Straightening the jacket of her dress uniform, Kara took a deep breath and knocked as firm as she could on the door in front of her. Even as she heard the Commander's voice yell for her to enter, she realized she still had no clue why she had been summoned. It was odd, knowing that you did something wrong but not knowing what exactly that was.

"Lieutenant, I'm pleased that you could join us."

Kara was about to scold the old man for using rank when there was no one around to know otherwise when she realized that the Commander was actually not alone. Doc Cottle was sitting in one of the chairs in front of the Old Man's desk. Her heart froze as she realized what this was all about. The Doc had lied to her. He had taken her test results straight to Adama the second she left sickbay.

"I can explain," she said, her eyes darting away from the doctor and back to Adama.

"No, Kara. I think it is I who have to explain." Adama gestured for her to take a seat. "You see, I called Doc Cottle in here for his advice on a decision I made a few months ago that might impact you negatively. At the time, it seemed in my best judgment to keep you out of the loop, but I'm starting to realize I've been selfish."

Kara lowered herself into the seat and stared intently at the man in front of her. "I don't understand, sir."

"I'm going to be blunt with you. I switched your repopulation match when I saw that you were compatible with Colonel Tigh. I did it partially because I knew that there was no way you would agree to the project if he was your partner." Adama took a deep breath. "But to be completely honest, I also did it for Lee's sake."

"Lee's sake?"

"For starters, he had been matched up with Ellen Tigh, and I couldn't let that power hungry harpy get her claws into him. She thinks that I haven't noticed the way she looks at him, but I have." Adama shook his head in disgust before turning back to look at Kara intently. "But mostly I know how much my son loves you. I mean, I've never seen anyone look at you the way that he does, Kara. And I know because of that, he would have hesitated in accepting the results of the program if you were not the one he was matched with. Lee has desperately wanted children since he was little, but I think his desire has shifted to wanting children only if it could be with you, Kara."

Kara bit down as hard as she could on her lip and dug her fingernails into her palm. She would not cry in front of the Old Man. If Doc Cottle hadn't told him that fact that she couldn't have Lee's children naturally, then she wasn't about to let William Adama know because she couldn't hold the tears in. Plus, the longer she could keep this to herself, the easier it would be to convince Lee that something had naturally gone wrong in their relationship when she finally found the courage to set him free.

"Kara? Are you all right?"

She nodded quickly and opened her mouth, praying that her voice held strong, when Doc Cottle raised his hand to interject. "If I might take over here, Commander." He turned to Kara. "Commander Adama called me in here because he realized that if you and Captain Adama weren't perfect genetic matches, the likelihood of your part in the repopulation program succeeding might be diminished."

"Is it, Doc?"

Cottle held her eyes for a moment and then jerked his head up and down once. "Yes. Because of the genetic difference, the two of you are the least likely to produce successful offspring with the samples you gave us. I'm sorry."

The words hit home.

That was it then. There went her last chance of every being able to have children with Lee.

The fear washed over her as she realized that she had lost all rights to cling to the man she loved. She had nothing to offer him anymore. And there was no reason to keep herself from pushing him away. It was what she had to do. It was what she felt must be done if she truly loved him.

"Thank you for telling me, sir," she said to Adama, trying her best to smile brightly. "I can be prepared now if that's what happens." She forced out a laugh. "I guess I was always right. I'm just not cut out to be a mother."

"Lieutenant," Doc Cottle started.

"It's okay," she said firmly, holding his eyes. "I'll be fine, Doc."

She gave both men a smile as she excused herself. The Old Man's voice made her stop a few steps from the door. "I'm sorry for causing you strife, but please don't let this development worry you, Kara. It's not the end of the world, by any means."

"No, sir," she said with a small nod before stepping out of the hatch. In her mind, she desperately wanted to scream that it might not be the end of the world at large, but it was most definitely the end of her happiness. It was the end of her world.

