(no subject)
Title: Break it to Him Gently
Author: Nytel
Rating: PG
Summary: Kara needs to tell Lee about some very important news. I wish I could say more, but it would kind of give it away.
Spoilers: Nothing specific.
Disclaimer: It's not mine.
A/N: Thank you to my wonderful beta
mlsky
Kara sat in a sick bay chair waiting nervously for Cottle to arrive. She was bouncing her knee up and down impatiently, while drumming her fingers on her thigh. The waiting was killing her. If she didn’t find out soon…
“Well lieutenant,” said Doc Cottle as he entered the curtained area. “I have the test results.”
“And?” Kara asked quietly as she stood up. She began to clench and unclench her hands nervously at her sides.
Cottle gave her a smirk before saying, “The test was positive.”
****
Kara balanced two mugs of coffee in her left hand while she knocked on the door to Lee’s office with her right. She heard him mutter something that vaguely sounded like a ‘Come in,’ so she opened the door slowly.
When he finally looked up from his paperwork to see who it was he smiled. “Hey.”
“Hey yourself,” Kara said. She walked over to Lee’s desk and placed one of the mugs down in front of him. When he looked at her oddly she asked, “What?”
He shrugged. “Nothing, I guess… it’s just that you’re bringing me coffee.”
Kara pulled a chair over in front of Lee’s desk and sat down before replying, “So?”
“Kara babe, you never bring me coffee.”
“I did today!” Kara said irritably. “Of course I could just take it if you don’t want it. I have no problem drinking both cups.”
Lee chuckled and shook his head. “I wasn’t complaining Kara.”
“Sure as hell sounds like it.”
“Well I’m not,” he said as he leaned over his desk to give Kara a quick kiss. “Thank you.” Lee sat back down and opened his files.
“Hey, don’t think that kissing me will make me feel any better,” Kara said as she tried to keep the grin on her face from growing.
“Why not,” Lee asked, not even bothering to look up from his paperwork. “It’s working isn’t it?”
“You just think that you’re so great.”
Lee glanced up from the papers in front of him. “Yep.”
Kara almost laughed at the smugness in his voice, but instead she just smiled. The fun and games could come later; right now she needed to talk to Lee. “So, aren’t you going to ask me why I’m here?” Come on Lee; make this somewhat easy.
“Ok Kara,” he said. “Why are you here?”
“Hey, are you almost finished?” Kara asked, realizing that she might want his full attention for this conversation.
Lee immediately looked up at her and stopped his frantic scribbling. “What?”
Kara sighed as she leaned back in her chair. “Are you almost finished? It’s not a hard question Lee.”
Lee was still looking at her like she had three heads. “Yes, I’m nearly done.” He paused for a moment before continuing, “Why?”
“Why what?” Kara asked as she kicked off her boots.
“Why are you asking? Two seconds ago you asked me, to ask you, why you were here. So then I asked you, and you changed the subject.”
Kara rolled her eyes while she tucked her feet underneath her on the chair. “Well, if you were almost done then I thought we could talk about why I’m here after you finish.”
Lee picked up the pen from where he had left it on his desk and began to write again. “Or, we could multi-task and you could talk to me while I finish.”
“Fine,” Kara said.
“Thank you, now why are you here?”
Kara studied Lee for a few seconds as he wrote before replying. “Well, I had some spare time.”
“Uh huh.”
“Aren’t you going to ask me why I had spare time, and why I’m not on CAP even though I’m scheduled for it?”
“I’m sure you have your reasons, but to make you happy I’ll ask. Why do you have spare time and why aren’t you flying CAP even though you’re scheduled to?”
“Because I got Kat to cover my rotation.”
Lee kept on writing. “Why?”
“So I could go to see Doc Cottle.” Come on Lee; please catch on.
Lee snorted. “Why? You hate that man.”
“Yeah well, I had to see him.”
“How much did that cost you anyways?” Lee asked as he opened his desk drawer and pulled out a new pen.
“What?” Kara asked, momentarily confused.
“What did you have to give Kat to get her to take your rotation? She never takes them voluntarily.” Lee had closed the desk drawer and was now writing again.
“Tell me about it,” Kara said as she set her empty coffee mug down on Lee’s desk. “I had to give her three cigars.”
Lee raised his head so quickly that Kara thought he was going to strain something. “You gave her your cigars?”
“Yeah,” Kara said.
“Why? There’s only so many left in the entire fleet.”
Kara shrugged. “I know, but I won’t be smoking them for a long time.”
Lee raised his eyebrows. “Why?”
“Because I shouldn’t.”
Lee continued to look at Kara for a few seconds before saying, “Whatever.” He then resumed working on his stack of paperwork. “Hey, you going to the big card game in the mess tonight? I hear that the chief finally made some more of his booze, if you can even call it that. Tastes like crap, but it’s better than nothing.”
Kara sighed. “Yeah I’m going, but I won’t be drinking.”
Lee chuckled, “What, you don’t want a repeat of last time?”
“No, that’s not why. But I won’t be drinking for a while, for months in fact.”
Lee glanced up at Kara momentarily. “Ok,” he said somewhat doubtfully. “Anyways, you were saying…”
“Yeah,” Kara began. “I had to go see Cottle because I was feeling sick.”
Lee stopped writing and looked Kara straight in the eye. “When?”
“Actually,” Kara said calmly. “It was yesterday morning.”
Lee raised his eyebrows again, “Was there something special about yesterday morning?”
Gods Lee, don’t be so thick! “Nope, it was just a normal morning.” When he didn’t respond to her innuendo she almost smacked him.
