A/N I only recently discovered BSG and after finishing the series I am now suffering from PDSD (post-Daybreak stress disorder). While I did in general like the way the series ended, the way the Lee/Kara arc ended was just too sad. So I decided to write this to... make it even sadder. Right. Whether it makes you laugh or cry (or both!) please feel free to leave me a comment including any constructive criticism!
I don't own anything!
It had been four decades since the second Cylon war and the exodus of his people from their homeworlds. Leland Adama was no longer the young man that had landed on this planet they all now called home. The planet on which he had lost his father and the other half of his soul. The loss of the two most important people in his life had been devastating after having lost so much. But he was not that different from any of the other survivors. To be a survivor was to have felt loss.
He still occasionally dropped in on Helo and his ever expanding family that now included six children and their spouses and more grandchildren than anyone could stop for long enough to have a complete head count. Sometimes on those short visits in the evening he and Helo would sit outside underneath the starry sky through which they flew to get to this paradise. They'd look up at the sky, drinking the ambrosia replacement that Helo had perfected over the long years and occasionally raise toasts to old friends. The Old Man, Hot Dog, Racetrack, Kat, Chuckles and Starbuck. Starbuck was always the last toast they raised since the mention of her always brought a lump into Lee's throat that would not go away and he would inevitably rise up, thank Helo for his hospitality and walk away into the darkness. Seeking that which he could not find in this life anymore.
He had continued his life to the best of his ability, knowing that had Kara been there she would have beaten him into pulp if he hadn't. He'd gotten married to a nice girl and had two lovely children. She was dead now and his children were married with children of their own. He knew they worried about him, but he had been walking the face of this planet since that day so long ago when his best friend had lead them there only to disappear before she had had the chance to enjoy the bounty. He had loved his wife the best he could but his heart wasn't his to give away. Seemed ironic to him now that he was like his own father had been, all those long years ago back on Caprica when he was a child. The absent father, loving, but never there for the long haul.
The thoughts of the past and what could have been… SHOULD have been, crowded close to him tonight as he sat next to his campfire on the rocky hill next to the two cairns that had sat there side by side since the day he had found his father dead next to the grave that held the mortal remains of Laura Roslin. Slowly he leaned back and looked up at the stars, resting his head on his hands. As his eyes slipped closed he felt a brief jolt of concern for his children, whom he loved as deeply as only a parent can love a child, but then remembered that all survivors had to lose someone. As he exhaled for the last time he heard a voice whisper in his ear, "Hello Lee. You haven't been forgotten." And he opened his eyes to see them all there, just waiting for him. Both of his wives, all the friends he'd lost, Zac, his father, Laura, even Sam was there. And there she was, standing a little in front of all the others, looking at him with that challenging, playful, devil-may-care grin and a hand extended out to grasp his and pull him with her. Home.