worry on her face, one that had he had seen too much of over the past few months. Only this time it was different. This time the worry was directed towards him and had nothing to do with how much ambrosia she’d been drinking.

Lee walked back to the bunk and, reaching inside, grabbed her hand. Kara let him yank her to her feet without protest. She knew better than to say anything until Lee answered her question. She allowed him to lead her through the corridors, ignoring the strange looks they received from the crew.

“I have to go back to Galactica for a few hours,” he said softly as he pulled to a stop beside a Viper. He wondered if Kara even noticed that it was hers. “The Old Man wants to speak with me about something important.”

Lee took the flight suit one of the deckhands was holding out to him and quickly stripped down his dress blues. He tried to ignore the stares he got and fought back a grin. It wasn’t everyday that a Major of the Colonial Fleet found cause to get almost completely naked in the most public area in the ship. As soon as he was changed, Lee took the helmet the deckhand was offering him and started to climb the ladder.

“Lee?” Kara couldn’t hide the fear in her voice. It trembled even in speaking the lone syllable of his name.

“I’m going to hold you to everything you said,” he said softly, staring down at her from the top run of the ladder. “I will never let either one of us fall that far again.”

Kara’s eyes glistened with tears. She hadn’t actually expected this to work, but she would thank the gods for it every day for the rest of her life. “Are you sure?”

“Never is a promise,” Lee reminded Kara as he settled into his Viper, “and I like to keep my promises.”

FIC - Balloon, [G], L/K, K/Z, 1/1

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 02:57:17 GMT

This is #3 for jandjsalmon. And so ends Round #3. From here on, it’s the overflow stories. Not everyone has a story for them past the number 3, and it did come out uneven in a few places, but I don’t care. My head would hurt too much if I tried.

Title: Balloon
Author: hackaddict
Date: 09/25/2006
Rating: G
Pairing: Kara/Lee, Kara/Zak
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: Kara wasn’t sure how he managed it, but on the morning of her birthday, there was one red balloon sitting on her bunk when she came back from the head.
Words: 1,141

Kara wasn’t sure how he managed it, but on the morning of her birthday, there was one red balloon sitting on her bunk when she came back from the head.

_______________________________

Kara wasn’t sure how he managed it, but on the morning of her birthday, there was one red balloon sitting on her bunk when she came back from the head. Her hand fingered the string lightly, and she smiled.

“Whatcha got there, ‘Buck?”

Kara turned to see Hot Dog slip into the bunkroom. She was about to yell at him to get out of the senior officers’ quarters when she realized that would be a mistake. He had been promoted last week. She had no clue why she kept forgetting that.

Her hand came out to pull the string towards her. The balloon floated to the ceiling, and Kara tugged it down just before it hit the top. “A balloon,” she said, knowing she looked like an idiot with this massive grin on her face.

“Balloons still exist?” Hot Dog asked as he threw himself on his bunk.

“No,” Kara confirmed. She turned her attention away from her new bunkmate and back to her present. “How the frak did he do this?”

“Who’s he?”

Kara rolled her eyes as Racetrack entered the room. It wasn’t even shift change. Why the frak was everyone coming back now? “None of your business,” she answered, tightening her hand around the string and making her way to the hatch.

“Starbuck has a secret admirer,” Hot Dog teased.

“It’s only secret if she doesn’t know who it is, you idiot,” Racetrack pointed out.

That was the last few words Kara heard as she stepped into the hallway. She wished she could stay and show them that only fools with a death wish tease Kara Thrace, but she had too much on her mind right now.

This balloon’s very presence was improbable but not impossible. The impossible part came from Lee’s selection of one single red balloon.

“You look very cute with that balloon.”

Kara didn’t jump when she heard Lee’s voice in her ear. Somehow she knew he would find her.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Let’s not play this game, Lee.”

“You’re welcome.”

Kara ignored the stares of people passing by. She knew that her standing in the corridor in sweats with a red balloon in her hand and the CAG at her side was rather strange, but she didn’t care. If you couldn’t do strange things on your birthday, when could you?

“Come with me,” Lee said, motioning her to follow him.

The confusion didn’t set in until Lee turned down the corridor leading to his father’s office. “You guys don’t have some sort of surprise party cooked up, do you?”

“You hate surprise parties,” Lee reminded her.

“Which is why you’ve been trying to throw one for years.”

“I figured I’d take a year off and just enjoy your paranoia.” Lee punched in a code. and the hatch slid open. “Birthday girls first.”

Kara stepped into the office and waited until the hatch shut and Lee brushed past her. He motioned for her to sit down and walked over to the opposite wall. Kara watched him slid a book off the shelf, and in a few seconds, he tossed it into her lap. “It took me months to make it happen, but that was the Old Man’s birthday gift this year.”

Kara ran her hand along the spine. This was a first edition of a classic Leonis fairytale. It was the story every child heard before bed when they were young, a tradition in all Twelve Colonies. Kara hadn’t heard it until she got the flu circulating the Academy her first year. “It’s nice, Lee.”

Lee shook his head. “The book was just the icing on the cake. The present’s inside.”

Kara opened the book slowly, expecting to see the insides cut out in order to hide a bottle of moonshine. Instead she found a photograph of a young blonde girl. The little girl was sitting in the park, holding a red balloon and smiling like it was the best day in the history of the Twelve Colonies. “How did you get this?”

“I was the one who cleaned out Zak’s apartment at the Academy after the funeral. You and my mother were both too distraught, and my father was already on a shuttle back to Galactica. I found it hidden in his school papers.”

Kara ran her finger along the little girl’s face. “It was my fifth birthday. All I wanted was to go to the park so when my mother left to go to the store, my dad and I snuck out of the house. He bought that red balloon off a street vendor.” Kara paused, and Lee watched the smile slip off her face just a little bit. “He left me a week later.”

“I’m sorry.”

Kara shrugged. “There’s nothing you can do.” She closed the picture back into the book and laid it on the Commander’s desk. Her hands returned to play with the string attached to the balloon. The air around her felt tense with the silence hanging between them. “Why do you take the picture?”

“There was something so different about that little girl in the picture that I couldn’t let it go,” Lee admitted, leaning against the desk.

“And how did it get here?”

“I was planning on giving it back to you at the decommissioning ceremony. After a while, it felt weird having it without you knowing. Plus, I figured that you might want the memory. Then the worlds ended, and I knew I had to give it to my father. We both know how much weight he’s carrying on his shoulders.”

“So that’s why the red balloon,” Kara observed.

“I figured we could all share the picture now that the Cylon attacks have started to dwindle.”

“Share it?” Kara said, raising her eyebrow.

“All I’m asking for is any day I have to write that damn flight schedule. You and the Old Man can duke it out for the others.”

Kara shook her head with a chuckle and got to her feet. “You’re completely ridiculous sometimes, Lee.”

Lee waited until she had reached the hatch before calling out her name. She turned back to him, and he saw the smile on her face for the first time. It mirrored the five-year-old smile currently tucked up in the book by his side. “Happy birthday, Kara.”

“Thanks,” Kara said.

Lee waited until she had disappeared out the hatch. Then he rushed across the office to stick his head out into the corridor. For the rest of his life, he would always remember the image before him.

Kara Thrace walking down the corridors of Galactica with a red balloon floating at her side.

FIC - Defeat, [PG], L/K, 1/1

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 23:46:47 GMT

This is #3 for scullymulder123.

Title: Defeat
Author: hackaddict
Date: 09/24/2006
Rating: PG
Pairing: Kara/Lee
Spoilers: LDYB Pt 2
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: Kara looked down at the small diamond on her hand and wondered if she really wanted the Cylons to be defeated; good things had only started happening to her after those attacks pushed Lee back into her life, and she didn’t want to risk losing that.
Words: 2,871

Kara looked down at the small diamond on her hand and wondered if she really wanted the Cylons to be defeated; good things had only started happening to her after those attacks pushed Lee back into her life, and she didn’t want to risk losing that.

________________________

Kara knew she should be focusing on the mounds of paperwork in front of her, but it just wasn’t happening. She couldn’t focus more often than not these days. Somehow she knew that was connected to how happy she was. Back when they first started running from the Cylons, she was as focused as they came.

Being this grateful confused the hell out of her. She didn’t know how to handle it.

She tried to push the thoughts to the side and focus on the freighter schedules in front of her, but watching herself write was probably the last thing that would help her concentrate. Sighing, Kara dropped her pen and leaned back in the chair.

The day this whole happiness thing had started was permanently etched in her head. She was still getting used to the memory. It had the bad habit of popping at all the wrong moments. Technically, this was one of them, but she didn’t mind the distraction.

Kara shut her eyes and welcomed the memory of the lowest day of her life.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

The faint buzzing of the comm handset on his desk woke Lee up. He could feel Dee shift next to him, but when he forced his eyes open, he saw she was still sleeping. Doing his best to be quiet, he slid out of bed and grabbed a shirt off the floor. He paused only briefly at the hatch to wipe his hands across his face and then stumbled over to the desk.

The sound of the comms officer‘s voice grated on his still very much sleeping nerves. “Call from the planet, patching through.”

It was the middle of the night both in the Fleet and on the planet. Lee had no clue who would be requesting this call right now nor did he understand why his crew would be patching it through to him. The line faintly buzzed as the connection was made. “Commander Adama,” Lee growled almost on instinct. He really hated being woken up.

The line was silent for well over a minute before a small whisper filtered through. “Hi, Lee.”

Lee snapped awake at the sound of her voice. He hadn’t heard from Kara for weeks now. The last time he even saw her had been the day she returned from Caprica, the day before she disappeared down onto the Fleet’s new home.

The comm went silent. Lee could tell Kara hadn’t thought out much beyond that first hello. He also knew that he had no clue what he was supposed to say to her. In the end, when the silence stretched too long, he went with his gut. “It’s really good to hear your voice.”

There was no response. Lee sighed. She had made the decision to call him, not the other way around. He shouldn’t be raking his brain in order to find out something to say to her. “Why are you calling me so late? Why now?”

There was a soft sound on the other end, and it took Lee a minute to realize Kara was crying. He had forgotten how that one small lack of sound could tear his heart in two. “Kara, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

Finally hearing her respond should have put him at ease. If only her voice wasn’t so shaky. If only he couldn’t imagine what she looked like in this exact moment. “Kara… I know you better than that. What happened?”

“Nothing,” she replied again.

“Kara, stop it. I know when you’re upset, and right now, you‘re upset. You never come to me unless it’s really bad so what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

“I’m not crying, Lee.”

“You are, too,” Lee sighed. The line went silent as a complete and utter helplessness washed over Lee. She had been the one to put the distance between them, but that didn’t help ease the pain as he began to understand that she needed him and he couldn’t be there. There was just too much holding him away. “Why’d you have to do it, Kara?”

The question seemed to take Kara by as much surprise as it took Lee himself. It was a few seconds before she could find her voice. ““Do what?”

“Move down to that planet.”

“Why do you care?”

Lee let her question sink in. He knew she was expecting the same answer he always gave her at moments like this, but he didn’t really feel like being safe right now. “Because I can’t take care of you when you’re so far away. I can’t look after you, make sure your mistakes are fixed before you even let the guilt sink in. This distance is killing me, Kara. It‘s killing us.”

The line went silent again, and Lee felt himself grimacing. He hated how he always said things like that. Now Kara was going to get uncomfortable and break the connection. It’s what she always did. He could practically hear the sound of her begging him not to ask her to come home. Everyone kept telling him that she would come home when and if she was ready and that Lee should push her.

That was all he wanted to do, though. Every time he got wind of how she was doing on New Caprica, he wanted to go down to that surface and push her to come back with him. The skies were her home. They always will be.

The silence stretched on until it was too much for Lee. If she was going to break his heart again, he just wanted to get it over with. “Kara?”

“Why are you whispering, Lee?”

“What?”

“You were whispering everything you said before.”

“Dee’s asleep in the other room,” Lee explained. He knew that it was probably to leave any mention of Dee out of this conversation, but he just didn’t feel up to lying to Kara yet again. “I didn’t want to wake her.”

“She’d be mad,” Kara pointed out. “I mean with the whispering and all.” There was a pause, and Lee could practically hear the smirk sliding across her face. “Of course, she doesn’t have to know.”

“Stop, Kara,” Lee said, rolling his eyes. He regretted the words the second they fell from his lips.

“Sorry,” Kara apologized softly. The little bit of smile Lee had heard slipped away as quickly as it came. “I forgot for a second.”

“Forgot what?”

“Forgot that I always seem to say the wrong thing when it comes to you.”

“That wasn’t wrong,” Lee corrected. “It just wasn’t well thought out.”

Again, the conversation slowly died out. Lee heard a small movement behind him and leaned his chair back to peer through the open hatch. Dee was still sleeping soundly.

“Lee.” She said his name so softly that for a second Lee wasn’t even sure he had actually heard it, but then she said it again.

“Are you okay?”

Kara waited a minute before answering. “No.”

“Is it about Caprica?” Lee waited. When he got no response, he pressed a little harder. “Anders?”

Again it took awhile for her to reply. “Yes. No.”

“Which one is it, Kara?”

“I don’t know.”

Lee shut his eyes and let his head rest in his open hand. “Listen. I’m just going to sit here, Kara. Whenever you’re ready to tell me what’s wrong, that’s what I’ll be doing.”

She didn’t respond. He didn’t expect her to.

Listening closely to the steady sound of her breathing on the other half of the line, Lee let himself remember the last time he had spoken with her. The way they had left things when she came to his office before the Raptors left for Caprica had bothered him the whole time she was gone.

He was waiting in Galactica’s hangar bay when the Raptors came back to the Fleet. He was the first person to greet her. He was the one who saw the complete look of defeat on her face before she steeled it away. He was the only person who expected what would come next.

She didn’t say a word. She just stood there. So Helo stepped forward and explained that they found the resistance. It was down to only a handful of people, and one of those survivors was not Samuel Anders. He had died a few weeks after Kara returned to the Fleet.

Lee had seen Kara broken before. He had been the one to speak to her the day Zak died. He had been at the funeral when she chose to stand beside his father and not him. He heard her crying herself to sleep those first few nights after the attacks.

He had seen Kara broken, and this… this was something completely different.

He was scared.

Helo told him to go back to Pegasus. He said that Kara would probably be ready to talk in the morning. Lee wasn’t sure why he listened to Karl Agathon. Maybe it had something to do with Helo’s uncanny ability to understand Kara. Maybe Lee was just remembering how Kara tended to lash out when she was in pain.

Either way, he got on that shuttle back to his battlestar, not knowing he was making one of the biggest mistakes of his life.

The next morning, Lee got word that the first round of settlers had left for the planet. Kara went with them.

Lee hated her for running, but he hated himself more for letting her go.

“Thank you.”

This time Kara’s voice was still soft, but there was that familiar quiet strength behind it. Lee felt himself breathing a sigh of relief. He was about to ask Kara what she was thanking him for when the line clicked. She was gone.

Lee set the handset down on the base as he tried to figure out what just happened. Kara reached out to him for some reason and obviously got whatever it was she was looking for. He wasn’t sure why she chose him to be the one to come to or why she had chosen this exact moment, the middle of the night months after New Caprica had become the Fleet’s home.

She had gotten something out of the call, but Lee still couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that it wasn’t enough. Her voice was stronger at the end, and yet there was still some unknown thing laced into that final thank you. His mind had flashed back to the days when they were hunting Scar. She had sounded just like she did back then.

Something was hurting her, and she was trying to be brave and not let it show.

Lee continued to stare at the phone on his desk as he tried to work out why that bothered him so much.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Kara tried her best to get a hold of herself even though she wasn’t sure if that was possible anymore.

The air had been raw and cold against her skin as she silently made her way through the village from the Raptor communications hub. She slid herself onto the bed without much thought, only pausing to clutch the blankets around her body.

An hour later, she was neither warm nor in control.

The pain in her heart had been slowly taking over each day she spent on this planet. In the beginning, she didn’t care. She figured she deserved it for making Sam a promise that she knew she could never keep. Then it was the way she had left the Old Man and his son without an explanation that had her welcoming the horrible feelings inside.

This morning, when she woke up, she knew. If she didn’t do something, she was going to lose it. She was going to do something she couldn’t take back.

She had stumbled to the Raptor comm before the rational voice in her head could point out that it was the middle of the night and she hadn’t spoken to him in months. The tears began to fall the second she heard his voice. She had missed him so much.

Her eyes stayed locked on the pile of empty bottles sitting by the door. For so long it had been the only thing that made the ache go away. Then it stopped. She drank and drank but nothing faded. The pain was too much.

Kara clamped her eyes shut as the tears threatened to fall again. She had tried to fix this black hole inside of her, but it didn’t work. It wasn’t enough.

She was going to lose this one last fight.

Her eyes slid open at the sound of her tent flap opening. She clutched the blankets a little tighter and stared at the only man who had ever managed to pull her back from the brink.

Lee stood there, watching her, for what felt like an eternity. Then he moved across the tent and settled onto the bed next to her. She felt it dip under his weight. He hesitated a few minutes before reaching out to rest his hand on her arm. She turned to look at him. “I want you to come home, Kara.”

She shook her head even as he was shifting to move his arms around her. “I can’t.”

“I’m not arguing about this, Kara. You’re coming home with me.”

“With you?”

Lee nodded and brushed a few stray hairs back from her face. “To Pegasus, effective immediately.”

“But what about the Old Man?”

“My father wants you back just as much as I do. He misses you, Kara. He wants you to come home just as much as I do,” Lee sighed and tightened his hold on her. “I’m going to do a better job of looking after you this time, Kara. I promise.”

Kara burrowed her face into his chest, and Lee sighed as he felt her body begin to shake. She couldn’t hide the tears from him now.

Witnessing her coming unglued proved to Lee that he had made the right decision. It had been hard to wake Dee up from his bed, to watch her whole face crumble as he told her the transfer wasn’t going to happen, to stay strong as he admitted he had been stupid to let their relationship get this far. He knew he was breaking her heart, but he didn’t have the strength to lie anymore. He promised her he was going to stay away so that she could pack up her things in peace, but he didn’t have the courage to tell her he was going down to the planet. She would find out soon enough.

Lee felt Kara begin to relax. She was done crying. His hand came up to rub the tears off her cheek, and he felt her lean into his touch. “So tell me what’s wrong, Kara.”

Kara shut her eyes for a moment, breathing in the scent of the man currently holding her close. She could feel that hole inside of her beginning to heal already.

And then she began to speak.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Kara let her eyes drift open slowly. Each time she did this, she was still taken aback to find that it wasn’t a dream. She could remember letting Lee lead her back to the transport. She could remember walking through the halls, people stopping to say hello and welcome her back. She could remember all the nights she woke up from the nightmares and all the times Lee shrunk away from his duties to comfort her.

It was both an unimaginable dream and the most realistic thing she had ever experienced.

The sound of the hatch stirred her away from her thoughts. Lee smiled at her as he stepped into the room. He gestured towards the small bathroom, and Kara remembered his casual mention of helping the Chief out with the maintenance on the new crop of Blackbirds.

Hearing the shower turn on, Kara looked down at the small diamond on her hand and wondered if she really wanted the Cylons to be defeated; good things had only started happening to her after those attacks pushed Lee back into her life, and she didn’t want to risk losing that.

She knew what being lost felt like. It had been her life before the attacks, and it had been her life during those brief months of respite on New Caprica. She found she didn’t like the thought of peace anymore.

The water shut off and a few moments later, Lee stepped out with only a towel tucked around his waist. He took one look at her and made his way over to the desk. “Come to bed, Kara. The reports can wait.”

Kara gave a small nod and let him take her hand. She was okay with the war if it meant she got to be this happy.

FIC - Learn, [PG], L/K, 1/1

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 01:06:00 GMT

This is #3 for Lola on the ASF list.

Title: Learn
Author: hackaddict
Date: 09/23/2006
Rating: PG
Pairing: Kara/Lee
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: Kara learned the hard way that you don't steal the CAG's underwear while he's in the head and expect no retaliation.
Words: 1,722

Kara learned the hard way that you don't steal the CAG's underwear while he's in the head and expect no retaliation.

______________________________

Kara learned the hard way that you don't steal the CAG's underwear while he's in the head and expect no retaliation.

Never in a million years did she think it would be this, though.

“I knew you were mysterious, Starbuck, but I never guessed you would withhold so much.”

Kara felt her body naturally tense upon hearing Hot Dog’s words. The little fraker was always being such a thorn in her side that the anger immediately flared up inside her. “What the frak are you talking about, Constanza?”

“I was playing an interesting game of triad with the CAG last night, and it was rather strange. I think Apollo was actually trying to lose.”

Kara kept up the façade of not carrying by refusing to look Hot Dog in the eye. “What makes you say that?”

“Well, I was teasing Racetrack because we had just started playing and she was already down to a handful of cubit. I told her there were other things that she could offer me inside of money or smokes. Apollo perked up a bit, and I thought it was just him being a guy, you know. Then he suggested something he used to do in Academy when he ran out of money.”

“Betting secrets,” Kara hissed. She had a feeling she already knew the rest of this story.

“Yeah. How’d you know?”

“You people keep forgetting that I went to Academy the same time that the CAG did.”

“Right,” Hot Dog said, nodding slowly. “Anyway, Lee suggested that Racetrack put up the promise of telling a secret that no one on the ship knows. She agreed, and the game went on. It took me a few rounds of betting to pick up on it, but I’ve seen the Captain play a lot of cards in our time on this ship. He was definitely trying to not win.”

“And why would Lee do that?”

“I couldn’t figure it out until I remembered that awesome prank you played on him. It made sense that it was your secret he chose to share when he lost.”

“Gods damnit!” Kara growled. Her chair skidded against the metal grating as she pushed to her feet. “I told that stupid fraker that he was a dead man if he ever said anything.”

Kat waited until the hatch slammed shut before giving Hot Dog a curious look. “What did you do to piss Starbuck off?”

“It’s not what I did. It’s what the CAG did.” Hot Dog shook his head. “He told me that our lovely Lieutenant is married and has been for over a year now, and I don’t think Starbuck’s too happy about her secret being out.”

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“Lee Adama! I am going to kill you!” Kara didn’t slow down as she barged into the CAG’s office. She practically vaulted over the desk and threw her hands around his neck. Lee had time to take one last choking breath before she tightened her hold and started slamming his head against the wall behind him.

It took a few seconds, considering she did take him by surprise, but Lee managed to pry her hands away from his throat. “What the frak is your problem, Kara?”

“My problem is you’re a complete asshole,” she panted, trying to regain her breath for a second attack. Lee’s hands tightened around her wrists as if he knew. She was going to have bruises in the morning. “Why the frak did you tell Hot Dog about our marriage?”

“I didn’t tell him about our marriage. I told him you were married.”

“There’s a difference?”

“A huge one,” Lee hissed, flinging her wrists away. His hands came up to rub his neck. “Frak, Kara. That hurt.”

“Sorry,” she grumbled. “I was pissed off. Scratch that. Am pissed off.”

“Hey, you’re the one who started it,” Lee pointed out.

Kara rolled her eyes. “I stole your fraking underwear, Lee. I didn’t tell all your pilots that we were hitched.”

“I didn’t tell them that we were hitched, either. Why can’t you get that?”

“It’s only a matter of time before they find out. They’re going to keep hounding me until I tell them who my husband is, and you know I have a short fuse.”

“Then just explain it to them.”

“Explain what? I’m married to the CAG because I got really shit-faced about a year ago and started hitting on some random guy in a bar who turned out not to take no for an answer so you told him we were getting married later that night and the guy turned out to be so nice that he offered to drive us to the priestess and because you and I are so stubborn we wouldn’t back down and let this stranger catch us in a lie?” Kara finished her rant and realized Lee’s eyes had gone wide. “What?”

“You were shit-faced and you remember all that?”

Kara’s face went red. “I looked the guy up a few days later. I wanted to know the details.”

