She shrugged, "Is there a reason you groped me when we hit the blacktop?"
He just winked into the mirror and she burst out laughing again. "I remember your rules, 'playing with Starbuck is full contact at all times.'"
She patted the cot next to hers and he sat down facing her then began to untie his own boots. "So, I have to ask Apollo, is there a reason for this sado-masochistic flirting we've engaged in or are you just frakking with me?"
He kicked his boots off and shrugged, "I'm not frakking with you, I promise."
She narrowed her eyes at him then said, "So, I noticed that Anders was watching us play pretty closely."
He knew that observation was meant to be a non sequitur on the surface; however he was sure she was testing the waters. Still, he couldn't help the sudden jolt of jealousy. "You mean he was watching you pretty closely. But even that's not true; he was mainly concerned with your ass."
Her expression was clear, 'Gotcha!' She grinned and stood over him, "Why Lee, are you jealous?"
He frowned slightly, "Should I have a reason to be jealous?"
She smirked, "I think so, I mean; he's an attractive man, athletic, a soldier and leader, a guy like that is pretty attractive to a woman." She slowly straddled his hips and sat in his lap, "You know anybody else like that around here?"
He shrugged as he gripped her hips tightly to prevent her from escaping. "I can think of one or two."
She smiled and her fingers drifted through his hair, "On the other hand, if someone; for example, a tight-assed viper pilot who blushes adorably, were to give me a reason not to flirt with a pyramid player, I would reward him handsomely." She grinned as her hips ground into his and he felt a stirring both within him and within his pants. "Do you know any tight-assed viper pilots? Maybe even ones who blush?"
At her raised eyebrow, he shrugged and said, "I know one or two."
She nodded, "Well, that's good to know. I'd hate to have to do something stupid and frak a pyramid player when I could have a perfectly good viper jock instead." She stood up and walked over to her cot to lie down facing him. Her expression turned more serious, "I hope you don't think-"
He knew exactly what he wasn't supposed to think, "I don't. It's just, there's a ton of issues between us, and we'll have to-"
She smiled slightly and nodded, "Before we can figure out what we're doing."
He laid down facing her as well, "Yeah."
She reached down and pulled her threadbare blanket over her then whispered, "Besides, you love me. You can't exactly take that back."
He chuckled, "There's that too."
She smiled and nestled into her cot as best she could, while he got comfortable then closed his eyes. After a while she broke the silence, "I must be doing something right."
He smiled slightly and whispered, "Why's that Starbuck?"
He could hear her grin as she said, "'Cause you Adama men keep on loving me back. G'night, Lee." He looked up at the ceiling with a wide smile; one thought on his mind that Kara vocalized, "What, did you think I didn't? Go to sleep Lee."
"Roger that, Kara."
&&&&&&&&&
Sharon made her way quietly through the base towards the airfield. It had taken several hours on foot to make it to the outskirts of the base from the resistance camp and it had taken her almost two days to actually time out the patrols and infiltrate the base. She'd had to be careful to avoid any humano-cylons as they would recognize her the second they noticed she wasn't connected to the network. She'd managed to disconnect herself from the network just before they met up with Apollo.
She knew the moment she felt her daughter forming within her for the first time that it would come to this. The Human race was bitter, prejudiced and warlike. It'd be a struggle not to get tossed out an airlock the second they got to Galactica but if she stayed…
If she stayed with the Cylons, Helo would be dissected, Apollo would be tortured to death and Starbuck would be plugged into a breeding machine until she finally gave up on life. As for her, she would be treated well, for the length of her daughter's gestation. The second she was born, her body would be dissected like Helo while her personality was boxed and studied to see why it worked when every other attempt failed.
No, it was clear, if she went with the humans she might be killed, if she stayed with the Cylons she would be killed.
She shook off those thoughts and walked across the airfield and boarded the nearest Heavy Raider. She started up the take-off sequence and primed the weapons system. With a practiced ease that her counterpart never quite mastered, Sharon urged the ship into the air and away from the landing strip. The flight towards the forest was short and as she banked the heavy raider to bring it down into the small clearing they'd agreed upon her sharp eyes caught sight of three figures just past the tree line, right where they should be.
She lowered the ramp and went out to signal the others. Moments later the trio emerged from the brush and climbed up the ramp. Starbuck was the first one to comment, "I was expecting guts like with the raider."
Sharon grinned, "The Heavy Raiders have the same internal organs as the Raiders but these are transports for Centurions and the human models as well. Besides the last thing any of the Sixes would want is anything slimy getting on them."
Kara frowned and turned to Lee, "Was that a joke? Did the robot girl make a joke?"
The viper pilot merely shrugged as Sharon returned to the controls. She closed the hatch while the others strapped into the seats, "We can reach Kobol in three jumps, Starbuck you should probably be up front so you can keep the Galactica from blowing us apart when we arrive."
A moment later they were lifting off the ground. As the Raider arced into the sky to break out of the atmosphere Sharon started to compute the first jump. Then the feeling of weightlessness settled over them when they finally tore away from Caprica's gravity-well.
Lee made a noise of pleasure and Kara snorted. "Missed it, Apollo?"
The chuckle he responded with was followed by, "Best feeling in the universe."
Sharon saw Kara turn in her seat from the corner of her eye and say, "The best feeling?"
"Yep."
"You've been with the wrong girls."
"I wouldn't say that, I mean Marcia was pretty talented…"
Kara's eyes narrowed in suspicion and there was slightly jealous glint in them, "Ass."
Sharon sighed, "Spinning up FTL, starting the clock." Fifteen seconds later, the stolen Cylon ship vanished from the skies over Caprica.
End Part