Author's Note: Last chapter was a blast…now, CHAPTER SIX IS GONNA BE EVEN MORE OF A BLAST!!! WOO-HOO!!!! :D

Disclaimer: I own…my brain. It's my source of creativity. But I'm pretty sure you guys already knew that. Whatever. :P

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Lee's P.O.V.

Lee's heart was pounding against his ribcage, and he was positive that he was experiencing every emotion that there was - if that was even possible. He stood on the other side of the Galactica's meeting and conference room, trying to decide if it was worth it to go inside and take a few publicity pictures with his father, and risk reliving the aftermath of his baby brother's death and the memory of his funeral. On one side, Lee felt deep, painful sorrow - he knew those emotions were exactly the same way inside his heartbroken father - over the loss of Zak in a viper accident; but on the other side, Lee felt wild anger and hatred towards his old man. He may as well have caused Zak to die - he pulled the strings, gave him the b.s. about men becoming men when they became viper pilots, and pressured him to become a pilot to make the family proud. It filled Lee with hazy rage just thinking about it - as far as he was concerned, his own father, the great Bill Adama, had killed his own son.

Oddly enough though, Lee found himself taking a deep breath, and opening the hatch to a bunch of press and publicity people - and his seemingly-innocent father. He nodded once to Lee, which easily translated into a very curt Hello, son.

Reminiscent of a sea parting, the press group split in half as Lee walked down the middle with a sense of pride.

"Captain, thank you for joining us," a man in a cheap-looking teal suit said with a nod and a smile. Lee didn't say anything in reply - he just simply wanted to get these photos taken care of, do the ceremonial fly-by, then go and be with his daughter.

The man in the teal suit stuck his hand out, which Lee shook somewhat-boredly. "Hi, Aaron Doral," he said. "If you'd just step over there, we'll get a few shots of you and the commander. Thanks."

Obediently, Lee jumped onto the slightly raised platform, and stood beside his father.

"'Kay gentlemen, could you maybe stand a bit closer?"

Lee glanced to his left, and noticed that there was a five-inch space of emptiness that was separating him from the old man; he'd hoped that Doral would see this, ignore it, and take the pictures. That wasn't the case though. With a barely audible sigh, Lee shuffled over a bit closer to his father, until the space between them had narrowed down to a mere inch.

"That's fantastic." One of Doral's thin brown eyebrows shot up, which Lee took as a sign that he was contemplating how the pose both he and the old man were in could be better. He nodded curtly, and said to his father, "Commander, could you put your arm around your son?"

Ugh. Damn you, Aaron Doral.

Lee gave Doral a dirty look; if it weren't for the prescence of his father and every single press photographer known to man, he would've pigeon-necked the sleazy-looking schmuck in that instant. But since there were important people watching his every move at the moment, all Lee could do was give the ghost of a wince as his father awkwardly wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

"Okay, great." Flashbulbs suddenly began to pop as photos were taken. When two sets of photos had been shot, Doral stuck his arms out to stop the press from taking more, and commanded, "Okay, and stop! Thank you very much, and see you at the ceremony!"

Once Doral and the others had left the room, Lee let out a thankful sigh, glad that the whole photo ordeal was over with. Now figuring that he was free to go and do what he wanted until it was time for the ceremony, Lee was about to leave, when the old man stopped him.

"You want some, er, coffee?" he offered.

"No sir, thank you, sir."

The room was quiet as Lee's father poured himself a small cup of straight black coffee. "Why don't you sit down?" he suggested after he'd finished pouring a bit of the steamy, dark-brown liquid.

For a very brief second, Lee was tempted to obey his father, and put aside all feelings that he felt around him. The temptation lasted for a moment, and then it evaporated when Lee remembered that he harbored anger and deep, hateful grudges towards his old man for putting Zak through flight school.

When Lee didn't answer, the old man switched to another conversation tactic. "Congratulations on making Captain. Sorry I wasn't there."

"Thank you, sir," Lee said stiffly. He was beginning to grow aggravated with his father's never-ending bombardment of questions, and the fact that he wasn't reading his subtle hints and noticing that he wasn't in the mood to talk. Why can't he understand that I don't want to talk to him? Why can't he take a damn hint and leave me the hell alone?

Adama was totally unaware of Lee's masked rudeness. "How's your mother?"

"Getting married."

Lee's father chuckled at the news. "Good for her. We spoke about a year ago, had a real heart-to-heart with her. It was good-"

All right, he REALLY needs to cut the nostalgic crap and let me go!

"I'm glad to hear that, sir. Will that be all?"

"Why don't you to me, Lee?" the old man said in a low growl.

