Categories > TV > Battlestar Galactica > A CAG's Work is Never Done
A CAG's Work is Never Done
His two best pilots are at each other's throats, Lee has to do something. (Lee/Kara/Kat Triangle)
?Blocked
A CAG's Work is Never Done
A Battlestar Galactica (2005) Fan-fiction Story
Author: Jason Thompson
Pilamsega@yahoo.com
February 5, 2006
Disclaimer: Once upon a time there was a guy he wrote a story with characters and settings he didn't own, but he put a disclaimer on his story and that made it a little less illegal. Galactica is owned by Universal, Sci-fi Channel, Glen A Larson, David Eick and Ronald D Moore.
Category: AU; PWP Lee/Louanne aka Apollo/Kat. With some Lee/Kara
Spoilers: Mostly for Scar, a light dusting of spoilers for episodes prior to it.
Warnings:
Summery: Faced with an intense and possibly violent rivalry between his two top pilots, Lee calls Kat into his office to talk it out.
Rating:
Distribution: Ask First.
Notes: First, it's been years since I've written PWP, it actually felt pretty good to do it again. This story along with "Love Letters" is slowly mutating into a pseudo-series. So for that sake alone, I present the latest installment of "Lee Adama: Love Machine."
Dedication: Dedicated to the usual suspects; Genova aka Schweet, Bri, Mary, Duchess, Dale, Blaire, Red, Stone Cold, Ice Wing, Arashi, Aslan, Vega, Tony D, Jen Zimmer, Louise, Sairs, and Queen Angel who have allowed me to bounce my ideas off them, and Krac, cause she has the evil bunny slippers.
A CAG's Work is Never Done
The knock on Lee's door only registered peripherally in his mind. His distracted, "Enter," reflected this. He was knee-deep in ammunition-use reports and he needed every last second to complete them. Paperwork hadn't been quite as important before the Pegasus had found them. Before then they didn't really worry as much if Hot Dog and Deadeye tended to fire off too many rounds or that Kat and Starbuck had the best rounds fired to kills ratio, now they were keeping track of twice as many pilots and needed to bear all this in mind.
They'd converted Pegasus' munitions factory to begin construction of Vipers and Raptors so the Galactica now had to produce twice as many rounds. He made a quick note to speak with Hot Dog about that tomorrow before he flew with him on CAP. He might discuss it with Costanza today, but he had a feeling his free time was going to evaporate.
"Reporting as ordered, sir."
He glanced up and found Lt. Katraine standing in front of him at attention; a part of him noted briefly that the young woman had managed to adopt military posture. He could still remember walking into one of Starbuck's early classes and seeing her slouched in her chair like some community college student at an early lecture instead of a military trainee.
He turned back to his paperwork and said, "Have a seat, Kat."
When he'd been a pilot on the Atlantia, the CAG had taken him under her wing and taught him the ins and outs of command, everything she'd felt he needed to know to one day be a CAG or Flight-Instructor; how to treat malcontents, how to tweak those who had potential, how to turn younger pilots into leaders. Most importantly, she taught him how to maintain his authority with his pilots.
The one he was using was such a simple trick too, a tried and true technique used throughout history by COs, School Principals and Doctors all through the Twelve Colonies and probably on Earth too. Just call someone into your office and make them wait while you do something else.
He read through the reports and signed off on them while he could feel Kat's eyes on him. He caught the hint of a smirk when she first sat down, good. He'd grown to appreciate the pilots who had a touch of audacity as more often then not they were the one who went out and blew toasters away by the dozens.
However, strolling into the CAG's office like you were the greatest thing in the sky wasn't the best tactic. Kat was good, but there were better, one of those better pilots was the problem actually.
He'd felt the tension for weeks between Kat and Starbuck, pretty much since he and Kara had returned to Galactica. The barbs and snarky remarks had always been there, Kara and Kat both had that acid-tipped humor, the kind that had everyone laughing it up and cringing at the same time. He supposed it was only a matter of time until the two would turn on each other. Louanne's skill in the cockpit seemed to be growing by leaps and bounds every time she got in the air, her confidence and competitive spirit as well. It would be only natural that eventually she'd set her guns on the top dogs. He imagined that Kat would eventually try her hand at Apollo as well.
That was all fine, until what he walked in on the other day. He was by no means an idiot and not even an idiot would walk into a room with two hot-headed pilots, one of whom had blood on her lips and teeth and not think that one of the pilots had just struck the other.
He ordered Kat to his office to bring them both under control, he'd talk to Kat and then later he'd pull Kara aside, put a couple of drinks in front of them and make sure she'd calmed down as well.
Kat's patience was evaporating as the seconds ticked away but Lee knew that she was not nearly ballsy enough to get insubordinate with a man who could ground her without a second thought or worse, put her in a Raptor. It was no longer an empty threat as they'd been able to train pilots far more efficiently since Pegasus arrived with its simulators and full compliment of Vipers and pilots.
He also had two more qualified Flight Instructors on the Pegasus in Captain Taylor and a pilot named "Thumper" (He could never remember his name.) He opened the next report and found that Racetrack had just completed her Viper qualifications and was cleared to fly the Mark Twos as well as a note from Doc Cottle finally clearing Helo for both Viper and Raptor duty.
He smiled slightly; it might be a good idea for Kat and maybe Hot Dog and Deadeye to get some time in a Raptor.
He signed off on Racetrack's training results and Helo's medical clearance then glanced out of the corner of his eye at Kat as he placed both files in the out box. He stood up and walked over to his assignment board and caught Kat's interested expression, some of the attitude was gone. She watched as he wrote down "Helo" on both pilot rosters and then wrote "Racetrack" onto the Mark II roster.
He picked up his water pitcher and two glasses then returned to his desk. "Water?"
She nodded and he poured them each a glass then offered her one and took his seat. "How was the CAP with our two rooks from Pegasus?"
She rolled her glass between her fingers and shrugged, "Not too bad, Lucky and Sheba are pretty good."