“So what,” he asked. “Am I going to have to take you off of rotation then?”
Kara nodded. Come on Lee, figure it out.
“Frak Kara,” Lee said. “We’re already short on pilots as it is.” Then he sighed. “Sorry babe, I’m not mad at you. How long until you can fly again?”
Kara took a deep shaky breath. “Nine months, give or take.”
“What?!” Lee exclaimed, completely forgetting about the paperwork in front of him. “Kara, nine months is a long time. We can’t afford to lose a pilot for nine months. What the hell could be wrong with you that takes nine months to fix?!”
That’s it, Kara thought. She quickly got to her feet and yelled, “What the hell do you think Lee?! I cannot believe that you are being so dense.” When he didn’t respond she said, “You’re going to make me say it aren’t you?”
By this time Lee was standing too. “Say what?”
“Gods Lee, you are being so thick!” Kara had no idea how she could have fallen in love with someone who was so frakking stupid.
He glared at her for a total of two seconds before his face lit up with shock and realization. It seemed like one instant he was standing behind his desk, and the next he was standing in front of it holding Kara in a bone-crushing hug.
Then he suddenly pulled back, but still kept a firm grip on both of her shoulders. His face was only inches from hers and he was looking her straight in the eye. “You’re…”
But Kara didn’t let him finish. “Yep, I am.” When she realized that Lee was happy, no ecstatic, about what had happened she let herself be happy too. She knew that she had the stupidest grin plastered across her face, but she didn’t care. Lee’s smile now rivaled her own, and she thought that she could see tears in his eyes. She didn’t get a chance to see for sure because the next second his was kissing her, hard.
His hands had moved up from her shoulders to tangle themselves in her hair. When Lee deepened the kiss she didn’t stop him. In fact she pulled him even closer and began to run her hands up and under his tanks. He kissed her even more forcefully and then suddenly stopped.
When he pulled back it took Kara a few seconds to realize what he was doing. She had been so caught up in the kiss that she was momentarily confused. When she opened her eyes, it took a few seconds for Lee to come into focus. Kissing him always affected her that way.
Kara pulled her hands out from under his tanks and cupped his face when she saw the worry in his eyes. “What’s wrong?” she asked quietly.
“Did I hurt you?”
Kara scrunched up her face in confusion. “No…”
He pulled her hands down from his face to her sides. “Are you sure?” Kara could hear the worry in his voice.
“Yes I’m…”
“Sit down,” Lee said as he gently pushed Kara down into the chair she had previously been sitting in. “Do you need anything Kara? Food, water… Frak!”
Lee reached over the desk to grab his jacket from the back of his chair. He wrapped it around Kara’s shoulders. “You can’t be running around a battlestar in your condition with only tanks on!”
Kara laughed out loud at Lee’s over protectiveness. “Lee I’m…”
“It’s not funny Kara!” Lee nearly shouted. “You can’t afford to get sick.”
Kara smiled at Lee, he was so cute when he was like this. “Frak, there’s so much stuff to do!” he said as he started pacing in front of Kara’s chair. “We have to tell my Dad, tell everyone, move into… oh my gods!” Lee stopped his facing and turned to face Kara directly. “We have to pick out names!” He started pacing rapidly again.
Kara couldn’t believe it; Lee was completely panicking. The man who had blown up an entire cylon tyllium refinery by himself, was panicking over this. “Lee…” Kara began in a gentle voice. He paused mid stride and looked at her. “Come here.”
He walked over so that he was standing directly in front of Kara, and looking down at her. She pulled him closer so that he was standing between her legs. Once she had him where she wanted him she reached up and grabbed a fistful of his tanks. A yank brought his face directly above hers. Lee’s eyes locked with hers. Then he gently rested his hands on her shoulders, as if he was afraid to hurt her. “Lee, I’m not made of glass you know.” He didn’t say anything, but he did increase the pressure on her shoulders slightly.
“And we have a long time to pick out names.”
Lee nodded reluctantly, “But…” He let his voice trail off when Kara shook her head.
“No buts.” He seemed somewhat calmer now, but when Kara looked a little more closely she could still see the panic in his eyes, and also the tears.
“Kara, I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t know if I can be a Dad.” Kara felt Lee’s hands begin to tremble and saw him gulp. He closed his eyes and took a shaky breath.
“Lee look at me,” Kara said quietly and she released his tanks and cupped his face again. When Lee slowly opened his eyes she whispered, “I love you.”
Lee released the breath that he had been holding and leaned his forehead on Kara’s. He spoke quietly. “I know, and I love you too.”
Kara’s eyes had begun to water and she felt a tear or two escape, but she was still smiling. “That’s why we can do this.” She was saying it as much for his benefit as for her own.
He pulled her into another hug, though this one was much gentler than the last. When he finally pulled back Kara stood up. Then she pushed Lee into the chair and promptly straddled him. “Much better,” she said as he pulled her closer to him.
“Uh huh,” he mumbled against her chest. Kara let Lee hold her tight against him for a few moments while she ran her fingers through his hair.
Kara eventually broke the silence. “But you do know that you’re really dense, right?”
Lee pushed Kara away from him slightly so that he could look up into her eyes. “Hey, I’m not that dense.”
Kara’s eyes widened in surprise. “You’re kidding right? I was dropping hints left right and center.”
“Well maybe,” Lee said. “You should have just come right out and said it.” Kara shrugged, then Lee continued. “Actually come to think of it, you never actually did say it.”
Kara smiled. “Fine, I’m pregnant. Happy now?”
“Yep,” Lee said as he pulled Kara’s face down for a kiss. “Very happy.”
The End