Disclaimer: Nothings mine except the plot. I am a teenager who is really, really frightened of lawyers, don't sue me.

Kara awoke much later to a brighter sick bay. Lee was gone; she thought with a stab of annoyance, he said he'd stay with her. Doc Cottle was looking at her with an expression of much interest.

"Where's Lee?"

"He had something to take up with the Admiral, he'll be back, in the meantime, why don't you tell me what happened to your heart rate readouts from last night."

"No idea." Kara silently thanked Lee, she glanced over at the readout, and it was torn off, no proof whatsoever. "Why don't you ask the medic who was on duty?"

"She was so hyped up on 'New Caprica's finest' and booze she couldn't tell the difference between a dog and a centurion."

Kara looked at Doc Cottle with what she hoped was a clueless expression.

"Anyways, Thrace, sit up."

"What?"

"If you're well enough to do what I'm convinced you and Major Adama did last night than you're sure as hell well enough to sit up." Kara pulled herself into a seated position, and used her arms to pull herself back on the bed. She noticed some bandages had been removed while she had slept, revealing red scars in web-like patterns on her legs, and cutting through her marriage tattoo on her shoulder, it was practically unrecognizable. Casts obscured both of her ankles, and her lower legs had more scars than the Admiral.

"Its really amazing, one piece of that raider a centimetre closer to your spine and you'd have never been able to sit up again," Doc Cottle blabbed on ignoring the disturbed expression Kara wore on her face; "Good, recovery right on schedule, bend your knees."

Kara struggled to lift and bend her knees, which she accomplished.

Kara was bored through the rest of the examinations and demands, some of which were unreasonable. She wondered where Lee had gone, and if he'd been discovered in his boxers in the morning. Then she sat still as her casts were removed, the real work was about to begin.

Lee sat in Bill Adama's office, listening to the same questions.

"Lee, this is getting ridiculous."

"I told you I'd never forgive you if you didn't let me sit with her, I should be there now, I told her I wouldn't leave."

"Kara Thrace is an officer, she knows that the military takes precedence over its officers."

"Not to me."

Bill Adama paused a moment, he took a sip of ambrosia from a glass on his coffee table, "I need to have my CAG back, Lee, he has responsibilities, and a wife he hasn't spoken to in weeks." Bill regarded Lee in silence, taking another long swig from his glass on the coffee table, "I'm having Captain Thrace taken off active duty until further notice and transferred to the Rising Star, where they have facilities that will be of use to her."

"You can't do that," Lee exploded at his father, "Kara belongs here, with us."

"She'll be going in a raptor this afternoon, beginning physiotherapy and returning when she is able to walk, she can still be valuable to the fleet as an officer, if not a pilot."

Lee stood up and began to pace, "Then I'm going with her."

"Lee, you know I can't do that, the cylons will find us again, and when they do I need my pilots here."

"No." Lee answered simply.

"I have to send a pilot with her in the raptor, I'd rather it be you, but I'll send Racetrack or Athena."

"I'll go."

"But I need you to promise you'll return, promptly."

"Yes, sir." Lee answered, failing to mask the anger in his voice.

"You can visit her, as long as it doesn't interfere with your duties." Bill added quietly, in a tone that clearly meant leave, before he changed his mind. Avoiding Lee's eyes. He could still not understand how Lee could love Kara, the woman who had loved Zak. Lee saw this plainly, his father refused to see what had been right in front him all these years.

Lee walked quickly through the hallways, he saw his wife out of the corner of his eyes, but he kept walking, the last thing he needed right now was to deal with her. He went into sickbay to find Kara Thrace dressed, sitting on her hospital bed. She wore her military sweats, the bandages were off, accept the new ones on her ankles. "Lee, where did you go?"

"Kara, I'm sorry, my dad needed to talk to me."

"Did you here they're shipping me out?" She said, somewhat more quietly. "But I have to come back for tests, and transfusions, something about cylon technology coming in contact with my blood."

"Yeah. I'm coming with you."

Her eyes met his, questioning, probing, she was answered with a kiss. His hands went to her back, holding her upper body against him, pulling her into a hug. She felt safe, until he let go. Two unfamiliar medics lifted her into a wheelchair. This bothered her, made her feel helpless; she clung to Lee's hand; who seemed to understand and squeezed her hand back.

Kara was silent as he pushed the wheelchair through the halls; she got some applause from some pilots who thought she'd done a good job taking out those last few raiders. Two medics followed behind Lee. The reached the hangar deck, where luckily due to large amounts of work, they were barely noticed, and the two medics lifted her out of the chair, and carried her onto the raptor, as they did so Kara attempted to hide her face from Lee, it hadn't worked, she soon ascertained that he had seen the look of embarrassment there. The medics placed her in the co-pilot seat and buckled her in. Lee took his seat, Kara noticed an odd looking piece of paper shoved in the top of one of his boots, she was willing to bet it was the missing readouts. He saw what she was looking at and smiled at her.

"It's one way to fly."

