Sorry about the long wait! I've been away for a couple weeks, but now that I'm back home I should have more time to write. I hope this chapter was worth the wait. It's a little longer than the last two, and it's got everyone's favorite Spaceparents in it!


Chapter 3

Something woke Kara at two in the morning. She thought it might have been some kind of noise, but at the moment she was far too tired to care. Pulling her comforter over her head, she started to drift off again.

There was another quiet whimper from the next room.

"Lee…" Kara sighed. Of course he had nightmares. She quietly got out of bed and pushed her door open just enough to slip through but not enough to make it creak. In the dim light that filtered through her thin curtains, she could see Lee tossing and turning on the couch, sweat beading on his face. As she watched, he began to breathe rapidly, crying out in what sounded like fear. Kara sat on the edge of her coffee table, shaking his shoulder.

"Lee. Hey, Lee!"

He sat up with a startled gasp, panting heavily and shaking. He stared at her in confusion for a moment, and then tears filled his eyes and he pulled his knees up to his chest, pressing his face into them and raking his fingers through his hair.

Watching him, Kara was suddenly struck by how young he looked. He wasn't the dashing hero she'd read about in the news article. He wasn't the laughing young man who had teased her through a long night of cooking lessons. Suddenly, he was just a terrified boy with no one to turn to. On an impulse, she slid onto the couch next to him, and pulled him down next to her. To her surprise, he didn't question it; instead he buried his face in her shoulder, muffling a choked sob. It was quickly followed by another, and still another.

Kara held him until long after he had cried himself out and fallen back into an exhausted sleep.


Lee was still fast asleep when she woke late the next morning. Looking at the dark circles under his eyes, she couldn't help wondering how long it had been since he'd last gotten a decent night's sleep. She hated to move, but it was late and she was getting hungry. She wondered how long it would be before –

Her stomach growled. Lee stirred, murmuring something unintelligible and reaching up to rub his eyes as he slowly woke. It wasn't long before a pair of soft baby blues were blinking up at her in confusion.

"Kara?"

"'Morning," she responded lightly.

Lee's eyes widened and he sat up quickly, moving to the opposite end of the couch. "What – what happened last night?"

"We didn't frak again, if that's what you're asking," Kara answered with a lazy smirk.

Predictably, Lee blushed.

Kara sobered then and asked, "So what was your nightmare about?"

Lee winced when he remembered, rubbing his face tiredly. "Nothing. It's nothing. It doesn't matter. Please, just… just forget about it."

"It didn't seem like nothing when you started screaming," Kara said bluntly.

Lee swore quietly and pulled his legs up, resting his forehead against his knees, arms crossed tightly over his chest. It was the same position he'd curled into after his nightmare, an obvious defensive posture. It was his way of soothing himself, of hiding from the world.

Kara sighed. "All right, look… I found this news article the other day. I know you were a pilot. I know you just got discharged a few weeks ago. And I know – I know about that other pilot who died. I'm guessing you knew her."

Lee's shoulders tensed, and he raised his head slightly. "I knew her," he whispered, his voice barely audible. There was a long, heavy silence, broken only by Lee's too-heavy breathing as he struggled to relax. Finally, in a voice even smaller than before, he added, "She was my best friend."

He wouldn't say any more.


Lee had just gotten in the shower when Kara noticed his phone stuck between two of the couch cushions. She pulled it out and laid it on the coffee table so it wouldn't get lost. Then she picked it up again, staring at the blank screen indecisively. Lee had told her the day before that he didn't get along with his parents, but Kara knew what that was like, and in his case something about it just didn't ring true. For a second, she almost decided that what she was thinking about doing was too intrusive. But then she changed her mind.

"If it's password protected, I'll forget about it," she decided. "If not…" She clicked the screen on and swiped her thumb across it. It unlocked. "Probably should've put a password on it, Lee," she muttered, already scrolling through his contacts. There weren't very many – but there was a 'Dad.' Kara clicked on it and copied down the number, then replaced the phone and stepped outside to make a call. She didn't particularly want Lee walking in on this.


As Kara drove out of the city, she was amazed to find just how quickly the suburbs turned into the country. She had barely left behind the last housing plan when thick, green woods sprang up on either side of the road. Despite having lived in the city for several years, she'd never had a reason to drive this way before. Truth be told, she still wasn't sure she did. She barely knew Lee, after all. What if she got to his parents' house and all they did was tell her to butt out of their son's business? Wondering for the umpteenth time if this was at all worth it, Kara nonetheless drove on.

It wasn't long before she was turning off of the main road and onto a long, winding driveway, utterly baffled as to what she should be expecting to find at the end of it. And when she at last reached the end, Bill and Laura Adama's house did not disappoint.

