One week later…

Kara was standing in front of her open locker when she heard the hatch open and shut behind her. She had been experiencing a creepy sense of déjà vu until she heard the hatch lock. It couldn't be Lee then.

She was about to turn around when she felt a strong pair of arms encircle her waist from behind, and a pair of lips descend on her neck. Nope, she thought, definitely not Lee. His hands immediately found their way underneath her double tanks. Within seconds one of his hands had slipped underneath her sports bra, and he began fingering her nipple. When his other hand pushed past the top of her sweatpants Kara pulled herself out of Hot Dog's hold.

"What?" he asked, sounding offended.

Kara slammed her locker shut. "Did I say that I wanted to frak?"

Hot Dog gave her a puzzled look. "No. But you were in here all by yourself, and I thought that I wouldn't let the opportunity pass me by."

Kara snorted.

"What?" he asked as he flopped down onto a nearby bunk, obviously not caring that it wasn't his. "I've hardly seen you all week. And, you know, since we're frak buddies and I wanted to get laid, I came to find you. Is there something wrong with that?"

She sighed and leaned her back against her locker. "No."

"Ok then," Hot Dog said as he jumped up off the bunk and started to come towards her.

"Hey," she said angrily. "That doesn't mean that I'm going to frak you."

She watched as he threw his hands up in frustration and flopped back down onto the bunk.

If her previous conversation with Lee hadn't been weighing on her mind, Kara would have given in and helped to put Hot Dog out of his obvious misery.

After a few moments of quiet she said, "You know that this is just sex right?" She felt rather stupid saying it, but she needed to make sure that she wasn't leading him on.

He looked up at her from where he was laying. "Yeah," he said. "That's what you said the first time."

"Good," Kara said as she pushed herself away from her locker and headed towards the door. "I just wanted to make sure that you weren't developing feelings or anything."

She stopped walking when she heard him laugh. "Like I would ever develop feelings for Starbuck."

Kara knew that he hadn't meant anything by it, but Hot Dog's words still made her eyes sting with tears. She unlocked the hatch and walked out.

Lee sat at his desk, staring at the wall opposite him. It had been a rough day… hell, it had been a rough week. He'd been feeling all kinds of weird ever since his latest conversation, or more accurately fight, with Kara. Their entire exchange was replaying itself over, and over again in his mind.

He ran a hand through his lengthening hair and looked down at the paperwork on his desk. He really needed to get it all done. Grudgingly he went back to work. When after five minutes he hadn't even read one page, Lee threw his pen across the room. It hit the wall and fell to the ground, thankfully not breaking. But throwing it still didn't make him feel any better.

When Lee had gone to Galactica a week ago he hadn't even been planning on seeing Kara. He had needed to talk to his father and Colonel Tigh about some things, and then visit Dee before returning to Pegasus. But when he had heard two deckhands gossiping about Kara and her latest conquest, he had snapped.

Before Lee had even known what he was about to do, he found himself entering the senior pilots bunkroom. He had been mad, angry, pissed off, whatever you wanted to call it… and jealous. Gods, he had been so frakking jealous. It had been such a long time since he had felt that, and he didn't even realize what emotion it was until Kara had so bluntly pointed it out to him. But the thing that bothered him the most was that he had no right to be jealous; in fact he had every right not to be.

But this was Kara, and everything with her just had to be so frakking difficult. They'd been that way ever since he had met her back in his academy days. She'd been his roommate, his friend. They could have easily been more had Lee not been so immersed in his studies.

Everything came so naturally to Kara: combat, tactics, just plain old flying. Lee worked his ass off day in and day out to be that good. And it had shown in everything that he did. He was always studying, he never went out, never partied, but more importantly never took the time to see what was right there in front of him.

Two weeks before basic flight ended Kara had come onto him, strong. He had never even realized that she had fallen for him. Now he could read the past clear as day, but back then it had been a shock. Lee had turned her down, telling her that he thought of her as his friend. She had seemed fine with it, and then after flight school they went their separate ways.

War College was completely different; there he couldn't stop thinking about Kara. Since he had then realized that she was most definitely an option, he decided to pursue it. On his first semester break he was going to Caprica to visit his baby brother, and while he was there he'd find Kara. Then he'd take her out and show her how he felt.

But the gods must have hated him; because when he arrived one day early at Zak's apartment, Kara had greeted him wearing nothing but a T-shirt. It wasn't her appearance that shocked him, (he'd seen her naked before), it was the fact that she was in his brother's apartment. Zak had told him in a previous letter that he was having a casual fling with another pilot; Lee just hadn't been aware that the casual fling was Kara.

Lee knew he couldn't make his move then so he decided to wait. It was just sex right? They'd end it, and Lee could have his second chance. Apparently not, because before he knew it Kara was Zak's girlfriend. Lee had missed his opportunity.

