Kara let her body lean forward against the restraining straps while the fire blackened walls of the largest of Galactica's hangar lifts slid past. That landing had been downright humiliating. "Don't let it get to you," she muttered to herself. "It's just a frakkin' machine." Yeah, just a machine. It wasn't Lee Adama. If it had been, she would have been happy to kill it. Savagely Kara yanked the drone's fat, soft control stick into its locked position. There was something revoltingly phallic about the drone's controls. She'd had to fight herself to work with them.
But she'd been given this assignment and by the Lords she'd get it right. She just had to forget the heartless bastard CAG that had given it to her.
Lee was also out flying today, still hunting for an asteroid, and Kara had wanted to be far from the Galactica in case he returned. Since Boomer had described the Cylon home world as a standard G-class planet with oceans, atmosphere, weather and the rest, she'd decided to zip around night-side Zodiac and get a feel for the drone's atmosphere handling capabilities.
She'd soon learned that it didn't have any. Even with its A.I. disconnected, the "frakkin' machine" seemed to have a mind of its own, resisting every dive and turn. Vipers were bad enough in atmosphere. Designed primarily for space combat, with their stubby airfoils and blunt nose they vibrated like hell at plus mach 2 in anything thicker than upper ionosphere. But with the reverse single wing, the Cylon was far worse. Kara had already warned Kelly to outfit his team with mouth guards.
The Cylon was also a son of a bitch to land. Today Kara had put several new scimitar-shaped dents in the wilds of Zodiac. But at least she hadn't put one in the Galactica. Not this time, not quite. It hadn't been for lack of trying. Where had her mind been anyway? Definitely not on flying. Probably on Lee.
Yesterday after the little misunderstanding with Commander Adama, Kara had chickened out on asking Lee for one of his match strips. A girl could handle only so much sex in one day. She had the frakkin' card tucked into the flight suit pocket with Lee's ring.
Although Kara wasn't exactly wishing Lee dead, she was sure wishing him anywhere except where she might run into him. If he didn't want to tell her he was divorced, she didn't want to hear it. And she certainly didn't want to see him and know finally and for sure that he'd never be hers.
Sitting back up, Kara popped the lever that released the hatch. With a grinding screech, a hole opened in the deck. The gears were making far too much noise. Her practice landings must have messed with the drone's ventral surface. Removing her helmet she set it on the control console and, like she always did post-flight, gave her scalp a quick and thorough finger massage to work away the itch. A moment later she heard the rattle of a boarding ladder being pushed into place, then a head popped up out of the deck like a jack in the box. But it wasn't one of Chief Cally's kids. It was Lee.
Oh that was just great. Just frakkin' great. Could this day get any worse? She really, really didn't want to see him right now.
From the top of the too-short boarding ladder he hauled his butt up on to the drone's deck, scooted the rest of the way aboard, swung around and leaned back through to take a clipboard from someone below. He flipped whomever it was a casual salute, stood up and looked at Kara, with a big, lip-chewing smile on his face and a dance in his eyes.
Lee was severely amused. Maybe he was going to deliver one of his famous "are you really a pilot or did I just dream flight school?" monologues, complete with sound effects and hand gestures.
Kara had not nearly pancaked the drone for Lee's or anyone else's entertainment. So far she'd had exactly three days practice in this bastard and she had exactly three left to get it under control and she did not need snide comments from the cheap seats! By all the holy Lords, she'd beat it! Or she'd beat Lee, one or the other. In the mood she was in, it wouldn't make a lot of difference.
"That's got to be the messiest landing I've seen since Judgment Day," Lee said as he began the post-flight check.
"You try flying this tub!" Kara growled. "I've seen tissue boxes with better aerodynamics." With her thumbs she released the harness buckles, shrugged the straps off and stood up. "And I thought you were off asteroid mining or something." Yanking the check off board from Lee's hands, she began to fill in her post-flight information.
She was doing her best to ignore him, but apparently he wasn't going to buy it. The jerk was as cool as a cucumber. Kara wondered if he'd been taking shit face lessons from Colonel Tigh.
"Caught one. Tucked her away all safe and sound." Under heavy fire, Lee's amusement had dimmed somewhat. His head cocked to one side. "Do you need help, Kara? Is there anything I can do?"
Lee had chosen just the right ammunition for return fire, and it hurt like a piece of shrapnel. The only effective counter for gentle empathy was a heavy barrage of sarcasm. "I really think you've done enough already … sir." There, that should put him in his place, preferably a far-off place full of unexploded contact mines.
