Title: Entrench
Author: scy
Feedback: scynneh@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: Not mine
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica
Pairing: Sam/Leoben/Kara
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: up through the series so far
Summary: Three sides find stability together
Author's Notes: Follows
Plenty, and Savor. Thanks to sarkastic for insight and important observations of *all kinds*. Also, ladycat777 talked me through a couple spots and made a big difference.
August 2008

 

Sam never thought that he would like the quiet so much. He used to wait behind closed doors and listen to a cheering crowd and know that he wouldn't be able to relax until he could see them. Now he didn't look for much beyond his doorway.

The world always interfered though, Sam had learned that through being a C-Buck, the husband of Kara Thrace, a member of the Fleet, and now one of the Final Five. Somebody was going to come looking for something.

Helo had to know that there was something going on beyond doors that he couldn't open. He stopped by, unannounced, with news, and gossips, and one day he happened to come home with Kara, and saw Sam and Leoben coming up from the beach.

"Frak," Helo said, and reached for his sidearm.

"No," Sam said, and stepped in front of Leoben.

Kara put a hand on Helo's chest and blocked him. "Don't."

"Did you know he was here?"

"Yeah."

"Is this like a visit, he comes by for dinner?" Helo asked, giving them an out, a way to make it anything but what he was assuming. Anything but the truth.

"He lives here," Sam said. "With us."

"What?"

"It's where he belongs," Kara said, and came towards Sam, ducking under his arm for a hug.

"Do you still want dinner?" Sam asked, chin resting on Kara's head, Leoben vigilant behind him.

Helo stared at them, standing together and shrugged. "Yeah, sure."

He followed the three of them inside, and sat down while Kara, Sam and Leoben circulate the room, moving smoothly around one another.

Leoben cooked, Kara heckled him, and Sam chased her out of the kitchen, insisting the table had to be set.

Looking off balance, Helo stared at them, keeping out of the way and wisely not interfering.

When they were all sitting at the table, he got up his nerve and cleared his throat after Sam passed him an earthenware bowl of vegetables.

"Where do you get all of this?"

"The hydroponics gardens on the base stars," Sam said.

"They have gardens?"

"A couple storage areas got converted to grow food," Kara said.

"Why hasn't anybody heard about this?"

Sam glanced at Leoben, and then back at Helo as he took a bite. "Does the Fleet tell the Cylons everything?"

"No," Helo said.

"That's why."

Helo shook his head. "With stuff like this going on, there's going to be trouble."

"Like what?"

"People haven't gotten over being at war, now they're supposed to get along with the Cylons. I've heard talk from some of the civilians, and around the Fleet that they don't like what's happening. Some of them are saying that this isn't even Earth, and that Kara got mindfrakked by a couple of Cylons and doesn't know down from up."

Kara bit down hard, and the other three waited for her to react.

"They didn't know where they were going," Kara said.

"You showed them the way," Helo said. It looked like he wanted to say something, but hesitated, and then let it out. "Are they wrong?"

"Careful," Sam said, but Kara invited Helo to go on.

"Come on, Helo, what do you mean?"

"When we were on the Demetrius, you were lost," Helo said. "As soon as Leoben came aboard, something happened, you changed." He waited, and when Kara didn't speak, he pressed.

"What did he do, that made a difference?" When the rest of us couldn't, he knew better than to say.

"He made things clear," Kara said.

"What things?"

"My purpose, destiny."

"What was stopping you from figuring it out on your own?"

Sam gave Helo a warning look, but the man didn't back off.

"I was too far away," Kara said. "Everybody else wanted to go the wrong way, and we got so far off that I couldn't find my way back."

"But Leoben helped you do that."

"Yeah, he did," Kara said, and lifted her chin, turning her hand over and Leoben laid his own on top without being asked.

"So now that we've got Earth, what's he doing for you?" Helo asked.

"Don't go there."

"What, it's not like everybody isn't going to wonder. Some of them are already. You're living with one Cylon that they know about. You think they're going to be happy you've got two of them?"

"I am living with my husband," Kara said, and took Sam's hand so tightly that he could feel circulation being cut off.

He didn't object, and squeezed back.

"He's a Cylon, one of the Final Five, and he was living in the Fleet like a human," Helo said.

"So does Athena," Kara said.

