Chapter Two

Lee Adama was in a bad mood. The woman was getting better with her aim. The stapler had nearly clipped the top of his ear that last time. Okay, so perhaps he had been a little harsh calling her a phony gypsy but having pilots scowl at him, cursing him behind his back because they thought they were off duty had pushed his already low tolerance to the breaking point.

He'd not been sleeping well, and Jessica Talbot was to blame for that too. She spent most of the night shuffling around in her room and talking to herself. She was having nightmares, he knew and that made him soften a little in compassion but Lords, he couldn't take much more of this. A drawback of his profession was that he was a light sleeper. The walls between their rooms were not all that thick and so Lee was privy to every rambling diatribe out of Gypsy-Jessica's mouth.

He'd heard her crying sometimes too, Lee remembered with a tightening in his chest as he stepped into the viper and pulled the dome head closed on top of him. He debated going in and talking to her a few times to somehow make her feel better but his awkwardness held him back, not to mention he didn't think she'd appreciate any of his advice. The two of them had taken to avoiding each other since the episode in the pilot's ready room. Which of course was best for all concerned. Lee would be loathe to admit it but his father had been right. He'd no business rubbing up against an obviously frakked up young woman when he had his own problems to deal with.

"And how is our lovely groom-to-be this evening?" Starbuck had greeted him the same way on every patrol since the scene in the CIC and it was really starting to grate on his nerves. They sped off the Galactica and made their way out into the vastness that was more comforting to Lee than his own bunk.

"Keep your attention up ahead, Lieutenant." Lee snapped. He fought the urge to ram his viper into her tail.

"I didn't get an invitation. I think I'm insulted." Hot Dog's giggle came over Lee's mike.

"It'll be waiting for you in the brig if you don't shut your trap." Lee insisted pulling up along side the young pilot.

"Yes, Sir." Hot Dog replied, appropriately repentant.

"So Lee, come on, tell the truth, you're not the least bit insulted that she basically told everyone in CIC that she wouldn't frak you with a ten foot pole?"Starbuck asked.

Lee didn't answer, he was too busy trying to come up with a good charge to toss his friend's irritating ass in the brig, next to Hot Dog.

"It's just as well, I guess. I mean she did say you kissed like a fish." Starbuck stated and he could hear the smile in her voice. "We talked about it ya know? Now I'm not to gossip-"

"Ha!" Both Hot Dog and Crashdown's voice burst over Lee's speaker.

"Lieutenants, I won't say it again. Keep your frakking attention focused on your jobs or I will have you all tossed in hack and I'll thoroughly enjoy it, understood?" Lee snapped firmly.

"Aye, aye, Captain Apollo." Both Crashdown and Hot Dog replied. Starbuck didn't needle him anymore, she simply began to hum the wedding march. Lee shot past her and across the bow of her viper.

"Oh, you want some of this huh, Captain?" Kara asked teasingly as she gunned her viper to full speed and shot after him. In less then a second they were racing neck and neck. Lee let out a triumphant whoop when he slid underneath her viper and tapped the tail lightly with his right wing.

"Son of a bitch!" Kara yelled at Lee's giggle. Kara flipped her plane upside down then waved at him through the glass dome then nosed him in his tail with her point before shooting ahead of him.

"Not bad, Lieutenant. You might make a decent pilot someday." Lee teased speeding after her until he was along side of her again.

"Maybe, but you'll still be a superior asshole." Kara tossed back. "Uh oh, playtimes over kiddies." She stated when she caught sight of four Cylon raiders up ahead of them. She knocked out the first easily but the second one narrowly missed her before Lee blasted it into oblivion. His heart rate going up, pumping adrenaline through his veins as three more raiders showed up. Crashdown took down two and the four of them narrowed the Cylons down to just one that was slippery as a...well, fish, Lee though with a scowl, Kara's words coming back to annoy him. Both Lee and Kara gunned for him, Kara up ahead of Lee. Kara dropped her altitude quickly and then Lee came up behind and fired on the last Cylon.

"Not bad, Lee. You might make a good Captain someday." Kara said.

"Maybe, but you'll still be an insubordinate little bitch." Lee tossed back waving at her as he gunned his viper back towards the Galactica.

They rotated in shifts of four hours lately. Thanks to the new crop of pilots being recruited which spread the duties out more evenly...when Jessica wasn't screwing up the schedules that was. And the ratio of pilots lost was considerably less. Since The Olympic Carrier, Lee remembered with a sick clench in his stomach. Would it ever get easier to bear, he wondered? President Rosilin had given him some words of comfort shortly after the incident but in his sleep, he still dreamt that there had been people in the ship. Only the people he saw in his dreams all had faces of people he knew. Kara, Zak, his mother, his father. And Jessica. In his dream Jessica had been aboard the Carrier with a baby in her arms that he knew was his and he'd destroyed them all.

"I don't want to marry you and have any of your babies!" She had shouted at him in the middle of the CIC and it had taken all his will power not to ask her what she'd meant. If he thought about it too much, he'd admit that it irked his ego just a little. And if he thought about it, he'd remember that she was a seer and her comment was probably in reference to some vision she'd had that involved him. But Lee didn't think about it. He refused. Like a fish! He thought with a fresh burst of annoyance. Well, she certainly hadn't been complaining when she'd been pressing herself against him, all soft and warm. And what did it say about her that she'd go and blab to Starbuck about what had been a private moment. Well, that didn't say much for her character now did it? No. Lee Adama was right. The woman was trouble and from now on it'd be hands off.

He slammed his locker shut and pulled out a towel and under clothes and was about to head off to the showers when an explosion rocked the ship beneath his feet. Lee fell back against the locker and nearly lost his footing but his hand dropped the towel and reached out to grip the long bench separating the lockers down the middle and broke his fall. Pulling his grey tank and the brown one over it, he was off and running to the CIC before the alarm spread through the ship.

"We've just been hit." Commander Adama stated.

"How bad?" Lee asked stepping up next to Colonel Tigh.

"They've just hit our water supply. It's pouring out as we speak." Lee's father explained.

"Frakking shit." Lee swore. The day just kept getting better, he thought grimly, wishing he'd taken that shower earlier.