Author's Note: I'm sorry this took so long everyone. I had hoped to include a bit more of the story in this chapter, but it was taking too long to iron out and write, so I figured it would be best to post what I have to far and start another chapter. I hope that's acceptable. Also, for those that were curious, the thing that was funny in the last chapter was the name Joe. A few of you got close. The reason why Sharon found it funny was that the name itself, Joseph, means "God shall increase." Just a little between the lines joke for you. And without further adieu…

"He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing." Proverbs 29:1

"You want to tell me what the hell that was all about!"

Kara was livid. Her face was contorted with that special brand of rage she reserved exclusively for Lee Adama, and it seemed as though every muscle in her body was clenched. They had closed the door behind them when she had dragged him in here, to this once-was classroom. Not that that mattered. Everyone in the building could probably hear them regardless. Lee was amazed the windows didn't break. But then, if they could withstand a nuclear holocaust, they could withstand Kara Thrace.

Probably.

"What what was all about?"

"Don't frak around with me Lee. That stunt out there with the Raider. Jerking everyone around!"

"You knew we'd need a Raider to get off this rock. You knew Helo and Sharon weren't here. I don't know why you're acting so surprised, Kara. This was the op. This was your op. We planned all of this before we even left Galactica."

"Oh don't even…no we did not. And I'm not talking about the Raider."

"Actually you were…"

"I'm talking about this…we're suddenly going on the raid now?"

"Yes."

"Tomorrow morning?"

"Yes."

Lee had taken a seat on the edge of the teacher's desk, his arms crossed defensively in front of him, though he was probably not aware of the nature of his posture just then. He kept his face as impassive as he could, which is not to say it was impassive at all, because Lee's jaw muscles always twitched when he was angry. His attempt to keep an even keel despite his emotions only made him come across as condescending, and Starbuck, practically frothing, was not calmed at all by it. She paced, or prowled rather, with her shoulders hunched a little and her fists clenched and her chin angled down, fixing a dark glare on him as she fought to stay in control. Her voice sounded…clenched almost.

"You didn't want to go on the raid. Said we had to get back to the fleet."

"We do have to get back to the fleet."

"So what…!"

"Look, I'm not thrilled about this Kara. But you're going on this raid whether we go with you or leave you here, and I've lost enough people on this mission already. And you're right, we do owe these people something."

"So we what? Fly the Raider to Caprica City, wreck the Farm, fly back here, pick up our crap, fly back to the fleet? That simple?"

"That simple."

"And you're going with us? On the raid?"

"That's the idea."

"Have you lost your fraking mind! You can barely walk!"

"I can walk fine."

"You've been shot! Gods know how you can even use your arm, let alone use a weapon!"

"Yeah well, I can." He was getting frustrated now, and tried to swallow it down. Joining the bitch brigade would hardly help matters. "I think I've already proven that."

He had. No one had been as impressed as Kara, when they began to realize the destruction they were coming across in their search for him was his own handy work. He had managed some miraculous things while he was on the run, and he had certainly saved their asses. But that wasn't the issue. He was being reckless, with his life and the lives of everyone who would have to depend on him. He was being incredibly, inescapably, inexcusably stupid. Whatever he was thinking with it was in no way connected to the logic centers of his brain. What was worse, she had the feeling he was being spiteful. She had not encountered many men as vindictive as Lee Adama in her life. He could hold a grudge like no one else, especially, especially when something had been taken away. And she had taken something away. It didn't matter that it was nothing she had ever given him. It had been his regardless, and they both knew it. Of course that wasn't the issue either. None of it was really. What bothered her, what really needled Kara Thrace, was something else entirely.

"Fine. So you can shoot. Good for you. But what the hell is this Lee? All of this? These past couple of days? I am second in command on this op, highest ranking officer after you. And this was my op from the beginning, like you just said." She paused, waiting to see if he would challenge her. He didn't. He didn't even seem to be looking at her. "So can you explain to me why the frak I've been out of the loop on every single plan, every single move you've made since you woke up?" She had stopped pacing now, and face him belligerently.

