"C'mon people!" Tyrol's voice carried loud and far across the flight deck. "Get your asses in gear or get off the flight deck!"

Lords, he was exhausted. He wanted a strong cup of coffee, a soft bed and eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. He knew he'd get none of the three requests. In spite of the orders from his CAG, Tyrol hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before. He'd actually gotten off the flight deck at a decent hour, but when he'd ducked into his office to file the frakking paperwork, he'd found Sharon waiting for him.

The thought of her was enough to spur his flagging energy. Since he'd gotten her back ten days ago, they'd spent every minute of free time they had together. It wasn't much. Sharon had the responsibilities of taking care of the young boy, Boxey, she'd brought back from Caprica, not to mention her duties as a flight officer. And he'd spent almost every waking moment on the flight deck, supervising and effecting the repairs on his ships.

The little bit of time they had together came when they should have both been sleeping. The Lords only knew, they'd been working themselves to exhaustion. But the simple joy was worth it. It wasn't uncontrolled lust anymore, just stolen moments to be in each other's company. The moments were sweet, gentle. He spent as much time stroking her hair as anything else. Somehow, that simple action, the feel of her in his arms, sustained him.

Her leaving this morning had been murder. But they both needed a few hours of uninterrupted sleep, and they both knew that wouldn't happen if she stayed in his office. Besides, neither really wanted to deal with the questions that would come up if they both walked out of there at the same time in the morning.

So, four hours later, he was up and running the show, again. The only things keeping him going were the bad coffee he'd brewed up at the start of the shift, and the thought of having a mission with Sharon as the shuttle pilot. Luck that true didn't happen too often, and he'd treasure it where he could.

"Chief!" Sharon's voice floated over the flight deck to him, and he turned with a smile. That quickly faded when he realized she wasn't in a flight suit, and her hair was flowing freely over her off-duty clothes.

No, this didn't bode well at all. He strode the length of the flight deck, unable to keep the look of disapproval off his face.

"Why aren't you in uniform?" Damned if she didn't she look beautiful ... and beautiful didn't match up with flight regs. Something was definitely off here. "We have to leave in less than 15 minutes."

"I'm not going." Sharon looked him straight in the eye, her gaze even and calm. She even had a slight smile on her face. "I got asked for a favor, and I agreed."

"But..."

"Kara asked if she could take the shuttle flight." Sharon crossed her arms, and took up a firm posture that he knew he wasn't going to be able to argue with. Damn. "Something about needing to get off the Galactica today before she killed someone. She said she'd clear it with Captain Adama, so I didn't argue."

"But..." He was starting to sound like a broken record, and they both knew it.

"She needed to get into space today, okay? I can't argue with that. I *won't* argue with that."

And the bitch of the matter was, he couldn't even argue with her. If there was one thing he'd learned quickly on the Galactica, it was the value of friendships. Hell, Sharon had been the one to hammer home the lesson, and he could see the kind of impact she had on Starbuck. Sometimes it was the only thing that seemed to keep the volatile insanity that was Lt. Thrace bottled. If that meant sacrificing a few hours with the woman he loved...

Shit. It still didn't mean he had to like it. And if he didn't like it ...Tyrol heaved a sigh.

"Captain's going to have a shit fit." And truer words had never been spoken. Tyrol didn't necessarily like the man, but he didn't hate him either. And something warned him that Lt. Thrace was going to push the man to his limits.

Sharon grimaced, and couldn't wipe it off her face fast enough for Tyrol to simply ignore it.

"What?"

Tyrol followed her eyes across the flight deck, where both Starbuck and Captain Apollo had suddenly appeared. Neither looked happy. Hell, both looked ready to spit Viper dust.

Sharon looked pensive for a moment, then let out a gentle sigh.

"I kind of think that's just what she had in mind."

*~*~*~*

She just wanted to hit him.

A nice, rock-solid roundhouse pitch with her fist tightly balled. Her best aim would put it right above his jaw, between the cheek and the ear, and it would lay him flat-out on the floor with a good headache and no arguments. Gods, no more frakkin' arguments! The silence would've been worth the court-martial. Almost.

Anyone else she would've slugged. To hell with the consequences. And even now, it was damned tempting. Of course, then she'd have to help Tyrol run the inspection tour. Frak. Why the hell had she traded with Sharon for this? She certainly wasn't getting the opportunity to talk to him, and it was pretty damned clear he wasn't happy to see her. Hell, he wasn't even seeing her.

