Another day and the second flight instructing session was finished. Starbuck and the rest of the nuggets landed their vipers on Pegasus's landing bay with no major incidents. Sure some of the rookies were still having a few problems reading the bird's instruments but, considering they were a pretty good group, they'd hopefully get there soon.

Sam couldn't help noticing that Kara had been acting cold towards him, even shooting him deadly glares… It hadn't taken more than a chat with Sharon to find out that Kara and Erin were friends, leading him to quickly realize the reason for the coldness. So, he approached his flight instructor right after they both exited their vipers.

"We need to talk," he told her.

"I'm busy, Sam," Kara told him, hurrying to her office, not even bothering to look at him. She was avoiding him. Lee would be so pissed if she hit Sam; she wouldn't be surprised if he sent her to the brig in that case and that was not someplace she wanted to be. Plus, she had promised Erin she would behave… So, avoidance was good. "Paperwork doesn't fill itself magically."

"No, Sharon does it for you," he replied. "I'm sure you can fit me somewhere in your busy schedule."

She stopped and turned around to face him. "Look, I have other stuff to do…"

"What? Don't tell me Erin gave you a gag order when it comes to talk to me," Sam asked bitterly. That would have been too low…

"Erin told me not to torture you," she said, shutting him up. Forget the promise, just punch him, a part of her said. "Believe me, was I in her position, I would do the opposite. If the woman was more of a fair-player, she'd be a saint."

He was relieved by hearing that. Maybe Erin didn't hate him that much… "Look, I get she told you what she saw, but it's not what happened."

"Oh, so now what is she? A liar or a nutter?" Kara asked sarcastically. "How are you going to make this sound like her fault?" He was really asking to be hit, that was the conclusion Kara reached. The only thing keeping her was the mental picture of the hack. Babies were not allowed in the hack… The hell if she was gonna give up her precious time with Jamie just in order to kick Sam's ass.

"Her only fault in what happened was not to wait long enough for me to be able to explain," he responded coldly. "Just don't make judgments without all the cards on the table. You only know her side of the story."

Her wish to re-arrange his facial features with her fist seemed to be decreasing as her curiosity rose. He sounded serious, but Kara didn't let herself be touched by that, even though something inside of her told her to listen. "The way Decker described the scene, it seemed to be pretty explanatory by itself. You're not giving me any reason to believe you, Sam. You don't even bother telling your side of the story in your defense."

"Maybe I want to tell her first," Anders offered.

"What's keeping you? You live in the same damn ship now," Kara urged him.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Is it worth fighting for someone who hates you?" he asked lifelessly, walking away.

She was taken aback by that last sentence and, suddenly, Kara felt pity for him… What did that expression mean? What did he mean by 'that was not what happened'? Frak, the curiosity was killing her.

---

The mess hall was highly crowded, nothing like it used to be before the exodus. Kara practically had to throw everyone out of the way in order to reach her husband's table on the opposite end of the room.

"Hey, I was starting to think you wouldn't come," Lee told her as she put the tray on the table and sat down in front of him.

"Traffic," Kara said simply. "Worse than Caprica in the frakking rush hour…"

He snorted. "Right, so how was your morning? Another nugget class?"

"Yep," Kara confirmed, as she ate a bit of her food, causing her to make a face at the taste. "My gods, this thing reached a whole new level of gruesome. What the hell do they use to make this crap?"

"Don't think about that. It will only make the food taste worse…" Lee said.

Kara put the knife and the fork down hoping it would get better when it was cold. Plus, she has things to discuss with Lee. "So, Sam said things to me," she declared in a nervous tone.

Lee glanced at her with a suspicious look covering his face. "What kind of things?" He had defended the guy just one day before, but if Sam was making a move on his wife…

"Will you stop acting like a caveman every time I mention Anders?" Kara said with a glare, kicking him under the table. Stupid insecure husband of hers – sometimes he was worse than she was. "Let's settle thins once and for all: yes, he is my ex and he is living in this ship currently as my nugget but he is not and will never be an issue between us, Lee. Sam's part of the past. You're my present and my future. I sweat to gods if you make me say all this mushy stuff again, you'll be parading around the ship with a fist-shaped shiner on your face."

He gulped and ordered himself to get over it – she had been pretty clear. "Got it. So, what 'things' did Anders tell you?" Now, he tone was more neutral. She had a wicked right hook – he didn't want to be in the wrong end of it…

"He insinuated that maybe the cheating thing didn't happen like Erin thinks it did." Actually, Kara had been pretty sure that he was insinuating that there had been no cheating at all… "As a guy, tell me if you think it is possible to share a bed with a hot naked woman and don't frak her."

