Chapter 14

Winter Break

As the second year of Cylon occupation began, increasing numbers of military personnel left at the end of their enlistment periods. Retirements were also up and recruitments generally were down. Pilot training was one of the few areas that continued to attract new recruits although some freely admitted that they were hoping to use the skills they acquired at the expense of the government in future commercial careers.

-Bartell, History of the Second Cylon War

.

Lee sat at the kitchen table waiting for his parents to finish getting ready. He wasn't the least bit happy about having to go out to dinner tonight with them and his father's former XO, Colonel Saul Tigh and Saul's wife Ellen. Tigh was still on the Galactica, but he and Bill always got together when the colonel was home on leave. His father had told him earlier in the day that Tigh was thinking about retiring. He wasn't quite fifty yet, but he'd put in thirty years so he could do it.

He knew his father was trying to talk Tigh out of retiring. For some reason he wanted the colonel to stay aboard the Galactica. Lee knew better than to ask his father why. His father was really tight-lipped about his job.

Fine, let his father talk to Tigh all he wanted. Lee just wanted to be left out of it. As far as he was concerned dinner with the Tighs was a waste of a perfectly good Saturday night, one of only two he had during his winter break from the Academy.

He'd had a date lined up for tonight, another cadet he'd been seeing this past semester. Her name was Shelley Sydell. She was hot and they'd shared a bunk on their first date. She knew he didn't want any kind of serious relationship. He'd told her that right away, even before she had taken him to a friend's apartment off campus, but she said she didn't either. She'd made it clear why she was interested in him. That was okay with him.

The sex was great, and there were quite a few times that Lee wondered why his feelings never went past a certain point with her. He liked her, but what he felt was nowhere even close to love. He wondered now if he had even felt that with the girlfriend who had died on Gemenon. He'd thought he had, but was it really love that he felt? Did he even know what it felt like to love someone? Was he even capable of love? He'd once told John Gallagher he didn't understand what it felt like to love someone. He was fairly certain that he still didn't know.

He'd had to call Shelley that afternoon and break the date. He could tell she wasn't pleased. For the first time he'd heard possessiveness in her voice. She obviously didn't believe him either when he told her what had happened, that his parents were making him accompany them to dinner with the Tighs. That made him angry, too, because he'd never lied to her or given her any reason not to trust him.

His father had said it was okay for him to call John and see if he could join them. That would at least have made the evening bearable, but John had declined. He'd told Lee the truth, but all Lee had told his father was that John couldn't make it. What John had told him was that he didn't think he could take another hour of trying to keep Ellen Tigh's foot out of his lap. It was John's bad luck to be seated across from her the one and only time they'd all gone out to eat together several months earlier. John had handled it well, though. Lee hadn't even realized anything had happened until the end of the meal when Ellen had to crawl under the table to find her shoe. It was under John's chair.

After he'd refused Lee's invitation, John had said, "Colonel Tigh isn't a friend of mine, but some women have trouble written all over them. She's sure one of them. Sorry, but no thanks on dinner tonight. I'll see you at McGee's in a couple of weeks. Enjoy the rest of your break."

Lee usually went to McGee's, a nice pub near the Academy's campus, on Friday nights. It was a popular spot for cadets and others who were or had been pilots. Depending on his flight schedule, John would often show up, too. He had gone to work as a pilot for Bill Adama's friend who owned an air cargo business. John looked a lot better now. He'd put on the weight he'd lost. He'd joined a health club and started working out. In fact he looked the best he had since Lee had met him.

Lee had been working out, too, at the Academy's gym. John had told him it took strength to fly a Viper, especially leg strength. Lee was proud of the way he looked now.

He knew that John was still trying to find Kara. Early in the autumn he told Lee about meeting a young man who worked in the business office at the air cargo office and who was a computer expert. Over the next few weeks he'd hacked into almost every data base on Caprica except the secured ones like military and medical and a few of the government ones. Kara wasn't in any of them. After that, John quit talking about finding her as much as he had before. Lee had decided that John blamed himself for what had happened to them that night at Singer's airport. John now said that he should have landed at Rendlesham and taken his chances on getting fuel and being able to leave again despite being in a drug runner's ship.

Even though he hadn't been able to find her, John still believed Kara was alive. Bill had told Lee that one day a hunter or hiker would probably find some bones in the woods near the small airfield. Lee had never repeated the comment to John and had told his father never to do it either. Lee recognized that John's hope of finding Kara alive was now hanging by a thread and he couldn't bear the thought of it being completely crushed.

