Kara wasn't surprised when, upon hitting open air, the Blackbird immediately went into a nose dive. She hadn't been the one in charge of building that part of the ship.

"Will you take it easy, Starbuck? Start slow. You're testing the ship. It's not about the pilot showing off."

"I'm not showing off," Kara hissed, pushing all her strength into holding the stick steady. "It's this fraking ship. It's not ready to do this." Kara gasped as the ship dead dropped a few feet.

"What are you trying to prove here?"

"I'm not trying to prove anything. I'm trying to stay alive." Kara smacked the panel hard with her free hand and was pleased to see the lights dim for a moment before the ship calmed. "Frak yeah!" she yelled.

"Take it easy," Lee reminded her.

She smiled at him through the cockpits and shook her head in defiance. "Let's see what this baby can do, Apollo!"

"Take it easy!" Lee screamed as the Blackbird disappeared from his screen. "Starbuck, where the frak did you go?" He waited a moment. "Starbuck, do you hear me?"

When there was still no response, Lee started to panic. It was his job to keep her safe. He was supposed to make sure this stupid little idea of the Chief's stayed a hobby. It wasn't supposed to take anyone's life. "Galactica, Apollo. I've lost her. I've lost her." Lee wondered if his father could her the anger and fear in his voice.

"No dradis contact." Dee's voice rang in his ear and hit the point home. She was gone.

"Starbuck," Lee said calmly. "Stop fraking around and answer me. Where are you, Starbuck? Starbuck! Fraking answer me!" Each word that came out of his mouth was laced with just a little more dread. "Starbuck, come in. Starbuck. Starbuck, do you read?"

Lee scanned the stars through his cockpit window. Right about now he'd take any sort of movement just so he knew that he still had a chance to save her. "Kara, are you okay?"

There was a flick of movement, and then the Blackbird was in front of him. Kara flicked on her cockpit light and smiled. "Of course you lost contact, you fraking moron. It's a damned stealth ship, remember?"

Lee knew Kara expected him to laugh at her risky stunt, but he couldn't sum up the courage to put on the mask. "You need to land now, Lieutenant." He watched Kara's face fall before she gave him a terse nod.

"Galactica, Apollo. Starbuck and I are coming in."

"Apollo, Galactica. You are cleared to land."

Lee watched her ship every inch of the way back to Galactica. If she faltered for even a second, he was there. She was not giving him the slip again.

They landed to the cheers of the whole hangar bay. As his feet touched the ground and he saw the pilots embracing Kara, Lee finally smiled. They were both alive. That's all he really cared about right now.

Lee stood back and let Kara have her moment in the sun. The pilots had been keeping her at arms length since her return from Caprica. It was like they could sense the change inside her, and since Kara wasn't telling anyone about Anders, the pilots didn't have any reason to let her back in. If Lee had known all it took was one of her daredevil moves to get her back in the loop, he would have cooked up some slightly fake mission as soon as he could.

"Something on your mind, Captain?"

Helo walked over to lean against the wall beside Lee. "Yeah, something like that." Lee turned to watch Kara playfully sparring with Hot Dog. "Shouldn't you be over there congratulating her?"

"Shouldn't you?"

"I'm her CAG. It isn't my place to give her a big head."

"It is your place to tell her a job well done."

"She was fraking around out there, and she almost paid for it."

Helo shook his head. "No, sir, she was fraking around out there, and you almost paid for it. Most of us in the CIC heard it."

"Heard what?"

Helo gave Lee an infuriating smile. "You called her Kara, sir."

Lee immediately went back over the past hour in the cockpit, and his heart froze. Right at the end, he had called her Kara.

"You should talk to her," Helo suggested, "before it's too late."

"She could have died," Lee said after a moment.

Helo turned to look at Lee. The Captain's eyes were locked on Kara, and Helo was pretty sure even the world ending couldn't get him to stop. "You and I know that. She doesn't." Helo pushed off the wall. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Kara Thrace isn't wrong very often." Smiling, he strolled out of the hangar bay, hands in his pockets.

