Three weeks later Kara sat in the mess hall having a late dinner with Kat and another pilot, Max.
"So you cleaned up pretty well at the game the other night, Starbuck. Even though you had to leave early." Kat told her. "It's kind of irritating, actually. Even when you don't stay for the whole game, you always end up on top."
Kara closed her eyes at the invading memory of Lee moving steadily above her that night. "Not always." She corrected, taking a sip of coffee.
"Why did you have to leave early, Starbuck?" Max asked.
"I had to go to Cloud Nine. There was a meeting." Kara smiled politely. 'Oh, there was a meeting alright.'
"Captain Adama had to go to that meeting too, didn't he?" Kat teased, a large smirk on her face.
"Yes." Kara said simply. "His presence was required." 'He was a vital component, actually.'
"Did you resolve the argument that I saw you having with the CAG last week?" Max asked Starbuck innocently as she took a bite of her food.
"Yes." Starbuck replied, remembering how their anger over conflicting training techniques had led to something equally intense when he dragged her into his office. "The resolution was quite satisfactory."
Kara saw Kat smile knowingly behind her glass.
"I know you dish it out as well as you take it," Max said. "But that guy always seems to be on your back."
"Or her front." Kat mumbled before wincing at the pain of Starbuck's foot as it kicked her under the table. "Um, so Max, how was your night with Lt. Reddick?"
"My night?" Max laughed wryly. "You mean my forty minutes? It wasn't even worth that much time………what a loser."
"Really? I've heard good things about him." Kat added.
"Yeah." Max snorted. "Probably spread them around himself. It's my own fault. I should have known that anybody that vociferous was going to be all talk and very little action."
"I'll say." Starbuck laughed. "It's usually the quiet ones that are the powder-kegs just ready to blow. Then all you have to do is make sure you're in the blast zone."
"Hmmmm. Or be the spark that sets it off." Max cooed. "Speaking of quiet bombs waiting to explode, I was thinking of going after the CAG."
Kat almost choked on her food. "Captain Adama?"
Kara shook her head and smiled to herself as she looked down at the table.
"Sure." Max answered, semi-offended by Kat's shock. "Why not? I know he's a bit repressed, but I doubt he's like that behind closed doors. And his drive may be hard to deal with when he's your superior officer, but imagine what he's like when he's under you. That kind of diligence and dedication is not only an asset to the Fleet, but its members too." Max laughed and Kara had to bite her lip to subside the excitement in her body. "Come to think of it, I don't know why there aren't more girls chasing after him."
"Oh, I can think of a few reasons." Kat smiled teasingly at Kara before continuing. "Still, Max, I'm not sure the CAG would go for it."
"Oh, gods." Max groaned. "I know that he's a pretty-boy control-freak with good hygiene and gloriously chiseled arms, but……..that doesn't mean he's gay, does it?"
Kat giggled and rested her forehead in her hand. "Nope. I don't think he's gay."
"Then what? It's not because I'm a junior officer, is it?"
"Definitely doesn't have a problem with that." Kat muttered softly as Kara cleared her throat in an unspoken order not to continue. "I just don't think he'd be interested. You're not exactly his type."
"He just doesn't know that he's interested yet." Max replied arrogantly. "And I'm everybody's type. Now all I have to do is seduce him."
Kat laughed in disbelief and bewilderment at Max's obliviousness. "Are you serious?"
"Not only am I serious," Max said coyly, putting her elbows on the table and resting her chin in her hand. "I was hoping Starbuck could help me snag him."
Kara's eyes shot up. "Me?"
"Her?" Kat asked incredulously, looking at Starbuck like it must be some kind of joke that she'd not yet been let in on.
"Well, yeah." Max told Kara. "I mean, I thought you could put in a good word. You seem to have his ear more than anyone else on the ship. And I know you guys have your arguments, but………you are friends, right?"
"No." Starbuck said simply.
Max's whole face froze at Kara's bluntness. "Excuse me?"
"We're not friends." Kara replied. "A long time ago, we used to be friends. But we're not anymore. After everything that's happened, we can't be friends."
Max's face melted into a mask of sympathy that actually hid relieved excitement and the tone of her voice was that of mock-compassion. "I had no idea. It's just awful when a relationship changes like that."
"Tragic." Kara said.
"Heartbreaking." Kat added, looking at Starbuck amusedly.
"But," Max continued patronizingly. "You really don't seem too upset by that turn of events."
Kara nodded soberly. "I'm pretty okay with it."
"Evening, Sir." Kara said as she jogged up beside Commander Adama and fell in stride as he walked down the hall.
"Evening, Starbuck." He replied. "What do you hear?"
"The call of paperwork." She laughed as she held up the file in her hand. "I'm heading to a meeting with the CAG right now."
"This late?"
"It's the only time we could meet." She looked down at the file as they continued to walk. "So, you want these reports first thing in the morning?"
"Well that depends." He said. "When was the last time you had a 'meeting' with Captain Adama?"
She stopped dead in her tracks and her mind froze in fear. His eyes flashed in amusement for a split second before going back to serious as he stopped along with her.
She took a deep breath. "Um, I, um, I think…………..I think the last 'meeting' was the one on Cloud Nine two days ago." She stuttered.
