Lee Adama took a hell of a lot longer than three minutes to find his shirts, pants, and boots. The embarrassment he'd seen on his father's face had told him that the eldest Adama wouldn't be likely to stick his head back into the room anytime soon. Still, he did dress quickly, unwilling to press his luck.
Kara looked somewhere between angry and miserable. He knew it went against everything she believed, everything she was, to allow him to handle this for her, but he also felt it was his responsibility. She would have been out of the bed twenty minutes ago if she'd had her way, and only his coaxing had kept her there. What made his own guilt even worse was that this had been exactly what she'd been afraid of, only in the worst possible way.
As for his own emotions, Lee couldn't hope to sort them out. On the one hand, he was furious that his father had entered without at least knocking. On the other hand, he was CAG and on duty, so he should have been available. Even when he was off duty, someone or another always seemed to be in his office with one problem or another. Going off duty didn't seem to make a damned bit of difference. Lee was also worried, but not for himself. As senior ranking, he might get a slap on the wrist, or at worst a written reprimand, but Kara had been right about what this could do to her reputation. She had worked hard to build respect with her teams, and sleeping with the boss was a sure way to destroy that respect and replace it with speculation and innuendo. Finally, he was embarrassed. While Zak had been caught in a clinch by their parents more than once, Lee had never managed to get caught. There was something about your parents knowing what you did in the bedroom that seemed just plain wrong, even when he believed that what he had been doing was anything but wrong. Hell, nothing had ever felt so right in his life.
He held on to that last thought as he eased the quiet hatch open and then closed, squeezing himself out so that his father couldn't see who else was inside. He shouldn't have worried. His father was standing politely at parade rest facing the opposite door of the room – the door that led to the main squadron quarters.
Lee stood there in silence for a moment, but his father neither turned nor spoke. After a while, it grated on Lee's nerves. Best to get this over with, he decided. "You wanted to see me?" he asked, keeping his voice level by the power of pure will. Inside, he was shaking.
"Are you aware of the duty roster, Captain?"
So this was how they were going to play it. The Commander and his troop. Lee could live with that. "Yes, Sir. I wrote the duty roster."
"And is this where you feel your time on duty is to be spent?" the Commander asked.
"As a rule, no," he admitted. "However, you'll note that I've logged twice as many working hours when I was supposed to be off duty, so if you want to consider it compensation time I'm sure I can find documentation to justify a couple of hours off."
Abruptly his father turned, and the cross between fury and disappointment was almost more than Lee could stand. He'd always looked up to his father, nearly idolized him, and therefore he had always wanted to please him. Absently he wondered if that had been why he'd taken Zak's death so badly – if it had been more than anger at his father's expectations – if it had been his father's falling from the pedestal Lee had placed him on. In any case, the disappointment he saw in those brown eyes was something he couldn't face, so he focused his attention on his father's forehead, unconsciously standing at attention.
"Your mother raised you better than this," Adama said quietly.
"Better than what?" Lee asked, anger coming to replace the embarrassment he'd begun to feel. "Better than to need someone?"
"Better than to sleep with someone you hardly know," he said in clear annoyance. "You've only been on ship for ten days; there's not a single person you know well enough to…"
"It's been a long ten days," Lee told him quietly.
"Is she under your command?" Adama asked, his voice returning to its professional tone.
He could have lied, but why bother. "Yes, Sir," Lee admitted.
"So now we have Failure to Report, Conduct Unbecoming an Officer, and Fraternization to go with the PDA."
"My bedroom is not public," Lee argued. He didn't want to touch the rest of the charges.
"It is when you're in command," the Commander corrected, his voice rising.
"So I can't have a life?" Lee yelled back. "I'm supposed to keep skulking around in closed-off corridors if I need to be close to someone?"
"You're supposed to use some discretion," his father corrected, loudly.
Lee gritted his jaw, doing his best not to say something that would get him stuck in the brig for insubordination on top of everything else. He watched his father's angry face turn slightly, saw his expression change to one of surprise, and then go strangely blank. Lee closed his eyes in frustration. He should have known she wouldn't have stayed put. He wished that damned door weren't so quiet; he would have liked some warning.
Despite the silence of the hatch behind him, Lee wasn't surprised when Kara slipped her hand into his and squeezed. He squeezed back because he needed her presence to center him at the moment, but he was furious that she hadn't listened. He could have kept her out of this.
"Sir, if you're going to punish one of us, you need to punish both of us," she said softly. "I'm as much responsible as he is."
William Adama was at a total loss for words. Lee would have found it funny if the situation hadn't been so frakking serious. Kara was taking a big chance – putting her rank and reputation on the line – and nothing she said would change the charges that he was facing. Lee didn't have a clue why Kara thought it was better for both of them to be in trouble rather than just him.
