Chapter 8

He ran his hand over the expanse of bare skin that was left uncovered by her tank top. His touch was tender, strangely soothing. They had not moved since Lee had pretty much declared that she was the reason that had pushed him to leave his wife. She was still in his arms her back pushed against the wall, her hands caressing the hairs at the nape of his neck. A strange sense of peacefulness had invaded the room and none of them was willing to break the magic of this instant. She let her head rest against his chest letting herself being lulled by his caresses and the rhythmical thump of his heart resounding in her ears.

They were pulled back to reality by the insistent banging on the hatch followed by some swearing. She felt Lee tense.

"I have a meeting with the Admiral." She nodded against his chest still unwilling to break contact. He lifted her face and then rested his forehead against hers. "We still need to talk."

"Yes we do."

"We could eat dinner together with Kacey and then talk after her bedtime?" The insecurity she could detect in his voice made her want to hurt herself. They still had a long way to go before either of them could really believe that the other would not try to run away at the first sign of trouble.

"We'll be there don't worry. Now go or you'll be late. I have to drop off Kacey to daycare anyway." She squeezed his hand before untangling herself from his embrace and immediately missed his body heat; she had gotten used to the cold atmosphere of a battlestar over the years and had forgotten how good it felt to feel warm and safe. By the time she had regained her senses Lee had left and Hotdog was staring at her with a smirk plastered on his face.

"I never thought I would see the great Starbuck blush one day. You must be human after all!" She walked past him, still in a daze, leaving behind a rather dumbstruck pilot who had expected a tongue lashing for his quip.

It turned out that they were unable to have dinner, another cylon attack saw to that. This time they almost lost a refinery ship, they had no idea on how the cylon managed to track them jump after jump. They were inspecting every ship looking for tracking devises or a cylon agent that had managed to stay undetected even thought it was highly unlikely.

"The only explanation would be the existence of a cylon model we had never encountered before." Lee said rubbing his hand across his face tiredly. He had not slept in over thirty six hours and exhaustion was setting in.

"If we've managed to come to this conclusion then the civilians will reach it very soon. The situation is already explosive with the extremist groups, it would surely escalade to full blown rebellion and I don't want a repeat of the Cloud Nine incident. We lost too many souls that day between the explosion and the assault." The negotiation team had managed to convinced most of the survivors not to follow the extremist leader, however a very small group of fanatics had refused to surrender and the marines had had to give assault, killing twenty people. Ever since, pockets of religious fanatics kept trying to stir trouble among a population of civilians who was slowly reaching its breaking point.

"So what do you want us to do? Lie to them? tell them that we found a tracking devise? And then what? What do we say when the cylons find us again?" Lee asked a touch of derision lining his voice.

"To be honest I don't know what we should do. If we tell the truth we will soon be faced with a witch hunt, people will get hurt."

"On the other hand if we don't give them answers then people will look for them elsewhere, with people like Cicenon for instance. I say give them something to focus on, it might even help us to identify those new cylons." His father and the president could spend hours arguing about the best course of action. He wasn't needed anymore and he really needed to sleep.

"Admiral, Madame President, if you'll excuse me but I need to catch some rack time before the next attack."

"Your right Major, dismissed."

She couldn't sleep, Lee was resting a few feet away from her and she could feel her lips tingling with the memory of his kisses and her skin burning with the memory of his touch. She had heard him come in a few minutes ago, had heard the sound of closes being removed and imagined him as he went through his nightly routine of stretching sore muscles before laying down on his bunk. They had not been able to talk, nothing was resolved between them but she wanted to feel his arms around her, maybe then her traitorous body would allow her to sink in a deep and undisturbed sleep. She was already loosing her independency, really fast, and it was scaring the hell out off her, but once she had decided something Kara never backed down. She would be with Lee and for once take the happiness that was offered to her.

She slide down beside him on the narrow mattress, instinctively his body fitted itself against hers, his front against her back, his arm around her waist. She snuggled in his warmth and let sleep take hold of her.

"Why is Kara sleeping in Lee's bed?" A small voice asked.

"Well, Kacey, humm..." an embarrassed cough "Well sometime when you get lonely or have nightmares you sleep in Kara's bed, don't you?"

"But Kara is a grown up, and grown ups don't get scared like me." Oh god he was going to kill Kara for this. How do you explain to a two and a half year old the birds and the bees?

"Ok, I'll tell you why but if you need more information you'll have to ask Kara, after all she is the one that knows the answer to your question better than anyone else, isn't she?." He took the kid on his laps trying to formulate an adequate answer. "You know that mommies and daddies share a bed? Well Lee and Kara they like each other a lot and they like to be together like mommies and daddies do, so they share a bed."

"Do that mean that Lee will be my daddy, uncle Helo?"

"Well you'll have to ask him that. Anyway I think it's time to get dressed missy or you'll be late to daycare."

"Oh! Mrs. Bunny won't be happy if I am!" She run toward the bunk where the sleeping pair was still dead to the world and was about to jump on them when Helo grabbed her around her waist and howling her up in his arms told her "Let them sleep a while longer, they're really tired, ok?"

"Ok!"

TBC...