Kara managed to learn more about what Lee and the President had gone through as they were packing up the camp the next morning. They had escaped from Galactica on a stolen Raptor with the Priestess. Upon entering the Cloud 9 Spaceport, they met up with Tom Zarek who supplied them with a ship to Kobol. To show his gratitude, Lee refused to let Zarek or any of his men come with them down onto the surface of Kobol. He used the Priestess's knowledge of scriptures to emphasis the planet's desire for blood toll, and the men had backed out on their own.

Once on the planet, the group of three started searching for the Tomb of Athena. Their only clues were hidden deep in the Book of Pythia. An hour into their search, Elosha stumbled upon a land mind left behind by someone in the past.

At this point in the story, Kara had glanced over at Lee. She knew he must have once wondered the same thing she was. Who had been on Kobol with landmine in their possession? There was no way the mines had been there since the time of the Exodus of Twelve.

Kara left that question unasked as the President went on to speak of their discovery of the Tomb and their inability to get it open.

At that point, the camp had been suitably packed up and the information sharing ended. There were more important things to focus on. Kobol still had weather to rival Caprica's rainy season, and it seems that the mudslides had started up again. Kara knew from experience that being stuck out in it was not a fun experience.

The hills began to get steeper, and Kara was concentrating as hard as she could to keep from stumbling. Lee was too busy helping the President to give her a hand so she was on her own. Being alone wasn't anything out of the ordinary for her, though, so she managed just fine.

Kara decided the gods must have been looking down on their ragtag trio because the rain stopped after the first two miles. With the terrain improving as the sun came out, Lee left the President's side and made his way back to walk in time with Kara.

"She doesn't need you anymore?" Kara teased with a small snort.

"I'm not good with the whole prophecy/book of scripture thing. I'm just there to keep it from getting dirty should the President stumble."

"Ah," Kara whispered, rolling her eyes. The day President Roslin needed her precious Captain Apollo as nothing but a piece of muscle was the day that Kara would finally stop screwing her life up. In other words, never. She was still thinking about the President's relationship with the CAG when Lee started speaking.

"I feel like I need to explain something I said last night."

Kara felt herself tense up. She had had a feeling for the moment she woke up to find herself alone in the tent that he was going to take back the things he had said the night before. It was rather surprising that he had waited this long.

"I want to explain why I never gave you and Zak my consent."

"Lee. You don't have to explain."

Lee cleared his throat, his eyes focusing on his feet. "I know you think that I didn't approve of you being with my brother, but nothing could be further than the truth. I never knew you while we were in Academy. At least all I knew was what the rumor mill said, and trust me, it wasn't pretty." He chanced a look at her to smirk before turning his attention away again. "When Zak first told me that he was dating one of the flight instructors who had graduated with me, I just thought it was interesting that he had chosen you. It wasn't the easiest relationship he could have had. Obviously there had to be something special to you."

"And then you met me and realized your brother was just completely out of his mind," Kara joked.

"About you, yes. That first time Zak introduced me to you, I understood why." Lee took a deep breath and looked over at her. She looked so vulnerable right now, and he suddenly knew there was no turning back. "I wasn't worried about if you deserved Zak, Kara. I was worried about if he deserved you."

Kara's mouth dropped open. That was the last thing she had expected.

"I realize that makes no sense to you, but there are things I never told you."

"Like what?"

"Zak had been coming to me with his problems since he was old enough to skin his knee," Lee explained. "Our father was never around so someone had to be there for him. When he was dating you, he started coming to me more often. He told me things that I probably had no right to ever know. Things about how you grew up and what your mother put you through."

Kara could feel her temper flare up, but she quickly reminded herself how useless it would be to want to hit a man she had already killed. Instead she focused on the perfect target currently walking beside her. "You're right. You had no right to know any of that." She saw a small twinge of hurt come through his usual mask of stony seriousness, and the anger drained right out of her. "What I mean is at the time you had no right to know that. It should have been my decision when I wanted to tell you."

"When?"

"I like to think I would have told you at some point."

Kara could see his face light up in appreciation for a moment before Lee settled back into his explanation. "At the time, I warned Zak that he shouldn't be telling me these things, but he looked so desperate for someone to talk to that I couldn't refuse. He didn't know how to handle the things you told him. It fraking scared me how young he could be at times."

"He always tried so hard to be like you that it was hard to remember he was your baby brother," Kara agreed

"You know as much as I do how satisfying being around Zak could be. The party seemed to be wherever he was." Lee shook his head with a laugh. "I swear, he had a joke for every single thing that happened."

"It was one of the things I loved about him most," Kara admitted. "He always made me laugh when things got too heavy."

"And because it was you, things got heavy a lot. That was what worried me the most. I was afraid Zak wouldn't be the right fit for you. He was always so high-spirited and hard to pin down. I wasn't sure he could give you the support which you might not have known you needed but which you definitely deserved. And that was why I couldn't bring myself to give you my consent when you told me you were getting married."

When Kara didn't say anything at first, Lee figured he had overstepped his bounds and started apologizing, "I know I should have told you that then. Maybe you would have given a second thought to the commitment you two were entering into. Maybe it could have changed what happened in the end."

