Kara Thrace pushed her hand up against her mouth in what she hoped resembled a concerned face. In reality, she was just hiding her yawn. These meetings on the current water situation were going to be the death of her. The Fleet always did the same thing when it ran low on water. Small FTL jumps until an aquatic system was discovered. And yet they sat here and debated and debated.

She had no idea why she had to be overseeing these meetings at all times of day. For frak's sake, she was tired and there was a hundred better things she could be doing.

But screaming that at the top of her lungs before storming out of the room would bring attention to her, and that was the last thing she wanted. Not if she was going to accomplish the number one 'better thing she could be doing' later on that night.

"Commander? Commander?"

Gaeta's words pulled her away from the dangerous road down which her thoughts were heading.

"I'm sorry. Trying to get my head wrapped around this whole situation we're in." She tried to cover her disinterest with her best diplomatic smile. "Let me see if I have this right. The representative from Geminon thinks we should forget this constant search for water and just find a system to stay stationary in. Sagittaron thinks that we should set up a system of the strongest survive. And Caprica says they don't give a rat's ass as long as their people have something to shoot while we're looking for water."

The small handful of people assembled stared at her with wide eyes.

"What?" she asked with a shrug. When no one answered or even looked her way, she turned to her XO. She could always trust Gaeta to be on top of things. "Colonel?"

"Well, sir, Geminon thinks that we need to keep moving and avoid staying stationary. Sagittaron wants to make sure the water shortage doesn't get to the point that the weaker ships start to suffer. And Caprica deferred to your judgment considering you were once a resident of the colony and they thought it would be an insult to ignore what you think is best."

Damnit. She had really thought she had it straight for once.

"I think that the Commander's getting tired," Dee said abruptly. "And I'm sure she doesn't like having the civilian government's opinions weigh in so heavily on what should be an entirely military decision."

"Thank you, Dee, but it's a little too late to try to keep the two sides apart."

Dee's eyes lit up with the double meaning of her words. Kara wanted to laugh out right. She always loved telling Dee her secrets because the girl could keep silent with the best of them and yet there was always an added hint of mischief in being able to share the double meanings and inside jokes with someone other than herself. Plus, it was poetry in motion watching Dee cover for all the not-so subtle hints she threw out every once in a while.

As she watched Dee kindly stand up and take care of the formalities of adjourning the meeting, Kara decided she couldn't have confided in a better person. This woman kept the whole CIC from self-destructing on a daily basis. She was the only one who knew how to keep things graceful under pressure.

Kara sat back and watched her XO and CIC head usher all the important figures in the Fleet out the door as if they were only minor players in this little game called staying alive. Those two had a way about getting people to do what they wanted without being insulted. It reminded her of the day the Old Man had finally stepped down and surprised the world by leaving the Fleet in her hands. He had told her the best decisions she could make would be in picking those who would work around her.

"Sir."

Dee's voice drew Kara out of her thoughts and back into the real world again. "Yes?"

"Not that it's any of my business. But I thought you might like to know that there has been little activity today in the southeast corridor. Seems like a nice place if you want to take a walk without being interrupted."

Kara's eyes widened and her gaze flew to the open door. She could still see a few people hanging around the corridor outside the conference room. "I don't see how that information is pertinent to me right now."

Dee glanced briefly at the people outside before walking over to Kara's side and whispering, "D'anna Biers is on this ship again this week, searching for the next juicy story. Rumor has it she's been prowling the corridors waiting for someone to slip up. She's starting to get desperate for some sort of tabloid headline to go with."

Kara gave a smirk and silently mouthed her thanks as she stood out of her chair and gathered a few papers off the table. The last thing she needed was to be on the front page of a tabloid newspaper. "I think I will take your suggestion of a walk, but I'm going to make it the north corridor. Sometimes it's nice to be interrupted."

Striding out of the room, Kara left the rest of the mess to be cleaned up by someone else. She nodded at the few important military figures who still hung around, obviously desperate to get a few moments of private time with her. Well, they were sadly mistaken if they thought it was going to happen tonight.

It had been almost a full twenty-four hours since Kara had found the time to take one of her special walks. Nothing was going to stop her, not even another Cylon holocaust.

"Colonel Gaeta, the command of Galactica is all yours," she called, stepping past the mass of people and making her way to the north corridor.

She could hear a few misguided fools shuffling after her for the first few turns, but a quick sidestep into one of the hangar bay's small hatchway tunnels took care of that. It was times like these that having once been a Viper pilot paid off. She knew the secret hatchways that your normal person did not. Smiling, she rushed her way down the tunnel, her mind already more on her destination than the journey. She would have to be careful if she didn't want to slip up.

