Lee could hear the bombs exploding in the distance. The Cylons weren't letting up even though everyone else was dead. He felt so disconnected, almost as if he was floating above, watching the scene below. Moments in time were flashing in front of his eyes.

His battle-worn body digging down deep to make it the last few yards.

Kara's body in his arms, practically comatose.

He's screaming. There's no sound.

The pain in his leg flares. He ignores it.

They're inside the bunker. Chief has Eve pressed against the wall. He's choking her.

Eve's screaming about what she's had to go through. Caprica being destroyed from the bottom up. The man she loved dying. Her whole existence having no meaning.

Barclay frantically locking the hatch. Pieces of metal being welded on.

They weren't getting out again.

The young boy, Bauer, is crying in the corner.

Kara still isn't moving, and Lee's too tired to care.

He's crumpling to the ground. He's finally giving up.

Kara's not moving.

Lee shot up in his bunk, his heart racing out of control. His eyes flew wildly around the room until he got his bearings. Reality sunk back in.

All those things had happened. It was just been eight months ago.

He rubbed his chin and realized it was about time he shaved again. These days, he tended to forget things like that. When you're locked into a resistance bunker and the food is probably going to run out in the next week or so and you still have no clue what the next move should be, the length of facial hair was not a priority.

Lee threw back the blankets and set his feet down on the solid ground. There was a small twinge in his leg from where he had been shot all those months earlier. Like every other day, he ignored the pain.

His eyes flew to the clock. Everyone would be up by now, and they'd all want to know if he had finally come up with some way to set them free. Standing up, Lee made his way over to the pile of clothes near his desk. It took him a few minutes to find something clean, but when he did, he slipped the tanks and pants on.

He flexed his arm without thought. He had no idea why the old gunshot wound had been flaring up on him recently. He kneaded the muscles in his shoulder with the knuckles of the opposite hand and sighed. It was actually nice to not have to hide this thing anymore. He had spent seven months keeping it under wraps on Pegasus and then three months down on the surface of New Caprica. It was nice to have it out there again. Giving one last stretch, Lee stepped out into the corridor and made his way down to the large hangar area.

Lee paused in the hatchway to get a feel for the remainder of his team before stepping into another day of keeping up the façade of false hope. Bauer and Barclay were playing a makeshift game of pyramid. Over the past eight months, Jean had been slowly teaching the boy how to take the most effective shot possible. Bauer couldn't even hit the goal from two feet away when they started.

The Chief was checking some of the outer defense measures they had left in place before abandoning the facility to be rescued in that stupid clearing. Lee hated what this solitude had done to Tyrol. The man missed his wife and children. All he wanted to do was get back to them, and instead he was stuck here. He had put his sense of duty in front of his own family, and the gods were punishing him. These days, Tyrol spent almost every waking hour checking their defenses to see if they would hold. He was bordering on obsession.

Eve was sitting at a table the others had dragged into the hangar on the day Lee challenged Barclay to a game of one-on-one pyramid. That was back when they still clung to the hope that things would work themselves out.

The Cylon was watching the room as if she was waiting for something to occur. If Lee didn't know better, he would think she was waiting for the inevitable ambush that everyone knew was coming.

Lee had gone on instinct when he called out the order to follow Eve. From the first moment he spoke to her, there had been something about Eve that made Lee trust her. It had taken him a few months to realize the full extent of what that was. In more ways than one, Eve reminded him of Kara. Not the Kara who was with him today. The Kara who fought her way through the guilt and shame of losing Zak.

It didn't take long after that realization for Lee to start calling Eve his friend.

It also helped when she told him the story about how she saved Kara from the farms back on Caprica. She had lost most of her team that day, but Eve still maintained that she made the right call. If for nothing else than that fact, Lee would have accepted her.

Lee pushed off the hatchway and made his way over to the table. "Good morning," he grumbled, sliding into the seat next to Eve.

"I'd offer you coffee, Commander, but I think we ran out five months ago."

"Six," Lee corrected as he kicked his feet up on a nearby crate. "And gods do I miss it."

"Any new thoughts on how to get out of here alive?" Eve asked, turning to look at him.

"No."

"Any thoughts on the other problem?"

