This chapter comes with a health warning for those of you who prefer a low sugar diet: Scores very highly on the slush-o-meter with sex thrown in for good measure (I'll let you decide whether it's gratuitous or not)!

Chapter 12

The commander found that he was surprisingly nervous as he travelled with his son over to Colonial One.

"Have you got a ring?" he asked Lee, realising that it was a little late to remedy if he hadn't.

"Yeah." Lee brought out the thin gold band that until that morning had been hanging on the chain with his dog tags. He didn't know whether his father would recognise it.

"It was mom's."

"I know that son. I was the one who bought it for her."

"She gave it to me when she and Roger got engaged. Said she wanted me to give it to my wife so that every time I saw it on her finger I would be reminded of what it was like to be a military wife."

He glanced towards his father's ring finger.

"You still wear yours dad, even after all these years."

"Just because your mother and I couldn't keep living with each other, doesn't mean that I ever stopped loving her, Lee."

Lee nodded, realising that he had never really appreciated the depths of his father's emotions for his family, hidden as they were behind the mask of military discipline and duty. The occasional glimpses he had of them made him feel humbled and somewhat guilty that he had misjudged his father so badly.

"Are you nervous, son?"

"No, I'm not nervous dad." His father raised a sceptical eyebrow and a wry smile crossed Lee's face "I'm frakking petrified!"

Lee and Kara had decided to get married as soon as possible: neither of them were people who delayed doing anything once they had made up their mind to do it. They wanted to keep the wedding low key and so had chosen to hold it with just a few witnesses on Colonial One, rather than on the Galactica, where it would have been virtually impossible to have it without most of the crew turning up. When Lee and his father reached Colonial One, the president, Elosha and Billy were already gathered in the president's office. Elosha was humming quietly as she busied herself with the arrangement of her scrolls.

"So nice not to be using the funeral ceremony for once. I can't remember the last time I officiated at a wedding."

Dee slipped in and gave everyone the thumbs up then went to stand by Billy. Kara had asked her to come with her, ostensibly to help her get ready, but the real reason was because she hoped that seeing another couple get married would chivvy Billy into finally asking Dee to do the same.

Kara came in, her dress uniform immaculate and her hair prettily arranged; there were even some signs of make up. She looked very nervous, her eyes huge in her face, but her smile broke out when she found Lee's gaze. He came towards her, hand outstretched. She took it in hers and they turned to stand in front of the priest.

"We are gathered together to celebrate the ancient rite of marriage between a man and a woman," Elosha began and then continued with the familiar words of the marriage ceremony handed down in the scriptures by the Lords of Kobol. Lee said his vows and slipped his mother's ring onto Kara's finger. She took the silver ring from her thumb and put it onto his ring finger.

"May the Lords bless this marriage for as long as you both shall live."

"So say we all."

Lee leaned forward and kissed her as everyone clapped. The president cleared her throat to make a little speech.

"In deference to Lieutenant…" She paused "should I say Thrace or Adama?"

"Thrace," replied Lee. "We decided there were quite enough Adama's on Galactica already. Although she'll be Mrs Adama when we're off duty!" Kara gave him a quick dig in the ribs to get him to stop embarrassing her.

"Well then, in deference to Lieutenant Thrace's condition, we'll toast you with sparkling water! Very best wishes for a successful marriage and may this baby be the first of many; the human race needs them."

Kara wished a big hole would open up in the floor and swallow her. Thank the Gods they hadn't invited more people to be here. When the president had found out that she and Lee were having a baby she had wanted to use them as some sort of promotional couple to support human procreation in the fleet, supposedly in a "if our viper pilots can do it, so can you" type of way. Kara had been horrified. It had taken the commander's intervention to dampen Laura's enthusiasm for the idea. Kara wasn't sure what he had said to her to make her stop, but frankly she didn't care!

The commander came over to her, hugged her tightly and kissed her cheek.

"Well, so you get to be my daughter properly at last. I'm very glad Kara."

