Kara realized the cards that had been dealt to her were complete shit as someone started reflecting on this being their farewell triad game. It was a thought she hadn't begun to let herself comprehend. There were too many other things to think about right now.

"How about you, Starbuck?"

She looked up to realize that Joker was talking to her. "What?"

"Oh no!" Dee exclaimed, folding her cards down with a dramatic flourish. "When Starbuck zones out, it means she has an awesome hand."

"Ha ha. Very funny," Kara hissed.

Dee picked her cards back up, obviously pleased with her little joke. "Joker was just asking you if you knew where you were going after Galactica's decommissioned."

Kara threw ten cubits into the pot as she thought over that question. After a moment, she shrugged and asked, "Has anyone heard anything about Pegasus?"

Jackson Spencer shook his head. "You don't want to go there, Thrace."

Kara was surprised at the words of her CAG. He wasn't supposed to influence their opinions on their new placements. It was written in a rulebook or something. "What do you mean?"

"I've heard a few things about the Pegasus. Admiral Cain runs a tight ship."

"Shouldn't that be a good thing?" Joker asked.

"Not the way I hear it," Karma interjected. "There's this rumor that Pegasus had regressed back to the ancient times when the Lords of Kobol first settled the Twelve Colonies."

"What do you mean regressed?" Kara asked.

"You know, stealing, brawling, raping, all the fun stuff."

"That's gross," Dee exclaimed, "and obviously completely wrong. Right, Ripper?"

Kara didn't understand what she had just learned until she realized Spencer wasn't correcting Karma. "Sir?"

"Why is this so important to you, Lieutenant?"

"I just want to know what I might be getting into," she lied. It wouldn't be good to say she was simply concerned for probably the only friend she had besides Helo. It might hurt her tough girl image.

"Pegasus will toughen you up, Thrace. Every pilot to emerge from that assignment comes out better for it." Spencer paused before adding, "The only thing is a lot of pilots don't come out of the assignment. Pegasus has a high desertion rate."

"So let's say a perfectly nice pilot ends up on that ship? They're pretty good at flying and for some crazy reason, they're on their way to making CAG. You think being on Pegasus would kill that chance?"

Spencer shook his head. "I don't know why you're asking that, Starbuck, considering you've expressed a desire to never be made CAG, but no, it shouldn't kill someone's ambition."

"It will just change them," Karma interjected. "I had a friend who got posted there once. The guy was probably the nicest person you'd ever meet in a Fleet of frak-ups like us. When he got off Pegasus, though, he was different. He was a real bastard, worse than Colonel Tigh."

"Watch it," Spencer warned.

"Sorry, sir, but it's the truth. Stunner was the top of our class for students from Leonis. He had this knack for out of the box thinking. I guess that's what got him posted to Pegasus." Karma shook his head. "You know where he is now? The General Prison on Picon! He was arrested for beating the shit out of some ex-Colonel in a bar on Picon. There was some disagreement about a flight maneuver and its effectiveness. Stunner beat the guy to death because he wouldn't admit he was wrong. They say there was…"

Kara tuned Karma out the second his intended message hit home. She threw her cards into the pile in front of her and stood up. "You bastards are lucky I have somewhere to be because I was about to wipe the deck with your collective asses."

As odd as it was to see Starbuck leave a triad table in the middle of a hand, they ignored the impulse to say something. She obviously had something on her mind that she didn't want them to know about.

Kara cornered the first CIC officer she could find and demanded to know if the military officer in charge of the reassignments was still on board. She was told he was in the conference room on C Deck, and she took off in a dead sprint. She didn't have much time.

Three minutes later, she was pushing the hatchway door to the conference room open as she tried to regain her breath. "I'm sorry for bursting in, sir, but I had to talk to you about-" Her voice cut off as she recognized the man seated at the table in front of her.

"Lieutenant Thrace. I was wondering when I'd run into you."

Kara did her best to prepare herself for a situation that had just gotten ten times as worse as it was two seconds earlier. "Major Lake, I didn't realize you were the one in charge of reassignments."

"I requested the job, actually. I heard Galactica was being decommissioned and figured they could use my military experience to get the pilots put in the right spots."

Kara fought the urge to wipe that self-indulgent smirk off his face. They both knew he was lying. He had come on this ship for the pure reason that he might get the opportunity to torture her. Ever since she had too much ambrosia that night nine years earlier and made one stupid mistake, he had been waiting to get his revenge. It was a wonder how such a simple morning-after rejection from her could upset him so much. "Listen, Lake. I need you to do me a favor. I know for a fact that I've been placed on Atlantia and because of that Captain Lee Adama has been transferred to Pegasus. This is completely unacceptable."

"What do you want me to do about it?" he asked, confidently leaning back in his chair. He had her, and they both knew it.

"I want you to switch my assignment to Pegasus so he can stay on board Atlantia."

"No can do, Kara. Your Captain is supposed to be training to be deputy CAG because of this little reassignment. Pegasus is the only ship with that position open."

"He won't mind if he has to wait a few months to be made deputy CAG."

