Fic
They couldn’t reveal themselves to their friends, but they could look in on them, and they did quite often. Sam in particular liked visiting the Agathons to watch Hera play. If it hadn’t been for him they never would have found her, and he seemed to take great personal pride in every new thing she learned.
Kara spent a lot of her time on Earth with the Admiral. She would watch him and call out encouragements and jokes he couldn’t hear as he built his cabin, his pride and enjoyment in the task evident on his face. When he sat by Laura’s tomb in the evening she would be next to him, wishing she could put a hand on his shoulder, to give him some kind of comfort. Sometimes Sam would come and sit too, and they’d hold hands, grateful that they were together and hoping that one day Bill could be with Laura again.
Sam was with her the first time she went to see Lee. She’d put it off for a long time, not sure what seeing him again would feel like, or what it would do to Sam. But it was his idea to go find him, and she’d agreed, somewhat grateful that she didn’t have to feel guilty about going to him.
He wasn’t alone. That surprised her a bit, but she realized it shouldn’t have. Lee was a natural leader, and a small group, maybe a dozen or so, had joined him on his explorations. Six had been right about time moving differently in their oasis. Sometimes they would come to Earth and it would have been an hour since they’d last left, and sometimes it might have been years. She wasn’t sure how old Lee was now. He still looked like Lee, but there was a wisdom about him now that made him seem decades older. The beginnings of a few wrinkles showed at the corners of his eyes, and Kara thought she even saw some grey around his temples. But he carried it well.
When she first laid eyes on him again a familiar warmth and longing spread throughout her. He was still Lee, no matter what he looked like now; he was still her friend and her lover. She looked over her shoulder at Sam, guilty and afraid of hurting him. But Sam just took her face in his hands and kissed her forehead lightly.
“The world isn’t black and white,” he said gently. “Especially now. It’s OK to love us both. You don’t have to choose.” Kara was astounded by the love and acceptance in his voice. He kissed her again and then left, fading away, and Kara knew he had left Earth for now, so she wouldn’t feel like she was being spied on.
She visited him often after that. From the moment they’d met she’d always felt a connection to Lee Adama. He was damn good looking, and that didn’t hurt, but it was more than physical attraction. It wasn’t even an understanding, because there were a lot of times when they hadn’t understood each other at all. But that connection, that indefinable connection, had always tied them together. She had loved him, and he had loved her, but they’d never been able to be together, not in any lasting capacity.
And despite how much she loved Sam, and how much she loved being with him, when she watched Lee there was part of her that still regretted their inability to have that lasting relationship. So she watched him, watched him lead his people over mountains and rivers and endless fields of grass. And a small part of her longed for what might have been.
***********
She couldn’t have pinpointed when it started, but somewhere along the way Kara started to feel restless. It was something she hadn’t felt since entering the oasis for the first time and it was making her severely cranky.
She was sitting on a chair in their bedroom, watching Sam sleep. They didn’t really have to do that anymore, sleep. Or eat, or any number of other human activities. But they enjoyed doing them anyway. Except for now, because now Kara couldn’t sleep.
Tired of sitting, she got up to pace out in the living room. Expecting the room to be empty, she pulled up short when she saw a figure reclining on the couch.
“You feel it, don’t you?” Six asked lazily. Kara was semi-used to having her pop up. She and Baltar had come around a few times, wanting to meet Sam and look in on the two of them.
“What is it?” she asked back, not bothering to act like she didn’t know what the other woman was talking about.
“It’s time Kara. We told you when you came here that you might be tasked with pointing someone on the right path, getting them where they need to go. You’re needed now.”
“Sam?”
“His time will come, but not yet. This is for you Kara. Just let yourself feel it, and you’ll know what needs to be done.” Closing her eyes, Kara did as Six said, letting the edginess she’d been feeling wash over her until it coalesced into one thought.
