By the end of the day, things were even more frakked. Cain hadn't been happy with the little stunt that Lee and Kara orchestrated, and needed someone to take it out on. Since she was deeming Starbuck a tactical genius, that only left Apollo. An op was in the works to destroy the ships Kara had surveyed, but two even bigger ops were being planned for the moments after their victory.

That night, Lee volunteered to act as an errand boy for the admiral, since it gave him the opportunity to spend the night on Galactica instead of Pegasus. His first stop was his father's office to bring him the documents and to discuss the job that Adama had given Starbuck – assassinating Cain. The Commander wasn't ashamed of his choice, however, and Lee hadn't realized that his father had the president's backing. That gave him a few things to think about, but as he turned to leave, Lee still had one more question floating around in his head.

"Dad? Whose order was it for Ilana to be transferred?"

He frowned. " Admiral Cain orchestrated all of the crew transfers. Why?"

"Just…curious. It doesn't really matter. Goodnight, Sir."

For too much of his childhood, Lee had been the man of the house, responsible for helping his mother and watching out for his brother and sister. It had never been a question whether or not any of them were going to the Colonial Military Academy; Lee had the skill and the love for piloting, Ilana hadn't cared much about fighters even though she definitely had a knack for flying, and then Zak was the unlucky one with the passion but without the skill. And it had cost him.

Ilana had been the go-between back then, the only one still talking to both their mother and their father. She'd hated the way that Lee had treated Adama, choosing instead to place blame for Zak's death where it was actually deserved, although none of them knew at the time that she was right. As a dig at her big brother, Ilana had chosen the call-sign Athena for herself; brother of Apollo and Zeus' favorite child. He'd been furious with his father, and angry with Ilana for siding with him, but looking back now, Lee was thankful that someone had been there for Adama when he turned against him. Ilana's call-sign had been earned.

Balancing the two cups he was holding in one hand, he used the other to open the hatch to Bravo Squad's Bunkroom A. Ilana was sitting on the edge of her bed, talking with the pilots that slept across from her. "Hey, did you get lost?" she asked her brother with a smile. "Wrong ship, Lieutenant."

"I'm aware, brat," he told her. "I'm on Galactica for the night. Thought you and I could catch up over a couple cups of the Chief's brew." Ilana jumped down from her bunk.

"Lead the way."

They wound up in Galactica's observation room, which was completely empty. "I think I'm about the only person left that's still subordinate to you," Ilana told her brother with a giggle as she took a seat at the window.

"Don't remind me," he replied, sitting across from her.

"You could always stay on Galactica. I'm sure that the admiral would be more than happy to get your insubordinate, creative little self off her hands."

"I'm sure. But Dad's already got enough to deal with when it comes to her."

Ilana considered that for a moment. "You really are getting along with him now?"

"Most days. When he's not staging military coups and I'm not holding a gun to the XO's head."

Ilana frowned. "And I thought my ship was interesting…When did Dad get shot?"

Lee froze, his cup halfway to his mouth. "You heard about that?"

"Yeah. How bad was it?"

"Bad. No one saw it coming, just…all of a sudden he was bleeding to death on a console in the CIC."

Ilana shivered at the thought. Her father had always been invincible; the great war hero, a celebrity. She and her brothers had adored him when they were small, mimicking his every move. The Old Man's mortality wasn't supposed to be so blatantly put on display.

"I wish I'd been there for him," she murmured.

"So do I," Lee agreed. Ilana looked at him curiously. "Remember I mentioned putting a gun to the XO's head? Dad wasn't too happy about that, and neither was Tigh, so I was in the brig most of the time that he was in the Life Station, and then…I wasn't on the ship anymore by the time Dad recovered."

"Where were you?"

Lee's lips curved slightly. "Helping the president stir up a mutiny in the fleet."

"I don't think I want to know."

"You probably don't. It was just…it was a very bad time for us all."

"I can understand that. It's just scary to think that something could have happened to him."

He smiled. "I don't think Dad's going anywhere yet. He's got too much left. Especially now that you're here." Ilana returned his grin.

"Don't tell him that I know about what happened, okay?" she asked her big brother.

"Why not?"

"He always tried to protect me; now it's my turn. If he thinks I need to know, he'll tell me, but otherwise…"

Lee nodded. "I won't say a word. Promise." Teasingly, Ilana stuck out her hand, and they did a special handshake that had always been used for secret-swears when they were little children. She was glad to see how far Lee had come since the last time she'd seen them; having what remained of her family with her meant everything.

