Gran never regained consciousness. She died two days later, with Laura, Grandpa Helo, and Laura's parents at her side.

The temple was packed for the funeral. There were Gran's friends, colleagues, all the students she had taught to fly, both in the fleet and here on the Earth colony. There were others too, people who had known Gran only by reputation – Starbuck, the fleet's finest pilot, who had led the resistance on New Caprica, who had rescued the Arrow of Apollo to show them the way to Earth. She was a legend in the colony, and everyone wanted to honour her memory.

The next few weeks seemed to pass in a blur for Laura. Between her grief for Gran and her worry about her father, who had been stiff and remote ever since she died, she forgot about the photo and the mysterious Lee Adama.

Then, a few months after the funeral, she found the other photo.

She'd offered to start packing away some of her grandmother's things. Grandpa Helo hadn't said anything, but she knew it was too much for him to face.

The photo was in an old wooden box, tucked away in the bottom of Gran's wardrobe. It was so dusty it obviously hadn't been opened in years. Laura lifted the lid curiously and found an odd collection of things within.

Her grandmother's military dogtags. A silver ring. A Caprican cigar. An old-fashioned music tape. A pair of pilot's wings. A pyramid ball.

And the photo.

Laura almost didn't recognise her grandmother. First, she was wearing a dress. And not just any dress, but a slinky blue evening dress. Her hair was properly styled, and her face made-up. She looked beautiful.

The man she was dancing with looked equally handsome in his perfectly neat military dress uniform. It took Laura a moment to recognise him too, because he was smiling in this photo. A boyish, charming smile that transformed his whole face.

She wasn't surprised her grandmother was smiling back.

There was something about her smile that made Laura's breath catch. In the other two photos – with Sam, with Zak – her grandmother looked happy. Looked comfortable, secure. But in this one – she looked joyful. She glowed.

Laura couldn't remember ever seeing her grandmother glow.

She only realised she was crying when the tears dripped onto her hands.

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It was Grandpa Helo who found her at the graveyard, curled up in front of her grandmother's headstone.

She had been there for hours, reading the inscription over and over.

In loving memory of Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace, mother of William, grandmother of Laura, wife of Karl and Sam.

Anger building up in her each time she read it.

Grandpa Helo wasn't happy.

"Laura, what are you doing out here? You've been gone for hours! Your parents are frantic-" Then he saw her red eyes, and softened his tone. "Oh, Laura. What happened?"

She got up to face him, eyes burning. "I found this." She thrust the photo at him.

Grief twisted his face as he looked at it. "Laura-"

She clung to her anger. As long as it held, she couldn't feel anything else.

"He's my grandfather, isn't he? Lee Adama! Not Sam Anders at all."

He looked at her warily. "Laura, you're upset. I don't know where you got this idea-"

"Don't lie to me!" she shouted. "I know it's the truth. That man – Lee Adama – looks exactly like Dad."

Grandpa sighed and his shoulders slumped. "I can't deny that. Very well, Laura – you're right. He is your grandfather."

Laura staggered slightly, taken aback. She hadn't expected him to just admit it.

"But then – why did you all pretend otherwise?"

Grandpa sighed. "Because your father was conceived while Kara was married to Sam. She hardly wanted to announce to everyone she'd betrayed her husband like that, still less when he had died saving her. And then when Lee died too – she didn't want to tarnish his memory either." He rubbed his hand over his face. "And – in a way, it wasn't really a secret. As you say, Will looks a lot like Lee – gods, he acts just like him too. Everyone on Galactica had known Apollo – they could all see the resemblance, but no-one ever said anything. It was easier to stay silent."

"The Admiral must have known," said Laura. "That's why he was so close to Gran and Dad, wasn't it? Why he left Dad everything in his will?"

Grandpa nodded. "Oh yes, the Old Man knew. No doubt of it."

"Does Dad know?"

Grandpa shook his head. "No. And you are not to tell him."

Laura stared at him in disbelief. "Why not? Gods, surely he deserves to know the truth!"

"Why?" said Grandpa sharply. "What good would it do? Will has been perfectly happy all these years, believing Sam was his father. After all, he never knew Sam or Lee, and he had me and the Old Man as father figures as he grew up."

"But surely he'd still like to know-"

"No." His voice was adamant. "It would do nothing but upset him. It would shake the whole foundations of his world, if he found out. He'd feel that he wasn't the person he thought he was, that everything he believed about his mother was a lie." He laughed bitterly. "Will's too much like his father, that's the irony of it. He sees the world in black and white, and he wouldn't be able to understand how Kara could betray Sam like that, how she could lie about it all these years. He'd never forgive her for it, and it would twist him."

Laura wanted to argue with him, but much as she hated to admit it, she could see the truth of what he said. She knew her father. He would react like that. It would tear him apart.

"I understand," was all the defiance she could muster, and Grandpa smiled, accepting her defeat.