It did. The last vestige of a smile faded off Lee's face and when she slammed the check off board back in his hands, he said, "I'm going to send over Socinus to look at that hatch. Stick around and wait for him, then at your convenience, I'd like a full report, Lieutenant Thrace. I'll be in quarters."
Lee looked like she'd kicked him.
As he eased back through the deck hatch, Kara flopped into the pilot's seat and fought down an angry sob. Frak, frak, frak. She was never, ever going to get it right with Lee.
.
In the three years since Judgment Day, a fourth of the ship's living space had been either irreparably damaged or closed off to save energy. It had made every place else … tight. Despite Lee's position as Galactica's CAG, before he'd married Serena he'd shared quarters with five men, living in a cramped, comradely togetherness that went far beyond the military's normally chummy living conditions. After the marriage, he and Serena had been assigned a compartment barely three meters square and that included the head.
This past week crews had been closing off more, mostly the compartments and passageways lining the hull, blowing them full of repair foam to make the Galactica as space-tight as possible. All over the ship white plastek caulking outlined hatches. The Galactica was getting ready to die.
Lee, Keener and Robinson, an engineer off the Hephaestus, had spent the entire day in Boomer's Raptor hunting for an asteroid. They'd finally found one, a little shorter than optimal, but composed almost entirely of a single piece of iron ore.
CIC had designated the asteroid Shiva from an ancient Kobol legend. The demon Shiva, it was said, had eaten cities for breakfast and planets for lunch. Only the Lords knew what he'd had for dinner.
All three men had spent two hours EVA while bolting on the inertia regulators. After Robinson powered them up, the Raptor had maneuvered the asteroid out of solar orbit and back to the Galactica. The delicate insertion into the empty landing pod had eaten up another hour. But finally they had their planet-killer ready, its deadly inertia damped by the regulators but ready for release over the Cylon home world where the asteroid would become a ballistic missile with an impact in the million megaton range. Or so they hoped. It was a desperate tactic. They didn't even know how it would respond to an FTL jump while being carried in a landing pod.
Robinson had been pleased, Keener proud, and Lee exhausted, almost asleep on his feet, but he'd still gone over to the port side landing pod to check on Kara and the Cylon drone. Chief Cally had told him Kara's piloting practice was less than smooth, and he could believe it after witnessing her controlled crash landing. Then he'd humiliated Kara by letting her know he'd seen the whole thing.
It would have been better if he'd just left, but he'd convinced himself he could help. She'd shot him down in his tracks. Justifiable homicide he'd figured. So he'd asked for a report and left. Although Kara was a hard ass and a rowdy, she had yet to disobey a direct order. She'd be by sometime soon and he'd have a chance to apologize and make things right between them. The Galactica had less than a handful more days. There was no time left to hold on to pain.
In the meantime Lee was spending another night alone in quarters. The tiny space had always been Serena's more than Lee's, and although he didn't exactly miss his ex-wife, without her the compartment seemed preternaturally empty, like a birdcage without the bird.
He could smell the cologne Serena had sprayed in her locker. It had decayed into something suggesting dead flowers and funerals. Although the small room had been emptied of everything except a single chair, a desk console, and a double-size mattress, it still felt close and suffocating as if the ventilation system had been blocked. Starkly white overhead light reflected off bare bulkheads and revealed the empty display frames where Serena had hung her press clippings. Only Lee's cluttered desktop maintained a semblance of normality.
He had been stoically ignoring his blue legacy card and a short stack of yellow ones while he sorted through the mess he'd just dumped out of his desk drawer. Looking for anything worth saving, he'd found so far a vacuum wrapped cigar from his wedding that he'd set aside as a peace offering for Kara, Serena's wedding ring and a palm-sized copy of the first Holy Scroll, the standard brown leather-bound military issue handed out to every man at enlistment and tucked into every locker. Most servicemen had at least two copies, if not three or four. On Judgment Day Lee had lost everything but his life, his father and a few friends, so he had only the one and his father had given him that.
He was trying to find the verse his father had quoted when they'd talked about his precipitate divorce down on Zodiac. To Lee's surprise, his father had told him to forget about Serena and live every day from beginning to end. "No man's life is ever whole," his father had said with the air of a minister, "so try not to miss any of the pieces." Maybe Lee should have expected that. Now he and his father had something in common -- a failed marriage.
