Miniseries period, A/U, Lee-centric fic.

- God, Interrupted

Despite his apathetic reaction to the news that he'd be flying his father's old Mark II during the decommissioning ceremony, he found that he actually enjoyed flying it and hung back after the others had landed so he could put the old bird through its paces. It flew pretty well for a museum exhibit.

He was just thinking that the Galactica's deck crew must think a lot of their Commander to have put this wreck back in flying condition when an alarm went off on his console.

"Galactica, Apollo. I've got eight contacts on dradis bearing 2-1-5 mark 4-8. It's saying they're Cylon. Can you confirm?"

Dee's voice came over his com. "Apollo, Galactica. That's affirmative. Contacts are Cylon. We are at war. Repeat, we are at war. Alert fighters have been launched. ETA six minutes. Hang in there, sir."

War? He choked down the panic. This is what he trained for. "Copy that Galactica."

He punched the controls of the viper, speeding head on into the formation of raiders. He was able to take two out immediately, then had to pull up in a sharp vertical maneuver to escape colliding head on with a third.

The raiders opened ranks and one of them immediately followed his ship, the rest headed off to attack the fleet. He dove, darted and weaved in an attempt to lose it but the bastard matched him maneuver for maneuver.

"Galactica, Apollo. Two raiders are destroyed, one has a lock on me and five are heading your way."

Suddenly his plane shook.

-----------------

Dee repeated Apollo's final communication to the Commander. "Sir, Apollo's been hit. He reports that his viper has sustained heavy damage. He's unable to make it back to Galactica and he's attempting to land on Caprica."

Commander Adama watched as more Cylon ships appeared on dradis. As much as he hated to admit it, if Lee was crash-landing on Caprica, he was as good as dead. There were more lives at stake if they stayed and attempted a rescue. He had to make the hard decision. "Call the alert vipers back and begin jump prep." He said, regrettably.

-----------------

Lee couldn't breathe. His hands clawed at his throat trying to remove whatever was crushing it but only found metal. His collar. His hands moved up higher and touched the hard plastic of his helmet. He had run out of oxygen and was suffocating in his flight suit. He fumbled behind him, unlatched his helmet, ripped it off and inhaled deeply. He immediately began choking as acrid smoke filled his lungs and he realized the cockpit was full of it. He threw the canopy forward and scrambled out of the viper.

He collapsed as soon as his feet hit the ground, the pain in his right leg was excruciating. He limped, then crawled a safe distance away from the burning plane and propped himself up against a tree. His lower leg was badly broken. He could see the bone sticking through a tear in his flight suit, and he had a good sized gash on his left arm that was bleeding pretty heavily.

He unbuckled the top of his flight suit and removed it gingerly, letting it hang at his waist. He removed the med kit from his utility belt and treated and bandaged his wounds as best he could. That done, he attempted to stand but a wave of dizziness overtook him and he sat down hard, re-awakening the pain in his leg. He leaned back against the tree, closed his eyes and waited for the pain to pass.

"Are you real?"

His eyes snapped open. A beautiful blonde woman was crouched in front of him. He reached for his sidearm, but she put his hand on his.

"Are you alive?" She asked again, but she didn't let him answer. She leaned forward and kissed him.