"……………that's just 'cause you didn't know how." Kara laughed at Lee as they sat alone in the rec room late at night.
"Well, in all fairness, how would I have known?" He laughed back as he poured himself another drink and then looked to her to see if she wanted another too, she nodded in the affirmative. "You hadn't shown me yet."
"You would have figured it out eventually." She teased.
"Yeah, but I like it when you teach me things." He smiled sexily as he leaned over to pour. "Can't wait to see what you teach me next."
"Didn't know I needed to teach you anything else." She ran her hand down his forearm. "You're already quite skilled where it counts."
He puffed his chest out. "I'm very proud that you're pleased with my performance, Ma'am."
"Well, I figure I need to be free-flowing with the accolades, since no one else is going to be giving you praise in that particular area." She narrowed her eyes in question. "No one else but me is reaping the benefits of your skill, right?"
"Not for months and months, Captain Thrace." He smirked.
"Good." She warned playfully as she downed her drink. "I don't like to share." She winked as she stood from her chair. "Finish your drink and let's get outta here."
He froze and gestured for her to sit back down. "Wait, not yet. I wanna talk to you."
"We can talk in the storage room." She purred at him as she grabbed hold of his arm.
"But we don't talk in the storage room, at least not in articulate words anyway." He eased free of her grasp and gently pushed her back down to her chair. "And this is too important to talk about in the bunk room with all the other pilots pretending to be asleep and listening to our conversation."
"Okay." She uttered in slight fear.
"Okay, here goes…………" He began hesitantly. "We've been together for a few months now and it's really good. Very good, in fact, and I'd like to ensure that it continue." He breathed deep. "And everybody knows about us now, so I think we should get married."
Her eyes widened in shock and she bit her lip to keep from smiling. Her mind screamed 'Say YES, say yes RIGHT NOW', but she also felt like playing with him a little. She wanted him to beg. Childish, yes, but she loved seeing the Great Apollo ask her for things that only she could give him. And she wanted him to tell her exactly how much he wanted it from her. "Why do we have to do that?" She asked in feigned innocence. "I'm not planning on stopping this anytime soon." She reached over and took his hand, entwining their fingers.
"No, I know. Me neither." He answered seriously as he squeezed her hand. "It's just I wanna make this official, concrete……….. impenetrable, so to speak." He took his other hand and placed it lightly on her shoulder. "I love you, this is good." He shrugged and then chuckled slightly. "I can't believe I wasted so much time. I mean why did I bother with fancy steaks when what I really wanted was a turkey sandwich?"
Time sort of stopped for a minute as she tried to register what he had just said. Those were definitely not the words that she wanted him to say. When what he said finally became coherent in her mind, she quickly removed her hand from his, letting it drop to the table with a thud. "I'm sorry, maybe my brain didn't process those words right, but what did you just say?"
He looked around the room in puzzlement. "I think I just asked you to marry me."
She pulled away from him completely and leaned back in her chair. "Is that what you just did? Because I don't remember hearing the words 'Kara, will you marry me?' come out of your mouth. Instead you tried to be quippy and cute, which I usually appreciate, but was probably not the best road to go down in this instance." She paused for a moment. "And who exactly is the turkey sandwich in this little scenario?"
He looked at her cautiously. "You are." He answered honestly.
"I am. I'm the turkey sandwich. I'm the turkey sandwich." She snorted ruefully. "Boy, you really do know how to sweep someone off their feet, don't you Adama?"
"Why are you getting so upset, Kara?" He questioned in fearful worry. "I can see the vein popping outta your forehead."
"Well, let's see, why would I be upset?" She asked herself. "Maybe because I just got compared to a five-star meal, and instead was deemed a cold piece of processed meat in between two slices of one-cubit bread."
Lee quickly held up his hands. "But Kara, I'm trying to tell you that I'm fine with that. I like turkey sandwiches."
She gasped as her mouth hung open in angry disbelief and she felt the blood in her veins boil. "So you're willing to settle?" She hissed. "Or have you already settled due to lack of better food stores? Zak thought I was a steak. He didn't use any sarcastic food metaphors when he asked me to marry him. But I guess sleeping with your brother's girl is different than marrying her. And when he finally stoops to ask me to marry him, the Great Apollo has to let me know how far his standards have really fallen." She stood up quickly.
He sat there numbly, trying to figure out what the hell was going on here. "What the hell is going on here?" He whispered before looking up at her. "And I don't really think it's appropriate for you to compare the way Zak asked you to the way I did." He said bluntly.
