The Important Questions

Lee was barely in the door when Zak jumped off the couch and was in his face. "Were you ever planning to tell me you're in love with my girlfriend? That my girlfriend is in love with you?" Still exhausted from his vigil at Kara's bedside, for a moment Lee was stunned into silence.

"Zak, do we have to do this now? I came back to take a shower and grab some clothes for Kara. I don't have the energy to fight with you when I don't even know what I'm fighting about. For that matter, why are you here, yelling at me instead of at the hospital with her? Your girlfriend has been asking for you." He walked into the bedroom, stripping as he went, mind already in the shower.

"My girlfr... so Kara didn't tell you."

"Zak, Kara hasn't been awake much in the last forty-eight hours, and when she is awake, she doesn't say much beyond asking for pain medication or water. So, no, whatever you think she should have told me, she hasn't. When in the hells did you decide we were in love with each other? For frak's sake!" He turned the water on, twisted it way over into the HOT zone, and looked at Zak, wondering what in the hells had gotten into him.

"I came up to the hospital when I got back from weekend maneuvers two days ago. You were asleep in the chair, sprawled half across her bed, and she had this expression on her face that I've never seen when she looks at me." He sounded angry, sad and wistful.

Lee climbed into the shower and raised his voice to be heard over the water, "So, based on an expression on Kara's face when she's in the hospital recovering from surgery, doped up on pain meds, when she probably thought I was you anyway, you decided we're in love with each other?" He pulled the shower curtain aside, "You know what? Just go away and let me shower. I'll be out in a few minutes."

Zak was sitting on the bed waiting for him when he got out, and started right back in. "It wasn't only what I saw at the hospital, Lee. That just put it right in my face where I couldn't ignore it anymore. She loves you. I know you love her. How long were you going to let this go on? Were you going to let me introduce her to Mom, marry her, have a family with her, and never say anything?" Zak's anger gave way to frustration.

As Lee got dressed with his brain on auto-pilot, his mouth responded to Zak, "Kara's never wanted kids" without his brain processing any of the rest of it.

And Zak's anger won again, "I was going to marry her! How do you know she doesn't want kids, while I was happily imagining little blonde pixies with bad attitudes?"

Lee laughed, then sighed. It's not like he'd never imagined blonde terrors underfoot, no matter how many times Kara had told him she was never having kids. "They'd be adorable, wouldn't they, except when they were mad about something... maybe especially when they were mad about something."

Zak laughed, too, deflating as he sat back down. "She's so good with all the students at Flight School. Patient. She'd be such a great mom. Why doesn't she want kids? Why did she keep letting me talk about having a family if she doesn't want that? Gods, they'd be beautiful if they were girls. I'd have to get better with a gun." He let out an exasperated snort. "I'd have to get a LOT better with a gun."

"Zak..." Lee sighed. "You're going to have to talk to Kara about it, about all of it. She wants to see you, so why don't you take her the clothes, tell her I'm going to grab something to eat and I'll be back in a couple of hours."

"I don't get it, Lee, really. Would you really have let this go forever without saying anything?"

"You're my brother. You love her. She loves you. Why would I say anything? Ever? I would have spent the rest of my life loving her as my friend. Part of me would have hated it, but I would have done it. She's more important to me than my feelings, and you are what she wanted. Now, go. Talk to her. Please."

Lee had made himself sit down at a restaurant, take his time eating. When he got to Kara's hospital room, Zak was nowhere to be found, but he'd obviously been there. Kara looked much more comfortable in her own clothes. She was even lucid, and apparently felt like talking, because again, he was pounced upon.

"What the hell, Lee? Zak finally comes to see me and instead of a nice snuggle with my boyfriend, he tells me he knows I'm in love with you and that I should...Zak was never supposed to ...Lee, how did he figure it out? He loved me, really loved me, and I ruined it all because I couldn't stop thinking about his frakking brother, and..."

Lee just sat there for a moment, his mouth agape. "His fra...you mean Zak's right? You're..." He swallowed audibly, "...in love with me?"

"Gods, Lee. How are you so monumentally clueless? Yes, maybe since the second I opened that door the night we met." She grabbed for his hand and tangled their fingers together. She was relaxed for a moment, then tensed up again. "Lee? What if I don't want to let go of Zak?"

Lee tried to keep the disappointment from his face, just held on to her hand, but couldn't look her in the eye. "You don't have to. Nothing has to change. It can all be just as normal as ever. I'll even get a girlfriend - "

"No!" She cut in. "Sorry. No girlfriend! That's not what I meant." Now she wouldn't look at him. She repeated, "No girlfriend," and gave him a dirty look.

"Kara?"

"What if..." She took a deep breath, looked wildly around the room, squeezed his hand maybe a little tighter than was comfortable, "...what if, I...don't want to choose?"

"Um..." He was pretty sure he was failing at keeping his emotions off his face, chief of which right now was utter confusion.

"Lee." She pulled his hand toward her belly, covered their hands with her other one and stared at them. "What if I want..." Her eyes flicked up and back down quickly. "...bothof you?"

Then, then he looked at her. "Kara, I can't speak for Zak, except to say that he thinks if you're in love with me, you don't love him and were just, I don't know, too nice to break up with him? As if you've ever been that nice to anybody in your life." His grin took the sting out of the words. "So, maybe this conversation should include all three of us. But if you haven't figured it out yet, Kara, I'm not just in love with you. I love you, all of you, and if you want to be with me, I'll do whatever you want that makes that happen." He backpedaled in panic. "Except, I am not sleeping with my brother. That is just..."

Kara giggled. "...gross! No! You and Helo, maybe..." At the look of horror on his face, she snickered, "Kidding! I was kidding! Come here and kiss me. Oh, wait, I taste disgusmpff..."