Chapter 11
Lee brought his ship to a much more precise landing on the deck than his last one. He jumped down from the plane and moved to where Stubbs and Racetrack were helping a rather dazed Helo from the raptor. He shook the lieutenant's hand.
"Well done, Helo. Excellent job! I doubt Starbuck could have done it better."
"Thank you sir," he said through a grimace of pain. Apollo turned to the approaching medical crew.
"Get this man to sickbay. I want him checked out immediately." He turned to the chief who was hovering.
"Well chief, how did we do? Did Galactica sustain much damage?"
"I'm pleased to say that for once we seem to have got most of our birds back mostly in one piece, but then Starbuck hasn't been flying!" Lee just grinned at him. "As far as I'm aware the old girl came through it not too bad either; more incidental damage than anything else."
"Sir, sir! They're asking for you up in CIC immediately," one of the deck crew shouted across at Lee. His father probably wanted a report of the mission. When he arrived he was surprised at the amount of confusion in the normally calm CIC. It had obviously sustained much of the incidental damage that Tyrol had been talking about and people were picking up pieces of equipment and sweeping up glass. A group of people, including his father, were standing over by an area that had obviously taken the biggest hit. As he moved towards them the paramedic was speaking to the commander.
"I'm afraid specialist Burrows is dead sir."
"And Lieutenant Thrace?"
"I can detect a weak pulse. We'll know more when we can get this off of her, sir." The commander turned and shouted "where is the damned lifting gear?" He rarely shouted and he had a look of deep concern on his face. Lee had a sense of terrible foreboding. He saw the wreckage of the gantry and ran towards it.
"Kara? Oh Gods!" His father grabbed him before he could get there.
"She's still alive, Lee. They're bringing the lifting gear." He pulled himself out of his father's grasp and knelt down to take the hand poking out of the wreckage. Looking around he saw a trail of blood seeping out from beneath the metal and pooling onto the floor. Lee looked at the paramedic helplessly.
"She's…she's pregnant. Do you think that..…" he couldn't go on.
"It's difficult to say," the paramedic replied quietly "it could easily be from an injury, or yes, she could be miscarrying. Whichever, we need to get her out of there as quickly as possible before she bleeds to death," he said with more brutal honesty that thought for Lee or the commander's feelings.
The next fifteen minutes dragged by as a kind of torture for Lee. He couldn't do anything except wait for the needed equipment and when it did arrive he had to stand by and watch as the crew painstakingly worked to get the gear in place without hurting Kara further. As the wreckage was pulled away the paramedic got to work. There seemed to be blood everywhere. Kara was laying on her side with her arm thrown over her face, obviously in an effort to protect herself from the falling debris. There were various cuts across her body, but much worse, a large metal spike was sticking out of the top of her thigh.
"We've got to remove that before we can move her." Lee couldn't help a gasp escaping as the paramedic pulled out the spike and more blood welled out of the gapping wound. He was almost thankful that Kara was unconscious as the pain would have been excruciating. As the medical crew lifted her on to the gurney to whisk her away to sickbay, reaction from the euphoria of their victory followed by his fear for Kara began to set in and he was grateful for his father's steadying arm as he staggered.
"Go with them, son. I've got to stay here and sort things out. Let me know as soon as you know anything."
He didn't wait for a second invitation, but by the time he reached sickbay they had already taken Kara into the OR. He could only sit down in a chair and wait, his head in his hands. He seemed to be doing this with alarming frequency at the moment. At last Cottle came out to him. He gave him a quick smile and patted him on the shoulder as he lit a cigarette.
"Don't take this the wrong way, son, but I'm getting rather fed up of seeing you here."
"No offence taken, doc, and the feeling's mutual believe me. Tell me, how is she?"
"Well that spike got a major vein, but fortunately we got the blood loss stopped in time. She should heal relatively quickly." Lee felt the knot of anxiety that had settled in his chest start to loosen, but there was still another important question to answer before it would be gone completely.
"And the baby?"
"The baby's fine. He certainly is a strong little thing: I think you two had better get used to the fact that he's determined to make it whatever the universe throws at him."
−
Kara awoke and realised that she was in the familiar surroundings of sickbay. I seem to spend half my life here she thought. She glanced down and realised that her hand was clutched in someone else's. Turning to her side she saw Lee, obviously asleep, seated by the side of her bed. She smiled; he was still in his flight suit and even in sleep he looked exhausted. As she pieced together the events of the last day in her mind, the smile faded. The last thing she remembered was a voice saying "brace for contact" and then everything went black. She started to do a mental assessment of her injuries. She wasn't in any pain, but judging by the drips attached to her arm the doc obviously had her back on his magic stuff. She had a quick look under the covers and just saw a mass of bandaging around her thigh. Her next thought was for the baby. Oh Gods, had she lost the baby? If she had it would just be the punishment she deserved for wishing she would miscarry. Her lip started to tremble. When did it become so important that she hadn't had a miscarriage? Only a couple of days ago she believed the best thing that could happen was that she lost the baby and now she was desperately wishing for just the opposite.
Her agitated movements must have wakened Lee.
"Hey, you're awake."
"I lost the baby didn't I?" She said immediately
"No, Kara, he's fine" Lee gave her a reassuring smile
"Oh, thank the Lords." The sobs she couldn't control came. He quickly got up onto the bed and put his arms around her awkwardly.
"Hey, it's OK, shhh, shhh." Gradually her sobs subsided.
"When I first found out I was pregnant I just wanted the baby gone; now all I want is for him to be OK. How frakked up is that?"
"The whole universe is frakked up Kara; you're allowed this little change of heart." He settled himself on the bed next to her, his arm still around her shoulders.
"You've busted up your other leg this time, but not so badly. Doc says you should be healed enough to walk on it within the week."
"You know that hard ass CAG is going to fire me soon. I spend more time lying around in sickbay than I do in a plane."
"Well if the bastard gives you any trouble let me know and I'll sort him out!" They lay in companionable silence for a few minutes before something struck Kara about the recent events.
"You know Lee, this is all you and your father's fault. If you'd let me go in the raptor like I wanted to I'd be fine now."
"Yes, but then you might also be dead." He looked down at her, his expression serious. "And I don't ever want that to happen." He bent his head and kissed her softly. His expression still serious he said,
"Marry me, Kara."
"Is that an order, sir?"
"No, just a simple request from someone who loves you." She looked up at him, eyes huge and tears standing out on her lashes.
"Then I guess I'll just have to say yes."
