It was the little quirks in their relationship that made people laugh: the way Lee could always tell when she was bluffing at triad, the fact that she knew the one noise that would drive him insane, the reason why when they thought no one was watching they dropped the facade of sarcasm and simply enjoyed each other's company.
Lee paced the hallway outside the President's office on Colonial One and tried to ignore the strange looks he was being given. Everyone was used to seeing the young Captain on the ship. He was President Roslin's military advisor, after all. He just normally didn't look this scared.
Granted he was no longer there in an official capacity, but he still liked to help the President with a few insights that were unrelated to anything political. They had learned their lesson about that the hard way. Lee stayed away from the hard-hitting topics, and Laura Roslin didn't ask for his opinions on anything that would get him into trouble.
So, here he was again. A military advisor feeling more nervous and anxious and on edge than he probably had any right to be.
He had paced the halls a million times during the preparations for the Quorom of Twelve, the tense days after Kobol when the President retook office, and the fragile transition period as Galactica and Pegasus became one fleet. The last time he had been here was right after he took on the black market.
During none of those times did he look so scared to death.
"Captain Adama." Lee stopped in his tracks and looked up to see Billy standing in the open hatch. "The President's finished her meeting with the Quorom. She was surprised to hear you were waiting for her. There was nothing in her books about you stopping over."
"I'm sorry for not calling ahead," Lee joked, jogging the few feet to where Billy stood. "She's not busy, is she?"
"No, it's just the normal things."
Lee went to move through the hatch but paused at the last second. "Billy?"
"Yes, Captain?"
"Is she in a good mood?"
"I'm sorry, sir?"
"The President, is she in a good mood?"
"I think so."
Lee nodded his thanks and pushed past Billy into the conference room. He tried to ignore the eerie feeling he always got from the empty chairs and podium. It was odd to see this room with no one in it. Then again, he was thankful that things were at a little bit of a lull right now.
"Captain Apollo." Laura's voice cheerfully greeted him from the couch in her inner sanctum.
Lee walked past her desk and took the seat on the chair opposite her. "Madam President, I'm sorry for not warning you about my visit."
Laura waved her hand at him, brushing his comment to the side. "I'm just glad I didn't make the appointment and then forget about it in my old age." She let herself smile at her joke for a second and then steeled her face. "Now what is it you needed to speak to me about?"
"It's… um… well, it's about the military fraternization policy."
Laura's eyebrows shot up, but she motioned for him to continue.
"Right now it stands that military personnel are forbidden to enter into personal relationships with their fellow crewman."
"A rule I know your men seem to informally disregard," Laura teased. It was no secret that Galactica's pilots and crew had been compensating for the dire circumstances by clutching to any little bit of human contact they have. The whole Fleet had been operating that way for months. Then again, it wasn't a forbidden act for the civilians.
"I'm not going to lie and say that isn't correct," Lee said. He looked up from his hands to see that Laura was staring at him with a rather amused look on her face. He couldn't help but think that if she was amused now, she would in her element when he got to the best part of this whole plea. "Sir, I was wondering if maybe it wouldn't be better if we redefined the fraternization policy according to the new times that we are living in."
"You want me to eliminate it?"
Lee shook his head. "No, I just want you to refine it. Introduce stricter guidelines as to how the relationship will be monitored to ensure they don't get in the way of how things are run. I want my people to be given a chance to have a life outside their job but only if it is safe."
Laura Roslin stared at the young man that she trusted like so few others. There was something more to this plea than what he was telling her. "And what about you?"
"Excuse me, sir?"
"What would this change in policy mean for you, Lee?"
Lee felt his heart freeze at the use of his first name, and he suddenly knew that the President saw right through him. "I… I want to marry Kara."
Laura's eyes went wide. "Lieutenant Thrace?"
Lee nodded. "I don't know if she'll say yes, but I want to ask her."
"I was aware that you and the Lieutenant were attached to one another, but I didn't realize it was to this extent," Laura stammered. She really had no clue this was coming.
"I love her," Lee said softly.
Laura realized his words were more for himself than her. He was reminding himself why he was doing this. It wasn't hard to see the Captain was both nervous and embarrassed. Laura reached across the space between them and touched his thigh gentle. "Could you please explain how this happened?"
Lee's eyes darted up to meet hers, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the look of understanding on her face. This wasn't the President speaking. It was Laura Roslin. His mind started racing, trying to figure out how to explain the shift that happened between himself and Kara. Roslin knew the two of them as the pair of hotshot pilots that kept most of Galactica and Pegasus alive in one way or another, but she didn't know them as Kara and Lee.
Lee knew how to begin, but he just wasn't sure if it would sound right.
It was the little quirks in their relationship that made people laugh: the way Lee could always tell when she was bluffing at triad, the fact that she knew the one noise that would drive him insane, the reason why when they thought no one was watching they dropped the facade of sarcasm and simply enjoyed each other's company.
They were such a conundrum to those around them which was what pushed them together in the first place. What they had was indefinable, and it just felt natural to let it drift to the next level.
It was the little things that no one saw which made them fall in love: the way Kara always brought him coffee in his office after an all-nighter trying to work through the paperwork, the fact that Lee knew when she needed to be in a cockpit more than she needed to be with him, the reason why when they thought no one was watching they dropped the façade of always being at each other's throat and just let themselves feel.
It was the fact that Lee knew he couldn't live without Kara that pushed him to take this step. They had snuck off for a quiet moment together the night before, and for the first time, when he told her how much he loved her, she said it back. Lee had never known you could be as happy as he was in that moment.
"These things have no explanation," Lee said, breaking the silence. "They just happen. You can either chose to ignore it or embrace it."
"And you're embracing it?"
"I'm trying, sir," Lee said, biting on his lower lip. "So what do you think?"
Laura narrowed her eyes before letting out a loud laugh. "I think your father would be awfully angry with me if I kept him from gaining Kara as a daughter."
Lee's eyes went wide as he realized what she had just said. "So, you'll do it?"
"It's going to take some time, Captain, but I think you have a strong point." Laura sighed and got to her feet. "Now if you'll excuse me, my rather light day has just gotten a lot heavier. It seems I have to start reviewing the military policies to make sure they are up to date with our current situation." Laura gave him a wink and walked over to her desk.
Lee heard her pick up the phone and start talking to her presidential aides, requesting meetings to be set up and texts to be located. He took that as his cue to leave.
Laura watched Lee make his way past towards the hatchway. She was delighted to see that heavy nervousness had left his body. "Hold on a moment," she said into the phone before pushing it to the side. "Captain Apollo?"
Lee stopped in his tracks and turned to face her. "Yes?"
"She's going to say yes. Trust me." Laura gave her military advisor one last smile and returned to her phone call. "And would you do me a favor and schedule a dinner with the Admiral and I for two days from now? I think we're going to have a lot to talk about."
