Thanks for all the reviews last chapter. You guys truly rock.


The corpsmen were unloading Kara from the SAR Raptor by the time Lee practically jumped from the upper catwalk and onto the hangar deck. The crew had enough sense to part and create a wide path when they saw him coming, lest they be knocked out of the way.

Kara was strapped down onto a gurney and she had a mask placed over her nose and mouth, which was connected to an oxygen tank between her legs. Her head was lolling from side to side somewhat, although Lee couldn't tell if it was because she was regaining consciousness or because of the gurney's movement.

"Kara…" Lee gasped as he finally reached his wife's side.

He leaned over her and his hands immediately went to her face in an attempt to get her to wake up and look at him.

"Come on. Open your eyes."

"Commander." A gentle hand was placed on his shoulder. "We've got to get moving."

A part of Lee wanted to protest, but he knew that sickbay was what Kara needed right now. He straightened so that the corpsmen could take the gurney.

"Move!" someone barked and the gurney was rushed towards sickbay.

"Hammerhead!" Lee called back as he ran out the hangar bay. "Get a Raptor out there and tow in her plane. I want to know what exactly went wrong."

Lee stayed by their side all the way to sickbay, where the doctor and his staff quickly took over.

"What happened?"

"She began seeing things while out on CAP and tried to fly into a gas giant," Lee answered.

The doctor began taking notes onto a chart. "Anything else?"

"She was in an uncontrolled, high g flip when the rescue bird got to her."

"Do you know for how long?"

Lee shook his head.

"Get her into that bed over there and plug that hose into a wall unit. Kelly, monitors. North, pull out the Major's medical records. And Cullen, close this curtain."

"Yes, Doctor," the corpsmen chorused as the set about their assigned tasks.

Lee tried to follow Kara's gurney as it was being wheeled across sickbay, but the diminutive Cullen stopped him with an extended arm.

"Sorry, Commander," she said. "But you're going to have to let us do our jobs."

Lee stopped in his tracks but made no indication that he was going to step back. Cullen gave him one last look, as if she was making sure that he wouldn't follow before turning her attention to the task at hand.

The action behind the curtain degenerated into jumble of medical jargon. Lee could hear numbers being called out but he had no idea if any of them were good or bad.

Kara suddenly began to cough, and even that was confusing. Something was happening and Lee wasn't even sure if it was a positive or negative development.

"Get her mask off," he could hear the doctor saying. "Help me sit her up."

The coughing eventually stopped and was replaced by the sounds of the medical professionals behind the curtain softly conferring amongst themselves.

Lee wanted to rip open that curtain so badly, but his rational side won out, insisting that the last thing Kara needed was him barging in and preventing the medical staff from doing their jobs.

The curtain opened and closed, and out stepped the doctor. He gave Lee a small smile and said, "Your wife's going to be just fine, Commander. From the looks of things, she was suffering from asphyxia. The lack of oxygen must have caused her hallucinations. Do you have any idea how her air supply could have been compromised?"

Lee shook his head. There could be any number of reasons.

"Well, she's fine now, besides the usual bruising from high-g maneuvers. She was a little dehydrated so we have her hooked up to an IV. We'll do a blood test just to make sure nothing else is wrong with her, and we'll keep her overnight for observation, and I'm revoking her flight status pending a physical, but other than that, she can be up and about tomorrow morning."

Lee let out a breath.

"Can I see her?"

The doctor couldn't help but smile at how his CO was a ball of nervous energy practically bouncing on his toes.

"Of course."


Kara lay in bed, having been changed into a hospital gown. She had an oxygen mask on her face and an IV in her wrist. The doctor was right. With the exception of some bruising, she was no worse for wear. She turned her head when she noticed the curtain around her bed be drawn back to reveal Lee.

He stood there, stock still, staring at her. One hand grasped the curtain in a death grip.

It wasn't until he saw the corners of her eyes crinkle into a smile that he launched himself across the short distance to her side.

Lee's trembling hands lightly traveled over Kara's face. He needed to make sure she was really alright, and Kara, having been in Lee's position one too many times, stayed still, maintaining eye contact while letting him do his own examination.

Finally, Lee's hands cupped Kara's face as he stared at her with wide, glistening eyes.

"Don't scare me like that."

Kara spoke, her hoarse voice barely audible through the oxygen mask. "Payback's a bitch, huh?"

He let out a short laugh and pressed a long kiss against her forehead.


On the hangar deck, Kara's Viper-sans canopy-was being towed into a maintenance berth

"Bring her back some more-Okay…Perfect."

The plane's usual maintenance crew swarmed around and, under Kaplan's supervision, immediately set about taking it apart, piece by piece to find out what happened out there.

