Lee was knelt next to one of the lockers scrubbing with a sponge at the inside of the door. Every now and then he would put down the sponge and pick at the stickers that the pilots seemed to be sticking on all their lockers lately. At one point he came across a photo of the pilot and what one would guess was either his girlfriend or his sister, Lee smiled for a moment, but only moment, he then sighed as he took the picture down and placed it on the table.

"Another one for the collection" he muttered to himself.

Then he continued scrubbing at the metal, slowly taking off the stickers and any trace of the pilot who had once owned that locker.

Meanwhile Kara was sitting on her rack playing cards with herself, she would have gotten some sleep, but she had CAP in 3 hours and knew that if she slept now she would not wake up by then. At his voice she looked up at Lee, and watched him half-heartedly scrubbing at the locker. She stared sympathetically for a moment, and then looked quickly went back to her game for fear of him catching her. They stayed like this for a while, Lee scrubbing at the locker and Kara playing cards, until the hatch creaked open and one of the nuggets strolled in.

The intruder stopped just in side the door, stunned by the sight of one of the great Adamas on his knees scrubbing a locker. He saw Kara and walked over to her, after coughing a few times to try and get her attention with no avail, he sat down on the rack next to her.

"urrrm...Sir?"

Kara sighed, "Yes?"

"What is he doing Sir?"

"Washing the locker!" Kara said slowly as if talking to a child.

"Yes...but why?"

" because it needs clearing out before the next recruit arrives and it's a lot easier to get those fracking stickers off with water."

Anyone with any sense would have left it there, but this nugget hadn't been around very long and so kept on going.

"Yes...but why doesn't he just leave it to the cleaning staff?"

"Maybe because there aren't that many left and he can't guarantee it would get done!" Kara was beginning to get annoyed by now.

"Then why doesn't he get someone else to do it?"

Normally Kara would have screamed at him, but she didn't want to disturb Lee and so she just looked menacingly at the nugget and said, "I don't know, you'd have to ask him, but not now. Go on get out of here!" the calm menacing tone of her voice scared the nugget, so he just left quietly.

Kara looked at the clock next to her bed and realized that 2 hours had passed already. She got up and looked back towards Lee, he was on CAP with her but he hadn't seemed to notice the time. She sighed and crossed to kneel down beside him, she placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Lee we have to go!"

Lee jumped at her touch, and turned to look at her, "Sorry, I was..." he turned back to the locker.

"I know, it wasn't your fault, you know that don't you?"

"Yeah...I just...I just wish there was something I could have done!" he said tears forming in his eyes.

"I know...but there wasn't. So come on we really have to go" Kara said as she soothingly rubbed his back. Lee nodded, sniffed, took a deep breath and got to his feet.

He reached down and helped Kara up, then cheerfully said, " OK, bet I can get their first!"

Kara smiled, she new it was fake, that really inside he was miserable, but she would play along, for his sake.

"Bet you can't!" she shouted as she ran after him down the corridor.

Dee had watched all of this from her rack, she really envied Kara, she knew Lee so well. Dee loved Lee, and he said that he loved her, however she always new that even though she had him, his heart had been lost long ago to someone else. After all Lee was the only one that knew why Lee cleaned all of the pilots lockers after they died, she was the only one he had trusted. It was then that she decided that she would cherish every minute she had with Lee, as he would not be hers for long. With this in mind she pushed herself down from her rack, determined she was going to be there when he landed, she wasn't ready to lose him just yet.

However right near the end of their CAP flight the Cylons decided to attack. Apollo and Starbuck sprung into action, sweeping around each other, taking out Cylons as if in some kind of aerodynamic ballet. The other ships jumping off around them, as they fought off Cylon after Cylon. Finally all of the ships had jumped away and they were recalled to Galactica.

Suddenly Kara cried out, "Frak I've got one on me!"

"Shit, alright Kara stay out of his guns, I'm coming" Lee screamed down the comm.

" No Lee go back they'll have to jump with out me!"

