Kara knocked on the hatch that led to Decker's cabin. She had a pretty good theory about what had happened down there and Kara seriously hoped she was wrong, or her impression about Sam was completely wrong. As nobody answered the first time, Kara knocked again.

"Go away, Sam!" she heard the intern shout from inside the cabin.

"It's Kara, not Sam."

In a few seconds, the hatch opened and an angry looking Erin let her in. She looked like she had been crying – tears of rage, surely. Decker shut the door after Kara entered the cabin, like she was sheltering herself from some danger.

"Okay, I'm just gonna ask this once and for all," Kara said. There was just no other way around the matter. "Is Sam your cheating ex?"

Erin bit her lip and sat on one of the chairs by the table. Kara did the same. "Yes," she finally responded. "And, as you probably already concluded, he's also Nathan's father."

"Holy Frak," Kara mumbled. So, her theory was right…

"How do you know him, anyway?" the other woman asked, cleaning her tears with her sleeve.

"Er…" Okay, that was going to be awkward. "That's a long story…"

But Kara didn't need to tell Erin anything. Her face said it all. "Frak, don't tell me he's the nugget who you used to date…"

Starbuck gulped and nodded. "Awkward, hum?"

"Of all the guys in the universe…" Decker said. "How did you guys happen? When did you guys happen?" If he had dated Kara at the same time he dated her, she was going to kill him.

"Long story short, we met almost a couple of years ago when I went back to Caprica on a mission, one thing lead to another and dated for a few months after he was rescued to the fleet. This is so frakked up. I had no idea he had a son…"

"How could you have? Not even Sam knows," Erin mumbled. "It's kind of ironic us having the same ex, though…" Ironic, awkward, frakked up, insane, close to impossible…

"Ironic is the word," Kara agreed. "Are the gods frakking with us? 'Cause they have to be."

"Probably… seems like it is their favorite way of entertainment," the intern said. "What made you break up though? Did he cheat? Because I swear to gods, I'm gonna kill him if this cheating thing is some kind of game to him."

"Actually, I dumped him for Lee. We were not terribly close; I think I never really loved him, not like I loved Lee anyway. It was just that neither me nor Sam were willing to open up, which made things easy, sometimes it almost felt like we were just casual. But I never took him for a cheater, gods. I actually thought he was a good person."

"Honestly, so did I. I wouldn't have believed if someone told me…" the intern confessed. She wished he had been a jerk to Kara too, not because she wanted her friend hurt too, but because it wouldn't make the cheating so personal. "But I saw it."

Okay, that was sickening. It was bad enough to know the guy had cheated, but the fact that Erin had seen it only made things more gruesome…

"How about I tell you what happened exactly?" Erin suggested. She had been quiet for too long, she needed to tell the story to someone… If not to open up, to remind herself of what had happened. To remind herself that, in no circumstance, she should let him in again.

---

Three years, eight months, two weeks and six days earlier – Picon

"Do you think they've got stripers?" Erin asked Jean Barolay as they watched TV in her hotel suite.

"It's a bachelor's party, of course there are stripers!" Jean told her in a bored tone. "We'd have too if you weren't such a prude!"

"I'm not a prude! I just don't find any entertainment on having some random guy undressing as he dances right in front of me," she declared. "Plus, I won't miss being a bachelorette, so there's no need to celebrate my last night in that condition."

Jean drank from a bottle of ambrosia she had taken from the mini-bar earlier. "You and Sam are sickening. Seriously, you make us all feel bad for not having a significant other."

"We just want to spread the happiness around," Erin said. "it's not like we're fixing you up with every guy in the street

Barolay's cell phone rang and she answered it right away. "Yeah?… He did not! Seriously, those two are just made for each other… Okay. Bye." She hung up. "Sam ditched the other guys and came back to the hotel. Seems like he's as eager to get married as you are…"

Erin smiled. "You know what, you're in a crappy mood today. I know the guys gave you the key-card to his room in case they came back too drunk to find theirs. Give it to me and let me make a surprise to my fiancé."

