Lee jumped off the wing of the Viper and held his hand out for Kara to take, "I know traditionally I would have to wait until tomorrow night to ask you this, but can I dance with the bride?"

"Is everything okay?"

Lee twisted his head to look at the woman lying beside him. "Everything's fine. Why do you ask?"

"You keep tossing and turning and sighing. It's the same thing you do every time something's bothering you," Dee explained, not even bothering to open her eyes.

"Right," Lee whispered. He waited for his girlfriend to ask him again if something was bothering him, but the question never came. Instead, he listened as Dee's breathing evened out and she fell back asleep.

Lee let out a soft sigh and slid out of the bed. Dee didn't seem to notice. He picked a pair of BDUs off the floor and slid them on. If Dee was properly awake, she would know what was bothering him.

Taylor had the boards and would keep them for the next twenty-four hours. Lee wasn't entirely comfortable with surrendering his ship even if it was only for a little while, but his father made it clear. Even if he didn't have a personal stake in what was happening, propriety required the Commander of the Pegasus to attend the wedding of Galactica's CAG.

Lee slid on a couple tanks and a jacket before locating his boots near the desk in his office. When he stepped out into the corridor, he wasn't surprised to find it empty. It was the middle of the night, and right now, if you weren't on shift, you were resting up for the festivities the next day.

He did pass a few crewman eventually, but they didn't look twice. No one was ever surprised to see the Commander walking the corridors. It was what he did when he needed to clear his head.

Usually, Lee just did a few laps in the area surrounding his quarters and that was it, but this time he found himself taking the stairs down to the hangar bay. He stopped to chat with the deck chief for a few minutes and turned down the offer to help with the maintenance of the Vipers. That was another way he cleared his head, but he had a feeling it wouldn't work with this particular situation. Vipers were too close to the problem keeping him up tonight.

Lee's eyes fell on a Raptor on the other side of the hangar. "Is that from Galactica?"

"Yes, sir. When we ran into the Cylons a week back, it was damaged. Since we were closer than the Admiral, we picked up the ship and pilots. I just finished fixing it a few hours ago so it'll go back into their rotation as soon as I get someone to fly it over."

"I'll do it," Lee said before he could think better.

"You, sir?"

Lee nodded. "I can't sleep right now, and Major Taylor has the boards for the next day because of Starbuck's wedding. I might as well do something useful."

Laird nodded and gave his commander a salute. "I'll just let the LSO and the tactical officer know that the Raptor's launching."

Lee settled into the pilot's chair of the Raptor and started stretching out his shoulder. The old gunshot wound always tensed up during the first few minutes of flight. It hurt a little less when he tried a pre-emptive strike of pain reduction.

Twenty minutes later, he was stepping off the ramp of the Raptor and onto the ship that held his heart in more ways than one. The Pegasus was his girl, but it still felt like Galactica was his home.

Lee talked to one of the deckhands since Tyrol wasn't on the graveyard shift and then he found himself alone. He had forgotten how eerie this place could be when no one was around. Lee let himself wander between the ships, taking notice of all the dings and scars that he hadn't been around to witness. It was hard to grasp all the small things happening on this ship that he was no longer apart of, but he had to. Galactica wasn't his responsibility anymore.

"You're a little early, Commander."

Her voice taunted him from somewhere above, and Lee's eyes snapped up to see her sitting on the wing of a Viper. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was her Viper. "You're up late, Captain? Shouldn't you be getting your beauty sleep?"

Kara smirked. "I don't think a few extra hours are going to help that much."

The words faded away from their lips, but the smiles stayed in place as they continued to stare at one another. Lee found himself wondering when something so simple had gotten so complex.

"People are going to get the wrong idea," Lee said after the silence got to be too heavy.

"Why? We're in a public place and you supposed to be over here in the morning anyone?"

Lee shook his head. "I wasn't talking about the fact that we're together."

"Then what we're you talking about?"

"You are sitting by your lonesome on the wing of your Viper on the eve… no… the morning of your wedding."

Kara reached out and patted the metal next to her. "Well, then hop up here and it won't look so strange."

Lee was about to tell her just how much worse things would get if he followed her suggestion when something flashed across his face. Not knowing what it was but knowing that something was wrong, he walked up the docking ladder and took hold of the Viper wing. His muscles strained with the burden of hefting himself up onto the ship. He hadn't done this in years.

Kara let him settle in next to her before asking, "Isn't this great?"

Lee let his eyes sweep across the hangar bay. There was little motion for the first time in what was probably a long while. A kind of quiet peace mingled in with the cold and sturdy feeling of the metal beneath him. "It's beyond great," Lee whispered.

Lee let himself study the woman beside him out of the corner of his eye. She had forgone the usual double tanks for a t-shirt, but the sweats were the same ones he had seen her in every day since the initial attacks. Her bare feet were dangling over the edge of the ship. She looked tired. "Aren't you tired?"

"Exhausted," Kara said, sighing softly, "but that doesn't mean I go to sleep when I shut my eyes."

Lee nodded in understanding. It was odd how you didn't realize how amazing a solid night of sleep could be until it was taken away. Before the attacks, he barely had to lay in his bunk a minute before drifting off. He missed those nights.

Now all he seemed to do was stare up at the metal of the bunk above him, or ceiling of his personal quarters as it was these days. There were too many plans and schedules to make for the next day, too many possible ways that he could lose his people to this fight.

Dee never seemed to have that problem. He knew that any other man would find that irritating, but he didn't. Instead he found the small detail that she barely noticed his fitful rest the worst part of it. He tossed and turned, spent hours staring into empty space, and the woman he spent every night laying next to never said a word.

Lee shook his head. That wasn't entirely true. Every once in awhile, she surprised him by asking what was bothering him. In fact, she had done that only a few hours earlier. So that obviously wasn't what was really bothering.

