Bright, Shiny Futures - Chapter Ten

Bill Adama sighed with discontent as he rose from the couch to answer the knock at the door. His body felt cold the moment he extricated himself from Laura's limbs. He gave her a brief smile of apology as he walked towards the door.

Their relationship was nearly three years old now and had settled into something comfortable and familiar. In the beginning it had been more about stealing precious moments alone when they could and quick passionate sex, but it had deepened into something long-lasting and warm, that rejoiced as much in snuggled moments together as in passionate moments in bed. It was the kind of relationship Bill hadn't had with any other woman in his life and he hadn't realized until now how much he'd been missing. There was definitely something to be said for having your significant other with you all the time instead of far away.

"Kathryn." Adama stepped back in surprise, then collected himself and smiled at her. "Come in," he added, swinging the door open wider. "I didn't realize you were here."

"I just arrived a few hours ago," she answered. "Three armoured transports with around two thousand people left early this morning."

Roslin's eyes widened and she smiled. "Good. It 'll be nice to have everyone together again. I feel like I'm missing something without all my 'children' around, you know?"

Kathryn smiled back ad her then turned to face Adama, her long blonde ponytail falling over her shoulder. "I feel like I'm missing something too. Where's Lee? I tried his room but he isn't there." She looked around the room expectantly, as if he might appear at any moment.

Adama and Roslin shared a quick glance, then Bill looked back at the young woman in front of him.

"He's visiting an old friend."

She looked puzzled. "An old friend?" Her face cleared as realization dawned. "You mean ..."

"Kara Thrace."

"She's alive?"

"She's alive and been here ever since she disappeared nearly eight years ago."

Kathryn said nothing for a moment but Adama noted the flash of jealousy and fear in her dark eyes before she masked it. The look wasn't unfamiliar - he'd seen it in Dee's eyes many a time during his son's courtship and marriage to her. He felt sympathy for Kathryn, as he had had for Dee, at the fact that each of them knew Lee hadn't loved them the way they'd loved him. He couldn't possibly have - he was in love with Kara, heart, soul and mind. Adama couldn't quite understand that with his heart as he'd never loved anyone like that, but his mind understood both how it could be possible and how frustrating it was to everyone involved - Lee most of all. He'd watched his son being tortured with it since the first attack on the Colonies and reacquaintance with Kara, and knew that Lee would gladly have torn out that part of his heart if he could have, to find peace and love elsewhere.

Life didn't work that way though, so he'd been forced to give what was left of himself to the other women he'd tried being with, but it hadn't been enough for Dee and it obviously wasn't enough for Kathryn. Who wanted to play second fiddle to a memory? She's going to lose him, the little voice of reason in his mind spoke up. She's never really had him to begin with but now that Kara's alive and back in Lee's life again she knows she's going to lose him. And there's nothing she can do about it.

"Kara has remarried," he said gently, hoping it would ease the pain a little and give her something to hold onto. "Lee just went to catch up on everything that's happened since her disappearance and to meet her husband."

"Oh" she said, face lifting a little. "Do you expect him back soon?"

"I should think so." He looked pointedly at the darkened window. "It's getting rather late."

"Oh," she repeated. "That's good. I'm dying to see him."

Roslin felt a pang of sympathy for the younger woman. She really didn't understand what she was getting herself into. It's only going to end in disaster. She was tempted to call the spade a spade and tell Kathryn straight out that she might as well give up on Lee since a big part of him belonged to Kara Thrace and he was never going to earmark it for anyone else ... but it wasn't really her place to say anything.

"Would you like to join us for a drink?" she asked politely, sighing inwardly at the ending of the relaxed, loving evening she and Bill had been enjoying. Kathryn had a desperate look in her eyes - of one who was clinging onto whatever she could to get herself through. She and Bill were it tonight and it was obvious she was going to be here a while.

XXXXX

Lee was beginning to get scared. Kara hadn't spoken a word - he didn't even know if she'd even been breathing she was so silent - for ten full minutes after his revelation about Kathryn.

"Do you know how to get to the Wyatt Sheraton Hotel in Washington DC?" Lee asked as the bright lights of the city began to take over the sky from their previous place on the horizon. "Because I can call for directions ..."

"I know where to go," she said brusquely, interrupting him.

"Are you mad at me?" he ventured after a few more minutes of silence.

