Chapter 8

Kara turned over slowly as her mind started to wake up. She groaned a little, feeling very warm and comfortable in Lee's arms, however the baby was pushing up against her bladder and she had to get up. She wrapped the sheet around herself as she slid out of bed, trying not to disturb the sleeping form next to her.

Coming back from the bathroom, she paused when she glanced at a small velvet box next to Lee's rumpled uniform jacket laying on the kitchen table. She leaned over and picked it up, opening it to gaze at it's contents. Eyes open wide, she walked back to their bedroom where Lee was sleeping peacefully.

"What the frak is this?" Kara questioned loudly.

"What?" Lee mumbled groggily as he rolled over to face Kara.

"What the frak is this?" Kara repeated very patiently in her opinion.

He squinted his eyes to make out the fuzzy black shape in her hand. "Those are major's pins. You should know that," Lee replied rolling back over away from Kara.

Kara rolled her eyes as she crawled in the bed behind Lee. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

Lee made a loud snoring sound, clearly trying to send a message to Kara that he wanted to sleep and not talk about this. Kara reached over and tickled Lee's bare sides. He let out a yelp as he flipped over to face Kara.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" Kara repeated seriously, searching Lee's eyes for an answer.

"I don't know. I didn't want to spoil the mood last night."

"You being promoted would spoil the mood. Is this bad news or good news?"

Lee sighed, "I don't know. What do you think?"

"It doesn't matter how I feel, it's how you feel. Do you not want this?" Kara asked.

Lee thought about this silently as he studied Kara's concerned face. "No I don't."

"Why?"

"I'm tired of responsibility. It's kind of like I was shoved into being a cag. I never wanted to move my way up in the military. I always thought that I could just spend the rest of my life being a viper pilot. But, it just so happens that I'm needed to be a cag."

Kara nodded understandingly. "You should have told your father this."

"I couldn't. He has nobody else. These are hard times and it is slim picking for people qualified for promotion. I mean if it hadn't been for the end of the world, I probably would have never been cag."

"No, I don't believe that for a second. You are an amazing leader, like your father. One way or the other you would have found your way into a position of responsibility. And being a major doesn't mean you will stop being our cag, does it? I mean you like being a cag now don't you?"

Lee smiled. "I can think of a few perks. I don't think I will be moved around at the moment."

"Good," Kara spoke resolutely, leaning over for a quick kiss.

"I'm surprised you are taking this so well," Lee told Kara.

"What do you mean. I don't care if you are promoted or not, it's how you feel about it."

"You haven't thought about it all the way through have you?" Lee took Kara's blank stare as a no. "There is now an opening for captain. You are probably going to be promoted to Captain."

A look of dread slowly fell on Kara's face. "Son of a bitch. No way in hell am I going to be promoted."

"It's only fair that if I move up so do you. I might have even suggested the promotion to the old man."

There was no mistaking the angry look on Kara's face. "Lee Anthony Adama! I swear to the gods if you did, I will kick your ass to the middle of next week."

Lee laughed loudly, pulling Kara into his arms and capturing her lips into a sweet kiss. He felt Kara's anger fade as he deepened the kiss. Maybe life would be alright after all, was Lee's final coherent thought as he lost himself in Kara.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Keep your hands over your eyes," Lee ordered Kara as he pulled her into the second room of their 'apartment'.

"Is this going to be some grand, romantic gesture that shows how much you truly love me?" Kara questioned, fighting the urge to inch her fingers away from her eyes.

"Yes, that's what it is," Lee answered honestly, placing Kara into the middle of the room.

"That's exciting. Is it diamonds?"

Lee chuckled, "nope, didn't really take you for the diamond kind of gal."

Kara smiled, "I'm not. I just wanted to rule out the worse, and move my way up. Is it booze?"

"Wrong again. Why don't you find out for yourself," he told her, pulling her hands from her eyes.

Kara looked around her seeing nothing but the bare walls. While trying to to see why Lee brought her hear she had to catch herself from tripping over something as she turned in circles. Looking down, her eyes started to fill up with tears at the beautiful sight before her.

"What? How? Is it real?" Kara wondered as she searched Lee's eyes for some sign of humor to prove that this had to be a joke.

"Yeah, it's real paint. A while back ago Helo told me about your apartment and how you had done a lot of painting on the side. Lately, I have been thinking about this room and I thought we could paint it. So I went to the chief and he helped me out. Sorry, there is only red, black, and blue, but I figured it was better than nothing. Do you like it?"

Kara could barely speak, as she gazed down to the cans on the floor. "It's the most wonderful gift that anybody has ever given me."

Lee smiled shyly, happy that he got the gift right. "I'm glad you liked it. I figured you would enjoy painting the room for the baby."