Kaplan was particularly anxious about finding out what went wrong because she was this plane's crew chief. It was her personal responsibility to make sure nothing went wrong.

"Alright, let's see what's wrong with this baby," the Petty Officer said as a ladder was placed by the side of the plane. A young crewman named Simmons clambered up into the cockpit as Kaplan kept talking.

"The Doc said that there could be something wrong with the air supply."

"Someone frak up at the filling station?" someone asked from where he was examining an RCS thruster propellant tank.

"No. And all the bottles we've been taking out of the other planes are clean," Kaplan replied. She looked up at Simmons. "Check the seat."

Kaplan heard, more than saw, Simmons begin to fiddle around.

"Hoses look clear," the young man called out.

"Check the bottle."

"Got it."

"Whoa."

"What?"

Simmons popped his head up, holding an oxygen bottle in his gloved hand.

"Looks like somebody went overboard with the graphite. It's all over the threads, the nozzle, and the inside of the intake valve."

The deck crew sometimes used a graphite lubricant on the threads of the O2 bottles when they got stuck, but it was always used sparingly because of the danger of asphyxiation in case the pilots inhaled any of it. And from the looks of it that was exactly what happened.

Kaplan reached up for the bottle to take a look herself. She ran a thumb along the threads and it immediately came back dirty. The bottle was completely covered with graphite.

"Geez…" she breathed. "Alright. Who's the idiot that installed this bottle?"

Just then, she noticed a dirty, bearded figure loitering behind a large tool cart.

"Hey! You're not supposed to be here."


Kara had insisted that she was fine and that he had a job to do, so with a kiss and the promise that he'd come back as soon as his shift ended, Lee returned to CIC, feeling as though a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He was still anxious to see his wife, though, even if the worry was gone.

The crew picked up on their leader's ease as well, and CIC slid back into its normal routine as Lee placed a call to Galactica to inform his father that Kara was alright and to see how the search for the beacons was going.

Lee was talking with Hammerhead over the phone, listening to the DCAG's newly-revised pilot rotation when Hoshi suddenly called out urgently: "Commander, we have a Code Blue on the hangar deck."

And just like that, the cold, clenching feeling in the pit of his stomach was back.

"Go to Condition One. Get a squad of marines down there."

"Code Blue. Code Blue. Set Condition One throughout the ship. Marines to the hangar deck."

"I'm getting reports of injuries. Some of them serious."

At Lee's nod, the XO grabbed his own handset and announced: "Medical team to the hangar deck. Medical team to the hangar deck. Sickbay, stand by to receive casualties."

Lee took the handset from the XO and told Hoshi, "Put me through."

"H-Hangar deck," someone answered.

"This is the Commander. Who am I talking to?"

"Specialist Parker, sir."

"Sitrep."

"It's just messed up down here, sir…Just…Fraking hell…"

"Who's been hurt? Can you give me their names?"

The specialist on the other end of the line began to hyperventilate. "Oh gods…it was just fraked up…he just threw…threw…"

"Parker. You're going to have to take a breath and calm down."

Lee suddenly heard fumbling over the heavy breathing.

"Somebody find him a paper bag-Sergeant Woodward here, sir."

"Talk to me."

"Well we've got somebody down here. Looks and smells like one of the refugees from the cargo bay, but he threw someone at least fifteen feet into the nose of a Viper. One of the deck crew got the guy in the head with a wrench. He's out cold, but I've got a syringe full of sedative from one of the corpsmen just in case."

"Injuries?"

"Three deckhands. Two of them have broken bones but are walking to sickbay by themselves. The corpsmen are working on the one who was thrown into the Viper now. It looks real bad."

"And the prisoner?"

"We've got him shackled and covered right now. What are your orders, sir?"

"Take him to the old Cylon holding cell. Keep him secure. I'm on my way there now."

"Yes sir."

Lee hung up.

"XO, you have the conn."


Lee watched as two marines unceremoniously dumped an unconscious figure into the cell that once housed the brutalized Model Six. The new occupant was dressed in rags, had long, matted hair, and a dirty beard that made it hard to tell if he looked like any of the Cylon models they'd previously encountered. The marines exited the cell quickly, noses wrinkled in disgust.

It was obvious that whoever it was they had in custody hadn't seen the inside of a shower for a long time. The crew had given the marines a wide berth as they dragged their cargo through the corridors, and in the confines of the brig, one of the marines had promptly vomited at the stench.

Everyone breathed a sigh of release as the ballistic glass door slid shut, sealing in their prisoner and his smell.

Lee turned to Sergeant Woodward and said, "Get a bucket of water and give him a shave and a haircut so we can get a positive ID."

The marine nodded, "Yes sir."

"And make it as cold as possible in there. It'll help with the smell."

"Sir."

"Carry on."

