Kara woke up with a start but not because she was screaming. She hadn't screamed herself awake in over a week.

No, this time she had woken up because her lunkhead of a commanding officer had rolled himself right on top of her and his knee was now jamming itself into the healed over bullet wound on her thigh. "Get off me, Lee," Kara growled, shoving him away.

"I'm tired," Lee mumbled.

"I'll tired you." Kara twisted her body to punch him in the back.

"Ow. Frak, Kara!"

"I told you to get off me," Kara said, already leaning in to kiss where his skin was starting to redden.

"Are you going to do this every morning when we wake up next to each other?"

Kara smiled and let Lee pull her body on top of his. "Well, that is just a wonderful thought to be having, Commander."

Lee smiled and craned his neck to kiss the corner of her mouth. His hands came out to caress the skin on her back where her tanks had risen up. His fingertips ran along the lines of her scars, and his grin widened. He loved the feel of her body in the morning.

"Lee, we need to get up," Kara reminded him.

"Just a few more minutes."

"We're supposed to be taking over the watch."

"Just a few more minutes," he repeated.

"Lee Adama, I am not going to shake off our responsibilities just to give you a good frak."

"Why not?" Lee asked even as he let go of his hold on Kara. When she reached to pick her jacket up off the ground, his gaze fell down to her hand. "We've been engaged for over a week. I thought you were supposed to consecrate these kinds of things."

Kara laughed and flung Lee's jacket at his head. "Get your head in the game and I promise we can consecrate for days when we get home."

"Agreed." Lee gave her a wink that said he would be holding her to that promise. Now that Kara had offered him ample reason to get out of bed, he had no problem pulling on his boots and strapping his gun to his waist. When he was done with that, he bent down and laced up Kara's boots for her. Her thigh had been bothering her lately, and he liked to do whatever he could to ease the pain. Kara gave him a smile as thanks and motioned towards the playground.

Together, they silently moved through the trees until they reached the one spot that had a clear vantage point of the surrounding area. Kara bit back a laugh when she saw Eve demonstrating a proper choke hold to Barclay. Sometimes having a Cylon ally around was too much for her to take.

Lee cleared his throat, and Eve lowered her hands which had been around Barclay's throat. "Eve."

"Commander." Her eyes drifted down to Lee's arm which was around Kara's waist. Their left hands were linked together at Kara's waist. "How are the hands?"

"It still stings a little," Kara said without looking. "But I think the redness has finally gone away."

"I can't believe you two had the Cylon tattoo you in the middle of fighting for our lives," Barclay said as she stood up and stretched.

"Starbuck and Apollo never do anything you could call ordinary."

Kara walked forward to sling her arm around Bauer and gave the Chief a smile. "I thought you two were supposed to be checking the perimeter."

"We did," Tyrol reassured her. "There was nothing to see."

Bauer let out a laugh. "You know, I don't think the Cylons are coming. We've been here ov-"

His words were overshadowed by a massive explosion and the sounds of gunfire raining down. All six of them hit the ground as quickly as they could. It only took a few seconds for Kara and Lee to figure out what was happening, and then they started shouting orders.

"Stay down to the ground and hold tight. Make the machines do most of the work. If they want us, they're going to have to earn it."

Kara crawled over to Eve. "What are you picking up?"

"There's maybe a dozen Centurions, possible two or three humanoid models. I don't think they knew we were here."

"Those frakers stumbled on us by chance?" Kara rolled her eyes. "Un-fraking-believable."

"Keep shooting!" Lee yelled from the other end. "Kara, I want you and Eve to flank around. See if you can't get some shots in from behind."

"No," Kara said, shaking her head.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm not fraking leaving you, Lee."

"I said get the frak out there, Kara."

"No! If we're dying, we're doing it together. I am not leaving this spot."

Lee's eyes held Kara's for a brief second before he gave her a curt nod. He was not happy with her right now, but he couldn't fault her for doing the very same thing he would have done.

"I got one!"

Lee twisted to see Bauer smiling at the fallout of a small explosion across the way. "Do not celebrate until we've won. You'll get yourself killed."

Bauer's face steeled as he realized he just made a juvenile mistake. After months of trying to learn from Kara and Lee and the Chief and Barclay and Eve, he was still acting like a little kid. He was going to apologize for being so stupid when Lee started speaking again.

"But besides that, nice job." Lee gave him a quick wink and then nodded back to where the gunshots were still coming from.