It wasn't particularly large; in fact, it was decidedly on the small side, but its size really only served to make it seem more cozy. It was more of a cabin than a house, down to the curl of smoke drifting lazily from the chimney. There was even a wide front porch with two wooden rocking chairs that Kara had a suspicion were handmade. After she'd parked, she continued to sit in her car for several more minutes, wondering if this was the house Lee had grown up in. If it was, she envied him. She herself had grown up in a house, but this… this was a home.

Finally shaking herself from her reverie, Kara got out of the car and stepped up onto the porch, hesitated for a moment, then knocked on the door. After just a few seconds, it was opened by a man Kara could only assume was Lee's father. He looked to be about the same height as Lee, or perhaps just a bit taller, with the same piercing blue eyes. His face was weathered and lined, and his hair was greying, but from his bearing Kara got the distinct impression of an old soldier.

"You must be Kara."

His voice was much deeper than Lee's, and had a gravelly, no-nonsense tone to it. For an absurd moment, Kara had to resist the urge to salute.

"Yes, sir."

He studied her for a moment longer, and then stood to one side, motioning for her to come in. "Have a seat. Make yourself at home."

Kara entered the living room and chose a comfortable looking chair, but as her definition of making herself "at home" involved kicking her shoes off and putting her feet up on the coffee table, she refrained from doing any more than sitting.

Bill Adama closed the door behind her and stepped through another one at the side of the room. Kara caught a glimpse of rows of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.

"Laura, she's here," she heard Bill say. Then there was the murmur of a short conversation, too quiet for Kara to hear. She took the opportunity to look around the room, her gaze quickly settling on the fireplace. There were quite a few photos on the mantel above it. Many of them had a little boy who was unmistakably Lee. In some of them, he was with his father. Interestingly, though, his mother didn't seem to appear in any of the pictures until Lee was at least into his teens. Before Kara could give it too much thought, though, there was a sound of movement from the next room, and when Bill reappeared, his wife was with him, a book tucked under her arm. When she saw Kara, she set it aside and moved to shake her hand, smiling warmly.

"I'm Laura. It's nice to meet you, Kara."

"Likewise," Kara answered, nodding. Until she was sure the Adamas didn't resent her intrusion into their personal lives, it seemed best not to say too much. She waited while they settled onto a sofa on the opposite side of the coffee table from her own chair.

"You said on the phone that you wanted to talk about Lee?" Laura asked once she was seated.

"I live in his building. We met last week, and now he's staying with me while they fix some water damage in his apartment."

"Water damage?" Bill asked. Judging by the looks on both of their faces, this was news to them.

"Yeah, the people in the apartment above his flooded the place…" she trailed off, hesitating. There really didn't seem to be any reason why Lee couldn't have stayed with his family instead of with a woman he barely knew. "You haven't talked to him in a while, have you?"

Bill shook his head. "Not since the day he came back from his deployment."

Kara nodded. "I found a news article about it. How he was hurt and another pilot was killed in action. When I asked him about it, he told me they were friends."

"They were," Bill confirmed quietly, sadly. "He'd known Kat since…"

"High school," Laura supplied. "They met their junior year. They were the two best candidates for the same ROTC program, and it made them… competitive," she said with a slight smile. "Once they stopped hating each other, they became best friends."

"What happened to her?" Kara asked, wondering even as she spoke if she was going too far. Discretion never had been her strong suit.

But Bill didn't seem to mind the question. "That's what we'd like to know. She died in the same engagement where Lee was injured, but he wouldn't give us any more detail than that." He shook his head. "The day Lee came back, there was a ceremony. He'd already been officially discharged, but his actions in battle that day earned him a commendation. They gave him a medal for it, and he just stood there looking like all he wanted to do was run. He looked…"

"Lost," Laura finished softly. Despite the somber topic at hand, Kara had to hide a grin at the way Laura kept finishing her husband's sentences for him.

"He looked lost," Bill agreed. "Once it was over, we brought him here for a welcome home dinner. He barely talked all evening. And then he left, and… well, we haven't seen him since."

Kara frowned. She'd known it was a lie when Lee told her that he and his parents didn't get along. But then what reason could he possibly have for avoiding them for so long?

"So how is he?" Bill asked abruptly.

Kara got the distinct impression that he'd wanted to ask that question since the moment he'd opened the door, and could hold himself back no longer. Despite his outwardly calm appearance, she could clearly see worry for his son bleeding through.

"He's…" She hesitated, wondering for a brief moment if it would be kinder to lie. But it was obvious that they both loved Lee far too much for that. "…not so good," she finished at last.

Bill and Laura shared a quick, knowing glance, Kara's admission only confirming what they had already suspected. Bill sighed quietly. "That's what I thought."


Next time: more pieces in the puzzle of What's Wrong With Lee Adama (hint: it's not just what happened to Kat).