That night, Kacey sat on her bed, playing with her panther and stealing a few glances at her mother and stepfather. Kara was busy with paperwork at her desk while Sam read a book in bed; they'd barely been talking to each other for the past few days, and Kacey had a feeling that that was at least partially her fault. She hadn't been left alone with Sam since the day of the fight on the deck; Kara always claimed it was because he needed time to heal and Kacey would wear him out. She didn't mind spending her time with Sharon or Helo or Adama instead, but was sad that she'd caused trouble.

When Sam got up to go to the bathroom, Kacey slid off of her bed and toddled over to her mother. "Hey, kiddo. What's up?" Kara asked her.

Kacey pushed her panther into her mother's hands. "Here."

"You don't want it anymore?" She shook her head. "Why not?"

She looked down. "So he won't be mad," she quietly admitted. Kara picked her up.

"Hey, listen to me. Sam is not mad at you, okay? If he's mad at anyone, it's me."

"Because of me."

"No, because…I don't even know why. It's a grown-up thing. We're stupid sometimes. But it is definitely, definitely not your fault."

"Promise?"

"Yes, I do."

Kacey wrapped her arms around her. "I love you, Mommy."

"I love you, too," she whispered. A couple weeks earlier, those words had been the most difficult things in the world for Kara to say aloud. She'd mocked Lee two years earlier for admitting them to her, and it had taken months before she could answer Sam when he said them. But Kacey was different.

Kara looked up when she realized that Sam was in the bathroom doorway. She had no idea how much of their conversation he'd heard, but from the look on his face, she figured it had been enough. "I'll be back," was all he said before heading out the door.

"How about we get you ready for bed?" she asked the little girl after a long moment. "You want your panther back?" Kacey shook her head no.

By the time Sam came back, Kara had given Kacey a bath and tucked her in and was just sitting on her bed, staring at nothing. Without a word, he started getting changing out of his clothes and into pajamas. "This has got to stop," Kara quietly spoke up. "I'm tired, Sam. We've all been through too much in the past few weeks and months to put ourselves through this, too."

"What do you suggest?"

"I don't know. You don't want to be here."

"And you don't want to leave."

Kara sighed. "Sounds like we have a problem."

"I don't belong on this ship, Kara. There's nothing for me to do here."

"At one point before we went down to New Caprica, we'd talked about you getting assigned to the marines."

"No, YOU talked about it…Were you ever happy on that planet?"

"Yeah, for a little while…But it was never home."

He slowly nodded. "Yeah…I guess a pyramid court wasn't going to change that, huh?"

Kara smiled slightly. "No, only a hangar deck."

Kacey's favorite babysitter, other than Adama, was Sharon. For some reason that probably stemmed from losing Hera, the Raptor pilot loved spending time with the little girl, and the feeling was mutual. Kacey spent the following afternoon with Sharon and Helo while Kara was on duty. In a surprisingly quick amount of time, Kacey colored pictures, ran around the room for the sheer fun of it, and made a small tower out of paper cubes that Helo had folded for her.

"Play game?" the little girl energetically asked once she'd grown tired of building. Helo laughed.

"Aren't you supposed to be taking a nap at some point?"

"No! Play game!"

"What do you want to play?" Sharon asked her. Kacey shrugged. "You could make up a story like the last time you were over. Where's your cat?"

"Gone."

"Did you lose it?" Helo asked.

Kacey shook her head. "It was bad." They exchanged a look, but didn't comment.

"Okay, how about hide and seek?" Helo asked. Both of them just stared. "You're telling me you've never played hide and seek?!?"

"I was never a child, Helo," Sharon pointed out.

"Oh…Right. Well, it's not that complicated. One person is 'it' and everyone else hides, and the first person has to find them."

"That's not a game; that's our lives," she told him.

"All right, ix-nay on the hide and seek…Simon Says? Wait, Nevermind. Forget I actually suggested that…" Sharon hid a grin. "I'm running out of ideas here. You think Kara would mind if we taught her to play Triad?"

"Yes!"

When Kara got back to her quarters that night after picking Kacey up, she was surprised to see that the room was empty. "Sam?" she called, thinking he was in the bathroom, but she didn't receive an answer. Putting Kacey down, she looked around the room and noticed a piece of paper on her desk.

Went to visit a couple of the guys on the Geminon Liner. I'll be back in a day or two.

"Frak," Kara muttered to herself, sitting down on the chair. At the same time that she was furious with him for just getting up and leaving without telling her, she knew exactly why he'd done it. It was something she possibly would have done if the situation was reversed. The last line of the note was only a small comfort.

We'll talk when I get back. I love you.

TBC...