Lee grinned, "The Chief said Lucky came in a little hot."
She grinned, "Yeah well, I've scorched the deck myself a few times. Starbuck tore into him so I'm sure he won't do it again."
He frowned at the clear sarcasm in her voice when she talked about his lead pilot and her teaching style. "I guess we'll just dump the pretense then Kat, I wanted to talk to you about what I walked in on in the Ready Room a few days ago."
She groaned, "Come on CAG, I-" His eyebrow arched at the tone and she flushed, "Sorry sir."
He nodded, "There were no witnesses, and I doubt Starbuck is going to press charges, but all three of us know it happened. That means we have to talk about this. Now, I can see the appeal of taking a swing at Captain Thrace, Lords only know I've wanted to once or twice." He gave her half a smile and she smirked into her glass of water, "However, there are two problems. One, in a time of war, striking a superior officer could get you chucked out an airlock, and two if everyone who felt the need to belt another officer took the chance, there'd be lines up and down the ship to get into sickbay."
She chuckled, "I'm sorry sir. I shouldn't let my temper get the better of me. I've been working so hard to put the 'stims' garbage behind me and she's constantly riding me for it and calling me 'Little Stim-junkie,' I guess it just got out of hand this time."
He nodded, "I'll talk to her about riding you, but you'll have to do her the same courtesy. I've heard you call her a drunk quite a few times in the last few weeks. I've also reviewed both of your flight recorders for the fight with Scar; I know that Starbuck practically laid him in your lap. Another pilot might have shared the kill with their wingman."
She tilted her head at him, "Another pilot wouldn't have an obnoxious spoiled drunk for a wingman... sir."
He frowned and stood up, he circled his desk and loomed over her for a moment before sitting on the edge of the desk. "Be very careful Lieutenant, you're coming very close to insubordination." She slammed her water glass on the desk and shot to her feet. "You don't know a thing about Captain Thrace, you don't know what she's been through. Furthermore, she is a superior officer..."
He watched something spark in her eyes and his scowl solidified on his face as he jumped to his feet bringing them toe-to-toe, "Don't even think it, Lieutenant! The fact is, she's saved your ass both before and after you climbed in a Viper. She's earned more respect from you and I'm not going to tolerate my pilots engaging in petty feuds. Competition and rivalry is one thing, but this is entirely unacceptable. Do I make myself clear?"
He watched the muscles of her jaw work under the skin for a moment and he felt the familiar rush he got when fighting with another obnoxious hotshot under his command. Finally after several seconds ticked by with only the sound of grinding teeth she managed to bite out, "Like crystal, sir."
He stepped backwards and could almost feel his eyes tearing away from hers as he sat down at the chair next to Kat's. She sat down as well, and he noticed the slight flush in her cheeks. The silence that followed was heavy and oppressive save for the ticking of his clock on the wall. He felt some morbid humor at the little piece of tape that still marked the thirty-third minute of the hour.
Kat's voice almost sounded intrusive when she spoke, "Permission to speak freely?"
He reached across the desk to reclaim his glass and took a long drink of cool liquid. 'Next time Lee, let the pilots kill each other, the Old Man will understand.' He didn't bother hiding his grimace as he nodded.
She took her own drink then looked at him with a stern expression, "You coddle Starbuck, the Old Man does too but you're far worse. You let her get away with murder, hell you've let her strike you and you've done nothing. She's always been crazy in the air, but she's crossing the line from crazy to dangerous with every bender she goes on. It's bad enough to have one Tigh on this bucket, we don't need two."
He frowned into his glass and sighed. The comparison left him to wonder if Kara was his Tigh, was she that one officer that he kept around even if it hamstrings his career? Was she that one officer he'd constantly be explaining or making excuses for or bailing out for the rest of his life? Did that make him his father? Did he want to have to constantly say to some junior officer "I don't have to explain Kara's service record to you or anyone else," like he'd been trying to say now?
Kat was right of course, like that moment where he let the air bleed out of his suit, Kara had reached a breaking point and not come through unscathed. She was drinking more and more heavily as the days went by and on several occasions he and Karl had poured her into her bunk late at night or threw her into a cold shower before her duty shift in the morning.
The last time they had done so, he and Helo had shared a look that said that the other pilot was at the end of his patience. That Kat and clearly the rest of the pilots knew what was going on only drove the point home.
She must have taken his silence as annoyance or to mean he was ignoring her warning and fire flashed in her eyes a moment before she snapped, "I shoulda known it'd be this way. Hot Dog said it'd go down like this when you called me to your office. 'Kat,' he said, 'There's the pilots from before and us, and Apollo's gonna protect Starbuck cause she's one of them.' You guys are really frakked up, you know that?" She was out of her chair and looming over him now, and though she could be considered a small woman, Lee was rather intimidated by her now. "I mean the 'Great' Starbuck and Apollo, you two have been insubordinate, childish, and best of all mutinous and when the rest of us put a toe out of line you two come down like the hammer of Zeus on us! You think the rest of us don't talk about the crap you two pull? You think none of us wonder when Starbuck will flake out on us during a CAP and get us fragged? Maybe when you'll pull a gun on one of us when things don't go your way?"
She was practically shaking as she continued, "Frak Apollo, Starbuck brought a Toaster and a possible traitor back with her from Caprica and what do you do? You put him on the frakkin' roster! How the frak am I supposed to trust a guy who let a toaster get his dick wet? You wanna explain that to me?"
He got to his feet but she continued her rant, "Don't even start with the 'out of line' crap! This is what your pilots think about every day. Every time we walk into the pilot's lounge and see Starbuck with a bottle welded to her hand or you and Helo running around sobering her up, that's what we think. Every time we see you making goo-goo eyes at a Gods' damned radio jockey, or him slipping off to talk with the Cylon these are the things we talk about. You wanna give me some line about respect, why don't you practice what you preach!"