“My mother was always right to tell us that we lived a little too freely after Zak died,” Lee reminded her. “I mean, we got married, Kara.”

Kara shut her eyes and groaned. “You need to never, ever say that phrase out loud, Adama. Never.”

“You need to stop being so freaked out. No one’s going to figure that it’s me you’re married to.”

“Yes, they are,” Kara growled. “Because you are a stupid fraker and told them that I am married. Not was. Am. That implies my husband is still alive. These people know me, Lee. They know who has been my friend for more than a year, and I’m telling you right now that the only candidates are you, Helo, and Boomer. Although I thought about it a few times, Boomer is out of the question considering she’s a toaster.” Kara tried not to laugh at the look on Lee’s face. As much as she loved Lee, he was such a man. Mention the potential of two women being intimate and he checks his concentration and all coherent thought at the door. “And everyone saw my reaction when we thought Helo died in those initial attacks. I was upset but not like I would have been if my husband had died. They are going to figure it out, Lee. I trained them to be smart.”

“Kara, I don’t think you’re focusing on the right thing here,” Lee pointed out.

“And what would that be?”

“The fact that you and I are still married. Everyone’s going to understand that we got drunk and ended up hitched. Crazier things have happened.” Lee’s face slid into a knowing smile, and Kara fought the urge to start choking him again. “What you need to start thinking about is how you’re going to explain the fact that we’re still married.”

Kara’s face went white. Lee was right. She was never going to get anyone to believe that she and Lee were just too lazy to get the marriage annulled the day they sobered up. “Frak me,” she said. She pushed herself off Lee’s lap and sat down on the desk. “What are we going to say?”

“Tell them that you’re hopelessly in love with me and you’ve been denying me a divorce for well over a year now.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Yeah, they’ll believe that.”

Lee feigned hurt. “Are you saying that I’m not worth hanging on to?”

“You’re worth hanging on to enough to have a chance to kick your ass,” Kara growled.

“That doesn’t even make sense.”

“Frak off. I’m working on pure pissed-off-y-ness right now.”

Lee shook his head. Kara’s vocabulary was a wonder to him. Maybe that could be the reason why they… nope, it wouldn’t work.

“Why did we stay married?”

Kara’s words jolted him away from his thoughts, and he looked up to see she was staring at him expectantly. “Honestly?”

“Honestly.”

“I think you and I were both lonely. You had lost Zak, and I had just fraked things up with Gianne. It was nice to know that someone out there still wanted me… you… us.”

“Is that really it?”

“And there was that tax break.”

Kara nodded. Yeah, that was nice. “I bought a really nice tank of a car with the money I saved the year before the attack. You would have loved it.”

“I lost it all betting against the Bucs on that last playoff games. The mother frakers were the worst team in the league. Who thought they’d win?”

“Helo,” Kara volunteered. “He’s amazing at understanding the professional pyramid circuit. Lucky fraker won six thousand cubits betting on Caprica.” She sighed and tucked her knees under her chin. “But back to the problem at hand. You’re a fraking idiot.”

“Yeah, I am,” Lee agreed. “But think of it this way. If your pilots are trained as well as you think they are, then you and I have a good chance of securing some of the new quarters being built for enlisted spouses.”

Kara was about to hit Lee again when his words sunk in. “You know that might not be such a bad thing. I’m a sucker for a little elbow room when I sleep.”

“I know,” Lee agreed. “I’ve been stuck in confined spaces with you too many times.”

“Oh, Lee, you and I are going to make one hell of a bitter, married couple.”

“You know it,” Lee chuckled.

They sat in silence for a few moments until Lee started squirming in his chair. “Problem, Captain?”

“Yeah.” Lee stopped squirming to glare at her. “And I think you know what that is.”

“I want to hear you say it.”

“Kara.”

“Come on, Lee. Ask nicely.”

Lee squinted his eyes at her and groaned when he realized she was serious. “Come on!”

“Ask.”

“I hate you.”

“But…”

“But I need you, too. In this one instance, I need you. So come the frak on, Kara!”

“I don’t recall hearing please.”

Lee groaned. “Fine. Can I please have my underwear back, Lieutenant Thrace?”

Kara’s laughter carried through the corridor despite the closed hatch.

FIC - Box, [PG-13], L/K, 1/1

Sat, 23 Sep 2006 04:53:45 GMT

This one‘s #3 for nytel… and don’t ask me how the hell it happened, but it looks like I’m going to be posting these one a day with the last one being on October 6th. That’s what I call kismet.

Title: Box
Author: hackaddict
Date: 09/23/2006
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Kara/lee
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: Kara had been sitting in the brig cell for over an hour before they brought in the reason she lost control, and with a small laugh, she stretched her arms out, “My home is your home, Lee.”
Words: 795

Kara had been sitting in the brig cell for over an hour before they brought in the reason she lost control, and with a small laugh, she stretched her arms out, “My home is your home, Lee.”

_____________________________________

Kara had been sitting in the brig cell for over an hour before they brought in the reason she lost control, and with a small laugh, she stretched her arms out, “My home is your home, Lee.”

Lee’s hand came up to rub his sore jaw. “Frak off, Kara.”

“Oh come on!” she yelled, jumping to her feet. “You can’t tell me you’re actually mad!”

“You fraking punched me. No warning at all. Just bam! I’m laid out on the floor.”

Kara was surprised to see that he really was fuming inside. He was pissed off at her, that bastard.

Lee watched her face twist into that sly smile that he knew meant danger was ahead. She pushed off her bunk and crossed the cell to stand at the bars that separated the two of them. Smirking, she leaned in. “I had to think fast because someone insisted upon kissing the frak out of me where we could easily get caught. It’s not my fault that Socinus needed that spare part at the exact second your hormones got out of control.”

“There were a lot of better solutions than punching me.”

“It was either punch you and go to the brig or wait until the gossip circulated and have Tigh order us here because we broke about a hundred regulations. I chose the one that would only get us a few hours in here rather than making the brig our permanent residence.” Kara reached through the bars to touch the side of his face. “Because you know as well as I do that once word about our relationship gets out, there are going to be tons of people claiming they saw us public displaying our affection. We’d be down in these cells almost twice as much as we’d be free.”

“You’re a pain in my ass, Thrace,” Lee argued even though the way he leaned into her touch was contrary to the meaning of his words. “I should never have let you seduce me.”

Kara’s eyes narrowed. “If I remember correctly, you were the one doing all the seducing. I was just trying to get my reports written in the peace and quiet of the observation deck.”

“You were the one that kissed me.”

“You were the one that started taking my top off.”

“Only because your hands were in my pants.”

“You put them there.”

“Only because you were begging me to let you touch me.”

“I don’t beg.”

“I beg to differ.”

“Frakhead.”

“Frak-up.”

“I hate you.”

“Hate you more.”

Kara and Lee’s eyes both shifted to the Marine guard at the same time. Kara gave him a small wave and turned back to Lee. “How long do you think before the Old Man busts us out of here?”

“An hour more, maybe two.”

Kara nodded and looked at the Marine again. “Right. So…”

“So…”

“You might want to do something about that,” she paused to point down to his very noticeable erection, “before the Old Man comes to lecture us on setting a good example.”

“Frak,” Lee hissed. He had one too many arguments with Kara that ended in fraking, and now this happened every single time she started yelling. He moved away from the bars and flung himself on the cot in his cell.

Kara had to fight back a laugh as she heard him trying to take deep, calming breaths. She slid her arms through the bars and smirked. “You think the Marine could be persuaded to let me into your cell? I could take care of that pretty quickly for you.”

Lee held his middle finger up for her to see without opening his eyes.

Kara chuckled and pushed off the bars. She laid down on her own cot and shut her eyes. The Marine would wake them up when the decision on what to do with them finally came in.

“What are you doing?”

Lee’s voice cut into her thoughts, and she opened one eye to see he was staring at her from his cot. “I’m trying to figure out if I can rearrange my schedule so that you and I can have a little time alone tonight.”

Lee rolled his eyes and laid his head back down on the cot’s small pillow. “As long as you don’t end up hitting me again.”

“Don’t be a baby.”

“Don’t be a tease,” Lee shot back.

Kara smiled. It was nice to have Lee here to keep her entertained. You could only do so many push-ups before you started losing your sanity.

FIC - Jester, [PG], L, K, 1/1

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 02:29:25 GMT

This is #3 for starbuck042786.

Title: Jester
Author: hackaddict
Date: 09/21/2006
Rating: PG
Pairing: Kara, Lee
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: “Captain Thrace, you better get fraking back here and explain why Jester is currently in his skivvies washing your Viper with a toothbrush,” Lee yelled down the corridor.
Words: 1,818

“Captain Thrace, you better get fraking back here and explain why Jester is currently in his skivvies washing your Viper with a toothbrush,” Lee yelled down the corridor.

_________________________

As CAG, it was Lee’s job to wander down to the hangar bay every once in awhile to make sure things were working smoothly. He needed to check that his pilots were showing up for their maintenance shifts, that the Chief was getting his birds back in the air, and that there was no trouble because pilots and deck crew together were always a bad thing. It was like putting ambrosia with dynamite. Someone was liable to get a hand blown off.

His eyes scanned the hangar, and he was happy to neither see nor hear anything out of the ordinary. That is until he heard a familiar snicker.

Lee zoned in on her right away. Kara was leaned up against a Viper with a few of the deck crew women around her. She snickered again and this time Lee was prepared to follow her line of sight. That was when he saw it.

“Starbuck!” he yelled.

Kara’s eyes went wide as her whole body tensed, and then she was off like lightning. Lee rolled his eyes and started chasing after her. “Captain Thrace, you better get fraking back here and explain why Jester is currently in his skivvies washing your Viper with a toothbrush,” Lee yelled down the corridor.

Lee was suddenly grateful for all the years he had known Kara. A lesser man would never have been able to predict where she was running of to, and a lesser man would never have known the shortcut in the corridors around the mess.

When Kara came bursting into the empty firing range, Lee was sitting on the counter waiting for her. “Start explaining now.”

Kara only faltered a step before hopping up on the counter next to him. “It’s a long story.”

“I have a lot of paperwork to do today. I have time.”

Kara smirked. “Trying to shrug off your duties?”

“Don’t change the subject. Jester. Skivvies. Toothbrush. Viper. Explain.”

“Let me think for just a moment.” She bit down on her bottom lip as she tried to think when this whole thing began. She could feel Lee staring at her. “I guess you could blame it on the fact that I woke up an hour before the shift change two days ago.” Lee gave her a look of disbelief. “Hey! You wanted the long version, Apollo. I’m giving it to you.”

“Fine. Go ahead.”

“I went down to the mess to grab a cup of that gods-awful coffee they keep brewing and then headed down to the break room. It just so happened that there was a triad game going on, and you know I can’t say no to triad.”

“I bet the others wished you had.”

“I played for only a few hands since I still had to change into my flight suit, but I won some nice things. A handful of cubits, two cigars, an old magazine. But the best by far was what I won from Kat, although I didn’t know it at the time.”

Lee waited patiently for her to continue. He hated when she did these stupid dramatic pauses.

“A toothbrush.”

“A toothbrush,” Lee said, nodding his head. That was one out of four questions answered.

“Hot Dog caught up with me in the corridors and told me he would do anything to get that toothbrush from me. It seemed there was a little incident between him and Racetrack a few days before.” Kara paused and looked over at him. “This is off-record, by the way. I don’t want you to go all CAG on me and demand there be repercussions.”

“Promise,” Lee said, even though he knew he’d regret it sooner or later.

“Hot Dog had had a few too many and started hitting on Racetrack while they both were in the head getting ready to go to their bunks for the night. He must have said something pretty fraking colorful to her because… and this is from Helo’s mouth, not mine… she whipped the toothbrush right out of his mouth, marched over to the toilets, and dropped it in.”

Lee winced.

“Yeah, tell me about it. Hot Dog’s been using his finger every since, and let me tell you, I spoke with him. A finger’s not cutting it.”

“But of course you didn’t give him the toothbrush,” Lee said.

“Nope. He had to earn it.”

“Okay. So now you have the toothbrush and might give it to Hot Dog.”

“Correct. I told Constanza that I would give it to him, but he had to take over the hygiene lecture I scheduled with my nuggets the next day. It was really basic stuff so I knew I didn’t have to be the one teaching, and I figured they might want to get a front row look at what bad hygiene was.”

“He agreed,” Lee said, remembering a memo coming across his desk the day before.

“Right. Now, on to the situation with Jester. I caught him shooting the shit with some of his fellow nuggets in the briefing room after class yesterday. He didn’t know I was there because, as you know, I can be quite stealthy when I try.” That earned her a roll of the eyes from Lee. “He was bad-mouthing a certain Commander of the Air Group because you had pulled away the nuggets’ break passes.”

“The idiots caused a food fight in the mess.”

“I know.”

“And they didn’t even have the brains to blame it on someone else like we do,” Lee said with a smirk.

“I know. Idiots, right?”

“Or maybe they don’t have the fool proof system that you and I do.”

“The lead pilot blames the CAG who blames the lead pilot until the person trying to reprimand them gets frustrated and goes away system?”

“That would be the one,” Lee chuckled.

“It does work quite nicely.” Kara sighed. “Now where was I?”

“Jester was badmouthing me.”

“Right. So as the flight instructor, I decided that this besmirching of the great Apollo’s name should not go unpunished. I ordered Jester to report to me the following morning to do whatever the frak I deemed harsh enough until he was willing to admit that out of all the CAGS, you might be horrible, but you’re not the worst.”

“Thanks.” Lee couldn’t believe he was actually starting to get used to her compliments that weren’t exactly compliments.

“So there’s the Jester piece of the puzzle. Now on to the Viper. I ran into the Chief after busting Jester’s big mouth. He had been looking over the stalling issues my bird was having.”

Lee nodded. He remembered getting that memo, too. Since it was written by Kara herself, it was a lot more colorful than the first one stating Hot Dog was taking over her lecture.

“The Chief seemed to think it had something to do with that last planet we were doing sweeps of for a new water supply. He said the dirt must have clogged my engine, but they were going to flush it out. My little dilemma with Jester was still on my mind so I figured I’d help the Chief out by offering to get the rest of the dust cleaned off the exterior myself. That way his crew could focus on more important things.”

“How very responsible of you.”

“I thought so,” Kara confirmed.

“So how does the toothbrush storyline connect with the Jester storyline?”

“I was getting there. Last night, I was working on how to start getting the nuggets practice time on CAPs when word of how my hygiene class went finally reached me.” Kara saw Lee wince out of the corner of her eye and smiled. “You heard, too?”

“Hot Dog really should have known better than to use you as an example.”

“Needless to say, I was still a little angry with him the next morning, but he was on CAP so I couldn’t exactly take it out on him. And that’s when everything just clicked into place,” Kara said with a big sigh to signify the end of her story.

“Not everything,” Lee insisted. “What about the skivvies?”

Kara smirked and pointed to the wall. Lee’s eyes fell on the posted paper. Six bullet holes were right in the center of the target. It was all the ship had talked about for days. “A few weeks ago, Jester bet that I couldn’t break Kat’s record of five hits on the x-ring. As every single person on this ship knows, I did it. And you know why I did it?”

“Why?” Lee said, wondering if he should really be playing this game with her right now.

“Because I’m just that good, Lee. Because I’m just that good.”

Lee rolled his eyes. “Whatever, Kara.”

“Come on. Say it, Lee.”

“No.”

“Say it.”

“No.”

“Because…”

“Because you’re just that good. Now can we get back to how beating Kat’s record turned into Jester wearing barely nothing?”

“He told me he’d sleep with me if I broke the record. He kept saying since I’m the legendary Starbuck, rule breaker extraordinaire, that I wouldn’t hesitate to say frak you to the regs. He kept insisting he was worth the trouble.” Kara rolled her eyes. “Cocky little bastard.”

“You took him up on it?”

Kara glared at Lee. “No, I did not take him up on it. I simply altered the bet to better suit my needs. I told him that if I won, he’d get naked. Stupid fraker thought that was my way of saying the whole fraking the flight instructor bet was on.”

“He should have known better,” Lee said, already wincing at what he knew was to come.

“So we get down to the hangar bay so he can start his punishment. He’s about to begin scrubbing when I tell him to stop. Because I was in a rather good mood, I told him that he only had to get mostly naked.”

“How very kind of you,” Lee said, rolling his eyes.

“So there you have it. Jester. Skivvies. Toothbrush. Viper.” Kara twisted her head to wink at him. “Are you going to punish me now, sir?”

The page on the shipwide comm cut off Lee‘s answer. “Captain Adama, please report to the CIC.”

“Looks like my dad found out about your antics.”

Kara shrugged. “Word travels fast.”

Lee hopped down off the counter. “Would you do me a favor, Kara? Next time this kind of thing happens, let me in on the joke before you actually do it. I can do better damage control that way.”

Kara gave him a mocking salute. “Yes, sir.”

Lee walked out of the room, shaking his head to keep from laughing. Kara was going to be the death of him someday.

FIC - Book, [G], L/K, K/Z, 1/1

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 01:49:03 GMT

This is #2 for jandjsalmon.

Title: Book
Author: hackaddict
Date: 09/20/2006
Rating: G
Pairing: Kara/Lee, Kara/Zak
Spoilers: Final Cut
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: The only engagement gift Kara did not return was the book of poetry given to her by her fiancé’s older brother.
Words: 1,273

The only engagement gift Kara did not return was the book of poetry given to her by her fiancé’s older brother.

__________________________

There was a lot of things in her childhood and a handful of things in her adulthood that Kara refused to talk about. She had been tempted a few times when Karl gave her that knowing look, the one that told her he could handle knowing how bad things could get for her.

The last time she broke down and admitted something to him was in those stupid forests around Delphi. She was just so happy to see him that when he asked her to tell him a secret, a game they had played for as long as they had known one another, she told him right away about her part in Zak’s death. The Old Man and Lee knew about it so she didn’t really think she had to keep it hidden anymore. Not that she was going to walk around telling people how she helped kill the youngest Adama or anything.

Kara sighed and pulled herself up to a seated position in her bunk. There was a lot of things about Zak that she hadn’t told anyone. It was a private part of her life, and she felt like if she talked about it, it would disappear.

Her hand reached out to the shelf fastened to the head of her bunk, and she grasped the worn spin of a book resting on top. The leather cover was cool against her skin thanks to the cold battlestar air. She had had it for only a handful of years, but she had read it cover to cover so many times she lost count long before the Cylons attacked.

There were some secrets about Zak that weren’t even about Zak. This book was one of them.

Kara’s mind flashed back to those excruciatingly painful days after the funeral when she had to get herself back in order. There was a post waiting for her on Galactica and she knew she couldn’t leave things the way they were in Delphi. She didn’t want the painful reminders of what she had done.

She boxed up anything that reminded her of Zak, knowing that years down the line, when she was ready, she would be able to take them out again. She filled out the necessary paperwork to have her rent paid from the military salary she would be receiving and stopped by to tell her landlord the new situation. He asked about what her fiance would be doing while she was in space, and it took all of Kara’s strength to not lash out in anger.

The last thing Kara addressed was the small pile of wrapped boxes sitting by the stairs. She didn’t open them. Instead, she just calmly wrote return to sender on each and every one. After a second, she added a quick red scrawl of sorry on the top of the nearest box. She didn’t want to explain to anyone how she was doing. She didn’t wanted the sympathy of strangers. Let them think the wedding was called off because of something traditional like a groom’s cold feet or the bride being a whore. Kara didn’t care.

The only engagement gift Kara did not return was the book of poetry given to her by her fiancé’s older brother. It had been wrapped in plain brown paper unlike the other packages with their bows and shiny wrap. She recognized the handwriting right away.

She opened the package slowly, being careful not to rip the paper. Somehow seeing their names written out together by Lee was comforting. She didn’t want to destroy that with a careless rip. The paper was still tucked away at the top of her closet in Delphi. She had checked.

Kara grasped the book tightly against her chest, smiling at the familiar weight, and pushed out of her bunk. She ignored the pilots who called out to her to join a triad game as she left the bunkroom and started down the corridor.

The walk to the CAG’s office wasn’t the shortest distance she’d ever traveled, but the journey was over before she realized it began. She knocked softly on the hatch, unconsciously clutching the book a little tighter. Lee’s voice called out for her to enter. “How did I know you’d be doing paperwork?”

Lee’s face slid into a smile as soon as he saw it was her. “I’m always doing paperwork, Kara.”

“True,” she said, walking over to his desk. She held his eyes for a few breaths and then dropped her book on the desk.

“What’s this?”

“The reason why I know Kataris,” Kara said, taking a seat in the chair opposite him. “I thought you should know.”

Lee picked the book up and turned it in his hands a few times before opening it. His eyes skimmed the page, and Kara could sense the exact moment that he realized what he was holding. “I thought this got lost in transit,” he said, his eyes jumping up to meet hers. “My mother said that you returned all the gifts.”

“I returned everyone except that,” Kara said softly. “I couldn’t even bear to open them. I just scrawled return to sender and forgot about them.”

“Why’d you open this one?”

“Because it was from you and for some reason, that meant something at the time.”

Lee closed the book and ran his fingers over the cover. “It’s worn.”

“I’ve used it a lot.” Kara felt a smile flirting at the corners of her lips. “Anyway, I know it’s a few years late, but I just wanted to say thank you.”

Lee held the book out to her. “You‘re welcome.”

Her hand brushed across his as she went to take the book, and for a moment, she thought he was going to say something. He looked like he was going to say something. Then the moment passed. Kara clutched the book back to her chest and silently wondered why Lee was still staring at her.

“I’m glad you kept it,” he finally said.

Kara gave a small nod and stared down at the book. She didn’t want to leave, but she had no reason to stay. She wasn’t about to tell Lee she was shaken up by what happened to Kat. That would be admitting weakness, and Starbuck didn’t show weakness. She was about to tell him not to work too late when he groaned loudly. “Problem?”

“These flight schedule revisions aren’t going so great. Kat was a good partner for Shiner. She kept him focused. Not to mention that Palladino’s out indefinitely. You know as much as I do how fraking hard it is to adjust to one pilot being out of rotation. I have two.”

Kara nodded and, standing up, set her book on the chair behind her. She made her way to the other side of the desk and grabbed the flight schedules. “Let me see.”

She scanned the lists, seeing there were over a dozen problems to be ironed out. It was nothing Lee couldn’t handle, though. At the most, it was an hour’s work, maybe two. It slowly dawned on her what this was all about. Lee knew how shook up she was. He was trying to give her something to focus on, a method of comfort he knew she would never refuse especially when it meant admitting he needed her help.

Kara kept the smile on the inside as she leaned over his shoulder. “Well, I can fly a double so you can start by moving me into this first shift…”

FIC - Vision, [PG], L/K, 1/1

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 01:48:14 GMT

This one’s #3 for Krista on the ASF list.

Title: Vision
Author: hackaddict
Date: PG
Rating: 09/20/2006
Pairing: Kara/Lee
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: Lee hoped to the gods that vision wasn’t necessary for him to find his way to the shower stalls because with Kara walking around and screaming she was going to kill the person who stole her towel, he really couldn’t look up.
Words: 4,896

Lee hoped to the gods that vision wasn’t necessary for him to find his way to the shower stalls because with Kara walking around and screaming she was going to kill the person who stole her towel, he really couldn’t look up.

_______________________________

“Lee Adama! Are you actually averting your eyes?” Her voice was teasing as usual but there was a hint of something else laced deep inside.

Lee took a chance and breathed a sigh of relief when, upon looking up, he saw a towel securely wrapped around Kara’s body.

Kara held his gaze for a few seconds before her brow furrowed. “What the frak are you doing in the head with your dress blues on?”

Lee sighed as reality slammed back into him. He wasn’t here just to sneak a peak at his half-naked hotshot pilot. “I need a favor, Kara.”

“Anything,” she said, taking a few steps forward. She didn’t have to know Lee very well to know that tone meant something serious, but because she knew him so well, she knew that tone almost meant he was worried about something.

