Bright, Shiny Futures - Chapter Eight

"It's alright. You okay hon?"

Michael's words seemed caring but Lee was positive they were meant to be possessive. Sure, he could be genial and open so long as Kara was unequivocally his but as soon as there was some competition ... It seemed the other man became as jealous as Lee himself always was around her. And as much as it rankled with him he had to admit it gave them something else in common.

Kara smiled brightly at her husband. "Fine." She rubbed her hands over her legs, smoothing out invisible wrinkles, then folded them together. Lee could tell she was nervous. She'd grown better at hiding it on her face but her body language spoke volumes.

"So Lee, tell me what's happened in the eight years I've been gone," she said, managing to focus the attention on him. Kudos to her.

"Almost eight years," he corrected. "Less a month."

Michael grimaced inside. Lee had been keeping count. He began to grow distinctly uncomfortable with their guest.

"Well um ... " Lee began. He looked meaningfully at Michael then back to Kara. "Can I mention the C word?"

Kara nodded. "He knows everything I know. I told him all about what happened till I disappeared into that swirling black cloud and ended up here."

"The Cylons sound like a bunch of insidious, cruel, monster machines," Michael said, a shudder passing through him as he remembered what Kara had told him.

"Yeah, that about sums them up," Lee agreed. "Frakkers seemed hell bent on destroying our entire race."

Michael smiled in juxtaposition to the seriousness of Lee's words. "Sorry, just your use of the word 'frakkers'. Kara uses it all the time and I can't help but laugh - it sounds so funny."

Lee smiled in spite of everything.

"Seemed?" Kara inquired, ignoring the humour and picking up on Lee's use of the past tense. "Are they gone?"

Lee shrugged. "I don't know. They gave us no end of trouble for months after you disappeared into the maelstrom. It seems they'd set up shop on that planet and us disturbing their atmosphere set them on us like a nest of angry hornets. We lost six ships in that first battle alone." Kara's heart broke for him. She could almost reach out and touch the guilt in his eyes.

Michael saw it too. "It wasn't your fault. I'm sure you did everything you could."

Lee nodded sadly. It wrenched Kara's heart even further. She could see more than the deaths of those people reflected in his eyes - New Caprica, Pegasus, The Olympic Carrier ... they were all there as well if you knew to look for them. She too carried many similar scars. It was all well and fine for people to say you did the best you could but when you were one of the ones charged with protecting others it didn't matter if you did the best you could. You always had doubts - if I'd only done more ... if I'd only given just a little more ... She flinched as she stared into the endless depths of blue. If only you'd been there with me ... Apollo couldn't function at one hundred percent without his Starbuck. He couldn't have said it more clearly if he'd tried.

She realized for the first time since seeing him again that her apparent death had taken a greater toll on him than she'd originally thought. It had decimated him on a personal level but it had nearly destroyed him professionally as well. That never would have occurred to her - she hadn't flown since arriving on Earth; no chance to discover her abilities were curtailed without her wingmate. Soulmate. She'd just assumed he'd continue on without her, that anyone else would do out there in the black. Their eyes burned together in understanding.

Michael's cough broke the connection. "What happened after that?"

"We slunk away like a wounded dog with it's tail between it's legs. The fleet was never quite the same afterwards." Neither was he. Kara knew it as surely as if he'd admitted it aloud.

"We tried to regroup but losing thousands like that on top of the thousands we'd lost a few months earlier on New Caprica killed morale. We spent most of our time just trying to put as much distance between us and them as we could. We were successful for several years but then we found them again. They opted for biological warfare that time."

At Kara's look of surprise and dismay, he swallowed and continued.

"They captured one of our Raptors. My dad ... the Admiral," he added for Michael's benefit, "made the decision not to fight for it so we prepared to jump but they took off and left us and the Raptor alone, surprisingly. We reclaimed it and took the wounded on board."

"Who?" Kara was fierce.

"A couple of newer pilots. You didn't know them." He sighed heavily. "And Colonel Tigh. They were all in pretty bad shape. Naturally we took them to Lifestation and attempted to save them." His voice dropped to a whisper. "Within forty eight hours they were all dead."

Kara's chest constricted. Tigh was gone! Much as she'd made a great show of pretending she hated the man, she'd always secretly felt close to him. She'd seen what many hadn't - the two of them had been very much alike.

"The Cylons had infected them with some sort of virus. Holy Gods Kara, it nearly wiped us out! People were dying right left and centre. It was the scariest thing I've ever lived through." Their eyes met again, both remembering the time right after the initial attack when the Cylons had been after them every thirty-three minutes.