"Lee, we all have our should haves," Kara teased. She hoped Lee would pick up on the fact that his words were coming back to bite him in the ass.

"I still feel guilty," he said, smiling at her out of the corners of his eyes.

"You can't think like that. It will only make you lose who you are." She rolled her eyes. "Trust me. I would know."

"I can't help it. There are so many fraking what ifs when it comes to what happened to Zak."

"Do you know what my father always used to tell me when I was little? Forgiveness means giving up the hope that the past can change. You need to let it go just as much as I do if we ever want to forgive ourselves for what we did to Zak and for what we did to your father."

Her words made Lee stop in his tracks, and Kara turned to see him staring at her in awe. She gave him a sly smile before twisting to look over her shoulder. "The President has stopped."

After a second, Lee glanced at where she was pointing to see that the President had indeed stopped. He took a quick look around at where they were. "We're here." He gave her a small smile before brushing past.

Kara followed behind as Lee led the three of them up a small hill to a giant rock wall. "This is it?"

"We think," Roslin said, giving her a comforting smile. "We haven't figured out how to open it."

"All right." Kara held her hand out for the container Lee had on his shoulders. "Maybe this thing will show us how."

Lee handed the cylinder over to her, and she drew out the arrow as Roslin pulled back the ivy curtain growing on the rock. Minutes later, after having thoroughly covered every inch of the rock with both her hands and the thin piece of metal, Kara was ready to scream. "We are perfectly screwed," she muttered. Taking a step back, she turned to look at Lee. "Well, have at it."

"Have at it?"

"Push the fraking thing open!" she hissed, gesturing wildly.

"It's solid rock, Kara."

"I know. So live up to your fraking call sign, Apollo." When Lee just glared at her in response, she rolled her eyes and held the arrow out for the President to take. "Fine. I'll help."

"I don't see how this is going to work," Lee protested as he braced his back against the rock.

"It can't hurt."

"Unless both of us break our backs trying."

Kara didn't answer as she placed her hands against the rock. "Shut up, Lee. On the count of three… one… two… three…"

They both pushed as hard as they could and were surprised to feel the rock immediately give way. Lee's eyes went wide as they pushed the remainder of wall out of the way. Standing up when finished, he turned to look at the President in surprise. "That didn't work before."

"I know," Roslin said. She turned to smile at Kara. "Maybe that means Arrow of Apollo wasn't the only thing we needed to open the tomb."

Lee let out a small laugh as Kara's face paled. She had always hated the idea of responsibility. After a few seconds, Kara seemed to get a handle on her fear, and he made an exaggerated gesture of courtesy. "After you."

Kara wanted to roll her eyes at him or stick out her tongue or something else equally juvenile, but frak if she couldn't wipe the smile off her face long enough. Her mind had gone back to Helo, and suddenly she felt like his death had been worth something. If she had come to Kobol to find the Tomb didn't exist, she was pretty sure the guilt of causing another man's death would kill her.

She took the first hesitant step into the tomb, and her senses were assaulted with a feeling she hadn't experienced in so long. Hope had returned to her.

"So what do we do now?" Lee asked as he followed Roslin inside.

"Well, the scriptures said you need the Arrow to find the map," Roslin offered.

"But I think we need a map to show us how to use the arrow. Or at the very least, an instruction manual would have been nice," Lee quipped. "This place looks like the Cylons have already been to it. There's pieces of rubble everywhere."

"They're not rubble," Kara corrected as her eyes caught on a familiar shape. "They're broken statues, and I think they represent the Twelve Colonies."

"Yes," Roslin said, her eyes lighting up. "That one is Gemenon, the twins." She turned to point at the statue next to it. "And that one is the ram, Aerilon."

"This is where it began," Kara whispered. Her hand reached out to graze the statue that had grabbed her attention. "This is it. We all came from this very place."

"Kara?" Lee said hesitantly. He made his way over to stand beside her. "Are you all right?"

"Do you recognize this statue?" she asked.

Lee took a good look at the broken stone in front of them. "Sagittaron. The archer."

"He's missing something," Roslin pointed out. She held the Arrow out to Kara. "Will you do the honors, Lieutenant Thrace?"

Kara nodded as she took the Arrow into her hands. She held it up in front of the statue but found herself having trouble moving her hands any further. This was the moment she had risked everything for. If this didn't work…

"It's okay, Kara," Lee whispered in her ear, giving her the comfort she hadn't even asked for.

Kara took one last deep breath and moved her hands closer to the statue. Some sort of pressure force took hold and slammed the Arrow the last few inches until it snapped into place. At the same time, the tomb door crashed shut, enveloping them in darkness. Kara felt Lee's hand touch her arm and slide down until his fingers intertwined with her own. The darkness began to slowly fade away as the stars lit the sky above them.

"When did we get outside?" Kara asked.

"I don't know," Lee admitted. He started to look around, taking in the massive stone circle and cool night air. They were definitely not on Kobol anymore. "Where are we?"

"Those are the ancient symbols," Roslin said, ignoring his question. She pointed at the large stones encircling them. "Those patterns were on the original flags of the Twelve Colonies back in the days when the colonies were called by their ancient names. The jewels on the stones match the constellations."