“You have an off day tomorrow and there’s a little project I need you to help me with. The black market has apparently flared up since the last time I was sent to test it. I need someone to help me figure out just how bad it’s gotten.”

Kara nodded. “Let me know when. I’ll strap up and be ready to kick ass.”

Lee shook his head. “It’s not going to be that easy. They know my face at least somewhat. They’ll see me coming a mile away if I bring in a team in full marine gear.”

“So what are you proposing?”

“It’s the child market that I’m concerned about,” Lee admitted, “so that’s what I need the help with.” He shut his eyes and tried to gather his courage before continuing. “I need you to pretend like you’re my wife and you want to secure a child with me from the black market.”

Kara’s eyes went wide. She must be fraking tired if she just heard Lee ask her to be his wife. “Excuse me?”

“Come on, Kara. Don’t make me say it again. I need someone to pose as my wife, and I figured that you’d be a pretty good option considering you already have an off shift to coincide with mine.”

Kara stared at him a moment and then nodded. She should have known he would never chose her outright for something like this. She was convenient. “Fine. When do you need me?”

“0800. There’s going to be a Raptor waiting to take us to Cloud Nine. From there, we’ll switch over to a larger transport heading to the Prometheus. We have dinner reservations to meet with the… provider that night. The mission shouldn’t take much longer after that. If we are able to secure the business transaction, that’s all the proof we need to launch a Marine assault the very next morning.”

“Sounds good,” Kara replied. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go get dressed and tell Helo that our date in the gym tomorrow is going to have to be put on hold.”

The second Kara was out of sight, Lee let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. There was a huge weight lifted off his shoulders knowing that she was going up to bat with him on this one. He had had to call in a number of favors to get himself an offshift the next day and to get the mission approved that quickly, but he knew that he needed someone to watch his back on this one. The only person who could do that right now was Kara so he had to make it happen. It was just easier if she didn’t know how important she was. Kara tended to tease him to no end when he let her ego get too big.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Kara did a little spin in the mirror. Her hands ran down the length of the white buttoned down shirt and fitted navy blue shirt. She felt like the President of the Twelve Colonies.

Kara’s eyes shifted to rest on the young deckhand currently sitting with her legs tucked under her on top of the table in the middle of the senior officer’s bunkroom “This is incredible, Cally. Where the frak did you find this stuff?”

“You told me it was important so I asked around. Zephyr just came off a few meeting at Fleet headquarters when the attacks happened. She was going to give up the military, believe it or not. Well, anyway, it turns out that she still had the clothes even after all these months.”

“And the heels?” Kara asked.

“Those are from Showboat. She’s the same size as you.”

Kara leaned in to check her hair again. It had been so long since she actually put any sort of effort into styling it. “How do I look, Cally?”

“Why do you care, Kara?”

Cally’s words made Kara’s hand freeze in her hair, and she turned to look at the deckhand. “Excuse me?”

“I’ve seen you getting ready for a hundred and one missions in the years we’ve served on this ship, and you’ve never carried this much about being convincing.”

Kara stared at her a moment before shrugging. “Lee’s counting on me.”

“And it has nothing to do with wanting to look nice for the Captain himself?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Kara turned away and hoped to the gods Cally didn’t hear her voice shake. She did not have time for this right now.

“Mmm hmmm.” Cally pushed off the table and walked to Kara’s side. She held out a pair of glasses. “Wear these. They‘ll make you look smart.”

Kara took the glasses and slid them on. “Are these prescription?”

“They’re light. Don’t lose them. I stole them from Jammer’s girlfriend. She’s going to be pissed if they get broken.”

Kara nodded and, giving her hair one last run through, stepped away from the locker. “All right. Wish me luck, Specialist.”

“Good luck, Starbuck.”

Kara gave Cally a quick smile and then walked out into the corridor. She tried to ignore the transparent shock written on the face of every person she passed. She was dressed nice right now, a little on the conservative side for her but nice all the same. Regardless, it shouldn’t be causing people to stumble in their tracks.

“Starbuck, you are feeding into my secretary fetish and you don’t even know it.”

Kara rolled her eyes at the sound of Helo’s voice but slowed her pace until he caught up. “Shut up, Karl.”

“On your way to the hangar bay?”

“Yeah. Sorry about canceling our plans.”

“No problem. If I had known canceling our plans would get you in those heels, I would have canceled a lot sooner.”

Kara smacked him playfully on the arm as they descended a flight of stairs. “I don’t look that bad.”

“Bad is not the word,” Helo teased. Their pace slowed down as they reached the hangar bay doors. “And by the way, Kara, if you were going for repressed with that outfit, you’re a mile off target.”

Kara smirked. “Honey, I couldn’t be repressed even if I tried.”

Helo’s laughter echoed through the corridors and gave Kara the courage she knew she would need for the next few minutes. It was time to get Lee’s approval.

Kara caught sight of him just as she was nearing the Raptor. He was talking with a few of the launch crew so Kara let herself stare a little bit. He was wearing a deep blue dress shirt and grey pants. The clothes fit his body so well that Kara was pretty sure they had to have been his own from before the attacks. Lee finally noticed her approach and when their eyes locked, Kara felt herself stumbling to a stop a few feet away from their Raptor.

“Sirs, we need to get you launched.”

The words came from one of the launch crew, but Kara still couldn’t tear her eyes away from Lee. There was a reason she and Lee avoided wearing civilian clothing, and this was it.

“You look nice,” Lee said, making the first move. He stepped forward and grabbed her elbow. “Very refined.”

“Thanks,” Kara whispered, letting him lead her up the ramp onto the Raptor.

Lee sat her down in a chair near the back and then made his way up to the co-pilot seat. Kara leaned back, watching him, as the Raptor was launched from Galactica. Lee didn’t say a word to her the whole flight although she did catch him sneaking glances at her every once in awhile.

Kara couldn’t read the expression on his face whenever she caught him looking, and she considered that a small gift from the gods. Her hands ran through her hair absentmindedly as she tried to focus on the job ahead. There were a lot of people counting on her right now so she needed her head in the game.

There was a small bump as the Raptor set down in one of Cloud Nine’s docking areas, but Kara stayed seated. She watched the pilot go through the post-flight checks before whispering, “This feels weird.”

Lee motioned for the pilot to leave them alone a moment and walked to the back of the ship. “Are you going to be able to do this, Kara?”

“I’ll be fine,” she said, her face filling with determination. “I just have to get my role straight.”

Lee crouched down in front of her feet and gave her one of those killer smiles she hated to love. “You’re Kara Adama, my lovely blushing bride.”

Kara felt her skin redden at his words. “I am far from being an Adama,” she whispered.

“You’re an Adama in everything but name,” Lee insisted. He rested his hands on her knees. “Listen to me, Kara. This doesn’t have to be hard. It’s just you and me on another mission. Smile. Laugh. Have fun. We’ll be fine.”

Kara gave a small nod, and Lee shifted his hands into hers and pulled her to her feet. Together they walked off the Raptor into the busy docking area. “The shuttle’s right over there,” Lee said, pointing to their left.

“Thanks, honey.” Kara had to fight back a laugh as Lee stiffened and then blushed slightly. She slid her hand up to rest on his arm and started scanning their surroundings. No one looked like they noticed the young couple stepping off a military ship so hopefully they were in the clear.

Lee led Kara to the shuttle and helped her on board. They were directed to an area that were set apart from the majority of the other seats. “I requested that we have a little privacy,” Lee offered. “I figured you’d want to rest up for our meeting.”

Kara nodded and slid into her seat. She moved the middle divider of the seat next to her until it was out of the way and then patted the seat. Lee took a seat and was a little unsure of what to do when she shifted to lean against him. “Spouses cuddle,” she whispered, biting her tongue to keep from teasing.

Lee shifted his arm around her. “Well, if I remember correctly from those first few nights after the attacks, CAGs and their lead pilots do, too.”

Kara smiled and let silence fall between them. Things had been a lot easier back then. She had had nightmares about what had happened to the only world she had ever known, and it was so simple to slip into the bed of an old friend for comfort. Lee had never brought up those nights of weakness.

Lee‘s hand tightened around hers as the shuttle pushed off from the docking and entered space. “I really like those glasses on you.”

“They don’t make me look stupid?” Kara asked.

“They suit you,” Lee said. “They make you seem less stubborn.”

Kara smacked him lightly on the arm and chuckled when he tightened his hold on her. They shifted into a comfortable silence as the shuttle smoothly slid through space. This little bubble the mission had built was completely surreal. Kara could say and do anything with Lee right now and be able to blame it on the mission.

Her mind drifted to what she was going to have to do in a few short minutes. She was going to pretend like she would give anything to be a mother, and she had to make it convincing. Her eyes drifted to the man sitting next to her. She wasn’t sure anymore if Lee knew what her past was like. For a while, she thought he knew about her mother. Maybe Zak had told him. Maybe it had just come up one of the times Lee had to review her medical history for CAG purposes. Either way, she really thought Lee might have caught on throughout the years.

And yet he had asked her to pretend to be a mother. It was the one role she had no clue how to play.

“Kara, we’re here.”

Kara sat up and looked around the shuttle. It was empty. “What happened?”

“We landed a few minutes ago. You were sleeping so peacefully that I didn’t want to wake you.”

“Why did you let me sleep? I should have been focusing on the mi-”

“Meeting,” Lee interrupted. “I know, but you haven’t been sleeping well lately. It’s all the stress of what we’re about to do.”

Kara nodded. He was right. They needed to start putting themselves into their roles right fraking now. “Sorry.”

Lee gave her a smile and then offered his hand to help her up. “We’re supposed to see a Mr. Tyler over drinks at the Express Lounge on the lower level. I’ve heard that it’s a rather nice facility.”

Kara looked around the docking area and did her best to put on a mask of intimidation and fear. “I don’t know about this, Lee.”

Lee had to fight back the smile that wanted to pop out at the sound of Kara acting scared. To someone who knew her so well, it sounded downright ridiculous. “Everything will be okay, sweetheart.”

Kara nodded and paused a moment so that Lee took the lead. He led her through corridors that were familiar. He had been here before, but his head had been in a completely different place back then. He had been confused. He had almost died, and it took him a long time to come to terms with how that prospect had seemed acceptable at the time.

Lee walked up the hostess at the bar and gave her the famous Adama smile. “Hi, my wife and I have arrangements to meet a Mr. Tyler here.”

The hostess’s eyes went wide for a second and then she nodded. She started scurrying through the main floor of the restaurant and motioned for them to follow. “Of course. Let me take you to a table. Mr. Tyler isn’t here yet, but I’m sure he’s on his way. He never makes his appointments wait for that long. I promise.”

Kara let Lee pull the chair out for her, and when she sat down, his hand slid up her back and lingered at the curve of her neck for just a second too long. Kara bit down the flare of desire coursing through her. Lee was just pretending. This was a mission. He had to be affectionate if this was going to work.

The waitress came over to them immediately, and Kara deferred to Lee for probably the first time in their history. Lee ordered a couple glasses of ambrosia, asking if they had the Picon Mint brand. The waitress nodded and slid away to fill the order.

“Picon Mint?” Kara said, raising her eyebrow.

“It is your favorite, isn‘t it?”

Kara nodded and leaned in over the table. “I’m impressed.”

“A husband should know these things,” Lee pointed out. His body tilted in to mirror hers, and before he could even think to do it, his hand was reaching across the table to take hers.

“Remind me to thank you later,” Kara said, the mischief gleaming in her eye as she felt Lee shift. If she knew better, she would say she was making him uncomfortable, but that would mean Lee actually felt something like desire for her which was ridiculous. Anyone with eyes could see that was as far from the truth as one could get.

“Oh I will,” Lee whispered.

Kara’s eyes fell down to his lips, and she could feel herself freeze. Her head was telling her that a wife would lean in to kiss her husband at this point, but it wasn’t like Lee was really her husband. He was her CAG, her boss, one of the few friends she had left. She couldn’t really lean in and kiss him.

Could she?

“Ah, Mr. and Mrs. Jones, a pleasure to see you.”

Kara’s eyes darted to Lee in confusion.

“Honey, you know I couldn’t give Mr. Tyler our real name. We’re too prominent, and I don’t want this connection to get back to us.” Lee turned to smile at the man settling into the seat next to Kara. “No offense.”

“None taken. I get that sentiment a lot, and as long as it keeps the business going, I don’t mind.” Tyler leaned back in his seat and smiled. “I have to say, Mr. Jones. You were telling me that your wife would make a fantastic mother, but you never said she was so beautiful.”

Kara feigned shock and reached out to slap Lee’s hand lightly.

“It’s not nice to lie, Mr. Tyler,” Lee said, grinning at Kara. “I told you exactly how beautiful my wife was.”

“That’s right. You said it was a tragedy of the gods that she couldn’t have children because she had the perfect genes.” Tyler twisted to smile at Kara. “He did go on about the dreams he had once had about a bunch of little blonde-pigtailed girls running around his backyard before the Cylons attacked. He painted such a vivid picture, but I have to admit I didn’t see it until now.”

Kara felt herself blushing. Even though she knew better, a small voice in the back of her head wondered if Lee had been thinking about her specifically when he told Tyler his dream. “You never told me about that, darling.”

“I thought you would feel bad because of our situation.”

Kara shook her head. “I wouldn’t have.”

Lee held her eyes for a moment and it wasn’t until Tyler started speaking again that he remembered they were here for a reason.

“Let’s get down to business. I believe I have what you two are looking for. Her name is Amara, and she was orphaned during the 33 minute attacks those first few days of flight.”

Kara’s mouth dropped open, and it was only partially an act. She could not believe this Tyler guy just came out and said that. They were in a rather public place, and he just admitted to being a member of the black market of children. He had just casually labeled himself a criminal of the Twelve Colonies.

Lee’s grip tightened, and Kara found herself smiling at him as if they had really just gotten a miracle from the gods. He hadn’t been lying when he said this mission would be easy.

“So, congratulations, Mr. And Mrs. Jones. You have a daughter.”

The words hit Kara like a brick. She was going to be a mother in this man’s eyes, and he wasn’t doubting her. It could be the clothes or the glasses or the fact that it was a man like Lee supporting her, but she believed it a little bit herself. Before she could stop herself, she had grabbed Lee by the collar of his shirt and was pulling him into a kiss.

It was awkward at first, considering they weren’t actually married and didn’t do this kind of thing… ever. That uneasiness faded away quickly, though. Kara felt Lee’s mouth slid into a smile as her hand came up to cradle his cheek, and she teased his lips open with her tongue. She felt his hands tighten around her wrists, and then she lost control of all her senses as Lee put his all behind the kiss.

Lee pulled away after a minute, and Kara could see him struggling to concentrate as the words fell from his mouth. “I think Mr. Tyler here probably has some documentation for us-”

Kara shook her head and pulled Lee into another kiss. She felt him grab her hand and pull her around the table without breaking the connection between them. She settled herself into his lap and let him gently nibble on her bottom lip. Reality pushed in for a few seconds, but it was quickly shoved to the side when she heard someone clear their throat and Lee pulled away again.

“Hold on. I’m not done,” she said to the man on the other half of the table. She ran her hands through Lee’s hair and pulled him into a third kiss. It seemed the bigger a taste she got of this man, the more she wanted. There was an impulse to completely forget who they were and why there were here in order to give in to the urge to just frak Lee senseless on this table.

Mr. Tyler cut into her thoughts as the voice of reason. “A lot of couples have this same reaction. Why don’t you two stay the night, make sure you’re completely okay with the amount of money that will be exchanged, and we can fill out the proper documents in the morning?”

“Sounds great,” Lee answered, his voice still a little shaky. He reached his hand out to shake with Tyler and then watched the man silently walk away as quickly as he came.

“Looks like we did it,” Kara observed. Lee turned to look at her, and it was at the same moment that they both realized she was still sitting in his lap. “Sorry,” Kara whispered, slipping into the seat next to him.

They fell into silence as the noises of the restaurant filled the air around them. Kara found herself having a hard time looking up at Lee. She had just lost control here, and she was pretty sure she couldn’t blame it on the mission. Even she wasn’t stupid enough to believe that. “So now what do we do, Lee?”

“We barricade ourselves in the room I paid for.”

Kara’s eyes went wide. “Excuse me?” She turned in time to see Lee’s face go white as he realized what he just implied. “Did you just proposition me?”

“No, I didn’t. I mean, not if… I mean, no! No!”

A giggle fell from her lips. Lee was so flustered that it was downright cute. “You got a room, though.”

“I didn’t know you were going to kiss me like that!” Lee protested. He let out a groan when he realized that was probably not the thing to say right now.

“So because I was playing the dutiful role of wife, you thought you could assert your husbandly rights regardless of how I felt?”

“Kara, don’t be stupid.”

“I’m stupid now?”

Lee shook his head in confusion. “Why are you acting like this?”

“I have no fraking clue,” Kara yelled.

Lee let out a loud laugh at her frustration and winced when over half the restaurant turned to look at them. “I think we should probably get out of here before we blow the good work we just did.”

Kara nodded, and she let him rest his hand on the small of her back to lead her out of the restaurant and through the corridors on Prometheus. Lee only paused slightly to give the undercover Marine a slight nod, letting him know they had gotten what they needed that night.

They didn’t say another word the whole way to the quarters Lee had paid for, and she figured that was for the best. They had the bad habit of reacting impulsively around each other, and that kind of thing usually ended with either a foot in the mouth or a nasty black eye.

She kicked her shoes off the second that the hatch shut behind Lee and made her way into the bedroom area. The bed was soft against her skin and felt amazing after wearing these clothes all day. Kara unhooked the top three buttons on her shirt and sighed.

“I think I need to explain something.”

Kara’s eyes shot open, but she couldn’t tear them away from the ceiling. The room was silent for a few moments, and then she felt the bed dip beside her.

“My father and I firmed up the details of this mission last night after I got you to agree to help me. We both figured it would be safer if you and I were out of the way when they do the takedown so I got this room. We’re supposed to stay locked up inside her until the Marines come to escort us to a Raptor. That‘s why I already had this room.”

Kara shifted up onto her elbows and turned her head to smile at Lee. “So then there’s no hope that you might ravage your make-believe wife tonight?”

Lee bit his lip and shrugged. “I could be persuaded if you give me more kisses like that.”

Kara laughed and collapsed back onto the bed. “Don’t count on it, Adama. The mood has broken.”

“Kara, the mood broke several times during those kisses. It didn’t stop you from taking what you wanted.”

“What is it that I wanted?” she asked, twisting to look at him.

“Me,” Lee said, a smug grin plastered across his face. “If I remember correctly, you told Tyler that you weren’t done yet.”

Kara sat up, and before Lee could even realize it, she had her skirt hiked up around her thighs and was straddling him. “You’re right. I don’t think I’m done.”

Lee smiled, and this time it was he who initiated the kiss. Kara felt a shiver pass through her as Lee’s hands ran up and down her back. She could feel the heat of his skin even through all the layers of clothing still on their bodies.

“What are we doing, Lee?” she whispered when they finally had to break for air.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Kara gestured down between them, and Lee realized that somewhere in that kiss she had unbuttoned his shirt. Her own shirt was hanging on by a thread. He gently shifted her body off his onto the bed and stood up. “This doesn’t have to be defined right now, Kara. It can just be what it is.”

Kara leaned back against the pillows and watched Lee walk across the room. Those pants really did fit him quite well. “And what is that?”

Lee gave her a smile and bent down. She watched him rifle around in a bag she could only assume he had had delivered earlier. He straightened up and tossed a pair of sweats at her. “It’s Apollo and Starbuck getting a night off for a change.”

Kara jumped to her feet and practically ripped the rest of her clothes off. The old, worn cotton felt like heaven against her skin. “Oh gods. This is nice.”

Lee laughed and quickly changed into his own sweats. He laid out on the bed next to her and rested his head on the pillows. Kara immediately slid her body down to mirror his. “This is real nice,” he whispered in agreement to what she said before.

“What are we doing, Lee?” she asked again, her eyes locked with his.

Lee leaned in to kiss her lightly before pulling back to smile. “We’re letting our guards down for a change.”

Kara thought that over for a few minutes before nodding. “That sounds nice, too.” She snuggled her body in close to his and was happy to feel his arms pull her in as close as she could go. “We haven’t done this in a long time.”

“I think that’ll be changing as soon as we get back to Galactica,” Lee said, the promise raw in his voice.

“Very nice.” Her words were almost muffled by the yawn erupting from her lips.

“Go to sleep, Kara. I’ll wake you up in the morning.”

Her reply was a sleepy mumble, and Lee found himself shaking his head. He could not understand this woman even if he tried. Honestly, he had never thought he would come to love the un-definable as much as he did.

Then again, that was before he knew the un-definable was Kara Thrace.

He leaned in to brush a kiss across the top of her head. Un-definable was sounding real nice these days.

FIC - Quirks, [G], L, R, 1/1

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 04:06:16 GMT

This is #3 for i_am_girlfriday.

Title: Quirks
Author: hackaddict
Date: 09/20/2006
Rating: G
Pairing: Lee, Roslin
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: It was the little quirks in their relationship that made people laugh: the way Lee could always tell when she was bluffing at triad, the fact that she knew the one noise that would drive him insane, the reason why when they thought no one was watching they dropped the facade of sarcasm and simply enjoyed each other’s company.
Words: 1,585

It was the little quirks in their relationship that made people laugh: the way Lee could always tell when she was bluffing at triad, the fact that she knew the one noise that would drive him insane, the reason why when they thought no one was watching they dropped the facade of sarcasm and simply enjoyed each other’s company.

_______________________________

Lee paced the hallway outside the President’s office on Colonial One and tried to ignore the strange looks he was being given. Everyone was used to seeing the young Captain on the ship. He was President Roslin’s military advisor, after all. He just normally didn’t look this scared.

Granted he was no longer there in an official capacity, but he still liked to help the President with a few insights that were unrelated to anything political. They had learned their lesson about that the hard way. Lee stayed away from the hard-hitting topics, and Laura Roslin didn’t ask for his opinions on anything that would get him into trouble.

So, here he was again. A military advisor feeling more nervous and anxious and on edge than he probably had any right to be.

He had paced the halls a million times during the preparations for the Quorom of Twelve, the tense days after Kobol when the President retook office, and the fragile transition period as Galactica and Pegasus became one fleet. The last time he had been here was right after he took on the black market.

During none of those times did he look so scared to death.

“Captain Adama.” Lee stopped in his tracks and looked up to see Billy standing in the open hatch. “The President’s finished her meeting with the Quorom. She was surprised to hear you were waiting for her. There was nothing in her books about you stopping over.”

“I’m sorry for not calling ahead,” Lee joked, jogging the few feet to where Billy stood. “She’s not busy, is she?”

“No, it’s just the normal things.”

Lee went to move through the hatch but paused at the last second. “Billy?”

“Yes, Captain?”

“Is she in a good mood?”

“I’m sorry, sir?”

“The President, is she in a good mood?”

“I think so.”

Lee nodded his thanks and pushed past Billy into the conference room. He tried to ignore the eerie feeling he always got from the empty chairs and podium. It was odd to see this room with no one in it. Then again, he was thankful that things were at a little bit of a lull right now.

“Captain Apollo.” Laura’s voice cheerfully greeted him from the couch in her inner sanctum.

Lee walked past her desk and took the seat on the chair opposite her. “Madam President, I’m sorry for not warning you about my visit.”

Laura waved her hand at him, brushing his comment to the side. “I’m just glad I didn’t make the appointment and then forget about it in my old age.” She let herself smile at her joke for a second and then steeled her face. “Now what is it you needed to speak to me about?”

“It’s… um… well, it’s about the military fraternization policy.”

Laura’s eyebrows shot up, but she motioned for him to continue.

“Right now it stands that military personnel are forbidden to enter into personal relationships with their fellow crewman.”