“Adama.” She’d barely thought his name when she was at his side. Traveling between the two worlds had gotten easier, something for which she was profoundly grateful. The cabin was complete, small and rudimentary but sturdy and sound. Adama was truly an old man now, his hair gone completely gray, the lines in his face and hands sunk deep. He lay on a pallet on the floor and Kara knew he was dying. Whether he was sick or it was just age she didn’t know. But his time on Earth was quickly coming to and end.
And just as sure as she’d known he was fading, she knew what she needed to do.
**********
Lee shifted uncomfortably on the hard ground, trying to find a decent position. Not for the first time he wished they’d saved a few more creature comforts from the ships. Like beds, or cots, or at least a rolled up mattress. He didn’t consider himself old, but the hard life they’d been living was starting to take its toll on his joints, and sleeping on the ground every night wasn’t doing him any favors.
Giving up, he sat and looked on at his small band of followers. He’d been reluctant, at first, to take them with him, wanting some quiet time for himself. But he’d felt a responsibility to help those who needed a guiding hand. And he’d found that it was quite handy to have help. Hunting was much easier with more than just himself, and their company had gone a long ways towards helping him cope with the loss of his family.
He knew his father had wanted to spend time with Laura before her death, and he probably wouldn’t have been up for all the running around Lee did, but he still missed him and wished he knew where he was. And Kara. He thought part of him must have always known that her miraculous return from the dead couldn’t last. Still, turning around one minute and having her gone with no warning had shocked him. But he had tried not to dwell. Nothing would ever undo what they’d had together, but she didn’t belong to him and he had to let her go.
Some small sound had him looking up, and he smacked himself inwardly. Not only was he thinking about Kara again but now he was hallucinating her. He closed his eyes and shook his head. It honestly wasn’t the first time he’d thought he saw her, but it had been a long time and he thought he’d gotten over it. But this time when he opened his eyes she was still there.
“Hello, Lee.” He shot to his feet. His hallucinations had never spoken before.
“Kara?” Did I fall asleep after all, he thought. “Is this a dream?”
“Your father needs you Lee,” she said, not answering him.
“My father?”
“He’s dying.” Lee felt like he’d been punched. “It’s his time to move on, Lee. You can’t stop it. But you should go to him. He needs you there.” Lee’s mind was racing, still not sure what the hell was going on.
“I don’t even know where he is!”
“Not far. You were already going to him. You’ve been getting closer for days and you didn’t know it. He has a cabin in those rocky hills over there, at the top of the ridge. You can get there in a day or less if you move quickly.”
“Kara, I don’t-“
“Go now Lee.” She was gone just as suddenly as she had appeared, and Lee stood in a daze until one of the men stirred on the ground.
“Lee. Hey, Lee, man. You okay?” Lee looked around, slowly coming to his senses. A grey light was filling the sky, dawn was fast approaching and the group was beginning to wake. He looked down at the man who had spoken.
“Wake everyone up and break camp. We need to move.”
**********
Kara watched them pack their limited gear. She watched them move across the flat land at the base of the hills. Watched them hike their way up the terrain. And she watched as they spotted the cabin, as Lee sprinted for it while the rest called out in confusion. Lee hadn’t told them where they were going or why. They didn’t have to ask once they saw who lived there.
Lee knelt by his father’s side and held his hand, kissed his forehead. Adama opened his eyes and saw his son, and a smile split his face. They talked quietly, for hours. Spoke to each other about their adventures since they’d last seen each other.
And at sunset that evening Kara watched as Laura Roslin welcomed Bill Adama home with open arms and a kiss.
They all helped bury him, erecting a cairn next to Laura’s. Everyone knew who Admiral Adama was, what he had done for them, and they treated him with the upmost respect possible under the circumstances. When they were finished they stood back, letting Lee have a moment alone. He looked down at his father and the woman he had loved like a mother, and smiled, as if knowing they were reunited.
“Thank you, Kara,” he whispered so no one else could hear him.