Kara could hear herself breathing heavily as she waited patiently on the other end of the tunnel for the corridor to clear. If anyone saw her hiding here, she would be forced to come up with a reason why a Battlestar Commander would have to hide on their own ship. And whatever her reasoning would be, it wasn't going to be very sound.

As she waited, her mind darted back to the day the Old Man had pulled her aside and told her she was getting promoted all the way up to Commander. She had called him crazy, and he had called her too stubborn for her own good. For the first few hours of arguing, he had laid some bullshit on her about how she was the only person left in the Fleet that everyone respected and listened to. And then something had shifted. She had told him she was going to turn down the nomination, and he had suddenly lost his composure, his strength melting away to show his ever-increasing years.

William Adama had explained to her that the election results for the previous week's presidential nominations was going to be announced the next day. Kara never understood how everyone thought it was right that the twelve delegates in the Quorum were solely responsible for the nomination and election. Half of the time the presidential elect didn't even know they were in the running until it was all over.

That was the case this time.

When the Old Man told her who it was going to be, something clicked into place. Kara had smiled at him, stood up, and offered her hand, proudly stating, "I'm your woman then, I guess."

It had always been about protecting him. Everything she and the Old Man did, it was to make his life a little easier.

Things hadn't changed much since that day.

Kara pushed her memories to the side as the corridor cleared. Tiptoeing as softly as she could, she made her way across ship to the southeast corridor like Dee had suggested. It was deserted just as promised. She thanked the gods for small miracles.

The large metal door that had been her final destination this whole time loomed in front of her. There were no guards present, which made Kara smirk. She obviously hadn't been the only one suffering through the past twenty-four hours.

Reaching back, she pulled the band out of her hair and let her blond tresses drop down to her waist. It had been slowly growing out since the first day the Cylons attacked. Back then, a certain CAG had told her he liked it long so she didn't bother to ask anyone to cut it.

Kara unbuttoned the blue dress jacket she had gotten so used to wearing as she punched in the key code to the room. She pushed the hatch open as quietly as she could. It was the middle of the night for most of the non-military personnel. When a light clicked on in front of her, she realized that her quiet skills weren't as good as they once were.

"What are you doing here, Kara?" Lee hissed from his bed.

Kara shut the hatch behind her with a soft thud. She crossed her arms in front of her as she leaned up against the wall, awaiting the fact that she was actually there to register. She could tell her presence in his quarters was throwing Lee off. From the look of it, he had been in the middle of his normal eight hours of solid sleep. His hair was ruffled up slightly, and she couldn't help but notice that the only thing covering his body was the white cotton sheet lying across his midsection. He was currently propping himself up on both elbows and staring at her in confusion. "Aren't you happy to see me?"

Lee rolled his eyes and patted the bed next to him. "Of course I am, Kara. It's just that every time we do this, I'm sure you'll get caught."

"Frak that. I don't even care anymore if people know about this." She stomped over to the bed and kicked off her boots. "What are they going to do?"

"Well, let me see. First, they can remove you from power. Then they'll call for a presidential re-election."

"And then they'll throw us out the airlock for being Cylon conspirators," she said, pushing her pants down past her hips and stepping out of them slowly. "You are so melodramatic sometimes."

"Kara, the Commander of the largest ship in the Fleet and the President of the Twelve Colonies cannot be publicly fraking one another."

She passed in the middle of slipping her tanks over her head to smirk at him. "Public fraking?"

He rolled his eyes. "Poor choice of words. Wouldn't want to give you ideas so forget I said that."

Kara threw her tanks to the floor and slid into the covers. "No. I think we need to discuss more about the potential for you and I fraking in public."

"Gods," he whispered as her hands starting making the journey across his body. "Didn't we do it in a supply closet last week? Wasn't that public enough for you?"

She played thinking it over before shaking her head. "You practically ordered your assistant to stand guard. It's not true public fraking unless there's threat of being discovered."

"There's always a threat of being discovered when it's us," he said, rolling over so that he lay on top of her.

She could feel him push against her. "Looks like the President has finally decided to join us."

"It's not funny when you call it that," he said, narrowing his eyes at her.

"People say that all men are ruled by their penises. Why not the Twelve Colonies, too?"

"I should just throw you out of my bed," he said even as he leaned down to nibble on her ear gently.

"Doing what you should kills all the fun," she said with a laugh.

He pulled back and gave her one of his sweet smiles that just made her whole heart melt in one big whoosh. "Do you think the people of the Fleet know?"

"I think we do a good job of hiding it when we're playing our roles of Commander and President."

"But?"

"But any single person that's been with us from day one knows. I mean, there's been a few not too subtle changes since you accepted the Quorum's nomination."