Leoben was staying out of the discussion, but Helo pointed at him accusingly. "Everybody knows about her, he's practically the poster boy for Cylon misbehavior."

"It's not such a big deal," Kara said, lacing her fingers together with Leoben's. "They found out about Sam."

"When Tigh gave the others up. How long would they have stayed hidden?"

"We weren't exactly welcome," Sam said.

"You should have told someone."

"Like who? If we weren't shot, the Cylons would have demanded that we be handed over, and then you wouldn't have had any leverage."

"I'm sure that's going to make everybody happy when you point that out," Helo said.

"Nothing you say is going to change what's going on," Sam said. He heard the slide of Leoben's boots on the floor, and knew that he wouldn't get out of his chair and walk away, but that he was trying to ease the tension by staying still, and Sam motioned for him to scoot closer. When Leoben did, Sam reached around Kara and grabbed his arm and held on, knowing that Helo would see it, and refusing to let that stop him.

"The only question is whether or not you stay," Kara said. "And if you keep on saying stupid stuff, Helo, I am going to throw you out on your ass."

Helo glanced at the Cylons, one to Kara's immediate right, the other less than a foot away and slightly at an angle. "Not one of them?"

"Woman's prerogative," Leoben said.

Helo grinned involuntarily at that, and shook his head. "You really are doing this."

"Damn right," Kara said.

Sam coughed, and Kara punched him in the arm.

"Great pitch, Kara."

"Shut up, Sam."

Leoben grinned, and Kara snapped at him, "Not a word."

Helo stared at them for another minute, and then sat back in defeated acceptance. "So, this is why you thought you'd do all right with the Cylon-Colonial integration program."

"Wait, what?" Kara asked.

Sam cleared his throat. "Helo came by last week and wanted to talk to me about this program that the Admiral and President Roslin are thinking of proposing to the Cylons. It's about everybody learning how to live and work together."

"What did you tell him?"

"That I'd think about it."

"What's your answer?' Kara asked.

"It depends on you," Sam said.

"Me?"

"Leoben and I talked it over already."

"You did," Kara said.

"When we were putting the shop together."

"Shop?" Helo asked.

"I told you I was working on combining Raptor and Cylon systems, and there wasn't enough hangar space for all my projects, so I brought it home," Kara said.

"It's here?" It sounded like Helo had sen what Kara had been doing and wasn't sure what to make of another one of her missions.

"Yeah, I've got a workshop out back, Sam and Leoben built it for me."

Helo shook his head as if to clear it. "That was nice of them."

"So what's the deal?" Kara asked. "if we get in on this committee, you're putting together, what do we have to do?"

"The Admiral and President Roslin think that if we can show that Cylons and Colonials can get along, some of the tension will be dealt with."

"How sure are they that this will work out?" Sam asked.

"They're not, but we've got to find some way of cooperating, there have been a couple of incidents that only got settled when the marines showed up." Helo's eyes moved from Sam to Leoben. "Have either of you heard anything about that?"

"There has been unrest among the Centurions who have not been allowed to retaliate," Leoben said.

"Not allowed?"

"Your preference would be for them to attack whoever they wish?"

Helo let out an annoyed noise. "I meant, you have control of them?"

"The Centurions are self aware," Leoben said.

"How did that happen?" Helo asked.

"It was necessary, after what Cavil did to the Raiders," Leoben said.

'But how do you know you can control the Centurions?" Helo said. "They just seem pretty intense."

"There are ways," Leoben said, and his voice sounded like the rumbling of an engine pushing past its safety limits and about to do something unpredictable.

"Enough said." Helo was a soldier and recognized someone dangerous when he saw them. "You know what the Cylons' attitude is right now, will they accept this agreement?"

"They don't have to," Sam said. "There are some of who are already a part of it, and they can't afford to condemn us, accepting it will just take longer."

"You should talk to the Fleet first," Helo said.

Sam knew why, and that if they stood up in front of the Cylons and the Fleet and explained themselves without giving anyone warning, the reaction would be explosive. But, they might make it easier for somebody to give them trouble.

"They might try and arrest us," Kara said, and tried to bend her fork in half.

"That would be bad," Sam said.

"It would lead to something unfortunate," Leoben said.

Helo grimaced. "I get it, you three won't go quietly, but you do have to let everybody else who matters know what's going on, before it gets back to them from a stranger, or the press that you're starting some kind of conspiracy."

