Kara had been keeping watch for some hours when she heard a movement form inside the cave. She turned around and saw Zarek kneeling next to Lee, with a syringe in his hand.

"Hey, what are you doing?" She called out and quickly walked over.

"He has developed a fever and is shivering all over. I don't want to risk an infection, that's why I wanted to give him some antibiotics. Of course I can save the meds and just let the fever rise, if that's what you want."

"I want you to stay away from him. If you think he needs medication, you talk to me first." Kara replied in an agitated voice. Then she knelt next to Lee. He really was shivering and she could see the sweat on his face. When she put her hand on his forehead, she could feel the heat radiating from him. "Well, do it!" She hissed at Zarek.

Smiling to himself, he injected the antibiotics in Lee's arm. When he looked up at Kara again, he could see the worry in her eyes. "I can take the next watch. You can stay here with him. Let me know if it gets worse, okay?"

Although Kara hated to play by Zarek's rules, she was grateful for his offer. She didn't want to leave Lee's side now. She needed to know if the medication worked. "Okay." She nodded at him and Zarek left to take over her place at the entrance of the cave.

"Don't you dare die on me, Lee Adama." Kara whispered while she took his hand and squeezed it gently. Despite the medication the trembling got worse after a few minutes. It broke her heart to see him like this and she would have done anything to help him. Kara knew it wouldn't help him, but she lay down next to him and put her arms around him nevertheless. As she held him closely, she prayed to the gods not to take him away from her. And she promised him that she wouldn't let go of him until he got better.

This was how Sam found them the next morning. Seeing his wife closely cuddled with Lee made him angry within seconds. She had assured him they were just friends and here she was – lying next to him instead of her husband. He knew she was worried about him, but that wasn't an excuse. Not in his eyes anyway and not at this moment. Deciding that it would be best if he talked to her after he had calmed down a bit, he walked over to Zarek and told him that he would try to find something to eat. Then he left without another word.

Smiling, Zarek watched the other man leave. He had seen the anger in Sam's eyes and he could imagine what had brought that anger up. He had seen Kara lying next to Lee Adama. He had always thought the two were close. Maybe they were even closer than he had expected. Of course he could have told Sam about the Captain's worsened condition last night. But this really was none of his business and with Sam Anders and Kara Thrace fighting he might have a chance to get out of this situation in his own way. He wanted to save the settlers as much as Anders and Thrace, but he wasn't willing to give his life for that. He was fairly certain that Anders felt the same way, but he wasn't sure if Thrace wouldn't be willing to give up her own life and his for that of a thousand others.

When he looked back at the two young people still sleeping, he suddenly had an idea. Kara Thrace might be willing to risk her own life, but what about the life of Lee Adama? He believed that she would be more than willing to give up the settlers, if that meant keeping the Captain alive. So all he had to do was make sure that Apollo didn't get better – without killing him of course. As long as he wasn't able to defend himself, Thrace wouldn't leave his side. And with that he didn't think it would be difficult to get Sam Anders to agree to his plans, not Thrace's.

XXXXXXX

When Kara woke up, she felt sore all over. A cave floor wasn't the most comfortable place to spend the night. When she noticed that her head was lying on something warm and soft, she opened her eyes and looked around herself in confusion. Her head lay comfortably on Lee's arm. Pulling herself up to a sitting position, she took a closer look at her friend. He looked much better than he did last night. The shivering had stopped and when she checked his temperature, his skin felt cool. Now he just had to wake up.

"Lee?" She gently shook him on the arm. When he didn't react, she intensified the shaking a bit. "Lee, could you wake up for a second?" She hadn't meant to sound so pleading, but when she saw his eyes slowly open, she didn't care anymore. "Good morning." She smiled warmly at him.

"Morning." He replied weakly. Then he looked around at his surroundings.

"Remember where you are?" Kara asked quietly.

"Yeah ... Are you okay?" He turned his attention back to Kara.

"I'm fine. It's you I'm worried about."

"I'm okay. I just need to ..." He winced in pain as he tried to sit up. Groaning he let himself fall back on the ground.

"You're not okay, so just stay lying down."

"Good Morning. I'm sure you're already missing your husband." Zarek called from behind.

Surprised Kara turned around to him. She hadn't even noticed that Sam was gone yet. "Where is he?"

"He left early this morning to find something to eat." Zarek explained.

"Oh good, I'm starving ... But he shouldn't have gone alone. Why didn't you wake me? One of us should have gone with him."

"I think he needed some time alone." Zarek replied smiling.

"What do you mean?" Kara looked at him confused.

Before Zarek could answer, Sam returned. He had filled their water bottles and carried their rucksacks. They hadn't had time to retrieve them the other day. They had packed some food, blankets and a med kit for their little trip to the mountains and had left it when they were looking for the crashed viper. The contents wouldn't last long, but it was better than nothing.

"I hadn't even thought about them. Good to know I have you by my side." Kara smiled warmly at Sam.

Instead of giving her an answer, he completely ignored her and started unpacking the bags. Throwing a quick glance at Lee, she got up and walked over to her husband. "So, what do we have for breakfast?" She asked quietly.

"You packed the bags yourself, you should know." Sam replied coldly.

Confused, Kara looked at him. "What's wrong?"

"Why don't you tell me?" Sam snapped at her.

"What are you talking about?" She put her hand on Sam's arm, hoping that he would at least look at her.

"Just forget it." Angrily Sam shrugged her hand off and walked out of the cave. "I'm getting some fire wood."