Lee returned Woodward's crisp salute and walked out of the brig. He needed to get to sickbay to see how the injured were.


Sickbay was subdued when Lee arrived. He saw two corpsmen walking out of the operating theater carrying buckets and bloodstained mops while the doctor sat heavily in a chair, signing papers with angry strokes of his pen.

"Doctor."

"Commander," the doctor stood, his posture fully conveying the fact that he was upset.

"How are the injured?"

"Specialists Coates and Sturgis both have broken arms and Sturgis has a couple of bruised ribs as well. They'll be on limited duty until their casts come off."

"I heard there was a third," Lee said, hoping that the news was better than the sight of the bloodstained mops implied.

"Petty Officer Rachel Kaplan," the doctor pinched the bridge of his nose as he let out a breath. "She died just as we were opening her up."

Lee stayed silent and listened.

"One of her ribs shifted as we moved her onto the table. It pierced her heart. Uhm…North's gone to fetch a body bag and her dress uniform so that we can move her to cold storage."

"As you were."

"Sir."

The doctor gathered up his papers and walked over to the small alcove he used as his office, leaving Lee alone in sickbay.

Instead of leaving though, he turned and walked to a corner where a bed was hidden away by a curtain. He just needed to know that at least one thing went right during this shitty day.

Kara was sitting up as the upper portion of her bed had been cranked up. Her oxygen mask was replaced with a nasal canula, and the IV bag filled with saline solution was gone, although the catheter remained in her wrist.

"I heard the Code Blue. What happened?"

"We think we found a Cylon on the hangar deck."

"You think?" Kara asked somewhat incredulously.

Lee shrugged. "He had a pretty thick beard, so we can't tell just by looking at him."

Kara was silent for a moment before haltingly asking, "Do you think it has anything to do with what happened to me?"

Lee shook his head. "I don't know."

They fell into silence. Their hands slowly crept towards each other until their fingers were just touching.

Kara finally spoke. "They brought a bunch of people in. Are they alright?"

"Couple of broken ribs, and two broken arms."

"That's it?"

"And…Kaplan. She's dead. They're waiting to move her to cold storage, and we're going to have to make funeral arrangements."

"Gods…"

Kaplan had been Kara's crew chief, personally making sure that everything on that Viper was in working order before Kara stepped onto the ladder. Kara had trusted the Petty Officer with her life, and now she was dead.

"Yeah."

Kara's hand suddenly slapped the latch that kept her bed's side rails up and swung her legs over the side.

"Get me my flight suit," she said indicating towards where it was hung behind Lee with one hand while taking off her nasal canula with the other.

"What?"

"Get me my flight suit," she repeated, standing up.

Lee stood up to block Kara's way. "You're not flying."

"I'm not going to fly. I just…I need to do something."

"Kara."

"Look! I'm fine," Kara gestured towards herself. "If it'll make you happy I'll come right back here after I'm done. It'll take ten minutes at the most. Now will you just give me my fraking flight suit so the whole crew doesn't have to see me in this thing?" Her tone made it clear that she was perfectly willing to shove her husband out of the way to get to her goal.

There was no arguing with her, so Lee reached back to get Kara her flight suit.

Kara wordlessly snatched the length of fabric out of Lee's hands and quickly got dressed. She stalked out of sickbay without a word and all Lee could do was follow her through Pegasus' corridors into enlisted country.

"Offic-Commander on deck!" a crewman announced when he saw them enter.

All noise and activity stopped as everyone snapped to attention, but Lee quickly said, "As you were," with barely a second glance at any of the crew. His attention was solely on the figure of his wife walking at a determined pace in front of him.

They turned several corners, a path being formed by the enlisted men and women moving to the side to let the officers through.

The mood in senior enlisted quarters was subdued when Kara burst in. It was rare for anyone who wasn't a pilot to be killed in the line of duty, so unlike the blasé attitude that permeated the pilots' duty lockers, everyone here was feeling the news of Kaplan's death.

"Where's Kaplan's rack?" Kara asked abruptly.

Someone numbly pointed towards one, and Kara immediately made her way there. The rack was still neatly made with everything the way its former occupant had left it that morning.

No one had wanted to do anything just yet.

Kara rummaged through the shelves, unaware of the barely contained indignation of Kaplan's friends behind her. Officer or not, who was she to go through the belongings of their friend, who hadn't been dead for more than a couple of hours.

Lee sidled up behind Kara and asked in a low voice, "What are you looking for?"

She didn't answer, but stopped poking around when she pulled something out from where it had been tucked behind the rack's mattress.

It was a small photo album. The cheap kind that had been thrown in for free at photo development kiosks back on the colonies.

Kara flipped through it quickly before snapping it shut and taking it with her as she left as abruptly as she arrived, not saying a word when she bumped hard against Lee, sending him stumbling back.

