TITLE: Brave

AUTHOR: DramaLexy

SUMMARY: 'She was the shape of things to come – things that even he could not foresee. Bravery would serve her well.' Spoilers for Occupation and Precipice, speculation for Exodus, Kara centric.

DISCLAIMER: If I owned it, the show would have come back in July


He'd been terrified that she'd be dead when they finally managed to pull her from the surrogate's body. No one had expected the woman's heart to suddenly give out mid-childbirth, although in hindsight it was likely due to the drugs they'd been giving her to speed the baby's gestation. The quick decision had been made to not even try to save the surrogate, just to get the baby as quickly as possible.

As Leoben laid eyes on his daughter for the first time, a tiny, limp, and blue-tinted form, he felt something he'd never experienced before: fear. If this child died, there were other opportunities, but there was some connection between them already – she had to survive.

God must have heard his prayer, because the newborn's eyes opened, and her body began to go from blue to purple to pink as her lungs took in air. She didn't cry – didn't even whimper – just looked around with her mother's hazel eyes. Leoben took her into his arms, a smile crossing his face.

"Hello, there," he said to her. "Do you know how special you are? The first of the farm hybrids to survive. You're a very important little girl."

"It's amazing anything that fragile actually survives," a Number Six told him as she sidled up behind him. Already they were disposing of the surrogate's body.

"They tend to survive better when someone doesn't snap their neck," he shot back, making her smile wickedly.

"For some reason, my sister believed that dying early would be kinder than dying with everyone else on this rock."

"You have your proof, now," Leoben told her. "Creating life requires love."

Six scoffed. "Love? Her mother doesn't even know that she exists."

"She will. And Kara will love her."


Until the day that they found the child's mother, however, Leoben's 'love' would have to be enough. The baby had survived birth, but that was just the beginning. Her father had seen the road that was laid out before her – it would not be easy.

His head had shot up the first time he heard one of the Sixes refer to her as Thirteen. "She's not a model," he quickly corrected her.

The blonde shrugged. "We have to call her something."

"Then she'll have a name, not a designation."

She'd smiled, a bit condescendingly. "Call her whatever you want." Leoben was glad when she left him alone.

He looked back to the infant in his arms and considered what would be appropriate. Perhaps if her mother knew, if her mother understood, she'd have someone that she'd want to name the baby after. But Kara wasn't there. It was just him, and he'd have to do the best he could.

"Kacey," he finally decided after consulting the wealth of knowledge stored in the back of his mind. "Because the first must be brave." She smiled up at him, and for a moment he wondered if she understood, if her brain was far more advanced than any of them realized. She was the shape of things to come – things that even he could not foresee. Bravery would serve her well.


Kacey did everything early – crawl, walk, talk. By the time she was approaching her first birthday, she was nearly on-par with a two year old and looked at least six months older than she should have due to residual affects of the aging techniques they'd used. Her father lived for her – to see her smile, to hear her laugh, to watch her become a little more like her mother every day.

If any of the humans still on Caprica happened to see the girl on a rare trip out into the radiation-poisoned sunshine, they would have seen a very strange sight: a beautiful blonde toddler accompanied by bio-Cylons and Centurions for playmates. She wasn't at all intimidated by the massive metal death machines, and the bio-Cylons were her family. She'd never known anything but life in the remains of Caprica City with her father and 'uncles' and friends.

All of that changed one day when Leoben was assigned to a mission. The Sixes and Dorals could not understand his attachment to the little girl they were forcing him to leave behind – they had not experienced love, and therefore could not understand it. Genetically, any one of the Leobens could be Kacey's father, and therefore any one of them could take care of her just as well while he was gone.

"I will be back," he promised her on their final night together in the city. Tucked into her little bed with a raggedy stuffed animal under one arm, Kacey nodded her understanding.

"Bring me present?" she asked. Often, her 'uncles' brought her things from the other broken balls of rock that used to be the Twelve Colonies. They thought that she deserved to know about her mother's heritage.

"I'll see what I can do," he agreed. "Now get some sleep."

"'Night Daddy."

Leoben smiled. He still loved that word. "Goodnight."


They'd been gone a month when they discovered the unusual radiation signature a light-year away. A raider jumped away to get some more readings. What it learned surprised everyone.

"We've found them," Six realized. It had been a complete accident; they hadn't even been out there to look and yet…here were the Colonists, just waiting for them like sitting ducks.

Leoben turned to the Simon model that was closest to him. "I need Kacey brought to me. Now."