Bright, Shiny Futures - Chapter Thirteen

A/N: Thank you to everyone who's reviewed this story. Sometimes this site emails me reviews, sometimes it doesn't, and though I try to respond personally to everyone who's left kind comments for me I don't always notice till long after the fact. My apologies and thanks for reading and responding! Hearing your thoughts makes my day!

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Kara moved brusquely through her bathroom routine, carefully ignoring Lee. She refused to meet his eyes, even in the mirror.

"I think we need to talk about what just happened," Lee said softly.

She whirled to face him finally, his words breaking down her carefully held calm. "You think we have to talk? Frak Lee, maybe you should have thought of talking before spying on me in the shower and trying to seduce me."

"I know, I'm sorry. I didn't come here to spy on you Kara, I swear. But we can talk now."

His pleading eyes nearly broke her ... nearly. "I don't have time now. I have to go to work."

The silence hung heavy between them, as if suspended on the still-steamy air.

"Where do you work?" Lee asked eventually, hoping to break the tension.

"At a local college."

"What do you do there, teach?"

She nodded. "Mmmhmm."

"What do you teach?"

Kara brushed past him on her way to the bedroom. "Art," she said quickly, then shut the door.

"Art?" Lee murmured to himself. "Art?"

She popped her head out the door. "Yes art. You know - drawing and painting."

"I didn't know you could draw."

"Everyone has a skill," she said quietly, then shut the door again.

Lee smiled sadly at the memory of the last time she'd said that to him. His eyes stung with tears. It had been so much easier back then. If only things hadn't gotten so complicated ...

Kara, on the other side of the door, was blinking rapidly, remembering that same moment. It had been so good back then. So much fun, despite the circumstances, with the promise of things to come ... now life was a complicated, twisted mess of what she wanted and what was right, and how she was going to deal with the fact that she and Lee weren't the only factors in the equation anymore. Too many other people would get hurt if she ignored reason and just followed her heart.

She pulled her clothes on quickly, swallowing down the lump in her throat and putting on a brave face. There was still enough Starbuck in her to know how to shove all the turmoil down deep and appear calm. It fooled most people.

"Listen Lee," she said as she opened the door. "We do need to talk about what happened and why it can't happen again. But I have a class to teach in a short while and I need to go now. Can you stay here till I get back and we can talk later?"

He nodded. "I don't have anywhere else to be. Which is why I came here today - I want to find a job and I was hoping you might be able to help since you probably have some connections."

She smiled, the first real smile since talking to Karl several hours earlier. "Not so many as you might think. I'm not nearly so well-connected as I was back on Galactica."

"You were infamous."

"I'm not entirely unhappy to have left that reputation behind."

He looked at her enquiringly.

"I have friends here who know me as more than just a hotshot pilot who can't keep her pants on, which is pretty much how everyone saw me back then."

Lee had the grace to blush and for a moment she felt bad about reminding him where it had all started to go wrong with them.

"I'm sorry Kara," he whispered. "I didn't mean to make you ..." He stopped, not sure quite how to phrase what he'd just done to her. Taken advantage of sexually sounded so harsh. Maybe, but that's what you did ...

She shook her head. "You didn't make me. It takes two to tango."

"Yeah, but you didn't want to." A familiar look clouded his eyes. guilt, shame ... the things she'd always seen there during their affair.

She smiled weakly. "You know I could have stopped you if I'd wanted to. I may not be in as kick-ass shape as I used to be but I think I could still get you where it counts."

His eyes roamed up and down her body appreciatively, before he was even aware they'd done it. "You still look pretty damn good to me."

She blushed as she smoothed down the front of her sweater. "You aren't doing so badly yourself you know." She cleared her throat and swallowed. "And to be honest, it's not like I haven't thought about you a lot since you came back into my life." Her flush deepened. "I wondered what it would be like ... "

Theri eyes tangled with unspoken words.

"I meant what I said earlier," he said softly. "I do still love you."

"I know." She'd have said more but the lump in her throat got in the way. "It's complicated ... " she finally got out, then swallowed hard. "I've got to go or I'll be late. I'll talk to you later?"

He saw the fear in her eyes - something almost foreign though he'd always known it was there. They were pleading with him - searching for confirmation that he wasn't going to disappear on her.

"I'll be here," he promised.

She gave him a brief smile then flew out the door like a whirlwind. Lee headed down to the living room and sat, glad of the chance to take in the surroundings in order to get more of a feel for what Kara's life without him was like.

XXXXX

"That is unacceptable."

The Vice President, sitting across from Adama, lifted his eyebrows in surprise. "I'm sorry, did I give you the impression this was optional? The decision has been made."

"It's unacceptable," Adama repeated, holding his temper with extreme effort. His hands balled into fists under the table. "You can't just arbitrarily decide where people are going to live. What if they don't want to move to the other side of the planet? You'll be splitting up friends and family."