The rules said she shouldn’t reveal herself to him anymore, but Kara knew in that moment that she could if she wanted to. Whatever the consequences she could appear to Lee and tell him all the things that she’d been thinking, that she would miss the old man too and knew his grief, that she loved him and part of her still wished they could have made it work.
And what would that accomplish, she thought as she watched one of Lee’s people come up to him and lay a hand on his shoulder. She’d never paid much attention to who followed Lee around, but this woman looked vaguely familiar, like maybe someone who had lived on Galactica though Kara was sure she hadn’t been a pilot. Lee turned to look at her, and Kara saw something pass between them that made her stomach clench.
He’s moving on, she realized sadly. He had a whole new life, one that included new people, maybe even new love. She had no right to intrude on that. She had a new life too, one with a man she loved desperately, who gave her everything and loved her no matter what. Whatever she and Lee had between them had never worked, but maybe he could find the same happiness she had with Sam with someone else.
Sam was right, she didn’t have to choose. She could stay down on Earth, follow Lee around, even talk to him if she really wanted. But it would only hurt both of them. She didn’t have to choose, but she was going to.
“Goodbye, Lee Adama. You won’t be forgotten.”
She left him standing over his father’s grave, with his friends around him and the promise of hope and new beginnings starting to penetrate the grief. Taking one last look at the man who had once held her heart she turned towards home and her husband, and never looked back.
**********
Many years later
Kara and Sam walked hand in hand through New York, the people around them continuing on with their hurried lives, unaware of the celestial pair. It always surprised her how happy it made her to do this. To walk around and just look at people. She and Sam had both given so much so that they could be alive today. Seeing them going about their lives always gave her a sense of fulfillment. Not that it was always good. There had been more than a few times throughout the years when she’d preferred to stay in their oasis. Times when terrible things happened and they weren’t allowed to intervene or help. But those terrible things would eventually run their course and civilization would have learned some valuable lesson, and Kara would be able to walk among the people again.
“You’re quiet today,” Sam said lightly. “Isn’t that one of the signs of the apocalypse?” Kara smacked his chest with the back of her hand.
“Ha ha, very funny. Smartass. I’m just thinking about people, you know? All these people, they came from us, from our friends. They’re our legacy, our children. Even if they don’t know it, don’t remember any of us. They’re ours.” Sam squeezed her hand and smiled down at her. He tucked her under his arm and Kara snuggled into his side. It wasn’t the easiest way to walk, but she didn’t really care about easy anymore. They continued on like that for several blocks, just enjoying being with each other, Kara still looking around at all the people. Spotting a familiar red dress down the street she pulled herself away and tugged on Sam’s hand, motioning with her head.
“Haven’t seen them in awhile,” she said lightly.
“You don’t think they’re here because anything’s wrong, do you?”
“Do you feel anything’s wrong?”
“No, I guess not. We might as well say hi.” They headed towards Baltar and Six, approaching the pair unseen.
“At a scientific conference this week at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, a startling announcement was made that archeologists believe they have found fossilized remains of a young woman who may actually be Mitochondrial Eve. Mitochondrial Eve is the name scientists have given to the most recent common ancestor for all human beings living on Earth. She lived in what is now Tanzania, over 150,000 years ago.”
“Along with her Cylon mother and human father.”
“They’re talking about Hera?” Kara spoke from behind. Just once she wished she could sneak up on those two, but both turned to her calmly without any apparent surprise, even though she knew they couldn’t have heard them come up.
“Kara, Sam. It’s good to see you. I trust you’ve been behaving yourselves since that…unfortunate unpleasantness during the Hundred Years War?” Sam’s back immediately stiffened.
“That,” he said defensively, “wasn’t our fault. We told her exactly what she needed to hear. How were we supposed to know Joan would go off and tell anyone who would listen that God was speaking to her, even when we told her not to?” Kara laid a soothing hand on his back.
