Lee silently sat down beside Kara in the empty observation desk chairs, his shoulder brushing against hers, and sighed, "Sometimes it's the unknown that hurts so much."

Lee silently sat down beside Kara in the empty observation desk chairs, his shoulder brushing against hers, and sighed, "Sometimes it's the unknown that hurts so much."

She made a faint noise of agreement but didn't turn to look at him.

"Are you worried about the mission? Because you'll do fine. It's only a series of jumps, and yeah, it's all depending on the brains of a hijacked Cylon, but all in all, you've come up with crazier plans."

This time, Lee earned himself a small laugh. He relaxed a little against the back of his chair. "How long do you have?"

"About an hour and then I need to be down in the hangar bay."

"I'm sorry you couldn't launch from Galactica."

"It doesn't matter."

"I know you would have liked to."

"The Beast's tubes are the same as the Bucket's. Feel great coming out, but a bitch coming in."

Lee chuckled. She was right. Hands-on landings were only fun for the pilots who were the best of the best. Good thing that category included the two of them. "So are you going to explain to me why you're sitting in a dark observation deck instead of double checking every single detail of your mission?"

"I needed the quiet." Lee waited a moment for her to continue. "I'm scared."

"I'm sure he's alive, Kara." Lee hoped his voice was reassuring enough to hide the lie. It had been months since Kara left Samuel Anders behind. The odds were stacked against them.

"Yeah."

Lee knew immediately that Kara hadn't bought one iota of his bullshit. She was too perceptive for her own good. "If he's alive, you'll find him."

Kara nodded and laid her head on Lee's shoulder. They relaxed together in silence.

Lee let the moment stretch on for as long as he could, but after a while, he had to pull away. "I hate to be the adult here and break up the fun, but I have a large number of Raptors about to launch from my ship in a little over thirty minutes."

"Time to command," Kara commented as Lee got to his feet.

"Do you want to come with me?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm just going to stay here a few more minutes and then I have a few things to do myself."

Lee watched her for a moment, wondering if maybe he should just tell his XO to finish up the last-minute detail checks.

"I'm fine," Kara whispered, still looking out at the stars in front of her. "You don't have to worry about me."

Lee leaned in to give the top of her head a kiss. "But I like to."

Kara gave him one last smile, and then he was gone. She let herself relax back into the chair and focused on the stars. She would in the middle of that in less than an hour.

Her knees started shaking after a few minutes, and Kara wondered if maybe she should go find Lee. She had been calm for the first time in a long while when he was sitting next to her.

No, she decided, she had to be strong here. She couldn't always lean on Lee for support. Especially when he didn't even know the real reason he was needed.

She had told him she was scared, and he had rightfully inferred she was scared of finding Anders had died on Caprica while she was gone. He was wrong, though. She was more scared of finding Anders than she was of not finding him.

Finding him meant she had to face all this build-up she had been constructed over the past few months. She had gotten so hung up on the ex-pyramid player that she wasn't sure what part of that was reality. She had known him for a few weeks at most, and yet she was acting like he was the love of her life.

He wasn't the love of her life. She had already had a love of her life and was pretty sure the gods didn't give you more than one.

Yet Anders had made her happy for those two weeks. He had made it easier for her to be on her old home planet with no real plan as to how she was getting home. She was pretty sure he had felt the same about her, but she couldn't know for sure. Things had happened so fast while she was with him and so slow when she was not.

Kara heard her name being paged over the ship's comms and knew it was Lee wanting to speak with her. The fraker knew better than to leave her alone when she was this freaked out.

Suddenly, Kara found herself wondering how Anders could possibly fit into this life. They hadn't had much time to talk about their personal lives when she was at Delphi. She had barely touched on who the Adama men were to her. Would he be able to keep up with Lee or would Lee just cut him down with a few well-placed words? Would the Old Man be willing to accept Sam as a replacement for his youngest son? How would Anders adapt to seeing the pilot side of her?

A second page cut into her thoughts. This time it was urgent.

"Keep your pants on, Lee," she hissed, pulling herself to her feet. She took a few deep breaths shoving her concerns to the side. She was just going to have to wait and see.

As a third page filled the corridor, Kara had to smile despite her irritation. At least some things weren't going to change when she brought Anders home. Lee was still going to be the most annoyingly lovely man she had ever met.