Anders walked through the open hatchway to the hangar bay. Kara had told him she would be off shift about an hour ago, and he had sat around his quarters waiting for her to show up. A man could only wait so long, though.
He watched the flutter of activity all around him. Something was going on. He grabbed the arm of the nearest Specialist. "What's happening?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary, Anders," the young girl said with a smile. "The CAP ran into a little trouble and a couple Vipers and a Raptor got dinged up. We're trying to get them fixed up to go out again later today."
"So no boom-boom, end-of-the-world type stuff?"
The girl let out a small laugh. "No, nothing like that."
Anders smiled and started looking for Kara again. If those ships had to be fixed, she was probably under one of them right now. The time tended to get away from her when she was given a job. That was only one of about a thousand things he had learned about the woman he loved since he came to this place.
"She's over there," the young specialist said, pointing to one of the downed Vipers.
Anders thanked her and was about to make his way over to where Kara lay under the ship when he saw Apollo hop down from his seat in the cockpit. Obviously Kara wasn't alone in repairing the ship.
Apollo crouched down and yelled something to Kara. Anders watched as she slid out from underneath the Viper, her whole body shaking with laughter. She sat up and said something back to Apollo, which made him smile and reach out to brush a stray piece of hair back behind her ear. It took all of Anders strength not to run over and punch Apollo when he saw the CAG's hand linger briefly on his girlfriend's cheek.
Anders watched the two pilots return to their work after their small interlude and figured that Kara wouldn't be getting off shift anytime soon. He tried to force the memory of the way she had been smiling out of his head as he turned to leave the hangar. It hurt to know that she had never smiled that way for him.
She would, though. Even if it meant he had to have a rather awkward conversation with Lee Adama, Anders would make sure he had the opportunity to make Kara smile for him alone.