A/N: Wow! The reception of this story is awesome! You guys are so nice to me!!! Thank you for all the reviews! I got a little sidetracked this weekend (there is a new short piece under The Dilate Diaries) after Friday's episode. Wow talk about a killer. I can't even believe what is going on! I won't spoil it for my non-US readers, but it's amazing, seriously. Part of the reason this story is slow to write is that I am constantly referring to the battlestarwiki to make sure my cannon is correct. Now I do know that due to the second season deleted scenes Kara and Helo might not have been as close as we all hoped, but I have a way around that. I'm a stickler for canon, thus it takes a while to develop a new chapter. Hopefully they will come faster as this goes! Again, your reviews are why I write, so please keep them coming! Thanks! :)

The raptor landed without incident and was brought to Pegasus' flight deck. Kara figured they were transferring some paperwork and maybe picking up some crew members who were needed on Galactica. Instead, once the door opened she heard something she didn't want to hear.

"Commander on deck!" The Pegasus' crew chief announced and all work ceased for a moment to salute Lee. Some things change, but the strict adherence to protocol was apparently Caine's legacy and would not.

"Racetrack, is he our additional cargo?" Kara asked quietly.

"Yes sir, he is."

"Do me a favor, I'm gonna pretend to be sleeping, you just tell him I've been asleep since we left New Caprica." She was a heavy enough sleeper when tired enough and Lee knew that, he wouldn't question it.

"Okay." Racetrack sounded unsure.

"I don't want to deal with him, this'll result in a much quieter ride back to Galactica, trust me." She knew she wasn't wrong.

"Hear that Skulls? Captain Thrace has been asleep since New Caprica." Racetrack directed at her ECO.

"Sure, whatever you say." Skulls replied.

Kara leaned her head back on the seat and closed her eyes. This was just easier than dealing with so many things. They hadn't seen each other since that morning she got married. She had thought about calling him more than once on the comm. but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. He hated her and she knew she deserved it. He had done everything right and she rewarded him with heartbreak. It was better this way.

She could hear his feet on the decking, she could feel the weight shift when he boarded the raptor, she could smell him.

"Dee, its fine, you are in command of the ship. If you need me that badly you can get me on the wireless." She could hear the annoyance in his voice; he appeared much more patient than he actually was. She ignored Dee's reply, it wasn't important to her. She did hear Lee say to her quietly, "Dammit Dee, you're the XO, just go and do your frakking job would you? Do you have to make a scene over everything? Fraking hell." She fought the smile.

"Racetrack, Skulls, it's nice to see some familiar faces." Kara could hear the smile in his voice.

"Commander." Both Racetrack and Skulls replied in sync with a nod and a slight salute. "Sorry we were delayed, Major Agathon had us stop planet side to deliver some documents, pick up some supplies, and, her." Skulls pointed to Kara. Lee had stepped right past her and didn't even see her.

"Did she pass out? Was she drunk again?" He asked pointedly. If she weren't pretending to sleep she would have hit him.

"No sir, she was exhausted. They don't sleep well down there. It's cold and those tents don't offer frak all for real cover." Racetrack replied. Kara owed her a drink.

"Oh, of course." He had an apologetic sound to his voice. Kara could feel his eyes on her. She could always feel it when he was looking at her. Even out in the black in her viper she could feel when he had his sights on her. She heard his drop a bag and him take a seat, buckling in.

Skulls called in the request to depart, and was approved. Kara almost jumped out of her skin when Lee reached over and brushed her overgrown bangs out of her face. He probably wanted to see how life on New Caprica was treating her. Her face probably showed more than she wanted it to, even in her "sleep" state.

She had to let her thoughts drift. She had to think about something else. So she put her mind back n task. She was here for Helo not Lee, and no matter what her heart and head felt being this close to him, she was there for a reason, a personal mission.

Senior year both her and Karl both received scholarships to play pyramid at the Fleet Academy. Socrata thought that the viper and raptor jocks were a bunch of undisciplined children. She hated pilots, but was just glad that her daughter would be following the military track career she had wanted for her. The girl needed structure, structure some stupid ball game couldn't offer her.

Karl's family threw him a party the day of graduation, Socrata just threw her out. Apparently she figured she had finished her job. Kara went to the party, but didn't tell Karl until the other guests had left. They had 2 months before they were to report to the Fleet Academy on Caprica, and she was homeless. The Agathon's opened their home up to her, she felt guilty because she couldn't offer them anything in return.

Socrata had never had an outward like or hate of Karl. This was good cos if she were neutral towards him, she wouldn't start anything when he showed up with Kara to get her things. Kara had always imagined packing up to go off to college to be an awesome moment. Instead it was her throwing anything that meant anything to her into bags and boxes and passing it out to Karl. He kept Socrata at bay, even though the woman did throw an empty gin bottle at his head. It was official that day: Karl was the only family she really had.