"Of course it is possible!" Lee said slightly offended. "Guys are not beasts. We have self control!"

"Oh, you do? 'Cause every time I sleep naked next to you, your self control seems to be on vacations," she pointed out with a wicked smile on her face.

"I said it was possible, not probable…" he replied. "But why the frak would he have a naked woman in his bed the day before his wedding if he hadn't slept with her? That's what wouldn't make sense. Anyway, why do you care that much?"

"I dunno. People say that when someone is happy, they want to spread the happiness all around. Erin and Sam would be a nice couple, pity he frakked up…" She shrugged her shoulders and returned her attention to the food. "But, what the hell, I'm not their mother. Let them handle things by themselves," she mumbled before taking a bite of the food. "Ugh, disgusting."

Lee laughed, relieved that the conversation about Sam seemed to be over with no incidents. "Want mine too?"

"Sure, if you want me to throw it to your face," she replied, taking one more bite.

He shook his head. "You can't throw food to the Commander's face," Apollo informed her. "That would get you a night in the brig."

"I don't think my husband would be happy with spending a night shivering because he doesn't have his wife around to warm him," Kara joked.

"He might join you in the brig, though…" Lee suggested with a smile playing on his face.

"…except he wouldn't be able to do it because a certain bundle of joy named Jamie can't spend a whole night alone."

Lee was about to reply but he was interrupted by Helo, who unceremoniously threw his tray to the table and joined them. "What are you guys' plans for a week from today?" he asked.

"Karl, I have no idea what I'm gonna do tomorrow and you're asking me my plans for a week from today?" Kara questioned her old friend.

"I suppose you have something in mind," Lee pointed out.

Helo smiled. "Yes, I do. In a week, the two of you will have the honor of attending to my wedding…"

"Aww, isn't it cute. Karl's gonna get hitched in a week," Kara said in a mock-sentimental tone. "They grow up so fast!"

"Shut up! By the way, you're only allowed in there if you wear a dress," he told Kara. He didn't see her in a dress since he had made her wear one in High School for a week after she had lost a bet. That would be good for a laugh.

"Well, then I guess I'm not going," she said.

"Come on!" Helo protested.

"You looked pretty nice in Colonial Day," Lee told her. 'Pretty nice' was clearly a euphemism from his point of view - seeing her in a dress was one of these experiences he would love to repeat…

"Yeah, but I wore it for you, not this frakwit…" she pointed out.

"You wore it for me?" Gods, now he wanted to rewind time and return to that day just so he would not let her go with Baltar. She had dressed up for him, not that stupid doctor whose ego was bigger than any planet.

"Yeah," she said in a low, almost shy, voice.

Helo waved his hand in front of them. "Hey, stop talking like I'm not here!"

"You're interrupting the moment, Helo," Sharon, who was passing right next to the table, told him, pulling his arm so he would come with her. "Come on, let's find another table and leave them be."

He groaned something but ended up doing as his fiancée said. "I'll give you a bottle of Ambrosia I have hidden if you wear a dress," he said, before following Sharon to another table.

Lee and Kara completely ignored him. "Why did you dress up for me back then?"

"Because you had criticized my hygiene and I wanted to prove you that I could look pretty good if I wanted to… Plus, I was hoping our night would continue after the party but you were oblivious as hell!" She had been so pissed when he had left without saying anything that she had grabbed the first guy she had found – Baltar – and frakked him…

"Scared to hell," he corrected her. "Gods, I wish I could take that night back… and our fight the next day."

She reached for his hand resting on top of the table. "We were pretty frakked up back then. But that didn't keep us from ending up together…"

"Thank gods," he whispered. "Imagine what would have happened if we hadn't. You'd have been in that rock during the cylon occupation."

"Jamie wouldn't exist…" she added. She could bear to think of her life without them. "But the gods had it all planned… And all this sappiness in a public place will ruin my reputation." Kara told him, looking around to see if someone was watching.

Lee laughed. "How would you like a serenade, 'cherrie'?" he joked.

She kicked him softly, causing him to laugh.

---

"Could you have gotten dirtier, kid?" Erin asked her son, drying his hair with a towel after a long bath. The second day of finger paintings was even worse than the previous. The first thing Decker had noticed when she had gotten him from daycare right after lunch, so they would spend her free afternoon together, was that even her son's hair had paint. "At this rate, someday you'll be permanently colored."

