Kara wasn't sure how much Kacey was used to being cooped up, but she thought a change of scenery might do them both some good. She needed to have a meeting with Kat, and decided to take a shuttle over to Pegasus instead of making the other ship's CAG come to Galactica. There had been a few raised eyebrows when they came into the pilot's training room, but no one was going to say anything in front of Kara. Pilots on both ships had a healthy respect for her right hook.

Kacey kept herself amused with a pad of paper and some crayons while the two pilots talked. Kara noticed, however, that Kat was sneaking a lot of looks at the little girl. "She's not gonna explode or anything," she told the younger pilot.

Kat glared. "You sure about that?"

"If I'm wrong, then I'll be arriving in hell with a surprised look on my face."

Before Kat could say something that would probably have had an end result of Kara going to the brig, the hatch opened. They both looked up as Lee came in the room. Kat went to attention and Kara started to do the same. "As you were," he told them both, just before he got attacked. Kacey wrapped both arms around his left leg, and looked up at him, smiling.

"Hi," she told him.

"Hello to you, too," he replied.

"Chocolate?" the little girl asked.

Lee laughed. "Oh, I see. You only like me for my candy."

"You're feeding her candy and no one saves any for me?" Kara asked.

"That was supposed to be a secret, kid," he quietly told Kacey. She just giggled.

"Are we done here?" Kat asked Kara. She didn't particularly feel like sticking around any longer than absolutely necessary.

"Yeah, you're done."

"What did I walk in on?" Lee asked once the younger pilot was gone.

"Nothing important…I guess we should probably head back to Galactica."

"Is Anders somewhere around here, too?" Kara sighed, turning to start packing up Kacey's stuff.

"No, he's not," she replied, her voice clipped. Her tone combined with the fact that Kara wasn't taking digs back let Lee know that something was up.

"You okay?" he asked, wondering to himself if he really wanted to know the answer.

"It's not your problem, Lee," Kara told him, reaching to pick up her daughter and leave. However, the little girl wouldn't let go of Lee's leg. "Kacey, come on." She shook her head.

Lee managed to pry the little girl's arms from around his knee and pick her up. "You want that chocolate bad, huh?" he asked her. "I'm sorry, kiddo, but I don't have any more right now."

"You don't go, too?" Kacey asked him. Lee frowned.

"What?"

"Everybody leaves. Not you, too." Kara couldn't meet Lee's eyes.

"Well, I live on this ship," he tried to explain, "And you and your mom live on Galactica. I'll come and visit the next time I'm over there, okay?" Kacey nodded. "Who else has left?"

"Daddy…and Sam."

"He's coming back, Kace," Kara spoke up. "He just went on a little trip, like we did today. He's coming back."

Lee looked up at her. "He left?"

She shot him a glare. "Give me my kid."

"Kara – "

"I am not frakking discussing this with you, Lee. My marriage is not your business."

He turned his attention to Kacey. "You listen to your mom, okay?" he told the little girl. "I'm sure everything'll be all right. And as for your Dad…you might miss him, but you're better off here without him. You've got a lot of people here that care about you. Okay?" She nodded, and Lee handed her over to Kara. "For what it's worth, which probably isn't a lot, I hope things are okay."

Kara sized him up for a few moments. "What changed, Lee? We went months without talking before the occupation, and now…"

"We're too good at hurting each other, I guess…I was angry and hurt a-and afraid for a long time, about a lot of things. But now I'm just tired of it all. This takes less energy."

Kara slowly nodded. "Thank you."

Even after Kara and Kacey had boarded a shuttle back to Galactica, Lee couldn't stop thinking about their visit. He didn't know a lot about Kara and Sam's relationship, other than that they'd seemed happy a year earlier. He'd been furious when she chose to give up her career in the fleet – however limited that career might be while orbiting New Caprica – in order to go play house on the surface. He'd never seen her so willingly put aside her ambitions, and he blamed Sam for changing the person that had been his best friend for so long. Both of them had seen the other's behavior as a betrayal, and things had spiraled downward from there. But now…

But now Starbuck was back. And Kara was a mother. And life wasn't as rosy as either she or Lee had originally imagined. He understood Kacey's fear of being left; he'd grown up with an often absentee father. Adama had always loved life in space more than being planetside, and his eldest son had eventually started to take it personally. Part of the reason he'd eventually joined the military was to figure out why his father had loved it so much.

Entering his quarters, he saw that Dee was there, working on reports. "Hey," he said.

"Hi."

"You had dinner yet?"

Dee shook her head. "Wasn't really hungry…I heard you had visitors today." Lee raised an eyebrow in question. "Once a communications officer, always a communications officer."

"She wasn't here to see me," Lee explained. "I…I went to find them myself."

Dee considered that. "You still care about her, even after everything she's put you through, don't you? And always will?"

He sighed. "She's my best friend. Always will be…But I didn't marry her."

She was quiet for a long moment. "Dinner sounds good."

TBC...