The next few days were hard for Kara and Lee. Lee couldn't fly again and it was beginning to get to him, as well as the fact that he couldn't move without grimacing or wincing in pain. While Kara was getting increasingly worried about him, she knew there was something playing on his mind but he wouldn't talk about it. After watching Lee stare out at the vipers in the air for the hundredth time Adama sent Lee with Kara and a few of the other pilots to check up on one of the civilian ships. It was only when they docked that they realized that this was the same ship that Lee had been found on. They stepped out onto the hanger deck to find one of the military officers stationed on the ship shouting at a man, in a long disheveled coat. All of a sudden Lee blew up, running at the officer and screaming in his face.

"What the frak do you think your doing screaming at this man!" he shouted.

"He won't tell me what is under his coat sir it could be a security risk." the officer said quietly.

"Do you think that a guy like this could ever get his hands on something that could in anyway be dangerous!" Lee screamed back.

"Well there is the black market sir"

"Which I am keeping a close eye on, I don't think he would get anything from there."

Kara realized that this was obviously something that he felt strong about and decided to step in before anything happened.

"You don't just start shouting at people without knowing anything about their situation and being sure about what you are accusing them of." she said calmly stepping in between Lee and the officer.

Realizing that this meant his conversation with the officer was over, so he turned to the man and began to whisper to him. After a while he turned back to Kara and the others.

"He's coming with us, come on I think we should go now" he said matter of factly.

Kara just nodded and followed him back to the Raptor.

When the door was closed Lee knelt down in front of the man and began to talk to the man's coat, earning some strange looks from everyone in the Raptor. Kara however knew there was something that they didn't know, so she knelt down next to Lee and took the corner of the coat. Lee looked at her and smiled, he nodded and so she gently lifted the side of the coat. Lee held out his hand and everyone gasped as a small shaking hand reached out and took his. A little girl walked out from beneath the coat, with red eyes and tears still streaming down her face.

Lee smiled comfortingly, "Your alright now, your safe" he whispered.

For the rest of the flight the girl sat with Lee and Kara, as they whispered to her and tried to comfort her. They landed a few minutes later and they took the girl to the sick bay to be checked over, the Doc decided that she should be kept in for a while so Lee and Kara left to get some sleep. Kara grabbed her stuff from the bunk room and headed off for the head, while Lee laid down on his rack, by the time Kara got back Lee was fast asleep. It wasn't a peaceful sleep though and Kara noticed Lee's head twitching from side to side. She sat down next to him and tried to wake him up.

"Lee, come on wake up, it's a dream it's not real." she whispered, getting more and more anxious by the minute. Lee had had nightmares before, but they had died down a couple of months ago, he hadn't been this bad for ages. Kara shook him by the shoulder ans suddenly his eyes snapped open.

"It's alright ,it was just a dream, it wasn't real" she whispered soothingly.

Lee looked at her, tears in his eyes, "but it was real" he cried.

Kara sighed as she pulled her legs up onto the bed, closing the curtain behind her.

"Lee what's going on?"

Lee shook his head, tears escaping his eyes and trailing paths down his face.

"Come on Lee, it's obviously bothering you. You can tell me anything you know you can"

"It's long and complicated" he finally whispered.

"Well I've got time"

"You know while I was on the civilian ship... I saw what really goes on behind our backs. People are getting annoyed with each other, what with living in such close quarters."

"What has this..."Kara interrupted, but seeing the look on Lee's face she sighed waited for him to continue.

"Well, apparently the most annoying thing that people find is the kids. The way they cry or play or make noise all the time, it annoys people, and when people get annoyed the get angry and when they get angry the get violent." Lee looked at her with pleading eyes.

"They hit them" she whispered in shocked surprise.

Lee nodded, his chin quivering, "I hated it, couldn't bare to see them do it, so I started getting in the way. They didn't seem to care who they hit as long as they could hit something." he looked down unable to look at the shock etched on Kara's face, "That's when I met Jacob... he's the guy we brought back today. We set up a sort of team, who would look after kids and get in they way if we saw anyone trying to hurt them... we even smuggled them off to other ships to live with other people that we trusted."

"So that's how you got all those bruises," Kara said mostly to herself than to him.

Lee just nodded and then settled back as if he was going to finish.

"Lee I know thats not the only thing that's eating you. What happened? What really got to you?"

Lee looked at her pleading with her to stop, that was a place he didn't want to go, but she was determined. She was also probably right, it would probably feel better to tell someone else about it, and who else to tell but Kara.

He sucked in a breath and fought back the tears as he continued his story, "one time, there was a group of them that started on this kid... Like normal I went and got in the way hoping that they would get all of their anger out on me... but I couldn't handle it, they just kept on coming and eventually I couldn't stand it anymore... someone hit me from behind and I fell on the floor, they gave up on me and started on the kid again... I tried to get up to stop them but one of them held me down... I couldn't move... they killed him" Kara could hardly hear his last words through his tears, but she knew what had happened.

She wrapped her arms around him and held him as he cried onto her shoulder. When he stopped shaking she just held him, stroking his back soothingly, that's when she noticed the scars on his back. She hadn't seen him in juts his tanks since he had got back, he had been wearing long sleeved tops ever since to try and hide the bruises and scars, so she hadn't noticed these before. She stroked them with her finger, she had seen scars like this before, it was when she had been under the strictest commander in the fleet, who as a punishment had given people lashes for the worst crimes.

"Lee why did they whip you?" she asked concerned.

Lee just looked away from her, as if she had burnt him.

"It was because you stood up to them wasn't it?"

Lee just nodded back.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"because it doesn't matter"

Kara cupped his cheek in her hand and lifted his head so he was looking at her, "but it does matter... to me"

Lee smiled at her before yawning, rubbing his hands over his face.

"Lee you should get some sleep"

Lee just shook his head, "I can't, every time I try all I can see is his face."

"It's alright Ill be here, if you start having a nightmare I'll wake you up."

She helped him lay down and held him as he slept, soon both of them were sleeping peacefully.