IX

Two hours later, the two women lay in bed, arms and legs tangled, the scent of their hard love-making still wafting in the air. Laura had her head and her golden locks laying across Kara's still bare breasts, the fingers on one hand still playing in the shorter blonde hairs above Kara's genitals, occasionally running her fingers through still-slicked folds.

"I don't know why I fought off this feeling, Kara", Laura confessed. "But I think both of us thought we were delusional."

"Yeah, well, we are delusional, Roslin, but not about this." That got a soft chuckle from them both. "I just never thought that a classy lady like you would ever want..."

She paused long enough that Laura moved above Kara to look at her. "Would ever want what, babe?"

"Would ever want a broken, messed-up person like me. Everything I've ever touched, and loved, has crashed down around me, Laura. I just...I'm not even in your league."

Laura turned and cupped Kara's cheek with her left hand. "Kara, I don't ever want to hear you say that, do you understand me? You have so much to offer someone-love, passion, a wicked sense of humor. You have a heart that is pure gold, but it has been tarnished over the years by some pretty shitty things that have happened to you. You told me after we started talking and getting closer, how you had prayed for Leoben, asking the gods to protect his soul if he had one. And this after you obeyed my order to torture him."

Laura's heart hurt at the words Kara had said, and she was going to tamp this down before it got started. "You are a loving, caring person, Kara Thrace. I have never met another human being like you-someone so incredibly complex, but at heart, so simple, and just wanting to be loved. Well, I love you, and you are in my league, so get used to it."

Kara at first wanted to cry, but the earnest look on Laura's face broke her demeanor, and she began laughing. Laura was flabbergasted at first, thinking Kara was mocking her. It didn't take her long to realize that she must have sounded like the school teacher she was, scolding one of her students. She joined in the laughter, until they were almost crying because of it.

When it died down, Kara moved Laura under her. "Is that how you punished your students?"

A few giggles escaped Roslin. "Oh, no, Ms. Thrace." Laura sneaked a hand down between she and Kara, taking two fingers and entering the warmth of the younger woman, which made Kara yelp. "I never did this when punishing a student."

After a feral moan, Kara giggled again. "I would hope not, Roslin. You could get in a lot of trouble for doing that to a student." Roslin took that moment to move her fingers around inside Starbuck, making her moan again. "For doing this...gods, that feels incredible."

They fooled around for a few more minutes, then Kara realized that Kacey was still over with the Tyrol's.

"Frak", she said, only moments after her fourth orgasm of the morning, "Kacey!"

"You said she was with Galen and Cally, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but I can't leave her there all day." She stopped her words just before getting out of bed to wash off, then get dressed. "Not that I don't want to do this all day, Laura." She kissed Roslin's swollen lips hard again. "It's all I want to do right now, but, I'm a responsible mom, you know?"

That made Laura laugh. "What's the Universe come to? The school teacher has become corrupted, and the fraked-up pilot is a doting parent."

The thought of that made Kara laugh loudly again, hugging her new love close. "Maybe I should be the President after this shit is behind us?"

"Oh, no you don't, Kara Thrace!" Laura rose at the same time as Kara, both heading toward Laura's shower. "You leave the politics to me. I'll leave the flying to you."

"Yes, Madam President." Kara lopped off a sloppy salute.

As they enjoyed the warm shower, simply relaxing against each other, Laura became serious. "What about tonight, Kara?"

It's as if Starbuck had forgotten what lay ahead that evening. She squeezed Laura's nude body to hers. "I still want to be there. As I said, I can't just avoid it."

"I could lose you", Laura said, suddenly losing her easy breathing as the specter of what might happen hit her. "I just found you, baby. I don't..."

"Shh", Kara said gently, kissing her lover on her neck. "Whatever happens, I'm not that easy to get rid of. You're gonna be stuck with me a long time."

"But what if they...they're gonna put you through hell, you know that?"