It took all of Lee's self-control not to release the bout of sarcastic laughter that had bubbled up inside him in the past few minutes. "W-w-what do you want to talk about?"

"About anything. You've been here for an hour now."

"Well, I don't have anything to say," Lee shot back in a sharp voice. "My orders said report here and participate in the ceremony. So, I'm here, and I'm gonna participate. There wasn't anything in my orders about having a heart-to-heart chat with the old man."

The room was silent again before the old man spoke. "Accidents happen in the service."

No, he is NOT doing this!

"Dad, I don't want to do this-"

"You know all the things you talked about the last time I saw you at the funeral..."

"Dad, I REALLY don't want to do this!"

"They still ring in my ears after two years."

It was then that Lee lost all control of his temper, and it suddenly flared up in anger. "GOOD!" he snapped before his voice dumbed back down to regular speaking volume. "Good, 'cause, 'casue you know what? They were meant to."

"Zak had a choice. You both did," his father said solemnly.

You've gotta be frakking kidding me.

"A man isn't a man until he wears the wings of a viper pilot. Doesn't that sound at all familiar to you?"

Adama took a sip of his coffee. "That's not fair son."

Lee looked away, and tried desperately to blink back the tears were threatening to spill down his cheeks. "No, it's not fair...because one of us wasn't cut out to wear the uniform."

"He earned his wings, just like we all did-"

"One of us wasn't fit to be a pilot." Lee's voice quickly took on an extremely harsh edge as his voice rose. "One of us wouldn't have even made it into FLIGHT SCHOOL if his old man, his daddy, hadn't pulled the strings!" he shouted.

"That's an exaggeration. I did nothing for him that I wouldn't have done for anyone else."

Dammit all, he's missing my point!

"You're not even listening to me. W-w-why can't you get this through you head? Zak, DID NOT, belong in that plane!"

Lee now noticed that his father had an iron grip on his tin coffee cup, and he was holding it hard enough to make dents in the sides with his beefy fingers. He also noticed that his bulldog-like jaw had set, his eyes had become dangerously steely, and his posture had become tense and rigid. Lee should've recognized that he was pushing his father too far and was venturing into bad territory, but he decided to see how far he could push him before he flat-out throttled him.

"He shouldn't have been in there. He-he was only doing it for you." Lee's words took on an ashamed and devastated tone as he bluntly said, "Face it - you killed him."

Lee could now see, as he stared at his father's angry stance, that he'd officially gone too far with the subject of Zak's death. It looked like the old man was doing anything - and everything - possible not to slug him. "That'll be all, Captain," he dismissed Lee haltingly.

At last, Lee shook his head in exasperation. "'Bout damn time. I've got a frakking kid to tend to."

Adama's head whipped around and practically did a 180 the moment Lee uttered 'kid'. "Excuse me?" he said while trying not to choke on the large sip of coffee he'd just taken.

Shit, probably wasn't the smartest idea to let out that dirty little secret.

Trying to act like it was no big deal, Lee straightened up, and gave his old man a nonchalant shrug. "You heard me - I've got a kid to take care of."

All of a sudden, the old man was in Lee's face, and there was a deep, angry frown on his aged face. "Is this a joke? What the frak are you doing, Lee?" He grabbed his son's arms, and squeezed them in a vice-like hold. "Tell me the truth, NOW."

Lee gulped nervously - he should've known better than to bring this up. There was no escaping this now. "You see her almost everyday - in fact, you've seen her everyday for the past thirteen years, dad."

Adama's face immediately blanched. "You're not saying-"

"Yes, dad. Sloane's my daughter," Lee stated in an almost-monotone voice.

He let go of Lee's arms, and stepped back. "Get out," he whispered.

"What?"

The old man turned to Lee with an infuriated look on his face. "Get out of my sight, before I'm tempted to throw something at you!" he barked, his voice filled to the brim with rage.

Now more than happy to leave, Lee began to jog towards the entrance to the meeting room. Just before he left though, he turned to look at his father, and said, "You know, I did the same thing when Kara told me - it really pissed me off that she'd kept my daughter, our daughter a secret from me for all those years. But, you know what? I had to get over it. I decided that I wasn't gonna miss out on being her dad for the rest of her life - and neither should you. You're an official grandfather now, and I'd get used to it. Sloane's gonna need somebody she loves to go to when both of her parents aren't around for her."

Then, Lee left his silent father behind in the room to meditate on his words, and went off to change into his flight suit for the ceremony.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Whoa, man...frakking INTENSE chappie that was. Anyway, hope y'all enjoy it! AND REMEMBER, REVIEWS ARE POWER!! :D :D :D