“A rule I know your men seem to informally disregard,” Laura teased. It was no secret that Galactica’s pilots and crew had been compensating for the dire circumstances by clutching to any little bit of human contact they have. The whole Fleet had been operating that way for months. Then again, it wasn’t a forbidden act for the civilians.

“I’m not going to lie and say that isn’t correct,” Lee said. He looked up from his hands to see that Laura was staring at him with a rather amused look on her face. He couldn’t help but think that if she was amused now, she would in her element when he got to the best part of this whole plea. “Sir, I was wondering if maybe it wouldn’t be better if we redefined the fraternization policy according to the new times that we are living in.”

“You want me to eliminate it?”

Lee shook his head. “No, I just want you to refine it. Introduce stricter guidelines as to how the relationship will be monitored to ensure they don’t get in the way of how things are run. I want my people to be given a chance to have a life outside their job but only if it is safe.”

Laura Roslin stared at the young man that she trusted like so few others. There was something more to this plea than what he was telling her. “And what about you?”

“Excuse me, sir?”

“What would this change in policy mean for you, Lee?”

Lee felt his heart freeze at the use of his first name, and he suddenly knew that the President saw right through him. “I… I want to marry Kara.”

Laura’s eyes went wide. “Lieutenant Thrace?”

Lee nodded. “I don’t know if she’ll say yes, but I want to ask her.”

“I was aware that you and the Lieutenant were attached to one another, but I didn’t realize it was to this extent,” Laura stammered. She really had no clue this was coming.

“I love her,” Lee said softly.

Laura realized his words were more for himself than her. He was reminding himself why he was doing this. It wasn’t hard to see the Captain was both nervous and embarrassed. Laura reached across the space between them and touched his thigh gentle. “Could you please explain how this happened?”

Lee’s eyes darted up to meet hers, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the look of understanding on her face. This wasn’t the President speaking. It was Laura Roslin. His mind started racing, trying to figure out how to explain the shift that happened between himself and Kara. Roslin knew the two of them as the pair of hotshot pilots that kept most of Galactica and Pegasus alive in one way or another, but she didn’t know them as Kara and Lee.

Lee knew how to begin, but he just wasn’t sure if it would sound right.

They were such a conundrum to those around them which was what pushed them together in the first place. What they had was indefinable, and it just felt natural to let it drift to the next level.

It was the little things that no one saw which made them fall in love: the way Kara always brought him coffee in his office after an all-nighter trying to work through the paperwork, the fact that Lee knew when she needed to be in a cockpit more than she needed to be with him, the reason why when they thought no one was watching they dropped the façade of always being at each other’s throat and just let themselves feel.

It was the fact that Lee knew he couldn’t live without Kara that pushed him to take this step. They had snuck off for a quiet moment together the night before, and for the first time, when he told her how much he loved her, she said it back. Lee had never known you could be as happy as he was in that moment.

“These things have no explanation,” Lee said, breaking the silence. “They just happen. You can either chose to ignore it or embrace it.”

“And you’re embracing it?”

“I’m trying, sir,” Lee said, biting on his lower lip. “So what do you think?”

Laura narrowed her eyes before letting out a loud laugh. “I think your father would be awfully angry with me if I kept him from gaining Kara as a daughter.”

Lee’s eyes went wide as he realized what she had just said. “So, you’ll do it?”

“It’s going to take some time, Captain, but I think you have a strong point.” Laura sighed and got to her feet. “Now if you’ll excuse me, my rather light day has just gotten a lot heavier. It seems I have to start reviewing the military policies to make sure they are up to date with our current situation.” Laura gave him a wink and walked over to her desk.

Lee heard her pick up the phone and start talking to her presidential aides, requesting meetings to be set up and texts to be located. He took that as his cue to leave.

Laura watched Lee make his way past towards the hatchway. She was delighted to see that heavy nervousness had left his body. “Hold on a moment,” she said into the phone before pushing it to the side. “Captain Apollo?”

Lee stopped in his tracks and turned to face her. “Yes?”

“She’s going to say yes. Trust me.” Laura gave her military advisor one last smile and returned to her phone call. “And would you do me a favor and schedule a dinner with the Admiral and I for two days from now? I think we’re going to have a lot to talk about.”

FIC - Mad, [PG], L/K, 1/1

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 02:56:54 GMT

This is #3 for mlsky.

Title: Mad
Author: hackaddict
Date: 09/18/2006
Rating: PG
Pairing: Kara/Lee
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: Lee loved how when Kara got really mad, her lips would pout in just a way that it was next to impossible not to want to frak her up against a wall.
Words: 785

Lee loved how when Kara got really mad, her lips would pout in just a way that it was next to impossible not to want to frak her up against a wall.

________________________________

“We never should have split up!”

Lee wasn’t sure he believed that, but Kara was screaming it rather convincingly at the moment. Sure, they probably would have been better off sticking with the rest of the team, but it wasn’t like they were surrounded by toasters or anything. They were simply lost.

“Kara, you need to calm down,” Lee said as gently as he could.

“Why the frak should I calm down? What reason do I have? We are lost in a jungle on some unknown planet, and my fraking radio just went dead.”

Lee rolled his eyes. He was starting to get tired of Kara and her irrational panic. She was always doing this to him. “You weren’t complaining about splitting up when we found the water supply,” he pointed out.

“That was before I realized we found the water but had no way to tell anyone.” Kara stopped her growling to bang her radio against a large rock. “Fraking piece of crap.”

Lee had to bit his lip to keep from laughing, but somehow Kara could tell. “And you! You were the one who thought this was a good idea. Let’s show them how it’s done, Kara. Just like old times, Kara. Frak old times! Old times usually meant one of us getting shot or captured or some other fraking thing that ends up in tears and screaming.”

“I think you have the screaming thing down already,” Lee hissed before he could stop himself.

Kara’s mouth dropped open, and she twisted to glare at him. “You are such an ass sometimes.”

Lee let out a long sigh. “They’re not going to leave us here, Kara, and chances are you and I will find them before they even realize we were lost.”

“I just don’t get why you and I always have to go on these missions. Can’t someone else save the Fleet for once?”

Lee shook his head. “Our track record is too good. I mean, without us, they never would have found Gemini and they would have mistaken the water on that aqueous planet as something other than an indicator of Pisces.”

“So just because you and I know our ancient star charts, we have to tromp through dirt and mud every fraking time we need something?”

“Pretty much.”

They started walking again and this time they made it about half a mile before Kara chucked her radio at a tree. It exploded into pieces.

“Smart idea, Kara. Completely destroy the only methods of communication we have,” Lee said, pushing past her.

“It doesn’t fraking work.”

“There was a chance that it could have had a little bit of power left in it. It may have worked if you just gave it a rest.”

“That’s complete bullshit, sir.” Kara hissed the last part, making sure he knew that she was using the less respectful form of the word.

“And throwing the only radio we have at a tree isn’t bullshit?” Lee fired back.

“It wasn’t fraking working,” Kara growled. She took a few steps forward in order to get right up in his face. “Nothing is fraking working on this mission.”

Lee loved how when Kara got really mad, her lips would pout in just a way that it was next to impossible not to want to frak her up against a wall.

Too bad there were no walls in the jungle.

“Stop it, Lee.”

Kara’s words caused him to break out of the little fantasy his mind was cooking up. “What?”

“You’ve got that look on your face.”

“Which look?”

“The one you make when you imagine you’re having sex with me, Major.”

Lee tried to feign innocence, but it was quickly clear that Kara wasn’t buying it. “Sorry?”

Kara rolled her eyes and thrust her hand into the air. “I ought to take this ring and shove it up your ass.”

“But I don’t think it would fit up there,” Lee deadpanned. When he saw Kara’s confused look, the corner of his lips turned up in a smirk. “What with the stick you keep referring to already being up there and all.”

She continued to glare at him a few moments before she burst out laughing. “Come on, Lee. We need to find the others so we can save the day yet again.”

Lee jogged a few feet to catch up to her, and they continued walking through the woods. He hoped they made it a few miles this time before his soon-to-be wife started screaming again.

FIC - Highway, [PG], L/K, K/Z, 1/1

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 02:55:59 GMT

This is #3 for budgrl8

Title: Highway
Author: hackaddict
Date: 09/18/2006
Rating: PG
Pairing: Kara/Lee, Kara/Zak
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: The highway stretched out in front of Lee as he drove his brother and the new girlfriend back to the Picon Academy, but nevertheless he found himself silently thankful for the long stretch of road and the fact that Zak had been fast asleep for the last few hours of conversation.
Words: 1,945

The highway stretched out in front of Lee as he drove his brother and the new girlfriend back to the Picon Academy, but nevertheless he found himself silently thankful for the long stretch of road and the fact that Zak had been fast asleep for the last few hours of conversation.

______________________

This Kara Thrace was different. That was what his little brother kept telling him time and time again, but Lee honestly didn’t believe it until now.

He turned his head to look at the woman in the passenger seat beside him. She was just as attractive as Zak’s previous girlfriends even if it was in a less in-your-face kind of way. Zak said there was just something about her that was different, but Lee had yet to put his finger on what that was.

Kara was gesturing wildly, telling some story about her perfect simulator run back when she was a student. Lee found himself chuckling at her enthusiasm. He could remember back when he had stories to say that got him just as worked up. That was before his father left the family and he had to step up and be the man of the house.

Kara collapsed in a fit of giggle right in the middle of her story, and Lee’s eyes darted up to the rearview mirror. He could not believe Zak was sleeping through this. They had been laughing and joking all the way in from the Picon countryside.

Lee looked over at Kara. She had gotten a hold of herself and was finishing up the second half of her story. He listened patiently as Kara proceeded to tell her tale using every possible form of the word frak and even some Lee had never heard before. Yeah, Kara was different, and Zak saw that as a good thing. But his baby brother had always been a little blind when it came to the important things, and this was no different.

Kara was a different type of girl from what Zak usually brought home, but she was familiar to Lee in a million unsaid ways. She might not be his baby brother’s idea of what a girl should be, but for Lee, she was perfect.

Lee had no clue how, but Zak had managed to snag his big brother’s dream girl. It was a good thing Lee loved his brother so fraking much.

“What are you staring at?”

Lee snapped back to the present and realized Kara was done with her story. “Sorry,” he apologized, turning his attention back to the road. They were getting closer to the city.

“No problem,” Kara said, laughing it off. Her eyes shifted to the side mirror. Zak was still sprawled across the back seat, dead to the world. She couldn’t believe how easily he fell asleep. They had been in Lee’s truck for only a few minutes before he passed out.

She stretched her legs out onto the dashboard and shut her eyes. Lee had rolled down the windows a few miles back, and the wind felt fantastic on this hot Picon day. There was a fresh smell to the air out here in the country that was never really there at the Academy. Zak had been smart to suggest they take this trip to see his brother.

Her nose caught a whiff of something familiar, and her mind went back to the memory of the guest bedroom she and Zak had spent the week bunking in. It had always smelled like clean laundry and grassy earth. She could feel the cool pillow against her cheek like she was still there.

A small sigh escaped her lips as she imagined the feel of Zak’s arm coming around her. It would be so warm against the cool sheets. Kara felt herself shiver lightly at the idea. The sun was beating down on her skin as she felt his arm tighten and turn her to face him. She acted on instinct and pulled him into a kiss. His lips were softer than she remembered but more sure of what he was doing. She could feel his tongue running along her lower lip and giggled. It tickled.

She felt his smile against her lips and moved her hands up to run through his hair. It was getting long. She was about to tell him he needed a haircut when his hand pushed up the bottom of her shirt and skimmed the small inch of skin. She gasped, and he took advantage of her open mouth to deepen their kiss.

They kept a hold of each other, just kissing and smiling, for what felt like an eternity. Eventually, she felt him pull back and opened her eyes to see him beaming down at her, his blue eyes sparkling. “Morning, Kara,” Lee whispered.

Kara snapped awake but managed not to jerk at all. She slowly turned to see Lee was watching the road. There was no way he could know what she had just dreamed.

She let herself look at him for probably the first real time since he picked them up a week earlier. His skin was tan from taking care of the farm. From what Zak told her, Lee’s childhood best friend had to go visit his little sister in the hospital on Leonis, and Lee had agreed to watch the small farm his friend had out in the wilds of Picon. He had been there for two weeks before he invited his little brother to join him.

Kara let her eyes roam up his tan skin to his hair. It was rather long and was slick back with sweat from the hot car. He had apologized when they got into the car. There had been a problem with the livestock that morning so he didn’t have time to take a shower after working with the animals. For some reason, Kara found the slightly dirty look intriguing. Working on a farm suited him. Maybe he should think of it as a second career.

Lee let out a sigh and turned the wheel slightly as they entered the highway into the city. Kara’s attentions fell to his hands. They were the hands of a Viper pilot, through and through. Callused at the finger tips and palm from too much time in the cockpit. Dirt under the nails, though this time it probably wasn’t engine grease. They were tough, very sure of themselves, a reflection of the man they were a part of.

She saw Lee’s eyes dart over to her and then back to the road. He knew she was watching him. “How long did I sleep?” she asked.

“Only a few minutes. I have to say I missed the company,” Lee admitted.

“That’s not a phrase I hear a lot.”

Lee’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?”

“I’m not the type of person people find it easy to be around.”

“I don’t know what kind of people you’re around, but they have to be crazy not to warm up to you.”

Kara shook her head. “I’m a rather abrasive person, Lee. I’m not likable.”

“I like you.”

Kara felt her face go red and hoped to the gods that Lee would keep his eyes on the road. They were already nearing campus. Kara couldn’t figure out where the time had gone.

The silence remained between them as Lee pulled through the Academy gates. Kara held back a smirk when the guard recognized the great Apollo and motioned for them to proceed. She had to admit she had been surprised to find out that this attractive nugget who was in her apartment-mate’s basic flight class was actually the brother of the man who set all the Academy records. At least he had set the records until Kara showed up.

Kara directed Lee through the winding roads of the campus until they were parked in front of her home.

“Wake up, bro,” Lee called. He rolled his eyes when Zak didn’t even move an inch. He looked over at the passenger seat to see Kara mirroring his expression. “He does that for you, too?”

“It usually takes me bribing him,” Kara admitted as she opened the door and slipped out of the truck. Lee met her around back and hopped up into the bed to hand her the bags.

As her hand brushed Lee’s when she grabbed the last bag, the words came falling out of her before she could think twice. “You should come stay with me during your next shore leave.”

Lee’s eyes went wide, and he found himself glimpsing through the back window at his little brother, still dead to the world.

“No!” Kara said, dropping the bag and shaking her head. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just… I wasn’t lying when I said people don’t really take to me. I mean, I have my friends here at the Academy, but I’m not sure they would be my friends if we didn’t work together. I don’t think I’m the kind of girl they’re used to being around. I try really hard to show them that I’m not a complete waste to be around, but I never know if it’s working. And then you show up, and it’s so fraking easy. Like I’m telling you these stories and you’re laughing and asking questions and you don’t have to, but you are. So I just thought that maybe you might want to listen to some of my stories again and now I realize that sounds completely stupid and I should have kept my mouth shut.” Kara kept wincing as she stooped down to pick up her bag. “Sorry,” she added as an after thought. She made the mistake of glancing up at Lee to see his reaction, and she felt her face fill with confusion. He was smiling at her. “What?”

“I have some time off a few months from now,” Lee said, hoping down off the truck. “I’ll give you a call.”

Kara felt a smile spread across her face. “Great.”

Lee reached down to pick up his brother‘s bag. “One condition, though. I want to fly simulators with you.”

Kara nodded. “I think I can sneak you on campus.”

“It’s a date then.” Lee held out the bag. “Hold this for a second.”

“What are you going to do?” Kara asked as she took the bag from him.

“Just watch.” Lee walked around to the driver’s side and, leaning in the open window, laid on the horn.

Zak jumped up off the seat. His head banged against the roof of the truck with a loud thump. When his vision cleared, he saw his brother and girlfriend practically rolling on the ground laughing. “Very funny.”

“It was,” Lee wheezed through the tears and laughter.

“What’d I miss?” Zak said slipping out of the backseat.

“Not much,” Kara replied.

“I’m dating your girlfriend,” Lee pointed out. “I think that might be new.”

Zak’s eyes went wide, and he turned to look at Kara. She shrugged. “It was a long drive back, Zak. You know I get bored easily.”

He watched Kara hand Lee his bag, and then his brother and girlfriend started chatting as they made their way into her home. It took him a few seconds to snap back to reality, and then he was running to catch up. “You two were kidding, right?”

FIC - Wall, [R], L/K, K/An, 1/1

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 05:42:48 GMT

This is #3 for w3ndz.

Title: Wall
Author: hackaddict
Date: 09/17/2006
Rating: R
Pairing: Kara/Lee, Kara/Anders
Spoilers: a slight S3 spoiler… it’s slight
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: Lee wasn’t sure when the walls inside himself started to match up with the walls inside of her.
Words: 3,981

Lee wasn’t sure when the walls inside himself started to match up with the walls inside of her.

____________________________

Lee volunteered for the job when it became obvious that they were going to need more information from Kobol. After all, with his marriage dissolved and Pegasus no longer around, he didn’t have many things to hold him back.

He had argued with his father for hours before William Adama agreed that he had a point. With the integration of the Pegasus crew into Galactica, there really was no place for him. He wasn’t about to dethrone Tigh in the XO position, and he didn’t think he could go back to just being CAG.

Everyone knew what it meant when he took this mission. They were so far from Kobol that it would take a miracle for a person to go all the way out there and then back. This was the most basic of suicide missions. Lee figured he was good at those. He couldn’t even remember a time anymore when he didn’t want to leave this life behind.

A spark of memory of the night before he left the Fleet hit him from nowhere, and he smiled. There was one moment where he had thought he might have a reason to keep fighting.

Lee was pulled back into the present as the space in front of him ripped open. A Raptor floated through until it was beside him. Lee breathed a sigh of relief as he grabbed his pressure suit. It was rather unnerving to be floating in space with barely any power, just waiting and hoping that everything stayed according to plan.

He opened his ramp and smiled when he saw Racetrack standing across the void. He pushed off his dead ship and coasted the few feet into her waiting arms. The ramp slapped shut behind him, and Lee felt Edmondson’s fingers helping him unhook his helmet.

Lee’s eyes drifted to the cockpit. It was a relief to see Showboat there, piloting the ship, but a part of him was disappointed. He had had a foolish hope.

“Good to see you, sir,” Racetrack said, taking her ECO seat.

Lee nodded and slipped into the co-pilot’s chair. “So what’d you lose to get the job of collecting me?”

Case shook her head with a smile. “Both Racetrack and I won something in fact.”

“There was a lot of people who wanted to bring you back, sir. It seems the Fleet’s rather enamored with you.”

“There was a drawing of names. We’re the lucky winners,” Showboat finished.

Lee turned to look out at the stars as he felt the familiar jolt of the FTL drive engaging. He couldn’t really wrap his head around there being so many people wanting him to come back. He knew he ran a good ship back when the Pegasus was around, but he wasn’t aware there was that much loyalty from his crew. “How long until we’re home?”

“Ten, eleven hours,” Racetrack replied. “I suggest you get some rest, sir. There are quite a few people who are going to want to see you when we get back.”

Images… memories… surfaced within Lee of all the people he had left behind to go on this mission. He felt the familiar tug of nerves at the pit of his stomach.

Following Racetrack’s suggestion, Lee let his eyes shut. He had been flying for over twenty-four hours straight before reaching the rendezvous point.

He wasn’t surprised when his thoughts drifted to her. Like always, it was memories of their last moments together that consumed him.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Lee had been staring at the bunk above him for over an hour. This was the only place he really had to go anymore to think. The quarters he had briefly shared with Dee were now another couple’s home. The pilots’ break room was never really an option if you wanted quiet. The observation deck was reserved for less solitary needs. The Chief was doing a major overhaul on the Vipers so the hangar bay was even more chaotic than normal.

All Lee had was this small bunkroom that no matter how hard he tried didn’t seem like home.

That was when he heard the hatch slid open. He didn’t move. Whomever it was would be in and out in a few seconds. His bunkmates were intimidated by the fact that they had to share with the Admiral’s son, but this was the only spot for him to go so he couldn’t fix that. He would need time which was something he did not have.

When he heard the hatch click shut but no other movement, he finally twisted his head to see who it was. “Kara?” Her eyes stayed locked with his as she pushed off the closed hatch, only really breaking away for the few seconds it took to dog the hatch. “What’s going on?” he asked in confusion.

Kara walked the few feet it took to stand in front of his bunk and knelt down on the floor beside him. “I got the pilots to agree to give us a few hours.”

Lee wanted to desperately ask for what, but the look she was giving him made him keep his mouth shut. Kara slid into the bunk beside him, stretching her body alongside his. He wrapped his arms around her on instinct and was happy when she leaned into his touch. He hadn’t misinterpreted her.

Lee wasn’t sure when the walls inside himself started to match up with the walls inside of her, but it felt like they were all crumbling down at once.

They laid that way for what felt like an eternity.

A small sniffle broke through the quiet, and Lee realized that Kara was crying. “What’s wrong?”

“Why do you have to be so stupid?” she whispered, turning to look up at him.

Lee felt her grab a fistful of his tanks and then she was everywhere, assaulting his senses as she kissed him as soundly as she could. A small voice in the back of his head reminded him that Kara was a married woman these days. She shouldn’t be doing this no matter if he was going on a suicide mission or not. She deserved a right to be happy. Another voice pointed out that she seemed pretty happy right now.

Lee decided he had earned the right to have this last selfish act and hoped he wouldn’t cause Kara pain from taking it. He ran his hands underneath the back of her tanks. Her skin was hot to the touch.

Kara shifted until she was on top of him. Her thighs tightened around his waist, and she pulled back to sit up. Lee watched in awe as she slid her tanks off her body and threw them to the ground. For a second, he forgot about everything but this woman currently offering herself to him.

The choice was so simple that he didn’t hesitate. He pulled her down to kiss him again. They only broke away to shed the remaining pieces of clothing coming between them.

It was slow and sweet, nothing like they had ever had together before. They both knew that this was probably it. This was the last time they would be able to see each other, to touch each other, and so when Lee pushed himself inside of her, he made it as drawn out as he could.

This was it for him. This had always been it.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Lee felt himself stir awake and looked around the Raptor. There must have been something telling in his eyes because Showboat and Racetrack both looked away the second they realized he was awake.

Lee shifted his attention to space as the rest of that night came back in mind. He made love to Kara for the few precious hours she had given him. He had shown her his heart for as long as his body would hold up and then some.

When he woke up to the clatter of his bunkmates coming off shift, he wasn’t surprised to find himself alone in the bunk. Kara never did like goodbyes.

And so he left the Fleet on this mission that he wasn’t going to come back from.

“We’re almost there, sir,” Showboat said, breaking into his thoughts.

“I was out for that long?”

“It seems Fleet saving missions take a lot out of you,” Racetrack joked.

Lee felt the pull of FTL, and he didn’t have to ask to know this was the last jump. His vision went white, and then the Fleet was in front of him. His eyes zeroed in on Galactica by instinct. It was his home.

“Galactica, this is Raptor 569. I am pleased to report we have the mission objective on board.”

Lee couldn’t fight back the grin when he heard the cheering filtering through the open comm. It sounded like the whole crew was in the CIC.

“Raptor 569, you are cleared for landing. Also, I have a message from Galactica Actual.”

“Proceed,” Racetrack said, a small look of worry passing between her and Showboat. It was always unnerving to have the attention of the Fleet’s highest ranking officer on you even in situations like this.

“Message reads don’t you two frak this up now that you‘re home.”

Showboat switched on her comm. “You tell Galactica Actual that I’m about to give him a textbook landing.”

Lee leaned back in his chair and just enjoyed the ride as Case took him into his home. They set down on the floor of the landing tube as smoothly as promised, and Lee let out a sigh of relief. Now they just had to wait a few minutes to get lifted into the hangar bay and he would finally have his feet back on Galactica.

“We should probably give him a quick update,” Racetrack said, slipping out of her ECO chair.

