Title: Temporary Escape

Author: coexist_love

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Drama/Angst

Warnings: Torture, Abuse

Characters: Laura, Six, Boomer, Three

Summary: Laura's cure has provided the Cylons with an interest outlet.

Author's Note: I have no basis for which this could happen I was talking with a few people about how Laura could survive the shooting and thought of this.

Chapter 1

Bodies.

So many bodies. The Cylons had slaughter a large group of the human population, about two hundred people. Now as the resistance moved through the corpses and collected the names and identification, they felt several slivers of hope start to fall away.

They were checking for survivals. Futilely but they were still checking. Many of the victims had several gunshot wounds, a few had one gunshot to the head. The Chief had found his wife, Cally among them, one injury to the back of the skull, he remembered what she had said to said to him about Nick never knowing his father, now he'd never know his mother. Taking her dog tags he continued on, where he found the President and Tom Zarek.

Tom was laying on top of Laura, perhaps trying to shield her from the bullets. Somehow Chief knew it was probably a futile effort. He checked Tom's pulse, he had none. Gently he lifted him off the President and checked the dark haired woman's pulse. He felt a light beat between his fingers and blinked a few times, pulling his hand away before he could check again.

She was alive.

***

The first time they resurrected her was after they'd attempted the mass murder of several civilians. She remembered sitting next to Tom in the car as they transported the hundreds of people they had rounded up to a nearby location. When they had been allowed to stretch their legs in what they had been told was a five minute rest break Laura had been skeptical, but Tom took her mind off of it by asking her about last years elections. She'd admitted to trying to steal the election and he laughed. He said that he wished she had gone through with it.

Then the centurions showed up. For a minute Laura thought that they weren't going to harm them but then their long fingers retracted and turned to guns and they began shooting into the crowd. She felt her body being ripped apart by several bullets, felt her life drain out of her. It wasn't slow like her cancer would have been; it was quick and relatively painless.

But hours later she awoke in a tub of thick neon liquid that had the consistency of silly puddy. Her wrists where attached to the sides of the tub and she could hear a distinct voice coming through the darkness. It sounded like it was Biers but Laura couldn't be sure. She drew in a breath and choked at the harshness of the air on her lungs.

"It's alright," Biers said. "Just breathe through it."

Laura forced her eyes to open and saw the dark ceiling above her. Her eyes lulled to the side and she saw that she was surrounded by Cylons.

"Laura, its Boomer," another voice said. "You'll be alright. Just trust me."

Pulling on the restraints Laura managed to gather enough momentum to pull herself up to a seated position.

"What's going on? What am I doing here?" Laura asked as she pulled at her restraints. "Let me go."

"Relax Laura," Biers said. "President Baltar told us about your Cylon DNA. You've been reborn."

Laura coughed a couple of times before reacting to Bier's statement. "What?"

"You have Cylon DNA fragments, your consciousness was transported to us after you were and we downloaded you into a new body."

"Zarek, Cally, the others?"

"They're dead," Boomer said. "I'm sorry."

"No!" Laura said weakly. "No I'm not a Cylon you had no right…"

"Get her some clothes," Biers ordered one of the centurions as she stood up to leave. "The President wants to see you."

Boomer stepped forward and undid Laura's restraints. "It's okay," she said as she positioned her hand behind Laura's head and gently helped her sit up. "We're not going to hurt you. Can you stand?" Boomer stuck a towel under her arm as she reached out to help Laura. She carefully positioned her feet so that they rested on the bottom of the tub and began to transfer her weight to them. She felt herself falter and then Boomer's hand on her arm. "It's okay. Every Cylon is shaky after a download."

"I'm not a Cylon," Laura insisted.

"I know," Boomer consoled her. She helped Laura stand up and wrapped a towel over her. "I'll help you wash up and get dressed."

***

Her head was killing her. It was worse then the chamalla headaches she had when she was dying. She fought against her eyelids, allowing some light to peer through them before shutting them again tightly. Her head felt like it was on fire. What had happened to her?