Since they'd gotten on the shuttle, he'd purposefully avoided her, hiding in the back of the shuttle going over flight specs with the Chief. Those specs -- critical information about the age, durability and equipment aboard the eight shuttles on the Hephaestus that they wanted to inherit -- would have been in Lee's hands the same day they'd found out about the shuttles, and gone over 10 times since. He was very pointedly giving her the silent treatment when he easily could've been up here talking to her.

Yeah, a nice roundhouse. Right below the eye, too. Maybe a bright shiner would be in the offing.

When she'd gone to Sharon to suggest trading the flight duty, she really hadn't wanted to explain much. Hell, she wasn't even sure where she would've started. "Hi, Sharon, I told our new CAG, who also happens to be an old family friend, to go frak himself with a Viper lubetube, and I really need to apologize. Switch patrols with me?" No, that would have been a less than productive tact...though the mental imagery was priceless.

She'd settled for another truth, one that revealed much less: she was stir-crazy and needed to get off the Galactica before she picked a fight with someone at the Pyramid table. Sharon had laughed, made the requisite joke about her now-famous feud with Colonel Tigh, and agreed. Her friend had even smiled, and made a joke.

"We'll see how the new CAG likes changes in the flight plan, I guess."

Kara winced. Okay, so she hadn't informed Lee until she'd caught up with him in the hallway on the way to the flight deck. And okay, she should've probably said something a little more circumspect than what she had chosen.

"Sharon ..., oh, yes, that's Lt. Valerii to YOU, and I are switching flight duties today. If you've got a problem, you can take it up with the CAG. Oh, wait, you ARE the CAG. Do you have a problem with it?"

She'd smiled sweetly and watched as his face turned an interesting shade of red, and his mouth opened and shut several times. Frankly, she'd expected him to bawl her out and then refuse her the assignment at that point. The fact that he said one single word -- "Fine" -- and then sprinted off ahead of her had left speechless.

She'd made a serious mistake. She wasn't looking to pick a fight at the Pyramid table. Instead, she was going after her CAG, a man who had been a close friend for 19 years and perhaps one of the only men in the world who'd ever been willing to put up with all the shit she shoveled out on a daily basis.

Him ... and Zak. With a frustrated sigh, Kara slammed on the auto-pilot, heaved a sigh, and thunked her head against the head rest several times. Why did Lee have to bring up Zak and rip into her the way he had? All she wanted to do was fix the frakking problem. They were 10 days into Armaggedon, the end of life as they knew it, complicated with a war that had no clear boundaries and no ready adversaries. She just wanted to know the two people in the world that meant a damned to her had at least reached a truce.

She wished Lee and his father could just make the peace. She wished she and Lee could, too. She wished more than anything she could go back in time two years and ignore her own feelings and her engagement and her love for Zak and change history. She would have saved his life, and the Adama family, and her own love if she'd just had the guts to flunk him. She wished...

Dammit, she wished, and that's all she could do now. After two years, one would've thought she could've quit doing these circles in her head and just let it go. She established her own peace with the subject, and with William Adama. The day she had told him, she had broken down in tears, and the old man had simply took her in his arms and let her cry for a straight hour.

When she had finally quit, he'd taken her by the shoulders, and looked her firmly in the eye.

"Life is full of choices, Starbuck. We don't always know the consequences of those choices. Torturing yourself with the benefit of hindsight is as worthless as shooting Viper lasers into the sun. Let it go."

And with that, William Adama had. To some degree, so had Starbuck. But the chasm between father and remaining son had become something that tore at her insides every hour of every day since then.

And as usual, when I try to fix things, I just make it worse. Kara felt the start of tears well up under her eyes. She screwed them shut even tighter, and tried to ward off the emotional onslaught.

"You know, you shut them any tighter, you might seal them permanently."

Kara's eyes flew open, and she whirled around to come face-to-chest with Lee. He looked serious for a moment, and then cracked a grin that looked like he had to crank a lever to get it to work.

"Beisdes, I'd rather have you landing us than the autopilot." The humor was forced, with little true spirit or sincerity. Kara swallowed hard, and then figured what the hell. Conversation had to start somewhere.

"Decided I'm finally worth talking to, huh?" Kara almost winced at the tone in her voice. Gods, but she was in a truly shitty mood.

Lee stared at her for a long moment, then shrugged.

"Chief and I had to go over the specs one last time. Otherwise, something might get past us on this inspection, and neither of us wants a problem."

"The specs, and just the specs, huh, Lee?"

For a minute, Lee looked like he was going to turn on his heel and storm away. His face was a mixture of emotions, and for the life of her, Kara couldn't tell which ones were because of her, which were because of their fight, and which might have had something to do with his memories of Zak. He was in pain, and he was angry, and she had no clue how to fix it.

