The first thing Kara noticed when she woke up was her head felt like it weighed a hundred pounds. The second thing she noticed was that she was currently in sickbay and someone was holding her hand. "Lee?" she choked out. Her voice was extremely raspy which meant she must have gone a few days without talking.

"No, Kara. It's me."

She wished she could say she felt more relief hearing Anders' voice than Lee's, but she was really getting tired of lying to herself. "You're all right?"

"I have a nasty concussion, but the Doc says I'll be just fine. You, on the other hand, are going to take a little while before getting back on your feet."

"That little frakker shot me," Kara hissed as the memory of what had happened made her wince. "I am going to kill him."

"Job's already been done. The CAG took it upon himself to search all of Cloud Nine."

"Lee went back to Cloud Nine?"

"Only after you got out of surgery and the Doc declared you were going to be okay. I swear, I think Cottle was getting tired of having to herd our questions. We were lucky, though. Most of the time he had to answer us because it was the Commander asking."

"The Old Man was here?"

"He's been here every second he wasn't needed in the CIC. The man considers you his daughter, Kara."

The corners of Kara's mouth turned up in a small smile. "So has Adama pulled himself away from me long enough to figure out what happened?"

Anders nodded. "I don't know a lot, but I'll tell you what I do. I got knocked out by the Cylon you were training to be a part of the Fleet."

Kara's eyes snapped opening. That sounded almost accusatory.

"Hughes shot you, and you blacked out. Then the little frakker dragged me down to the kitchen without anyone noticing and left me to freeze myself to death. The Commander thinks Hughes was on his way back into the hotel room when the Marine responded to the gunshots he heard. He saw Hughes was armed and when he wouldn't drop the gun, the Marine shot. He missed, but the Cylon ran. Corporal Armstrong went in the room and saw you had dragged yourself up onto the bed." Anders sent her a knowing look. "Doc Cottle says that was what aggravated your injury the most."

"What did you expect me to do?" Kara exclaimed. "I woke up alone on the floor of a hotel room bleeding from a gunshot wound. Was I supposed to just lay there and wait for someone to stumble upon me?"

"Don't get excited, Kara. You're supposed to be resting."

"I just don't understand why everything you say sounds like you're accusing me of letting this happen."

"I'm not. It's just hard to figure out what happened when no one is willing to give me information. I'm not a member of your precious little military family. A lot that happened has been deemed secret and off limits to civilians like me." She knew she must have looked rather upset because Anders face went pale and he squeezed her hand gently. "I'm sorry, Kara. I have no right to take my frustration out on you. It's just been difficult for me to come to terms with how helpless it seems I am in this Fleet."

"There's a reason why the majority of military personnel chooses to break fraternization regs instead of dating people outside of Galactica. You're probably the only person right now who has to deal with that situation."

"I'm glad I do," Anders whispered. Kara saw him hesitate a moment before drawing his hand away from her. "But I wonder if you really want this."

"I don't understand."

"I went to thank Corporal Armstrong for all he did to save you yesterday, and he told me something I found odd. The only reason he searched for me was because he thought you were begging him to find me." Anders reached out to tilt Kara's face to look at him. "Except it turns out my name isn't Lee."

"Sam, I was shot. I needed to get help. Why is it so odd that I called for one of my fellow pilots, someone I knew could get the whole situation under control?"

"But why him, Kara? A man that you were going to try to distance yourself from for my sake?"

Kara hung her head again. Up to this point, neither one of them had out right acknowledged what she had been doing. "I can't just turn off the fact that he's my friend, Sam. When I'm in trouble, my head goes to the people I know I can count on. Lee has been there every time I've ever really needed him, including this time. Can't you just be grateful that because of Lee I'm going to be fine?"

"I would be grateful if only I could get myself to stop wondering if you'll ever let me be that man. I could be the one you turn to if you just let go of the notion that Apollo is your personal hero and savior."

Kara didn't answer. Frankly, she didn't want to. The idea of letting go of this one last tie with Lee killed her inside. She had given up the inside jokes and taunts, the morning jogs and the banter. She had kept herself from helping Lee out with his paperwork when he looked like he was going to go crazy. She had pulled away from the triad games that he was a part of in order to keep herself from doing something stupid. All of those sacrifices had hurt, but she had done them because she was committed to Anders. She was determined to make this work.

The real basis of that determination was simple. Anders wanted her, and Lee didn't. That was all she needed to know.

"All right," she whispered. "I'll let him go."

Anders smiled. "I'm happy to hear that. I love you so much, you know?"

She nodded but couldn't bring herself to say the words back. The pain of knowing she was going to have to give Lee up completely was tearing her up inside. She couldn't talk about love. "I'm tired, Sam."

"Then I'll let you get some sleep. I'm going to go talk to the Doc about what's happening with your treatment." Anders leaned in to kiss her forehead before stepping out of the curtained area.