"Why would I be mad?"

"I don't know ... everything seemed fine until I mentioned I had a girlfriend then you clammed up and haven't said a word to me since." There it was again. At his mention of the word 'girlfriend' her jaw tightened ever-so-slightly.

"Just thinking."

"Since when do you think?"

She flashed him a warning look. "I always think." She paused a moment and he saw her shoulders relax. "I just usually think with my mouth."

He gave a small chuckle. "Ain't that the truth."

She smiled briefly. "Well I've been working on thinking before I speak. Surprisingly it gets me into less trouble that way."

"Surprisingly," he agreed wryly.

She took a deep breath, held it and exhaled. "What do you want me to say Lee? That you should have moved on with your life? That I'm jealous you've got someone else? Because yes, you had every right to move on. You were never mine anyway, but whatever was going on between us ended eight years ago. You should have a wife and a family by now, if not Dee then someone else. And yes, I'm jealous you're with someone else. Is that what you wanted to hear?" She glanced at him quickly before looking back to the road ahead. "I still love you Lee. I always did, though I was too much of a frakwit to be able to admit it to you, or even myself for that matter."

"Wow, you sound like you've actually grown up," he chuckled. "I always thought you just acted on pure instinct, without thinking things through."

"You're not the only one who can overthink things you know. I've taken lessons." She was dead serious. Or so it seemed ...

Lee's chuckles turned into full-out laughter which subsided after a few minutes.

"It's true you know," Kara said softly.

"What's true? That you can overthink things as well as me?" Lee teased. "I doubt it."

"I did take lessons. Well sort of ..."

He cocked an eyebrow at her. "What do you mean?"

She took another deep breath. "I went to several sessions with a psychotherapist."

"Really?" He blinked incredulously, eyes wide.

"Really."

"What prompted that? The Kara I used to know would never have admitted anything was wrong with her."

"The baby."

In a flash Lee understood. She'd only given him the bare bones of her childhood but he'd extrapolated enough from her behaviour and the scars that had decorated her body before the war with the Cylons to guess that she'd been abused as a child. And he knew, from his classes at college, that people often continued that cycle of violence with their children, not knowing any better.

"Oh," he said, unsure whether or not to push. It was a sensitive topic and he feared she'd shut him down if he tried to pry. They were into the city now and it wasn't much longer till they would arrive at the hotel. She could easily remain silent for the rest of the drive and drop him off quickly, ensuring there was no further talk between them.

She glanced at him and knew from the expression on his face what he was thinking.

"It was time I came to terms with some of the things I'd kept bottled up inside forever. I didn't want to end up hurting my child the way my mother ... " She stopped, the lump in her throat growing too big to speak over.

" ... hurt you," Lee finished gently.

Kara nodded and swallowed hard. "You remember what I was like before - I hit first and talked later. I had no control over my temper or moods. I was a ticking time-bomb just waiting for one small thing to set me off and then I'd erupt into violence. I wasn't fit to be a mother Lee, you know that as well as I do."

He nodded reluctantly.

"I was absolutely shattered when I came here, having lost everything and everyone, but eventually I realized it was the best thing the Gods could have done with my life. I needed to get away from there, from all of those dysfunctional relationships and things that triggered my anger. I needed to be away so I could spend time dealing with old hurts and put them behind me. I even took anger management classes."

"You didn't."

"I kid you not." She smiled, though there were tears in her eyes. "Not saying I'm perfect ..."

"You're not?"

She smacked his arm. "But I'm a lot better than I was. And Michael helped me so much. He was there for me every step of the way."

"It's good that you had someone there to help you," he said generously, ignoring that becoming-familiar prickle of jealousy that the other man had been there for Kara when he couldn't. Not that you would have anyway, a small voice reminded him. You treated her as though she meant more to you as a military asset than as a person and though you wanted her to be yours you never took the time to really get to know her or understand her. You just walked away when things got tough. Lee felt a flush creep over his neck and face and was glad of the dark so she couldn't see it. Things will be different now, he promised himself. I've changed, she's changed and the whole situation is different. We're not trapped in that life anymore.

Inside, a small part of him knew it wasn't going to be as easy as all that though.

XXXXX

What the hell is going on?" Tyrol whispered in Sam's ear as the two men sat apart from the others being processed.

"I have no idea," Sam whispered back, leaning down to reach the shorter man's ear.

