Spoilers: Up to and including LDYBS with a little speculation about what Season three might hold.

Disclaimers: I don't own the characters I've just borrowed them for a little adventure and then I promise to return them! I certainly do not make any money from writing!

Summary – Kara watches the sunset and reflects on her life.

Author's note: This is an AUfuture fic.

The elaborate dance of the setting sun's golden light reflecting on the ocean was entrancing and yet reassuringly calming at the same time. The sound of the waves lapping against the pure white sand of the beach added to the peacefulness of the location.

Kara slowly stretched out her legs and ran her fingers through the soft sand on the beach. She relished the feel of the small crystals passing through her finger tips as it delicately floated back to the ground.

Seven years ago, when the Cylons attacked their home worlds she never imagined she would have the chance to sit on a beach and watch the sunset again. Not that she'd ever taken the time to sit and watch a sunset on her home world. It was one of the things she'd taken for granted in her life before the attack, but now she was here watching a sunset and she relished every moment.

She stretched out further and shifted so that she was resting against the cool surface of a rock. As the diminishing light reflected on the ocean her mind began to wander, memories of the past surfacing in her mind.

When she'd joined the fleet she'd needed to escape from her life, in fact she'd spent most of her life running, running from her mother, running from Zak's death and running from love. Her mother had taught her at an early age that she didn't deserve to be loved; she was nothing more than an unwanted hassle and a welcome punching bag. So whenever she'd begun to felt something that she thought might be love, or rather an attachment to someone, she ran as quickly as she could in the opposite direction and hid.

Zak had been the first one to show her that she was worth something, well something more than a good pilot or flight instructor. Slowly he crept under her defences and before she knew it, he'd managed to find a way into her heart. At first she'd been terrified of what she felt for him and she'd tried to run away but he hadn't let her. He had learned to read her along the way and recognised the look of panic on her features and he'd held her and refused to let her walk away from her feelings for him. Slowly she'd listened to him and decided to take a chance on him and for a while they'd been blissfully happy. She'd thanked the Gods for giving her the opportunity to love and to be loved.

But what the Gods give with one hand they take with the other.

That had been true throughout her life, the Gods had given her a father who loved her, but he'd been driven away by her mother's anger. She'd been given Zak, but through a wrong choice she'd made, they'd taken him away in a flash of burning light and metal.

Then they'd taken away her home world and changed her life forever. But Kara had learned to fight, it was the one thing her mother had taught her well, Kara Thrace could fight to live and she wasn't going to give up on fighting for a future for the remains of the human race.

She'd fought alongside her friends and they became her family, all desperately fighting for a future. She'd been so busy fighting that she hadn't realised until it was too late, that she had let someone else into her heart. She was stranded on a battlestar with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide but she didn't face her feelings she used the other skill her mother had taught her. She buried how she felt about him deep inside and managed to push him away from her with her continual denial and attitude.

The last straw had been when she told him she was leaving Galactica to make a new life on New Caprica, an incredulous look had appeared on his face, his blue eyes pleading with her to stay, but with his emotions in check he couldn't follow through with words. In a way he was as bad as she was, keeping those important emotions locked away, never revealing what he really felt, hiding behind a mask of righteousness.

She hadn't expected him to ask her to stay, but secretly she'd hoped he would fight for her, but he hadn't. He'd accepted her explanation and let her walk away onto the next raptor, leaving him and her heart behind her.

As she'd walked from his office through the corridors of the Pegasus she'd silently hoped that he'd chase after and stop her. She'd kept that hope in her mind until she heard the final launch sequence being given. Her heart slowly broke as she watched the Pegasus disappear through the small window in the raptor. She was running away again and this time she probably wouldn't have the opportunity to go back to her home and her family.

Life on New Caprica had been hard; life with Sam had been even harder. She had hoped that what she'd felt for him on Caprica would be more than lust and denial for her feelings for Lee. For a short period she was able to fool herself into thinking that she was in love with him, when their relationship was new and exciting. But that changed as the day to day harsh reality of life on New Caprica hit her.

The end of their relationship had been when his true reason for survival on Caprica was revealed. He had bargained his survival on Caprica by promising the Cylons that he could give them Kara Thrace, the almighty Starbuck. He'd actually tried to keep his promise too, and after the Cylon occupation of New Caprica he'd conveniently disappeared and left her in the hands of a Leoben model.

When she'd finally managed to escape from Leoben's hands she'd made a silent promise to herself that if she ever set eyes on Samuel Anders he'd pay for every scratch and bruise she had on her body. She had been held prisoner by the Cylons for weeks and it wasn't until an opportunity arose and the resistance attacked her prison that she finally managed to escape.