When she graduated, she sent a letter to Dreilide Thrace, her father. She was seeing if she could come and live with him. She wanted him to be proud of her, to know she had made it despite her mother. She wanted him to know that while she could use his help, she didn't need him. The letter was returned to her 2 weeks later as undeliverable. Karl and she searched every resource they could to find him and it was as if he had evaporated. His last recording was from the last year she had seen him. She figured he had died and no one told her, her damn mother probably knew it too. Helo told her that if someone wanted to hide enough it was possible.

She and Karl spent the summer working on the base doing crap jobs. As fleet recruits they could get clearance to work as intro level knuckle draggers in the hangars. This meant picking up dirty shop rags and emptying garbage cans, but it got them close to the planes. They only worked in the scrap department, so they got to watch as retired Mark II viper after Mark II Viper was retired. All the useable parts were stripped off of them, and the rest was sent to the Viper graveyard on Sagittaron.

Their favorite part of it was reading the names of the pilots who had flown them. Some of their favorites were: Saul "Gunner" Tigh, Rayna "Butterfingers" Bartha, William "Husker" Adama, and the funniest to both of them was Martin "Hot Dog" Mankowitz. Kara swore if she was ever a CAG or a flight instructor she'd have a nugget named Hot Dog. Karl didn't doubt it.

At the end of summer they reported to the Fleet Academy. Kara hadn't been to Caprica since she was a child. She had been born there, but didn't remember being there. They moved when she was 2 or 3 because her mother was reassigned out of the Transfer Station, and her mother wanted her father to quit playing piano. She wanted him to get a real job, he never did. Caprica really was the shining light of the colonies. It was beautiful, it was clean, and it had buildings that seemed to touch the sky itself. Karl was better travelled than her thanks to family trips and his father's ceremonial responsibilities, but it still shocked him that he got to call this place home.

Their first semester went by quickly, and they were both important members of the pyramid team. Buccaneer and Panther scouts had already come to some of their games. Kara nailed her viper pilot exam, as did Karl, except he was 5 points behind her. She was top of the list.

They went home for winter break. A few weeks before Kara had received a letter from Socrata. The woman claimed she had entered a rehabilitation program and was sober, and sorry. She invited Kara to come and stay with her over her break. Kara reluctantly accepted. Karl's family was on notice and told her that her room would be available if she needed it.

For the first time in her life her mother greeted her with a hug at the transfer station. Kara didn't know what to do with the affection from her so she lightly hugged her back. When she wasn't hammered her mother was actually a pretty woman. Kara could actually see where some of her own features had come from. She had always figured she got her looks from her father, but her mother's alcohol bloated face had hidden much of her features.

Things actually went well unexpectedly. They had dinner and Socrata showed her around the base. They even laughed while watching an old movie one night. Kara didn't really know what to make of any of this, but she had seen enough to let her guard down.

Things seemed to be going well over break, until they weren't. Kara told her mother about being the top viper pilot candidate. It almost seemed to please the woman. When Kara mentioned the pyramid scouts though the woman lost it. Kara hadn't seen it coming, her mother had been so normal, and suddenly she was flying off the handle. She wasn't drunk, not one drop had gone into her, but she went after Kara with a fury she had usually reserved for her most intoxicated moments. Kara only had a few seconds to readjust to her behavior, she was rusty, she stumbled getting out of the chair trying to make it to the door. It was enough time for Socrata to grab her by the hair and get an arm under her arm pit. The woman was screaming about how she hadn't done all of this for Kara to end up some stupid pyramid ball player. Kara was supposed to be more than that, she had a destiny, she was born to fly. Kara was trying to wrench herself out of the grip her mother had on her, when she got to the door. She was almost out when Socrata suddenly let go. Kara's body had too much forward momentum and inertia took a hold of her body. When her knee slammed into the iron bars of the railing she heard a sickening pop, her hand couldn't hold on and she tumbled down the flight of stairs.

Karl had answered the phone when Socrata called the house. All she said was "I've done my job, she's your problem now." and hung up. He knew what that woman was capable of and rushed to the apartment complex he had dropped Kara and Socrata at not 4 days before. Lying at the bottom of the stairs was Kara. She was unconscious, bloody, and one of her legs was clearly bent the wrong way. A bloody clump of hair hung down on her neck, she was already starting to turn black and blue. She had laid there long enough for the blood to dry on her face. Her mother had thrown her bag down the stairs after her daughter. It took all of Karl's will not to run up that flight of stairs and break that woman's neck. He had already learned hand to hand combat techniques and he wasn't afraid to use them, not on a piece of trash like Socrata Thrace. He was scared to, but he reached down and felt her neck, she still had a pulse.

He knew it wasn't the best idea but he dialed emergency services to come and get her. He wouldn't tell them the truth, he'd say she tripped and fell, that he found he because he was supposed to pick her up for the weekend. People around the base would believe that, they were supposed to be sweethearts after all. He didn't like keeping Socrata's dirty little secret, but he also knew no one would believe it. They'd figure that he had fought with her and thrown her down the stairs. He might cover it up but he wouldn't take responsibility for Socrata's bad behavior. Kara looked so broken, he almost didn't recognize her. He didn't want to move her and cause more damage. For all he knew her back was broken, and he didn't want to be the one responsible for putting Kara Thrace into a wheelchair. It would be the end of him, and he knew it.