Things got serious rather quickly after that. A Centurion got a lucky shot which exploded one of the support beams on the swing set. The shrapnel from the blast recoiled right into the trench they were using for cover. Barclay swore, and Kara turned to catch the sight of blood on the ex-pyramid player's face. That was all the time she could afford for her friend. The Cylons were starting to take the offensive. It was no longer just idly shoot at one another until someone makes contact. The toasters were moving in for the kill.

Kara heard Lee yell at Bauer to go check on Barclay, and a few seconds later she heard a loud scream. Barclay must have been knocked unconscious, but whatever the kid had just done remedied that. She could hear her friend screaming that she couldn't see. The Chief's voice mingled in with the screams. It took Kara a few times to realize what he was saying.

A quick look to the side confirmed it. The shrapnel had hit Barclay's head, but it had only cut up her forehead. She couldn't see because there was blood flowing down her face. It was nothing Cottle couldn't fix up when they got home. "Just hold strong," Kara screamed, unloading another clip into the general area of the Cylons.

"We only took out three Centurions, but I think I just shot myself," Eve screamed. "We're going to be able to do this unless something changes."

"Just hold on," Kara yelled. "We have to hold on."

Lee made his way to her side and held his hand out for a clip. Kara slapped it into his hand and was reminded of the time they did this on the surface of Kobol. Things had been a lot less dire and a lot simpler back then. "I don't know if we can do this, Lee."

"We have to," Lee said, twisting to fire at the machines again.

"This is just a handful. If they come at us with more, we're dead."

Lee ducked down to look at her. "Don't give up on me, Kara. Not after everything we've gone through." He gave her a small smile before moving up to take aim at the toasters again.

Kara let his words wash over her for a few moments and then responded by taking aim and knocking out two Centurions with a handful of shots. This time, she wasn't going to let herself give up on what she and Lee could do. She had been to hell and back physically, mentally, and emotionally since moving down to New Caprica. She gave up on one love in order to devote herself to another only to end up back in the arms of the first. She had lost her place in life, her definition of who she was, only to have it thrust upon her once more. Her sanity was pushed to the brink, and she nearly gave up. The only thing that kept her from breaking was the final understanding of what exactly that would mean. For one to let go of life, you had to let go of your lifeline.

If Kara broke, she was going to take Lee with her.

She wasn't about to do that.

"Do you hear that?"

Lee's voice brought her back to the present. "What are you talking about?" Kara shouted.

Lee gave her a look as if she was crazy not to know what he was talking about. Kara was about to scream that with all the gunshots mingling with explosions everywhere around them how the frak was she supposed to hear anything when she heard it.

A gentle whooshing noise in the air current above them.

Kara's eyes rose up just in time to see the Raptor fall from the sky and rain fire down upon the trees below. The Cylons didn't stand a chance. "Oh my gods," Kara whispered. She turned to Lee to see that his eyes were just as wide as hers.

Lee was the one who snapped out of it first. "Everybody form up. Galen, help Barclay. We're making our way to that Raptor."

"But what about last time?" Bauer shouted before he could even think about what he was saying. His gaze fell to Kara as he remembered just how the last rescue attempt had gone to hell.

Kara gave him a sympathetic smile. She could relate to having those stupid foot-in-mouth moments like no one else. "It doesn't matter right now, kid. The Cylons know where we are. We've run out of places to go so it's either let that Raptor take us home or take it along with us to the end."

They had hobbled their way halfway across the area by the time the Raptor's ramp was lowered, and not one person hesitated to board the ship. They all wanted this struggle to be over.

Kara only paused when she saw who was sitting in the pilot's seat. A overwhelming sense of safety washed over her. This was definitely not a Cylon. "Karl?"

Helo turned to smile at her and then his focus turned to Lee. "You know I wasn't sure which one of you I wanted it to be more."

Kara smiled and moved into the co-pilot seat. "You should have known it would be both of us."

"That is your m.o.," Helo said, punching the button to raise the ramp. "It's good to see you, Commander."

"You, too, Helo," Lee said, taking the ECO seat almost by instinct. He worked with the information on the screens in front of him for a few minutes until the ship took off. Then he turned his attention to where the rest of his team was resting. "Chief?"

Tyrol followed Lee's eyes to where Barclay sat with a piece of cloth ripped from his shirt clutched to her forehead. "She's going to be fine. The bleeding's slowed down, and most of the wounds look like they won't even need stitches."

"Good," Lee said. He looked to Bauer, and seeing the boy was all right, only gave him a quick nod. Then, he turned his attention to Eve. She was huddled against the back of the Raptor, noticeably out of Helo's sight line. It was just another reason why Lee put his trust in her. She was smart enough to know that making her presence felt would pretty much kill Helo's desire to rescue them. Delays could not happen right now.

