"You've got to be kidding!"
Kara just grinned up at him. Apparently, she wasn't. "Full Colors," she said, this time showing him her hand.
He gave a grumble, but passed the small pile of candies – or as close as they had to it – towards her. It was no different than it had always been. Kara was lucky in cards to the point that it wasn't even fair. It wasn't that Lee expected life to be fair, but it still rankled that he couldn't beat her at Pyramid if his life depended on it. This hand, she had neither discarded nor taken any cards, which meant he had dealt her the hand. He had been certain that she couldn't have much, which was why he'd met her ridiculously high bet. A guy couldn't catch a break.
He coughed again, going for sympathy as much as to relieve the annoying pressure in his chest. He'd done this enough that his ribs hurt, and yet it still wouldn't go away. The one medication they had remaining that could ease the persistent cough was something he was allergic to, and while he hated the coughing he preferred to breathe with difficulty over not breathing at all. Anaphylactic shock was not a fun way to die; he'd had enough of suffocation to last him a for a while.
"Still glad I'm awake?" she asked him with a wink.
"Yeah, right," he grumbled, searching his pocket for another of the sweets. None; he was tapped out. And candy was one of the few things that was truly rationed aboard the Galactica, as they were hard to come by. He had some connections on the Celestia, having helped out an older couple with finding a lost relative who happened to be on the Galactica. It hadn't been out of his way – he really hadn't thought anything of it at the time – but the couple were in the candy making business and where they found the raw ingredients he had no clue. The result was great, though not what he'd grown up with. If he could just find them some dairy for chocolate…
So he gratefully accepted the bag of sweets that they managed give him every time he did a routine check on the ship. Normally there was enough to slip two of the candies into each of his pilots' lockers with quite a few left over. They went over pretty well, and if no one knew where they came from then that was fine too. He didn't put them in there for the credit, but to make a crappy job just a little less miserable. From the snippets of conversation he'd heard on occasion, he'd been a success.
He found it funny that the little candies had become more of a trading commodity than cubits. There was no use for money on the Galactica – there was nothing to buy – but candy on the other hand was rare and surprising. The little treats found their way into card games, bets, and even gift packages. But regardless of how many there were, there never seemed to be enough and Lee was finding that to be the case as he searched empty pockets once more with futile hope.
"Here," she said, tossing one of the sweets at him and hitting him squarely in the chest. "If it'll stop that coughing you're welcome to it."
He stuck his tongue out at her, but didn't refuse the sweet. She'd won more than a dozen in this hour of playing cards; she had them to spare. Besides, they did help his throat.
"Another hand?" she asked hopefully.
"Not on your life," he returned. "I have some good sense."
She grinned at him, that pure Kara smile that seemed to be infectious. It had gotten her out of trouble more times than he could count, at least with him. "C'mon," she insisted. "One more game?"
"No," he told her firmly.
"Please?" she requested, and her voice was almost plaintive.
He might have broken, maybe, if his father hadn't walked in just them. "Hey, Starbuck, what do you hear?"
That infectious smile moved from Lee to his father. "Nothin' but the rain," she told him.
His father rounded the bed and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Grab your gun and bring in the cat," he muttered.
If possible, Kara's smile turned up a notch. "Boom, boom, boom."
"I'm not even gonna ask," Lee told him, rolling his eyes, although he was curious. He'd heard the greeting more than once – the well practiced by-play – and he did wonder about it. Neither seemed to be forthcoming with offering an explanation, and he just didn't have it in him to ask them.
"I see you're feeling better," the older man said with a smile.
"Everyone gets awfully upset when I take a nap," she said with a slight blush. "How long is it going to take for me to live this down?"
"Oh, this will be blackmail material for years to come," his father told her. "But at least Salik kept you until this morning, so be quiet and enjoy it."
"Right," she muttered, and Lee had to laugh.
"It's better than double shifts," Lee reminded her.
"For who?" she asked in a deadly serious voice, and that earned her a laugh from both Lee and his father.
