He had been fascinated by the law growing up, mostly because he'd loved his grandfather so much and wanted to know all about what he did, but the experience of the trial soured his youthful fascination as well as his memory of his grandfather to an extent. Seeing Baltar proclaiming his innocence when Lee knew for a fact he was guilty made him wonder why Joseph Adama would choose to defend people like this from the fate they deserved.
When he was nineteen he'd even asked him the question, and after a long, sometimes pontificating explanation that Lee found so appropriate from an attorney, his grandfather boiled it down to; 'Guilty or innocent Lee, everyone deserves the benefit of a doubt and a fair trial is just that.'
He clung to that thought all through the trial, but in the end, he just wasn't quite sure he believed it anymore.
His father's voice beckoned him; Lee pushed the hatch open and entered to find boxes spread around the couch. His father looked up and waved him of as he was coming to attention. "This is a personal call, Lee. I'm off duty." He pointed to the bar, "Have a drink."
As Lee poured himself a glass of water, his father picked up a new box to rummage through. "It occurs to me that as XO of Pegasus, you'll have your own cabin but very few personal items." He pulled out a framed collection of squadron patches and held them out with a hint of a grin.
Lee set his glass on the desk and took the offered patches with a wistful smile, "These were in your den." He ran his fingers over the glass reverently tracing the faded Atlantia patch that once belonged to his father. "Gods, I used to sneak into your den and just look at them for hours." He gave him sheepish grin, "Mom swatted my backside a couple of times for being in there without your permission."
Bill chuckled, "I remember showing these to you when you were six and seeing your eyes light up at my 'Black Emperor's' patch."
The two men shared a look, "That was the first time I remember wanting to be a pilot."
His father nodded, "That was the first time I knew you'd be a pilot."
Lee nodded in return and sighed, "I guess that's pretty much over now, they won't let the XO fly too many CAPs."
"You'll do well son and despite what's happened between the President, Commander Cain and myself, I think you two have an excellent rapport. She's stern, but she watches over her people. As XO, your job is to watch over her."
Bill gestured to the box on his desk and Lee looked inside. "A few odds and ends I've collected over time, it really seemed that I never made to time to get planet-side and return these things. In a way, I'm glad now, it gives me something to share with you." There were a few books and a couple of framed photos, an enlarged squadron patch from Vigilante Squadron and a sextant that his step-mother had given him when he took command of the Valkyrie.
"I also wanted to give you one last thing." Lee found his father was at his bookshelf and pulled out a weathered leather-bound book. "I know you've always been interested in the law, because of your grandfather. I also know that this trial was hard on you."
Lee looked up from the novel he'd found in the things his father was giving him with a quirked eyebrow, "How did you-"
Bill shook his head, "Son, anyone could see it. You're an idealist, you believe in the system and even though we all knew he was guilty, the way Baltar's trial was over so quickly worried you." He held out the book to Lee.
Lee reached out and took it and looked at the gold letters on the spine, "Law and Mind: The Psychology of Legal Practice, by Joseph Adama." Bill gestured to the book, "My father sent me that, his legal practice had long been a point of tension between us when I started going to college. Some nights around the dinner table, I was sure that we'd come to blows." He looked up with a trace of a smirk, "Sound familiar?" Lee chuckled.
"He'd taught me so much about the law while I grew up, about individual rights and freedoms. Then I learned about the kind of people he defended; murderers, robbers, rapists and he was getting them off. There were more than a few dinners that ended with me storming away from the table vowing silently never to speak with him again.
"Then one night; we had an argument about a client of his who'd been charged with kidnapping, raping, torturing and killing a six year-old boy. It wasn't an especially bad argument; we'd had a far worse one a month or two earlier about this guy but I just snapped. I looked at him and said it out loud; 'I will not live with a man who talks about defending the law and circumvents it with his every deed.' I walked out of the house, spent the night with my girlfriend and applied to the Caprica Military Academy the next day. The war would break out a few months later and I didn't speak to dad for six years, after he sent that book to me."
Bill sighed and picked up his glass again, "Mom told me that he wrote the book with me in mind, in the hope of finally explaining all the things in writing that he couldn't explain in words." He chuckled, "He accomplished that on page one."
Lee opened the book and read page one; 'Attorneys, especially defense attorneys don't always believe their clients are innocent. Hell, in all honesty, they rarely do. I almost never do, with good reason. What I do believe is that they deserve the chance to prove they are innocent. That is why the law is the most important of Man's inventions; it protects us from our basic need for blind vengeance…'
He looked up and his father spoke more gently, "If we had just thrown Baltar out an airlock without a trial it wouldn't have been him we wronged. We would have wronged ourselves. That's why I know you did the right thing, Lee." He smiled, "You usually do."
