A/N: This chapter is LONG, I apologize, but also, a lot happens in it. So enjoy! Also I do reply to reviews, so if you leave me an awesome one, you will get a reply!

The sky was just starting to lighten up when he got the fire out. What was still recognizable he dragged off with the gloves he had also stolen from the excavation team (if they could withstand radiological materials then burning debris should be no problem). With the shovel in one hand and the salvageable pieces in the other he moved all around the meadow burying the evidence.

She had always joked when he threatened to kill her that he wouldn't know frak all about hiding the body. She was most definitely wrong. He was careful, lifting dead grasses and digging beneath them, burying the object, recovering it and then recovering it like nothing had been disturbed. From the air no one would see that anything had happened, if anyone happened to fly by.

Near the bottom of the fire pit he found rivets that must have belonged to her flight suit. Apparently some parts of the suit really were indestructible. As he mixed and shifted ash into soil he heard a different sort of metal hit the shovel, and bent down to investigate. He immediately recognized what he saw. Wings. Senior Flight Officer Wings. Near them he also found her diamond shaped Captain's pips. Holding the small objects in his hands he could see on the back where the thin posts had melted into the back of the pin. He had a moment of reservation, where these Starbuck's pins? They looked Colonial even with their slightly melted corners.

He looked over at the sleeping shape behind him. If that woman wasn't Kara Thrace then who or what ever made her deserved some sort of award. It walked and talked, smelled and tasted, kissed and touched exactly like the woman he had been with on New Caprica, the woman who's bunk he used to smell when she was away, the woman who he always met on the flight deck after every landing, the woman in the blue dress on Colonial Day, the woman he had visited so many times in the brig, the woman who could fly circles around everyone (including himself), the woman whom he sent his wife to rescue on the algae planet, the woman who had his heart, his mind and the woman who caused ever fiber in his being to mourn when that, this, ship blew up. He slipped the metal pieces, the tiny relics of a no longer relevant being, into his pocket and resolved that they would go the way of his wedding band. He wished he could have stolen the name plate and tags from her so they would meet a similar fate. That way he wouldn't ever have to think about it, because whoever these had belonged to no longer existed. The only Kara Thrace in his universe was over there, wrapped in grey wool, occasionally mumbling, rolling over and kicking out in her sleep.

By the time he had finished hiding the evidence it was almost fully bright out. There was no sunrise on Earth, just a part of the day that was brighter than it was at night. Soon the excavation teams would be stumbling out of their tents, looking forward to another day of uncovering the destruction and near mass grave the beach had been. He had to get the supplies back before someone noticed they were gone, on a dead planet there were only so many places that such things could end up and he wanted to remain as far under the dradis as possible.

*****

From his perch he could see down to her. A few times he thought she might be dead, but just when the suspicion was high enough she would move or pull the covers over her head, and he would feel a sense of relief. Kara had never been a morning person, and he didn't dare wake her.

He could see so much more of this place from here. There were subtle mountains further in from the coast. Once they must have been amazing mountain ranges, but now he could see some areas that had been irreversibly damaged by ordinates. At one end though he could have sworn he saw the Gates of Hera, but decided it was his mind playing tricks on him, or just a function of the dreary light. Maybe it was wishful thinking to hope that the 13th tribe not only looked for a place where they saw their 12 brothers in the sky, but that had homes for their gods too. Maybe the stories were wrong and Kobol met a similar fate to this place. No grand exodus, just a holocaust, and the remaining survivors fleeing to the first habitable place they could find.

On Caprica he would have figured this tree to be 50, maybe 75 years old. It was sturdy, even if forked from the ground. Here with the radiation it may have taken longer for it to grow to this size. He remembered being a boy at military school and the experiments they did on irradiated seeds. They took longer to germinate and only the strongest survived. Thin shelled seeds never grew but the thicker and tougher the skin the more likely they were to not only sprout, but thrive and become something beautiful. The notion reminded him of someone he knew very well.

When he finally looked back to her she was up. She was fully dressed but still wrapped in the blanket. How long had he daydreamed up here? He wondered. She was pacing back and forth over where the fire had been. She was kicking the dirt, and looking around. What did she expect to see? Did she really think he would just leave the heavy lifting and carnage hiding to her? If this were a crime he was a fully committed accomplice. Then she started scanning the horizon, probably looking for him.

"Kara!" He bellowed toward her as he shook a tree branch. She looked up, and a sly smile crossed her face. She started to saunter up to him. Lee jumped from his perch to meet her.

"Enjoying the view?" She said in a way that could only be considered pure Starbuck. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

"Always." She could hear the smile in his voice.

"Have a nice morning?" She asked reciprocating the embrace.

"I didn't run off and get married if that's what you're asking me."

"I see you were busy." She nudged her head toward the empty space.

"Someone has to hide the evidence, I figured you built the pyre, at least I could spread the ashes."

"It wasn't your evidence to hide." He could hear a tinge of ire in her voice.

"I don't know how many times I have to explain this to you, but I love you, and I want to be a party to all your crimes from here on out." He lightly joked and kissed her forehead.

"Yeah." Was all she could half-heartedly muster up.

"Don't sound so thrilled Kara; you might build up an ego in a guy."

They just stood there for a minute, at least it only felt like a minute.

She had gathered herself back up and pulled away. Looking at him with her "nothing's bothering me" wide eyed look and smile she asked, "So how's the view up there, really."

"Desolate, but beautiful."

"Kinda like me?" She asked with a cock of the head. She turned and walked up to the tree. "Gods, it's been so long since I've climbed one of these. When's the last time we were on a planet that actually had trees? Was that Kobol?"

"Kara, don't go up there. Don't we have to head back to the beach?" He sounded nervous, almost anxious.

