Lee looks up from his desk, surprised by the words, by the voice. Helo's leaning against the wall just inside the door, his hands behind his back, his body tall and lean and tight with tension. "What?"

He turned his head to look at Lee then closes his eyes. "What do you miss?"

"Silence." He shakes his head as Helo pushes himself off the door, even though he knows he's not watching. "I don't mean…" Lee sighs and shrugs. "It's never completely quiet here, you know? Machines and distant footsteps and something's always moving and someone's always awake and there's never any just silence."

"You remember that big rainstorm on Picon?" Helo lets himself slump back against the wall and looks at Lee again. "The one that destroyed the crops…what, four years ago?"

"I was on Agamemnon at the time, but yeah, I heard about it."

"I stood knee deep in mud, my shirt off, my head tilted back and my arms out, drinking in the rain." He pushes off the wall and moves over to Lee's desk. He pulls Lee's chair out - Lee still in it - and sits on the edge of the desk, leaning down and looking Lee in the eye. "Close your eyes."

"I don't…"

Helo leans in further, barely room to breathe between them as he places a hand on each side of Lee's head. "Close your eyes." He closes his own as he kisses Lee, his hands tight over Lee's ears, muting everything but the silence and the distant fall of rain.