"I'd love to." She looked around surveying the walls, and then looking down at the paint cans along with the metal containers to mix colors in. However, she did notice something missing. "Um, where are the brushes?"

"I couldn't get a hold of any, Chief said they didn't have any to spare, so you are going to have to do without."

Kara just shrugged, not really caring. She quickly slipped off her top so she was just in her tanks and slacks. She threw the clothes outside of the room and bent down, swirling her finger in the red paint. She had no idea of what to draw for their baby, but that was nothing really knew to her. She never knew what she was going to paint when she started a project, she just let her hand move, as if it had a life of its own, telling some story that was only known after it was done. Taking her hand out of the paint, she stood up towards the closest wall and made a large sweeping motion across the wall, leaving a trail of red paint where her hand had been.

Lee watched happily, as he saw Kara transport to a place he had never seen before. Her face was relaxed and content, obviously not registering anything outside of the little bubble that was her world at this moment. However, eventually Kara did notice that he was staring at her and turned to catch him in the act. She was rewarded by a slight blush on Lee's cheeks.

"Perv," Kara spat at Lee.

Lee rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry that I just wanted to see you enjoy this gift I gave you."

"Well, you can enjoy it too."

"Me? I have no artistic skills whatsoever. It would be a waste."

"I doubt that, nobody has no artistic skills."

"You wouldn't say that if you had seen some of my artwork when I was in school."

"I don't want to hear it. It's not fair for our child to have a room that was decorated by just one of their parents."

Lee felt a jolt course through his body briefly when he heard her refer to the baby as theirs. He was so happy to hear that was how she was thinking of it. Kara never seized to amaze him, and the joy of thinking of this child as being his, maybe not by blood but his all the same, always gave him such a great feeling of excitement.

Kara took his pause as surrender. "You are in charge of that wall over there," Kara pointed to the wall opposite her. "Work your way around and we will meet up on the side wall."

Lee nodded and slowly bent down, hesitantly dipping his finger in the black paint. The cold, viscous liquid felt foreign to his hand, he had no idea what to do with it. Finally, deciding nothing was going to come to him by just swirling the paint, he stood up at his wall and did the first thing that came to his mind, he drew a smiley face. Laughing a little to himself, he continued by giving the face a stick body, even a little stick dog.

Both got caught up in their art as they worked to the middle of the room. Kara was now working on a beautiful sunset that took up the whole wall, although it had a slightly different feeling as there was no yellow. The colors were harsh and bold, but somehow the greater picture was pretty, including dark trees standing against the sky.

In contrast was Lee's side, which looked like a small child's drawings. The wall was full of stick figures, hand prints, and squiggly drawings. Merging in the middle was a mess of colors as they tried to blend what they were doing together. Somehow it worked, and the room looked completed.

They stood back to survey their work, and both had to laugh at the sight in front of them. If it hadn't been enough of a guarantee that their child would be weird because of its parents, then this room would make the child crazy. Kara looked at the room and loved it, it was exactly she would want her child to be. In one last moment of impulse, she went forward, dipped her finger in the black paint and wrote above her sunset, Gnōthi seauton.

"What does that mean?" Lee asked.

"In the old language it means 'know yourself', something my father told me before he left."

"Good advice," Lee consented.

Kara agreed as went over to give Lee a sweet kiss in thank you. She reached up and stroked his cheek, remembering she still had wet paint on her hands.

She stepped back to see Lee's shocked face. "Oh so we are playing that game are we?"

Kara giggled, seeing the black paint streaks down his face. "I don't know what you are talking about? I completely forgot that I had the paint on my hands."

"Why don't I believe you?'"

"It's not my problem that you have trust issues."

"You are the reason I have trust issues," he told her as he bent down sliding his hand over the paint. Quickly he flicked his hand up and speckled Kara with paint.

Kara gasped, "I can't believe you just did that." Leaning down, she submerged her hand in the paint and then sent paint in Lee's direction.

That started a full on paint fight that left the walls sprinkled with paint and the two participants covered in paint. The two collapsed laughing into each other's arm. Lee felt very comfortable with Kara in his arms. He felt the ring pressing against his leg in his pocket. He was about to propose, but something stopped him, feeling that maybe this wasn't his chance. He knew that it was probably just his nerves talking, but he wanted it to be perfect, and this moment wasn't right. That's what he chose to keep telling himself.

A/N-No excuses for the lateness...just kept forgetting about writing. I'm trying to fix that however. I just want to say, I have not forgotten about this story, and I have two more chapters to write. I will try to get those out in the near future, but who really knows. And the phrase is greek for know yourself and according to wikipedia, that phrase was over the entrance to the tomb of Apollo in Delphi. Hope to see y'all again soon. Thank you for the reviews, I enjoy them greatly and they keep me going.