Showboat nodded. “Let’s see. There’s not much change with your father. He’s been out of his mind with worry about you, Apollo, but I’m sure you knew that. The XO surprisingly has also been worried. He finally cut the booze out of his life so I guess that returned most of the humanity he’s been lacking the past few years.”

“We think he sobered up for the Old Man’s sake,” Racetrack added.

Lee nodded. He may have had his share of differences with the Colonel in the past, but he knew when push came to shove, Saul Tigh was one of the few people his father trusted.

“Sharon’s been let out of her cell on a trial basis. She’s proven herself trustworthy a million times while you’ve been gone, and so the Old Man’s given her a few privileges.”

“She deserves it,” Lee agreed, thinking back to how she helped plan his return trip to Kobol. The mission had gone by without one problem, and he knew that was mostly due to Sharon.

“Helo and Starbuck have been splitting the CAG duties. It’s easier that way now that there are so many pilots to keep track of,” Racetrack reported.

“How are they doing?” Lee asked.

The question didn’t seem odd or out of place to Racetrack and Showboat. It was common knowledge that Kara and Karl were close to Lee.

“Helo’s doing fine,” Racetrack offered. “He’s trying to convince the Old Man to let him marry Sharon. It’s rather bizarre how no one finds that out of the question. I guess we’ve all gotten used to their relationship over the last few years.”

“Starbuck’s doing okay, too,” Showboat said, picking up where Racetrack left off. “She’s thrown herself into her work since her marriage ended.”

Lee’s eyes went wide. “I don’t understand.”

“I know. We were all surprised. Kara and Sam were always so happy together, and then one day, he filed for divorce. There was a rumor going around that it was because she was unfaithful, but Kara’s been so tight-lipped that I don’t think we’ll ever know why her marriage truly ended.”

Lee did his best not to react. He knew immediately that he had something to do with her marriage ending. It was just too much of a coincidence that there would be rumors of adultery after what had happened between them.

The Raptor shifted to a stop. They were in the hangar bay.

“Is that about it with the update?” Lee asked, getting to his feet.

“It’ll get you through the next hour or so, I think,” Racetrack replied. She hit the controls to lower the ramp and turned to smile at her commanding officer. “Welcome home, sir.”

Lee stepped down the ramp and saw the whole hangar bay had stopped what they were doing. The applause and cheers were deafening, but Lee wasn’t really paying attention. His eyes were locked on the man standing front and center to greet him. Forgetting any sort of propriety, Lee wrapped his arms around his father and held tight. Their relationship had been bruised so many times in his life, but it didn’t matter anymore.

“I got what we were looking for,” Lee whispered in his father‘s ear as they continued to hold tight to one another.

“That can wait,” Adama replied, finally pulling back to take a good look at his son. “For now, why don’t you go get changed? I left some clothes for you in the shared quarters you used to live in. I figured you might want some space after being cooped up so long.”

“Are you sure you don’t want my report first?”

Adama shook his head. “Save your report. We’re probably going to be in meetings talking about what you found for the next few months so get the rest while you can.”

Lee felt his father squeeze his shoulder one last time, and then he was making his way out of the hangar bay and into the corridors. It was odd how he could recall every inch of this ship. It had been over a year since he was last here, and yet it still felt like home.

The hatch to his old shared quarters slid open with a familiar creak. Lee stepped over the threshold and immediately peeled off his flight suit. He had been wearing that thing for far too long of a time.

Lee was about to shrug off the rest of his clothing and take advantage of the personal shower he knew was in this quarters when his eyes caught on something completely unexpected.

Kara was sitting on the bed, hands folded in her lap. Her eyes rose to meet his and went wide.

Lee didn’t know what came over him. He knew this was the last thing he should be doing, but he couldn’t stop his body. Kara squeaked in surprise as he pulled her off the bed and into his arms. His lips met hers in a kiss he had spent so many night imagining. It only took her a few seconds to understand what was happening, and when she did, Lee could feel her melt into his touch.

The need for oxygen was what finally broke them apart.

Kara’s hands still clutched his arms as a small smile played at the corner of her lips. “I still think you’re incredibly stupid even if you came back alive,” she reminded him.

Lee smirked and went to kiss her again. This time she pulled back from him, and Lee felt his heart freeze. She was just happy to have him home and nothing more. He started berating himself. This wasn’t his damn fantasy. It was reality, and reality with Kara was always painful.

“There’s something I need to tell you, Lee,” Kara whispered, pulling away from him.

Lee nodded and sat down on the bed. He had a feeling this was about Anders. He could feel there was more to the story than Racetrack or Showboat were willing to let on.

Kara started pacing next to the bed, and Lee knew she was doing her best to gather her thoughts. He silently wondered what could be so bad that she hesitated on how to tell him.

“Kara,” he said, softly.

She skidded to a halt and looked at him, eyes full of fear. “Lee, I have-”

A loud cry bit through the air, cutting her words short. If it was possible, Lee saw the worry in her eyes increase. “Oh gods,” she said, ducking past where he sat and rushing into the adjoined room.

Lee waited a moment and then stood up and followed. What he saw made him stop in his tracks in the middle of the hatchway. Kara was rocking a baby in her arms as gentle words of soothing fell from her lips. She looked up at him and smiled. “Come here.”

Lee made his way to stand cautiously beside Kara. His eyes rested on the baby. It had a small mop of dark hair and was currently sucking lightly on its thumb with shining eyes. There was no more crying.

“This is Leila, my daughter,” Kara whispered softly. “And, Leila, this is Lee, but I don’t want you to get used to calling him that.”

“What should she call me?” Lee asked, leaning in to touch the little girl’s cheek with the tip of his finger. She was the cutest baby he had ever seen.

Kara turned her attention away from her daughter and waited until Lee looked up at her. “I was hoping Daddy.”

Lee’s eyes went wide. “She’s… she’s mine?”

“She was born about eight months after you left, seven months after I dissolved my marriage bans, and one month earlier than we were expecting.”

“We?”

“Your father and I,” Kara said before turning her attention back to her daughter. “Because Grandpa’s been helping me a lot this past year, hasn’t he?” Kara set the little girl back down in her crib and turned to face Lee. “So now you know what I was trying to tell you out there.”

Lee rubbed his eyes as the newness of being home wore off and fatigue started setting in. He had a million questions in his head right now, but only one seemed to be on his lips. “So I was the reason Anders divorced you?”

“Yes and no,” Kara said. She looked down at Leila and, satisfied that her daughter was at peace, motioned for Lee to follow her into the other room. Sitting down on the bed, she sighed. “My marriage to Sam was on its way out before you decided to go on that mission. I came to you the night before you left to tell you that. I wanted to beg you to stay, but I couldn’t. I had no right. When you left, I decided to give my marriage one last shot, but then I found out I was pregnant. When I told Sam… it wasn‘t pretty. A few days later, we were in front of a priestess asking for a divorce.”

“Showboat said there were rumors of adultery.”

Kara nodded. “That was the only reason I could use to get my bans dissolved.”

They fell back into silence as Lee tried to wrap his head around what she was telling him. After a moment, he reached out to grasp her hand and let out a deep sigh. “Here’s what I don’t understand, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Samuel Anders, but I thought he was a pretty nice guy. I would have imagined he’d want to stick by you through your pregnancy. I mean, the odds weren’t in my favor for returning.”

“He offered to support me,” Kara confirmed. “I told him no.”

“Why?”

“I knew from the moment Cottle told me I was with child that it was either raise this baby with you or do it on my own. I didn’t want anyone else.” She felt Lee lift her hand up to his lips and brush a light kiss across the back. “I knew I would have help. I mean, I had both the Old Man and Karl. They weren’t you, but they were definitely the next best thing.”

Lee let his eyes roam every inch of Kara as she sat beside him. A blush came over her skin almost immediately. There were changes in her appearance that he hadn’t noticed before. Her hair was short again, and her body bore the signs of motherhood. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it. “Can I see Leila again?”

Kara nodded, and Lee could tell it pleased her that he wanted to see his daughter. He suddenly realized she was still nervous about this. For some reason, that was endearing.

Lee watched his daughter sleep for what felt like hours until he heard the phone buzz in the other room. Even then, he didn’t move. Kara stepped back into the hatch after a minute. “That was your father. He needs your informal report.”

Lee nodded and, as much as it hurt, pulled himself away from his daughter. Kara turned to step back into the other room with him, but Lee caught her arm. “There’s something I want to make clear,” he whispered, his eyes darting into the quiet nursery. “I want to be a part of this little girl’s life. Even more than that, I want to be a part of our daughter‘s life with you. Because I love you, Kara. I always have.”

Kara bit her lip to keep the tears from falling and managed a small nod.

“When I’m finished giving my report, I’m going to talk to my father about moving into these quarters with you.”

“Lee, you and I both know that regulations require the couples sharing these quarters to be permanently joined to one another,” Kara gently reminded him.

“I remember,” Lee said, smiling down at her.

It took Kara a second to realize what was happening, and when it finally dawned on her, she could feel her eyes go wide. “Are you…”

“…proposing? Yes. I want to marry you more than anything in the world, Kara, and I’m tired of having to be rational about it. I’m tired of taking things slow. I’ve loved you forever, and I love our daughter. If I had nothing else, that would be enough. So what do you say, Captain? Marry me?”

“It’s Major now,” Kara pointed out before she broke out with a smile, “and yes.”

Lee swept her up off her feet and gave her the best kiss he could muster.

“I’m so glad you came back to me,” she whispered when he finally set her back on the ground.

Lee was about to tell her that he was never going to leave again when a wail from the other room interrupted them. Kara pushed away from him. “I’ll get her. Get changed and go to your briefing, Lee.”

Lee watched her pick up their daughter and settle into the chair next to the crib before he moved to change into the clothes laid out on the bed. He walked back to the hatchway as he was zipping up his sweatshirt and saw that Kara hadn’t moved. She was still rocking Leila back to sleep. “You’ll be here when I get back?” he asked.

Kara nodded. “We’re not going anywhere.”

Lee walked over to where she sat and leaned down to give his daughter’s tiny nose a kiss. He brushed a kiss on the top of Kara’s head and then made his way out of the quarters that would be his home.

He had left this place a year earlier, having nothing to live for, and he came back with more than he ever thought he’d have. Silently, he thanked the gods for watching over him when it really mattered.

FIC - Silence, [PG], L/K, 1/1

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 04:39:30 GMT

This is #3 for williwawz.

Title: Silence
Author: hackaddict
Date: 09/16/2006
Rating: PG
Pairing: Kara/Lee, Kara/Anders, Lee/Dee
Spoilers: LDYB Pt 2
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: The silence grew between them as her words sunk in, and Lee wondered how four little words could hurt so much even if he knew they were a lie - I don’t love you.
Words: 9,852

Author’s note: I took liberties with the coma thing. You can sue me, but that’s about it… :OP
__________________________

The silence grew between them as her words sunk in, and Lee wondered how four little words could hurt so much even if he knew they were a lie - I don’t love you.

__________________________

Kara could feel hands gripping her body, yanking her forward. She was thrashing out, but whatever it was held her so tight she couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t stop it. A loud, vibrant ache echoed through her body, and Kara felt herself slam forward. Everything went white, and slowly her eyes opened.

The light of the room was dim, a blanket of warmth on her skin. Kara reached her hands out and met cold smooth material. It was soft to the touch. She turned her head, ignoring the slow ache of her muscles. She was in a bed. No, scratch that. She was in a really nice bed.

Her eyes burned against the harshness of the air. There was a sharp pain in her arm when she reached to brush the stinging tears away. Kara forced herself to focus, and through the watery pain, she saw she had pulled at the tubes embedded in her wrist and hand.

Her body was shaking, and her mind was complete chaos. Somewhere deep inside her, the survivor’s instinct she had prided herself on for so long kicked in. Her hand tightened over the tubes and pulled. The pain coursed through her body, making her jaw draw open and her eyes slam shut, but she pushed it to the side.

Her feet touched the floor slowly. It was cold yet familiar. Wherever she was, it was in the air. She bit down on her lip until the pain coming from her hand calmed.

Her knees buckled the second she tried to stand up, and she found her hands desperately clutching the bed to keep herself off the floor. The muscles in her thighs and calves were screaming, and she had no clue why. She had no memory of where she was, what she was doing here, and why it hurt so much.

The red that filled her visions, mingling with the white, did fade. The pain in her legs did not. She had spent most of her childhood shoving pain away, though. That much she knew how to do and so she pushed away from the bed.

Her legs screamed in agony, but each step was easier than the last.

The hatchway to the next room stood open in front of her, and she could see light filtering through. The air warmed slightly against her skin as she walked through the small opening into the other room. Her eyes drifted immediately to the man sitting behind the desk, and she felt her knees give out once again.

Lee’s eyes went wide the second he saw her, and he was on his feet and at her side before she could clear her head of the pain. Her hands clutched at him almost on instinct. Her eyes darted around the room as she tried to understand what she was seeing.

This place… she knew this place. This was all wrong. Lee shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t be here.

And yet she was safe. She knew she was safe.

“What’s happening?” Kara choked out, the words sticking in her raw throat. Her voice was low and harsh. It hurt to even breathe.

“You need to get back to bed,” Lee whispered, already leading her back the way she came.

Kara could feel the pain ease away as Lee took most of the burden off her legs. She still had no clue why it hurt so much to move. Lee paused at the foot of the bed, but Kara took one look at the machines and shook her head.

“Come on, Kara. You have to lay down.” He watched her eyes frantically dart over the machines next to the bed to the tubing to the bed itself, and he could feel the fear growing inside of her somewhere. “I’ll sit with you. How about that?”

Kara was surprised to feel a small relief at his words. She had no clue where it came from, but somehow she knew if Lee sat down with her, she would be okay. Tightening her hands around his shoulder, she let him lower her onto the mattress. He slid onto the bed next to her and leaned against the wall.

The silence filled the room immediately, and for the first time, Kara tried to remember what had put her here. If Lee was watching over her, then she knew that this was a voluntary thing. Something had happened to put her under his watch, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember. She could feel herself struggling with everything she had yet her mind remained a complete wash of white nothingness floating in the inconsequential details. She was scared. “Please tell me what’s going on,” she pleaded softly. Her hand came out to grasp Lee’s. She was surprised to feel his hand trembling to match hers.

“You had a bad landing, Kara. You were out on CAP with Kat as your wingman, and you two encountered Scar.” Lee felt her tense up immediately and did his best to ignore the ache that started in his heart, knowing this was just the beginning. “From what the alert fighters said, it was a sight to be seen. You went toe to toe with that fraking Raider, and then when that wasn’t enough, you set him up and Kat took him down. It was probably the best flying most of these pilots have ever born witness to.”

Lee sighed and shifted to slid his fingers between Kara‘s. He wanted so badly to just pull her into his arms and hold her as tight as he could, but that would hurt her too much. She was so damn fragile. “Then something went wrong in your landing. We still have no idea what that was, but your Viper went into a slide and you ended up flipped upside down and pinned to the wall of the launch tube. It took them an hour to cut you out.”

“I was hurt?” Kara said, even though the answer was written all over Lee’s face

“You were unconscious. The second you got down to sickbay, Cottle told us it didn’t look good. You were so pale, Kara. I…” The words caught in his throat, and Lee lowered his head to try to gain some composure. His eyes fell to the caked blood on her hand. “I need to bandage that up.”

Kara felt his hand slid away, and he started towards what she assumed was the bathroom for these quarters. The panic hit her the second he left the bed. “Lee?”

His voice carried from the bathroom. “Cottle took you through so many surgeries that we all lost count. There was bleeding in your brain and in your abdomen. It took him hours just to stabilize you enough to assess the damage.”

Kara watched Lee as he made his way back to the bed, a basin of water and bandages in his hand. Her body was in pain, but she didn’t feel like she had been through a million operations. Plus, bleeding in the brain and abdomen didn’t explain why her legs were so damn weak. “It doesn‘t make sense. I don‘t feel like any of that happened.”

The bed dipped down to accommodate Lee’s weight as he sat next to her again. She held her arm out to him, and he started washing off the blood. “You wouldn’t feel like that because it happened a long time ago.” His hands stopped, and his head lifted to look her in the eye. “You were in a coma for six months, Kara.”

Her reaction was instantaneous. She snatched her hand away from him and felt the wounds pull again. She didn’t have to look down to know she was bleeding. “No, that’s not possible.”

“Kara.”

“No, Lee. I’m not stupid. If I was in a coma, I wouldn’t be able to walk. I would be stuck in the fraking sickbay, hooked up to a million machines. Cottle would be watching over me. I wouldn’t be waking up in some fraking office that I know isn’t where I’m supposed to be.”

Lee stayed silent as she lashed out at him in confusion. The only real success he had ever had in talking with Kara was simply to let her fume and wait patiently for her to calm down. His mind drifted back to a conversation he had had with Cottle everyday for the past few months. The Doc said that when Kara woke up, she would need to be looked over completely, but he assured Lee that there was no rush. Just because she woke up didn’t mean that her body was going to go haywire. Plus, they both knew Kara would have a million questions. It would be easier to make her lay down and try to give her the answers she needed rather than force her to wait to find out that she had lost such a large chunk of her life.

Content with his decision not to immediately call someone to tell them to get Cottle, Lee reached for her arm again. She didn’t jump away from his touch which he took as a sign that she was calm again. They sat in silence as he washed off the newly shed blood and wrapped the gauze around the torn skin. Kara felt the pain dull slowly against the gentle touch of his fingers. “Do you want me to continue?” he asked.

Kara nodded slowly. She was okay now.

“Under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t be where you are, but circumstances have never really been that way, have they?” Lee waited for her to nod again before continuing. “For one hundred, eighty-seven days, there was no change. You were stable but not making any forward progress. I think it took all of Cottle’s courage to tell my father and I that it was time to decide what to do with you. I can‘t begin to describe how completely floored I was when the Doc turned to me and asked for a decision. I don‘t think I fully understood what was happening until he held out your med records for me to look at.” Lee tipped Kara’s chin up to look at him. “Why did you put me in charge of making life decisions for you?”

Kara felt relieved when the memory of that day popped right to the top of her head. It looked like her memory wasn’t completely shot. It was just full of a few well-placed holes. “A few things clicked into place after I came back from Caprica. Two things mainly. One, the Old Man welcomed me home with open arms even after I betrayed his trust, and two, you told me about what you did to Colonel Tigh. I knew in that moment that you were more likely to make the tough decision. You would do what was right by me.”

Lee shook his head. “I kept you around, Kara. Against everyone’s recommendations… orders… whatever you want to call them, I wouldn’t let you go. You made the wrong choice.”

“I don’t think so,” Kara said. The calmness washing over her took her by surprise. Something was still very wrong about this picture, but she felt herself ignoring it for just a few seconds. “Look at me, Lee. I’m not dead. I’m not in a coma. Don’t you get it? I’m alive because you wouldn’t let me go.”

Lee nodded. “Somehow I knew all those months of fighting to keep you around were worth it. The day I felt your hand move in mine, I thought it was a dream. I had been willing you to come back to me for so long.”

“And so here we are.”

Lee shook his head. “Not quite. The day you started waking up was months ago. Since then, it’s been a slow process of rehabilitation. Cottle kept telling me that your slow progress was a good thing because it meant you weren’t rushing the healing. I didn’t believe him. We worked hard to keep your muscles active when you were in a coma, but when you woke up, I demanded that you be pushed even harder. Cottle told me that I was being stupid, but I didn‘t listen. I knew you wouldn‘t want to wake up to find that you could barely move without it hurting.”

“Have I really been awake for months? Because I can’t remember any of it.”

“You have been awake for awhile now in a sense,” Lee admitted. “Usually it would only be a few seconds or a few minutes. Last week, I had you for almost half of an hour, but you were so out of it that I don’t think any of my words actually got through to you.”

“I’m awake now, though.”

“Yeah, you are,” Lee said.

Kara realized that he was smiling for the first time. Her eyes drifted over the lines of his face and then down his body. He hadn’t changed that much. She took in her surroundings again and found they, too, were familiar. “Where are we?”

“The quarters of the XO,” Lee said without much thought.

Kara‘s eyes went wide, and Lee realized his mistake even before she said the words. “You had me moved to Tigh’s quarters?”

“No, Kara, calm down. These are my quarters now. Saul bottomed out around the time we found New Caprica.”

Kara found it odd that Lee would use Tigh’s first name so casually, but she shoved that question to the side. Instead she focused on the other confusing part of his last statement. “New Caprica?”

“We found a planet that could sustain human life by mistake about seven months ago. It’s surrounded by some sort of nebula which interferes with any sort of dradis reading. That’s what’s been hiding us from the Cylons. President Baltar thought this intel on the nebula was all the assurance he needed and ordered the whole Fleet to stand down. We’ve been slowly populating the planet ever since.”

“President Baltar?”

Lee couldn’t hide the smile that came to his face. “You’ve missed a lot, Kara.”

“So, let me get this right. By some miracle of the gods, the Fleet just stumbled onto this planet?” Kara watched Lee tense, and even though she was in quite a bit of pain still, the significance wasn’t lost on her. He was hiding something.

Lee knew he should tell her the rest of the story. She had a right to know where Racetrack had been heading when her Raptor mis-jumped and ended up near New Caprica. He just didn’t want to tell her right now. He had waited forever for this moment. He wanted to draw it out as long as he could.

The silence hung between them, and for some reason, Kara felt desperate to keep this conversation going. It was almost like if she stopped talking with Lee, she knew everything was going to change. The feeling of protection would fade away. “So somehow after finding this miracle planet, you got appointed XO?”

“Demoted,” Lee corrected.

“Okay, you’re not making any sense.”

“A month into your coma, my father appointed me Commander of the Pegasus. It seemed I was the only officer he thought could handle the job.”

“And could you?”

“Yeah. The Old Man was right. For some reason, the people listened to me.”

“So why are you here now?”

Lee looked like he was about to answer and then stopped. “Are you sure you’re up for all this, Kara?”

“I think I’ve rested enough to last me a lifetime if you’re telling me the truth.”

Lee nodded. Kara was stubborn. She wasn’t going to fall asleep even though he knew her body was probably screaming for the rest. He had no fraking clue where she found the strength to walk all the way to his office on her own. “You and I would be on Pegasus right now if there hadn’t been an accident.”

“What kind of accident?”

“The kind that takes a whole chunk out of the Fleet,” Lee said bluntly. He wasn’t about to start sugar coating things now. “There was a Cylon living on Cloud Nine, and somehow they got a hold of a nuclear warhead. I don’t know why they waited for us to find New Caprica to use it, but we had barely begun to settle the planet when it detonated. Pegasus was nearby refueling some of the smaller ships, and the blast burned her through from one end to the other.”

“You weren’t on the ship.”

Lee shook his head. “No, I was visiting my father at the time to go over some of the changes that were happening because of the planet settlement.”

“Thank the gods for that,” Kara whispered. As soon as the words left her lips, she saw Lee’s expression change to one of confusion. She could feel herself desperately searching for some reason why he would be surprised to find she liked the idea of him staying alive, but once again her memory was failing. She pushed whatever that was to the side and chose to focus back on where their conversation started. “So now you’re the XO of Galactica?”

“We’re running with half the crew that you remember, but I’m still needed,” Lee confirmed. Still keeping his eyes locked with hers, he got to his feet. “Now I think you need to be resting because in a few minutes, I’ll have a med team down here giving you a full work-up.”

Kara groaned. “Can’t I go back to the whole coma thing instead?”

“Not on you life,” Lee said, poking her un-injured arm.

Kara growled and was happy to hear him laugh as he cleaned up the basin and extra bandages from before. She watched him for a few moments before there was a small tingling at the back of her mind. Shutting her eyes, she focused on it and a few memories flashed through her mind. A conversation with Lee over a bottle of ambrosia. Helo sparring with her in the gym. An overheard conversation in the mess.