"Families will be allowed to stay together. The world is a small place - you'll make new friends and there are plenty of ways to stay in touch with people so you won't lose the old ones."

"This is a rather callous way of dividing us up. Can't you just ask for volunteers?"

"Both Canada and Australia are primarily english-speaking countries and your people should have no trouble fitting in and learning whatever parts of the language they don't already know."

"But to divide them according to what letter their surnames begin with?" Roslin piped up. "That's completely unfair."

"You'll manage to find ways to visit your friends. It's a short trip to most places in Canada and Australia is only a twenty-four hour flight away."

"Only? You mean by airplane?" Adama was aghast.

The Vice President nodded.

"Don't you have spaceships for faster travel?" Adama asked. "My ship can cross a planet in under ten minutes even at our slowest speed."

"Alas, it seems we're rather behind you when it comes to space travel. That's one of the things we're hoping you and some of your people can help us with - using your technology to update ours and launch us into the future."

"Well seeing as how you've got me on the list with all the other people whose surnames begin with A-H to move to the other side of the planet, there might be a bit of a problem with that," Adama said rather acidly.

The other man smiled tightly. "I'm sure we can make an exception for someone of your status, Admiral."

"What about Ms Roslin?" The word felt funny on his tongue. Miz - he'd never referred to her that way before, had never even thought of her that way. It was odd not calling her Laura.

She smiled gratefully at him. She was more than capable of fighting her own battles - she'd proven that by being elected to several terms of office, but sometimes it was nice to sit back and watch Bill fight for her.

"You're in the group that's headed for Canada Ma'am," he said, looking rapidly between the two of them. "It's not so very far from here and you can probably find a way to contribute your political skills there. Democracy is a wonderful thing."

"That it is," Laura said dryly, stealing a quick glance at Adama who was subtly telegraphing her to give in without a fight. She knew from experience it meant he had a plan.

"When can we expect the rest of the survivors to be brought here?" Adama asked.

The Vice President consulted his clipboard. "Over half of them have been tested so it should only take another week to test the rest. We've managed to recruit a few more doctors and borrow some equipment to make it a faster process."

"Good. Will we get to spend a little time here together before you ship people off to their new homes?"

"Undoubtedly. It will take a while to make all the arrangements."

Adama nodded, a satisfied look on his face. "Thank you Mr. Vice President."

The other man nodded, a look of admiration on his face. "Thank you for not making this difficult. Many would."

"I've learned the value of picking my battles carefully. There's no point in wasting energy if you don't have to."

"Agreed." They shook hands and the Vice President took his leave.

Roslin crossed her arms over her chest in a pose of defiance. "What the frak are we going to do about their lousy plan?"

"Nothing," Adama replied evenly.

"Nothing? You're just going to let them split us up? I'll have to move away!"

I'm aware of that. As I see it there's only one solution to that problem."

Her gray eyes regarded him angrily.

"Marry me Laura."

"What?" Whatever she'd expected him to say, and she really had no idea what that would have been, this was definitely not it.

"Marry me."

She stared stupidly for a moment, paralyzed by shock and nerves. Her mouth was unable to form words but her stomach was making up for it's lack of movement with a large flock of agitated butterflies.

"They won't separate us if we're family," he hastened to explain, in case she hadn't figured it out.

Her exasperated look told him he'd guessed incorrectly. "Is that the only reason you're asking? So I can stay here?"

His eyebrows drew together in a frown. "How long have we been together Laura? Do you not know by now how I feel about you?"

"Well yes, but ... "

He reached forward and grasped one of her delicate hands, cradling it in his own large one. "I was planning on asking anyway. This just hastened things."

Her eyes deepened to almost blue and the lines dropped away from her face, making her look much more youthful. "Really?"

"Really. I should have asked before now but given our circumstances ... I was just too cowardly."

"You? The Admiral of the fleet who brought us across the universe to our new home despite all the obstacles in our way? How can you call yourself cowardly Bill?"

"Because I am. When it comes to matters of the heart anyway. I can give battle orders and face the enemy with barely a blip in my heartbeat. But the thought of facing everyone and telling them about us? It terrified me so I insisted we keep it quiet. That was an error in judgment on my part."

She moved closer, standing close enough for her breath to brush across his lips. "Maybe, but it was kind of fun having a secret that no one else knew about."

"It was?"

She kissed him softly. "It made me feel young again."

"You are young Laura. Young and beautiful. And I want to spend the rest of my life, however long that may be, with you. I don't want to have to visit periodically. I want you with me every day - in my arms every night. I want you to be the last thing I see when I go to sleep at night and the first thing I see when I get up in the morning."

Their eyes met.

"Yes."

"Yes?"

She kissed him again, this time long and passionately. "I told you if you asked I would say yes."

"Thank the Gods!" He pulled her into a tight hug. "Now where do you suppose we can find someone to marry us on such short notice?"

