The soldier salutes and snaps his heels, nodding his head briskly as he's dismissed. Lee almost smiles, bitter as it might be, sure that his father wishes that dealing with Lee was ever as easy as dealing with every other subordinate.

Ignoring the sudden commotion as his father enters the room, Lee turns back to his work. He's on desk duty right now, working with one of the colonels on new flight simulator patterns for training. He was selected for his excellence, they assured him without his asking, which makes him positive that he was chosen specifically for his name. He runs his hand along the list in front of him, going over his briefing when his father's shadow falls across his desk, across him.

He moves out of it and would laugh if it weren't so frakking apropos.

"Lee." The commander's voice cracks, the usual gruff rasp thick with emotion. Lee looks up and watches his father search for words and not find them. He doesn't know this man, doesn't recognize him for all that he looks just like William Adama.

He tries again. "Lee."

There's a shift in the room, in the people behind the Commander. Lee's pilot's eye notes everything as Giovanna, the Vice-Admiral's assistant hurries back to her desk, the shocked horror of her expression not fading as she whispers something to one of the floor secretaries. She turns as if she can feel Lee's gaze, and he's almost certain he's going to hear the news through the grapevine before his father gets a word out.

"Yes, Sir?"

That seems to bring the Commander back to himself. "Lee."

"Yes?" His patience is wearing thin. "Sir?"

He hears the whisper of it in the room before the words leave his father's mouth.

"Zak is dead."

Lee stands and shakes his head. "No, Sir." He knows for a fact it's not true. Can't be true. "You must be mistaken, Sir."

"Lee…"

"No. Sir. Zak is not dead. You got it wrong." There's silence in the room, even louder than before. Lee shakes his head and sinks back into his seat. "You got it wrong."

He doesn't watch the Commander leave without another word, doesn't hear the voices start up again, the soft echoes and whispers of condolences.

"You can't be there for a single important moment in my life, can you, Sir?" He asks the question of the thin air that doesn't quit fill his lungs. "But by the Gods, you haven't missed a single one of Zak's."

"Lee?"

He glances up, staring unseeing at the person in front of him.

"Lee, I just wanted to say I'm sor…"