"Thank you, sir"

"Do you think we might be able to drop the sir when we're off duty in favour of dad?"

"I'll try, sir…I mean, dad."

The president came up to join them.

"I have a wedding present for you." She handed them an envelope "Two nights accommodation on the Cloud Nine." The commander joined in.

"And I've arranged for the pair of you to have the next three days off so enjoy your honeymoon. I'll give you the rest of your wedding present when you get back to Galactica"

"We didn't need presents, dad, Madame President, but thank you," said Lee, ever the diplomat.

They had scrounged what civilian clothing they could so that they didn't stand out too much in their military uniforms on the Cloud Nine. Lee handed over the tickets the president had given them to the receptionist. Kara tried not to giggle at the names in the register: Mr A P Lo and Mrs S B Lo.

"Welcome to Cloud Nine Mr and Mrs Lo. You'll be staying in our honeymoon suite." The honeymoon suite turned out to be a sumptuous apartment on the top floor of the hotel, overlooking the gardens and the ornamental lake. The main room contained the biggest bed Kara had ever seen.

"Frak me! Half of Galactica's crew could sleep together in this."

"Well I hope they're damn well not going to join us!"

They continued to explore. The piece de resistance was an enormous sunken Jacuzzi in the marble bathroom.

"Do you think this works?"

"I don't see why not. This is a long term cruise ship. It probably has a very efficient water recycling system." Lee reached down and turned on the taps. Sure enough, steamy water streamed out.

"Lords, I can't remember the last time I had a really long, hot bath."

Lee just laughed. Back at the academy Kara had been famous for blocking up the bathroom for hours on end while she soaked in the bath. He could still picture her, head poking out of the mounds of bubbles with a stogie sticking out of the side of her mouth, glass in one hand and some trashy novel in the other.

"I'll run you one. You deserve it. It's been a long day."

Lee sat on the side of the bath just watching her as she lay back in the bubbling water, a beatific smile on her face. For some reason he felt incredibly nervous. He was suddenly overwhelmed by the fact that it all seemed to be happening so fast. A couple of months ago they were barely talking and now here they were married and with a baby on the way. He didn't kid himself that this wasn't what he wanted: he had finally admitted to himself that he had been in love with Kara for a long time, but he didn't feel in control of the situation and that was always difficult for him. He tried to analyse his nervousness. It wasn't about living with Kara; they had essentially "lived together" in the academy and even now they bunked in the same cramped room. There wasn't much that he didn't know about her habits and eccentricities and vice versa. The only thing they hadn't done then was sleep together in the full scripture sense of the word. Now he was finally getting to the bottom of the problem: sex. He was nervous about coming up to her expectations in that department. They had been building up to this for so long that he didn't want it to be a let down, which was primarily why he hadn't taken her off to some secluded corner of Galactica after she had come out of sickbay. In his mind, tonight would be the first time that they had made love: whatever the consequences of their previous experience may have been, he didn't really count it.

He was also not entirely sure of Kara's feelings for him. She had never said that she loved him. He hoped that she hadn't married him for just the baby's sake and to get away from the pressure his father had no doubt subtly exerted on her. In his experience there wasn't anyone who could pressure Kara into doing anything that she didn't want to, with the exception of his father. They hadn't really dealt with half the issues between them; they had just leapt straight into marriage. But then, Lee reasoned, they had had plenty of demonstration recently that there was no point in waiting for everything to be just right anymore: it could all so easily be gone in the blink of an eye. It was better just to do what felt right at that moment, and in his mind this just felt right. Gods willing, they would have plenty of time in the future to work through all of the things they needed to to make their relationship work.

All of this was going around Lee's head as he watched Kara enjoy her bath. She interrupted his thoughts in a way that only Kara could.

"Well then Apollo, get yourself in here and treat me like a husband should."

"What, in a Jacuzzi? Could be interesting." He hesitated.

"What's the matter?" She asked.