John said he wasn't drinking like he had been either and Lee believed that, too. John never had more than two drinks when they were together. In fact if he was flying the next day, he stuck to something non-alcoholic. The two drink policy was one that Lee decided to adopt. Considering his mother's problems, he didn't want to get started down that road. Rarely did he exceed his self-imposed limit even when John wasn't around.

Lee could use one now, though, as he waited for his parents to get ready. He briefly contemplated mixing a quick one before they left for the restaurant, but realized his father or mother would smell it on him. What made him even angrier was that they weren't making Zak go with them. Zak had mumbled something about homework and retreated to his room. When Lee had looked in half an hour earlier, Zak was playing a video game. He knew that as soon as they were gone, Zak would probably leave too, or someone would come over to the house.

Zak had changed during the last year. Lee wasn't sure exactly what was going on with him. On the afternoon he'd gotten home from the Academy earlier in the week, he'd gone upstairs and walked in on Zak and one of his girlfriends in the shower. They hadn't even locked the door. That had been a shock. It bothered him a lot more than it seemed to bother Zak.

But most disturbing of all Zak had rolled his eyes when Lee asked him later if he was being careful with the girl.

"Careful?" Zak asked.

"Birth control," Lee was really exasperated by that time.

"She's on the pill," Zak said.

"Are you sure?" Lee asked. "Zak, you're barely seventeen years old. What if something happened and she got pregnant?"

"Not my problem."

"It damn well would be your problem. Eighteen years worth of your problem because that's how long you'd be paying child support. You're too young to be taking a chance on messing up your life like that. And you need to be careful about...about catching something, too. You're acting like an idiot."

"And you're acting like my frakking father," Zak flared back, anger in his voice for the first time. "I don't frakking need two of them. One is bad enough."

Lee let it go then, but he worried. Whatever was going on with Zak definitely had something to do with their father being at home most of the time now. Probably it had to do with the fact that for nearly sixteen years Zak had been basically unsupervised, and now Bill Adama was home giving orders the way he used to give them on his battlestar. Now that Lee was at the Academy, there was no one to serve as a buffer brtween his father and Zak.

Lee knew he had to talk to Zak before he left to go back to the Academy. If he could just get Zak to understand what was going on with their dad, maybe Zak would handle it better. He couldn't imagine what it had done to his father to have to turn over his battlestar and all the other battlestars to Cylon control. That had to have affected him in a major kind of way.

"Ready to go?" His mother came into the kitchen. She looked really good tonight in a red cocktail dress, and Lee was just about to tell her when she said, "Lee, you need to wear a tie."

"Are you kidding me?"

"No, I'm not. Bonnie Patrice is a very nice restaurant. Wear the dark burgundy tie your grandmother gave you two years ago. It will look good with that blue shirt."

Lee stayed seated at the table. "What, they won't let me in without a tie?"

His father walked into the kitchen. He was wearing a suit and tie. Lee could count on the fingers of one hand the times he had seen his father in a suit and tie instead of his uniform.

"Go put on a tie," his father said. It sounded like an order. Lee felt a little more sympathy for Zak.

He got up and went upstairs to get the tie. Could the evening get any worse?

It did. The Tighs had both had a couple of drinks by the time they arrived at the restaurant…almost thirty minutes late.

"Blame it on me," Ellen laughed by way of apology. "I waylaid my husband on his way to the shower tonight. He's just not home enough to satisfy me." She laughed again.

Her double entendre was not lost on Lee.

Way too much information. He tried to scrub that image from his mind. "Excuse me," he said. "If the waiter comes before I get back, Dad, just order for me. I don't care what."

His father started to say something, but just nodded. Maybe he finally realized how much Lee hated these dinners. They weren't family bonding experiences for him at all if Ellen Tigh was involved.

As he left the table, he heard her laugh, "Well, Saul, I didn't mean to offend him. Can't he take my little jokes?"

Lee went through the restaurant and into the bar. At first he thought he couldn't be that lucky, that one of the women sitting at the bar wasn't really who he thought she was. He walked over to her.

"Blaire?"

Recognition leapt into her eyes. She beamed. "Lee? Wow, do you look…good."

"So do you."

She looked better than good. She looked beautiful. Her wavy honey-colored hair was down to her shoulders and she was wearing a dark blue dress, cut just low enough to be sexy, but not so low it showed too much. She even had on makeup, but that wasn't overdone either.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Waiting on someone. A Viper pilot from the Galactica. He's still on the ship. I mean he's here on leave this weekend. He dropped me off so I could get a table. The maître d has our names, but he said there would be a half-hour wait so here I am. He had to take a pilot friend of his somewhere. He'll be back soon."

