Kara wheeled herself out from underneath the Viper and praised the gods for only making the problem a bad circuit and not the fuel line. She had set the goal of staying as clean as possible through this unplanned maintenance shift, and so far she had managed to do it. All that was left was to check that they had a circuit to replace the bad one and let Cally know she had to finish the job. Kara's shift was finally over.
Wiping the last bits of dirt off her hand, Kara pushed herself to her feet. If she rushed to put this part away, she had about thirty minutes before Anders would be finding her so they could go on their date. How Anders had gotten a pass for Cloud Nine she would never know. Those things were rarer than pre-attack booze right now.
Kara tossed the bad circuit in her hand as she stumbled to the nearest equipment closet. She knew this one was off limits because it had just been stocked, but she didn't care. So what if the Fleet wanted to use the older parts first? She had a date to get ready for.
In the back of her head, that damned annoying voice started reminding her that it wasn't the date she was looking forward to so much as the time away from Galactica and a certain Adama. Kara found it was ironic that her thoughts were on Lee as she pulled the hatchway door open and let the harsh hanger bay light into the darkened locker. There were two people locked in what was about to be a rather embarrassing position. She was about to apologize about butting in when the back of the man's head suddenly seemed familiar. It was like every time she thought of Lee, he would show up to put her in another situation that would tear her in two.
She froze in silent agony as she watched Racetrack's hands working to frantically unzip Lee's pants. Her whispers for him to hurry before they were caught were only slightly softer than his moans. Kara shut her eyes and pulled the hatch shut, hoping they wouldn't notice. She let her feet guide her to the other equipment locker while her mind tried desperately to push the images away.
"Something wrong?" Cally asked as she popped out of the equipment locker in front of Kara.
"Nothing," Kara lied. She held the circuit out for the specialist to take. "This part was bad in Viper 809. Check to make sure we have a replacement and then put it in for me, would you? I have to go."
"No problem," Cally said, even though she was already staring at empty space. Something was obviously bothering Starbuck, but with that particular pilot, it could be anything from the CAG getting himself laid up in sickbay again to a bad hand of triad the night before. She didn't have time to figure it out.
Kara was so out of it she didn't realize she was acting odd as she pushed through the throng of people in the corridors. All she knew was she had to get herself into the shower before the tears pushed themselves out. The image of Lee and Racetrack stuck in her head as she went into the officer's bunkroom. Her gaze naturally fell on Lee's empty bunk, and she found herself imagining all those nights he had insisted upon keeping his curtain shut. Was the reason because Racetrack was in his bunk with him?
Her locker banged against the wall as she flung it open. The anger and frustration was starting to get the best of her. She had no right to be this mad, she told herself as she grabbed a towel off the top shelf and slammed the door shut. Lee was not hers. He had never been hers. She shouldn't feel jealous or pissed off, and she definitely shouldn't be feeling like the Cylons had just destroyed her world again.
Kara pushed the clothes off her body and wrapped the towel around herself, not even caring that she was leaving a mess in the bunkroom. If she was going to be ready for Anders in time, she would have to forget what she had just bore witness to.
Her determination to forget lasted just long enough for her to get under the semi-warm spray of the head's showers. At that point, a loud sob escaped her body and she braced herself up against the wall. She let the emotions tear through her body for a minute before pushing them back down. There had been a lot of pain in her life, and she had learned at an early age how to deal with it. Lately, she was glad to have that skill.
Lee had finally found someone to be with on Galactica. Kara decided that she should be happy for him. He had been so lonely, being stuck on a ship he didn't know with people who resented him for taking the job of their much beloved CAG when Ripper was shot down by the Cylons. It was good that Lee had someone.
Kara punched the water off. She never could get herself to believe her own lies.
When she wrapped the towel back around her body and stepped out into the corridor, she let herself lie one more time and say that it was the cold atmosphere of the Battlestar that was chilling her to the bone. Most of the male pilots turned to stare at her as she stepped into the bunkroom. This was an action she usually ignored. Things were starting to get tense with the fraternization policy that was still in place even though it was broken in every equipment locker on the ship.