He cursed a certain hard-living Viper pilot for completely screwing up what did and did not turn him on. Growing up, he never got hot and bothered from fighting with a woman, but something about the last few months had completely frakked up his head. Right now seeing her flushed-face twisted up in anger and the quick breaths that had her BDUs shifting in interesting ways had him three seconds from bending her over the desk and rutting like an animal.
He tried to fight off the sudden heat under his skin. Who was this glorified rook to come in and blast him and his two best pilots for being childish and insubordinate when she was doing just that? He poured ice into his voice when he said. "I would like nothing better right now then to put you through a bulkhead."
He eyes narrowed and he could see she wasn't even remotely intimidated, "Do it CAG, then Helo can drag Captain Thrace out of the head and she can come down and help you pick up your teeth."
His knuckles cracked as his fists clenched, "I'll admit I've done things I'm not proud of, but I'm trying to keep idiot pilots in line and alive and I don't have time to worry about if your feelings get hurt."
She smirked, "I'm not some hot-house flower, /sir/. If my feelings get hurt, I'll just re-arrange faces until I'm better."
"Really, because it sounds an awful lot like crying to me right now."
He didn't get the reply he was expecting. She didn't laugh or yell or even hit him, one second they were toe-to-toe about to come to blows and the next he was tumbling backwards over the chair behind him to the floor, her lips clamped over his and his tanks tangled in her fingers. He wondered briefly if she was trying to say, "I'll show you crying" With the aggressive kiss.
He crashed to the floor and the air exploded out of his lungs, a split second later her tongue was invading his mouth with nearly the same force. He could hear the sound of her struggling with her BDUs and he tore his hands out of her hair to help her, not even caring that he couldn't remember them getting there.
Her BDU shirt was flying across the office a second later with their combined effort and he bit down on her now exposed shoulder. Her voice growled in his ear bordering somewhere between fury and lust, "Arrogant frakker!"
He felt her tongue trail over his left earlobe and he bit out a response, "Insubordinate bitch!" He reached behind her head and found the hair tie. It came loose quickly and her wild hair was freed. Curled locks which he'd never seen unrestrained or weighed down with water after a shower seemed to give a feral appearance as they flew off in seemingly every direction. She looked like some wild woman from the jungles of Canceron.
She sat up and with a quick yank her tanks were over her head and cast aside leaving her in only a sports bra. "I'll show you insubordinate." He smirked as she descended upon his mouth again the anger in her tone and demeanor had been swallowed whole.
After a moment he gripped her forearms and rolled them over, trapping her beneath him and pinning her arms over her head, "Careful Lieutenant, I may skip the brig and just turn you over my knee."
She smirked arrogantly up at him and drawled out, "Kinky sir, you promise?" He dipped down and dragged his chin across her collarbone and the base of her throat, the stubble leaving her skin flushed as he pressed his lips over her pulse point he could it feel in beginning to race.
He felt her fingernails dig into the small of his back and drag up his spine along with the fabric of his tanks before he was forced to pull back to let her remove them. He reclaimed her mouth with his while he tried to kick his running shoes off, it took three tries but he got the right one off. The left shoes spun off his toes a moment later. She fumbled with his fly for a moment until it came open and he felt her hands clamp on his ass hard enough to earn a groan. He pressed his erection hard into her hip and he heard a wanton voice in his ear. "Ye-es!"
She seemed to purr as he ground against her while his hands were gliding over heated flesh. He cupped her breasts through her bra and she arched into his hand with a loud moan. He chuckled, his voice deep and gravely with emotion, "Lords you are loud!"
Her legs sciccored around his waist and she rolled them over. "Shut your frakkin' mouth or put it to use." A moment later he was smacked in the face by her bra, he was enamored by the sight of her. Her breasts were a little larger than he would have expected, the dark nipples erect against bronze-colored skin.
She stood up with an imperious expression on her face, kicked her shoes into the corner, unbuttoned her fly and with a quick movement dropped both her pants and panties. She stood before him in nothing but her socks and a smirk then said "On your feet, sir." He got to his feet and she made quick work of his track pants and boxers. She took him into her hand and he shuddered almost violently at the contact. "Care to indulge a fantasy of mine?" Her raised eyebrow and the torturously slow rhythm she'd set stroking his cock had insured that if she asked him to walk onto Colonial One and slap the President across the face he'd do it.
He could only nod and in a flash she turned and swept her arm across his desk. Reports, rosters, pens, pencils, Ripper's desk clock, the glasses and the pitcher went flying and he couldn't have cared less because she hopped up and sat on his desk with her legs splayed. "I've always wanted to have a frak right here on your desk." He didn't have to be sent an invitation; he was on top of her licking his way up the column of her throat as he ground against sex in an instant, this time the shudder was reciprocated.
They ground against each other again and again until he was becoming slick with her arousal. He adjusted his feet and planted them then drove into her. She arched up at him and let out a sound civilized people just didn't make, even in the midst of frakking. Her nails clawed into his back so hard he wouldn't be surprised if she drew blood.
As he pushed into her she met him at every turn the fire in her eyes before he'd screwed his eyes shut in pleasure had ignited him, it wasn't this way with Gianne or Shevon and he knew for sure it'd never be this way with Dee. None of them could understand the thrill someone got from sitting in a glorified missile taking on Cylons at nine-plus Gs.
They wouldn't understand that while sometimes you stared at death and broke, sometimes you stared at death and it would break. They'd never understand that sometimes the closer you got to death, the more you felt the life within you. Sometimes in the midst of a firefight his heart would roar to life and adrenaline would surge through him and it was like a drug.
A pilot could understand this, a pilot could understand him. Kat had been there, sitting on the edge of death just a couple of days earlier and she'd come alive. That life within her burned the empty feeling out of him until he wasn't the same man he was when she entered his office.
Grunts and groans rang in his ears until he wasn't sure whose they belonged to and he could feel her heels digging into the meat of his ass urging him on, "Yeah! Harder!"
He buried his nose into her shoulder and pushed into her that much harder. Sweat had broken out on her skin and the scent was turning him on even more. With every stroke she squeezed more tightly around him and her cries became more desperate for release.
