The fire started in Launch Tube C as Kara was landing her Viper, and she would have been scared it would consume her if she hadn't heard Lee's voice over the comm saying he would be there as fast as humanly possible.
ooooooOOOOOOoooooo
The fire started in Launch Tube C as Kara was landing her Viper, and she would have been scared it would consume her if she hadn't heard Lee's voice over the comm saying he would be there as fast as humanly possible.
The last thing she remembered doing before the smoke finally got into her lungs was calling his name frantically.
ooooooOOOOOOoooooo
Kara felt her eyes open slowly and wondered why it hurt so much to do so little. She was staring up at a familiar patch of grey tiles. It took her a moment to put two and two together. She was in sickbay. Groaning, she shifted in the bed and was pleased to feel all the necessary appendages in their proper places. It had been one hell of a crash. Her hands came up to slip the oxygen mask off her face.
"Lieutenant, you cannot be doing that."
Kara glanced over to see a med tech looking like they wanted to be anywhere but here. "Frak off," she growled, her voice choppy from lack of use. "And get me Cottle while you're doing it."
"Never mind. I'm already here," Cottle grumbled, stepping into the curtained off area. "So you're awake?"
"What's wrong with me?" Kara asked outright. She didn't want to sit here through the pleasantries only to find out she was never going to fly again.
"You inhaled a lot of smoke in that cockpit, hence the oxygen mask, but luckily the cockpit shield and your flight suit kept the fire from getting to you. A day or so in here filtering that smoke out and you'll be good to go, Lieutenant."
A small feeling that Cottle wasn't telling her everything nagged at the back of her mind. "I can fly?"
"You can fly. We just need to get you rested, and I have half a mind the real reasons for that have nothing to do with your accident. You pilots run yourselves into the ground, and then you expect me to pick you up."
Kara felt a sense of relief wash over her. If Cottle was being cranky with her, that really did mean things were okay.
"You need to get some more rest before the whole fraking ship figures out you're awake and decides to crowd up my sickbay," Cottle growled. "All our beds are full right now. I don't need your social life keeping my people from doing their jobs." He gave Kara one last meaningful look and then moved on to his next task.
Kara stuck her tongue out at the space the doctor had just been in. It wasn't like she intended to ignore Cottle's instructions. She just got bored easily. Shutting her eyes, Kara tried as hard as she could to go back to sleep.
One minute later, she was groaning as her eyes popped open. She really hated this place. It was too quiet.
Her eyes drifted to the closed curtain next to her. Cottle had said she needed to rest. He didn't say she needed to rest in bed. Kara pushed herself to her feet and ignored the small pang of muscles tight from lack of use. The sickbay was a little on the hectic side as always. Kara's eye drifted around the room, settling on a few familiar faces. It looked like Cottle was right. This place was overflowing with people in need of some sort of healing.
Kara started shuffling out of her little space and hoped she was being discrete. Cottle would kill her for being out of bed. She made it only a few feet to the curtained area next to her when her breath caught in her throat. Obviously he wasn't lying when he said she still needed that damn oxygen.
Her hand came up to touch the wall, and she was about to turn around when a voice called out to her. "Lieutenant Thrace, you can't go in there."
For a second, she forgot that she was struggling and turned to the med tech from before. "Excuse me."
"I have express instructions not to let you disturb him."
"Who?" Kara said. She watched the tech's eyes go wide as he realized he had already said to much. "Frak that," she hissed, pushing back the curtain. No one told Kara Thrace what not to do.
Kara's heart stopped as soon as she figured out why she had been forbidden from this area. The man on the bed had bandages completely encasing his head and running down his chest to cover his left hand. There wasn't a lot to identify the man by, but it didn't matter. Kara would know him anywhere.
His name slipped from her lips as she felt the whole world go black.
"Lee."
ooooooOOOOOOoooooo
Kara felt the pressure on her hand before she opened her eyes to see someone sitting at her bedside. William Adama squeezed her hand and smiled. With that small gesture, reality hit home. "What happened?" Kara mumbled. She had no idea why she was go groggy.