"Well you did threaten to remove certain parts of my anatomy that I'm rather fond of if I touched you again."

"I think you're safe for the moment; you can't get me doubly pregnant!" Lee still had a hesitant look on his face. He wanted this to be so right and he wasn't sure that he could pull it off in a Jacuzzi!

"You don't fancy it in the bath? Well maybe later."

"Yeah, think how bad it would look if one of us drow…….ned." His words caught in his throat as she stood up, the water running in rivulets down her naked body.

Get a grip Lee, he thought, you've seen her naked hundreds of times. But this was different: she was quite clearly offering herself to him, but then again why shouldn't she, he reasoned, it was their wedding night after all.

Lee decided that it was time to stop thinking and start acting. He stood up and fetched one of the large fluffy towels from the rail and held it open for her. She stepped out of the bath and into his waiting arms. He wrapped the towel around her, pulling her in close. Then he started to dry her with long, slow, rhythmical strokes of the towel. Kara's eyes closed and she had to bite her bottom lip to stop herself crying out ecstatically. By the time he had finished she was pink all over, and not just from the heat of the bath. Lee looked deep into her eyes, his expression unreadable. Then, without warning, he scoped her up into his arms and carried her through to the bedroom. He laid her on the bed and only stopped to quickly take off his own clothes before he joined her. Kara was secretly fascinated to watch him take control and let him carry on. He started by kissing the scar on her injured knee, and then moved to place a feather-light kiss on the most recent scar on her thigh, all the time caressing her lightly; his calloused hands on her soft, warm skin causing rivers of excitement to flow through her body. Then he moved up and almost reverently caressed the slightly rounded mound of her stomach before kissing it softly. He trailed kisses up her body, taking in the scar at the bottom of her ribs that he remembered from a training accident while they were at the academy and the one on her shoulder which she had gotten when their vipers had slammed into the deck after escaping the Cylons at Ragnar. He then turned his attentions to her breasts. With her pregnancy they were so ultra-sensitive that his slightest touch sent the most amazing sensations of ecstasy and pain coursing through her. By this time she had gotten to the point where she had to do something to stop him or she would explode!

"Lee, please….I can't take much more."

"That's a shame. I was just getting started."

She decided that it was time to re-exert some control of her own and pulled his head up so that she could explore his mouth in a long, deep kiss. She slid her hands down his body, enjoying the play of muscles beneath her fingers. He pulled away from the kiss and bent his head towards her breast again, only to stop short as her fingers closed around his erection.

"Two can play at that game, flyboy."

She got what she wanted as he returned to concentrate on her mouth. His own hand slid lower and as it slipped between her thighs he knew that she was more than ready for him. He let his fingers play for a while.

"Ready, Kara?" he asked, amazed at his own control.

"Just get the frak on with it, Lee." she panted, obviously close to the edge.

"Your wish is my command Mrs Adama," he said as he carefully slid into her.

That was when much of his control ended; the feel of her gripping him filled him with almost overwhelming sensation. As he started to move, she moved with him, adjusting immediately to his rhythm. Kissing and caressing, she seemed to grip even tighter and it drove him on towards the zenith.

"Oh, Gods…Kara….so good…."

For the first time he lost control completely as he hastened their pace further. He felt her convulse in orgasm beneath him and it sparked his own release.

Still breathing heavily he rolled onto his side, pulling her with him, so that he wouldn't rest too heavily on her stomach or healing wound. They lay there, still joined, breathing returning to normal, trying to take in the glory of what had just happened. Eventually he looked down at her and moved her hair out of her eyes with a gentle hand.

"Better?" He asked.

"Much better, and a damn sight more comfortable than your desk," she replied and reached up to kiss him. She felt him stir within her again in response to the kiss.

"Wow, now that is impressive, Captain."

"Well, we aim to please Lieutenant."

