I've got a paper to get done tonight, so that means that I'm posting this next part sooner than usual. And no more evil cliffhangers – I promise! 8-)


Z-plus 26 months: Part Four

Kara had never asked to be Squadron Leader, and she certainly never asked to be CAG. It was just another stark reminder of what she'd lost.

"Attention on deck," Crashdown told the early shift pilots as Kara came into the ready room the next day.

"As you were," she replied, standing at the front of the room. "Me, Boomer, Crashdown, and Hyper are up first. Watch your landings, everyone; the LSO's not in a good mood this week. Next week's schedule will be posted this afternoon. If there are no further questions: Dismissed." Everyone began filing out. Sharon hesitated a moment before approaching her friend.

"Kara, are you sure you're okay for this? Phoenix already said he'd cover for you."

"I'm fine," she shot back. "Go get your preflight done." Sharon nodded, and left her alone.

Phoenix was waiting outside of the briefing room. "Does she want me to fly?" he asked Sharon.

"Nope, says she's fine. I guess she will be, as long as nothing happens on patrol."

"And if something does happen?"

"Fighter pilots with nothing left to lose are usually the best out there – or the most dangerous."


Fortunately, the patrol was completely routine – no sign of Cylons. After they landed, Kara got the new schedule posted, and was checking things out on the deck when one of the pilots approached her. "What, Lieutenant?" she asked him.

"You put me on nights, Sir."

"And?"

"I haven't worked nights since the first month after the attack. Nights are for rookies." Kara looked away from the clipboard she was holding, eyes flashing.

"I'm going to try and dumb this down for you, Lieutenant, okay? We have thirty Vipers. We have twenty-six – We have twenty-five pilots. There are three shifts a day, requiring a minimum of eight people on each. Can you find eight pilots from the two squadrons that wouldn't beat the crap out of you for trying to call them rookies?"

"No, Sir."

"I didn't think so. It's my job to fill the schedule, Lieutenant. If I'm in a good mood, I'll try and make sure that no one has more than two shifts back to back. What are you guessing my mood is right now?"

"Nevermind, Sir." He quickly left, joining the group of pilots that were waiting for mid-shift. Imagine his surprise when one of them gave him a smack upside the head. "Ow! What the frak was that for?"

"Are you deficient?" Riddle, who was the new Alpha Squad Leader, replied. "You're gonna start in on her about schedules now? The Lieutenant just lost everything, and you're worrying about having to work nights?"

"Maybe you haven't noticed, but we're in the middle of a war: people die all the time. Frak, they're probably the lucky ones."

Riddle shook his head. "Get off the deck."

"What?"

"I said get off the deck! We'll cover your shift somehow. I don't need someone with an attitude like that as my wingman. We'll talk later."

"Way to go, Riddle," Deadbolt told him once the pilot left. Riddle shook his head.

"I've still gotta explain that one to the CAG. It's not gonna make her day any better."


Kara didn't have much hope that the day was going to get any better. By the end of it, she still couldn't force herself to go back to her oh-so-empty quarters, and so she wound up involved in a card game in the officer's mess, instead. And, as the game progressed and tensions rose, she was lucky that Crashdown was there to keep her from cleaning another pilot's clock and winding up in the brig.

Adama found her in the CAG's office a few hours later, sitting at the desk with a dark-glass bottle in her hand, staring off at nothing. "Give me the bottle, Kara."

"Why?"

"Because Lee wouldn't want to see you like this."

"You didn't get the memo? Lee's dead, Sir."

He swallowed hard; that had been cold, but considering how drunk she appeared to be, it wasn't all that unexpected. "Give me the bottle," Adama quietly repeated. With a shrug, she got up and stumbled over, handing him the already-empty container.

"Happy now?"

"Let me take you home."

"Home? What home? A half empty-bed? My son's empty bedroom?"

"Kara…"

She picked up the first thing she got her hands on – a container of writing utensils – and flung it across the room, getting little satisfaction from the sound of it breaking. It wasn't enough; an entire bottle of ambrosia couldn't get her drunk enough to forget, so something else had to hurt as badly as she was hurting or she felt like she was going to explode. Books, clipboards, a lamp, the chair, and a few other assorted items all met their demise at her hands. Adama just let her do it, let her get the anger out. When she finally collapsed to her knees in exhaustion, he held her while she cried. She hadn't let a tear fall since the Pan Gal Liner had been written off the previous day, but now it seemed like she couldn't stop.

"I always knew he might leave me one day," she whispered. "I never thought he'd take Zak, too."

"I know," Adama whispered in her ear. "I know, Kara."

The tears finally slowed, and he helped her to her feet, and then led her down the corridors towards her quarters. She was too tired to fight him, and was barely still awake by the time he got her to lie down in bed and pulled a blanket over her. "You're going to make it through this," he whispered as she was overcome by sleep. "I promise you that."

Adama knew she'd be out for a while, and fully intended upon staying with her for the night, but not even an hour later, he heard on the overhead: "Commander Adama, please report to the CIC." After promising himself that whatever was going on, he wouldn't let Kara wake up alone, he headed for the ship's command center.


Kara slowly opened her eyes. The previous night slowly came back to her in trickles, and she inwardly groaned at the thought of having to clean up Lee's office.

No, she corrected herself. It's not Lee's office anymore. My office.

As her mind slowly made its way towards true consciousness, a bit of warm weight against her body finally registered, and she looked down to see her tiny light-brown-haired son, fast asleep, his little arms wrapped around her. Even more shocking, Lee was sleeping beside her.

"I've finally lost my mind," she whispered to herself.

Knowing she had to be hallucinating, she started to get out of bed, debating whether or not to try and find Adama, or just get down to the Life Station. However, her movement awakened Lee, and she absolutely froze when she saw his clear blue eyes open. He just smiled. "Gods, I wondered whether or not I was ever going to see your face again."

"You're not really here," she whispered, unable to stop the tears that were welling in her eyes. "I-I'm dreaming."

"No, Kara." Lee wound his fingers through hers. "I'm here."

She shook her head. "The chances of the Liner finding us…"

"I know the odds," Lee told her. "Our FTL was offline for a while, but we've been jumping every hour for the past day, trying to check out all the possible targets that the fleet could have gone to. I've got to tell you, I don't think I've ever been happier to see Galactica before."

"We searched for you for days. We didn't want to jump, but the Cylons found one of our patrols."

"I know, my Dad told me all that last night. I'm still so amazed that they never found the Liner. I guess the Lords were watching out for us; we were sitting ducks for a while there."

"Your Dad's seen you?"

"Mmm-hmm…What exactly did you do to my office?"

A laugh and a sob escaped at the same time. "I'll help clean up; promise."

"You got that right."

Zak stirred between them, having finally been pulled from sleep by their voices. He smiled when he saw his mother was awake, crawling farther up the bed to wrap his arms around her neck. "Missed you," he whispered.

"I missed you, too, mister man. You don't know how much I missed you."

"Can we have breakfast?"

Kara laughed. "Yeah, are you hungry?" Zak nodded. "Well then I guess we'll have to go eat. How about you go get some clothes out, and then we'll get you washed up and dressed and then we'll have breakfast." Zak climbed down and headed for his room. Lee pulled Kara into his arms.

"So…" he said.

"Mmm?"

"Next time we take a little trip off ship, how about you come with us?"


TBC…

Of course I couldn't actually kill them. 8-) Lee's too cute for that. We are starting to approach the end, though. If you haven't already, please leave a note to let me know what you think. And THANK YOU to everyone who already has. Reviews are really easy ways to make a frustrated college student's day a little brighter.