He was standing now too. It was a toss up, which Lee she liked better. Submissive-Lee was easier to handle, but infuriating. Gentle-Patronizing-Lee pissed her off almost all the time. Angry-Defiant-Assertive-Lee…pissed her off, made her angry, or made her hot. Except today. She could not have said what she felt today.

"We can't trust you."

Nothing, nothing he could have said could have possibly hit her harder than that. It was not often Kara Thrace found herself at a loss for words. In such an instance, it was always good to have a reliable standby.

"What. The frak. Is that supposed to mean?" He didn't answer. Under different circumstances it would have been just as hard for him to say as it was for her to hear. Ok. On me then. Fine. "Lee, you and I have known each other since flight school. We've been through a lot, and I'm not sure anyone has ever said the kinds of things to either of us that we've said to each other. You are probably the biggest ass I've ever met Apollo, but I've always trusted you. And I've never doubted that you trusted me."

Lee did not say that he knew full well that she had not always trusted him. It was true what she said. They had beaten on each other, slammed each other into walls, said some of the most hurtful things imaginable to each other just because they needed to say them to someone and they knew they could, and it would all be ok tomorrow. They worked together better than anyone else. They were a team, partners, and best friends. And nothing, not even social niceties, stood between that. Not even now.

"It's not about you Kara. It's not about you and me."

"No? Then what's it about Lee. Tell me. I'm dying to hear it."

He was getting mad now. Had been for a while. Try as he might, he could no longer contain it. The rage and anguish surged into his voice.

"Are you, Starbuck? Are you dying to here it?" He took a step closer. "Well I'll tell you. We can't trust them." He pointed in the general direction of outside, where "they" were amassed. "Those amateurs, that Caprica Resistance could get us all killed." She didn't hear him choke on those words. "And since you and Anders are attached at the fraking hip…!"

"Hold on! Those 'amateurs' saved my ass, and Helo's. They have been here with us every step of the way. They fight and die here every day for Caprica. Hell Apollo they helped track down your ass…"

"My ass wouldn't have needed tracking if it hadn't been for…"

Lee stopped abruptly. His eyes bore into her, hard and pained. The unspoken hung heavily between them, and Kara knew that, once again, he did not trust her. Every muscle in him was quaking, either from emotion or the exertion of the argument.

But it was not a matter of trust now. He was afraid. He was afraid that if he stood here one moment longer he would tell her. And he couldn't tell her. Not yet. While jealousy and anger burned in him, deep down he was also terrified that she might love this Anders, genuinely care for him. And if she did, as much as Lee might burn at the idea, could he really justify driving her away from her lover if he didn't have to? No, that wasn't it. What he was afraid of was that he would tell her, and it wouldn't push her away from Anders and her precious resistance at all. He was afraid that if he told her, it wouldn't mean anything.

Lee Adama turned as smartly as he could manage and, as he had so many times in recent days, left Kara Thrace watching his back.

It had been Sharon's suggestion to keep Seek with them when Starbuck dragged Apollo off, presumably to tear into him for leaving her out of the loop on…everything. The cylon woman's fascination with the dog that killed cylons continued to amaze and befuddle her comrades. Despite the fact that the dog was clearly uncomfortable with Sharon, and frequently threatened the woman if she came too close, Sharon continued to test the dog, always wanting to be closer. She studied with rapt attention when the others played with Seek, or practiced commands with her, or just showed her affection.

She was doing that now. Sharon sat with Helo and the others on Joe's ramp, pretty much right where they had been when Starbuck had crossly demanded a word in private with Apollo. She was as close to Seek as she had ever been without putting the dog on heightened alert. Seek was utterly relaxed, not even threatening to growl. Improbably, Seek had taken a shine to Helo, and was settled on the ramp next to him with her head in his lap. Her eyes, though, never left Sharon, who was sitting perhaps four feet away.

No one knew what to say really. The "do you think she's tearing him a new one?" conversation had quickly died out, the result of subordinates decidedly unnerved by the idea of their leaders in conflict. It was Helo, absently patting the dog's massive head, who broke the silence.

"This couldn't have been her name," he said.

"Hmm?"

