Word Count: 2,434
Date: 8/29/05
Series: S2
Rating: M
Category: Relationships
Pairing/Focus: Lee/Kara
Warnings: none given
Summary: Lee and Kara talk about their time apart.
Spoilers/Disclaimers: The Farm and Home part 1 / I don’t own
the characters or the show… I don’t make money off of them... If I did, I
wouldn’t have all the school loans… Thanks to Tina for being my beta… you
rule!
Archivist Note: The author had rated this at T, however I have increased the rating to M due to discussion of adult topics in later chapters. Additionally, I would like to warn that the topic of abortion is discussed so that those who are sensitive to the subject may make an informed choice regarding whether or not to read. Thank you.
Lee walked towards the place that he was staying while he was on the Astral Queen. He felt confused and exhausted. He couldn’t believe that he told Kara that he loved her. His mouth was working faster than his head and it wasn’t until Kara brought up about him loving her that he realized what he said. He tried to tell her that it was meant in a friend’s only way, but they both know that that is not the case.
Lee was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn’t realize that there was someone sitting on the floor next to the door of the room that he was staying in until he about tripped over her. His hand flew out to brace the wall to prevent him from falling. Once he got his bearing back he looked down at the person that was in his way.
“Kara, what the….” He stopped mid sentence when she looked up at him. She looked tired, exhausted and on the verge of crying. Whatever he was going to say to her at that moment flew out of his mind. He knelt down in front of her. As he was doing this Kara turned her attention to the floor. Lee pushed back a piece of hair behind her ear with his right hand, then moved his hand down to cup her chin to raise her face so he could see it.
What he saw on her face broke his heart. They stayed like that for a moment, and then Lee stood up and offered her his hand. She took it, but didn’t let go once she was up. This sent Lee’s concern over the edge. He knew that she wasn’t big on displays of affection in public, and he was quit surprised that she didn’t try to deck him when he kissed her. He tried to let her hand go, but Kara only gripped his tighter. Lee quickly glanced at the side of her face as he walked them into his room.
Lee opened the door to the room and let Kara walk in first. She let go of his hand and walked in, but didn’t go any farther in to the room. She stayed by the door while Lee shut it. He walked back up to her and took her by the hand again and led her to the bed. They both sat down. Kara sat up against the wall and brought her knees up so she could rest her head on them. Lee sat at the head of the bed, legs stretched out looking at Kara.
Kara reached over for his hand and he let her take it. They sat like that for awhile.
“Kara, what is wrong?”
“Lee I want to tell you about what happened to me on Caprica. Now let me get through the whole story before you say anything, ok?”
Lee could tell that she meant business, so he shook his head. He thought that she would let go of his hand, but she didn’t.
“When I first got there, there was no one around. So I landed the raider in front of the museum to get the arrow. Well I got it and was about to head back to my ship when this Blond bitch come up to see and started fighting me. I don’t know how is lords name I managed to live through that. Fighting her took out everything that I had. In the end, I pushed her through a hole in the floor and I went down with her. She landed on a piece of metal sticking out of the floor and I rolled off in time to miss it. Just after that I found Helo and Sharon. When I first saw her, I pulled me gun and was ready to shoot her. I realized that she had to be a cylon, but Helo stopped me. He wouldn’t let me do it. I was so pissed at him. While we were arguing about it, she went off and stole my raider.
So we were walking around, trying in find a base with ships, and I decided to stop by my apartment to get my father’s jacket. You know, the leather one. So Helo and I rested for a bit then headed back out on the road. We took my car and headed off. Well we ended up stopping to look at a map when we started getting shot at. So of course we shot back. We found out the people shooting at us was the Caprica Pyramid team. So after a few moments for trying to figure out with the other were cylons, Helo and I ended up going back to where they set up base.”
Kara stopped her story to catch her breath and gather her thoughts. She knew that the next part was liable to hurt Lee, but she wanted to tell him. She lifted their hands so she could move hers to intertwine the fingers together. Then she put them back on the bed.
“I met a guy. The captain of the pyramid team, and I fell for him. I liked him a lot. He seemed familiar to me, but I couldn’t place. Then one morning, while we were getting ready to sneak onto a base, Helo told me that Anders reminded him of you. Helo also told me that Anders looked like a watered down version of you. I stood there for almost a full minute with my mouth open until I started laughing. I tried to tell him that he was crazy and seeing things, but he persisted. We didn’t get to continue the conversation because the next thing I know, we were getting shot at. I don’t remember what happened next. The next thing that I knew I was waking up in a hospital and a doctor telling me that I had to have the bullet removed.
