Hours passed without any change. Laura's fever wasn't as high as before but it was still present and they kept her on strong antibiotics. Leoben returned to find Bill next to Laura, tired as hell but reluctant to leave her alone.

"Commander, you should get some rest. She won't probably wake until later tonight and you could use a shower and some bed time. Don't worry, if something changes I'll keep you posted, but please go."

He wanted to disagree with Leoben, but he was so exhausted that couldn't argue with the cylon and silently nodding, he went to get some rest, not before taking a last look at Laura.

A few hours later, now well rested, clean and fed, he want back to sick bay and his surprise was instantaneous: Laura was awake and smiled at him as soon as she saw him entering the unit. His heart started hammering in his chest and he returned the smile with moist eyes. She couldn't look more beautiful even if she tried. When he approached her, the first thing he did was to take her hand in his and give her a kiss on her cheek, which she gladly received.

"How are you feeling? You look good." He couldn't keep his goofy smile off of his face.

"Good, considering. Wasn't I dying? What happened? And why is all my torso bandaged?" She was weak but held enough force in her voice that she left no room for bullsiht.

"No one told you? I thought that Leoben would explain everything to you as soon as you woke up." He was getting nervous because he didn't know how would she react once she heard the news.

"No, he told me that you would speak with me when you came to visit. It felt strange to find him here. What was he doing here in the first place?"

Oh frak, that sneaky cylon, he thought. "Ok. Well, as you said, you were dying. But I went to the cylons to ask them for a treatment to save your life." He didn't continue and Laura got impatient.

"And...?"

"And the treatment was to turn you half cylon." At this, Laura's eyes went wide and her heart started beating faster and faster.

"You did WHAT? Are you crazy?"

"Wait, Laura, let me explain, please!"

"What is there to explain? It's crystal clear, I'm half frakking cylon now!" She was very mad at him.

"Please, let me explain! It's not as bad as it seems. Can you please listen to me?" He was raising his voice. She seemed to calm down after seeing him shouting so she let him continue.

"Look, the only way of saving you was to replace some of your blood with some of the cylon's and the damaged organs with artificial ones. They haven't touched your brain at all, so you're part cylon only functionally. Your cancer is gone and won't come back and you'll be able to live a normal life for a long time. Didn't you want to live to be able to see earth? You saved us and this was the least we could do for you. We want you to live. I want you to live." He sounded almost desperate and emphasized the last line.

She was at a loss of words and felt conflicted. On one hand she hated to have any cylon part in her at all, it made her feel dirty. But on the other hand, he was right. She wanted to live too, to see earth and maybe lead a normal life after all their ordeal. It warmed her heart to listen to Bill's confession: he wanted her to live. That meant a lot to her, because she was growing very fond of him.

"Thank you, Bill. This treatment has been a shock to me but I guess you are right. I wanted to live too and it seems that this was the only way, so I'll accept it, just give me some time to process everything. You took a big risk by deciding this for me, and I appreciate it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm very tired so I'll close my eyes for a while. You are welcome to stay, if you don't have to be anywhere else, I like your company." She smiled genuinely at him.

"I'm glad that you wanted to live. It would be very hard to go to earth without you." His voice held some emotion that Laura couldn't decipher. "I will leave you to rest and will come back later to check on you." He squeezed her hand, kissed her again on the cheek, this time closer to her lips, and exited the sick bay.

It was so much information to process and she felt tired enough to fall asleep almost immediately. In the meantime, Bill went to CIC and Tigh asked him how it went with Laura.

"Well, not bad, all things considered. She was mad at first when she realized she is part cylon now, but I made her understand that this was her only chance and she seems calmer now. Let's see how she reacts the next days."

"Good. One thing out of the way. No onto our next plan. How to evacuate the Colonial fleet." They decided to meet with Lee, Starbuck and the cylons to trace an evacuation plan. After they settled down on earth, they would get rid of almost the entire fleet, except for Galactica and the fuel processing plant, just in case they needed protection from an unexpected and unwanted visit by the cylons. Every six months the crew of both ships would change in order to give everybody the opportunity to live on earth as much as possible. They would also take the raptors and each would decide what to do with it.

A week later, and before the final evacuation of the fleet, Bill decided to celebrate a ceremony to honor Laura Roslin for leading humans to earth. She was still on a wheelchair because she didn't have her entire strength back, but was grateful for Bill's idea. The entire human race gathered in Galactica to praise their president. They were all cheers and applause and Bill and Laura hugged each other in front of everybody. That would be the start of a beautiful love story and everybody saw it, except for the two of them.

The next day, the fleet started going down to earth. Everyone scattered throughout what seemed to be some sort of continents. Doctor Cottle and Leoben gave the thumbs up to Laura to move to earth, keeping in mind that she would have to remain in bed for the time being and be monitored by a health care professional. It was agreed that Cottle would move near her to keep an eye on his patient. After all, he was the only one that could control Laura's impulses to start having a normal life. She wouldn't listen to anyone but him in regards of her health, so he had no choice. Secretly though, he was pleased to follow her and keep her around. Besides, Leoben had trained him about the cylon anatomy and would cover that side of her treatment too. "Now, young lady, have you decided with whom will you live? Because you can't be alone until you have your strength back, and that will take time." She was about to interject, but Bill beat her to it.

Bill didn't want to push Laura into living with him, but this was the perfect time to ask her, so he breathed deeply and tried:

"Laura."

"Yes?"

"Look, I've been thinking and you shouldn't live alone for now, especially after the doctor confirmed it. If you'd want me to, I would move in with you, each with their own bed of course, and help you with the daily routine."