Lee recovered and followed Kara out and back to sickbay, where she headed straight for the operating theater. Inside, Corpsmen North and Cullen had just moved a body bag onto a gurney and were in the process of wheeling it out when Kara and Lee came in.

"Give us a minute," Kara said softly, finally speaking.

The corpsmen nodded and, after securing the brakes on the gurney's wheels, walked out. "Sirs."

Kara waited until the corpsmen were gone before she slowly stepped forward, handing Lee the album she'd taken from Kaplan's rack so that she could unzip the body bag.

Lee took the opportunity to glimpse inside the album. Its spine had been worn to the point of almost falling apart and had been repaired with tape several times. The first photograph showed a younger Kaplan with a man whose haircut could only mean that he was a marine. They were both gleefully showing off the gold bands on their ring fingers. And the few other photos he saw before closing the album were much like the first.

Kaplan and her husband together.

Kara stepped back and held out her hand for the album. When Lee handed it over, a photograph fell out and fluttered to the deck.

Kara knelt down to pick it up and saw that it had at one point been crumpled and ripped into pieces before being carefully taped back together again. She turned it over to see what it was.

It was a sonogram.

Kara's eyes welled up with tears as she remembered the story Kaplan had told her those months ago about her own marriage and terminated pregnancy. She tucked the sonogram securely back into the album and tucked it beneath Kaplan's limp hands.

"I'm sorry," Kara whispered just loud enough for Lee to hear.

She zipped up the body bag and turned to walk out, leaning in when Lee wrapped an arm around her waist as he followed.

"She took the photo that's on your desk, you know," Kara said when they were back at her hospital bed. As she promised, she began to undress to get back in bed. "And she was the one who told me to fight for our marriage."

Lee stood silently and listened.

Kara sat down and was about to swing her legs up when her eyes widened for a second. It looked as if she was about to say something, but no sound came out of her open mouth.

Lee could only watch as the blood drained from Kara's face before it contorted in extreme pain. A strangled noise managed to make its way out of Kara's constricted throat as she pitched forward, unable to hold herself up.

"Kara!" Lee cried as he lunged to keep her from falling to the deck.

She was completely stiff in his arms. Every muscle was tensed to the point her body would begin to damage itself if nothing was done soon. Lee lifted her back into bed a gently as he could, yelling, "Help!"

"Hurts…" Kara said through clenched teeth.

"Hold on," Lee soothed.

Once again, the day morphed into a blur for Lee as he was ushered out and cut off from his wife by a mere curtain.

He had no idea how much time passed as he paced back and forth.

Back and forth.

Trying to make sense of the sounds coming out of the doctor's mouth.

Finally, the doctor came out with a grim expression on his face. Lee immediately noticed the deep red stains on his clothing. He looked into the doctor's eyes, praying for Kara to be alright.

"Your wife just had a miscarriage. Her blood work from earlier had just come back…and…she must have been around eight weeks along."

Lee felt as if he'd been punched in the gut.

Kara was-had been-pregnant?

Eight weeks…

That was how long ago they'd begun mending their marriage in the confines of the CAG's office.

"Now there are many possible factors that could have brought this about," the doctor continued. "But quite frankly…these things just happen sometimes."

Lee swallowed before asking in a hoarse voice, "Is she-?"

"Physically, she's fine. I don't see any problems that would prevent you two from conceiving again, but…"

"What?"

The doctor shook his head. "She's refusing to let us clean her up, change her into a new gown, or change the sheets on her bed. She won't let go of them."

Lee walked past the doctor without another word to where Kara was. The doctor drew the curtain behind the Commander before heading to his office.

Kara was curled up in a fetal position, her back towards Lee when he approached. The sheets had been ripped off and it looked as if she had them gathered against her chest. As Lee walked around the foot of the bed, he saw that there was blood on her thighs, her gown, on the balled up sheets, and her hands.

Kara didn't move when Lee came into her line of sight. The only indication that she noticed his arrival was the way her tear-filled eyes slowly traveled up to his face.

He hesitantly tried to place a hand on Kara's shoulder, but recoiled when she visibly shrank back to avoid his touch. He pulled out a chair, sat by her bedside, and slowly reached for her hand. This time, Kara didn't pull back, but simply trembled at Lee's touch.

"I didn't know," she finally whispered in a squeaky voice as tears streamed down her face.

This spurred Lee to move. He immediately got into bed with Kara and gathered her up into his arms. She tried to resist at first, pushing away, but he held firm until she collapsed against him sobbing into his shoulder, the bloody sheets pressed between their bodies.

All the while, Kara kept repeating: "I didn't know."


The graphite in the oxygen tank comes from an episode of JAG. It was such an unusual way of killing somebody that it's stuck with me.