Lee sat back in his chair and patiently waited until they broke through the atmosphere of New Caprica. "Helo, how long until we make it back home?"

"We have a few minutes."

"There's something you need to know."

Helo's eyes followed to where Lee was looking, and his face paled as he caught sight of Eve. "What the frak is going on?"

"She's a part of our team," Kara said before Lee could respond. "She saved our asses when the first rescue attempt went sour. Eve is the sole reason we were able to get a message to the Fleet."

Helo shot her a confused look before shaking his head. "You know we wondered about that. Sharon just upped and told the Admiral that he had to send a Raptor back to New Caprica, that there were survivors, but she had no idea where the message came from and why exactly she was telling him to follow it."

"We can explain things more in debrief, but right now, I'm hoping you'll trust Kara and I enough to keep flying this ship home."

"Whatever," Helo said with a laugh. "I've learned the hard way that when Starbuck or Apollo tells you to do something, you fraking do it if you don't want to get sucker punched by the gods."

The FTL drive started powering up as Helo prepared to make the first jump with his ship. Kara watched her friend silently at work until old instincts kicked in and she realized something wasn't right. "Why are you biting your tongue, Karl?"

Helo winced but kept staring at the panel in front of him. "It's nothing, Kara. We can talk about it later."

"Karl Agathon, I am extremely exhausted right now. I am not in the mood to be fighting with you. So you either ask whatever the frak you're dying to ask or gods help you, I will shoot you down on the spot and pilot this Raptor home myself." Kara could see Lee staring at her in amazement out of the corner of her eye, and she threw him a quick wink.

"I just… well, I thought there would be more of you."

"Our first attempt at getting rescued didn't end well," Kara explained. "We lost almost all of our resistance group."

Helo took a deep breath and asked the real question that was on his mind. "Including Anders?"

"Sam gave his life for all of us. He's the only reason we managed to stay alive those first few minutes after the Cylons attacked."

Helo turned to look at Kara. "I'm sorry."

"I'm okay," Kara reassured him. "It took me a long while, but I'm finally okay." She started rubbing the inked skin on her ring finger as memories of what she had struggled through came back. "I'm okay."

"I don't remember you having wedding bands tattooed in addition to your arms," Helo remarked.

Kara smiled. "This one's new."

Helo's eyes went wide. "Really?"

Kara motioned behind her, and Helo turned to look at Lee. The Commander was holding up his hand to show off the same tattoo that was on Kara's finger. "What?" Helo exclaimed, turning to stare at Kara.

"It's not official yet," Kara explained. "We didn't exactly have a priestess among us."

Helo stared at her a moment before letting out a low whistle. "Boy do I wish I could have kept that pool going on Galactica. We canceled it and split the money when you finally got married, Kara. We thought we were being respectful, what with you off the market to Apollo and everything."

"What day did you bet on?" Kara asked. Her curiosity was getting the better of her again.

"You're going to laugh," Helo insisted.

"No, I'm not. Tell me, Karl."

"I originally had one of those weeks when we were trying to shoot down Scar, and then when everyone's days came and went, I picked the fraking week before you married Anders. Talk about shitty timing. I know now I fraking won the second bet, but there's nothing I can do to prove it."

"Gods, I'm sorry," Lee said, shaking his head. He knew how much it hurt Helo to lose a bet.

Kara winked at Helo when he turned to her for her part of the apology. She definitely wasn't saying sorry, but she did feel bad for him. "You should probably try to get those bets back from the rest of the people. We'll back you up."

Helo stared at her for a moment before sighing. "Are there any other surprises I should know about?" When both Kara and Lee shook their heads, he shut his eyes and threw his hands into the air. "Thank the gods for that." Helo pivoted in his seat to look at the back of the Raptor. "Chief?"

Tyrol motioned Bauer to look after Barclay and walked up to the front end of the Raptor. "LT?"

"Actually, it's Captain now, but I'll let that one slide." Helo winked at Kara before turning back to Tyrol. "I just wanted to let you know that I've been watching over your family for the past year on the Pegasus. Cally never gave up hope that you were alive, not for one second."

Kara watched as the Chief's face filled with relief. It was only then that she realized he had probably been worried that his wife would have mourned his death and moved on with her life.

"My… my sons?"

"They're just fine, Chief. Though lately Colin's been wondering where his daddy went to. Cally keeps telling him that you're going to be coming home any day now. Then she proceeds to scream at me as if I could do something to fix the problem."

Tyrol laughed. "That's my girl."

"FTL's engaging," Lee called from the ECO chair. "Jump in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1..."