Her mind was so caught up on keeping her tongue in check that she didn't notice the person standing outside the hatchway until his hand was firmly grasping her arm and yanking her down the corridor.

"Ow, Lee," she hissed, trying to pull away. "You're hurting me."

He glared at her a moment before continuing to pull her down the corridor. His grip didn't loosen. Her arm would probably bruise by morning.

Kara felt a strange feeling of fear creep up as Lee displayed a side of his personality she hadn't seen in years. His temper was not something to be trifled with, but she had thought he had gotten control of it years earlier. He had worked so hard to keep it in check that she had no idea what could have caused this outbreak all of the sudden.

They reached the pilots' bunkroom in record time, and Lee yanked open the hatch with his free hand and pushed her into the room. Slamming the door behind him, he pressed in a code to lock the room. She was about to ask him what the frak he thought he was doing when he caught her eyes again and the fear overtook her voice.

Lee glared at her for a moment, almost as if he were waiting for her to yell at him, before brushing past her to pick something up off the table in the middle of the room. Turning, he held it out. "Read this."

Kara tried her best to ignore how much her hand was shaking as she took the paper from him. "Yes, sir," she spit out sarcastically, the fear starting to transform into anger.

He glared at her. "Don't start giving me shit, Kara. I want you to read that to me out loud, and then I want you to tell me why."

She gave him a confused look before beginning to read the first line. "I, Lieutenant Kara Thrace, relinquish all parental rights I have to the potential offspring from the Colonial Fleet's repopulation pro-" She glanced up at Lee for a moment, and the open, raw emotion in his eyes made her words falter.

"Keep going."

Kara suddenly realized just how difficult explaining this to him would be.

"Keep going," he insisted for a second time.

"No," she said, holding the paper out for him to take back.

"Fine then. If you think you've read enough, then you can start explaining why Dee was waiting for me the second my Viper had docked in the hangar bay. She said that Billy sent this document over to her and asked if she could inquire whether I knew anything about it."

The air fell silent between them as Kara debated how she could explain to him why she had relinquished her rights to their potential children. She had to do it without telling him that this whole thing was because she didn't feel whole anymore. She knew that she was going to have to tell him at least part of the truth if he was ever going to let her release him.

The weight of Lee's eyes bearing into her got to be too much as he patiently waited for her answer. She was going to have to give him something soon if she didn't want to break down completely in front of his eyes.

Kara turned in to face the bunk Lee had flung her against and placed her hands gently on the ladder. She had no idea where to start. And she had no idea if this would even work. "I thought it was the right thing to do after what happened to me."

"This is about what went down on the Aerilon Sacrifice then."

Her hand reached up to rest on her side at the mention of the ship she had spent so much time on. She could feel the heat from her scar all the way through the layers of clothing. "The Cylons aren't what we think they are. They aren't concerned with hurting and killing us. They want to understand us. They want to know what makes us hate and what makes us love. They want to understand what makes us tick." Her stomach cramped a little bit at the memories. Wincing she turned to look at where Lee stood.

It was at that moment that she realized how stupid she had been to think she could lie to him. This was Lee. She loved him, respected him, enough to bare her wound for him to see. "It wasn't just a normal battle scar that you saw earlier."

When he just stared at her with hard, unfeeling eyes, she turned back to face the bunk. "They knew of the President's repopulation program, and they wanted to understand why humans thought having children was so important. I don't know why-" Her voice caught in her throat for a moment as the events replayed in her mind with stunning clarity. "I got sloppy. That's what it all comes down to. I was trying to protect the civilians from the Cylon agent onboard, and I got sloppy. They caught me. I didn't understand why they even wanted me at the time."