What was bothering him was he always said it was nothing and she always believed him. There was something not right about that.

Dee had been hinting at marriage ever since she found out about Kara's upcoming nuptials. She said that Kara and Sam opened her eyes to the fact that permanent bonds were finally an option, but Lee knew better. Dee had a not-so-irrational fear that Lee was holding back from her because of Kara. Lee had told her she was crazy every single time she brought the subject up, but it often wasn't enough. The small hesitance in his voice gave away the real answer.

He knew that he shouldn't be afraid of taking this step with Dee. She had been good to him, good for him, for many months now. Granted, their relationship hadn't started out on the best terms, but when he stopped to take a good look, he found most of the relationships surrounding him started in the same way. This was a unique time they were living in.

"Lee?" Kara's voice broke him away from his thoughts. She waited until he looked over at her before continuing, "We used to be friends once, didn't we?"

Her question threw him off completely. All he could do was nod.

"I mean, I know things haven't been good between us in a long while, but we're still us. Underneath the harsh words and fists, we're still us."

Lee slid his hand across the smooth metal of the Viper until it was laying on top of hers. "What's wrong, Kara?"

"I…" Kara's words caught in her throat, and Lee felt his stomach clench with worry. Whatever this was, it was bad.

Kara turned her hand over to slide her fingers into his. "I don't know if I'm making the right choice, Lee."

Lee bit on his bottom lip to keep himself from responding. He was afraid of what would come out of his mouth if he did.

"Sam makes me happy, Lee, but I can't help wondering if I'm using him. He's been good to me for well over six months now, and I know that it's not a fluke. He's a good man." She paused, and Lee squeezed her hand lightly to let her know he was listening. "I haven't opened up to him. You know firsthand how hard it is to get me to talk about myself. That's why at first it didn't bother me. Then the days started piling up. I mean, frak, Lee! I'm marrying the man in the morning, and he doesn't know about Zak."

Lee's eyes went wide. "You never mentioned it?"

"He knows about Zak," Kara corrected. "He knows the Admiral's youngest son was my fiance, and he knows he died. He just doesn't know about my part in it."

"You didn't tell me for years," Lee pointed out.

"You were Zak's brother, Lee. I had every reason not to want to tell you. What reason do I have for not telling Sam?" Kara shook her head, not waiting for his answer. "And it's not just that. There are other things that I haven't told him."

The weight of her words mixed with the small tingle of curiosity at the back of his head. A rare silence filled the hangar bay.

"Gods, Lee, why did I ever think I could do this?"

"Do you love him?" He could feel Kara's body tense, and he turned to look at her. She was nibbling on her bottom lip just like she did when she was nervous. Her eyes were centered on the metal floor below them, but every few seconds, they darted over to look at him. He tightened his hand around hers. "Kara? Do you love him?"

"I…" Her voice faded as she pulled her hand away.

Lee nodded. He didn't need to hear her answer. He knew a thing or two about the convenience of keeping someone who loved you close even when you weren't sure. The words fell from his lips even though his heart wasn't behind them. "It's okay, Kara."

"Is it?" Kara said, twisting to face him. "I mean, really, Lee, is it okay that I'm not sure I love this man I'm going to be marrying in a matter of hours?"

"You said you were happy," Lee pointed out.

Kara kept her eyes locked with his. and for the first time in a long while, she dropped her mask. "I lied." She could feel Lee's eyes on her and wondered if she had finally pushed things so far that now even the invincible Starbuck could fix them. Her eyes dropped to her lap, and she stared at her hands as the guilt kicked in. "Say something," she whispered.

He hesitated only a moment, and in that moment, Kara could feel her heart crumble.

Her mother was right. She fraked up everything she touched.

Lee jumped off the wing of the Viper and held his hand out for Kara to take, "I know traditionally I would have to wait until tomorrow night to ask you this, but can I dance with the bride?"

Kara regarded him for a second before that familiar tingle of trust warmed her body. She took his hand and let her body slid off the plane. It was a bit of a surprise when she felt his arms shift to hold her. "You're serious?"

"I want my obligatory dance," Lee teased, already moving their bodies to a silent rhythm.

Kara wanted to tell Lee that she would never force him into dancing with her at her wedding. Hell, she had told the Old Man that he should do his best to keep Lee from even coming. It would have broken the last bits of her heart to know that he disapproved of her desire to be happy for once, but she was used to the heartache.

Yet here he was. She knew this wasn't easy for him, but he was still going to show up.

Their bodies continued softly swaying for a few minutes until Lee pulled away from her. Kara watched him stare down at his feet and then his eyes flicked up and locked with hers. "Don't do it, Kara."

"Lee…"

"Don't marry him."

"And why would I want to do that? Sam is offering me a chance at a future."

"You already have a future," Lee insisted.

Kara shook her head. "There's going to be absolutely no need for Viper pilots within the next few months. Baltar's dead set on making our kind obsolete."

"That wasn't what I was talking about."

Kara cocked an eyebrow and smirked. "Are you offering me a reason to stay that's better than flying?"

"I hope so."

She held his eyes for a moment before shaking her head. "Stop playing around, Lee."

His hand grabbed her arm as she turned to walk away. "I'm not playing."

Kara's eyes went wide. "You're seriously asking me to cancel this wedding?"

Lee nodded. "You're not happy."

"And upsetting everyone I care about by calling off the ceremony would make me happy?"

"Not one person would be upset with you if you chose not to go through with this."

"I think Sam would," Kara pointed out.

"He'll get over it."

Kara shook her head, but she let Lee's hands drift down to pull her into another dance. She wasn't saying yes right now, but she wasn't saying no. She just wanted her obligatory dance just like Lee.