Lee had a smile on his face as he slowly awoke. Without opening his eyes, he turned over to place his arm around Kara, but was surprised when he felt nothing but his pillow. All of a sudden, he had a sinking feeling. Had he dreamt that he and Kara had spent the last six hours making love in his bed? He opened his eyes and sat up.

"Kara?"

The sound of the silence was deafening. I must be going frakking insane, he thought. I know I didn't imagine this. "Kara...?"

"I believe protocol insists you refer to me as 'Captain,' Commander Adama," a teasing voice called from behind a wall.

Lee felt a wave of relief wash over him and took a deep breath. The smile returned to his face as he replied, "I believe protocol also calls for you to obey my direct orders, Captain. And I am ordering you back to bed."

Kara's smiling face appeared from behind the wall. She was putting her flight suit back on. "No can do, Commander. I've got duty in one hour." She walked over to the bed and sat down next to him. "And I know you commanders have a cushy life and all--- but surely someone needs you to bark an order at them in CIC or something." She laughed. And for the first time in a long time, Lee felt his heart jump.

He grabbed Kara and pulled her on top of him. He put his fingers in her hair as he whispered, "I enjoy ordering you around much more." He pulled her face down to his and kissed her, starting gently and becoming more forceful. Kara groaned as he moved to pull her shirt from her pants. She slowly pulled away. "Duty. Remember?"

Lee raised his eyebrows. "Duty. Got it."

As she reached down to put on her boots, Lee caught a glimpse of the silver engagement ring on her finger. He felt a subtle, but noticeable pang in his stomach.

"So. What are we going to do?"

Kara didn't look up. "What do you mean?"

Lee leaned over and placed his hand on hers so she would stop what she was doing. "I mean, what's going to happen here?"

Kara stood up. "Gods, Lee. I can't think about this right now."

Lee sighed as he leaned over the side of the bed to pull on a pair of shorts. Let the games begin. "We can't just ignore this, Kara."

Kara continued to put her boots on, a little more forcefully. Her head was reeling. She really didn't want to discuss this right now. "You think I don't know that?" she snapped. "I'm going to deal with it. But you just have to let me process everything that's happened in the last 24 hours. Is that asking too much?"

Lee stood up and put his arms around her. "No. It's not. I'm sorry. I know you have a lot to deal with right now. It's just---" He looked into her eyes and wondered if he should say what he was about to say. "It's just that I've waited so long for this. I don't want anything else to get in the way." He reached to hold her hand and touched her ring. "Like this."

Kara walked away to grab her flight jacket. All of a sudden, she felt very angry. She put on the jacket without looking at him. "Or Dualla?" she said through clenched teeth.

Lee flinched a bit. As strange as it might sound, he hadn't even thought of Dee once in the past six hours. He certainly didn't want to hurt her, but there was no question who was more important to him. He couldn't handle losing Kara. "If Dee is what you're worried about, don't be."

Kara scoffed. "Yeah, I shouldn't be worried about the fact that you are involved with a very intelligent and loyal woman who also just happens to be incredibly gorgeous. If you ask me, she sounds like a perfect mate for a commander." She felt that uncomfortable, yet disturbingly familiar heat in her face, and decided she couldn't break down in front of Lee again. She moved toward the door.

"I gotta go."

"Hey!" Lee said a bit loudly as she attempted to open the door. He followed her and took hold of her wrist.

"Hey," he repeated, much softer this time. He put his other hand up to her face. "It's true, I do care about Dee..." He felt Kara try to pull away from him, so he held onto her wrist more firmly. "Let me finish. I care about Dee. But I don't want you to think for a minute that she means more to me than you."

Kara looked up at him with moist eyes. Her voice only broke a little as she said somewhat forcefully, "Somehow I find that hard to believe." She twisted her wrist out of Lee's hand and pushed the door open. She didn't look back, but could feel his eyes following her as she rounded the corner and headed toward the launch bay.

Lee continued to stand in the doorway for several moments after Kara disappeared around the corner. He replayed the conversation in his head, trying to figure out what exactly went wrong.

The sound of someone clearing their throat snapped him back to reality. A young female petty officer was standing in the hallway with a clipboard. She was trying not to make eye contact with Lee, who quickly realized he was only wearing a pair of gym shorts.

"Uh... Commander Adama, sir. I am here for the duty logs."

"Of course. I'll have those reports for you in just a moment." He walked back inside his quarters and closed the door behind him.

Ten minutes later, he returned fully dressed and handed the hastily signed duty reports to the petty officer. He desperately wanted to see if he could get hold of Kara, but needed to check on CIC first.

When he arrived, they gave him the same report he'd heard repeatedly over the last six months.

"Nothing to report, sir."

"Carry on, then. I'll be in my quarters."

"Yes, sir."

In his quarters, he sat and stared at a photo he had of himself, Zak, and Kara. All of them were smiling, and Kara had her arms around Zak. He missed his younger brother. He loved him fiercely. But from the beginning, he was envious of Zak's relationship with Kara. Lee didn't realize at the time that he himself was falling in love with her. He only knew that they had a unique connection.

The day that Zak told Lee he was going to ask Kara to marry him was one of the happiest and one of the worst days of Lee's life. He was happy for his brother. He was also happy for himself because, if she accepted, she would become a part of the Adama family and would remain in his life.

But that was also the day he realized that he felt much more for her than a brother-in-law should. Over the next few months, he tried to distance himself from Kara and Zak because of the guilt. Then when Zak died, he felt even more guilty--- for not being there for his brother, and because seeing Kara at the funeral stirred up the feelings he still had for her. He made up his mind at that point that he would never pursue Kara, because he felt he was betraying his brother. And he made a point of not seeing her over the next couple of years.

I did my damnedest, Zak, he thought as he looked at the photo. You of all people should know how difficult it is to resist Kara Thrace.

He smiled as he thought of what had happened the night before, then frowned as he remembered how Kara left. She looked so hurt, and so sure that he was going to choose Dee over her.

He couldn't allow her to think that. Not even for one more day.

He picked up the phone. "Get me Galactica."