Kara tried to push the emotion back down inside her. It wouldn't help her tell her story. It would just rouse his sympathy, and she couldn't go through with it if he started being supportive and gentle. Lee deserved to hear it from her without interruption. "They knocked me out, and I woke up to find myself in the small medical facility on the ship. I had been out for days. There was a scar on my stomach. I didn't know what it was. And then the door opened and there were two men staring down at me. Both were familiar. It took me a few minutes to figure it out, though Things were so out of focus at first. The man who explained to me where the scar came from was the doctor who operated on me, someone I had only seen through whatever drugged haze I had been in. He didn't have to tell me that he was a Cylon. I just knew."

She sighed and pushed on. "The second man was the Cylon who goes by the name Leoben Conoy."

The memory of the known Cylon made her shiver. The picture of his face in her mind was making it hard to hold back the rest of the truth from Lee. She had intended to just tell him that the Cylons were interested in how the human reproduced and so they did tests on her. It was close enough to the truth for him to believe it.

But now that she was standing in front of him, now that she could feel his eyes on her, she didn't want to lie. She wanted to tell him how hard it had been to hear the Cylons talk about her as if she was their most important weapon. Leoben had been the closest thing she had to an ally on the Sacrifice, and suddenly she felt the need to explain that to the man currently staring at her back.

"He told me that this all has happened before and it will happen again. He said that it doesn't matter the roles we play, interrogator or prisoner. It doesn't matter because the players change but the story remains the same. He was being gentle with me, simply standing back and trying to make me understand. It was like I had an ally in that model. He was familiar."

Kara shut her eyes for a moment to push the image of Leoben's kind face out of her mind. It had all been a lie in the end. "I don't know what I did to change that caring he showed me, but one day, his look turned cold. I have never seen someone look at me with such hatred as he did."

Trying to hold back the tears became harder and harder each second she tried to talk. She really wanted to get through this and get away from Lee before she let her emotions show. So, as a last resort, Kara bit down on her lip to the point of drawing blood. The pain usually helped her concentrate on keeping herself in check.

"He told me that I had changed the story, though. Each time the world had gone through this cycle, I had never once been happy. And that by my being happy, I could break the chain and end the cycle. Humanity finally had the option to be free. He looked at me with such a cold compassion, if that makes any sort of sense. He said that was why they did to me what they did. They had to because this was the defining cycle. There will be no more."

Figuring she had already said too much to try to pull away from him, Kara dragged the back of her hand across her face, pushing the tears away. It was time to put the final nail in the coffin and admit what that scar on her stomach was really about. "They took my happiness from me in the most brutal sense, Lee. They reached deep inside and took out a part of me. They took away my future and dredged up the horrors of my past. I can never dream of being a mother again. Gods. It's what I've always wanted and I never even told anyone."

The last part slipped out before Kara could catch herself. She had never admitted out loud that she wanted children. That every night since she was a little girl, she had dreamed about how hard she would work at getting it right. In all her life, it had never seemed possible.

All her life up until a few months ago, that is.

At that point, she realized that the only reason it had never seemed possible was because she hadn't figured Lee into the equation. Here was a man who she knew she could rely on to keep her from screwing things up. Just by being there with her, he could insure that she was nothing like her own mother.

And now all hope that he could save her was gone. How could he keep her from heading down that path of self-destruction now that her possibilities were limited? Why would he want to?

Kara jumped slightly when she was torn from thoughts by his hand grasping her arm to physically turn her to face him. He stared at her, and she suddenly realized that she had been wrong before. He hadn't been angry. The look in his eyes wasn't cold and unfeeling. It was actually quite the opposite.

The problem, like always, had been that he felt too much. She could see that all the hardness he had been displaying was simply his way of keeping himself from reaching out to her. Lee knew that doing so would only cause her to pull back even farther. So he just stood there, so concerned for her that he was on the point of total breakdown. He had been resisting the urge to touch her, to hold her, this whole time.

Until now.

"I knew," he said, pushing back a piece of hair that had fallen from her behind her ear. "I always knew."

"Lee, I can't do this," she whispered, turning her eyes away from his. She could feel herself bordering on the edge of total meltdown as all the emotions she had been holding back intensified by a simple gesture like his touch of her hair.

