Lee watched Kara as she kept a good ten feet in front of them throughout their whole trek. There was something on her mind, but she wasn't volunteering what it was. He wanted to take the easy route and say it had something to do with her realizing that Sharon Valerii was never her friend. But she wasn't acting right if that was the case.
If she was upset about Sharon, she would be digging at Helo for the obvious mistakes he had made when it came to the Cylon in question. She would be taunting Lee about anything and everything she could think of. She would be feisty. She would be upset. She would probably have punched one of the two men trailing her by now.
No, it was something a whole lot bigger than simply a friend turning out to be a traitor.
Giving Helo one last glance, he jogged the few feet to catch up to Kara. "Do you want to talk about something?"
"No. What would give you that idea?"
"The fact that you're not talking." She gave him a funny look. "It might be crazy logic, but it's true. When something's upsetting you, you tend to pull away."
"I'm fine."
"You didn't have to go through all this, Kara. You chose to."
"I know, Lee."
"It has to be hard, knowing that you chose to put yourself through this."
"Not helping, Lee."
Lee bit his bottom lip and hoped she would forgive him. He was running out of options on how to get her to talk, and this was the only one he could think of to try.
With a small grunt, he pushed her into the doorway of a nearby building. He grasped both of her wrists in one of his hands as he used all his body weight to pin her to the wall. He could hear her wince under the pressure building between them.
"What the frak do you think you're doing?" she snarled.
He was about to respond when he realized that he didn't really have much of an answer for her. "I don't know. Would you kill me if I said that usually when I get physical with you, you open up?"
She rolled her eyes and pulled her knee up to connect with his abdomen. He grunted in pain and immediately let go of his hold on her. "How's that for physical?" she hissed in his ear before pulling herself away from him. "You are so fraking stupid sometimes. You know that right?"
Pulling himself back together, he tried to look on the bright side as he limped quickly to catch up with her. The pain in his gut was outshining the steady pain that had been growing in his leg for the past few hours.
"Hey! Before you two start a fistfight and break each other's jaws making it impossible to talk, does either of you know where we're going?" Helo yelled from his position behind them.
"Yes!" they both snarled at the same time. Lee and Kara both snapped around to look at the other in surprise, and Kara couldn't hold back a small giggle. Typical. They always settled down quickly after a disagreement. The physical violence seemed to have a calming influence on their tempers.
They walked in silence a few yards before Lee grabbed her arm to pull her to a stop. "I do know where we're going, Kara. Which is why I thought you might want to talk."
"It's nothing. Just a small stop to pick up a few things. Like weapons that might keep us from being killed when we assault that military base."
"This isn't about weapons," Lee whispered as he let go of her arm and they continued on. "We both know it."
Kara didn't respond. He figured she wouldn't.
Helo caught up to them just around the time that Kara turned to the right to push her way through an opening in a chain link fence. "I don't think that's where they keep the Raptors," he said sarcastically, even though he followed this new move.
"She kept a place in Delphi," Lee said as if that explained everything.
Kara wasn't surprised that her door only took one swift kick before flying open. She had had the military and the civilian police kick it down before. She knew that it really wasn't that strong. Then again, you didn't really need a strong door when you didn't stay in your own place most nights.
Helo stared around at the walls as he took in the scratched black lines which formed words amid the earthy splashes of paint. "Did you paint this, Kara?" he asked. "You paint?"
Lee grabbed his arm and pulled him to the side of the stairwell. "Leave her alone for a few minutes. She needs to exercise some demons."
Helo gestured at a canvas leaning against the wall of the landing. It had been slashed rather thoroughly. "Obviously," he said with a huff.
Lee stared at the canvas, remembering the day she had gone at it with a knife. Zak had only been dead for two weeks. "No. Those aren't the demons she has to face right now." Music started to filter through the apartment as Kara turned on the stereo that was beside her bed. "Those are the demons," he whispered.
Pushing past Helo, Lee made his way down to where she stood, stopping only briefly to pick a jacket up off of a table. He placed his hand on Kara's shoulder and held the jacket out to her when she turned to face him. "You know we can't stay."