He got over her, or he thought he did. Then Zak's death came so unexpectedly. After the funeral they didn't see each other for two years. And when they did finally meet up again, Lee felt all of his old feelings flare up. He hated himself for that, for wanting his dead brother's girl. So he shoved those feelings aside, and tried to forget about them again. But it wasn't so easy with Kara around him all the time.

Then she had come onto him again, this time during her continuous battle against Scar. Lee finally let his feelings guide his actions, and that had lead to disaster. To her he was just a good lay to help her forget about the man she frakked on Caprica, even though Lee saw the potential for so much more.

So Lee had turned to Dee, letting him forget Kara again. Then Anders returned and Lee thought that things were going well. Kara was happy with her Caprica frak, and he had let go of all his feelings for her, and instead focused on creating a relationship with Dee. He'd done so well, even turning down Kara's advances when Anders had died. He thought he had gotten over her completely…that is until last week.

But apparently he hadn't and he was just very good at self-deception.

Yet he was still happy with Dee. She was fun, she was calm…she was safe. Lee could trust her not to shatter his heart into a million little pieces. However that didn't mean that he loved her. Sure he'd mentioned it to Kara, but if he was being honest, he did it because he knew it would make her mad. The thing was he'd never actually said the words to Dee, and he didn't think he could. She deserved better than a lying boyfriend.

Lee ran his hands through his hair again. He wished more than anything that his life wasn't so frakking complicated.

Looking at the clock on his desk, he noticed the time. He stood up quickly, grabbing a few documents. He was late for his meeting with his father and the president on Galactica.

Kara took a swing at the punching bag. She had the satisfaction of feeling the solid contact. She swung again, this time with her left. Even with the gloves on, her hands were beginning to hurt, but that was fine by her. The pain helped her to concentrate, to focus on just the bag. She was trying to forget about everything else: about how screwed up her life was.

Eventually she had to take a break. Kara sat down at a bench against the wall, picking up her water bottle from the floor. She downed half of it in one gulp.

Kara wished that she had someone to work out with; it was too lonely being in the gym by herself. It used to be her and Helo, nearly every day, but he had been transferred over to Pegasus.

At one time she might have worked out with Lee but he had stopped being that kind of close friend a long time ago, about the time that the resistance joined the fleet. Then he had the gall to take away the only friend she had left after Sam's death.

Realistically Kara knew that Pegasus had been short on ECOs and that Helo was needed over there more than he was needed on Galactica. She also knew that Lee probably hadn't much of a say in the transfers, and that it was in fact Admiral Adama who she should be mad at. But she didn't care; she would be irrational and blame Lee if she wanted to. Blaming her ex-best friend felt like an even better decision in the aftermath of their fight.

Damn, that had been what she was trying to get out of her head. Well frak him for getting so mixed up in her life. Ever since they had met back in their academy days he had been a part of her life, and a part of her. She knew that was never going to change no matter how much either of them wanted it to.

She sighed heavily and leaned back so that her head hit the wall with a resounding thud. Things were just too damn complicated.

Lee sat anxiously in Galactica's conference room, only half listening to his father and the president drone on about supply runs. The topic might be boring, but it was very important to the fleet. He knew that he should be paying close attention, but he just couldn't.

On the way to the meeting Lee had done what he figured would turn out to be the best, or stupidest thing that he had ever done in his life. His thoughts drifted even more away from the meeting, and began to really dwell on the potentially stupid thing he had done.

During the raptor flight over he had made a decision. He would break up with Dee and pursue Kara until she caved. At the time it had seemed like the most brilliant plan. If he would never be able to get over Kara, then why try? At least that had been his logic. So Lee had bummed a piece of paper off the ECO, and using the pen in his jacket pocket he had written Kara a note.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the persistent voices of both the president and his father.

"Lee!" his dad said.

At the same time President Roslin said, "Commander Apollo, are you alright?"

Lee shook his head to help bring his mind back to the present situation. He sat up a bit straighter in his chair. "I'm fine Madam President."

His words were met with puzzled looks from both of them. "Lee," his father began. "We've been asking you questions for the last two minutes, and you've answered yes to ever single one of them."

Lee didn't remember answering any questions, but he decided to fake it. "What's wrong with that?"

He was surprised when the president laughed quite loudly. "Commander Apollo, near the end we were asking you quite a few…bizarre questions, to see if you were paying attention."

He fought the blush that threatened to appear on his cheeks. "So?"

This time it was his father who laughed. "Just give up son, we know that you weren't paying attention." Lee opened his mouth to talk but was interrupted. "The last question we asked you was 'Do you think that we should invite the cylons to the Colonial Day celebration?'"