Lee was sure the verse was in here somewhere. He'd found, "Death is a milder fate than tyranny," and "Death is the cure for all illnesses," but not the verse his father had used.
Focused on the Scroll's tiny print, Lee didn't look up when a knock sounded at his hatch and it simultaneously creaked open a crack. He hadn't bothered to say, "Come in," because the whole squadron knew his door was always open. It had driven Serena crazy.
"Boss man?" The hatch squealed as it opened further. Oh thank the Lords, it was Kara at last, and her hesitant two words had sounded a bit calmer.
Lee quickly threw the scroll on the desk, where it hit the stack of yellow cards and scattered them a little, then he leaned back in his chair and tucked his hands behind his head. Kara would never let him hear the end of it if she caught him reading a Holy Scroll.
Her pert nose poked through the opening, followed quickly by the rest of her. Big round eyes filled half her face. Big eyes usually meant Kara was anxious. Maybe she was feeling bad too. "Come on in, Starbuck," Lee said as he waved at the bed. "'Fraid that's the only chair we have unless you want this one."
He resisted the temptation to cover up the blue and yellow cards on the desk. Kara wasn't here about that, and she probably had her legacy match card already completed and returned. He'd wanted to ask her, but it was almost certainly too late now. It was too late for a lot of things.
"This is fine," Kara said as she sat down on edge of the tightly made-up mattress. The small compartment put her so close to Lee that they were practically knocking knees. "I won't keep you long. My report can be made in about three words -- We're doing fine. Crappy flying characteristics, but fine. I'm getting the hang of it. Socinus thinks there's an aileron still a little out of alignment. He's working on it now."
"Good," Lee said and nodded. There wasn't much more he could say without putting his foot in it. He was struck by how vulnerable Kara looked. Without her temper burning, she seemed tired, edgy and afraid. That wasn't anything new. All the Viper pilots were afraid all of the time. The smart ones were terrified. Those that weren't had died long ago. There was a saying as old as time, "There are old pilots and bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots."
Like Lee, Kara wore the threadbare dark green pull-on sweatpants and loose knit pullover sweater that had long been the de-facto off-duty uniform of the day, given the Galactica's chilly temperature. However, unlike Lee she wore make-up -- a little extra pink to her cheeks and lips and a black outline around her eyes. That's why they'd looked so big. After watching Serena put on make-up every day, Lee noticed things like that.
But he'd never seen Kara wear make-up, even when she had been engaged to Zak. Just as surprising, her hair looked combed. At least most of the freshly washed damp and curly tendrils were temporarily lying down instead of sticking out. She was trying to look pretty for him. She did feel badly about their near fight.
Lee started to say, "I wanted to …" at the same time Kara said, "I guess you …"
They chuckled together although it sounded strained. "You go first," Lee said. "Mine's nothing that won't wait." He hated seeing her this way, downcast and nervous. If she had something to tell him, he wanted to hear it, even if it meant getting chewed out. He'd rather have her yelling than like this. Reaching out across the tiny space separating them, he massaged her folded hands and dared once again to offer help. "What's the matter? Talk to me."
Taken a little by surprise, Kara's mouth opened and closed and her eyes shifted away and back. Lee had the distinct impression she had reconsidered what she'd planned to say. Maybe she was just going to roast him, rather than an all-out flaming. Some words finally came out of Kara's mouth with a stutter and a flicker of a smile, "How … how are you doing?" Her voice had the tone of someone inquiring about a bereavement. "Do you miss her?"
The conversation had turned on a cubit and handed back change. Lee was floored. He'd been expecting a thorough dressing down and a request to keep his nose to himself, but apparently Kara had heard about Serena and the divorce. He'd meant to tell her, but in the handful of moments they'd spent together this week, none had seemed the right one. She'd heard about it secondhand. He was touched that she'd asked. "I'm okay, I guess." He looked around the empty quarters. Lee never lied to Kara, not if he knew the truth and was free to tell it. "A little lonely, but there's a lot to be said for peace and quiet."
"The quiet, at least. Never enough of that." Kara's eyes slid past Lee to his desk and probably that stack of frakking cards, then back to him. Why was he so self-conscious about them? Every volunteer had one. "Your dad said you went down to Salvation City on Zodiac. What's it like? I haven't really been able to do much sightseeing."