"With who?"

"It doesn't matter, rumors get started easily, you know that, and right now, that's the last thing anybody needs. We need to show them that somebody knows how to work together."

"I'm not bringing them here so they can see the house," Kara said.

Helo put his hands up. "Fine, let's just start with talking to the Admiral and Roslin."

"When?"

"I think a captain in the Colonial Fleet can get an appointment pretty quickly," Helo said. "I wouldn't mention who you're working with, say you've got contacts among the Cylons."

"That's really subtle, Helo," Kara said.

"Yeah, well, Athena says I need to work on that."

"She's right," Kara said and nodded. "This week, we'll talk to them."

"Thanks," Helo said and all of them went back to eating.

Kara waited at attention in the hallway outside the briefing room. The officer on duty had told her that President Roslin and Admiral Adama had been in conference all morning, and hadn't wanted to be disturbed.

When the door opened, Roslin had her hand resting on Admiral Adama's arm, and was smiling.

"Captain Thrace," she said. "Did we have an appointment?"

"No, ma'am, I wanted to let you know that I'm interested in a project you're putting together."

"And what would that be?" Roslin asked.

"The integration program," Kara said.

"Come inside," Adama said, and Kara followed him into the room.

She watched them sit close together, not so much that anybody walking in could say that they were being inappropriate, but it wasn't as if common knowledge didn't get passed along.

"I'd like to know how you even heard about this proposal, as it hasn't been officially announced to anyone," Roslin said, and she smiled, but Kara stood straighter.

"It was Captain Agathon that mentioned it to me, ma'am."

"Helo?" Adam asked.

"I'm married to one of the Final Five," Kara said.

"We're aware of Ensign Anders status within the Fleet," Adama said. "You've chosen to stay with him, Captain Thrace?"

Kara shifted minutely. "We swore vows."

"In light of his changed status, there was speculation," Adama went on, and Kara had heard all of this before.

"I'm not leaving him."

Roslin and Adama shared a look.

"That's commendable," Roslin said, and Kara knew that she didn't mean it. "So, your continued support of Anders is your reason for wanting to take part in this initiative."

"It's one of them."

"You need to be aware that there could be consequences," Adama said. "Sentiment is still very much against the Cylons, even if they used to be part of the Fleet."

Kara guessed that the Admiral actually meant that nobody was sure what to do when they found out people they trusted weren't what they expected. The rift between Saul Tigh and Adama was enormous and neither of them could easily say that history trumped personal betrayal. Kara had some experience with that, though, and better than anyone, she knew what it meant to live alongside Cylons and was figuring out ways to make it work because she wanted it. She could share some of that, if they were willing to listen.

"We're going to bring it up at the next council meeting," Roslin said. "If it's accepted, we'll contact you."

"I should be at the meeting," Kara said.

"That won't be necessary," Adama said. "If this doesn't work out, there's no reason for you to waste your time."

"Understood, sir," Kara said, and saluted. As she left, Adama called out to her.

"Yes, sir?"

"It's good of you to step up on this/"

"Thank you, sir," Kara said and walked out.

"Well?" Sam asked when she got home.

"They're brining it up to the other Cylons, and if they agree, then I'm in."

"Just you?" Sam asked.

"I told them we were in it together, but they don't know about Leoben's part in this, yet." Kara stepped into Sam's arms."I didn't think they'd let me do this if they knew he was around."

"You're probably right."

Neither one of them said it, but they'd tried to tell the other in the last several months that they weren't ashamed about the way they lived, but Sam knew that out of the three of them, Kara had something to lose.

"We need to go together," Sam said.

"When?" Kara asked.

"There will be a chance," Leoben said and Sam groaned.

"Cylon stealth, you're going to have to show me that too. You think they're going to go for it?"

Leoben's mouth curved. "Yes." He turned and walked back into the house, saying only, "dinner is ready."

"I guess he knows what's happening," Sam said, and Kara exhaled heartily.

"Yeah, he does. We'd better find out what he made, otherwise he'll just nag."

"Subtle, but it does the trick," Sam said, agreeing with Leoben's covert methods of making sure that Kara took care of herself. "All right then, it won't do any good to worry, and Leoben told us the vote would go our way, all we have to do is wait."