Despite his heavy breathing and the sweat practically pouring down his back, she kept urging him to go harder until the desk began scrapping along the floor towards the back wall of his office and she was panting his name in her ear. "Yes! Yes! Lee! I'm coming!" Lee could only agree, she was coming and hard too. He could feel muscles spasming within her while her back locked in its arch and her thighs were squeezing his hips painfully.
With a ragged breath he came as well, leaving all he was within her. After a few half-hearted strokes they came to a stop, both gasping for air. He gripped the far edge of the desk to keep from following his legs' desire to slide into a heap on the floor. "That was unexpected..." He frowned at the way his voice wheezed.
Louanne began shaking against him, and her laugh grew loud within the small office, "You think so?"
He lifted his head to look down at the laughing pilot underneath him with a smirk. "I don't usually deal with unruly pilots like this."
She smirked up at him and drawled, "And here I thought I finally knew why Starbuck seems so set on causing trouble." She reached up and trailed the index finger of her left hand over his chest while she pillowed her head with her right. "That was good... really good."
He shrugged, "I'm happy to oblige, but don't expect this to go into your performance eval. I don't think the Old Man or Tigh would want to read; 'Lt. Katraine not only flies well and handles herself confidently in combat but screams like a wild woman when she reaches an orgasm.'"
She smirked, "Come on CAG, if you do that I'll post on the Ready Room door that, 'Apollo frakked my brains right out the top of my skull.'" He couldn't stop the prideful smirk that was twitching into place on his lips. She gave him a light slap on the stomach, "Up."
He pulled himself out of her, earning a moan from her for his troubles and crashed into the remaining upright chair. He pressed a hand into the small of his back and groaned, "My back, that fall killed me Kat."
She propped herself up on her forearms and crossed her legs, "Suck it up, Apollo. It's not every day a nimble younger, and damned sexy woman molests you right in your office."
He shrugged, "Oh I don't know a couple of weeks ago Racetrack came in here and had me tie her up."
Her eyes narrowed in mock suspicion, "I knew you were kinky sir."
"I'd have to be when threats of making me spit teeth give me a hard-on."
She winked and hopped off the desk, then closed her eyes and shuddered. She turned to him and winked, "Good work sir, I'm not gonna walk right for the rest of the day." She plucked her panties out of her discarded pants and slid them on. Lee took her cue and began dressing himself. There was a comfortable silence between them as they did.
As she finished buttoning her BDUs and smoothed away any wrinkles as best she could Lee was pulling on his running shoes. She pulled her hair back into a regulation style. She grinned at him for a moment before it faltered and her expression turned serious, "I still meant everything I said, sir."
He nodded, "I'll talk with Starbuck, she'll either sober up by choice or I'll ground her until she sobers up, and if you can keep a civil tongue I'll make sure she does too."
She nodded and smiled, "We're playing triad tonight around 1900, stop by." Her smile turned wicked, "I'll beat the shirt off you back."
He laughed, "Keep pushing and I will take you over my knee right in the middle of the rec room."
She laughed and walked to the door, "Promise?"
&&&&&&&&&
Kara knocked on Lee's door and it opened slightly. She'd been up since the night before as she'd had a long and heart-rending discussion with the Old Man in his quarters. They'd discussed everything; Zak's death, her relationship with Lee, her rivalry with Kat, her time on Caprica, her promise to Anders and finally her drinking.
Adama had been supportive and loving like the father she often thought of him as. He'd told her that while he wanted to let her go back that he and the President could not in good conscience send a rescue mission to Caprica and not the other Colonies and an operation like that would likely require one or both of the Battlestars returning as support which would end up in the death of the survivors in the Fleet. She'd yelled and threatened him but he simply smiled sadly and said. "I'm sorry Kara, as much as I'd love to send you back to get them, we have to look forward and not backwards."
That broke her and she cried in his arms for almost an hour, then they turned to her drinking. After another heart-breaking conversation she promised to sober up and accept the life and friends she had and stop mourning the ones she'd lost. Which brought her to Lee's office door, she pushed it opened and stepped inside only to laugh at the sight before her.
His office was a wreck, she found him picking up the broken pieces of his water glasses from the floor, papers were scattered everywhere and Ripper's desk clock was a mangled mess on his bare desk. "I heard Kat came tearing out here furious, I wanted to make sure you were still alive."
Her friend shrugged as he dropped the pieces of glass into his trash bin and said. "Kat and I were discussing the punch she threw at you, and you know how it is when you tell Kat something she doesn't want to hear."
She laughed and helped him gather his paperwork. "Lee, I came down here to tell you that I had a long conversation with the Admiral. I know I've been a wreck these last few weeks and I'm..." She frowned as she swallowed her pride. "I'm sorry... about the other night."
She glanced up to see Lee looking at her with an astonished expression, but finally he smiled gently and said. "Wow... I never thought I'd see the day."
She scowled at him half-heartedly, "Can you not be an ass?"
He crossed the room and kneeled down until they were eye-to-eye, "You're forgiven and I'm sorry for not being there for you these last few months since you came back."
She felt a genuine sense of relief, then felt the playful side that she hadn't had with Lee since before their transfer to Pegasus return. "So what you're saying is that you still love me?"
He laughed, "Absolutely, 'cause like you said, 'no take-backs.'" He got to his feet, "Now be a good friend and help me put my office back together."
She laughed and helped him pick up, "So are you going to have Kat mop the flight-deck for this?"
He chuckled, "No, I think she's learned her lesson."
She came upon something on the floor and laughed. She picked it up and turned to him presenting the black cloth in her hands, "I'll say... Lee Adama, I know this isn't yours."
His reaction was not the one she'd expect when presented with a bra that had "Katraine" stitched into the back. He didn't blush and stammer and try to lie, he leaned against the desk and folded his arms over his chest. "What can I say, Kara?"
She shrugged, "Let me guess, she yelled at you and you got mad and then frakked her on your desk." She smirked, "That bitch, all that work I did to get you to do that to me one day and Kat swoops in and takes advantage."