"I know", Kara said meekly, "but I promise you, Laura, that I'll come back to you." She raised Roslin's hands to her mouth, kissing her knuckles desperately. "I'm yours." They heatedly kissed for a few more minutes, Kara speaking again. "If I do end up being swapped, Laura...you...you." Now Kara choked up. "You have to be the one to look after Kacey for me. She trusts you, and she's as crazy for you as you are for her."

Laura shut her eyes for one painful moment, then looked at her lover. "You have my word, Kara. I won't let anything happen to Kacey."

"That's good, Laura", Kara said with another light kiss, "because as of this moment? She's your daughter, too."

Again Laura was struck mute by those words. It hadn't crossed her mind, even though she knew Kacey was part of the package with Kara. "She's my daughter now?"

"Yes, she is, baby, and I know you'd protect her with your life, just as I would."

"Of course I will, Kara." Laura felt a renewed strength, simply looking into Starbuck's eyes, seeing her life, her future, within them, and knowing that they would have a future together, no matter what happened that night.

"I love you, Kara Thrace." She desperately kissed Starbuck once more.

"I love you, Laura Roslin. You and Kacey are my life now."

Despite her promise, Kara wondered if, in the end, she would be alive to fulfill it.

The Bunker, Later That Night

Despite the fact that Tigh, Chief Tyrol, Doc Cottle, Laura, and now Kara, had heard what The Cylons wanted for the medical supplies, hearing Tigh repeat it hadn't lessened the emotional impact for them, especially for Laura Roslin. The declaration of love she and Kara had shared that morning had changed everything.

There were others at the meeting now. Charlie Connor, who had been one of the first to volunteer for an insurgency, had stepped into Sam's place, when Sam had died of the pneumonia. Along with Charlie, the new comers were Tom Zarek, Diana Seelix, and Ellen Tigh. It hit the four of them as hard as it had hit the others.

Tom Zarek would never be thought of as a bleeding heart, and no one hear would have trusted the man in ordinary circumstances, but these were far from ordinary. He summed it up best for everyone concerned.

"Lords of Kobol", he had exclaimed, looking at Starbuck as if someone had died. He and Kara had absolutely no love for each other, but, again, these were extraordinary circumstances. "What's to stop The Cylons, from every time we approach them with a request, from taking another of us in, and then another and another? This..."

Under other circumstances, Laura would have laughed seeing the usually glib Tom Zarek be so tongue-tied, but she agreed with him, more than he currently knew.

Tigh let out his low laugh. "I figured you'd be the first one to throw Kara to the wolves, Zarek. Color me surprised."

Despite the fact that Tigh was right, he looked exasperated. "Tigh, everyone knows that I'm the persona non grata here, and that, no, Captain Thrace and I don't exchange cards at the Winter Solstice, but this goes way beyond personalities here. They'll cut off the leadership one at a time, every time we ask for even the smallest thing. In their shoes, I bet we'd be doing the same thing, but...there has to be lines that aren't crossed."

"You mean like Duck volunteering to blow up a room full of cadets for that fraking New Caprica Police Force, Tom? You mean like that? You mean like Roslin tossing that son-of-a-bitch Leoben out an airlock? You mean like Kara and Lee blowing the Olympic Carrier to ashes?"

The room went still, which was fine with Tigh. Zarek had surprised him with his objection to this plan-not that Tigh liked it any better. Zarek, in his mind, was a cold-blooded, calculating killer, not some noble politician like Laura Roslin tried, albeit imperfectly to be. Right now, they had to be cold-blooded in this business, to hold out when Bill and Lee returned with the two Battlestars. He couldn't reject this out of hand, sending Kara over as a swap, much as it had made him vomit after Galen and Cottle had told him.

Zarek broke the silence. "I get that, Colonel", he said, holding a steady gaze with the former XO of Galactica. "I do, but we have to thing about the long game here, as well as short-term gain. Would it be nice to get the medicine for everyone? Your godsdamned right it would. But at what cost? Until our numbers dwindle down to where there will be no one to use the medicine? Because I'm afraid that is what The Cylons will do if we start this with them."