"Sam." Kara wanted to go after him, but she didn't want to leave Lee alone.

"Maybe you should go after him." Lee told her quietly. He didn't really want her to leave. He wanted her to stay with him, but he also wanted her to be happy. And she had chosen Sam to be the one to make her happy, so he wasn't going to stand in her way. And he knew she was only staying here because of his injuries. He didn't want to be the reason for a fight between her and Anders.

Uncertainly Kara looked back and forth between the cave entrance and Lee. Finally she made a decision. "I'll be right back." Then she got up and quickly followed Sam outside.

Lee was just about to slip back to sleep, when he heard Zarek talking to him. "How are you feeling this morning, Captain?"

When Lee opened his eyes, he was surprised to find Zarek kneeling right next to him. He hadn't even heard him come closer. "Better, I think."

He didn't remember much from the last day, but he remembered that it was Zarek who had helped him, so he figured he owed him his thanks. "Thank you for your help yesterday." Speaking the words was harder than he had thought. He didn't like the feeling that he owed something to this man.

"You would have done the same thing." Zarek said smiling. "You still have a slight fever. I will get you some antibiotics so it won't rise again." When he saw the glint of mistrust in Lee's eyes, he went on. "Of course I can wait until Captain Thrace is back."

"She's not a Captain anymore. She left the military." Lee didn't know why he just said that. It wasn't really important anymore if she was in the military or not. But for some reason it still mattered to him.

"So I have been told. Old habits die slowly, I'm afraid." Again Zarek smiled at him.

Lee had always detested that smile from Zarek. His face might be smiling, but his eyes always betrayed his cold and deceitful character, no matter how nice he was acting.

"So, you want to wait with the antibiotics?" Zarek asked.

Lee wasn't willing to show any weaknesses. Being injured was bad enough. Waiting for Kara to agree on his treatment and hold his hand was definitely a weakness, so he slowly nodded and allowed Zarek to give him the antibiotic. He only flinched slightly when Zarek stuck the syringe in his arm. He usually never cared about being stuck with a needle, but his whole body was already hurting and this small prick felt a lot more painful because of that.

"Try to get some sleep, Captain. You need your rest." Zarek smiled when he put the syringe back into the med kit. The empty vial he slid into his pocket.

Lee struggled to stay awake, but suddenly he felt even weaker than before. Talking to Zarek had tired him out more than he had thought. A few moments later he was deep asleep.

XXXXXXX

It took Kara a few minutes to find her husband. Relieved that she could finally talk to him without anyone listening to them, she called out to him. "Sam, wait!"

Sighing, Sam turned around and watched Kara come closer. "What do you want?"

"Why are you acting so cold? Did I do something?" Kara looked at him afraid. Last night everything had been all right between them. They had had a little argument, but she had already forgotten about that. She didn't think that he was still angry about that.

"How about spending the night with another man, Kara? I saw you this morning cuddled together with your friend. I'm not an idiot. A blind man can see you have feelings for him." He shouted at her.

"What? That's what this is all about? Sam, he had a fever last night, he was shivering and I ... It's not like I could have given him a blanket or anything. What was I supposed to do? I couldn't just leave him alone." Now it was Kara who was shouting. She couldn't believe that Sam was angry at her for helping Lee.

"You didn't have to spend the whole night at his side. I was pretty cold too, in case you care." Sam knew he sounded pathetic, but he couldn't help it. He was afraid to lose Kara and even though she had told him she loved him several times, he had a feeling that her love for Lee Adama was even bigger.

"For frak's sake, I fell asleep. Excuse me, it was a long day. We were both exhausted. Had you been the one hurting, I would have done the same." She glared at him angrily.

Sam let out a deep breath. "I know that. It's just ..." His voice trailed off and he looked helplessly at Kara.

"It's what, Sam?" She asked softly. The sad look in his eyes hadn't gone unnoticed by her.

"You are so close to him. You know him so much longer than me and ..."

"He's my best friend. He has been for years. I can't just shrug that off. But I married you, Sam. You're my husband." She gave him a warm smile and stepped closer to him.

"I'm sorry. I'm being stupid." Smiling back at her, Sam pulled her into an embrace and kissed her. "Well, I guess we should really start looking for that fire wood. And than we still need to come up with a plan to kick some Cylon asses." He said grinning when they pulled away from each other after a while.

"Yeah, let's do that." Uncomfortably Kara looked back to the cave. She had promised Lee she would be right back. But she didn't want to make Sam angry again and if she went back now, she was certain that would happen.

Sam noticed her uneasiness. Pushing back his jealous thoughts, he took her hand. "It's okay, Kara. Go back to him. He needs you more right now than I do."

Grateful Kara looked at him. "Thanks." She said smiling.

XXXXXX

When Kara got back to the cave, she was disappointed to find Lee asleep again. She had hoped he would feel good enough to stay awake for longer periods. She shook him on the arm slightly, but got no reaction. He was already so deep asleep that he didn't even notice.

"He needs his rest. Let him sleep. He's still very weak." Zarek told her.

"Yeah, I guess." Kara replied quietly. While watching Lee in his sleep, she tried to think of a plan to rescue the settlers. What would Lee do? He usually could come up with three different plans within minutes and she just had to put in some out of the box changes. They were the perfect team when it came to combat tactics, in the air and on the ground. But this time it seemed she would have to come up with a plan on her own.

Tbc

A.N.: Special thanks to laurie31 for beta reading this chapter – you have been a tremendous
help. :-) Thanks to everyone else for reading and please review. ;-)