"Are you not on the Galactica anymore?"

"No. They didn't need all of us on the ship anymore, so I took a position in communications back here at Fleet Headquarters. Wow, I can't get over how good you look." She reached out and gently squeezed his bicep. "Somebody's been working out."

Lee felt himself begin to blush. "Would you like to have a drink with me while you wait?"

"I'd love to."

Lee ordered a beer which was all he could buy at nineteen and they went to a booth.

She took one of the small paper cocktail napkins and wrote on it. "My phone number. Call me. We'll get together sometime if you want to."

He had just folded the little napkin and put it in his pocket when her date arrived. Lee stood up, shook his hand and introduced himself. He wished he could say he remembered the guy, but he didn't.

The pilot remembered him, though. "You brought me coffee a couple of times during those three days we were fighting the Cylons. When I tell people that the commander's son brought me coffee, they tell me I was hallucinating."

"I carried a lot of coffee cups during those three days…and nights," Lee said.

Blaire had gotten out of the booth and the pilot put his arm around her possessively. "So how do you know my girl?"

"My father decided I should see how everything worked on the ship. Blaire was kind enough to show me around the Comm Center and Mail Room."

"She cleans up good, doesn't she? I told her a long time ago that she needs to fix up more."

Lee decided that he didn't like this pilot too much. Blaire was beautiful without 'cleaning up' or 'fixing up'.

"I'd better get back to the table. My parents and I are eating with Colonel Tigh and his wife tonight."

"Good old Colonel Tigh," the pilot said. "Does he hit the bottle down here like he does on the ship?"

"I didn't notice," Lee answered even though it had been more than obvious to him that Tigh did.

"Hey, tell your dad that we really miss him. We wish he'd come back. No one likes Commander Cain. She's a bitch. A woman shouldn't be in command of a battlestar anyway. Next thing you know she'll be giving us a girl CAG."

"I'll pass your comments along," Lee said as he glanced at Blaire who looked embarrassed. "It was really good to see you again, Blaire."

"You, too, Lee. I'll see you around."

As he turned to leave he heard the pilot say, "I doubt you'll see him around. I heard he's trying hard to make a name for himself at the Academy. Top of his class. He doesn't have time for girls."

"What a shame," Blaire answered. "He seems like the kind of guy who would be really good to a girl."

"What? Better than me?" The pilot's tone suggested that he wasn't too worried about it.

Lee was too far away to hear how she answered.

When he got back to the table, his father had ordered a steak for him. Lee barely noticed when the food arrived. He barely noticed how intoxicated the Tighs got, especially Ellen. He was watching Blaire Merric and her date as the maître d showed them to a table, watching Blaire as she chose a seat where she could see him, watching as she glanced in his direction and smiled more than once.

He waited until Monday night before he called her. "Can you talk?"

"Why wouldn't I be able to talk?"

"Your friend the pilot?"

"He went back to the Galactica this morning on the weekly transport."

"So, how serious are you two?"

Her voice was light and teasing. "Is there a reason you're asking me such a personal question?"

"Come on, Blaire. You must have figured out by now that I want to ask you out."

"I'm not dating anyone else right now, but he and I haven't made each other any promises. He's sleeping with somebody on the ship. At least that's what a friend of mine who's still on the Galactica tells me. I'm not. Sleeping with anybody else, that is. Not that I wouldn't if he were the right guy. I'm just not out there looking. Does that answer your question?"

"One of them. Will you go out with me?"

"Oh, Lee. Why do you think I gave you my phone number? I'd love to see you again."

He took her to a movie the next night, and as much as he wanted to, he didn't go in when he took her back to the apartment she was sharing with two other women who worked in communications at Fleet Headquarters. Maybe it was because of what had happened on the Galactica, but it was important to him for Blaire to know that was not the only reason he wanted to see her.

They went to a pyramid game on Thursday night. Lee didn't have to explain anything about pyramid to Blaire. She was an avid fan. The Caprica Buccaneers' newest player, Sam Anders, scored three goals and was almost single-handedly responsible for their win. Again Lee took Blaire back to her apartment and again left her at the door. He could tell she was disappointed. It was all he could do to drive away.

He took her to dinner on Saturday night at a nice restaurant, not as nice as Bonnie Patrice, but he couldn't afford their prices on his allowance. Blaire didn't seem to care. This time when he took her back to her apartment, he went in.