"Well, then it's fitting to the situation. I didn't think we were doing appropriate comparisons." She shouted. "Do you really think any part of your proposal was appropriate?"
"I'm sorry. I just didn't think you'd respond like this." He answered truthfully.
"Why?" She seethed. "Because you didn't think I would be emotional, or sensitive, or easily offended…………. like a girl would be? Well, news flash, Apollo: I AM A GIRL!" She started to pound her finger against the table repeatedly. "And you should know that by now, you've seen me naked often enough." She grabbed the bottle and took a long gulp before loudly setting back down. "And another thing you should know by now: I realize I walk around here like I'm the greatest, most confident person left in the world, but I'm not. It's a mask." She sucked in a deep breath to try and stop the tears from falling. "And the reason you should know that……………..is cause you're the only person I ever take it off for."
"Kara—." He began, trying to calm her.
"I'm taking the bottle. I need it more than you do." She grabbedit and started to walk away.
"Will you just wait?" He called after her as he stayed frozen in his seat, watching her go.
"No." She responded simply as she turned back to look at him, standing in the open hatchway. "And I hope you can eventually find a steak, because the turkey sandwich is off the menu."
Lee laid in his bunk later that night, breathing deeply in an attempt not to scream. What the hell had just happened? He pulled back his curtain and looked at her rack. Still empty. Not coming back tonight. Still mad at me. Why is she mad? He didn't think most girls got mad when the men they loved proposed marriage. Maybe she doesn't love me. No, that wasn't true. She loved him, she had said it. They had both said it. And they didn't say things that they didn't mean, not to each other.
And he had meant it when he said that he wanted to marry her.
Except, did I actually say that? He thought for a minute, thought long and hard.Forthe last two hours, the only words that had been running through his head were her irrational ones. But what exactly had he said?
Really good………..ensure that it continue………….think we should get married………..
His heart leapt thinking about the way she had bit her lip to keep from smiling at those words.
Wanna make it official………………I love you, this is good………….wasted so much time.
Not exactly poeticism incarnate, but still. He didn't get down on one knee and quote love sonnets for a reason: She didn't like any of that stuff. And he knew that about her, because he knew her.
He knew that she didn't feel worthy. And gods, the idea that she didn't see that she was made his heart break.
He thought that he was showing her that she was the greatest thing ever. EVER. And that he loved the idea of being with her. ALWAYS.
He turned to face the wall and sighed. So what exactly was the problem?
He turned onto his back again and clenched his eyes shut, her last words to him echoing in his head.
Then he shot up like a bullet in the air. Wait, what did I frakking say about a turkey sandwich?
He buried his face in his hands. "Oh gods. I'm an idiot."
"He said what?" Helo asked in disbelief as they stood in the mess.
"He said I was a turkey sandwich." Kara answered simply, regretfully.
"Man, that's harsh." Helo whistled. "How did he say it?"
"He said it when he was asking me to marry him." She sighed.
"Okay, so why did he say it?
"I don't know." She shrugged.
"Gods, he's an idiot." Helo said as he patted her on the shoulder and walked away.
"Yeah, I know."
"You said what?" Chief Tyrol asked in disbelief as they stood going over a pre-flight checklist.
"I said she was a turkey sandwich." Lee answered simply, regretfully.
"Man, that's harsh." Tyrol whistled. "How did you say it?"
"I said it when I was asking her to marry me." He sighed.
"Okay, so why did you say it?"
"I don't know." He shrugged.
"Gods, you're an idiot." Tyrol said as he patted him on the shoulder and walked away.
"Yeah, I know."
Lee walked down the corridor and stood outside the briefing room. He knew that her training session was over. But he also knew that she would still be inside, going over a few things before she left. He lifted his hand to open the hatch, but it swung open on its own and he found himself face to face with his father. "Dad?"
"Hello, Son." The Admiral responded.
"Is she in there?" Lee pointed through the hatch to inside the room.
"Yes." Adama answered. "But are you sure you want to go in there?"
Lee sighed in exasperation. "So she told you what happened?"
His father's face cracked in a miniscule smile. "No. But word gets around on my ship, and I'm usually the first one to hear it." He took off his glasses. "I came to see how she was."
"And how is she?"
"Remarkably tight-lipped, which worries me."
"Any advice?"
"I don't think I should be the one to give you advice. I'm a little upset with you right now for being an idiot." Adama grumbled. "So I'll just tell you what the President said when she heard about it."
"The President knows?" Lee choked out.
"We had a bad morning, we needed a good laugh."
"And you can laugh about this?" Lee rasped in slight anger.