"I want to see what they did to you," he replied, ignoring her attempts to push him away with her words.

Lee kept his eyes locked with her as he brought his hands up to slowly peel her jacket off one button at a time without saying a word. Kara could feel the light pressure of his fingertips on her skin. It reminded her of the private moments of intimacy they had found together as their relationship developed in the past few months. The intimacy had always been the part that scared her.

Frankly, she was beyond scared right now. She was terrified.

Still refusing to take his eyes off of her, Lee gradually pushed the sides of her jacket apart until it slid off her shoulders. It fell to the ground with a soft thump.

Kara let out a tense breath as his hands slid down to the bottom edges of her tanks and pulled them up a few inches. Lee finally dropped his gaze from hers, and she could feel his fingers trace the scar on her stomach. She had expected him to want to see it with his own eyes and feel it with his own hands.

It caught her by surprise, however, when he suddenly dropped to his knees. She looked down at the top of his head as he leaned in to touch the small reddened skin with just a brush of his lips. Her hands reached out to cradle his head before she could stop herself.

Lee nuzzled her stomach lightly, letting out a sigh. "I wish I could do something to fix the hurt," he whispered. "I wish I could save you from this pain."

His words of comfort and protection were what finally sent her over the edge. She felt the tears sting as they fell violently from her eyes. It was all too much. She ached with the knowledge of what could have been.

But she was slowly dying inch by inch because of the knowledge of what almost was. The realization that if all this had not happened, Lee would now be kissing her stomach in a gesture of love for the life nestled deep inside here. The life that they had created together and whose absence hurt her somewhere deep inside.

She let go of his head with a small cry of pain and stepped away. "It's too much. I told you that I can't take it. It's too much. It's too much."

Lee looked at her with concern from his seat on the cold metal of Galactica's floor as she emphatically shook her head and kept muttering the same words over and over. The sudden vulnerability inside of her was beginning to scare him. "It's all right, Kara."

"No, it's not all right, Lee. It's so fraking far from all right that it hurts," she yelled through the tears. "You don't understand. You can't understand."

"Then explain it to me. I want to understand." When she shook her head and turned away, he got up off the floor and walked over to grab her face, roughly turning it towards his. "Don't shut me out, Kara. I deserve more than that."

"I can't. I can't. I can't." She mumbled those words over and over as Lee watched every single piece inside of her crumble. She was shutting down in front of his eyes, and there was nothing he could do about it.

When Kara's legs finally gave out, Lee took her weight into his arms and gently crumbled with her to the ground. He pulled her in tightly to his body and whispered soothingly into her ear whatever words came to mind. It was something he had known Zak to do when Kara woke up from one of her nightmares. She struggled a little at first but finally gave in to the comfort he was offering.

When, after a few moments, her crying had become less violent, Lee reached his hand up to push the hair out of her eyes and gave her a gentle kiss. "Please let me in, Kara."

She shook her head, and he could already feel her pulling away again. The small reprieve he had earned was quickly fading. The fear that something had inside of her had broken and he wouldn't be able to fix it came rushing back.

"You can do this."

"This is my burden to bear, Lee. Why can't you just leave it at that?"

"Why do you insist on hiding your pain from me? Why is it so important for you to do this on your own?" he asked softly. "I hate to break this to you, but I am not going anywhere no matter what you've done or what's been done to you. I might be scared, but I'm not going to run away to avoid the pain. I am here. I am staying." He tightened his hold on her. "And most importantly, I am yours. Try to push me away as much as you want, but it won't change the fact that I cannot live without you."

His words caught on something inside of her, and she felt the tears start anew. This time she couldn't keep the sobs inside, and she let the cries fall from her lips as her body began to shake. "I love you too much, Lee. I can't put you through this. You mean to much to me. You don't deserve this." The words on her lips had already begun to fade as the emotion became too much for her. All Lee could make out was a whisper of love between sobs.