Only one of her two roommates was there. Blaire introduced them. Her name was Anastasia Dualla, but Blaire called her Dee. She offered to let them have the living room, but Blaire grinned and declined. She took Lee to her bedroom.

"You know we don't have to do this, don't you?" Lee said. "That's not the only reason…"

"I know it's not," she pulled him to her. "But you want to, don't you?"

"Yeah, but…"

"Well, me, too. You don't know how many times I've thought about what we did on the G. So just shut up and kiss me."

He happily did as she asked.

The sex was much hotter than he remembered. One of them had learned a lot and he was fairly certain it wasn't her.

As she was snuggled against him later, he realized that he was feeling something he hadn't ever felt before. He didn't think it was love, but it felt good. He really liked Blaire.

Apparently someone saw him with Blaire on one of the nights they had dated and told Shelley because Shelley called him Sunday morning, called him a liar, told him to go frak himself, that she didn't need him, and then hung up on him. Her response surprised him and he wondered if he could have handled it better, although in retrospect he couldn't remember getting a chance to say anything. At least he had the comfort of knowing he'd never lied to her about his feelings. He'd been truthful with her from the start. If she'd chosen to read something into their relationship that wasn't there, then it wasn't his fault. It was probably for the best anyway. He never had been able to have two girlfriends at the same time.

On Sunday afternoon before he left to go back to the Academy, he found his father alone in the den looking at television. The Buccaneers were playing the Delphi Dominos. His father was in his favorite leather recliner. He muted the volume. Lee sat down on the sofa.

"Going back now?" Bill asked.

"Mom's taking me to the transport station."

There was an awkward silence. Bill said, "Will you be home anytime soon?"

Lee shrugged. "I'm not sure." It was now or never. He took a deep breath. "Dad, what's going on with Zak?"

Bill looked puzzled. "Is something going on with Zak?"

"I…I don't know," Lee stammered. Why had he expected his father to notice a change in Zak. He would have had to know how Zak was before in order to notice a change. "It's nothing, I guess."

"No, you wouldn't have said that if something wasn't bothering you. Spit it out."

How could he put this without sounding like he was ratting Zak out? "He just seems like he's a lot moodier. He just seems…different to me."

Bill chuckled. "He's seventeen. Aren't all seventeen-year-olds like that?"

"I wasn't that way when I was seventeen."

"No, you weren't. You were a lot more responsible. The military will shape him up after he graduates from high school next year. Your mother has probably spoiled Zak."

His mother? How about almost sixteen years with no parental supervision?

Instead of saying that, though, he asked, "How does Zak feel about going into the military?"

"We haven't talked about it yet. There's still plenty of time." He saw his father glance at the television. "That Sam Anders is developing into a first-rate player. Look at that. He just scored. Difficult shot, too."

"Blaire and I saw him play Thursday night. Enjoy the game, dad."

"Good luck with basic flight class and simulator training this semester. Come home soon. Your mom and I miss you."

"Sure, Dad."

Lee stood up and then surprised himself by sitting down again. "Turn off the television a minute, Dad, please."

His father looked surprised, but he did as Lee asked. "Something still bothering you about Zak or is it something else?"

"It's Zak. Dad, I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but you need to do some things with Zak. Take him to a pyramid game instead of just sitting here looking at it. I know you're busy during the week, and I know your job involves stuff you won't talk about, and I know you're tired on the weekends, but you need to…" Lee nearly faltered, but he forced himself to go ahead, "…you need to be more hands-on with Zak. You need to do stuff with him, talk to him more instead of just giving him orders."

Lee almost winced as he said the last words. He could tell they didn't go over well with his father.

Bill got up and poured a drink.

"So I've got my nineteen-year-old son telling me how to be a father to my seventeen-year-old."

"Look, Dad, most of the time Zak was growing up you weren't here. I'm the one who took Zak to ball games. I'm the one who took him to the zoo on the weekend or down to King's Bay Park to ride the rides. I'm not here anymore, and Zak's too old for the zoo and the rides, but you still need to do stuff with him. You need to talk to him, find out what he likes to do. He's a great soccer player. You need to find time to go to his games once in a while."

At least his father didn't blow up or dismiss him. Bill walked over to the window and looked out. He seemed to be thinking or maybe just remembering. Finally he said, "I haven't been much of a father to either of you, have I?"