"The dog. C.E.K. couldn't have been her name before the attack. I wonder what he called her." It was nothing that was of any real consequence, but it was something to talk about, and a point of curiosity.

"It reminds me of riot police dogs."

"Had a lot of experience with riot police Walker?" Landin teased.

Walker did not rise to the bait. "Seriously though. It's like K-9. Like a designation."

"So the guy had a sense of humor. Didn't save him did it?"

"No but I bet he took a lot of those frakkin' toasters down with him."

A few people glanced at Sharon to see what her reaction would be, but she seemed not to have heard. She was watching Seek as intently as she was watched. It was strange and fascinating to see Helo so at ease with the dog now, when so recently he had had to be restrained from shooting her.

Seek, goliath among mere mortals, as some had come to view her, yawned cavernously and flopped onto her side.

"Ya know something? I think she's bagging up a little." Shields observed.

"Huh?"

"My parents raised wolf hounds for a while. The bitches bag up before whelping. Producing milk."

"So what, she's pregnant now? That's ridiculous. How would she even have been bred?"

"I know we don't have to explain the technical details to you, Helo," Landin taunted. He was in high spirits today, it seemed. Everyone chuckled.

Sharon's interest had been piqued. She moved a little closer, though not enough to bring the dog to attention. She had never encountered anything pregnant before. Anything else that is. She was curious.

"Apollo said the guy who had her was giving her meds right? And they lived in the mountains above the ambient radiation. That's the only reason this dog survived. The captain didn't say anything about two." Racetrack was skeptical, but pretty curious herself.

"Could she have been bred before the attack?" Sharon asked.

"No." Shields was enjoying his expertise on this matter, and was making a great show of probing the dog's belly. She was so huge already, it was almost impossible to tell she was carrying extra weight. "A dog only gestates for 63 days or so. She would have had to be bred a month or more later."

They were all quiet for a minute. Walker was thinking of the designation on the dog's collar, and that if he had had a dog, or been part of a group of people with dogs using them to fight the cylons, he would have designated her in such a way. He was also thinking that if he had had a dog this huge and good at her job, he would breed her too. Landin, who had spent a lot of times in the mountains as a younger man, was thinking of the scattered wolf packs that could be found in the ranges. Sharon was thinking along the same lines, wondering how long feral canid populations in the high mountains would survive following an attack, and with no way of receiving the type of meds the humans and, apparently, Seek had been getting. She wondered how viable the seed of such beasts could be.

There had been no evidence of any other people living with or near Seek's owner in the mountains, and Seek could hardly tell them. None of them were inclined to ask the resistance men and women if they had ever heard or seen wolves in the mountains. Could it be true? Was Seek pregnant? Evidence certainly seemed to suggest it, now that they all knew to look. How it was possible though, was quite beyond all of them.

Any further discussion was cut short by Lee emerging from the school, looking drained and very, very angry. He looked that way for fully half the walk from the school to Joe, but, by the time he had reached them, his face was schooled, and he was a captain again. It was a sad and admirable skill of his.

Seek scrambled to her feet and padded over to Lee as he approached. It must have been bad. He didn't even smile, just patted her absently.

"We have plans to make," he said stiffly.

Samuel T. Anders and Tenpoint sat on the edge of the school building roof, watching the Galactica men and women sit on their pet Raider and play with their pet dog. Anders had mixed feelings about the Galactica people coming with them on their raid to Caprica City. The Raider would make the trip shorter and give them an advantage they had not had before. He also could not deny that the marines would be useful, and Captain Adama had proven himself capable of handling himself in a difficult situation. Still, the whole idea sat uneasily with him. He would not allow for the possibility that he was simply disappointed that Kara was no longer in a position to make a choice.

"It's weird, isn't it?" Tenpoint asked, watching Apollo emerge from beneath them and make his way towards his men.

"What is?"

"That he's alive. You know Chauncey said it actually looked like he'd received some medical treatment. He said they had him for what? Three days? Beat the crap out of him and just cut him down and left him?" He shook his head. "Never heard of a toaster letting a guy live once they had him."

"They were tracking him. You saw the tracer."