Still, Lee liked that she was looking a bit more like herself. She'd been in and out since waking, and just a little too quiet. She seemed to come around when Cassie had brought in another bottle of antibiotics for his IV, and since then she'd been giving them all hell. It was one of the reasons he'd bummed a deck of cards and talked Sharon – one of the few visitors they'd had – into raiding his locker for the bag of candy. He hadn't planned on losing the whole thing, but it didn't really matter. He was a lot more concerned with Kara looking like Kara than a few candies.
She was looking very much like herself just now. Smiling up at his father, Lee felt a knot forming in his stomach that was almost like a physical thing. He ignored it, and the confusion that came with it, in favor of just watching the two interact. It wasn't the words that really caught his attention, but rather the comfort level. He could tell that they really liked one another, and there was a mutual concern that Lee couldn't miss. Kara was as worried about whether the eldest Adama had been getting enough rest – given his work and the time he'd sent in Life Station checking up on them – as his father was about her. It was a sobering realization.
When his father had come in, Lee hadn't been surprised that he was around. After all, they were two of his key pilots as well as his children. It made sense. It hadn't occurred to Lee that his dad had other responsibilities, which was really unlike him. Usually, duty came first, and then family. This time Lee had assumed the family, and had forgotten that his father had a job to do as well.
"Saul owes me a few favors," his father said in response to Kara's concern.
"You poor thing," she had responded.
"Be nice," Adama instructed with a mock glare. "You know, he was as worried about the two of you as anyone else in CIC."
"Be still my heart," Kara tossed back blandly.
His father just laughed. "I told you to be nice," he said again. Then, turning his attention to Lee, "How are you feeling today?"
"Better," Lee said, and then undermined his words with a cough. When his father's eyebrow went up, he felt compelled to add, "Really."
His dad didn't look like he believed a word of it.
"He's feeling well enough to lose at cards," Kara told Adama with a wink. "He still can't win a hand to save his life."
"Hey!" Lee said, taking offense, regardless of having thought exactly that thing earlier. He could win cards as well as the next person, just so long as that person wasn't Kara. She had a luck that was absolutely unnatural. Thankfully, he'd been on the receiving end of that luck on more than one occasion, and unless you were deliberately challenging her, the luck seemed to rub off on those around her. It had saved his ass more than once.
"Hey, yourself," she told him. "You lost."
"Most people do against you," he defended.
"He has you there," his father told Kara. She looked awfully put out by the statement, but Lee was warmed by his father's defense, however minor. It wasn't that he minded sharing his dad, but he had hated feeling almost left out. With the two of them, Kara and his father seemed to have a strange, silent form of communication. They just understood one another; it was no wonder half the crew had thought they were involved. He had the same type of feelings for Kara; he didn't mind sharing his best friend, but he wanted to be a part of the conversation. Lords, he felt like a little boy, pushed out of shape because two friends were getting along better with one another than with him. Since when did he feel like a six-year-old?
With arms crossed over her chest and a distinctive glare, Lee almost laughed at her. His father had the advantage of an excuse, and therefore a speedy retreat. "I do need to get back up on CIC," he said simply. "Just checking up on the two of you."
"We're fine, Dad," Lee assured him.
Adama waited a moment, nodded, and then kissed Kara on the top of her head before rounding the bed to exit. Before leaving the room he paused at Lee's seat and placed a hand on his shoulder. He didn't say anything, but then he didn't have to. Sometimes a touch said a hell of a lot more than words, and the simple gesture did something for Lee that he didn't even know he needed. He covered his father's hand briefly with his own, and then watched the elder man leave.
By the time he returned his attention to Kara, whether by intent or not, she had closed her eyes and looked to be fast asleep. He watched her for a moment, then moved the cards out of the way and plumped up the pillow that they'd been using as a card table. Laying his head down, not touching her and yet close enough that he was reassured by the sound of her breathing, Lee slept.