The next few days were hazy. I was in and out. And one day I woke up with another scar. The doctor told me that they had to go back in and stop bleeding. Well I started wondering why they kept knocking me out, so I pinched the IV when he injected it so it wouldn’t get into my vain. I got up and started walking down the hall, trying to figure out where I was. Well I see the Blond chick again talking to the doctor. I realized that He was a cylon and I had to get out.
So the next time he came in I killed him and started to escape. I ran into the blond chick in the hallway and knocked her over the head with a fire extinguisher. I started walking down the hall and I came across this room.”
Kara’s voice started to waver as she continued. She didn’t want to cry, but she could feel the tears watering her eyes. She looked up at the ceiling, trying to stop them, but that didn’t work.
“I found a roomful of women that were hooked up to these machines. The machines were hooked up to their stomachs. The cylons impregnated these women. They raped them, held them against their will. One of them I recognized from the group I was staying with. She told me what was happening and then asked me to stop it. I went and destroyed the power supply to the machines. I killed those women so they wouldn’t have to go through with what the cylons did to them.”
Lee wanted nothing else but to pull her in his arms and hold her. Tell her that everything will be alright and that everything will work out. But he could tell that she wasn’t finished.
Kara took a deep breath before continuing. “So I got out of the hospital and I came face to face with another copy of the doctor. All of a sudden there are shots going off around me. There are cylons shooting at me, and the group I was with found me and they were shooting at them. Then all of a sudden this cylon heavy raider came up and shot the rest of the cylons away. When I got to where it was, I found out that the person in the raider was Sharon. Helo’s Sharon. We went back to the base and Sharon started telling us that these farms are everywhere. That there are thousands of women in these places. Then she told me that I was special. I wanted to ask her if she knew what the other scar was for, but after she told me that, I didn’t want to know. I had a feeling about it anyway.
“I wanted to stay and rescue these women. But Anders told me that I had to come back here and help find Earth. I promised that I would go back for them. I have to Lee, they saved me. And I think that maybe the fling with Anders was me trying to get my mind off of you. Not knowing if I was ever going to see you again.”
Kara lost it. She started sobbing and Lee pulled her into his arms and held her. He rubbed small circles on her back and whispered comforting words in her ear. He doesn’t remember when her crying stopped and his started, but it did. She did for him what he did for her. After awhile he calmed down.
“What happened while I was gone Lee?”
“My dad sent Tigh and I to arrest the President for sending you off to Caprica. I couldn’t let that happen so I pulled a gun on Tigh. Well he ended up arresting the President and me. So he took me to the CIC to see my dad. While I was waiting, Sharon and Racetrack came in. They just blew up a cylon base star, which shot two of the three raptors down that we sent to Kobol. Well my dad went to shake Sharon’s hand and she raises a gun and put two rounds in his chest. When they took him to the life station, Tigh wouldn’t let me go with him. He sent me to the brig. So I’m down there, with handcuffs on and my father’s blood half way up my arms.”
“Gods Lee. I can’t believe he did that.. Well I can, it is Tigh,” By this time they were sitting beside each other with their backs against the wall. Kara holding his left hand in both of hers.
“So we jumped to the emergency coordinates, but the rest of the fleet didn’t have the most updated ones, so we had to jump back to Kobol for Gaeta to figure out where they rest of the fleet went. While they were doing that, the vipers went out and were fighting the raiders. Well this big fraking one came through and crashed landed in the one landing pod of Galactica. Well there were cylons abroad it. So even when we found the fleet, Doc. Cottle, who was on another ship, couldn’t come on. So we had to go around killing these things. When I first saw them, I was with Hotdog, Kat, and another nugget. He was killed. Walked right into the damn cylon.