Suddenly her mind recalled things in a flash. The New Caprica Police. Tom Zarek. A truck. Rest break. Centurions. Guns. Bullets. Oh gods was this death? She gathered the courage to open her eyes again and this time she won the battle with her eyelids.

"Welcome back young lady!" Cottle quipped as he saw his patient's green eyes again.

"What happened?"

"Cylons decided to try and execute some civilians. You were on the list, but you got lucky. One bullet grazed the side of your head and the other injured your shoulder. You'll need to keep in immobilized for the next six weeks."

"How are the others?"

"Dead." Cottle stated. "You're the only survivor."

***

Laura sat in the Cylon heavy raider shaking as they approached the planet. She was sure that she would be looked upon with suspicion, half the settlers had seen the New Caprica Police take her away earlier that morning. Why would she be the only one to return and what would they say when they saw her with the Cyons? She hated thinking that her own people would see her differently, she hated that the Cylons knew that Hera's blood had been what cured her from cancer.

When the raider finally set down on the surface Boomer stood up first holding out her hand to the still shaky Laura. "It's okay." Wearily Laura took Sharons hand and waked out of the Raptor only to find herself in front of four centurions. Their fingers were the same guns that they'd used to kill her with just hours before. Laura felt an instinct take over and suddenly turned to run away only to be met with a Six who caught her by the shoulders.

"They're not gonna hurt you, Laura."

"Lets get her back to her cell," D'Anna suggested quickly motioning for Laura to follow her.

"Cell?" Laura was somewhat confused. She was going back to detention? Why? Why bring her back if all they planned to do was lock her up again? Why were they continuing to torture her like this?

"You didn't think we would just let you go free did you?" D'Anna asked. "We can't have people questioning how you escaped. It would make us seem weak."

"So what you're gonna keep me locked in a cell for the rest of my life? Why not just leave me on the basestar?"

"The jury's still out as to whether or not having our DNA gives you a place on the basestar. I mean, you're not one of our designs and you have your own free will.

"But you've created this body? It's a Cylon body?"

"Yes. That it is and now we can create more like it."

"You can't do that!" Laura shouted as they neared the detention cell that D'Anna had clearly meant for her.

"Well you're all we have left of Hera's DNA, so we're going to study it and you in full detail."

***

Laura sat on the edge of her bed, her legs dangling over the side. It didn't make sense. How could the Cylons kill almost two hundred people and then leave her alive? How did all those bullet only cause two wounds? She started at the floor, pondering the questions to herself for a while, moving her feet in small circles as she listened to Cottle and Tory talk about her as if she wasn't there.

She knew they could sense it too. That something was wrong. That she wasn't right. Post-traumatic stress, Cottle had said. That's what he called it, post-traumatic stress. The events kept replaying in her mind over and over again.

"Ms. Roslin come with us please."

"He got a little pissed."

"He's a little pissed at me too."

"Everbody out, five minute rest break"

"Did you really try and steal the election?"

"Yes."

"Well I wish you'd had."

Gunshots.

Cottle had been quick to tell her that it was post traumatic stress, a diagnosis she could have made herself. She sat there shaking not wanting this to be real. She wanted to wake up and have this all be a dream. They hadn't rounded up the civilian. They hadn't massacred them. She wasn't the only survivor.

"Laura?" Cottle asked as he pulled back the curtain.

"Yes," Laura said, trying to calm her shaking so that Doc Cottle wouldn't see.

"Do you want to go home?"

She sat there silent. She wanted to nod her head yes. Yes, she wanted to go home. At the same time she didn't want to face the people. She didn't want people to see her as the reason their loved ones were dead. Quietly she shook her head.

"You can't hide forever Laura."

"The Cylons killed everyone, Jack. Everyone. Cally. Zarek. Why am I the only one who survived?"

"I don't know Laura, maybe you just have the Gods on your side."

Laura shook her head. "I can't go out there."

"You need to. There is still a following for you. When people see you they know things are going to be okay. You give them hope." Laura just looked at him for a moment and smiled. "I'll have Ishay help you get into some fresh clothes and I'll release you into Tory and Maya's care."

