In Your Arms

Disclaimer: I don't own BSG and/or its character.

Kara realized that Lee was the person she wanted to be with, but Sam was still waiting for her on Caprica. Lee eventually realized that in Kara's arm was where be belonged, but Dee was the woman by his side. An incident involving Helo brought the two closer together.

Helo is a bit nosy, but it's all because he cared :)

"Oh no you don't!" Kara's hands was waving around in front of her. Karl had a playful look in his face while he advances at the defensive Kara, tackling her flat on the gym floor.

"Ow ow ow! Stop!" Kara was screaming and laughing uncontrollably as he tickled her on the sensitive spot only he can accurately hit. She lifted her knee and pushed him away, her abs were tense from too much laughing, while her breath were ragged, trying to take in as much oxygen as possible.

"Enough…" Kara told him, still panting.

"Buck… buck… buck…" Karl imitated a chicken, a smirk plastered in his face.

This time it was Kara who tackled him and nailed him down to the floor, or at least that was the intention, until Lee walked in just as Karl was landing, bringing Lee down with him, and pinning the smaller man to the floor.

"Oooowh!" Kara put her hand on her mouth as she realized Lee was sandwiched between Karl and the floor. She let out a laugh before saying "Oops"

"What's up, Apollo?" she was still sitting on Karl. Bemused, Lee frowned while trying to breathe.

"Starbuck, I think you need to start on your diet, Lee can't breathe here because you're too damn heavy" he smirked. Taking it as a challenge, Kara lifted herself up and slammed down on the two men, she actually felt sorry for Lee a little… just a little.

"I think you just broke my ribs" Lee commented, still trying to wiggle his way out. She grinned before lifting herself off them, claiming victory.

Lee tugged on Karl's arm, trying to move. Karl nodded an on the count of three both men got up to tackle Kara, bringing her to the ground. Limbs entwined, all three of them were out of breath, none made anymore move. In seconds they let out a hearty laugh. Any other day Lee would have scolded them for fooling around like little kids, but that day he was somehow feeling playful. Seeing Kara laughed like there were no worries in this world was something he longed to see.

Kara laid still as the two men moved, she savoured the moment, on one side was her bestfriend, her protective friend, her rock. While on the other was her other bestfriend whom she loved dearly. Lee Adama was more than just a friend to Kara, he was someone who drove her world crazy, someone who kept her alive, someone who made her world make sense. She felt guilty, Sam was still waiting for her on Caprica and her heart already belonged to someone else.

"You coming or are you just gonna lay there?" Karl asked while offering his hand. Lee was moving towards the punching bag, about to begin his workout.

"Coming" she grabbed his hand and pulled herself up. She turned back to Lee and waved at him.

"Laters" she said as she walked out of the gym, Lee's lips curled into a small smile looking at her swaggering down the hallway.

"What's up with you and Apollo?" Karl asked without hiding the smirked that started to form in his face.

"What do you mean?" unknown to her, she smiled as he mentioned Apollo.

"Uh-huh… That…"

"Helo… stop it" Kara gave a light warning snarl.

"Does he know about this?"

"About what?"

"About your feelings for him" he lost the grin on his face then.

"Don't…" he warned him again.

"How about Anders?"

"What about him? He's dead" her blood boiled at the mention of his name, it was mainly guilt, grief and sadness all rolled into one.

"Then why did you promise him that you'd come back"

"I don't know, Helo. Can we stop talking about this already? You're ruining my mood" she glared at him. Karl only nodded and sighed.

"Just looking out for you" he mumbled.

Kara's mind summoned the memories of the day they first met, but she soon shrugged it off, one word… Dualla. They frakked, she cursed inwardly, mentally beating herself for being affected by it. She shouldn't have, she had Anders, but Dee was the reason why she had avoided one on one with Lee lately, she didn't want to be reminded that Dee was the one in Lee's arms, not her.

Back at the gym Lee was furiously attacking the punching bag. He had heard about Anders, and about Kara's promise. It made him feel… he wasn't even sure how he felt about that. He only knew there was a twist in the pit of his stomach each time the name was mentioned. Anders was the reason why he had been avoiding some alone time with Kara, he didn't want to hear her say anything about the other man.

The two of them had their on and off days, sometimes they'd get along well, like the world belonged just to the two of them, they fell into sync with one another. But most days they'd fight, like fire and ice, they'd argue until they had nothing further to say, or one or both of them ended up with bruises.