So after they were all killed, Cottle came on and saved my dad. I thought he wasn’t going to make it. And I didn’t know what I was going to do if I lost him. I felt lost all ready because you left, and then my dad. I didn’t know what to do. Tigh was messing things up, yelling at me. So I planned a rescue mission to Kobol to get our people. So we went and got them. The only ones that were still alive were Cally, the Chief, Seelix and Baltar. We lost Crashdown. So I came back, and hear what was going on. Tigh declared Martial law; ships were refusing to re-supply Galactica. So I decided to escape the ship with the President. I had some help. I ended up taking a raptor and going to Cloud 9 to meet Tom Zarek. We’ve been on this ship ever since. When we jumped back to Kobol, 24 other ships came with us. So here we are.”
“Here we are.”
The two sat in silence for a while. Each one thinking about what the other said. Lee looked over at Kara and noticed that she was almost asleep.
“Hey Kara, off the bed, I’ll pull the covers down so you can get some sleep.”
She got off of the bed and watched Lee fix it for her. She didn’t want to sleep in the shirt she had on, so she took it off and was only wearing a sports bra and pants to lay down in. Lee turned around to see if Kara was ready, and that is when he saw the scars. He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her closer to him. Since he was sitting down and she was standing, they scars where about at his eye level. He traced them with his finger then kissed each one. He looked up at Kara’s face and smiled when he saw her eyes closed. He grabbed her hands and helped her lay down.
“I’m going to go talk to the President…”
“No, please stay. At least until I fall sleep.”
Lee couldn’t deny her anything with a look on her face that told him that she was scarred. So he took off his boots and jacket and laid down next to her. He wanted to give her space, but she had other ideas. She put her head on his shoulder and curled up beside him. Lee wrapped an arm around her. After a few minutes Lee felt Kara’s breathing change and could tell that she fell asleep. He all of a sudden felt really tired, and figured he could get some sleep before going to meet with the President, so he followed her into sleep not long after that.
The President stood patiently waiting for Lee to answer his door. She knocked a few times a few moments before. When she didn’t get an answer she opened the door. What she saw made her smile. She saw Lee lying on his side with his arms around Kara, whose back was up against his chest. They both looked peaceful and she didn’t want to disturb them. So she smiled one last time and shut the door. She could talk to Captain Apollo later, once he was awake.
Part 2
Kara was walking down the hallway towards Lee’s office. She needed to be somewhere quiet, and she knew that he wouldn’t care if she was there.
She walked into his office, thinking that Lee was on duty. The site that she walked in on brought a smile to her face. Lee was lying on the couch, with his arm over his eyes. His boots were at the end of the couch, so she guessed that he took them off before he had laid down. His suit jacket was thrown over one of the visitor chairs. She shook her head at him and sat down at his desk.
Kara was getting bored. She wasn’t allowed to do anything until the doctor cleared her. She had to meet with him in 2 hours to go over her test results. But until then, she needed something to occupy her time. She looked at the paperwork that was spread out on the desk, picking up the closest thing to her and started working on it.
An hour and half later Lee woke up to the sound of someone working at his desk. He knew that he should be worried about who was there, but he wasn’t. Lee knew that Kara was there without even looking up to see her. He sat up and put his boots back on before going over to sit in the visitor’s chair.
“So how did your appointment go with Doc. Cottle?”
Kara looked up at him with a small smile on her face.
“It went fine. I have to be back down there in a half an hour to get the results of all the tests.”
“Ahhh,” Lee nodded his head, “Well I’m sure that everything is fine. And you’ll be back on the flight list very soon.”
“I guess.” Kara looked down at the piece of paper that was in her hand.
Lee immediately could tell something was bothering her. He got up, walked around the desk, sat down on the desk next to her left arm and took her hand in his.
“What’s wrong Kara? I’m sure that everything will be fine.”
Kara looked up into Lee’s eyes. “Lee I have a bad feeling about this. Something is wrong. I don’t know what it is, but I can feel it.”
Lee brushed a piece of hair out of her face, “Kara no matter what happens I will be by your side, supporting you. Just remember that, ok?”
“Yeah.”
“Ok.” Lee went to get up, but Kara put her hand on his leg, stopping him from getting up.
“Will you come with me? I mean, if you don’t have anything else to do, and what not.”
“Of course I will come with you if you want me to. I have no problem with that. Now we better get going if we are going to be on time for this appointment of yours.”
Lee got off of the desk, went grabbed his jacket and put it on. Kara got up from the desk and met Lee. The two left Lee’s office and headed down to the life station.
