Chapter Three

"Look at this," Lee said, proudly. He placed his index finger next to Kaylee's clenched fist. He stroked the skin for a second, waiting for her to reflexively open her fingers and then placed his own inside and watched as she curled her tiny digits around it. Lee beamed up at his dad who smiled back indulgently.

"Looks like she knows her daddy," William said, his voice thick with the memory of his own eldest child at the same age.

Lee caught his father's gaze and flushed. "Well, she doesn't do much else but if she hears mine or Kara's voice, she'll look around until she finds us. That's kind of fun."

"Your mother would spend hours playing peek-a-boo with you and Zak. You thought it was the funniest thing in the world."

They didn't talk about Zak or their childhood often cause it inevitably led to dredging up the less pleasant aspects of their family. Lee could never imagine walking out on Kara and this beautiful creature they had created together.

But he was happy. His father hadn't been. That took a lot of time to understand but Lee felt, ironically that his own happy marriage helped him better sympathize with his father's misery. William had loved Caroline, but not more than he loved to fly. Lee loved Kara and this little girl, Kaylee Caroline Adama more than his own life. Nothing compared; not flying, not the military. Perhaps in that way he was more his more his mother's son than his father's.

Little Kaylee opened her eyes and lifted her head slightly for a brief few seconds, staring at her grandfather with great interest, then blew a moist air bubble at him.

"Nice to see you too, little soldier." He looked to Lee for permission and then dug into the bassinet Tigh had managed to trade a bottle of ambrosia for on one of the other ships.

Lee nodded, though irked at his father's nickname for Kaylee. If he had his way, his daughter would never join the military.

"Watch her head," Lee cautioned as he usually did.

William gave Lee a small indulgent smile. "She's not the first baby I've held, you know?"

"I'll give you 500 cubits for her." Kara said coming into the room. She yawned and tossed her clipboard on the bed.

"Late night?" William asked.

"Oh my God. Do you know babies eat, like, twenty times a day? My tits haven't seen this much action since my first year at the Academy. As soon as I drift off it's 'waaaaaaahhhh!' " Kara climbed on to the bed and curled up then lifted her head and glanced blearily up at Lee's father. "That was too much information for you, wasn't it, Sir?"

"Yes, Starbuck. It was. But I'll take into account that you're sleep deprived," William replied, fighting a smile.

"I love you both but get out and if you have any affection for me at all, you'll take her with you." Kara dropped her head back on the pillow and closed her eyes.

"All right. We'll bring her back in a couple of hours," Lee leaned down and reached down to kiss his wife but she sleepily pushed at his face with a dismissive shove.

"Nghhh,"

Lee sneaked in a kiss on her forehead and left her to rest.

"It's not only the feedings that are keeping her up at night," he admitted to his father as he closed the hatch and followed William down the hall. "Sometimes I'll wake up and she's just staring at her. Just staring into the crib."

"It's your first child. Fascination is to be expected."

"I think it's because of Jamie."

"Ah," William nodded in understanding.

"We never saw him…like this," Lee's gaze dropped lovingly to the baby in his father's arms. His heart squeezed with a brief burst of grief. It hurt him as well that he'd never got to hold his son but it would do no good to dump that sadness on Kara now. She was going through her own tough time. "I think she's afraid that we're gonna lose Kaylee too. It's as if she's afraid to go to sleep because when she wakes up Kaylee will disappear."

"This is a ship, Lee, where's she going to go?"

"Dad, I know that. It's Kara."

"Maybe she should talk to Elosha?"

"I thought about that. Maybe you could suggest it?" Lee asked with a grimace as they turned a corner. A few people waved and Cally and Dualla stopped to fawn over Kaylee for a second before moving on.

"Me huh?" William asked with a knowing smile. "You're her husband."

"Yes, but she's less likely to deck you for suggesting it. You could make it an order."

"I could. But I'm not going to. You two need to work this out together."

"I could make a comment about how you should have been this wise with mom but I'm not going to," Lee said, narrowing his eyes.

William agreed to watch Kaylee for a few hours. Lee walked through the corridors of Galactica and found himself ironically in the chapel.

He didn't feel the peace Kara said she found here, his mind was always racing with a thousand different thoughts and worries to be able to clear it enough to actually hear the voices of the Gods. Kara said she heard them. Or, felt them was more what she meant. Lee liked it here cause it was quiet. Even with the rumbling low hum of the ship, there was a stillness in this room. Funny, he thought with a snort. Here, Kara hears the Gods. Here, Lee hears the silence. He had never been all that sure the Gods existed at all. Maybe they were just something the world created to make themselves feel better? To make sense of things they didn't understand.

But now, when he looks at Kaylee, he can't help but wonder. Is she a gift from the Gods. She's too perfect and beautiful to be simply a mix of genetics, a scientific action/reaction law resulting in flesh and bone. What made the spark happen in that specific second that started Kaylee's life inside of Kara? Was that proof of the Gods?

On the wall behind the altar, where the colony flags ran from left to right, were the tiny metal plaques the crew had started putting up a few years ago to commemorate those they lost.

Lee searched out one that had been put up last year, by his father as a gift to him and Kara. In tiny metal lettering was his son's name, placed there on the day of his memorial service. Jamie Zakary Adama.