"Don't think about equipment lockers," she hissed at herself. The stares continued to heat up every inch of her body that was exposed. "Stop fraking staring at me!" she screamed.
She didn't know if it was something in her tone or the way she was carrying herself because normally she couldn't clear the bunkroom with just five words. The bunkroom did clear, though, and she found herself alone with her thoughts again.
When she opened her locker, her eyes immediately locked onto the picture of the two Adama brothers. She fought the urge to tear it down. She had taken it down once in her life, and it had put Lee in a coma. Granted, she had only taken it with her to Caprica as a reminder that she had something to come home to this time. She had been afraid that seeing Anders might make her forget how important she was to Lee and the Commander and to the whole Fleet. She couldn't let her heart keep her away.
Sighing, she pulled the dress out of the locker where she had hid it towards the back. At the time, she had been half afraid Lee would tease her for the extremely feminine cut and half scared to death he would look at her again like he did that night on Cloud Nine. Now she knew he would have done neither. He didn't need to admire her when he already had a woman in his bed.
Kara let the silk slid against her bare skin and felt the material come to a rest just above her knees. She hoped Anders appreciated the effort she was making tonight because all she really wanted to do was curl up in her bunk.
She rummaged through Kat's locker until she found the hair gel the pilot had been hoarding. The Commander hadn't given the pilot time to gather her things after her trial for the stims-rage murder a few weeks earlier. Kat had been shown mercy by the Old Man when he only revoked her rank and status. It was a drastic change for her, but life in the Fleet as a civilian was better than being stuck in a brig cell for the rest of her life. Kara tried not to be jealous of Kat's unintentional reprieve from the responsibility of having to protect everyone in the Fleet. Instead, she tried to focus on hurrying herself along.
Kara wished she had more time to dry her hair so it could be styled properly, but then she had willingly made that sacrifice when she let herself get wrapped up in her maintenance shift. It was too late to change anything now.
Her eyes went up to look at the clock. Anders was supposed to be there ten minutes ago. As she pushed her grandmother's earrings on, she wondered what could have kept him so long. She knew he had meetings on Galactica with some of the space freighter captains in order to find the materials needed to make that pyramid court, but she was pretty sure she would have heard if they ran over.
She slid her feet into the black heels she had traded her last bottle of ambrosia for and started doing her best with the small amount of makeup she had.
"I'm know I'm late," Anders said, bursting into the bunkroom. "Those damn meetings had me working about twenty under-the-table trades just to get enough sheet metal to make the goals."
"Not a problem," Kara said, smiling at him in the mirror. "I was just finishing up anyway."
"You look nice," he whispered in her ear as he drew her in close. "Good enough to eat."
She rolled her eyes and pushed him away. "And you look like crap. Why are you still in the tanks and pants I stole you?"
"There wasn't time to change out of it," Anders explained, "but I stashed some more appropriate clothes in the Raptor that's taking us to Cloud Nine. I had a feeling the meetings would get out of hand."
"You're so smart," Kara joked. She slammed her locker door shut. "All right. Let's go."
Anders took her by the hand, and they made their way to the hangar bay. Kara was surprised to realize she didn't even mind the little gesture of possession. Usually she hated letting her personal life spill into the place where she did her job, but if Lee could handle it, then she supposed she could to. At least she wasn't fraking people in public places yet.
Kara swore under her breath. She needed to try to forget what went on… scratch that… what is probably still going on in that supply closet. If she was a betting kind of woman, and she was, Lee was definitely the type of guy to have the stamina of a god. She winced and bit her lip in frustration. She didn't need that type of thought, either. From now on, she wasn't going to think of Lee. She was just going to focus on the lovely time Anders had probably spent forever planning.
That determination lasted about ten seconds until they passed Racetrack in the hall. The pilot had the balls to give Kara a friendly smile. The bitch obviously had been too busy to notice the interruption earlier. Kara couldn't believe that this was the same woman who had stood by her side when Helo had gotten hurt. She had thought they had finally come to an understanding, but obviously she was wrong. Friends don't frak other friends' best friends without clueing them in first. She couldn't dwell on that now, though. There were other things to concentrate on.