“It’s alright baby, Six knows all that. She’s just still prickly about that prank we played on her and Baltar a couple centuries ago.” Sam laughed, remembering the water balloons, and Six huffed dismissively. Taking Baltar’s arm she began walking down the street. Sam and Kara grinned at each other and followed.
“Commercialism, decadence, technology run amok; remind you of anything?” Six spoke to Baltar and ignored the pair of former humans following them.
“Take your pick. Kobol, Earth, the real Earth before this one, Caprica before the fall.” As Baltar spoke Sam leaned down to whisper in Kara’s ear.
“Did they really come down here to whine about the state of the world?” Kara shrugged and turned back in to Six.
“All of this has happened before.”
“But the question remains, does all of this have to happen again?”
“This time I bet no.” That stopped the four of them in their tracks. The other three looked at her curiously.
“You know, I’ve never known you to play the optimist, why the change of heart?” Kara wholeheartedly seconded Baltar’s question.
“Mathematics. Law of averages. Let a complex system repeat itself long enough eventually something surprising might occur. That too is in God’s plan.” Kara rolled her eyes at Sam.
“Of course she sees the fate of humanity as an exercise in mathematics.”
“You know it doesn’t like that name.” Six only gave her longtime partner a look. One look was all it took. “Silly me” he conceded. “Silly, silly me.” As the two walked off, arm in arm once again, Sam guided Kara in the other direction.
“I can really only handle those two in small doses,” he told her once they were out of ear shot. She grinned and swung their joined hands between them.
“So what do you want to do now?” she asked. “We could sneak into a movie. Something with killer robots maybe?” she grinned at him and Sam rolled his eyes at her poor humor.
“I’ll pass thanks. Living and dying through the reality twice was more than enough, I don’t need to relive the experience through the substandard, special effects showpieces that Hollywood seems intent on producing.” Kara laughed.
“You’re such a critic! Not all science fiction is bad. I still can’t believe you didn’t like Star Wars. Well, the original three anyway. I’m totally with you on the new ones.”
“I liked parts of Star Wars; I just couldn’t get past the space travel. It took them, what, an hour to get from planet to planet? Come on!”
“Suspension of disbelief Sammy! You need to stop thinking like a scientist; you haven’t been one in a very long time.”
“You were a pilot, more recently than I was a scientist. How did it not bother you?”
“I was a pilot who once died, woke up circling a mythical planet, somehow found my way back to my fleet without knowing how I did it, had visions of shooting stars, and now I roam the Earth as an invisible guiding hand along with my equally dead husband. There are certain things I’m willing to just go with at this point in my existence.”
Kara stopped and pulled Sam back to her when he walked on. She grabbed a handful of his shirt and yanked his mouth down to hers for a toe curling kiss.
“What was that for?” Sam asked when she pulled back. “If Star Wars gets you that hot we can go watch Star Wars right now.” She smiled up at him and wrinkled her nose playfully.
“I just realized I hadn’t done that all day. Needed to catch up. We have a reputation to uphold after all.” Sam snorted.
“I think our reputation is perfectly safe. Baltar and Six seem to walk in on us at least once a decade.”
“We really need to teach them to knock.”
“I thought that’s what the water balloons were for.”
“Clearly we’re going to have to try harder.” Taking Sam’s arm again Kara steered them down the street towards one of their favorite parks. They walked hand in hand, two lovers who’d known the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, who’d held on to each other into the next life. The crowd swallowed them up, the pair lost in a sea of humanity and life.
**********
Author's Note: Well, there you have it. This was not my first fanfiction but it was my first BSG fanfiction. These characters are not the easiest write for, but hopefully I did a passable job. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I like the end of the show, or more specifically the end of the triangle. Still, I wanted a bit more Kara/Sam for myself, and I thought Kara/Lee deserved a little more closure.
