The first time he almost cried ...
... was the day he told his father they were expecting for the first time. Men shouldn't cry, his father had told him that when he was four years old and it had sunk in deeply. Deeper than he realized - Lee never cried as a child and could count on the fingers of one hand how many times he'd cried since becoming an adult.
Perhaps the day he'd proposed to Kara and she'd accepted he should have cried for joy but he was honestly too flabbergasted to do anything but stare stupidly until she pulled him into their bunk and had her way with him. He certainly had no tears for that.
Perhaps the day Kara had told him they were expecting he should have cried but he was shocked - no, absolutely stunned, as Kara had told him there was next to no chance they could ever conceive, given how the Cylons had messed with her internals. He'd shouted for joy and taken her to their bunk that time.
But the day he stood there in front of his father and told the Old Man he was going to be a grandfather seven months hence, he'd had to fight tears. Tears of sorrow or tears of joy, he wasn't quite sure - the thought of becoming a father had brought back all his childhood memories of missing his father and wishing he wasn't in the military and Lee wanted to cry for all the things he and his father had missed.
He and his child weren't going to miss them. He was firm on that.
Seven months and two days later after a long and arduous labour, the tears flowed freely down his cheeks as he held his newborn daughter in his hands. Kara's tears mingled with his as they passed the precious bundle back and forth between them.
And for the first time Lee wasn't ashamed to have his father see him cry - the Old Man had matching tears in his eyes as he congratulated them and held out his arms to welcome the new member of his family properly.
fin