"I'm not trying to be critical. I just think it would be good for Zak and you, too, if you did some things together. Take Mom, too, if she wants to go."

Again Bill seemed to be thinking. "And the child is father to the man," he finally said.

Lee stood up. It seemed like a natural thing to do to hug his father.

Bill embraced him. "I can't take much of the credit, Lee, but you've grown up to be a son any father would be proud of."

Lee nodded. His father's praise had gotten to him. "Take care of yourself, Dad. Don't let the job wear you out. I'll try to come home soon."

Lee went upstairs to get his suitcase. When he looked into Zak's room, he saw Zak was playing a video game. "Pause it a minute." It sounded like an order. "Please," he added.

Reluctantly Zak did so and looked up at him.

"I'm getting ready to go back. I wanted to tell you that I talked to Dad…"

"So you ratted me out about the girl?" Lee saw the defiant look come into Zak's eyes.

"No! I talked to him about how he never does anything with you, never goes to your ball games and stuff like that."

"Thanks a lot. You're leaving. If you pissed him off, he'll take it out on me."

"I didn't piss him off. I'm telling you this so you'll know what's going on if he shows up at your soccer games or asks you to go somewhere with him. If he asks you to go to a pyramid game or something, don't tell him you've got something else to do. Especially don't lie to him about needing to study. If he tries, at least meet him halfway. And Zak, try to understand how rough this last year or so has been on him. He had to stand by and let Cylons take control of his battlestar. You need to cut him some slack. The military has been his whole life and now he toeing the line for a skinjob."

There, Lee thought, he'd made his little speech. He'd done all he could do.

Zak just shrugged. Lee was at the door when Zak said, "Hey, man, I miss you."

Lee turned around. "I miss you, too, little bro. Give Dad a chance."

"Okay, just for you."

"About the girl, please be careful."

Zak grinned. "I was just screwing with you. I'm always careful. It just pissed me off when you started sounding like Dad that day. I'm not going to make you Uncle Lee any time soon."

...

Thoughts of what was going on at home vanished when Lee started his second semester at the Academy. First there was basic flight class and then training in the simulator and both took his concentration the way nothing else ever had. There were times when all he thought about was the feeling he had in the Viper simulator. He could hardly wait to get into a real Viper.

The only person he thought really understood what he was talking about was John. Due to John's flight schedule, it was over a month after the start of the second semester before John showed up on Friday night at McGee's. Lee already had their favorite booth near the back.

He talked non-stop for half an hour about his experiences in the simulator. John just listened and nodded and made a comment from time to time. Finally he asked, "Do you feel like you were born to sit in that cockpit?"

"Yeah," Lee grinned.

"The same thing happened to me. Just wait until you're sitting in a real one. There's nothing quite like it. So what else is new with you?"

"You remember Blaire, the girl that I, uh, shared my bunk with on the Galactica?"

"I never saw her, but I remember the name. Don't tell me you've hooked up with her again?"

Lee nodded and finished his beer, signaled the waiter for another one. "I really like her."

"Uh-oh, is this more than just sharing a bunk? More than what you got going on with Shelley?"

"Shelley and I aren't together anymore. Somebody told her about Blaire and she dumped me. I really like Blaire. She's…special. So what about you? Any new girlfriends?"

"For the past four or five weeks I've been seeing this woman who works for the company. I'm about to decide the sex isn't worth it, though."

"Now that's something I never thought I'd hear you say. What do you mean?"

"I should have known better than to get anything started with someone going through a messy divorce, but she kept asking me over for dinner, so I finally took her up on it." He sipped his beer. "After dinner and a couple of drinks, we…you know…and after that she's feeling really good. I made sure of that. Of course I am, too. Anyway, instead of just letting us both enjoy this nice feeling, she starts telling me what an asshole her soon-to-be ex-husband is. Okay, I'll give her once. She needs to get it off her chest. But I've seen her half a dozen times since then and it's the same damn thing every time. Afterward, when I just want to enjoy how good I feel, I get to listen to a whole list of his sins A to Z. Trouble is, the more she talks, the more it sounds like she's talking about me, too. He's a pilot who used to fly for the company. He's flying for Capria Air now."

"How hot is she?"

"Extremely, but it's not worth it. I don't think I'm going back."

"Sure you're not," Lee grinned.

"No, I mean it. You know every time I'm with a woman I always think about Kara's mother. She's my gold standard. She didn't say much afterward, but she always found a way to let me know how much I'd just rocked her world. No one's even come close to making me feel like she did. And it wasn't just the great sex. It was everything about her. I loved that woman! I'll never feel that way about anybody again."