If you're the kind of person who cares, this is what inspired Kara/Sam's oasis, and I was listening to Parting Words from the Lost soundtrack pretty much the entire time I was writing.
Kara spent a lot of her time on Earth with the Admiral. She would watch him and call out encouragements and jokes he couldn’t hear as he built his cabin, his pride and enjoyment in the task evident on his face. When he sat by Laura’s tomb in the evening she would be next to him, wishing she could put a hand on his shoulder, to give him some kind of comfort. Sometimes Sam would come and sit too, and they’d hold hands, grateful that they were together and hoping that one day Bill could be with Laura again.
Sam was with her the first time she went to see Lee. She’d put it off for a long time, not sure what seeing him again would feel like, or what it would do to Sam. But it was his idea to go find him, and she’d agreed, somewhat grateful that she didn’t have to feel guilty about going to him.
He wasn’t alone. That surprised her a bit, but she realized it shouldn’t have. Lee was a natural leader, and a small group, maybe a dozen or so, had joined him on his explorations. Six had been right about time moving differently in their oasis. Sometimes they would come to Earth and it would have been an hour since they’d last left, and sometimes it might have been years. She wasn’t sure how old Lee was now. He still looked like Lee, but there was a wisdom about him now that made him seem decades older. The beginnings of a few wrinkles showed at the corners of his eyes, and Kara thought she even saw some grey around his temples. But he carried it well.
When she first laid eyes on him again a familiar warmth and longing spread throughout her. He was still Lee, no matter what he looked like now; he was still her friend and her lover. She looked over her shoulder at Sam, guilty and afraid of hurting him. But Sam just took her face in his hands and kissed her forehead lightly.
“The world isn’t black and white,” he said gently. “Especially now. It’s OK to love us both. You don’t have to choose.” Kara was astounded by the love and acceptance in his voice. He kissed her again and then left, fading away, and Kara knew he had left Earth for now, so she wouldn’t feel like she was being spied on.
She visited him often after that. From the moment they’d met she’d always felt a connection to Lee Adama. He was damn good looking, and that didn’t hurt, but it was more than physical attraction. It wasn’t even an understanding, because there were a lot of times when they hadn’t understood each other at all. But that connection, that indefinable connection, had always tied them together. She had loved him, and he had loved her, but they’d never been able to be together, not in any lasting capacity.
And despite how much she loved Sam, and how much she loved being with him, when she watched Lee there was part of her that still regretted their inability to have that lasting relationship. So she watched him, watched him lead his people over mountains and rivers and endless fields of grass. And a small part of her longed for what might have been.
***********
She couldn’t have pinpointed when it started, but somewhere along the way Kara started to feel restless. It was something she hadn’t felt since entering the oasis for the first time and it was making her severely cranky.
She was sitting on a chair in their bedroom, watching Sam sleep. They didn’t really have to do that anymore, sleep. Or eat, or any number of other human activities. But they enjoyed doing them anyway. Except for now, because now Kara couldn’t sleep.
Tired of sitting, she got up to pace out in the living room. Expecting the room to be empty, she pulled up short when she saw a figure reclining on the couch.
“You feel it, don’t you?” Six asked lazily. Kara was semi-used to having her pop up. She and Baltar had come around a few times, wanting to meet Sam and look in on the two of them.
“What is it?” she asked back, not bothering to act like she didn’t know what the other woman was talking about.
“It’s time Kara. We told you when you came here that you might be tasked with pointing someone on the right path, getting them where they need to go. You’re needed now.”
“Sam?”
“His time will come, but not yet. This is for you Kara. Just let yourself feel it, and you’ll know what needs to be done.” Closing her eyes, Kara did as Six said, letting the edginess she’d been feeling wash over her until it coalesced into one thought.