"You passed out for a few minutes, Kara. When you awoke, you were rather hysterical. Doc Cottle had to sedate you."
Kara shook her head. "Not that. What happened to him?"
Adama sighed. "I was the one that told them to keep you from seeing. I thought it would be easier if you heard about it before you saw him. I'm sorry."
"It's okay, sir," Kara said, tightening her hand in his. "Just tell me. Did that happen because of me?" The look of sadness in his eyes was answer enough. "Right."
"He was the first one to enter that launch tube, and he wouldn't let anyone stop him. They kept telling him that the fire had to die down before they had any chance of getting you, but he didn't listen. The Chief told me he kept yelling that you were depending on him."
"I was," Kara said quietly.
"He got burned pretty badly, but he got the cockpit hatch open. Cottle said if he hadn't pulled you out so quick, you would have lost too much oxygen to come back to us.'
Kara felt the tears coming to her eyes as the drug-induced haze slid away. She was starting to feel her heart break all over again. "I'm not worth it."
"My son would beg to differ. He kept fading in and out of consciousness until Cottle was able to tell him you would be fine. Since then, he's been sleeping peacefully. They say that's the best thing if he's going to get past the burns."
"How bad are they?"
"He's going to have scarring on his face, chest, and arm. Cottle seems to think as long as he maintains sensitivity in his hand, though, he'll keep on flying."
"Oh gods," Kara said, feeling the tears come to her eyes. She hadn't even thought about the possibility that Lee might never fly again. This was all her fault.
"Don't," Adama whispered. "Do not do this to yourself, Kara. We both know Lee. Sometime his actions might be based on what he thinks is the right thing to do, but he never… never… does anything that he does not want to do. Few things in life mean the world to Lee, but you're one of them, Kara. He didn't hesitate when it came to protecting that. He's alive. You're alive. That's all the matters."
"But, sir-"
Adama shook his head, cutting her off before she could start. "I won't hear it, Lieutenant. You may have a right to feel guilt over this but not yet. Let's find out how bad this is before we let ourselves drown."
Kara felt his words cutting through her need to torture herself and even managed a smile when he stood up and brushed a kiss across her forehead. "Thank you, sir."
"Cottle's only let me visit Lee so far, but I'll let him know that you're to be added to the list. Let my son know that what he did was worth it." Adama leaned into give her another kiss and then shut the curtain behind himself.
Kara managed to hold in her tears until she was sure the Old Man was out of hearing distance. She bit down hard on her fisted hand to keep from crying out and just let the tears stain her face.
It took well over an hour to finally get a hold of herself. The tears just wouldn't stop coming down.
Luckily, though, she was in control when Cottle decided to check up on her. If he knew she had been practically hysterical only a few minutes earlier, he never would have given her permission to walk around the sickbay.
Kara was hesitant at first on how far she pushed it. She knew that Cottle really only meant for her to walk the area around her bed. They didn't know if the smoke had gotten out of her lungs completely yet so it wouldn't be wise to get too far from the oxygen mask. Kara saw the logic in this which is why she walked around the room for well over an hour before stepping outside her curtained in area.
She stuck to the wall and just observed what was happening in sickbay for a little bit. A lot of people had received minor injuries from the accident in the launch tube, which was why it was so crowded. It had cleared out a great deal while she was being sedated.
After a few minutes, her eyes drifted to the area she had been forbidden to enter before. The curtain was pulled halfway open, and as much as she knew it would hurt, she took a few steps closer. She was almost there when a couple nurses pushed past her and entered the curtained area. Kara hung back behind the curtain and listened to the nurses complain about having to change the bandages on the patient so often.
Kara saw one nurse nod to the other. "The wound looks like it's healing cleanly. Cottle will be happy."
