When Lee got back to the bunks that evening, Kara was lying on her stomach in her rack, playing a game of solitary triad. "You okay?" he asked her.

"Mmm-hmm."

Lee sighed; even if it was going to take a fight, he'd get the information he wanted out of her. "So how many other things did you leave out of your report on Caprica?" he asked, knowing full-well that he sounded just flippant enough to set her off.

"Excuse me?" Kara asked, sitting up.

"We both know what I'm talking about, Kara." Her eyes flashed dangerously, and Lee hoped he wasn't about to get punched again.

"Are we back to this?" she shot, getting up. "You want to know if I frakked him? Yeah, I did, and I don't regret it. So if you're going to get all territorial on me again, do me a favor and do it some other time."

"Did you love him?" Lee asked, his voice quiet and – he hoped – sincere. Kara sized him up for a moment.

"I might have..."

"I'm sorry, then."

Kara scoffed, sitting back down. "Yeah, sure, Lee."

"I'm serious. I don't take pleasure in seeing you hurt."

"Because you love me, right?" she couldn't help throwing in his face. She'd expected he would get fed up with her at some point and leave, but he surprised her.

"Yeah," Lee admitted, "Because you're the best friend I've got left."

"I don't want your pity."

"Well, that's good because I'm not giving you any. Just some company. Do you want to play cards?"

Kara smiled. "I am playing cards," she dryly told him.

"With me, you brat. You always say that taking my money never gets old."

"Your money is worth less and less by the day. If we're playing, we'll play for something else."

"Like what?" Lee was almost afraid to ask. Kara just grinned.

Kara spoke to Adama about her concerns with putting Erin and Lachel on the orphan ship. Everyone in the fleet knew about them - they had survived life after the end - and the medical team operating on an Aquarian Liner offered to take in the sisters. They could continue to be treated and monitored for signs of radiation sickness. It seemed like a good solution.

"I heard the ship is really nice," Kara told Erin when she visited the girls the next day. "There are doctors there that will take care of you, and other families with kids."

"Will you come?"

"Well, I'm going to fly you over there...and I bet you'll be so busy settling in that you won't even have time to think about me."

"Is that a no?" Erin flatly asked. Kara smiled.

"It's an 'I don't know'. I'll try, though, okay?"

"Okay."

The only thing she hadn't realized was how hard saying goodbye would be. Erin looked like she was trying to be brave, but as friendly as the doctors in her new home were, she was still being dumped in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. She'd had a lot of that lately, and Kara felt bad for doing it to her again.

Lee was waiting for her when the Raptor she and Helo had flown over to the Aquarian Liner returned to Galactica. "How'd it go?" he asked. Something about his tone told her that he was only asking out of politeness – no one understood what survivors of Caprica had been through unless they'd been on the planet themselves.

"Fine," she replied. "You, me, rec room, tonight?" she asked Helo, turning back to see him leaning against the frame of the Raptor's hatch.

"Yeah, sure. I'll be there after I visit…" He noticed Lee's eyes harden; their resident Cylon was not a topic of discussion when the CAG was around. "I'll be there at 1800," he amended.

"What's at 1800?" Lee asked Kara as they walked off the deck together.

"Nothing, just a little one-on-one game."

"So that's where the pyramid ball came from?" Lee asked, hating how easily the jealousy was slipping into his voice. Kara didn't waste energy dignifying it; as he continued walking towards his office, she wordlessly turned and headed for the bunkroom.

For Kara, life on Galactica had a rhythm that she'd missed during her time on Caprica. Morning runs, structured shifts…in her absence, her nuggets had grown into pilots – inexperienced and often brash, but they were still pilots. Lee had mentioned bringing in a new group which was just now finishing up basic flight with a civilian instructor elsewhere in the fleet. Everything was always busy, but it had a routine.

When Adama received a call from the captain of the Aquarian Liner, the simplicity ended. There was a problem on the ship, concerning Erin and Lachel, but the captain wouldn't explain further until someone from Galactica – preferably someone who'd brought the girls from Caprica – came over to his ship. Kara and Lee were easy choices. By the time the pair arrived on the Liner, Kara's annoyance matched the level of Lee's curiosity. Being summoned without choice and without being given a reason didn't sit well with her.

"You've got guards on them?" she snapped at the doctor that had met them and their tag-along marines in the shuttle bay and led them through the ship. Two men with the only weapons they could scrounge up – handguns – were standing outside of the door they'd arrived at.

"We thought it best if…we didn't know if…" Unsure how to finish either of those sentences, the doctor simply opened the door and gestured for them to enter. Kara recognized the little golden head that was bowed and therefore just barely peeking over the table that was in the middle of the room.

"Erin, are you okay?" she asked as she started to step toward the chair the child was sitting in. "Is Lachel?" She froze mid-step, however, when another little girl – an absolutely identical little girl – stood up from her place on the floor behind the first.

"Actually," she said, "I'm Erin." Kara was frozen.

"We noticed yesterday when Lachel's mental development began to advance," the doctor explained. "But the physical change was literally overnight."

"They're Cylons," Lee stated, but Kara shook her head.

"No, they're half-breeds. Aren't you?" she asked the girls. Lachel was quietly focused on the tabletop, but Erin stared levelly back at her without saying a word. "You were born at a farm? Little Cylon science projects." The 'older' of the girls stepped forward, her face perfectly calm.

"We are the next step."

TBC...

Should I keep going? Feedback is welcome