“Adama.” She’d barely thought his name when she was at his side. Traveling between the two worlds had gotten easier, something for which she was profoundly grateful. The cabin was complete, small and rudimentary but sturdy and sound. Adama was truly an old man now, his hair gone completely gray, the lines in his face and hands sunk deep. He lay on a pallet on the floor and Kara knew he was dying. Whether he was sick or it was just age she didn’t know. But his time on Earth was quickly coming to and end.
And just as sure as she’d known he was fading, she knew what she needed to do.
**********
Lee shifted uncomfortably on the hard ground, trying to find a decent position. Not for the first time he wished they’d saved a few more creature comforts from the ships. Like beds, or cots, or at least a rolled up mattress. He didn’t consider himself old, but the hard life they’d been living was starting to take its toll on his joints, and sleeping on the ground every night wasn’t doing him any favors.
Giving up, he sat and looked on at his small band of followers. He’d been reluctant, at first, to take them with him, wanting some quiet time for himself. But he’d felt a responsibility to help those who needed a guiding hand. And he’d found that it was quite handy to have help. Hunting was much easier with more than just himself, and their company had gone a long ways towards helping him cope with the loss of his family.
He knew his father had wanted to spend time with Laura before her death, and he probably wouldn’t have been up for all the running around Lee did, but he still missed him and wished he knew where he was. And Kara. He thought part of him must have always known that her miraculous return from the dead couldn’t last. Still, turning around one minute and having her gone with no warning had shocked him. But he had tried not to dwell. Nothing would ever undo what they’d had together, but she didn’t belong to him and he had to let her go.
Some small sound had him looking up, and he smacked himself inwardly. Not only was he thinking about Kara again but now he was hallucinating her. He closed his eyes and shook his head. It honestly wasn’t the first time he’d thought he saw her, but it had been a long time and he thought he’d gotten over it. But this time when he opened his eyes she was still there.
“Hello, Lee.” He shot to his feet. His hallucinations had never spoken before.
“Kara?” Did I fall asleep after all, he thought. “Is this a dream?”
“Your father needs you Lee,” she said, not answering him.
“My father?”
“He’s dying.” Lee felt like he’d been punched. “It’s his time to move on, Lee. You can’t stop it. But you should go to him. He needs you there.” Lee’s mind was racing, still not sure what the hell was going on.
“I don’t even know where he is!”
“Not far. You were already going to him. You’ve been getting closer for days and you didn’t know it. He has a cabin in those rocky hills over there, at the top of the ridge. You can get there in a day or less if you move quickly.”
“Kara, I don’t-“
“Go now Lee.” She was gone just as suddenly as she had appeared, and Lee stood in a daze until one of the men stirred on the ground.
“Lee. Hey, Lee, man. You okay?” Lee looked around, slowly coming to his senses. A grey light was filling the sky, dawn was fast approaching and the group was beginning to wake. He looked down at the man who had spoken.
“Wake everyone up and break camp. We need to move.”
**********
Kara watched them pack their limited gear. She watched them move across the flat land at the base of the hills. Watched them hike their way up the terrain. And she watched as they spotted the cabin, as Lee sprinted for it while the rest called out in confusion. Lee hadn’t told them where they were going or why. They didn’t have to ask once they saw who lived there.
Lee knelt by his father’s side and held his hand, kissed his forehead. Adama opened his eyes and saw his son, and a smile split his face. They talked quietly, for hours. Spoke to each other about their adventures since they’d last seen each other.
And at sunset that evening Kara watched as Laura Roslin welcomed Bill Adama home with open arms and a kiss.
They all helped bury him, erecting a cairn next to Laura’s. Everyone knew who Admiral Adama was, what he had done for them, and they treated him with the upmost respect possible under the circumstances. When they were finished they stood back, letting Lee have a moment alone. He looked down at his father and the woman he had loved like a mother, and smiled, as if knowing they were reunited.
“Thank you, Kara,” he whispered so no one else could hear him.