Tenpoint grunted. His eyes were on Seek. In all the months they had been fighting on Caprica, he had never seen a dog out here. He had heard Anders and Jackson talk about how the dog had attacked the cylons, and seen how aggressive she was towards the Galactica landing party's other pet, Sharon. Still, it was difficult for him to come to terms with it. He pressed on.

"And they just happened to cut him down and leave him within limping distance of a cabin with everything he would need to survive there for the taking. And this dog just happened to find him and lead him to it, and make sure he didn't get dead on his way back here."

"What are you saying? That it's all some ploy to get to us? That they took him, tortured him, cut him down, sent this dog to keep him alive and tear open a few of their own in the process? Man and you say his story's far out there."

"I'm just sayin'… think about it Sam. If you were a cylon, and you knew you'd be downloaded as soon as you died, would you care if a body or two was sacrificed to win the hearts and minds of the enemy?"

"There haven't been any cylon attacks since they've been here."

"So? Sam, they're coming with us to Caprica City."

Anders shook his head. He did not like the suggestion. Would Apollo's dog turn on them? Was the dog being used by the cylons? Hell, was the dog a cylon?

Then there was the issue of Apollo's overwhelmingly speedy recovery. He had been shot in the shoulder, but had never had his arm in a sling and had pretty good use of it. The Captain was testy, coming into conflict was Kara regularly, which made Anders suspicious of the man to begin with. And Tenpoint was right, the cylons hadn't killed him. What was Apollo's reason for caving and agreeing to help with their raid on the Farm in Caprica City? What possible motivation could he have for going himself, when had had been so badly injured? Was Adama himself a cylon?

Anders fingered the butt of the rifle laid across his lap as he watched the Galactica crew in conference on the ramp of the Raider.

Starbuck came out of the school a few minutes behind Apollo. She saw him and the others over by Joe, probably going through the plan. Well she would be damned if she was excluded from this op, and Lee could go to hell. The others nodded to her when she approached. Even Lee made brief eye contact with her, lifting his chin slightly in acknowledgement. Well that's something at least. She sat down beside Helo, making up her mind to listen attentively without even the slightest hint of the kind of pretentious candor that would send Lee off the handle.

"So we leave everything and everyone we're not taking on the raid with us here and ready to go," Lee continued after Kara got settled. "Everyone who's going should be packed and ready to go by dawn. Landin, Walker, I want you to lead the ground assault teams. Two teams, Perimeter, and Assault. You can coordinate with Anders on that." The two marines nodded, as all of them silently marveled at the absolute lack of rancor in Apollo's voice when he said his rival's name. "Shields will stay back at the Raider with Sharon to provide air support. Racetrack, you stay back and make sure everything and everyone is organized and ready to go when we get back."

"And where will I be?" Helo did not at all like the implication that he would not be staying with Sharon.

"You and Starbuck will take a smaller strike force to back up the Assault team, to push through and complete the op in case they get bogged down inside. You'll also be responsible for searching the rooms and making sure there are no women being kept away from the main group. We're talking a hospital here, so there will plenty of searching to do."

"And you?" Starbuck inquired. She wondered who had briefed him about the Farms; he seemed to know pretty well what the layout would be, and even the purpose of the place, as he was referring to women being kept.

"I'll be outside supporting the Perimeter team." In response to their questioning looks, Apollo sighed, and braced himself. "I won't be as mobile as the rest of you, so I'll take my rife to one of the rooftops near the site and cover the approaches."

"You'll do what?" Surprisingly, it was not Starbuck, but Racetrack who demanded.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea Captain," Landin put in, in a far more even tone. "If they bring in air support in response to our assault they could shell you before you could even think about getting away."

"And that's if they're not already covering the neighboring rooftops to begin with," Helo added.

"Which they will be," Starbuck growled. "You should stay on Joe with Sharon and Shields."

"This is not a discussion. We'll make a strafing run over the most likely building. Then we'll circle low, drop me off, and land the rest of the team, after which the Raider will take off again to provide air support. Now tomorrow's going to be a long day so I suggest you all get some rest. Dismissed."