That night, Kara stood before her squadron of pilots in the briefing room. It was likely that by the following morning, she'd no longer be CAG, but she wanted to address them one last time before that happened. She needed to.

The room was emptier than usual, and the faces that looked back at her were sad and tired. "I'm proud of all of you," she finally began. "I know that our jobs aren't always fun…and some days they might not seem worthwhile, but we are the defenders of the fleet. Remember that always."

She held their looks for a long moment, letting that sink in, before calling "Attention!" Everyone got to their feet, hands raised to salute. "To Midnight, Poor-man, Whiplash, Ice, Chris, Joker, Hungry, Vapor, Barely, Whizzer, Chuck, and CLANG. Our friends and fellow warriors. May the Lords take in and bless their souls."

"So say we all."

Once his Raptor had been recovered after the battle, Lee had gone straight from the hangar deck on Galactica to the Life Station, barely pausing to talk to his father in-between. After it seemed clear that Kacey was out of the woods and Sam made a few thinly veiled efforts to mark his territory, Lee felt like his presence was no longer necessary.

He needed to go have a serious talk with Adama about how they were going to integrate crews and figure out where he and his wife would be sleeping that night. He'd made sure that Dee would be on one of the first Raptors to leave the failing Pegasus while he stayed as long as possible to make sure the ship would be on a collision course with one of the Basestars. He hadn't seen her yet on Galactica, and knew he'd probably have a 'discussion' coming on his whereabouts for the past hour.

Lee knocked on the doorframe to his father's office and offered a small smile when the Admiral looked up. "Close the door," Adama quietly told his son. "Were you down in the Life Station?"

"Yeah. Sharon's plan worked, and Kacey should be okay." His father just nodded; he'd already heard about the former issue.

"Sit down, Lee." He obeyed. "I've been going through the survivor's list from Pegasus…Nine Raptors and three shuttles made it aboard."

He frowned. "What about the other five Raptors and the last shuttle?"

"We're still putting together the pieces…Just before Galactica's squadron landed, Kara reported that Pegasus had sustained enough damage that jumping would be impossible. Several of the pilots observed the starboard landing pod breaking away. From your pilot's reports, only one shuttle and three Raptors that launched from the starboard side actually made it to the rendezvous point."

A feeling like being doused in ice water washed over Lee. "W-which ships made it?"

Adama's eyes met his son's. "She wasn't on any of them."

Cottle released Kacey to sleep in her own bed that night. Her tests were nearly normal, and she was getting antsy in the Life Station. Once Kara was done on the hangar deck, she went to bring her little girl home. Sam was waiting for them when she arrived. They got Kacey tucked in and Kara went to take a shower. She found her husband sitting on their bed, reading, when she was done.

"How'd your meeting go?" Sam asked.

"Good. I'm going to have to go see the Old Man in the morning. Right now we've got at least one too many of just about every position on the ship. I have a feeling there're going to be some demotions. We've already got two XO's, so Lee's probably going all the way back down to being CAG again. I'm sure he's missed flying, though."

"I think Raptors would be more his style these days," Sam couldn't help but mutter.

Kara gave him a Look. "He's getting back in flying shape. I'll kick his ass if he doesn't."

"Right."

"Kat and I would probably still each have a squadron…Maybe transfer a couple of the Pegasus pilots to me in order to even up the numbers."

"So you'd be taking orders from Lee?"

Kara smiled. "Well, he'd be my direct superior again. I never was so good at that taking orders thing, though." He didn't answer. I'm turning in; I want to go running before the meeting. You mind watching Kacey for the morning?"

"No problem."

As she slept, Kara found herself dreaming about flying. She wasn't in a Viper, though. It was some kind of vehicle she'd never seen before, and one that flew through the air instead of space. With a broad wing overtop of the four-person cockpit and an actual propeller-style engine like there were pictures of in history books back on the colonies.

Seated in the right-side chair of the cockpit, the co-pilot's place, Kara was surprised to look up and see that Lee was sitting to her left, one hand comfortably holding the craft's control stick. "Quite a view, huh?" he asked her.

And it was. Looking out the window, she could see rolling hills speckled with trees that had been turned various colors by the magic of autumn. The landscape wasn't familiar, but it was spectacular. New Caprica had always been cold and grey and drab, nothing like the planet that it was named after. Kara hadn't realized how much she'd missed the time on her homeworld before the Cylons attacked.

"It's beautiful," she told him.

Lee smiled, looking over his right shoulder to the backseat. "Hey, Kacey," he said. Kara looked behind them as well, and was once again stunned. Her toddler daughter had grown up into this beautiful vision, a grade school girl with faintly curled blonde hair and eyes that sparkled as she smiled. "What do you think?" he asked her.

"Can I fly next time?" she asked. Lee laughed.

"We'll talk about that later. When your mom's not listening."

Kacey giggled. "Okay, Daddy."

Kara shot awake, sitting up in bed. She had no idea what the dream was supposed to mean; why would Kacey be calling Lee her father? Kara didn't even think she could see her daughter calling Sam 'Daddy' and at least he was her husband.

Looking across the bedroom, she realized that the desk light was on. Kacey was in the chair, a crayon in hand, working on a picture. "What are you doing up?" she quietly asked the little girl.

"Coloring."

"You should be sleeping, not coloring. Come on, honey. Back to bed." She helped Kacey down from the chair and tucked her back into her bed. As she went back to the desk to turn off the light, she glimpsed down at the picture Kacey had made. Kara then got back into bed, deciding that she really needed some more sleep, because she could have sworn that Kacey's scribbles looked like the beautiful fall-colored hills she'd seen in her dream.

TBC...

A/N: Once upon a time, I liked Dee. Then Season 2.5 happened. If you still like her, please don't flame me; I did what had to be done.