He laughed, "I figured as much."
"So, if I call you a dirty son of a bitch will it count as foreplay?"
A Battlestar Galactica (2005) Fan-fiction Story
Author: Jason Thompson
Pilamsega@yahoo.com
February 5, 2006
Disclaimer: Once upon a time there was a guy he wrote a story with characters and settings he didn't own, but he put a disclaimer on his story and that made it a little less illegal. Galactica is owned by Universal, Sci-fi Channel, Glen A Larson, David Eick and Ronald D Moore.
Category: AU; PWP Lee/Louanne aka Apollo/Kat. With some Lee/Kara
Spoilers: Mostly for Scar, a light dusting of spoilers for episodes prior to it.
Warnings:
Summery: Faced with an intense and possibly violent rivalry between his two top pilots, Lee calls Kat into his office to talk it out.
Rating:
Distribution: Ask First.
Notes: First, it's been years since I've written PWP, it actually felt pretty good to do it again. This story along with "Love Letters" is slowly mutating into a pseudo-series. So for that sake alone, I present the latest installment of "Lee Adama: Love Machine."
Dedication: Dedicated to the usual suspects; Genova aka Schweet, Bri, Mary, Duchess, Dale, Blaire, Red, Stone Cold, Ice Wing, Arashi, Aslan, Vega, Tony D, Jen Zimmer, Louise, Sairs, and Queen Angel who have allowed me to bounce my ideas off them, and Krac, cause she has the evil bunny slippers.
A CAG's Work is Never Done
The knock on Lee's door only registered peripherally in his mind. His distracted, "Enter," reflected this. He was knee-deep in ammunition-use reports and he needed every last second to complete them. Paperwork hadn't been quite as important before the Pegasus had found them. Before then they didn't really worry as much if Hot Dog and Deadeye tended to fire off too many rounds or that Kat and Starbuck had the best rounds fired to kills ratio, now they were keeping track of twice as many pilots and needed to bear all this in mind.
They'd converted Pegasus' munitions factory to begin construction of Vipers and Raptors so the Galactica now had to produce twice as many rounds. He made a quick note to speak with Hot Dog about that tomorrow before he flew with him on CAP. He might discuss it with Costanza today, but he had a feeling his free time was going to evaporate.
"Reporting as ordered, sir."
He glanced up and found Lt. Katraine standing in front of him at attention; a part of him noted briefly that the young woman had managed to adopt military posture. He could still remember walking into one of Starbuck's early classes and seeing her slouched in her chair like some community college student at an early lecture instead of a military trainee.
He turned back to his paperwork and said, "Have a seat, Kat."
When he'd been a pilot on the Atlantia, the CAG had taken him under her wing and taught him the ins and outs of command, everything she'd felt he needed to know to one day be a CAG or Flight-Instructor; how to treat malcontents, how to tweak those who had potential, how to turn younger pilots into leaders. Most importantly, she taught him how to maintain his authority with his pilots.
The one he was using was such a simple trick too, a tried and true technique used throughout history by COs, School Principals and Doctors all through the Twelve Colonies and probably on Earth too. Just call someone into your office and make them wait while you do something else.
He read through the reports and signed off on them while he could feel Kat's eyes on him. He caught the hint of a smirk when she first sat down, good. He'd grown to appreciate the pilots who had a touch of audacity as more often then not they were the one who went out and blew toasters away by the dozens.
However, strolling into the CAG's office like you were the greatest thing in the sky wasn't the best tactic. Kat was good, but there were better, one of those better pilots was the problem actually.
He'd felt the tension for weeks between Kat and Starbuck, pretty much since he and Kara had returned to Galactica. The barbs and snarky remarks had always been there, Kara and Kat both had that acid-tipped humor, the kind that had everyone laughing it up and cringing at the same time. He supposed it was only a matter of time until the two would turn on each other. Louanne's skill in the cockpit seemed to be growing by leaps and bounds every time she got in the air, her confidence and competitive spirit as well. It would be only natural that eventually she'd set her guns on the top dogs. He imagined that Kat would eventually try her hand at Apollo as well.
That was all fine, until what he walked in on the other day. He was by no means an idiot and not even an idiot would walk into a room with two hot-headed pilots, one of whom had blood on her lips and teeth and not think that one of the pilots had just struck the other.
He ordered Kat to his office to bring them both under control, he'd talk to Kat and then later he'd pull Kara aside, put a couple of drinks in front of them and make sure she'd calmed down as well.
Kat's patience was evaporating as the seconds ticked away but Lee knew that she was not nearly ballsy enough to get insubordinate with a man who could ground her without a second thought or worse, put her in a Raptor. It was no longer an empty threat as they'd been able to train pilots far more efficiently since Pegasus arrived with its simulators and full compliment of Vipers and pilots.
He also had two more qualified Flight Instructors on the Pegasus in Captain Taylor and a pilot named "Thumper" (He could never remember his name.) He opened the next report and found that Racetrack had just completed her Viper qualifications and was cleared to fly the Mark Twos as well as a note from Doc Cottle finally clearing Helo for both Viper and Raptor duty.
He smiled slightly; it might be a good idea for Kat and maybe Hot Dog and Deadeye to get some time in a Raptor.
He signed off on Racetrack's training results and Helo's medical clearance then glanced out of the corner of his eye at Kat as he placed both files in the out box. He stood up and walked over to his assignment board and caught Kat's interested expression, some of the attitude was gone. She watched as he wrote down "Helo" on both pilot rosters and then wrote "Racetrack" onto the Mark II roster.
He picked up his water pitcher and two glasses then returned to his desk. "Water?"
She nodded and he poured them each a glass then offered her one and took his seat. "How was the CAP with our two rooks from Pegasus?"
She rolled her glass between her fingers and shrugged, "Not too bad, Lucky and Sheba are pretty good."
Lee grinned, "The Chief said Lucky came in a little hot."
She grinned, "Yeah well, I've scorched the deck myself a few times. Starbuck tore into him so I'm sure he won't do it again."