Lee put the book in the box with the rest of the items, took a seat and sighed, "Dad, in all the madness that's followed the arrival of Pegasus, it's been swept aside, but Kara and I did put together a mission proposal for rescue operations on Caprica." He noticed the grimace that his father tried to hide and frowned, "With all due respect, we can't abandon these people to death and slavery. We have a unique opportunity to mount a rescue and keep the fleet safe at the same time. I'm sure I can convince Commander Cain if you'd just give me the chance to do this."
He grimaced again and then his father was no longer his father in that moment, he was The Admiral. "I will bow to the President's recommendation on this and I suggest you do that as well, Major." It was a clearly an end to this topic of discussion and Lee took it for a dismissal as well. He picked up the box of items and took his leave.
He arrived in front of the CAG's office a few minutes later and knocked on the hatch. Kara's muffled invitation ushered him in and he found Kara at the whiteboard. Her face was pulled into an introspective pout while she spun the marker in her fingers of her right hand while tapping the thumb of her left hand against her jutting lower lip. With a sigh she wrote; "Flat Top/Hot Dog" in a slot before turning towards him and smiling widely. "Hey! Didn't I kick you off this boat an hour ago?"
He lifted the box in his arms and said, "House warming gift from the Admiral."
She re-capped the marker and set it aside before ushering him to the couch. He put down the box and they sat together, "I can tell by your sunny disposition it was another happy conversation with the Old Man." She grinned, "Let me guess…"
She cleared her throat and in a rather good imitation of his voice said. "We have to go back to Caprica."
Then in a gravelly approximation of his father's voice, "I won't risk our lives on the slim chance that there's people alive down there."
She spoke again in Lee's voice, "We can't leave them behind!"
His father's, "You're dismissed!"
Lee frowned for just a moment then chuckled, "I don't sound that pompous, but that pretty much covers it." He shook his head and looked towards the white board with unseeing eyes, "Best estimates of the heavy raider's FTL say we'd get twenty jumps out of it, twenty-five at most. I'm starting to run out of time. They're starting to run out of time."
They sat in silent contemplation for a few minutes, unsure of what to say to each other. During that time, Lee's hand sought out hers and he was pleased when she did him one better by lacing their fingers together and leaning against him. He rewarded the action by pressing his lips against the top of her head.
After the moment came to a close he spoke up, "Have you thought about my proposal?"
She pulled back enough to look up at him, "I told you, I'm fine with making a sex tape as long as I can show it off."
He winked, "My other proposal."
She nodded, "Yeah, and I can't see a hole in it. Besides, you guys do need a CAG over there pretty bad. Otherwise, you'll be doing all your work and the CAG's work too, then you'll have no time to devote to your very wonderful and obscenely sexy girlfriend."
"You either."
Other than elbowing him in the ribs, she ignored his quip and said. "I'll sign off on the transfer papers right away, then I'll give you a ride over to the Beast."
Lee looked down at her with a confused expression, "'The Beast?'"
She shrugged, "That's what the crew's been calling the Pegasus lately."
Lee nodded but frowned, "I'm not entirely sure I like my boat being called 'The Beast.' It makes Pegasus sound like some sort ship of monsters."
Kara smirked, "Let me guess, that's what you named your oldest friend?" She punctuated it by grabbing the organ she just referred to with a lewd twinkle in her eye. He didn't even bat an eye, "The Beast is one thing, but apparently your pilots nicknamed the Big G, 'The Bucket.'"
This time is was Lee's turn to smirk, "As in 'bucket of bolts?'"
She nodded, "Or 'rust bucket,' 'scum bucket,' 'sludge bucket,' any insulting comment you could come up with. That's the joy of nicknames. But enough talk of Galactica and your dick," She reluctantly rose to her feet and walked over to her desk. She found the appropriate forms and signed-off on them then gathered them up and turned to him. "Let's go."
She stopped Duck along the way and asked the pilot to take the stack of transfer to the XO, after the short walk to the Flight Deck and a conversation with the Chief, Lee was in the co-pilot's chairs while Kara completed her pre-flight. After clearance from the LSO, they were away.
En route to Pegasus, Kara turned to him with a smirk and said, "I could take the long way around the Fleet and 'run out of gas' for a while. You ever done it in a raptor?"
He smirked, "Tina Sloan, second week of War College." The look she gave him forced him to amend himself with an innocent face, "I mean, no, never. Is something like that even possible?"
She shook her head as she brought the raptor to a stop. She released the harness and turned to him as she tugged the zipper down, "I see I still have to train you."
Lee felt his ears burn and a flush of arousal spread through him, she laughed then turned forward again and said, "I don't think so. This is negative re-enforcement, Lee." With that comment, they were once again on the way to Pegasus.