It didn't take long after Kacey sent her message before a Heavy Raider jumped in near them. "Welcome home," Leoben's voice came over the Raptor's communication system. Both girls were back at the ECO station.

"Where are the others?" Kacey asked.

"Back with our fleet. Come with me now, and they can have your ship to return home."

Hera/Isis wasn't sure she liked the sound of that. "We won't have any way to get home ourselves," she whispered to Kacey.

"Just…trust," she told the other girl, once again accessing the Raptor's FTL drive. "Don't mention KJ unless someone else does."

"Why?"

"Because I don't think they know about him. And he'll be safer if it stays that way."

By the time their Raptor set down inside of a Basestar, Kacey was beginning to wonder if her attempt to connect herself to the ship hadn't gone as well as she'd hoped. She didn't feel right at all, and wasn't sure if that was something Cylon or due to blood loss. Kacey didn't make a move to get up from her seat at the ECO's console as the Raptor's hatch opened. Her father's face came into view, and she couldn't do much besides watch as he carefully disconnected her and lifted her into his arms.

"My beautiful girl," Leoben whispered to her as he held her close.

Her eyes shifted, the sixth sense in the back of her mind picking up the presence of one of the people waiting beside the Raptor. A small blonde boy. "Daddy…"

Leoben's smile grew wider, and he carried Kacey down from the Colonial ship. "Meet your brother, Uri," he told her. "We've been waiting a very long time for you."

"Light?" Kacey asked, inquiring as to the meaning of her brother's name.

"He was to show us the way, how to follow God's will. That was what you asked of me, wasn't it?" Somehow, she'd never imagined that the child looking back at her would be the end result of that. "Now our paths have once again crossed."

Hera/Isis was timidly still standing in the hatch, barely in sight, and watching the scene before her with wide eyes. She looked up, however, as one of the number eights approached her. "Mom?"

The woman smiled kindly. "Not exactly."

Back on Galactica, KJ looked up from the book he was reading with Zak and Nicky when the hatch to their bunkroom was flung open. Helo paused in the doorway for a seemingly eternal moment before crossing the room in quick strides and lifting his son up into a hug.

"Dad?" the little boy asked, confused.

"Oh, Gods, someone on deck saw Kacey before the ship left, and we had no idea what had happened…" That made little-to-no sense to the young boy.

"What ship? What are you talking about, Dad?"

"Where's your sister?"

And then it started to click. "I-I don't know."

"Have you seen her recently?"

"Uh, yeah," he sheepishly admitted. "I-I think she and Kacey were up to something, but she wouldn't tell me what. Where's Mom? What's going on? Kacey snuck into CIC before, but wouldn't tell anybody but Hera what she heard."

Helo sighed and hugged his son closer, both angry with the girls for leaving and thankful that they hadn't taken his son with them. He knew that Adama was going to be an even-less happy man once he passed the information he'd gotten along. "Come with me," he told KJ, setting the child down on his feet. "I need you to tell someone exactly what your sister told you."

It had been completely unexpected when two centurions and a Number Six model came to the room where Lee, Kara, and Sharon were being held and ordered all of them to get up and follow them through the ship. They met up with the rest of the search team along the way – none of them appeared any worse for wear.

Upon arriving in the Basestar's hangar, Kara and Sharon were horrified to see their daughters there. Kacey was semi-conscious in Leoben's arms, Uri standing beside them. Kara instantly tried to go to her, but was held back by one of the Centurions. "What the frak did you do to her?"

"Nothing," Leoben replied simply. "She did it to herself – for you."

"Go home, Mom," Kacey quietly said, looking up through half-lidded eyes. "You can't stay here."

"I'm NOT leaving you."

"You have to."

"You have to go, too," Hera/Isis told Sharon from her place with two other Number Eights. "It's not safe. That's why we came."

"I've given up my own safety for you before," she replied. "I have no problem doing it again." Both girls looked at each other, worried. This wasn't the way things were supposed to go. Hera/Isis had trusted that Kacey's plan to get them to the Cylons would work, but never imagined that the most important hostages wouldn't want to be rescued.

"Some sins could be forgiven," Leoben told Sharon, as though that was supposed to make her feel better. "However, I advise anyone else considering not getting on that ship that we have no reason to keep you alive if you don't." Lee was the only one who wasn't already at least standing on the Raptor's wing. Leaving his family behind was not an option, but at the same time, if he didn't, he'd be of absolutely no use to them.

Kara was pretty sure she could feel her heart break as she locked eyes with her husband. The last thing she ever wanted to be again was a prisoner to Leoben, but just like the first time, there was no way she was leaving Kacey to him. They'd been saved once – it could happen again. "Go, Lee," she quietly said.

"Kara – "

"Please…Take care of Zak." Uri's eyes narrowed at the mention of his half-brother. Lee never looked away as he climbed up onto the Raptor's wing and stepped inside. Not until the hatch closed did he finally look up. Everyone inside the ship was looking to him for what to do next.

"Start the engines," he finally quietly told Racetrack. "We're leaving, but we're not giving up. There isn't a frakking thing we can do against them in a Raptor, though."

Watching that Raptor leave was one of the hardest things Kara had ever done in her life. The only thing that helped was having Kacey's current medical condition to distract her. Leoben said they could treat their daughter, and that this was the result of trying what she did without the proper supervision, but that was of little comfort. Kara could vividly remember the first time she'd had to watch over her daughter in a medical facility because of something related to the Cylon.

"She looks so much like you," Leoben commented at one point while he and Kara both watched Kacey sleep.

"You know she doesn't want to be here. The trip almost killed her."

"But she is here. And she'll adjust soon enough. We need her."

"She's a little girl. Nobody ought to NEED her."

"You know she's more than that, and has been since the day she was born. What was your life before I brought her into it?"

"I suppose you want a thank you for that?"

Leoben smiled. "Her importance to us is one thing we share, Kara, just in different ways. I don't intend to let either of you slip through my fingers again."

She scoffed. "Don't think I intend to make that easy for you." He didn't answer.

TBC...