"No."

"It's been eight months. Don't you think it's time-"

"No," Lee said.

Eve watched him for a moment before narrowing her eyes. "All right. I see you don't want to talk about her."

Lee turned back to watch Bauer slide past Barclay to slam the pyramid ball into the goal. The kid really was getting good. Barclay had stopped letting him win ages ago.

"It's odd."

Lee turned to look at Eve again. Like always, she was staring at him as if she could see right to his heart. "What's odd?"

"I feel safe with you lot. I'm nothing more than a machine to you, and yet this is the first time in a long while that I've actually felt safe."

"Well, you did quite a bit for us that day. It's the least we can do to give you a false sense of security. I mean, we were all dead before you came along. "

Eve sighed and looked down at her hands. "See? You say things like that, Lee, and it starts to make me feel like shit because there are still things I haven't told you."

Lee knew in a different time and place it would make him nervous to know his Cylon ally was still holding back on him, but he trusted Eve. "Like what?"

"I told you about Adam."

Lee smirked. "You told me that I remind you of him."

"You do remind me of him in a lot of ways, Lee." Eve let out a long sigh and then smiled. "I didn't even know what love was until I met Adam. He was the one that saved me when I needed it, and after that, he was just always there. He took a bullet for me."

Lee nodded. He could understand that kind of devotion. "You've told me all this before."

"I know I have. It's just I never really explained who Adam was. I was afraid."

"Eve, I know he was a Cylon. I don't care."

"No, Lee, you do care." Eve bit her bottom lip. "He was a Leoben model."

Lee felt his heart start to speed up automatically when she said Leoben's name. It had been that way since he was tortured by the machines. "I see."

"I know I should have told you. I mean, you didn't hold back when it came to talking about what he did to you and Kara. I should have trusted you, but I don't know. I just couldn't believe you would still let me stay knowing… knowing that in a lot of ways, I loved the man who caused you so much pain."

Lee reached across the table to grab Eve's hand. "It doesn't matter, Eve. If I can learn to trust you and this Adam was the one who taught you to fight your programming the way you do, then I can believe he wasn't the same as the machine who tortured me."

"Thank you, Lee. That means a lot to me."

Lee gave her a small shrug and turned back to the hangar. This time his eyes landed on the Chief. Tyrol looked like he hadn't slept in a few days. Lee wondered if there was a way he could convince him to take a break.

"I think I know a way to get us out of here."

Lee tried to keep his mouth from dropping open as he turned to look at Eve. "What?"

"It's something I've been playing with for the last few weeks. I wasn't sure if I should suggest it. It would mean you putting your life into my hands completely."

"Not a problem," Lee said without hesitating.

"It would mean you putting Kara's life into my hands, too." Eve smiled when she saw Lee hesitate. "That's what I thought. You are so transparent sometimes, Lee. Does she know how much you love her?"

Lee's eyes fell to his tattoo. "I thought it would be obvious."

"It is." Eve took a deep breath and straightened up in her seat. "This is going to be risky. That's the main reason why I've never brought it up before."

"Don't leave me in suspense now."

"I think I can contact your Sharon. The one on Galactica."

Lee decided he would probably offend Eve by asking if she was out of her fraking mind so he went with his second question. "How?"

"The wires from the defense system. I think you've seen your Sharon dial in with something similar on Galactica. It would only take thirty seconds."

"But…"

"But the defense systems would be down for good."

"So we'd be sitting ducks to the Cylons if they found out?"

"Not if, Lee. When." Eve sighed. "I'd be dialing in to an open channel that any Cylon could pick up. They'll know where we are."

"And what's to keep them from knowing about the rescue attempt?"

"That's where you come in. I need you to give me something to say to Sharon that will tell her where and when without alerting any eavesdroppers to the plan."

Lee stared at Eve for a few moments before lowering his head into his hands.

"We're running out of food," Eve gently reminded him. "We're going to have to make a move soon, and I can't figure out a better way. I didn't want to do this, Lee. I was completely lost when I stumbled onto intel about your little group eight months ago. I came to help you as soon as I could." Eve paused to watch Barclay stuff a goal past Bauer. "You five have become my family when I wasn't looking. I didn't want to risk any of you, but it has to be done. If you ever want to see your father again, Lee, we have to do this."

