Disclaimer: They don't belong to me. I just live vicariously through them.

- Three Items -

"We go out, over and over again until one day, some metal mother-frakker catches us on a bad day and just blows us away."

"Kara…" Lee said, dropping his head into his hands. He sat at his desk, reading the report over and over again, but it never changed. Some metal mother-frakker had caught her on a bad day. His best friend had died in a fire fight with a Cylon raider. He should have been out there with her to watch her back but of course that wasn't possible anymore. Battlestar commanders don't fly CAP.

His eyes scanned his desk. There were three items spread out across it. The first was the report.

The second was a photograph that Kara had secretly packed in his duffel bag before he'd left the Galactica. It was a photograph of the two of them, "Apollo" and "Starbuck," just back from a particularly stressful patrol. A lame joke from Tyrol was all they needed to get them laughing. Gaeta had snapped the picture in the midst of their hysterics with an old camera he had been tinkering with. Lee studied the picture for a while, remembering happier times. He and Kara were facing each other, she had her hand on his shoulder to keep from doubling over with laughter. She looked absolutely beautiful. Beautiful and alive. He gently touched the image of her face with his fingers.

He took the picture out of the frame and read what she had written on the back:

I think I know why I was mad. I wanted to stay loyal to Samuel and the feelings I thought I had for him. But when I came back from Caprica, you were there and you made me doubt those feelings. I loved you before I left for Caprica and I loved you when I came back and that made me angry because I wanted to love him. I took that anger out on myself and it caused me to hurt you and for that I am truly sorry.

Keep this picture close to remind you of how much you mean to me.

- Kara.

He allowed one tear to fall but quickly brushed it away.

He put the picture down and shifted his attention to the third item on his desk. He picked it up and turned it over in his hands, studying it carefully, feeling the weight of the cold steel. He checked the chamber to make sure it was loaded, cocked it then raised the gun to his temple.

"I'm sorry, Kara."