Helo got word to them of the decision, and a day later, a formal invitation to join in came from the Admiral and President. It was a gesture, and one that stood on uncertain times, but Kara shook the small card, inhaled and pronounced it to be solid.

"They're making it a formal event," she said, dropping down on the blanket she'd spread out and covered her face. "Bad enough that they want to tell us we're freaks, we have to dress up too?"

Sam sat up, more interested. "Are you going to wear a dress?"

On his other side, Leoben raised his head, momentarily diverted from where he was tilling the soil.

"No," Kara said. "I'll just wear my uniform."

Sam gave her a disappointed look, and Kara snarled.

"No, I do not get dressed up, and anyway, I don't want them to think that you drove me to it."

"They might," Sam said, "but it wasn't happy about conceding the point.

Making noises about stupid expectations, Kara curled up on her blanket again.

Sam turned to Leoben, rolling onto his side, and contenting himself with watching Leoben. The blond was on his knees, and working without his shirt out. Feeling daring, Sam brushed up against him and Leoben's spine flared red.

"What was that?"

Leoben flinched away, and Sam went after him, and laid his hand on Leoben's back. When he was sure that Leoben was staying still, Sam stroked a hand over his spine, and Leoben arched into it.

"Is that something I can do?"

Leoben smiled, and pulled Sam up against him, and as they stood facing facing each other, Leoben took Sam's hands, put them on his back, and said, "Feel that?"

Sam did, it was almost like a humming, but that was impossible, because Cylons weren't really made up of wires, but still. It was like the blood was hotter right there.

"How do I do that?"

Leoben let Sam brush his fingers up higher and then lower, a pattern of ascent and descent that made the other Cylon shudder.

"Distraction delays explanation."

Sam grinned. "You saying you can't think straight when I do that?"

Leoben's head fell back and he looked almost drugged on the sensation of Sam's hands on him.

"It's difficult."

Sam kept on tracing the heat underneath Leoben's skin. Now that he knew this was the best way to keep Leoben in one place, Sam was going to use this trick more often.

He leaned in, lips touching Leoben's jaw, and he licked at the sweat there.

"Can you get off like this?"

Leoben raised his head. "I thought you wanted to learn."

"Yeah," Sam said, and then he felt his shirt being pushed up.

Leoben touched Sam with a surety that made his skin buzz. Every inch fingers moved, he was waiting for them to go further.

"What are you doing?" Kara asked, staring, their voices having caught her attention.

"I don't know, what am I doing?" Sam asked.

"Trying to be a distraction," Leoben said.

"By scratching your back?" Kara asked.

"Not really," Sam said and nudged at Leoben. "Turn around, come on, let her see."

The other Cylon let out a noise and Sam grinned. "I won't stop, but show her first."

When Leoben's back was in Kara's line of sight, she gaped.

"What the frak is that?"

Sam ran a hand up Leoben's spine, pushing a bead of sweat along his vertebrae. "A Cylon thing."

"Yeah, Sam, I got that, why is he doing it at all?"

"I just started stroking his back and it happened."

"Can you do that?"

"I've barely gotten used to knowing I'm a Cylon, but this has got to be one strange side benefit."

"You've never done that before." Kara moved closer and looked hard at Leoben's back. "Did I do something to stop that from happening?"

"No, that's not it," Sam said.

"How do you know? You're not even sure if you can do that too."

"I don't care if I can do it with anybody who's not sitting here. I don't want to."

"What does it mean? Is it a good thing, or do you need a battery or something?"

"Cylons don't need batteries," Sam said in frustration.

"I'm just guessing, what's it mean, then?"

"It's an indication of compatibility," Leoben said.

"So why hasn't Sam's back ever lit up like that?"

"He's only just found his path," Leoben said, "It takes time to walk further down it."

Kara rolled her eyes and then frowned. "And what about you? Why haven't you done that with me either?" Kara sounded hurt.

Leoben spoke gently. "You never let me get that close."

Cheeks reddening, Kara admitted, "I thought about it."

"Why didn't you ever try it?" Sam asked. He wasn't sure if he should be jealous, but he wanted to know what Kara had been thinking, and what had made Leoben do the things he'd only heard rumors about. Living all that time on New Caprica with a Cylon, even as a prisoner had started people talking, and that was without any of them knowing what had really happened.

"Are you serious?" Kara asked.