"Kara, if you love me, you will not try to bear whatever burden you have alone. I want to carry the pain with you. I want to help you."

The tears were still falling from her eyes, but he could see something breaking inside of her as the volume of the cries died down. Some sort of resolve that had been at the source of her stubbornness melted away, and he could feel her opening up.

"I was pregnant," she said softly. "I don't know how. Maybe the anti-conception meds I took before the war started wore off. Maybe it was the gods' will, but when the Cylons got to me, I was pregnant with your child. I didn't even know. They only told me after it was too late. After the baby was gone. I didn't know, Lee. I swear I didn't know. And all of the sudden there was a hole inside me. As if a piece of me had been broken off. And I didn't know until it was too late to fix it. I screamed. It was so cruel. I didn't know why. What I had done to deserve it. I didn't know. I didn't know." She burrowed her body as far into him as she could, and even though he knew she was just hiding from his eyes, he still held on as tight as he could as her sobs echoed in his ears.

Her confession suddenly made everything come into focus. Her pain. Her desire to keep this from him. To protect him. The reason why she fought so hard to keep him away.

It all made sense.

And it all hurt him like nothing ever had.

Kara had had a life inside of her when the Cylons had performed that operation. The machines had known it. Had felt the happiness growing inside of her. And they couldn't accept it so they took it all away.

Inside, Lee could already feel himself begin to mourn for their child that never could be as he felt his eyes begin to sting with tears. He did his best to push those feelings to the side, knowing he would have time to mourn later when the woman currently in his arms was ready to share the pain. Later he would take care of the pain of losing a child and the sudden feeling of emptiness that accompanied it. When she was stronger, she would need him to give her a reason to be happy.

Right now, he just wanted to take care of her and give her a reason to keep living.

Because the Cylons were wrong if they thought that was all it took to break Kara Thrace. She was stronger than they could even comprehend. Somehow she was going to make it through this, and he wasn't going to let her push him away until he was sure she would be all right.

He tried to turn off the emotional side of his brain and just focus on the things he knew. Kara had come off her traumatic months on the Aerilon Sacrifice and had been immediately sent to Doc Cottle by his own request. From there he could only imagine that she had been juggled from one briefing to the next. Somewhere she had found the time to take a shuttle to Colonial One and sign that contract relinquishing the rights to her potential children. And then, upon return to Galactica, she had immediately been bombarded with a request to see the Commander. During all of that, she had had no time to relax or to sleep off some of the tension of being a prisoner of war. There had been no time to try to get back the feeling of normalcy she had been denied for too long.

She desperately needed to heal, and Lee was determined to help that process begin. He wasn't sure how. All he knew is it was going to have to be one small step at a time. The simple things first.

Scooping her into his arms, he stood up and set her on the nearest bed, placing a kiss lightly on the top of her head before pulling away. It hurt him slightly when she barely reacted to the touch of his lips on her head. "Stay right here for a moment. I'll be back," he whispered.

She didn't respond with more than a half nod. He had seen many pilots go through the same thing under the stressful conditions they lived in. Everyone had a point when things got too tough to handle so the body and mind just stopped. With Kara, it was simple. The enormity of what she had been put through must have finally struck her, and it seemed her body and her mind just hadn't been able to handle it.

He couldn't figure out why the fact that this was Kara sitting in front of him, completely broken, scared him more than anything. She had always been fragile. But he hadn't expected her to close off this much.

Now all Lee could do now was hope somewhere inside she understood what he was saying to her and believed him when he promised to return. Chancing one last glance back at where she sat on the bed too exhausted to move, he unlocked the door and stepped into the corridor. He immediately glanced around for a familiar face until his eyes landed on Crashdown, who was talking with a young recruit.

"Crashdown, may I have a word?" Lee said as he made his way down the corridor to stand.

