The service was beautiful, taking place on the hangar deck just like so many other mass funerals that they'd had in the past two years. A priest spoke, as did Adama and a few of the crew. Kara stood at the front, just to the right of Lee while Kat stood on his left, their squadrons behind them. Once they'd been dismissed, several people pushed forward to offer the new CAG their condolences. Kara could tell from the look on Lee's face when he'd about reached his tolerance on dealing with everyone.

"May I have a word with you, Sir?" she asked him. He nodded, excused himself from the others, and followed her off the deck.

"Thank you," Lee said once they were out in the hall. Kara nodded.

"No problem."

"You feel like having a drink?"

"Actually, I should probably go find Sam; I just left him in there."

"Right. Nevermind." Kara instantly felt bad. He'd been her best friend through so much crap over the years, and now when he needed her, she was blowing him off.

"I'll stop by your place in a little bit, okay?" she offered.

"Don't worry about it, Kara."

"No, I'm serious. You better save me a couple shots of whatever you've got."

Kara was pretty sure, however, that telling her husband she was ditching him to go have shots with Lee wouldn't go over so well, so a pilot's meeting became her cover story. Sam agreed to pick up Kacey, so Kara headed for Lee's room.

The glass bottle on his desk was already two-thirds empty when she came in the hatch. "The rest is yours," he told her, his words slurring slightly.

"Is this the chief's brew?" Kara asked, picking up the bottle.

Lee nodded. "He made a special batch." After one swallow, Kara could see what he meant. The stuff was basically rotgut, way stronger than what they normally bottled for enjoying during card games.

"Whoa," she couldn't help but mutter as the alcohol incinerated her throat. Lee grinned as she set the bottle back down.

"I thought the infamous Starbuck would drink anything?"

"I could match your ass shot for shot," she replied. "I just choose not to."

He shrugged, taking the bottle back. "More for me," he said before working on finishing its contents. "How's Kacey doing?"

"Good…She's feeling fine, and I think she's adjusting okay."

"I had some more chocolate for her, but…It was in my office."

"That's all right…I don't think she REALLY only likes you for your candy." Lee laughed.

"Tell her she's going to have to make a new picture for me."

Kara nodded. "I will."

He sighed, sitting back in his chair, the mood in the room now more somber. "So, here we are…Back to the beginning."

"Is your dad demoting you?"

Lee nodded. "To major at least. It would screw things up in the chain of command if the CAG was ranked higher than the XO."

Kara smiled. "Yeah, but it would be fun to watch Tigh call you Sir whenever you dropped off the CAP schedule."

Lee's expression turned contemplative. "You think we're actually winning?" he asked Kara.

"What do you mean?"

"Between Cloud Nine and the exodus, we lost a few thousand people this past year. We…we lost even more now. Are we actually winning this fight, or just slowly slipping away to oblivion?"

Kara sat forward, wrapping her fingers around his. "As long as we're still fighting, we're winning." He thought about that for a long moment before nodding. "You know I'm getting your ass up to go running with me tomorrow, right?"

"Excuse me?"

She grinned. "Remember all those times you hounded me about getting back into shape when I busted my knee?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Kara laughed. "Oh, I'm sure you don't. But I do, and revenge is sweet."

Sam started working the next day, so Adama had a little helper for the morning while Kara was flying. She'd passed along Lee's request for a new picture, so Kacey spent her time carefully making a scribble drawing for his desk while her 'grandfather' did his own paperwork.

The picture's recipient stopped by late in the morning to give his father the latest reports on what was being done with his squadrons. They'd been renamed the Galaxy and Pulsar squads, paying homage to the ships that each squad had come from. Galactica had also received some extra help in the form of additional deck crews. So far things were going well in the hangar.

Lee and Adama were just finishing up when Kacey ended their meeting for them, pushing her picture into Lee's hands. "Were we taking too long for you?" Adama asked the little girl, pulling her onto his lap. She solemnly nodded.

Lee cracked a smile, looking down at the paper he was holding. Kacey hadn't managed to stay within the lines at all while coloring in the heart that she'd roughly drawn out, but he got the idea. Two yellow shapes – just a shade or two darker than Kacey's hair – and a brown one flanked the heart. "Thank you," he told the little girl.

She smiled. "Keep it with you," was her order. "Then you not alone."

Lee had a feeling that things around Galactica were going to get interesting when Kacey's vocabulary caught up with her mind. "I will," he told her. "Come here." She wiggled off of Adama's lap and walked over. Lee picked her up in a hug. "Is that you?" he whispered to her, pointing to one of the yellow shapes.

"Uh-huh. It's family."

"I…I'm not your family, Kacey." She frowned for a moment, showing a bit of hurt at the rejection, but aimed a finger at her picture and poked it.

"Family," she said again, with a bit of force, and Lee decided not to argue.

TBC...