"How many?" she whispered.

"Nearly fifteen thousand," he said sombrely.

"Lords of Kobol." She breathed the ancient epithet, face sorrowful.

"We lost several hundred more in the aftermath but thankfully some of us seemed to be immune to the virus."

"What made you immune?" Michael asked, finally breaking back into the conversation.

Lee shrugged. "I don't know. The Doc worked hard to figure it out but caring for that many sick and dying people took it's toll on him and he didn't make it."

Kara blinked sadly. Poor Cottle - she'd always kind of liked him despite his abrasive personality. Maybe because he reminded her of herself back in those days ...

"What about Baltar?" she asked. "He was supposedly a genius. Couldn't he help?"

Lee shook his head. "He'd gone long before that."

"Gone?"

"Just disappeared right out from under our noses one day. We suspected he'd gone back to them, either willingly or by abduction and was most likely the mastermind behind the biological weapon."

"He wouldn't have created something that would kill his own people would he?" Michael asked, disbelief evident in his voice.

"You didn't know him," Lee answered, distaste written all over his still handsome face. "A rat if ever one existed - only thought of himself and would do anything to save his own skin." He looked at Kara, waiting expectantly for her to agree.

She appeared lost in thought. "You can't really blame him though," she said softly. "They're master mind-frakkers -they can have you believing black is white and up is down in no time. You have no idea what's real and what isn't."

Both men gave her strange looks, tinged with worry and concern.

"Did they ..." Michael began but Kara cut him off quickly.

"I don't want to talk about it," she said sharply, shaking her head vehemently.

Lee felt something akin to satisfaction at the thought that she hadn't told him everything. It was something he was loathe to admit even to himself, but he'd been devastated at the fact that while the two of them had been best friends till New Caprica she hadn't been willing to confide her secrets to him. It seemed she'd confided in Sam though and now Michael, and Lee had felt hurt beyond measure that while she'd been willing to share some of the most intense physical moments he'd ever experienced with him, she hadn't been willing to share her emotional self.

He sat forward, placing his mug down on the table. "I should probably get going." He peeked at his watch. "It's getting late and it's a long drive back."

"Do you have a car?" Kara asked, surprised that he'd have acquired such a thing so quickly. Then again, he was working with the government, not in hiding as she'd been.

Lee shook his head. "I have a number to call and they'll send someone to come pick me up."

"Well then you've still got a long wait till it gets here, even if you call now," Michael said.

"I can give you a ride back," Kara offered quickly.

Lee caught the look that passed between Kara and Michael. He didn't particularly like it.

"Mommy." Sara's voice called down the steps from the bedroom.

Michael stood. "I'll take care of her. You go ahead and take Lee home."

Kara looked at him in surprise. "Are you sure?"

"Go." He turned and headed up the stairs, then stopped and turned back, as if remembering something he'd forgotten. "Be careful." His gaze turned toward his guest. "It was good to meet you Lee. You and Kara can set up a time for you to come meet Zach on the weekend if you'd like."

"I'm looking forward to it," Lee said softly. "Thank you." He hoped the warmth in his voice would dispel the growing chilliness in the room.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Kara said, giving Michael a quick smile. He nodded and headed upstairs out of sight.

Kara turned to face Lee. "I'll just need a minute to get my things and then we can go."

Lee nodded, heart suddenly thudding painfully at the prospect of spending an hour alone with her in close proximity.

XXXXX

Hera was a dreamer.

She'd always been, ever since she could remember. Her parents had told her that as a mere toddler she'd had nightmares regularly but since she'd been old enough to remember on her own she'd known they were special. Occasionally she told people of her dreams but mostly she kept them to herself. People found them disturbing. She'd tried talking to her sister, hoping that another child might understand but Kiera had been as disbelieving as the adults.

So Hera had started keeping a dream journal. She'd made it herself from scraps gleaned out of the recycler on Galactica. It was safely hidden under the mattress so her sister - just now learning how to read - wouldn't stumble across it.

This night's dream had disturbed her more than most. She and Kiera had been playing hide and seek out in a bright, sunny field. She didn't recognize it - not that that was surprising since she'd lived her whole life aboard ships made of metal, but somehow the place felt familiar.

Like home.

"Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty ... ready or not, here I come!" she shouted gleefully, positive she knew where Kiera was hiding.

She skipped over to the hill, feeling the chill as she entered the cave and left the sun's warmth behind. She pushed her dark curls back behind her ears and squinted in the darkness.

"Kiera?" she called out.

Silence.

"Kiera, I know you're hiding here. Come on out so I don't have to come in any further."

No answer still.

