Triple Drabble

Title: The Water is Rising
Rating: PG-13 (For character death-- sort of).
Pairing: Mild Kara/Lee and Kara/Leoben.
Summary: Post- LDYB 2, my speculation on what things might be like.
Spoilers: Flesh and Blood, if you get the reference
Word Count: 300 exactly
Disclaimer: Months of tireless bartering and lobbying, and still I don't own any of this!

**

She’s been back two weeks, and they’re finding a new rhythm. Lee liked the old one, where they were a team, where Kara only had one ring to spin. But at least she’s home.

It amazes him how these few years have wiped away a sea of routine, but left an ocean of familiarity. He can still pick out her breathing in the dark of the bunkroom, over and through the rustling of sheets. He can hear her begin to dream.

His name hangs on a thread from her tongue, then becomes something else. He sighs.

At least she’s home.

**

Kara is drowning.

She feels her knees on the floor, her own knuckles digging into the small of her back. A familiar hand grasps the back of her neck, holding her under.

She remembers the time her father took her to a beach near Caprica City, and she saw the ocean for the first time. Cocky even then, she swam straight away from shore. The waves overtook her. She’d almost drowned.

It occurs to her now that it might have been better, if she had. Dying young has its uses—all the less time to sin.

Kara smiles, then inhales.

**

“You look tired,” he says the next morning, while he’s shaving and she’s waiting in the doorway of the head.

“No,” Kara snipes. “Been sleeping like a princess.” She steps forward, braces her boot on the bench, then bends and begins violently to lace it tighter.

He watches her, reflected behind him, and his hand stops mid-stroke.

“What did you dream?”

“I didn’t.”

“You were talking, Starbuck.”

“Then you tell me, Lee. What did I dream?”

“Couldn’t hear what you were saying.”

“Honestly?”

“If you don’t mind.”

She looks up, meets his eyes.

“I dreamed I died happy.”

**