Chapter 6

And so life went on. They had a star chart for a solar system that supposedly included earth, but no way of finding it other than by sheer luck. The Cylons had been beaten back, but no one believed that they would be gone forever, so the fleet continued to jump from system to system, seeking out whatever fresh supplies each system had to offer. After all the excitement of Kobol, they got back into the daily routine in CIC and the regular CAP. The commander continued to recover well and had virtually taken back full control of the ship. The only potential blip on the horizon was the up coming elections, but with the president's cancer now in full remission, thanks to the drug they had been able to make from the plants found on Kobol, she approached the upcoming fight against Tom Zarek with renewed vigour and seemed certain to win.

Amongst all of this Starbuck and Apollo continued to avoid talking to each other about anything other than work. They flew together, ate together, they even slept in the same bunk room, his bunk above hers, and yet their camaraderie was gone. There was no easy joking, no morning jog together and no whopping his sorry ass at pyramid of an evening. Kara caught him looking at her once or twice, but she interpreted his intense, brooding expression as "I don't know you anymore; you're a slut". He interpreted the fact that she still hadn't chewed him out over the fight in the hanger bay incident as a sign that she didn't care anymore. Neither one was happy, but neither seemed willing to be the first to make the steps towards reconciliation. If Lee occasionally thought over Baltar's words to him during the journey back from Kobol, he chose to interpret them as the doctor's way of keeping his ego inflated and covering up the fact that Kara had rejected him after that one night together, rather than based on any possible reality.

This sense of suspended animation in their relationship lasted for about 3 weeks.

After what seemed an impossibly long day sorting out all the petty gripes of his pilots and spending an uneventful 4 hours on CAP, Lee grabbed a late dinner and joined the table in the mess hall at which Kara sat with half a dozen of the other pilots. They were discussing the elections. Several of the people around the table couldn't seem to forgive Roslin for countermanding the commander and were contemplating voting for Zarek or violating their ballot papers in protest.

"How can you even think about voting for him? He's a terrorist!"

"Was a terrorist. Things are different now."

Kara was fed up with the endless election talk and decided it was time to put a stop to it. As far as she was concerned there wasn't any choice who to vote for. Despite what had happened between them personally, she still thought Roslin was the woman for the job.

"Come on guys, how can you forget what he allowed to happen to Cally? If any of you vote for him you should be thrown off this ship. Just don't vote at all if you can't bring yourself to vote for Roslin."

There were nods of recognition and agreement around the table. Lee noticed that she hadn't said anything about Zarek's men beating him up. It was at that point that the Starbuck trade mark grin peeked out.

"Although Adam Baker would get my vote any day!"

"Ohh, too right," agreed the other women around the table.

For his vice presidential running mate Zarek had chosen a popular ex-grassball player from Picon who was drop dead gorgeous and had the body of a god. As a political move it was brilliant: the man had virtually no brain cells which meant he would be easy for Zarek to manipulate, and just seeing his megawatt smile seemed to have droves of the women of the fleet queuing up to vote for him.

Lee had been following the conversation, but had not joined in. At Kara's mention of Baker's name, however, he had looked up at her. She was looking at him, grinning from ear to ear, seeming to challenge him. It was that cocksure grin that set him off. It fuelled the anger and frustration towards her that had built up in him and festered since he'd found out that she'd slept with Baltar.

"Yes, I'd bet you'd like nothing better than to add another vice president to the notches on your bedpost," he said with ice cold venom.

There was sudden silence around the table, some of them looking at Lee in astonishment, some at Kara. She was starring at him with a "not here" expression on her face.

"Captain Adama, sir. I believe we need to have a little discussion in the privacy of your office."

"Fine," he replied. He pulled back his chair and left the mess hall at a fast march. She threw her chair down and followed him, leaving a stunned silence in her wake.

"My money's on Starbuck," said Crashdown to break the spell and they were soon all into serious betting.

Kara followed Lee into his office and slammed the hatch shut behind her with a violence that shook its hinges.

"I can't believe you just said that in front of everybody!"

"What, they don't know that you scored with the vice president of the colonies?"

"No they don't. I like to keep my private life private. Thanks to you it will be all over the ship in a matter of hours."

He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at her in an "I don't give a frak" type of way.

"What is your problem Lee? Is it that I slept with Gaius or that I didn't sleep with you?"

"You're assuming a lot if you think that I want to sleep with you."

"You're a man, Lee. I've never known one turn down the offer of a good frak."

"Well that's your problem isn't it Kara. You keep offering. Well, sorry but I've got a bit more self-respect than that."

"Yeah, right. I doubt you could handle me anyway." She knew that she was playing with fire with Lee in this kind of mood, but she couldn't seem to stop herself. Even this reaction from him was better than nothing.

"Oh, so you think that I couldn't handle you. We'll see about that." Without warning he grabbed her arms in a tight grip. He pushed her hard back against the wall and brought his mouth down on to hers in a savage kiss.

"This is what you want, isn't it Kara?" he demanded against her mouth. She came to her senses as his intentions became all to clear.

"No, Lee, please…please, not like this."

"Not like what, Kara? I thought this was how you liked it. Rumour had it at the academy that Starbuck liked nothing better than a quick, hard frak. Well I'm going to give you the quickest, hardest frak you ever had." He almost snarled as he ripped open his own pants and started to pull down her sweats.

"Lee, please stop it, I don't want it to be like this."

She struggled to stop him but his rage seemed to have given him extra strength. She was almost crying as he ignored her pleas and pushed her back onto the desk, sending all his papers flying. Kara knew he was beyond control now. Something had snapped inside him: she had often wondered what would happen if he ever really lost control. Well now she was finding out with a vengeance. The thing really worrying her was that, despite her pleas for him to stop, she wanted this; really wanted it to happen. Seeing him raw and uncontrolled was surprisingly erotic and beautiful. As he thrust into her, she brought her arms around him and snaked her legs around his hips, drawing him in deeper. She knew this was wrong on so many levels, but she wanted him so badly she'd take it this way if it was all she could get of him. That probably made her the slut that he seemed to think that she was, but right now she didn't care. All she cared about was Lee's hard body grinding into hers and the sensual pleasure of his mouth. She reached her climax as he reached his, crying out his name, as she had done once before.

They lay in silence for a few moments, both breathing hard. Lee raised himself on one arm to look down at her.

"I bet it wasn't that good with him," he said in a hard voice, a self satisfied smirk on his face.

His words brought her back to reality with a jolt. What had she done? She'd just let the man that used to be her best friend frak her on his desk. They hadn't really even gotten around to taking any clothes off. Had she lost all self respect? Lee had done that to her: he had made her loose her respect for herself because he didn't respect her anymore. His respect was always been something she had valued and now it was gone. She felt used: they had used each other in a way that good friends shouldn't. She felt cheap and dirty and used.

"You bastard," she said as she pushed him off of her with all her strength, quickly pulled her sweats back on and ran out of the office before he could stop her.