Ch 20
The discovery of the Tomb of Athena sent a jolt of fire through the group and they all felt a renewed sense of purpose. Lee saw the justification and utter thankfulness wash over Laura's face as they opened the door. He couldn't help feeling glad that she was in fact right about it all.
The electricity that had poured through them on Kobol, stayed with them all the way back to the fleet and Lee was relieved when the Old Man reinstated Laura as President. Soon everyone had caught the spark and a new life breathed through every dark corner of every ship. People all over the fleet had a new sense of faith that Lee found invigorating.
He also saw the change affect Kara but there was something else lying just under the surface of her. He asked her about it several times and he got replies that told him nothing. Later on he found out that she had found survivors on Caprica and Helo told him that apparently she'd become rather close with one of them. Lee wasn't sure if that was the root of her sadness but it seemed like a good place to start digging. He managed to turn conversations to that direction several times but she was short with him and ended the talks immediately. He finally dropped the whole thing, knowing that when she was ready to talk about it all she'd come to him.
Soon there was another slow fire burning through the Galactica, this time in the form of the ship Chief Tyrol was building. How he'd come up with the crazy idea for it no one knew but the sense of purpose it gave to the crew was amazing. Lee thought the idea was doomed to fail at the start of it but slowly, as more and more people lent their hands to the project he came around. What clinched it was when he was walking through the flight deck one morning, he looked up to see hid father standing there, watching the activity. The look on the Old Man's face said it all, he believed. After that Lee found more and more excuses to detour to where the ship was and every time he saw his dad watching the efforts he felt more sure of the success of it.
When Kara volunteered to test fly the ship Lee thought it was crazy but he knew, if anyone could make the bird sing it was Kara Thrace. Then he found out that Colonel Tigh was the one that had traded for the engines and that was the utter end of doubt for everyone involved. Then the logic bomb hit.
They'd known they had a problem when systems started malfunctioning. When the oxygen had been pumped out of the firing range while Lee, Kara and Costanza were in it, they'd realized there was something seriously wrong and they raced to try to fix it. Then the Cylons arrived and the situation came to a head. Lee and the rest of the pilots raced to meet the Cylons and they were shocked at the numbers of them. If something didn't happen fast, the whole fleet would be lost.
Then Cylon Sharon did whatever she did and Lee gaped in awe as the Cylons began to fall apart, floating in every direction as if they had absolutely no control. When the order came down to destroy them Lee's heart leapt to his throat. Finally he had a chance to pay them back for all of the pain he'd endured. His guns ripped through the Cylon raiders and he imagined that each bullet carried a name. One for his mother, one for her fiancée, one for his neighbor, one for his CO at the base, one for the nice supply clerk that always said hi to him. Then he heard himself screaming, a primal sound that tore through him and took all of his pain with it as he blasted ship after ship in revenge for the Cylons taking his love from him.
When they finished off the last of the Cylon fleet Lee felt as if he'd come to terms with his loss and he almost felt as if he could go on again. Maybe that had been his reward, his payback from the Gods. Maybe the Gods finally felt that he'd suffered enough and that he'd earned a chance to return the pain to the Cylons. Whatever the case, he definitely felt better and he was almost looking forward to the test flight of the stealth ship they'd nicknamed the Blackbird.
When Kara launched it he was almost scared but he knew she'd get control and handle the ship the way it was meant to be handled. Then when she disappeared from sight his heart fell and all time stopped. He couldn't lose her, not Kara, he'd lost so much already he needed one solid thing to hold onto and she was it. Then she reappeared and as mad as he was, he couldn't help laugh at his foolishness. Things were looking up after all.