Later, when they lay sated in each others arms, Kara thought drowsily that sex with Lee was better than she'd ever imagined, even in her ambrosia-induced fantasy of him when she had been with Baltar. She found that she didn't want to move; ever. If only their lives could be suspended and they could stay like this forever, wrapped around each other in this enormous, soft, comfortable bed. She also knew that there was something she really needed to tell him, but she was just too damned tired and he was already fast asleep. "I love you" she murmured as she joined him in sleep.

They had both woken early out of sheer habit. Lee had pulled open the balcony doors so that they could lie in bed and see the sun rise, albeit an artificial one. They lay on their sides facing each other, each just drinking in the sight of the other and enjoying the fact that for what seemed like forever they didn't actually have to get up at all. A little smile was playing around Kara's mouth.

"I really must thank Gaius when we get back."

"What ever do you want to thank that frakked up nut job for?"

"Well, you know if I hadn't ended up sleeping with him after the colonial day party, and he hadn't been so indiscrete and stupid about it so that you found out, I doubt that we would have been here today."

"I don't know about that Kara, may be not today but.."

"No, it's true Lee. Whatever we may have felt for each other we'd probably just have gone on with the charade of being just friends because it was so much less complicated than addressing the other option. May be we might have gotten here eventually, but we would have wasted so much time when we could have been together. Me, because I think I'm a screw up who ends up hurting everyone she touches, and you because you won't deal with an emotion even if it comes up and hits you in the face," she said with the brutal honesty he had come to expect from her. He sighed, knowing that she had a point.

"You're probably right, Kara and if we're going to make this marriage work than I need you to help me. Tell me when I shut you out or hurt you in some way, don't just ignore it and let it fester. I know we need to talk about the way we feel more if we're going to stay happy, but you know I won't do it unless you push me to." She nodded as he went on "and in return I'm going to do everything in my power to show you that you're not the curse that your mother made you think you were, and to finally banish the demons that Zac's death left behind." He reached over to pull her to him for a kiss. She snuggled against him and tried to lighten the mood a little.

"I can't believe you called the vice president of the colonies a frakked up nut job!"

"Well he is and if he ever even looks at you in that way again I'll call him worse to his face. Punching him would just be too easy; he's a complete wimp!"

"Ooo, my hero and protector!" She looked away and composed herself for a moment. She thought that they had dealt with enough issues for one morning but knew that she had to clear this up once and for all, so when she looked up at him her eyes were serious.

"You know I was only with him because I was drunk and you didn't seem interested. I wanted it to be you so badly." She took a deep breath. "So badly in fact that all I could think about while I was with him was you and I, er.. um, called out your name when we were… were, you know," she finished, blushing.

"Oh Lords, no wonder he seemed so pissed with me," he said in awe, finally understanding the strange conversation with Baltar on the way back from Kobol. He caressed her cheek.

"I'm so glad you told me, Kara. If I'd only given you time to explain before you left for Caprica, then may be none of this would have happened." She looked frankly at the way they were lying naked together.

"Well that would have been a shame! But really Lee, you can't blame yourself for everything. I was the one who screwed up in the first place and didn't try to explain my behaviour."

"OK, so we're equally culpable. That night at the party I was more than interested but you were so beautiful in that dress and you seemed to be having so much fun with other people, and it was all so against the rules that I reasoned myself out of it. You know that over-thinking is my besetting sin."

"It was for you Lee. It was all for you," she said simply.

"I know that now. Try not to be so subtle with me in the future. When it comes to relationships I need clear, unmistakeable directions."

"OK then, how about this. Sir, if you don't shut up and frak me stupid right now, I may explode…sir!" He rapidly closed the space between them.

"Message received loud and clear Lieutenant!"

They spent almost every moment of the rest of their time on Cloud Nine together. They walked in the artificial sunshine, they talked about all the things they never seemed to have the time or the privacy for on Galactica, even deciding a name for the baby, and they made love. Sex in the Jacuzzi turned out to be spectacular and, despite Lee's fear, neither of them drowned. Somehow, even in this brief period of respite, some of the horrors of the last months were pushed away. They knew that they were in a sense of suspended bliss that wouldn't last once they got back to the Galactica, but they were determined to get their fill of it while it lasted.

