(I noticed that a few, and by a few I mean most, seriously everyone but two people, were extremely pissed off about my last chapter. I would just like to say that it at the same time is both exactly what it looks like and not what it looks like. Every other fic has her miraculously live somehow. So I did it not just for a bit of variety but also because it might suck and be sad but dudes, it doesn't mean it can't make a good story. So please don't be too mad, because it's not like she isn't gunna be in the story anymore, you know me, I love to backtrack :D:D Please review)

Lee ran over to them and knelt on Laura's other side. Gaia had her hands firmly around the President's neck while Laura tried to reach for her would.

"Lee keep her hands away."

Lee took hold of Laura's hands and leant over so she could see his face.

"Madame President you're going to be okay, just let us get you back to Galactica."

She attempted to nod but her neck exploded in pain, she felt a pair of hands pressing firmly on the area.

"Don't do that." She heard Gaia's voice and realised the pair of hands belonged to her daughter. Pulling one of her hands free from Lee's she gripped Gaia's right bicep. Gaia locked eyes with her mother before pulling her stare away to focus on Laura's wound.

The marines that had been standing behind them kept their guns firmly pointed on Nathaniel as they stalked closer to him. Lee, still holding Laura's hand, turned to them.

"Two of you get out of here." Lee gestured towards Nathaniel with his free hand. "And the other two, I need you to go ahead of us to the shuttle and inform the pilot of what's happened, also get him to alert Sickbay and the Doctor."

The four marines hurried off fulfilling their tasks. Lee turned back and caught Gaia's eyes, they were swimming in soul filling fear. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

"How we gunna move her?"

If Lee was honest, he had been wondering the exact same thing. Gaia looked around the room for something, anything she could use to help her mother. Finding nothing she turned back to Lee with a frustrated look before noticing something.

"What?" questioned Lee.

Gaia nodded her head upwards at him.

"Your tie, gimme your tie." She exclaimed.

Lee dropped Laura's hand instantly and fumbled with is tie, trying to undo it. He finally got it undone and went to hand it to Gaia.

"No, first slide it under her neck." He did so, now holding both ends on either side of Laura's head.

"Okay now loosely wrap it around my hands and back under her neck so it's doubled over." Lee followed her instructions and was now holding the garment the same as before but it the ends were slightly shorter. Lucky it's a long tie he thought.

"Okay now tell me why I just did that."

"Because..." Gaia began but paused to concentrate. She quickly but carefully removed her hands from Laura's neck and grabbed the tie ends off Lee, pulled them tight and tied a knot directly above the wound. As soon as she removed her hands, blood came gushing out of Laura's neck. Gaia sat back on her heels and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand.

"Because..." she started again. "I knew that would happen. If I had grabbed the tie off you and did what you did then she would have bled out a hell of a lot more than she did with me getting you to do it."

She blew her fringe out of her face and shook her hands to get the drips of blood off. Lee tipped his head to the side as if to say "true".

"C'mon Lee, we gotta get her to Cottle."

---

Lee rounded the corner with the President in his arms, Gaia in tow behind him. The Pilot and the marines saw him coming. The Pilot jumped into the Raptor and started up the thrusters. The marines let Lee in first, followed by Gaia. When Gaia turned around she saw the marines begin to drag Nathaniel on board.

"No, no way. Take another Raptor."

She raised her eyebrows at them and gave "the look" before closing the hatch.

---

"Mr Hoshi what's going on?" Adama stalked into CIC, klaxons sounding. Before Hoshi could answer a voice appeared behind him.

"Some sort of medical emergency on the refinery ship." answered Saul.

"I better head down there." grumbled Bill. He left CIC, Colonel Tigh following.

---

The Raptor jolted signalling they had arrived, the hatch opened with a hiss to reveal Doctor Cottle and three medics. Lee managed to jump out before they boarded. In seconds he saw Laura being lifted out and onto the gurney, just as she was wheeled out the Admiral entered the hanger with Saul Tigh.

"Oh frak." Lee murmured under his breath.

Bill walked up to him.

"What happened, who was that?"

Before Lee could answer, Gaia stepped out onto the wing, breathing heavily. Her jacket and pants were soaked in blood, which didn't go unnoticed by Adama. He took one look at her face and his eyes widened. He ran out of the hangar only one destination in mind. Saul looked at Gaia.

"Should I follow him?" She nodded and he too left for sickbay.

Lee breathing as heavily as Gaia didn't look at her. She stepped off the Raptor's wing and put a hand on the wing edge to steady herself, her hands being slippery with blood so instead she slipped to the floor.