Kara wasn't sure what it was that brought her awake. Yes, there was noise around her, but not a lot. She opened one eye, her somewhat limited glance going to the spot Lee had occupied for the last couple of days. He was still there, still sleeping. She wondered why he didn't just go lay down in his own room. She was fine, and he'd seen that. What more did he need? Still, it wasn't much of a hardship to have him nearby. She really did hate hospitals, and he made it seem a little less like she was in one.
The slight rustle struck her again, and she looked up at the doorway. Her first instinct was to smile; visitors were always welcome, and a great way to keep her mind off both where she was and how bored she was getting. Then a memory filtered through the casual acceptance and her smile faded.
The shaking of the controls. The helplessness of the explosion. The fear of freezing to death in the back of a disabled shuttle. All of that had happened because of one thing, and one thing only… something had been wrong with the shuttle. She didn't know what – oddly, she hadn't gotten around to asking – but something had been wrong with it and because of that both she and Lee had come very close to dying.
Slowly, a bubble of fury rose within her as she looked at the man standing in the doorway to her room. Tyrol. Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol, Crew Chief. The guy who fixed the birds, or who trained those who did. He was the Lord of the flight deck – each and every plane his own, and he wasn't above telling them as much – so why in the hell had hers come apart?
"Come to see if you could finish us off?" she asked bitterly.
He jumped slightly, but whether at her tone or her accusation she wasn't sure. She really didn't give a flying frak.
"I came to see how you're doing," he said softly. "Sharon mentioned that you were awake."
"No thanks to you," she muttered. "You can go now. But I'll tell you this now, Chief. The next time you try to kill me, you'd better make damned sure it sticks because I'm not going through this again."
He looked like she'd kicked him. Good. That was just about what she wanted to do. If it weren't for the stupid tubes sticking out of her, she would have been on her feet and had him off his. But she was effectively tied down, and he damned well knew it.
"I'm sorry," he said softly, still not entering the room. At least he knew where he wasn't wanted.
Kara felt the movement beside her more than saw it, although Lee was positioned between her and the doorway. "Kara?"
"Get out," she shouted, and this time her voice was just shy of a scream. She tried not to realize how hysterical she was sounding. She purely hated screaming women.
Tyrol stepped forward and Kara tensed. She'd wanted a reason to hit him, and this was as good as any. "I want to explain," he said quickly. "We've torn the shuttle apart to figure out what went wrong, and there's not a thing out of place. There's no reason for the explosion that occurred. Electrical, fuel, and even oxygen systems are totally within specs."
"Yeah, right," she said, her voice still far louder than it should have been. But she was angry – shaking with it – and she wasn't letting this man tell her that it had been her fault. "Shuttles just blow up on short hops because they're old. Okay – forgive me – how about you go find an old ship and take it out yourself. Better yet, head on outside without the ship. You can freeze to death or smother; it's a riot, trust me."
"We'll keep looking for the cause," Tyrol said quietly. The expression of concern on his face was nearly enough to set her off again.
"Just blame it on the pilot," she ground out. "That's what mechanics always do. I'm used to it."
"I don't think it was your fault," Tyrol said, his voice sounding pleading.
"Just get out," she told him again. At the very least she wasn't yelling now."
"What did you find?" Lee's voice surprised her. She had been so tied up with Tyrol that she'd all but forgotten him. "What systems haven't you checked?"
The chief shook his head. "We've been over everything at least once," he admitted. "Cally and I are taking it apart bolt by bolt, and we'll find it. I swear it cleared the checks, Sir. You know I wouldn't…"
"But you did," Kara said, her voice low and threatening. Tubes or not, she was going to have to kill him. "You sent us out there to die. What if it had been a longer mission? What if there'd been a little less oxygen or a little more heat? What then? Would you have even come after us?"
"Kara," Lee began, but she didn't let him get far.
"No, I want to hear this. I want to know just why in hell he's releasing birds that blow apart! I know the craft on this ship are old – hell, pretty much everything on the Galactica is old – but usually it at least works."
"I'm sorry I've bothered you," Tyrol said quietly, finally having the sense to back towards the door. "I guess… never mind. I'm sorry it happened. It won't again." He turned then, leaving her view.