The rules said she shouldn’t reveal herself to him anymore, but Kara knew in that moment that she could if she wanted to. Whatever the consequences she could appear to Lee and tell him all the things that she’d been thinking, that she would miss the old man too and knew his grief, that she loved him and part of her still wished they could have made it work.
And what would that accomplish, she thought as she watched one of Lee’s people come up to him and lay a hand on his shoulder. She’d never paid much attention to who followed Lee around, but this woman looked vaguely familiar, like maybe someone who had lived on Galactica though Kara was sure she hadn’t been a pilot. Lee turned to look at her, and Kara saw something pass between them that made her stomach clench.
He’s moving on, she realized sadly. He had a whole new life, one that included new people, maybe even new love. She had no right to intrude on that. She had a new life too, one with a man she loved desperately, who gave her everything and loved her no matter what. Whatever she and Lee had between them had never worked, but maybe he could find the same happiness she had with Sam with someone else.
Sam was right, she didn’t have to choose. She could stay down on Earth, follow Lee around, even talk to him if she really wanted. But it would only hurt both of them. She didn’t have to choose, but she was going to.
“Goodbye, Lee Adama. You won’t be forgotten.”
She left him standing over his father’s grave, with his friends around him and the promise of hope and new beginnings starting to penetrate the grief. Taking one last look at the man who had once held her heart she turned towards home and her husband, and never looked back.
**********
Many years later
Kara and Sam walked hand in hand through New York, the people around them continuing on with their hurried lives, unaware of the celestial pair. It always surprised her how happy it made her to do this. To walk around and just look at people. She and Sam had both given so much so that they could be alive today. Seeing them going about their lives always gave her a sense of fulfillment. Not that it was always good. There had been more than a few times throughout the years when she’d preferred to stay in their oasis. Times when terrible things happened and they weren’t allowed to intervene or help. But those terrible things would eventually run their course and civilization would have learned some valuable lesson, and Kara would be able to walk among the people again.
“You’re quiet today,” Sam said lightly. “Isn’t that one of the signs of the apocalypse?” Kara smacked his chest with the back of her hand.
“Ha ha, very funny. Smartass. I’m just thinking about people, you know? All these people, they came from us, from our friends. They’re our legacy, our children. Even if they don’t know it, don’t remember any of us. They’re ours.” Sam squeezed her hand and smiled down at her. He tucked her under his arm and Kara snuggled into his side. It wasn’t the easiest way to walk, but she didn’t really care about easy anymore. They continued on like that for several blocks, just enjoying being with each other, Kara still looking around at all the people. Spotting a familiar red dress down the street she pulled herself away and tugged on Sam’s hand, motioning with her head.
“Haven’t seen them in awhile,” she said lightly.
“You don’t think they’re here because anything’s wrong, do you?”
“Do you feel anything’s wrong?”
“No, I guess not. We might as well say hi.” They headed towards Baltar and Six, approaching the pair unseen.
“At a scientific conference this week at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, a startling announcement was made that archeologists believe they have found fossilized remains of a young woman who may actually be Mitochondrial Eve. Mitochondrial Eve is the name scientists have given to the most recent common ancestor for all human beings living on Earth. She lived in what is now Tanzania, over 150,000 years ago.”
“Along with her Cylon mother and human father.”
“They’re talking about Hera?” Kara spoke from behind. Just once she wished she could sneak up on those two, but both turned to her calmly without any apparent surprise, even though she knew they couldn’t have heard them come up.
“Kara, Sam. It’s good to see you. I trust you’ve been behaving yourselves since that…unfortunate unpleasantness during the Hundred Years War?” Sam’s back immediately stiffened.
“That,” he said defensively, “wasn’t our fault. We told her exactly what she needed to hear. How were we supposed to know Joan would go off and tell anyone who would listen that God was speaking to her, even when we told her not to?” Kara laid a soothing hand on his back.