"That's because you're more like Kara. She always tried to understand, even if she didn't approve. It was the quality I most valued about her."

"Then tell me what happened, Grandpa, so I can understand." Laura took the picture back from him. "She loved Lee – you can see it in this photo. So why did she marry Sam Anders?"

Grandpa sighed. "You would pick the most difficult question to start with. The answer to that could take all day. I'll tell you all of it sometime, but for now – I think the heart of it was that she loved Lee too much and it frightened her. Sam seemed like a safer option."

Laura frowned. "Gran was never a coward."

He smiled ruefully. "No she wasn't – except when it came to Lee Adama. He was the exception to everything in her life, just as she was the exception to everything in his."

"So she did love him," said Laura slowly.

"Oh, yes. First and last and every day in between. I knew it from the first time I saw them together. They were like two halves of one person. They finished each other's sentences, were always there instinctively to back the other up if needed. And in the air – well, they were a wonder to watch in the air." He sighed. "Kara always blamed herself for his death, you know. She was convinced that if she had been on Pegasus to help him, he wouldn't have died. I never could persuade her otherwise." He walked forward to touch the gravestone gently. "You always did take everything on yourself, Kara."

"Dad told me that she said once that she wouldn't have survived after New Caprica if not for him."

"It's true. She was never the same after Lee died. I think she would have followed him – got herself blown up on some crazy mission – if not for Will. Because while she had him, she still had a piece of Lee left."

Laura stared at him. She didn't understand him at all. This was his wife he was talking about, his wife of thirty years standing. How could he stand there and talk so calmly about her loving someone else?

"Don't you care?" she burst out. "That she always loved Lee? Didn't you mind?"

He shrugged. "Not really. She loved me, too – just differently. And besides – I understood. You see, she wasn't the only one who had lost the person they loved most."

Laura was silenced. She had never thought that there might have been someone else in Grandpa's life before Gran. Suddenly she felt as if she had never seen him before.

"Why are you so angry about this?" said Grandpa after a moment. "What does it matter to you? It's all ancient history, surely, nothing to get upset about. Yet you were on the edge of an explosion when I found you."

It burst out of Laura without thought. "I'm angry for Lee."

That shocked him. "For Lee? I don't understand."

"Everyone forgot about him." Laura felt tears rising in her throat and swallowed them down. "No-one ever mentioned him. Once he was dead, they just – hid him away. I'm his granddaughter and when I first heard his name I didn't even know who he was!"

He stepped forward. "Laura-"

"Gran folded his picture away like he didn't matter!"

"That's not why she did it! It was because he mattered too much, she couldn't bear to talk about him-"

"Even his father forgot him," said Laura bitterly, ignoring him. "He had his grandson, after all."

"The Old Man never forgot Lee," said Grandpa flatly. "I won't let you say otherwise."

"How do you know?"

Grandpa smiled. "When he set up the new medal of honour he founded, for outstanding courage in battle, what did he name it?"

"The Order of Apollo," said Laura slowly, beginning to understand.

"And the date the President – his wife – picked for War Remembrance Day – that was the date the Pegasus was destroyed."

"I didn't realise."

"They never forgot him, Laura," said Grandpa softly. "Neither did Kara. I can promise you that." He smiled wryly. "After all, the last thing she did was to ask for his picture. I always knew her last thoughts would be of him."

Laura bit back tears again. "But then – then it's not fair." She looked back at the headstone.

Grandpa frowned. "What's not fair?"

"If everything you've said is true, then Lee was the most important person in her life. The person she loved the most. And he's not on here. I am, you are, Dad is, even Sam is – but not Lee. It's wrong."

Tears were glistening in Grandpa's own eyes now. "Look again, Laura."

"At what? I've read the words ten times already."

"Look at the symbol below the words."

Laura looked. She hadn't noticed it before, but Grandpa was right. Below the inscription a symbol was etched into the stone. A bow, entwined with a lyre.

"I don't understand. What is it?"

He sighed. "They really don't teach you anything at school nowadays, do they? The lyre is the traditional sign of Apollo – and the bow is that of Artemis."

Laura looked closer. "There are words. Tiny letters encircling the symbol. It's not Caprican though."

"No. It's the ancient language of the scrolls. Your grandmother understood it."

"Gran?" She stared at him, heart swelling. "You mean – she asked for this to be done?"

He nodded. "She planned it all out when she first took ill."

Laura took a deep breath. "So what do the letters say?"

He smiled. "They say 'Starbuck and Apollo, together again.'"

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Laura took Grandpa Helo's advice, and never said anything to her father about her discovery. She tucked the two photos of Lee safely away, and never showed them to anyone.

When Laura gave birth to a daughter, ten years later, everyone expected her to name the baby girl Kara, after her famous grandmother.

No-one understood why Laura chose instead to name her Leah.