"I'm not all that reassured," she yelled after him, finally going for the jugular. "Frak, you were probably in the maintenance room with Sharon when some kid cleared that bird for flight. Maybe if you concentrated on your work instead of your… urges… then maybe we'd have a few more pilots alive."
"Kara, stop," Lee told her, his hand covering the fist she'd involuntarily made. "Quit before you say something else you don't mean."
"Who said I didn't mean it?" she asked, her eyes flashing to Lee's. Even that deep blue couldn't ease the anger this time. "You know just as well as I do that…"
"Their jobs have never been affected," Lee reminded her. "Things go wrong, Kara. It happens. It's not fair, and it's not right, but it's the truth. Yelling at the chief won't change it."
"We trust that deck crew every frakking day to keep us alive out there," she ground out. "And you're telling me that it's okay that this guy can't find out why we nearly blew to Kobol and back? I don't buy that. Pilot error isn't an issue, Lee. I was the pilot, and I know what I did and didn't do. You were there. If it isn't pilot error, then it's mechanical failure. They're the only two reasons for a ship to blow."
Lee's grip tightened, his hand squeezing hers. "Shut up, Kara," he told her softly.
"It's the truth," she said, and to her absolute mortification she found herself about an inch from tears. She was just angry, she told herself. She was just furious that she couldn't kill the bastard right then and there. "He was so damned high and mighty about protecting the crew, and he sent us out there in a ship that couldn't make it two miles."
"Mistakes," Lee started, but her voice cut over his.
"Are not acceptable," she finished for him, whether it was what he'd planned to say or not. "There's a war, Lee. How many more people have to die before the Cylons even get a second shot at us?"
Lee shook his head, not agreeing with her, even as she realized that the object of her wrath was gone. She didn't care. She didn't want to care. "You need to calm down," he told her in a voice that was just over a whisper. It was something she wasn't used to. Normally, Lee screamed back. They argued yes, but rationalization wasn't among his usual techniques in dealing with her. He knew better; Zak had taught him better. Trying to reason just made her more furious.
Only she wasn't. She saw understanding in those blue eyes that came from his being there with her through the worst of it. He'd been in that shuttle too, and he wasn't placing blame. He'd come as close to death, was still carrying an illness from it, and yet he had forgiven the crew who had let them down.
"I don't need to calm down," she told him, her voice coming down an octave. "I just… Lee he… I can't…"
One of his hands remained over her closed fist while the other stole around to the back of her head, pulling her towards him. Lee leaned his forehead against hers, saying nothing. She was still shaking, but not as much. She was still angry, but logic was starting to inch through the fury. "He wouldn't put us in harm's way," Lee reminded her. "Hell, Kara you know that. There isn't always someone to blame. Some mechanical failures don't have warning signs, and they don't leave evidence behind. Sometimes you just have to accept that there aren't any easy answers."
"It's his job to keep the ships intact," she said, and if he hadn't had a firm grip on the back of her head, she might have tried to back away. But he did, and there was something reassuring about having him close, as though he was absorbing some of the anger, or at least diffusing it . "Someone's always at fault."
"That ship was older than the Galactica," Lee told her. "You know it. She'd already served one war, and maybe there wasn't enough left to put together from the scraps. But Kara, alienating our Crew Chief isn't the way to get things done; trust me on this, I know because I've done it."
"What can he do that's worse than what he already did," she muttered, her eyes finally closing as a wave of fatigue assaulted her.
"Kara, I want you to think, just for a second. What could he possibly gain by taking out his most qualified pilots? We're all that's left to defend the fleet. He loves this ship and you know it. He wouldn't put the Galactica at risk by compromising her pilots, and he wouldn't let a ship out into space if he didn't think it could fly. He's not the enemy."
She tried to muster some more indignation, but she just didn't have the strength. "We could have died out there," she reminded him.
"And we didn't, because his crew came after us. He didn't cause it, Kara. He's doing his damnedest to fix it anyway, and to make sure it doesn't happen again."