"People will notice if a reassignment is suddenly taken away without any sort of explanation."

"You're smart, Lake. Make something up." Kara felt her skin crawl as Lake's eyes roamed her body. The memories of what she let him do to her that night still made her nauseous.

"You're willing to do a lot for this Lee…" He paused to look down at his papers. "…Adama? Any relation to your Commander?"

"He's his son."

"But not the one you were supposed to marry?" Lake inquired. He was rewarded with a glare. "This sounds scandalous. I mean, a woman willing to give up an assignment she had to fight her ass off to secure for her dead lover's brother? That's the kind of thing you want to stay hidden."

"What do you want from me, Lake?"

He let out a deep sigh before sitting forward in his chair to leer at her. "I've been dreaming about this day for forever, Lieutenant. I want your wings."

"Excuse me?" she cried.

"The only way Lee Adama can have your slot on Atlantia is if you quit the military. No. Scratch that. I want you kicked out of the military."

"I've been calling you a crazy bastard for years, but I never realized it was true. You are fraking insane."

"This is your only option and you know it. You have this insane guilt over something you did, and you are desperately trying to fix it. You've always been incredibly transparent, Kara. I know you need this favor, but I'm just curious how bad you really want it."

Kara was about to tell him where exactly he could shove his curiosity when words spoken long ago echoed through the back of her mind. William Adama had accused her of ruining his youngest son's life once. She had been standing on Zak's grave, and the Old Man had called himself foolish for believing she wanted what was best for Zak. His final words to her still made her heart ache.

"If you had just let him go, he would still be alive."

She had no choice. She wasn't going to be the reason for which the life of William Adama's other son got ruined. Kara knew that she wouldn't be able to handle that. "What are you proposing?" she asked, quietly slumping into the chair in front of her.

Lake shuffled through some papers before coming up with what he wanted. "I can't guarantee I can get Captain Adama's spot on Atlantia back, but I can make room for him on a Battlestar other than Pegasus. Meanwhile, you'll be transferred to Columbia. I have friends there who I trust. Essentially, you're going to put the lives of your fellow pilots in danger one too many times. In actuality, you're not going to be stepping one inch off the Battlestar. There'll be an official hearing in which you'll admit…"

Lake's voice faded out as Kara felt her last little bit of hope that someday she would be happy fall away.

Kara and Lee walked hand in hand with Tyler as he led them back to his mother's Raptor. The kid was a never-ending bundle of energy, Kara decided. He had been talking non-stop about his upcoming ride in a Mark VIII. She knew that it should seem annoying, but for some reason, she couldn't shake the fact that it only seemed cute to her.

What Racetrack had been able to do absolutely amazed Kara. Raising a young child on your own was so hard that she couldn't even begin to comprehend it. After some poking and prodding by Kara, Racetrack did admit to having some support in all this, at least for the past year or so. She had been seeing a philosopher who lived on Geminon. From what Meg had told her, this Leoben guy seemed to make her happy. He was exactly what she needed at this particular moment in time.

Kara laughingly pretended to be a concerned aunt and asked if this relationship was serious. Racetrack admitted that Leoben had been dropping hints that he wanted it to be. She blushed as she admitted they had even talked about giving Tyler a little brother or sister one day.

Kara gave Lee's hand a squeeze as they continued down the corridor and was rewarded with a smile that made her heart sing. It would be nice to give Tyler a few cousins to play with, too.

Tyler paused at the hangar bay doors, causing Kara to pull herself away from her thoughts. "Mommy doesn't let me go into the danger area."

"Your mommy's a smart woman," Lee said, kneeling down. "I guess this is where we part then, little man."

"Will you come back?" Tyler asked as he gave his uncle a quick hug. He quickly shifted to hug Kara's leg. It seemed he had finally decided she was un-girly enough to meet his standards.

"We'll be back as soon as we can, kid," Lee promised, "and I'll definitely see you sometime after your birthday. Maybe I can even convince your mommy to let you stay with me over night."

Kara waited until Tyler was well out of sight before she pulled Lee up into a rather heated kiss. She could feel his surprise melt away into desire, and she knew they were giving the whole hangar bay a show. She didn't care.

"What was that for?" Lee panted after he finally pulled himself away to breathe.

"It turns out seeing you with children is a big turn on for me," she said casually. When Lee lifted his eyebrows in a sort of questioning surprise, she smiled. "Eventually, Lee, yeah," she said, echoing his earlier words.

They walked hand in hand towards the Raptor, and Kara let out a long sigh. "Your father is going to love that little boy."

Something flashed across Lee's face, but he quickly tucked it away. "Maybe Tyler will help soften the blow. I think we can use all the help we can get."

Lee had been hinting at just how difficult their last stop was going to be, but he knew that Kara really had no idea. Since Zak's funeral, there had been some bad blood between Lee and his father. Lee couldn't stop imagining what William Adama had said to Kara to make her run crying from Zak's grave. Add that to the fact that his father had been deemed too old for reassignment and was currently working a desk job at the Military Air Headquarters on Picon, and Lee knew they were in trouble.

It wouldn't be the first time.