Her friends within the resistance had hidden her in the woods; she'd made her home there, keeping away from the settlement and Cylons. She spent her days planning operations for the resistance, ways of making the Cylons pay for their continued treatment of humanity and her nights thinking about him and what his life on Pegasus was like.

Every night before sleep finally claimed her weary body, she prayed to her Gods that finally humanity would be freed from the prison on New Caprica and the Cylons would be defeated once and for all. She also prayed for the Old Man and for Lee, hoping that the Gods would keep them safe and maybe one day they would come back for them.

That day finally arrived.

Chief Tyrol finally managed to make contact with Galactica on the radio he'd constructed from pieces of discarded metal and wires the resistance had acquired on their raids. The coded message they received gave the resistance hope, hope that finally they would be rescued from their living nightmare.

Kara, Tigh and Tyrol planned the resistance's attacks meticulously and hoped that the message they'd had from Galactica was correct. They utilised every piece of explosive and weapon they'd acquired and used it on the Cylon bases, the confusion they created gave them the upper hand. They managed to get most of the civilians to the rendevous points and they were airlifted to safety on Galactica and Pegasus' raptors.

Kara was the last person to step onto the final raptor leaving the surface of New Caprica. She looked around at the faces of the other refugees fleeing their home to a life on the run again and even though their faces were gaunt, scratched and dirty, each of their eyes was filled with hope once more, hope that maybe they could fight again and out run the Cylons.

Kara had turned away from the people in the raptor and looked out of the porthole in the raptor's side door, watching as the planet they were leaving behind came into focus as the raptor cut through the planet's atmosphere. Then the raptor began to shake as it became entangled in a raging battle, Kara, saw Cylon raiders whirring through the air, firing on the fleeing raptors. Then she noticed the Pegasus and her vipers, looming into view, firing on the raiders. The raptor shook as a Cylon raider exploded dangerously close to them.

Kara found herself screaming at the pilot to take evasive procedures, the military language coming back to her in an instant. Finally she felt at home, the one place she'd always felt at home, she belonged to the military and she didn't think she could ever leave it again. That would be if the Admiral would have her back.

She recalled the pilot shouting something to her about entering the coordinates for the FTL jump to Galactica, as her brain began to process the message she saw the Pegasus begin to combust. It had rammed itself into a base star; the explosion was almost graceful as it began to consume the large battlestar, the flames licking around the edge of the metal, before engulfing it in a white hot ball of flames. Before she could witness the last moments of the Pegasus, she felt the familiar movements of the raptor beginning to make its jump.

In an instant she was no longer looking at the last moments of the Pegasus but looking at the welcome sight of the Galactica.

Her stomach churned and her heart shattered into a million pieces as she realised that Lee was the Commander of the Pegasus, tradition had stated that the Commander would always stay with his ship. Knowing Lee he would have kept that tradition and he would have gone down with his ship. Before she realised what was happening, her legs had given out from underneath her and she crumpled to the floor, her joy at being rescued shattered by the thought that she'd lost the one man left in the universe that she could ever love.

Her surroundings disappeared and the only image that she could see was his face, the look in his blue eyes as she had walked away from him and her life in the military. Their last words had been said in anger and she would never be able to take them back or apologise or tell him how she really felt.

In that moment she closed down, the last few months finally taking their toll on her shattered body and mind. She didn't recall anything else from the journey back to Galactica.

Her next memory was waking up in sick bay, Doc Cottle muttering something about fraking Cylons and their technology.

Groggily she'd opened her eyes; relief first washing over her as she recognised him, then the pain of losing Lee hit her like a Cylon raider crashing into a viper at full throttle. She couldn't control the emotions that washed over her and for the first time in her adult life she cried, cried for everyone and everything she'd lost.

She remembered Cottle's reaction at the sight of a broken Starbuck, he'd hurried from her bedside, she heard him speaking to someone and then somebody familiar came and stood by her bed, grasping her hand in his. His words soothing her, finally the voice registered with her brain and she looked into the Old Man's face, his eyes full of concern for her. He'd pulled her into his arms and comforted her like a father comforting his child. She'd cried openly in his embrace, finally letting go of the pain and sorrow she'd kept buried inside her, her entire life.

Finally she'd managed to control herself and she'd gently pulled out of his embrace, embarrassed that she'd broken down in the arms of the Admiral of the fleet. "I'm sorry, sir," she'd uttered, her voice thick from the tears she'd cried.

"There's nothing to be sorry for, Kara. You came home safely, there's nothing more I could ask for."

She'd met his eyes and finally recognised the love that was there, "The Pegasus is gone," she whispered, knowing that he'd lost a son for the second time.

Instead of the reaction she was expecting from him, he smiled a warm smile. "It was all part of the plan; the Pegasus was the perfect distraction for the Cylons. They spent so much of their time trying to take out the Pegasus; they hardly had any interest in the raptors that were leaving the planet. "

She looked away from him, not sure how to take his reaction; surely he wouldn't have sacrificed his son to save them, would he? "What about Lee?"