She sat there, hanging her head and tried her absolute hardest no to cry. She failed. Ramming her eyes shut, she muffled her sobs with the crook of her elbow. Lee grabbed her by the arms and pulled her up into his embrace. She cried even harder into his should.

---

Doc Cottle and his team lifted Laura onto one of the beds, as he crossed to the other side of the bed he saw the Admiral entering sickbay and inwardly groaned. It was going to be a job and a half to get him to leave.

"Doc."

Cottle yelled over his shoulder as he worked. "Admiral now isn't a really good time, I suggest you come back later."

"You know I'm not going anywhere." growled Bill.

"Well just make sure you stay out of my frakking way then."

Bill could see that Laura's eyes were open, but only slightly, she wasn't quite unconscious yet. She blinked sluggishly and he wanted more than her to catch his gaze, just so she would know that he was here. Saul placed a hand on Bill's shoulder as they stood out of the way of the bustle of medical staff. He heard a noise behind him and saw Lee and Gaia arrive.

They walked up to stand near the pair and watched just as Saul and Bill did. There was nothing else they could do now. Gaia however, slowly walked up to the commotion in front of them. Cottle went to dismiss her but not before Laura spotted her and managed out a strangled no. Cottle bent over Laura.

"I'm not going to even bother arguing with you, so two minutes, we need to get you into surgery."

Gaia moved closer to Laura's bedside. Laura weakly took her hand.

"Evie, don't worry." Was all she said.

"'Right, let's go." They wheeled her to surgery, Gaia letting her hand fall from her mother's.

Gaia walked back out to Lee, Saul and Bill. Bill turned to Lee and Gaia. "What happened?"

---

A few hours later Cottle walked into the cubicle they were all waiting in still in his scrubs. Saul had gone back to CIC to cover Bill's shift while he waited for news on Laura.

"She's been stitched up, lost a lot of blood, weak and is still unconscious. You can wait here until she wakes up but no visitors until she's awake, I have a few things to talk to about her before one of you three goes blundering in there." He grunted before walking off to his office for a strong drink.

---

He heard a knock at the door. He only grunted in response but it was enough to signal to the other person. It was Ishay.

"She's waking up."

"Thank you Ishay, I'll be right there." He placed the bottle back in the draw and left his office.

"How you feel?" he asked.

"Great."

He smiled. "Thank you for your sarcasm Madame President." He waited a beat before continuing. "I need to fill you in on a few things. That cut on your neck is quite deep but thankfully not any longer than five centimetres. You were extremely lucky which you seem to be a lot. My point is, its gunna scar, and badly. It will be very noticeable and you'll get questions and stares, I just want to prepare you."

She nodded and gave a watery smile. He smiled back and kissed her hand. "Right, you've got three people who've been waiting here for hours to see you, which one first? Hmm?"

She tried to clear her throat. "Gaia, I need to tell her something." He nodded and left to retrieve her.

Next thing Laura knew the curtain was being pushed back and she saw her daughter enter, eyes everywhere else but her own.

"Gaia?" Laura rasped and held her hand out to her daughter. Gaia took it but still didn't look her in the eye. Laura in turn shook her arm. "Evie look at me." Gaia did so, reluctantly.

Laura looked her dead in the eye and spoke. "Do not, for a second, think that you were unwanted. Not for a second." Gaia closed her eyes as her lip quivered, she knew she was going to start crying again and she wasn't sure if she wanted to stop herself or not. She swallowed her sob and looked up to blink the tears away. Laura pulled on her arm. "Come here." Gaia complied and leant down into her mother's embrace, placing her head under her chin, careful not to bump her neck. Gaia couldn't take it much longer and let the tears flow. Laura realised this when she faintly felt a hot wetness soak through her gown into her chest. As if Gaia's tears soaked right into Laura's own heart she began to cry with her daughter.

When Gaia had calmed a little she sniffed and spoke.

"Why do you keep calling me Evie?"

Laura smiled through her tears. "Because when you were little you use to watch a show where the main character was called Evie, when I use to ask you where Evie was, you would point at yourself instead of the TV. I ended up nicknaming you Evie as a joke but it stuck."

Gaia closed her eyes and sighed, though another sob she responded. "I remember."

Laura sighed as well. "Really?"

Gaia sniffed again. "Yes, but not just that. I remember it all. Me getting angry at you, Leoben taking me, you screaming my name. All of it."

Laura couldn't help but sigh again. Gaia however continued.

