"I made a promise to myself when I stepped on this ship two years ago not to take advantage of your vulnerability," Lee whispered before pulling Kara into his arms with a laugh, "but you always said my word was worth shit, didn't you?"


Lee felt the Raptor shake as they made their approach to Galactica. Things had turned to chaos since the Battle of New Caprica. He barely had time to sleep, let alone think about visiting his father. There were so many changes to make. Every day he got a handful of new personnel that he had to either train or retrain. Pegasus had major repairs needing to be done to its shields and starboard launch. There were newly-manufactured ships to inspect and endless amounts of paperwork to sign. Not to mention his new temporary deck chief was three months pregnant and dying to find a replacement so she could get back to her husband and son on Galactica.

Then there was his favorite part, the nasty process of selecting a new XO to serve under him.

The day he told Dee that she wasn't really fit for the job anymore was one he didn't want to remember. Their argument was the worst one they had ever had. In retrospect, this was probably because it was the first time Lee told her nothing but the truth. Their quarrel ended with her flinging her wedding ring in his face and storming out of the room. Lee bent down to pick up the thin gold band and hated the fact that he knew the argument was only half-finished while Dee was still blissfully ignorant of the problem.

He would never forget the look on her face when she came back later that night to ask for her ring back and he refused. It was time to stop lying.

Lee heard the voice of Galactica's comms officer as they were cleared for landing and wondered where Dee had ended up. He had gotten word that she denied a transfer to Galactica, effectively resigning her post completely. Lee figured she probably found a nice job on one of the freighters or luxury ships, taking and transferring comm calls.

If he was being honest, he really didn't care where Dee ended up. That was how bad their last fight had been. There were things she said that she could never take back, no matter how much she pleaded that she loved him. They couldn't just go back even if Lee wanted to.

The Raptor entered the launch tunnel, and Lee sighed, glancing over at Racetrack. The Lieutenant had volunteered to pilot over to Pegasus and pick him up in her spare time. She had jokingly admitted that everyone missed seeing his pretty face over on the Bucket.

Lee let out a deep sigh and shut his eyes for what was probably going to be the last moment's peace he would get for a while. He had spoken with his father numerous times over the past few months as they ironed out the consequences of the mission to save their family on New Caprica. It started out with brisk exchanges of information on casualties and ways the other ship can help repair the damage, but that shifted. By the last few calls, they only spoke about official business for a few minutes before talking about the lives of those that had finally returned to the Fleet.

It had taken Lee five months to work up the courage to ask about her.

His father paused a moment before asking if Lee could clear his schedule to come to Galactica the next day. Like always, Lee's mind instantly shifted to the assumption that something was wrong, and he quickly agreed. He called in a few favors, and here he was with two full shifts of downtime.

Lee and his father both knew his reasons for staying on Pegasus for so long. Adama had been the one to warn Lee about how fragile Kara was right now. He hadn't gone into much detail, but Lee figured it had something to do with Anders. It seemed like since the day she returned from Caprica that second time, everything in Kara's life had to do with that ex-pyramid player

It had pained Lee to stay away, but he knew it was what she needed. Kara wanted her old life back, and she had to do it on her own terms. Plus, Lee didn't really fancy having to help her come up with a way to fit Sam into a life that wasn't made for married couples. He loved her, but even he had limits.

There was a slight hiss as the Raptor evened out pressure and pulled to a stop in the middle of Galactica's hangar bay.

This was it.


Kara bit her bottom lip as she waited patiently for the Raptor to finish docking. She had run all the way from her quarters to the hangar bay the second she heard they were on approach.

The Old Man had told her the night before that Lee was planning on making a visit to his old home, and Kara couldn't hold her smile in. Adama knew she had been trying so hard to get her old life back for the past five months she'd been on board Galactica. She started with the simple things: staking her claim on her old bunk, winning that Top Gun mug back from Kat fair and square, reasserting her authority at the triad tables.

Then there were the hard things. She spoke to William Adama about the emotions that had sent her to Caprica in the first place all those months ago. She apologized to Helo for telling him that Sharon was his own problem and she just wanted to move on with her life. She explained to Colonel Tigh that she was the one who always raided his alcohol stash when he was on shift in the CIC.

Still, none of those things were exceptionally hard when they were compared to facing up to what she had done to herself.