Leoben moved away from Sam's hand, and that got his attention more than if the blond had shouted.

"I mean, I know that you two didn't get along, you kidnapped her out of our tent, and you kept her locked up for months," Sam said to Leoben. "But what aren't you two telling me?"

"It was bad, Sam, you don't want to hear about it," Kara said, holding herself stiffly.

"Maybe not, but I need to," Sam said. "And you can talk about it now," Sam said, and Kara glanced at both of them uncomfortably.

"No, you do what you want, I've got to go and meet Helo and Sharon. I'll be back later." She stood up, brushed off, and walked quickly into the house.

"She's running away again," Sam said.

Still not coming any closer, Leoben nodded, and when Sam looked again, he'd stood up and turned away.

"So are you."

"I'm still here," Leoben said.

"But you're not talking," Sam said.

"There are things you don't want to know," Leoben said.

"Why, because I might remember that you're one of the Cylons that declared war on the human race? That you killed millions of people and wouldn't stop until it was your Final Five on the line. Five Cylons stacked up against what's left of humanity," Sam was getting angrier, and his voice rose as he got to his feet. "Too late, I know what you are, and I can live with that. You and Kara pretending things are all right isn't, not when even mentioning New Caprica makes both of you come unglued."

"I'm not upset," Leoben said.

"No, and you've got your secrets, I get that, and some of them you can keep. But when you're holding back what I need to know, do you think we can go and tell the council that the integration program is the right thing because we're living it?"

Leoben was silent, and Sam shook his head. "Yeah, I don't know either." He walked away, needing space and air, and Leoben didn't follow.

Kara stumbled in lat that night, and when Sam heard her on the stairs, he rolled to face her side of the bed. As she climbed in beside him, Sam kept his mouth shut, even when she paused as she noticed that the other third of the bed was conspicuously empty, and it was a long time before they slept.

The next day, there were undercurrents of tension that made walking around the house exhausting. Sam tolerated it for a couple hours, and then he realized that he was getting tired of having to walk lightly, and he thought he wasn't the only one.

He didn't know for sure where Leoben had spent the night, but the ground wasn't frozen when he stepped outside, so Sam made a guess. It was taking awhile, but he was learning that Leoben didn't use force when he could watch and then act. That put Sam in Kara's way, and he couldn't avoid her, even when she was telling him to leave her alone.

"Just don't bother, Sam, I've got stuff to do."

"Like what?" Sam spoke loudly, knowing that Kara was nursing a pounding head.

"Finding someplace quiet to work on these design specs for the FTL drive."

"You can't do that here?"

"I don't think you guys want me here," Kara said. "I'd be in the way."

"Of what?"

"Whatever you guys were doing yesterday."

"We weren't doing anything that you couldn't have too," Sam said.

"Don't start that with me, Sam, my head is killing me and I'm not in the mood."

"That's news," Sam said, and winced. He had been going for blunt, not harsh, but when Kara sat upright and glared, he decided to just go with it.

"What?" Kara asked.

"You heard me," Sam said. "Is there anything you're doing here that isn't running away from what's going on between us?" Sam knew that if he kept pushing, Kara would step up, she couldn't help it, he was practically daring her to.

"Are you brain damaged?" Kara asked. "I went out last night, and this morning you've got a head injury."

"I'm fine," Sam said. "Other than the fact that my wife won't talk to me, barely lets me touch her, and the other person living here won't even come inside the house after we have an argument."

Kara looked around, seemingly having taken it for granted that Leoben would be hovering somewhere close by. "Where is he?"

"Not here, he probably thinks that if he gets too close to you, he's going to have to deal with your issues."

"My issues? I'm not the one who's shouting over breakfast."

"No, you went out and got drunk so you wouldn't have to talk to me about New Caprica, or tell either of us why you want Leoben, but won't let yourself get close to him without giving him a bloody nose or another broken bone."

"I haven't done that once since he moved in."

"Does that mean you might?" Sam saw Leoben standing in the doorway, hands wrapped around his chest, listening, but not coming inside. "I've noticed something about you, Kara. Whenever somebody says something you don't like, you punch them. If you guys spent any time together on New Caprica, you had to have been going at him all the time." He nodded at Leoben. "Is that right?"

"Many copies walked through that house," Leoben said, and Kara jumped and spun around.