Lee couldn't help but smile in gratitude that Kara hadn't asked for the dirty details of the divorce. She'd always had a lot more class than Serena. Tilting back his head, he closed his eyes and tried to remember all the sights, sounds and smells of the planet. Taking a long, wistful breath, he said, "Well, the city was a load of crap, but the planet is wonderful. Flowers everywhere, sweet air, sunshine. It was … it was 'A veritable garden of the gods …"
"… as seen by few mortals.'" Kara nodded as she finished the familiar Scroll quotation for him. "As beautiful as Kobol then? It'll be a good home for our babies?"
Lee had been surprised when Kara had first asked about Commander Lighter's project. She and Zak had had the most horrendous arguments about having a family, but that had been a long time ago, in another lifetime. And here she was, bringing it up again. Maybe he'd been misreading her. Kara had always been Lee's pillar of strength, something to test himself against to see if he measured up. He'd been expecting her to be super-humanly tough like always. But she was a woman too, and despite her frequently voiced misgivings, she'd make a damned fine mother.
"Yeah, I guess so. I hope so." If only he could figure out what to do with his card. "Have you made all your donor matches yet?"
"A few. What about you?" Kara had made only a few? Maybe it wasn't too late to ask her after all. Rather than answer in words, Lee shuffled through the litter on his desk, pulled out his hateful blue card and handed it to Kara.
Kara took it by the edges, as though she thought it might singe her fingertips, but then she broke into a smile that looked almost relieved. "Wow! Ten! And I thought I was hot stuff with eight."
"Lighter said something about a rare genetic type, but I think Dad put her up to it." Taking the card back, he stared at it in brooding silence. One sticker had already been removed and he had no idea where it had gone. During yesterday's watch he'd left the card on his desk. When he'd returned, it had been minus one sticker. Today he'd hidden the card under his mattress. He must be old fashioned as hell. He wanted to know the mothers of his children.
Picking up the yellow cards from his desk, he said, "All these were dumped on my desk today while I was out. I feel like I'm being gang-raped. I don't know who these women are!" He dared to look at Kara to see if she was amused. She was. Good, he still could make her laugh.
Kara chuckled. "You've got a lot of secret admirers, Lee. They're attracted by the pretty face. Let me see." She took the yellow cards out of his hand and started shuffling though them. Holding up one, she said, "Well, this is probably Amy Krebold up in CIC. See these two written-in names? They're friends of hers on Colonial One. I suspect they'll be fostering her children. They're good people … for bureaucrats, anyway."
Taking the card, Lee considered for a moment. Krebold was a solidly muscular Valkyrie of a woman, about ten centimeters taller than Lee, but smart, funny, honest and a hard worker. Kara obviously approved of her. She'd had only four blank spaces to begin with. He put a sticker on her card. Now she had only one.
Kara held out another. "I don't know who this is, but that's Tyrol's ID at the top and that means it's one of Boxey's fosters. He can tell you for sure, but I'm willing to bet it's somebody special."
Out of five spaces the card had only one left open. Lee filled it in. This wasn't so hard. Judging by Kara's giggles and smiles, she was getting a kick out of this.
Kara had another card. "I don't know who this one belongs to either, but … " she pointed at one of the stickers already on the card "… that's your father." As Kara held out the card, short creases bracketed her eyes and lips. She was anxious again. For some reason she wanted him to choose this one too.
Lee was happy to make her happy. "They're going to be making up new names for family relationships," he said as he took the card and filled in the next blank space under his father's. "The poor kid's going to be an uncle to his brother."
Kara chuckled. She looked pleased. "Or an aunt to her sister." She held out another card.
"So what's your best guess for this gal?" Lee asked. The yellow card was another one with Chief Tyrol's ID across the top. Of its original eight spaces, six were still left. It was nice to find another procrastinator, a sort of kindred spirit.
"I don't have to guess. It's mine."
Lee just stared at Kara's card. "Yours?" he asked. Picking up the previous card, he glanced at it then back at hers. Yes, that was his father's number. He'd been wondering how Kara had known his father's code. "Dad asked you too?" He looked up at her. "How did he …? Why did you let him …?"
Lee didn't understand everything he was feeling, but most of it was confused. And not happy. He'd competed with his father's image and reputation during his entire military career, but he'd never thought he'd be competing with him for women.