It took her a few discernable moments for her to decide that might not be talking about the raptor. She managed a smile. That was the last thing she felt like doing, as Lee flew the raptor. She let herself zone out the chatter of the transponder, hearing Dee's forced voice. It didn't sound natural…she didn't want to think about Dee. Looking over she could tell Lee agreed when he shut off the transponder as soon as they had cleared the landing bay. It didn't take long to dock at the Rising Star; despite being smaller than Cloud Nine, it was preferable to nothing. Kara was again lifted into a readied wheelchair and they wheeled her through the pleasantly wide halls of the Rising Star. Stopping at a door, labelled 412. The door opened to reveal a nice sized room, with a large bed, with pull ropes, and a strange contraption installed into the ceiling, this Kara supposed was to make it wheelchair accessible. There were also a few nice chairs and what Kara decided was the bathroom. A woman in a uniform was blabbering on about the benefits of the room, and what time the physiotherapist would be in, the pool and so on. Lee wheeled her over to the bed. Sitting on it so that their faces were level. The woman was literally looking down at her and it was annoying, the medics were swarming in, Lee's face was an unreadable expression.

"Get out!" Kara said, louder than she had intended. The medics and the woman left closing the door, leaving a bag and a pamphlet behind them on the table.

"Do you want me to leave too?" His voice was surprisingly soft. His eyes hopeful, she could tell he hoped for a repeat performance of what had happened in sickbay. Kara realized at that moment that she did too, despite whatever consequences might ensue. Might as well, what else was she going to do anyways. If she couldn't have what she wanted, she could try to make Lee happy. Besides she couldn't stand the though of one of the medics helping her undress.

"No, I don't." She bit her lip. "Help me onto the bed." Kara unhooked the belt that held her in the chair.

Lee locked the door first, than went toward Kara who put her arms around his neck, resting her head on his shoulder, as his arms went around her waist. Kara was not a fool, she knew that Lee had to exert energy to lift her, but he did, she moved her thighs to squeeze his waist, mostly just to hang on more securely. Her lower legs, hung mostly limp below her knees. Then she was placed on the bed gently. Lee went to lock the door and dim the lights. Kara sat herself up, and began to remove her own sweats; at least she could undress her upper body. She could feel Lee's waiting eyes on her as she removed her own bra, without any reaction, she lay back on the bed, partially dreading what she must ask him to do.

"Lee, my lower legs are pretty much immobile, it's difficult to undress myself, Cottle made me practise in sickbay." Kara closed her own eyes, knowing that undressing herself would be difficult. She'd hated having the medics dress her in sickbay.

Lee stood there thinking for a moment just how insecure and helpless Kara must feel, he responded by kissing her, making every attempt to undress her as a lover. Making trails of kisses across her body. The last thing he wanted to do was make her feel like an invalid. He also pulled down the sheets on the bed, easing Kara into a more comfortable spot.

"Kara, if we do this, I might not be allowed to come back." Lee looked up and said very quietly.

"And what if we don't?"

"Still might be banned."

"I guess that answers that." Kara managed with a smiling expression, "We don't want to miss out, just in case." It went unsaid, what she so hated to say, that either of them could be dead tomorrow, Lee in combat, and her of a blood infection.

Lee returned to kissing her, rubbing his hands along her body slowly.

Kara closed her eyes, enjoying the attention, and making absolutely no noise when Lee bumped a scar, or one of her ankles, the last thing she wanted was to make him feel guilty. She heard a zipper, and the rustling of clothing, feeling his hands on her breasts, her legs, and her face.

"Open your eyes." Kara obliged, noticing the bed was soft, unlike the sickbay one, or the cold grass of New Caprica. She saw Lee coming towards her, she reached up and pulled him down on top of her, feeling the twinges of pain when he came in contact with the scars. His mouth found hers, while his hands wandered the rest of her body gently, then he came in contact with a scar on her side that brought a yelp of pain from Kara.

"Did I hurt you?" Lee backed off instantly.

"Don't stop."

"I don't want to hurt you Kara; did I hurt you last night?" Lee was worried by the thought of hurting her. They had both done enough to hurt each other before.

Kara reached up her own arms to pull Lee in closer, kissing him with more passion than she actually felt capable of at the moment, tangling her tongue with his. He responded, kissing his way down her neck slowly, he seemed so afraid of hurting her. She felt his readiness, and began to reassure him with slow tender kisses until slowly and tenderly, they made love to each other. Broken words of love were intermingled with gasps and moans. Finally, they both moaned loudly as they came, holding on to each other tightly. Lee rolled off of Kara, both of them drenched in sweat. They lay there for a moment, breathing heavily. Kara cautiously flipped herself over so she could rest her head on Lee's chest. Listening to the fierce beat of his heart, and his heavy breathing. She didn't have anything to say, other than to ask when he'd be leaving, and she didn't want to ask that, she wanted to stay in his arms, safe as long as possible, pretending they could stay that way, pretending he was hers.

"That was comfortable." Lee said softly, falling asleep underneath her. "Beats the grass and sickbay anytime."

Kara said nothing, but moved her arm so she could hold onto him, waiting for sleep.