Laura nodded in response. This was going to be hell.

***

She paced her cell. The clothes the Cylons had given her after her "download" had been taken away and replaced with one of the detention jumpsuits. She wanted to scream. She wanted Bill to hear her so that he would come and get her out. Suddenly the door to her cell opened and one of the NCP members walked in and placed a chair in front of her, and then Gaius entered giving her another chair. She was getting a strange feeling of déjà vu, like she had lived this moment before.

"Laura please take a seat," Gauis said gesturing to the chair.

"You had no right!" Laura yelled before she sat down.

"I'm sorry Laura, I didn't know they were going to use the information to resurrect you."

"How did you think they would have used the information about my Cylon DNA? Think they would have just let their last piece of the Cylon child die?"

"Laura!" Quickly her hand shot up and slapped Baltar across the face. He sat there stunned for a minute holding his hand to his reddened cheek while she sat there angry with him. "Laura! This doesn't have to be difficult, but I want you to consider this, I've save you how many times now? Twice? Three? Five? Hell you should probably just make me your own personal God. That ends here! Your death is in the Cylon's hands now. They could box your mind away and no one would know the difference. In fact you could just disappear…"

"Are you seriously trying to blackmail me?"

"Just imagine what that would do to Adama, if he comes back."

"Galactica is coming back!"

"You can keep telling yourself that, because as far as the Cylons have told me, you're life is now out of my hands. I wish there was more I could do for you Laura." He said as he stood up. Laura stood up as well and watched the NCP leave with the chairs and Baltar take one last look at her before closing the door.

"You know you can't tell the Cylons anything?" a voice said. Turning around she saw the Admiral sitting on the floor of her cell playing with the dirt that had collected. "They'll keep pressing you but…"

"You're not here…" Laura stated shaking the thought of him from her mind. "You're not here. You're on Galactica. You're not coming for me."

"How do you know that?"

Tears suddenly came to Laura's eyes.

***

"Do you really expect her to be okay after all she's been through?" Sam asked as they looked over at Laura who was sitting in the corner muttering to herself. It reminded Saul strangely of the time she was in the brig and the things Ellen had said about her losing it. She kept muttering to herself, talking to something that wasn't there. Tory was sitting on the floor in front of her trying to get her to react to the real world.

"No, but she's a strong woman. I find it hard to believe that she can't pull it together for the survival of the human race."

"Are you sure? It kind of reminds me of the way Baltar used to act. Like he was reacting talking to someone that wasn't there. We used to equate it to his genius." Chief said.

"Laura isn't Baltar. That lunatic should never have been elected to the office of President. He is the reason that she's like this."

"Keep your voice down. She may be a little squirrely but at she can still hear you!" Tory said.

"You've been through hell and back and all they're thinking about is the exodus." Her Bill hallucination muttered to her.

"That's not going to happen," Laura muttered, "because you aren't coming back. We'll never see each other again."

"Laura," Bill and Tory said at the same time, both reaching out the same time to touch her shoulder.

"Don't touch me!" Laura screamed pulling away from both Tory and Bill. She curled up into a ball and hugged her knees tightly to her chest, drawing the attention of everyone in the room towards her. "They won't stop. The gunshots, they won't stop. I hear them in my sleep! That's all I ever hear!"

"We should take you to see Cottle." Tory suggested. "Maybe he could give you something to…"

"No! No drugs!" Laura screamed.

"Laura if you can't sleep…" Chief began. "Maybe you should go see a counselor."

"Nobody can help me," Laura said. "Nobody can."

"Laura, you need to let people you," Bill stated to her.

"The bullet should have gone through my skull. I should have died in that crevice with the other two hundred people. I shouldn't have survived."

"Then why did you Laura?" Adama asked. "I thought you were chosen by the gods to lead humanity to Kobol. To their salvation."

"Don't talk to me abou the Gods, they've clearly abandoned me when we found this rock! And who are you Admiral Athiest to tell me that the Gods wanted me to survive?"

"I'm gonna go get Cottle," Chief said leaving the others with the broken Laura.

TBC