"I don't want to fight with you about it, Lee. Now's not the time for fighting about anything, okay?" Despite her words, some of the combative snarl had returned to Kara's voice. She wasn't going to back down on this one. Figures. Lee had yet to win a contest with his father. "Your dad asked if he could, and I was honored. Just like … like I'd be honored if you would ..." Her voice trailed off. But Lee didn't say anything and continued to stare at her card. Damn him! Everywhere he went his father had been there first. It was like an endless curse.
Kara reached out to grab back her card. "You know, this is a really bad idea. Maybe I'd better …"
Playing keep away, Lee half turned in his chair to stay out of reach. "No, please, I'm sorry, Kara. It's just … I used to have these wonderful dreams about being the greatest dad ever, playing ball with my kid, teaching him how to fly, just giving him every little thing he could want." Lee had been so sure he could out do his father in that at least. "And now, I'm not even going to see my kids. I won't even know their names. I don't know how to feel. It's all weirder than hell."
Kara had a guilty look on her face and her shoulders bowed forward. Her hands rested on the bed as though she was ready to catapult herself up and out of there. But she didn't make another effort to retrieve her card.
Over the past five years Kara had spent a lot of time helping Lee mend fences with his father -- patching arguments and offering a listening ear to his moaning while turning a mostly blind eye to his marriage problems. She cared so much. And for no good reason at all. It had all come his way and he'd given her so little.
Lee took a deep breath and released it to a count of ten while he reminded himself that he'd long ago forgiven his father for having a successful career. Having Kara suddenly thrust between them had brought it all back.
He looked at her and silently begged for understanding and acceptance. "Do you know what I'm saying?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I kinda do," she said. "You'd be a great father."
"Might be a great father. If the Lords fly with us," Lee reminded her. Reaching out, he stroked her arm then slid his hand down to take hers. "You would be a great mom."
"Oh yeah, right," she said. "At least my kids would always know where to find me -- either in a Viper or the brig." Lee gave her the snorting laugh that she seemed to want, but that's not how he felt at all. He was seeing Kara's wicked grin and shiny green eyes on another, smaller face. She would make beautiful babies. He'd once thought that of Serena until he'd discovered the ugly heart that lay beneath the pretty face. But Kara had both the face and the heart -- as well as courage that never faltered and loving kindness that never stopped. Lee wanted some of her babies to be his.
Too bad it had to be done in a laboratory instead of a bed.
"Come here," Lee said and patted his lap. "Come, sit here. I want to tell you something." They'd always been comfortable with each other, but this was a pretty intimate invitation. He wasn't sure she'd come. Kara didn't hesitate. With a smile and a pleased chuckle, she left the bed and moved to sit in Lee's lap. Shifting his legs a little to carry the extra load, he put a hand behind her butt to steady her. For whatever reason, she ignored it, and he reveled in the feel of the firm round muscles. This was a fantasy come true and his body was beginning to take notice. Was he coming on to Kara? He didn't care, not anymore. This felt so good, like something that was meant to be. He hugged her.
"Look, I'm sorry about Serena," Lee began.
A broad grin answered that. "She's a pretty sorry character, alright."
"I'm serious, you brat."
"So am I."
Kara wasn't going to be helping him on this. Lee went on. "I thought she needed me." He shook his head at his own stupidity. "She needed me way too much. And I let her come between us. I was trying to make a family and I nearly broke mine apart." Kara's head was above Lee's. He tilted back a little so he could see her face. "You're family, you know." He meant it. If they'd had time he would have asked Kara to marry him.
His words provoked a totally unexpected reaction. Kara asked in a voice as lush as velvet, "Are you sure that's what I am? Just family?" Putting her hand behind his head, she let her fingers play in the short hair at the nape of his neck. Her head bent forward until she looked directly into his eyes.
Maybe inviting Kara into his lap hadn't been such a good idea. She was so close that he could smell her sweet breath and see the shine of her lipstick. And he had things going on down south that he didn't want to think about. All he could see were two pink lips. "Family," he affirmed softly.
When those lips brushed Lee's, he groaned and pulled away with a jerk. What was he thinking about? He'd been divorced only three days and he wanted to get married again? Kara deserved far better than a lovesick fool on the rebound from a bad marriage.
Kara straightened, and her hand came to her mouth. "Family," he heard her mutter. She shook her head in negation. "No, no, you're not, Lee Adama. I'm not going to let you." Turning back, she said, "Look, I've got an idea." She reached past him and picked up his blue card, peeled off a long strip, and used it to fill in a blank space on hers. Pointing at the new match, she asked, "What's this little guy's name?"