For some reason, the memory of listening to Racetrack and Hawkeye talk over their lunch was what stuck in her head. They were joking about Dee’s new fascination for the CAG. Kara realized with a start that the pilots had been talking about Lee. He was CAG back then. She could remember seeing something happen between the petty officer and her superior officer, but she found it hard to believe that Lee would be selfish enough to take another man’s girlfriend.

Lee was about to disappear into the bathroom when Kara called out to him. “How’s Dee doing?” He spun around immediately to look at her, and Kara saw something flash across his eyes. Her heart froze as she realized Racetrack and Hawkeye had been right. There was something there. “I don’t know why I asked that,” she blurted out, backtracking as quickly as she could. “I just… I remembered something important I think, but I don’t know what that is.”

Lee set down the things in his hands and turned to look at her. “Cottle said you would have a fuzzy memory for at least the next few weeks.”

“So you’re saying I was right to ask you about Dee?”

Lee nodded. “There was an attraction between Dee and I that I guess started those few weeks before your accident. You must have picked up on it. It probably wouldn‘t have amounted to anything. I was pretty screwed up back then, and I think I knew better than to try to pull someone down with me.”

“But?” Kara said, sensing there was more to this story.

“But then there was a hostage situation on Cloud Nine. I was there on a mandatory downtime order so the Old Man sent me in to diffuse the situation. I didn’t get there quick enough, and Billy was killed.”

“Bil… Billy?” Kara’s voice cracked. Her mind flashed to the memory of the young presidential aide. He couldn’t be dead.

“He was trying to protect Dee. She was devastated by his sacrifice, and I helped her pick up the pieces. Something happened between us. I knew that it shouldn’t, that she was just vulnerable, but I couldn’t stop it.”

Kara nodded her understanding. She knew a few things about losing control. The room filled with silence as she wondered if she wanted to hear what the rest of this story was. She had a bad feeling from the way Lee was talking about this that she had managed to frak things up even while in a coma. He had that slight hesitance in his voice that only showed up when he was trying to protect her from herself.

“We got serious enough that when the Pegasus was destroyed, she asked if I wanted to settle down on the planet with her and try to make a new start. I thought about it, but I couldn’t leave things hanging in limbo like that. There was still so much to do. So I took the XO position when the Old Man offered it to me.” Kara gave him a small nod of understanding, and Lee turned away to tend to the things he had thrown onto the counter a few minutes earlier.

“One more question.” Kara waited until he was facing her before she gestured to the machines. “How does Dee feel about this little arrangement?”

“She didn’t have a say in it.”

“That’s awfully harsh.”

“By the time I got Cottle to agree to move you out of sickbay, she didn’t have a say in a lot of the things I did.” Lee shrugged. “You can’t have a girlfriend when you already have a woman sleeping in your bed.” Kara went to ask him another question, but he shook his head. “You need to rest. You can ask more questions when Cottle’s cleared you.”

“Cleared me for what?”

“Cleared you to be alive,” Lee teased before dropping out of sight.

Kara felt a smile come to her face and let her eyes slid shut. She didn’t feel like she was falling anymore.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

A bang woke her up, and she saw Lee standing across from the bed holding his foot. He was doing his best to cry out in pain without making a sound, and it made her smile. The foggy haze of sleep was still in control of her mind even as the words fell from her lips. “Why did you bring me here, Lee?”

Lee looked up at her, and he was so startled he didn’t think to sensor his answer. “Because I love you, Kara, and I wanted to watch over you.”

Kara felt a sort of happiness hitting her somewhere deep inside at the same time her mind seemed to freeze. She tried to concentrate and clear her head of all the excess noise. This was important. Whatever this moment was, whatever it meant, it was important. She felt sleep tugging her back down and did her best to fight it as she suddenly remembered how she had left things with Lee. Before her accident, they had been in the bunkroom, and she had been this close to frakking up everything they had when he asked her to slow down. He had wanted more from her than she could give. The words tumbled out as the memory played over and over in her head. “I don’t love you.”

Kara looked up to see his face steel and knew that no matter how much time had passed, some things were still the same.

The silence grew between them as her words sunk in, and Lee wondered how four little words could hurt so much even if he knew they were a lie - I don’t love you.

“Cottle’s going to be here in a few minutes. I’ll come back when he’s done.”

Kara nodded, not really sure what else to do. The door clicked shut behind Lee, and she was left staring into the empty space where he had been.

Doc Cottle showed up a little while later just like Lee said, and he found Kara still staring off into space. He fought back the urge to ask how long she and Lee had made it before trouncing on each other’s emotions again. There was probably a bunch of pilots who had a pool going about that sort of thing. He could brib a few of them into getting their annual physicals with the information of when the two famous Fleet frak-ups started their streak of miscommunication again.

Kara had felt relieved to be around Cottle. The crotchety old man treated her the exact same as before the accident, and she was grateful. She knew that in the coming days, she would have to tell a lot of people that contrary to what they might believe she was not breakable. She had been in a coma, and now she wasn’t. They were going to have to get used to the idea.

Cottle took some blood and told her he would be back the next morning with official confirmation of what they already knew. She was going to be just fine. Her body had shut down and healed itself. He suggested that she take it easy, though. The Commander… it took Kara a moment to realize he was talking about Lee… had made sure her physical therapy was top notch while she was out of commission, and therefore it should be an easy recovery if she just didn’t push it.

She wasn’t surprised when Lee stepped back into his quarters a few minutes after Cottle left. He was always good for his promises. Kara felt the urge to apologize for blurting out she didn’t love him. She wanted to explain that she hadn’t thought it out before saying them, that she was half wrapped up in memories now that she was awake, and she had no clue which end was up, but Lee cut her off.

“There’s something I haven’t told you, Kara.” Lee looked like he was going to come sit beside her on the bed but stopped himself. “Racetrack was the one who found New Caprica, and she did it by accident. She was in the middle of a mission when her Raptor jumped to the wrong coordinates.”

“Stop being melodramatic, Lee,” Kara said, rolling her eyes.

“I’m not.”

It wasn’t the dark serious tone of his voice that made her stop teasing. She had heard that tone a million times, and never once had it phased her. No, it was the sadness laced underneath that tone which made Kara brace herself for whatever was to come next.

“Racetrack was on the mission headed back to Caprica.”

Kara’s eyes went wide as she suddenly realized why Lee was so sad. “Caprica?”

“Sam’s alive, Kara. Helo lead a team of Raptors onto the planet, and they saved him and a handful of his resistance members. They‘re…” Lee shook his head. This wasn’t about the resistance. This was about Anders. “He’s down on New Caprica. He takes a Raptor up her at least once a week to visit you. There were a few times that you woke up when he was here, but you were so out of it no one expected you to remember.”

“Sam?” It was the only word she could manage to get out right now.

“Yeah, Kara. Sam.” Lee sighed. “I’ll put in a call down to the planet and let him know that you want to see him.”

Kara nodded and let her eyes drift away from Lee’s face. She couldn’t take seeing him this sad, not when she knew she was the cause. Her mind was screaming a million things at her, and she didn’t hear him leave until the hatch clicked shut.

It felt like only seconds later that the hatch was opening back up. Kara shifted to watch Sam take a few steps into the room and stop dead in tracks. “Hi,” Kara said, a shy smile on her lips.

“He told me but I didn’t believe him,” Sam stuttered.

“Well, believe.”

“Cottle said you weren’t going to wake up.”

“That old bastard is too grumpy for optimism,” Kara joked. The air fell silent around them, and she could feel an awkwardness creeping in along with reality. This was a man she had only known for ten days, and those ten days were well over a year earlier. “Are you just going to stand there like an idiot or what?”

Sam smiled, and Kara could tell that had been the right thing to say. For a second, she thought he was expecting her to say she loved him or she missed him or she was so glad he was here. She was glad he was here, though. She had made a promise to him.

Kara laid her hands carefully in her lap as Anders took a seat on the bed. “Cottle says that I’m going to be just fine. He says that with time and a whole lot of patience he knows I don’t have, I can get back in the air.”

“Is that what you want?”

“I don’t think there are other options,” Kara decided.

“You can come down to the New Caprica. A lot of the people you served with have made their way down there, and they seem to be content. There’s a lot of work needing to be done for the settlement movement. The former President has even been talking about setting up a school for the children. I‘m sure she would love your help.”

“And what about you?”

“I would love to have you down there with me, Kara. It would be like a dream.”

Kara smirked. “You didn’t think I was going to wake up.”

“I lost hope,” Anders admitted.

“But you still came to see me every week. I know it couldn’t have been easy.”

“I had help.”

Kara’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Who?”

“Commander Adama.”

Again, it took her a moment to realize who Anders was talking about. “Lee?”

“Yeah, Lee. He did a lot of things for me that he didn‘t have to, Kara. He helped me find a place in the Fleet when I came back from Caprica. He kept me updated to what was happening with you in those first few weeks when only top military personnel were allowed to see you. Then, when Cottle decided you were stable, he sent a Raptor down to the planet to get me as often as I asked him to. Most times when I came to visit you in the sickbay, he was already there, holding your hand. He would get up and let me have as much time with you as I wanted.”

Kara knew what Anders was trying to tell her. In his own way, he was trying to let her know that he still cared for her even though the time they had had was so short and so long ago. He was trying to tell her that he wanted to give them a try. But somehow the only thing she focused on out of his whole speech was the fact that Lee had been holding her hand in sickbay so often. Through the fallout of losing the Pegasus and going through the end of whatever he had had with Dee, he had found time to be by her side.

“Kara, I just want you to think about it.”

Kara’s eyes darted up to meet Sam’s, and she realized she hadn’t been listening. She couldn’t tell him that. “I… will.”

“Good. Galen Tyrol and his wife would love to have your help with the Union since it is so new, and I know that the boys from the pyramid team would love to go a few rounds with you. Of course, that wouldn‘t be until you‘re feeling better, but the way these people talk about you that won‘t be that far off.”

Kara felt a huge sense of relief as she realized Sam had been asking her to move down to New Caprica again. She would have felt stupid if she just told him she would consider marrying him or something equally ridiculous.

“Gods, Kara. I really didn’t think you’d pull it off that day you said you’d come back. Even when Helo showed up, I still didn’t believe.”

“A girl keeps her promises even if she’s in a coma.”

“That’s something to be admired,” Anders said, giving her a wink.

Kara felt her whole body tense as she watched his eyes drift to her lips. He looked like he was two steps away from kissing her. Didn’t he know she was way too fragile to be doing anything like that? A little tiny voice in the back of her head pointed out that Cottle said she could pretty much do anything right now in moderation.

Sam was still staring at her with the look in his eyes as Kara realized the problem wasn’t in him wanting to kiss her. The problem was all her because, after not seeing him for so long, shouldn’t she want him to want to kiss her?

Kara let herself look for him for the first time since he stepped in Lee’s quarters. He looked good, healthy. At the very least, he had made it through his days on Cylon-occupied Caprica mostly intact. Memories of the days they had spent together flashed through Kara’s head, and she remembered how much it had meant to her to have him in her life at that particular moment. She had been hurting pretty bad back then.

She wasn’t stupid, though. Anders had helped fixed the pain inside her, but it hadn’t all been his doing. When she first met him, she had still been on the high of having discovered Karl was alive. Helo had been her closet friend during her two years on Galactica along with Boomer. It was amazing to see that he had found a way to stay alive.

She felt like her heart was breaking when she had to leave Anders behind. He had represented a whole new start for her, and that was something she had waited a long time to get. Coming home to the Old Man and Lee killed the pain of leaving that second chance behind. When they both welcomed her with open arms and surprisingly open hearts, the ache that had been killing her weeks earlier melted away.

Sure, she was faltering in the weeks before her accident. The memory of the promise she had made haunted her day and night. She couldn’t get away from the look on Anders’ face when she left him. He believed she would come back.

“Can I ask you a question, Kara?”

Kara snapped away from her thoughts and realized Anders had been staring at her for probably the whole time she was thinking. “Go ahead,” she said after a moment’s hesitance.

“Who is Lee to you? I mean, I know he was your superior officer, and he’s obviously your friend considering everything he’s done for you so far, but to you specifically, who is he?”

“He’s…” Kara’s voice faded as she realized she really didn’t know what to say. Sam had already hit on the two easy answers. Lee was her boss, and he was her friend. Still, that didn’t explain why she wasn’t all the shocked to find he had taken care of her for well over eight months.

“He loves you,” Anders whispered. “Anyone could see that.”

Kara nodded. Lee had told her out right in his own way that he loved her.

“But do you honestly realize how much, Kara?”

His question took her by surprise. Two minutes ago, he looked like he couldn’t fight back the urge to kiss her, and now he was trying to get her to realize that Lee loved her. “I don’t understand why you doing this, Sam.”

Sam seemed to ignore her and trudged forward on the path to whatever point he was aiming to make. “Joining this Fleet without you around has been rather interesting, Kara. I think I’ve figured out a lot of things I might never have understood if things were different.”

“If I was awake, you mean.”

“Yeah,” Anders said, with a nod, “that’s exactly what I mean. All the pilots who’ve settled on New Caprica talk about is the good old days when Apollo and Starbuck were king and queen of the sky. If I didn’t actually know you two, I’d think you were some kind of mythical demi-gods or something.”

“We were pretty good,” Kara said, the corners of her mouth turning up in a smile as memories of flying with Lee surfaced.

“There was also a lot of gossip on whether or not the good Commander was in love with you. After you were in the coma for a few months, most people had their answer. He only left your side when he had to. Back when Pegasus was around, he came over here on every off-shift he had, and then when Pegasus was gone and he was on the same ship as you, he spent every moment he wasn’t in the CIC or meetings by your bedside.” Anders paused. “You already know this, don’t you?”

Kara nodded. She had expected that from Lee. He was the kind of person who would worry about you to the point of killing himself. She had seen it time and again back when Zak was still alive. Lee was constantly calling her and asking how his little brother was faring in flight classes. She was surprised that after he heard about the accident that claimed his little brother, he never accused her of underplaying how bad Zak was doing.

“Then you know about the physical therapy.”

“I know that I owe thank yous to a lot of people for giving me the chance to move around as soon as I woke up.”

“Not really.”

“You don’t think I need to show my gratitude?”

Anders shook his head. “I don’t think you have to track down a lot of people. Frak, Kara. I thought you said you knew everything already.”

“I thought I did. Lee said that I’m this well off because he told Cottle to push up the time table on my physical therapy.”

“He did do that,” Anders agreed. “Cottle doubled the frequency of the massages you were getting to keep your muscles active, and he even allowed the pressure to be increased when your muscles started strengthening.”

“So why shouldn’t I thank the people who did all that?” Kara asked.

“Because it wasn’t people, Kara. It was person. From practically day one, it’s been Lee giving you your physical therapy. That’s why Cottle was so willing to let the Commander move you into his quarters when things settled down, and that’s why Lee didn’t alert the whole Fleet that you were awake until you were back in bed. He knew how to handle you waking up because he’s had to handle you sleeping for month upon month.”

“He didn’t tell me that,” Kara whispered.

“I had a feeling.” Anders reached out to grasp her hand for a moment before getting to his feet. “I’m a good guy, Kara. If I win your heart, I want it to be because that’s what you want. I don’t want it to be because you didn’t know the rest of the story.” Anders leaned in and brushed a kiss across the top of her head. “Get some sleep. I’ll be back to see you as soon as I can.”

As Kara watched Anders walk out the hatch, she remembered a little bit about what had attracted her to him in the first place. He was right to say he was a good guy, but she wasn‘t sure if that was what she needed. Everything was a jumble, and it didn’t feel like things were going to stop spinning anytime soon.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Kara woke up to a sharp pain on her right side. Pushing her eyes open, she realized she had been sleeping on her bandaged arm. She tried to be careful as she shifted her weight off the bad arm, and it was because she was moving so slowly that she didn’t wake up the man sleeping in the chair next to the bed. “Lee?” she whispered. Her words stirred the man almost immediately and she realized that this wasn’t Lee. He was too tall.

“Sleeping beauty awakens,” Helo said, smiling as he rubbed his eyes.

“I’d say,” Kara replied with a smirk. “What the frak are you doing here, Karl?”

“You didn’t expect me?”

“I thought that Cottle would be restricting my visitors until I was more used to being out of this fraking coma.”

“Ah. I missed that colorful language.” Helo sighed and got to his feet. “I should let the Commander know that you’re awake. He’s in the middle of a CIC shift that he couldn’t get out of.”

“No, don’t bother, Lee. Me waking up isn’t a life-altering event.”

Helo rolled his eyes. “Maybe not to you, Kara, but to a lot of people, it is.”

Kara was left to puzzle over what exactly that meant as Helo walked to the other side of the bed. He picked up the receiver and requested a line to the CIC. Kara watched him have a very short conversation presumable with Lee and was about to ask him why he was here again when he held up his hand to stop her. “One more call,” he insisted.

Kara listened as Helo now requested a line down to the planet. It took her a second to remember that the planet was New Caprica and not one of the original Twelve Colonies. There was too many changes for her to remember right now. She was still trying to adjust.

“Felix. I need a favor.” Helo smiled. “Yeah it has something to do with Kara. Doesn’t everything these days?”

Kara felt herself scowl. She didn’t like the way this “one more call” was going.

“Send someone down to Laura’s school to tell the Admiral that Kara’s woken up, and tell him that she’ll probably feel up to seeing him…” Helo glanced over her, and Kara shrugged. “…this afternoon. She should be lucid by then.” Helo chuckled again. “Yeah, I think we all remember how long it takes.”

Helo talked for a few more minutes before setting the receiver down.

“You’re being awful dramatic about something as simple as me waking up.” Kara was about to laugh at the absurdity of it when she caught the look in Helo’s eyes.

“Kara, you’ve been sleeping for forty something hours now.”

Kara felt a sudden weight push into her almost like she had been punched in the gut. The room suddenly got hot as her eyes clouded over. Helo was at her side in seconds. “Kara, what’s happening?”

“I’m not feeling so good,” she mumbled.

Helo sat down next to her and used his arms to help hold her upright. “Everything’s okay, Kara. Cottle says your body is just trying to get used to being awake again. Even though you probably feel like you’ve slept enough for the next decade, that’s the only thing your body’s going to want right now.”

“But forty hours?” Kara choked out. “That’s over three days.”

“The Commander seems to think we were pushing too fast.”

Kara felt something click into place when Helo mentioned the man whose bedroom she was currently living in. “That’s why Lee wanted to know when I woke up.”

“He was worried we lost you again.”

Kara nodded. She had no idea how to process that bit of information. “And Anders? Does he need to be told I’m awake?”

Helo shook his head. “I suggested that he be left out of this one. He’s in the middle of building a new structure down on Caprica so he wouldn’t be able to come up and visit you anyway. I figured if you still weren’t awake in a few days, then we’d tell him.”

“Always the rational one,” Kara teased. She leaned her head down onto his shoulders. “So, can I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

“What are you doing here, Karl?”

“I’m one of the few people the two Adamas trust to watch over you. They tend to cut my shifts short when they can’t be around and someone has to watch over you.”

“Your shifts?”

“I’m the tactical officer on Galactica now that Gaeta’s been appointed Baltar’s aide. I declined moving down to the surface when it became an option. I didn’t want to leave Sharon up here by herself.”

Memories of Kara’s old friend who wasn’t really her friend came slamming back into her. “I forgot,” Kara whispered.

“About Sharon?”

She nodded and pointed to her head. “Things are still fuzzy up there.”

They returned to the comfortable silence that had always defined their relationship, and Kara let out a sigh. It was nice to know that Karl would be right around the corner. Having him here while she fought her way back to one hundred percent was an immeasurable gift from the gods.

“I don’t know what to do, Karl,” she whispered after some time.

“About what?”

“Sam.” Kara waited a moment before adding, “And Lee.”

“Ah. Yes, that is a problem.” Helo sighed. “Well, Sam’s been pretty understanding about how much Lee wants to protect you, and Lee’s been very patient with the fact that another man is waiting in the wings to take you away.”

“Am I going somewhere?”

“I don’t know,” Helo answered honestly. “Either way, there’s going to be a change. Your life is going to change with Sam in it.”

“I don’t want it to change.” Kara bit her lip. “And I think that’s the real problem.”

“He’s asked you to give up flying.” Karl felt her head nod slightly against his shoulder. “I figured he would. He’s really happy down on that surface. A lot of people are, including some of the pilots and crew you’ve worked with. It’s a good life.”

“It sounds really nice.”

“But you don’t want to give up flying,” Helo said, voicing the unspoken half of her statement.

“Is it that obvious?”

Helo shook his head. “No, it’s not. A lot of people who had your passion for flying gave it up when New Caprica was discovered so I’ve learned to assume nothing and expect anything.”

“But you knew that I wasn’t going to want to give it up?” Kara pulled her head off Helo’s shoulder to look up at him. She didn’t have to look very hard to see that she was right. He had known she wouldn’t want to go down to New Caprica. “How?”

Helo let out a deep breath. “The Commander, you, and I, we’re all the same, Kara. Flying is in our blood. This life is in our blood.”

“This life was in a lot of people’s blood like you said,” Kara pointed out.

“But there’s something holding the three of us here,” Helo insisted. “For me, it’s Sharon. For Lee, it’s you and his father.”

“And for me?”

“That’s up to you to decide,” Helo replied. He waited a moment and then pulled back to look at her. “Feeling better?”

Kara nodded. She didn’t feel like she was going to pass out anymore, that was for sure. Too bad her head was pounding with all the damn thinking she was going to have to do.

Helo’s eyes landed on the clock on the table, and he got to his feet. “He’s not going to hate you if you decide with him isn’t where you want to be.”

Kara’s face steeled for a brief second, just long enough for Helo to see the beginning glimmers of Starbuck somewhere deep inside, and then she went back to being torn. “I don’t want to hurt him.”

“There’s nothing you can do about that.”

“I care about him so much, Karl. He was there for me when I had no one else to turn to.”

Helo nodded and softly patted the top of her. “That, my dear Kara, is what makes it hard.”

“I just… he deserves a lot more than that.”

“We all deserve a lot more than what we have, but until the Cylons are gone, that’s not going to happen. We need to get what we can when we can. Those are the only words you need to focus on right now, Kara. Think them over and then do what your heart tells you to do.”

“Even if it means hurting him?”

Helo nodded, and when he saw Kara retreat back into her thoughts, he turned to leave. He almost made it to the hatch when something she said suddenly sunk in. He paused and glanced back over his shoulder. There was Kara Thrace, his warrior woman, looking so fragile and yet so strong at the same time, and yet she still wasn’t as worried about what she had to do as he thought she would be. He watched her for a few seconds before deciding he was right. Something was off about their little conversation, and he had a feeling he knew exactly what that was. “Kara?”

She looked up at him immediately. “What?”

“Who were you talking about before? When you were saying how scared you were that you would hurt him?”

“Anders,” she replied without pause. “Why?”

Helo paused for a second and wondered if he should really be doing this with Kara right now. She was still a little on the weak side. But she was staring up at him so confused and so expectant that he knew he had no choice. “I was talking about Commander Adama.”

“Lee?”

Helo nodded and then shrugged. “Maybe that’s the answer you were looking for.” He held Kara’s gaze for a few extra seconds and then shut the hatch behind himself.

Kara let herself fall back on the bed. Her eyes roamed the ceiling of the XO’s quarters as she tried to come to terms with the fact that she had never considered saying goodbye to Lee as a viable option, not for one second. She had no idea what that meant.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

It was hours later when Kara finally pulled herself away from her thoughts long enough to realize something wasn’t right. She was still confused about a lot of things, but the length of CIC shifts was not one of them. No commanding officer was scheduled for more than six hours on the boards without at least a small break. Lee hadn’t come to check on her the whole time she was trying to wade through her thoughts. Something was wrong.

Kara got to her feet. Her legs were still incredibly shaky and she was pretty sure Cottle would tell her that she was doing damage to all the therapy she had had, but she didn’t care. Biting away the pain, she pushed her right foot forward. She waited until the pain dulled and then pushed her left foot to meet her right.