The shaking had stopped, and she felt herself getting weak and fuzzy. For just a moment, the weakness was stronger than she was, and it frightened her. "Lee…"
"Rest," he told her, laying her back against the pillow and keeping his hand on hers. "You're not thinking all that clearly. I understand it, and I'm sure the chief will too, but if you hit him you'll be back in the brig."
"We could have died," she told him again, not sure why the thought was sticking in her head. She'd been in life or death situations more times than she could count. Hell, she'd faced enough for ten people in one day when the Cylons had attacked, but for some reason this felt worse. It felt… personal.
"We didn't," Lee said again.
"But…"
"Kara, just sleep," he told her again. She wanted to argue. She wanted to rage against him, too. But she couldn't find the will to do it.
So instead of fighting, she relaxed against the pillow, concentrating on the connection that Lee had maintained with his hand. He was close, although no longer forehead to forehead. She could hear him breathing. She could feel his warmth. And then she was asleep.
Lee sighed as he watched Kara finally surrender to sleep. He thought he had a good idea of why she was so angry. She always had taken on responsibility for everything around her, whether she could affect it or not. It was why she had taken Zak's death so personally; it was why she was taking this to heart.
But just as she tended to blame herself, she also hated it. This time she was pushing that anger off on Tyrol. Yes, she had been the pilot, and if nothing was wrong with the shuttle than it had to be her. Lee couldn't blame her for being upset. It was all too close to the surface for both of them. But he knew her and trusted her, and he was positive that she hadn't made a mistake.
"How did you do that?"
Lee turned at the quiet voice to see Cassie standing in the doorway where Tyrol had been. "Do what?" he asked softly. The last thing he wanted was to wake Kara back up when she was finally out.
"That," Cassie said as she gestured to Kara. Walking into the room, she carried a bottle of fluid that he knew was for his own IV. Great. He understood why they had gone back to the glass bottles in Life Station – it was easier to sterilize glass than manufacture plastic – but it still made him feel like he was in the middle-ages. "I've never seen her quit the screaming without putting someone in here."
Her words drew him back from the state of medicine in a rag tag fleet, and he gave a sheepish grin at Cassie's words. "Yeah, well she's not exactly at her best."
Cassie raised her eyebrows to give Lee a doubting look as she switched one bottle out for the other. "You haven't patched up her victims," Cassie told him. "She can do some damage when she puts her mind to it."
"Sometimes she has reason," Lee said, rushing to Kara's defense. She wasn't a bad person. She hadn't had it easy coming through the academy, so she'd become a little tough along the way. Life hadn't been all that kind to her, either. What luck she had in cards didn't really carry over to all the rest of the areas of her life, so he figured she was entitled to a few rough edges.
"I'm sure she does," Cassie allowed. "But I'd still rather see her calm down and think it through."
Lee nodded at that; he felt the same way.
"You're good with her," Cassie told him as she headed for the door.
Kara wasn't a daggit to be managed, and he wasn't sure he liked the insinuation that she was hard to handle. He couldn't dispute it, but he didn't like it. He looked over at where she was sleeping, and reached out to brush her bangs back out of her face. He didn't know whether to thank Cassie or argue, so he decided just to ignore her.
"Did you need anything?" Cassie asked as she turned back to him.
Yeah, for her to get out. It wasn't a very nice thought, though. "A shower and shave," he said wistfully. "I feel like I haven't had either in a week."
"You haven't," she told him with a grin. Lee sighed. It was hard to stay angry with the tech when she was so nice. And she hadn't really been unkind to Kara; what she'd said was the truth. He just didn't like it.
"What can we do about that?" he asked as he held up his arm to emphasize the IV.
"Tell you what, let's get that fluid into you and if you're up to it I'll lock the IV and wrap the site in plastic. Then if you're careful, you can get a shower.
"And clothes?" he requested.
She watched him a moment, and her smile broadened. "If you have to," she allowed. "Although I kinda like the view with the gowns and robes."
Lee blushed and wondered whether or not to take her seriously.
