GROUNDED

"So how is it out there?" Bill Adama looked across the room at his son.

Lee tried not to fidget. "Not as bad as I thought it would be." He tugged at his neck collar. "This suit still feels funny."

Bill nodded. "Dad always used to ay that. So…have you any word on Doctor Baltar?"

That was something else that made Lee uncomfortable. "I'm not keeping tabs on him, if that's what you mean. The last I heard, he was hiding out with some female groupies, if you can believe that. Quite frankly, as far as I'm concerned, if I don't see him again before we reach Earth, it'll be too soon."

"And how are things between you and Kara?"

"She's…okay, I think. I'm still trying to get used to the idea that she's really back. Every time I see her, it's like I've seen a ghost."

"Maybe you should drop in on her from time to time, let her know that we don't think she's a frakking toaster after all." Starbuck's return, once glorious, had become a problem for everyone. Half of the fleet thought she was a savior, sent by the Gods to help them find Earth. A lot of other people, Tigh included, didn't trust her one bit. That reminded Bill; he'd been meaning to talk to Saul. Something had been bothering him ever since that weird power surge.

"Yes, sir, I'll try." Something else seemed to be on Lee's mind, so decided to come right out with it.

"Sorry, Lee, but until things settle down over the trial, you're still a desk jockey. I don't like it any more than you do, but that's the way it is."

"Dad, I only did what I thought I had to do. Gaius Baltar may be a twisted psychopath but things have been going on ever since we left New Caprica that we have to deal with."

"If you mean the disappearances, those have stopped. As for the rest…I can't change the way Roslyn or anyone else feels."

"But she thinks I'm a traitor for defending him, doesn't she?"

Adama sighed. "She's the President of the Colonies. She saw what happened on New Caprica under Baltar's rule. He may have been forced into an impossible position as you said, but he still cooperated with those skin jobs. Earning back her trust is going to take time."

Lee looked his father in the eye. "And yours, too?"

Adama shook his head. "I may have disagreed with the verdict, but you represented what we're fighting to save when you defended him. I'll talk to her-we'll get through this."

As he left Adama's quarters, Lee studiously ignored the looks he was getting. He was no turncoat, dammit-and he wanted to fly again. He had to be able to fly again. There was no frakking way they were going to make him ride out the journey to Earth sitting on his ass.

He still had a lot to offer. And Lee made sure the President and everyone else knew it.

He wasn't going to stay grounded.