Surprisingly, Kara spoke. "What if our numbers are whittled down by this Epidemic, Mr. Zarek? That doesn't do us any good either."

Tigh didn't hesitate. "I'm not gonna say you're wrong, Tom, because I just don't fraking know-none of us do. But we're here to consider this, because we have no choice but to consider this. You got that, Zarek?" There was no give in Tigh's voice.

Even though Kara knew this was about her becoming a Cylon prisoner again, she was proud of the backbone Saul Tigh had grown, apparently while in prison. I guess having your eye gouged out without Morpha might do that to someone. He had just earned more respect from one Kara Thrace.

So they debated, and debated. Everyone was encouraged to speak up. There was no seniority of Chain-of-Command when discussing this decision. It was too personal for everyone, in one form or another.

Charlie Connor had made his thoughts known. "If we don't get that medicine, it's gonna turn into Cottle making the bricks without any straw, you know that? And the death toll is gonna easily pass the toll from last year."

Seelix chimed in. "It's bad enough that our own people are policing us for The Cylons, and now we're just gonna hand one of our own over to them?"

Ellen Tigh was torn. "I know the sacrifices that people in the military are asked to make sometime. Duck volunteered for that suicide mission." She looked at Starbuck. "Kara doesn't have that luxury."

Zarek was skilled at playing Devil's Advocate. "Doesn't she?" All heads turned hard to the former convict. He looked over at Starbuck. "She could volunteer to make the trade. She could take it out of all of our hands." He held up his, as Roslin began to protest. "I'm not saying she should, Laura, but I disagree with Ellen that Kara doesn't have that option, that's all."

They went around and around. At one point or another, everyone looked at it from the other side, and they kept arguing about it. Everyone was lively and animated, knowing what was on the line.

Except one person.

An hour after they began, Zarek eyed Laura Roslin. "Laura, forgive me, but you've been damn quiet while we've hurled some pretty mean words back and forth at each other. I would think, as the former President, you'd have participated a little more."

Kara couldn't meet anyone's eyes right now, knowing why Laura was silent-why Laura was terrified out of her very mind by this possibility. She was somewhat surprised when Laura spoke up.

She cleared her throat first, almost unconsciously moving closer to Starbuck. Everyone thought it was simply in a show of solidarity with the younger woman.

They were right, but not for reasons they knew at the moment.

"There are valid points, on both sides, as to the wisdom, or the folly, of making this deal. The part of me that used to be the President, like Tigh has said, in ordering the shoot-down of the Olympic Carrier, or in abandoning non-FTL ships on Colonial One the day this madness began, were gut-wrenching and emotional for me-for all of us. They still haunt me."

Laura went silent again for a few moments, actually and visibly trembling for a moment. At that moment, Kara made a decision.

"Laura", she said softly, in much the same voice she had used when they had made love that morning. Without fail, everyone turned sharply toward Starbuck-not just in using Roslin's first name, which few of them did, but because of the tenor of her voice.

Roslin turned to her young lover, her face looking as brittle as fine glass. "Yes, Kara?"

Kara moved her chair directly next to Roslin's, then softly grabbing her hand, and smiling at the love of her life.

"It's OK, please tell them? Or I could?"

"No", Laura insisted immediately, and too loudly. She made her voice softer. "No, Starbuck, this is for me to say."

Everyone in the room knew something big was coming. They were in no way prepared for what it was.

Laura looked again at Kara, her heart constricting, holding Kara's hand a little firmer.

"I think it's only fair, and proper, that I let you know something that may...or may not, sway you one way or another. It's something that only recently has taken place, and while normally, I don't think I would want anyone to know about something like this so soon..."

She was rambling, and she knew it. Saul Tigh was no romantic, at least not in the classic sense, but he sensed immediately upon hearing the former President and her uncharacteristic uneasiness, and when discreetly noticing that Laura Roslin was still holding Kara's hand...

