MISSING - 1/3

Kara struggled in vain to open her eyes. Her eyelids felt very heavy and her mind like a thickened cloud, masking all thought. She tried to move her hands, but her limbs felt strange and refused to respond. She lay on her back, feeling sand under her, so at least her sense of touch was still working.

She blinked and slowly opened her eyes, only to meet the blinding rays of sunlight shining down at her. Kara hissed quietly. Must have been morning. She rubbed her eyes and then gasped hoarsely, groaning in pain, as she was sure her head was about to explode. She whimpered, wishing the pain would go away.

Slowly she sat up, the world feeling like it was spinning out of control. Kara buried her head in her knees and closed her eyes. "Great, a hangover…" she murmured. Just what she needed. She promised herself yet again that she would never touch booze again, but she knew even as she thought it that it was a promise she wasn't going to keep.

She remembered yesterday's ground-breaking ceremony and the celebrations that had followed. She'd been drinking the whole day, playing card games and drinking more in the evening - all of which might explain her awful hangover.

Memory of Sam passing out made her grin. The game had been 'whoever drinks the most shots and still stays conscious, wins" and though Sam had been sure he was going to win, Tigh had informed him in no uncertain terms that Kara could hold her liquor better than anyone and that she always won. She had won this night too ... but right now she hurt to much to bother with collecting her winnings. She'd get to that later.

She remembered the dancing and the drinking. Dancing and drinking with Lee, she corrected herself. What had happened after that was a bit blurry. She remembered them going on a walk and she had showed him where she would build her future house. Lee had said that he wanted to be as far away as possible from where Kara was planning to build her bedroom. She wasn't sure if he'd been serious or not.

Lee had gotten serious and he had asked her future plans, if it was really what she wanted, to be with Sam and marry him. She wasn't even sure - how could she have told him what she really wanted? That had made her confused and she'd become even more confused when Lee had kissed her softly. The kiss had lead to cuddling and they'd ended up making love. He'd admitted he loved her and she had told him that she loved him too. She had no memory of what had happened after that ...

Why did she always have to frak things up? Just when things were looking up with Sam she'd gone and slept with Lee. She always ruined her relationships by sleeping around.

XXX

After holding her head and cursing her hangover to hell, Kara pushed her long blond hair away from her face and got up on unsteady legs. She scanned the area, recognizing it as her future home territory. At least she knew where she was, that was a start.

Only then she noticed that she was naked and her clothes were missing. The only thing she still wore were her dog tags. She covered herself quickly with her hands, thankful that her long hair covered her upper body. Frak, what have you been up to again Kara, she asked herself, kicking herself mentally for her stupidity.

She searched everywhere for her clothes, finally finding her grey underpants sitting on top of a bush. She frowned. How on earth did her underpants end up there, she wondered. She shook the bush firmly, dislodging them and catching them as they dropped. Now where where the rest of her clothes?

She searched and searched but there was no sign of the rest of her clothing. Where the frak where they…or perhaps a better question was, what had Lee done with them? Had he hidden them? she wondered and squinted her eyes.

Footsteps behind her startled her and she scrambled to hide behind a bush. She prayed it wouldn't be Adama - the old man had a habit of taking long walks early in the morning and greeting everyone who crossed his path. Kara could not even imagine what he would say if he found her hiding behind the bush nearly naked.

Kara saw a stone laying on the ground near her feet. She palmed it and weighted her options. She had been on Caprica many months but that didn't mean that she'd lost her aim or other skills. Her training still held good. She still could easily hit her target without even trying hard.

If the owner of the footsteps was Lee, then he was going to be getting a taste of his own medicine. She grinned as she sat down and waited…

TBC