Then Lee actually did blush. "I'm sorry," he said. "I guess I was a bit distracted."

"Now that's an understatement," Adama said.

Lee sat up even straighter and brought his attention to the documents lying on the table in front of him. "Where were we?"

His words were greeted by two sets of laughter. "What!" he said angrily. He had no idea what had gotten into the two of them. So he was a bit distracted, it wasn't funny.

When the president finally got herself under control she said, "You can leave Commander. Your father and I can finish up here."

He knew that it was his duty to stay, but he couldn't help himself. "Are you sure?" He was a little disappointed that he sounded so eager.

"Of course Lee, go on," was his father's response.

The president gave him a warm smile. "You're too young to be stuck up in these types of meetings anyways."

"Thank you," Lee said, his voice very sincere. Then he stood up and left the room before either of them could change their minds.

As he closed the hatch behind him he couldn't help but think about how lucky he was. In fact, this was just perfect. He would have enough time to find Dee and break things off with her before he met up with Kara.

He walked with purpose down the halls. Lee knew that Dee was off shift and that she'd probably be in the gym working out. Hopefully he could catch her alone.

Just as he rounded the last corner he saw her exiting the gym. Immediately Dee noticed him and headed straight over.

"Hey you," she said as she reached him.

He gave her a halfhearted smile. "Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?"

She looked up at him. "Sure," she said. "But in a little while. First, you look like you need some cheering up."

Before Lee even registered what was happening Dee had pulled his head down to hers for a very passionate kiss.

Kara,

I'm sorry about before. I was being a jealous bastard. Hopefully you'll find it in yourself to forgive me and meet me in the observation deck at 1900. There is something very important that we need to talk about.

Lee

Kara stared in disbelief at the note she was holding in her hand. This had to be some kind of joke. There was no way that Lee had written her this note. Well, she might have been able to believe that except for the fact that this was definitely Lee's writing.

She sat down heavily on her bunk as she tried to figure out what this could be about. They had begun their fall from friendship just after Kara had returned from her rescue mission with Sam and the resistance in tow. And since Sam's death they had barely spoken to each other at all, except for their fight a week ago. But here was this note, from Lee, saying that they needed to talk.

Kara read the note again, pausing at the line about him being a jealous bastard Yep, he definitely had been. Actually she was very surprised that he had admitted to it. Wait … he admitted that he was jealous. Kara felt her pulse quicken as hope flowed through her veins.

She had known that Lee was jealous, but now he was admitting to it. Kara wiped her suddenly sweaty palms on her sweatpants, and she let the note flutter down onto her bunk. She couldn't help but wonder what all of this meant. She knew what she wanted it to mean, but she had given up hope on Lee a long time ago. But maybe she shouldn't have, maybe this was what she had been waiting for all along: the moment of truth between them.

Kara picked up the note and placed it carefully inside a book on the shelf above her bed. Then she stood on shaky legs, and walked out of the bunkroom.

She shouldn't be this nervous. It was Lee for frak sakes. Well actually, that would be the entire reason for why she was so nervous.

Glancing down at her watch Kara noticed that she had just over half an hour until she was supposed to meet Lee. She just kept walking, heading towards the observation deck. She'd be early, but that was fine; she wasn't going to be late for this.

Kara was almost there. She just had to make a turn, walk past the gym, turn one last time and she'd be at the observation deck. As she came around the second to last corner, she saw a sight that stopped her in her tracks.

There was Lee standing outside of the gym, talking to Dee. Kara was too far away to hear what they were saying, but she was definitely able to see Dee reach up and pull Lee down for a very heated kiss.

Immediately Kara spun on her heel and headed back the way that she had come. Tears were threatening to spill from her eyes the second time that day, but she wouldn't let them. She swore to herself after the last time that Lee Adama would never make her cry again.

She had been so stupid to make assumptions about what Lee had meant. What had she been thinking? He didn't want a screw up; not when he could have a perfect and beautiful woman instead.

By the time that Kara had reached the senior pilots quarters she was no longer sad. She was angry: angry with herself for not being good enough, and angry with Lee for getting her hopes up and then crushing them. There was obviously nobody left in the universe that did want her, so she would just have to resign herself to a life of meaningless sex.

Opening the hatch and stepping through, she was very pleased to see that Hot Dog was the only one there. She hastily spun the lock shut behind her and then crossed the room to where he was leaning against his locker.

"Hey," he said. "Are you ok? You look …"

Kara grabbed his face between her hands and pulled his head down for a brutally hard kiss. It hurt, and she knew that her lips would be bruised, but the pain felt good.

Eventually she released him.

"Starbuck, I though you said…"

She glared at him. "Just shut up and frak me."

TBC