Kara smiled at Lee as she took her seat in the main pilot chair. She knew he would give in and let her fly back to Galactica. In all the years they had been together, he had never successfully refused her anything. "I love you, flyboy," she said, giving him a wink.

"You haven't called me that in years," Lee pointed out, sitting in the co-pilot chair beside her. It had taken longer than they expected to reach this point. Racetrack had practically hyperventilated at seeing her old shipmates.

"Your father's going to want to know how we ended up married," Kara pointed out as she started pre-flight.

"He's not going to like it."

"No, I'm not talking about the first time we got married," she said with a laugh. "We should probably just leave that part out of the story."

Lee laughed. "Good point."

Kara pulled the Raptor up into the air and sighed. "This feels good."

"Like coming home?"

"Yeah." She clicked a few buttons, and the ship took off for the sky above. "So do you think your father is really okay with having me as a daughter-in-law?"

"Kara, I think he's more than okay with it."

"I know, but the whole thing happened so quickly. Maybe he was just happy to see me alive. Maybe he didn't really understand that his son had taken a girl from the wrong side of the Caprican tracks for a wife."

"I thought we got past that crap sixteen years ago. I don't give two shits that you grew up in the crappy slums of half the Twelve Colonies. I love you, Kara, and my father loves you, too." Lee chuckled. "Hell, I bet if we had stayed with the Fleet, he would have done everything in his power to make me want to marry you. You mean a lot to him."

"Do you think he could have done it? I mean, if we had stayed with the Fleet that day, could he have made you want me?"

Lee leaned over to pull Kara's hand to his lips. "He wouldn't have had to push very hard."

Kara smiled at her husband. It always surprised her how easy it was to talk with Lee. Twenty years before, she could never have imagined wearing her feelings on her sleeve. Somehow knowing Lee had changed all that. They had been shoved into a world they didn't know that day in the Tomb of Athena. Kara could still remember the feeling of confusion that had come over her.

One minute, she and Lee were sharing a private smile about finding the map to the Thirteenth Colony, and the next they were watching everyone fade out around them. The two pilots were left alone in a grassy field as they tried to figure out what had just happened.

They had stood there for an hour trying to determine if there was a way to turn off whatever the Arrow of Apollo had turned on. After coming to the conclusion that they couldn't just stand there for their rest of their lives, Kara and Lee started walking until they came upon a road. The road led to a city which led to a revelation that would shake the core of their existence.

Somehow they had ended up on the Thirteenth Colony with no way of getting back home to Galactica.

"We're here," Racetrack yelled from the ECO seat.

Lee watched his wife's face spread into what he had always called her wicked look. "Watch this," she said, clicking on the comm. "Galactica, Raptor One, requesting permission to land."

"Raptor One, starboard launch tube B is clear for you," Dee answered.

"Oh! You guys finally converted that thing back from a gift shop?"

"What did you say, Racetrack?"

Racetrack smirked and clicked into the comm link. "That wasn't me talking, Dee, and you might want to patch this next part through to the whole CIC. She's got her cocky face on."

Kara smirked at Lee before continuing, "Greetings and salutations from the great beyond, Galactica. This is Kara Thrace calling to say you better get that stick out of your ass so you can humbly land on the Thirteenth Colony."

"Starbuck?"

The pure astonishment in Dee's voice made Kara laugh. "Yeah, it's me. Glad to hear you're still manning the comms, Dee."

"I can't believe you're fraking alive."

"She wouldn't be if I didn't keep saving her ass," Lee interjected.

"L… Lee?"

"Come on, Dee," Kara said with a laugh. "Do you really you'd get Starbuck without Apollo?"

"No, sir, I guess not."

"Bringing in the cat!" she whooped. As the Raptor docked in the flight by, Kara chuckled. "Gods. This feels as good as I remember."

"Better than sex, right?" Racetrack joked as she stood up to lower the ramp.

Kara glanced over at Lee before shaking her head at Racetrack. "Not the kind I'm having. Now show me my home."

The trio stepped out into the hangar bay and were greeted with the many changes that had happened on Galactica. The ship was running on a skeleton crew, headed up by Chief Petty Officer Rachael Cally and Commander of the Air Group, Captain Brendan Constanza. Along with Cally and Hot Dog, Colonel Felix Gaeta welcomed the two famous pilots back on board.

"It's good to be home," Kara said, stepping forward to hug her old friends.