Kara had let herself be blinded by the desire to have a normal life, to love and be loved. She had let herself believe that the gods wanted her to be happy with Sam, and it had hurt her to realize she was wrong.

They had been married for two months when the Cylons occupied New Caprica. Kara had been so wrapped up with the plans to form the resistance that she didn't notice something was wrong until it was too late. She came home one day to find Leoben waiting for her. Like always, she hit first and asked questions later.

However, this time, the answers did come in time.

Anders had agreed to go to the work camps the toasters had set up. He explained how tired he was of fighting the Cylons. He figured this was the best option they had right now. Kara could feel her heart freeze up almost immediately and fought to keep herself from losing the contents of her stomach. She shut her eyes for a moment and when they opened, she was determined to show Sam how stupid he was being.

An hour of arguing later, Sam had packed up his things and left the tent but not before begging her to come with him. That had been what hurt the most. He had loved her for well over a year of his life, and he still couldn't understand that asking her to come with him to that camp was like asking her to go back to one of those farms. She would rather die.

When Galactica and Pegasus returned to fight for their freedom, Kara had fought hard to get her people to safety. She had personally evacuated a dozen of those work camps before the Cylons realized what was happening. They hit the thirteenth camp with all their fire power just as Kara and her team reached it.

It was only by chance that she came across Sam's body in the wreckage.

When she first came on board Galactica, she went straight to the Old Man. Adama sat with her for hours while she told him every little thing they had done wrong in their relationship. She told him of the regret she felt for pulling him off of Caprica and into this hellhole of a life, for giving up her wings to try to make a go of it, for not trying harder to get him to stay with her in the city. Adama told her that it was going to take time. Se would have the space to properly mourn the man she had married if she wanted to move past it. He assured her that no one was going to push her back into the life she had once lived unless that was what she wanted.

That night she decided she didn't need to be pushed. She wanted that old life back, and she wanted it back now.

Adama helped her stay smart about it. She fixed the small things while she was still raw over losing her husband. Slowly the pain drifted away, and she tackled repairing the relationships she had broken by moving to the surface.

There was only one relationship left to repair, and if she was being honest, it was the most important.

She couldn't be Starbuck if she didn't have her Apollo at her side.

He was the one thing she missed the most when she was on New Caprica. She hated the way they had left things. Adama had been keeping her updated on how Lee was doing the past five months, and there were several times he had to deny her request to be transferred to Pegasus. He explained that having her on his son's ship wouldn't help ease Lee's burden even if she had developed an amazing talent at filling out paperwork.

It was odd. She was nervous. Kara Thrace was nervous about one man making a small trip to his father's ship in his spare time. She nervously played with the dog tags hanging around her neck.

A part of her wondered why Lee had stayed away for five months. She knew he was busy, but he was the commander of a battlestar. He could have ordered up a Raptor at any time, day or night, and been over here in a matter of minutes. No one would have looked twice.

He had stayed away for a reason, and something told her that reason was her.

Kara's stomach dropped out as the Raptor was moved into the hangar bay. She could feel her heart speed up and started bouncing on the balls of her feet to keep calm. She hoped to the gods that he didn't ignore her. She would take anything, a punch, a hug, a wicked glare, whatever. She needed something to cling to.


Racetrack smiled and pulled the headset out of her ear. "Word from Tyrol is you have a small welcoming party waiting for you, sir."

"Define small," Lee said as he got to his feet.

"One person," Racetrack replied. She knew she should probably tell Lee that it wasn't who he thought it was, but a girl had to get her fun wherever she could these days.

Lee nodded and gave her shoulder a pat as he pushed past her to the open ramp. He hadn't expected anyone but his father to meet him. After all, the Old Man was the only one who knew about this historic visit.

His eyes scanned the hangar. His father was nowhere to be seen. Lee felt the confusion set in and was about to ask Racetrack what the frak was going on when his eyes caught on the woman standing at the bottom of the ramp.

He felt his heart speed up as he finally saw it with his own eyes. Kara had made it through the destruction of New Caprica. She really was alive and well.

There was a vulnerability to the way she was standing there, staring at him. He had expected that. What he had not expected was the look of hope in her eyes. Her face light up in a smile he thought he would never see again, and he suddenly wondered if he had gotten it all wrong by staying away this long.