"Like you stopped sleeping around," he suggested.

"Funny."

"It's the truth."

"Why don't you just call me a slut again and get this over with?" she growled, pushing him off of her.

"Now, Kara. Don't get mad at me for the things I said that day. It was years ago."

"They still hurt," she said.

"I was only mad at myself for screwing up what could have been," he said.

Kara was trying to ignore the fact that he was biting his lower lip in that cute little sign that showed he was really scared of losing her to her anger. Little did he know, the anger was already slowly fading as quickly as it came. It always did.

"I still remember the way you looked on the night of the celebration of my election."

Sighing, she pushed herself over so that she straddled him and leaned her head against his heart. This was one of her favorite stories. She rubbed her cheek against him, snuggling in while gently laying a few kisses down as she waited for him to continue.

"My father had told me about an hour before that you were going to be taking over for him in the next few months. The way he tells it, I looked so shell-shocked and horror-stricken that he didn't know what he had done wrong."

"So he asked you what was so wrong, thinking that you didn't believe in my abilities."

Lee laughed. "And that's when I turned to him with that dumb look of fear on my face and said…"

Kara pulled up to look him in the eye and mimicked his serious look. "I don't think it's very appropriate for the President of the Colonies to be in love with the Commander of the Fleet."

Lee shook his head at her little imitation of him before continuing with the story. "And my father told me to do whatever the frak I wanted. So I showed up to my celebration, fully intending to do the proper thing and push how much I wanted you as far from my mind as I could. Then I saw you. I saw how you had gotten dressed up again like you did when Dr. Baltar won the Vice-Presidency. And I knew that this was my second chance at getting things right."

"You walked over to me with that dumb grin on your face, and I swear to the gods, I thought you were going to say something about my knees again." She pulled herself up so that her head rested in the crook of his neck, and she could feel his arms pull her in tight. "But instead, you leaned over and whispered in my ear…"

"I don't think I've ever loved a woman as much as I love you at this moment, Kara."

"And just like the first time, you were swept away by the celebration and keeping up appearances."

"I looked for you everywhere and couldn't believe that I had blown it again. So at the end of the night, I returned to the new quarters I had been given on Galactica. And there you were, waiting for me."

"There I was."

"And so began our discrete little affair."

Kara sighed and kissed him lightly on the jaw. "So it began," she whispered as her eyelids began to droop. The meeting on the water shortage had really taken a lot of out of her, it seemed.

"Do you ever get tired of not being able to let people know?" Lee asked after a moment of silence. "We always have to keep this a secret. And as long as you and I continue in our present positions, I can never ask you to marry me."

"Doesn't matter," Kara said, yawning slightly. She knew that this sudden mention of making their little arrangement permanent should startle her into waking up. This was the first time he had mentioned asking her to marry him, after all. But she couldn't force herself to open her eyes.

"I do want to, you know. If we could, I wouldn't take no for an answer."

"It's not necessary. I don't need some priestess's blessing to tell me know that this one's for real. It's you and me forever no matter what happens. No compromising."

Lee kissed her lightly on the top of the head. "Maybe one day I can arrange for you to have quarters that are a little closer to mine."

"It would be nice."

"Get some sleep," Lee said, softly shifting so that she slid off of him and onto the mattress. Once the covers were securely in place around her, he pulled her into his side.

"I'm sorry, Lee. It's those stupid meetings." She let out a laugh without opening her eyes. "It's funny. While I was in the meetings, all I could think about was being back here in bed with you. And then I get here and all I can think about is how tired I am."

"We have plenty of time for you to describe in detail what kept you from concentrating all day," he said, poking her in the side lightly so that she let out a giggle before swatting his hand away.

"Our whole lives, it would seem." She reached out to entwine her fingers in his.

As her breathing became shallower, Lee found himself entranced with the way they looked together. It had taken him years of being on the run from the Cylons to realize how much he loved her and how stupid he was being each day he didn't tell her that. They had lost so much time.

And then when he had finally gotten the courage, they suddenly had ever single protocol and law standing between them.

He was the President, though. If anyone could change the boundaries that separated them, it would be him.

Because as much as she denied wanting it, he knew that a marriage ceremony was the least Kara deserved after sacrificing so much to be with him. If they were ever found out, it would damage her reputation the most. People would think all of the important decisions she had made to keep them safe were secretly his doing. They would never realize how better off the Fleet was for having a President and a Commander who could understand each other like no one else.

Maybe in time he would find a way to explain it just right so that the secrets could finally end.

Until then, he would just be content with the fact that he loved her and she loved him.

There was really nothing else that mattered.