Doc. Cottle raised his head when he heard two people walking into his office. He should have been surprised when he saw Lee walk in with Kara, but he wasn’t. In a way, he was glad that Lee had come with her. The doctor knew that what he had to tell her was going to be hard to take in.
“Lt., Captain. Please have a seat.”
Lee and Kara sat down on the bench in front of the desk.
“Lt. Thrace, all of your blood work came back fine. There were no signs of anything that would have been put into your blood.”
“Well that’s good to know.”
“Yeah, but I found some tissue scaring around the second scar. I really don’t want to tell you this, but the second scar is consistent with surgery to abort a fetus. Where you aware that you were pregnant recently?”
Kara didn’t know what to say to the doctor. This was all too much for her to take in at one time. Her mind was spinning while she was trying to figure out how this could happen, when all of a sudden she felt Lee take her hand into his. She looked over at him and saw his support written all over his face. She turned back to the doctor.
“Hmm no. I’ve had sex with two different guys recently, but I’m on birth control, so…”
“Ok. The birth control works almost all the time, but there is a .1% chance of it not working. The one thing that is bugging me is the timing of all of this. Abortions are usually performed within the first 1 ½ months of the pregnancy. This is going to be a tough question, but I need an answer. Now do you think that either of the two guys could have been humanoid cylon models?”
Kara tired her best to prevent her mouth from dropping wide open. She didn’t know what to say. She was pretty sure that Baltar wasn’t since he is the Vice-President of the colonies and they would have made sure before letting him take the position. But Anders was a different story. Now that she thought about it. It did seem weird that a pyramid team would be doing high altitude training. Also, the cylon doctor, Simon, knew his name but not hers; even though the doctor originally told her that he took her into the hospital. Kara was pulled out of her off her thoughts by Lee squeezing the hand that he held in his.
“Well, truthfully, now that you ask, maybe. The second guy, why?”
“Well the only thing that I can think of is that the rate of which the embryo grows is 30 ½ times faster than a human one does. I read your report, Lt. About the farms that the cylons have. The way I see it is that they were trying different ways to re-populate, so they tried getting a human woman pregnant without the use of medical technology. Now I don’t know what happened, but I would guess something happened that they didn’t expect or want.”
While Cottle was talking about this, he started to worry about Starbuck. She started to go really pale and looked like she was gripping Apollo’s hand a bit too hard.
“Well, I want to say that from the medical side, you seem fine. I am going to keep you out of the flight rotation for about a week, until you are fully healed from the gun shot wound. Now you shouldn’t push yourself too hard and I would say no sex for about a month. Do you have any questions?”
Kara just shook her head no. All she really wanted to do was get out of the office and go break down. But she knew that no matter where she went Lee would be with her, a thought that didn’t bother her as much as she expected it to.
“Now I’m not making you do this, but we have people here just in case you need talk to someone, ok?”
“Yeah.”
“Ok, I’ll see you in about a week then.”
The doctor got up, so Lee and Kara took that as a sign to get up and leave also. Once they hit the door, Lee tried to drop Kara’s hand. Knowing that she would probably didn’t want to be walking the ship like that. But Kara had other ideas. She wouldn’t let go of his hand. Kara didn’t think that she could make it back to his office without his support. Lee seems to understand because he entwined their finger together and gave hers a quick squeeze before leading them out of the life station.
Part 3
Lee was glad that not a lot of people were in the hallways. He knew that Kara wouldn’t want a lot of people seeing her this way. But then he wasn’t even sure if she knew what was going around her. He wasn’t even paying attention to what he was doing because he almost led them straight into his dad.
“Apollo, Starbuck.” William Adama could tell right away that there was something wrong with both of them, especially Kara. He was going to ask what was going on, but the way that Kara was looking at Lee and the look Lee gave him, he decided against it. He knew that in time he would find out what was going on.
Lee was glad that his dad caught the look on his face before he tried to ask Kara what was wrong. He knew she was not ready to talk about it to his dad. Hell he wasn’t sure if she was going to talk to him about it, but at the moment he didn’t really care about that. All he cared about was getting Kara to his office and making sure that she knew no matter what that he would be there to support her.
Lee continued leading Kara down the hall to his office. Once they got there Lee let Kara go in first, then he shut and locked the door. He turned around and saw Kara sitting on one end of the couch, her knees up to her chest, arms wrapped around her legs and head resting on the knees. Lee went over and sat down on the couch too. He could tell that she needed her space to comprehend everything, so he was giving her space.