"No frakking way! Sue-Shawn would kill me. You know how superstitious she is! I'd never hear the end of it for letting the groom see the bride before the wedding," Barolay said.

"She doesn't need to know…"

"She always finds out, though," the other woman pointed out.

Decker decided to give the matter a rest for a while. She knew that she would have her way in the end…

And one hour later, Jean was out cold due to all the ambrosia she had drunk, allowing Erin to steal the key-card from her friends things and sneak to Sam's room. It was not too far away; only two floors down. When she reached the door, Erin inserted the card and went in.

On her way to the suite's sleeping area, Erin tripped on something. It was a shoe. A female shoe. A female shoe that didn't belong to her. And then, she reached the bed, where her fiancé was lying with some brunette chick, naked. Their bodies were entwined on each other, like Sam usually did with her…

Her breath caught and the tears rolled freely down her cheeks. How could have Sam done such a thing? The night before their wedding… Erin turned around and left, not bothering to do a scene. She returned to her room, put the key back in Jean's bag and packed her things.

She quickly scribed a note (Wedding's off. Tell Sam he's free, he can have the other chick. Don't look for me) and put on a table by her wedding dress. The other woman didn't even wake up when she shut the door.

Before dawn, Erin Decker was out of the planet, leaving the cheating bastard and her dream wedding behind.

---

Present time

"I wanted to kill him right there," Erin said through her teeth. "Gods know what I would have done if I had a gun…"

The shock was clear in Kara's face. Not only had Sam cheated, but also he had done that in the night before his wedding… it was like a punch in the gut. Yes, she had cheated too… with Lee, but the way Sam had done that, had made things a thousand times more wrong.

"It was not long before I realized that I was pregnant," the intern continued. "It was so frakking confusing! I hated Sam but I was having his baby. Nate was… is my life. He doesn't need Sam around just to hurt him like he hurt me. I'm his mother and my duty is to protect him, from his father, if I need to."

"Look, he's not gonna find out about Nate from me," Kara told her. "But you guys live in the same ship; you won't be able to keep it quiet forever. Maybe I could try to have him transferred…"

"Thanks for the offer, but I'd rather not. I don't want him to know he still bothers me," Decker told her. Well, her reaction when she had seen him had basically said that, but she still had her pride. "And don't make his life hell as his flight instructor; that would be pretty much the same."

Kara sighed and nodded. Frak, she was still pissed. How could she be so wrong about Sam?

---

Her mind was filled with thoughts about not knowing Samuel Anders at all, despite the months they had spent dating. The 'nice guy' was, after all, a cheating bastard – she hated to be wrong. So, in order to clear her mind, the first thing Kara had done when she arrived her quarters with Jamie was undressing herself and entering the shower, bringing the little girl along. She held the baby close, not only not to drop her, but also because the skin-to-skin contact was soothing for both of them…

For a few moments Kara just held Jamie close, letting the water spray hit their skin and drawing little circles on her daughter's back. She could feel the baby's chest moving against her own and her little legs kicking around. That closure was a better way to calm her than any drug…

At some point, after being fully washed, Jamie's breath deepened and Kara knew that her daughter had fallen asleep in her arms. She reached the shower tap are reduced the water flow until it was gone. After exiting the shower area, she saw that her husband was already in there with the baby's towel, ready to receive her.

"Thought you might need some help," he said as she passed him the sleeping child.

"Always attentive," Kara replied, wrapping herself in another towel. She tried to hide the upset look from her face – admitting that Sam was the reason for that might be a little too much for Lee to handle…

Lee exited the bathroom with his daughter, allowing Kara to dress in there by herself – if he stood there one more second seeing her getting dressed… well, he might undo the whole thing and have his way with her right in the middle of the tiny bathroom.

