Lee knelt on the floor with the gun pressed to the back of his head, strangely he wasn't scared, he had given in to his fate, at least it was better than living life without her. He knew it was Kara who was behind him, she was the first one to run after him on the hanger deck and he knew she could keep up with him. After a while he began to worry, Kara was taking her time, normally she would have shot him by now, but something was stopping her. Maybe she had recognized him, but how could she, he was sure she hadn't seen his face and even if she had would she really have recognized him, after all no one else had, but no one else knew him like Kara did. He heard her take a deep breath and felt the gun begin to shake in her hands.

Then he heard her whisper, "I'm sorry" and knew she didn't want to do this.

He needed to find a way to tell her that it was ok, that he didn't mind that she was going to shoot him, that it wasn't her fault, that he understood, "I forgive you" he whispered back. It sounded cheesy and didn't really sum up everything he had to say to her but it was all he could think of.

Those words set off alarm bells in Kara's mind, she had heard that voice somewhere before. She slowly walked around the crumpled man on the floor, she had to see his face before she killed him, had to know who he was. She pointed the gun to his forehead and looked down at his face, it was covered in cuts and bruises, "no wonder no one can recognize him" Kara thought to herself. She tightened her finger on the trigger, but just as she was about to shoot he looked up at her, staring back at her were the bluest eyes she had ever seen. She had seen them before though, those were the same blue eyes that had been haunting her dreams for the past few weeks, ever since he had disappeared.

"Lee?" she said fighting back the tears.

"Hey" Lee breathed, struggling to talk at all.

"Stand Down!" Kara ordered the others as she knelt down in front of Lee

She took his face in her hands and wiped away some of the blood trickling down from his cut lip.

"Why did you run away?" she asked tears dripping down her face.

He reached up and wiped them away, "I don't know, I didn't know what else to do"

Kara just smiled comfortingly, "Come on, your Dad will want to know your ok...well alive at least."

She helped him up and wrapped her arm around his waist when she saw him waver. He put his arm around her shoulder, finally he felt safe and so the exhaustion had caught up with him.

"You've been holding out on me, I thought you couldn't take my body weight" he teased.

"Well you've lost weight, must be the lack of military food" she teased back.

They both loved this, the normality of their teasing as if the last few weeks hadn't happened at all. When they reached the other members of her team another pilot stepped forward and held Lee up from the other side, they half dragged him, half carried him back to the Raptor and took off. As soon as they had taken off Kara was back at Lee's side in the back of the Raptor, she could tell he was exhausted, you could still see the dark rings under his eyes even under all the cuts, bruising and dirt. She sat down next to him, wrapping her arm around his shoulders and pulling him close, she need to have him close to her to make sure that he was really there, that this wasn't just a dream. He laid his head on her shoulder and sighed, feeling the stress drain out of him. She smiled slightly as she felt him relax.

"I'm sorry Lee" she whispered.

"That's ok" he yawned before she felt his whole body relax and he fell asleep.

When they docked on the Galactica, Lee was gently lifted onto a gurney, they tried not to wake him as they did it as he really did look like he needed the sleep. Kara stood up after they had moved him and began to follow the gurney out of the Raptor and off the hanger deck to sick bay. However she was stopped by and angry Dee, who jumped in front of her as soon as she stepped off the ramp from the Raptor.

"Now look what you've done! How can you say you love him after you caused all of this!" Dee screamed, making some of the techs back away, they didn't want to be in the middle of any fights especially if it was between Dee and Kara.

"What the frak is that supposed to mean!" Kara screamed back.

"You know what I mean, if you hadn't have gotten drunk and slept with another man then this wouldn't have happened!"

"I didn't sleep with him!"
"Oh yeah then how did you end up naked in the same bed!"

"I don't know but I didn't frak him!"

"Whatever you keep believing that if you want, but no one else does!"

"a...a..actually I saw her fall asleep as soon as she got in the bunk room" one of the nuggets stammered.

"See, I was asleep. Am I fraking people in my sleep now!"

"I wouldn't put anything past you! Anyway whether you fraked the guy or not your the reason Lee disappeared so it your fault!"

"Don't you think I feel guilty enough about this as it is!"

"No I don't" Dee screamed as her fist connected with Kara's jaw.

Kara retaliated by pushing Dee to the floor, and they began to fight each other. Helo grabbed Kara and pulled her off Dee while another pilot grabbed Dee to stop her from getting at Kara.

"Will you two just quit it!" he shouted, turning around so that Kara couldn't see Dee, "Get her out of here!" he ordered the other pilot, who didn't need to be told twice and quickly pushed Dee away and off down the corridor.

When she was gone Helo turned to Kara, "What the frak did you think you were doing?"

"I'm sorry...it just got out of hand, I didn't mean to, I just can't think straight"

Helo sighed, "I know, come on I'll come with you to sick bay, that way I can stop you attacking more people"

Kara smiled gratefully at him and they walked off down the corridor together. Luckily they didn't see Dee or Anders on the way and they got to sick bay without any more fights.

They walked in just as the Docs were finishing up with Lee, and Kara ran over too him grateful that he was going to be ok.

"Hey" he said as she reached the end of his bed.

Kara smiled at him, he didn't look half as bad as he did when she had found him, now that the dirt had been cleaned off his face.

Her chin quivered as he smiled lovingly at her, "I'm sorry Lee, I didn't frak him honest I didn't. I was asleep I fell asleep you have to believe me you have to forgive me..." She blurted tears streaming down her face.

Helo walked up to the end of the bed "It's true sir, one of the nuggets saw her fall asleep as soon as she got in the bunk room" he added helpfully.

Lee nodded his thanks to Helo, and Helo then left them in peace. The Lee turned to Kara again and brushed her tears away with his hand, "It's ok Kara, I meant what I said, I forgive you"

Kara looked up at him and smiled at the trust in his words, he smiled back at her but she could still see sadness in his eyes. He was hiding something from her and this made her feel uneasy.