"Don't pull that with me, Leoben, I was trying to get out of that doll house you put me in. I did what I had to."

Leoben shrugged. "And I let you, every single time you killed me, I let it happen."

"How many times?' Sam asked, his skin cold, thinking about Kara's temper, how she reacted to being kept in one place, and the effect Leoben had on her. Combined, it had to have made for a combustible situation.

"Almost every day," Leoben said.

"Does that hurt? Downloading so many times?"

"It can be taxing."

Which Sam thought was likely an understatement. "But you had to do it?"

"Kara needed to be made aware of her future, and the road she was walking on New Caprica was not the right one."

"So you had to kidnap me and lie to me, tell me that we had a daughter, all of it so that I would figure out what I should really be doing?" Kara was shouting, stepping towards Leoben, who didn't retreat, but waited.

"Yes."

"Frak you," Kara said.

"You are not who you were when you lived in that house," Leoben said. "You have been scoured clean of all that bound you to that untrue fate."

Kara's voice trembled slightly. "You lied to me about Kacey."

Leoben's face was blank, but there was a ripple of something underneath that could have been regret. "I would have liked her to be our daughter."

"Me too," Kara said quietly. "That doesn't change what you did."

"Nothing will negate necessary action, but consequence makes its worth clear," Leoben said.

Kara scrubbed hand across her eyes and turned her head away, teetering between the anger that was keeping her going, and hurt, that Sam could see had been there, and was healing, but that had been brought out by yesterday's misunderstanding.

As he looked from one to the other, Sam felt his frustration peak. "This has to stop. We can't just keep walking around like we're going to break each other." He looked upwards. "As if we haven't tried to do that already."

"Speak for yourself, I'm already frakked up," Kara said and grinned. "Not far to go."

Sam didn't like the way she was backing away from them and putting up her defenses again, so he grabbed her, and yanked her in close enough to kiss, and he did, hard, not like they were going to spend all afternoon in bed, but like he wanted her to know something and she wasn't listening, and they didn't have much time.

Their mouths contacted unevenly and then they adjusted, like always, to find the best position as each of them grappled to find the best angle.

Kara's nails sank into Sam's back, and he groaned, but didn't move away. They pushed against one another, Kara grunting when her hips impacted with the counter, and Sam just lifted her on top of it.

He heard the scrape of boots on the floor, and knew that Leoben was standing just inside the doorway. Swinging around, Sam left Kara where he'd put her for a second and reeled Leoben in, setting him in front of Kara.

"Go on," Sam told Leoben, and the other Cylon gave him a cool look.

"I wouldn't have to do this if you guys would do it on your own."

"I think we know how," Kara said, staring at Leoben as he waited for her reaction.

"Prove it."

Kara put one hand out, her fingers flexing and contracting, as she balked.

Leoben came closer, like he was stepping on hot glass, and Sam waited for something to give way.

The blond breathed out, and inclined his head, exposing his throat as he kept his eyes lowered.

"What do you see me doing?" Kara asked. "You spend so much time staring at the future, this has all happened before, right?"

"The one that gives you joy."

Kara nodded to herself. "Fine." She yanked Leoben into her, their bodies colliding, as she tried to make it violent, with teeth and accusations, but Leoben gave ground when she pushed and wouldn't snap back.

"Come on," Kara said. "Do something, don't just take it."

Leoben put his hands lightly on Kara's hips and rocked in closer, not confining, but holding her attention. "Let it go, Kara."

She stiffened.

He moved in and spoke just above a whisper. "There is no judgment here."

Sam watched, wanting to see how Leoben dealt with Kara's fears when daring her to step up didn't do the trick.

"You always mean what you say," Kara said, and Leoben smiled as if she had given him a sign.

"Yes, and your actions speak loudest."

She laughed, light and honest, and slid off the counter onto Leoben, grinning when he took her weight. They kissed intensely, and when Kara raised her head, she stared at him and then Sam.

"Is his back glowing yet?"

Sam smirked. "Let me check." He pushed Leoben's shirt up in back and ran his hand over Leoben's spine, feeling the other Cylon react, and push into his touch.

Kara looked questioningly at Sam. "Well?"

"Yeah," Sam said, and kept one hand on Leoben's back as he moved in to grab Kara too, all three of them hanging on to each other. "We've got it."

-end