The little boy's eyes shot up. "Forever?"

"Maybe," she lied. "You might look funny in tones of purple…"

"I hate purple!" He said in an alarmed tone.

"Don't worry, as long as you try to keep the pain in your fingers only, you won't change colors," Erin informed him as she dressed him with clean clothes.

The cabin's phone rang and Erin ran to answer it. "Yes?"

"Erin, we need you here in the life station," Rita, one of the nurses, said.

"But I'm with Nate," she protested. "Isn't Talbot there?"

"He's removing an appendix," the nurse said. "We just need you for a small case. It won't take long."

"Fine, but can you come here and watch Nate for a while? I don't want to leave him by himself."

"I'll be there in a minute," Rita said, hanging up.

Erin looked at her son, sitting on the small bed she had set for him in the cabin's main room, and sighed as she approached him. "Mommy has to leave for a while. Rita will stay here with you, okay?"

"You're gonna help a person?" he asked. The kid was fascinated with her job, he loved to know that his mother saved lives for a living. He said someday he wanted to be a doctor… or a viper pilot. The irony…

"Yes, I am," she confirmed. "Will you be okay?"

He nodded happily in response.

The nurse didn't take long to arrive and Decker left to the sickbay. Nevertheless, when she reached it, she wished having just stayed hidden in her room – Sam was there.

"You can't just take a frakking hint, can you?" she asked him in disbelief.

He turned around to face her. "You're a doctor now?"

"What? Jean didn't tell you?" she asked in surprise.

"No," Sam replied shortly. "I'm just here because I need to."

Erin couldn't help noticing that his attitude toward her had changed since their encounter less than one hour ago. Probably due to the fact that she had told him she hated him – and that she meant it… "What's wrong?"

"My arm was shot during the exodus, just a flesh wound, but now with the viper trainings it's been bothering me," Sam explained.

"You're an idiot," she told him. It wasn't the first time (and surely wouldn't be the last) that Sam put too much effort on an injured limb. Just this time it wasn't her problem, she shouldn't care if he was in pain or not… "You're not supposed to fly a viper if you're wounded!"

For a moment, Sam felt like things had never changed and that she still was his physical therapist/girlfriend who kept yelling at him when he insisted on playing injured. But she wasn't… "Why do you care, Erin? You hate me. You should be happy that I am in pain."

"You don't know anything about pain," she told him harshly. "The real pain is not the one that makes your body sting. It is the one that eats up your soul."

"You seem to know an awful lot about pain," he said.

"I guess you are the one I have to thank for that," she shot back coldly. "I'm not the same person I used to be when we were together, Sam."

"I've noticed," he replied in the same tone.

Decker took a deep breath. "Just show me the injury, Sam, so we get over this," she told him, willing to get him out.

He took off his jacket and showed her his upper arm. She carefully undressed the wound and analyzed it. "Seems to be healing well, but you're putting too much tension in the muscle. It's got to hurt like hell… You should give it some rest." Erin did everything she could to keep all the worry she was feeling from her voice.

"I don't have time for rest," he said.

She shook her head. "You never have time for rest, Sam. First it was a big game, now it's a nugget class… You can heal both ways: resting or hurting. All I can do is give you some painkillers but it won't help that much."

"It will help enough," he mumbled.

She redressed the wound and went to get the pills, leaving him alone in the room. She cared; he had seen it in her eyes. Deep down Erin cared and maybe there was still something to fight for.

The intern re-entered the room with an orange bottle of pills. "That's acetaminophen. Take one pill every eight hours and there shouldn't be side effects."

He gulped and decided maybe it was time to come clean with her. "Look, Erin…" he started.

"Not now, Sam," she interrupted him. "I don't have time to talk, I have plans."

"Date with a guy?" he inquired, disappointed.

She thought of her son… their son. "Yeah, I don't like to keep him waiting," she said before exiting the sickbay and leaving Sam behind wondering if he still had a chance with her.

A/N: I hope you liked this chapter, I'll try to update soon, but now that the hollidays are arriving it is complicated. So, last week we didn't reach the 10 reviews and I wasn't able to post a preview in livejournal, however, I made sure I sent a preview to every person who reviewed (except those who were not logged in, because I just couldn't contact them) because it was the right thing to do. Anyway, this week will be the same as always: 10 reviews will get you the preview. Help me reach the 300 reviews mark!