The two of them sat in silence for awhile, she took a few deep breaths before starting to talk.
“I can’t believe that this is happening Lee. Why is it happening? Why am I so damn important to these frakking cylons that they would do this?”
“I don’t know Kara. I wish I had the answers for you, I do. But I don’t.”
“I should have known something was up with Anders. I mean, his team was up in the mountains when the attacks started. That is a bit strange, a pyramid team training up there. And their base was at this high school, a place where you would more than likely be caught by the cylons.”
“Well, the training thing is a bit odd. I’ve never heard about pyramid teams doing any type of high altitude training. But the school thing. If the cylons swept that school clean around the initial attacks, then I don’t think they would go back to it unless there was a reason. But it is a possibility that if this Anders guy is a cylon, they would stay away so their plan could work its self out.”
“I guess your right,” Kara sighed. “But then when I first woke up in the hospital, the doctor told me that Anders brought me in. The doctor knew his name but not mine. I found it odd that if he brought me in, wouldn’t he told them my name? I should have known there was something wrong when he said that, but I was so confused and drugged. But now that I think about it.”
“I know Kara, I know. But you can’t blame yourself, and don’t even try to tell me that your not, because I know you. What you need to do is to come to terms with what happened to you. This isn’t something that can be just swept under the rug.”
Kara’s head shot up and turned to meet Lee face to face.
“What the frak Lee? I know that this is something that I need to deal with, that I have to confront before I can move past it. DO you think that I'ld act like nothing happened? This will change me and it will change my future. What if I wanted to have children in the future? Who knows how this is going to affect it. Maybe I won’t even be able to have kids. What am I to tell my future husband about all of this?”
Kara put her head back on her knees, tears coming down her cheeks. Lee’s heart went out to her. And without thinking, he scooted over to where she was sitting and wrapped his arms around her. It took Kara a few moments before reacting to Lee. Lee didn’t care if she reacted to him, but he just wanted to make sure that she knew that he would be there to support her and help her through anything…
Lee was a bit surprised when Kara wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his neck. He felt her tears on his neck and he tried to sooth her. He hated to see her cry and tried to stop them. He held her while she cried, whispered calming words into her hair rubbing her back. After a while she calmed down enough to draw back from Lee a bit, but not out of his grasp completely.
Lee kept one hand around her back, and with the other one he was running through her hair. “You know that you have to tell my dad about it. He will get the report from Cottle, but he might want to first hear it from you.”
The look on Kara’s face showed Lee that she forgot all about having to tell his father. “Oh gods Lee. I forgot about that. I can’t do it. Just let him read the report.”
“Kara, you know that even if you don’t tell him, that he will more than likely try to ask you questions. So maybe you should go talk to him now. Tell him only what you want to. And if you want, I'll go with you when you talk to him.”
Kara looked up into Lee’s eyes after he said that. Lee thought that she looked like a relieved little girl.
“You’ll come with me to talk to him?”
“Of course. I told you that I will be here to support you through anything that happens. I am your friend and will always be your friend. I’ll do everything in my power to help you. Ok?”
“Yeah. Thanks Lee. I owe you so much.”
“You don’t owe me anything.”
“Can we go talk to him now? I just want to get it out of the way.”
“Let me call his quarters and see if he is there and if he is we'll go up.”
Lee let go of Kara as she let go of him. He walked over to the phone on the wall and dialed some numbers. Kara sat there, focusing on Lee and tried to get her thoughts straightened out.
“Dad, it’s me. Kara and I wanted to know if we could come up and talk to you. Yeah, yeah. Ok. Let me ask her.
“Kara, he wants to know if we want to eat dinner with him too.”
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
“OK. Yeah dad we will. Ok, we will be up in a few.”
Lee hung up the phone and walked over to the couch. “Ok, let me get changed into some BDU’s then we will head up.”
Lee went into the small bathroom that was in the office, and came out changed into the blue BDU’s. Kara stood up, straightened out her sweatshirt and pants and together they headed up to the commander’s quarters.
Kara walked in front of Lee to the Commander’s office. She didn’t need to look behind her to see if he was there, because she knew that he was. She stopped at the door of Adama's quarters. She just stood there, not trying to knock or anything. When they left Lee’s office, she felt that she was ready to face the commander, to tell him what happened. But now that she was there, about to face him, she felt that she couldn’t do it. Then she felt Lee behind her, and he put his hand on the small of her back. Kara turned her head around to look at Lee, he gave her a small smile. She turned back around and knocked on the door.