"Does that mean one of those constellations is Earth?" Lee asked. He was having trouble following what was happening. It was all going too fast for his liking..

"No," Kara whispered. The raw wonder in her voice made Lee grasp her hand tighter, and she knew without looking that he was giving her his infamous concerned look. "We're standing on it. We're standing on Earth." She turned to look at the President. "The scriptures say that when the Thirteenth Tribe landed on Earth, they looked up into the heavens and they saw their twelve brothers."

"Earth is the place where you can look up in the sky and see the constellations of the Twelve Colonies." The smile on Roslin's face faded. "But I don't know what good that's going to do us. It's next to impossible to locate one specific star pattern with our current resources."

"There," Lee yelled out of nowhere. Kara turned, surprised to realize he had never stopped searching their surroundings. "In Scorpio. I've seen that before." She could hear him struggling to remember. After a moment, his face erupted in a satisfied smile. "It's the Lagoon Nebula. We learned about it in primary."

"There you go, Madam President," Kara said, grinning at Roslin. "A map and a direction. Commander Adama can't be mad at us if we go back with that kind of piece offering."

Roslin shook her head. "I doubt he's actually mad at any of us."

"You don't know my father," Lee said with a laugh.

"I think I might know him better than you think," Roslin replied. Kara saw the President's eye briefly fall on where their hands were still grasped together. She pulled away as a blush crept up into her cheeks. "We may be here for a little while longer. I'm going to go take a closer look at those stones while I still can."

Kara had done her best to break the connection to Lee as casually as she could, but the President still smiled at them knowingly before turning to leave. Her cheeks flared up again with embarrassment, and she silently thanked the darkness for hiding most of her shame.

The quiet sounds of night were all around them. It was something Kara had thought she would never hear again. Smiling, she turned to tell Lee about her little observation, but the words caught in her throat. He was still standing next to her as before, but his eyes were drawn up to the sky. The moonlight seemed to fall onto his face as if it was the most natural thing for it to be doing.

Her stomach did the strange little leap she had become accustomed to feeling when Lee was around. No matter how much she resists it, these feelings wouldn't go away. They persisted in nagging her for every second of every day. Not only that, but they had been getting significantly louder since he had answered her question the night before.

The sounds of her father's songs crept up in her head, and she couldn't help but hum them softly to herself as she finally let herself believe in what her father had told her so many nights ago. There was a handsome prince out there who would love her no matter how low she fell. He loved her for all that was good about her and he loved her even more for all that was bad.

She couldn't deny it. Her father had been right all along.

Almost as if he had known what she was thinking, Lee turned to smile at her. "You know, I used to sit outside in our backyard on Caprica when I was little. I would look up at the stars and wish every single night, rain or shine. It was so important to me back then." He shook his head and looked back up into the sky. "I used to wish for the silliest things. That I would get the bike I wanted for my birthday or that the cute girl in my history class would smile at me. Even though it was kind of ridiculous, it made me happy." Lee reached over to grab her hand again without moving his eyes from the stars. "How about you give it a try, Kara? Pick out the brightest star and make a wish."

Kara knew she was lost even before he said the words.

Lee watched her let out a small sigh before she looked up at the stars, found the one she liked, and shut her eyes. He could feel the tension leave her body as she put all that she was into her wish. It gave him a moment of freedom where he didn't have to pretend like he wasn't staring at her. He could finally appreciate the full wonder that was in front of his eyes. Kara letting herself be so free as the moonlight fell down on her was probably the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. He watched a small smile play at the corners of her mouth before her eyes flew open.

Kara stared up at the stars for just a moment longer before shouting, "Frak that!" She took her hand out of Lee's to grab a fistful of his shirts and pulled him close. Her other hand drew his head down close to her until she was able to feel the soft pressure of her lips against his.

The kiss was quiet, almost as if they were afraid to touch. It seemed they were scared they might be pushing the line. There was so much still to be repaired in their relationship that Kara was afraid she was just fraking it all up again by taking action. She felt Lee's hands come up to wrap around her as the abruptness wore off, and all of a sudden she knew for the first time in her life she hadn't made a mistake.

Lee's lips moved as he pulled her in closer so that he might get a better taste. The shift made her groan, and she could feel him smile against her. Kara opened her mouth slightly to nip at his bottom lip which he took as an invitation to pull her in deeper. Before she could even realize it was happening, something flared up between them and her mind went numb.

Kara forgot that the President was standing a few feet away. She forgot that she was a castoff from the only place she could call home. She forgot about William Adama and Miles Thrace. She forgot about her mother and the way she had told Kara she would never amount to anything. She forgot that she had long ago decided that love was not in the cards for a person like her.

Because none of that mattered when she could still remember the way Lee Adama made her feel.

Breathless, Kara pulled back and smiled at the man holding her in his arms. "Sometimes you have to make your own wishes come true, Lee."

"You know, I think you're right," he said, smiling a moment before leaning in towards her. The starry sky faded out as the Tomb of Athena slowly came back to surround them.

For once, Kara and Lee were too busy to notice.