"You need to be careful about using the word never."

"I know. But I mean it. I guess I'll just have to settle for mindless sex and listening to a woman bitch for the rest of my life."

"I can't believe you're complaining. What is this one, the third or fourth hot woman you've hooked up with since you've been back here in the city? In a couple of weeks or months, it'll be another one. I really feel sorry for you."

"Go ahead, make fun of me. I can tell you're getting a big kick out of this."

"I'm not making fun of you. You're living a lot of men's dream existence."

"Well maybe I'm getting tired of it. You know the happiest I ever was in my whole life was when it was just me and Kara's mom. I don't need a lot of women. I don't want a lot of women. I'd just like to find one sweet, even-tempered woman. If she's beautiful and tough like Kara's mom, that would be a real plus. Maybe smart, too, with a sense of humor, who's not afraid to get in my face when I need it." He laughed. "Hell, I don't want much, do I? So now you see what I'm up against. I'll never find anybody like that again."

"Want me to introduce you to Laura Roslin? It sounds like you're describing her. She's all of those things you want. Of course my dad would probably kick my butt if I did that. I think he still likes her."

"Lee, you're talking about a member of the President's Cabinet. Now I know you're making fun of me."

"No, I am not. You're a man and she's a woman. You're both single. What's the big deal?"

"The big deal is that she's so far out of my league it isn't even funny. At least keep your suggestions in the realm of possibility."

"Would you settle for that girl you met on the Galactica? Lissa? I think that was her name."

"Yeah, I'd settle for her since we're going to forget about that other suggestion of yours."

" Well hang around for a while tonight."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Lissa's shown up the past couple of Friday nights with Sam Anders, of the Caprica Buccaneer fame. First time she was in here she saw me and came over and spoke. Of course she asked about you, and I told her that you showed up here from time to time on Friday nights. I think you must have made a big impression on her up there on the Galactica. She's been in here every Friday night with him since then. As soon as she sees me she comes over and says, 'Where's John? I thought you said he comes in here on Friday nights.' She all but called me a liar last week."

"And you didn't call me? I ought to make you pay for the beer tonight."

"I didn't call you because for the last couple of Friday nights I kept thinking you'd show up."

"Yeah, well, I had a little problem with my flight schedule. They had me getting back too late from Sovana on Friday nights, but I think I've got that straightened out now. This woman I've been seeing schedules the pilots."

"Oh that's convenient, isn't it? You didn't like your schedule and now you just happen to be sleeping with the woman who does the scheduling."

"Hey," John said defensively, "I didn't know that's what she did when I started seeing her. I just knew she worked in the office."

"But it worked out to your advantage, didn't it?"

"It did. Otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here drinking beer with you right now." He looked at his watch. "I'd be in the air about an hour out of Caprica City on my way back from Sovana. Of course as soon as I quit listening to her bitch about her ex-husband, I'll be flying Friday and Saturday nights, too. "

"You could always go to work for another airline."

"There's nothing available right now in the private sector. I've already checked."

"What about the government? Dad said they sometimes need pilots. I'm sure he could help you."

"Your dad's done enough for me already."

"You might get to fly Laura Roslin somewhere."

Lee was glad he had finally found something he could pick on John about. John kidded him enough.

Gallagher grinned. "Shut up, Lee, or I'm going to hurt you."

Just then Lissa and Anders walked in. Lee pointed toward the front of McGee's.

John looked around. "Damn, you weren't kidding. Mind if I ask them to join us?"

"It won't bother me."

John went to the front of McGee's, spoke to them, and Lissa almost jumped into his arms as she hugged him. Anders had his back turned and Lee couldn't see his face, but he guessed Anders' expression wasn't nearly as welcoming as Lissa's.

The three of them started toward the booth where Lee was sitting. As they approached the table, Lee saw that Lissa had on a short denim skirt and a clingy low-cut top. Her thick, dark hair was down around her shoulders and she had on a good bit of eye makeup. He liked Blaire's natural look better, but he couldn't deny that Lissa looked hot. She had a great body. Most guys' heads turned as she walked by them. Of course that might also have been because they recognized Anders.

Lissa introduced him to the Buccaneers' newest star. While she was doing that, John sat down across from Lee. That allowed Lissa to slip into the booth next to him and forced Anders to sit beside Lee. For ten minutes they talked about pyramid. For ten minutes Lissa looked bored. Lee had to hand it to John. He was being really cool about the whole situation. If he hadn't known, he'd never have guessed they'd shared a bunk.

