Chapter 8

Lee stood like a statue in front of his monitors in CIC, with every outward appearance of the calm, efficient CAG. However, no one had risked speaking to him unless absolutely necessary. His father wasn't sure if he was registering anything that was happening around him and was pretty sure that he was just doing his job on automatic pilot, but they needed to keep him doing it if he was going to get through this.

They had been travelling back through the system until they were able to calculate a jump. Lee tried to swallow the misery that threatened to engulf him with every passing mile. He tried to concentrate on the data in front of him, but Kara's face kept swimming into his mind. He suddenly realised that his father was speaking to him.

"Sorry sir, I missed the question."

"I asked about the status of the CAP, major."

"Ummm, five vipers just started a new patrol, sir."

The admiral just nodded in response. Lee suddenly really took in his father's appearance; he looked awful. He was usually so vigorous that one forgot his age and the fact that he should have been living in quiet retirement by now, but right now every year was showing on his haggard face. Lee felt suddenly guilty that he had been so immersed in his own grief that he hadn't spared a thought for what his father would be feeling at the moment. To all intents and purposes he had just lost a second child. The crew accepted that Lee would be grief stricken at the loss of Starbuck, but they all seemed to expect his father to go on stoically as if nothing had happened, that he hadn't experienced the same loss. Lee acknowledged to himself that he had been leaning heavily on his father over the last few days and it was about time that he returned some of that support. He moved closer to his dad and spoke quietly.

"Hey dad, how about Alex and I come to your quarters for dinner?" He managed to give his father a sad smile and was rewarded by a half smile in return. Both of them knew that they wouldn't be able to eat much in the way of dinner, but the admiral appreciated his son's thought, realising that he was trying to show the old man that he knew what he was feeling beneath the calm exterior.

"I'd like that. I'm almost done here and you should have been off shift ages ago. Let me just hand over to Saul and then we'll go."

They were just turning to leave when the calm of CIC was interrupted by a bleeping sound coming from one of the consoles.

"Sir, I'm picking up some sort of signal." Dee's voice immediately caught everyone's attention, halting Lee and his father at the exit.

"What is it?" Asked the XO, a scowl of concern on his face. The tension in the room was palpable. Had they delayed too long and allowed the Cylons to find them?

"I'm not sure, it's really faint. It's coming from near our last location, sir. Wait……..it's a viper distress beacon, sir!" She shouted triumphantly.

Lee was on the phone before anyone else could react.

"This is the CAG. Launch a raptor for immediate search and rescue. Dee, please send them the co-ordinates."

Within a few minutes the raptor had left the ship and jumped away. To those waiting on the Galactica it seemed to be gone an age, but it was actually within a relatively short time that it reappeared with a viper in tow. Helo's voice came over the radio.

"Galactica, Helo. We've got her!" The admiral took the comms.

"Is she still alive? Have you been able to speak to her?"

"No, her comms appear to be frakked, sir. The viper is pretty banged up. We can't really see in the cockpit either. It appears to be all iced over. We just got the ship hooked up and back here as fast as we could."

The raptor brought the viper into the bay. Through the fog clouding her mind, Kara heard the canopy pull back and felt her helmet being lifted off. She didn't know whether she was on the Galactica or had been captured by the Cylons, but quite frankly, at this point she didn't care.

Looking down at her, the chief didn't like what he saw. She had a deep, bloody gash on her temple. Her lips were blue and she was barely conscious. The cockpit was freezing cold.

"Well Lieutenant, I see that you've messed up another one of my birds," he said quietly.

On hearing the chief's voice she knew that she was safe. With a supreme effort she opened her eyes briefly.

"Sorry…. chief……Can't… get out……either."

She felt strong arms lift her out of the cockpit. Despite the strength, they held her with a curious gentleness that she recognised instantly. She made another effort to open her eyes and looked up into Lee's stern, concerned face.

"Major Adama….sir…..mission…..accomplished." This caused him to smile slightly.

"Well done, Lieutenant," he said softly as he carefully descended the stairs, pulling her tightly against his chest. He laid her on the gurney that the medics had pulled up and then bent to kiss her, as if the warmth of his lips on hers could somehow restore some of the heat to her chilled body. He knew that his father and the XO were approaching, but right now he didn't care about any rules or regulations about public displays of affection, or the fact that everyone on the deck was watching; Kara had come back to him and that was all that mattered. He could tell that she was in a bad way, but now that she was back he had hope again.

"Sir, sir, I need to get the oxygen mask on her."

