Summary: Helo's getting married, and needs a best man. Kara has been his best friend for as long as he can remember, and now she needs to remember so she can toast him, and roast him (there has to be a bachelor party right?)

Time Frame: Late Season 2, New Caprica is colonized but it is not yet Cylon occupied. This falls during the missing 18 months.

Rating: PG-13 for language, if a chapter is higher rated it'll be noted at the beginning.

Ships: Kara/Lee (tension, angst, snark) Athena/Helo(love) Kara/Sam(problems) Lee/Dee(problems)

Idea: I was always curious about Kara and Helo's relationship. They seem to be really close, but we never get any explanation. This story is nothing but exposition on their relationship, and well an excuse to get everyone together (and for Kara and Lee to have some sparks fly). This is how I imagine them to be.

Disclaimer: I didn't create them, I just play with them.

The ground to ship Comm Stations had been set up one per "neighborhood." What that meant was there was one station for every 200 tents. Actually getting on one of them to talk to someone in the sky involved special clearance, or that you were requested. Whoever manned the station had to go and hunt down whoever the call was for. This was not an easy task by any means, and was even tougher when you were looking for a needle in a haystack of roughly 50,000 needles. Marcus had somehow drawn this duty when he went planet side. New Caprica wasn't ideal, but it was better than the tillium ship he had been manning comms for before. When the call came through for the infamous Starbuck he was sort of excited, had he actually known her, he would have known this wasn't the best job.

Eventually he found her in a Pub Tent, Pub Tent 0194 to be exact. Since they had landed one of the immediate priorities of the settlers was to find something to distill into alcohol. One of the others was to pick every weed and grass and smoke it. Marcus didn't understand everyone's need to self medicate, but he had never been one for such things anyways.

"Captain Thrace." He said as he approached.

"The name's just Kara these days." She corrected him.

"You have a ship to ground call from Galactica." He said to her backside. She barely acknowledged his presence.

"From who?"

"Captain Karl Agathon."

There were only two names that would have gotten her off that bar stool. The other was Adama, but not the younger. She threw two spoons down on the makeshift bar, they still had no formal currency, it wasn't a priority of President Frak, better known as Baltar.

"Joe, I'll be back, you still owe me a shot, I paid for two." The barkeep nodded quietly at her. She had been spending a lot of time, and cutlery here lately. He was sure she was just spending her Triad winnings to get her through the day to the next Triad game.

The walk to the Comm Station was short. Marcus unlocked the hatch and started to go in.

"Man, I know how to work the comm in a raptor, you can wait out here."

"I'm not supposed to let anyone in there unchaperoned." Marcus stuttered out.

"Really? You addressed me as Captain before. Maybe you should keep that in mind. I'm not some civie ship idiot. If anyone asks, just tell them I beat you up. At least it's something they'll believe." She answered as she closed the hatch behind her.

It had been a long time since she had been in one of these. The last one in fact was the one that brought her, Sam, Ellen and Saul down for the groundbreaking ceremony. Funny thing is, while the lot of them stayed, nothing still had been built where that ground was broken.

"Comm Station Echo requesting link to Galactica Actual, over." She said after hitting switches and buttons by memory.

"Galactica Actual here, requesting identification." She knew the voice immediately.

"Felix get me Helo."

"Starbuck? Is that you? When did you pick up comm duty?"

"I didn't I was told Helo needed to talk to me."

"Where's the comm operator?"

"I killed him." She waited a beat, "He's outside, I wanted some privacy. Speaking of, I'd prefer a private line to the Captain. I don't need the whole damn ship listening in."

"I'll page him through to a secure line." After a moment he added, "It's good to hear your voice again, sir."

"I'm sir to nobody these days Gaeta. I hope you're taking good care of the old man up there."

"We are, I have Helo on the other line for you. I'll patch you through." The line buzzed for a moment before Karl picked up.

"Kara, long time no talk."

"Hey Karl. How's it looking up there?"

"A lot prettier than down there I hear."

"What? The sky here looks almost the same as the ceiling in the hangar deck!" She joked. Helo was grateful she was in a good mood, cos he was afraid he was about to ruin it.

"True. How's Sam?"

"Sick, he's got pneumonia and something else, but I can't drag his carcass back to the tent from the Pyramid courts. Even when he's too sick to play he sits around and coaches, or at least just yells."

"I thought he was getting better."

"He did, and then it came back. It's funny it seems like him and Seelix keep trading it back and forth. One gets better, the other gets sick" Kara had to stop herself from going into what was really going on with the two of them. Helo didn't need to hear about how her husband spent only one night in their tent in the last 2 weeks, and that's only cos Seelix was too sick to frak. "He'd stay better if he'd just spend a week in bed, and if Cottle would loosen up his death grip on the meds. How's your Sharon?"

"I'll see if I can get some of those meds for you. Sharon's good, still in the brig, but that's sort of why I called you."

She knew Helo so well she could hear the question in his voice before he got around to it. "Well, out with it, what do you need?"

"Well, we're getting married and I need a best man."