The nurses shifted their position as they went to grab more gauze and wrappings, and Kara's eyes went wide with her first glimpse of Lee's injuries. There was a noticeable line of blisters and uneven skin along Lee's left cheek. It continued down his neck to cover his shoulder and a third of his chest. His hands were still bandaged so she couldn't see if the burns were worse there.
"It's a shame really." The nurse's words tore Kara's attention away from Lee. "The Commander's son was one of the last really attractive men. Everyone keeps saying how sad it is that he might have lost his flight career, but I say it's sad that he's lost his appeal. The poor man is going to be fighting a hard case of the lonelies when he's finally on his feet again."
Kara felt the color drain from her face as she saw the other nurse nod in agreement. For the first time since she woke up, she felt the familiar tingle of anger in the pit of her stomach. She ignored the fact that the act of breathing was starting to hurt and stepped into the curtained area. "Get out."
"Excuse me?" one of the nurses said, narrowing her eyes.
"I said get the frak out of here right now," Kara screamed. "Get out."
"Sir, this patient needs to be bandaged."
"Then leave the fraking bandages," Kara hissed, "but take your sorry asses out of her right now before I really get mad."
The nurses exchanged looks, and Kara could tell they were remembering all the rumors they heard about the brash lead pilot. They knew her threats weren't empty. "And get me Cottle," Kara growled once they were moving out into the main area.
She shuffled over to the bed and took a seat on the edge. The fire slowly drained from her. She stared at Lee for a few minutes before her trembling hand came out to pick up the bandages. Laying pads of gauze onto his wounds, she did her best to smile. "I don't know what those nurses were drinking, probably some of that gods awful brew the Chief's been messing with, but they're wrong, Lee. The way I see it, you're going to have to beat the women off with a stick. Not only are you adorable and charming but now you're wounded. Every woman's a sucker for a man that needs her."
Kara sighed and grabbed the bandage roll. "Especially me, Lee. So, if you would be nice enough to wake up for me, I promise that I'll be by your side every single step of the way as you recover. Because I know that you and me can beat this. We can do anything together, remember? You said that to me when we were on Kobol. Just because I laughed in your face at the time doesn't mean I didn't believe you."
She gently lifted his arm a few inches and started rolling the tape around the blistering skin. "And trust me, you don't have to worry about being appealing to the women of the Fleet because they don't get to have you. You are my knight in shining armor, Lee, not theirs."
Kara finished wrapping his arm in silence, but when it came time to wrap his head back up, she couldn't do it. She had placed bandages over the burns on his cheek. The wound needed to be protected. She couldn't cover his head completely, though. She needed Lee to resemble himself a little right now. She needed to see that this was going to be okay in some way.
She tried to still her hand as she brushed the tips of her fingers along the unharmed side of his face. She couldn't even begin to imagine what it had been like for him. "You're stupid, you know," she whispered. "I've done nothing to earn this type of devotion from you. Hell, half the time I've been a downright brat to you and you really should have smacked me in the mouth."
Her cheeks were wet with tears again, proving she was far from done with the crying. "You have to be all right, Lee. I know I'm going to be doing some stupid thing real soon, and I need you around to stop me. And I need you to get better so I can thank you. If I didn't know you were coming, I might have panicked and tried to get out of my Viper by myself. Just knowing that you knew what was happening was so comforting. I guess I just want you to wake up so I can do the same for you." Kara wanted desperately to hold his hand right now, but she knew it would cause him pain. "I'm going to be right here, Lee, for however long it takes. So don't stop fighting."
"Kara?"
Her eyes darted up and then went wide when she saw Lee staring back at her. "You're awake."
"Who can sleep when there's someone yammering in your ear?" Lee teased. He went to sit up and winced. "Frak me. I thought Cottle had me on some kind of pain killer here."
Kara reached out to help him move and did her best not to push on any of his wounds. "Comfortable?"
Lee nodded, and for a few seconds, they were silent.
"Can I ask you a question?"
Kara smiled. "Anything."
