A/N: First of all, I'm really sorry for the delay but my cable modem has been giving me problems. It took days for the guys from technical support to replace it but I have it back now.

Three weeks had passed since the night in New Caprica that set the beginning of Starbuck and Apollo's romantic relationship and things were finally starting to settle down in Pegasus. New schedules adapted to the small crew were set and non-vital jobs were ended.

Helo's arrival allowed Lee to have a bit of rest after spending days entirely re-organizing the battlestar, however, the fact that the new XO had brought a cylon along with him from Galactica was not taken lightly by a few crewmen that were still faithful to Cain's way of thinking. After an uncomfortable situation where some of them threw some not-so-nice comments to Helo right in front of the Commander, they ended up being demoted to the job of cleaning the latrines to serve as an example.

For the first time since Kara had moved to Pegasus, when Lee woke up she was still sleeping. Her shift usually started one hour or so before his, so she always needed to be ready first and this morning was not supposed to be an exception.

"Kara," Lee whispered in her ear, trying to wake her up.

In the moment he touched her skin to shake her awake, he immediately realized the reason why she was still asleep. Her skin was burning up. That mixed with the cough she had in the previous day, was definitely not good. She was sick.

"Kara, wake up. I need to take you to the life station," he told her. That was it, if she didn't wake up in the next two minutes, he would carry her to the sickbay.

"Come on," he murmured.

She groaned and slowly opened her eyes. "Frak off," she murmured to him before coughing violently.

"Thank the gods," he sighed. She had woken up, so he could exclude coma of her list f simptoms. Still, that cough didn't sound good. "Come on, we have to go to the life-station", he told her, pushing the cover away.

"Give it… back," she told him between coughs, struggling to get the blankets back without taking her head of the pillow. Why is he being an ass this morning? She asked herself. "It's freezing."

"I need to take you the life-station. You're running a fever," he said.

"I'm fine. Just tired. What time is it?" she asked in a hoarse voice, ignoring him.

"Almost 0800," he answered, reaching for her clothes from the previous day that were lying on the floor. "Come on, I'll help you get dressed. You need a doctor."

"Frak, the pilots are waiting for me in the ready room and I've got other stuff to do," Kara said, trying to sit up in bed. She felt the room spinning around her.

"Kara, you're in no condition to be working," he insisted in an exasperated tone.

"I'm fine," she murmured, pulling the blanket from the bed and wrapping herself with it as she tried to get up. Bad idea, she concluded immediately. The room started spinning harder and her knees gave in. Lee caught her.

"See?" he told her in a calmer voice. Hopefully that would be enough to get her to see a doctor.

"Fine," she murmured. He had a point. She could barely walk and her whole body was starting to shiver. There was no way she could handle a whole day working like that…

Lee helped her dress and held her as they went to the life-station. Fortunately, it was not far from the commander's quarters or she would have to give in a let him carry her there in front of everyone; that would be just too humiliating.

--

"Pneumonia," Dr. Talbot announced as he looked at her x-ray. He turned to Kara. "This seems pretty advanced. You had to be feeling sick for days, Captain."

Kara had, in fact, been feeling like crap the whole week but, being hardhead Starbuck, she opted to ignore it, hoping it would go away by itself.

"Why didn't you say something, Kara?" Lee asked her, slightly offended by the fact that she had came to him for help.

"I was not that bad," she lied.

"How serious is that?" Lee asked the doctor, ignoring her last statement. "Will she be okay?"

"It is serious," the doctor stated. "But hopefully with a lot of rest and antibiotics she'll be fine. This may require a few weeks of rest."

"Weeks?" Kara asked in disbelief, as she shivered. The idea of being stuck in her quarters for 'weeks' wasn't very nice.

"Two to three," Talbot specified.

Two to three weeks. Two to three weeks without her as CAG would turn everything into a frakking Zoo! "I'm CAG," she insisted. "I can't stay away from work for two or three weeks."

"I'm sorry, Captain, but I can't speed up the recovering process. However, if you had came here when you started feeling sick, you'd only need a week or so to recover," he told her. "Sending you back to work before you are ready, may get you worse… But you still can do the paperwork when you are feeling a better."

She groaned. Of all things she wanted to be allowed to do, paperwork had to be on the very bottom of her list. "Great," she murmured sarcastically.

The doctor left to get her antibiotics and she was left alone with Lee. He was staring at her with a worried, but at the same time, accusing face.

"It was nothing, hum?" he said. "You can't play with your health, Kara. Just because you ignore something, it doesn't mean it will go away."

She glared at him. "Frak off, Lee," she snapped at him in a dry tone. Her whole body was shivering from the cold, her head pounded like there was no tomorrow and the asshole was lecturing her. "I get it. 'Stupid Starbuck didn't go to the doctor when she should so she got herself in a pickle. What a frak up, isn't she?'"

"Not a frak up, just a frak-head," he corrected her. "Seriously, was it so difficult to come to the sickbay and take some medicine?"

"In case you haven't noticed, this ship was a damn mess for the last few weeks," she shot back in a tone a little too loud for her own good, causing her another series of coughs. "I was kind of busy, you know?"

"Too busy to take care of youself?! Gods, I should have noticed. Listen to me, Kara: you're gonna do whatever the doctor tells you. You'll obey every order, you'll spend three or so weeks resting and you won't complain about it," Lee said. She was damn stubborn, too much for her own good. But this time she had to hear him. "And that is an order from the Commander."

She gave him an incredulous look. "Now your using the rank on me?"

"The Commander's job is to watch over the crew," he replied simply. "You're part of the crew."

"I don't see you acting like this with any other sick member of the crew," she accused. "Just because we're together, it doesn't mean that you can treat me like you own me! You know me well enough to be damn sure that nobody will ever be the boss of me. And that includes you!"

He looked at her incredulously. She was overreacting…wasn't she? He wasn't trying to boss her around; he just wanted her to be okay. Was it so hard to understand?

The doctor arrived with the meds and she got up from the bed right away. She took the little bottle of pills from his hand and walked to the life station's exit, struggling not to fall due the fact the room around her was seemingly spinning.

"Take one pill every eight hours," Talbot said behind her.

"Kara, wait," Lee called, storming after her. "I'll stay with you, today."

"No, you won't," she replied, turning to face him. "I don't need you to take care of me," she said harshly.

That one hit him right in the gut. She was burning up but she had still found just the right words to hurt him. Suddenly, what she had said three weeks ago – 'We'll end up killing each other' – started to sound very literal to him.

Kara turned around and walked back to their quarters, holding herself on the wall to keep her balance. Maybe it was her fault or maybe they were just moving too fast in this new relationship. She was feeling smothered by how he cared so much… it was unnatural for her to have someone acting like that around her again. Only one person in her life had done that before, and that person was long gone. I'm different now, I can take care of myself, she told herself. But at the same time, she regretted her words towards Lee.

Of one thing both of them were sure: their dazzled-by-love phase was over.

A/N: Honeymoon's over, sorry. It was bond to happen, she's Starbuck, her issues had to kick in eventually. Anyway, once again sorry for the delay. I'm not sure I'll be able to post on Saturday because I'll be enroling in college soon and I'm really busy. I promise to try. And please send your feedback, it really cheers me up. So, remember, Review! (I may make a sacrifice and write all night long in order to have next chapter ready)