Lee and Kara had been walking for over an hour and so far they hadn't found anything of interest.
"This planet is as dead as Caprica. We haven't even seen any animals so far." Kara complained.
"Maybe that'll change their mind on the settlement." Lee said hopefully.
"You think so?"
"Not really." He sighed.
They walked again in silence for a while until Kara started speaking again.
"You know, maybe there's a Planetgate here somewhere."
"It's called a Stargate."
"Whatever … if there is one, we'd still make it to earth."
"The preliminary scans of this planet didn't show any signs of civilization. So why should there be a Stargate here?"
"I don't know … Think more optimistically, Lee." Kara said grinning.
"And that coming from you." Lee smirked.
"Well, things are finally going good for me, so I have every reason to. I'm CAG … okay, maybe that's not so good because of the paperwork, but at least now I'm the one giving orders, that's fun." She looked at Lee with her trademark-Starbuck-grin. "And I found Anders. And that's the best thing that happened to me so far. So now it's your turn to get some happiness."
"I am happy." Lee replied offended.
"Yes, but I know how much you want to find earth … because of her. I can see it in your eyes." Kara said quietly.
Lee opened his mouth to respond, but he was at a loss of words. She was right … Sam was the most important reason why he wanted to find earth. He probably would be okay to stay here if that wouldn't mean that he'd never see her again outside of their dreams. So instead of saying anything, he just shrugged his shoulders.
They continued to walk in silence again. About an hour later they had reached the end of the woods they had been walking through and stepped onto a meadow. Lee suddenly froze in his tracks and stared at the space ahead of them. Surprised Kara looked at him.
"What's wrong?"
Instead of replying to her question, Lee kept staring at the meadow. Kara followed his glance, but couldn't see anything suspicious.
"Lee? … Lee! Starbuck to Apollo, do you read?" She started waving her hand in front of his eyes.
That finally pulled him out of his haze. "Wh-what?"
"What are you staring at?" Kara asked impatiently.
"That …" Lee pointed vaguely at the meadow. "This is just like … but it can't be, I mean …" He swallowed. "I'm awake, this can't be it, but it looks exactly like it."
Confused Kara looked at him. "Lee, you're not making any sense."
"This looks exactly like the place in my dreams."
XXXXXXX
"So, what do you say? A weekend at the cottage, fishing, having fun … Teal'c is coming too." Jack asked grinning. He had been looking forward to this free weekend and he was determined to make the best of it … which in this case was going fishing with his friends.
"Uhm … I really have lots of things to do." Sam replied evasively.
"What kind of things? Don't tell me you're working in your lab. Daniel already said no because he had some research to do." Jack flinched. He couldn't understand how anyone could work voluntarily during his free time.
"Well, actually …" Sam's voice trailed off and she looked apologetically at Jack. "I have this project I'm working on and …"
"You two are unbelievable."
Sam wanted to reply something, but at that moment they stepped out of the woods and the words stuck in her mouth. Frozen she stared at the meadow in front of her.
Jack stopped walking when he noticed that Sam wasn't at his side anymore. When he saw her staring at the meadow, he tried to find out what she was looking at. In that moment he saw two people standing on the other side and quickly raised his gun. He had expected for Sam to do the same … they never knew who they were encountering when they visited a new planet and they could never be too careful. But instead of raising her gun, Sam just stared at the meadow in front of them.
"Sam?" He cast a quick look at her, but didn't dare to take his eyes of the two strangers for too long. They didn't seem to have noticed them yet.
"That's impossible." Sam muttered.
"What's wrong?"
Before he could stop her, Sam had started walking on the meadow. Cursing Jack followed her, his eyes never leaving the two strangers on the other side. He was determined to pull Sam back to the safety of the woods should anything happen.
XXXXXXX
"It what?" Kara looked at Lee as if he had lost his mind. "Frak Lee, you know that's …" Suddenly her eyes noticed a movement on the meadow. She saw two people walking towards them, one holding something up that looked a lot like a weapon. "Frak, Lee, we gotta go."
When he didn't move, she tried to pull him backwards. But he had seen the people too … and he had recognized them. Pulling out of Kara's grasp he began walking towards them, his pace quickening with every step.