"No Kara I'm not leaving you!"

" Go!"

"No!"

Next thing she knew Lee was behind her trying to get the best shot at the Cylon without killing her, and within minutes he had shot the Cylon down.

Kara was fuming as she flew back to Galactica, "Lee your a fraking idiot!"

"Kara I wasn't going to leave you there so that is that!"

"No it's not, you shouldn't have done that, the fleet could have lost two pilots instead of one!"

"They wouldn't have missed two pilots as much as I would have missed you!"

This shocked Kara into silence.

"Kara?"

"I don't want to lose you either Lee"

Lee smiled in his Viper, and the rest of the flight was spent in comfortable silence.

Back on Galactica Dee walked off down the corridor back to her rack. She had waited to long and she had lost him.

Just before both vipers docked Kara heard Lee scream, "Frack!"

"Lee what's up?"

"My... ribs...I can't... breath"

"Lee come on it's ok, we're almost there hang on"

"Kara...I'm...sorry"

"Lee? Lee? Frak he's passed out!" Kara quickly placed her viper next to Lee's and managed to maneuver both ships onto a landing course.

"Galactica this is Starbuck, prepare for crash landing, and you'd better get a med team down there"

"Starbuck this is Galactica, confirm that, try to come in in one piece."

The two Vipers slammed onto the landing bay, throwing Kara forward. She waited the anxious minutes for the Galactica to jump and the Vipers to be taken up onto the deck. As soon as her helmet was off and she had got down the steps, she raced across to Lee's viper, and clambered up to the cockpit. She gently took off his helmet and looked into his pale face, his eyes closed and his breathing shallow.

"Lee? Come on Lee wake up!"

At the sound of her voice his eyelids fluttered, but they didn't open. Kara wanted to grab him and shake him awake, but Tyrol pushed her out of the way and began to lift him out, but as he did this he wrapped his arm around Lee's chest and Lee gasped in pain. His eyes flew open and Kara shoved Tyrol and cupped Lee's cheek with her hand.

"It's ok, we landed your going to be ok"

Lee's eyes were still fluttering, "...so...tired...can't...breath" he stammered

"It's ok let's get you out of here, you can sleep when you've been checked over."

Kara helped Lee out of the Viper and to the gurney waiting to take him to sickbay, they raced him off with her in tail, still holding his hand.

When Dee heard that Lee had been hurt she ran to sickbay to see if he was alright, maybe she still had a chance with him. However the sight that met her when she arrived was one that put any ideas of staying with Lee far from her mind. Lee sat asleep on one of the beds, his head shaking in fear of some kind of nightmare, she had seen it many times, she had thought that they couldn't be stopped he would just keep twitching until he woke up. She was wrong, she stood transfixed as Kara stood next to him, her hand resting on her head and her thumb stroking his forehead, she lovingly cooed words of support into his ear. His twitching stopped at her words and he settled back down to a peaceful sleep. Dee turned on her heels and walked out, it was now confirmed in her mind that there was no chance for her and Lee, he'd found the one he really loved, even if he didn't know it consciously.

Doc Cottle let Lee out after demanding he spent at least one day resting before he went back on patrol. It surprised Dee when he crawled into her bunk and wrapped his arms around her, she turned into his hug and smiled at him.

"You ok? She asked.

"Yeah Doc said that it was just the extra G-force from trying to land that put the extra pressure on my ribs. He's bandaged them up and says I should be able to fly again as long as I tell anyone if it begins to hurt too much."

"How did you hurt them in the first place? You never said anything about breaking your ribs"

"They're just bruised, and it doesn't matter. Just get some sleep ok."

Dee knew that was all she was going to get, Lee's pride meant that there was only one person that he would tell about that sort of thing, what hurt was that that person wasn't her. She turned over and cuddled back into Lee, determined to make the most of it, she closed her eyes and soon fell asleep.

A/N there is more but I'll only put it on if people want to read it, so please review and tell me what you think. As always any criticism you have please tell me so I can get better.