Lee rubbed his face before sniffing and sitting up straight. "You're right."

"I am?"

"This is our only option." Lee stood up and smiled at her. "Would you give me a day before we tell the others? There's one thing I have to do before we make our last stand."

Eve nodded. "That's fine. I'll get my thoughts together, try to map out the specifics. I'm only going to give you until the morning, though. We can't put this off."

Lee squeezed her shoulder as he walked around the table. "That's harsh but fair. Thank you, Eve." He paused to give Bauer a wave before stepping out into the corridors. This whole place seemed so empty now. It had been overwhelming for the first few months, but now it was just sad. He could remember chasing Kara up and down these halls when they went for their daily runs. This was the place where the Chief first told him that Cally was pregnant again when the Pegasus and Galactica made their rescue attempt. In this very corridor, Kara had held his hands as he made the first few hesitant steps after healing from the wounds Leoben inflicted.

Now it all felt hollow to him.

Lee stopped in front of a door at the end of the hall. His eyes ran over the door frame and stopped on a spot that was at eye level. There were several dents where the paint had been worn completely off. Lee looked down at his still healing knuckles and wondered just how often he had attacked that spot after another day of failures.

He was tired of not being able to bring her back.

Lee let out a deep breath and knocked softly on the door. When, like always, there was no response, he pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Kara was where she always was, curled up in a ball on her bunk. Her hair, which had grown to shoulder length in the past eight months, was matted down. Lee hadn't been able to convince her to come into the showers with him for the past few days. She was wearing the sweats he had brought from his own personal stash a few weeks ago, and she looked comfortable. Lee hoped to the gods she was comfortable.

"Hey," he whispered, letting the door click shut.

Kara continued to stare at the wall. Like every day he came to her, the familiar feeling of inadequacy crept up on Lee. He had always harbored this secret belief that no matter what happened, whether it was to him or to Kara, they would always be able to pull each other back. Yet here he stood in front of one extremely broken woman, a woman he came to each and every day, relentlessly begging her to let go of whatever demons she was grasping, and he was failing. Miserably.

Lee's eyes fell on the pair of running shoes on the floor near her bunk, and he let out a deep sigh. She had been out for a run again last night. "These runs have to stop, Kara." He took a seat at the end of the bed. "They're not good for you."

Kara finally turned to look at him. "How can running be bad, Lee?"

"When you only do it in the dead of the night because no one will be around," he replied.

"You're around."

"Only because these days I don't really sleep that much." Lee's eyes dropped to the floor. They both knew he was lying. He slept just fine at night. It was on purpose that he met Kara in the halls whenever she popped out for a run. He would hear the sound of her door opening from across the hall and rush to put on his own shoes so he wouldn't miss her. Lee didn't like the idea of Kara running around this place alone. The Cylons could show up at any minute.

Kara set her chin down on the tops of her knees and stared at the wall.

"Kara, I need you to look at me," Lee said slowly.

Kara's eyes darted up to his face for the briefest of seconds and then she was back to the wall. She was making vast improvements every day, but Lee still couldn't figure out how to get her to look him in the eye for longer than it took him to blink. He had no clue why she seemed so guilty when it came to him.

Lee reached out to tip Kara's chin up and wasn't surprised when she gasped and pulled away from his touch. It was what she always did. That's how he knew how far gone she still was. The Kara of about a year ago would know how much it hurt to feel her shrink back from him.

'I've done something stupid," Lee said, leaning back against the bottom of the bunk, "and I'm scared."

Kara reacted to him just like he knew she would. Lee never admitted to being scared. He never admitted to weakness, to not being in control. People had been looking to him for strength since the second he got marooned on Galactica during the initial attacks. Saying he was scared was like saying the Cylons were going to exterminate humanity and there was nothing that could be done to change that. It simply wasn't done.

Her hand came out to tentatively rest on his in the only show of support she had been able to manage these eight months. Asking for more would only push her to retreat farther within herself.

