Before and After
Title: Before and After
Rating: PG
Prompt: Kisses between Lee and Kara that never happened
What if Lee kissed Kara before she left to rescue Sam?
Disclaimer: Not mine.
BEFORE
Kara plants her feet shoulder width apart as soon as she enters the room. She’s not sure why she’s there and nerves are not going to give her away. Adjusting her gun belt, she chants silently that it’s all about the mission. Going back to Caprica to get Sam, she reminds. Going back to Caprica, it’s a big deal with a whole lot of lives at risk. It’s the mission that has her heart racing and her hands unsure where to sit, hips, crossed, gun belt again.
It’s not Lee sitting on the couch eating noodles, babbling about her plan. The plan she’s pretty sure they just discussed. This is stupid. She needs to get out of this room. This is what she’s been fighting for, living for, for ages or five minutes. It’s easy to loose track of time and space in an endless war surrounded by the vastness of black and stars. The time has come, and she needs to go. She needs to go.
Suddenly Kara realizes that it’s her turn to say something. Her face flickers and ripples with emotion from confusion to frustration to impatience. Because what is Lee doing still sitting on the couch? She’s leaving on a mission that she might to come back from. She’s about to say it out loud. That she might not come back because Lee’s sitting there elbows on his knees like they have all the time in the world. She could die out there.
“I should go.”
Not the words she thinks should be coming out of her mouth. It leaves Kara reeling. She purses her lips trying to regain her equilibrium. She can’t fly with her head like this. All she can see is that Lee’s jacket is open. She watches him swallow and wonders what he’s tamping down. Why can’t he just say it? Maybe she should just leave. He’s not going to do anything.
“I hope you… I hope you make it back, Kara.”
His words stop her. This is what she was waiting for, but her lips part and nothing comes out. Kara can’t seem to close her mouth or run all the way back to the hatch. She looks to it though, her escape, her mission, Sam. When she untwists Lee is no longer sitting on the couch but standing almost in her face. He’s just staring at her as though moving was enough to finish this. It’s not and the winds of fury rush back through Kara’s bones and muscles. Words aren’t good enough this time.
So she moves, lurching to the hatch, and he grabs her wrist. Wide eyed and ready to throw a hard left, Kara is pulled back until they’re nose to nose, breathe to breathe. She can nearly taste the noodle broth on his lips. She can definitely feel the blue of his eyes boring into her. Her breath falters. Lee yanks her arm again, and she’s off balance in his arms, the hard metal on her flight suit smashing through his tanks as her breasts press into his chest.
Again she goes to speak, but his tongue slips into her mouth instead. She kisses back, plundering his mouth and sucking his tongue. Because what if she doesn’t make it back. Lee tightens his hold, wrapping his arms around her waist. Kara wishes that he’d called her in twenty minutes ago. She’d like to be doing more than just kissing right now, but she has obligations. Thoughts of Sam and the dull sun light of Caprica bring Kara back to the present, the commander’s quarters on Pegasus, her mission. It all rumbles back into focus.
“I should go,” she repeats. She’s half panting, staring at his reddened lips. She doesn’t dare look into his eyes deep, blue and demanding.
“Just come back,” he whispers soft and urgent and an order she dare not refuse.
Kara doesn’t know what to say so she tips her face to him and meets his gaze. Lee’s beautiful and demanding. She touches her lips to his again, briefly and smiles. His hands fall away letting her go without a word.
AFTER
Lee spends the entire time Kara is on her rescue mission pretending that he’s think about anything but the fact that Kara is leading the rescue mission to Caprica. It doesn’t work. Everyone can tell he’s distracted. It wears on him until he finally, sort of gives up. Hoshi catches him drifting in CIC during his afternoon watch. Dee walks out of their dinner, leaving him slack jawed. He’s mortified when he realizes he has no idea what they’ve been talking about. He rambles on about the SAR to Caprica during his meeting with the Admiral though he wants to tell his father he’s worried about Kara.
Back in the serenity of his quarters, he thinks about Kara’s apartment in Delphi. Lee can’t remember where Delphi Unified High School is, but he remembers all too well Kara’s apartment and dinner with Zak. He remembers the shirt Kara wore and the awkward, aborted kiss on the table. Pressing his fingers to his mouth, he thinks back to the impulsive kiss he gave her on the Astral Queen, and the slap and kiss in the bunk room back on Galactica while Kara hunted Scar. Finally he ends up at the kiss they shared in the exact spot where Lee stands half way between the white leather chairs and the hatch.
When word that the raptors are within wireless range comes the next day, he resists the painful urge to contact Kara. He stands at the comm station for a few extra minutes each time he passes in the CIC. Once he touches the handset but doesn’t dare pick it up. A knot tightens in his stomach, and his hand falls away. She went back to rescue someone, kiss or no kiss. He, Samuel Anders, is coming back with her. Lee needs to get used to it. His brow creases as he tastes her on his lips anyway… kiss or no kiss.
So when the SAR actually land on Galactica two shifts later, Lee takes his time. He makes up all sorts of reasons why he’s lingering on Pegasus. Dee still isn’t talking to him. Everyone on Galactica is going to be celebrating, and one of the battlestars needs to be at the ready just in case. He shouldn’t leave his post even if he is off duty. He finds that he’s thinking about that kiss again and standing at the edge of the hangar bay watching a raptor readying to depart for Galactica. It would be good form to make his introductions to Kara’s pyramid player, resistance fighter. So he crams his hands in his pockets and boards the raptor without a word.
By the time he arrives, Kara is half drunk and draped all over, well everyone. Trailing behind her is a tall muscled guy with dark hair and a silly drunken smile. He’s definitely a successful jock. Lee watches the new comer meet and greet while dosing himself and Kara liberally with alcohol. It’s a skill Lee’s seen after championship games many times in his life though never before in person. Never celebrating someone he knows so well a Kara Thrace. But she deserves. Lee crosses his arms over his chest and smiles, watching her bask, the glow of her grin and bounce of her intoxicated step, the sparkle of her hazel eyes. She’s beautiful when she’s like this. He’s proud and intimidated all at once.
“Leeeee!” the laughter in her voice raises pink in his cheeks as Kara sees him still hanging on the periphery. He’s unsure about the entourage following behind her, but Kara keeps shouting his name and waving her bottle.
“Congratulations,” he calls through the din. He gives a wave and brightens his smile.
“Congratulations to you, Commander!” Kara throws herself over the gap between them. Her eyes are huge and captivating. Her lips smirk at him, nearly giggling. Her bottle jams up into the base of his skull as she squeezes her arms around his neck. Before he came compensate for the first half of her attack, her legs are circling his waist tight and pressing into him.
Because Lee doesn’t have a proper reply to being tackle hugged in front of everyone, his father, the president, Kara’s pyramid player, he kisses her hard with his mouth slanting over hers. It’s nothing like the horrible kiss on Kara’s table. It might be impulsive like the last time Kara returned from Caprica, but it’s nothing to joke about. Like that night in the bunk room it’s full and real. He just hopes he doesn’t get slapped, but the grind against his groin makes him think not. This is only happening because of the kiss in his quarters. He threads his fingers through her hair and holds on tight.
“I came back, Lee,” she whispers, giddy against his mouth. “I came back to you.”
“Never doubted you would.” He keeps her close as she slides down his body and drinks in her private smile as their foreheads come to rest together. He’s glad he took that risk. And so glad she came back.