Lee finally asked her what she was doing now.

"I'm working in one of the biomedical labs."

"So you're not in the military anymore?" Gallagher asked.

"No, I didn't re-enlist."

"What are you doing in the biomedical lab?" Lee asked.

"I'm not supposed to talk about it and I'm just a technician, but it has to do with…it's hard to explain…it has to do with…let's just say genetic engineering."

"What are you trying to do? Better food production?" John asked.

"No, nothing to do with food at all. That's another lab. I'm working on a project headed by Dr. Gaius Baltar. The first time he came into the lab I thought he was a professor's assistant. He looks a lot younger than he is. I mean he's probably thirty or something, not that thirty is really old."

Lee noticed John momentarily glance at the ceiling. John didn't look it, but he was thirty-nine.

Lissa went on, "Anyway, the other guy who's on the project with us now is a doctor named Simon."

"You're working with a Cylon skinjob?" Lee asked.

Lissa immediately got defensive. "Why is that such a big deal?"

"Maybe because they killed a couple of billion of us. Did you know he was a Cylon when you went to work there?"

"We were all told before we applied for the jobs. If we had any problems with it, they wouldn't even take our application."

"And you've got no problem working for a Cylon?" John asked.

"You're working with an honest-to-gods Cylon?" Anders repeated Lee's question. "Is it one of those metal jobs? A chrome toaster?"

"What do you think skinjob means?" Lissa snapped. "He looks just like us. Don't you ever read the paper? And I don't work directly for him. I work with some other technicians and we work for Dr. Baltar."

"And who do you think Dr. Baltar is working for?" Lee asked.

"For the government. For our government."

"I doubt that. I'll guarantee you that Simon is calling the shots. Baltar may be acting like he's in charge, but I'll bet he's really not." Lee's voice showed his anger for the first time.

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about," Lissa said hotly. "Gaius Baltar is a genius. His ideas are so far ahead of anybody else's I'd be a fool to pass up the opportunity to work with him. I don't really have a choice about this job."

"Yes, you do," John said. "You always have a choice. I agree with Lee. I doubt Dr. Baltar is the real power behind whatever this project is. I doubt all those brilliant ideas are his, either."

"You are so wrong! You are just so wrong! I've got to have a job. This is what I want to do. This is so leading edge you couldn't possibly understand it. I'm not supposed to be talking about it anyway. So let's drop it!"

They did and started talking about pyramid again. Anders resumed participating in the conversation. Lissa looked relieved and quickly resumed looking bored.

Finally John said, "You're going to have to get up and let me out, sugar. Nature calls."

"While I'm up, I'll go, too," Lissa said. "Back in a minute, Sammie."

She followed John toward the restrooms.

"So how do you know Lissa?" Anders asked.

"I met her while I was on the Galactica two years ago."

"This other guy, Gallagher, he was there, too?"

"We both were during the three days of fighting. He'd been hurt. We had to go to Sick Bay. Lissa patched him up."

"You're both pilots?"

"He is. I'm at the Academy now. I'll go to Flight School this summer."

The minutes ticked by, over fifteen as Lee kept glancing at his watch. He kept up a steady stream of questions, trying to keep a conversation going and keep Ander's mind off the fact that neither Gallagher nor Lissa was back yet.

Finally Anders said, "It's been like over twenty minutes. Where do you think they are?"

"John's probably out back smoking or maybe in the parking lot," Lee improvised. "He can never go long without having a cigarette."

That wasn't the truth. John rarely went outside to smoke anymore. Lee had just lied for a friend and that bothered him.

Nevertheless he continued. "McGee's went no smoking last fall. A lot of people didn't like it, but some kind of legislation was passed in Caprica City. Does Lissa smoke?"

"No."

"Then I don't know about her. She probably ran into someone she knows in the restroom or something. You know how girls can talk when they get together."

He realized how stereotypical that sounded and that bothered him, too.

"Yeah," Anders said. He was getting more and more fidgety, rolling his empty beer bottle between his hands, putting it down and picking it back up. He did that a few times before he said, "I'm going to look for her."

"Sure." Lee took a sip of his beer. "You want me to get one of the female cadets to check the ladies room?"

"No thanks."

Lee hoped John and Lissa weren't doing anything more than just talking. His fear was of Anders catching John with Lissa and the two men getting into a fight. They were about the same height and size, but Anders was younger and in peak physical condition. Still he'd seen the way John had hit Tom Zarek that morning on the Galactica. He knew how to use his fists. Lee hoped it didn't come to that. Fights meant the MPs or the police and they didn't need that.