"Eve came up with a way to get us home. It was something she's been tossing around for awhile, but it was too dangerous for her to suggest until now." Lee sighed and rubbed his face with his free hand. "You see, we're running out of food. In about a week, we're going to start starving. I did not fight this hard just to fade away. I think Eve knew that which is why she finally suggested her plan."

Lee paused and wondered if maybe this wasn't too much to be putting on Kara's shoulders. He had been awfully selfish with her for years, and he was getting tired of the way she let him do it. Kara's hand tightened around his, and he figured that was as good of a sign as any. "Eve wants to hook into the defense systems of the bunker in order to contact Sharon. She thinks she can get a message through to the Old Man." Lee could feel his heart pounding and wondered if it was really as loud as it felt. "The machines will be on top of this bunker within minutes, Kara. If Eve does this, we're going to have to move fast. We won't be able to hide anymore after this last ditch effort. We're going to have to fight and hope salvation is on its way."

Kara's hand fell from his, and Lee turned to see that she was facing the wall. He had lost her attention again. Most days it went like this. He would talk to her, and for a moment, she would respond. Then whatever thoughts were in her head would take over and she would be lost to him.

"No," Lee said firmly. He reached out and pulled Kara's upper body off the mattress. "You cannot do this to me today, Kara."

"You're hurting me," Kara whispered, staring at him in awe.

Lee wished he could relax his hold, but there just wasn't time. He had done gentle. Gentle didn't work. If he really thought about it, gentle had never worked when it came to Kara. Maybe he should have done this months earlier. "It's time to stop this, Kara. You can't just waste away anymore."

"Let me go."

The soft loneliness in her words chewed him up inside. Kara had never given up before. Through all the traumas in her childhood and the disasters in her adulthood, she never fell this far. She had come dangerously close during those few weeks they were hunting Scar, but something pulled her back. Lee wished he could say it was him.

Even then, she hadn't been like this. She had been drunk all the time, flying her patrols with no concern for her own life, forgetting there were people out there worried sick for the person she was becoming. She had been loud and boisterous, quiet and introspective, open and cynical. Through it all, she was always something.

Lee didn't know how to deal with her being nothing.

"I need you, Kara," he whispered, reaching out to touch her cheek. He refused to let her pull away. "I don't tell you that often enough. I rely on you being there, and if we're going to do this, I need you."

"Don't," Kara choked out. Her eyes were wide with fear, but there were no tears in sight.

Lee couldn't help but wonder what it would take to make her feel again. "Are you even in there anymore?" he wondered softly. Kara stared blankly back at him. "Do you remember what you said to me that day I left you on New Caprica?" His hands came out to cup her face. "Do you remember what you left me with?"

Something flashed across her face, but he could see Kara shoving it back down almost immediately. Therein lied the problem. She didn't want to come back to him. She just wanted to die. It was the kind of thing she didn't have to say. He just knew she didn't want to feel the pain anymore. "I think about that day, Kara. I think about it a lot."

"No," she hissed. She started struggling to pull away from him, and this time Lee let her. She scurried to the other end of the bunk and covered her ears.

Lee sighed and stood up from the bunk. He waited until Kara's curiosity won out. That was the one thing he knew he had when it came to her. He would come into the room, and she would always shift ever so slightly at his presence. She noticed him. That was the only thing that kept his hope up.

She didn't care for anything else, but she seemed to care when he showed up.

Lee whispered a silent prayer to the gods to help him get through to her. Through the past eight months, he had kept himself from this point on purpose. He wanted her to chose to come back to him. He didn't want to force it.

Time was up.

He had to roll the hard six.

Lee slid his jacket off and, grasping the hem of his tanks, lifted them over his head. He saw Kara's eyes break away at the sight of his bare chest, and he knew this wasn't going to be enough. He was going to have to push it to the next level. He was going to have to hurt her.

He got down into the bunk and reached out to grip the bottom of Kara's sweatshirt. She lashed out at him immediately, but Lee knew it was mostly instinct. Kara was not the kind of girl who liked to be touched when she wasn't on top of her game. "Settle down."

"No," Kara hissed as Lee gripped her clothes more firmly.

