Crashdown leaned up against the Viper and watched Cally working her darnedest to make it flight capable. Watching her work was like poetry in motion, he decided. It was a wonder that she didn't always have an audience.

"Are you going to keep standing there, staring at me, or are you going to say hello, Crash?"

"Didn't know you saw me."

"I smelled you."

He rolled his eyes. "I know, I know. I smell like I haven't showered in days. You think you guys could get a new joke to throw at me. I'm a pilot. I sweat when I'm in that damned flight suit. Get used to it."

Her laugh carried out from under the Viper. "No. You don't smell like sweat. More like citrus and ginger."

"Really?" he said, walking over and taking a seat next to her underbelly roller.

"Smells pretty damn good in fact," she said, looking over at him. She stared at him a moment longer before wheeling out to sit up fully. He handed her a piece of cloth to wipe the oil off her hands. "Thanks. So what do I owe the pleasure, Crash?"

"I wanted to talk to you about something."

She waited a moment for him to continue. When he didn't, she prodded, "And that would be?"

"Well, I was wondering since the Chief isn't trying to kill me anymore if you actually still might want to spend time with me sometime. I mean, I know you're not the type of girl I usually talk to. But I really think it wouldn't be that big a deal if we were seen together outside the hangar bay. And I'm sure that no one will find it that weird that I'm with you all things considering. So what do you think?"

Cally scrunched up her nose. She couldn't figure out what the frak Crashdown was trying to get at. All she knew was with every word he said, he was pissing her off more and more. "Let me get this straight. You're trying to tell me that in normal circumstances, I'm not the kind of girl you would speak to. But because the world has ended and you really don't have any other option, you think it would be fine if you still gave me the honor of being seen with you."

Crashdown's eyes widened as he saw her gritting her teeth in anger. "I think that came out wrong."

"I think so," she said standing up.

"Cally, wait." He stood up to look her eye-to-eye. "I'm trying to tell you that having you as the mother of my children isn't that upsetting."

She narrowed her eyes at him, and he was too busy noticing the cute way she crinkled her forehead when she was angry to pick up on her fist coming towards him. He did notice it at the last second and probably could have blocked the punch easily. But Apollo's advice suddenly resonated in his mind.

Suddenly, Crashdown understood what Lee had meant. Having this woman in front of him cause him pain was a lot better than being with anyone else who might cause him pleasure.

And that was when her fist connected with his face.

"Ow," he said, shaking his head. He had been right to think a punch from Cally would hurt like hell. He reached his hand up to feel his lip and realized that it had been split wide open.

"You just took my punch," she said, staring at him in astonishment.

"Yeah, I know."

"You could have blocked that but you didn't."

"Right."

"Why?"

"Because it's what a guy does when he likes a girl," Crashdown said absentmindedly as he looked at the blood on his fingers. When he realized what he had said, he froze and looked up at her in horror.

Cally was just standing there, staring at him with her head slightly cocked to the side. After a moment, she stepped forward and lightly reached out to touch his lip. "You should really have this looked at, Lieutenant." She gave him a small smile before stepping away to return to her repairs.

Crashdown watched her go back to work and silently reminded himself to thank Captain Adama for his good advice.