Lee breathed a silent sigh of relief that Kara had taken the initiative. Maybe they wouldn't marry but they would have children together. "William Zachias," he said with absolute conviction. Taking the blue card, he pulled off another sticker. "And this one is Karanita." He held out his hand, praying that Kara would give him her match card.
She did. "Karanita. I like it. How did you come up with that?"
"It's what I was going to name Serena's first baby, Karan or Karanita. You know, after my best friend." For a long moment the conversation foundered on the shoals of Serena. Had he just called Kara his best friend? Is that what he wanted her to be? Just a friend?
Lee wasn't going to let Serena ruin this. He'd divorced her so that his life could go on. "But how about the twins?" he suddenly asked. Picking up his card once more, he transferred two stickers to hers. He looked to see what she'd think of that. She liked it. A broad Kara smile played across her face. When Lee's hand went up to explore it, she kissed his fingertips and rubbed her face into his palm like a spidercat begging for a pet.
Was it really too late for them? When they had only three guaranteed days left to their lives, and a whole world of crazed robots to defeat, was it wrong to find pleasure in what was left?
Kara looked back at the card. "Ouch!" Kara said. "Twins? Gee, I don't know. I've always kinda favored the name Merry. How about Merry and Berry?"
Lee nodded. "That'd work for either sex." He grinned. "See, I told you that you'd be a great mom." He pulled her head down so he could kiss her cheek, but whether by accident or design she turned it and their lips lightly touched. Once more with faces just inches apart they were locked them into a frozen tableau. Lee's heart was beating so hard and fast that he thought Kara must be able to hear it, and his body had gone far beyond ready and willing, and had reached achingly able.
This time it was Kara who pulled away. Her expression had shifted. "Lee, aren't you going to ask anyone else?"
Did he want to? Could there be anyone better for him than Kara? "No," he said. "If you want to find someone else, I'll understand, but you're all I want." Tipping his head back, he looked up into the green eyes that were studying his face. Would she say "yes" if he proposed? It was ridiculous question to consider and he couldn't bring himself to ask. Instead he went back to the babies. "What would you say to another set of twins?" he asked and patted her stomach. "About recovered there?"
That brought out the giggle he'd hoped for. Kara put his last two stickers on her card. "Look at that," she said. "Six kids and we've never even had sex."
Whoa! That was a pretty audacious thing to say, even for Kara. After the words came out of her mouth, she looked at him quickly and away. Was that just a faint hint of more pink under her makeup? It was charmingly vulnerable and beguilingly beautiful. It was irresistible. Lee tried very hard not to smile as he said, "No, we haven't. But there's always a first time for everything."
Kara moved suddenly to stand up. "Lee, I don't think this is …"
Oh frak, that hadn't gone over very well. It must have sounded too much like a proposition. He held onto her. "Kara, Kara, sweetheart, please no. I didn't mean it that way. If this were any other time or any other place, I'd ask you to marry me." She settled back down but her arm didn't go back around him. He continued. "If you want to, I still will."
"No," she snorted and shook her head. "Just think of the reception. Who would we invite? Cylon central control?" Her soft eyes belied her smartass words. "But you'd marry me, Lee? Really?"
"Really."
Some of the imp returned to Kara's smile. She looked at him sideways. "I don't know. This is so sudden! I'll have to think about it."
She was teasing but she was also asking for a little bit more reassurance. What could he give her for a token? Lee turned to the desk and combed around for the wedding ring. "This was Serena's, but if you don't mind …"
Kara shuddered delicately then an embarrassed smile stole across her face. She dug into a pocket saying, "I have a better idea." When her hand came out it held a heavy man's ring. "Here," she said and dropped it in his palm.
It was his Academy ring. Lee looked it over in amazement. Kara had had his ring? For how long? It must be a couple of years since he'd lost it. "I found it after our fight," Kara told him. "I've been carrying it for luck and so far it's worked. Everywhere I go you've been protecting me." She looked so pleased with herself. Taking the ring back, she slipped it on her thumb and said, "I'll wear this, if it's okay with you." She held out her hand to admire the ring and smiled at Lee as if inviting him to join her in a laugh.
Lee wasn't feeling like laughing. He had something in mind that felt a lot better. "Oh Kara," he groaned. He put his hand behind her head, pulled it firmly to his, and finally … finally their lips met.