He finally looked back down at her, and his face grew gentle.

"I came up here to ... I'll talk to my father when I get back, Kara. At least, I'll try. I can't promise anything." He stopped, and then added, "Will that be enough for you?"

Kara bit her lip, and nodded. Then she shook her head, and dared a little fire.

"Lee, you're going to TRY? How hard can it be? You sit down, you pour a cup of coffee and you say you're sorry. He won't turn you away!"

Lee winced, and the words that followed stunned Kara to her core.

"He did when I tried the night of the attacks." The battle of emotions were back on his face, that same mixture of pain and anger. "He told me to save it for another time, and I've been looking for one ever since."

Frak. Damned Adamas. Yeah, DEFINITELY a nice roundhouse. Right below the eye, too. Only this time to her commanding officer. She wondered if it would be worth the time in the brig.

Something must've shown in her face, because Lee's face creased with a wry smile.

"Hitting both of us will just get you sent to the prison barge, Kara." She just stared at him, her jaw slowing dropping.

"How the HELL do you do that?"

"Beats me. Must be an Adama family trait." And come to think of it, Kara could remember countless times his father had done the same to her, figuring out her actions and thoughts and defusing them before they could get her in serious trouble. Zak had been much the same way. Only with him, a gentle smile and a joking word had done more than a whole lecture from the old man.

Zak... Dammit, she needed to know. Lee and his father were one thing. But Lee and Kara were another. She needed him right now, like she needed all of her friends. She couldn't take any more losses. One more would literally tear her apart.

"Lee...are you mad at me?"

"About this?" Lee's face crinkled into a familiar grin. "I'm not thrilled, but hey, this is you. I should expect to have my life complicated."

Damned Adamas. That wasn't what she meant, and knowing him, he had no clue what she meant. Sometimes he just didn't get it. Which meant she'd have to hammer home the point with her usual bluntness. Hitting him would've been more fun.

"I need to know if you're mad at me about Zak, Lee. About what happened. If what happened last night..."

"Kara. Stop." Lee's voice, commanding and firm, stopped her. She turned to look at him, afraid not to see his face, and his eyes -- afraid to not look at him and see the truth. What she saw was calm, relief ... and a deep-seeded pain she thoguht he'd never lose.

"Don't do this to yourself. My father and I will work things out. You and I will, too."

"We need to talk about this. You and I, I mean. We need..."

"Kara, it's okay." Lee sighed and looked at the ceiling. "At least for now. I'm not angry, okay?" His face was creased with exhaustion -- and now that Kara was looking for it, a lack of control that actually sent a shiver down her spine. For the first time in recent memory, Lee looked ... overwhelmed.

He raked his hand through his hair.

"It's not you, and it's not my father. There's just so much..." Lee finally looked down at her, and his face twisted. "Gods, Kara, it's not just my father. It's writing duty rosters, doing evaluations ..." He cracked a wry grin. "Running inspection tours. Kara, I don't have time to breathe." His face sobered before he glued his eyes to the ceiling. "Now you want me to fix something that's been broken for so long, I don't even know how to go at it."

Kara took a deep breath, and heaved it out as she looked away. What the frak was she supposed to say to that? This whole mess had spiraled so completely out of control. It should have ended two years ago, at Zak's funeral, and instead, it had grown into this monstrous mess. It defied belief when you thought about it. Two of the best men in the fleet, father and son...

And as always, never able to tell each other how they feel. In the end, she supposed it didn't defy belief. For them, it was just business as usual.

She reached for Lee's hand, and squeezed it softly.

"Lee, look at me." After a moment, he rewarded her by finally pulling his glance off the ceiling and looking her in the eye.

"I have faith in you. And your father. You're the two best men I've ever known." A sudden pang wrenched through her, and she smiled sadly. "Well, two of the best three, okay? You'll find a way."

Lee could only stare for a minute, his face a mixture of emotions. She wished she could see inside of his head, just for once in her life.

Finally, Lee swallowed hard, and nodded.

"I'll find a way." His face was locked tight again, and she could sense him making an effort. For control, for composure ... rearranging his space yet again and trying on a new idea. From the looks of it, maybe it wasn't so bad a fit.

"You'd better, otherwise I'll have to kick your ass or something. She forced her trademark smartass grin back on her face, her own sense of inner balance returning. "Having a frakkin' Adama pissed at you is worse than bad sex."

After a stunned silence, Lee's laughter -- a mighty object when he chose to use it -- trailed back to her as he walked away.