Kara tried to keep the tears from falling until she could be sure she was alone. She had just committed to doing something that she was pretty sure was impossible. Lee was ingrained in every single facet of her life. She wasn't sure if there could still be a life left if she pushed him out completely.

Sniffing, Kara took a look around the sickbay. They had put her in the best area of the room, probably under strict orders of the Commander. It gave her a nice view of everything that was going on. She could see Doc Cottle arguing with Ishay about some X-rays with Anders waiting patiently behind them, and there were a few members of the deck crew laughing and joking around the bed of one of their crewmates. The last bed had its curtain drawn, secluding it from the whole of sickbay, and Kara watched a medic step out of the curtain to place a phone call.

There was a lot of activity going on, but there was one particular thing that was drawing her attention. Racetrack stepped into the sickbay and looked around nervously. When her eyes connected with Anders, a big smile came across her face.

Kara felt her heart begin to sink. She could feel an impending sense of importance to what was about to happen.

Anders smiled at Racetrack and stepped over to stand before her. They were talking softly for a moment, and Kara watched Racetrack's hand come up to rest on Ander's bicep. How did she not know Anders was friends with the Raptor ECO? She didn't even have time to think up an answer to her question because the air between them changed. Kara looked on as they began to argue. She couldn't make out what was being said, but she could tell Racetrack was really pissed off.

The truth hit her like a ton of bricks as Racetrack turned on heel and ran from sickbay.

Kara watched in shock as Anders turned to glance at her. He froze when he saw she was already staring at him. After a few seconds, he made his way over to her bed again. "I thought you wanted to get some rest."

"I never realized," she said with a small laugh. She tightened her jaw. "You might be a lot taller, and he might have a bigger build than you, but when push comes to shove, you look a hell of a lot like Lee from the back." Anders gave her a confused look. "I saw you the other day in the equipment locker. I didn't realize it was you who had a thing on the side with Racetrack."

Anders' face drained of color. "Kara, I can explain."

She held her hand up. "There's no need. You can feed me all the bullshit about being a man and having needs, and it still won't matter. I was prepared to change my whole fraking world to prove to you that I wanted this, and you knew it. In fact, you were the one that asked me to."

"I meant it when I said I wanted this to work between us."

"I would believe that if not for one thing. I have been trying to free up time for you and make you my number one priority. Things have gotten better between us, and yet whatever you had with Racetrack didn't end." Her eyes drifted to where she had just witnessed the argument. "At least not until today. You kept it going until I was willing to commit to giving up the one person I cared about most."

"I had to be sure," Anders said, as if that explained it all. He reached out to grasp her hand.

"Well, now I'm sure," Kara hissed, pulling her hand back. "You know, Helo teased me for getting involved with you. He loves his pyramid teams. That's how him and I got to be friends in the first place. He loved the fact that I could have been a professional player if I hadn't frakked up my knee." She paused to look at Anders, and she knew the blank look on her face was starting to make him scared. Good. He deserved it.

"Helo practically lived and breathed pyramid before the Cylon attacks," she continued. "It always amazed me how he knew every player on every team, including the Captain of the Caprica Buccaneers. When I was so torn about leaving you behind, Helo wanted to know what I saw in you. All he had ever heard about Samuel Anders was he was a big womanizer, always going from one frak to the next. He found it hard to believe that someone like me could be so attached to someone like you. At the time, I thought it was obviously a case of the media exaggerating a few casual relationships you had, but now I'm starting to think I should have listened to Helo. Like I said, pyramid was his life."

"The media did blow it out of proportion, but my life was different before the attacks. I was caught up in the superficial."

"Maybe you still are," Kara suggested. "I was willing to give up a hell of a lot for you, and I want you to remember that for the rest of your life. I wasn't the one to frak this up." She sighed. "Now, I really am tired. Please leave."

Anders stood up. "Where does this leave us?" he asked.

"You'll always be my friend, Sam. The world isn't big enough for grudges anymore. You're a part of Galactica and a part of this Fleet, but you're no longer a part of my life. Now you should go find Racetrack. She obviously knows you're an unfaithful bastard, and she doesn't care. That's like hitting the jackpot for you."

She saw Anders drop his head in embarrassment and fought the urge to let out a laugh at the absurdness of the moment. "Seriously, though, you obviously care for her. You fought to keep me in your life once because you loved me. I think you owe her the same consideration. If she takes you back, try to be happy, Sam. Try to make it work. Regrets aren't something you want to have." Kara cleared her throat. "Please shut the curtain on your way out."

Anders gave her one last look of regret before stepping away from her bed and shutting the curtain. Kara finally let her façade of strength fall. That bastard had almost gotten her to push Lee out of her life, and it seemed he didn't have any regrets for misleading her. How could she have been so blind to the type of man he truly was?

Kara didn't have the strength to do anything but let her tears lull her to sleep.