“Come in.” The commander looked up at the door, and saw his son and the woman that he considered a daughter walk in. He knew that when he got a call from his son, he knew that he was about to find out what was bugging Kara.
Kara and Lee walked into the quarters and saw that the Commander was sitting in a chair at the table. Kara went over and sat on one end of the couch and Lee sat on the other.
“So what can I do for you two?”
“Sir, I got the results from my doctors examine today. I wanted to tell them to you and explain stuff to you before you saw it in the report.”
“Ok Kara. What do you need to say?” William was starting to wonder what was going on with Kara. He could tell that whatever was wrong was big and he wanted to tell her that everything would be alright and that she wasn’t alone. That’s when he noticed her hand reaching over toward Lee’s, and Lee reached out and took it in his. He realized that she already knew that she wasn’t alone, and he was happy about that.
“While I was on Caprica I got shot by some cylons. I passed out and when I woke up I was in the hospital. The doctor told me that Anders, the leader of the group that I meant there brought me in then died. I didn’t get the chance to ask a lot of questions because every time he came in I just woke up and he would give me a drug to put me back to sleep. Well like the third time that I woke up I had another scar that was under the first one. The doctor said that there was some internal bleeding that they had to go in and fix.
“I found that the doctor that operated on me was a cylon and the place where I was was called a Farm. The Cylons can’t reproduce on their own, so they needed to find a way. I came across a room that had about 30 women in it. There were machines hooked up to them, killing them. And there are thousands of these farms on the planets.”
All William wanted to do was gather Kara up is his arms and protect from the demons that seem to be haunting her. He knew that she more than likely wouldn’t let him to do, but he was glad that his son was able to help her.
“Well I didn’t really learn what the 2nd scar was from, and I really didn’t want to know. So I had an appointment with Dr. Cottle today and learned what the scar was.”
Kara stopped talking and closed her eyes. She needed a minute to collect her thoughts before she started telling the Commander about the abortion. She was starting to panic thinking that this was a bad idea, and that she needed to leave, when she felt her hand being squeezed. Kara turned and looked at Lee. She saw support in his eyes along with something else. She turned to continue talking to the Commander.
“I was impregnated by a cylon. The only way that I can think that this happened was I slept with Anders. The second scar was from an abortion. Cottle thinks that the time period of a pregnancy with a cylon is 30 ½ times faster than a human one. So that is how they were able to do it. But he said that I should be fully healed from the gun shot wound in about a week then I can be put back into the flight rotation.”
William looked at the young woman that was sitting on his couch. He didn’t know what to say to her. He could tell that she was having trouble holding herself together. She seemed to be ok on the outside, but he noticed that she was gripping his son’s hand.
Kara started feeling like she was going to break down so she moved down to be closer to Lee. He let go of her hand, and put his arm around her. Kara in turn laid her head on his shoulder. William looked at these two people who where the last members of his family. He watched his son caress her hair and dropped a light kiss on the top of her head. Before turning his face and looking at him.
What William saw surprised him. He saw tears and pain in Lee’s eyes. William got up and sat down beside Kara on the couch. William started rubbing his hand up and down her back. When he started doing this, Kara lifted her head from Lee’s shoulder and turned to look at the Commander.
“Kara, I know that this was hard for you. Lord, I wish I could take away some of your pain, but I know I can’t. But, what I can tell you is that no matter what happens I will be here for you. I consider you a daughter, and always will, so don’t forget that. If you need anything, let me know, ok?”
Kara didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know what she did to deserve these people, but she wasn’t going to let them go.
“Thank you. I really don’t know what else to say to both of you. Just thank you.”
Kara was prevented from saying anything else by a knock at the door.
“I’ll get that.”
Lee got up and went to answer the door. It was dinner. So he let them bring dinner in and put it on the table. After the man left that brought the dinner, Lee went over to the table where William was already sitting at the table.
Kara gave Lee a hug. “Thank you,” she whispered in his ear. The two stood there, holding each other for a long moment. Lee let go of her and sat down, and Kara did the same thing.
The three of them sat down and enjoyed dinner. Each glad that they had the others.