They talked for a little while longer, but Ilana soon headed back to her bunkroom; the joint strike operation was scheduled for the next morning. She and Shadow had one of the four Raptors that quietly watched over the chaotic battle scene. Apollo had been tasked with using the Blackbird to destroy the Resurrection Ship's FTL drives.

"Don't anyone look out the window right now, please," Ilana heard her brother mutter over the wireless as he approached his target. She cracked a smile. There was a bright explosion on the intricate Cylon ship, and Ilana let out the breath she'd been holding. Maybe they all really would make it through this day in one piece.

"Starbuck, Apollo: target's FTL is history," Lee radioed in. "She's all yours."

"Roger that, Apollo."

There was a loud crackle over the wireless system that usually meant they'd lost a pilot. Ilana quickly looked to her Dradis screen to try and determine which Viper they'd lost. She didn't think she saw any missing fighters, and it took her just a moment too long to realize that there was one ship that wouldn't have shown up well on Dradis anyway.

"Frak! Drift….ift….er. I've…..Eject…" the transmission that came across was almost too garbled to make out. But the word 'eject' got everyone's attention.

"Lee?" she cried, panic starting to rise. "Apollo, Athena: can you hear me?" There was no answer. "Apollo? Do you read?"

"Raptor 582, Galactica. Pilot down. I repeat, pilot down," Dualla reported from CIC. "Begin search and rescue operations."

"Copy that, Galactica," Shadow replied. "Come on," he told Ilana, trying to calm her a bit, "You go find your brother; I'll try and keep us from getting killed while you do it."

It was hard to conceptualize exactly how big and black space was until you had to find one little darkly-clothed object in the middle of an enormous firefight. Ilana was praying that no one would accidentally skewer her brother with their Viper or not see him in their targeting path before she and Shadow could get to him.

"Apollo, Athena: do you read? Can you say your position?" she tried again. "Apollo, can you read me?" It was getting increasingly difficult to talk around the lump in her throat. "Apollo? A-are you out there?" He couldn't leave her now, he just couldn't…

"I think I've got something," Shadow spoke up, using his controls to switch her Dradis screen so that she could have the same view he was looking at.

"I see it." Flipping on the Raptor's search lights revealed that they were indeed pulling up on a few chunks of debris, including the Blackbird's still-occupied ejection seat. "Galactica, Athena: we found him!"

"Copy that," Dualla replied.

"Make sure no sneaks up on us," Ilana told Shadow. "I'm venting atmosphere and opening the hatch. Lee, can you hear me? You're going to be okay."

They hadn't had any idea how close they'd come to losing Lee until she and Shadow hauled him into their Raptor and realized that he'd lost consciousness because he was beyond the red line on oxygen. The seconds it had taken for the cabin to repressurize had been endless. Ilana had stayed by her brother's side once they returned to Galactica, not knowing or caring at the moment what was going on in the rest of the fleet.

"Was the op successful?" Lee weakly asked her as she sat by his bed in the infirmary.

"We're still alive, so I'd assume so. Didn't the Resurrection Ship go up right underneath you?"

"Was that what that big explosion was?" he asked with a small smile.

"Mmm, probably."

They both looked up as Adama approached them, stepping through the curtain that surrounded Lee's bed. "How are you?" he asked his son.

"Alive. I think."

Adama nodded. "That's more than some can say…I just got word from the Pegasus. Admiral Cain was found in her quarters. She's dead."

Ilana noticed that her brother didn't look anywhere near as surprised as she felt, although he did look concerned. "Dad…" he began.

"The Cylon that was being held on the Pegasus escaped…It decided to pay the Admiral back for its treatment while prisoner." Lee slowly nodded.

"Is Doc Cottle going to release me in time for the service?"

"He will if ordered to," Adama replied before leaving.

Ilana sighed. She hadn't liked the way Cain did business, but that didn't mean she wanted to see the woman dead. "I hate dress uniforms," she commented to Lee. He gave a slight nod.

The night, once the memorial was over, Adama had some business to attend to with Colonel Fisk, who had taken over command of the Pegasus, and then he had a meeting on Colonial One. Ilana volunteered to shuttle him around in her Raptor, since he technically wasn't supposed to be piloting anything himself.

"Is everything okay?" she asked him as he entered Colonial One's hangar bay after finishing with the President. Adama nodded.

"Fine. Let's go home."

Ilana smiled as she noticed something. "Um, Sir?" She motioned that he needed to wipe his bottom lip; a trace of lipstick was visible. That definitely fell into the category of 'things she didn't need details on,' although it didn't particularly bother her that Adama had a life of his own. Happiness was a precious commodity these days.

"Don't worry," she promised her father, "I won't tell." He didn't answer, just got into the Raptor.

TBC...