"Lee," Kara muttered before the medic could get to her.

"Shhh, Kara. Don't try and talk." She was trying to fiddle with one of the pockets of her flight suit. He undid it for her and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper.

"Jump," was all she could say. The medic finally got the mask on her and started to whisk the gurney away. Lee looked down at the paper and saw some calculations scribbled there. His father came up to him.

"How is she?" Lee just shook his head, not trusting himself to speak. He handed his father the piece of paper.

"Well I'll be damned. Jump co-ordinates. Saul, get these to Gaeta and get him to start calculating the jump." He pushed Lee to follow the medical team. "Go on, son, go to her."

His father's words broke Lee's sudden inertia and spurred him into action. He ran after the gurney as the medics rushed Kara to sickbay. He had to stand by as they hooked her up to monitors and cut off her flight suit. He didn't like the look of the bruises on her body, and even less the blue tinge to her skin. Major Cottle was all efficiency.

"She's severely hypothermic. Signs of hypoxia. Get me the warming blankets and I want the crash cart in here now." As if hearing his words, alarms started to go off all around.

"She's crashing."

"No, please don't do this to me Kara, please," thought Lee as he watched the medics frantically working to save his wife. He thought that it would be beyond cruel of the Lords to take her away just when he thought that he had gotten her back. He watched as her body jumped in shock as the doc placed the defibrillator on her chest. Nothing happened. The doc repeated the procedure and then suddenly the monitors started to bleep out a rhythm; they had her back. Lee slumped against the wall and fought back tears of relief.

−

Lee Adama was back to watching someone he loved breath with the aid of machines. The doc had told him that this was just a temporary measure whilst they got Kara's temperature back to normal. You apparently couldn't rush this sort of thing, but Lee dearly wished that you could. Right now he wanted nothing but to look into Kara's eyes and know that she was going to be alright.

His father appeared at his side as the doc carefully checked the various monitors around the bed.

"It's a miracle she survived, dad. She should have been out of oxygen ages before we picked her up."

"Well it turns out that, after her last experience, she slipped an extra bottle in her survival pack. The chief told me that he found three empty bottles in the viper." Lee shook his head.

"But even that wouldn't have lasted."

"It's actually the cold that saved her," chimed in the doc. "All your systems slow down with hypothermia. Her body simply used less oxygen and that just about eked out her supply. Although I doubt that she would have lasted much longer; she was already showing signs of oxygen deprivation when we got to her."

"But she'll be OK, right?"

"As far as I can tell, yes she will."

−

When Kara came round she realised that she was back in the Galactica's sickbay.

"Welcome back Lieutenant. I'm thinking of putting a name plate up on this bed to reserve it for you," said major Cottle, dryly, as he looked at her chart. "I only had to stitch up your head this time. You were pretty hypothermic though, gave us a real scare, but now we've got your temperature back up and re-hydrated you everything is looking fine. You'll be whacked out for the next few days but there shouldn't be any permanent damage."

"Thanks doc." She was disappointed not to find Lee at her bedside. "Ummm, do you know where my husband is?"

"I kicked him out for a bit. He's been here since you were brought in. He was cluttering up the place, and quite frankly he was starting to smell!" Her laugh turned into a cough.

"Lords, doc, don't do that to me."

As if hearing his name mentioned Lee appeared, obviously newly showered, and he was carrying Alex.

"Hey, you're awake. I've got someone here who really wants to see you," he said as he laid her son in her arms. He sat down on her bed and put his arm around her shoulders.

"Oh I missed you little man." She kissed his soft cheek as tears started running down her own cheeks. "I missed you both so much."

"Hey, we don't want any of that," replied her husband, wiping her tears away with a gentle hand. He looked at her, a serious expression in his eyes.

"You were right, Kara; you've restored my faith. You always do make it back, by the skin of your teeth, but you make it back. Just don't ever make me go through something like that again; I thought that I'd lost you, that we'd lost you."

"I know, I thought the same. I've never felt so alone in my whole life. You were right too, Lee. Things are different now. It doesn't mean that I'm going to stop flying or taking on dangerous missions. I just have to pick them more carefully." She smiled up at him saucily, a touch of the old Starbuck insouciance creeping back.

"Now that we've got all that out of the way, give me a proper welcome back kiss," she demanded.

"Sir, yes, sir!" He grinned and bent to claim her mouth with his.

−

Author's note: I just couldn't leave her out there to die alone in space! A little epilogue vignette to go and then we're done.