Lee could see Crashdown's eyes open wide as he got closer and the young ECO could register the pain that was obviously written all over his face. Even though hiding your emotions and your pain was a major part of being a good CAG, Lee knew he couldn't hide what he had just gone through even if he tried. He didn't have the energy any more.

Just as Lee knew he would, Crashdown did not comment on it. He simply nodded to Lee and told the young pilot he was speaking to that they would continue their conversation at a later time.

When they were finally alone, Lee cleared his throat and tried to pull himself together to do what had to be done. "I need you to do me a favor."

"Anything after all that help you gave me with Cally."

"I need this corridor clear of all personnel for the next hour or so."

"That's going to be hard, sir, but I'll see what I can do."

"Get it done." Lee knew that his tone was a little harsh, but he didn't have time to be subtle.

Crashdown seemed a little surprised as he spit out a quick, "Yes, sir."

"And go find Dee. I think she's off shift right now so one of the break rooms would be your best bet. Tell her the CAG needs her to fix up something in Bunkroom F like we did when Bayou lost his wife."

"Bayou?"

"She'll understand what it means, Crashdown. Don't worry."

"Okay. I'll clear the corridor and then go find Dee." Crashdown paused, and Lee could see a hint of worry cross his face. "Is everything all right?"

"That's what I'm working to figure out," Lee said, giving Crashdown a nod before jogging back to the bunkroom hatch.

Kara was in the same exact position he had left her, staring off into empty space. She had been through so much in the past few months, and the damage to her was drastically worse than anything he could ever have dreamed up. If there was any question about whether the Cylons were justified in what they were doing, this would put an end to it. Destroying a woman like Kara Thrace, so fragile and yet so strong, was unforgivable.

Lee jogged over to Kara's locker, pulled a few things off of one of the shelves, and shoved them into a bag. As a last minute thought, he walked over to his own locker and picked up two pairs of his sweatpants to throw on top.

Then, without a word, he crossed to where she sat and grasped her hand in order to pull her to her feet. She stood up without protest almost as if she wasn't really aware of what was happening. It scared him slightly to see her in this state, but he knew there was nothing he could do to change it that he wasn't already doing. Kara was still staring around blankly as he led her into the now empty corridor and down a few feet to the head.

After walking her to the empty showers, he let go of her hands to push off his flight suit and threw it to the ground. His boots followed soon after. Giving her what he hoped was a gentle smile, he took a step towards her in order to reach out to grasp the hems of her tanks. When she flinched slightly, he stopped immediately. "It's just me, Kara. You know you can trust me. You need to take a shower and wash off whatever's hurting you. It will feel good, I promise."

Her eyes lost their vacant haze for a moment as she turned to look at him. She had been lost in thought, remembering how it felt to lose a child. The pain from the day eleven years ago was as fresh as the pain she was feeling this very day. The grief was so familiar it was tearing her up inside. "I'm scared," she whispered.

Lee reached out and touched her cheek with the back of his hand. "I know. I am, too."

"I don't want to be a burden to you."

"You could never be," he whispered, kissing her lightly on the lips before pulling back to smile. "I love you too much."

Kara bit her lip, and he could see the tears beginning to form again in her eyes. Silently, he thanked the gods. Tears and crying were much better than this self-imposed shutdown of mind and body.

Lee's hands reached forward again, and this time, as he pulled the tanks off of her body, she didn't flinch. He took that as permission to continue and gently slipped her pants down. Lifting each foot up, he pulled them off and threw them into a pile with the other discarded clothes. Reaching behind her body, he turned on the water and waited for it to heat up as much as it could. He saw Kara modestly cover up her body while they waited and took that as a good sign. She was coherent enough to sense that there should be some awkwardness to this even if it was just the two of them.

Still praying to the gods that they help Kara through this, Lee pushed them back into the water together regardless of the fact that he was still partially clothed. He didn't care right now about whether his clothes got wet. That wasn't what was important.

