DISLAIMER: Characters and the universe of Battlestar Galactica do not belong to me.

Title: the watcher

Author: Sweetooth

Pairing: Kara/lee

For days he had been watching her from afar, wondering if she would ever be back to normal. Ever since she had came back from New Caprica she had been quiet, her eyes were cold and distant, she just went through the motion of life. Gone was the loud, impetuous pigheaded pilot, all that was left was the shell of the woman he once knew. Physically she was ok, she had healed from the numerous bruises and abrasions, her knee was still a little sore but her walking stick had disappeared a few weeks ago.

At first he had tried to talk to her, tried to understand what had happened down there, she would tell anecdotes about her life before the cylons but every time he had broached the subject of her incarceration the only response he had ever gotten was a look filled with a mix of fear, distress and pure hatred. And each time ha had asked each time she had retreated a little further inside herself. So he had stopped asking and start watching.

But today something was different, nothing to his knowledge had happened to explain that change. It was subtle, a little something that made all the difference, the ghost of a welcoming smile on her lips when he sat at her table to eat, she took part in the conversation instead of just listening, she seemed more present. It gave him hope.

It took time, every day bringing a little improvement, and one day while he was waiting in front of the CAG office to deliver some papers he saw them. The blond head next to the dark one, discussing and working side by side as they used to. And he realized that the tension that had been there ever since their reunion six months ago had vanished, that since that day in the commissary he hadn't heard of any screaming match or fistfight.

And he smiled, Apollo and Starbuck were back. Kara and lee might still have a long road to go but now he knew that things would be back to normal if not right now at least one day.

And it gave him hope.

End