She's still asleep when he wakes up the next morning, but her stomach is already rumbling, and he wonders how and what exactly she's been fed for the past few weeks.
He bullies the marines into getting them some breakfast, and when he goes back into the room, she's already in the shower. He walks in on her, because he's curious as to whether or not she's lost weight. At least, that's what he tells her when she raises her eyebrow and him and berates him for ungentlemanly behavior.
For a second, he panics, wondering if maybe this isn't okay after all. Perhaps she just seemed to want him while she was in his head, but doesn't anymore now that she's actually back.
She's grinning though, and she certainly doesn't look like she's going to make him leave.
In fact, two minutes later, Kara, model of colonial efficiency that she is, has decided that he should join in on the showering. She's forgotten to give him time to get his sleepwear off before pulling him under the spray, but it's a small detail in the grand scheme of things, so Lee refrains from screeching at her.
It turns out that she is a little thinner. It's not terribly obvious, but Lee's spent the past few weeks talking to her phantom form, and the months before that staring furtively, and he'd damn well better be an expert on Kara Thrace by now.
He's seriously considering engaging in some more Kara-study, when someone knocks on the door. Lee assumes it's the marine, come bearing food. He towels off, but doesn't bother to change out of his sopping wet clothes.
Turns out that it is the marine, but he's not alone. Helo and Sharon trail in after him. All four of them stare at each other, frozen, until the marine breaks the spell by shoving the food at Helo and exiting post-haste. Sharon is trying hard not to giggle, and Helo looks like he might be thinking about going into big-brother protective mode and demanding to know what Lee's intentions are towards one Kara Thrace. By the time Kara emerges from the shower, fluffy towel and all, Lee is tomato red and Sharon is leaning on Helo to keep from falling over with laughter.
Kara takes it all in, then focuses on the food in Helo's hands.
"You brought breakfast! Sharon, I shall have to fight you for him. I want him for my very own."
Sharon makes a rude gesture, and even though Lee knows Kara's kidding, he can't keep a tiny frisson of jealousy from running through him. "Hey!" he says, "I'm the one that called for food."
"Oh," Kara says. "You'll do then. Sharon, you're off the hook."
"Thanks," Sharon says dryly, but Kara isn't paying any attention. She's too busy looking at Lee, and her face is slowly breaking into a smile. He returns it; he can't not. It's the first time he's ever been allowed to be jealous over her.
The grin slides off his face as soon as she walks into the other room to change. His heart starts beating and he has trouble listening to what Helo is trying to say to him. Once Kara comes back, fully dressed and her hair brushed, Lee tries to convince himself that he did not almost have a panic attack merely because he couldn't see her for a few minutes. He realizes that he may have a few more issues to work through than he'd previously thought.
"Mmmm…," she says, sniffing the breakfast rations carefully. "Algae. This I did not miss."
She cleans her entire plate anyway, and chats with Helo and Sharon about all that she's missed since she's been gone. They're not allowed to talk about strategy or new intelligence, not that they have either, so they deliberately keep the conversation light. Hotdog has been pining after one of the cooks. Hera is doing well. The President's assistant Tory starting sobbing for no reason in the middle of the mess hall last week, and there's now a new stress-reduction program in place on Galactica.
Lee wraps his arm around Kara's shoulders and lets the words drift over him, focusing instead on the way Kara feels next to him. She's warm, and her voice is soothing, and even though Lee only woke up an hour or so ago, he's ready to be lulled back to sleep.
The next thing he knows, he's tucked under a blanket on the couch, and Kara is calmly sipping tea with his father and the President.
"We'd like to take you to sickbay to run some more tests, and ask a few more questions," the President is saying.
"Of course," Kara replies. "Just let me wake Lee."
"He won't be coming," his father says, and now Lee is really awake.
"Yes I…" Lee doesn't even get the chance to finish his sentence.
"I don't recall giving you a choice in this matter. I have been more than accommodating already, and I will not allow personal feelings to get in the way of this investigation."
Lee thinks that's a riot, after the way the Baltar investigation went. He tells his father so, and things degenerate from there.
In the end, the President has to hold his father back, and Kara practically throws him onto the sofa and then sits on him so that he can't get back up.
"You're so much alike," she tells him as he sputters a denial. "But he's right on this one. He can't afford to trust me. Not yet. I'm going to go to sickbay now. I'll be back in a few hours."
Lee can't afford not to trust her, and once again his dad and he are squarely on opposite sides.
Frak.
He watches them leave with a rising sense of dread. The President says something to his father, though, and the end result is that his father stays in the room with him.
"Son," he starts, "I know that…"
"No you don't, Dad. You have no idea." Lee is tired, and he doesn't want to fight, and it's been a long time since his father called by anything but his rank.
"No," Adama says slowly, looking at Lee for what feels like the first time in a long time. "No, I suppose I don't. Why don't you tell me?"
Because I don't trust you, Lee thinks. Because you've hurt me and humiliated me. Because I blame you for the death of my brother, because you left me, because you won't believe me no matter what I say.
Then he remembers Kara's hands over his on the controls of the new fighter. "I can change," she'd said. And she had, in all sorts of tiny ways that had brought them to this point, made it possible for them to work together instead of clash as they raced towards the same goal. She'd hurt him too, but he'd given her another chance.
"Do you remember when you taught me how to ride a bike?" Lee asks, and he can tell that his father is a little nonplussed by the question, but he's also willing to listen, and that's probably half the battle.