Everyone knew the best entertainment in the whole Fleet could not be found at the triad tables or at the latest gym sparring match; instead, it could be heard on a small comms channel when the CAG "accidentally" scheduled his CAP to coincide with the Fleet's best pilot.

Everyone knew the best entertainment in the whole Fleet could not be found at the triad tables or at the latest gym sparring match; instead, it could be heard on a small comms channel when the CAG "accidentally" scheduled his CAP to coincide with the Fleet's best pilot.

Sometimes they just talked about stupid things like how great it was to sit on the Academy common after passing another flight test or the best way to bluff your opponent to fold their hand. Their tone was always slightly serious even when they were laughing with one another.

Occasionally, Starbuck would get bored with the monotony of CAP and would start rating her fellow pilots on a scale of 1 to 10. Usually it was just their flying abilities that were put into question, but if Lee didn't start playing along after a few minutes, she would switch to a scale of frakability. The conversation always fizzled out when Lee asked Kara what his rating would be. She never answered. It was part of the game.

It was a Fleet-wide secret that everyone already knew the answer. Kara never gave anyone a ten on her little frakability scale, and it was painfully obvious that she was saving that number for a certain CAG.

One of the more entertaining days was after Starbuck returned from Caprica the first time. Somehow Lee coaxed an "I love you" out of her mouth, although everyone listening knew she didn't mean it like he was pretending she did. It was rather hard to convey complete and total embarrassment over a comm line, but Starbuck managed to do it. That night she gave Lee a black eye in the gym. The Fleet found that rather entertaining, too.

There were days where the comm lines were completely silent from the second Starbuck and Apollo launched. Those were the days that everyone switched from crowding around the comm radio in the briefing room and raced to the observation deck. The silence meant that something was wrong between the CAG and the lead pilot, and they always worked out their issues in the sky. Sometimes they got to see textbook maneuvers that no other pilot could pull off. Sometimes they just saw Starbuck do her best to ram the hell out of Lee's ship in a rather dangerous game of tag.

Every day turned into a new kind of chaos, and the pilots and crew found it nice to have something to rely on. The CAPs started becoming more spread out as the Fleet gained more resources and the two pilots took on more responsibilities. However, it always seemed that when things got a little too serious, the names Apollo and Starbuck somehow magically found their way to each other's side on the flight schedule.

Admiral Adama felt the drop in Fleet morale when he promoted his son to Commander of the Pegasus. He always considered it to be the sign that Lee had been a good CAG. It wasn't until he overheard Kat and Racetrack talking about how they missed the familiar taunts of the Starbuck/Apollo CAPs that he realized the problem was a lot deeper than he thought.

Things changed, though. They always did.

The Fleet got busy settling down on New Caprica, and then it all went to hell. There were separations and reunions, tragedies and triumphs, laughter and tears, as they fought to get back what they had willing given up. These were days that no one thought they would make it through, but somehow the Fleet persevered.

Then, like always, things changed. Underneath all the mourning and sadness of losing the Pegasus, there was a sense of anticipation. No one would address the issue because no one wanted to admit how appropriate it was to find the positive in losing so many lives. No one wanted to talk about the sudden hope that they were going to survive.

William Adama walked his ship every night that they were floating empty above New Caprica, every day they were waiting to return to their captive brethren, every evening where the Fleet was reunited but still not healed. He walked because his people needed to know that some things would not be allowed to change. They would not alter their ways because of fear that the next person they pass might be an enemy and not an ally.

On the exterior, Adama was a strong, stable figure. On the inside, he was worried that he didn't have the strength to move his people past the loss of those lives on New Caprica and the sacrifice of the Pegasus.

For weeks, that secret fear festered inside of him, slowly digging away at his belief that he had made the right choices. It weighed on his mind until the day he walked past the briefing room and heard laughter.

He entered the room to see a large group of pilots gathered around the far wall. "What's going on here?" he asked, his voice less gruff than normal. He didn't want to scare away this moment.

"Nothing, sir," Hot Dog said, snapping off a salute. "We're just listening to the CAP."

"Who's on?" Adama asked.

"The CAG and Starbuck, sir," Kat replied.

Adama heard the sound of Kara's teasing voice mixing in with his son's laughter and smiled. He listened for a few seconds before looking at his pilots. He gave them a quick nod. "Carry on."

The sounds of laughter followed him down the corridor.