Lee Adama strode through Galactica's corridors with a bounce in his step as he headed towards the CAG's office. It was late at night, according the ship's clock, and he had pulled a double CAP that day but he wasn't tired. He felt like singing, if anything, but it would have been strange to have the CAG singing in the halls, so he softly hummed to himself instead.

Life was good.

He and Kara had been slowly rebuilding their relationship from the ground up since that day in the bunkroom two weeks before. It began quietly at first; many of the older pilots still felt protectively about Dee and Sam was well-known and well-liked among the fleet. They spent more time together in private, learning how to talk to each other again; warming back up to the banter they once shared.

Then they began being together in public; eating together, being in the rec room at the same time without one of them needing to walk out. Kara found that more and more of her shifts were beginning to coincide with those of a certain CAG. The crew was getting used to the fact that the two of them were friends once again, glad that the tension between the fleet's two best pilots was gone but wondering if it was going to last.

All the while, Kara quietly began making preparations to divorce her husband, with Lee using what clout he had to make sure that nothing about what they were doing got out and got the rumor mill churning. They wanted to be accepted by the crew, especially the Admiral, when they were ready to come out and announce that they were a couple. Until then, they both wanted things to be as discrete as possible.

Lee had gone with Kara to provide moral support when she went to get Sam to sign off on their divorce the week after she and Lee had reconnected. At her insistence he agreed to wait out in the corridor when she went into Sam's cabin. She had said that it was her fault that it had taken so long for them to be together, and she wanted to be the one who made sure things were right.

Having Lee nearby had been a good idea, though. Things had quickly gotten out of control when Kara tried to explain to her soon to be ex-husband why she wanted a divorce.

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"Yeah, well, that's not good enough," Sam growled as he roughly grabbed Kara's arms and pushed her against a bulkhead.

Kara struggled to break free from his grip, but he held firm. His fingers squeezed so tightly that blood stopped flowing to her hands.

"Let go, Sam."

"Yeah? What if I don't want to?"

It became painfully clear just how little the man knew about her, despite having married her. No one laid a hand on Starbuck unless they were prepared to take her down or had made their peace with the gods.

Lee stepped into the room ready to jump in but stood back. Just in case. Kara didn't need murder added to her vast collection of infractions.

"Let her go, Sam." The ice-cold venom in his voice made it clear that Lee himself was more than willing to kill with his bare hands, but Sam was too angry to care.

"Oh yeah? I'm twice your size. What are you going to do about it?"

Lee smirked. The man really was clueless.

"Absolutely nothing."

Sam's puzzled look turned into one of shock and pain as Kara's knee smashed into his groin. His grip on her arms loosened so that Kara could bring them up and use them to shove Sam back far enough for her to drive a foot into his solar plexus.

A pained and winded Sam fell to his knees. He looked up-his vision blurred-to see Kara's fist flying towards his face as he received the right hook he had heard about but had never actually seen. He had been skeptical about the stories, but being on the business end of Kara's fist made it abundantly clear that words couldn't describe what she could do with one punch.

Once the room stopped spinning, Sam saw Kara kneeling over him; pen and papers in hand, not a trace of emotion in her eyes.

"Sign the papers, Sam."

"So that's it, huh?" he spat. "You're just going to give up on us?"

"There is no 'us', Sam. There never was. I'm sorry, but I never loved you… you were just a quick lay that got out of control. I settled on you because I was too afraid of what I really wanted."

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Lee couldn't help but feel for Sam when he watched the man sign the divorce papers. The look in Sam's eyes reminded him of all the times he felt as if his heart had been ripped from his chest. Kara and he had been dancing around their love for one another for years and the Pyramid player ended up in the middle of an all out war between them.

His empathy had stopped far short of sympathy, though, because he had never liked the man. Even before the end of the worlds, Sam Anders had come across as a smarmy son of a bitch on the court and in interviews. And if the fist Lee had taken to the back as he and Kara were walking out of Sam's cabin was any indication, the rumors of Sam being a cheat were probably true as well.

Three broken ribs, four broken teeth, one completely knocked out tooth, a fractured orbital bone, and a concussion courtesy of Lee's fists and a bulkhead would make Sam think twice about hitting people when their backs were turned again, though. It also probably taught the man a lesson about the rule about getting pilots angry that Galactica's crew had amended months before: Apollo put you in hack, Starbuck put you in sickbay, but you never made Lee Adama angry because he might put you in the morgue.

But, none of that mattered anymore.

Lee arrived at the hatch to the CAG's office, opened it, and stepped through to be greeted with the sight of Kara Thrace dressed in sweats, unrolling a couple of sleeping bags on top of a foam mat she had laid on the floor. They had been sleeping like this whenever their schedules matched up; something Lee tried to make happen as often as possible. Kara looked up when she heard the hatch open and her face brightened and she flashed Lee that pure, naked smile that melted him from the inside out.

"Hey," Kara said brightly as she smoothed out the sleeping bags.

Lee closed and dogged the hatch. "Hey, yourself."

He smiled as two arms snaked around his chest and a small kiss was placed on the back of his neck before Kara molded herself to his body.

"Did I do something wrong, Lee?" Kara's voice was muffled as she spoke into his back.

"No. Why?"

"Because I've been in CIC for two days in a row….you know I hate it in there."

Lee couldn't help but smile even wider as he turned in her arms to face the most beautiful woman in the universe; the look of mock hurt on her face was absolutely adorable. He cupped Kara's face and said, "Well, I figured spending a couple of duty shifts doing something you hated would make you appreciate me more," before leaning in to kiss her on the nose.

Kara's face scrunched up as she tried not to smile. "I always appreciate you, Lee," she said as she leaned in closer for a proper kiss. "Even when you're acting like a stuck-up jerk."

"And I appreciate you, Kara…even when you're acting like an insubordinate pain in my ass."

"I'm always like that."

"Guess that means I always appreciate you, then."

Lee closed the last few fractions of an inch between them and kissed Kara with everything he had, drawing her closer to him with one arm while he fumbled for the light switch with his free hand.

The lights in the CAG's office went out with a click and Lee and Kara sank down onto the floor in the dark.