Lee waited for his moment, and when Kara finally pulled away from the group to start peeling off her flight suit, he made his way across the hangar bay. "Lieutenant, can I have a word with you?"

Kara rolled her eyes. "Come on, Lee. Give me a few minutes to breathe before you start demanding an incident report."

"I don't want you to write a report."

Kara's head jolted up to look at him, and she realized he wasn't lying. His eyes said that regulation and reports were the last thing on his mind. "Sir?"

"Come with me," Lee said, grabbing her arm and dragging her from the hangar bay. He watched everyone's attention deliberately move on to something else. Sometimes his pilots were too smart for their own good.

"You're hurting me," Kara hissed as Lee pushed her into an empty equipment locker.

"It's good that you can still feel pain." Lee regretted his words the second they left his mouth. They did not need to be talking about feeling pain right now.

"What the frak do you know abou-" Kara's words were cut off as Lee pushed her up against the wall. His eyes stirred something inside of her, and she was suddenly pulled back to all the times they had almost given in to their feelings. This felt just like that. "Lee, what are you-"

Again she was cut off, but this time it was by his lips. They had given in again.

The stubble on his face burned her as the kiss turned rough. There was a lot of unspoken emotion forced into that little bit of contact. Her leg snaked around him as her arms came to wrap around his back. It had been far too long since she had him this close.

Lee's hands came up to cup her face, and his grip tightened as he pulled back. "Don't you ever do that to me again, Kara. Do you hear me?"

Kara wanted to promise him she would, but she was too busy kissing him again. She had never realized it was this easy to become addicted to something.

"I thought you were going to die," Lee whispered against her skin as they fought for breath. "I checked over every inch of that plane at least ten times last night, and I still thought you weren't going to make it."

Kara pulled back to smile at him. "You checked the plane? That's so cute."

Lee smirked. "I couldn't let you die after I worked so hard to make you my wingman, now could I?"

Lee's eyes rested on her face, and his hand came up to brush her cheek. Kara's smile faded. He was looking at her in a way he couldn't be. If she didn't know better, she would say it was love. She wasn't too fraked up to know that shouldn't be happening.

Kara ducked under his arms and walked to the other side of the equipment locker. She pushed her sweat-drenched hair out of her face and sighed. "This is the exact reason why you and I can't be friends, Lee. We get too close, and it all goes to hell."

Lee stared at her for a moment before nodding. He had been stupid to think he could find a way to make Kara forget Anders because honestly that was what he was doing. He didn't want to be friends with her either. He wanted to remind her of the good thing they had had before they chose to go to Caprica. He wanted her to remember how happy they had made each other, and maybe… just maybe she would chose him in the end. All he wanted was a chance.

Seeing her before him, looking so frustrated and angry, made him realize he was completely stupid. She would never pick him. "I'm sorry," Lee said, pushing past her.

Kara bit down on her lip hard. She had no clue what she had just done, but it wasn't what she intended. She just wanted to point out to Lee the fact that they were crazy to think they could keep their hands off of each other. They could be friends, but with that, they had to be a lot more.

What he had said about checking the Blackbird so many times had touched her. She could imagine him waking up throughout the night and stumbling down to the hangar bay in his sweats just to make sure that this valve was on tight and that wire was connected securely. It was the type of thing she would have expected him to do.

No one had ever watched out for her like that. They all saw her tough façade and figured she could take care of herself. She desperately needed someone to watch her back, but it was the last thing she'd ask for. Lee had always just offered to do it. She didn't have to ask him.

Now she had a feeling he wouldn't do it even if she did ask. She had done something wrong again, and she was pretty sure by now she should be used to it. Kara leaned back against the wall. It was going to be a while before she could face the crew's congratulations without wanting to cry.