"It's a joke," Cassie told him pointedly, probably reacting to his expression. "Trust me, as many years as I've done this there's very little I haven't seen. It's all old news. A body is a body, if you know what I mean."
His cheeks felt even warmer, but he nodded as though he understood. He didn't know what else to do to get her out of there.
True to her word, Cassie was back in half an hour to lock the IV, wrap and tape it, and he was on his way to his quarters to get clean. Almost half-way there he nearly collided with Sharon as she came around a bend in the corridor. The young woman didn't look all that friendly.
"Hey," he said by way of greeting.
She nodded and moved to walk around him, but didn't say a word. It was quite a change from the chattering friend that had dropped off a bag of candy a couple of hours before.
"Sharon?"
The pilot sighed, then turned to face him. "I just ran into the chief," she said simply. "What in hell did she say to him?"
Lee closed his eyes, tired of playing the peacemaker for the day. "Give her a break, Sharon. She's had a rough week, and she's only been awake for a day. She's angry, she doesn't have anyone to blame, and he was in the direct line of fire."
"That makes it okay?" Sharon asked as she stepped closer. "You didn't see his face." At least she was keeping her voice down; Lee didn't want the conversation carrying down the hallway.
"Yeah, I did," Lee told her. "But you didn't see Kara's. You know her, Sharon. Does this sound anything at all like her? She and the chief get along great."
Sharon took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. "She needs to apologize," the woman said adamantly.
"I'm sure she will, but can she get out of Life Station first?"
Sharon looked as though she wanted to say more, but wisely she kept her mouth shut. He didn't want to hit her with a charge of insubordination, but he would do it to keep her from hassling Kara. "She's had a rough week," Sharon finally said. "But so has Galen. He feels responsible enough without her placing the blame. You know damned well how careful he is with his planes."
"That's why your gimbals are always off?" Lee asked innocently.
She had the good grace to blush at the reminder. "That's not fair."
"No," he agreed. "It's not. But neither is taking what she says now seriously. She's still shaky, Sharon. Give her some time. She's sleeping now. Let her. She and the chief can battle this out when she's on her feet. Then I'll step back, and you can do the same. For now, you just keep him in his corner, and I'll keep Kara in hers. Fair?"
"No," Sharon complained. "But it's as close as we'll get."
He had to smile at that. "Agreed."
Sharon looked like she wanted to say more, but was reluctant. "What else?" Lee finally prodded. "Let's get this cleared up now; hallway or not. I need to get cleaned up and dressed so that I can get back before she threatens any more lives."
"Kara's furious," she commented.
He nodded his agreement. He didn't think he needed to reinforce it verbally given their previous discussion.
"You're not," Sharon said simply. "Why?"
He gave another sigh. "No point," he said. "I know the chief, and I know whatever caused this had to be outside his control. But keep in mind, I've had most of a week to put things into perspective. If he'd showed up at my bedside the day I woke up, or even while Kara was still out, I probably would have acted the same way. First instinct is to assign blame, Sharon. It's human nature. Realizing that accidents happen – however careful we all are – takes some time to settle on. I got here; she will too."
Sharon nodded, finally relaxing her confrontational posture. Lee hadn't realized just how wound up she'd been until she had settled a bit. "By the way, nice outfit."
"Thanks," he said dryly, reminding himself mentally that he was still adequately covered. While the hospital gown might not do the job, the robe covered everything it was supposed to.
She finally grinned at him. "Damn, I was hoping for a blush," she remarked.
"Not likely," he said simply, although he was well aware that he'd done more than a little of that in his recent past. Still, the circumstances were different. "But it was a good attempt."
"Well, if I'm not going to tackle Starbuck in her room, I guess I should get up to the mess hall. I need to eat before shift."
"Enjoy your meal," he told her. "And when you see him, tell the chief I'm sorry. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time; that's all it was."
"I'll tell him," she said softly. "But he won't believe it. Hell, that's why what she said upset him so much. He was already blaming himself."
Lee nodded his understanding, but Sharon had already turned and was walking up the stairs towards the next turn in the corridor. He supposed he would have to talk to the Chief himself.