"Are you on duty, Starbuck?" his father finally asked.
"No, Sir. I have mids, so I go on at fifteen hundred," she answered.
"Then you're excused," he said firmly.
"No, Sir," she repeated.
"Kara," Lee began, turning to face her.
"No," she told him with a glare. "I came to you, remember?
"Kara…" he began, but his father didn't give him a chance to finish.
"Lieutenant Thrace, report to quarters until you report for duty. Now."
"Sir…" she began.
"That's an order," he clarified. His voice held no compromise.
Kara looked at him for a moment, saluted his father, and then turned to Lee. Placing a hand on either side of his face, she kissed his lips gently. He was so stunned that she would do this – under the circumstances and in front of his father – that he didn't even think to pull away.
"It was worth it," she told him softly, and then turned to walk past the Commander without another word, and out the main hatchway of the room.
Lee took a deep breath, still reeling from both her words and actions, and totally unprepared for what he saw on his father's face. Instead of the anger that had been there before, he saw a kind of sadness that he couldn't begin to understand.
"You're needed on the flight deck," his father said in a quiet voice, much different from the one he'd used before, even when he'd been talking to Kara. "That's why I came in. You've never been late to report, and there was concern that you might be ill. As it appears you are… fit for duty, you may as well get down there and do your job."
"Yes, Sir," Lee said quietly, feeling just a pang of guilt at losing track of time and shirking his responsibilities. "And… I'm sorry."
His father had turned to go, but now he turned back to look at his son for a long moment. "I believe you," he said. "But are you sorry for what you've done, or sorry that you got caught?"
Lee thought about that for a moment, and decided to go with honesty. "I'm sorry that my timing was inappropriate," he finally said.
His father gave him a nod of acknowledgement and then left the room. Lee took a deep breath, and then another, and finally felt steady enough to grab the work shirt from the back of his desk chair and head down to the flight deck to see what emergency had ruined a perfectly good morning.
When Lee made it down to the flight deck, he was surprised to see that despite his father's concerns, no one seemed to have even noticed his absence. He supposed he shouldn't be; he was always in his office doing paperwork, assisting with repairs, checking with CIC, or tracking down one person or another at his discretion. As Commander of the Air Group, he pretty much did whatever he thought was necessary and wasn't questioned. In retrospect, he could see how his father might interpret the situation as him taking advantage of the privilege. That wasn't it, of course; Lee had just lost track of time. He'd been so involved with Kara, and in feeling just plain human, that he'd not bothered to glance at the clock.
Just the fact that she could take his mind off work was something that was pretty special. Lee hadn't experienced that before. Yet as the day wore on, routine tasks and minor emergencies in just about equal measure, he found his thoughts drifting to her more often than he liked to admit. He was supposed to have reported for duty at seven, and worked through until nineteen-hundred. Kara would come on duty at fifteen-hundred, and he found himself watching for her as the time neared. He had her on eight-hour shifts because the repairs and general maintenance she did required more than a little concentration. For himself, he was on twelve-hour rotations, leaving him accessible to both early and mid watch. It had been just after nine when his father had come through the door, so Lee planned to work straight through until twenty-two-hundred to make up the time. It wasn't much, but it would at least appease some of his personal guilt, and if it kept him closer to Kara for two hours more, then he'd just have to live with it.
Frak. How had he gotten himself into this? It was just supposed to be comfort – two friends being there for one another – and then it had blossomed into tension relieving sex. It wasn't supposed to go beyond that. He wasn't supposed to be thinking of her all the time, or wondering where she was and what she was doing, or worrying about how much trouble she would be in moreso than the charges he was facing. When had it all gotten so out of hand?
"We have four-nine-three and four-nine-six set and ready for test launch," the Chief was telling him. "Everything checks out on the deck, but we never know for sure until we space-test them."
"Makes sense," Lee said, reaching for the flight roster that was never far from him when he was on the deck. It was the only way he could keep track of who was where, and when they were there.
"Can I make a recommendation, Sir?" Tyrol asked tentatively.
"Certainly," Lee responded absently, looking over the pilots on his roster.
"I've seen Lieutenant Thrace bring in a bird short two engines. If anything does blow out, she's probably your best bet of getting the ship back on board intact. I don't know how she does it, but she's the best we've got."
Lee had to smile, "You don't have to tell me that," he muttered.
"No, Sir," the Chief said, and Lee could have sworn he was blushing.
But that meant putting Kara in a potentially dangerous situation. Lee didn't like that idea. Yes, she was the best they had, but then shouldn't they be preserving her for combat? On the other hand, every part was valuable, and a Viper lost in space was something they couldn't afford. If anyone could get a damaged ship back to the Galactica, it would be Kara. It was the most reasonable choice. It also hurt like hell. In that moment, Lee realized why some regulations existed. It was a decision he shouldn't have to make, because it was a situation he shouldn't have put himself in. Taking a deep breath, and looking to that logical part of his mind that ruled most of his actions, he posed himself the question that if his best pilot were not Kara, then what would his decision be? There was no question in his mind.