“It’s alright baby, Six knows all that. She’s just still prickly about that prank we played on her and Baltar a couple centuries ago.” Sam laughed, remembering the water balloons, and Six huffed dismissively. Taking Baltar’s arm she began walking down the street. Sam and Kara grinned at each other and followed.
“Commercialism, decadence, technology run amok; remind you of anything?” Six spoke to Baltar and ignored the pair of former humans following them.
“Take your pick. Kobol, Earth, the real Earth before this one, Caprica before the fall.” As Baltar spoke Sam leaned down to whisper in Kara’s ear.
“Did they really come down here to whine about the state of the world?” Kara shrugged and turned back in to Six.
“All of this has happened before.”
“But the question remains, does all of this have to happen again?”
“This time I bet no.” That stopped the four of them in their tracks. The other three looked at her curiously.
“You know, I’ve never known you to play the optimist, why the change of heart?” Kara wholeheartedly seconded Baltar’s question.
“Mathematics. Law of averages. Let a complex system repeat itself long enough eventually something surprising might occur. That too is in God’s plan.” Kara rolled her eyes at Sam.
“Of course she sees the fate of humanity as an exercise in mathematics.”
“You know it doesn’t like that name.” Six only gave her longtime partner a look. One look was all it took. “Silly me” he conceded. “Silly, silly me.” As the two walked off, arm in arm once again, Sam guided Kara in the other direction.
“I can really only handle those two in small doses,” he told her once they were out of ear shot. She grinned and swung their joined hands between them.
“So what do you want to do now?” she asked. “We could sneak into a movie. Something with killer robots maybe?” she grinned at him and Sam rolled his eyes at her poor humor.
“I’ll pass thanks. Living and dying through the reality twice was more than enough, I don’t need to relive the experience through the substandard, special effects showpieces that Hollywood seems intent on producing.” Kara laughed.
“You’re such a critic! Not all science fiction is bad. I still can’t believe you didn’t like Star Wars. Well, the original three anyway. I’m totally with you on the new ones.”
“I liked parts of Star Wars; I just couldn’t get past the space travel. It took them, what, an hour to get from planet to planet? Come on!”
“Suspension of disbelief Sammy! You need to stop thinking like a scientist; you haven’t been one in a very long time.”
“You were a pilot, more recently than I was a scientist. How did it not bother you?”
“I was a pilot who once died, woke up circling a mythical planet, somehow found my way back to my fleet without knowing how I did it, had visions of shooting stars, and now I roam the Earth as an invisible guiding hand along with my equally dead husband. There are certain things I’m willing to just go with at this point in my existence.”
Kara stopped and pulled Sam back to her when he walked on. She grabbed a handful of his shirt and yanked his mouth down to hers for a toe curling kiss.
“What was that for?” Sam asked when she pulled back. “If Star Wars gets you that hot we can go watch Star Wars right now.” She smiled up at him and wrinkled her nose playfully.
“I just realized I hadn’t done that all day. Needed to catch up. We have a reputation to uphold after all.” Sam snorted.
“I think our reputation is perfectly safe. Baltar and Six seem to walk in on us at least once a decade.”
“We really need to teach them to knock.”
“I thought that’s what the water balloons were for.”
“Clearly we’re going to have to try harder.” Taking Sam’s arm again Kara steered them down the street towards one of their favorite parks. They walked hand in hand, two lovers who’d known the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, who’d held on to each other into the next life. The crowd swallowed them up, the pair lost in a sea of humanity and life.
**********
Author's Note: Well, there you have it. This was not my first fanfiction but it was my first BSG fanfiction. These characters are not the easiest write for, but hopefully I did a passable job. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I like the end of the show, or more specifically the end of the triangle. Still, I wanted a bit more Kara/Sam for myself, and I thought Kara/Lee deserved a little more closure.
If you're the kind of person who cares, this is what inspired Kara/Sam's oasis, and I was listening to Parting Words from the Lost soundtrack pretty much the entire time I was writing.