"It's been that long?" He smiled teasingly as she sheepishly looked to the floor. "In that case, you two must have a lot to go over. I won't need those reports until tomorrow afternoon."
He walked away down the hall and she stood in the middle of it, staring after him with her mouth hanging wide open.
Kara was resting on her stomach in the middle of the floor in the CAG's office. They had learned to put down a blanket after they had heard several comments about the wrinkles on their clothes from where they had laid on top of them.
She felt his hand move up her bare back. "Your back is the most perfect thing I've ever seen."
She turned over to face him. "You don't like my front?" She pouted.
"Your front has become one of the main reasons for my continued existence, but your back definitely has its good qualities too." He grinned down at her.
"Hmmm." She reached up and ran her hand over his jaw, but stopped as she saw his eyes narrow at her in inquisition. "What?"
"You're still thinking about it, aren't you?" He chuckled.
She let out a loud sigh. "It was weird, Lee."
"What exactly did he say?"
"Nothing obvious." She confirmed. "But he had some serious innuendo going on and………"
"What?" He asked tracing her collarbone.
"Maybe it was just an eye twitch, but I swear he winked at me."
"We've been having dinner with him twice a week for the last three weeks; did you think he didn't know?"
"I know, I know." She said covering her eyes. "It just freaked me out."
"Well if that freaked you out." He said as he laid on his back. "You wouldn't have liked being on Colonial One this afternoon."
She sat up on her elbows. "The President knows?"
"You didn't think I was powerful enough to get us that night on Cloud Nine all by myself, did you?" He laughed.
Kara groaned and laid back down. "I'm gonna need a little time to process that." She turned after a moment and pressed herself against his side. "However, I'm willing to deal with the awkward ramifications of her awareness of our situation since it meant that I got to spend a whole night with you in a real bed."
"You dissing our office-floor heaven, Starbuck?" He raised his eyebrows at her.
"Never." She replied as she traced her finger around in a pattern on his chest. On her thumb was Zak's ring. 'Lee would want me to keep it on as much as Zak did.'
They laid there in silence for a few minutes until he spoke. "I was meaning to ask you, did something happen earlier this evening?"
She turned her face up to him. "What do you mean?"
"I saw Kat about an hour before you got here and she told me to 'watch out' for Max. You know anything about what she meant?" He asked as he swept his hand over her hair.
"Uh-huh." She laid her head back down. "Max told Kat and I that she was gonna make a play for you."
His body tensed. "Wait a second, Max told you that?"
"Not only that." She ran her foot up against his leg. "She asked me to help her get you. You know, because you and I are friends."
He laughed heartily. "That is frakking hilarious."
"Yeah." She sighed. "Maybe, um, maybe we should tell people about us." She said hesitantly.
"Isn't it common knowledge already?"
"Kind of, but people don't talk about it." She replied.
"I have absolutely no problem with people not talking about it." He smirked.
"It puts us in strange situations, though." She said. "People don't know if it's safe to say anything. They don't know if it's fact or just assumptions."
"Everybody knows, Kara." He told her again.
She grew slightly irritated. "Obviously based on that little conversation I had this evening, everybody doesn't know."
"Alright, let me rephrase that. Everybody who isn't a self-absorbed, over-sexed airhead knows." He chuckled. "Everybody else is aware. We allhave an unspoken agreement." He smiled deviously. "Why do you think no one ever bothers us when we're in here? Helo knows; that take care of the air group. Dee knows; that takes care of combat. And Tyrol and Cally know; that takes care of maintenance and deck crew. They'll make sure we're covered. No one's gonna come to the door."
"We should still say something. Make it official." She clutched her arm around him.
He wrapped his arm around her. "Like how?" He asked before adopting a teasing tone. "I could get on the P.A. and tell everyone how Lt. Thrace is ticklish in the bend of her knees and how she made me see the gods three times in one hour last week."
"That'd work. And I'd pay very good money to hear that." She laughed as she kissed his chin. "But it doesn't have to be anything quite that grandiose."
"Tell me what to do and I'll do it." He affirmed.
"You could just grab me and kiss me hard at the beginning of the Pilot's briefing tomorrow." She smiled.
He sat up partway and looked at her in bewildered awe. "How did you know that?"
"How did I know what?" She asked concerned as she pulled back slightly.
"How did you know that was my most frequent fantasy?"
She laughed and settled back in. "Great minds think alike, I guess." She paused and then looked back to him with a smile. "After that, we could start sleeping in the same bunk."
"Or get our own room." He corrected.
"No, not yet. Not for a while." She stated firmly and then spoke to soothe him as she saw his rejected look. "If we had our own room now, we'd never get any sleep. We need to wait until we've gotten enough of this out of our system that we can be in a room alone without being all over each other."
"I don't think we'll ever get to that point." He laughed. "So I guess Max will be pretty devastated that I'm off the market."
"Don't flatter yourself, Apollo. She'll pout for half an hour and then move on to the next guy."
"What did you tell her when she asked for your help?"
"I told her that I couldn't help her, because we weren't friends." She replied. "I told her that a long time ago, we used to be friends. But we aren't anymore."
"So you lied to her?"
"No. I didn't lie, Captain." She kissed him gently. "There are just many ways someone could take that statement."
-THE END
Okay. So yeah, I blatantly stole the title from the Veronica Mars track. What of it?