"What Lee? You scared I'm gonna fall down and kill myself? Seems like if that happens here I'll just raise from the dead." She joked as she started to climb up to the same place he had been. He scrambled up the other side. "Wow, what a beautiful view." She proclaimed open mouthed as she let her legs swing beneath her as she sat on the branch.

"Yeah."

"Gods, this looks so familiar."

He pointed to the end of the range, "That looks like the gates of Hera."

"They sort of do." Both of them looked to the crest of the mountain where the temple of Athena was on Kobol, only a pock mark from a large bomb remained. "Or maybe not, probably just war damage. The mountains on Caprica were pretty trashed too."

They sat in silence for a moment, mentally memorizing this place. Not a single person had laid foot on this planet in 2,000 years, so they felt like they owed it to the place.

"Frak, I forgot to tell you, Helo was on the radio, you've got to call up to Galactica."

"Did he say why?"

"No, but it sounded pretty frakkin' important, the comm. is in my pack."

Lee climbed down. "You coming?"

"I'll be down in a minute, I just want to take it all in." She smiled sweetly at him as he hit earth with his feet. "Lee?"

"Yeah Kara?" He looked up and his eyes were the bluest things she had ever seen. The grays and golds of this planet only made his eyes pop with life. If she could have paint the color of his eyes, she'd paint the whole world with it.

"I just want you to know, what I said before I disappeared, about not being afraid anymore, well I meant it. I'm not afraid of loving you or being loved."

"I know." He replied with a smile that melted her insides.

Lee walked down the hill and she ran her hand over the branch she sat on. She looked over her shoulder to see him almost to the pack and pulled a pocket knife out. Quickly she started to carve into the branch KARA + LEE a heart around it would have been just a little too cheesy for her. It only took a few minutes as she wasn't using their full first names (Karaline and Leland just sounded like two old people). When she was done she climbed down and headed back to Lee.

*****

Lee picked up the comm. and called back on the last frequency it received. "Major, I mean Lee Adama here." He still hadn't overly adjusted to private life, and it was still difficult to not think of himself as Major Lee Adama. He called over the channel two more times. If it had been that important you'd think someone would respond. He wondered if Kara was only making it sound important so he would leave her alone.

"Lee, its Karl." Helo was using proper names, that was never a good sign, Lee swallowed hard and responded.

"I heard you were looking for me."

"Yeah, well, something happened up here last night. It's Anastasia." Helo sounded worried, but Lee didn't catch it.

Of course, the ex-wife had done something. Lee sighed, "What'd she do now?"

"Lee, she's, uh, well, she's dead." Helo's voice dropped as he said the words.

The air in his lungs felt like it had been vented. "What? Who did it?" Lee sounded exasperated and confused. She might have been his ex, but if someone did this to her, well, they'd better be in the brig by now or he'd be really hiding a body down here.

"That's the thing Lee," Helo paused, not sure how to say it, "she did it."

Lee's head was spinning, yes Dee had come from one of the more religious tribes, but she had never been particularly religious, still she thought suicide was the sort of thing that didn't land you in Elysium, nor Hades, you hung somewhere in between, for eternity.

"No, no she didn't they just made it look that way." Lee wouldn't believe it unless there were witnesses. "Was someone there, did someone see something?"

"Gaeta was there, he was leaving the officer's quarters. He thought she was in good spirits. She had gone down to Joe's after watching Hera for Sharon and me. Everyone said she was her normal, chatty, Dee self. Someone even thought she was flirting with one of the guys from Dogsville behind the bar. She came back and was changing; Gaeta even had a good conversation with her. As he was leaving she just picked up the gun, and well, did it. Felix and Diana did everything they could to stabilize her before the Doc got there. She died on the stretcher on the way to Life Station." Now he could hear how upset Helo was by this.

Helo was concerned for the silence. "Lee, are you okay?"

Lee was lost in his head when Kara walked up. "Lee, are you still there?" Helo asked again, Kara looked at him and could see something was wrong. The comm. hung from his hand and he looked something akin to horrified.

"Helo? It's Starbuck, Lee seems to be unavailable right now."

"I didn't want to have to tell him like this."

"Tell him what?"

"Last night Dee killed herself." When Helo repeated the message Lee walked over to the tall grass and promptly threw up.

"Oh gods," Kara had never been overly fond of Dee, but she had never wished anything like this on her "when's the next raptor coming down?" she asked as she walked further away from Lee she knew they needed to get up there ASAP.

"I can leave in 5 minutes. I've been suited up and waiting to hear from him since I talked to you last. The Admiral put me on duty for this."

"We aren't on the beach; we are about 2 clicks inland, near a forked tree. It's the only one like it, and there's a nice clearing in the meadow, the raptor should come down just fine there."

"I'll be there as soon as possible, try to keep him together until then."

"Out." Was her only reply, and once Helo mimicked it she turned for Lee.

He was ashen and wan. The previous look of horror was replaced with some far off look. At some point he had sat down on the blanket they had shared the night before. His head was in his hands and he was just shaking his head over and over again. Kara sat down next to him and put a reassuring hand on his back. There were lots of things she had never been good at, but for some reason people always found comfort in her in their time of need.

"I'm not going to ask if you're okay, cos I can see that you aren't." She paused a beat. "I know that nothing I can say will make this any better, I can tell you not to feel guilty, but I know that you already do." She rubbed her hand over his broad shoulders and down his back. The muscles under his shirt were tense; her hand came to rest at his waist. "I just want you to know that I'm here, and that I love you. We'll get through this, and we'll be okay on the other side."

Lee said nothing, but he leaned into her and wrapped his arms around her. He buried his head in her neck. They didn't move until the raptor had landed, and even then Helo had to drag him on board.