Kara was sitting on the catwalk in the hangar bay, letting her legs dangle as she watched all the activity below. Since she had returned home from the Pegasus, there had been too much quiet for her liking. Lee's words were on continuous replay in her head, and she desperately needed something to drown them out.

She had been stupid like always. It was just… he had been standing there, looking down his nose at her when he really didn't know the situation on Pegasus. She had temporarily taken the flight instructor position there as a favor for the Old Man. She didn't want to be on this ship. She didn't want to be with these people.

Lee had started in on her right away and the next thing she knew she was yelling at him. He went off when she insisted he had a problem. Then, when she was too busy twisting the knife into his chest, he hit her where it hurts. She had been mocking how his life was so hard, and then he looked at her with that intense pain that had made a permanent home in his eyes and asked if she meant since he had been shot.

That made her anger bottom out rather quickly. She hadn't really spoken to him since that moment. He had been promoted to Major, and she didn't even congratulate him. It seemed like the repair of their friendship was only a temporary thing.

The one thing that kept her from completely self-destructing was she still had her constant. Whatever happened between Kara and Lee on the ground, they were still Starbuck and Apollo in the air.

Just as she was latching on to that thought, Pegaus went to condition one.

Lee forgot he was mad at her long enough to take away the confinement to quarters she had been slapped with by Garner. Kara was in the air within minutes, and there was only a little part of her heart that was sad to realize he wouldn't be joining her. Then, when her Vipers engaged the enemy, that sadness turned to fear. She needed Lee by her side.

Kara couldn't describe the feeling that came over her when the unfamiliar voice of the Pegasus Comms Officer came over the wireless to say Major Adama had taken command. If anyone had been watching, they would have seen the whole dynamic of the battle shift. The pilots knew they had a chance if Lee was giving them commands. The Adama name meant a lot to this Fleet.

The second the Pegasus met up with Galactica, there was a summons for both her and Apollo. She didn't even have time to tell him what a great job he did. They were both pulled into debriefings to first write and then verbalize their reports of what happened. Kara knew they would probably differ on all points except for one. Pegasus had been a dying bird up until the point Lee took control.

"I didn't think I'd see you here."

Kara lifted her head off the rail to look at the Chief. "It's quiet."

"I know," the Chief replied. "A lot of the pilots find their way up here after a skirmish."

"Then don't be so surprised," Kara chuckled.

"I just thought you'd be helping Apollo."

"Apollo doesn't need my help," Kara said. If Lee needed her to hold his hand through a simple debriefing, then they were well and truly fraked.

"He might want it. It's hard to leave a place when you've finally started to feel like it's your home."

Kara shot to her feet. "What do you mean leave home?"

"The Old Man's promoting Apollo to be Commander of Pegasus."

Kara's eyes went wide in disbelief. "He can't do that."

"Word in the Fleet says Garner died for his mistakes and the Old Man doesn't think anyone else can handle the pressure. This is the third leader of Pegasus to die in only a few months."

"Lee's leaving?"

"Effective immediately," the Chief said with a nod. "In fact, he might already be gone by now. The Admiral seems really determined to give that ship some sort of reliable order as soon as possible."

Kara gave the Chief a smile. "He's right. The Pegasus needs someone like Apollo. Now if you excuse me, I think there's a few more things I need to add to my debrief before it gets handed to the Admiral."

Chief watched her rush off and had to hold back a laugh. Sometimes it was too easy with those two. If Starbuck actually thought Apollo would leave this ship without seeing her, she really was as screwed up as she always claimed to be.

Kara fought to keep from running. If she missed Lee, it would be weeks before she could get a pass to the Pegasus. They were still trying to settle the Fleet into a routine, and the Old Man was going to need her help on this end. Free time was not an option.

For a second, she thought the bunkroom was empty and she had to fight the urge to start punching everything in sight. Then, she heard a drawn out sigh and realized there was someone sitting on her bunk. It wasn't just anyone, either.

Kara smiled and stepped into the bunkroom. "You realize you're screwed, right? All the pressure, the responsibility, the sleepless nights… the officers are going to give you a hard time and I'm not going to be there to threaten them like last time."

Lee stood up with a smile. His hands came out to unconsciously smooth the wrinkles in his dress blues. "Yeah, I think it could be worse, though. You could be my CAG."

Kara snorted. "Me as your CAG would be the sign of the next apocalypse, I think."

"Yeah," Lee agreed. "You're going to have to ease your way up to that. I think Galactica's a perfect place to start."

"What are you talking about?"

Lee smirked. "Well, it's not official or anything, but with my going to the Pegasus, someone's going to have to take the old CAG job. I seem to remember rumors of a certain hot-headed pilot doing rather well in that position while I was in sickbay."

"You're not serious," Kara said, moving to sit on the table in the middle of the room.