She nodded. "I just wanted to hear."
"I know," he said.
Helo suddenly felt like an intruder on a moment that was intensely personal. Obviously there was a lot he had never known about Starbuck. And it was painfully clear that most of it was already known by the other man in the room. He remembered something Kara had said to him during a triad game what seemed like a millennium ago. "We all have our secrets," he whispered as he watched Lee slowly pull Kara away from the stereo.
Her eyes looked up to meet his, and he suddenly saw all the pain that was bundled up inside her. He knew that his face must have shown his sudden concern for her because she stiffened up and her eyes turned cold again.
"The guns we need are in my car," Kara said as she shrugged away from Lee. It was time for her to focus and be strong again. She reached into the pocket of the jacket he had given her and pulled out a set of keys. "We can grab them and then get the hell off this planet."
"Sounds like a plan," Helo said, starting back up the stairs.
"Karl?" Kara's voice made him pause and look back down at her. "We all make mistakes."
He nodded and began to make his way up out onto the streets again.
"What was that?" Lee asked as they began following Helo.
Kara turned to look at him. "He's scared. He doesn't think she's going to come back."
"And you suddenly decided to show sympathy?"
"He loves someone he can't have. I get that." If she held his gaze for a second too long after saying that, neither one of them would point it out.
As they made it back to the top of the stairs and stepped into the sunlight of Caprica, she squinted and looked over at him. "We never talked about Colonial Day, Lee. About what happened that night."
"I know. We will…"
"When the world doesn't need saving," she finished for him. "Isn't that always our excuse?"
"Fine," he said with a laugh. "We'll talk about it on the flight home then. Would that suit you better?"
Kara was about to answer him when she saw the odd sight directly ahead of them. Helo was just standing in the middle of the street, not moving. She would have thought he was simply waiting for them if his back wasn't turned to them and his hands weren't in the air. That's when she heard the click of a safety being released right next to her ear.
"Sorry, princess. You're not going anywhere."
Kara could feel Lee move even before she registered what was going on. Within seconds, though, she caught sight of the two women straight ahead holding their guns on Helo and felt the presence of the man who was now pointing a gun to the back of her head. Lee had sprung into action, though, and was in turn pointing his gun at the man behind her. She knew what the next move would be. Lee never did like to play this game alone.
"I don't think you want to die today," Lee taunted as he clicked the safety off.
The man turned his attention to say something back, and that was the only opening Kara needed to bring her gun into play. The man's gaze wrenched back to her as she raised her gun in the air.
"Looks like you're outnumbered," she said, giving him a sweet smile.
"Not from where I'm standing."
Kara saw movement out of the corner of her eyes and noted the two burly men who stepped out from behind the cover of the buildings around them to train their guns on her. Almost like clockwork, Lee pulled the other gun out of his jacket and trained both of his weapons on the two new players.
"Always got to protect me," Kara said with a laugh.
"It's my job to watch your back."
"Do you two not realize that you have weapons that are capable of killing you currently pointed at your hearts?" hissed the man intent on shooting them both.
"We've done this before," Kara said. "It's not so scary when you know you're going to win. Because we are going to win."
"What do you want to do with them, Boss?" screamed one of the women holding her gun at Helo. "I vote we kill those two so they shut up and then try to get some information out of this one." She poked her gun into Helo's side, causing him to wince even though he didn't move an inch.
"She doesn't particularly like your kind," the man said with a laugh.
"And what kind would that be?"
"The kitchen appliance kind."
Kara let out a short laugh. "You know, you're the second person who has mistaken me for a Cylon today. I'm starting to wonder if you all know something I don't. What do you think, Apollo? Could I be a Cylon?"
"It would explain why no one can seem to kill you, Starbuck. Gods know I've tried."
"Starbuck and Apollo?" the man said with a laugh. "You have to be kidding me. Those are your names? I thought you usually got saddled with numbers like Six or Ten."
"Those are our call signs, you moron," Kara said. "And I'm sure that your name is so much better. Let me guess. You probably have some name from the scriptures like Hephestoles. Your little girl over there would be called something ridiculous like Aspascia. And these two goons are definitely screaming Bull and Moose."