"We know you'll fix it eventually." He chuckled. "But it might be rough for you for a little while, and we can't help but find that amusing."
"So." Lee exhaled. "What was it that the President said?"
"She said: 'Admiral Adama, your son is a very tactful young man……………most of the time.'"
"And what else did she say?" Lee inquired.
The Admiral put his glasses back on. "Oh, that was it." He patted Lee on the arm and then walked away.
Lee walked into the room cautiously. She ignored him as he came to the front of it, looking at her where she stood at the podium. "We need to have a word."
"We've already had words." She said sarcastically, still not looking at him. "They were just the wrong words."
"Where did you sleep last night?" He whispered.
"With Baltar." She grinned as she finally looked up.
His face remained expressionless. "That's not funny."
"I slept in an empty bunk in the enlisted quarters." She answered and left the podium to head towards the door.
"I didn't mean to upset you by saying what I said." He said to her as she walked away from him. "I just didn't think I had to choose my words so carefully with you. I thought I could just say what I felt."
She spun back around and narrowed her eyes at him. "See, you think that you're making it better, but you're really just digging yourself a deeper hole." She let out a long breath. "It was bad enough when I thought that you had said those words because you just weren't thinking. But now I find out that you actually believe that I'm a turkey sandwich."
"This is kind of a pinnacle conversation in the course of our relationship." He sighed in irritation."Can we please dispense with the whole 'turkey sandwich' metaphor?"
"No!" She shouted. "I don't think we can. I'm gonna remember the way you asked me to marry you for the rest of my life. And it would be nice if I knew what you meant by saying that I was a turkey sandwich!"
"I meant that I like turkey sandwiches!" He shouted back at her. "I like to eat turkey sandwiches!"
"Okay." She rubbed her eyes in frustration. "It's now a big fear of mine that this 'pinnacle conversation' is going to be peppered with sexual innuendo as well as dumb-ass food metaphors."
"That's not what I meant, and you know it." He yelled, before getting quiet again. "I like turkey sandwiches; I've had a lot of them." He grimaced as he realized that that could be taken wrong as well. "And I don't mean that I've had a lot of other women like you, because there are no other women like you. And I wasn't talking about metaphorical turkey sandwiches anyways; I was talking about actual turkey sandwiches. I eat a lot of them because I like them."
"Why do you like them?" She questioned harshly.
"Because they're good! Everybody likes a turkey sandwich, just not everybody really appreciates them... but I do. To some people, they're just something that you grab when you can't get anything better. 'Grab a turkey sandwich and go. Just grab a turkey sandwich so that you won't be too full when you eat steak later for dinner.'" He stopped so that he could take a breath. "But I like turkey sandwiches. I don't like steak. Steak is hard to digest sometimes, it's expensive, and you have to make plans ahead of time to eat it; make reservations. You have to wear a suit and tie, sit in a pretentious restaurant."
"Lee…….."
"But you don't have to be anything other than what you are when you have a turkey sandwich." He looked at her, his eyes pleading and full of admiration. "You can just sit at your kitchen table in the middle of the day, wearing your sweats."
"Lee, you can—." She tried to stop him.
"My mother used to make me turkey sandwiches. I used to come home from college, or come home on leave, just to have a turkey sandwich. I'd sit there in our kitchen and feel safe, comfortable, and loved. And there was nowhere else in the world I wanted to be." He choked up for a second. "But it's not there anymore, Kara. And I've been looking for something that made me feel that way again………..and it's you. And everybody tries to tell you that you should want steak, but I don't want steak, Kara! I want to go home and eat a turkey sandwich!" He closed his eyes and whispered. "I that's why I said what I said………..because you feel like home."
Her face remained blank for a minute before she bit her lip to keep from smiling. "Why the hell couldn't you have said that before?"
"Because apparently, I'm an idiot." He shrugged apologetically.
"Don't say that, Lee." She walked up to stand in front of him.
"It's the truth." He responded simply.
She finally smiled. "Yeah, it is." She smoothed the fabric of his jacket. "But I don't like it when people say those things about the man I'm gonna marry."
His eyes got wide in shock. "You still wanna marry me?"
She rolled her eyes. "I always did…………even last night. But I thought that you had said the wrong words." She replied.. "I was waiting for you to say the right words." She leaned in and kissed him softly. "And those were the right words."
"Yeah?" He smiled his 'you-know-you-couldn't-resist-me' smile as he wrapped his arms around her waist.
"Uh-huh." She chuckled. "I think it was the best-ever declaration of love where the words 'turkey sandwich' were said twelve times."
-finis