It was in this slow manner that she made it across the bedroom and into the adjoining office. The sight waiting for her tugged at her heart.

Lee was fast asleep on the couch in his office.

Kara started to walk forward and decided her slow movement was only an opportunity to get a good look at Lee. He had changed into sweats at some point and had a blanket tucked around his body. Kara realized with a start that he must have been doing this from practically the day he was given these quarters. She had been sleeping in his bed after all.

She let her eyes search his face, and she came back unsure of what she was seeing. He looked at peace, relaxed in this small amount of slumber he had managed to grab. Yet there were dark circles under his eyes and Kara watched him twist a little bit underneath the blanket. His body was restless.

There was a pile of papers down by the head of the couch. Kara stooped down to take a closer look and smiled when she recognized the flight schedules Lee was obviously in charge of approving now that he was XO. Of course he would have work to do even when he was off-shift.

Kara reached out to brush through Lee’s hair. She could feel her smile growing. It felt like forever since the last time she watched Lee sleep. She and Lee had bunked across from each other since the first day he got stranded on Galactica, and she had spent many nights calming down by listening to the rhythm of his breath and watching the wrinkles of worry in his face finally melt away.

Lee let out a small moan in his sleep, and Kara noticed for the first time that his worry wrinkles were definitely still there. He was troubled about something.

Her knees started to twinge against the stress of standing. Kara had ignored the pain for as long as she could. Her hand drifted away from touching Lee, and she turned to go back to her bed. One look at the distance she had traveled to get to the couch told her the obvious. She wasn’t going to make it back to that bed on her own.

Kara looked back down at Lee. She would be willing to bet that this was the first rest he had had time to take in a long while. She honestly didn’t have it in her heart to wake him.

She moved her hand to pull the blanket up over his shoulder and was about to take a seat on the ground when Lee shifted. His cheek nuzzled against her fingers almost as if he knew it was her watching over him.

Smiling, Kara took a seat on the edge of the couch and, after a moment, stretched her body out alongside his. Lee didn’t wake up, but he did shift the blanket up to cover them both. Kara found herself wondering how familiar he was with having women lay down with him on this couch that he would automatically accept her presence. That got her to thinking about all the things she had missed while in a coma.

There was still so much to be covered, especially in terms of Lee. That had been one of the few things Lee was tight-lipped about. For some reason, he didn’t want to talk about what he had been doing the whole year she was out. Kara found herself wondering if maybe another woman had risen up to take Dee’s place in his life. Maybe Lee was just too much of a gentleman to tell her. Maybe the woman snuck into his quarters every night to share the couch with him, and that’s why he reacted to her so naturally.

One softly spoken word from Lee was all it took to clear her conscious. “Kara.”

She bit down on her lip to keep from smiling so wide that she woke up the man next to her. Sometimes she could overthink things just as badly as Lee did. Her mind was her worst enemy.

Kara tightened her arm around his waist and sighed. She couldn’t believe it ended up being this easy, but it was.

With one simple word, her choice was made.

She was just going to have to get Lee to send for Anders in the morning. Then she would explain that her heart was never free when she tried to give it to him. Hopefully, he would understand. From the way Sam spoke, he knew that Lee cared for her a whole lot. She just hoped that Sam was as observant when to it came to seeing how much she felt for Lee. It would make it easier if he understood what most of the Fleet already knew.

“Kara?” This time Lee’s voice was harsh and husky. He was awake. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing. Go back to sleep.”

For a second, she thought he might actually listen to her, but then she remembered how Lee never did what she wanted him to. “Why are you laying on me?”

“Because I walked across your quarters and was too tired to go back.”

That seemed to hit home. Lee’s eyes flew open. “We’re on my couch.”

“You fell asleep here,” Kara offered.

“And you were… what were you doing?”

“I was checking on you. I was worried when you didn’t check on me after your shift was over.”

“I didn’t want to disturb you. Helo said you had a hard afternoon.”

“Helo should have known I’d want to see you,” Kara scolded.

“I’ll let him know he’s stupid.”

Kara bit her lip to keep from laughing. She forgot how big of a riot Lee could be when he wasn’t completely with it. He was amazingly entertaining when his defenses were down.

Once the urge to laugh had died down, Kara felt the urge to sleep kick back in. Helo was right. All her body wanted to do these days was sleep. She let herself focus on the gentle rise and fall of Lee’s chest and the warmth of having him so close. It was soothing.

She was on the verge of falling asleep when she felt his hand push the hair out of her face. Raising her head, she found that he was staring at her. “Hi,” she whispered.

“Hi.”

The silence hung between them as they both continued to stare. “I made a decision today.”

“When you were unconscious?”

“No, after,” she said, shaking her head and settling back into his side.

“And what was this decision about?”

“I want to fly again. I know Cottle doesn’t seem very optimistic so I may need your help. This place is my home. It‘s the only place I‘ve ever felt safe, and I‘m not ready to give that up. Other people might be at that point, but I‘m not one of those people. Flying is in my blood.”

“So you’re staying in the sky?”

“I’m staying in the sky,” she said, smiling at the look of hope in his eyes. They weren’t talking about the sky, and they both knew it.

“You can stay here in my quarters as long as you want,” Lee offered tentatively.

“Thanks,” Kara said. She felt Lee’s arms tighten around her and sighed. There was a long struggle in her future, but she had a feeling she could do it. The memories would come back in time, and until they did, she would just build new ones with Lee.

FIC - Breathing, [NC-17], L/K, 1/1

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 01:27:41 GMT

This is #3 for karie22.

Title: Breathing
Author: hackaddict
Date: 09/14/2006
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Kara/Lee
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: Lee could hear Kara’s breathing speed up behind the closed curtain of her bunk, and he did his best not to imagine why that might be.
Words: 2,087

Lee could hear Kara’s breathing speed up behind the closed curtain of her bunk, and he did his best not to imagine why that might be.

___________________________

Lee prided himself on being a good CAG even though he had fallen into the role without really working for it. It was thrust upon him during a time of war, and he was surprised to find he was good at it. More than that, he enjoyed it.

One of the things that made him so good at this job was knowing where his people were at all times. For instance, he knew that Racetrack, Longshot, Duck, and Brimstone were on CAP right now. Kat and Sticky were on alert, and the rest of the squadrons were on downtime until the next shift change.

It was that stupid ability that let him know Kara was sleeping in her bunk before he stepped into his quarters and saw her curtain pulled shut. Lee tried to cross to his bunk quietly, only stopping to grab a pair of underwear from his locker. Kara hated it when he woke her up after his post-CAP shower. He was patiently waiting for her to torture him when the shifts changed up the following week.

Sliding the curtain shut, he took off the towel and slipped the underwear on with barely a sound. The towel was thrown at the end of his bunk. He would get it in the morning when he knew he was safe to move about without the fear of getting torn a new one.

His eyes slid shut, and Lee silently prayed he came down off the adrenaline high of flying fast that night. He had a long string of meetings with the President in the morning, and he already owed her for falling asleep the last time they tried this.

Lee focused in on the sounds of the bunkroom for a minute. Once he was sure everything was calm, he focused in on the soft breathing of the bunk across from him. It had taken Lee a few weeks to figure out this trick, but it seemed listening to Kara sleep calmed him down. Everything sounded normal to him, and he could feel himself drifting off to sleep.

Then a soft moan broke through the stillness of the bunkroom, and Lee’s eyes shot open. He strained to hear better and that’s when he picked up on the slight difference he had missed before. Kara wasn’t sleeping.

Lee could hear Kara’s breathing speed up behind the closed curtain of her bunk, and he did his best not to imagine why that might be. Thoughts like that would not help him calm down.

Lee shut his eyes in hopes that he could ignore the hitched breathing, but his eyes shot open the second he heard her moan again. This time it almost sounded like a word. A small part of his brain pointed out that Lee was the CAG. He should go over there and make sure she wasn’t sick or something. Then an even larger part of his brain pointed out that she wasn’t moaning in pain here. That was when a completely different part of his anatomy decided to think of exactly what kind of moan was coming from her lips.

“Frak me,” Lee said with a groan as he felt himself spring to life. It had been one of those days so he wasn’t surprised that his body should be forcing him into this awkward position. “Got to think of something different.”

Lee racked his brain. Flight schedules and medical clearances needed signing. Long, long CAPs when you had to go to the bathroom. Lieutenant Gaeta going on and on about how brilliant Dr. Baltar was. Colonel Tigh sneering.

That last one had just started to work when he heard Kara gasp ‘oh gods’ softly. He waited for someone to yell at her to keep it down. When no one did, Lee realized that everyone else in the room had been asleep for some time. He was the only one awake.

Lee looked down to see that his underwear was still very much in tent form. He wasn’t going to be able to think himself out of this one.

He started running through his options. There weren’t many. He could just go to sleep with this painful erection. That wasn’t a realistic option, though. Lee had a feeling his dreams would go down a very adult pathway, and then he’d have a whole different mess to clean-up in the morning.

He could sneak out of the bunkroom and take care of this down in the head. If he did that, he risked being spotted by a million people he did not want to see right now. Knowing him, he’d run into the President on a surprise midnight visit or something ridiculous like that.

Ruling that out, Lee’s eyes drifted around his bunk for a few seconds before settling on the towel at the end of his bed. He could just take of this right here and now. No one in the bunkroom was awake to hear. Another moan coming from Kara’s bunk seemed to punctuate his point.

Lee shook his head as he pulled his underwear down to take himself in hand. Really, he knew better than this.

He started stroking himself and soon he had shifted into a rhythm with the soft pants coming from the bunk next to him. Before he could think better, he shut his eyes and started imagining what was going on behind that closed curtain.

She would be laying on her back with her tanks pushed up, exposing her breasts to the cold air of the battlestar. She would start slow by teasing one nipple and then the other. Because she was impatient, the peaks would have just begun to stiffen when she moved on to slid one hand past the barrier of her underwear.

He could imagine the way she was biting down on her bottom lip, trying to keep the moans from spilling out into the air as she worked a finger slowly against her folds. She was a tease in practically everything she did so she would be trying to prolong this. She would rub herself over and over again, in time to her racing heart, until she felt herself ready to explode. Lee felt his strokes begin to speed up at the thought of it.

She wouldn’t push herself over this early, though. No. She was the type of girl who wanted it long and drawn out. She liked things messy.

She would slow down until the buzz started to fade. Her breathing would calm down, and it was only when her ears stopped hearing the sound of her heart pounding that she would slowly, carefully, slide a finger deep inside her. She wouldn’t move or arch it at all. It would just be an unhurried intrusion that would make her hips twitch ever so slightly.

She would start to gradual curl her fingers against the slope of her body, pressing the points inside herself that she knew would set her on edge. Her free hand would come up to kneed the flesh of her breast, lightly flicking a nipple. That little sensation would cause a moan to fall from her lips before she could stop it. Her eyes would slid open as she realized it and she would wait to hear someone in the bunkroom tease her for giving in to her lust. When no sound came, she would simply move her hand away from her breast and up to her mouth. Then, her other hand would resume the steadily increasing pace.

Lee felt himself moan soft and low at the thought of her biting down hard on the back of her hand. He could just imagine how hot and tight she would, all that desire inside of her having to be bottled up because there just wasn’t time these days to find an adequate frak buddy.

He was nearing the edge.

Lee paused for a moment to listen and felt a grin play at his lips when he heard a slow, steady stream of panting breaths coming from the bunk next to him.

She would feel herself so close that her other hand would move from her mouth to lay on top of the one deep inside her. She would push against it to increase the pressure, and her toes would curl at the sound spasm that grabbed her body. Her hips were bucking against the rhythm of her hands now, and he could feel every cell of his body tensing along with hers. She would speed up her hand, shutting her eyes to imagine that one person deep inside of her. She would chant his name in her mind over and over again as finally she touched the right spot at the right time. Her walls would clench against her fingers, so tight.

A low groan filled the air of the bunkroom just as Lee imagined the orgasm ringing through her body. Lee caught the sounds of a few people stirring. They had definitely heard that one. He wished he had more control over his own reaction, but the thought of Kara, her tanks pulled up, her panties pulled down, panting out her release in the bunk next to his was too much. One last tight stroke and he barely had time to grab the towel before he was releasing himself into his hand.

A sense of guilt flooded over him as he cleaned himself up. He hated the fact that his mind naturally drifted to thinking about Kara whenever he needed this kind of relief. She was the best friend he had right now, and he kept turning her into this object. It made him feel so damn wrong, but he knew that he wasn’t going to change. Because in the end, it was wrong, but it felt right.

Lee pushed himself back into his underwear and, after peeking outside his curtain, made his way over to the laundry bin to drop the towel inside. He managed to make it back to his bunk before anyone noticed. This was the type of situation he did not want to talk about.

Sighing, he shut his eyes and listened to the bunkroom. All was calm now, but the damage had been done.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“So you‘re rather happy this morning, Buck.”

“Had an interesting dream, Helo.

Helo looked around the bunkroom and smiled. He was used to this morning routine. So were the other pilots obviously considering they all paused in what they were doing to look up. “Going to tell us about it?”

“Well,” Kara started slowly, a lazy smile spreading across her face, “let’s just say that our little CAG played a starring role and he was doing some inappropriate things in his bunk.”

Lee’s hand paused in his search for his shampoo as her words hit home. For a brief second, he wondered if she knew. Had she heard him just like he heard her?

“Nice one,” Kat called from across the room.

“I try,” Kara said, turning to look over her shoulder and give Lee a smile.

It was just a game to her. Lee breathed a sigh of relief and continued his futile searching. He knew Kara stole his shampoo over a week earlier, but he wasn‘t ready to admit that right now.

He was just starting to slam things out of the locker and onto the floor when he felt a hand drift lazily up his back to sit on his shoulders. He turned to see that Kara was still grinning. “What?”

“It’s funny how easy they are.”

“Yeah, real funny if you’re not the subject of one of your jokes,” Lee corrected.

“I’ll let you in on a little secret.”

Lee lifted an eyebrow in inquiry. He knew that he was asking for it, but he really didn’t care.

“I wasn’t telling the whole truth about my dream,” she whispered, leaning in close to his ear.

Lee fought the urge to roll his eyes. Did she ever stop playing games? “Really, Kara?”

“You were in your bunk doing inappropriate things, sure. But you just happened to not be alone.”

And with one quick wink, she had moved back to her locker. Lee stared at the empty space next to him and wondered if he would ever know what that was really about.

FIC - Question, [PG-13], L/K, K/An, 1/1

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 01:25:25 GMT

This is #3 for Jiamen.

Title: Question
Author: hackaddict
Date: 09/14/2006
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Kara/Lee, Kara/Anders
Spoilers: Sacrifice
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: The question fell off his lips before he could stop himself, “Do you really call this nothing, Kara?”
Words: 1,265

The question fell off his lips before he could stop himself, “Do you really call this nothing, Kara?”

___________________________________

The question fell off his lips before he could stop himself, “Do you really call this nothing, Kara?” It made her whole body freeze up.

They were sparring in the gym, something they tried to do whenever the two of them could make time in their schedules. Kara liked to call it her way of helping with his shoulder rehab. She usually turned a blind eye when the wound started bleeding. He always paid her back by not letting Dee know Kara was partially responsible for the pain when he would wince later that night.

It didn’t take long for things to spiral out of control for them. Lee had honestly tried to keep her at a distance. Ever since she screamed at him that there was no us, he was determined to keep himself from being the fool. He had risked himself for her once. He wasn’t going to do it again.

And yet the first time she let their sparring get out of hand, he was bringing it up.

“What do you mean?” Kara’s voice came out more as panting. They had been in the middle of one of their knock down, drag out fights, and she had been winning.

Lee didn’t respond right away. He just stared at her. She was straddling his waist, having tackled him to the floor only seconds earlier. He could feel the pulse of her body against his, and for some reason, that gave him confidence. “This isn’t nothing.”

“What isn’t?” Kara asked.

Lee could see the start of a smile tickling the corner of her mouth, ad he realized she was playing with him. He snapped both of his hands up to grab her wrist and tugged hard. Her body slammed down against his, and he smiled. His hand came up to brush a stray hair from her eyes.

When her gaze drifted down to his lips and then back up to his eyes, Lee felt his heart freeze with the memory of when this had last happened. It had been the first moment that he realized he was attracted to Dee, the first moment he realized that he might actually be able to get past Kara.

It hadn’t felt this intense when it was Dee.

“What are you thinking about?” Kara was so close that her breath tickled his face.

“What?” Lee replied. If she could play dumb, then so could he.

“You got distracted there. I could have gone in for a kill shot and you wouldn’t have noticed.”

“What kind of kill shot could you get in?” Lee tightened his grip around her wrists. “I’ve got you pretty incapacitated right now.”

“I don’t need my hands to turn you upside down,” Kara whispered. She ground her hips into his body as proof. “Hurts, doesn’t it?”

“Kara…” Lee warned.

She gave him that innocent look that always meant she knew exactly what she was doing. “If you don’t like it, let me go.”

Lee wrapped his legs around hers and shifted their weight until he was on top. He pinned her arms to the ground and smiled. “I win.”

Kara‘s tongue darted out to moisten her lips, and she smiled. “That’s all a matter of perspective, Captain.”

Lee’s face lost its humor as the mood shifted from playful to dead serious. He hated how much he wanted her to start telling the truth. His world had shifted into a complete disarray the second she walked into it, and he just wanted a hint that maybe it was the same way for her. “Do you see it now, Kara?”

“What?”

“Something,” he whispered, leaning in to kiss the side of her neck. “A whole lot of something.”

Kara laughed as the stubble on Lee’s cheek teased her skin. “All I feel is your damn five o’clock shadow.”

Lee pulled back and feigned insult. “If it’s really that bad, I can go shave.”

Kara bit her lip and shook her head. “Actually, it’s kind of nice.”

Lee watched her for a moment while he worked up the courage to keep pushing forward with whatever they were playing at. Just as his lips were about to touch hers, a voice echoed through the previously empty gym. “Kara Thrace, your ass is supposed to be pulling a maintenance shift right now.”

Kara’s face lit up in fear for a few seconds before she rolled her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she pushed Lee’s body off of hers. “Fraking hell, Karl. I was about to go down there as soon as I proved to Lee that I won this little bout. You don‘t have to play like you’re my mother.”

Lee shook his head as he watched her attempts to regain her composure. Funny how she was still so out of breath when they had stopped fighting a long time ago.

Kara wasn’t meeting his eyes. Instead, she focused on unwrapping the tape from her hands. It seemed things had gone back to the normal pattern of no communication and avoidance.

Sighing, Lee got to his feet. “I have to hit the showers. I have a few meetings with Garner about shifting some personnel around to form a good team that he can work with. It should take at least the rest of the day.” Lee gave Kara a quick glance and saw she still wouldn’t look at him. “Not that you should care. I’m sure you have better things to be doing than wondering where the frak your CAG is.”

“I never do” Kara said, straightening her tanks as she got to her feet. She glanced over at Helo before bending down to pick up the discarded tape.

The anger flashed in Lee’s eyes a few seconds before he got it under control. He needed to get out of here else he would so something stupid. “I’ll see you later, Captain. Lieutenant.”

Kara waited for Lee to slam the hatch before she dropped her calm pretense and turned to Karl. “How the frak did you know I needed you?”

“There was scuttlebutt circulating the ship that you two were sparring again, but this time the fight had become “private” just like the old days. I figured you needed someone to come in before you did something stupid.”

Kara nodded, letting him know he had been right. She shifted herself closer to him and was grateful when she felt his arms come around her. “He asked me again, Karl.”

“And what did you say?”

“You managed to butt in before I told him he was right.”

“Good. The last thing you need is the CAG knowing that he’s constantly on your mind these days.”

Kara smacked her friend as hard as she could. He doubled over immediately. “I did not confide in you only to have you throw it back in my face every few hours.”

“Sorry.”

Kara rolled her eyes. He was always fraking sorry. If she didn’t love him so much, she would tell him he could shove his sorry up his ass. “I need to find Anders.”

“I know.”

Kara felt Helo’s arms tighten around her, and she sighed. He understood. She had to find Anders to know if what she remembered feeling for him was real. She had to find out if what she had with him trumped what she had with Lee. Only then could she tell Lee that she would never call what they had nothing. Only then could she tell him the truth.

FIC - Fire, [PG], L/K, 1/1

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 19:57:32 GMT

This is #3 for bsgficlurker.

Title: Fire
Author: hackaddict
Date: 09/12/2006
Rating: PG
Pairing: Kara/Lee
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: The fire started in Launch Tube C as Kara was landing her Viper, and she would have been scared it would consume her if she hadn’t heard Lee’s voice over the comm saying he would be there as fast as humanly possible.
Words: 3,540

The fire started in Launch Tube C as Kara was landing her Viper, and she would have been scared it would consume her if she hadn’t heard Lee’s voice over the comm saying he would be there as fast as humanly possible.

________________________________

The last thing she remembered doing before the smoke finally got into her lungs was calling his name frantically.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Kara felt her eyes open slowly and wondered why it hurt so much to do so little. She was staring up at a familiar patch of grey tiles. It took her a moment to put two and two together. She was in sickbay. Groaning, she shifted in the bed and was pleased to feel all the necessary appendages in their proper places. It had been one hell of a crash. Her hands came up to slip the oxygen mask off her face.

“Lieutenant, you cannot be doing that.”

Kara glanced over to see a med tech looking like they wanted to be anywhere but here. “Frak off,” she growled, her voice choppy from lack of use. “And get me Cottle while you’re doing it.”

“Never mind. I’m already here,” Cottle grumbled, stepping into the curtained off area. “So you’re awake?”

“What’s wrong with me?” Kara asked outright. She didn’t want to sit here through the pleasantries only to find out she was never going to fly again.

“You inhaled a lot of smoke in that cockpit, hence the oxygen mask, but luckily the cockpit shield and your flight suit kept the fire from getting to you. A day or so in here filtering that smoke out and you’ll be good to go, Lieutenant.”

A small feeling that Cottle wasn’t telling her everything nagged at the back of her mind. “I can fly?”

“You can fly. We just need to get you rested, and I have half a mind the real reasons for that have nothing to do with your accident. You pilots run yourselves into the ground, and then you expect me to pick you up.”

Kara felt a sense of relief wash over her. If Cottle was being cranky with her, that really did mean things were okay.

“You need to get some more rest before the whole fraking ship figures out you‘re awake and decides to crowd up my sickbay,” Cottle growled. “All our beds are full right now. I don’t need your social life keeping my people from doing their jobs.” He gave Kara one last meaningful look and then moved on to his next task.

Kara stuck her tongue out at the space the doctor had just been in. It wasn’t like she intended to ignore Cottle’s instructions. She just got bored easily. Shutting her eyes, Kara tried as hard as she could to go back to sleep.

One minute later, she was groaning as her eyes popped open. She really hated this place. It was too quiet.

Her eyes drifted to the closed curtain next to her. Cottle had said she needed to rest. He didn’t say she needed to rest in bed. Kara pushed herself to her feet and ignored the small pang of muscles tight from lack of use. The sickbay was a little on the hectic side as always. Kara’s eye drifted around the room, settling on a few familiar faces. It looked like Cottle was right. This place was overflowing with people in need of some sort of healing.

Kara started shuffling out of her little space and hoped she was being discrete. Cottle would kill her for being out of bed. She made it only a few feet to the curtained area next to her when her breath caught in her throat. Obviously he wasn’t lying when he said she still needed that damn oxygen.

Her hand came up to touch the wall, and she was about to turn around when a voice called out to her. “Lieutenant Thrace, you can’t go in there.”

For a second, she forgot that she was struggling and turned to the med tech from before. “Excuse me.”

“I have express instructions not to let you disturb him.”

“Who?” Kara said. She watched the tech’s eyes go wide as he realized he had already said to much. “Frak that,” she hissed, pushing back the curtain. No one told Kara Thrace what not to do.