"Notify Lieutenant Thrace," he told Tyrol softly. "And be sure we have emergency crews in the landing pods, just in case. If she has to bring one in hot, we'll need to cool her down in a hurry."
"Yes, Sir."
Lee watched the man leave with a sense of foreboding. Was he doing the right thing? How would he live with himself if Kara couldn't get the ships back to the deck? How could he justify himself if he didn't let her go? Taking a deep breath, he checked his watch and then his roster. Kara was on duty in hangar four, but she'd have to change into her flight suit to test the Vipers. He headed that direction, hoping he could get her alone for just a moment before she flew out.
As luck would have it, he caught her stripped to her underwear with one hand in her flight locker. He would have smiled if he hadn't been so nervous. "Hey," he called softly.
She jerked around at the sound of his voice, and then notably relaxed. But instead of the smile he'd expected, a frown covered her face. She pulled out her flight suit and stepped into its legs before facing him. "You're not pulling me from this," she began. "I'm lead pilot, and it's my responsibility…"
"I assigned you to it," he cut in, bringing her tirade to a screeching halt.
"Oh."
"I just wanted to see you before you went out," he admitted with a shrug. "We didn't exactly get to say good-bye this morning."
"Yeah, well, I just wanted to get out of there."
"Me too," he admitted with a slight smile. "But about this mission…."
"Lee…"
"Let me finish," he requested, taking a step closer and backing her into the locker with a thumb on her lips to keep them still and his palm along her cheeck. "Both Vipers are flight-ready to the best of our knowledge, so you shouldn't have any problems. But I want you in full pressure gear. I know it's bulky as hell to fly in, but if we lose a seal it's the only chance you'll have. I can afford to lose a bird more than I can afford to lose a pilot. Understood?"
Kara bit the tip of his thumb, surprising him, but he took the hint and removed his hand. He did not move back, however. It felt too good to be this close to her, and he gave a silent prayer that it wouldn't be the last time. "I'll be fine, Lee. This is what I do. Remember?"
"I remember that you take some pretty unsafe chances, occasionally," he said with a raised eyebrow. "You're too important to this crew to let you do it now. You need to come back in one piece."
"Important to the crew?" she asked softly, not meeting his eyes.
"Important to me," he added, lifting her chin with one finger so that he could look into eyes that were somewhere between brown and gray. "I… need you to come back. Just be careful."
Kara nodded, then stood on tiptoe to give him a gentle kiss, followed by one that was a little deeper, but still over quickly. If his bedroom wasn't safe from intrusion, then the ready room most certainly wasn't. "Don't worry so much," she told him as she thrust her arms into the pressurized top of her flight suit and pulled it in place to zip it up. As she got the zipper up to the top, he reached around her and pulled the pressure buckle onto place, locking it securely. Then he just looked at her, watching for something he couldn't name. "I need to get ready," she finally told him. "I can't do that with you standing in my way."
He ducked his head in a nod, then took a step back.
"Lee?" she said as she reached the hatch into the locker that held the pressurized space suits.
"Yeah?"
"I don't want you in control," she said, her back still to him. "I'll be fine, but if… I don't want you watching if something happens. I saw Zak's plane go up, and I still have nightmares about it. I just… I don't want you watching."
Lee closed his eyes as a shudder ran through him, but whether it was dread or fear or whatever else he couldn't decide. He knew that he didn't like it. "I'll stay on the deck," he finally told her, not sure if he was being honest or just humoring her. If it was any other pilot, she knew damned well he'd be in control every minute of the flight. She was asking him for special treatment, even as he was trying to give her just the opposite. "I'll be there when you get back," he told her softly.
"Thanks," she said, and disappeared into the storage closet that held the deep-space survival suits. They were a pain in the ass to fly in – wearing one, she would barely fit into the cockpit – but he'd been right about the necessity. He would have asked it of any pilot taking out a recently refitted bird. He wasn't out of line asking if of her.
Before she could come back out from the closet, he turned and left the ready room. If he thought too much about it, he'd get worried, and probably do something stupid like pull her off the assignment. Lovers or not, Kara was the one friend he had on this ship, and whether he liked it or didn't, that did put her in a different place from everyone else. Having been inside her made that connection even stronger.
Lee headed for the deck, though, because she had asked it of him. If they were going to even try to make this work, try to explain it or justify it to his father, then first and foremost they had to keep it from affecting their work. Until that moment, Lee hadn't realized just how hard it would be.