Lee was gone by the time that Kara came to pick up her daughter. "Were you good?" she asked the little girl as she packed up Kacey's things. The child nodded, a grin spread across her face.

Adama joined Kara, handing her the extra drawings Kacey had made. "Is there something I should know about?" he quietly asked her.

"What do you mean?" Kara asked, confused.

"How are things with Sam?"

"Fine."

"You're sure?"

"I was until a few seconds ago…What happened?"

Adama just smiled. "I think he may have some competition for the little one's affections."

That afternoon, Kacey decided she didn't want a nap, despite the fact that her mother could have used one, too. Kara decided that maybe a book would help settle the little girl down. Adama had scrounged up a couple as a gift, and so she lay down on her bed with her daughter to read.

They didn't get very far. After about five pages, Kacey started humming a little song to herself, no longer paying any attention. She giggled when Kara tickled her. "Am I boring you, kiddo?" The little girl adorably nodded. "You want a different story?" Another nod.

"I miss home," Kacey admitted. Kara sucked in a breath.

"You mean Caprica?"

"Uh-huh."

"Yeah…I miss it, too, sometimes. If you thought it was nice when you were there, you should have seen it before it got nuked."

"You lived there?"

"Sometimes, when I wasn't here on Galactica. I lived in Caprica City."

Kacey smiled. "Me, too."

In that moment, Kara realized how much she'd lost with Kacey, despite what she'd gained. She honestly couldn't say that she wouldn't have tried to kill the child if the Cylons had actually impregnated her instead of using a surrogate, but looking back, she wished she could have seen her daughter as a baby, could have raised her herself and known everything about her like good parents are supposed to.

"One day we'll be on a planet again," she told the little girl. "We'll find Earth, and you'll know what it's like to live on a planet that hasn't been bombed within an inch of nonexistence. You'll see what life was like before – peaceful and happy."

Kacey offered a sleepy smile, curling up at her mother's side and closing her eyes. Kara couldn't help but laugh. "Oh, NOW you're sleepy, huh? You really are my kid."

Lee was supposed to be getting work done that afternoon, but found his attention wandering. The quarters he'd been given were doubling as his office, and he'd tacked up Kacey's picture on the wall beside his desk. He hadn't managed to bring much of anything from the Pegasus, and regretted the fact that he'd lost just about every memento from his life before the holocaust, as well as the few things he'd accumulated in the years after. So now Kacey's picture was all he had to decorate with.

Looking at the clock, he realized that it was approaching dinnertime. He could have eaten alone, like he'd been doing for the past couple days, but he was getting tired of it. Putting down his pen and the reports he'd been attempting to fill out, Lee left his quarters and headed down the hall, stopping to knock on the hatch as he reached his destination.

Kara had sleepy eyes and slightly mussed hair when she opened the door. "Sorry," Lee automatically said. "I didn't know you'd be sleeping."

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Nothing, I just…I was heading to the mess and wondered if you and Kacey wanted to come."

Kara looked behind her. "She's not awake yet. Give us…a half hour? We'll come by your place."

"Sure."

As Lee made another futile attempt at his paperwork, he wondered if he'd lost his mind. Kacey's picture had been an attempt on the little girl's part to make him feel better, but it didn't change anything. As much as he had come to care for her and her mother, they weren't his family. Pretending just to make himself feel better wasn't fair to anyone. He was about to get up and go cancel – tell Kara that something came up on the deck or some lame excuse like that – when he heard a knock on the open frame of his hatch. Kara was there in off-duty clothes, Kacey on her hip.

"Ready?" she asked him.

"Um, yeah."

They got trays of food and found a table in the corner of the officer's mess. Kacey amused Lee by making shapes with her mashed potatoes. "I think Mount Potato is about to erupt," he teasingly told her, pouring gravy into the dip in her little mountain until the brown liquid began running down the sides. She giggled happily, poking a finger at their creation.

"Watch it," Kara warned him, "Unless you're going to clean her up later."

"Your mom's no fun, is she?" Lee asked Kacey, who laughed at the look Kara rewarded him with.

"Something going on I should know about?" a voice asked. Kara spun to see Sam behind her.

"What are you – I thought you were working all day?"

"I got off early. Figured I'd come home, we could celebrate…Wasn't expecting this."

"I didn't know that you'd be back. Lee suggested dinner, so we came. Pull up another chair; I'll go get you a plate."

"Don't bother. I wouldn't want to interrupt."

Kara rolled her eyes. "Sam – "

"Hey, it's okay, I'll go," Lee offered. "I've got work to do anyway." However, Kacey caught his fingers as he tried to get up, not letting him leave. "I'll see you later," he promised her. That little scene didn't escape Sam or Kara's attention.

"What the frak is going on?" the ex-pyramid player asked his wife.

Kara was getting annoyed with the caveman routine. "We are not doing this here, and we're not doing it in front of her." She turned to Lee. "You mind staying with her 'til she finishes eating? You can drop her off with Helo or – "

"It's fine," he replied.

"Like hell," Sam cut in. This was HIS wife, HIS family. He'd fought too long and too hard to let Lee Adama ruin it now. He'd won the 'battle' for Kara a year earlier; there was no need for round two.

Sam reached to get Kacey himself, but the little girl slipped away with a small shriek, sliding off her chair to hide under the table. He was entirely surprised to feel Kara's fist smash into his jaw. Caught off balance, he couldn't do anything but watch from his newly-found seat on the floor as Kara pulled Kacey out from her hiding spot and turned toward the door.

"Go home," she tensely told her husband. "I'll be there later." Lee followed her out.

TBC...