FIC: Three's a Crowd - L/K/Ellen Tigh, PG, AU, mention of character death

[lanalucy]

When Kara had come back from New Caprica, she’d been different - quieter in some ways, harsher in others. She spoke kindly, almost lovingly, of Saul Tigh, and she’d developed a protective friendship with Ellen. Lee didn’t begin to fathom what they might have in common other than drinking, but the weird thing was, he never saw either of them doing that any more.

He and Kara mended their friendship and he began to think maybe, just maybe, they’d get back to where they were that night on New Caprica. He never expected for Kara to be the one to broach the subject, and when she said, “But Lee, there’s something you need to know...” he braced himself for whatever she was going to tell him.

He’d accepted her proposal, because really, when, since the moment he’d met her, had he been able to deny her? Even so, he’d been uncomfortable with the new parameters of their relationship, and wary of Ellen Tigh and her place in it. He’d held himself back from Ellen, and so it was a shock when he realized that he loved her, too. Not less or more, but differently.

The reasons for it surprised him. She and Kara shared an unquenchable passion for life. She had Kara’s brutal honesty, but tempered it with tact and diplomacy. Sometimes. She loved Kara with a tenderness that he wasn’t allowed. And to be quite frank, she’d taught Kara a thing or two in the bedroom, and she never had a headache.

He had Kara, and he had the woman Kara could become in twenty years. And somehow, he loved them both.