When she re-entered the room, a few minutes later, Lee was putting Jamie, now fully dried and dressed, back in her bassinet. He signaled her to follow him out of the room – he didn't want to bother the baby's sleep. After he sat on the sofa, she joined him, only instead of sitting she lay in there, resting her head on his lap.

They spent a few minutes in silence, enough to let Lee know that something was bothering his wife. "So, are you gonna tell me what's wrong or do I have to pull it out of you?"

She raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think something is wrong?"

"You live with me for months and you still think I don't know when something's wrong, Kara Adama?" he asked her, repeating the words she had said in the dinner a week ago. He just couldn't forget that sentence, it said so much about their relationship these days…

"You can't use my line against me," she pouted.

"We're married. What's your is also mine, lines included. Now, will you please tell me what's wrong?" he requested again.

She didn't bother trying to find a way around the question. It would only lead to tension and it was the last thing she wanted right now. "It's Sam."

Lee grunted something under his breath. "What did he do?" he asked in annoyance.

"He's Decker's ex," Kara told him.

Her husband swallowed hard. "And you're mad about that?"

She glared at him and sat up. "Are you asking me if I'm jealous? 'Cause if you are, I'm telling you not to be stupid because you are the one I picked and I don't regret it for a single second. You don't need to feel threatened by him."

Lee nodded – part of him was embarrassed for even considering Kara might be jealous. "Then what's wrong?"

Kara shook her head, trying to find the right words. "He cheated on Erin the night before their wedding. Can you imagine something more frakked up?! I swear to gods that doesn't sound at all like the Sam I thought I knew… Gods, he has son! I almost stayed with him and I didn't know him at all."

"I doubt you would be the first or the last person to do that," Lee said, cupping her face.

"Still… It sucks to know that I was so wrong," she mumbled in annoyance.

Apollo nodded in agreement. He knew what it was like to feel stupid for being wrong. "But what about Decker? How did she react to the fact that you shared an ex?"

"She didn't seem upset. It's not like I'm still with him… And for the record, if I was I would kick his ass back to Caprica for being such a bastard," Kara said with a sigh. "She told me not to be cruel with him during the nugget classes…"

"She was right. It's not your battle to fight, Kara. You'd be abusing your position if you did that…" Lee warned her.

She felt kind of annoyed. Sometimes Lee was all by the book, other time he wouldn't give a damn about it… It was confusing. "I'm not gonna torture him, don't worry. But just for respect to Erin… It's her life, after all."

"That's right," he agreed. "No nugget torture. Look, I agree that Sam was a jackass for treating her like that… But don't you wonder if he's changed? I mean, maybe Decker actually meant something to him. Maybe losing her opened his eyes and he became the person you knew, so ask questions before you shoot him."

Starbuck looked confused. Of all things she might have expected… "Are you defending my ex?"

Partially, he was. Deep down, he knew that if it wasn't for Sam's past relationship with his wife, they actually might be friends. "I'm just pointing out the possibilities," he stated.

Finally, a smile covered Kara's face. Who knew? Perhaps Lee was right… She had married the noblest guy in the universe – which was infuriating in some situations. "You really are something, Lee Adama. I'm glad I picked you."

"Would it wound lame if I said I'm glad too?" He cupped her face and was about to kiss her, only to be interrupted by his crying daughter. He lowered his head. "I love Jamie, but she really does have a crappy timing…"

His wife patted his shoulder."You're in diaper duty, Daddy. Go tend our firstborn like a good husband."

Lee groaned and got up, going to the room to check on the baby.

It was not long before Kara was unable to resist and followed him to the room, trying to get a snippet of a Daddy Lee moment… By now, all the bothering thoughts were miles away.

A/N: Hope you liked this chapter. Please, give me your feedback. Remember: 10 reviews will get you a preview in my livejournal. Speaking of livejournal, I posted an anouncement there and I really need your opinion, so check it.