"My father's going to have to keep his eye on you somehow now that he's sending his number one spy to Pegasus." Lee walked over to his bunk and pulled his duffel onto the floor.

"Locker all packed up?"

Lee nodded. "You're going to be fine without me, Kara."

Kara had to bite her lip to keep from tearing up. How Lee knew she was worried about being left alone was beyond her.

"You'll have Colonel Tigh to keep you company," Lee continued. "Take it from me, the XO is a lot of fun at those early morning briefings."

"Great," Kara said, rolling her eye. As Lee picked the bag up and shuffled it from hand to hand, she realized this was it. He was really leaving her. She reached out to take the bag and set it on her bunk. Her hand slipped right into his now empty palm. "Congratulations, Lee. Really, you deserve this."

Lee looked at her a moment, and then his grip tightened on her hand. "I'm sorry I said those things to you on Pegasus."

"You have a right to be mad. I could have…" Kara's voice faded off. She still couldn't say it out loud. "Well, we both know what could have happened."

"It didn't happen. I'm still here."

Kara looked up at him and smiled. "Yeah, I noticed that."

"Why I was mad at you had nothing to do with the accident," he confessed. His voice was steady, only wavering for a moment to stress the word accident. "You were doing what you've always done since the day you showed up in my briefing room. Starbuck, the great Caprican Buccaneer, embodying the name in its every meaning. You buck authority and get away with it. It's what you do. I bucked authority once, and I came damn near to losing everything."

Kara wanted to scream at him that he hadn't lost one thing when he chose to go to Caprica with her. If anything, he gained something. She knew that if she had gone back to that place on her own, she would never have made it back alive. He had saved her life.

"You showed up on Pegasus, and suddenly I remembered the way you were when you first came to Galactica. You were doing it all over again, and I don't know. It pissed me off." Lee shook his head. "That doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?"

Kara regarded him a moment before shaking her head. "You should hear the way my brain works sometimes." Lee smiled and went to pull away. Kara tightened her grip on him. She wasn't ready for goodbye yet. "Are we okay?"

"You have a brain?" Kara rolled her eyes and was about to pick up his bag for him when he continued, "Yeah, we're okay. As long as there's a Starbuck and Apollo, we'll be okay."

Kara couldn't resist any longer, and she pulled him into a hug. She had been so scared that he was just going to shove her to the side now that he was moving on to bigger and better things. At this moment, she would take anything he was willing to give her.

"We'll be okay, Kara," Lee whispered into her ear.

She kept a hold of him for well longer than was required, and he didn't seem to fight it. They both knew the reality of this new assignment. They were hardly going to see each other, and when they did, it wouldn't be in the air. Contrary to what Lee said, Starbuck and Apollo were no more. She wasn't sure if Kara and Lee were strong enough to handle that.

There was a page over the intercom for Commander Adama to report to the hangar bay, and it took both of them a moment to realize that Dee's voice was beckoning Lee and not his father. "That's going to take some getting used to, isn't it?" Kara said, pulling away. Her hand came out to rub the small spot on his dress blues that had been dampened by her tears. She straightened his collar and, after taking a moment to commit the way Lee looked in this exact moment to memory, she handed him his bag. "You need to be going before they send out a search team."

Lee gave her a small nod, and for a second, Kara thought he was going to lean in to kiss her. Dee's voice called him to the hangar bay for a second time, and Kara suddenly felt that familiar anger fume up inside of her. She would never be able to hear the Petty Officer's voice without this insane jealousy flaring up.

He took the bag from her hand and gave her one last smile and nod. She watched him pause in the open hatch, bag thrown over his shoulder. "Did you forget something, Commander?" she choked out, hoping the rest of the tears could be held back until he was gone.

Lee turned to face her, and Kara grew uncomfortable as his gaze traveled the length of her body. His eyes eventually settled on her face. "I'm going to make sure that rescue mission to Caprica happens for you, Kara. I know you're losing hope, but things are going to be easier now."

Kara wanted to laugh. Easier and Lee Adama were three words that did not belong in the same thought. "This means a lot to me, Lee," she whispered, knowing he was waiting for her to thank him.

"I know. That's why I'm doing it."

They held each other's gaze until a third page came on over the ship wide comms. This time it was the Old Man's voice.

"I have to go," Lee said.

"I know."

"I left you something." Lee tipped his head towards her bunk.

Kara turned to see a picture sitting on her pillow. Reaching down, she smiled. It was one of the pictures taken of her and Lee on Colonial Day. They looked happy.

Even as Kara turned around to thank him, she knew the hatchway would be empty. It was the only way. A sad smile on her face, she kicked her feet up onto the bunk and relaxed. She was going to sit here and memorize every detail of this photo. She was going to relive every moment of that night until it was her name being yelled over the comms.

Lee had just walked out of her life, and they both knew he wasn't coming back.

Bright, shiny futures weren't for them.