"What was the jab in the ribs for and why did we lie about having a virus back on Caprica?"

"I don't know," Sam hissed in frustration. "I just know there was something wrong with our blood tests and my gut instinct told me to go along with the guy's story."

Tyrol looked up at Sam. "What could be wrong with our blood samples? No one's ever said anything to me before."

"How should I know?" Sam shrugged. "I'm a frakking pyramid player turned marine. I don't know anything about medicine."

"Well whatever it is, at least they're letting us go."

Sam nodded as he spied a familiar form. "There's Helo. Maybe he knows what's going on."

It took Helo a few minutes to reach them as he kept stopping to talk to people along the way, but it was obvious from his unwavering steps and the way he kept looking up and making eye contact with Sam that they were the ones he wanted to see.

So they waited.

"I need to talk to you two," Helo said brusquely when he finally reached them.

"Yeah," Sam said knowingly. "What the hell is going on?" he demanded a few minutes later when they were free of the crowd around them.

He met Sam's level gaze but said nothing. It terrified Sam. He saw sympathy and compassion in those blue eyes so different from his. But there was also horror and perhaps ... revulsion? Sam wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

"Give it to us straight man. I know something's off. I can feel it."

Helo took a deep breath. "Your blood types were unrecognizable to their tests."

Tyrol nodded, encouraging him on.

"Only three of you so far have shown to have the same markers in your DNA. The two of you ... and Sharon."

"Sharon?" Tyrol shouted. Helo held up his hands to try to calm him when the look in his dark eyes went wild. "But she's a Cylon!"

"So are you."

Helo's calm words didn't help the Chief at all. He began gesticulating wildly and talking incoherently, walking backwards as Helo stepped forward to try to calm him.

Sam slipped nimbly behind him and pinned him so he could neither fight nor run. "We're not monsters!" he said forcefully, throwing Tyrol's words right back at him. "We're no different than we were before. We're people, fighting for the chance to live and have a home!"

Tyrol went limp in his arms. "What am I going to tell Cally? What is little Nicky going to think? Little Nicky - the boy who was nearly as tall as his mother.

"They're going to love you, same as they always have," Helo said evenly. "I know what they're going to think and how they're going to feel. They're going to be surprised but nothing can change their love for you. Nothing."

Sam let go of his arms and the three of them stood in silence.

"Will you come with me when I tell her?" Tyrol asked, voice small and scared.

"Of course I will," Helo answered immediately, putting an arm around his shoulder. "Now let's get you guys on that shuttle to the airport. The sooner you see freedom the better."

Sam lagged back a few steps, repeating the words he'd used to calm the Chief to himself over and over again in his head. He wasn't entirely sure he believed them. A Cylon - he was a Cylon! It was the cruelest trick fate could ever have played on him.

"Well Kara," he murmured to himself. "You thought you were the biggest screw up out there but I've got you beat by a mile."

He sighed loudly. "Frak."

XXXXX

She pulled up in front of the brightly lit hotel a short while later. The conversation on the last leg of the drive had been light - mainly Lee repeating stories about Galactica's senior pilots, the people Kara would be most likely to remember.

They sat in silence for a moment after she cut the ignition.

"Here we are," she said softly, turning to look at him full-on for the first time since they'd left the house.

"I guess I should go," Lee said reluctantly. "About the weekend ... "

"Saturday's a good day for us. How about in the afternoon?"

He struggled to quell the hope rising in his heart. Her eyes looked like they were burning with desire ... it had to have been a trick of the light.

"Okay," he said, "but when exactly is Saturday? I'm all mixed up with the days of the week here."

She smiled wanly. "I know, it's confusing isn't it? I found it so in the beginning too. Saturday is four days from now."

He nodded. "I'll be there." As if with a mind of it's own, his hand reached up to cup her face. "It's so good to see you Kara," he whispered. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too."

And in an instant their lips were together, feverishly exploring each other as though to make up for lost time.

Kara put a hand on his chest and pushed him away, breaking the kiss. "We can't do this Lee. We can't. I can't." She faced forward and started the engine. "You have to go now."

Lee nodded sadly. "Goodbye Kara. I'll see you in a few days."

She nodded, saying nothing as he exited the vehicle and walked to the hotel's entrance.

He stood and watched till the car was long out of sight.

TBC