A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews! Part II came to me pretty swiftly and the next two parts are in the process of being written/edited. I have decided that this story does have something of a Kara/Lee untone to it so at some point that pairing may show up but it will not be the focus of this story. Again, please read and review.

Part II

Adama was pacing his quarters when the phone rang. "Admiral Adama," he stated abruptly. There was only one person he wanted to speak to right now.

"Admiral," Laura Roslin addressed him in a soothing voice.

"I need you to get over here as soon as possible".

"Has Captain Thrace given you any more information on the path to Earth?" excitement was evident in her voice.

"No," he paused to remove his glasses and rub his tired eyes, "this is something much more unexpected".

"Well, I am intrigued," Laura replied. "I'll be on the next shuttle".

"Good".

"Bill," she started unsure what to ask exactly, she settled on, "Are you alright?"

"Yes," he told her, "I'm fine. I'm just concerned that we might have a situation here and I need to get your opinion before I do something about it".

"Alright," and they signed off.

As the admiral returned the phone there was a sharp rapping on his hatch, "Come in," he called knowing full well that it was Saul Tigh on the other side.

"Colonel," Adama nodded.

Tigh was bursting with questions but the first out of his mouth was, "Bill, what the frak happened down on the hanger deck earlier? The whole frakking ship is talking about it".

William Adama sank down heavily in his chair and motioned for Tigh to take a seat across from him, "I'll tell you everything when the president gets here. She's on her way now".

"You're bringing in Laura Roslin?"

"I need her opinion on something".

Tigh reached for the bottle on the admiral's desk and poured himself a stiff drink. He was fairly sure he was going to need it for a change.

President Roslin arrived some time later. Adama would say that it felt like hours but in reality it had only been about twenty minutes. He greeted her with a relieved, "You're here".

"Now, what was so important that I had to rush over from Colonial One?" Adama rested his hand on Laura's lower back, guiding her toward his seating area. Tigh grabbed his drink, sloshed in two more fingers of liquor and joined them.

Adama finally dropped the tick manila file he had been carrying around with him for the past thirty minutes as he alternately paced and sat at his desk. He looked directly at Laura Roslin and said with a sad smile, "She's come back". He took a seat beside her.

"Starbuck?" Tigh asked sounding incredulous, "But we all knew that. It's all over the fleet".

"Oh, I know it's all over the fleet, Saul," the admiral told him. "However, I am not talking about Kara".

Roslin appeared as confused as Colonel Tigh, "But then who are you talking about, Bill?" She placed a comforting hand on his forearm in hopes of calming him enough to get his point across.

"Captain Sheba Pleiades," again he removed his glasses, this time placing them on top of the file.

Tigh asked, "Who?"

Roslin questioned unbelievingly, "Cain's daughter?"

Before the admiral could confirm or deny Tigh exploded, "Cain had a daughter?" He paused, "In the frakking fleet?" He slammed his drink down on the table and mirrored Bill, rubbing his remaining eye.

"She did have a daughter," Roslin explained, "though the only people who are aware of that fact, at least that we know of, are in this room".

"How did she hide that? And on her own ship for Zeus' sake?" Tigh was livid, on the one hand for being out of the loop and on the other for the wool having been pulled over all their eyes by Cain.

"That's her file," Adama told him, pointing to the folder on the table.

"We retrieved it after Cain's death along with all other personnel records kept on the Pegasus," Roslin told him. "Billy," she paused, a look of sadness crossing her serene visage for a moment, "he went through each file, looking for anything that might stand out and he came across Sheba".

"But she's been out in the fleet?" Tigh asked. "I don't remember ever hearing anything about Cain's frakking daughter before now".

"Yes," Bill said picking up the file and paging through it, "however, she was stationed on Pegasus at the time of the attacks".

"Something orchestrated by her mother it seems. She liked having Sheba close".

The colonel muttered indignantly, "Fleet regulations clearly state…" but Adama cut him off.

"Cain was able to bypass regulations because Sheba's last name is Pleiades. Her father's name. Cain and Sheba's father were never officially married".

"Well," Tigh went on, "what exactly do we know about her?"

Roslin rattled off some basic facts gleamed from Sheba's personnel file, "Raised mostly by her father and paternal grandmother on Caprica, attended flight academy, was stationed on Pegasus under Cain's command, was made captain shortly after the attacks on the Twelve Colonies," she trailed off.

"And that's where things become a little more," the admiral's lip quirked, "interesting. Shortly before we came across the Pegasus a complaint had been lodged against Captain Pleiades and a Lieutenant Thanius".

To the colonel's blank expression Roslin supplied, "It would seem that they were breaking regulations and had become involved romantically".

"Oh," he replied, riveted.

"Cain had brushed the incident under the rug. Moved the complaining officer to another bunkroom and had given both Sheba and this other pilot a slap on the wrist for dumbed down charges," the president continued. "When their ship joined the fleet Sheba requested a leave of absence for an undetermined amount of time. In Lieutenant Thanius' file there is a medical note discharging him from active duty. He was incapable of flying a viper due to a genetic disorder which presented itself at that time. Pegasus no longer had an on staff physician so it seems Sheba hoped to find help for this man within the fleet".

"And," Tigh prompted.

"We're not really sure," Bill told him while refilling drinks. "The paper trail ends when Sheba enters a shuttle traveling to the Rising Star. When Cain died she was tracked down and she was still with this lieutenant".

Roslin stated, "She never believed that the cylon prisoner killed her mother. She maintains that Cain was assassinated on order from either the admiral or myself. And that Bill is falsely and wrongly leading the fleet under an undeserved title".

"She called you commander down in the hanger deck," Tigh commented, realization striking.

The admiral grunted, "News really does travel fast".

Tigh shrugged, "It's a frakking battlestar, Bill" Roslin raised a hand to cover her mouth as she quietly laughed at the colonel's comment. "But now she's back? And on Galactica looking to be reinstated?"

"Actually Saul," Bill commented, "she only agreed to get back in a viper when I allowed her to see Starbuck".

"I thought Thrace wasn't seeing anyone. Not even you, Bill".

The admiral frowned, his face pulled down in sorrow, "She wanted to see Captain Pleiades. I don't know what I had been expecting from Kara but I can admit I was more than a little surprised by her willingness. Her offer to allow Sheba to bunk with her was," he searched for the right word, "unforeseen".

"Lords," said the colonel in wonder, shaking his head.

"And the lieutenant?" Roslin asked.

"Died," Adama told her matter-of-factly. Laura looked down at her hands folded in her lap and the men remained silent for a moment before going on.

"So Bill, you think Cain's daughter is up to something? That's why she's back?"

"I'm not sure. That is why you're both here".

Roslin looked thoughtful for a moment before commenting, "I wish I knew what her interest in Captain Thrace was".

"There is certainly no explanation in her file," the admiral told her stoically. "I've been through it at least a dozen times".

Adama rose as his phone rang once more, "Yes," he asked brusquely. It was Captain Kelly calling to inform him that Major Adama was currently on-ship and that he was on his way to the admiral's quarters. "Thank you, Captain".