He frowned at the clear sarcasm in her voice when she talked about his lead pilot and her teaching style. "I guess we'll just dump the pretense then Kat, I wanted to talk to you about what I walked in on in the Ready Room a few days ago."
She groaned, "Come on CAG, I-" His eyebrow arched at the tone and she flushed, "Sorry sir."
He nodded, "There were no witnesses, and I doubt Starbuck is going to press charges, but all three of us know it happened. That means we have to talk about this. Now, I can see the appeal of taking a swing at Captain Thrace, Lords only know I've wanted to once or twice." He gave her half a smile and she smirked into her glass of water, "However, there are two problems. One, in a time of war, striking a superior officer could get you chucked out an airlock, and two if everyone who felt the need to belt another officer took the chance, there'd be lines up and down the ship to get into sickbay."
She chuckled, "I'm sorry sir. I shouldn't let my temper get the better of me. I've been working so hard to put the 'stims' garbage behind me and she's constantly riding me for it and calling me 'Little Stim-junkie,' I guess it just got out of hand this time."
He nodded, "I'll talk to her about riding you, but you'll have to do her the same courtesy. I've heard you call her a drunk quite a few times in the last few weeks. I've also reviewed both of your flight recorders for the fight with Scar; I know that Starbuck practically laid him in your lap. Another pilot might have shared the kill with their wingman."
She tilted her head at him, "Another pilot wouldn't have an obnoxious spoiled drunk for a wingman... sir."
He frowned and stood up, he circled his desk and loomed over her for a moment before sitting on the edge of the desk. "Be very careful Lieutenant, you're coming very close to insubordination." She slammed her water glass on the desk and shot to her feet. "You don't know a thing about Captain Thrace, you don't know what she's been through. Furthermore, she is a superior officer..."
He watched something spark in her eyes and his scowl solidified on his face as he jumped to his feet bringing them toe-to-toe, "Don't even think it, Lieutenant! The fact is, she's saved your ass both before and after you climbed in a Viper. She's earned more respect from you and I'm not going to tolerate my pilots engaging in petty feuds. Competition and rivalry is one thing, but this is entirely unacceptable. Do I make myself clear?"
He watched the muscles of her jaw work under the skin for a moment and he felt the familiar rush he got when fighting with another obnoxious hotshot under his command. Finally after several seconds ticked by with only the sound of grinding teeth she managed to bite out, "Like crystal, sir."
He stepped backwards and could almost feel his eyes tearing away from hers as he sat down at the chair next to Kat's. She sat down as well, and he noticed the slight flush in her cheeks. The silence that followed was heavy and oppressive save for the ticking of his clock on the wall. He felt some morbid humor at the little piece of tape that still marked the thirty-third minute of the hour.
Kat's voice almost sounded intrusive when she spoke, "Permission to speak freely?"
He reached across the desk to reclaim his glass and took a long drink of cool liquid. 'Next time Lee, let the pilots kill each other, the Old Man will understand.' He didn't bother hiding his grimace as he nodded.
She took her own drink then looked at him with a stern expression, "You coddle Starbuck, the Old Man does too but you're far worse. You let her get away with murder, hell you've let her strike you and you've done nothing. She's always been crazy in the air, but she's crossing the line from crazy to dangerous with every bender she goes on. It's bad enough to have one Tigh on this bucket, we don't need two."
He frowned into his glass and sighed. The comparison left him to wonder if Kara was his Tigh, was she that one officer that he kept around even if it hamstrings his career? Was she that one officer he'd constantly be explaining or making excuses for or bailing out for the rest of his life? Did that make him his father? Did he want to have to constantly say to some junior officer "I don't have to explain Kara's service record to you or anyone else," like he'd been trying to say now?
Kat was right of course, like that moment where he let the air bleed out of his suit, Kara had reached a breaking point and not come through unscathed. She was drinking more and more heavily as the days went by and on several occasions he and Karl had poured her into her bunk late at night or threw her into a cold shower before her duty shift in the morning.
The last time they had done so, he and Helo had shared a look that said that the other pilot was at the end of his patience. That Kat and clearly the rest of the pilots knew what was going on only drove the point home.
She must have taken his silence as annoyance or to mean he was ignoring her warning and fire flashed in her eyes a moment before she snapped, "I shoulda known it'd be this way. Hot Dog said it'd go down like this when you called me to your office. 'Kat,' he said, 'There's the pilots from before and us, and Apollo's gonna protect Starbuck cause she's one of them.' You guys are really frakked up, you know that?" She was out of her chair and looming over him now, and though she could be considered a small woman, Lee was rather intimidated by her now. "I mean the 'Great' Starbuck and Apollo, you two have been insubordinate, childish, and best of all mutinous and when the rest of us put a toe out of line you two come down like the hammer of Zeus on us! You think the rest of us don't talk about the crap you two pull? You think none of us wonder when Starbuck will flake out on us during a CAP and get us fragged? Maybe when you'll pull a gun on one of us when things don't go your way?"
She was practically shaking as she continued, "Frak Apollo, Starbuck brought a Toaster and a possible traitor back with her from Caprica and what do you do? You put him on the frakkin' roster! How the frak am I supposed to trust a guy who let a toaster get his dick wet? You wanna explain that to me?"
He got to his feet but she continued her rant, "Don't even start with the 'out of line' crap! This is what your pilots think about every day. Every time we walk into the pilot's lounge and see Starbuck with a bottle welded to her hand or you and Helo running around sobering her up, that's what we think. Every time we see you making goo-goo eyes at a Gods' damned radio jockey, or him slipping off to talk with the Cylon these are the things we talk about. You wanna give me some line about respect, why don't you practice what you preach!"
He cursed a certain hard-living Viper pilot for completely screwing up what did and did not turn him on. Growing up, he never got hot and bothered from fighting with a woman, but something about the last few months had completely frakked up his head. Right now seeing her flushed-face twisted up in anger and the quick breaths that had her BDUs shifting in interesting ways had him three seconds from bending her over the desk and rutting like an animal.