"What was with the dramatic monologue-keeping fighting stuff? The Old Man did tell you that I'm not dying, didn't he?" The corner of his mouth tipped up in a half-smile when he saw her face go pink. Kara could be so overly dramatic in times like these. She would never admit it, though. "I'm going to be just fine," Lee assured her. "The burns are going to heal, and my hands should be fine. There's a chance I might not be able to fly a Viper in combat again, but I don't think I'll be completely grounded."
Lee let his eyes drift over Kara's face as she stared down at her hands. He knew she was dealing with an incredible amount of guilt right now because that's how Kara dealt with these kinds of things, but she looked like she was about to cry. He couldn't have that.
Kara felt the bandages on her cheek before she realized Lee was tipping her chin up. "Plus, a cocky fly girl once told me that chicks love scars."
The smile came to her lips before she even realized it was happening. "They do."
Lee dropped his hand to rest on top of where hers lay on the bed. "I'm holding you to what you said, though."
"Which part?"
"I'm going to need your help getting over this. Everyone keeps saying I'm coping with this really well, but no one knows me like you do. I'm going to be just fine until I'm not. Then I'm probably going to get angry and resentful. It's only natural. That's why I need you to stick close. I need to be reminded of why I did what I did."
"You did what you did because you're a complete idiot," Kara insisted.
"See? I'm going to need you to keep telling me that. We don't want me to have another bout of stupidity. Gods only knows what trouble I could get into then."
"I figured I'd find you two together," Cottle grumbled as he stepped into the curtained area. "Glad to see you've decided to join us in the land of the conscious, Captain." He didn't wait for Lee to respond and just barreled on. "Lieutenant, might you explain to me why two of my nurses are afraid to come down to this part of their work area?"
"I didn't like their standard of care," Kara smirked. "So I told them they weren't needed."
"And are you going to do their jobs while they're off being unneeded?"
"I bandaged him up," Kara said, pointing to Lee, "and I think I did a pretty good job."
Cottle shook his head. "So I guess I should have some of my boys wheel another hospital bed into this area?"
Kara nodded. She had no intention of leaving Lee's side right now, especially since he asked her to stay.
Cottle rolled his eyes and stepped up to the side of the bed. "All right. I need to take a look at your injuries since my staff didn't have time to finish their check."
Kara sat patiently perched on the side of Lee's bed as Cottle went over each and every inch of the burns. He made a few notes on the chart by the bedside and then rewrapped the wounds. "You're doing just fine, Lee," he reassured him. "I'll be able to let you know about your hands in a few days. We just have to wait for the swelling and blistering to go down a little bit."
Kara watched Lee's head nod just a little bit and suddenly she realized how exhausted he must be. Cottle gave her one of his looks before leaving the two of them alone. "You should get some rest," she whispered, patting his hand gently.
Lee shook his head. "I want to keep talking to you. I like talking to you."
"Those pain killers must be finally kicking in," Kara observed. He really was starting to look rather sluggish. "Do yourself a favor and don't fight it."
"I want to stay," he whispered, his eyes already drooping closed. "I want to make sure you're okay."
"I'm fine, Lee. You made sure of that."
"Well, just don't do anything stupid before I wake up," he warned her.
"I promise. Nothing stupid until you wake up."
"Good."
It took only a few seconds for Lee to fall asleep. Kara slid from the bed and shut the curtain behind her as she stepped into the main sickbay area. She flagged down one of the staff members. "If he wakes up, come get me. I don't care if I'm deep asleep or threatening to kill you if you keep trying to get me up. If he's awake, I'm awake."
The tech shook his head vigorously, obviously intimidated by her. She suddenly realized this was the same man who had been around when she woke up and when she found Lee. Poor guy was always in the right place at the wrong time.
Kara was laying in bed for only a few minutes when she heard Cottle's gruff voice over the chaos of sickbay. "What do you mean she's resting in her own bed? Lieutenant Thrace does not follow orders like that!"
Kara chuckled to herself and shut her eyes. She was going to need her rest for Lee's sake.