"It's complicated!" Kara and Lee shouted in unison at Karl as he was trying to mediate the argument that erupted in the middle of a triad game. The rest of the table had either left or moved onto another group, trying to ignore the two.

"You know what? Have it your way. I'm out of here! She's yours, Helo. I can't take it anymore!" Lee rose from his seat, and left the mess hall.

With a rumble she slammed her fist to the table, and cringed a little as pain shot through her knuckles. Everyone was suddenly quiet, heads turned towards the angered woman. Karl shot glances for others to return to their own business.

"Kara… let's go" he gently tugged on her arm. She fixed her gaze at the table, Karl tried to get her to budge, but when he realized what she was holding in wasn't anger, but tears, he quickly grabbed her and took her outside.

"What happened?" he asked. She was still facing downwards, her vision blurred by the accumulating tears.

"You saw what happened" she bit back the waterworks and faced Karl eye to eye.

"I saw you two about to tear each other's head off, yeah… but care to explain why?"

"He was being a jerk" she snorted, looking away from him. Slowly, she started to walk back to her quarter, Karl followed quietly.

"How's Sharon and the baby?" she asked, changing the topic.

"They're fine" Karl answered quickly, he knew her tactics. She had been different since she came back, not because of Anders, but because of what happened at the farm. It had been long enough for Karl not to catch Kara staring into blank walls, or drinking her troubles away, but it hadn't been long enough for her to be able to talk about it openly, or to stop having the nightmares. Kara may not notice, but despite the fights and arguments they frequently had, she seemed to be more grounded since Lee was by her side.

"I blew up at him" Kara suddenly said.

"That's new" he mocked her, adding a slight shoulder bump.

"What did he do?"

"Nothing… he did nothing…" she sighed as she paused. Karl recognized that look, it was the look Kara gave out whenever she realized something and did not like it.

"Oh frak" she cursed. Karl raised an eyebrow at his friend, perhaps he knew what Kara just realized.

"You're jealous" Karl was half asking, and half stating the obvious.

"He was… she was there… she's not even supposed to be there… They…" she couldn't put words together and just gave up. She looked at Karl in the eye, "You know what I meant" she stated as a matter of factly, putting her hands on her hips.

"Do I?"

"You know…" she grumbled at her frustration and stormed off, leaving Karl in the hallway, this time he didn't follow.

Karl had found Lee at the gym, dumping his energy away at the punching bag. The men shared nods as they acknowledge each other's presence.

"I'm done" Lee indicated towards the punching bag as Karl put his gloves on.

"Thanks"

They quietly passed each other as they swapped places.

"How's Sharon and the baby?" Karl swore that was the only line up Lee and Kara's sleeves every time they wanted or did not want to talk, or simply had nothing to say but felt the need to fill the awkward silence.

"Sharon and the baby are fine. You and Starbuck on the other hand, need to sort your shit out" he turned towards Lee.

"Tell that to her, I've been trying" Lee put his gloves into his bags.

"Not hard enough"

Lee stopped in his track at that comment and paced towards the taller man, facing him directly, seeking his gaze and had a lock on it once he found them.

"I've been trying since day one. If she can't see it, it's her frakking problem! She's frakking hung up on a dead guy!"

"Anders..." Karl was going to say something but he bit it back, something in Lee's eyes sparked at the mention of Sam's name. It was brief, but Karl caught it and shook his head.

"Tell her…"

"Seriously! Sort your shit out! I'm not a messenger!" Karl cut him off and stepped away, suddenly didn't feel like training anymore, he'd go for a run instead, he decided.

"And certainly ain't a cupid!" he added as he walked out of the gym, not even bothering to take his gloves off.

Lee frowned at the last comment and shrugged it off. He quickly gathered his things and left, he knew Dee would be attending fighting class and he didn't intend to see her. He felt the guilt seeping in again, the guilt for being with someone else while yearning for another. But at that moment, avoiding her seemed to be the best approach to the situation.

The night prior at the mess hall was uncalled for. He felt guilty somehow, being with Dee in front of Kara, they may have acted like there was nothing between them, but everyone knew they frakked, including Kara. He didn't know when it started, all he knew was one moment he had a good hand, then another he snapped when Kara just wouldn't shut up about Anders.

"Oh frak!" he cursed as he walked out of the gym.

To be continued...