"I blocked it all out, I knew what had happened, that Nathaniel had found me in the square, or whatever. But I had blocked most of it, and until I started dreaming it, I wasn't sure what the truth was. Then I started to remember and when I had to recount it to Doc Cottle I knew exactly what had happened. Anyway, I need to get out of this uniform and the Admiral is itching to see you."

Reluctantly Gaia pulled herself out of Laura's arms. Laura kissed Gaia's forehead. Gaia smiled genuinely at her and left.

Walking past the other cubicle she ducked her head. "She all yours." Bill at her words left and went to see her. "Lee, come on, he'll be a while and I have someone I want to see."

---

Laura heard the curtains open again. She turned her head and saw Bill standing there. She wasn't sure if the expression on his face meant he was going to kill someone or cry. Instead of doing either he surprised her by walking straight over to her, cupping her left cheek in his hand and kissing her. She froze before melting into the sensation, it wasn't fierce but wasn't chaste. It was long but simple and when he broke it and looked into her eyes, she saw that it was filled with nothing but an amazing love her had for her.

"Lee and Ensign Matthews told me what happened." She only nodded. "I never knew the full story of what happened to Gaia, I'm so sorry Laura." She put on a smile. "It's alright. It's over now and we don't have to worry about him any longer."

---

Lee had trouble keeping up with Gaia since she was almost running to the Hangar Bay. When they stepped through the hatch he stopped and grabbed her arm. "What are we doing here, Gaia?" She only shrugged him off and kept walking until she found who she was looking for.

"Chief!" She called.

Galen whipped his head around to see the young Ensign Matthews, admittedly having looked better, coming towards him.

"Ensign, what can I do for... you?" He paused when he realised she was covered in blood.

"Has the second Raptor from the trillium refinery come back yet?" she asked.

"Umm.. yeah, it docked hours ago, why?"

"Where did the marines take the man they had with them?"

"Brig, I think." He gave a puzzling look from Gaia to Lee. Lee only smiled and shrugged as Gaia mumbled a thanks and wandered off in the direction of the brig.

---

"Unlock it." She ordered as she entered the brig.

The marine hesitated a moment until Gaia glared at him, making him unlock the door without avail. She stepped through and made sure she was standing directly in front of Nathaniel. He stood up from his position on the rack and faced her. She glared at him for a few moments before punching him so hard that Lee swore he heard Nathaniel's teeth come lose.

Lee realised he wasn't far wrong when blood poured out of Nathaniel's mouth and two teeth fell into his hands. Nathaniel looked at Gaia from under glaring eyes.

"You're going to be executed, you know that." He just kept staring at her. "And don't be surprised that when the Admiral comes to see you, you lose a few more teeth." She hissed. Then leaning over to whisper in his ear. "Oh and don't worry about me, Dad, because I won't be giving you another thought, ever." With that she swiftly exited. Lee smiled at the scene he'd just witnessed, her mother would be proud he thought.

---

About a Month Later

Laura sat on the bed waiting for Jack to finish his examination.

"Well, I don't think there will be anymore scarring, your wound seems to have healed nicely, considering. But it's time we took this patch off for good."

He removed the gauze and micropore.

"You're free to go, it might take some getting use to, keep that in mind." She nodded and smiled.

"Thank you Doctor." He grumbled and left the cubicle.

She stood up and saw a mirror on the opposite wall, deciding to go inspect her new battle wound. She hadn't seen it before now, and it was quite a shock to see a thin lumpy line on the leftish side of her neck. She was intrigued by it more than bothered by it. It signified an ending to a chapter of her life. She gently glided her fingers over the strange tissue and sighed. "Just as it to the list." She said aloud, not realising Gaia was behind her.

"Yeah, about those, I've been meaning to ask you. Where did you get them?"

Laura whipped around. Absentmindedly covering her neck she answered. "The old ones are from a couple of operations I had. The newest ones were from that accident on Colonial One. The big long one is from your birth and the others... well, New Caprica, detention."

Gaia nodded in understanding. "The Admiral doesn't know about them does he?"

Laura shook her head. "He doesn't know I was ever in detention. I never told him, and the others are from operations, he won't find those ones too hard to deal with."

"You ever gunna tell him?" Gaia asked.

"Not if I can help it." She answered.

Gaia pointed as her mother. "You're covering your neck."

Laura realised she was and removed her hand. Gaia smiled.

"What's so funny?"

"Aww nothing, just makes you look tough." Gaia laughed at her own joke while Laura smiled and shook her head.

"Thank you."

"Anytime."

(Well that was longer that I thought it would be. Confused yet? Reviews are welcomed entirely.)