The memory of just how much he had missed her hit him like a brick wall. He glanced around the hangar bay to make sure no one was watching before taking the last few steps towards her. He knew that he should probably keep his distance. There had been reports of what the Cylons did to her on New Caprica, and he couldn't be sure how much that had damaged her.

Still, he needed this. He needed her.

Her smile widened as he let his eyes roam her face. "I made a promise to myself when I stepped on this ship two years ago not to take advantage of your vulnerability," Lee whispered before pulling Kara into his arms with a laugh, "but you always said my word was worth shit, didn't you?"

Kara didn't respond. She just tightened her arms around him and let him pick her right up off the floor. She gave Racetrack a small wink as the ECO walked down the ramp and then pushed the rest of the world away. From now, her world consisted of just her and Lee. Frak everything else. None of it mattered. All that mattered was Lee was here and he wasn't mad at her or ashamed of her or burdened by her.

"Why did you stay away so long?" she finally whispered in his ear.

Lee pulled back to give her a strange look. "You were settling in. I didn't want to burden you and Sam." Kara's face drained of color, and Lee wondered what he had done wrong.

"You… you haven't…" Kara's voice trailed off as she pulled away from his hold. Lee hated the way the sudden pain in her eyes looked so familiar. "No one told you?"

"Told me what?"

"Sam died on New Caprica."

Lee's eyes went wide as he realized how stupid he had been. His father had been hinting that things were different now that the Fleet was back together, that good people had lost the ones they loved, but until now Lee had just been too dense to realize his father was talking about Anders. He swore under his breath. Why had he thought forbidding anyone to speak to him about Kara or her pyramid husband was a smart idea? Why hadn't he thought to ask if Sam made it through the fight? "I'm sorry, Kara. I didn't know."

Kara nodded and, after a moment, seemed to recollect herself. "It's okay. Your father told me how busy you've been. I'm sure keeping up with the changes in my life wasn't your top priority."

"I should have known," Lee insisted.

"What would that have accomplished? You have your own life, Lee, and I have mine. We made that decision a long time ago."

"It was a stupid decision, one I wish I could take back."

Silence filled the gap between them, and Lee wondered how they could go from being so happy to see one another to reverting back to the awkward struggle of figuring out where to go next.

"How are you coping?" Lee finally asked.

"It hurt at first, but I'm doing okay now." Kara shrugged. "There was a lot that went wrong between us before he died."

"Will you tell me about it?"

Kara glanced around the hangar bay before nodding. "When we're alone." She let out a sigh. "Let's get the rest of the awkward topics out of the way. How's the wife?"

Now it was Lee's turn to look confused. Obviously he wasn't the only one to avoid certain aspects of Fleet gossip. "Dee and I haven't been married since the Fleet was reassembled. I don't even know where she is these days."

"What happened?"

"We had a nasty fight that kind of made some things clear."

"Like?"

Lee sighed. How could he explain this to Kara? "She said some things that made me realize I had never really known her."

They fell into silence again, and Lee decided he need to stop holding back on her.

"I could handle most of what she said about me because it was true. I didn't handle things the right way. But it was when she started attacking you that I realized whatever we had had was over."

"She attacked me?"

"She thought because you were back in the Fleet I was going to go running back to being… how did she put it again?" Lee smirked as he remembered his ex-wife's words. "Your bitch."

Kara burst out laughing immediately. "She didn't!"

"She did."

"Gods, I wish I had that kind of control over you."

"You do," Lee said softly, looking down at his hands. "The fact that you don't know it only makes it more true."

"I thought you hated me," Kara confessed.

Lee shook his head. "Not possible."

"But the way we said goodbye when I left for New Caprica…"

"I was an idiot."

"Oh."

"I miss you, Kara."

Kara felt her cheeks blush, and her eyes fell to the ground. "I miss you , too, Lee."

Lee waited for her to look back up at him before asking, "Do you think…"

"I honestly don't know," she whispered, "but I'd really like to try."

Lee nodded. That was good enough for him. "So, I heard the Old Man found a rather talented artist to paint him a new masterpiece for the walls of his office."

Kara's face filled with embarrassment. "I don't know if I'd say masterpiece."

Lee held out his hand to her. "Why don't you show it to me and I'll be the judge?"

She slid her hand into his and led the way to where they both knew the Old Man would be waiting.

They were far from being fixed, but it was definitely a start.