Two months later, the Cylons appeared to be staying true to their word. There hadn't been a single attack on the fleet, and everyone was actually beginning to remember what life had been like on Galactica before the holocaust had occurred.

Kara looked up from the breakfast she was trying to eat when two objects were placed beside her on the table. "What's this?" she asked Lee as he sat down in the chair next to her.

"Shuttle tickets over to Cloud Nine for tomorrow afternoon."

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah. I figured a little fresh air and sunshine would be good – even if it is all fake."

"Can we go, please?" a voice asked, and Kara turned to see that Lachel sitting in the chair on her left.

"That's your breakfast?" Lee asked the little girl, noticing the cookie on her plate. She grinned before taking a bite of it.

"Mmm-hmm. Can we please go to the ship, Kara?"

"I got your shift covered," Lee told her. "Come on, what do you say?"

It was absolutely perfect the way the three of them fit together. Too perfect, almost. The little family Kara never thought she would have. Never thought she would want.

"Kara?" Lee asked, but his mouth wasn't moving. "Hey, Kara," she heard his whispered voice say again, but the sound was coming from somewhere else. "Kara?"

The mess hall faded away, and as she opened her eyes, she saw the ceiling of her bunk. Lee was next to her bed, shaking her shoulder to wake her up. "I'm awake," she muttered, closing her eyes again.

"You going running this morning?"

Kara shook her head, eyes still shut. "I'll hit the training room after my shift."

"Oh, that's right; you're on early today, aren't you?"

She cracked one eye open and glared. "You made the schedule."

"I know, I'm on early, too, in CIC…So I guess we should get showers and get ready to go." Kara smiled.

"Be there in a minute."

Over the past few months, they'd quickly found that ignoring their connection wasn't going to work. They'd both turned into pains in everyone's asses and eventually their fellow pilots had decided that covering for them when it came to Tigh was easier than having to deal with them otherwise. Kara and Lee weren't quite sure how to define whatever it was they had between them, other than a deep friendship with certain…fringe benefits, but they were working things out.

"I had another dream last night," Kara brought up as they shared a cold shower in the bathroom, washing away the traces of what they'd done before the water had started. It was one of the few ways they could get time alone without worrying about prying eyes.

"I thought they were tapering off?" Lee questioned.

"They were…Before."

"What happened?"

"Lachel was here, on Galactica. Living here."

"Has that ever happened before?"

Kara shook her head. "The closest was the time in my cockpit. Usually I'm seeing her wherever she is. This time, she was seeing a part of my life. "

"You think it was just a normal dream? I mean, it's been weeks since the last one, hasn't it?"

"Yeah…I don't know."

Lee brushed a few soap bubbles off her shoulder and cut off the water. "Do me a favor: don't spend too much time thinking about it while you're on patrol. We can talk later tonight; just keep your head in the game while you're in your cockpit." Kara grinned, giving him a two-fingered salute after she wrapped a towel around herself.

"Yes, Sir, Captain Adama, Sir."

"Hey, I'm just saying – "

"Yeah, yeah, you're just looking out for your interests."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, it would be a shame if you had to find a new shower buddy."

Lee laughed. "Mmm-hmm, I've gotten kinda attached to my current one."

They headed back to their bunkroom to get changed into their clothes and start their days. "Oh, Lee," Kara said as he was about to leave and tossed an object in his direction. He just barely caught it – a stogie. Kara grinned. "I told you I'd get more eventually."

Kara was on her way to the hangar bay when she ran into Helo in the corridor. "Hey, do you have early shift?" she asked him. He shook his head, grinning from ear to ear.

"I've been up all night. Five pounds, four ounces."

That took a minute to sink in. "Wait, what? Your baby?"

Helo nodded. "Born at 0436 this morning. She's beautiful, Kara."

She smiled. "Congratulations."

"Thank you."

"What are you doing roaming the ship?"

"It's going to be a quick roam. Sharon wanted breakfast, so I figured I'd go get her something that wasn't just whatever some little PO scraped out of the bottom of a pot. She definitely earned it."

"I'll stop by later," Kara promised. "After my shift."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. I want to see if the poor thing inherited your nose." Helo laughed.

"Brat!" he called after her as she continued towards the hangar.

By the time Kara got back down from her shift, half the ship knew about its newest resident. A Raptor recon mission was being planned to go to the armistice point – not to land, just to see if there was any activity there. Kara tried to stop herself from thinking about what could result from the recon trip. After a quick visit to Sharon (it was very strange to see a baby behind bars) she headed back down to the hangar. Maintenance would keep her busy for a while, hopefully physically and mentally.

Raptor 149 had just been launched when she arrived. The ship cleared the fleet, then jumped away. It reappeared in space within sight of the meeting moon. "Beginning dradis scans," Shadow told Racetrack. "No sign of Cylon ships."

"Anyone at the station?"

"I don't know…I think…I'm picking up a transmission."

"What kind of transmission?"

"It's coming from the base. I'm patching it through." A moment later, a voice came across the headsets that were inside their flight suits:

"Can anyone hear me?" a child's voice asked. "They left me here all by myself. Is anybody there?"

Shadow scoffed. "Yeah, right," he muttered.

"Is Dradis still negative?" Racetrack asked. He nodded. "Then we're landing on the surface." He gawked for a few moments, then obeyed.

Adama was in the CIC when the Raptor reappeared on Dradis scans. Racetrack quickly gave the story of what had happened. "We found her there all alone," she reported. "No sign of any other Cylons anywhere within scanning range." Adama considered that.

"They're just leaving their science project to us?" Tigh muttered. "No frakking way."

"And now all bets are off," Adama realized. "Dee, have the LSO give them clearance to land. Set condition one throughout the fleet and prepare to jump as soon as able." She nodded, carrying out the order without hesitation.

"What are you thinking?" Tigh asked the commander. Adama didn't reply, watching everything that was going on around them in the busy room. Dualla was keeping a running tab of the ships as they jumped away for anyone who was listening. About two thirds of the way through the list, Gaeta piped up:

"Dradis contact…Cylon Basestar!"

"Son of a bitch," the XO muttered.

Adama nodded to himself; unfortunately his suspicions had been correct. "We got the girl. The armistice was temporary, and now its time has run out."

"They're launching Raiders," Gaeta continued. "Time to intercept…two minutes."

"The last ship will be away in ninety seconds," Dualla added in.

"Tell the alert fighters to stand by," Adama ordered. "If any of the ships are delayed, launch them."

But everyone's FTL drives worked perfectly. Once the last ship was away, Galactica executed its own jump, just seconds before the Raiders would have been within weapons range.

Kara was underneath the Blackbird, doing some maintenance, when the alert for a jump came across the overhead system. "Hey, what about the Raptor at the meeting point?" she asked Tyrol as she pulled the top of her flight suit back on in response for the order for pilots to stand by.

"We just recovered it," he replied.

The fighters weren't deployed, though, and once Galactica cleared the jump, several of the deckhands starting scurrying around, preparing for the Raptor coming down from the flight deck. From her spot back under the stealth ship, Kara could see the lower half of Raptor 149 as it got towed to a parking space, and the hatch opened. A pair of legs that obviously belonged to a man jumped down first, then a female – and then following close behind was a child.

Kara got up. Fast.

TBC... (As always, I live for feedback)