He stopped her in mid-sentence.

"Begging your pardon, Madam President", he said with rare gentleness, looking between Roslin and Starbuck, "but it's you and Kara...isn't it?"

The look on the faces of the two women would have made Tigh laugh in any other situation, but he had guess right, and the entire tenor of the discussion changed.

"W...wait a second", Galen said, looking momentarily confused. "What do you mean, Colonel? Laura and Kara what?"

Starbuck finally intervened. "Laura and I are in love with each other", she said, with a strength and conviction that surprised her. "When Laura said this is a recent development, she's not kidding. But we're in love."

Laura turned crimson, and looked down, feeling the weight of the Universe suddenly on her shoulders.

"I'll be damned", Galen said, a thin smile on his face. "Pardon my bluntness ladies", he said, his smile growing, "but you couldn't have timed this any worse."

Despite the words, his grin broke the tension for a moment, and everyone, even Zarek, gave a small chuckle. It allowed them to move the discussion forward.

"Maybe it isn't fair that we have sprung this on you guys", Roslin said, her Presidential face returning to her visage. "But love is what it is. I think, Colonel, Doctor", she glanced at both those men, "you know now why I reacted as I did."

"Hell, I would have had a coronary, Madam President." Cottle wasn't known for humor, but the way he said it, made everyone laugh out loud. "I'm serious."

"Thank you, Doctor", Laura said sweetly to the older man, who had helped her conquer cancer. "And I know this throws another layer on all this."

Tom Zarek brought it back to business. "And fair or not, we still have to decide how we respond to The Cylons on this."

And so they continued the discussion, for another hour, then another, until finally, everything that could be said, had been said.

When their had run dry, the all looked at each other. Tigh, as the titular head of the insurgency, had heard enough. "I think we've discussed this from every angle, and gone over every scenario. I think it's time we put this to a vote."

The room was silent. Tigh turned to Kara. "Starbuck, I believe it would be best if you were not present when we cast our votes. I'm not ordering you to leave-I can't do that, but I believe it would be best..."

Kara raised her hand. "I agree, Colonel. But before we vote, I'd like to say a few personal things. After all, this involved me directly?"

Tigh simply nodded.

Kara stood up, needing to walk around to spend some of the nervous energy within her. "Look, I understand that getting this medicine, and the equipment that would keep our people healthier is a slam-dunk. We can't have a few thousand of us die without fighting this Epidemic. I understand that. I'm not gonna blow smoke up your asses, however, and say I like this idea, but I'm also not going to run away from this, either. At heart, I'm a soldier. I chose to live a soldier's life, and I will obey the decision of the leadership.

"I have already arranged, that if I am exchanged, that Kacey will live with Laura. They get along great, and it would ease my mind knowing my daughter is with my...girlfriend." Her lips curled up for a moment at the last word, making Laura blush.

"I ask only two things from all of you, if you agree to this. One, is that you give Laura your support, and help she and Kacey as much as you can getting through this. The second thing...well, I ask..." She paused as she choked up, feeling idiotic for loosing her composure in front of everyone. In front of Laura, that was one thing now, but she was still Starbuck, and her image had proceeded her. "Is that you don't forget about me if and when all hell breaks loose."

No one looked at anyone else. The emotional tension was unbearable. Kara added a post script. "As I said, I will accept your decision, and I promise right here, right now, that I will not hold the vote against any of you. It's simply too important for our people. Laura", she turned to the woman who had become, that day, the second most important person in her life, "I will wait at your place for the decision."

Roslin could only nod sadly.

She turned to Tigh. "Permission to leave, Colonel."

Tigh stood to face her. "Permission granted, Captain." Before Kara could even move, Tigh snapped off a sharp salute to her, which ran against military protocol. But the moment demanded that Tigh show respect to Kara Thrace.

Kara slowly raised her hand in a return salute, holding it for an extra beat. She nodded, went over to Laura, planting a kiss on her forehead, then quickly departed.