Suddenly the Admiral seemed to understand why she was asking him that question, "He made it back, Kara," he replied quietly taking her hand in his and squeezing it tightly. "He's safe, but," Adama paused, "He lost D.."

Kara nodded, imagining the pain Lee would be feeling at losing his wife, "I'm sorry, sir. I know Lee and D. were happy together."

Adama smiled, "They were happy for a time, but in the end there was something not quite right between them, but that's not for me to talk about. I'm just thrilled to have both of my children back home, Kara." He squeezed her hand again, "What about Sam?"

Anger washed through her, "Is he here?" She almost spat at him.

Adama shook his head, "He wasn't one of the people we rescued from the planet.

"Good," she replied angrily. "He deserves to spend the rest of his life with the toasters, they're a good match."

"I take it married life didn't go well?"

She shook her head, "Not when your husband's only reason for being with you is to trade you into the Cylons. Not really the best foundation for a marriage to work. He knew the Cylons would find us, he had made a deal with them on Caprica after I'd escaped with the arrow of Apollo. He promised to hand me over to them when he finally had me, it was a promise he kept."

Pain was etched on Adama's face at the suffering of his child, "I'm sorry, Kara. I hoped you would finally find happiness with him."

She shook her head, "I don't think I'm destined to taste happiness at all. The Gods have a way of taking away my happiness and jumping on it from a great height."

"One day, you will, I promise you. When we find Earth everything will finally be alright."

She'd listened to his words and his promise and hoped that it would be true.

The sound of a ship's fog horn broke her from her thoughts; she looked out across the ocean and noticed the outline of a ship on the horizon sailing off to some far flung destination on this very strange planet she now called home.

It had been eighteen months ago when they had finally found the thirteenth colony and began negotiations with the comparatively primitive societies on Earth. The inhabitants on Earth had been taken with the technology that they had brought with them, they had always dreamed of space travel, but their explorations had been limited to a few manned missions to the moon and unmanned explorations of other planets in the system. The arrival of Galactica and her fleet had brought a new host of technology to the planet and for that they had gratefully accepted the refugees from space and welcomed them to settle on the planet.

Kara had remained on board Galactica not wanting to leave again until she'd had to. This was her home, where her family was. She wasn't going to abandon it unless she had to.

Finally the Admiral gave the order that she had feared since they had found Earth. He ordered the last remaining officers on board to leave Galactica and to move to Earth. They were going to remain part of the new Earth Intergalactic Fleet, but they were entitled to begin to make lives on Earth, to finally taste something that they'd lost six years before in the decimation of their home planets.

Reluctantly Kara had packed her bags with her few belongings and boarded the last raptor destined for Earth. She left in good company though, the Admiral sat on her right and gently held her hand in his, reassuring his daughter that she would be fine on Earth. She had no reason to run because she had a family now. Her left hand was held tightly by her husband, still shocked that she'd finally allowed herself to be honest with him. Shocked that he finally was honest with her.

It had been a long and painful journey from the time they left New Caprica, but he learned along the way that she ran when she was scared and to his credit he finally stopped letting her run away and made her stay and face her fears. He made her face up to how much she loved him and needed him. That night was the first step into the future they'd made for themselves on Galactica and when they had finally found Earth she fagreed to marry him, but she was still unsure of what married life on Earth was going to be like.

She shouldn't have worried though; they still fought like cat and dog, but making up surely was more fun now they were married. The sound of approaching footsteps caused her to turn towards the sound. She couldn't help the smile that spread across her face at the sight of him.

"I thought I'd find you out here," he said as he lowered himself beside her, placing one arm protectively around her shoulders, pulling her towards him.

"I was watching the sunset," she replied as she leaned her head against his shoulder.

"Was it good?"

"It was beautiful."

"Not as beautiful as you," he smiled as he gently turned her face towards him, enjoying the blush that gently appeared on her cheeks. He slowly leaned forward and captured her lips in a soft and gentle kiss that began to intensify.

Kara pulled back and quickly took Lee's hand, placing it on the slight swell of her abdomen. "It moved, Lee!" she exclaimed, a huge grin on her face. She watched Lee's face as it contorted with concentration as he tried to feel the fluttery movement that she could feel inside her stomach. "Did you feel it?"

He nodded, a tear escaping his eye and gently rolling down his cheek, "I did, Kara. That's our baby, our future."

She felt her own eyes well with tears, once upon a time she'd never thought she could have the happy ending, but sitting on the beach with her husband and their baby safely cocooned in her abdomen, she knew that now she was truly happy and finally had a future to look forward to. It may not be easy, but at least the fighting had been worthwhile. Humanity was not dead, it was alive and kicking.

The end.