"Can we take this bed with us back to the Galactica?" Kara asked as she lay, head on Lee's chest, on their last day.

"I think the hotel guys might just notice if we tried to sneak it out. Besides, it won't fit in my office. About the only room big enough in the whole ship is the briefing room and I don't think that my dad would be too impressed if we set up home there."

"OK so may be we could just pilfer a couple of pillows. I'm sure they'll fit in our bags along with the bathrobes I've nicked."

"Kara!"

"Oh lighten up Apollo. Everyone always nicks the bathrobes from hotels; they expect it. Anyway if they've got a problem with it they could just send the bill to Mr A P Lo!" He tried to look disapprovingly at her but failed.

"Come on Kara, all good things must come to an end. We've got to move; the shuttle goes in an hour." She looked up at him.

"Before we go back to reality, I want you to know that this has been just about the best time I've ever had."

"Me too." She hesitated for a moment before saying the words he had been longing to hear.

"I…..I love you Lee."

They didn't make the shuttle.

When they eventually got back to Galactica it was clear that the secret was out. Practically every pilot who wasn't actually out on patrol seemed to be in the hanger bay, plus a whole load of other people who had the flimsiest of excuses to be there. As they stepped out of the shuttle a round of applause broke out. The chief was first to reach them.

"Welcome back, Captain, Lieutenant and congratulations from all of your deck crew."

"Thanks Chief," replied Lee shaking the chief's hand.

"I'm supposed to tell you that your father wants to see you in his quarters as soon as your back," he said as he turned to hug Kara.

They were suddenly engulfed by all their friends and colleagues in a sea of congratulations. It took an age for them to get off the deck and make their way to the commander's quarters. He greeted them with a smile and invited them in to dinner. As they ate he observed them closely and was content with what he saw. The time away had done them both good. That tight look of constant worry seemed to have eased from his son's face and Kara looked more contented than she had in a long time. They were relaxed with each other; it wasn't any display of false camaraderie put on for his benefit, and when they touched each other it was in a way that screamed intimacy. They also couldn't seem to take their eyes off each other. It made the commander feel old, but in a good way as he remembered when he and Lee's mother had been the same way.

"I promised I'd give you the rest of your wedding present when you got back." Lee started to protest about not needing presents but his father stopped him.

"Hey, indulge the old man. If I want to give my son and daughter-in-law a present why shouldn't I?"

He led them out of his quarters and down a couple of corridors. He opened a hatch and stepped back to let them through first. Beyond was a large room simply furnished with a bed, a couch and a desk

"I didn't think we'd be needing any of the museum refreshment cafes anytime soon so I had this one converted. There was a restroom attached which has been converted into a head and there's a couple of storage rooms attached which can be made into a room for the baby. It's probably nothing like the luxury you've just had, but it's a hell of a lot better for a couple than the officer's bunk room."

"I don't know what to say dad!"

"Thanks usually works, son." Kara didn't bother with words, just gave him a big hug.

"Now I hate to bring you both back to reality, but there's a full officer's briefing at 0800 tomorrow. We need to discuss what we're going to do now that we seem to have got rid of the Cylons for a while." He left them to enjoy their new quarters.

"No rest for the wicked," sighed Kara

"No and let's face it Mrs Adama, you can certainly be very wicked," Lee said with a smile as he bent his head to kiss her.

Author's note: Hope this chapter hasn't been too much over-indulgent mush for you. Many thanks for all the feedback; glad you all seem to be enjoying the story. We're now nearly at the end. There's one chapter to go, possibly two if I decide to split it. I have two possible endings, one happy and one very sad. Now I'm generally a glass half full type of person who likes a happy ending, but I will consider doing the sad one if there is enough call for it.