Sitting at his desk two afternoons later, Adama fixed his chief medical officer with a look that was pretty damn close to a glare. "What did you just say?" he asked the man.

"I ran the tests three times, Admiral; that girl's no more a Cylon than you or I."

Adama sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Is it possible that because she's a hybrid – "

"She's not a hybrid, she's not a Cylon. She's a perfectly normal, perfectly HUMAN little girl. There's nothing in any of her blood work that would suggest anything else. Whoever said otherwise had a frakking good joke going."

The Admiral considered that, disbelieving that anyone could be that cruel. "Did you run a DNA test on her?"

Cottle nodded, knowing where he was going with that. "She's not Kara Thrace's child."

That was what Adama had been afraid of. "Have you talked to her yet?"

"Saw her yesterday. Told her I hadn't found any viruses she needed to be worrying about."

"That was all?"

"I didn't have the rest of the results back yet."

Adama nodded. "Fine. I'll take care of it, then."

That evening, Adama invited Kara and Kacey over to his quarters for dinner. He'd heard from other members of the crew that other than the trip to the Life Station, they hadn't left their quarters since arriving on the ship. The Admiral knew that they had a long way to go before finding normalcy, and that's why it killed him to have to tell Kara the truth. He didn't want to have to take away the one thing keeping her going, but at the same time, it would be better than getting surprised with the information somewhere down the road.

Kara knocked on the hatch before entering, holding Kacey's hand. "Evening, Sir."

He offered a smile. "Come on in, shut the hatch. I think I've got a couple plates over here with your names on them." They sat down together around the low table and uncovered the trays that had been brought up from the mess.

Conversation was light throughout the meal, other than questions from Kacey. "What are those?" she asked the Admiral at one point, a finger aimed at the pips on his collar.

"Those tell people what my rank is."

"What's your rank?"

"He's an Admiral, Kace," Kara told her.

"Mommy was a Captain," Kacey continued. "Is an Admiral important?"

Adama couldn't hide a smile. "On some days," he replied. Kacey returned to Kara's side, and he saw her gently ruffle the little girl's hair. They were all each other had left at this point; who was he to take that away?

Once they were finished eating, Kacey slipped away to go explore the office; Adama was reasonably sure there wasn't anything lying about that she could get herself into trouble with. "Why do I get the feeling this wasn't just a simple dinner invitation?" Kara quietly asked him.

Adama sighed. "Because it wasn't…I needed to talk to you."

"And I'm not going to like this, am I?"

"No…I talked to Cottle. He said that he'd run blood work on both of you."

Kara looked up at that. "The old bastard told me we were fine."

"You are. Medically, there's nothing wrong. You're both healthy…and both human."

She froze. "What?"

"She's human, Kara. She's not a Cylon. She's not a hybrid."

"He frakking told me…he said she was from the farm; he told me – "

"He lied."

Kara's gaze shifted, looking across the room to where Kacey had found a star chart to hold her interest. "She's not mine?" she quietly asked.

"Not biologically, no." Given the givens, he wasn't sure what her reaction to that would be.

"Do…do you know where she came from?"

"No. I was going to get someone to go through the list of people assumed dead during the exodus, see if anyone listed her."

"And if they did?"

"If they did, then they deserve to know that she's still alive."

Kara looked back at him, eyes flashing. "They're not taking her away from me."

"I didn't say that…But I know from experience what it's like to think you've lost a child to that Gods-forsaken planet." He saw the tears start to well up in her eyes. "I won't put anyone else through that unnecessarily…Let's just see what we find and go from there, all right?" Kara slowly nodded.

"Kacey?" she called to the little girl. "Come, on, honey. We're going home." She put down the star chart and went to take her mother's outstretched hand.

"Bye," the little girl told Adama as they left. He put his face in his hand once the hatch closed. If Leoben wasn't already dead, he would have torn the Cylon limb from limb.

That night, once Kara and Kacey had both gotten showers and dressed in pajamas, they curled up together on their bed. Kara halfway listened while Kacey told her a story about what it must be like to fly in space. As much as she wanted to, Kara couldn't make herself pay attention; she was gently playing with Kacey's hair, her mind a million light-years away.

It was the same color her own had been when she was that young, and she'd always assumed that Kacey had gotten it from her. Her eyes, too. But now Kara knew the truth. It was someone else's hair, someone else's eyes. She was someone else's child.

Gods, what had Leoben done? Snatched her up from New Caprica City, just like he'd done with Kara? Left her mother to worry and pray that her little girl was okay? Threatened or bribed Kacey into calling him 'Daddy' and Kara 'Mommy'? Had she been scared? Did she even remember? She'd been so frakking little, too little and too innocent to have been caught up in that twisted game.

"Mommy, you're not listening to me," Kacey accused, interrupting Kara's thoughts.

"Sorry, honey…Kace, where did you live before you lived with me?"

The little girl frowned. "I don't know…Didn't I always live with you?"

Kara kissed her forehead. "Yeah, sweetie. Start over; I'll pay attention this time." Kacey adorably pretended to be put out, but started explaining her little story again.

She may have been someone else's blood, but she was Kara's daughter.

TBC...