"Lee, damn it." Kara swore. She raised her sidearm and quickly followed him … and then she recognized them too. "Frak me."
XXXXXXX
Sam saw Lee walking towards her across the meadow. She had to be dreaming, this couldn't be true. She quickened her steps. She could feel her hands shaking in anticipation. Could this be real? Was he really here?
He was only a few feet away from her when she started running. And then he was standing in front of her. Hardly believing her eyes, she slung her arms around his neck. She could feel his hands on her back, going through her hair. His lips met hers and they stood tightly embraced, kissing each other, neither of them willing to let go.
They forgot everything around them. They didn't notice the surprised looks of their friends who had accompanied them, they didn't notice the time passing and they didn't notice the butterflies flying around them as they stood tightly together.
XXXXXXX
Both Kara and Jack looked at each other uncomfortably.
"Hi, uhm, you're Thrace, right?" Jack finally asked after a long moment of silence.
"Yeah, and you are ..." Kara cursed inwardly. She usually had a good memory when it came to names, but she had only met this guy once. Why did he have to remember her name?
"Jack O'Neil." He replied, holding out his hand.
"Right." Kara said quickly as she took his hand. "So, uhm … you're a Colonel?" She said after a moment, pointing at his pins.
"Yeah." Jack said surprised. "Funny that we have the same rank system."
"Yeah, funny." Kara replied dryly. This was probably the weirdest conversation she ever had. She just hoped Lee and his girlfriend would let go of each other soon.
But it took both Sam and Lee a long time before they were finally willing to let go. Slowly they pulled away from each other, their hands still tightly entwined though.
"I don't believe this." Sam whispered. "When I woke up this morning, I thought I would never see you again like this and ... here you are."
"How …?" Lee began but stopped himself. There was only one way how Sam could have come here. "We didn't find any signs of civilization. How can there be a Stargate here?"
"I don't care as long as it brought us together." Sam replied, smiling happily. She felt as if her heart would explode of joy. Lee was really here, standing right next to her. She didn't dare let go of his hand. She didn't want him to leave again.
"How can we even be here? This place looks exactly …"
" … like our meadow, I know." Sam finished for him. "I have no idea … but you're here." She beamed with joy.
"Yeah …" Lee looked as happy as she. "And there are no Cylons nearby, so …"
"… so there is enough time to bring all your people to the Stargate."
"I need to contact my father. We need to start planning …"
"… and I will notify General Hammond. We'll start building an evacuation camp right away. It should only take a few days, by now we're prepared for this kind of thing."
"And by the end of the week, we could all be living on earth." Lee said smiling.
"I hate to interrupt you two, but maybe we should inform Hammond and your … father of this before you make any more plans." Jack cut into their conversation.
Suddenly Sam realized that she would have to leave Lee again if she'd be going back to earth and he to the Galactica. When she looked at Lee, she could see in his eyes that he had just realized the same thing.
"We could wait a few hours …" She started. But at the same time she knew that wouldn't be a smart idea. They should get started with this as soon as possible.
"You know, I could return to the Galactica by myself and inform the Admiral and you could stay here and …" Kara waved her hand at the meadow. "…. do what you want to do."
"Then he'd have to stay here on his own, because I'm not leaving Sam behind." Jack said determinedly. He'd be damned if he left here without her. If anything were to happen to her, he would never forgive himself that.
"I wouldn't be on my own." Sam objected. But once again she knew that she couldn't stay. She was in the military too long to just ignore the rules and she knew Lee well enough to know that he felt the same way.
"We can meet here again first thing in the morning." Lee said. He could see what was going through Sam's mind. He hated leaving her again so soon. But the sooner they started getting the people through the gate, the better. He didn't really trust the truce with the Cylons. Should they decide to follow the fleet after all, they'd better be gone long before that.
"You're right." Sam sighed defeated. "So I'll see you tonight?" She said quietly.
Lee nodded and pulled her into an embrace. "And every day after that."
TBC
A.N.: Thanks to Laurie for beta reading. :) And thank you all for your great feedback.