He tried to fight off the sudden heat under his skin. Who was this glorified rook to come in and blast him and his two best pilots for being childish and insubordinate when she was doing just that? He poured ice into his voice when he said. "I would like nothing better right now then to put you through a bulkhead."
He eyes narrowed and he could see she wasn't even remotely intimidated, "Do it CAG, then Helo can drag Captain Thrace out of the head and she can come down and help you pick up your teeth."
His knuckles cracked as his fists clenched, "I'll admit I've done things I'm not proud of, but I'm trying to keep idiot pilots in line and alive and I don't have time to worry about if your feelings get hurt."
She smirked, "I'm not some hot-house flower, /sir/. If my feelings get hurt, I'll just re-arrange faces until I'm better."
"Really, because it sounds an awful lot like crying to me right now."
He didn't get the reply he was expecting. She didn't laugh or yell or even hit him, one second they were toe-to-toe about to come to blows and the next he was tumbling backwards over the chair behind him to the floor, her lips clamped over his and his tanks tangled in her fingers. He wondered briefly if she was trying to say, "I'll show you crying" With the aggressive kiss.
He crashed to the floor and the air exploded out of his lungs, a split second later her tongue was invading his mouth with nearly the same force. He could hear the sound of her struggling with her BDUs and he tore his hands out of her hair to help her, not even caring that he couldn't remember them getting there.
Her BDU shirt was flying across the office a second later with their combined effort and he bit down on her now exposed shoulder. Her voice growled in his ear bordering somewhere between fury and lust, "Arrogant frakker!"
He felt her tongue trail over his left earlobe and he bit out a response, "Insubordinate bitch!" He reached behind her head and found the hair tie. It came loose quickly and her wild hair was freed. Curled locks which he'd never seen unrestrained or weighed down with water after a shower seemed to give a feral appearance as they flew off in seemingly every direction. She looked like some wild woman from the jungles of Canceron.
She sat up and with a quick yank her tanks were over her head and cast aside leaving her in only a sports bra. "I'll show you insubordinate." He smirked as she descended upon his mouth again the anger in her tone and demeanor had been swallowed whole.
After a moment he gripped her forearms and rolled them over, trapping her beneath him and pinning her arms over her head, "Careful Lieutenant, I may skip the brig and just turn you over my knee."
She smirked arrogantly up at him and drawled out, "Kinky sir, you promise?" He dipped down and dragged his chin across her collarbone and the base of her throat, the stubble leaving her skin flushed as he pressed his lips over her pulse point he could it feel in beginning to race.
He felt her fingernails dig into the small of his back and drag up his spine along with the fabric of his tanks before he was forced to pull back to let her remove them. He reclaimed her mouth with his while he tried to kick his running shoes off, it took three tries but he got the right one off. The left shoes spun off his toes a moment later. She fumbled with his fly for a moment until it came open and he felt her hands clamp on his ass hard enough to earn a groan. He pressed his erection hard into her hip and he heard a wanton voice in his ear. "Ye-es!"
She seemed to purr as he ground against her while his hands were gliding over heated flesh. He cupped her breasts through her bra and she arched into his hand with a loud moan. He chuckled, his voice deep and gravely with emotion, "Lords you are loud!"
Her legs sciccored around his waist and she rolled them over. "Shut your frakkin' mouth or put it to use." A moment later he was smacked in the face by her bra, he was enamored by the sight of her. Her breasts were a little larger than he would have expected, the dark nipples erect against bronze-colored skin.
She stood up with an imperious expression on her face, kicked her shoes into the corner, unbuttoned her fly and with a quick movement dropped both her pants and panties. She stood before him in nothing but her socks and a smirk then said "On your feet, sir." He got to his feet and she made quick work of his track pants and boxers. She took him into her hand and he shuddered almost violently at the contact. "Care to indulge a fantasy of mine?" Her raised eyebrow and the torturously slow rhythm she'd set stroking his cock had insured that if she asked him to walk onto Colonial One and slap the President across the face he'd do it.
He could only nod and in a flash she turned and swept her arm across his desk. Reports, rosters, pens, pencils, Ripper's desk clock, the glasses and the pitcher went flying and he couldn't have cared less because she hopped up and sat on his desk with her legs splayed. "I've always wanted to have a frak right here on your desk." He didn't have to be sent an invitation; he was on top of her licking his way up the column of her throat as he ground against sex in an instant, this time the shudder was reciprocated.
They ground against each other again and again until he was becoming slick with her arousal. He adjusted his feet and planted them then drove into her. She arched up at him and let out a sound civilized people just didn't make, even in the midst of frakking. Her nails clawed into his back so hard he wouldn't be surprised if she drew blood.
As he pushed into her she met him at every turn the fire in her eyes before he'd screwed his eyes shut in pleasure had ignited him, it wasn't this way with Gianne or Shevon and he knew for sure it'd never be this way with Dee. None of them could understand the thrill someone got from sitting in a glorified missile taking on Cylons at nine-plus Gs.
They wouldn't understand that while sometimes you stared at death and broke, sometimes you stared at death and it would break. They'd never understand that sometimes the closer you got to death, the more you felt the life within you. Sometimes in the midst of a firefight his heart would roar to life and adrenaline would surge through him and it was like a drug.
A pilot could understand this, a pilot could understand him. Kat had been there, sitting on the edge of death just a couple of days earlier and she'd come alive. That life within her burned the empty feeling out of him until he wasn't the same man he was when she entered his office.
Grunts and groans rang in his ears until he wasn't sure whose they belonged to and he could feel her heels digging into the meat of his ass urging him on, "Yeah! Harder!"
He buried his nose into her shoulder and pushed into her that much harder. Sweat had broken out on her skin and the scent was turning him on even more. With every stroke she squeezed more tightly around him and her cries became more desperate for release.