Kara’s heart stopped as soon as she figured out why she had been forbidden from this area. The man on the bed had bandages completely encasing his head and running down his chest to cover his left hand. There wasn’t a lot to identify the man by, but it didn’t matter. Kara would know him anywhere.

His name slipped from her lips as she felt the whole world go black.

“Lee.”

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Kara felt the pressure on her hand before she opened her eyes to see someone sitting at her bedside. William Adama squeezed her hand and smiled. With that small gesture, reality hit home. “What happened?” Kara mumbled. She had no idea why she was go groggy.

“You passed out for a few minutes, Kara. When you awoke, you were rather hysterical. Doc Cottle had to sedate you.”

Kara shook her head. “Not that. What happened to him?”

Adama sighed. “I was the one that told them to keep you from seeing. I thought it would be easier if you heard about it before you saw him. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, sir,” Kara said, tightening her hand in his. “Just tell me. Did that happen because of me?” The look of sadness in his eyes was answer enough. “Right.”

“He was the first one to enter that launch tube, and he wouldn’t let anyone stop him. They kept telling him that the fire had to die down before they had any chance of getting you, but he didn’t listen. The Chief told me he kept yelling that you were depending on him.”

“I was,” Kara said quietly.

“He got burned pretty badly, but he got the cockpit hatch open. Cottle said if he hadn’t pulled you out so quick, you would have lost too much oxygen to come back to us.’

Kara felt the tears coming to her eyes as the drug-induced haze slid away. She was starting to feel her heart break all over again. “I’m not worth it.”

“My son would beg to differ. He kept fading in and out of consciousness until Cottle was able to tell him you would be fine. Since then, he’s been sleeping peacefully. They say that’s the best thing if he’s going to get past the burns.”

“How bad are they?”

“He’s going to have scarring on his face, chest, and arm. Cottle seems to think as long as he maintains sensitivity in his hand, though, he’ll keep on flying.”

“Oh gods,” Kara said, feeling the tears come to her eyes. She hadn’t even thought about the possibility that Lee might never fly again. This was all her fault.

“Don’t,” Adama whispered. “Do not do this to yourself, Kara. We both know Lee. Sometime his actions might be based on what he thinks is the right thing to do, but he never… never… does anything that he does not want to do. Few things in life mean the world to Lee, but you’re one of them, Kara. He didn’t hesitate when it came to protecting that. He’s alive. You’re alive. That’s all the matters.”

“But, sir-”

Adama shook his head, cutting her off before she could start. “I won’t hear it, Lieutenant. You may have a right to feel guilt over this but not yet. Let’s find out how bad this is before we let ourselves drown.”

Kara felt his words cutting through her need to torture herself and even managed a smile when he stood up and brushed a kiss across her forehead. “Thank you, sir.”

“Cottle’s only let me visit Lee so far, but I’ll let him know that you’re to be added to the list. Let my son know that what he did was worth it.” Adama leaned into give her another kiss and then shut the curtain behind himself.

Kara managed to hold in her tears until she was sure the Old Man was out of hearing distance. She bit down hard on her fisted hand to keep from crying out and just let the tears stain her face.

It took well over an hour to finally get a hold of herself. The tears just wouldn’t stop coming down.

Luckily, though, she was in control when Cottle decided to check up on her. If he knew she had been practically hysterical only a few minutes earlier, he never would have given her permission to walk around the sickbay.

Kara was hesitant at first on how far she pushed it. She knew that Cottle really only meant for her to walk the area around her bed. They didn’t know if the smoke had gotten out of her lungs completely yet so it wouldn’t be wise to get too far from the oxygen mask. Kara saw the logic in this which is why she walked around the room for well over an hour before stepping outside her curtained in area.

She stuck to the wall and just observed what was happening in sickbay for a little bit. A lot of people had received minor injuries from the accident in the launch tube, which was why it was so crowded. It had cleared out a great deal while she was being sedated.

After a few minutes, her eyes drifted to the area she had been forbidden to enter before. The curtain was pulled halfway open, and as much as she knew it would hurt, she took a few steps closer. She was almost there when a couple nurses pushed past her and entered the curtained area. Kara hung back behind the curtain and listened to the nurses complain about having to change the bandages on the patient so often.

Kara saw one nurse nod to the other. “The wound looks like it’s healing cleanly. Cottle will be happy.”

The nurses shifted their position as they went to grab more gauze and wrappings, and Kara’s eyes went wide with her first glimpse of Lee’s injuries. There was a noticeable line of blisters and uneven skin along Lee’s left cheek. It continued down his neck to cover his shoulder and a third of his chest. His hands were still bandaged so she couldn’t see if the burns were worse there.

“It’s a shame really.” The nurse’s words tore Kara’s attention away from Lee. “The Commander’s son was one of the last really attractive men. Everyone keeps saying how sad it is that he might have lost his flight career, but I say it’s sad that he’s lost his appeal. The poor man is going to be fighting a hard case of the lonelies when he’s finally on his feet again.”

Kara felt the color drain from her face as she saw the other nurse nod in agreement. For the first time since she woke up, she felt the familiar tingle of anger in the pit of her stomach. She ignored the fact that the act of breathing was starting to hurt and stepped into the curtained area. “Get out.”

“Excuse me?” one of the nurses said, narrowing her eyes.

“I said get the frak out of here right now,” Kara screamed. “Get out.”

“Sir, this patient needs to be bandaged.”

“Then leave the fraking bandages,” Kara hissed, “but take your sorry asses out of her right now before I really get mad.”

The nurses exchanged looks, and Kara could tell they were remembering all the rumors they heard about the brash lead pilot. They knew her threats weren’t empty. “And get me Cottle,” Kara growled once they were moving out into the main area.

She shuffled over to the bed and took a seat on the edge. The fire slowly drained from her. She stared at Lee for a few minutes before her trembling hand came out to pick up the bandages. Laying pads of gauze onto his wounds, she did her best to smile. “I don’t know what those nurses were drinking, probably some of that gods awful brew the Chief’s been messing with, but they’re wrong, Lee. The way I see it, you’re going to have to beat the women off with a stick. Not only are you adorable and charming but now you’re wounded. Every woman’s a sucker for a man that needs her.”

Kara sighed and grabbed the bandage roll. “Especially me, Lee. So, if you would be nice enough to wake up for me, I promise that I’ll be by your side every single step of the way as you recover. Because I know that you and me can beat this. We can do anything together, remember? You said that to me when we were on Kobol. Just because I laughed in your face at the time doesn’t mean I didn’t believe you.”

She gently lifted his arm a few inches and started rolling the tape around the blistering skin. “And trust me, you don’t have to worry about being appealing to the women of the Fleet because they don’t get to have you. You are my knight in shining armor, Lee, not theirs.”

Kara finished wrapping his arm in silence, but when it came time to wrap his head back up, she couldn’t do it. She had placed bandages over the burns on his cheek. The wound needed to be protected. She couldn’t cover his head completely, though. She needed Lee to resemble himself a little right now. She needed to see that this was going to be okay in some way.

She tried to still her hand as she brushed the tips of her fingers along the unharmed side of his face. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what it had been like for him. “You’re stupid, you know,” she whispered. “I’ve done nothing to earn this type of devotion from you. Hell, half the time I’ve been a downright brat to you and you really should have smacked me in the mouth.”

Her cheeks were wet with tears again, proving she was far from done with the crying. “You have to be all right, Lee. I know I’m going to be doing some stupid thing real soon, and I need you around to stop me. And I need you to get better so I can thank you. If I didn’t know you were coming, I might have panicked and tried to get out of my Viper by myself. Just knowing that you knew what was happening was so comforting. I guess I just want you to wake up so I can do the same for you.” Kara wanted desperately to hold his hand right now, but she knew it would cause him pain. “I’m going to be right here, Lee, for however long it takes. So don’t stop fighting.”

“Kara?”

Her eyes darted up and then went wide when she saw Lee staring back at her. “You’re awake.”

“Who can sleep when there’s someone yammering in your ear?” Lee teased. He went to sit up and winced. “Frak me. I thought Cottle had me on some kind of pain killer here.”

Kara reached out to help him move and did her best not to push on any of his wounds. “Comfortable?”

Lee nodded, and for a few seconds, they were silent.

“Can I ask you a question?”

Kara smiled. “Anything.”

“What was with the dramatic monologue-keeping fighting stuff? The Old Man did tell you that I’m not dying, didn’t he?” The corner of his mouth tipped up in a half-smile when he saw her face go pink. Kara could be so overly dramatic in times like these. She would never admit it, though. “I’m going to be just fine,” Lee assured her. “The burns are going to heal, and my hands should be fine. There’s a chance I might not be able to fly a Viper in combat again, but I don’t think I’ll be completely grounded.”

Lee let his eyes drift over Kara’s face as she stared down at her hands. He knew she was dealing with an incredible amount of guilt right now because that’s how Kara dealt with these kinds of things, but she looked like she was about to cry. He couldn’t have that.

Kara felt the bandages on her cheek before she realized Lee was tipping her chin up. “Plus, a cocky fly girl once told me that chicks love scars.”

The smile came to her lips before she even realized it was happening. “They do.”

Lee dropped his hand to rest on top of where hers lay on the bed. “I’m holding you to what you said, though.”

“Which part?”

“I’m going to need your help getting over this. Everyone keeps saying I’m coping with this really well, but no one knows me like you do. I’m going to be just fine until I’m not. Then I’m probably going to get angry and resentful. It’s only natural. That’s why I need you to stick close. I need to be reminded of why I did what I did.”

“You did what you did because you’re a complete idiot,” Kara insisted.

“See? I’m going to need you to keep telling me that. We don’t want me to have another bout of stupidity. Gods only knows what trouble I could get into then.”

“I figured I’d find you two together,” Cottle grumbled as he stepped into the curtained area. “Glad to see you’ve decided to join us in the land of the conscious, Captain.” He didn’t wait for Lee to respond and just barreled on. “Lieutenant, might you explain to me why two of my nurses are afraid to come down to this part of their work area?”

“I didn’t like their standard of care,” Kara smirked. “So I told them they weren’t needed.”

“And are you going to do their jobs while they’re off being unneeded?”

“I bandaged him up,” Kara said, pointing to Lee, “and I think I did a pretty good job.”

Cottle shook his head. “So I guess I should have some of my boys wheel another hospital bed into this area?”

Kara nodded. She had no intention of leaving Lee’s side right now, especially since he asked her to stay.

Cottle rolled his eyes and stepped up to the side of the bed. “All right. I need to take a look at your injuries since my staff didn’t have time to finish their check.”

Kara sat patiently perched on the side of Lee’s bed as Cottle went over each and every inch of the burns. He made a few notes on the chart by the bedside and then rewrapped the wounds. “You’re doing just fine, Lee,” he reassured him. “I’ll be able to let you know about your hands in a few days. We just have to wait for the swelling and blistering to go down a little bit.”

Kara watched Lee’s head nod just a little bit and suddenly she realized how exhausted he must be. Cottle gave her one of his looks before leaving the two of them alone. “You should get some rest,” she whispered, patting his hand gently.

Lee shook his head. “I want to keep talking to you. I like talking to you.”

“Those pain killers must be finally kicking in,” Kara observed. He really was starting to look rather sluggish. “Do yourself a favor and don’t fight it.”

“I want to stay,” he whispered, his eyes already drooping closed. “I want to make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m fine, Lee. You made sure of that.”

“Well, just don’t do anything stupid before I wake up,” he warned her.

“I promise. Nothing stupid until you wake up.”

“Good.”

It took only a few seconds for Lee to fall asleep. Kara slid from the bed and shut the curtain behind her as she stepped into the main sickbay area. She flagged down one of the staff members. “If he wakes up, come get me. I don’t care if I’m deep asleep or threatening to kill you if you keep trying to get me up. If he’s awake, I’m awake.”

The tech shook his head vigorously, obviously intimidated by her. She suddenly realized this was the same man who had been around when she woke up and when she found Lee. Poor guy was always in the right place at the wrong time.

Kara was laying in bed for only a few minutes when she heard Cottle’s gruff voice over the chaos of sickbay. “What do you mean she’s resting in her own bed? Lieutenant Thrace does not follow orders like that!”

Kara chuckled to herself and shut her eyes. She was going to need her rest for Lee’s sake.

FIC - Ghost, [PG], L/K, 1/1

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 03:24:19 GMT

This is #3 for Denise on the ASF.

Title: Ghost
Author: hackaddict
Date: 09/10/2006
Rating: PG
Pairing: Kara/Lee
Spoilers: itty bitty potential S3 ones
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I wish they were mine. In some cool alternate universe, they are mine. But, alas, that universe is not the one I'm currently living in. So they're not mine.
Summary: Lee had a nasty habit of coming back from the dead and scaring the shit out of her.
Words: 2,641

Lee had a nasty habit of coming back from the dead and scaring the shit out of her.

_________________________________

William Adama wished he could keep his son’s final decision as Commander of the Pegasus hidden from the pilots, but he knew he had no right. The two remaining base stars were engaged in a desperate struggle with the Pegasus as it moved to shield Galactica and the civilian Fleet from the brunt of the attack so the pilots would be in the air when the explosion occurred. There had already been too many unexpected losses. He owed his men the chance to understand the sacrifice that was about to be made.

“Patch me into all active fighters,” he called out. He watched Gaeta pause a few seconds before nodding. It was good to have the Lieutenant back on board. He needed someone who wouldn’t question his motives especially at a moment like this.

“Channel’s open, sir.”

Adama braced his hands on the command center and tried to come up with the right words to say in a situation like this. How do you tell your men that you want them to stand down as your son sacrifices himself for their safety? When Adama realized he would never find the words, he sighed and, temporarily pushing the pain and grief away, picked up the handset.

“This is Galactica Actual. There has been a change to the mission plan. All fighters are to return to Galactica as soon as the last two basestars are taken out.”

He got a response from the Pegasus CAG immediately. “Galactica, Showboat. Did you say all fighters? Even the ones from Pegasus?”

“Affirmative. Every ship is to report to Galactica.”

The comm lines filled with protests that Adama could only assume were from the more senior pilots, the ones who understood what it meant to have all the ships returning to one battlestar. The younger fighters stayed silent.

Adama shut his mind to the chaos of too many pilots with too many personal connections. No one wanted to be talked out of making this decision to stand down more than he did, but it just wasn’t possible.

A scream filled the CIC and made Adama’s body stiffen. “Clean out the comm line! We are still fraking fighting here, people!”

His heart dropped out at the sound of Kara’s voice. He hadn’t expected a reaction from her, but it still hurt to hear that damn brave façade over the comm line. She was probably one of the few people who truly understood what was about to happen. She was the only one who had a real right to protest, and yet she was the one with her head still in the game. It saddened Adama to understand that this was probably just another loss she would have to pull herself through. There had been so many already.

Adama tried to push the concern and stinging grief to the side and listen as his CIC reported Pegasus’s continued movement towards the basestar. There was no way out of this.

“Admiral, there’s a request for a private line for you from one of the pilots.”

“Who is it?”

“Starbuck, sir.”

Adama picked up the handset immediately. Of course she would want to do this in private. Kara was nothing but smart when it came to tactical questioning of his authority. “Galactica Actual on the line.” He could hear her breathing on the other end, but she didn’t talk at first. He figured she was waiting for him to explain. He wasn’t sure how to begin so he just said what he thought was most important for her to know. “Pegasus isn’t going to make it. It was Lee’s choice to do this.”

“Is he… can he find a way off the ship before…”

“No, Kara.”

The silence hung between them until Adama heard the line cut off. He slammed the handset down and turned to the comm officer. “Why did I just lose her?”

“You didn’t, sir,” the officer explained. “She cut off the call.”

Before Adama could figure out why she would do that, Gaeta stood up. “Sir, the Pegasus has just rammed itself into the larger basestar. It appears like both ships are in flames.”

“And the smaller basestar?”

Gaeta turned back to his DRADIS screen. “It was taken out by the blast most likely. We‘ll have confirmation in a few seconds.”

Adama waited until he got the affirmative nod from his tactical officer. “Is the air clear, Lieutenant?”

“Except for a few leftover Raiders.”

Adama grabbed the handset for the main comm line. “Gold squadron, clean up the skies. Everyone else, combat landings now.” That would put all of Pegasus’s Vipers and Raptors out of the action and most of Galactica, too. More importantly, it would get Starbuck out of the air. He knew that her denial of what happened would only last for a few minutes. He hoped that was long enough for her to make a safe landing.

“I’ll take the boards.” Adama turned to see Colonel Tigh standing beside him. The XO shook his head and leaned in close. “I can handle the clean-up, Bill. You shouldn’t be here for that.” Tigh paused before adding, “And you should be there for the Captain when she lands.”

Adama nodded. Everyone had doubted his choice of XO since the first moment he made it, but they didn’t know Saul Tigh. He might drink to excess and carry grudges, but he was damn perceptive and could handle the command when he was needed. “The Colonel has the board,” Adama called out, looking around at his men before stepping away from his post.

It was only when he hit the corridor that reality slammed into him.

The Cylons had just taken his son.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Kara didn’t realize she had been sitting in the observation deck for over two hours. Time had lost its hold on her. It all blurred together.

William Adama had been waiting for her when she exited her Viper. There was such a pure expression of grief and pain on his face that Kara knew she would never forget it. A part of her wanted to ask him why even though there was no way he could explain it all to her. A part of her knew that he was desperate to fill her in. A part of her wanted to help shoulder the decision and accept the grief.

She knew she wasn’t ready for any of that.

She wanted to be strong when she finally heard the whole story as to why the Fleet was suddenly down to one battlestar, and right now that wasn’t possible. Right now strength and duty were the last things on her mind. She pushed off the Admiral’s concerns and promised to come see him in the morning. They could talk then.

Adama knew better, but still he let her go.

The corridors blended into the haze that was enveloping her mind. There was a faint buzz in her ears while condolences and questions were fired her way, but she couldn’t focus enough to respond. She knew that everyone expected a reaction from her, but she just didn’t have the strength to give it to them.

She wasn’t sure how or why she ended up locking herself into the observation deck, but it was the only thing she could think of to do. She needed the quiet.

The quiet had been going on for two hours now and yet it didn’t silence the pain. Kara brushed the back of her hand across her face, pushing the tears away. They wouldn’t stop falling.

She had been staring at the combat wreckage from the moment she sat down in the front row of chairs. It wasn’t changing. No matter how hard she willed it to, there were two lifeless hunks of metal floating before her eyes. One was the enemy. The other was the home of one of the most important men in her life, a man she loved without thought or reason most days.

Every few seconds there was a flash of light as a Raptor flew past, scouring the space for any signs of survivors. She only jumped the first few times it slipped past the large glass window. Now it was just a mandatory routine. It had to be done.

Kara kept reminding herself of that little detail. It had to be done. She forced herself not to buy into some ridiculous hope that there was a reason they were searching. There was little chance that anyone made it off Pegasus, and those that did were the ones that intended to.

As much as he confused the hell out of her most days, she knew the kind of man Lee was. He would have refused to abandon his ship and his men. He never shrugged away from responsibility even if it meant risking his life. He just wanted to keep others safe.

Gods, for once she wished he had been selfish. She didn’t want him to be gone.

Their relationship had never been easy. If it had been, they wouldn’t be them. The conflict was what made them strong. She had lived one full year on Caprica without that daily source of conflict, and she had almost lost it completely. She needed someone to point out when or who she was fraking up and why she should not be doing what she’s doing.

That year without Lee had hurt more than she would ever admit. Coming home to him had hurt even more. The conflict slammed into her like a brick wall, but this time she welcomed the pain. They were working through it like always, and Kara figured in time they would find the solution. There was a confidence in that decision that she had never felt. The Cylons tried to pull them apart, but they weren’t budging anymore.

Kara shook her head. It turned out she was wrong. The Cylons pulled them apart in the only way they could. They took him away from her completely.

Kara didn’t know who was going to keep her in check anymore.

A voice came over the ship comm system to announce the changing of shifts, and Kara snapped back to reality. She had reports to write. She had to close the personnel files of the pilots who had been lost in the battle and needed to assess where they should put replacements. The Chief would be sending up the numbers on how many functional ships had made it through the battle. Not to mention the fact that two battlestars worth of fighters needed to be merged into one. She was going to have to start working up a new flight schedule and a way to keep things fair between everyone involved.

This time, eyes were averted when she walked through the corridors. They must have noticed the tear stains on her cheeks.

Her office was dark when she finally reached it. Someone obviously shut off the lights, figuring tonight would be the last night the CAG would feel the need to do paperwork. Responsibilities didn’t disappear with the pain, though, so she was here.

Her hand moved out to flip the light switch. The intrusive, bright light caused her bloodshot eyes to slam shut. She stumbled a few steps into the office before she realized she wasn’t alone.

He was sitting in the chair behind her desk, his skin matted with dirt and grime from the battle, his dress blues ripped and tattered. His eyes were closed and yet he looked for all the world like he belonged exactly where he was and nowhere else.

She wondered for a moment if she was hallucinating, but then his eyes slid open and he smiled. It felt familiar. Lee had a nasty habit of coming back from the dead and scaring the shit out of her.

It took Kara a moment to remember she had to breathe, but when she did, everything came slamming back down on her. She practically vaulted across the desk and into his arms. His laughter mixed in with her tears as she clung to him. “I thought you were dead,” she whispered, still clutching on to him.

“I thought I was dead, too.”

Kara pulled back to examine him, and her fingers brushed against the cut on his forehead. “What happened?”

“I’m not really sure. It all went so fast. One second I was talking with my father, telling him that the only way we could survive was to sacrifice Pegasus. And then my XO was volunteering to lead the ship in its final attack. I wasn’t going to leave, but Taylor reminded me that I had family here on Galactica who needed me. The thought of you and Dad mourning my death was enough to distract me so that the Marines could haul me down to the evacuation pods. I don’t really remember much after that until a Raptor picked us up. I think I might have punched a few of my crew in my efforts to not abandon ship.” Lee smirked. “I guess I should have spent less time being mad at you when we sparred and more time actually figuring out how you managed to throw such an effective right hook.”

Kara reached out to touch his left cheek and smiled. She was going to bruise that spot for years to come.

“I’m glad the Fleet didn’t jump away after the Pegasus went down.”

“You can thank Tigh for that. He had the boards and insisted that we pick up any survivors. I think he was remembering the hundreds of people we were forced to leave behind on New Caprica. He didn’t want to do that again.” Kara leaned in to hug Lee again before pulling back. “Gods. I can just imagine the Old Man’s face when he found out you were alive.” She smiled as the image of how happy and grateful William Adama must have looked popped into her head. The amusement drained away as she saw Lee’s face go white. “Lee? Is something wrong? Do you want me to get Cottle?”

He shook his head, but the look of worry didn‘t leave him. “I came straight here as soon as the Raptor landed. Gods, I didn’t even think to send word to my father that I was on board.”

Kara ignored the twinge of delight at being the first person Lee thought to track down and reached across the desk to grab the phone. She couldn’t let Lee do this to his father again. “I need you to page the Commander to the CAG’s office as soon as possible. If he calls the CIC to find out why, tell him that I want to talk about why I was so upset. That’ll get him down here.”

She set the phone down after hearing the comms officer agree to place the page. Still unsure if this was actually happening or not, she let herself relax back into Lee’s arms. If this wasn’t real, she didn’t care.

After enjoying the feel of Kara‘s weight for a few moments, Lee asked, “So you were upset about something?”

“You were dead,” Kara whispered. “That kind of thing can throw a girl for a loop.”

“Not the irrational, ass-kicking, name-taking, foulmouthed Starbuck?”

Kara smiled and shook her head. “No, she was just fine with you being dead. It was Kara that was kind of upset.”

“Well, I would imagine she would be.” Kara felt Lee’s arms tighten around her, and she let her head rest against his shoulder as the quiet of her office enveloped them.

That was the way William Adama found his two children when he finally made his way down to the CAG’s office.