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I'm sorry it took me so long to update – I hope people are still reading. This is a more mushy chapter than I might normally write but what the heck! On a random note, as I sat down to begin writing this the song "Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi came on the radio so I figured that writing this chapter the way I did was fate. I mean, really, how often does that song come on? Enjoy and please, read and review!

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The Wild, Wild West – Not Just the Luck of the Draw

So Starbuck did what she always did when she didn't know what to do. She walked away.

Lee watched as a too quiet Starbuck silently slipped off her seat and headed away from the campfire. No one else seemed to think there was anything wrong but he knew, just absolutely knew, that something was up.

The nuggets kept firing questions at him, which he couldn't just ignore but he kept his eye on the direction that Starbuck was heading so he could follow her in a bit.

He thought about yelling out to her, telling her to stop, that he wasn't done with his story yet, but something told him not to. Whatever had made her get up and walk away was clearly something that she wasn't willing to share, at least not with the group.

Hopefully later she'd be ready to share it with him. He'd have to slow up on Chief's brew though if he was still going to be coherent when later arrived.

So he set down his cup and continued, already thinking of a good stopping point.

"And then the President of the Colonies tells us that she's dying…"

Outside camp

Starbuck sat down on her favorite rock, laid back with her hands behind her head and looked up at the stars.

It was impossible. It had to be…otherwise she must be certifiably insane.

She was frakked up, difficult, stubborn - she knew that much, but until this moment "insane" hadn't been a member on her long list of attributes. And she really didn't want it to be now, but the other possible explanations made even less sense. Plus, they were scary, more scary then the almighty Starbuck wanted to admit.

Thinking back to earlier in the day, she realized that Lee had never asked her what the name of her horse was and she allowed herself a small satisfied smile.

Later when he sought her out (which she knew he would), she would reveal that little tidbit of information and see what he thought of THAT. She had a feeling that he would instinctively know that she hadn't named it in honor of that particular kind of snake.

No, Apollo would know.

She almost couldn't wait to see his face.

But what did it all mean?

She reached under her shirt and pulled out her dog tags that she'd kept from her life before this. The life where she'd believed in order and a right way of doing things. Sure the army had given her a few things but once the dreams had started coming in bright streaming color and she saw how harmful large unified bodies could be, human or otherwise…well, she'd bailed. Quick and fast, the way she did everything.

Snorting, she thought about how easy it had been to become a rebel. She wondered if Lee had been thinking the same thing earlier when she'd pressed him on whether he had come willingly. She was willing to bet he had. He may not have known it until that moment but he was a rebel too. She knew him…knew him better than she knew herself and vice-versa.

Or at least she did in her dreams. Could she allow herself to dare to hope that it might just be the same here and now?

Maybe she really was insane.

Closing her eyes, she quietly prayed to the stars as she always did when she was out here alone with only pinpoints of light between her and the darkness. She imagined she was in her viper gliding through space as she began to speak.

"Goddess Pithia…here my prayers…"

A little while later

She hadn't been hard to find, not that this surprised Lee. He had a feeling that while Starbuck put up a good front, underneath it all, she was a lonely soul looking for comfort. Just like the rest of them.

He was still reeling from the revelation that Chief had purposefully let slip as Lee walked past him to leave camp in search of her.

"Her horse's name is Viper you know."

That's all he said, like it meant nothing and everything all at once. He couldn't have been more right.

Lee had never been a believer in the extraordinary, at least not until now.

There wasn't any other explanation for the connection he had immediately felt with her. It had been as if he knew her. He couldn't have imagined at the time that she was the woman in his dreams.

But she was. He had never felt so absolutely certain of anything as he was of this. It was absurd. It was crazy. It was all the impossible things that seemed so utterly possible when he was with her in his dreams.

"Incredible."

He hadn't meant to speak out loud but it was too late now.

Starbuck sat up quickly, turning his direction with a scowl on her face.

He knew that look. She'd been thinking, just like he had, and it was scaring the frak out of her just as it was him.

So he sat down next to her, watching her face he did so. It was impossible to miss the look of vulnerability on her features even with the inky sky around them.

He knew she might bolt at any second and he desperately didn't want that to happen. So he did the only thing that he seemed right. He took her in his arms, enfolded himself around her, his face in her neck and his lips nuzzling her ear.

"I've missed you Starbuck." He told her, knowing it to be true.

Instead of pulling away from him, she pulled him closer. He felt her breath catch, could sense that she was holding herself together by a very slim thread so he just continued to hold her tightly to him.

There weren't any of her nuggets around, she didn't have to be strong, and he wasn't about to let her get away from again.

He was hesitant to move an inch, afraid he might spook her, but then she moved her head so that there lips were almost touching. There was moisture in her eyes as she lifted her eyes to his.

"I've missed you too Apollo." She whispered back.