Then he started thinking about how he would feel if he were out somewhere with Blaire and she did that to him. He knew how much it would hurt if Blaire disappeared with a guy she barely knew. It was not a good feeling. He'd made excuses to Anders to cover for a friend, but he didn't feel good about that, either. Some things were just wrong, no matter how you looked at them.

He was still thinking about that several minutes later when John slid back into the booth across from him. John's beer was empty and he reached out and took Lee's, finished the little bit that was left and signaled the waiter for two more.

"You didn't." Lee said.

"Didn't what?"

"Damn it, John, did you and Lissa…?"

John looked down and then back up. He didn't have to answer the question. Lee knew from his look that they had.

"Where?"

"We went to her car for a couple of minutes to talk. I didn't think…I really didn't think anything like that was going to happen."

Lee knew he was probably going to make his friend angry, but he couldn't let this one pass.

"That was wrong of you, John. Wrong and damned inconsiderate. You shouldn't have done it. Look, I know you don't know Anders, but he seems like a decent guy, and he's her date. Think about how you'd feel if you were in his place. What you did was wrong. Her, too."

To his surprise, John agreed with him. "I know. I swear to you Lee, I didn't go out there with that in mind. She was waiting on me when I came out of the men's room and took me out the back door. She said she wanted to talk about her job. She could tell I wasn't too happy about her working for Baltar and his skinjob buddies. It's too cold to stand outside so we went to her car. We were arguing about it, and all of a sudden she was on my lap and she has on that short skirt and nothing under it and then she started kissing me and…use your imagination. There's not a man under ninety who could have told her no at that point. But I'm not blaming her. I'm not proud of myself for what I just did but only because she was with Anders."

The waiter came to the booth with their beers. This was going to be three for both of them, but tonight Lee needed another one. He was still angry and it was still evident in his voice.

"And it never occurred to you that Anders was sitting here wondering what the hell had happened to his date?"

"I've disappointed you, haven't I?"

Lee forced himself to look his friend in the eyes. "Yes, John, you have."

"I'm sorry," John said softly. "Your good opinion means a lot to me."

Lee shrugged. "It's not me you should apologize to."

"Yes, it is. I put you in the position of sitting here talking to Anders while I out there having my way with his date or she was having her way with me. Whatever. I owe Anders an apology, too, but if I do that, he and I will probably end up out back, and while I've never run from a fight, I don't go looking for one, either. So you get his apology, too. I'm sorry."

"Just promise me you'll think about it before you do something like that again."

"I'm not going to do something like that again. And just to prove to you how sorry I am, even though Lissa has asked me to come see her tomorrow night and even though I really want to go see her tomorrow night, I still intend to keep my date with this other woman, have mindless sex with her and listen patiently to her bitch about her ex-husband for half an hour. And I won't come back here and complain about it to you either."

Lee started laughing. It was impossible to stay angry at Gallagher. "Gods, John. I don't believe your way of looking at life. That's really some serious punishment."

He smiled. "You might change your mind if you were on my end of it."

"I give up. I'm not going to win this one, am I?"

"You already have. You're good for me, Lee."

"You've done this before, haven't you?"

John shrugged. "Not lately. I have a problem saying no to a pretty woman, especially one who went to the ladies room and took off her panties just for me."

"John, I got one more thing I want to say on the subject of what happened tonight and then I'm going to drop it. I know you like Lissa, but you really ought to think about what she just did to Anders before you get involved with her."

"What makes you think I'm getting involved with her?"

"You got her phone number, didn't you?"

He patted his shirt pocket and grinned. "Address, too."

"I rest my case," Lee said.

Anders and Lissa never came back to the table, which didn't surprise him at all.

...

When Lee went to pick Blaire up for their date the next night he took her flowers.

"What are these for?" she asked him in surprise.

"Just for being the nice, sweet person that you are."

She smiled and looked at him with a question in her eyes. "Have you done something you need to apologize for?"

"No, but last night something happened to a friend of mine that showed me just how much I should appreciate you."

She came over and kissed him. "You do know the way to a girl's heart."

If it was that easy, why, then, hadn't Blaire completely captured his heart?

What was he waiting for?

Maybe he should be asking himself who he was waiting for.

Oddly enough, even as he was kissing Blaire, a name crossed his mind, someone he hadn't thought about for a long time.

Kara.