The one goon growled at her intentional insult and reached out to punch her. Which was when all hell broke loose. There were punches and gunshots from every angle. But when the dust cleared, Helo, Kara, and Lee were the only ones still holding their guns, and the man who seemed to be in charge was currently lying on the ground with one of Kara's boots planted firmly on his chest.
"So, did I get it right, Hephestoles?" she asked with a smile.
"The name's Anders."
"Samuel T. Anders?" Lee said, taking in the man's clothing for the first time. "Of the Caprica Buccaneers?"
"Yeah."
"And I expect that these other people around here are your teammates?" Helo said with a laugh. "Those two goons must be Ten Point and Fink. And this lovely lady on the ground beside me must be Sue-Shaun." He turned his attention to the other woman who had previously been holding a gun to him. "I have no idea who the frak you are."
"I'm Alexis Dauphine. I was training for the Caprican triathlon."
"Okay. Thanks for that information, lady," Helo said. "But I don't think your personal history matters right now. Because all I can seem to remember is you had your guns on us two seconds ago and were accusing us of being toasters."
"Good point," Lee said, turning back to look at where Anders lay. "We don't really appreciate that, Hephestoles."
"I said the name was Anders."
"Well, Samuel T. Anders, then," Kara said, sliding her foot off of him. "We are not Cylons. We do not wish you any harm. We're just going to go about our merry business and find a ride off of this planet. Nice to meet you. I wish I could say I was a big fan, but frankly, the C-Bucks are horrible."
"Who the frak are you?" Anders asked as he pulled himself up into a seated position.
"I'm Starbuck and that's Apollo. We've told you that already. The guy over there currently showing your little women the barrel of his gun is Helo. That's new information in case you want to file it away for future use."
"We're pilots in the Colonial Fleet," Lee said, taking pity on the obviously beaten man. It wasn't fun being on the receiving end of both Kara's fists and her words when she was so fired up. He should know. It was usually he who was her intended target. "We came here to retrieve something that was left behind during the attacks and now all we want is to just find a Raptor to get off this planet."
"I can help you with that," Anders said, pulling himself up off the ground. "My team and I have scouted out the surrounding areas. We know where you can get one."
Kara sent Lee a look of disgust. He knew she wouldn't be happy if they accepted this guy's help. She was way too independent to be pleased with the idea of needing some random pyramid player to offer her aid.
"How do we know you're not Cylons?" Helo asked, even though he was already holstering his gun.
"Yeah. How the hell do you expect us to believe a professional pyramid team managed to survive a nuclear holocaust?" Kara questioned.
"We were doing high altitude training in the mountains," Sue-Shaun volunteered as she stepped over to stand by Anders. "The Cylons attacked, and we waited out the nuclear storm. Found the first supply of anti-radiation meds we could get our hands on. Have been picking up more meds and weapons ever since."
"Weapons? What for? You going to stage some kind of rebellion?"
"To stay alive, little girl," Sue-Shaun said, shaking her head. "We got weapons so we wouldn't be killed."
Anders placed his hand on Sue-Shaun's arm to keep her from throwing more insults at the other woman. "Listen. Come back to one of our bases. You can get food, get a little rest, and then you can either take my advice or not. Either way you'll be rested when you chose to make your next move."
Helo looked at Kara who in turn looked at Lee.
"All right," Lee said after getting small nods from both his fellow pilots. "How far is it?"
"It's at the abandoned Delphi Union High School. The Cylons won't come near that place so it's safe."
"Fine. Take us there."
Anders nodded and started walking. His men followed in behind, leaving the three Galactica pilots to bring up the rear.
"Something's bugging me," Kara whispered to Lee as they walked side by side.
"Why would the Cylons avoid a mere high school on the edge of the woods surrounding of Delphi?"
"Exactly."
"I don't trust them," Helo whispered in Kara's other ear.
"Exactly."
The three pilots kept their hands on their holsters as they were led through the city in the opposite direction of the military base they had originally been moving toward.