Despite his heavy breathing and the sweat practically pouring down his back, she kept urging him to go harder until the desk began scrapping along the floor towards the back wall of his office and she was panting his name in her ear. "Yes! Yes! Lee! I'm coming!" Lee could only agree, she was coming and hard too. He could feel muscles spasming within her while her back locked in its arch and her thighs were squeezing his hips painfully.
With a ragged breath he came as well, leaving all he was within her. After a few half-hearted strokes they came to a stop, both gasping for air. He gripped the far edge of the desk to keep from following his legs' desire to slide into a heap on the floor. "That was unexpected..." He frowned at the way his voice wheezed.
Louanne began shaking against him, and her laugh grew loud within the small office, "You think so?"
He lifted his head to look down at the laughing pilot underneath him with a smirk. "I don't usually deal with unruly pilots like this."
She smirked up at him and drawled, "And here I thought I finally knew why Starbuck seems so set on causing trouble." She reached up and trailed the index finger of her left hand over his chest while she pillowed her head with her right. "That was good... really good."
He shrugged, "I'm happy to oblige, but don't expect this to go into your performance eval. I don't think the Old Man or Tigh would want to read; 'Lt. Katraine not only flies well and handles herself confidently in combat but screams like a wild woman when she reaches an orgasm.'"
She smirked, "Come on CAG, if you do that I'll post on the Ready Room door that, 'Apollo frakked my brains right out the top of my skull.'" He couldn't stop the prideful smirk that was twitching into place on his lips. She gave him a light slap on the stomach, "Up."
He pulled himself out of her, earning a moan from her for his troubles and crashed into the remaining upright chair. He pressed a hand into the small of his back and groaned, "My back, that fall killed me Kat."
She propped herself up on her forearms and crossed her legs, "Suck it up, Apollo. It's not every day a nimble younger, and damned sexy woman molests you right in your office."
He shrugged, "Oh I don't know a couple of weeks ago Racetrack came in here and had me tie her up."
Her eyes narrowed in mock suspicion, "I knew you were kinky sir."
"I'd have to be when threats of making me spit teeth give me a hard-on."
She winked and hopped off the desk, then closed her eyes and shuddered. She turned to him and winked, "Good work sir, I'm not gonna walk right for the rest of the day." She plucked her panties out of her discarded pants and slid them on. Lee took her cue and began dressing himself. There was a comfortable silence between them as they did.
As she finished buttoning her BDUs and smoothed away any wrinkles as best she could Lee was pulling on his running shoes. She pulled her hair back into a regulation style. She grinned at him for a moment before it faltered and her expression turned serious, "I still meant everything I said, sir."
He nodded, "I'll talk with Starbuck, she'll either sober up by choice or I'll ground her until she sobers up, and if you can keep a civil tongue I'll make sure she does too."
She nodded and smiled, "We're playing triad tonight around 1900, stop by." Her smile turned wicked, "I'll beat the shirt off you back."
He laughed, "Keep pushing and I will take you over my knee right in the middle of the rec room."
She laughed and walked to the door, "Promise?"
&&&&&&&&&
Kara knocked on Lee's door and it opened slightly. She'd been up since the night before as she'd had a long and heart-rending discussion with the Old Man in his quarters. They'd discussed everything; Zak's death, her relationship with Lee, her rivalry with Kat, her time on Caprica, her promise to Anders and finally her drinking.
Adama had been supportive and loving like the father she often thought of him as. He'd told her that while he wanted to let her go back that he and the President could not in good conscience send a rescue mission to Caprica and not the other Colonies and an operation like that would likely require one or both of the Battlestars returning as support which would end up in the death of the survivors in the Fleet. She'd yelled and threatened him but he simply smiled sadly and said. "I'm sorry Kara, as much as I'd love to send you back to get them, we have to look forward and not backwards."
That broke her and she cried in his arms for almost an hour, then they turned to her drinking. After another heart-breaking conversation she promised to sober up and accept the life and friends she had and stop mourning the ones she'd lost. Which brought her to Lee's office door, she pushed it opened and stepped inside only to laugh at the sight before her.
His office was a wreck, she found him picking up the broken pieces of his water glasses from the floor, papers were scattered everywhere and Ripper's desk clock was a mangled mess on his bare desk. "I heard Kat came tearing out here furious, I wanted to make sure you were still alive."
Her friend shrugged as he dropped the pieces of glass into his trash bin and said. "Kat and I were discussing the punch she threw at you, and you know how it is when you tell Kat something she doesn't want to hear."
She laughed and helped him gather his paperwork. "Lee, I came down here to tell you that I had a long conversation with the Admiral. I know I've been a wreck these last few weeks and I'm..." She frowned as she swallowed her pride. "I'm sorry... about the other night."
She glanced up to see Lee looking at her with an astonished expression, but finally he smiled gently and said. "Wow... I never thought I'd see the day."
She scowled at him half-heartedly, "Can you not be an ass?"
He crossed the room and kneeled down until they were eye-to-eye, "You're forgiven and I'm sorry for not being there for you these last few months since you came back."
She felt a genuine sense of relief, then felt the playful side that she hadn't had with Lee since before their transfer to Pegasus return. "So what you're saying is that you still love me?"
He laughed, "Absolutely, 'cause like you said, 'no take-backs.'" He got to his feet, "Now be a good friend and help me put my office back together."
She laughed and helped him pick up, "So are you going to have Kat mop the flight-deck for this?"
He chuckled, "No, I think she's learned her lesson."
She came upon something on the floor and laughed. She picked it up and turned to him presenting the black cloth in her hands, "I'll say... Lee Adama, I know this isn't yours."
His reaction was not the one she'd expect when presented with a bra that had "Katraine" stitched into the back. He didn't blush and stammer and try to lie, he leaned against the desk and folded his arms over his chest. "What can I say, Kara?"
She shrugged, "Let me guess, she yelled at you and you got mad and then frakked her on your desk." She smirked, "That bitch, all that work I did to get you to do that to me one day and Kat swoops in and takes advantage."
He laughed, "I figured as much."
"So, if I call you a dirty son of a bitch will it count as foreplay?"
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