Apollo did the same, giving the young Specialist he had always had a soft spot for a warm smile as she started to cry. "Cally, it's good to see they finally realized what a great Chief you would make."

"Thank you ,sir," Cally sniffed.

Lee released his hold on her and turned to Gaeta. "What about the President?"

"Laura Roslin left this plane of existence a long time ago," Gaeta said after a moment's pause, "and our current President was taken to Colonial One along with her husband and daughter as a safety precaution. She knows of the situation, though, and is dying to see you two."

Kara held out the papers in her hand. "These are the coordinates for where Galactica and the rest of the Fleet can land. There will be military personnel to escort you to holding areas until we can figure out where to put everyone."

"Good. It's going to take a few hours to confirm this and get all the ships docked safely." Gaeta looked around at the crew before motioning for the two old pilots to follow him. "There are a few things you need to know. The Fleet took on heavy losses when we lost President Roslin and her successor."

"Dr. Baltar," Kara acknowledged.

"No, Gaius Baltar never took office. That's a story for another time, though. All you need to know is that we had a string of ineffectual leaders after Roslin. Your father unofficially ran the civilian government for the most of the time you two were away. However, a few years ago, the Admiral and I finally came upon a solution to our problem. We appointed Sharon Valerii to the position."

"You made a Cylon the President of the Fleet?" Apollo exclaimed.

"She has been an integral part of keeping the Fleet safe from the toasters. In fact, she was the key to our final evasion. We haven't seen the Cylons in over two years now. Their forces dwindled the closer we got to Earth."

"But a Cylon?" Kara objected.

"She's earned our trust," Gaeta said.

The trio fell into silence as they continued through the corridors of Galactica until something occurred to Kara. "Wait. You said before that you were concerned for the President's safety in addition to her husband and daughter, didn't you?"

"If you remember, the Cylon copy you brought back to the Fleet was pregnant, Starbuck." Gaeta smiled at them as he pulled to a stop in front of a closed hatchway. "Helo is going to be quite happy to hear that you beat the odds again."

Kara's face beamed as she looked over at Lee. Helo had been her best friend in the Fleet before Lee came along and the whole world got a lot more tangled. Besides the Old Man, he was the person that Kara thought about most at night when she was cuddled in next to her husband, wondering what life would have been like if they were still with the Fleet.

"This is the old officer's quarters," Gaeta said, punching a code into the door jam. "Adama had the pilots move as the old regime died out. With you and Apollo gone and Helo out of the action because of the baby, the new additions to the Fleet had to step up and take charge. They couldn't do that if they were still in your shadow." Gaeta motioned for them to enter the room. "I figured you might be most comfortable waiting here. Call Dee if you need anything. Otherwise, I'll see you two when Galactica's prepared to dock."

Lee nodded to the XO while watching Kara step into their past. She dragged her hand along the top of the metal table in the middle of the room as she made her way to her locker. When she opened it to see a war-torn photograph staring back, she began to cry. She turned back to smile at her husband. "My picture…"

Lee winked. He knew how much that picture meant to her. It had been taken on one of Lee's rare visits to see his brother and Kara at the Academy. Life had been a whole lot simpler back then.

Kara pulled the tape off the edges of the picture, and clutching it to her heart, she lay down on the bunk that had been hers for years. Lee moved to take a seat in one of the metal chairs, but her hand came out to stop him. "Lay down with me," she asked.

Lee nodded and gathered his wife up in his arms as they both settled in to the tiny space.

Kara let out a sigh. "I always dreamed about how right this would feel."

"How right what would feel?"

"Having you all to myself in one of these bunks," she whispered, burying her face against him. "Feeling you near me and knowing that for once it wasn't all just a dream."

"I dreamed about you, too, Kara," Lee sighed, kissing the top of her head.

Kara smiled to herself. Her thoughts quickly drifted to what might have been. She had often wondered if she and Lee would have ended up where they were today if they had stayed on Galactica or if they would still have been dancing around each other, afraid of the possibilities. A small chuckle from the man currently holding her in his arms pulled her from those familiar thoughts. "What's so funny?" she asked.

"I just can't believe it took me twenty years to get into your bed," Lee joked, earning himself a smack from Kara. He pulled the blankets up from the bottom of the bunk and tucked them in around their joined bodies. It struck him as funny to realize that he agreed with Kara. This was exactly like he had always imagined it. "It's nice to be home."

Kara nodded as she felt sleep begin to claim her. Her mind went back to the day over sixteen years ago when she had figured out her home was with Lee.