At this exact moment and like every other moment in his life for what seemed like an eternity, it was Kara who was more important to him than anything else in the world.

With a methodical sweetness, he worked soap into her hair and slowly began to wash away the layer of dirt that had piled up. He heard her moan sweetly as his fingers massaged her scalp. Her shoulders lost a little of their tension with each passing second. He could feel her come alive under his touch.

Moving on to her body, he turned her to face him as he lathered the soap onto her skin. She shivered slightly in his arms. "Too cold?"

She faintly shook her head no, and he went back to his mission to wash away as much of the pain as he could.

He was aware this whole act of being able to take care of this strong woman he had admired for so long should be something that seemed awkward. But his love for her had taken him to places he had never dreamed of. This was just another to be added to the list. It felt right to be able to support her when there was no one else she felt she could rely on.

Lee pushed the water control off with his hand when he was finished and reached outside the stall to grab a towel. He tenderly dried her off as she stood perfectly still in front of him. Her eyes watched his every move as he worked his way over her body. He considered that yet another improvement from the blank stare he had gotten only minutes earlier.

When Kara was dry, Lee grabbed the bag he had packed off the nearby counter where he had dropped it. He held out a bra and pair of underwear, and he was pleased to have her grab them from his hands to put on. When she was done, he took out a clean tank and slid it over her body. Her hair became disheveled as her head came through the hole in the tank.

Unable to resist, he pushed her hair behind her ears and placed a small kiss on the end of her nose. He was rewarded with a small smile.

Lee pulled the pair of sweatpants out of the bag and handed them to her. She made a move to put them on before pausing to hold them up to her nose. "These smell like you," she said quietly.

He smiled and took them out of her hand. "That's because they are mine."

The look of understanding spread across her face. Somehow Lee had known that at this exact moment having something that was his so close to her would be a comfort. She suddenly felt like crying all over again. What she had done to deserve a man like Lee Adama, she would never know.

Picking her up, Lee set Kara on the counter and slid first one leg of the sweatpants and then the other onto her body. She stood up and allowed him to pull them the rest of the way up. After pulling the drawstrings tight, his hands lingered on her stomach where the evidence of the Cylons' work was blazing clear.

"You need rest," he whispered, tearing his eyes away from the scar.

Kara gave him a timid nod and allowed herself to be led down the hall. He pushed open the hatch to one of the unused bunkrooms and was relieved to see that Dee had understood his request.

When he and Dee had served on the Atlantia together, the CAG, Stephen "Bayou" DuPris, had lost his wife to a shipping accident. She had been a pilot on board one of the colonial freighters, and there had been some mix-up in communication as the ship was docking. Bayou's best friend on the Battlestar had asked Dualla and Lee to help her give the CAG some alone time away from the memories of his wife. Together, the three of them had ferreted out an empty bunkroom and had moved the CAG's bedding to the new location.

Dee had remembered all that. In addition to getting the heat turned on in this unused part of the ship, she had brought the sheets and pillows off of Kara's bed. Lee carefully laid the woman in his care onto the bunk prepared for her.

Kara looked over at where Lee stood. "You're not leaving me, are you?"

"No," he said, smiling at her. Without another word, he peeled the wet clothes off of his body and grabbed the other pair of sweatpants he had shoved into the bag. After slipping them on, he rested the length of his body against hers and tried to push some of the tension out of his body.

"Lee," Kara whispered as he rested his arm across her midsection and drew out lazy patterns with his fingertips.

"Don't talk, Kara. Just rest. You can go back to being strong and protective of me in the morning."

He heard her agree with a gentle sigh as her breath began to slow down. His grip tightened around her as she let go of the last bit of control she had.

Just when he thought she had fallen asleep, though, he heard her softly whisper, "I love you."

Staring at the back of her head, Lee began to wonder how they could possibly make it through this newest of obstacles. And then he found himself wondering how they could possibly not.