It didn't take long for Lee to wrestle Kara down onto the bunk. She had lost her will to fight him months earlier. It was the one thing he would have sworn she would always have, and yet here it was in front of his eyes. The weight of his body was pressing her down on the mattress, and she was just staring up at him with no emotion in her eyes.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Lee whispered. It was true in a way. What he was about to do wouldn't hurt her physically. It would only hurt her in every other way imaginable.

He slowly slid the sweatshirt over her head and threw it to the ground. His eyes raked across her skin, and he could feel the desire flare up inside of him. He couldn't let it control him. There was something more important needing to be done, something that went beyond how much he wanted her.

He let go of his hold on her body in order to trace the lines of the tattoo on her arm. Her skin was still as soft as he remembered. It surprised him when he felt her own hands mimicking his. It surprised him and yet it didn't. He had always known this was the only chance he had of bringing her back. He just hadn't been brave enough before to do it. He hadn't had the courage to risk it not working. "You can't just leave me like this, Kara."

"Lee."

"It's not fair," he whispered. "I need you with me if I'm going to do this."

"Please."

"I…" Lee's voice faltered. This wasn't working. He didn't know what he could say to make this better. He didn't know how to fix her. This wasn't working. "We lost each other once, Kara. Do you remember? I went back to Pegasus and you stayed down here. It killed me inside to know it was my duty that pulled us apart."

"Stop."

"This tattoo was a daily reminder of what I gave up."

Lee saw something flicker in her eyes but knew he dare not hope he was starting to get through to her. "It's happening again. I can feel the distance growing every day we're down in this bunker. I… I can't lose you, Kara. I can't let you slip away, but I don't know how to fix you." Lee ran his hand along her cheek. "I hate the fact that I'm not strong enough to make this better. I used to think that whatever happened as long as we had each other, we could work through it. Then life got fraked up and took me with it. Things broke. I tried to fix them, and yet I couldn't. I couldn't fix this. I try and I try, but I can't make it better. And it kills me. It straight out kills me. You're sitting there in pain, and I don't know how to make it go away. For the first time in my life, I feel powerless. And if you're gone, Kara, if I lose you, then that's it. I can't survive something like that. If you're gone… if you let go, then I really do have nothing. If you give up, everything I am, everything I want to be, it will mean nothing. I will mean nothing."

He waited for Kara to say something, anything, but she stayed silent. That was when he knew he had failed. For the last time, he had failed her.

Lee felt the tears stinging his eyes as he let go of his hold on her. He had tried. That was all he could do. He had nothing left to give her. "I can't be empty anymore, Kara." He rested his head in his hands and surrendered himself to the dull silence of his disappointment.

"Don't."

Lee's head darted up to see Kara biting her lip. Her shaking hand came out to wipe the tears off his cheek, and for the first time in a long while, Lee could see the emotion on her face. She looked scared. Scared and vulnerable and determined and soft and real. "What…" His words faded off as Kara moved herself close to him. Her frail body folded right into his.

"I'm… I'm sorry." Her words were muffled into his chest, but he still heard them.

Lee wrapped his arms around her as he felt her body begin to shake. Her nails dug into his skin as she clung to him. The wetness of her fallen tears coated his tattooed shoulder. This was the first time Kara had cried since losing her husband. Yet it was more than that.

She was crying for Anders. She was crying for losing her love, and yet Lee knew that the emotion was too great for it to be just about that. These weren't solely tears of mourning. They were tears of guilt and mourning and turmoil. They were tears for what the Cylons had taken from her, for what the Cylons did to her. They were tears of regret for not getting to Lee in time, for letting the Cylons do to him what they had done to her. They were tears to deal with the reality that they might not be rescued, that this might just be the end for them.

Lee held on as eight months of sorrow washed over her and thanked the gods when she shifted herself into his lap. She was reaching out for him. This was what he had waited two-hundred fifty-three days for.

Eventually, Kara pushed herself away from him, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand. He watched in awe as she stood up and walked across the room. There was a familiar strut to the way she moved. It was something he hadn't seen in so long.

Kara rifled through her desk and, finding what she was looking for, made her way back to Lee.

"Kara?" he said hesitantly.

"I'm done, Lee. I'm done."

Lee stared at the scissors she was holding out for him to take and then looked back up at her face.

Kara was smiling.