XXXXX

Lee hadn't been sitting long when his eyes fell upon a picture on the wall. A painting to be precise, of rolling hills and trees by a rock-filled stream. It looked as though it had been inspired by the surroundings nearby. He couldn't remember seeing that actual spot, but it looked much like what he'd seen on on the drive from the city to Kara and Michael's home.

He got up to take a closer look and it hit him suddenly - Kara had painted it. From afar the picture had been pretty, a nice decoration on the cream-coloured wall, but up close it was positively breath-taking. The brush strokes were exquisite and the colours leapt off the canvas at him, the turquoisey-green of the water exactly the colour of her eyes when she was happy. He could feel his mood change as he looked at it, calming him and filling him with a tranquillity he didn't think he'd ever felt before in his entire life. Kara was an amazing artist, there was no doubt about that. No wonder she was teaching.

He wandered around the living space, taking careful note of all the artwork he never would have noticed before. They were all signed with a 'KT' flourish at the bottom - she'd painted every single one of them.

She was definitely good. Each of her pictures was very different in topic and feel but each evoked a strong emotional reaction within him, particularly the one done entirely in white, black and shades of gray. It was a picture of a girl, back towards the viewer, in a black dress, standing at the edge of a cliff with a violent white-water stream erupting through the channel at the bottom of the chasm. It was stark, painful, desolate and Lee felt certain the picture was a self-portrait. The girl in the painting had white hair not blonde, but there was no mistaking the set of her shoulders in a way he'd only seen it twice before - defeat.

He wondered if she'd actually been there, or whether it was a metaphor for how she'd been feeling. He hadn't wanted to admit to himself before, but this must have been how she'd been feeling just before she'd vanished from his life forever. Maybe that was why he'd carried shame as well as love for her all these years - she'd been hurting to the point of jumping off a cliff with no return and he'd ignored it and not lifted a finger to help. If anything he'd given her a push by insisting she fly when she'd lost faith in herself and her abilities. That alone should have been a huge warning sign for him - Starbuck never lacked ego.

He flushed, making a mental note to apologize to her for contributing to her 'death'.

Before he was aware of it his feet had carried him upstairs to the bedrooms, curiosity about her pictures consuming him. The first one he entered was Zach's. He did a double take - the room looked so much like his own had when he'd been the same age! It was a normal bedroom in the sense that it had all the required furniture - a bed, dresser and desk, but there was a large bookshelf filled to overflowing with books, model airplanes and spaceships. On closer examination he realized they were made of some sort of plastic building blocks, much like the kind he'd played with as a kid. There was a mobile of a solar system hanging over the bed and a poster on the wall that was undoubtedly of one of his favourite characters from a story.

The quilt on the bed was navy and had bright yellow stars on it. He wondered if Kara had made it and marveled that she had so many talents he'd been previously unaware of. Though perhaps it had been made by a relative? His own grandmother had made him and Zak quilts when they were kids so it was entirely possible.

The next room was undoubtedly Sara's. It shouted 'little princess' from the pretty pink and red quilt on the bed to the flower motif painted on the wall, and covered everything in between - the small chair filled with stuffed animals and the small tea set her dolls were apparently using for a get together.

He smiled. He'd never had much use for frilly, girlie things but then again he'd never been a girl. He was surprised Kara would have allowed this sort of thing, but inside his head a small voice told him that perhaps she was giving her daughter all the things she'd never had growing up, and in doing so was finding femininity didn't look too bad on her.

The third room he encountered was an office - a large desk with a fair amount of technology was the centrepiece of the room but the walls were covered with bookshelves, as overflowing as the one in Zach's room had been. Lee stepped in closer to take a look at the names of the books. Evidently Michael was a scientist of sorts, as he had many books on chemistry, physics and math. He wondered what Michael did for a living. Obviously whatever it was paid very well as this home wouldn't have come cheaply.

The last room on this floor was the master bedroom. He felt a little embarrassed intruding in this private space without being invited, so he stayed at the threshold, eyes glued to the painting above the bed. It was much more abstract than the others but it wasn't hard to tell what the subject matter was. The swirling colours - a warm red, deep purple and piercing blue, were twined together in what could only be a pair of hands clasped together. The background was a brilliant yellow and the whole piece radiated joy.

It left him with mixed feelings as he walked back downstairs. He loved Kara, there was no question about that, and if she'd been available he wouldn't have hesitated. The lesson that life was short and you never knew when things or people you cared about were going to disappear had finally sunk in. But it was clear Kara had changed. She'd found a way to be happily married with children and had a stable, loving life. If there was anything he could have wished for for her, this would have been it. She'd lived through enough pain, hardship and heartache to deserve some happiness. Obviously here she'd been able to find it, and as her friend he should be one hundred percent with her, not encouraging her back down the paths that always led to pain for both of them.

He made a resolve at that moment, to back off and let her continue her life as it was without trying to be anything more than friends.

It was the right thing to do.

TBC