Hera sighed in frustration. Little sisters could be such a pain sometimes!

"Come."

She broke out in goosebumps.

"Come child."

The voice was feminine but low and husky. And adult.

She turned to run back out into the light then remembered her sister was probably in here. She couldn't leave her here all alone. Not when there was someone else here ... She forced herself to turn back around and head further into the darkness.

"Have no fear child, I will not hurt you."

Her heart raced in staccato pulses. Sure, she thought, I'm not supposed to be afraid of someone I can't see who's hiding in a dark cave and telling me to come in.

The small cave proved to be larger than it seemed from the outside. As she turned a corner she realized she was beginning to be able to see better. At first she thought it was because her eyes were becoming accustomed to the dark but she thrilled in terror as she realized it was because it was getting lighter the further inside the cave she went.

She stopped dead as a tableaux suddenly became visible before her.

"Come closer child," the voice beckoned.

She desperately wanted to turn around and run but the sight of her sister standing just beyond the fire that was lighting the cave stopped her.

"Kiera?" Hera called out quietly.

"Come sister. Come see the future."

Hera shook with fear. The mature woman's voice was coming out of her six-year-old sister's mouth!

"Don't be afraid Hera," Kiera said, smiling with a maturity far beyond her years. "Come see your son." She motioned lovingly at a small white cradle at her feet. "He is the future."

Hera's feet took her forward till she stood before the cradle. A baby lay there, one with blue eyes, fair skin and dark curls. "My son?" she said questioningly. "How can that be?"

"He is not born yet of course - you haven't met the one who is to be his father."

"Who is he?"

Kiera's laugh filled the cave. "I cannot tell you that. You will discover it in due time. But this child will be the first of his kind."

Hera shook her head. "I don't understand."

"Of course not. You're not meant to yet. In time you will."

The world began to go dark. "Kiera!" she shouted, panic-stricken that she'd lost her sister. "Kiera!"

Suddenly a light flooded the room.

"Hera, are you okay honey?"

Her father's concerned face looked down at her. She looked around, noting she was in bed in her new room.

"I'm okay," she said weakly. "Just dreaming."

"You were calling for your sister."

"I was dreaming we were playing hide and seek and I couldn't find her. I guess I was just worried."

Helo smoothed back his daughter's damp curls. "Well she's fine, sleeping in her bed right where she's supposed to be."

Hera lifted herself up onto her elbows to glance across the room. The lumpy blanket rose and fell in a steady rhythm.

"It's time to go back to sleep honey. Do you want me to stay with you?"

She nodded, laying back down. Helo folded his large frame into the tiny bed and wrapped his arms around his daughter. She closed her eyes and was asleep almost immediately.

He lay awake for a long time, thoughts unquiet.

XXXXX

"So are you going to stare at me the whole way home or say what's on your mind?"

He hadn't spoken a word since they'd gotten into the car but Kara had noticed him checking her out out of the corner of her eye.

"I'm not staring," Lee said defensively, cheeks burning.

"Yes you are," she argued. "You always stare."

"Fine." Lee faced forward in an exaggerated movement and sat stock still.

"Fine," Kara echoed five minutes later, breaking the uncomfortable silence. "Don't talk to me."

"What do you want me to say?"

She glanced at him. "You made the effort to come see me. Now you don't want to talk?"

"I don't know if there's anything to say. You obviously didn't miss us."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded, voice low and dangerous.

Lee stole a quick glance at her. "How long was it before you jumped in bed with him. A day ... maybe two?"

She turned to him, face flushing with anger. "Is that what this is all about? You're still jealous about who I'm sleeping with?"

"Guess a leopard can't change it's spots," he said nastily.

" 'A pilot who can't keep her pants on'," she said bitterly. "You'll never see me as anything but, will you?"

"It's not like you haven't put me in a box," he pointed out, finally turning and meeting her eyes.

She looked back at the road. "You don't even know me anymore," she said stiffly, holding her anger in check with an effort.

Lee glanced over at her, noticing the whiteness of her knuckles as she gripped the steering wheel. He knew he was pushing her buttons (it had always been so easy) and upsetting her but talking with Kara was like watching an accident in progress - he could see what was going wrong as it happened but he was powerless to stop it.

"I don't need to know. It's obvious that hasn't changed," he bit back.

"You have no idea how hard it was for me when I first got here," she said through clenched teeth, anger rising. "I did what I had to do and you should thank me for that." She turned to face him. "Your son wouldn't be alive if I hadn't. I had the choice to turn to someone for help or to do it on my own and neither of us would be here now if I'd picked the latter."

TBC